@cteavin:
@Frederick:
@flozen:
Separately, I'm concerned about his recent moves to "play to the base," including the push for puritanical religious freedoms that are rolling back LGBT protections:
Now, when you mash these ideas together, and I see Trump feeding on the adulation from his core supporters for these recent "victories," I feel some unease that he will, on the topic of preemptive war with North Korea, think about pleasing the base one more time:
If anybody can explain what lesbians have to do with North Korea, let me know.
What Flozen is saying is that Trump's base, which includes the religious right a.k.a. people who are gunning for the gays, wants Trump to escalate the situation with North Korea as diplomacy has only enabled Kim. Flozen, I assume, is anti-war and would like to prevent the deaths of countless North/South Koreans. (There's no chance of N. Korea attacking the US, though they could have spies who could cause some mayhem.)
Meanwhile, over here in Tokyo, there's very little fuss over the Korea situation. Generally, people seem happy with the tougher stance as no one seems convinced that Kim will actually attack anyone. The news analysis seems to agree that people are happy with Abe's policies towards North Korea (siding with Trump) while all of my students want negotiations.
Me? I've had flashbacks to the early 80's and see the whole thing as bravado, not much different from when Regan and Gorbachev were in a war of words and justification for more military spending.
Flozen is against anything Trump does.
As for negotiating with North Korea… what is there to negotiate? They already have nukes, they already have ICBMS that can reach any city in the USA within 40 minutes of launch. Kim Jung Un has repeatedly said he will attack US cities, Guam, and sink Japan into the ocean. At what point do we stop North Korea? AFTER they kill millions of people and disrupt the economy of the world? Already, North Korea is victimizing millions of people... it's OWN citizens in North Korea, and South Korea. I'm glad that Japan is so confident that the USA will protect them, but consider this.. Kim Jung Un doesn't even need an ICBM to nuke Japan.. he can simply load a nuclear bomb on to a plane or one of his standard rockets and faster than you can say "Hiroshima" POOF! Kim has ALREADY sent 2 missiles flying over Japan in the last year.
Again.. negotiation... to negotiate what? NK has already said it will not negotiate with any country other than the USA.. and now they say they will not negotiate with the USA either. (there is nothing to negotiate).