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JUNE 11,  2018

1:48 A.M. ET, JUNE 12:  A breathtaking moment.  The president of the United States and the leader of North Korea have just signed a historic, unexpected statement.  We do not yet have the details of what is in it, but the sight of the signing itself was incredible.  It's obvious, as several commentators have already said, that this statement was not written as a result of today's meeting between the two leaders.  It clearly has been developed over a number of days, under the guidance of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is emerging from this week as a major American figure.  We await the fine print. 

1:14 A.M. ET, JUNE 12:  No "Short Takes" tonight.  We are awaiting more details on the historic Singapore meeting.  I find it remarkable that there have been no leaks.  We expect a statement in the early hours of the morning.  There is also the president's statement hinting at "a signing," but we know nothing about it.

BULLETIN:  FROM FOX:  President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday emerged from their "working lunch" and indicated that they were about to sign something, but did give any further details.

"We had a really fantastic meeting, a lot of progress, really very positive," Trump said "I think better than anybody could have expected. Top of the line, really good. We’re going right now to a signing.”
Trump did not go into details about the comment.

THE MEETING BEGINS – AT 9:14 P.M. ET:  It's an unusual day, and I'm following events from Singapore closely.   What I've noticed is that some of the reporters have calmed down and are realizing that this is an important moment.  Even CNN has become mildly rational. despite an extended interview with a very wacky Dennis Rodman. 

There is a sense of wonder that this summit is occurring at all.  Ed Henry and John Roberts of Fox have been pointing out that, not many months ago, North Korea was firing missiles toward Guam and President Trump was threatening fire and fury against the Norks. 

Stand by.

IS THIS A SERIOUS STORY? – AT 12:30 P.M. ET:  As the president tries to make peace in Singapore, Barack Obama is supposedly teaching potential Democratic presidents how to beat Trump in 2020.  Ah, the fantasies abound.  From the Washington Times:   

President Obama has reportedly met with 2020 presidential hopefuls and is advising members of the Democratic Party about how to run against President Trump.

A source close to Mr. Obama told CNN he has met with Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden and former Attorney General Eric Holder.

Wow.  What a depressing lot.

According to the unnamed source, Mr. Obama spends time during the meetings “on how to respond to the president, positioning and broader challenges with the party.”

A few others who have met with Mr. Obama, according to CNN, include former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, South Bend Mayor Peter Buttigieg, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and former Secretary of State of Missouri Jason Kander.

The Democratic Party expects a large field of candidates, similar to the GOP’s 17 candidates ahead of the 2016 election.

COMMENT:  I wonder if Hillary will show up at one of these sessions.  She could come dressed as a deplorable.

June 11, 2018       Permalink

ALL EYES ON SINGAPORE – AT 10:41 A.M.   Where the president of the United States is getting ready to meet with Kim Jong Un, the leader of the hermit kingdom of North Korea.  The meeting will occur within about 10 hours.

Already the pseudo-pundits are out ridiculing the president.  Ignore the pundits.  They've always been wrong about Trump. 

Initial word from our side from Singapore is that the preliminary talks are going better than expected.  But John Roberts of Fox is reporting that expectations are being kept modest.  I have a sense that there have been very serious talks already, with some basic agreements reached.  Indeed, the actual meeting between the two leaders will only last a few hours. 

There is informed speculation that there may be a surprise announcement.  Let's hope so.  Much is riding on this summit, for the world, the United States, and President Trump.  And Kim Jong Un wants to come out as a world figure presiding over an emerging nation, not the head of a starving, failed state.

This is high drama, with high stakes.  Even CNN might have to get the reporting right.  I'm just kidding.

June 11, 2018     Permalink

JUNE 10,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:31 P.M. ET: 

ONCE A GREAT COLLEGE – FROM CAMPUS REFORM:   Princeton University officials are encouraging male students to join a bi-weekly discussion group that aims to make them “tremendously vulnerable.”  Led by licensed psychologist Jean Semelfort, The Men’s Allied Voices for a Respectful & Inclusive Community (MAVRIC) Project recruits male-identified students to help them resist “traditional gender norms” and cultivate a more “healthy masculinity."  "We can’t dismantle the institutional privilege that men enjoy if we’re not willing to ask hard questions of ourselves about the privilege we’ve been granted in our own lives."  “We as men can unpack our own internalized ideas about what it means to be a man,” writes Carl Adair, the Princeton English professor who runs the blog for the MAVRIC Project.  Some of these sensitive souls should take a walk through Arlington National Cemetery, note the ages on most of the headstones, and ask themselves how much male privilege those young men had.

IMMIGRATION GETS A BAD NAME – FROM BREITBART:   The majority of white Americans and swing voters in 2018 swing districts say that change has made life “worse” in the U.S.  In the latest CBS News/YouGov poll, nearly 60 percent of white likely voters who see changes in their neighborhood from mass immigration said that immigration made their community “worse.” Only 15 percent of these voters said immigration has made American life “better.” These likely voters live in swing districts which could be swayed towards either the Republicans or Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections.  Likewise, the majority of swing voters in swing districts say immigration has been a detriment to their community, rather than a benefit, as immigration is often described by the political elite.  It's been said often that we are a nation of immigrants.  That's true, but immigration policies must be implemented carefully, and with respect for the population already here.  That hasn't been done in recent years, and the backlash is inevitable.

EVERYBODY'S GOTTA BE SOMEWHERE – FROM PAGE SIX:  Dennis Rodman — who Page Six reported this week has had an employee e-mailing online groups pitching Rodman as a start-up spokesperson leading up to his Singapore trip — has found a dope sponsor.  The former NBA star is going to Singapore during the President Trump-Kim Jong-un summit on the dime of marijuana cryptocurrency, Potcoin.  Rodman announced the news on Twitter Friday, saying, “I’ll give whatever support is needed to my friends, @realDonald Trump and Marshall [sic] Kim Jong Un.”  The image shows both world leaders pasted together with Rodman wearing sunglasses and a pink feather boa.  Aw, give the man a break.  At least he's being respectful, unlike the "celebrities" at the Tony Awards who cursed the president while he's on an overseas mission of peace.

June 10, 2018       Permalink

MITT PLANS – AT 7:16 P.M. ET:   Mitt Romney is a curious fellow.  We thought he was out of politics, now he's back in, running for the Senate from Utah.  He's savaged Donald Trump with some of the worst comments made about Trump, now he says that Trump will easily win in 2020.  And it appears that Romney himself has big plans.  From the Daily Mail: 

Mitt Romney is preparing to become a major figure in the Republican Party next year, laying the groundwork to become spokesman of the Republican Party establishment that's been steamrolled since the election of President Donald Trump.

The former presidential candidate is widely expected to win Utah's Senate election in November and has already let party leaders know he intends to make a splash upon his taking of the oath of office in January, Politico reported.  

He's expressed an interest in joining the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and wants to work on spending issues. 

But the most delicate issue he's likely to deal with is relationship with President Donald Trump. 

Romney, who failed to win the Republican presidential primary in 2008 and then failed to win the presidency in 2012, was a vocal 'Never Trumper' voice during the 2016 race and criticized the now-president on multiple occasions.

During the height of the Republican presidential primary, Romney called Trump a 'phony' and a 'fraud' during a March 2016 speech in Utah where he also argued that Trump's policies would lead to a recession.

And...

Romney has balanced his criticism of the president with praise as of late.  

He said in May that he didn't think Trump was a good role model for his 18 grandchildren, saying 'some of the things he has said are not ones that I would aspire for my grandkids to adopt.'

Romney explained the president's tendency to not tell the truth is the main reason Trump is not a paragon of virtue for children to follow.

'I don't think that I would point to the president as a role model for my grandkids on the basis of his personal style. He has departed in some cases from the truth, and has attacked in a way that I think is not entirely appropriate,' he told NBC News. 'I think that his policies have been by and large a good deal better than I might have expected. But some of the things he has said are not ones that I would aspire for my grandkids to adopt.'

But he predicted last week Trump will 'solidly' win a second term.

'I think that not just because of the strong economy and the fact that people are going to see increasingly rising wages,' he said.  

'But I think it's also true because I think our Democrat friends are likely to nominate someone who is really out of the mainstream of American thought and will make it easier for a president who's presiding over a growing economy.'

Romney also predicted Trump would 'easily' see off any challenger in the Republican nominations, for the same reasons. 

COMMENT:  I'd imagine there'd be immediate tension between Romney and Trump.  Despite what Romney says, he'll certainly look for any opening that can allow him to run in 2020.  He'll be 74 that year, probably his last chance.

June 10, 2018       Permalink

WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL – AT 1:43 P.M. ET:   One of the best essays I've seen recently, written by the distinguished African-American economist, Walter Williams.  It is good to see a scholar with an appreciation of the good things in America's past.  From dailywire.com: 

People have changed. Behavior that is accepted from today's young people was not accepted yesteryear. For those of us who are 65 or older, assaults on teachers were not routine as they are in some cities. For example, in Baltimore, an average of four teachers and staff members were assaulted each school day in 2010, and more than 300 school staff members filed workers' compensation claims in a year because of injuries received through assaults or altercations on the job. In Philadelphia, 690 teachers were assaulted in 2010, and in a five-year period, 4,000 were. In that city's schools, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, "on an average day 25 students, teachers, or other staff members were beaten, robbed, sexually assaulted, or victims of other violent crimes. That doesn't even include thousands more who are extorted, threatened, or bullied in a school year."

Yale University legal scholar John Lott argues that gun accessibility in our country has never been as restricted as it is now. Lott reports that until the 1960s, New York City public high schools had shooting clubs. Students carried their rifles to school on the subway in the morning and then turned them over to their homeroom teacher or a gym teacher — and that was mainly to keep them centrally stored and out of the way. Rifles were retrieved after school for target practice. Virginia's rural areas had a long tradition of high school students going hunting in the morning before school, and they sometimes stored their guns in the trunks of their cars during the school day, parked on the school grounds.

COMMENT:  By all means read the whole thing.  There's much here I didn't know.  No one is claiming that everything was better in the good old days.  We've improved in some areas.  But some things were better, including adherence to standards of behavior.  We have to be honest and determine what has gone wrong, and then we must correct it.  But how can we do that when one of our two political parties won't admit there's a problem in the first place?

June 10, 2018       Permalink 

TAKING ON JUSTY – AT 1:18 P.M. ET:  The president has arrived in Singapore.  He left the G7 early, and its participants are furious with him.  How dare he disagree with them, and try to protect American workers? 

The worst was Justin (my daddy was prime minster) Trudeau of Canada, who appears to have the intellectual maturity of a twelve-year-old.  Trudeau's father was the anti-American Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, so the apple is falling close to the tree.  The Trump administration has had its fill of Trudeau.  From Fox: 

There is a "special place in hell" for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau because of his decision to slam the U.S. in a post-G7 press conference, White House Director of Trade Policy Peter Navarro said on "Fox News Sunday."

"There's a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door," Navarro said. "And that's what bad faith Justin Trudeau did with that stunt press conference. That's what weak, dishonest Justin Trudeau did. And that comes right from Air Force One."

Shortly after Trump left the G7 summit, where the world leaders had reached a tentative agreement on a joint statement, Trudeau held a press conference in which he said that Canada will not be "pushed around" by the U.S.

Navarro reiterated that his sentiment was shared onboard Air Force One after the summit, as it headed toward Singapore for the planned meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

And I'll tell you this, to my friends in Canada, that was one of the worst political miscalculations of a Canadian leader in modern Canadian history," Navarro continued. "All Justin Trudeau had to do was take the win. President Trump did the courtesy to Justin Trudeau to travel up to Quebec for that summit. He had other things, bigger things on his plate in Singapore.

COMMENT:  Is the president picking an unnecessary fight with young Justy?  I don't think so.  I believe there's a method to Trump's apparent madness.  He is signalling to the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, whom he will meet on Tuesday, just how tough he is, how unyielding he is when dealing with America's national interest.

What a week this will be.  If Trump can pull off a serious agreement with North Korea, it will be one of the great diplomatic achievements of the age.  But it's a big "if."

June 10,  2018     Permalink