Trump #7 - Kremlin's in the system

[slicesofjim]

Paul Manafort taken into custody after having been judged to have violated his bail conditions.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/15/paul-manafort-trump-campaign-chair-custody

He looks like he should go to a 1970s prison, like you'd see o n the Rockford Files. Amaxing how utterly stupid these people are. I guess dickheads like Manafort have been operating with complete impunity for yonks, he's just an unlucky idiot because he was under the one stone they turned over.

[DrGreggles]

[mosh]

Mason Verger Jefferson Sessions dips to a new low.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/6/15/17467772/jeff-sessions-bible-passage-slavery-romans-13

https://theintercept.com/2018/06/15/domestic-violence-asylum-jeff-sessions/

[manticore]

Perhaps more people would be prepared to accept the provisional Korea peace deal if they understood that it was South Korea, and particularly President Moon, who was the main force behind it:

coverage in non-Western media tends to center Moon, who has been the real driving force behind the talks. Western media, by contrast, obsessed as it is with Trump — for both ideological and business reasons — can't help but interpret any and every event in relation to him. So we get columns talking about how the deal was simply a piece of "Trumpian stagecraft" that the media "fell for," and pundits confidently asserting that the whole thing is a master move in Trump's eight-dimensional chess strategy to give Robert Mueller the slip. For such pundits, South Korea — indeed, any country outside the US — doesn't seem to exist.

One ominous result is that liberals, panicked at the idea that Trump might receive credit for lowering the risk of war, are starting to become increasingly militaristic. It will be a sad irony if it ends up being Democrats who torpedo Moon's quest for peace.

https://jacobinmag.com/2018/06/singapore-summit-korea-kim-trump-moon

Whatdya think?

[Alberon]

I still think the announcement of the suspension of US/SK wargames was made without informing the South Koreans. North Korea has always wanted a face to face meet with the US president, though it was probably through the South Koreans that the latest offer got to Trump. The South Koreans were a driving force in the last set of negotiations with North Korea back in the 90s, which were later torn up by the communist monarchy.

I don't accept the last line of the quote that 'liberals' are going more militaristic simply to deny Trump any 'win'.

As to the chances of war being lessened, well, we're not quite there yet. No concrete agreements have been made to actually bring the Korean War to an end or denuclearise the korean peninsula (or even come to an agreement as to what that actually means). It's long been understood that North Korea acts madder than it really is, so a first strike was never likely. Similarly, despite its many claims, NK knows that its proximity to China alone stops most likelihood that the US will ever invade or even launch air strikes. Keeping nuclear weapons removes the small chance that China will stand back from protecting North Korea.

So the only real chance of war is stumbling into it by mistake and the chances of that are much the same as before the summit. I do agree that the South Koreans have done what they can there to reduce that risk by helping reestablish communications though.

So far Trump has done what many of the presidents before him could have done and met the North Korean leader, the really important bit is what happens next.

[Dusty Gozongas]

Whatdya think?

Pretty much fits my take on it. I had a feeling that Trump was getting himself into this deal a bit late (even though he appears to have set things rolling). In an ideal world, Xi will get the Nobel Peace Prize (snub value!) even though Moon may be more deserving.

WRT the Dems, it's not as if they aren't cut from the same war mongering cloth as the Reps. Neither party are interested in the well-being of the people who elect them.

*heart*

[Paul Calf]

Xi will get the Nobel Peace Prize

Xi Jinping?

I fucking hope not. Cunt should be in prison.

[Norton Canes]

Standing outside the US embassy in Vauxhall right now. Anyone need anything while I'm here?

[Spoon of Ploff]

Standing outside the US embassy in Vauxhall right now. Anyone need anything while I'm here?

Can you ask em what crimes currently full under the Moral Turpitude range please? Asking for a friend.

[DrGreggles]

Standing outside the US embassy in Vauxhall right now. Anyone need anything while I'm here?

Would it not be more comfortable to sit down in a Vauxhall?

[Paul Calf]

Flash bastard's showing off his sun roof.

[DrGreggles]

I'm genuinely trying to think at the moment whether or not my car has a sun roof.
If it has, I've never used it.

[Alberon]

Melania Trump publicly criticises Trump's policy on separating immigrant children from their families.

Are they even talking in private these days?

[Dusty Gozongas]

Xi Jinping?

I fucking hope not. Cunt should be in prison.

Well yeah, I agree. The thing is though, since Trump is waving his arms and shouting "Gimme gimme" I'd rather see anybody else get it. To be fair, it seems to me that Xi and Moon have put a bit more actual work in.

[Alberon]

Give it to the South Korean leader. He's done all the legwork here. Plus, Trump would spontaneously combust.

[Paul Calf]

Trouble is, what with Obama getting it within seconds of becoming President, mass-murderer Kissinger getting it in '73 shortly after bombing the fuck out of Hanoi and Gandhi being snubbed several times, it's hard to take it seriously any more. Though many still do.

[Ignatius_S]

Melania Trump publicly criticises Trump's policy on separating immigrant children from their families.

Are they even talking in private these days?

That criticism arguably would have more bite if it didn't say about hoping 'both sides' come together for a solution – something that her husband has argued for.

Some of the coverage has been rather explicit in this:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-44515123
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/06/melania-trump-pretends-dems-to-blame-for-family-separations.html

[Dusty Gozongas]

Give it to the South Korean leader. He's done all the legwork here. Plus, Trump would spontaneously combust.

By my calculations he'd burn brighter if Xi got it. Hey ho.

[steve98]

Award it jointly to Xi, Kim, Moon and Hilary, but not Trump.

[ajsmith2]

[Nowhere Man]

I realise he's trying to make imaginary strawman CNN reporter look bad but Trump still looks worse than the fucking donkey.

[Alberon]

Melania looks like she's about to bolt back upstairs while Trump isn't looking.

Also, look at the list on the tablets still mostly undone a year and a half into the job. How can Garrison put "lock her up" on there when Trump chucked that right in the bin after winning?

[Alberon]

Meanwhile, Trump has returned to one of his pet ideas - 'Space Force'.

"It is not enough to merely have an American presence in space. We must have American dominance in space," Mr Trump said at the White House.

He also promised that the US would "return Americans to the Moon" and would eventually send people to Mars.

"I'm hereby directing the Department of Defense and Pentagon to immediately begin the process necessary to establish a space force as the sixth branch of the armed forces," Mr Trump announced

Though it's not entirely up to him.

However, the US Congress would need to pass a law authorising it before any new branch of the military could be created.

There is also the matter of this, but it seems unlikely to be a big problem.

The Outer Space Treaty, which the United States signed in 1967, bars states from testing weapons and establishing military bases on the moon and other celestial bodies. It also prohibits the placement of weapons of mass destruction in orbit around Earth. Both China and Russia are signatories to the treaty. But the treaty has no enforcement mechanism (indeed, the Air Force's unmanned space plane, the X-37B, has completed several clandestine missions).

It all sounds far less likely than Trump getting his wall built to be honest.

[ajsmith2]

'Just think, Libturds, we could have fired a giant space rocket directly into the heart of the sun by now if we weren't wasting time and resources on human rights' is perhaps the silliest of all the recurrent alt light/right laments.

[olliebean]

Sixth branch? Army - Navy - Air Force - what are the other two?

[Alberon]

Dibble and Grub?

[batwings]

Sixth branch? Army - Navy - Air Force - what are the other two?

Marines and Coast Guard.

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

https://www.propublica.org/article/children-separated-from-parents-border-patrol-cbp-trump-immigration-policy

[BlodwynPig]

https://www.propublica.org/article/children-separated-from-parents-border-patrol-cbp-trump-immigration-policy

Here we go...

Alexander  charles Galtenstein • 2 hours ago
Three square meals a day, health insurance, video games, and sports? It's like a summer camp.

The future looks bright.

[Skip Bittman]

The baritone voice of a Border Patrol agent booms above the crying. "Well, we have an orchestra here," he jokes. "What's missing is a conductor."