Learn from North Korea

Surely Trump’s top aides can do better than this:

Before he abruptly ended Tuesday’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Sean Spicer had been unusually fulsome in his praise of his displeased boss, President Trump. The president’s trip “truly was an extraordinary week for America and our people,” Spicer said, and the Saudi Arabia leg “was a historic turning point that people will be talking about for years to come,” in which Trump single-handedly “united the civilized world in the fight against terrorism and extremism.”

“We’ve never seen before at this point in a presidency such sweeping reassurance of American interests and the inauguration of a foreign policy strategy designed to bring back the world from growing dangers and perpetual disasters brought on by years of failed leadership,” Spicer said. And Trump’s interactions with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that upended 50 years of close U.S.-European relations? “I think the relationship that the president has had with Merkel, he would describe as fairly unbelievable,” Spicer said. “They get along very well.”

And Gary Cohn:

Over the weekend, White House National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn — who was the second-in-command at Goldman Sachs before joining the White House — declared the president’s economic development deal with Saudi Arabia to be unlike anything he had seen in his 30 years in business.

And Hope Hicks:

“President Trump has a magnetic personality and exudes positive energy, which is infectious to those around him,” the statement said. “He has an unparalleled ability to communicate with people, whether he is speaking to a room of three or an arena of 30,000. He has built great relationships throughout his life and treats everyone with respect. He is brilliant with a great sense of humor . . . and an amazing ability to make people feel special and aspire to be more than even they thought possible.”

I think it’s a lack of motivation.  Insufficiently effusive supporters of North Korea’s leader are executed with anti-aircraft guns.  Trump merely screams at aides who refuse to treat him like the Sun King.

PS.  And people wonder why Trump is unable to fill government positions:

Donald Trump is struggling to find new staff to work for him because everyone thinks he is “crazy”, a senior member of the US President’s Republican Party has said.

Michael Steele said potential White House employees were put off by an environment in which aides are “flying by the seat of their pants”.

“The talent pool is shrinking, because who wants to sign up for crazy?” added Mr Steele, who served as chairman of the Republican National Committee between 2009 and 2011.

Wasn’t Trump going to get the best people?  No wonder they haven’t even developed a tax proposal for Congress to consider.

PS.  Today Trump bragged about the progress of “our tax bill”:

Our tax bill is moving along in Congress and I believe it’s doing very well.

Matt Yglesias has some fun with this claim:

The thing about this is there is, literally, no tax bill.

  • No tax bill has been introduced to the US House of Representatives.
  • No tax bill has been introduced to the US Senate.
  • The White House has not released a tax plan that is detailed enough for experts to assess its economic or fiscal impact.

Indeed, just a week ago, Trump’s Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney explained that what most experts saw as a $2 trillion accounting mistake in the White House budget was actually deliberate.

Another Yglesias post explains why Trump makes so many false statements, and also explains why he doesn’t like people who have integrity

PPS.  FWIW, the Paris Accord was mostly symbolic.  But withdrawing is bad symbolism.


Tags:

This entry was posted on June 01st, 2017 and is filed under Trump Derangement Syndrome. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.

 
«
»
 
 

16 Responses to “Learn from North Korea”

  1. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    1. June 2017 at 19:44

    PPS.  FWIW, the Paris Accord was mostly symbolic.  But withdrawing is bad symbolism.

    I knew it. I knew Sumner would react this way to the withdrawing of a globalist/socialist state encroachment on economic liberties.

    Rather than be a principled libertarian who would say “Good!” at withdrawing from globalist state power oppression, and thus side with Trump by implication (Oh no!) Sumner makes the absolutely braindead attempt to minimize the size and scope of it, so that he can then criticize Trump for….not acting “symbolically” in the right way… whatever in the world that is supposed to mean.

    Obviously the content of the Accord was not even read by this blog’s author.

    Reminds me of that CNN meme about “Paid Family Leave”. In March CNN praised it, then in April Trump indicated he is for it, then in May CNN explains why it is detrimental to women.

    So many deranged lunatics.

  2. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    1. June 2017 at 19:48

    Remember the good old days when we would see blogposts about the stock market going up whenever the Fed did something Sumner liked?

    https://m.imgur.com/CDKVSWq?r

    Of course the market disagrees with Sumner’s “symbolism” excuse.

    Will he recant and admit that the market is wiser than he?

    Of course not! The market is only wiser than an individual when Sumner wants to prove them wrong about something.

    Market for me, but not for thee.

  3. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    1. June 2017 at 19:53

    CNN is fake news hysteria as usual:

    https://i.redd.it/rtknurdxc41z.jpg

    Funny, I don’t see the end of the world priced into the market.

  4. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    1. June 2017 at 19:59

    This is likely hilarious to those who keep up with the real news, not the fake news:

    http://ibankcoin.com/zeropointnow/2017/06/01/debbie-wasserman-schultz-uses-voice-changer-to-call-law-firm-suing-dnc-forgets-to-disable-caller-id/

  5. Gravatar of E. Harding E. Harding
    1. June 2017 at 21:38

    Guys, take a look at my outline of a plan to substitute for Paris (which would be far superior from the environmentalist perspective):
    https://againstjebelallawz.wordpress.com/2017/06/01/outline-of-a-climate-treaty-that-might-actually-work-in-365-words/
    Any comments about why it would or wouldn’t work?

  6. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    2. June 2017 at 03:21

    E Harding:

    Wealth redistribution doesn’t work.

  7. Gravatar of Benjamin Cole Benjamin Cole
    2. June 2017 at 03:57

    OT to China bashers;

    “Air Products Invests in Six Industrial Gas Plants to Support Booming Electronics Manufacturing Industry in China

    2017-06-02 07:45 ET – News Release

    Company Sustains Momentum to Pursue Further Opportunities

    LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., June 2, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Air Products (NYSE: APD), a world-leading industrial gases company, today announced it has recently received multiple, long-term supply awards from semiconductor and flat panel display manufacturers in China as the country’s electronics manufacturing industry continues to boom.”

    –30–

    I continue to see publicly traded companies expand operations or business in mainland China. It is hard to square the actions of Air Products with “China makes up all the economic stats.”

    I would say China’s growth is real.

    A look at the People’s Bank of China and the way that central bank vanquishes debt might be worth a post.

    (Short story: The PBOC periodically prints money and buys sour loans. China is still below inflation targets.)

  8. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    2. June 2017 at 16:32

    DNC Data Director admits Hillary money laundering:

    https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/870326400988975106

  9. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    2. June 2017 at 16:34

    This is Al Gore’s house.

    https://i.imgur.com/kf7DeHs.jpg

    It uses twenty times as much energy as the average American home. $30,000 a year in utility bills yet he thinks he can lecture us on our carbon footprint

  10. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    2. June 2017 at 16:35

    This is the type of “news” source that is used on this blog as if it were credible:

    https://i.imgur.com/0dQuVII.png

  11. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    2. June 2017 at 16:43

    In May 2010, Huma Abedin tells Doug and that she has “hooked up” people from the Russian American Foundation with “the right people” at the State Department, after she received a request from Russian American Foundation Vice President Rina Kirshner, forwarded by Clinton Foundation donor Eddie Trump (no relation to President Trump).

    Note this tidbit:

    The Russia-American Foundation was staffed by Clinton political supporters and operatives, received over $260,000 in grants for “public diplomacy” from the Clinton State Department, and its leadership was supportive of Obama’s Russia policies.

    Source:

    http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-newly-released-emails-reveal-classified-information-transmitted-hillary-clinton-unsecure-server-clinton-foundation-employees/

  12. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    2. June 2017 at 21:07

    The Associated Press stealth edited one of their articles that originally revealed that a Russian was approached by the FBI to falsely testify that he was cooperating in a “Russian hack of the election”, in exchange for $$$.

    Relevant passage:

    Nikulin defense lawyers have said the U.S. charges were based on one FBI agent, and suggested the U.S. was seeking him for political reasons – to use him as a pawn in the investigation into alleged Russian hacking in the U.S. election. He claimed in the courtroom that he was twice approached by U.S. authorities – in November and in February – in the absence of his previous lawyer. He said they urged him to falsely testify that he was cooperating in the hacking attack on the Democratic National Committee ordered by Russian authorities. He said U.S. authorities would, in exchange, give him money and a life in the United States. “I rejected doing it,” Nikulin said. The U.S. has accused Russia of coordinating the theft and disclosure of emails from the Democratic National Committee and other institutions and individuals in the U.S. to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Russia has vigorously denied that. There was no indication that Nikulin’s case was connected to the DNC hacking accusation.

    Here is the archived version of the AP article from May 30, 2:55pm:

    https://web.archive.org/web/20170530201855/http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_CZECH_US_RUSSIAN_HACKER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-05-30-14-55-17

    Here is the current version of article:

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_CZECH_US_RUSSIAN_HACKER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-05-30-14-55-17

    Note the updated time, Jun 1, 11:35 am.  Also note that the deletion of material and content change is not referenced at all in the updated story.

    Why was this significant material removed in the update?!

  13. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    2. June 2017 at 21:11

    Additional background:

    Washington Times article with more detail:

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/may/11/yevgeny-nikulin-alleged-russian-hacker-claims-fbi-/

    Guardian story from January (before second visit) hinting at a similar narrative (Who is coordinating this?!!):

    http://archive.is/hPAsS

    There is no acknowledged link between Nikulin’s alleged offences and the hacking of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, but his arrest came just three days before the Obama administration formally accused Russia of stealing emails from the Democratic National Committee and disclosing them through WikiLeaks.

    Nikulin was arrested just a few days before Obama officially stepped up the: “Russia hacked the election!” false narrative.

  14. Gravatar of Chris H Chris H
    4. June 2017 at 05:32

    @E Harding, seems OK from a perspective of reducing greenhouse emissions (though envisioning a treaty that takes about 2 centuries to get everyone on board seems a tad slow), just incredibly unlikely to be something you can get all the top emitters to agree to.

  15. Gravatar of Major-freedom Major-freedom
    4. June 2017 at 20:33

    Sumner tells us we could learn from North Korea.

    Looks like CNN already did:

    https://mobile.twitter.com/DRUDGE_REPORT/status/871500572523864064

  16. Gravatar of Tom Brown Tom Brown
    5. June 2017 at 06:25

    Scott, you need a new site called http://www.themoneyillusionminusfeces.com to auto-strip out the repetitive garbage comments to save on your reader’s scrolling. Comments left there would appear on both sites.

Leave a Reply