Early this morning, three Korean Americans who were being held prisoner in the DPRK landed at Joint Base Andrews and were greeted by the President.
“We want to thank Kim Jong-un, who really was excellent to these three incredible people.”https://t.co/0APtyURNDF
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) May 10, 2018
Stop for a second. Reread the remarks that Frank Luntz is highlighting:
“We want to thank Kim Jong Un,” Trump said after emerging from the medical plane that transported the three prisoners, which he and his wife had boarded to greet the men. “We very much appreciate that he allowed them to go before the meeting. He was nice in letting them go before the meeting … That was a big thing, very important to me.”
That these three men were freed is a great thing. Because he’s president, and as would be the case with anyone who was at a time like this, some of the accolades for their release will and should accrue to the President regardless of what anyone thinks of him. But focus on the President’s remarks here one more time (emphasis mine):
“We want to thank Kim Jong Un,” Trump said after emerging from the medical plane that transported the three prisoners, which he and his wife had boarded to greet the men. “We very much appreciate that he allowed them to go before the meeting. He was nice in letting them go before the meeting … That was a big thing, very important to me.”
It is unclear from these remarks if the President realizes that these men were scarfed up and imprisoned at a forced labor camp to be used as bargaining chits. The first during the Obama administration and the latter two in 2017 on this President’s watch. These remarks are divorced from the reality of the situation. They ignore why the men were taken, why it was unacceptable, and why describing their release like this just reinforces that Kim has learned to appear to treat the President, and by extension the US, “fairly” to get what he wants. And to avoid the “or else” of the Trump Doctrine. While you don’t want to create a new international incident at 2:00 AM EDT if you can avoid it, the President’s remarks about these men’s release seem to ignore the reality of the actual situation and are equivalent to praising that nice Ted Bundy because he wanted to make sure young women didn’t have to walk home alone!
What the President doesn’t seem to grasp with these men’s release, or if he does, what he doesn’t seem to be able to communicate, is that the US had already granted Kim Jung Un his most important concessions. By browbeating and threatening President Moon and the ROK over trade imbalances and the President’s belief that the South Koreans are ripping off the US through our strategic alliance with them, the President made it much easier for President Moon to move on his own policy preferences, which were to directly and bilaterally negotiate with Kim. This gave Kim his first victory via concession. The second was in agreeing to meet with Kim. Such a meeting, long sought by Kim, as well as Kim’s father and grandfather, should have been a carrot held out as a reward for making significant, concrete positive movements rather than as an impulsive give away. Kim has now gotten what he wanted. President Moon is negotiating with him directly. The President is praising him publicly, which further helps Kim get out from being considered an international pariah. And the President is going to meet with him on June 12th in Singapore, which gives Kim his biggest concession: elevating his and the DPRK’s status on the international stage.
Kim has figured out, as has President Moon of the ROK, that the Trump Doctrine can be used against the President and the US. He’s basically weaponized appearing to treat the President, and by extension the US, “fairly” to both get what he wants and to avoid the “or else”. As a result, in less than six months we went from this:
The Chinese Envoy, who just returned from North Korea, seems to have had no impact on Little Rocket Man. Hard to believe his people, and the military, put up with living in such horrible conditions. Russia and China condemned the launch.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2017
To this:
“We want to thank Kim Jong-un, who really was excellent to these three incredible people.”https://t.co/0APtyURNDF
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) May 10, 2018
Once Kim got what he wanted, a status elevating meeting with the President, he no longer needed these prisoners as bargaining chits. What remains to be seen is whether come June, Kim continues to leverage the Trump Doctrine to get the better of the President.
Stay frosty!
Open thread.
TenguPhule
Hell, we’ve even been here before. I remember when President Clinton had to negotiate a prisoner release last time.
Fucking Trumpsters have the memories of mayflies.
TenguPhule
So another day ending in WHY FSM WHY?!
Gravenstone
It may be cliche, but Imma stop you right here. No, no the President* doesn’t realize this. The President* doesn’t realize a single fucking thing.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: @TenguPhule: I work Ted Bundy snark into the post and this is what you want to focus on?
The Moar You Know
They committed acts which had been very carefully explained to them on multiple occasions were death-sentence crimes in North Korea. Why was this unacceptable?
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: I find Ted Bundy unfunny. Sorry.
The Moar You Know
@Adam L Silverman: Sometimes deep acts of genius go unappreciated by the very people you create them for.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: Really? After two years of snuff fantasy comments, you draw the line at Ted Bundy snark? I’ll update your dossier accordingly.
kindness
It’s come to the point where I think Trump did this on purpose knowing it would blow up the morning News. Purposeful chaos keeps us from looking at what TrumpCo are actually doing. It’s working for Trump too. He’s playing the media (and us libs) like a cheap violin.
Adam L Silverman
@The Moar You Know: I’m gonna have to cut off an ear for you people, aren’t I?//
ruemara
@Gravenstone: In truth, neither does his base. One Trumpster I know is posting thank you images to Dolt. Frankly, I’m not surprised, she’s got the depth of a picoliter.
LAO
@Adam L Silverman: Now that, was a genuinely funny reply. You don’t have to cut off an ear.
donnah
No news reports will present this information from this angle. They’ve been desperate for Trump to do something “good” and everyone is going to present this prisoner release as a big foreign policy and humanitarian win. Never mind how the three were detained or why, but only that they’re free.
If it gets mentioned, it will be labeled as sour grapes by the Right.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: I only want to kill people who really really deserve it.
Ted Bundy was a Republican Serial Rapist/Killer who managed to escape and kill again before finally being put down like the mad animal that he was. The Death penalty was made for those like him.
Adam L Silverman
@LAO: I never said it would be my ear…//
ChrisS
He really is the best negotiator.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: I am well aware of the Bundy case. My father advised state and local law enforcement in Florida as they pursued him, after they caught him, and ultimately hired the Leon County Sheriff’s detective who caught him on to his criminology faculty.
Mary G
He judges everything by TV ratings – and even said he got the highest ever for 3 a.m.! One of the conservatives I follow on Twitter reposted a “behind the scenes” video by Dan Scavino, panning the crowds of cameras and reporters who had gotten up in the middle of the night to come to the airport to pay homage to his greatness. Even the fake news can’t deny it! It’s completely “LOOK AT MEEEE, here now, this minute, I’ll be on the front page of the NYT in the morning.” That’s the only important thing. He achieved his goal and any consequences are beside the point. Kim makes a great villain in the picture, like a wrestler in the WWE, or whatever it’s called now. The saying that politics is show business for ugly people has never been more salient.
Moon’s no dummy. He knew Twitler wanted to pull out of their defense and he’s cutting the best deal he can in the circumstances. It’s no skin off his nose if Trump wants a fake win, and it keeps his country safer than if Trump decides bombing something to distract from Mueller is just the ticket. Let Iran have the bad guy role now.
LAO
@Adam L Silverman: Well played. Much like Kim appears to have played Trump (and his band of morons).
The Moar You Know
@Adam L Silverman: Subject to a stipulation:
1. Not mine
LAO
I know that this isn’t the correct thread and I’m no fan of John McCain, but this is vile:
Elizabelle
Hear from NPR that Resident is heading to Elkhart, Indiana for a campaign-style rally tonight. With VP Pence in tow.
Gonna try to strike some fear into the heart of Joe Donnelly, whom NPR reminds is one of the more endangered Democrats.
Would love to learn that Resident’s visit, along with the former governor Hoosiers were about to dump, enthuses and encourages the opposition. It just might.
I can’t stand all the braying.
Adam L Silverman
@The Moar You Know: We’ll take your request under advisement.//
Adam L Silverman
@LAO: Who was that schmuck who made the remarks?
LAO
John McInerney
ETA:
The Moar You Know
@Adam L Silverman: This shitheel:
His Wikipedia bio is…illuminating.
Adam L Silverman
@The Moar You Know: @LAO: I didn’t recognize him, thanks. Politically he’s a crank.
Litlebritdifrnt
@The Moar You Know: When I flew to Singapore for the first time I was startled by the milky voiced flight attendant explaining to us “please be reminded that drug smuggling into Singapore is punishable by death, thank you”. If I heard that and then decided to leave the plane with the drugs I was smuggling and subsequently got arrested for my crimes and imprisoned would I then expect to have my government spend an inordinate amount of time and resources to get me out of prison? No. These people knew they were breaking the law when they went to NK, they did it anyway. I have no sympathy for them.
JPL
@Adam L Silverman: I see another post in your future, but this time about his demand for 7 trillion from countries in the middle east.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/05/09/irans-supreme-leader-says-trump-is-making-demands-of-gulf-allies-the-u-s-wants-to-own-humiliated-slaves/?utm_term=.8224142a892f
They should just type back “be best”
lumpkin
He’s being played for the fool he is.
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know:
As was noted yesterday, torture is a way to extract false confessions. There’s a reason the Bushies lurved to watch “24”: it gave them their ticking-bomb fantasies right there on their plasma screen.
Ian G.
@The Moar You Know:
The venom directed at McCain from the Trumpkins when he finally passes away is gonna be something to behold, and by that, I mean, keep a barf bag handy. Remember, to religious fanatics like the Trump cult, nothing is worse than an apostate. They hate Republicans who refuse to acknowledge Trump’s divinity more than they hate any of us libruls who were never part of the flock to begin with.
JPL
@The Moar You Know: This is the clip of the performance.
https://twitter.com/LeanneNaramore/status/994626363675103234
Mandalay
@LAO: And doubly vile for him saying “…they call him Songbird John”. I would have had more respect for the speaker if he had said “…WE call him Songbird John”.
And speaking of vile posts, I find myself on the side of Don Trump jr. for this repulsive and creepy tweet:
WTF happens to supposedly normal people when they start using Twitter? Democrats shouldn’t let Reines anywhere near any campaign ever again.
opiejeanne
@Litlebritdifrnt: I haven’t been able to find out what they did. Two of them were professors associated with the Pyongyang Institute of Science and Technology, the other guy was a businessman of some sort, accused of either theft or spying. I figured they were more Christian proselytizers smuggling in Bibles or something, and I’m not sure I’m wrong but I haven’t found the crimes they committed.
Ian G.
@trollhattan:
“False confessions”? You mean everyone tortured by Stalin weren’t actually western saboteurs intent on destroying the Soviet revolution? Knock me over with a feather!
SFAW
What a fucking asshole. Since when does “They got him to spout propaganda on video” equivalent to it “working” (a la Smirk of Sauron Cheney).to get crucial anti-terrorism info?
raven
@LAO: Ya’ll never heard of Ted Sampley have you?
Ohio Mom
Are there any US citizens left in North Korea? What were those three doing there anyway? I know I could google all that, just feeling lazy.
Thanking you in advance.
SFAW
@TenguPhule: @Adam L Silverman:
JHC, will you guys get a room, already?
Adam L Silverman
@JPL: Not surprising. He get’s these dollar amounts in his head, almost all of them are inaccurate and lacking any context or nuance regarding them and the issues around them, and fixates on them. He mistakenly thinks he knows the price of everything, but really knows the value of nothing.
Litlebritdifrnt
@opiejeanne: @opiejeanne: I have to admit that my information initially came from twitter but I followed up on it and apparently ” I figured they were more Christian proselytizers smuggling in Bibles or something” was on the mark, that is exactly what they were doing.
Frankensteinbeck
@kindness:
No way. Look at the pattern of news. It’s all negative, and the topics are everywhere. They include corruption, his incompetence, discussions of his ties to Russia, his legal problems, and quick revelations of how all his military posturing turns out to be bullshit. No theoretical assessment of Trump as too stupid to purposefully distract is necessary. Everything that he might want to hide comes out and gets attention. His administration is a nonstop source of scandal, and they’re too stupid to hide it, that’s all.
The Moar You Know
@Ian G.: Maybe Meghan will have a “come to Jesus” moment when she sees people literally dancing in the streets, celebrating her father’s death. Doubt it, though.
Adam L Silverman
@Mandalay: Reines has always been like this. It’s why the Clinton campaign hired him to play the President in debate prep.
Betty Cracker
@Mandalay: Philippe Reines has always been creepy and over the top, IMO. I like Hillary Clinton, but she doesn’t have the best taste in men.
LAO
@raven: I hadn’t, until now. Wow. Targeted both John Kerry and John McCain. Sounds like a great guy.
Major Major Major Major
Insofar as you tell your puppy he’s a good dog whenever he pees somewhere that isn’t the carpet, sure.
raven
@LAO:
He also sold t-shirts and “other “memorabilia” near The Wall.
opiejeanne
@opiejeanne: @Litlebritdifrnt: I found this article helpful. Nowhere does it say anything about what they were doing being illegal, nor were their crimes described by the NK government. They were fools to try to help North Koreans under this regime, which seems to be their only crime.
https://heavy.com/news/2018/05/tony-kim-hak-song-dong-chul/
Mandalay
@Adam L Silverman:
@Betty Cracker:
Well in private perhaps, and I guess I’m OK with that – ruthless bastards are probably an asset behind the scenes on a campaign.
But for him to tweet that just shows a massive, massive lack of judgement. He cannot be trusted to behave in public.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: I have tile and hardwood floors. No carpeting.
rikyrah
@Ian G.:
They will show themselves to be the deplorables that Hillary said they were.
Adam L Silverman
@raven: Such a lovely fellow…//
opiejeanne
@SFAW: I think you mean this guy: Mouth of Sauron
Corner Stone
@Mandalay: GMAFB
Adam L Silverman
Ruh Roh!
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know:
Nope. Whatever they may and will do, the liberals are the real villains in Meghan’s world. She seems like a simpleton, to be frank. (No, you be Frank.)
rikyrah
@Ohio Mom:
Never cared.
The world’s a big place. There are simply places your azz has no place being…North Korea is one of those places.
I never feel sorry for arrogant muthaphuckas like this who traipse into another country and do bullshyt.
opiejeanne
@Litlebritdifrnt: Not according to what I found, which surprised me.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: well, you know, outside more generally then.
Adam L Silverman
Oy vey!
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
“See how much we’ve learned and grown in twenty years?” Rudy surely understands constitutional law much more bettah now.
raven
@Adam L Silverman: Yea, he died in a VA hospital a few years back. Of course there were no shortage of liberals who bitched and moaned about Mc Cain endlessly.
zhena gogolia
@Adam L Silverman:
Wow, great to see the interviewer too.
And I see that Rudy was always doing that bug-eyed thing, but in his younger days it didn’t stand out as much. He must have had blepharoplasty since then or something.
satby
@Elizabelle: Indivisible South Bend is planning a demonstration. It won’t be a warm welcome from at least some Hoosiers
LAO
@Adam L Silverman: I can’t believe we apologized — they only shocking thing in that story.
T S
@Adam L Silverman: Then why stop at one?
Bess
I have a version of the upcoming Kim/Trump meeting going something like this:
Kim – “We understand why our missiles are threatening to you and understand why you would want us to denuclearize. And we are willing.”
Trump – “Great! I win!!”
Kim – “But you must understand that your nuclear missiles are threatening to us. Our missiles are certainly not capable of destroying the United States in the way you could easily destroy our country, but we do have the ability to produce some pain to your country if it comes to open warfare.
So for us to denuclearize we need for the United States to also denuclearize. Since you have far, far more missiles we are asking you to start first. When you get down to 50 then we will start matching you one for one until we are both at zero.”
Trump – “Sputter, sputter.”
Kim – “Of course since you have recently demonstrated that the United States cannot be trusted to keep its word we will need teams of observers and inspectors who have full access to your nuclear arsenal so that we can assure that you are following the program.”
Kim – In a whisper “Screw you asshole.”
One can dream….
rikyrah
#CookingOutWhileBlack: White Woman Calls Cops on Black People Cooking Out in Oakland, Calif., Park
Yesha Callahan
Today 11:59am
This is getting exhausting. Need we remind you on a daily basis the asinine reasons that white people have called the cops on black people over the last couple of weeks? Well, here’s a short recap: #MovingInWhileBlack, #BlackWhileAirbnb-ing, #CouponingWhileBlack, #DiningWhileBlack, #NappingWhileBlack, and now we can’t even have a cookout in the park without someone calling the police.
A family in Oakland, Calif., attempted to enjoy a sunny day at Lake Merritt Park and decided to bring their grill along for a cookout. Everything was going fine until another parkgoer thought they weren’t following park rules and decided to snitch to the police, according to KRON-TV.
Michelle Snider, a white woman who captured the incident on her cellphone, couldn’t believe what she was witnessing and referred to the woman as the “fucking coal Nazi police.” Snider says that the only thing her husband, Kenzie Smith, and his friends wanted to do was enjoy a day at the park.
“This is exactly what is the problem with Oakland today,” Snider said. “This lady wants to sit here and call the police on them for having a barbecue at the lake, as if this is not normal.”
According to the cookout snitch, charcoal grills weren’t allowed in the section of the park where the family was. The snitch even threatened the family by telling them they were going to jail, Smith said.
“She said that we were trespassing, we were not welcome, and then she turned back around and said, ‘Y’all going to jail,’” Smith said.
Lapassionara
@Adam L Silverman: I could not hear any sound. Can you give the gist of what he was saying?
PeakVT
“I think you probably broke the all-time, in history, television rating for three o’clock in the morning – that I would say,” Trump declared.
The hollowness of the man astounding.
Adam L Silverman
@Mandalay:
Have you met most Americans?
The Moar You Know
@rikyrah: Excuse me??? This happened at Lake Merritt?
My damn race has lost their fucking collective minds. That is inexcusable. And I can’t believe dispatch actually rolled a unit for that. When I lived there, they would have told Ms. Coal Nazi to go fuck herself sideways.
But her emails!!!
@rikyrah:
Does there need to be some sort of pledge circulated that white people need to sign off on? I will not call the police on black people for doing every day normal activities. This list includes, but is not limited to aardvark watching, Aare river paddling,….zebra feeding, and zither playing.
Adam L Silverman
@zhena gogolia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a7Ge_sy7Zw
Adam L Silverman
@T S: Never said I would.
Adam L Silverman
@T S: You go back to the old nym?
Tim C.
Last weekend I was watching old and bad movies when I stumbled across “Colossus: The Forbin Project” Long story short, two AI level computers link up during the cold war, one on each side and decide the Humans are just too dumb and need to be protected from themselves. This isn’t a terminator type situation, it’s like if Skynet was a noble tyrant. These days that doesn’t seem too bad an option.
Adam L Silverman
@Lapassionara: That the President is not above the criminal law and that he has to comply with subpoenas in criminal investigatory matters. That he does have the right to appeal to the court that these are political attacks, but if they judge rules they aren’t then he must comply. That watergate settled this.
Adam L Silverman
@The Moar You Know: The only good news is that another white woman helped to shame and run off the racist lunatic one.
rikyrah
This entire thread ???
Background, Grandmother threw something at granddaughter and granddaughter called the Police.
https://twitter.com/jemelehill/status/994292934844465152?s=19
different-church-lady
@Adam L Silverman:
I believe George Carlin vastly underestimated; I’d now say 90% of the people in the world are below-average intelligence.
rikyrah
The NFL Is Being Guided by an Immoral Compass
Ameer Hasan Loggins
50 minutes ago
In 1958, Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Some 60 years later, the NFL has shown that the moral compass guiding it is bending on an arc toward a potential unjust blackballing of Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid for protesting against systemic oppression and all forms of police violence.
As first reported by ESPN’s Dan Graziano, free agent safety Eric Reid has filed a collusion grievance against the NFL and retained Mark Geragos, the same attorney representing Colin Kaepernick in his collusion lawsuit, in an effort to secure justice for what they (and many others) view as an unjust banishment from the NFL kingdom, controlled by the league’s owners and its commissioner, Roger Goodell.
…………………………
Later in the week, the Seattle Seahawks planned on inviting Kaepernick for a workout with the team, but that invitation was coincidently revoked after Kaepernick informed them he was not willing to bend on continuing his protest.
When it comes to Kaepernick and Reid, the NFL seems to be guided by an immoral compass that bends toward punishing protesters who are willing to fight for the human rights of the oppressed, while often practicing patience with players that have oppressively violated the human rights of women.
glory b
@Adam L Silverman: Okay, even funnier.
ruemara
@But her emails!!!: Maybe we need a march to end being dicks.
@rikyrah: Like a grandma hasn’t tossed a chancla or slipper at a grandkid. Come on now!
different-church-lady
[redacted – commenter is moron]
Ohio Mom
@rikyrah: That’s pretty much how I feel — just wanted to know what they were doing there so I could roll my eyes.
Otto Warmbier was from my area, which means I got to hear all about him for a very long time. Talk about not having a good reason to be in North Korea of all places.
rikyrah
The #Napping While Black Yale Story has been updated with new info.
A Black Yale Student Took a Nap in a Dorm Common Room. A White Classmate Called the Cops on Her [Updated]
Anne Branigin
Today 8:20am
Updated: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 8:20 a.m. EDT: The Yale Daily News has identified the white grad student who called the cops on a black classmate as Sarah Braasch.
The campus paper also sheds more light on an earlier incident when Braasch called campus police on the same classmate, Lolade Siyonbola, and another black grad student, Jean-Louis Reneson.
In a complaint submitted to campus administrators in March by Reneson and Siyonbola, the students describe organizing a small group to meet in a Hall of Graduate Studies common room. According to the complaint, Reneson got lost in the HGS building and was physically blocked by Braasch from entering the common room after he asked her for directions.
When Reneson told Braasch he was a Yale student trying to meet up with his group, she accused of him of being an intruder, telling him that he “didn’t belong [there]” and was making her “uncomfortable.”
Braasch eventually left the area and Reneson met up with his group, only to have four campus police officers show up because someone had reported a “suspicious character” on their floor.
Mandalay
@rikyrah:
Add #BuyingATomatoWhileBlack to the list:
A devilishly cunning plan, except he forgot about the video recording.
Adam L Silverman
@Mandalay: I’ve seen the video of that one. That cop was completely out of control.
Sab
@Ohio Mom: Others have suggested it in this and previous threads.
Read Suki Kim’s book “Without You There Is No Us.” She is a Korean American reporter who went to teach at a North Korean college for kids of the elite. All of the faculty are foreign. Most but not all are pretty intense Christians. The faculty are trying to do sort of a foreign exchange/let’s try to learn about each other. The students are immensely interested in trying to learn about the outside world while not doing anything to damage their futures.
The students didn’t choose to enroll there. They were assigned. But they are still bright, curious college kids trying to learn in an incredibly paranoid and repressive environment.
This is an amazing book. I am in awe of her courage in undertaking and finishing this project.
Mike in NC
After the talks with North Korea implode, what will be the next object of demanding “fairness”? Withdrawal from NAFTA? NATO? The United Nations? Republicans have hated them all for years.
Jay
“0REPORTER: Mr. President, how does this make America safer? How does this make America safer?
TRUMP: Thank you very much. This will make America much safer. Thank you very much.”
On the bright side, Faux et al are still selling the Gullibillies the stupid:
https://wonkette.com/633729/diamond-and-silk-idiots-again
“On a scale of one to Donald Trump, how stupid?”
Adam L Silverman
It’s funny because it’s likely true!
glory b
@Betty Cracker: I don’t think she’s dating him.
I don’t mind a bad guy or two on our side. Good cop/ bad cop works for a reason. Let them think we don’t have a problem with going there, wherever there is.
Adam L Silverman
@Mike in NC:
D58826
@The Moar You Know:
well maybe we can make an exception to the torture policy and waterboard this guy. I’m sure a gofund me campaign would buy enough waterboard supplies to waterboard him for the rest of his miserable life.
Citizen Alan
@Tim C.:
I love that movie. As long as it was a benevolent tyrant, I am totally on board with a computerized dictatorship with a nuclear arsenal.
Sloane Ranger
Bah! It’s the usual Trump carrot and stick routine. Upset me and I insult and demean you publicly. Do something nice for me and I tell everyone you’re the greatest.
It’s his standard approach to negotiations.
JPL
charles Payne of Fox News has apologized the the McCains
TeezySkeezy (formerly the T S you hate)
@Adam L Silverman: oops. Was still cached on different device. Also, will drop the parentheses eventually.
RedDirtGirl
Guiliani is “parting ways” with his law firm. Effective yesterday. Buh Bye, asshole.
The Moar You Know
@glory b: Truly, I thought that was pretty awesome. Hit ’em where it hurts. That one will leave a scar on a sack of crap who really deserves a lot of them.
rikyrah
The next generation of African-American doctors finds success and support at this university
May 8, 2018 6:20 PM EDT
Hari Sreenivasan
Xavier University, a small, historically black college in New Orleans, manages to graduate more African Americans who go on to become medical doctors than any other undergraduate institution in the country — a fact that’s even more striking given a drop in black males applying to medical schools. In our series Rethinking College, Hari Sreenivasan reports on what sets the school apart.
Jay
@Mike in NC:
NAFTA first, the 8 million lost jobs will be “good news for McCaine” in the 2020 Elections.
ET
tRump the Chump.
trollhattan
@RedDirtGirl:
“Rudy Guiliani, former rainmaker” will look really good on his CV.
Another Scott
@Sloane Ranger: Yup. Plus, Donnie will sell the country for a penny on the dollar if the money goes in his own pocket.
I don’t see it in this thread, but someone (maybe in another thread, maybe elsewhere) made the point that Donnie never called the three “Americans”. It was all about Donnie, and his vision of America…
I continue to be a bit less apocalyptic (probably not the wrong word) about Donnie’s overtures than Adam (and maybe Cheryl). It’s long past time that the Korean War was resolved, IMHO. It’s been almost 65 years since the “end” of the war, and we’ve tried to isolate the Kims for almost all of that time. How has it made them behave “better”? How is it a victory for Donnie simply to talk with Kim? Is he somehow going to be more popular with his brainwashed population than he is now? I don’t see it.
What matters is what’s agreed to, if anything, at the meeting. Not the fact that they’re meeting.
Talking with him doesn’t guarantee any policy outcome, or any tangible rewards.
Don’t get me wrong – I know that Donnie is incompetent. I know he will try to give away the store if Kim gives him a gold trinket and lets him walk down a red carpet and says how wonderful he is (especially if he lets him put his name in tacky plastic ‘gold’ letters on the Ryugyong Hotel).
But remember that Ronnie wanted to give up nuclear arms, and Obama wanted to close Guantanamo, and Donnie wanted to kick trans people out of the military. Donnie can’t do much on his own. Congress and the courts can put up roadblocks, the democrats in the Senate can filibuster, and Executive Orders can be challenged and reversed by the next Administration.
We’re not doomed.
What matters is what’s in the agreements. The ROK and Japan and all the rest of our allies in the region aren’t going to cut their own throats. They know better than us what’s “really” going on and I’m sure they’ve looked at all the various options and scenarios very carefully.
Note – I have no special knowledge, this is just my (probably not well-enough informed) opinion.
Cheers,
Scott.
(“Who wouldn’t be at all surprised if the meeting doesn’t end up happening.”)
Cheryl Rofer
The House Select Committee on Intelligence has released its compendium of Russian-sponsored Facebook ads.
I have not disappeared from the face of the earth, but I have gotten a bunch of requests for information and such. You will eventually see some of the results. I’m glad Adam is posting.
There are so many other things going on, too.
J R in WV
@LAO:
Actually, aside from the despicable immorality of torture, the fact that it can make anyone say anything makes it worthless as a strategic option. The immorality of it in the field makes it a tactical catastrophe as well. John McCain is no less brave than anyone else, no one can resist real physical damage for very long.
I mostly despise McCain for everything else he’s fucked up, like being a Navy aviator (multiple crashes, F’ed up on the flight deck of the Forrestal), terrible immoral senator and Republican candidate for president, etc. But he was like every other POW in the history of taking prisoners.
ETA: I agree with your comment totally, also too.
Another Scott
@TenguPhule: I let you out of the pie filter a week or two ago because I thought that maybe you were finally moderating this stuff. I see I was wrong.
Bye.
Cheers,
Scott.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
You forget that 5 SC justices believe that precedent means only whatever it suits them to mean.
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
Former governor raises diversity concerns, questions influence of Black Political Caucus
Wednesday, May 9th 2018, 5:18 pm CDT
By Steve Crump
Brachiator
@Adam L Silverman:
This may be kind of a win-win. If world leaders manipulate Trump and let him take credit while lowering world tensions, this might be realpolitik that the world just has to accept. Are Moon’s actions reasonable, if we ignore Trump for a second?
Also, have you seen the news reports about the capture of 4 or 5 ISIS leaders? Things are getting done even as Trump preens and postures.
ruemara
@rikyrah: Shut up, Pat. Shit.
TenguPhule
@Another Scott: Did you read the whole thing first?
Even I have standards.
Adam tried a joke on something that even I find repugnant. Which should give you an idea as to how bad it was.
Leto
@Cheryl Rofer: Even our front pagers need a mental health break. I mean, not too much of a break. We have an endless hunger for news content/commentary/snark that only a top 10,000 blog can fill! /s
Honestly, hope things are going ok and that you’re enjoying yourself however you can.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
I’ve seen this plot in literature.
It NEVER ends well for all parties concerned.
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: +1
He doesn’t know what’s in it, that’s for sure.
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
J R in WV
@Adam L Silverman:
Our floors are all hickory/walnut hardwood and a little tile in the kitchen, but then I inherited two thick silk rugs from the parents… somehow, some critters would much prefer to stand on a thick rug to do whatever nasty then need to do.
They’re still nice rugs, feel good, but there are odd colored spots now as well. We drag them out onto the back deck to scrub them, and let them dry out there, as they hold a ton of water.
Cheryl Rofer
@Leto: Thanks, Leto. Very busy writing.
trollhattan
Stay classy, Georgia Republicans.
See how much you like yer “big truck” when you’re payin’ Trump’s six-buck/gallon gas, Brian.
Leto
@J R in WV: It’s probably due to traction. Hardwood and tile are all slippery so they’re more comfortable on the stable non-slip carpet. At least that’s my quick theory on the subject just based on how my two dogs reacted to our house in Italy, which was all tile. The humans loved it, but the two puppers weren’t that happy.
Brachiator
@Tim C.:
It will probably happen in the future, but it will be Alexa and Siri pulling the plug on us.
Mike S
Adam, will you be doing a post on Israel’s claims of Iran rocket attacks? I’m having a hard time believing they’d give up the high ground they gained when Trump defied our allies by dropping out of the agreement.
(If this shows up as a double post I apologize. I had the wrong email address in the first try)
The Simp in the Suit
@But her emails!!!:
????
ANYONE playing the zither should have the police called out on them. Unless it’s in a state with legalized consuming of cannibis in public. Then it’s understandable.
If you’re white.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
Both programs can already communicate at a vocal level beyond human hearing.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan:
That has all kinds of horrifying implications ranging from mounted trophies & Donner Parties to disposable sex slaves.
Brachiator
@TenguPhule:
The real world is stranger than fiction.
For good or for ill, world leaders are not simplistically sitting back and meekly letting Trump set the agenda. They are taking advantage of the space he creates, and will have to do so even more aggressively in the future.
Ruckus
@PeakVT:
Nothing bad about this fucking useless piece of shit should surprise you. Because that’s all there is. Bad.
TenguPhule
Dog shoots man
Did Floriduh man make a quick stop in Iowa?
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
I am reminded of the chaos theory from the first Jurassic Park film.
And not in a good way.
Mike in NC
@rikyrah: Voters booted Pat McCrory out of office for being a spineless incompetent weasel, but he gets a nice talk radio gig in exchange. More Republican falling upward, I guess.
Cacti
@Litlebritdifrnt:
It’s not like it’s some sort of state secret that North Korea is an authoritarian hell. Going there with intent to break the law is worthy of a Darwin Award.
Lapassionara
@Adam L Silverman: thx. Lol
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@rikyrah: When I taught at Iowa State, one of my grad students had a girl friend from a small Iowa town who said that when she walked across campus, she felt like she was the only white person there. ISU has a minority enrollment of maybe 12%. But this girl had probably never seen someone not white in the small town where she grew up. It’s crippling to children’s ability to live in a multi-racial world.
trollhattan
@TenguPhule:
Steve King’s district, ‘nuf said. Also near my birthplace. Thanks, parents, for departing.
Brachiator
@TenguPhule: And so, it begins. From Bloomberg News.
Trump believes that he is setting the agenda, that the world will wait to see what he wants. Nobody’s got time for that.
JWR
@J R in WV:
Unless, of course, ones intent is obtaining worthless information one wants or needs to hear to start one’s catastrophic little war. Then, it’s quite the useful strategic tool…
Brachiator
@Litlebritdifrnt:
So, what? You expect them to get back on the plane and return to North Korea?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Cheryl Rofer: Well if you feeling worn down, both you and Adam are really amazing sources of information to read on this stuff about the context this is happening in. One of the reasons why I come here.
Cacti
@Brachiator:
And Putin smiles in Moscow.
Jeffro
@Brachiator: Or someone manipulating Alexa and Siri, who can hear hidden commands that the human ear can’t
This. Is not good.
Elizabelle
@PeakVT: I dunno. I think the late Princess Diana beat him a few times. And, she was beloved.
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
Interesting. As devices get more capable and connected, developers will have to think more about security. The challenge will never go away.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Jeffro:
I’m trying to think how I can avoid this. I don’t plan on ever owning an Alexa or having digital locks. I don’t trust anything capable of connecting to the internet that isn’t explicitly capable, like a computer or a smartphone. I do make an exception of my Amazon Fire TV. Would turning the phone off in public places be enough?
Gelfling 545
@The Moar You Know: I don’t think she cares that much about politics qua politics. I thnk she’d just like to be a celebrity. I do think though that, to her credit, she cares deeply about her father and so supports, even in its current debased state, the party he has committed so many years to out of respect for his career.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
The rest of the civilized world now has to plan their military doctrine and equipment for a possible realistic confrontation against American forces going forward instead of as random thought exercise.
This is rather sub-optimal.
Yutsano
@Brachiator: I saw a video that suggested that if the European Union were to unite into a defence force it would be the third largest military in the world. Since a lot of that infrastructure already exists with NATO, it might not be that hard to develop an EU military banner. Of course this is also the EU we’re talking about here.
TenguPhule
@Jeffro:
Alexa and Siri are not mandatory for people to use. Just saying.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
They’ve never thought it through before, why start now?
TenguPhule
@Yutsano:
I can just see how a French/German/Spanish unified command will operate on one consistent common language.
TenguPhule
Stupidest possible choice EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME.
Yarrow
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: You could just get a portable Faraday bag.
Yutsano
@TenguPhule: Ironically enough, it would be English. Since that is has been a common second language in Europe for some time.
Sloane Ranger
@Yutsano: The French have been pushing this idea for some time but the issue is that nobody wants to give up control of their own military plus different EU countries have different foreign policies and this constrains what such a force could be used for.
I seem to remember that there was some talk of setting up a small joint force, but how far advanced that is I don’t know.
burnspbesq
@rikyrah:
Anything that makes Pat McCrory unhappy is fine by me.
Yo, Pat, when you have free and fair elections in a jurisdiction with a substantial number of African-American voters, from time to time African-Americans are going to get elected. Don’t like it? Leave.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jeffro: I know Alexa and Smartthings won’t unlock doors. Doors are not a device that Alexa is allowed to control.
burnspbesq
@Jeffro:
First thing I do when I get a new phone is disable Siri.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
For now.
japa21
@TenguPhule: When my son served in Kuwait in support of the original invasion into Afghanistan, he had to work with several officers from the European nations involved. He was particularly impressed with the French. And most of them speak English better than many Americans do.
Yutsano
@Sloane Ranger: It could be divided like the international force that handles matters outside the EU while the independent militaries still represent their home countries’ interests. It doesn’t work outside of federation however. And that’s a whole other can of EU worms.
Brachiator
@TenguPhule:
This is where we are, for now. Sub-optimal is pretending that the situation can be ignored.
Bill Arnold
Without comment (ok, cui bono):
Big Gulf Arab economies may be winners as U.S. exits Iran deal
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule: They never will be, too much of a security risk.
MattF
Just a little note. The ‘Hall of Graduate Studies’ at Yale is actually a graduate student dormitory. My theory was that the ‘graduate studies’ that occur there are when the grad students sleep together. Also, many of the bricks in the HGS hallways are inscribed with esoteric symbols, so who knows what it all means. Could just be a joke.
But grad students are generally excluded from ‘student’ activities at Yale, and are broadly regarded as a lesser form of life. There is generally no contact between graduate students and undergraduates outside of classes, so it is not surprising that grad students inhabiting HGS had no idea what to do when faced with an undergraduate.
Gravenstone
@trollhattan: So big boy, do you take “illegals” home often? You know, that’s okay. We won’t judge. ;p
Brachiator
@TenguPhule:
Self-interest, as much as anything else. The people who make these toys also use them. And variations of AI are becoming more ubiquitous.
And while US regulation is weak, we’ll probably see more action coming from the EU, which might have some impact on worldwide development.
Bill Arnold
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Out of curiosity, how do they know if a controlled device is a door or not? Or are we talking redaction of commands related to doors?
Alexa, open the pod bay “srood”.
Mnemosyne
@raven:
I’m being burned by the irony right now.
zhena gogolia
@MattF:
I thought she was also a graduate student?
MattF
@zhena gogolia: I thought an undergrad, but I could be wrong.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Bill Arnold: The smart device ID’s itself to the hub and that’s what communicates with Alexa.
FlipYrWhig
@trollhattan: Somehow that quotation reminds me of Shooter McGavin saying he eats pieces of shit for breakfast.
debbie
I want Trump to stop saying all three were imprisoned during Obama’s administration. That is a LIE and must be acknowledged as such.
debbie
@TenguPhule:
Laughing as she unlocks them?
zhena gogolia
@MattF:
Mnemosyne
@The Moar You Know:
FWIW, the story seems to indicate that they didn’t send any cops until the woman called a second time two hours later. And then the woman whined because she said that the other white woman who stood up to her on behalf of the Black family was “bullying” her.
Basically, the cops showed up after the second call, saw that nothing illegal was happening, and left again, so they actually acted in a reasonable way.
MattF
@zhena gogolia: OK. It does sound strange, though, because Yale graduate students mostly know each other. Maybe things have changed since my own experiences in the paleolithic era.
efgoldman
@LAO: So it’s a relief to go back to your regular clientele of murderers, rapists, and robbers…..
debbie
@LAO:
Shocking, seriously.
debbie
@rikyrah:
He must be getting ready to run for something.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Graduate student in philosophy according to the article.
Mnemosyne
@MattF:
I’m pretty sure that the white student who keeps calling the cops knows that the Black students are her fellow students and she’s trying to get them to drop out by harassing them.
She’s not genuinely confused about whether or not these Black students are students. She’s pissed that Black students are there as her equals and is using her calls to the police to harass them.
Kathleen
@rikyrah: Thank you for this. I believe you linked to an article several years ago about the programs and support Dr. Norman Francis (President at the time) initiated to keep students in this program. I attended Xavier as exchange student in 1969. I really enjoyed the experience.
MattF
@Mnemosyne: That makes sense, unfortunately.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: I know I didn’t go to one of them fancy private schools for grad school, but I didn’t know all the grad students in the University not even my department.
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
The fact that a white woman has called the cops on Black students multiple times makes me think that she’s not making honest mistakes about who is and isn’t a student inside Yale dormitories.
Villago Delenda Est
Kim is a lot smarter than Donald. So is Vlad, so is Xi, so is Macron, so is Merkel, so is the Hereditary Grand Duke of Grand Fenwick.
Donald is being played, No one around him dares tell him, if they can detect it themselves, which seems unlikely. Bolton in particular is an utter dolt.
MattF
@Villago Delenda Est: Also, anyone working for Trump learns they are operating under certain constraints. Rick Wilson has some helpful observations on that subject here.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: I’m not saying you’re wrong about her possible motives; I’m just saying that at a large university, you can’t ID a fellow grad student on sight.
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Sure, but given the circumstances being reported, it sounds like they were doing things that students would be doing in that situation (going to study groups, napping in common areas only reachable if you have an ID) so even the most generous explanation is that she way overreacted to a normal situation. And then the question becomes why she would overreact.
geg6
@burnspbesq:
This.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
This is one of those “who would be stupid enough to” trick questions.
Brachiator
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Sure you can.
Otherwise, campus life would consist of a constant stream of phone calls to the cops about suspicious looking people.
Kathleen
@trollhattan: Uh, I’m old enough to remember when Georgia’s produce rotted in the fields because of some draconian immigration measure it enacted in 2012. I guess our Rethugs can haz cognitive dissonance.
Here’s link to Atlantic article:
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/06/georgias-harsh-immigration-law-costs-millions-in-unharvested-crops/240774/
Mnemosyne
@Kathleen:
Also, really, this guy is volunteering to drive round-trip from Georgia to the Texas-Mexico border with truckloads of illegal workers? How much time does he have on his hands?