Why is the MAGA movement so susceptible to crazy conspiracy theories?

[webfact]

Trump: China's North Korea diplomacy appears to have 'no impact on Little Rocket Man'

By Makini Brice and Andrew Osborn

 

People watch a TV broadcasting a news report on North Korea firing what appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that landed close to Japan, in Seoul, South Korea, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

 

WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed a Chinese diplomatic effort to rein in North Korea's weapons program as a failure on Thursday, while Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Beijing was doing a lot, but could do more to limit oil supplies to Pyongyang.

 

In a tweet, Trump delivered another insulting barb against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who he called "Little Rocket Man" and a "sick puppy" after North Korea test-fired its most advanced missile to date on Wednesday.

 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Washington's approach was dangerously provocative.

 

Trump's tweets further inflamed tensions reignited this week after North Korea said it had successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile in a "breakthrough" that put the U.S. mainland within range of its nuclear weapons whose warheads could withstand re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere.

 

"The Chinese envoy, who just returned from North Korea, seems to have had no impact on Little Rocket Man," Trump said on Twitter, a day after speaking with Chinese President Chinese President Xi Jinping and reiterating his call for Beijing to use its leverage against North Korea.

 

Tillerson on Thursday welcomed Chinese efforts on North Korea, but said Beijing could do more to limit its oil exports to the country.

 

"The Chinese are doing a lot. We do think they could do more with the oil. We're really asking them to please restrain more of the oil, not cut it off completely," Tillerson said at the State Department. China is North Korea's neighbour and its sole major trading partner.

 

While Trump has been bellicose at times in rhetoric towards North Korea, Tillerson has persistently held out hopes for a return to dialogue if North Korea shows it is willing to give up its nuclear weapons programme.

 

However, Tillerson may not remain in his job long, with disagreements with Trump over North Korea being one factor. On Thursday, a senior Trump administration official said the White House was considering a plan to replace Tillerson with Mike Pompeo, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

 

In spite of Trump's rhetoric and warnings that all options, including military ones, are on the table in dealing with North Korea, his administration has stressed it favours a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

 

Trump has pledged more sanctions in response to the latest test and, at an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting late Wednesday, the United States warned North Korea's leadership would be "utterly destroyed" if war were to break out.

 

Lavrov pointed to joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises planned for December and accused the United States of trying to provoke Kim into "flying off the handle" over his missile programme to hand Washington a pretext to destroy his country.

 

He also flatly rejected a U.S. call for Russia to cut ties with Pyongyang over its nuclear and ballistic missile programme, calling U.S. policy towards North Korea deeply flawed.

 

In a call with Trump on Thursday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the missile launched this week was North Korea's most advanced so far, but it was unclear whether Pyongyang had the technology to miniaturise a nuclear warhead and it still needed to prove other things, such as its re-entry technology.

 

A White House statement said Trump and Moon reiterated their strong commitment to enhancing the deterrence and defence capabilities of the U.S.-South Korea alliance and added: "Both leaders reaffirmed their strong commitment to compelling North Korea to return to the path of denuclearisation at any cost."

 

GERMANY PULLS OUT DIPLOMAT

 

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in Washington after meeting Tillerson on Thursday he had offered support for taking a tough line towards North Korea and that Germany was withdrawing a third diplomat from its embassy there.

 

"Naturally we are discussing with our European colleagues whether it's necessary to further increase the diplomatic pressure," Gabriel told reporters.

 

North Korea has tested dozens of ballistic missiles under Kim's leadership and conducted its sixth and largest nuclear bomb test in September.

 

It has said its weapons programs are a necessary defence against U.S. plans to invade. The United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, denies any such intention.

 

Previous U.S. administrations have failed to stop North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and a sophisticated missile programme. Trump, who has previously said the United States would "totally destroy" North Korea if necessary to protect itself and its allies from the nuclear threat, has also struggled to contain Pyongyang since taking office in January.

 

U.S. ambassador Nikki Haley told the U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday that Washington has asked China to cut off the supply of oil to North Korea, a drastic step that Beijing has so far refrained from taking.

 

China earlier this month praised the friendship between it and North Korea after its special envoy visited Pyongyang.

 

(Additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu in Washington and Adrea Shalal in Berlin; Writing by David Brunnstrom and Susan Heavey; Editing by Frances Kerry, Jonathan Oatis and Alden Bentley)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-12-01

[Hayduke]

Come on guys…meet each other half way.

[boomerangutang]

Trump likes to put down prior US administrations, and their handling of the Korea problem.

Yet, prior administrations (since Truman) kept the problem from breaking out in war.

 

Now, the US is saddled with a dunce who lowers himself to Kim's level - both of whom are itching for battle.   Kim knows that, just to survive a US onslaught, he wins.   For Trump, it's a lose-lose scenario, but not as grave as the losses of the Korean people on both sides of the fence.

 

Trump can never admit a loss or a mistake.  So, after the war (call it Korea II?) he will toss out any number of flaccid excuses and justifications, similar to how he justified how he couldn't have sexually groped the woman sitting next to him in the airplane, "Did you see her?  She wouldn't have been my first choice, believe me." 

 

 

[IAMHERE]

"totally destroy"  " utterly destroy "  

I wonder what that means?

 

[Johnnyngai]

The fat boy needs a good old fashion smacking. 

[ilostmypassword]

3 minutes ago, Johnnyngai said:

The fat boy needs a good old fashion smacking. 

But what about Kim?

[Johnnyngai]

Just now, ilostmypassword said:

But what about Kim?

I said fat boy, not fat man.  

[ilostmypassword]

1 minute ago, Johnnyngai said:

I said fat boy, not fat man.  

So I assumed you were referring to the childish and petulant creature that is President Trump.

[punchjudy]

Trump was brainless to go down the road of confrontation.

 

 

 

 

[Morch]

4 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

Trump likes to put down prior US administrations, and their handling of the Korea problem.

Yet, prior administrations (since Truman) kept the problem from breaking out in war.

 

Now, the US is saddled with a dunce who lowers himself to Kim's level - both of whom are itching for battle.   Kim knows that, just to survive a US onslaught, he wins.   For Trump, it's a lose-lose scenario, but not as grave as the losses of the Korean people on both sides of the fence.

 

Trump can never admit a loss or a mistake.  So, after the war (call it Korea II?) he will toss out any number of flaccid excuses and justifications, similar to how he justified how he couldn't have sexually groped the woman sitting next to him in the airplane, "Did you see her?  She wouldn't have been my first choice, believe me." 

 

 

 

I don't think that North Korea had the same capabilities (with regard to "prior US administrations"), so perhaps no an entirely correct of fair comparison. That's without ignoring Trump's bad "handling" of the crisis.