The Trump implosion thread!

Prediction:

North Korea will want to freeze its nuclear program, but keep whatever weapons and missiles it has, in exchange for sanctions relief and/or outright aid. Perhaps he'll offer to scrap his nukes in exchange for the withdrawal of US troops from South Korea, Japan and Guam.

I won't predict how Trump will react, because it's not possible to rationally predict irrational whims.

It's almost always a ploy for aid.

It's cheaper to build an offensive threat to your neighbors and the world, and then collect the rewards for agreeing not to threaten anymore. For a while.

So you can call it aid, or you can call it bribes, or maybe even extortion.

It doesn't always work out for them, such as with Muammar Gaddafi or Saddam Hussein.

Quote: Dalex64

It's almost always a ploy for aid.

In the 90s, it may have been. it's no longer that, because:

Quote:

It doesn't always work out for them, such as with Muammar Gaddafi or Saddam Hussein.

Exactly because of that. Now it's about regime survival. Saddam didn't actually have WMDs, and especially didn't have nukes. he was invaded, captured, and killed. Ghadafi had a WMD program but gave it up. He wound up with a rebellion, bombings, captured and killed.

So Kim, as much as a loathsome piece of crap as he is, reasonably doesn't want to be invaded, bombed and killed. Ergo he got nukes.

Quote: Nareed

In the 90s, it may have been. it's no longer that, because:




Exactly because of that. Now it's about regime survival. Saddam didn't actually have WMDs, and especially didn't have nukes. he was invaded, captured, and killed. Ghadafi had a WMD program but gave it up. He wound up with a rebellion, bombings, captured and killed.

So Kim, as much as a loathsome piece of crap as he is, reasonably doesn't want to be invaded, bombed and killed. Ergo he got nukes.

North Korea is still an outlaw nation
The nuke stuff is just threats
Right now NK is doing damage to our economy
The Treasury dept is amazed by NK counterfeit money. Its almost perfect and they print a lot

Quote: terapined

Right now NK is doing damage to our economy
The Treasury dept is amazed by NK counterfeit money. Its almost perfect and they print a lot

You should see the damage to the economy that even a limited nuclear exchange can inflict.

Quote: ams288

Donald had a near meltdown during his phone interview on Fox and Friends this morning.

The Fox and Friends hosts looked so uncomfortable while he just ranted and raved. Eventually they literally just cut him off and said they were sure he had lots of work to do (yeah right!).

In the middle of that rant he talked about how he would prefer a popular election for president instead of an electoral college.

Quote: Dalex64

In the middle of that rant he talked about how he would prefer a popular election for president instead of an electoral college.

To be fair, he has said before that if he had targeted the popular vote he could have won it. I'm not sure he's wrong about that.

Quote: JimRockford

To be fair, he has said before that if he had targeted the popular vote he could have won it. I'm not sure he's wrong about that.

No way to tell. There are states that DJT spent little resources in and thus obviously would have done better in, but no way to tell by how much. However, the same could be said for HRC. I think HRC still wins the popular even if that was the prize they were after. But it is a moot point.

A conservative leaning tax payer group sends letter by 1100 economists warning Trump against his tarrif's plans, along with a old letter sent by economists in the 1930s trying to warn of the same thing, that was ignored, before the Great Depression.

Quote:

"Congress did not take economists’ advice in 1930, and Americans across the country paid the price," the letter says. "The undersigned economists and teachers of economics strongly urge you not to repeat that mistake. Much has changed since 1930 — for example, trade is now significantly more important to our economy — but the fundamental economic principles as explained at the time have not."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/1100-economists-warn-that-trump-is-repeating-one-of-the-biggest-mistakes-of-the-great-depression/ar-AAwHqOQ?ocid=spartanntp

Beep beep beep

That is the sound of Rudy Giuliani backing the truck up.