CSotD: A Fine Bromance
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Jeff Danziger comments on the upcoming talks between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, and if you have wondered how far off the mark the Trump Amateur Hour can wander, this is a pretty good example, because the State Department has been hemorrhaging unreplaced talent faster than the White House and, while a meeting like this would normally take months to set up … well, we don't do things "normally" anymore.
There's barely anyone around who knows anything about North Korea, which may be why the meeting is happening in the first place: North Korea has often invited US Presidents to come visit, but none of them — Democrat or Republican — has ever thought it was a good idea.
I suppose the positive take is that not much is likely to come from the meeting. Kim is not going to give up his nuclear program, which he is convinced is what stands between him and the fate of Gaddaffi who, you may recall, did.
And, in any case, what difference would it make if we did have people to prepare for these talks? If Dear Leader listened to his advisers, the talks wouldn't even be happening.
Last time, Dennis Rodman went over there.
But we couldn't find as credible a representative of our nation, so we're sending Trump.
If nothing else, it's produced a flood of cartoons. Here are my Top Three:
Kal is hardly the only cartoonist to draw two babies facing off, but, first of all, this is where his obsessive detail elevates a cartoon. Simple drawings of two babies seem more like graffiti than commentary, but he's able to capture their spoiled, demanding personalities beyond the facile "baby" insult.
Replacing that wall with a boardroom table and bringing them face to face will only emphasize that, beyond their spoiled petulance, they don't share a lot of common ground and — despite that puckishly sarcastic caption — nobody really expects anything to come from this meeting except more of their usual slop and mess.
Steve Sack features a neat, clear table, but with a warning about the risks of letting two of the world's least self-governed leaders sit at it.
It's less, I think, a caution about how this pair of irascible nincompoops could set off a nuclear holocaust at their meeting than a reminder that, as amusing as putting them in a room might seem, it's serious business and we shouldn't sit back and treat it as some kind of bizarre comedy show.
The reason other presidents have turned down invitations to Pyongyang is that the US has nothing to gain: North Korea gets (finally!) the recognition it wants, the legitimacy a presidential visit suggests. The US gets … what?
Kim might make enough promises to persuade Trump to lift sanctions, but it will simply be a chance for him to restock the larder and take pressure off himself. He won't actually dismantle any nukes, and, while Trump could come out crowing over the great victory he has achieved, he could also stomp out and start throwing more insults Kim's way, providing yet another humiliating spectacle for the world to gasp and snicker over.
Marian Kamensky points out the most distressing aspect of this foolishness, which is, first of all, Trump's fawning admiration of "strong leadership," by which he means leaders who do not accept the limitations imposed on them by legislators or a constitution, and, second of all, the way Kim is playing him.
It's not often Kim is depicted as the person in confident control, but Trump's naive acceptance of the invitation is consistent with his refusal to criticize his Godfather in Moscow, his envy of Xi's hopes of being president for life and his enthusiastic embrace of both Xi and Dutarte's killing of suspected drug dealers.
His confusion of dictatorial extremism with "decisiveness" is as toxic as those little mushrooms he and Kim have in their baskets and that are springing up all around them.
I have no great roundup conclusion to all this. We'll have to watch and see.
But my expectations of what Trump will do next are falling: Last night was very strange, with emails and tweets saying "Are you watching this?" as Dear Leader went careening off the rails before a cheering crowd in Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, Pat Bagley scores with a cartoon that reminds me of what my father said about the steel industry: How his generation returned from WWII, moved up into the executive tower and then pulled up the ladder and failed to groom their successors.
Despite our saying "Don't trust anyone over 30," my generation had old heroes like Dr. Spock and Bucky Fuller and we listened to them. But we didn't try to put our grandparents in office, and the politicians who came up with us are, today, simply too old for the job, despite AARP's insistence that 90-year-olds can all still run marathons and summit Everest.
One of the reasons I was enthusiastic about Bernie was that I figured he'd get the ball rolling and then quit after four years because he'd be too damn old to run in 2020.
These fading Democrat legends need to start getting the Tammy Duckworths and Cory Bookers and Adam Schiffs ready for the race and stop hogging it for themselves.
The kids in Florida are ready to support someone, but let's not use the term "viable" literally; When the crowd chants "four more years" it shouldn't be encouragement to keep breathing just a little longer.
As the World Turns
The world turned a little faster for a moment last night, and Arlo and Janis mark the start of Daylight Saving Time.
My alarm self-corrected at 2 am and rang at what sure felt early, but apparently somebody at King Features was less successful in handling the change, because Comics Kingdom is showing last Sunday's strips.
It was "spring forward," folks, and only an hour, not a week.
If they haven't fixed it yet, try Arcamax.
Get out from the covers
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