Some news briefs

1.  Former, long-term Director of National Security, James Clapper, has a new book and is giving interviews (see yesterday's post).   One topic is news that the FBI used an informant who spoke to three of Trump's campaign aides -- Carter Page, George Papadoupolis, and Sam Clovis -- because they were known as targets of Russian spies who had made overtures to try to turn them into assets.
     Of course, Trump has picked up the Fox and Friends version of this and is now in high dudgeon about Obama "implanting a spy in my campaign."   He has "demanded" that the FBI investigate this "illegal" activity, calling it "Spygate."
   FACT:   What the FBI did, during the campaign, was to warn the Trump campaign, twice, that Russians were trying to make contact with them, warning them to be careful.   Eventually, the FBI had one of their informants contact the three men individually to try to find out if they had been compromised.   The FBI informant was trying to determine what the Russians were doing, not spy on the Trump people.
     No, this is not at all the same as "embedding a spy."    Get your facts straight, Mr. President.   You're getting your base all riled up, which of course is exactly what you intend.   It's actually your desperate strategy to distract from the countless other problems emerging daily.

2.  Judy Woodruff, host of "60 Minutes," is shown in a video clip interviewing tv reporter Leslie Stahl about a meeting she once had with Donald Trump.   It was only Stahl and her boss at the network, and Trump;   so Stahl spoke informally to Trump and asked him why he continues to berate the media so harshly.
     His candid answer was (paraphrased):   I do it to demean you all so, when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you."
     Perhaps, for once, Donald Trump told the truth.    But think about what that says.   We have a president who cannot risk just letting reporters write what they observe;  he has to try to manipulate it to his advantage.

3.  Every day, new information about rampant corruption in the Trump administration becomes news.   Trump and his "tv lawyer" Giuliani have settled into this defense:    Giuliani spends his time on friendly TV news sites spreading utter confusion, incoherence, and distractions to keep from letting people hear or think about the corruption.
     Here's the latest example of the "selling of our foreign policy:"    The Ukraine government had been cooperating with the Mueller investigation and supplying important information about Paul Manafort.    That is, until Michael Cohen solicited and received a payment of $400,000 from Ukraine.    The next day, the Ukraine president had an unannounced meeting in the Oval Office with President Trump.   Shortly after, the Ukraine president cut off any further cooperation with the Mueller investigation.

4.  Michael Cohen's partner in the taxi medallion business, also under investigation, pleaded guilty and will become a cooperating witness in the Mueller investigation.    This puts even more pressure on Michael Cohen to also flip and give information about Donald Trump.

5.  In Tuesday's Democratic primary, Yale Law School graduate and former minority leader in the Georgia legislature, Stacey Abrams, won the Democratic party's nomination for the Georgia governor's race.    She is the first African-American woman ever to win a major party nomination for governor of any state.   So, if she wins the election, she will then have the distinction of being the first-ever African-American woman governor.

6.   Who knows if the Kim-Trump summit meeting would have ever taken place?   But now Trump has called it off, citing the angry tone that Kim has adopted lately -- which followed John Bolton and Mike Pence making references to Libya as the model for denuclearization.
     Libya is the worst possible model to suggest, unless you want to kill the deal, which Bolton obviously does.  Libya's Gaddafi gave up all his nuclear arms, shipped them out of the country -- and then he was deposed and ultimately hunted down and killed ignominiously.   No wonder he was angry at the reference.
     What Kim most wants is recognition and respect as a nation.   Having nuclear weapons was what he thought would gain him that, so he put everything into that goal.   Then he would be willing to accept controls, as other nuclear nations do.
     But he was not going to unilaterally give them up.   When we demanded "completely denuclearization," we meant one thing and Kim meant another -- probably something like "make no more" and accept certain amounts of inspection and control.   But never give them up.
     Now that our hawks have said that's unacceptable -- and after he had made many concessions, including releasing American prisoners -- he let his anger show.   Trump wrote Kim and cancelled the summit meeting, blaming Kim's recent angry tone.
    Former Assistant Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman, characterized Trump's letter, which he reportedly dictated himself, as sounding "like a 13 year old's break-up letter after a brief romance at summer camp."    After seeing the letter, I have to agree with her.   If you know anything at all about the careful language of diplomacy, the letter is pathetic in its juvenile tone and diction.   My only disagreement with Wendy Sherman is that she might have been over-generous to Trump's level of sophistication.
     Several analysts with experience in geopolitical diplomacy are saying that Kim Jong Un baited Trump into cancelling the summit.   Kim had made concessions, and nothing was coming back in return from Trump, whose advisers were still talking about Kim giving up all his nuclear weapons, as Libya did.   So, with no diplomatic experience himself, and with few experienced advisers Trump has blundered the whole thing.

Ralph

PS:  Here's additional proof of how reckless and dangerous Trump is.   When he cancelled the summit with Kim, dozens of western journalists -- including Americans -- were deep inside North Korea at Kim's invitation to witness the destruction of his nuclear test site.    They were completely vulnerable to any charges Kim might decide to trump up to throw them in prison.
     In addition, Trump gave no warning to either of our allies, South Korea and Japan.   South Korea's president Moon had the most to lose;  he had put his entire election and presidency into making this work.   Trump did not ever show him the courtesy of an hour's advance notice that he was going to cancel it -- despite the fact that Moon had been in the White House just two days ago for meetings with Trump.