Tweet of the Day: Do Koreans Worry Trump is “Nuts”?

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

15 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Toru
6 years ago

The Western media’s anti-Trump bias is way too much.

Burma Bob
Burma Bob
6 years ago

No, Toru, I’m afraid that Asian and European media seem to share the same opinions of Trump’s level of cognitive skills. As for American media, remember that it’s the 4th estate’s mandate to keep politicians in power honest. That’s kind of been a full time job for many outlets.

As for pro-Trump media, its job is to convince as many people as possible that Trump is somehow honest and reliable. That falls into the category of “Who are you going to believe? Me, or your lying eyes?” sort of journalism. I don’t know where you go to school to learn that. Kelly Anne Conway is offering tips:

http://www.salon.com/2017/09/04/spin-class-with-kellyanne-conway-how-to-bs-your-way-out-of-anything/

Toru
6 years ago

Burma Bob. I’m not saying anything about Trump. But, it is painfully obvious for me (non American) that the media want to criticize Trump so much that they are using “South Korean voices” which is totally inappropriate thing to do.

Joseph Lee
Joseph Lee
6 years ago

He can’t be nuttier than the guy who’s running their northern neighbor.

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
6 years ago

Burma Bob, as you are not Tbone, your anti-Trump opinion is important to me.

The best I can tell, Trump has a very clear idea what is best for America and the majority of the American people.

He communicated this clearly and he made certain promises… which he has taken clear steps to accomplish… despite opposition from everyone who doesn’t want their gravy train taken away by disruptions to the entrenched corruption.

He is obviously not crazy or incompetent… as he has succeeded in a large number of industries… and he beat out the well-financed and supported Republican candidates as well as the anointed Democrat, whose criminal activities were openly dismissed, to become president… with EVERYONE constantly against him with spin and lies.

It is possible to debate his ideas… but foolish to call him stupid, lazy, ignorant, or incapable.

As for the 4th Estate, thier job it to keep politicians honest… yet, while they gushed over Obama, they outright lie about Trump. That is not their job.

There are plenty of thing Trump supports that are probably not good for America… asset forfeiture, for example… but the media ignors this to chase rumors of Trump peeing on Russian call girls. And you think the 4th Estate is doing their job?

Trump is certainly a bit if a shyster… but if a guy cannot take care of himself, he cannot take care of me. You want a man like Trump negotiating trade agreements and nuclear deals rather than the weak-kneed ideologists who have every intetest in mind but America’s.

Everyone, from you to the media, should support this.

Scottm
Scottm
6 years ago

It’s not any crazier than blocking access to a THAAD site and delaying full implementation of said site until a 12 month long environmental impact review is completed. I wonder what kind of environmental impact a 100 KT hydrogen bomb would have and is Kim Jong-un going to complete his assessment before he deploys it in Seoul.

Burma Bob
Burma Bob
6 years ago

Koreans have every right to worry about the temperament and mental balance of the president of the United States, no matter who he is. His words and actions have a pretty direct bearing on the safety of their country and (in the case of a unilateral withdrawal from the KAFTA) their continued economic wellbeing and prosperity.

Would Koreans express any worry about Jeb Bush, or any of the other republicans running in the last election? They would have drawn a blank on Bernie Sanders, but they would have known what sort of behavior to expect from Clinton.

Which of the candidates are most likely to have read and absorbed a nuanced piece like the one that follows, -which is probably the most succinct description of different long term consequential scenarios for East Asia?

Reading it, would they be prone to making off-the-cuff threats?

https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/pre-emptive-thinking-pre-emptive-strikes/?utm_content=buffer27d0b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Smokes at Work
Smokes at Work
6 years ago

“Koreans have every right to worry about the temperament and mental balance of the president of the United States”

Of course they do Bob, but umm.. you got a Salon link to back that up? HuffPo maybe? At least drop a link to some arrogant hashtag on Twitter or something… sheesh. :hmm:

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
6 years ago

Burma Bob,

Koreans certainly should be concerned with Trump’s thinking…

…but taking real steps to protect Americans from nuclear blackmail/attack and watching out for the American economy and jobs of the middle class are not “nuts”.

They are exactly what a president SHOULD do.

But you are right. Jeb, Hillary, and Bernie would have been predictable… predictably in bed with South Korean lobbyist selling out the American economy… and perhaps in bed with North Korean lobbyist selling out American strategic advantage.

Trump was not elected to protect the Korean economy or fret about Korean lives. For once in a long time, a president is doing his job.

He is only called “nuts” by equally selfish South Koreans who have equally no concern for American economy or security. Fair enough. They elect their own president to watch out for their interests and they don’t have to like what the American president does.

Trump is also called “nuts” by Americans who… to put it delicately… are confused about which side they are on and where their best interests lie.

May I ask these questions:

1. Do you feel the American economy/employment/trade deficit is more important than the Korean ones?

2. Do you think a country that constantly threatens to attack with a nuclear missile while developing bigger bombs and longer-range missiles that could affect 350 million people and the stability of America/stability of the world should be allowed to increase their capabilities for some temporary protection of 10 million people that won’t help themselves?

3. Can you respect any American, from president to citizen, who puts the interests of other countries over the fundemental economic and security interests of America?

You can kindly answer each question by number and give as detailed of explanation as you think necessary.

Smokes at Work
Smokes at Work
6 years ago

Everyone remember this when a year from now ChickenHead’s complaining how BurmaBob’s the new Tbone and monopolizing the open thread and people should stop engaging him. 😛

MTB Rider
MTB Rider
6 years ago

Nah, a good debate is just fine with me. Burma Bob doesn’t come here to hot link endless HuffPo articles slamming on Trump, then complain no one will debate with him.

This place would be boring if everyone agreed with everyone else on all subjects.

I’ve seen the real Tbone post once or twice since the new boards went up, but Fake BONEHEAD hasn’t been back. That’s a good thing.

Burma Bob’s writing style is nothing like either Tbones, so I don’t think he is a sock puppet of either guy.

Smokes at Work
Smokes at Work
6 years ago

Hey hey… no poo poo on the comedy.. it’s been a dark week; need some laughs.

I know he’s not a Tbone alt or writes as bombastically as him.

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
6 years ago

Burma Bob is intelligent and is able to express his opinion.

I will strongly argue my point, call BS when I see it, and do my best to force a response that adresses my points… and I expect the same from others.

Burma Bob is fine. Let him respond.

That Smokes guy, however… well… the Smokes at Work is a little high strung… but Regular Smokes (Smokes at Home? Smokes under a Rock? Smokes in Mom’s Basement?) is a pretty chill guy… presumably after hitting an after-work blunt.

Burma Bob
Burma Bob
6 years ago

Chickenhead, I’ll try to respond, then I go back up to the part of Burma where the internet reverts to a TA-312 phone over WD-1 wire.

1. Do you feel the American economy/employment/trade deficit is more important than the Korean ones?

Of course I feel the American economy and wellbeing of the American worker is more important than those of other countries. But things have evolved and we have to deal with the global economy that has developed the way it has, and not the way we’d like it to be. If Apple had made the decision to make really cool phones 100% in the USA by American workers, we might be getting somewhere. If Motorola had not gone tits-up and still had a de facto monopoly. Is a trade deficit bad? I was back at home in 1996 When Clinton came on the tube one evening to urge us to call our congressmen to get them to pass MFN for China. And we ignored Ross Perot because we thought he was just a cranky little Texan like Hank Hill’s dad. But when he said there’d be a giant sucking sound as US jobs left when NAFTA passed, he was right.

The difference between America and Korea/Japan is that when manufacturing is offshored by indigenous countries, somehow it does not affect home country jobs and wages as badly. Maybe German, Japanese, and Korean auto workers complained when car makers from those countries set up plants in the states, but I don’t remember it.

In Rangoon we already have 100’s of Korean factories making shit to export and sell, probably putting downtrodden Korean garment workers out of jobs. But every one of those Burmese workers can afford a Samsung phone. They buy these phones using micro-loans from American and Japanese or British finance companies, paying 64% interest.

Rushing to pull out of trade agreements without having a really good set of alternatives is not anything American farmers or aerospace industry machinists will like very much, as the counterparties in these agreements will switch to Brazilian, Canadian, and Australian wheat-corn-soybeans, and of course the French will push Airbus planes. Mexican farmers will be happy, as their farmers got crushed under NAFTA when American corn flooded in.

I guess things are a little too intricate to just pull the plug on agreements. I and did not even get into who really pushes globalism in its favor, namely multinational corporations who act on their own account as non-state actors. Steve Coll recently wrote a good book on ExxonMobil that illustrates the degree to which the company can be said to function as a non-state actor, American in name only.

As for (2), NK has been a problem going pretty far back. When Bush II was talking regime change, NK was not only there for us, it actually fit all of the criteria applied to Iraq. No need to cook the intelligence. But we did nothing. My beef with this administration is that the purported adults in the room allow Trump to make threats he does not follow up on. We were promised fire and fury, so why isn’t the 82nd in NK with a giant bottle of Windex to polish what should be a radioactive sheet of glass? And my beef is that we even need adults in the room.

As for (3), of course I do not respect any American who would sell out ours for another country. But I don’t think lack of loyalty is the problem here. The world has been going our way since 1945 because we’ve extended our protection over Korea, Japan, and western Europe. All of these countries have engaged and fought in foreign wars elsewhere when we’ve asked them to, best example being Afghanistan when the mutual protection articles of NATO were invoked after we (not them) were attacked on 9/11. Korea sent 3 divisions to Viet Nam and it didn’t even have to. So I guess they think we owe them to listen to their opinion on matters that affect them.

They must feel like young children sitting in the back seat of a car with no seatbelts, being driven at 90 MPH by a dad who’s been drinking shots of tequila between snorts of meth since dawn.

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
6 years ago

Burma Bob, thank you for your thoughtful comments. I will consider them more deeply in the coming days… as I have a project that is going to take all my time and thought over the next few days.

15
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x