Some may think I’m talking about Kim Jong Un (R-NK). I’m not. I don’t think Kim is a madman. His rhetoric is an act for domestic consumption only. He and his repressive dynasty have survived only by keeping his people so afraid of everyone else that they don’t see their own leaders as the source of their misery. He’s not going to nuke South Korea, Japan, or the US. He knows that, if he did, he would die, and they’d bury what was left of him in a thimble. Past US leaders have understood this. But Kim is now treading of very dangerous ground. He’s confronting a madman with nuclear weapons.
President Trump threatened on Tuesday to unleash “fire and fury” against North Korea if it endangered the United States, as tensions with the isolated and impoverished nuclear-armed state escalated into perhaps the most serious foreign policy challenge yet of his administration.
In chilling language that evoked the horror of a nuclear exchange, Mr. Trump sought to deter North Korea from any actions that would put Americans at risk. But it was not clear what specifically would cross his line. Administration officials have said that a pre-emptive military strike, while a last resort, is among the options they have made available to the president.
“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” Mr. Trump told reporters at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., where he is spending much of the month on a working vacation. “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”… [emphasis added]
From <NY Times>
Rachel Maddow covered this story in two segments.
There it is. The bottom line is this. As long as the US is in thrall to a madman with nuclear weapons, pray for the world’s survival.
RESIST!!
17 Responses to “Confronting a Madman with Nuclear Weapons”
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Hillary got it right:
Hillary got a lot of things right. Sigh
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I’ll add my “AMEN” before TC does.
So true
AMEN!
Rachel I – Good God! It WOULD have been Doug Lamborn pimping for Flynn, wouldn’t it? The only member of the Colorado delegation who is IMPOSSIBLE for the rest of the delegation to work with. Dear Lord, please help us get rid of him! So – you think Kim Jong Un is just pretending to be a madman, but Kim Jong Don is the real thing? Not that it matters, probably. Both are dangerous.
Rachel II – “Two impulsive, insecure leaders” – well, that is indisputable, isn’t it? Not to minimize ths – but – Republicans have lways been and probably will always be specialists in strategies which may look like good ideas (at least to people who are not grown up), but which have been proven, not just in our tome but in all of recorded history, not to work.
There will be more, but here are just a couple of early petitions –
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/no-threats-of-nuclear-war
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/restrict_nuclear_war
Very, very concerning!
Judi, is that the Dexter Gordon of jazz saxophone fame?I was thinking that we might have theses two total loonies, ironically, being the only two to be able to bluff one another to silence. who knows?
Australia is relatively close in distance and ties to the region around North Korea, with very strong ties to Japan, and also to China, which would both be the first nations in the region after South Korea to get involved in any military action concerning North Korea, so Aussies are following the events very closely indeed.
Yesterday evening (about 16 hours ago) the 7 o’clock national news (ABC) opened with the following words (as I recall them): Today tension around the world is mounting as two unpredictable world leaders are battling it out in words today what could turn into a nuclear war tomorrow. Then the news went on with describing how unpredictable Drumpf is (not Kim Jong Un), how lightly inflammable he is and how chillingly unclear it is how he makes his decisions and to whose advise he listens, if to any at all.
The news item painted a picture of two madmen, one of whom is reasonably consistent in his “madness” and who also very obviously has a much larger mouth than his (nuclear) weapons allowed, the other who was known to flip his decisions from one minute to the next, thrown into the world by tweets in the early hours of the morning, and who had the largest nuclear arsenal in the world at his disposal. It was all too obvious that the ABC considers Drumpf a greater threat than Kim Jong Un, even though the Australian government of course stood behind its ally and only condemned the latter for his threats. When Julie Bishop, Australia’s minister of Foreign Affairs, was asked what she thought about Drumpf’s bellicose rhetoric, she managed to dodge the question by reiterating her condemnation of North Korea. She also repeated the contention of US experts that North Korea can now mount a nuclear warhead on a long range missile as a fact, not something that hasn’t been confirmed yet. It is unsettling to see that the Australian government rather focuses on madman Kim Jong Un to give their citizens some peace of mind rather than on the president of their most important ally and rather cause the opposite effect. “Sad”, to quote the orange resident.
I think you’re right that Kim’s mad rhetoric is mainly for domestic consumption, but Drumpf’s probably is too. The timing of Kim’s threat of launching missiles really couldn’t have been more convenient for the Drumpf administration. Nothing about the Russia investigation today, is there.
Thanks for the more local perspective.
I think you are right and I believe he really, really, wants to use the nuclear weapons.
As I read about Drumpf’s rant yesterday, I was dumbfounded. My initial thought was here are 2 people who are so much alike . . . tyrannical toddlers who have immense power and destruction at their fingertips. They are both bullies and vengeful. I do not trust Kim Jong-un, but I trust Drumpf even less. Drumpf needs to learn to load brain before firing his mouth . . . but I think I’m asking too much because he has no morals to guide him and he is mentally scattered.
I have a picture of Drumpf rolling around in my mind — his mouth is duct taped shut, his face is red from trying to speak, and his hands are duct taped behind his back (literally covered in duct tape so that he cannot use any device even if he wanted to!) and he is totally frustrated. What a picture and it couldn’t happen to a more deserving individual.
Resist, Persist and Remove!!!
Your picture should be entitled, “Heaven for the rest of us!”
I just don’t know anymore. Can Drumpf be censured? Can he be removed from office for threatening another nation with “fire and fury”? Drumpf really needs to go away, period. But, then you have Mike Pence one step away from the Presidency. Read the From Upworthy article, 20 things Mike Pence did while you weren’t looking, in the Open Thread, Aug 9 2017, and see if you want this person in that office. Do you want Paul “lyin'” Ryan in office from the # 3 position on the list? No matter how you look at all of this with Drumpf & Pence, it is a lose/lose/lose situation. sigh…
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Jim, by chance I answered that in the fourth Short Take in today’s Open Thread. It will be up in less than 15 minutes.
Thanks all! Sticky Hugs!