Tweet of the Day: Three Cards
In N. Korea, we had 3 cards to play:
— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) December 19, 2018
– "maximum pressure" (then Trump dialed it back to "medium")
– deterrence (then Trump canceled US-ROK exercises)
– KJU's pariah status because of crimes against humanity (then Trump "fell in love" with him)
He gave it all away for nothing. https://t.co/GJGiPTw4b2


When did One Free Korea morph into the Weekly Standard?
– “maximum pressure” (then Trump dialed it back to “medium”)
This is a clear reward for no nuke or missile tests. That’s how things work… you be an asshole when you do not get your way and you get nicer as the others get more cooperative. Then you encourage this path forward… rewarding cooperation and punishing obstinance as you guide everyone to your desired outcome. I see children manipulating their parents with this all the time. Donald “but he has no diplomatic skills” Trump knows how people actually operate in the real world rather than the musings of some leftist fantasizing about his reality-disconnected ideals.
– deterrence (then Trump canceled US-ROK exercises)
Yeah… so… I’m guessing 11 carrier strike groups, a bunch of stealth aircraft, and silo upon silo full of ICBMs have little deterrence value after cancelling a fuckaround exercise that may or may not have much relevance to the actual way a North/South conflict would play out. This is more carrot and less stick in guiding an outcome.
– KJU’s pariah status because of crimes against humanity (then Trump “fell in love” with him)
Expecting North Korea’s sudden change to an open democracy is ridiculous. Everything is an evolution. The first goal is to stop nuclear and missile tests. The next goals are moderating their attitude and opening their country a bit. You don’t do this by continuing to push the pariah status. You do this by giving openings down pathways you want them to follow… with plenty of stick if they go back down the pathways they came from.
All three of these complaints are just bitching to hear themselves bitch. All three of these actions open up the beginnings of a pathway for North Korea to join the global community. All three of these actions are completely reversible within minutes… maximizing pressure and falling out of love can be done with a Tweet.
Trump is doing what should be done with North Korea… but the difference between him and the Clinton/Bush/Obama floundering is that he actually has a clear stick to back up his carrots.
Also, he shits on a gold toilet, fucks porn stars and gets them to pay him, and he is Reagan-grade crazy and unpredictable against his enemies.
CH, it sounds very much like Trump is a winner and those complaining are little weiners like they put in crock pots at Christmas parties.
But I sometime miss analogies.
What I didn’t miss is that Trump is building a non-traditional set of allies and the establishment types are all clutching their pearls and acting like Toto just pulled back the curtain and showed us the so-called “Wizards” of diplomacy, economics, and so on are all just whiz-eared humbugs.
It’s going to be an interesting time for the next two years, God-willing.