[AMV] Amerikaanse politiek #514: Rise of the snowflake conservative

quote:

Op zondag 10 juni 2018 23:33 schreef Ulx het volgende:
https://www.politico.com/(...)filing-system-635164

Davuk?

quote:

Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau: The empire of diminishing returns

Paul Wells: If these guys are so afraid of even the mildest retaliatory action, Canada and its serious allies should give Trump a response worth fearing

Welcome to your special place in hell, Canada. Here’s Peter Navarro, the head of the White House Economic Council (“Alarmingly ignorant about trade” — Forbes magazine) going off on Justin Trudeau after a Charlevoix G7 that threatened all weekend to go off the rails before, in the end, it obligingly went off the rails.

The hell bits and the stabby bits in Navarro’s weirdly well-rehearsed rant got the most coverage on Sunday, but I’m struck by:

(a) the way Navarro was plainly road-testing language that will surely wind up in presidential tweets before week’s end. “That’s what Bad Faith Justin Trudeau did with that stunt press conference,” Navarro said, referring to the utterly routine closing press conference every G7 host head of government has held since the first one in 1976. “That’s what Weak, Dishonest Justin Trudeau did,” Navarro continued. Who even talks like that? “That comes right from Air Force One,” Navarro said. Ah.

(b) this bit. “We’d have a great deal with NAFTA by now if the Canadians would spend more time at the bargaining table and less time lobbying Capital Hill and our press and state governments here. They are simply just not playing fair. Dishonest. Weak.”

There is no way to parse this statement and cling to even a thread of sanity. Talking to American politicians and journalists is unfair, dishonest and weak? It seems to me the only way to pop this little tirade back into the comprehensible universe is to assume Navarro means the opposite of each of his adjectives. Plainly the elaborate Canadian effort, now nearly two and a half years old, to explain shared Canadian and U.S. values and interests to any American who’ll listen has been fair, honest and strong — i.e., effective. And that’s what’s got Navarro in such a snit. The president spent a week being told by yes-men who were “alarmingly ignorant about trade” — Forbes magazine — that he could levy tariffs against America’s closest allies and it wouldn’t upset anyone. And for less than 36 hours he escaped the bubble and got told the opposite by people with sovereign power to follow through. No wonder they were testing Twitter language on Air Force One afterward.

It’s very hard to deal with somebody when everything they say is about something else. Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs were supposed to be about national security. “This particular action on steel and aluminum, it’s not about unfair trade practices,” says Peter Navarro (“alarmingly ignorant about trade” — Forbes magazine) in this interview. “It’s about national security.” That was 11 days ago. Suddenly, as he wings his way from Charlevoix, Trump tweets that “our Tariffs are in response to his of 270% on dairy.”

That would be enough of a head-spinning reversal, except there’s reason to suspect Saturday’s Twitter tiff wasn’t even about dairy. Here’s Trump economic advisor Lawrence Kudlow (“Always-wrong pseudo-economist” — New York magazine) saying much the same stuff Navarro said in a near-simultaneous interview on another network (though it’s fun to note that Kudlow thought the G7 communiqué was “good,” while Navarro is pretty sure it’s “socialist.”

But here’s the key point. “Here’s the key point,” Kudlow says. It’s worth noting that up until he says this, nobody has breathed a word about North Korea. Kudlow introduces it. “The president is going to negotiate with Kim, of North Korea, in Singapore. It is a historic negotiation. And there is no way this president is not going to stand strong, number one, he’s not going to allow for other people to suddenly take pot shots at him hours before that summit.”

Which really makes it look as though this dispute isn’t about security or agriculture, it’s about macho posturing before another meeting. Two things are worth saying about that.

First, it’s kind of hard to imagine Kim Jong Un will be swayed one way or another in any decisions he might make about deploying versus destroying one of the world’s most unstable nuclear arsenals, let alone the fate of the Juche ideology and the Kim dynasty, by details of tone in a tariff dispute between Trump and his neighbours. You really have to be an all-star enabler to go on national television to endorse that kind of strategic thinking, so kudos to Kudlow for taking one for the team.

Second, if these guys are so afraid of even the mildest retaliatory response from the Canadians — such as “lobbying Capital Hill and our press and state governments,” let alone retaliatory tariffs that Navarro was sure nobody would levy — then Canada and its serious allies should give them a retaliatory response worth fearing. Trump and Navarro called Trudeau weak because they’ve awakened rudely to the sudden realization that he may not be. Let the awakening continue.

quote:

Op zondag 10 juni 2018 23:06 schreef FlipjeHolland het volgende:
Dezelfde alt right figuren zitten volgens mij ook op de FP.

quote:

Op zondag 10 juni 2018 21:26 schreef Nintex het volgende:
Hahaha, waar vind Trump al deze Godfather acteurs.

twitter:

joshtpm twitterde op zondag 10-06-2018 om 18:16:09 This is dangerous and totally bonkers. Trump Trade Chief says there's "special place in hell" for Justin Trudeau who "stabbed President Trump in the back." https://t.co/u9vxgl1FrV https://t.co/ZY9HWJ3e2M reageer retweet

"I'm tellin you Paulie they better not mess with the boss."

quote:

Op zondag 10 juni 2018 23:33 schreef Ulx het volgende:
https://www.politico.com/(...)filing-system-635164

Davuk?

quote:

Op zondag 10 juni 2018 23:22 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:
Ik denk dat hij gewoon hoopt dat z'n onvoorspelbaar gedrag toegevingen zal opleveren. Hij heeft al meermaals opgeschept dat hij Trudeau voor de gek hield, dat probeert hij nu weer.

quote:

Op zondag 10 juni 2018 23:33 schreef Ulx het volgende:
https://www.politico.com/(...)filing-system-635164

Davuk?

quote:

Op zondag 10 juni 2018 23:24 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:
Fox News host apologizes after calling Trump-Kim summit 'meeting between two dictators'

[..]

quote:

Op zondag 10 juni 2018 21:26 schreef Nintex het volgende:
Hahaha, waar vind Trump al deze Godfather acteurs.

twitter:

joshtpm twitterde op zondag 10-06-2018 om 18:16:09 This is dangerous and totally bonkers. Trump Trade Chief says there's "special place in hell" for Justin Trudeau who "stabbed President Trump in the back." https://t.co/u9vxgl1FrV https://t.co/ZY9HWJ3e2M reageer retweet

"I'm tellin you Paulie they better not mess with the boss."

quote:

Op maandag 11 juni 2018 10:42 schreef Vis1980 het volgende:

[..]

hahaha een bondgenoot bedreigen, beledigen en uitdagen. Hahaha!

quote:

Op maandag 11 juni 2018 10:45 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

[..]

Vind het behoorlijk zorgwekkend. Die Amerikanen zijn compleet de weg kwijt.

quote:

Robert De Niro had a few choice words for President Donald Trump while the legendary actor was on stage at Sunday's Tony Awards to introduce Bruce Springsteen's musical performance.

"I'm going to say one thing, F-- Trump," De Niro said while pumping his fists in the air. "It's no longer down with Trump. It's f-- Trump."

twitter:

kylegriffin1 twitterde op maandag 11-06-2018 om 13:20:00 "He’s like Heath Ledger’s Joker—but without the operational excellence," one senior G7 official tells The Atlantic in the wake of Trump's G7 tweets. https://t.co/iD5ogvl0JW reageer retweet

quote:

The governments of the G7 are America’s closest partners and allies: “None of us has the luxury of being pissed off,” the official said. But from Canada, Trump has arrived in Singapore to meet North Korea’s Kim Jung Un. It is a good guess that he will show himself much more respectful and conciliatory to this dictatorial adversary than to America’s democratic friends—by now, that’s a familiar pattern of Trump behavior.

Trump is locked into a cycle in his top-level diplomacy: bully-cringe-bully-cringe. He bullies traditional friends and allies; he cringes to adversaries, dictators, and potential funding sources for Trump enterprises. Bullying the G7 was the weekend’s story; cringing to North Korea—and behind it, China—will be the story of the week ahead.

quote:

Op maandag 11 juni 2018 13:48 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
Meeting met het vreselijkste regime op aarde, maar mensenrechten laten we gewoon achterwege, because we don't care:

U.S. won't bring up North Korea's human rights issues at Singapore summit
https://www.nbcnews.com/n(...)human-rights-n880986

Schandalig.

quote:

Op maandag 11 juni 2018 13:52 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

Kim accepteert dat nooit. Dus op zich wel logisch.

Maar inderdaad schandalig.

quote:

Op maandag 11 juni 2018 13:52 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

Kim accepteert dat nooit. Dus op zich wel logisch.

Maar inderdaad schandalig.

quote:

Op maandag 11 juni 2018 13:56 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:

[..]

Daar gaat het natuurlijk ook niet om. Het gaat om het signaal. Als 'vrije westen' moet je dat soort dingen aan blijven kaarten omdat je anders je geloofwaardigheid verliest. Maargoed, van dat laatste heeft Trump toch al nagenoeg alles verspeeld.

quote:

Op maandag 11 juni 2018 13:59 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]

Trump MOET terugkomen met een deal die beter is dan de Iran-deal. Als hij het over de mensenrechten gaat hebben kan dat misgaan.