North Korea
Is there any expert opinion out there that persuasively argues the summit was anything but a complete disaster for Trump and an enormous victory for Kim? I would genuinely like to read a contrary view. The best I’ve seen is, “At least there was no nuclear war!”
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) June 13, 2018
I have not found a satisfactory answer to Ryan Lizza’s question. It is, by the way, the same question I was asking, and it just doesn’t seem to matter where you turn: Every analyst is saying pretty much the same thing about this agreement.
Jonathan Freedland, “Trump really has achieved a historic breakthrough – for the Kim dynasty,” Guardian, June 12, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/12/trump-nuclearth-korea-kim-jong-un
Jennifer Rubin, “How Trump lost the summit before the photographers even left the room,” Washington Post, June 12, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/06/12/how-trump-lost-the-summit-before-the-photographers-even-left-the-room/
John Wagner, “Trump says North Korea ‘no longer’ a nuclear threat as he returns to Washington,” Washington Post, June 13, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-korth-korea-no-longer-a-nuclear-threat-as-he-returns-to-washington/2018/06/13/b1d69566-6ef0-11e8-bf86-a2351b5ece99_story.html
NAFTA
George Monbiot argues that the way free trade agreements are negotiated is anti-democratic,[1] probably precisely because the people know they’re getting a raw deal.
Always, always, when encountering an emotion-laden word like “free,” to which we are expected to patriotically stand up and salute, ask, “Free for whom? To do what? To whom?” With so-called “free trade” agreements, the answer isn’t any prettier than it is for so-called “free markets.”
George Monbiot, “Donald Trump was right. The rest of the G7 were wrong,” Guardian, June 13, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/13/trump-nafta-g7-sunset-clause-trade-agreement
James Comey
Erwin Chemerinsky, “Trump’s lawyers say Mueller can’t touch him. Is the president really above the law?” Sacramento Bee, June 12, 2018, http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/california-forum/article212989114.html
California
I’m still not fond of how Tim Draper would break up the state. A specific plan that would draw my support would recognize, for example, that California’s Bible Belt, that is, the Central Valley, should not be lumped in with the likes of San Francisco, Marin, and Sonoma Counties. But if you don’t like the conservative bias of the electoral college or if you don’t like the conservatism of the U.S. Senate, breaking up high-population states is the thing to do. What strikes me as interesting here is how consistently mainstream politicians reject such a solution claiming it doesn’t solve any problems—actually it helps to mitigate a huge problem of representation—which is to suggest that they don’t want people to be better represented.
Taryn Luna, “Californians to vote on splitting state three ways,” Sacramento Bee, June 12, 2018, http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article213068964.html
- [1]George Monbiot, “Donald Trump was right. The rest of the G7 were wrong,” Guardian, June 13, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/13/trump-nafta-g7-sunset-clause-trade-agreement↩