dagblog - Comments for "Blundering towards Bethlehem"

If Rodman can play best buds

NCD — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 00:16:41 +0000

In reply to Just making a joke (sort of)

If Rodman can play best buds with Kim, doing the same with Trump is no problem.

Trump especially loves celebrities, and 'the blacks love him.'

This deceitful, arrogant

NCD — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 00:13:53 +0000

In reply to Blundering towards Bethlehem

This deceitful, arrogant ignoramus will likely pull a magic rabbit named “denuclearization” out of a hat in Singapore, believable only by deplorables, Fox News and graduates of Trump University.

The first question to be

ocean-kat — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 23:50:51 +0000

In reply to Blundering towards Bethlehem

The first question to be asked is what are we giving Kim and what do we want Kim to do? It's been NK policy for decades to request a meeting with the president of the US. The theory is that for other nations, especially small nations, a meeting with the US president is huge in that country. It increases the leader's power within the country to be seen meeting the president as an equal. Past presidents didn't feel that NK was willing to give enough to justify that propaganda coup. Trump gave Kim that victory for nothing. America might have been able to get some concessions on human rights or humanitarian access to NK gulags or more in exchange for a meeting.

Then there's international law, the UN and sanctions. If Kim signs a peace treaty he can make a case at the UN to lessen sanctions. There are several small countries that have nukes that are not punished by sanctions, Pakistan and Israel to name a couple. There are many countries that would like to support NK and end sanctions. A peace treaty makes that more likely.

Now that would be funny.

barefooted — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 23:39:55 +0000

In reply to Just making a joke (sort of)

Now that would be funny.

Just making a joke (sort of)

artappraiser — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 23:21:12 +0000

In reply to A "blowup"? Why and for what

Just making a joke (sort of) that Trump doesn't like anyone upstaging him. Rodman already is a Kim buddy, so he could even come in with Kim, doesn't have to be with the Americans.

A "blowup"? Why and for what

barefooted — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 23:15:27 +0000

In reply to Uh oh, just saw that Dennis

A "blowup"? Why and for what purpose? For logic's sake, this whole thing is going to be a security wonderland - or nightmare - neither of which is going to find Rodman anywhere within its boundaries. If there's an up to blow it will be of the media's making.

Uh oh, just saw that Dennis

artappraiser — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 22:10:56 +0000

In reply to Blundering towards Bethlehem

Uh oh, just saw that Dennis is planning to hang around and try to steal some of the ratings thunder. This is where there is potential of a real "blowup," mho. By Eric Grynaviski @ WaPo.

Yes, it’s true — on Friday, Dennis Rodman confirmed on Instagram that he’s heading to Singapore to “give whatever support is needed to my friends, President Trump and Marshall Kim Jong Un.”

This news has caught many — including the president, apparently — by surprise. On Thursday, President Trump said that Rodman had not been invited to the summit but called him a “nice guy.”

Rodman’s “basketball diplomacy” since 2013 involved high-profile visits to North Korea, where he met with Kim Jong Un, the nation’s leader. Rodman also brought along copies of Donald Trump’s books in 2017 and claims to have sold the North Korea leader on the U.S. president.

Rodman told TMZ that he should get some credit for a summit [.....]

The NK nukes are more a

artappraiser — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 22:01:18 +0000

In reply to I am not convinced that the

The NK nukes are more a threat to Japan than anyone else.

I agree with you here! Pop culture and dystopian post-WWIII scifi tales have done a lot of damage about taking fear of nukes to crazy irrational levels. I try to calm friends that I think are fearfully irrational on this front with a reminder of something along the lines of: okay, let's do nightmare scenarios, check on Fukushima and Chernobyl now, what happened afterwards. And think on that and then if you still wanna freakout about something, do it about about greenhouse gases and global warming and I will entertain that.

Side note on Capricious

artappraiser — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 21:50:59 +0000

In reply to I am not convinced that the

Side note on Capricious Capitalization.

Enjoyed this semiological point because it just hit me like a light bulb, as in: yeah, exactly! I have noticed that about reading old texts. Or more precisely, I subconsciously inferred it after enough experience without realizing it, that that is one difference in the writing. It's sort of like the same way many use quotation marks today! Also like using "hand quotes", one can infer a little bit of cynicism or skepticism.

I am not convinced that the

moat — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 21:38:08 +0000

In reply to Blundering towards Bethlehem

I am not convinced that the newly arrived Bull in a China Shop is the one who inculcated the desire of South Koreans to step back from Eternal War. If the negotiations in Singapore were all about South Korea, they would call for the removal of all those guns and cannons aimed straight at Seoul and pull back all the armored units parked on the edge of the DMZ. The NK nukes are more a threat to Japan than anyone else.

Side note on Capricious Capitalization. It was commonly used in political messages in 18 nth and 19 nth century American political messaging and became eschewed by the stylists of policy and government in order to separate their language from those used by Partisans.