Posted on 05/25/2018 9:06:53 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Its not exactly Donald Trumps Reykjavik, but he has done the right thing by calling off the misconceived summit with Kim Jong-un.
The North Koreans have been yanking our chain over the last week or so, presumably trying to establish their leverage and begin a negotiation over the negotiation. They seemed to make some progress, with Trump saying the other day that maybe we could settle for something short of complete, verifiable denuclearization, which is supposed to be our core demand. The president may have tempted the North Koreans into the gamesmanship by occasionally seeming over-eager to take credit for a stupendous diplomatic success (stripping North Korea of its nukes) that hadnt happened yet and is unlikely to happen.
On the other hand, unpredictability is a typical North Korean negotiating tactic, so the sudden shift from warmth and sunshine to blustery demands and threats shouldnt have been unexpected.
It was always far-fetched that the North would be willing to give up its nuclear weapons. For Pyongyang, the value of a summit wouldnt be the opportunity for a good-faith negotiation at the highest levels but the chance to use a superficially successful meeting to unravel the sanctions against it, the way it has in the past.
President Trump says theres still the chance of a summit at some point. Itd be better to give up hopes for a splashy meeting and instead double down on the maximum pressure campaign. Theres still room to tighten up further by, for instance, cracking down on the regimes illicit sources of cash and imposing secondary sanctions on Chinese entities dealing with the North. The longer-term goal would be to crack the regime, or at least its will.
Its nice to believe that the North can be defanged easily and quickly at a headline-generating summit. But realism says otherwise. The United States shouldnt, yet again, let the North Koreans play scorpion to our frog.
Trump doesnt want the summit canceled. That is why he is making arrangements to go.
Man, you are really obtuse. Any moron who watches Trump knew he would walk away to get their serious attention.
And anyone with a brain knows Never Trumper Low Life Lowry and NR indeed wants to cancel the summit because they want to deny Trump any successesthat would defeat their entire anti Trump narrative.
I’m obtuse? Rich Lowry might criticize Trump when he personally thinks his policies are wrong headed, but he defends him when he thinks he is in the right.
You can throw the tiresome term NeverTrumper all you want but that term does not exactly fit Lowry.
National Review did not support Trump during the primaries. But after he won the nomination, this publication left it to individual contributors to vote for the xandidate they deem the better. I for one know of 2 who voted for Trump.
As I said, NR is not a monolith. They do not force any writer to think what the editors think. And personally, I think that’s how a responsible publication should behave.
Whether Trump goes or not remains to be seen. As of this point in time, it remains cancelled.
Suffice it to say that it is uncharacteristic of Sowell, a clear thinker, to call Trump a Hitler.
That is something I find hard to believe.
I am afraid you are in a distinct minority on the issue of rich Lowry. At least based on all of the comments. I have read only one that defends himyou.
Minorities are not always wrong. Why not review the many articles he wrote since November 2016?
You will see that he is not always a Trump basher. Besides, as an editor of NR, if he were totally against Trump, why would he allow writers who defend Trump like Victor Davis Hanson and Andrew McCarthy to be published?
That alone is evidence against the accusation that he is a NeverTrumper.
The president may have tempted the North Koreans into the gamesmanship by occasionally seeming over-eager to take credit for a stupendous diplomatic success (stripping North Korea of its nukes) that hadnt happened yet and is unlikely to happen.
Odd, it seemed to me like it was the press that was making
a big deal of the North’s nukes.
The President certainly wasn’t going on about it.
I guess you are right if you interpret Never to be absolute. I have read some of his complimentary articles about trump, only to be followed within days by more trump criticism.
It is somewhat disingenuous to argue that since Lowry allows VDH to write in his rag lowry is somehow now a trump supporter. Not so by any stretch. NR still stands for the trump haters, jonah goldberg, john fund, kevin williamson, chas cooke, et al. The only reason lowry allows VDH and Andrew Mccarthy to publish is because they bring credibility to NR, not the other way around.
Please comment as the Lowry defender on Natl Reviews new commenting system. Unlike previously, they changed their website so that only subscribers, ie NR Fans and supporters, can comment.
I gues ole Low Life Lowry got tired of reading the scorching comments that people wrote on the garbage they publish. Now like the good fascist that he is he only gets to read comments by people who pay to read his rag. Thats one way of fending off criticism.
And the explanation for this is?
RE: I gues ole Low Life Lowry
There you go, Low Life <—— using that word without even explaining why it applies.
RE: got tired of reading the scorching comments that people wrote on the garbage they publish.
And why would one not get tired of scorching comments ? You enjoy receiving such comments?
Why don’t you address the evidence I pointed out -— Lowry, as editor of the National Review, unlike the Times or the Atlantic, DOES NOT CENSOR supporters of Trump. Articles that support Trump ABOUND in the National Review. The only problem is, people IGNORE such articles to focus on those that are or were critical of him.
If he were such a low life as you use the word, why did he not censor the supportive articles?
It seems to you, for someone to qualify as not low life, he has to be 100% pro-Trump even when he does not agree with some of his policies.
Sorry, we should support Trump when he is right and we should b vigilant and be critical if he is wrong. It is never a good idea to b so personally invested in a person that you ignore his weaknesses.
RE: I have read some of his complimentary articles about trump, only to be followed within days by more trump criticism.
And what’s wrong with that?
Do you think that someone should always march in lock step with a President ( be he Trump or someone else ) and not think critically?
The characteristic of a free country is being able to think for oneself. If you disagree with Lowry or others, ADDRESS THEIR ARGUMENTS AND TELL US WHY THEY ARE WRONG.
I am not impressed with this kind of argument — He criticizes Trump, therefore he is a low life.
RE: I guess you are right if you interpret Never to be absolute
What does the word — NEVER in NeverTrumper imply?
RE: It is somewhat disingenuous to argue that since Lowry allows VDH to write in his rag lowry is somehow now a trump supporter.
I never said he was a Trump supporter. I said he is NOT a NeverTrumper.
There has to be a term for someone who supports Trump when he believes he is in the right and someone who criticizes his policies when he believes they are wrong headed.
The right term could be this — NotAlwaysTrumper. Unfortunately, I don’t see terms like this being used in FR. It is you are either a 100% Trump supporter or you are a NeverTrumper. Nothing in between.
And the National Review is NOT a NeverTrumper publication because there are numerous writers who defend Trump when needed.
So, to say that one should avoid reading the publication is in and of itself an absolutist mentality.
You take the articles on a case by case basis.
The reasonNRhas the reputation of being a Never Trumper magazine is because they published an entire issue devoted solely to Never Trump. They favored electing anyone BUT TRump including the democrat! Additionally, their writers, since the begining of the 2016 campaign, have been uniformly anti Trump.
It is only relatively recently that some of the NR stable has begrudgingly admitted that maybe Trump does do some conservative things. Also, I suspect that part of them coming around has to do with their desire to remain relevant, e.g. Glenn Beck as an example.
We trump supporters did not start a fight with lowry and NR. They dug that hole all by themselves.
We Trump supporters didnt forget either NR and their 100% effort to elect anyone other than trump, nor will we ever forgive romney for his 20minute Trump is a crook speech. Some things dont fade away. THAT is why the FR people hate Lowry and Natl Review. ( That doesnt even consider the fact that the pure NR conservatives never win anything, dont influence any legislation, or really serve any purpose except to collect money from rich benefactors willing to underwrite conservative thinkers.)
Only time will tell if the NR stable is sincere or not. As you can tell from all the comments we really dont care.the burden of persuasion is on them.
RE: The reasonNRhas the reputation of being a Never Trumper magazine is because they published an entire issue devoted solely to Never Trump. They favored electing anyone BUT TRump including the democrat! Additionally, their writers, since the begining of the 2016 campaign, have been uniformly anti Trump.
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Yes, and that reputation is NOT DESERVED as their subsequent articles show. Now that Trump has shown them that he has conservative policies with respect to judges, abortion, taxes, regulations etc. of course, their editors will change their mind.
Only someone who is dishonest like many liberals cannot see the good things that Trump has done. And this is a COMPLIMENT to NR.
Which means for me, and unlike many FReepers, that I am not going to tar and feather the entire publication simply because of what their magazine published before Trump won the nomination.
As I said, the wiser course is to take each article they publish on a CASE BY CASE basis, not overgeneralize and call them a NeverTrumper publication.
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