June 5, 2018

"A lot of times in situations that involve complex diplomacy countries like to identify ambassadors of goodwill and whether you agree with it or not Dennis Rodman fits the bill."

Dennis Rodman will be in Singapore at the time of Trump's summit with Kim Jong-Un, the NY Post reports.
“I think [Kim] didn’t realize who Donald Trump was... until he started to read ['The Art of the Deal,' which Rodman gave him] and started to get to understand him. Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are pretty much the same,” Rodman [said in April]... “I don’t want to take all the credit. I don’t want to sit there and say, ‘I did this, I did that.’ That’s not my intention.... My intention was to go over and be a sports ambassador to North Korea so people understand how the people are in North Korea. I think that has resonated to this whole point now.”

91 comments:

JaimeRoberto said...

You can't always get what you want.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

I agree with Dennis Rodman. Never expected to write that sentence.

rehajm said...

I agree with Dennis Rodman and ARM. I really never expected to write that sentence.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

I agree with Dennis Rodman, myself and rehajm. Another sentence I never expected to write.

stutefish said...

That feeling when you realize that Dennis Rodman actually has a point.

Clyde said...

Pretty much the same, other than the whole prison camps for hundreds of thousands of people who disagree with him thing.

etbass said...

You can bet that if the summit is successful, the credit will go not to Donald Trump but to Dennis Rodman.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

While we are on the subject of Trump, could he have more completely screwed up the NFL thing? Apparently none of the Phillie players kneeled during the national anthem throughout the entire season, something I would not have known if Trump had not disinvited them in such a grandiose manner. And then, his pitbulls over at FOX showed pictures of some of the players praying on the field and claimed that this was evidence that they were kneeling during the anthem. Sad!

etbass said...

OTH, thank the Lord for Rodman being involved because otherwise, a successful summit would be dissed as a bad thing.

Matt Sablan said...

Rodman getting the Nobel Peace Prize is the madcap finale 2018 is building to.

etbass said...

Nevermind that Rodman couldn't get it done while Obama was in power; the credit still goes to him.

langford peel said...

The Eagles wanted to show up Trump by not showing up at the White House to show how woke they are.

They had confirmed over 50 people and the day before said only five players were coming.

So Trump dumped them for the politically correct SJW's that they are.

All of the black players refused to come. They would rather support the cop killers of Black Lives Matters. That is the real issue.

So sign on to cop killers and MS-13 and Illegal aliens and all the rest that the progressive types want to lionize and emulate.

I would rather stand with the President and the working class fans who find these steroid taking wife beaters reprehensible pieces of shit.

Darrell said...

Trump disinvited them after the Media was relating the Philly owner's anti-Trump tale of not going to the White House with only white players. Nip it in the bud. Fuck you, Befuddled Cunt ARM.

Earnest Prole said...

I'm guessing it’s easier to take Dennis Rodman seriously once you’ve expressed Strange New Respect for Roseanne, Kanye, and Louis Farrakhan.

etbass said...

Surprised there was not a post dedicated to the NFL disinvite. But since others have commented here on it, I will say my "amen" to LP's observation and preference.

Be said...

The shortest distance between two points sometimes can appear to be pretty convoluted.

langford peel said...

Everyone should disinvite the NFL from your home.

Bay Area Guy said...

Trump should make Dennis Rodman the next Secretary of State. He can't be worse than John Kerry.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

langford peel said...
I would rather stand with the President and the working class fans who find these steroid taking wife beaters reprehensible pieces of shit.


A virtue contest between Trump, Philly fans and football players is unlikely to end well for any party.

langford peel said...

He should name him to the Supreme Court.

He can't be worse than the wise Latina.

langford peel said...

Hey ARM. Let them stay home and beat on their baby mamas.

That is what NFL players due in the off season.

Jim at said...

Apparently none of the Phillie players kneeled during the national anthem throughout the entire season,

Yeah. Just ignore the fact players like Malcolm Jenkins and Chris Long have been leaders in this entire pissing on the Anthem thing. Let's focus on whether or not they actually knelt.

Howard said...

as Al Davis used to say "Just Win, Baby"

Drago said...

Howard: "as Al Davis used to say "Just Win, Baby"'

This.

chickelit said...

So how come Dennis Rodman was so ineffective under Obama? It’s not like he didn’t try. Was he sabotaged and undermined?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Does Trump have a prison system filled with .... anyone who crosses him?

wildswan said...

I thought maybe the NFL would make a comeback this year. But fast footwork by the Eagles put an end to that. Football found a way to show contempt for Trump supporters who will do the same for football by quietly drifting away in increasing numbers without saying much. Trump supporters include millions of farmers and ranchers who are quite busy now and for the rest of the summer. And in the fall, they'll act on what has happened other than on the farm or the ranch. Hurling dirt at the President or the flag, obstructing the passage of legislation, taking depositions from porn stars, trying to impeach Trump, promising to raise taxes, mandating one load of laundry a day for the peons while allowing private swimming pools for Hollywood, promising to stop fracking and to bring back the Obamacare mandate, promising to prevent kissing and free speech - all this won't make good hearing. And, meanwhile Trump is at work every day - doing things. Taxes yesterday, Korea today, Supreme Court tomorrow, cutting red tape every day, jobs for minorities, religious freedom for religious believers. Hmm. Whose party will win?

gadfly said...

“I think [Kim] didn’t realize who Donald Trump was... until he started to read ['The Art of the Deal,' which Rodman gave him] and started to get to understand him ....," said Dennis Rodman.

Below are some key paragraphs from an exposé written about Tony Schwartz's approaches to ghostwriting what turned out to be an absolute fictional tale.
...........................................................
In 2005, Timothy L. O’Brien, an award-winning journalist who is currently the executive editor of Bloomberg View, published “Trump Nation,” a meticulous investigative biography. (Trump unsuccessfully sued him for libel.) O’Brien has taken a close look at “The Art of the Deal,” and he told me that it might be best characterized as a “nonfiction work of fiction.” Trump’s life story, as told by Schwartz, honestly chronicled a few setbacks, such as Trump’s disastrous 1983 purchase of the New Jersey Generals, a football team in the flailing United States Football League. But O’Brien believes that Trump used the book to turn almost every step of his life, both personal and professional, into a “glittering fable.”
............................................................
When Schwartz began writing “The Art of the Deal,” he realized that he needed to put an acceptable face on Trump’s loose relationship with the truth. So he concocted an artful euphemism. Writing in Trump’s voice, he explained to the reader, “I play to people’s fantasies. . . . People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole. It’s an innocent form of exaggeration—and it’s a very effective form of promotion.” Schwartz now disavows the passage. “Deceit,” he told me, is never “innocent.” He added, “ ‘Truthful hyperbole’ is a contradiction in terms. It’s a way of saying, ‘It’s a lie, but who cares?’ ” Trump, he said, loved the phrase.
............................................................
Schwartz also tried to avoid the strong whiff of cronyism that hovered over some deals. In his 1986 journal, he describes what a challenge it was to “put his best foot forward” in writing about one of Trump’s first triumphs: his development, starting in 1975, of the Grand Hyatt Hotel, on the site of the former Commodore Hotel, next to Grand Central Terminal. In order to afford the hotel, Trump required an extremely large tax abatement. Richard Ravitch, who was then in charge of the agency that had the authority to grant such tax breaks to developers, recalls that he declined to grant the abatement, and Trump got “so unpleasant I had to tell him to get out.” Trump got it anyway, largely because key city officials had received years of donations from his father, Fred Trump, who was a major real-estate developer in Queens. Wayne Barrett, whose reporting for the Voice informed his definitive 1991 book, “Trump: The Deals and the Downfall,” says, “It was all Fred’s political connections that created the abatement.” In addition, Trump snookered rivals into believing that he had an exclusive option from the city on the project, when he didn’t. Trump also deceived his partner in the deal, Jay Pritzker, the head of the Hyatt Hotel chain. Pritzker had rejected an unfavorable term proposed by Trump, but at the closing Trump forced it through, knowing that Pritzker was on a mountain in Nepal and could not be reached. Schwartz wrote in his journal that “almost everything” about the hotel deal had “an immoral cast.” But as the ghostwriter he was “trying hard to find my way around” behavior that he considered “if not reprehensible, at least morally questionable.”

...............................................................
So even if Kim Jong-un could read English, he would be entirely misinformed about the #realDonaldTrump.

Matt Sablan said...

The Art of the Deal has been translated into languages other than English, so it is very possible Kim could have read it without needing to speak English.

FullMoon said...

The anthem thing had a few guys kneeling protesting police violence.
Then Trump came out against it and the SJW made it all about Trump Hate.
Then, Trump turned it into disrespect for flag, country American way, mom and apple pie, which is where it stands today.
Players should have stuck with original stupid plan instead of getting suckered by libs.

Comanche Voter said...

I seem to recall Rodman going into the stands at an NBA game to beat upon a fan who'd been heckling him. Rodman may have told Kim that Trump is capable of the same thing--except he sends the military.

Whatever, if Rodman helped get Kim's attention, good for him. And if Rodman is just blowing smoke--well Jimmuh Carter blew some smoke over his North Korean peace efforts.

langford peel said...

Kim wants sex drugs and rock and roll. He wants to normalize his country. He knows he will never have a better chance than with the God Emperor.

The God Emperor can bestow his blessing. Sign some deals that will give them the chance to get into the cheap manufacturing market. The way Vietnam and Indonesia did after China started paying better wages. They have South Korea ready to invest (ie exploit) and get the economy jump started.

If Kim can raise the standard of living even a little he would actually be a hero to his people. Most don't care about the people being tortured or in the prison camps. As long it wasn't someone in their family they wouldn't give two shits.

mccullough said...

5-time NBA Champion Dennis Rodman.

langford peel said...

It will be interesting to see the Norks showing more respect for our anthem and our military than the baby mama beating drug addict felons of the NFL.

tim in vermont said...

Didn’t Madonna write “Baby’s Got a Secret” about Dennis Rodman?

Etienne said...

I still think there is time to nuke them. Use the USS Pueblo as ground zero.

Nuke them and blame it on Russia.

Seeing Red said...

Did the Eagles learn nothing with what happened with the Kim meeting? How out of touch are they? They need eyes not tantrums.

They wanted to embarrass Trump and now all the good will from the new policy is gone. They need more damage control,

Molly said...

(Eaglebeak)

Gadfly--not sure Tony Schwartz is 100% reliable source, based on my extensive research.

langford peel said...

They wanted to make a Trump their bitch. To dis him by not showing up and mocking him for being a chump.

Instead Big Daddy gave them the pimp hand.

Sho'nuff mofro.

Francisco D said...

Glad to see that Dennis sobered up.

He was never as wacky as he pretended. It was an act, but he needed to drink a lot to carry it off.

- long-time Bulls fan.

eric said...

When Dennis Rodman was on Celebrity Apprentice, I felt really sorry for the guy. It was very clear during the show that he is a drunk. I don't know if he still is, but he was then. I believe Trump was very gracious to Rodman at one point when telling him he was fired and that he needed to get some help.

Later, when Obama was President, there were news reports that Rodman said something about him and Trump going to North Korea. Trump tweeted out, very meanly (I thought), that he wasn't going to North Korea with Rodman and that for Rodman to say that, he was either drunk or on drugs. Not very gracious at all.

It seems now, maybe they've made amends?

But idiots in the media and Never Trump camp who want to wreck any possible peace in Korea and who hate both Trump and Rodman, are pointing out that, "There's always a tweet! Hahahahahahahahaha!"

Howard said...

Best Star Spangled Banner ever last Sunday at Oracle Arena by Carlos Santana and his wife on drums

Sprezzatura said...

Thank the big guy upstairs that I didn't have the name "Rodman".

It's more fun to surprise.

IMHO.

Drago said...

chickelit: "So how come Dennis Rodman was so ineffective under Obama? It’s not like he didn’t try. Was he sabotaged and undermined?"

The best quarterbacks raise the level of play of all the players around them.

Obama was a high draft pick bypassing all lower levels of play and was excused from training camp and didn't even have to suit up....and yet was still awarded MVP.

Seeing Red said...

If Kim can raise the standard of living even a little he would actually be a hero to his people.


He could have done that at any time and I want every bag box container we send to say Gift from the American people. None of this UN BS
Where they take our goods put them in UN bags for redistribution and they get the good will. Those misery merchants deserve no credit at all, they’re just rent seekers.

JaimeRoberto said...

Better Rodman than a rod from God.

bleh said...

For his sake I hope Dennis Rodman has complied with the Logan Act.

langford peel said...

Who cares if Kim gets the credit.

After all the God Emperor deserves the credit and you know he will never get any.

Still and all they will love him and honor like they do in Israel and Poland.

LordSomber said...

Out: Carter Peace Mission.

In: Rodman Peace Mission.

mockturtle said...

Sports and sports figures have always been effective ambassadors, for good or for ill. The Winter Olympics started a dialogue between the two Koreas. If Rodman can facilitate negotiations between Kim and the US, then more power to him.

n.n said...

In the vein of Stockton to Malone, we have Rodman to Trump... score.

tim in vermont said...

For his sake I hope Dennis Rodman has complied with the Logan Ac

Well, he’s probably a Democrat so no problem there.

tim in vermont said...

Just like Hillary taking millions and millions of dollars from donors with business before the Department of State was not an emoluments problem. She was a Democrat.

pacwest said...

Dennis Rodman. I lol'ed when I heard this.

A common sense revolution led by a madman.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Molly said...
Gadfly--not sure Tony Schwartz is 100% reliable source


I think that is Gadfly's point.

tim in vermont said...

I remember learning about the XYZ affair where Americans were scandalized by the French foreign minister demanding loans and outright bribes before discussing issues as foreign minister for France.

Ahh, America was so young and naive then. Hillary could have schooled them that that was the whole point of becoming Secretary of State. I bet she had a portrait of Tallyrand somewhere in her suite of offices.

Gahrie said...

Rodman, Trump and Kim share the Nobel Peace Prize next year.

Clyde said...

langford peel said...

If Kim can raise the standard of living even a little he would actually be a hero to his people. Most don't care about the people being tortured or in the prison camps. As long it wasn't someone in their family they wouldn't give two shits.


If someone in their family had been in the prison camps, they would have been in there with them. If you fuck up in North Korea, everyone in your entire extended family goes to the gulag: Grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren, cousins. Root and branch.

I don't think it's possible for Kim to "normalize" North Korea. If he liberalizes even a little bit, he'll end up like Mussolini.

Sam L. said...

Rodman gives Kim "someone to look UUUUUPPPPPPP to.

Michael K said...

Apparently none of the Phillie players kneeled during the national anthem throughout the entire season, something I would not have known if Trump had not disinvited them in such a grandiose manner.

As usual, ARM misstates the truth. The players called this dance and Trump responded.

You must know this. Why lie ?

Temujin said...

The worm has turned.

Francisco D said...

"As usual, ARM misstates the truth. The players called this dance and Trump responded. You must know this. Why lie ?"

Because that is what ARM does. Remember?

If leftists told the truth, people would boo them out of the public square.

tim in vermont said...

You must know this. Why lie ?

He carefully curates his intake of political propaganda and then believes that it is all true. The person most likely to be wrong is the person who never thinks he can be, and who limits his information intake to “simplify” the world.

Sprezzatura said...

"He carefully curates his intake of political propaganda and then believes that it is all true. The person most likely to be wrong is the person who never thinks he can be, and who limits his information intake to “simplify” the world."

Right, ARM only hears from libs.


Duh!

madAsHell said...

I recommend you keep a leash on Rodman. It's OK. He likes it.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Maybe Rodman and Kim can meet over a warm beer.

The Vault Dweller said...

I think the reason "The Establishment" hates Trump so much is that he has substantially devalued so much of their total package already and threatens to devalue it even more. For a long time the conventional wisdom has been that if one wants to be successful in politics, business, and life in general one needed to attend a certain school, speak a certain way, hold certain positions on values, morality, and religion, have the right business associates, have the right social acquaintances, and seek entry and status in the right social groups.

Trump has kind of blown up that idea, certainly when it comes to Washington politics and business, lobbying, and issue groups in its periphery. It is understandable this is upsetting because lots of these people have spent years and decades trying to accumulate the right qualifications, only to see all that work devalued. He threatens the established order and people like Dennis Rodman threaten it in a similar way.

madAsHell said...

I remember learning about the XYZ affair

Fascinating. It was probably two paragraphs in a 7th grade history book. I remember it as well.

Why do I suddenly feel we are at the closing scene of Fahrenheit 451?

Sprezzatura said...

"For a long time the conventional wisdom has been that if one wants to be successful in politics, business, and life in general one needed to attend a certain school, speak a certain way, hold certain positions on values, morality, and religion, have the right business associates, have the right social acquaintances, and seek entry and status in the right social groups.

Trump has kind of blown up that idea"

Right, it turns out that a person who grew up as a filthy rich white dude can be successful.

Who knew?

Gahrie said...

I don't think it's possible for Kim to "normalize" North Korea. If he liberalizes even a little bit, he'll end up like Mussolini

I think Kim's worries about that are a part of what is driving this move. He might possibly be trying to negotiate a move to say, Switzerland and a golden handshake.

Gahrie said...

Right, it turns out that a person who grew up as a filthy rich white dude can be successful.

I thought Obama had already proved that?

Drago said...

Don't spare the Rod and spoil the dictator, but if necessary brandish the stick and speak softly thru tattooed spokes-beings...

walter said...

Have Rodman play a little one on one with Kim if talks get testy.

Sprezzatura said...

"I thought Obama had already proved that?"

No, he succeed because he hated colonialism (i.e., he hated the good kind, i.e. whites controlling non-whites, i.e. not England v US, i.e. the bad kind of colonialism).

Sprezzatura said...

And, he's a MOooooooslum. Which is always a winner in US politics.

Drago said...

adSs is very very upset that Donald Trump increased his inheritance x10.

Lefties prefer their leaders to be Trust Fund babies who have to seek out the Trustees to get cash for their heroin and cocaine habits, like the Kennedys who, by the way, havent killed nearly as many women as some people believe...

Drago said...

I dont think Chris Mathews would enjoy this thread, what with all the self-styled and self-annointed superior lefty elitists posting.

tim in vermont said...

Right, ARM only hears from libs

Oh he comes here with his mind firmly closed. Just like you do.

Sprezzatura said...

"Oh he comes here with his mind firmly closed. Just like you do."

So, yur admitting that yur wrong re what you wrote re ARM. IOW, you are saying that you are a person who thinks that you were wrong when you stated that ARM limits his intake of info to only lib jabber so that he can "simplify" his world?

Or, maybe you don't want to admit this undeniable error. What was it you wrote about such POVs?





Sprezzatura said...

Projection is cool.

Drago said...

Chris Mathews has adSs's number down pat.

Of course, it wasn't exactly a struggle to identify the underlying and objective truth...

Sprezzatura said...

Drago,

Is the idea that a broken clock is right twice a day?

Apparently LLR is finding useful info via MSPMS, but why you? Who thinks it's a good idea to follow the lead of Mathews?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmap94TcDNs

Drago said...

adSs: "Is the idea that a broken clock is right twice a day?"

No.

And Chris Mathews sheds another tear...

tim in vermont said...

So, yur admitting that yur wrong re what you wrote re ARM

He carefully curates his intake of political propaganda and then believes that it is all true.

You are right, I could have been more clear. What I meant to say was that he carefully curates the political propaganda outfits he chooses to believe and anything out of those places he swallows whole, then he comes here to regurgitate it. Pretty much the same as you do. The thing that makes you different than all of the other trolls is that you admit to supporting Hillary. The rest of them won’t even admit to having voted for her.

tim in vermont said...

Chris Mathews show in the ‘90s was a must watch. He fucking hated Bill Clinton then. That’s before they got his mind right on what the Democrats needed from his show. But he used to work for Tip O’Neal and in those days politics wasn’t a blood sport, on account of the Republicans were happy to lose year after year after year, so the Democrats didn’t have to get all divisive.

Chanie said...

God bless Dennis Rodman.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

tim in vermont said...
The thing that makes you different than all of the other trolls


The use of the word 'trolls' is, in a nutshell, angry Tim. No one other than he has a valid point of view. The stereotypical angry old man.

Michael K said...

No, he succeed because he hated colonialism

And because he had a sugar daddy who we still don't know the identity of. It could be ValJar but she is probably the cutout.

You lefties still don't know how the world works. Venezuela for you.

And "Succeeded" depends on your definition of success.

Bad Lieutenant said...

anti-de Sitter space said...
"Oh he comes here with his mind firmly closed. Just like you do."

So, yur admitting that yur wrong re what you wrote re ARM. IOW, you are saying that you are a person who thinks that you were wrong when you stated that ARM limits his intake of info to only lib jabber so that he can "simplify" his world?


If you want to make the point that it is a mistake teaching you any words, consider it done. You talk like an orc. An orc with an expanded vocabulary is still an orc.



The use of the word 'trolls' is, in a nutshell, angry Tim.

Oh, hi Lil. Perhaps "troll" is imprecise but the alternative to regarding people like you and PBJ as some kind of false commenters is to regard you as representative of your, to use a word I do not like, ilk. If all liberals were like you, I wouldn't see any reason not to start the shooting.

But they're not. Most of our political opponents are fundamentally decent people who are chiefly miseducated and misinformed. The thing that makes you, for lack of a better word, evil, is that you know better.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

In other words, 'Get off my lawn'.

mikee said...

What would Rodman think of having Kim hung from a lamp post and letting North Koreans throw rocks at his corpse? It is what the dictator deserves. Will anyone ask Rodman?