"Trump made a huge concession — the suspension of military exercises with South Korea. That’s on top of the broader concession of the summit meeting itself, security guarantees he gave North Korea and the legitimacy that the summit provides his counterpart, Kim Jong-un. Within North Korea, the 'very special bond' that Trump claimed to have formed with Kim will be portrayed this way: Kim forced the American president, through his nuclear and missile tests, to accept North Korea as a nuclear equal, to provide security guarantees to North Korea, and to cancel war games with South Korea that the North has protested for decades. In exchange for these concessions, Trump seems to have won astonishingly little...."
Writes Nicholas Kristof in the New ?ork Times.
Looks... seems.... I'm not s?re what to make of that. Who is the observer — Kristof? Kim? And does Tr?mp want to be perceived as having gotten the better of the deal? If the idea is shaping the mind of Kim, how do ?o? do it and how wo?ld it look and seem when ?o? have done it?
And wh? is Altho?se writing like that this morning? Is it some enigmatic commentar? on the s?mmit or the commentar? on the s?mmit or is she s?ffering from a m?sterio?s ke?board problem this morning? The latter!!! An? ideas? Help me, techie readers!
UPDATE: I solved the problem for $99 — a new keyboard. The old keyboard lasted a long time and, like the keyboard before it, went bad with the failure of one or 2 keys. I'm not disappointed at the failure, really. I use my keyboards for hours a day, day after day, and they last for years. How many hours. I think they go bad after, perhaps, 5,000 hours. That's good enough.
याची सदस्यत्व घ्या:
टिप्पणी पोस्ट करा (Atom)
पोस्ट्स
१८४ टिप्पण्या:
Turn the keyboard over and rap it sharply a few times to get the crumbs and sand grains out of it.
Sarah Huckabee Saunders called Dennis Rodman, thanking him from Trump for his support, in which call Rodman always called her Honey. "All right, Honey, thank you very much..That's an open dream, Honey."
Wake the estrogen cloud.
Russian bots are doing it.
I can’t help but think if Obama had met with Kim Jung Un, no matter what the deal looked like - even if it was identical to this, the Media (including the NYT) would be telling us all how God-like he is and how no one can measure up to the naked emperor’s greatness.
Since Trump did it, OMG OMG were f*cking doomed...
Somebody "dosed" your computer and with the letter 'u' being replaced by a '?' mark is slowly destroying your ego and replacing it with why? Or not. I'm still waking up and smelling the coffee. Paging Dr. Robert.
press FUNCTION+NumLock.
It's not a triumph until there are planeloads of cash.
Wait. Isn't this the same joint exercise that not a few months ago was described as Trump saber rattling and provocative?
One of the little pleasures in life is vertically rapping your detached keyboard on the table so as to drive lint downwards, and sweeping it out with a toothpick between the key cracks. Huge dust bunnies.
It's unlikely to be the Althouse problem. See keyboard replacement, which perhaps is not hard to do on a Mac. It's fairly easy on a Dell, depending on model.
You need a spudger, by the way, probably. Order it with the keyboard.
Trump "gave up" something that could be restarted at any time. No troops are being removed. It's signaling. NYT opinion writers hate Trump with every fiber of their beings and he can do nothing right.
"Turn the keyboard over and rap it sharply a few times to get the crumbs and sand grains out of it."
Some crmbs came ot bt the problem did not end.
Does a Mac allow use of an external keyboard? If so try that. USB connection or something.
"press FUNCTION+NumLock."
Which fnction ke? I'm on an iMac. There's no ke that's limited to fnction.
I'm alread thinking of jst coming p with words that don't have the missing letters!
Krisrof thought that Jimmy Carter hoodwinked the Norks during the Clinton Administration.
"It's unlikely to be the Althouse problem. See keyboard replacement, which perhaps is not hard to do on a Mac. It's fairly easy on a Dell, depending on model."
It's totall eas to do. It's a desktop.
Kristof was the FBI’s lapdog during the anthrax investigation. Obsequious stenographer for Sideshow Bob. The Times didn’t fire him for fucking up the story just as Mueller wasn’t fired for fucking up the investigation to the tune of a $5 million payout.
What the fuck does Kristof know about Kim or North Korea? What do his “sources” know?
Why is it a big deal to suspend “military exercises”? How easy is it to reinstate them if the US doesn’t like what Kim does?
It’s not like we gave the guy $150 billion that we won’t be able to get back. And Kim’s family has been running the show in North Korea for a long time. I remember when the experts like Kristof were telling me in 1994 that the regime was going to collapse any day now. Just as I remember the experts like Kristof not telling me anything about the imminent collapse of East Germany and the Soviet Union.
Who knows what the fuck will happen with Trump and North Korea. But we know guys like Kristof and the experts have been totally wrong or caught by surprise on important stuff over the last 30 years. There will be time to criticize Trump if this turns out to be shit, but the guys who have been consistently wrong should have been fired or retired or shit the fuck up a long time ago.
Go Roman and replace all u's with v's.
Mabe Kristof is tring to help. Kim mst read the New ork Times.
The New orc Times. It's Mork's newspaper. Mork the Nork.
Conventional wisdom remains conventional.
u is 01110101
? is 00111111
No obvious way to hang bits, but perhaps a keyboard doesn't send ASCII in any case.
Pakistan is telling its people 'See! Bankrupting yourself for a nuclear program will have the US compromising tonyour demands'
My social media blew up with those images today from my South Asia friends.
"Go Roman and replace all u's with v's." Great idea. I found another keyboard, but something had to be wrong with it. Yeah: the enter key doesn't work!
It's not as if you have to type without 'w' keys.
I'm alread thinking of jst coming p with words that don't have the missing letters!
"X-ing the Paragrab," by Edgar Allan Poe
TDS has reached fever peak at the NYT. If we are lucky they will do a Jonestown reenactment for our viewing pleasure as life becomes completely unbearable.
Keyboards are like microwave ovens. Keep a spare on hand by ordering one ahead.
Surely North Korea is only going to "normalize" relations with other countries if Kim chooses to do so. Trump seems to have sped up a timetable for change, at the very least. China has probably put on some relevant pressure, partly at Trump's instigation. No one is being hoodwinked. It is not true that Trump toggles between "deliberately carrying out evil plans" and "having no plan, just being stupid."
Big keyboards have two enter keys, one by the numeric keypad.
Looks like a trip to Best Buy this morning.
Oh well. The Althouse-typing-like-a-drunk funnies are over. But the left in this country - man, oh man, they absolutely must shit on everything Trump does. We just met with North Korea, for fuck's sake! It's a big deal. This act alone makes another war on the Korean Peninusula less likely.
A good workman never blames his tool. Mayhap that dose you took this morning was not as "micro" as the dealer represented.
Maybee beat me to it.
The usual suspects are going to denigrate whatever Trump does. Suspending military exercises, which can be resumed if needed, in order to reassure someone who you are trying to convince to lay down their arms and join the community of sane nations, does not seem unreasonable to me. I, like most intelligent people, think that Trump and Kim went to the summit with everything they were going to agree to already laid out. Which means Pompeo and Bolton also knew and had advised Trump. North Korea is in a horrible state. Reports are stating that the military is having trouble feeding itself. Dictators that can't feed their military end up dead. In previous administrations Kim's saber rattling would have ended up with the west giving food aid for imaginary concessions. Trump went the opposite route, he amped up the pressure, while offering a way out for Kim, a way that doesn't involve Kim being deposed and dead, but instead modernizing his nation. Whether this will work and NK will end up giving up its nuclear weapons and joining the 21st century is still up in the air, but clearly nothing the last few administrations have done has worked.
When buying remember that there are two styles of keyboard layout, as to where the weird characters are. Get the one you have.
"Big keyboards have two enter keys, one by the numeric keypad."
The keboard withot the 2 letters has a nmeric keboard bt the keboard with the bad enter ke does not!!
Two-row enter key vs one-row enter key seems to be the obvious difference.
Nick is a nattering nabob of negativity.
Try upper case. bUt.
Barack Obama, at this time in his own Presidency, had already garnered a Nobel Peace Prize.
Tom Wolfe’s spirit invaded Ann’s keyboard as a joke and to liven things up. That rascal!
McCullough above nailed it. Kristoff has been wrong for 30 years. The NYT should have a scoreboard on their columnists.
Kristof has to come up with something that forwards the narrative that Trump is an incompetent boob.
He CANCELED a MILITARY EXERCISE!
Oh, the humanity!
Option 1: Copy-and-Paste
Highlight the letter 'Y', press "Command-C" to copy.
Then remember to hit "Command-V" to paste every time you want to type the letter 'Y'.
Repeat for 'U'.
Option 2: Search-and-Replace
Instead of using the question mark (?) to replace U's and Y's, use something more obscure, like '^' and '&'.
Then when you're done with a blog post, before you submit it, use a search-and-replace feature to replace all the ^'s with Y's and &'s with U's (using copy-and-paste to enter the 'U' and 'Y' into the replace field).
Option 3: Dvorak -- finally something it's good for!
Toggle your entire keyboard into Dvorak mode every time you want to type a 'Y' or a 'U'.
Alternately, switch entirely to Dvorak and learn to write blog posts without ever using the letters 'F' and 'G'.
Option 4: Evolving Language
Realize that the letters 'Y' and 'U' are mostly unnecessary. Just use 'I' for all the Y's and 'oo' for all the U's.
This shooold look a bit odd at first, boot iooor readers will sooreli learn to adjoost fairli rapidli.
Pakistan is telling its people 'See! Bankrupting yourself for a nuclear program will have the US compromising tonyour demands'
What, exactly, is the US compromising on? NK is the nation committed to giving up something. The lesson would seem to be, bankrupt yourself developing nuclear weapons and the US will apply pressure until you agree to give them up.
Google how to type ASCII on a MAC and find the ascii code for enter (it's either lf or cr, 0A or 0D) and use it for the enter.
That was the Lefty argument going around yesterday--word for word.
They all must meet on a central site. Or share a single brain.
My theory is these media narratives have their genesis in a continuing information operation coordinated by former Obama administration people, specifically Brennan, like a CIA in exile.
Go into handicapped mode and type with the mouse.
I see Scott Adams has a video on realclearpolitics this morning saying Trump's video message to KJU was the best negotiation ever. More TDS at NYT!
Archie the cockroach mode.
Spray the whole thing with WD-40, then submerge in an ultrasonic bath with a strong vinegar solution.
That should clear things right up.
Or rather, the current administration will apply pressure. Getting back to the important question, why is Kristof such a boob, the answer would be that he has never had to accomplish anything. His life consists of writing down the opinions he picks up from his friends in the bureaucracy who have also never had to do any work other than kiss their bosses ass and parrot their opinions.
OK, didn't know it was a Mac. Should have, sorry.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. ...
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.
When Clinton sent Alldim to the DPRNK and she worked out an agreement the size of the NYC phone book and sent $Billions in cash--and the DPRNK didn't even try and honor the agreement, did we get hoodwinked then? Did asshole Kristof write that then?
They all must meet on a central site.
The Huffington Post would be my guess.
This year's joint military exercises just finished. Next year's will be suspended -- provided the Kim regime has moved along with its promised commitments.
Nothing given up here.
It is just possible this is for real. The Kim regime ("deep state") may indeed be looking at China's rise after Mao and wanting to do a Deng Xiaoping to get rich like that too.
And they may be looking at Kim and his kids and think diabetes and no Michaels there, just Fredos at best; we gotta do something or we are all going to get killed in our beds in a decade or two.
@Clint That's the kind of lateral thinking I like.
I'm using my laptop for now, but it screws with my morning flow. Everything is so small. I feel like I can't see what I'm writing. This is one reason I don't like to travel. I prefer the desktop!
The uppercase test didn't get me anywhere.
That video was unbelievable. When North Korea lit up like South Korea it was very moving. But I'm sure the progressives hate it because weirdly the progressives don't want progress. They seem to want us living in caves again.
Try to feel whether the U key feels a little strange - whether it tips slightly in one direction or another; or whether it seems mushy compared to other keys; or whether it sticks going up or down.
When I used to fix computers there were always many keyboard problems after office parties, New Year's Eve especially. This was due to people spilling sugary drinks which caused sticking in a circular area as the sugar dried or throwing said drinks - this was indicated by a diagonal pattern of failed keys. You had to take the key caps off and clean. Taking the caps off released a spring in those days which leapt away into the lost spring abyss; and then you replaced the keyboard. To do it right, you had to pry the cap off with one hand holding the screwdriver and the other hand domed over the cap so the spring leapt into your hand. Sometimes there was such a problem that you unplugged it and [rinsed it in fairly warm water, not letting anyone see] and left it unplugged upside down for 24 to 48 hours. I refused to use a hair dryer to speed things up. Probably there's a Youtube video showing current keyboards and cleaning techniques.
Well I certainly wasn’t impressed with the summit.
SOS but this time with pictures (of a dais lined with US and NK flags. A backdrop for a new Netflix series on an alternative history of the late 20th history.)
This part of Kristof's piece (in bold) reads like a classic CIA national security estimate:
Within North Korea, the 'very special bond' that Trump claimed to have formed with Kim will be portrayed this way: Kim forced the American president, through his nuclear and missile tests, to accept North Korea as a nuclear equal, to provide security guarantees to North Korea, and to cancel war games with South Korea that the North has protested for decades. In exchange for these concessions, Trump seems to have won astonishingly little...."
Of course, what Kristof and Brennan leave out is that that is exactly how they are portraying it irrespective of what Kim and N Korea do.
Ann, have you tried typing the number 7? It feels like there is something happening in that area since Y and U are impacted.
You lost the hyphen in "m?-sterio?s."
Did Kristof write most of that before or after the Singapore meeting?
If Kim isn't cooperating, the large-scale military exercises can be turned back on (although not on real short notice, due to the logistics involved.) That is separate from the joint training and planning that is part of the normal activity of the ROK and US militaries - those will still go on.
The biggest issue will be the sanctions - NK desperately needs those to be lifted/softened. So far that is being tied to Kim's performance.
Returning the remains is significant - the fact that that is seemingly being ignored by the media on the left is very telling.
The prestige gained by Kim is a big deal - but that is chump change if it results in the denuclearization.
Yet-to-be-determined-how-it-will-play-out - this is potentially huge in the attempts to limit China's expansion.
and what was Kristof's stand in 1994, and 1999, when social worker and shrum goodbody Sherman negotiated the deal,
Stop questioning yourself, Ann! Go with your gut!
Althouse, I read the Kristof column. I understood it, and I think the meaning was clear.
Kristof says that the meeting clearly had benefits for the North Koreans, and their leader. At the same time, it seems (because Kristof doesn't know for sure) that the U.S. got nothing out of the meeting. Actually, Kristof does acknowledge that general good will and communication is better than hostility and no communication. So there's that. And Kristof said it.
But what else was there? If we got anything concrete out of the meeting, what was it? The Trump administration can say what we got, if there was anything. I'd like specificity, as usual. Because Trump himself is never specific, never precise, never believable. When he tries to be specific, he's terrible. What, specifically, did we get?
Trump is now saying that "there is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea." What does that mean?
Althouse, you are parsing Kristof for fairly clear writing, while Trump is putting out bizarre and indecipherable comments like "there is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea."
You were an Obama supporter, Althouse. I don't get it; I wasn't ever an Obama supporter, but that's just me. You were. Can you imagine the right-wing media's reaction if Obama had done what Trump did on this trip? Can you imagine citizen Donald Trump's Twitter reaction if he were observing President Obama doing this stuff?
Hey, Nicholas! You can not only stop military exercises, you can start them. It is not like sending them pallets of cash.
If it's USB attach both keyboards. Use the old one for enter.
he's not a regime propagandist, no sirree:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/nicholas-kristof-in-north-korea-shares-photos-of-fun-and-pizza/article/2636071
Try this: Go to System Preferences, Keyboard, Input Sources. Click + to add a keyboard (say, British). It's possible that your keyboard will start working now. You can remove the added keyboard afterwards.
Zeus sneezed on your computer while spying on you.
Turn off your computer. Unplug for 30 sec, and everything attached. Then power it back on and hurry and hold Command + Option + P + R. I held Command + Option + P with one hand and then after I hit power I added the R.
The computer will make one chime. Keep holding it. It will then shut down and make one more chime and you can let go.
back then, he was looking on the regime with understanding,
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1999-06-12/news/9906111193_1_korean-yellow-sea-ships
Kim said he'd denuclearize and Trump backed off the fleet. Why not? If Kim fakes it, Trump brings back the fleet.
But I think Kim truly wants to open up his country. North Koreans got a look at the Olympics about how other countries lived. All Kim's wealth probably doesn't really give him the good life other wealthy people have.
Nicholas is a fool. Trump conceded things that Kim highly valued and which cost Trump, and the US, nothing. These are called, in the parlance of the negotiation game, elegant negotiables.
No one has won anything yet, and these sorts of assertions by Nicholas and his fellow naysayers betray their ignorance.
-sw
about what I thought:
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2018/03/09/hypocrite-much-nyts-kristof-slams-trumps-dangerous-gamble-north
Ann said:
"I'm using my laptop for now, but it screws with my morning flow. Everything is so small. I feel like I can't see what I'm writing. This is one reason I don't like to travel. I prefer the desktop!"
I don't know Apple products, but I have an external keyboard and display attached to my Windows laptop.
A few years ago I developed optic nerve issues and needed a larger display and a back lit keyboard. It made sense to attach them to my laptop to reduce expense and avoid the data transfer to a new PC.
It is amazing what silliness there is out there about Korea. _Huge_ concessions, like stopping military exercises. Whoa! Of course we could start again, probably before South Korea is actually overrun.
Just a lot of pundits who seem to be missing the whole point: there is a chance that Kim wants to get off the merry-go-round. We give him a chance, that's all. If he does want off, it's easy. If he doesn't, these costs are trivial.
It's like someone who refuses to pick up a hundred-dollar-bill, because it might be counterfeit. Except here it's for a billion dollars.
By the way: Ann's keyboard problems are symptomatic of a middle-of-the-night NSA hack similar to the experience of Sharyl Attkisson.
mccullough at 6:37 AM
Kristof was the FBI’s lapdog during the anthrax investigation. Obsequious stenographer for Sideshow Bob.
Nicholas Kristof was the main tool of of the FBI, headed by Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller.
Mueller's FBI leaked to Kristof that the anthrax poisoner was Steven Hatfill, and then Kristof wrote newspaper articles informing the public that Hatfill was using anthrax to randomly poison the public.
The FBI's purposes in leaking to Kristof included the following:
* Spook Hatfill into self-incriminating rash actions
* Pressure Hatfill to commit suicide
* Make it impossible for Hatfill to get or keep any job
* Turn Hatfill into a social pariah.
That's how Mueller's FBI used leaks as a major tool.
That's how Mueller still operates to this day.
Programs, getcher programs...
I have a box full of spare keyboards, mice, laptop power supplies, cables, hubs, chargers, USB sticks and etc. And for that matter wifi tablets android devices, old laptops with Linux, flat screen monitors, etc. This stuff just runs through our hands and is effectively free. They just throw all this away at work.
Bad keyboard? Into the trash, there are a half dozen in the box.
Nicholas Kristoff has announced publicly that he wants US Government officials to leak Donald Trump's tax returns to him so that he can get the journalistic scoop.
If Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller does get Trump's tax returns, then he surely will leak them to his old leak-buddy Kristoff -- just like Mueller leaked to Kristoff during the anthrax investigation.
What Kim paid for the meeting was undercutting his regimes entire ideological position, held for the last 70 years, and likewise all their internal propaganda.
Internally the regime justified itself on the grounds of defending Korea from deadly and irreconcilable enemies.
Apple keyboards are pretty fragile. I've had to replace 2 because of the "missing letter" problem that won't go away. I suggest you buy a generic Amazon keyboard and toss the old one - they work better and feel like a real typing experience.
Unknown said...
Nicholas is a fool. Trump conceded things that Kim highly valued and which cost Trump, and the US, nothing. These are called, in the parlance of the negotiation game, elegant negotiables.
...
Wait; if we gave something of great value to Kim, why wouldn't we get something of value to ourselves for it?
In the first pages of Capitol Marx makes the foundational mistake of thinking that because x amount of wheat exchanges for y amount of steel, they are equal in value. He fails to see that x wheat is worth more than y steel AND y steel is simultaneously worth more than x wheat.
If this is not the case, why would any exchange take place?
The US gave up war games (lower value to us, higher value to Kim) in exchange for noko giving up nukes (lower value to Kim, higher value to us)
Each side gained something of greater value to themselves.
Both sides got the better of the deal. That's the ONLY reason any deal, even something as mundane as buying a tu e of toothpaste at CVS, ever happens.
The cultural Marxists will never see this.
John Henry
Did your iMac update to High Sierra 10.13.5 overnight? If so it probably mis-ID'ed your hardware. Perhaps something was on the keyboard during the process, a magazine, envelope, etc.?
1) Go to System Preferences.
2) Choose Keyboard.
3) Choose Change Keyboard Type
Follow the procedure. I think your mac believes it has a non-American English keyboard attached.
Kristof and co. aren't fools, they are hirelings.
Pay them, and they will say what you want them to say.
http://www.webholism.com/blog/sara/macbook-pro-keys-suddenly-stopped-working/
Chuck said...
Trump is now saying that "there is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea." What does that mean?
To a first approximation, nothing. It was just the usual BS that we have come to know and love.
Isn't Kristof the one who promoted underage prostitution in Cambodia?
He's real credible!
A corporate media hack knows!
Is your keyboard wired or Bluetooth? If it's Bluetooth RF interference has been known to make them behave strangely. Go to Walmart and buy a cheap USB keyboard. Macs can use standard PC keyboards without too many problems (some shortcuts may not work, for example). Ten bucks can point you toward a permanent fix.
The piece was already written before Trump even went to Singapore.
Chuck, ARM,
There has probably been no nuclear threat from noko since last fall when an "Earthquake" koff, koff, destroyed the facility and people.
What Kim likely gave up was the appearance of a nuclear program and arsenal as well as a promise not to try to restart.
John Henry
ohnhenry100 said...
There has probably been no nuclear threat from noko since last fall when an "Earthquake" koff, koff, destroyed the facility and people.
If this were true then the summit was pointless. We don't care about NoKo for any reason other than their nukes. I doubt that it is true.
Go out for coffee, stop by Best Buy, tell them who you are and have them run a Dyson and then a Shark over the top and bottom of the key board. If that does not work, buy a new one.
Somebody "dosed" your computer and with the letter 'u' being replaced by a '?' mark is slowly destroying your ego and replacing it with why?.
Our hostess has a rnny nose, and everyone tries wants to help. Yo gotta feel loved!!
Damn!! I missed the U in OUR!!
Psst! Grab it b? the p?ss? will fix the problem for good. It'll let him have it. It accepts its fate as a second-class device in this new epoch of jammed letters, then it'll beats him senseless with a giant eraser 'till the big bad error is wiped off the map. Make America Great Again! Fix the mistake forthwith! The problem hopef?ll? won't return. Dear God!
Bah I spent 27 years in the USAF. I have been to Korea at least 6 times in these exercises. Canceling them for 6 months or a year or two hurts almost nothing. PDT is right to delay them for a bit to see if Kim is really serious. If Kim is not they are simple to start up again. We loose nothing. Total hyperbole by the media that this a big deal. It is not and they should know it.
Kim has given up prisoners, destroyed some sites, signed a statement in front of the world saying he will give up his Nuke program, and agreed to give back remains. Agreeing to delay these exercises gives up nothing as we can start them back again if needed. It is a gesture of good faith. The forces are still in place in Korea, they will still do combat training just not as part of a major exercise.
The summit and Flags gave Kim Legitimacy in the eyes of the world. The haters are harping about how it gives more power to hurt is own people. The real power in NK is China not Kim. Giving Kim Legitimacy could be the goal. Kim might actually be a Gorbachev who is hamstrung by China. I have begun to suspect as much. PDT could be trying to help Kim pull away. Kim is right to fear for his life IMHO.
We should let this play out for a few months before making any real conclusions. PDT has surrounded him self with good people. I trust the team. Nothing has been done to make the situation worse.
Koot Katmandu said...
We should let this play out for a few months before making any real conclusions.
Nothing has been done to make the situation worse.
This is reasonable, just as it is reasonable to remain quite skeptical about the Norks desire or ability to change direction, based on their history to date.
Who else thinks Kristof had this column written before the summit even began? Is it even conceivable that he would have reached a different conclusion?
The Left is crying because American war games will not take place.
Sure. We believe your outrage is genuine.
I thought Althouse was copying narciso.
MAC keyboards do fail. Mine started doing funky things recently and after trying everything I could find on the MAC forums, I just gave up and bought a new Keyboard. Problem fixed.
I think that Kristof is a partisan idiot here. If Kim starts to falter, just bring back three carrier strike groups within striking distance of North Korea ("in their normal rotation", of course) and reschedule joint exercises. Or maybe just obliterate something in Syria. What is new here is that we have a master negotiator in the White House, and a bunch of generals as his top staff. And the master negotiator has already shown Kim how quickly he can change course, when required, by canceling the talks, then turning them back on when Kim backed down.
I heard something a couple days ago about process in foreign affairs that I thought was pretty good. Maybe it was the paralysis of process. The point is that the professional diplomats and their community of hangers on have elevated process to a fine art. But that ultimately means process for process sake. Everyone assumes that we are progressing because we are doing so much process. Having all those meetings, discussing all these things. That was, Of course, how Obama ran his foreign policy, partially because he didn't know any better, never having negotiated anything of real importance before becoming President, and partially because the Ivy League lawyer listened to the "experts", Ivy League trained professional diplomats. He was replaced by a professional negotiator whose staff understand the levers of power, and how to use them.
There have been several major changes in the last decade or two that the Obama Administration was unwilling or unable to take advantage of. First thing was to convince China to not back up North Korea, as they have been for >65 years now. We crossed into N Korea, and were ultimately met with a tidal wave of Chinese soldiers. It was a hard fought, bloody, fight to get back to the original borders. That has colored our negotiations concerning N Korea ever since. Trump (etc) made clear to the Chinese that backing the NORKs is no longer in their best interest. First, if their is a resurgence in the unfinished Korean War, they would face having to handle millions of starving Korean refugees. Not something the xenophobic Han were looking forward to. Secondly, even thinking about backing the NORKs, if things went hot there would cost China millions of middle class jobs in short order. Trump wouldn't have to do anything - the market would do it all. Thomas Freedman pointed this out a decade ago. So, Trump was able to get the Chinese to start pressuring the NORKs. Meanwhile, the NORKs are literally starving, partially thanks to Chines pressure. Kim is in a box right now, between his generals, whose troops are now starving, and the rest of the world, that won't feed him. Trump did two things with this trip. One he gave Kim three options: military coup; war that was going to obliterate his country; or modernizing by working with us. And, maybe more importantly, he saved face, meeting like he did with Trump.
Amazing that Kristof has the nerve to publish this stupid argument under his name.
he had written the same column in march, so yes,
Slate: Nicholas Kristof wants to save the world with his New York Times columns. Why are so many of them wrong?
What do we want from North Korea?
Keeping it simple and broad;
1. Less nukes
2. Less sabre-rattling towards South Korea and Asian neighbors
3. Incremental steps towards internal freedom for its own people
4. Incremental steps towards economic development a la China 1972.
So, does this Singapore Sunmit move the Nork needle towards these 4 items?
Of course, it does. You'd have to be a Leftwing, Brennan-esque, Kerry-esque, NYT-esque moron not to see this.
Give it some time, Kristof, to see how it plays out. Don't let Trump-hatred blind you from positive international developments.
If this were true then the summit was pointless.
John Henry is mistaken. The "earthquake" was the collapse of Kim's primary underground test facility. Technicians were in the process of digging a tunnel for a test detonation when the mountain above began to collapse on itself due to the stress of previous test explosions conducted nearby. Some tunneling equipment was lost and there were some fatalities as well. The collapse also exposed millions of tons of contaminated rock and soil.
The earthquake did not severely affect NK's reactors, weapons labs, or its missile factory. Kim is still able to build nukes and rockets. He could also test nukes, but that would require preparing a new underground site — not difficult, but neither is it trivial. Kim has agreed to suspend nuke, IRMB, and ICBM testing in exchange for a suspension of SK/USA war games. That's a good first step toward a comprshensive peace deal, and it is much more than anything Obama, or any other US President has gotten from the Kims.
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
Koot Katmandu said...
We should let this play out for a few months before making any real conclusions.
Nothing has been done to make the situation worse.
This is reasonable, just as it is reasonable to remain quite skeptical about the Norks desire or ability to change direction, based on their history to date.
This is essentially Tank's take. Both sides made some noises and moves to sound like they want to move forward. The will or they won't. If it comes to nothing, we've lost nothing and, in the meantime, no one is lobbing missiles at or near our allies.
The "usual" want things to be done "as usual." That has gotten nothing done.
Blogger buwaya said...
What Kim paid for the meeting was undercutting his regimes entire ideological position, held for the last 70 years, and likewise all their internal propaganda.
Internally the regime justified itself on the grounds of defending Korea from deadly and irreconcilable enemies.
And this has to soak in in North Korea in fairly short order.
This would indeed seem to be a quite heavy price to pay if the Kim Regime has not concluded that radical change now is a necessity.
MAC keyboards do fail.
That's why I don't use them. All keyboards are fragile, but Apple demands too high a price for something so prone to failure.
I buy Macally KBs. They work and they're cheap enough to toss when they get flaky. I always have a spare NIB handy for my Macs and Hackintoshes. At $20 they are too attractive to pass up.
@Althouse, before you buy a USB keyboard make sure your MAC desktop has USB ports. A sufficiently old MAC desktop will only have Thunderbolt, even FireWire, connectors. But, first, I would repeat the exercise of shaking the old keyboard upside down. Thunderbolt cables are marked with a small lightning flash, USB with something that vaguely resembles Neptune's trident, but with unequal length prongs.
My-wife-who-used-to-be-a-Democrat described Trump’s critics as “Debbie Downers” who will complain about anything and everything Trump does. Smart woman, my wife. I don’t think the Democrats are going to get her vote back anytime soon (as in never).
@whitney, what did Progressives use before candles?
Ans: Electric lights
I can help you with Nicks column. He said “F**k Trump”
Wait; if we gave something of great value to Kim, why wouldn't we get something of value to ourselves for it?
I understand this line of argument from Inga and others, but thought Chuck was smarter than this. To even GET the meeting Kim had to give up testing missiles, release hostages, and tone down his rhetoric. Then we saw Kim and Moon meet to start the official end of the Korean war (which has been on a 65-year long cease-fire.) As soon as Kim started up with the nuclear threat allusions again Trump "cancelled" the meeting, forcing Kim to correct his posture again. That ain't "nothing." All this was without the USA giving up anything.
Then at the meeting, we get agreement to return the remains of POW-MIA. Again, that ain't nothing, especially to the families of the fallen Americans (we lost 53,000 in that war, remember?) Included is an outline (Trump simply called it a "document") indicating the other test sites that will be shut down. As first steps go, this ain't bad.
Why can't you see the good that has taken place prior and around this meeting? Regular non-political Americans going about their lives see the results. Only Trump-hating progressives and LLR/GOPe types are bitching about it.
There has been a tremendous change in NK posture over the last year. You can ignore it and pretend it hasn't happened or read Kristoff to sooth your soul, but that won't change the facts. Fact is, Kim is acquiescent unlike any Kim before him.
We don't care about NoKo for any reason other than their nukes.
You don't care? This is an especially stupid argument. Y'all have great affection for even smaller countries than NK, like Cuba and Nicaragua. And how many times have we heard about the great public health programs of Sweden and Holland? All much smaller countries (by population) than NK, and not located in such a strategic geography as NK (although being so close to Russia one might say Sweden is once again becoming a strategically located ally).
So if you don't care why bother writing anything here about it?
“Turn the keyboard over and rap it sharply a few times to get the crumbs and sand grains out of it.”
Also works for a choking infant.
By the way Lefties, what makes Castro a "legitimate leader" and Kim not one?
I know as much about foreign policy as the "liberals" who post here know about economics; but I was amused by the piece on Instapundit this morning about the Debbie Downers "analyzing" the Trump-Kim meeting. I liked the remark that after decades of apologizing and even praising Communist dictators, Rachel Maddow ("her brow furrowed as usual") and her colleagues have finally found, in Kim, a Communist dictator they want to ostracize.
You do have to consider that for Kim, what North Koreans think of him and his regime may be more important than what foreigners think - even New Yorkers.
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
If this were true then the summit was pointless. We don't care about NoKo for any reason other than their nukes. I doubt that it is true.
Noko has been a thorn in our side and a threat to soko for almost 70 years. Most of that time without nukes.
If the nukes were destroyed, what stops them from getting them again?
Even if they no longer have nukes we would care.
And if nothing else we can finally end the korean war.
So plenty of reasons for doing this even with no nukes.
I do agree with you about watch and see. I also think we need to assume good faith and act in good faith unless they give us specific reason not to.
John Henry
It’s like Let’s Make a Deal. On TV and Pudge won a free vacation.
Trump didn’t DO anything. Trump didn’t GET anything. What did Barry get the Nobel for? Existing? The goal posts changed again.
Obama wouldn’t and couldn’t have done this, because he didn't “get” this.
'The biggest issue will be the sanctions'
Trump is also using satellite surveillance for false flag shipping.
Chuck, why are you so predictable ?
ARM finally said something I agree with about it being reasonable to wait and see the next steps.
Kristoff was pretty good about the Soviet Union but that was a long time ago.
I have always had a couple of Mac keyboards around. I use laptops and replacing that keyboard is expensive.
Some of my problem with keyboards, I'm sure, is my two finger typing. I've worn out a couple writing books.
Trump hasn't given anything he can't take back. Also, he wants to win without being perceived as winning. Making Kim look good at home means there is someone to deal with. If Kim falls, or starts looking weak and has to appease his generals, all bets are off.
The garden is coming up hawks.
Trump has made huge progress with NK. At least he’s trying something different, and getting results. Instead of the no changes to the NK policy for the last couple of presidents that got nothing positive.
The Korean War never officially ended.
It’s much better to be talking, than allowing the situation to become worse making other nations get nukes in the area.
With their carping the msm, Obama ex admin, and are looking like ankle biters, and just discrediting themselves.
”I understand this line of argument from Inga and others, but thought Chuck was smarter than this.”
Not when Trump’s involved.
Trump won by neutralizing NK to complete America's Chain of Defense against China to counter China's artificial islands in the South China Sea.
The chain began with NK, SK, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam.
Another point: Do you think NK would do another nuke test in defiance of Trump's "good will"?
Trump's concession was halting military exercise with SK. He can always restart it if NK misbehaves. Trump's security guarantee of NK from whom? From Trump.
A person with no credibility is commenting about something far outside his source of expertise.
The only difference between Kristof and an Inga is he is given a huge microphone and Inga is Inga.
Michael K said...
Chuck, why are you so predictable ?
ARM finally said something I agree with about it being reasonable to wait and see the next steps.
And what did I say? All that I said, was that unlike Althouse, I understood Kristof and the limitations on what he felt able to write. Things "seemed" a certain way to Kristof, which is a reasonable and correct way to write about things that have an appearance, without definite evidence of what is going on.
We have no definite evidence of what is going on, and what sort of deal is being made, because the Trump Administration isn't saying. They could say, but of course it is so like the Trump Administration to leave things unclear.
What we do know is that Trump tweeted that the North Korean nuclear threat is now ended. Which is a preposterous whopper.
So there's Kristof, writing with care and nuance (whether you agree with him or not); and then there is Trump, writing reckless falsehoods.
And Althouse picks on Kristof.
Y are U doing this to us?
;-)
"Cancelling" the exercises doesn't necessarily mean that the planning and prep are being cancelled, does it?
I am also surprised that Trump went so easy when he had such a position of strength. But Trump has a way of pleasantly surprising me, so I will give it some time before I pass judgement.
I think the nuclear program and the ballistic missile program were expensive flubs, and North Korea was unable to sustain them.
Processing plutonium is expensive, and processing Uranium up to weapons grade is even more expensive. Considering NK's GDP is about the size of a smallish US city (A city with ~200K residents), I don't see how they could refine much more than they used for the weapons tests, especially considering the other military expenses and their ballistic missile program.
Similarly, I don't see NK successfully launching an invasion of the South -- Costs too much. They might cause a little trouble, but I doubt NK could sustain a high-level military operation for more than 48 hours.
On the other hand, I thought KJU and his sister were going to use the summit as a chance to abdicate, so what do I know. Still not sure why they didn't.
Jesus F'in Christ Chuck, and ARM!
You missed the obvious. Trump setting up North Korea as his next real estate deal. Gonna buy the best land cheap, build hotels, golf courses and casinos.
Trump thinks he will live forever and is planning to use his presidency to become filthy rich after he leaves. Just like his predecessors, without charitable foundations or ghost written books with big advances.
You read it here first
...weirdly the progressives don't want progress
Just like the liberals' perception that conservatives seem to be against conservation. The four words -- progressive, progress, conservative, conservation -- have nothing to do with each other.
rhhardin said...
u is 01110101
? is 00111111
No obvious way to hang bits, but perhaps a keyboard doesn't send ASCII in any case.
It will be UTF-8 most likely.
The y's are hanging up too.
Kristof is a piece of work.
Here he is from the other side of his mouth.
Which side of Kristof is the right one?
The one that hates Trump!
Which side of Chuck is the right one?
Of course, the one that hates Trump!
Chuck, see what happened to Sanford in South Carolina?
They could say, but of course it is so like the Trump Administration to leave things unclear.
Chuck, you just can't help it, I guess.
Even the most radical NeverTrumper on Ricochet wished him well on the Summit.
But not you, of course.
then there is Trump, writing reckless falsehoods.
Yup, just sad.
Chuck wrote:
"But what else was there? If we got anything concrete out of the meeting, what was it? The Trump administration can say what we got, if there was anything. I'd like specificity, as usual. Because Trump himself is never specific, never precise, never believable. When he tries to be specific, he's terrible. What, specifically, did we get?"
*******************
When Nixon went to China in 1972, all "we" got out of it were a series of mutual promises called the Shanghai Communique. But it took another seven years for diplomatic relations to be established between the two countries.
"The US and China also agreed that neither they nor any other power should "seek hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region".[1] This was of particular importance to China, which shared a militarized border with the Soviet Union."
"The [Shanghai Communiqué] pledged that it was in the interest of all nations for the United States and China to work towards the normalization of their relations, although this would not occur until the Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations seven years later."
"The communiqué included wishes to expand the economic and cultural contacts between the two nations, although no concrete steps were mentioned."
---excerpts from Wikipedia
The fact of the 1972 meeting was itself considered a dramatic step forward. So maybe, just maybe, the Trump haters might temper their criticism of the Singapore Summit's modest initial results.
Naaaaahhhh....
--
I cannot believe that Trump so arrogantly insists on retaining his own communication style when our resident deranged loser has expressly said that he’d “like specificity”. The nerve of thinking that he can overlook insincere mewling from a non-entity just because he’s president!
It is truly amazing how crappy our "experts" are in this country.
The fact of the 1972 meeting was itself considered a dramatic step forward.
I'm sure chuck didn't think so. He wanted the Chinese to crawl on their knees to Washington, just like Senator Leffingwell in "Advise and Consent."
Mike said...
By the way Lefties, what makes Castro a "legitimate leader" and Kim not one?
Remember when Ghadafi made a deal and gave up his nuke program?
The globalists made an example of him.
The globalists are just letting Kin know now that if he steps out of line and stops being an enemy of the US they will treat him similarly.
If Kim ends the Korean war, and gives Trump a victory, the first democrat president will team up with our allies in Europe to kill him.
The only Macs I know of are Big Macs, but the last time I had a similar problem in Windows, I had inadvertently switched from an English US keyboard setting to German.
Chuck said...
Althouse, I read the Kristof column. I understood it, and I think the meaning was clear.
It certainly was clear.
Kristof is a tool paid by the globalists to promote the globalist line.
Kristof is still useful to his masters.
However there is nothing less useful than the cuck wing of the democrat party.
Republican voters loathe the traitors that tried to get Hillary elected and have been betraying us for decades.
"You were an Obama supporter, Althouse. I don't get it; I wasn't ever an Obama supporter, but that's just me. You were. Can you imagine the right-wing media's reaction if Obama had done what Trump did on this trip? Can you imagine citizen Donald Trump's Twitter reaction if he were observing President Obama doing this stuff?"
I can imagine a bunch of idiotic neocons screaming about this as well if obama did it. But I do not expect trump would, he would see it as the opening of a longer term deal, which it is. He has done many of these I expect, Obama,none.
Now let's look at the rest of the story with Obama. Obama did very little to make anyone think he would ever do anything hard. He would not have threatened China unless they helped stop North Korea, nor would have he ACTUALLY prepared to do something about North Korea militarily. He would have just talked it to death.
Then if his history is to be a guide, he would have led with sanctions relief and an apology to North Korea. The two leaders are so far apart that it is difficult to even imagining Obama doing something that might fail, he was way to interested in staying "the chosen one".
Well our host suffers through the task of reading the NYT. It's a nasty job, but someone has to do it. I certainly don't and won't. That said in the years when I did read it I admired their economical editing style, where the editors made their reporters get to the point quick.
By contrast out here in Los Angeles, in the days when print avenue was flush, LA Times reporters ran on and on and on with stories frequently jumping to parts of 5 or 6 pages.
These days ad revenue is way down, the LAT has shrunk to a mere vestige of its former self (not many pages, not many reporters). I still read the danged thing--can usually get anything of substance from it in 10 minutes or less, and 8 minutes is sent on the sports page.
That said a week ago the LA Times informed its readers that there was nothing to be expected from the Singapore summit. And by golly, this morning's paper said that Trump got less than expected at the Singapore summit.
Same old same old. Some things never change at the LA Times.
ARM was responding to Chuck’s question “What does it mean?”
To a first approximation, nothing. It was just the usual BS that we have come to know and love.
And I could not help but think back to the morning after Trump’s election, when Paul Kruhman, an individual whom the Nobel Committee thought maybe knows something about economics, when the stock market would recover. And Krugman responded “To a first approximation, never.” Same blind hatred of Republicans in general and Trump in particular shutting down rational thought.
http://dilbert.com/strip/1997-09-08
I came here to insult Kristof, but I see that has been taken care of.
Pompeo, asked how verification of denuclearization will be accomplished, calls question ludicrous.
The NYT coverage of Trump is, to a first approximation, 90% boilerplate. Kristof probably had this column drafted and in the print pipeline weeks ago. If Trump had come back with Un's Unconditional Surrender, that would require a new realtime column, (with potentially disastrous consequences a la Krugman's election night stock market prognostication--these are not people who can be trusted to think on their feet).
readering said...
Pompeo, asked how verification of denuclearization will be accomplished, calls question ludicrous.
No link, of course. How was the question asked ?
Ask him in a year.
Personally, I think SK may want to keep nukes just as a free Iran might want to keep them. The problem is not the nukes but who runs the place,
Of course?
Gee, MK trusts KJU more than me.
Democrats and their enablers among the mediaswine might have found all this NK stuff more appealing if the Donald had sent Kim home with $1 or 2 billion in cash on palates a la Iran.
Trump has nothing to lose here. If Kim reneges, as he probably will, Trump the tough guy reimposes all the sanctions and reverts to past practices.
As for the "loss" of joint exercises with the ROK, we have 50 or so years of practice behind us.
So far it's all words. The DNC, their pet media and their trolls just have to make sure that Trump's continuing foreign policy efforts dont outshine Obama's failures.
Ann has decided not to highlight Frank Rich in the NYMag today, but he's going on about something some of Ann's readers have been saying for months:
Every move Trump has made and continues to make since entering the White House is so aligned with Vladimir Putin’s interests that there’s no longer any ambiguity to the charge that he is acting as a Russian agent. Whether he has been paid to do so, is being blackmailed to do so, or is simply a useful idiot is one of the mysteries we must hope Robert Mueller will unravel.
Without a doubt, this will be one the most influential "cinemas" of the century. It is a wonderful remake of The Parallax Factor (or is it Phactor) with Kim in the role of Warren Beatty. It is Kim, not Trump, who has the shot at the Game Ball, The Nobel, Mr. Universe!
It is KIM who is WINS! YES!
Here he is; Mister Peace MAKER; You're HIRED!!
You just have to have the Right Stuff to make the Right Choice.
Trump is the Ed Sullivan of Politics. He has a REALLY BIG SHOW. If you want to play in the Make America Great AGAIN theater, he will give you the spot light and let YOU shine.
Trump gave Kim a "message he could not refuse." If you play ball, you, Kim, will be the hero of the world and I, Donald, will help you all the way. Kim can make peace, retire, and go get a medal from the King of Norway. And have AT LEAST two speed boats to play about all the babes in the world.
There is not really much of a choice here.
And the lefties are pissed because the macho, big dick approach of clinton and obama was meaningless to a bobby bad ass like Kim and his daddy.
But TOYS, BABES, and ADULATION!
Gee, MK trusts KJU more than me.
Maybe that's because KJU has been making more sense than you lately.
Ann has decided not to highlight Frank Rich in the NYMag today
She's also not highlighting pictures of leftists smearing "Fuck Trump" with their poop.
Coincidence?
@ARM "just as it is reasonable to remain quite skeptical about the Norks desire or ability to change direction, based on their history to date."
Could be; being skeptical is fine. But IMHO talking about the "Norks" is a category error. The Norks aren't a malevolent AI, they are a country with a very powerful leader. The leader used to be named Kim, now he is named Kim. Sorry - actually it's a different leader. He _may_ decide to take a different path. It's worth asking.
Just reading through all the comments now, many of which came in after I headed out to just get a new keyboard. That add keyboard thing was weird. Don’t why it didn’t turn up in my search. Maybe because I looked for iMac, not iBook.
Anyway, thanks to all who offered help!
"Many people will think of this as a scene from a fantasy.. science fiction movie."
Me or KJU?
“Yeah, but so have a lot of other people done some really bad things.... I could go through a lot of nations where a lot of bad things were done."
Me or DJT?
“Are you asking me if Trump had sex with Stormy Daniels? Absolutely, that’s my opinion.... First of all, she’s his type. Look at his wives. He likes tall, busty women.”
Me or Roger Stone?
“My husband’s denial of the affair with the married Mrs. Ryan is as false as his claim that we were separated when he took up with her.”
Me or Mrs. Giuliani?
Gee, MK trusts KJU more than me.
Surely you don’t blame him?
More pity.
readering drew the short straw.
Don't even know what that means in context.
Just reading through all the comments now, many of which came in after I headed out to just get a new keyboard.
Purely out of curiousity, does it use a USB connection or is it Thunderbolt?
So the summit ITSELF is a concession?
I know. Counter-intuitive. After Quebec it may have seemed any world leader meeting with Trump was doing him a favor.
I always had 3 keyboards on hand back in the day.When one failed I ran it through a short dishwasher cycle with no soap and set it out in the Colorado sun upside down . Worked for years, 2 keyboards still work
I don't get it. Military exercises can be restarted any time we feel like it. Security guarantees are nothing more than promises, and can be easily pulled back or reinterpreted if Kim starts testing again. In return we get destruction of a nuclear test site and a missile test site, plus promises for more.
Whether we actually get more is the important question. But seriously, what was Kristof willing to give up if this was too much? Did he have his heart set on the military exercise?
Trump made a huge concession — the suspension of military exercises with South Korea.
You know, military exercises are designed to give leverage in diplomatic negotiations, not the other way around. Scheduling an exercise just so you can magnanimously cancel it is good negotiation. You don't hold up an agreement about real issues just so your soldiers can playact airstrikes.
That’s on top of the broader concession of the summit meeting itself, security guarantees he gave North Korea and the legitimacy that the summit provides his counterpart, Kim Jong-un.
Again, what does Kristof want? Does he want an agreement or not? If you want Kim to give up a major foreign policy objective like his nuclear program, you're probably going to have to agree to sit down at a table with him at some point. If you don't want that, then by all means, don't sit down.
Within North Korea, the 'very special bond' that Trump claimed to have formed with Kim will be portrayed this way: Kim forced the American president, through his nuclear and missile tests, to accept North Korea as a nuclear equal, to provide security guarantees to North Korea, and to cancel war games with South Korea that the North has protested for decades.
Again, does Kristof want a deal, or does he not want a deal? Does he think that Kim is going to sign a deal that he *can't* present to his people as a great success?
He's acting like North Korea has no leverage in this negotiation, but they do. They have a nuclear program, and we wish they didn't. If we want that wish to turn into something real, we're probably going to have to reach an agreement.
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