From: slider@nanashram.com

Donald Trump on Friday went further to turn the crisis over North Korea
into a personal battle of wills between him and Kim Jong-un, warning the
North Korean leader he would “truly regret” hostile acts against US territory or US allies.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/11/donald-trump-north-korea-tweet-military-locked-loaded

The warning came a few hours after an early morning tweet from the
president that claimed US military options were “locked and loaded” for
use if Pyongyang “acted unwisely”.

The tweet triggered worldwide alarm and a rebuke from the German
chancellor, Angela Merkel, who said: “I consider an escalation of rhetoric the wrong answer.”

But Trump stood by his words when asked about them at his golf resort in
New Jersey.

“I hope they are going to fully understand the gravity of what I said, and what I said is what I mean,” Trump said. “Those words are very, very easy to understand.”

He then issued an ultimatum to Kim Jong-un himself. “This man will not get away with what he’s doing,” he said. “If he utters one threat in form of overt threat – which, by the way, he’s been uttering for years – or if he does anything in respect to Guam or anyplace else that’s an American territory or an American ally, he will truly regret it.”

The North Korean leadership has warned it will launch four missiles at the waters around US Pacific territory of Guam as a warning to the US if it persists with its practice sorties by long-range bombers based on the
island.

Despite gung-ho language from the US president, there was no change in US deployments in the region or a change in the alert status of US forces.
And it was reported on Friday that the Trump administration had reopened a channel of communication between US and North Korean diplomats at the UN.

According to the Associated Press, the “New York channel” had been broken off by North Korea in protest against sanctions in 2016, but it was
revived this year between Joseph Yun, the US envoy for North Korea policy,
and Pak Song-il, a senior North Korean diplomat at the country’s UN
mission.

The US state department said it had no comment on the report. It had
previously been reported that there had been diplomatic contacts about US detainees in North Korea, but the new AP account said the talks addressed
wider issues, although such contacts had so far failed to moderate the
exchange of threats between the leaders of the two countries.

Asked about the report on Friday, Trump said: “Well, we don’t want to talk about progress, we don’t want to talk about backchannels.

“We want to talk about a country that has misbehaved for many many years – decades, actually – through numerous administrations, and they didn’t want to take on the issue and I had no choice but to take it on, and I’m taking
it on. And we’ll either be very, very successful quickly or we’re going to be very, very successful in a different way, quickly.”

more...

### - knock that twig off my shoulder and see what happens?? (lol)

in which case: can kimmy keep HIS big mouth shut! (or we're gonna shut it
for him?)

"overt" threat, however, tends to suggest any 'actual' threat as opposed
to just bad-mouthing each other, but US patience is obviously wearing
thin... would rockets 'around' guam (as opposed to actually hitting it) be enough to kick things off?

would the US even 'wait' to see if those rockets actually hit guam or
landed just around it??

am thinking: we're gonna hit him! and if the idiot even 'twitches like
he's gonna retaliate it'll be used as an excuse to flatten them completely!

we had to do it! he was going for the nuclear trigger!

we couldn't take the risk!

and besides, it's too late now for recriminations about whether he was
going for it or not, the jobs already been done? oop's, no more nk!

problem is... IF he launches those 4 rockets at guam, we probably wont
know anything about it until AFTER nk has been literally wiped off the
map??

anything could happen in the next half hour!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

Even our EU ally Germany is telling us... please don't talk
like that. If we do *start* a fire-fight after all that bluster,
we will lose the high-ground in the eyes of most of the world.

The Security Council voted 15-0 on the latest sanctions against NK.
So the U.S. doesn't have to play the bad guy.

Here's the reason nothing happened for 8 years, but now it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qngeq0vu2sU

For eight years Obama kept everything relatively peaceful,
even dealing with NK.

Obama thought the world had already tried my idea of being kind
to NK - and he had been through many nuances of strategy. I'm not
sure he tried being *kind* strongly enough, though. Obama, for all
of his skill may merely have held the line at "being stern and firm"
yet even "always ready to extend a hand if you play by the rules",
and thus he never tried going all the way to "radical kindness",
admittedly a radical position.

Trump is like... "none of it's worked, so now let's have some shit!"
But see, if Trump appears to START that shit, then we'll still
become the bad guy in the eyes of many world nations.

What's the way out? Now that Trump already shot his mouth off?
Can we get out of this with just "two assholes yelling dumb stuff
at each other for 3 more years"? :)

Sad, but the first thing that occurs to me is that Trump might
deceptively "trump up" some 'reason' why we need to attack NK -
i.e. he might stage some event that could be pinned on NK.
We could then fight, and also deceptively hold the 'high ground'.
And that involves going to war.

But is there an honest way out?

One way would be for Trump to just shut up, and be very calm
(like Obama used to be) as Kim Jong Un makes his next threat or two.
That would stand out because Trump the hot-head would be doing it.

Then Kim Jong Un would again be the guy who wouldn't put his dick away.

Next, we could secretly talk with the other 14 Security Council
members who all voted for sanctions - saying: "hey, what can we do
with this wild man - I'm open to your suggestions?"

If Trump really knew how to set up a smart deal, he'd do that.
But he doesn't. So this great strategy is out, simply because
realistically, Trump will not do it.

The other 'honest way' is to turn the other cheek and go 360
over to radical kindness. But I know Trump couldn't do that.
That is even more out of the realm of reality. It might work,
but realistically, no one will try it.

So, I'm hoping Trump will just shut up and be cool for awhile.
Yet... IS Trump even capable of just shutting up and being cool?
Sorry, no. Again, that is too much to hope for, realistically.

The odds thang gave may be right.

But there's still the option above where we just let two jerks
keep hollering at each other every 3-4 months for the next 3 years. :)
Maybe that's the best we can realistically hope for, besides war.
So my hopes realistically rest on Trump being content just to have
a 3-year tweet war with Kim Jong Un?

It seems like quite a long shot but it would be better than war.
I can't see it realistically happening either. Damn.

If we do go to war - bringing "fire and fury the likes of which
the world has never seen" - then I really fucking hope Kim Jong Un
doesn't manage to nuke LA before we take out his nukes.

Twice I've dreamed of dying in a nuclear war.
If I wasn't tied to this place by my partner's family,
I'd probably get the hell out of here. :)

Maybe asshole Kim's new nukes will fail somehow. Geez.
Another slim hope to be left grasping.

I am very glad my son has moved to the middle of Oregon.

If I do go down in all the fire and fury, I am grateful
for all of the amazing life I was privileged to live. :)

In mocking tones:

Farewell, my fellow Americans. It is such a great honor to
die because Donald Trump became president and started a war
with some asshole. It is certainly completely worth it to
have my life end over some giant idiotic cock fight over
essentially nothing. It's just another of the wonderful gifts
involved in "making America great again".

Fuck, I'd even take an imaginary Jesus as president at this point,
over Donald Trump. The two toddlers of the world are holding the rest
of it at ransom. Is that really a thing worth DYING over?

Stand down. Either shut up and be cool, pretending to be like Barry,
or do a stupid tweet war until you're impeached. Pretty please?

Low Rider, don't you want to get some hallucinatory weirdness
in here at this point? LOL. :)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)