A summit without substance - By Max Boot

[DonViejo]

By Max Boot
June 12 at 12:38 PM

The Singapore summit was a mesmerizing spectacle utterly lacking in substance. In other words, it was a perfect microcosm of the Trump presidency.

The entire world was riveted by television images of President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shaking hands in front of a backdrop of North Korean and U.S. flags, walking to and from lunch, checking out Trump’s limousine and finally signing a summit declaration. For both leaders, the hype was the whole point.

Kim won an invaluable propaganda windfall: Ruling one of the poorest and most despotic countries in the world (North Korea’s gross domestic product is smaller than Vermont’s), he was recognized as an equal by the leader of the world’s sole superpower — not just an equal, indeed, but a valued friend. Trump claimed to have established a “Link to tweet
?s=11" target="_blank">special bond” with Kim just a day after one of his aides said there was a “special place in hell” reserved for the prime minister of Canada. (The aide, Peter Navarro, has now admitted his comment was “inappropriate.”)

Trump can barely stand to be in the same room with the leaders of the United States’ democratic allies, but he reveled in his quality time with Kim – “a very talented” and “very smart” man who “loves his country very much” and who, in turn is loved by his own people. If Kim does indeed love his country, he has a funny way of showing it, since he enslaves his own citizens. If you want to learn more about Kim’s atrocities, all you have to do is reread Trump’s own Jan. 30 State of the Union address, which gave chapter and verse on the “depraved character of the North Korean regime.”

There was, however, no mention of North Korean human rights abuses on Tuesday. That would have been a downer for a president who has plenty of other downers to deal with — from a special counsel investigation to a botched Group of Seven summit. Trump was in full salesman mode in Singapore, touting a meeting that he claimed had gone “better than anybody could have expected.”

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/06/12/a-summit-without-substance/

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I have never liked Max Boot, until tRump came to power.

We now agree on how awful tRump is.

Remarkable how politics can change your perception.

[DonViejo]

2. I'm enjoying reading/watching all the right wing columnists and talking heads lamenting what their

Party has become. They'll go back to their old sour selves when the Dems come back to power.

[VMA131Marine]

3. North Korea's GDP at $13B

is about 1/3rd of the GDP of the New Haven CT metro area ($44B in 2014, pop. 862,000)

In per capita terms, New Haven's is $51,000 per person while DPRK's is $512 - well it would be if they could convert North Korean Won into USD.

[duforsure]

4. We'll learn about the real deal made soon,

I suspect this was all a scam from the get go with it a trade off for trump to get sweetheart deals for his businesses and for cheaper production of his and his daughters products they sell. And he gave Kim everything he wanted including keeping his nukes and the ability to manufacture more of them, not making anyone safer , including people in this country. Now he's promoting his rhetoric for his sales pitch to others he did something good, when in reality he made things worse. Except of coarse for himself and is family. Just wait we'll hear land deals or developing plans are in the works. I don't buy anything this con man says. And Kim is exactly the same .