Tunnel Wall

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Trump's video played for Kim elicits sneers from media but was a brilliant persuasive device

Thomas Lifson "Because everything President Trump does has to be bad in the eyes of the mainstream media, there was considerable elite media sneering yesterday over the video that the White House produced for President Trump to show to Kim Jong-un during their meeting in Singapore. If you haven't seen it yet, you watch it here.

"The man who, more than any other commentator, understood Trump's appeal, and who boldly predicted his win early on, is Scott Adams, the "Dilbert" cartoonist and expert on persuasion. He livestreamed his reaction yesterday to the video yesterday, commenting on it while playing audio. He was not restrained in his praise:

It might be the best thing anybody ever did in a negotiation, period[.] ... [I]t hits every note.

"You can watch this commentary as he starts and stops the video, explaining each segment after playing it. He does a thorough job, requiring 18 minutes of your time."

Something you can count on

From Jeff Dawald‎atExpose Liberals & Media Bias

During the Reagan Administration when the Soviets were being made to open their society, Mikhail Gorbachev was Time's Man of the Year. Someone remarked that if Hitler had been stood up to and made to back down at his first aggression, would he have been Time's choice then? TD

Here's the Video Trump Played For Kim Showing What North Korea's Future Could Look Like

Leah Barkoukis "As part of his effort to get dictator Kim Jong Un to agree to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, President Trump showed him a video that presented all the possibilities for North Korea’s future if sanctions come off.

"In addition to the benefits economic development and innovative technologies would bring to the Hermit Kingdom, Trump also emphasized what developing the country’s beaches could do for the nation.

“ 'They have great beaches! You see that whenever they're exploding the cannons into the ocean, right?” Trump said after playing the four-minute video for the press.

“ 'So I said, ‘Boy, look at that beach. Wouldn't that make a great condo behind’ – and I explained it,” the real estate mogul said.

“ 'I said, ‘Instead of doing that you could have the best hotels in the world right there.’ Think of it from a real estate perspective.” . . .

Radical plan to split California into three states earns spot on November ballot

LA Times

Tim Draper, seen here submitting signatures for his earlier, six-state split of California in 2014, has qualified a three-state plan for California voters to consider on this November's ballot.

"California’s 168-year run as a single entity, hugging the continent’s edge for hundreds of miles and sprawling east across mountains and desert, could come to an end next year — as a controversial plan to split the Golden State into three new jurisdictions qualified Tuesday for the Nov. 6 ballot.

"If a majority of voters who cast ballots agree, a long and contentious process would begin for three separate states to take the place of California, with one primarily centered around Los Angeles and the other two divvying up the counties to the north and south. Completion of the radical plan — far from certain, given its many hurdles at judicial, state and federal levels — would make history.

"It would be the first division of an existing U.S. state since the creation of West Virginia in 1863." . . .

Trump meets Kim and sets the stage for fundamental change in Asia -– Here's what his critics missed

Fox News Opinion "President Trump achieved a major diplomatic breakthrough Tuesday in his historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, dramatically improving America’s national security.

"Most fundamentally, Kim agreed at the summit in Singapore to give up his nation’s nuclear capabilities, the acquisition of which has been its foremost priority for decades. To get to this point, President Trump conceded very little.

"During the President Clinton-era negotiations with North Korea, the United States and our allies agreed to millions of dollars in food aid – easily converted to cash on the black market – and billions of dollars in so-called energy assistance that were a huge boon to Pyongyang. But the North kept its nuclear program.

"During the administration of President George W. Bush, U.S. negotiators offered cash payments to North Korea just to get the nation back to the negotiating table. We relieved pressure from tough financial sanctions and sent other assistance. That didn’t work any better than President Clinton’s approach.

"President Trump got to this point by ignoring all the establishment experts.

"This time, President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have insisted that North Korea undertake actual disarmament before real financial concessions or even sanctions relief. That, plus President Trump’s pressure campaign that involved working with allied militaries and governments around the world, proved to be decisive. This is proof that peace paradoxically comes from strength.

"So far, President Trump – in close coordination with our allies in Japan and South Korea – has agreed merely to suspend occasional military exercises. He also agreed to provide a security assurance to North Korea in exchange for its nukes – part of what Pompeo has described all along as convincing North Korea that giving up its nuclear arsenal will actually make it safer. " . . .

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Trump works to shape history while snapping dogs nip at his cuffs

MSNBC Guest Suggests North Korea Summit Is Just Distraction From Russia Investigation "Mara Gay, an editorial board member for The New York Times, suggested Monday on MSNBC that the meeting between North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and President Trump exists to distract from the Russia investigation." . . .

Heritage: The U.S.–North Korean Summit: Opportunities and Dangers When Sailing in Uncharted Waters

By criticizing the weaknesses of all preceding nuclear agreements with Iran and North Korea, President Trump may have painted himself into a diplomatic corner by limiting diplomatic flexibility. Any agreement that the Trump Administration reaches with Pyongyang must be better than the Iran nuclear agreement, previous international denuclearization accords with North Korea, and U.N. resolutions imposing punitive measures on North Korea. It must also achieve a verification regime that is equal to or greater than those in arms control treaties with the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact, e.g., include such measures as full declaration of all overt and covert sites (production, testing, and storage), the nuclear weapons arsenal, and stockpile of fissile materials and short-notice inspections of non-declared facilities.

Read the full report

New Poll Has Some Interesting Responses on Whether Bill Clinton is a Sexual Predator

Katie Pavlich "Former President Bill Clinton came under fire last week after saying during an interview with NBC News he supports the #MeToo movement, but doesn't plan to ever apologize to Monica Lewinsky. He also heavily implied he was the real victim in the aftermath of the affair because he left the White House in debt.
"But according to a new poll, the majority of Americans aren't buying it and believe Clinton is a sexual predator.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that just 24% of Likely U.S. Voters consider Clinton a victim of his political opponents. Fifty-three percent (53%) describe the ex-president as a sexual predator instead. Another 24% are undecided. Interestingly, men (55%) are more likely to consider Clinton a predator than women (50%) are.

"In a recent article for Vanity Fair, Lewinsky questioned the consensual nature of the relationship given the power dynamics at the time.

Now, at 44, I’m beginning (just beginning) to consider the implications of the power differentials that were so vast between a president and a White House intern. I’m beginning to entertain the notion that in such a circumstance the idea of consent might well be rendered moot.(Although power imbalances—and the ability to abuse them—do exist even when the sex has been consensual.) . . .

Monday, June 11, 2018

THE COMPLETE TWS ARCHIVES: Charles Krauthammer

A library of Charles Krauthammer's columns published over the years in The Weekly Standard.

The Weekly Standard "It's with great sorrow that we learned in recent days of the turn in Charles Krauthammer's health. Charles has been a contributing editor at THE WEEKLY STANDARD since the magazine's founding in 1995. We're proud to have published dozens of articles from him over those years. Charles has been more than a good colleague; he's been, for many of us, a friend, a mentor, and a role model. We are thinking of Charles, his wife Robyn and his son Daniel, during this difficult time.

-Stephen F. Hayes

Robert De Niro’s Juvenile Stunt at the Tonys

National Review

"The Tony Awards should have been a celebration of The Band’s Visit, the beautifully underplayed musical about Egyptian musicians striking up fumbling temporary friendships with the residents of a dusty Israeli village, which captured ten awards including Best Musical, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the spectacular new chapter in the kid-magic saga, which won Best Play and five other trophies.

"Instead, all anyone is talking about is Robert De Niro, whose moronic ad-lib made the front page of the New York Post and was a top trending topic on Twitter this morning. CBS switched off the sound as De Niro, who was on hand to introduce Bruce Springsteen (whose Broadway show this season has also been a huge success) interjected, “I’m gonna say one thing: F*** Trump. It’s no longer ‘Down with Trump’; it’s ‘F*** Trump.'” The audience exploded in applause.

"Broadway depends on tourists for a huge percentage of its ticket sales. Does it really want to broadcast an image of being hostile to the 40 percent or so of the country that supports the president? CBS was obviously prepared for editorializing and allowed nothing of what De Niro said about Trump to be heard by the TV audience. It didn’t just blank out the F word; it blanked out the entire Trump comment because it was completely inappropriate and didn’t belong. This was wise, but alas the public has a way of finding out things.

"The people who should be most furious with De Niro are not Trump or his fans. The people who should be most furious with De Niro are the Tony honorees. This was their big night, the single opportunity they have each year to promote their craft to millions of TV watchers. Instead, De Niro had to unleash a childish, pointless rant and steal their spotlight. Shame on him." . . .

Mairead McArdle: Robert De Niro Busts Out Profane Rant against Trump at Tony Awards
. . . "The actor, who was presenting an award to Bruce Springsteen, called on listeners to vote in the November midterm elections. “Bruce, you can rock the house like nobody else and even more importantly in these perilous times, you rock the vote, always fighting for, in your own words, truth, transparency and integrity in government,” De Niro said of his good friend. “Boy, do we need that now.” . . .

MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle said on Monday that she's sure she shouts words in the shower like "f—k Trump" and other insults recently hurled at the president.

Read of the day: Sharyl Attkisson knocks one out of the park with devastating analogy

Thomas Lifson "Sometimes an analogy is the best way to change minds. Commitment to one side in a debate can lock minds into a framework. But take the same principles and apply them to an analogous situation where the locked in prejudices don't apply, and the blinders can fall away.

"That is exactly what Ms. Attkisson has done with a column in The Hill. She takes on the ridiculous reasoning applied to justifying the FBI spying on the Trump campaign and applies it to bank robbery. She begins:

Once upon a time, the FBI said some thugs planned to rob a bank in town.  Thugs are always looking to rob banks.  They try all the time.  But at this particular time, the FBI was hyper-focused on potential bank robberies in this particular town.

The best way to prevent the robbery – which is the goal, after all – would be for the FBI to alert all the banks in town.  "Be on high alert for suspicious activity," the FBI could tell the banks.  "Report anything suspicious to us.  We don't want you to get robbed."

Instead, in this fractured fairytale, the FBI followed an oddly less effective, more time-consuming, costlier approach.  It focused on just one bank.  And, strangely, it picked the bank that was least likely to be robbed because nobody thought it would ever get elected president – excuse me, I mean, because it had almost no cash on hand.  (Why would robbers want to rob the bank with no cash?)

Stranger still, this specially-selected bank the FBI wanted to protect above all others happened to be owned by a man who was hated inside and outside the FBI.

So, to protect this bank owned by the guy the FBI hated, the FBI secretly examined a list of bank employees and identified a few it claimed would be likely to help robbers – or, at least, would not stop a robbery.  How did it select these targets?  By profiling them based on their pasts.

These particular bank employees, the FBI said, were chosen because they worked long ago with customers who might have known bank robbers in the past – maybe not the particular robbers planning a bank robbery this time, but different people who knew people who were thought to have robbed banks in the past ... or, perhaps, people who thought of robbing banks at some point but never got around to it.

"It gets even better, making the absurdities of the justifications for the spying obvious. Read the whole thing."

Gennifer Flowers: Why Bill Cosby And Not Bill Clinton?; "He's Not A[s] Good Of Liar As He Used To Be"

Real Clear Politics

"Gennifer Flowers, who had a sexual relationship with Bill Clinton before he was president, revealed Tuesday night to FOX News' Laura Ingraham that her tryst, in hindsight, "was definitely sexual harassment."

"Flowers also said Clinton's health problems have hindered his abilities to tell lies like he used to be able to.

"Well, my first impression was he is not as good of a liar as he used to be," she said of his controversial interview with NBC's Craig Melvin that was on aired on Today. "He’s not on his game where that’s concerned. And I think Bill is afraid."

" 'He's nervous. That's why he is acting that way, and, you know, probably, he has some health problems and it has affected his ability to respond as well as he used to be, and tell lies as good as he used to," Flowers added.

"Flowers also asked if Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein are facing legal ramifications why not Bill Clinton." . . .

Bill Clinton: Norms of ‘What You Can Do to Someone Against Their Will’ Have Changed

The former president's comments are shocking, and particularly tone-deaf in the era of #MeToo.

. . . "Clinton’s comments seem to suggest that he believes there was a time in which doing anything against someone’s will was acceptable or normal.

"Clinton also defended ousted Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), who resigned from the U.S. Senate amid sexual harassment allegations. Clinton said, as part of his comments on Franken, that “maybe I’m just an old-fashioned person.' ” . . .

Hypocrisy and the left

Elise Cooper "Obstruction, resistance, and lewdness are the leftists' approach. No matter what President Trump does, he will always be criticized.

"The Democrats and mainstream media say President Trump is anti-women. Yet Samantha Bee calls Ivanka the "C"-word. The Democrats and mainstream media say they are in favor of diversity, yet late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel rolled footage of the first lady reading a children's book, and the audience laughed at her accent. When she read, "... ask lots of questions about this and that," the audience laughed louder. For further comic effect, Kimmel repeated, "About dees and dat."

Video added by TD

"The Democrats and mainstream media call President Trump a warmonger after his statement about North Korea being met with fire and fury; many had the attitude of Representative David Cicilline, D-Rhode Island, who said in a tweet, "This is not a time for escalating rhetoric that threatens to bring the world to the brink of war." But now they criticize him for his diplomatic moves. Even Bill Maher argues against the liberal trashing of this meeting by cable news networks, quoting one of them as saying, "Well, we'll just be giving Kim the respect he and his family has [sic] always craved."

"Anyone who looks at the picture of Merkel and Trump being circulated by the left sees their insincerity. I wonder, if it was reversed, if people would accuse him of bullying her. The way she is leaning forward with a stern face, hands on the table, and Trump sitting down. I guess the Germans forgot that even though they were so brutal, the U.S. was still willing to help them to become an economic power. Why is she not being accused of bullying? President Trump only wanted a complete removal of the trade barriers and a fair playing ground. But when have the Germans ever been fair?

"It is all about hating President Trump and the first family. Hypocrisy seems to be the Democrats' and the leftist media's middle name. "

The author writes for American Thinker. She has done book reviews and author interviews and has written a number of national security, political, and foreign policy articles.