Make the US Politics Thread Great Again

I agree. Let’s see if anything comes of the talks.

There already is!
Discovering a humanitarianism crisis is not Creating a humanitarian crisis.

Oh crap that’s what I meant :roll_eyes:

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All valid points. On point one, I disagree this occurrence is entirely on their terms . The N Koreans may be in that exclusive club with Russia and China as states who could hit the mainland US with a nuclear armed ICBM, but their tech is far from proven. I reckon they know this, the US know this as well. On point 2, Trump’s threat of annihilation may not have brought this change of attitude about exclusively but it hasn’t hurt and if they do meet, it will be the first time ever that the leaders of both countries will talk directly to each other which isn’t a bad thing and on 3, yes, they are certainly loving the positive afterglow of the recent Olympics.

Look, overall, D Trump is proving to be a very poor leader but if he can reign the N Koreans in, that will be some achievement.

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I want to draw attention to slides 3 and 5 in this presentation (which would bore most of you).

Slide 3 shows the issues with simply calculation correlations. Drowning victims correlate with Nicholas Cage films…
Slide 5 is whats really relevant - it shows the impact of the introduction of Stand Your Ground laws for gun owners in Florida. It resulted in an extra 240 gun homicides a year! This slide was just showing the way their study methodology can identify impacts of legislative changes. But I thought people here would be interested.

Monash University COMPARE study: Impact of Legislative Change

Agreed. And as much as I detest the man I will be in line to applaud if he pulls this off.

Let’s all hope for the best.

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So??? That’s not because it was the North Koreans’ choice. The North Koreans have been seeking a meeting with the President of the USA since Clinton’s time. And all the former presidents knocked them back. This isn’t a meeting to agree to reduce nuclear proliferation. They want to meet because it shows that the nuclear program worked - it allowed them to meet the US president “as equals” (and got them in the door).

Now, if Trump meets and convinces them to wind back the nuclear program with real checks, then I’ll absolutely applaud him. But many US administrations have done deals with the North Koreans in the past, and the North Koreans have simply used each one as a way of reducing sanctions while continuing on with their nuclear program in the background. The most any has achieved is that North Korea is a bit quieter in its rhetoric for a while. So I don’t expect much, if anything. I’m worried it will achieve as little as before, while elevating the North Koreans status.

If Trump achieves something real, good on him, but he’s giving them credence by meeting with them so if he doesn’t achieve anything he’s made things worse.

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If they meet, and I won’t believe it until I see it, what are the odds of one of them saying something that ■■■■■■ off the other and sends them off in a very childish and very dangerous huff?

If there were two people in the world I would keep from ever meeting each other, it’s these two.

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It’s a typical Trump start anyway, the departments of state and defense didn’t know this NK announcement was coming.

But I imagine that there has been extensive behind the scenes work by what are called “ sherpas “ to get to this stage, liaison in the margins of unrelated international meetings, as well as dialogue using intermediaries closer to NK.
They would have already drafted the agreed outcomes of the leaders meeting.

I think that is very optimistic in regards to the current US admin. Preparation, planning, and cohesion aren’t their thing.

This seems to be South Korea’s work so far. Edit: which could align with elements of your meaning of course.

Edit: Obviously I am probably overly pessimistic. But on the flip side Trump will really want and need this, so we might see his best.

Exactly. The lead US diplomat to Nth Korea resigned last week. And, the US does not have an ambassador in Sth Korea.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/kim-jong-un-wants-to-be-seen-as-donald-trumps-equal-a-meeting-will-give-that/2018/03/09/305bf092-2334-11e8-946c-9420060cb7bd_story.html

Good analysis. But not great

It is often the case that dialogue is not officially conducted at Ambassadorial level, but on an exploratory basis at a lower level behind the scenes, which can be disowned as necessary if things go pear shaped. You can bet that US defence personnel have been active, including through intermediaries.
These developments don’t happen overnight. I would not put any emphasis on NK political presence at the Winter Olympics as contributing to progress, other than for presentational aspects

I thought it sprung out of the the recent North/South talks, given that the offer was delivered to Trump via SK. But it makes sense that what you suggest was happening in conjunction. Those levels would be quite removed from the executive level dysfunction.

NY Times reporting that Trump’s lawyer, Ty Cobb, expects to be leaving his role in the near future. Trump has also been in talks with a long-time DC lawyer, Emmet T. Flood. Flood has represented former Cheney, when he was VP to Bush, and Clinton during his impeachment proceedings.

There had to be a sweetener in Australia’s exemption from the steel and aluminium tariffs. But for Trump to cast it as a security agreement has not done Turnbull any favours, domestically or internationally.
Not that Trump cares.
Meanwhile, the Trump Administration has brought the WTO dispute settlement system into semi-paralysis, by refusing to accept appointments or extensions of Appellate Body appointments. Anyone who rules against the US is persona non grata, including US nominees to the Appellate Body ( such as Jennifer Hillman)

STABLE GENIUS

Donald Trump advocates death penalty for drug dealers in rambling speech | US news | The Guardian

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One issue though - we have bugger all steel or aluminium exports to the US. We really only produce the raw materials (iron ore, bauxite/alumina) and they go to China.