Is Trump’s Mad Man Strategy Working?

Time will tell. How long will it take without another North Korean missile test to know whether Trump’s threats are working? Has he out-crazied Little Kim?

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Author: craigcrawford

Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.

107 thoughts on “Is Trump’s Mad Man Strategy Working?”

  1. how long until another missile test? would you believe 4 more days?

    The National Liberation Day of Korea, is celebrated annually on August 15 in both North and South Korea. It commemorates Victory over Japan Day.  [wiki]

    most likely way to celebrate would be shooting 4 missiles across Japan’s bow

  2. Jack Jacobs was discussing that this afternoon, noodling the different scenarios  – missile fired in direction of Guam falls into international wars, missile falls into the 10 mile Guam controlled area, etc.  How to respond?  He said if we try anti missile tech, it had better work, and he isn’t convinced it’s that good yet.  Interesting discussion.

  3. “I hope that they are going to fully understand the gravity of what I said, and what I said is what I mean,” Trump told reporters at his golf resort in New Jersey. “Those words are very easy to understand.”

     

    above somewhat reminiscent of Nixon’s “I know you think you believe you understand what you thought I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is exactly what I meant.”

  5. You have to be the craziest person in the room for this strategy to work

    so he probably will be successful.

  6. The Northern Marianas are also part of the United States. That lengthens our footprint considerably.

  7. Trump jr. Eric, Kushner, Ivanka….are they True Believers, or merely hostages, like the missus……

  8. For a couple of days Rachel Maddow as making the case that the info on nuke NK was only coming from the DIA.   Although by the time of her cablecast last night, that was clearly not true.

    I find her show to be increasingly tiresome, and now inaccurate.

  9. The report purported as being from DIA was made with “moderate” confidence. I would place that as being no higher than 70% confidence, probably slightly lower. I’m surprised their musings made the light of day–probably somebody put it in the wrong tray. Rachel probably works with virtually no staff–very stressful.

  10. High-level talks are supposed to be happening now, in secret?  I heard USA and DPRK are actually sitting at a table and hashing it out.  But if a couple more DPRK launches occur…Trump’s gonna try to kill Korea and its people.

    Even Howard Dean says there’s no grounds or pathways to remove Trump from office yet, so it’s bombs away.

     https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5909515e6552fa0be682bce9/master/w_727,c_limit/dr-strangelove-still-580.jpg

  11. The intelligence community is in agreement with the Pentagon that North Korea has the ability to miniaturize nukes and affix them to a missile, NBC News reports.

    Her own network reporting and she is not in a cable public access studio she has a staff.

    The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence are in accord with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) about North Korea’s capabilities now.

  14. When are we invading Venezuela?   Why are we fighting with the norks?   Because it knocks the russian collusion, election theft off of the top headlines.

    Our water heater died and is leaving a mess.  In this heat?  Hot water is overrated.

  15. Previous photo taken on Thursday of Organ Mts. — the monument area trump wants to review and take away from citizens.   The mountains are a bit greener this year with the rain.  This is the area zinke flew over and as a geologist? He commented on the geomorphology of the area.

  16. bill maher segment worth a peek, a mull, a laugh and a consider


    Published on Aug 11, 2017

    Bill and his guests – Richard Dawkins, Fareed Zakaria, Jon Meacham, and Jim Parsons – answer viewer questions after the show.

  17. that maher panel discussion sounded like one of our better days here on the trail…. goes all over the map, gets silly, loses topic etc.  but fun

  18. have we bombed anybody yet?  I mean, really, it’s after 7.  he’s been on the throne now for hours twitting away I’m sure.

  19. Overnight on Twitter, that hack David Wohl criticized Enrique Hernandez of the Dodgers. Said that because he was goofing off paying attention to a 5 year-old kid in the stands “WE” lost the game to the Padres last night. Hernandez asked him if they would even be having this conversation if his last name was “Smith”. Dodgers teammates Justin Turner and Brandon McCarthy backed up Hernandez. Also taking exception with Wohl’s use of the word “We”. Wohl proclaimed himself to be a Dodgers fan. I believe has been disowned by the Dodgers.

  20. my dumb question for today and some even dumber answers:

    why are the norks giving specifics of number, pathway and target for their missiles (likely to be launched on their august 15th holiday)?

    (a)  to show it’s a tease and not a real attack

    (b)  to show off technical accuracy

    (c)  for fun and to entertain beloved leader

    (d) to misdirect from the real target which could be anywhere but guam

  23.  

    Permit it me some amateur psychology if you will.

    Much has been made of SF’s obsession with Obama, and his need to denegrate all things Obama, almost always referring to him as weak and ineffective.

    I think that the clip above may be part of the reason why and part of the reason SF is now engaged in a game of chicken with North Korea. Be he president for eight months or eight years he will never be able to make an announcement of this magnitude or significance without looking foolish. He can’t begin to tie Obama’s shoelaces much less fill his shoes and somewhere down deep he knows it. He can offer bluster and bombast aplenty, but results simply are not within his grasp. Osama bin Laden was dead, General Motors had survived, and Obamacare lives to fight another day. It was always too much for many republicans, and it is way too much for the Stupid Fuck in the White House.

    That’ll be five cents please.

  25. KGC, from the link you provided:

    “But U.S. officials told NBC News that other agencies, including the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, agree with the assessment. What has yet to be learned is what confidence level various agencies ascribe to the analysis — low, medium or high.”

     

  27. I learned a long time ago not to pay attention to little boys’ pissing contests.  I’m not paying attention to this one either.   Summer is short and I’m enjoying it.

  28. Where I come from Summer is loooong….but not, thank Apollo, as long as it was in Florida.

    i throw rocks at the last half of Summer.

  29. “Rachel probably works with virtually no staff–very stressful.”

    She was interviewed on Stern and described her staff- she’s got one, and they work all the time.

  32. Hickam’s dictum is a counterargument to the use of Occam’s razor in the medical profession. The principle is commonly stated: “Patients can have as many diseases as they damn well please”. The principle is attributed to John Hickam, MD.

  33. European leaders rate trump.   From the article —

    Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi often seems like the closest political parallel to Trump. The former Italian prime minister was also known for his affection for Vladimir Putin, his Islamophobia, his purported links to the Mafia, his sexism and misogyny, his erratic behavior and his administration’s unceasing scandals. But even he was a safer bet than Trump, apparently.

  34. Oh Boy  Bannon and his boyz have taken to the streets

     

    Rachel Maddow interviewed a number of people on the show ALL of whom said ..if NK doesn’t have this minute they will within the year.  People we can assume she picked.

    She was wrong

  35. This is from the writer Anne Lamott …..it’s longish but rather calming

    Anne Lamott
    Yesterday at 9:22am · 

    We are so doomed. There is nothing we can do. We are at the mercy of two evil ignorant syphilitic madmen, the two worst people on earth. I mean that nicely.
    Where do we even start?
    We stop trying to figure things out. “Figure it out” is not a good slogan. We practice trust, and surrender, and attention to what we know is beautiful: dogs, art, the Beatles, each other’s eyes. And we don’t give up hope. Emily Dickinson said that hope encourages the Good to reveal itself. We need all the Good we can summon in these Locked and Loaded days.
    So what do we hope for?
    Pivot! A perfect time for the Pivot.
    Just kidding.
    We hope and pray for the return of sanity, or even sanity-ish. I do not hope for a successful Trump presidency or failed Trump presidency. I hope that he does not blow up the whole world.
    Is that so much to ask?
    What if he accidentally blows up a little bit of the world?
    Well, these things happen. We’ll stick together. What has always lifted my spirits is a promise that I made to myself, that if it looks like the end of the world, I get to eat every single thing on earth that can’t outrun me: the last few days, I will only eat nachos and creme brûlée and Safeway carrot cake. Oatbags of M&M’s. No vegetable matter!
    That’s something to look forward to!
    One more question: how do we get to hope in these dark ratty days?
    We don’t think our way to hope. We take the actions, and then the insight follows. The insight is that hope springs from awareness of love, immersion in love, commitment to love. This begins with radical self love: to save the world, make yourself a lovely cup of tea. Put lotion on your jiggly thighs, clean sheets on the bed, the most forgiving pants you own. On the possibly last day on earth, you do not want to be wearing pants that pinch or tug, or ride up your crack.
    Trust me on this.
    Radical self love means you treat yourself the same way you would treat your favorite cousin, or even cranky old mealy-mouthed me. Watch the self-talk. You would probably use a sweeter tone of voice with the cousin or me, that you would with yourself. This will change the world.
    Get outside, even just to the front porch, and look up into the sky and into the tree tops, and say the great praise- prayer: WOW. Listen for the sound of birds–or bird. Surely there is one lousy bird somewhere in the vicinity. Close your eyes and really listen. If birdsong was the ONLY proof we have that there is a bigger deeper reality than what transcends what we are seeing on the news, it would be enough for me. Eyes closed, breathe, listen: secret of life.
    And lastly, take care of the poor–right now. In Hallelujah Anyway, I wrote that when I got sober, I was taught that happiness lay in going from big shot, to servant. If you want to feel loving feelings, which is hope, do loving things. Send a donation to a group that feeds and shelters and clothes people, in your neighborhood, or Syria. Don’t tell yourself you have no money–pack up clothes and shoes to take to a shelter. Or cash in the money in your laundry room change cup, and give it to people on the street. Give away three dollars to moms on the street with kids, and give the kids colored pencils and journals, or index cards, and say,”It is good to see you,” even if you have tiny tiny judgment issues involving bootstraps and combed hair.
    If you have time, register a few voters. Also, maybe a ten minute nap–the writer Robyn Posin says rest is a spiritual act. Father Tom Weston urges, “Left foot, right foot, left foot, breathe.” Ram Dass tells us that ultimate ately, we are all just walking each other home. Let’s get started.
    Am sending you love, whoever you are, and as pastor Veronica says, God bless you good.

  36. Nothing like a 2 front war. The leader of the minority regime wants the US to fight both on the mainland of Asia as well as the Andes now. Watching the big right wing network in Brasil which is going crazy over Trump’s remarks on Venezuela. They view this as Trump’s great present to Maduro as all of South America will now have to defend Venezuelan sovereignty. They don’t understand that Trump is carrying out his Kremlin orders to isolate the US

  37. About these right wing protests against removing the Lee statue in Charlottesville public park. Why don’t they just raise the money to buy some private land and put up all the Confederate monuments they want? Starting riots doesn’t seem to be working for them. There is coming a day when no public space will commemorate the Confederacy, which is a good thing.

  38. “We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for,” he wrote. “There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!”

    with or without white sheets and pointy hats?

  39. vox: “Why we voted for Donald Trump”: David Duke explains the white supremacist Charlottesville protests
    David Duke, the former KKK grand wizard, is unambiguous about what Saturday’s alt-right and neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, means to him: It’s the fulfillment of President Trump’s vision for America.
    “We are determined to take our country back,” Duke said from the rally, calling it a “turning point.” “We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. That’s what we believed in. That’s why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said he’s going to take our country back.”
    […..] … Duke was an enthusiastic supporter of Trump as far back as the Republican primary in 2016, and Trump’s reluctance to disavow that support was, briefly, a big issue.
    Duke has remained a faithful Trump supporter since then, insisting that the president-elect’s policies line up with the former KKK leader’s vision for America.

  40. thanks (she says sarcastically) to the twit’s bff, the above is at all the check-out stands today.  nothing like timing it to run during the alt-rt rally

  41. finally says something…not much, but something.  lacking sincerity. lacking in all ways

  45. As someone with direct ancestry involved on both sides of the family in both the revolution and the civil war in SC, Ga, and Alabama, I say I want to see those stupid confederate flags thrown onto the fuckin burn pile of history .

    Won’t happen but it oughta.

  47. I think it was Moses said no graven images……. These morantic Christians think Moses was talking about cow statues.

  48. I’ll tell you right now that christians is some stupid modda puckers.

    Stupid modda puckers who would BURN you if they had the chance.

  49. A sorry bunch of people.   They never think,  as long as it’s them burning people, but when their own gown gets scorched they wanna holler…….

  50. They came to America to be free to worship as they choose…….ok, Worship, you little Bastards…..just leave everybody else the fuck alone…….any chance of that?

  51. Former KKK leader David Duke strikes out at Trump for condemning a white nationalist rally: ‘It was White Americans who put you in the presidency’

     

    yeah, twit, as the old song says you gotta dance with the one who brung ya

  52. Home again.  Today was the State of Delaware running a full scale disaster response exercise.  American Red Cross Maryland units provided the mass care food feeding service.  A BBQ company provided the pulled pork BBQ and homemade beans.  Great food.  There were a couple of glitches, not enough Delaware emergency response employees volunteered, so the Southern Delaware exercise was cancelled.  The Emergency Response Vehicle I was in served lunch to volunteers in Wilmington area.

    Overall the exercise went well.  It was obvious a few things were handled by people unfamiliar with the work.  Those will be taken care of by time a real disaster happens to Delaware or Delaware and Maryland.

    It was a fun time, I got to see northern Delaware for the first time.  Too bad Lord Baltimore pissed off King Charles otherwise the state would have been part of Maryland Colony and still be part of Maryland.

    Gale the service dog had a very boring time of it.  She had to sit in the front of the ERV while we served the food.  Can’t go off and get doggie germs in the meals.  But, she did good and will be welcome back to work with me on ARC adventures.

  53. “What’s a president to do when his racist base turns out to kill people?”

    craig, think he’ll call the car rammer a terrorist?

    wonder if the mayor of London is itching to reciprocate tweet slams like the one’s the twit spewed after the London bridge car rams.

  54. Sturg, my Kentucky ancestors joined the Union, but I still feel empathy for confederates who owned no slaves and were duped by their elites into a disastrous and foolish war that resulted in an aftermath that cost them their property and economic hopes for generations. Had Lincoln survived and led the compassionate reconstruction he wanted I don’t think you’d see a single confederate flag on a pickup truck or anywhere else today. It was the vicious retribution of what “reconstruction” actually became that embedded the resentment we see today. I’ve always thought an equally tragic aspect of the Civil War itself was the terribly divisive choices Congress made afterwards. And the rural regions of the South are still being punished and decimated to this very day. It’s no wonder they act like the cornered rats they are.

  55. I’m pretty sure that at least a couple of trail hands are Christian.
    I ask a very short question.
    Can you explain to me why?

    I really wanna know.

  56. Just like when the stupid Spartans won the war against the Athenians and tried to make Athens work right again….

  57. My answer Sturg: I became a fan of Jesus as a kid when I learned how he supposedly tossed those tables run by greedy jerks. True or not, I decided this’ll be my saviour.

  60. I never in my stupid life could imagine being a “fan” of Jesus….He either died on the cross like all the rest of those bastards or he can do magic.

  61. patd – I just saw an article in The Hill about a senator who is as wishy-washy as you can ever find, Cory Gardner (R-CO).  He tweeted that SFB should call the Charlottesville attacks for what they are.

    Will SFB ever call out his friends who are KKK or white supremacists?  Hell no.  Those people are him.  He is them.  Although my base of knowledge of racists is limited and my base of senile/alzheimer people is even less, I am willing to guess that SFB is a racist, white supremacist, misogynist, pedophile, senile old man with extreme Hitler and Stalin desires.

  63. But still…….why on earth would anyone with a thought in their head call tenslves a Christian?

  67. Sturg, Jesus and Ben Franklin are my favorites I’d most like to meet. Would luv to grill some baby back ribs for those dudes. Although I’d be a bit nervous about which wine to serve.

  73. A nice zin  old vine if you can get it perfect with ribs

    Otherwise  maybe one of the super tuscans

    or you could be very trendy with a sparkling rose’

  75. Ok but I’m serious about why any of you are Christian…….if all you got is faith. Then god bless ya and move along, but if ya got some “reason” please lemme know.

  78. Craig

    Have to agree about the evils of reconstruction and the reaction that has lasted to this day.  Unfortunately at some point you have to say, “Enough”.  The poor whites who got screwed by the landowners are still paying for it.  The ex slaves who didn’t get their needed 40 acres and a mule start towards independence are still paying for it.  The Nixon Southern strategy used it.  Voter suppression, gerrymandering, decrease in voting days and locations kept it going.  MAGA took advantage of it all.

    I don’t know how to go back to 1962 before the deaths of JFK, RSK, & MLK when several friends of mine were sitting drinking cheap wine in a room of black, brown, and white college students who actually believed we were the wave of the future and young people all over the country believed the same.

    Unfortunately, America died in 1968.  Anyone have a resuscitator?

     

  81. ok Sturg, but I do wish Jesus could get a fresh look without the filter of assholes who illegitimally claim to channel him. Don’t have to believe he was the son of God or resurrected or whatever to find much of what he said worth noting.

  86. Our “president” SFB failed his first couple of real tests IMHO. He is exactly as bad as I thought he’d be.

    If I’m wrong and there’s something to this Christianity thing and there’s some sort of reckoning and hell,  I think SFB will be joining the White rights (really, what the FUCK is that?) assholes in whatever misery hell has to offer.

  96. I wanna go to the “Unite The Right” rally and tell them, “Entrance to the rally is free. However, in order to  enter, you must allow me to give you a flu shot.” According to the conspiracy guy at work,  vaccines is how we are all going to die. Silent killer. That’s why he will never get a flu shot.

  98. Craig

    I’m with you on the wisdom & beauty of the Bible as long as you are high selective on the stuff that gets you damned for whatever reason.

     

  100. Jamie, i’ve never fretted over the authenticity of Jesus quotes in the Bible anymore than the questions whether Shakespeare really wrote his stuff. Wherever it came from, it’s inspiring. At a minimum somebody wrote it.

  103. on the Jesus/god  thing. Really I don’t understand and have quit trying. What I do believe is that if you want to do good in my neighborhood I’m all for you. Given that jesus/god people have a spotty record in my neighborhood, I’m always wary. But that said I’ll say nothing bad about Iglesia Getsemani, They do good and even tolerate an old backslider like me. They have been great partners so they can believe what they want.

    BTW, with their help we just distributed 150 backpacks with school supplies. My job for next year is to find the funding to make it bigger and better. Got a couple of ideas.

    jack

  104. Jack

    To all those who do good works .. Blessings.  If a higher power is looking on, I’m sure he/she/it will approve of the helping hands.

  105. Thanks, Mr Jack. U R A real Man.  Makes me proud to converse w/you here on the Trail.

  106. Taking care of the planet begins at home, in your bedroom, bathroom, etc. Then the work moves outside. Maybe to the neighbors and the park. And then we move to the next adventure – ‘cuz it’s all adventure, every second. We each have a time and place, and that is where we change the world.

     

  107. The State Capitol is holding an open house this weekend, after an expensive refurbishing. There are several treasures in the building, including captured confederate state battle flags, which Virginians in particular want returned. In a very sweet way, our governor replied (approximately), No thank you, we like having them here.

    I’d have said, You lost, get over it.

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