Tag Archives: Rocket Man

International news

What? Trump to meet Rocket Man?

So, how does the president of the United States change the subject from an alleged affair with a porn queen and Republican rage over trade tariffs?

Donald Trump agrees to meet with the leader of a nation deemed in some circles to present an existential threat to the United States of America.

That’s correct. Trump now plans to meet face to face with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

The man Trump derided with the Rocket Man epithet, declared North Korea faced “total destruction” if it attacked South Korea and threatened to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea if it continued to threaten the United States now wants to meet with the source of all this white-hot rhetoric.

Details are to come. The president said he would meet Kim no later than May. The place will be determined later. So, too, will the agenda, or so many of us should presume.

This does beg an important question: Has the tough talk about “fire and fury” and “total destruction” actually persuaded Kim to meet with Trump and begin the arduous task of negotiating a peace treaty with the South?

Trump’s critics — and I include myself in that crowd — have derided the president’s rhetoric as gratuitously provocative. He didn’t need to remind Kim that his “button is bigger” than the North Korean’s nuclear button.

I also have said I’d be willing to eat my words if Trump’s clownish behavior actually produced tangible, constructive results.

An intended meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un isn’t enough by itself for me to dine on my own criticism. There’s too much groundwork to be laid. Too many details to work out. Too much can go wrong between now and when the two leaders actually meet.

What’s more, I am not entirely sure who between these two men is less trustworthy than the other.

Kim keeps provoking Trump, who responds with provocations of his own. Kim has nukes. The United States arsenal is infinitely larger.

However, if this meeting leads to more discussion, well … that’s a major start.

First, we need to learn that there will be a meeting. I am holding my applause.

International news, military news

Russia remains off Trump’s danger-zone radar

I want to join the chorus of Donald J. Trump’s critics who cannot fathom why the president of the United States cannot bring himself to say anything critical about Vladimir Putin, the strongman who runs Russia.

Putin this past week announced the unveiling of weapons systems he said would neutralize the U.S. missile defense systems. His aim seems to be able to strike the United States of America whenever he felt like it.

The response from Trump? Nothing. Not a frigging sound! He isn’t challenging Putin’s assertion of military superiority the way he has done, say, with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

What the hell is the matter with this guy, the president of the United States?

I endorse the view put forward late this past week from a retired U.S. Army general, Barry McCaffrey, who contends that Russia in reality is nothing more than a developing Third World country. It economy is smaller than California’s economy, McCaffrey said; Russia’s standing army is inferior; it has a population that is less than half of that of the United States; its submarine and surface-missile weapons systems essentially are a joke, he said.

In no way, according to McCaffrey — a Vietnam War combat veteran who had a major command during the Persian Gulf War — would Russia dare launch a first strike against the United States.

Where is the “Little Rocket Man” epithet that the president could use against Putin? Why doesn’t he tweet some idiotic rejoinder about how his “button is bigger” than the one at Putin’s fingertips?

Good grief, man! Has the Russian strongman cast some sort of spell over the president of the United States?

Or … is there validity to reports of something fishy involving Trump’s business dealings in Russia?

Oh, I forgot. Trump said he has “no business activity” in Russia. No deals have been struck.

And we are supposed to believe him? Sure thing.