Here are my opinions and observations on items in the news.
I FOUND IT INTERESTING that amid all the talk of chaos in the White House and the lack of knowledgeable people around the president, during last Thursday’s announcement of the planned meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un, the head of South Korea’s National Security Office Chung Eui-yong paid tribute to the president’s “wonderful national security team,” and referred to his “good friend” General McMaster.
SECRETARY OF STATE REX TILLERSON draws a distinction between “talks” and “negotiations,” and argues that the president’s willingness to chat with Kim Jong Un should not be construed as anything more than that.
ALL THE ‘EXPERTS’ are coming out to praise, yes praise, President Trump’s decision to meet with Kim Jong Un.
Nicholas Burns, a former ambassador with a 27-year career working in both Democrat and Republican administrations, said, “I think this is positive that the president and Kim Jong Un are going to turn towards diplomacy because we were headed for a collision with North Korea.
He reflected on the impact Trump has had on China and the United Nations on stronger sanctions and resolutions and told of failed agreements signed by Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. “They burned us.”
Even former DNI James Clapper, an antagonist of Trump’s, credited him for “striking while the iron’s hot,” during a CNN appearance. Clapper admitted, “I was quite surprised at this. This is profound.”
Former defense secretary Leon Panetta acknowledged that “This is a positive step. The world is breathing a sigh of relief as a result of having these negotiations, even this kind of meeting.”
Panetta, however, felt the need to remind the president that he must undertake “a lot of preparation,” in order not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Thanks, Leon, I’m sure the president would have never thought of that.
SPEAKING OF FAILURES – Click here to view President Clinton announce his administration’s 1994 agreement with North Korea.
AND WATCH CITIZEN DONALD TRUMP on North Korea in 1999 by clicking here.
READING PEGGY NOONAN’s COLUMN, “Over Trump, We’re as Divided as Ever,” in The Wall Street Journal, she wants you to believe there’s “a fairly widespread dissonance that is causing fairly widespread disquiet” over the Trump presidency.
For those of you who don’t live in one of the eastern havens of elite snobbery, Noonan is referring to “anxiety,” but chooses to use the more uppity “disquiet” several times to illustrate the anguish her kind are living through with Trump as president.
Mel Brooks from the film “High Anxiety.” (filmbuttononline.com)
I couldn’t help but be reminded of “High Anxiety,” the humorous satirical comedy directed by comic genius Mel Brooks, starring as Dr. Richard Thorndyke, who suffers from high anxiety. I began thinking about millions of “Doctor Thorndyke’s” out there – the centrists and moderates – experiencing anxiety over Donald Trump. It’s a continuance of the Trump-derangement people experienced after November 8, 2017. “I’m not sure enough attention is given to their thoughts,” writes Noonan.
She relates all that the president has done in his first year – “Not bad for a first year in office!” Yet she’s concerned, saying, “So you, moderates, centrist professionals should feel high enthusiasm for Donald Trump … and yet you don’t, not really. You think: on some level this is working, and on some level he is crazy. He’s crazy … and it’s kind of working. You struggle to reconcile these thoughts.”
Surprisingly, Noonan appears to have been influenced by the mainstream media, who daily talk about the president’s instability and unpredictability, and chaos in the White House. If those are the thoughts her “disquieted” friends worry are not getting attention, I suggest that she has the writing talent to dissuade them from panicking.
There’s no “disquietness” here. (AmericanGreatness)
The same “get Trump” media that tried to convince us that he was going to take us to war over North Korea, despite his efforts of sanctions and diplomacy, has pivoted to his inexperience as a diplomatic negotiator. As if he isn’t going to be thoroughly briefed in advance. ‘What will he do if he fails to succeed in denuclearizing the Korean peninsula?’ they proclaim.
Noonan asks, “what will he (Trump) be like on a bad day? It all feels so dangerous.” She fails to remember why Trump was elected. The people didn’t want the usual Washington politician. They are regular people, who never refer to “anxiety” by using the word “disquiet.”
If you watched the president’s rally in Pittsburgh Saturday night, you heard him mock Peggy Noonan in a jocular way, saying that “she sees me as some kind of Neanderthal.”
HATS OFF TO MEGHAN MCCAIN for not buying former Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett’s ridiculous comments on ABC’s The View that former president Obama’s meeting with anti-Semite and anti-white racist Louis Farrakhan was simply part of learning to be a leader – “you work with people all the time with whom you disagree.” Jarrett drew the comparison of meeting with the Koch brothers or Rupert Murdoch.
“In the nicest way possible, the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch are nowhere near anyone who said ‘Hitler was a great man,’ and “white folks are going down’ or ‘the Jews have been so bad at politics that they lost have their population in the holocaust,’” McCain said.
“There’s a very big difference between meeting with someone who, ideologically, has a different opinion and perspectives and someone who thinks that Hitler was a very great man,” McCain added.
IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T HEARD – Seven members of the Black Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives have been associated with Louis Farrakhan and have not disavowed his beliefs. That group, led by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), have all gone on record that they want to see President Trump impeached.
WHY IS IT that Democrats (like columnist/commentator Juan Williams) are able say that Louis Farrakhan has been marginalized and not thought of as someone of significant impact, but they insist that Republicans are followers of truly insignificant white supremacists, like David Duke. Another double standard.
Shailagh Murray (c-span.org)
MORE OBAMA CONNECTIONS to the dirty tricks of Fusion GPS. House Intelligence investigators have uncovered a second husband and wife team who provided a conduit to the opposition research of Fusion GPS into the highest levels of the Obama White House.
Shailagh Murray, a former Obama policy advisor, who previously served as deputy chief of staff and communications director to Vice President Biden, is married to Neil King, who works for Fusion GPS, the firm that hired former British spy Christopher Steele.
