The Patriot Post® · A North Korean Miracle?
What is coming out of North Korea has been nothing short of extraordinary — handshake photo ops; intent to formally end the Korean War; statements of goals to denuclearize the Peninsula; and even Kim Jong-un stepping across the border. No one could have predicted this when only a couple months ago Kim was firing off missiles, threatening Guam, and bragging about having his finger on a button that could annihilate the U.S. What happened?
As with most complex negotiations, probably a combination of things. A receptive South Korean president and the Olympics helped, but the key players have always been Trump and China. If you listen to the media, the Chinese have been marginalized and virtually cut out of the negotiations. And that has so upset them that they will torpedo any deal out of spite just to stick it to the arrogant guy who caused them to lose face. But it is far more likely that China has been in the thick of things all along and was playing its own game with its own best interests in mind, and that was far more nuanced. There is still a huge gap between cup and lip here, and it is entirely possible that the U.S. is being played by Kim, in the grand tradition of North Korea’s manipulation of several prior administrations. But it is equally possible that we are on the verge of a major breakthrough, and the key factor in changing that calculus in simply Trump.
But I have a prediction. In the last couple of weeks we have seen Kim make unilateral concessions. He first said he would suspend missile tests, and more recently he said he would stop his nuclear weapons research and development. Give Kim credit — he spun this as a logical outcome of the fact that he has so advanced his nuclear program that no further testing was necessary. But today we find out, courtesy of a report from two Chinese scientists, that recent North Korean nuclear tests had caused the collapse of a mountain and tunnel system, which destroyed Kim’s testing facilities. Worse though, radiation may have escaped from the area, which just happens to be right up against the China-North Korea border — a potential health and environmental disaster for China. Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that Kim’s latest posture changed just after the collapse and that China was behind it all.
Back to the prediction. Anyone who has any experience in negotiations knows that they never go exactly according to plan. Things pop up that can cut both ways, and the key to success is how you build on any gifts you might have been handed or mitigate any surprise negatives. But it always serves to prove the old adage that it’s better to be lucky than smart. If good things emerge from the Trump-Kim summit, there will the usual postmortem of how things unfolded. I have no doubt that the ultimate negotiator, Trump, will find a way to optimize the mountain collapse and China’s enhanced role in the process. His prior demeanor may have set the stage, but taking full advantage of the new circumstances may help close the deal. But watch the Democrats/media spin any victory as pure luck, with the arrogant certainty that Trump would never have succeeded without Mother Nature intervening.
The last holdout in the resistance wars appears to be caving, and that would be the judicial system. In an ideal world, we could expect judges to be non-political and impartial, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that we do not live in that world. A quick read of the Supreme Court presentations on the Trump travel ban makes the point. The vast majority of the judge’s questioning focused on the small percentage of the worldwide Muslim population that was impacted, completely undermining the argument that the ban was a religious one. More cited the absurdity of using campaign rhetoric as opposed to the actual language of the order. The plaintiffs even admitted that if Trump withdrew his prior statements, they would withdraw the suit. And speaking of the plaintiffs, lest we forget, the state of Hawaii was on the suit, given standing for the ridiculous rationale that a travel ban aimed at select terrorist-oriented countries would irreparably damage Hawaiian tourism.
This is merely a delay tactic to make all things Trump more difficult to implement. Everyone involved knows full well the supremes will overturn the lower court rulings against the ban. That should not be the role of the judiciary, but in the age of the Resistance, here we are.
The DACA ruling the other day is also being cited as a comparable example of a judiciary run amok, but I don’t see them as identical. The DACA merry-go-round is more likely Exhibit A of DC dysfunction. A summary review of the bidding had Obama issuing an order to put DACA in effect after Congress didn’t act. Obama did this in spite of his numerous proclamations that he did not have the authority to impose DACA, and any attempt would be unconstitutional. In imposing the order Obama also bypassed what is known as the Administrative Procedures Act, which requires explanation of the rationales and time for debate and comment on any similar order. Trump acknowledged that the DACA order was unconstitutional and issued his own order rescinding Obama’s and giving Congress six months to fix it, as was the appropriate constitutional route prescribed by law. Time ran out with Congress doing zero, and DACA was about to be eliminated.
Then along came a legal challenge. What is often left unreported in these things is who brought the suit. In this case, one of the plaintiffs is — ready for this? — Princeton University on the theory that denying the DACA kids the right to stay in the U.S. would be a detriment to higher education. Some district court judge thought this was okay to grant standing. Amazing. A few days ago, another judge found for the plaintiffs, deciding not only that current DACA kids can stay but ordering the Trump administration to accept new applications. The order was stayed for 90 days, and the judge gave Team Trump a road map to reverse it if it could comply with the APA and provide a rationale. It’s likely that will be rather easy to do, so expect a reversal. Apparently, it’s more Resistance-inspired delay.
The only escape clause for the judge is that while the double standard is obvious (Obama never complied with the APA, so why should Trump have to in canceling Obama’s order?), the only case in front of him was Trump’s, and technically Team Trump did not comply with the APA — amateur hour all the way around. However, it’s not a complete pass for the judge because the endgame is pretty clear, and he didn’t have to play stickler for an APA technicality. Maybe only a two-star Resistance rating.
Speaking of amateur hour, I give you the VA fiasco. As a results-oriented kind of guy, I think everyone has the process backwards. One would hope that goals for the VA would have been specified, and the new leader would have been chosen on the basis of being the best guy to achieve those goals. That’s usually the way business does it — provide a job description to recruiters and judge candidates accordingly. But all we get from Trump on the VA is that we have to do better. I realize that the VA is a huge political football, with a 350,000-person bureaucracy and facilities in scores of congressional districts. But politics has consistently overtaken concern for vets, and fixing that should be job one.
It’s no secret that I am in favor of guaranteeing vets gold-plated health care coverage that they could use anywhere and selling the VA system, letting it rise or fall as a private organization competing with everyone else. But ceding control over that large a bureaucracy is unthinkable to most pols. They will do literally anything not to let that option even get out of the starting gate. That’s exactly what happened to Ronny Jackson — he was destroyed by leaks of drinking, creating a hostile work environment, and kicking puppies. He withdrew his name shortly after. Now Trump is not free of blame here. He never laid out his goals for the VA nor the credentials of who should lead it. He acknowledged that Jackson had no management experience but tried to float the ridiculous rationale that folks with vast organization experience had failed at the VA, so why not try something new? Not exactly a McKinsey-style management process.
But that in no way justified the very public lynching of Jackson based on anonymous sources before he even had a chance to testify in confirmation hearings. I agree that Jackson was woefully unqualified to run the VA, but it would have been far better for a confirmation hearing to focus on goals and credentials, not innuendo on personal matters. I find it very hard to believe that the guy who is the immediate provider of health care for three presidents would not have passed numerous background checks. Why would any president be willing to give the guy responsible for saving his life in an emergency a pass if he was that big of a screwup? This was all about the Resistance not letting the nomination get off the ground, both because he was Trump’s guy and because the Resistance didn’t want to take the risk of what direction Jackson would have taken with the VA, certainly at Trump’s behest.
Just the latest example of DC being more interested in playing politics than solving problems and the media’s role in destroying real humans in the process. In this case, everyone loses, but especially the vets. Disgraceful all the way around.