Sorry, I'm late.
I had to stop by the Whites Museum again and get the fingered at FDR We know Al-Qaeda, Zawahiri is supporting the opposition in Syria.
Are we supporting Al-Qaeda in Syria?
It's a proud day for America And by that we've kicked Vietnam syndrome once and for all.
Thank you very very much I say it, I say it again, you've been hacked You've been took.
You've been hoodwinked These witnesses are trying to simply deny things that just about everybody else accepts as fact He came, he saw, he died.
We ain't killing they army, but we killing them We be on CNN like say our names, been saying, saying three times The meeting of the largest armies in the history of the world, then there's going to be an invasion All right you guys, introducing our good friend Sheldon Richman, this is our new again Friday thing He writes a column every Friday, TGIF, the goal is freedom and this one is called Trump, North Korea and Iran and of course Sheldon is my partner, the editor managing something title My guy at the Libertarian Institute, libertarianinstitute.org.
Welcome back Sheldon.
How you doing?
I'm doing fine.
Good to be back.
Thanks.
Hey, man, I'm glad you write such great stuff all the time You make for a great measuring stick about what's right and wrong I think Listen, so I like the way you put it here anti-Trumplandia and philo-Trumplandia These two warring factions in America right now and you say that You're nowhere near the two.
You're right in the middle Separate and opposed to both of those.
So what's a guy like you then think about Trump's trip to Singapore?
Well overall I'm happy about it.
I got worried when he canceled it and I was you know worried when before that he was threatening fire and fury so given this particular Situation the fact that we were at war in North Korea from 50 to 53 and basically leveled that place And never concluded an actual peace treaty or a non-aggression pact It I'm glad to see that finally changing presidents before Trump should have done this They should have done a long time ago.
The faltering steps toward this were usually were sabotaged by the American side because the hardliners conservatives who Who You know said we can't deal with a communist dictator.
It's okay to deal with a whole bunch of South Korean dictators You know, they didn't really get democracy to a late 1987 or something.
We were happy to South Korean dictators So I was glad he's funny sitting down and there's talk about Changing the state of war which continues to exist It's just an armistice armistice, which means there's not really a state of peace between the two countries we need that and I was extremely happy when he said he was going to be cancelling the Rehearsals for war like what how we call these war games or war exercises, but they're not really games and they're not doing crunches So they're not exercises.
They're practicing war practicing invasion and nuking of North Korea And for Trump to call them provocative he didn't need to learn that word from from Kim I saw one one progressive critic of Trump say boy that were provocative that he used I bet he heard that a lot during his meetings with Kim Well, I think even Trump could have figured that word out for himself if if I don't know name your hostile power Of your choice, you know, I can imagine it, you know, what would a neocon be saying if Russia and Mexico were practicing?practicing Directly parroting the brainwashing of Kim jong-un's mind control over him.
So what he's still right at that point Of course, it's provocative as you're saying and it was the big it was the very least he could do I mean, where's the end of the sanctions and all that stuff?
Just stopping these these war exercises.
It's the very least for one thing Look from the point of view of the hardliners the Hawks here It's not like it's irreversible and even he said they'll resume if they don't do what they're supposed to do.
So The fact that even among progressives is being reported as the stunning Concession with nothing in return as if you couldn't take it back tomorrow if he wanted to I hope he doesn't I wish it were Irreversible, but the fact is it's not and the way they're running around in a panic everybody from John McCain to make Rachel Maddow It's it's just a hilarious what they're doing.
Of course, it's also tragic.
So it's hard to really laugh at but Unbelievable how they are so deranged that they cannot recognize with the honorable exception of Bernie Sanders They cannot recognize and maybe one or two others that I'm not aware of they cannot recognize that This is a good thing.
It could go bad.
Who knows what Trump's gonna do tomorrow?
He could wake up in a bad mood or whatever.
But right now this is good.
He was threatening fire and fury Like though, you know like they'd never seen before which is gonna be pretty bad because I saw a lot of fire and fury from 50 to 53 they leveled every town in the place and poured more jellied gasoline Napalm on those people then they then they dropped on the Vietnam Unbelievable and more bombs than the Pacific theater of World War two from the u.s.
So this is a good thing Now Trump, of course also has to add his usual Disgusting twist to it.
So they put out this ridiculous video, which was very patronizing to to Kim Actually, it was like lecturing him.
Will you grasp the hand of peace?
And of course, that's Trump's hand and all that so it was a cheesiest thing it looked like a Look like a trailer for an upcoming movie And then also he's got a pray, you know, he didn't have to praise What's his name Kim as this great strong leader?
I just was watching a video where he's chatting with a reporter or somebody a reporter said do you think?
Kim will come to the White House and he's saying you can see him.
It's him.
You hear his voice.
He says, oh, yeah He should come to the White House after all He's a leader of a country and he's at this I'm quoting him and he's a tough leader when he speaks people sit up I wish that would happen here with me So what why he has to add all this other baggage is ridiculous, but the core thing I don't care I like it.
I think he should just completely flatter Kim to death.
I mean, what do we got to lose?
You know, I mean, he's the greatest leader Korea's ever seen like who cares that everybody knows that that's not true If it makes Kim feel good and it leads to the end of the war and I was signing of a peace treaty.
Who cares?
Rub right there on TV man I'll accept that That's my thing.
But the key thing is to not go to war with North Korea, which would be a horrible for people in that region I know Lindsey Graham said well, it's not so bad.
It'll all be over there not here You know exactly sign on to the Lindsey Graham Calculation that if it's a bunch of Asians who die Oh, yeah a few Americans do but if it's a bunch of Asians that die then yeah, it's not our homeland by the way our half Korean anarchist friend Anthony Gregory told me that he thought that video was really perfect for appealing to a North Korean Sensibility and to Kim and that that was that he was surprised that it was like the most competent thing He'd seen the National Security Council.
They couldn't imagine that came out of the White House But that that was really good Clearly, you know, it looked like um Welcome.
This is your training video at the new your corporation that you just got hired to or something kind of production value, but Apparently that's you know about right, you know what to be Peace and wonderful economic development Like for like a sort of lower production value movie right like a b-movie trailer almost, you know Yeah I mean, I guess in that sense good production But pictures were nice and you know, lots of good photography pictures from the devastation after the war which people don't know about America You know Americans don't know that they leveled that country.
That was a much more urbanized country than North Vietnam So in North Vietnam, the destruction was, you know, mostly rural area, but there was much Many more, you know sort of can't let you bring that up, you know, I've been seeing more and more recognition of that But in place of no recognition of that whatsoever So I think a lot of people probably have never been exposed to that I mean, I know that my entire education about the Korean War my whole lifetime was You know Hawkeye and Radar O'Reilly and all this kind of thing and and they never you know The horror of war on an individual level they did make clear sometimes on that show But they never made it clear that you know over those hills You have no idea the devastation going on that our Air Force is delivering to these people There's certainly no recognition of that and and nowhere.
I mean, you know what I mean?
Like there are movies about Vietnam There are no movies about the Korean War Certainly not like anti-war movies about the Korean War that would make a point like that So we just don't know about it But so then go ahead and elaborate like you were saying again They drop more bombs on North Korea than what?
Then in the US dropped in the Pacific there during World War two The other thing is they had moved Truman had moved nukes You know the a-bomb to to North Korea They decided it wasn't practical for some reason but there was there is evidence of biological warfare It's you know, very very horrible brutal Savage tactics by the US and for what for what?
The communists that we're gonna take over the United States no, but nobody believed that except maybe you know some Uninformed Americans who were fed this stuff by by the US government but I don't believe anybody in the US government believe the communists were going to take over the United States if What Gus Hall was gonna engineer a coup if if Korea fell if North Korea?dominated South Korea It's so that yeah, it was ridiculous they wouldn't even call it a war Of course Truman called it a police action and didn't even ask for Congress's Declaration and you have some great people back then who would have opposed it Robert Taft You know what is known as the old right those old Republican people who didn't like interventionism I thought foreign interventionism was just caused created enemies For the United States they there were men of great sense They were sort of in some respects the wrong wrong polls of their day.
Yeah.
Well, you know people can find quotes from Curtis LeMay and from McNamara himself Saying that I mean, I'm sorry.
Well McNamara is one of them too, but MacArthur is who I meant to say That I think it's MacArthur who says that he almost puked or something when he saw just the absolute Devastation just burnt they killed two million people.
I was all with their power Like I'm saying the carpet bombing of cities like this burning men women and children death They say napalm and that's the brand name jellied gasoline.
How do you like that for a way to die?
I have some of that Article that's linked in this current article that that I did earlier on about North Korea I back I guess when Trump.
Yeah when Trump was threatening fire and fury because I think the title was something like The North Koreans know something about fire and fury.
So there's quotes in there from MacArthur Yeah, and that was testifying before Congress.
I believe well, you know McNamara In the fog of war he talks about World War two Korea and Vietnam And didn't he say something like we're war criminals if we lose we'd be more criminal.
That's right.
Yeah No, they knew they knew it.
They knew it and just for anybody to say and you'll even hear libertarians say this that they believed that The u.s.
Was going to be you know drowned in this in the sea of red flowing across the world if the North Koreans Beat South Korea, it's just It makes no sense.
They did not the policymakers did not believe that please first of all, we know now that they knew That they they understood that the Russian military was a was a Potemkin village It was a shell of its what it actually appeared to put it what it would it appeared to be in other words they knew the Soviets were weak and And we're gonna be able to do anything with respect to Western Europe Well, and it's Gareth Porter says about Vietnam it the whole problem here is in fact the exact opposite it's that the America that it's the perils of dominance that the Americans knew that they Overmatched the Soviets and the Chinese combined by so much that they thought that we can do whatever we want and we can Expand our sphere of influence to keep them out and keep us dominant wherever we want and they can't stop us They wouldn't dare oppose us The Chinese wouldn't dare send their volunteer army across the border to keep us away from the Yalu River They wouldn't dare, you know oppose us in Vietnam fact Well, anyway, that's what it is.
The perils of dominance.
That's the name of Gareth Porter's book about Vietnam They're too powerful.
And so all they do is dig graves for everybody The Chinese didn't get involved with North Vietnam until the u.s.
Already made incursions over though over the the line over the border Into China, that's Korea.
I mean in my in that earlier article, which is linked to this current article so anyway Given all that and there's not a there's not been a formal end to that to that war and the u.s You know backed out of basically it backed out of the few deals.
They began to enter into with North Korea under Clinton and under Bush The question is why should Kim trust the United States not why should the u.s.
Trust can't but I guess he's got to do that because I get you know, I guess he doesn't like the idea of being excluded from the world economy and and so he's looking to Accomplish something in that regard even even if it's own for his own prestige.
I'm not saying he I'm not buying the Trump line that he you know, he loves his people.
I mean, we don't need to go there, but He clearly wants this and The only thing he'd ever get out of a nuke would be a deterrent anyway I mean, he'd know he'd never use it in any offensive way.
He and he's not suicidal.
So Right.
I don't know what I can't understand it.
Well, I can't understand it.
It's this Trump derangement business Where you have all these people who if Obama were doing this they'd be praising, you know, Obama to high heaven and Demanding he get another Nobel Prize, but they can't acknowledge it because it's Trump, right?
And you know They're the same people who go look Sean Hannity is a hypocrite because he would have opposed this if it was Obama, but all they're saying is I'm Sean Hannity now Right.
No, no, that's a mirror image.
That's absolutely true Republicans if Obama was doing this the Democrats and the progressives would be saying how great he is and the Republicans would be I'd really Don't understand this.
I mean, I know partisanship and people pick their teams, but it just to me it comes so natural to hate all presidents and support all peace talks Like why should that bend your brain?
Oh my god, the dissonance that this horrible president who should be fed to dogs for what he's doing in Yemen Is doing a good thing in Korea because they're not for peace rug.
That's easy They're not for peace Did they ever criticize Obama for?
You know all the bombings of civilians and drones and kill this was a good meeting where they drew up the kill list They all went to government school where they learned that only Americans have rights and other humans don't really count That's where I learned that government.
That's a big part of it, too.
And the reaction to go back to the reaction to Trump's, you know saying that the the war exercises will end It's funny.
I mean I saw I put it up on Facebook a quote from a high-ranking Pentagon official under Obama Robert work I think his name is saying something like any day when the u.s.
Cancels, you know, we're Exercises near your border near the border of China or Russia is a good day for them I mean what kind of self What's the self-absorbed?
National, you know, it's a sort of a nationalist narcissist You know, it's a sort of a nationalist Narcissism, right?
They don't look at they don't even realize other people out there What what counts what counts is?
Yeah, it's gonna be a good day for Russia and China if we're gonna call off these exercises, you know It's in their neighborhood, right?
Meanwhile something wrong with that Something wrong with being relieved that those exercises are going to stop right?
And meanwhile guess who else is into it the entire population of South Korea like 88 And they even I guess coincidentally, uh had local elections across South Korea where the current left-wing president's party Absolutely cleaned up and swept in a massive public endorsement of their triumph here And you know what?
I mean think about this for I mean, I know you already said it But I gotta emphasize again how huge this is, you know as David Stockman put in his article This is finally the end of the cold war It doesn't matter all these details about whether They have all the specifics about how the npt is going to be enforced in north korea now or any of these things The point is they shook hands the point is that You know like when nixon went and shook hands with Mao Zedong that You know, they didn't solve all their problems right then and there on the spot They just said you know what let's stop being enemies and let's work on all our problems together from now on Which has worked and which has been great for everybody so I don't know.
It just seems like This isn't just good.
This is great.
This is a history of the world man.
This is a huge important Imagine a foreign policy event we're talking about that's actually positive Right and like you said a year ago, we're talking about maybe nuclear war here And instead of encouraging him you have all these people McCain of course said, uh, oh, it's a bad mistake to not have these, uh, exodus war rehearsals It'll affect our it's bad for our national security.
McCain says when is he just gonna shut up?
Yeah, well, and of course the other part of his statement was and they and we get nothing in return Which of course isn't true.
We got prisoners back.
We got the they uh destroyed their missile testing site and their nuclear testing site They've sworn no more rocket tests or nuclear tests of any kind in the meantime and They got a handshake out of it.
They got a Smashing of the ice here, but who cares if they got nothing in return anyway Yeah, exactly.
See this is one thing about it Something in return when we get something if we cancel those war games or war exercises We that's what we got in return, right?
Yeah, and of course that's the whole thing about it Right is all the begged questions here about just what right the usa has to demand anything of the north koreans in the first place You know on any issue And and and here we have everything to give Nothing really to lose except that in the words of in the blatant words of these think tankers on twitter and on npr news And whatever that we could lose our excuse to keep our troops there And if we don't have a reason to keep our troops there, then we'd have to pull them out of there And the keeping of them there is its own self-evident good that need never be explained Um that that's all so we have everything to give we have nothing to lose and we have no right to make any demands In the first place.
It seems like we can afford to be pretty magnanimous here Right.
I like what uh, jeff st.
Clair wrote on counterpunch today Trump he quotes trump saying the world was taking a big step back from potential nuclear catastrophe.
No more rocket launches nuclear testing or research and then so uh, st.
Clair Comments let's not get carried away.
Donald the u.s Hasn't agreed to stop testing rockets or halt nuclear testing or research while kim is denuclearizing You're building a new generation of nuclear weapons keeping the world pretty much on the brink of nuclear catastrophe Which reminds me there was a story the other day about how many what is it hundreds of them?
Us warheads land and sea are on hair trigger alert Yeah At this moment, why why why aren't people in the streets about that instead?
They're progressives just are so screwed up.
They'd rather complain about citizens united Like that's the root of all evil if we only just get that overturned everything'd be great and yet they ignore all this stuff and it's just unbelievable while they're complaining even about the The the jeff sessions snatching kids away from their mothers and sticking them into detention centers Yep, maybe well, I'll tell you what, you know read dan ellsberg's book the doomsday machine And uh about these nuclear war plans, of course, it's just like any other plan It's all written out on some piece of paper that's already got a stamp of approval on it and so in the event of x you open up to tab three and You you follow through with the plan and whatever and in so many of the cases virtually all of them.
It means genocidal Extinction campaigns against the entire population centers of russia and china That and it used to be automatic no matter what happens if it's just one nuke gets dropped in in east germany somewhere in west germany somewhere america would then Destroy every single city in the ussr and china.
That's what the war plan used to be They actually it was dan ellsberg who changed it to will only kill You know a few hundred million not a few billion in the first week here or whatever just Yeah, when it comes to how these things go It's all it's it's he calls it omnicide This is a brand new thing the the ability of the americans and particularly of course the russians to to destroy Civilizations certainly all of northern human civilization for centuries and maybe all civilization, you know, maybe all of humanity That's I don't know where the priorities are of these People were criticizing trump nearly for sitting down with him Yeah, it's great.
And you know, in fact jill laurie had this great piece where um, he quotes the democrats and the new york times On nixon's return from shaking hands with mao zedong and all they did was praise him Right the whole the and ever since then right the narrative has been only nixon can go to china And why because if any democrat had done it nixon would have called him a communist Right, so he was the only one who could go and do it But then and then the idea being no one could attack him from the right.
He's richard freaking nixon, right?
But then so here's donald trump supposedly the most right-wing president ever what have you if according to these guys and that's no protection from them attacking him from the right for selling out america to the Interests of the north koreans or as you mentioned in the case of maddow and them Uh trying to spin this all about its benefits to the russians Well, and it just goes to show you look they despise nixon those people they despised him and yet they weren't Deranged in the way they are with trump.
They still could look at the trip to china with clear eyes And say yeah, it's about time You know We got off this war footing with china and they were willing to give nixon credit as much as they despise them But things the way things have changed I don't know if it's only particular to trump or just some more general thing in the political culture But they're incapable of looking past trump And and seeing this uh for the for the good that it is so they they can't give him any credit the only time look let's this is this says a lot the only time trump's gotten any kind of credit or respect from uh, Progressive types i'm thinking of van jones and a few other people is when he drops bombs on people, right?
What kind of incentive system is that?
Make peace with the north with north korea you get criticized drop bombs on syria or someplace and you get praised You know what?
It's the same thing with foreign policy where if you have nukes we leave you alone Or we you know give you the respect if you agree to give them up or even the rudimentary ability to make uh nuclear weapons like saddam hussein and Muammar qaddafi did then we stab you in the back And so you'd be crazy to give up your nukes and this is one of the criticisms.
That's not just blind trump hatred It's uh, you know, even pat buchanan says in in his article today Basically that man if you were kim jong-un, would you give up every last atom bomb?
Really?
I mean the only reason trump's talking to you in the first place is because you got atom bombs so you know that I don't really I mean hell if they can negotiate an end to the war and the americans can even accept Uh, there's the way they did with the chinese that the north koreans have a nuke or two Or or however many that's fine with me.
I mean any excuse to ratchet down the tensions and open up relations But I wonder what you think about You know, is there really a possibility?
Do you think kim?
If trump gave him the ultimate security guarantee like kennedy gave to cuba We never did invade cuba gotta admit kennedy promised and I give you a kennedy level promise.
We'll never invade you If you give up your nukes, that's the grand bargain here.
Do you think he'll do it?
All right, you know, I don't know I mean I don't know how to judge that Maybe some uh You know eminent Expert on north korea would be able to answer that but uh, I don't know.
I doubt if anybody knows that uh, he may I Just don't know and look they kind of think he will honestly I think they've been as much trouble as they've been a benefit You know, they have a conventional force that can do a lot of damage on seoul korea.
So even if he gives up all the nukes Uh, he's got still has some Uh deterrent, uh, you know power Because of that so maybe it is something maybe he just decided the the nukes were only to get this peace treaty with the us And you get the sanctions lifted and then he didn't really want them in the first place and they're they're a big burden I mean I can kind of see somebody reasoning Like that and meanwhile, he has these other cards because he can inflict a lot of damage Seoul's pretty close to the you know to the border.
He can inflict a lot of damage using just conventional weapons And yeah, and so that may be enough for him, you know, I don't know it's going to be very interesting Because you know it plays out that what has me so Disturbed is that the people who should be encouraging him are not doing it.
It's just unbelievable Uh, what are they going to do if he gets the nobel prize along with moon and uh and kim?
Uh, they're going to go bananas I mean I proposed my article today that when they're given the prize they ought to take obama's away from his and say here Give me that and then hand it to trump I think that would be funny.
I think saturday night live should do that.
But of course, they're They're they're stricken with the trump derangement.
So they they they won't do that, but that would make a funny bit yeah, and I gotta admit I I absolutely hate donald trump.
I've always had Just nothing but contempt for him ever since I was a little kid when he was the world's greatest reaganite yuppie prick You know, he's just you know, and always and I don't remember that well But I vaguely remember that when he went bankrupt in the early 90s that I thought that that was funny um And ever since he became president, he told the pentagon and the cia that as far as it goes with wars against anyone uh that can you know be smeared even really as al qaeda or isis or an Associated group of any kind that the gloves are absolutely off They can you know escalated in afghanistan escalated all the drone wars and and special operations forces On both sides of the war in yemen against al shabab and somalia and all this I mean, he's as bad and then getting out of the iran deal Like, you know, it reminds me of people you say.
Oh, you just hate bush It was like, of course, I hate bush.
Look at all the horrible stuff.
He does.
You just love him What the hell is your problem and it's the same thing with trump he really does deserve to be thrown to wild dogs I don't give a damn what happens to him.
No trial.
I've already found him guilty of war crimes but still all this russia shit is bullshit and you know meeting with kim jong-un is heroic and wonderful and and we ought to really be thanking our lucky stars that you know, uh not to make a Celestial, uh bodies reference thing, but that president moon, uh You know has has led this and and create an opportunity and that trump took it To move forward on this.
It's great, you know Yeah, no, absolutely Yeah, i agree with what you say.
Uh, you mentioned iran.
Uh, the second part of my article is about okay, uh trump good work Let's let's apply this logic to iran Uh, there's absolutely no reason why we should be in any kind of war footing with respect to iran uh, they never were making nukes as we know from gareth porter's work and and Which has been elaborated on your show many times so they weren't even making them and nevertheless iran, uh agreed to these, uh, Tremendously intrusive inspections just so we could get the sanctions lifted and back in the world economy Which is creating such a hardship for the iranian people So it's amazing what they agreed to Uh, I guess trump could say they really tricked us that they you know in return for getting the sanctions, uh removed They agreed to give up a weapon.
They never were making and never intended to make those clever iranians They sure pulled the wool out over obama's eyes.
They gave up something.
They never wanted never had and never planned to have uh, that is pretty clever, but That was good for peace And uh, and trump of course is going the other direction that he's moving then he's moving, uh in with uh, north korea So that's really bad.
I wonder how he could even fix it at this point even if he wanted to I mean He would have to give up greater concessions to the iranians to get back in the deal now.
He can't come crawling back I mean, I guess he could just say F it i'm donald trump and I don't care about consistency at all i'm inviting the ayatollah to dc and whatever dude and just shrug and just do what he wants, but It it seems like the way that he's done this based on as you're saying nonsensical, you know arguments just partisan arguments and And sheldon adelson and benjamin netanyahu pleasing arguments to do it excuses to do it.
Um, How could he even fix it?
I don't know No, I don't I don't know either and as I put point out that one reason why he's going maybe in one direction I mean, I can't fully explain why he did what he's His turnaround on north korea, uh, at least he was he was getting good advice and good sense from president moon Uh, he's not getting anything like that on uh in on the in the middle east, right?
He's got on one shoulder.
He's got the crown prince of saudi arabia who uh, you know hates iran and doesn't want iran to be any kind of uh, Uh influential power in in the region where it's existed for you know thousands of years Uh and and is a big country with a big population a well-educated population on the other shoulder He's got netanyahu And all that netanyahu represents and they they need iran as a as a uh, a convenient demon So they can justify the repression of the palestinians And by saying, you know, so anytime someone criticizes them over the treatment of the palestinians They can say hey, you don't live in this neighborhood.
We live in a tough neighborhood.
Yeah enemies that they created That's so that's a self-fulfilling thing So he's not getting any good advice that I know of on on the issues of related to the middle east All right.
Hang on just one second.
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I mean most right-wingers Either if they're really like the think tank people They have a huge incentive to deliberately conflate and confuse on this issue and then the rank and file they couldn't tell you the difference between who's on whose side between iran and saudi and You know hezbollah and al-qaeda and and asad and saddam and whatever they you know All that is just them arabs over there towel heads or whatever and then the bad guys basically and so They can just bait and switch all damn day all damn decade long And I don't see any reason for optimism there He surprised us on north korea.
I don't think we're going to get surprised By any kind of churn around Regarding the middle east and i'm not just talking about iran, but i'm talking about the palestinians where he's clearly he's clearly totally on lakud side or it's not just lakud because even the Even the you know labor rights in israel are no better on stuff like this occasionally some rhetoric sounds better, but they're not better you know, they ruled that country with an iron hand for for a very long time and It didn't do any good for the palestinians.
So Looking to labor the labor You know as a some kind of hope is is ridiculous.
So he's all lined up at the hard liners Things are getting worse for the palestinians Uh, it's an apartheid state.
It's an ethno state.
Although it's a phony Ethnic group.
It's not really an ethnic group uh, and uh He seems fine with it.
He's moved the embassy.
He's uh, Uh, he's got what kushner going back and forth over there Kushner is is essentially netanyahu's godson Informally, I mean they they knew he's known him since uh, jared was a young boy and uh, You know, there's that sort of relationship even even if he's informally the god the godfather Netanyahu must look at him that way.
Although I understand I did see something uh about um, uh jared kind of uh, Lecturing some of the lakud officials for not being sufficiently respectful of the trump people So there are limits, right?
You gotta you gotta respect the godfather.
I guess we'll we're in your camp, but you better be nice to us and don't act like You rank you outrank us.
So trump is a trump supremacist It's just simply a you know jewish supremacist and so this is so interesting i'm glad I remembered this, right?
I I read this this morning before coffee, but the anecdote that you're talking about Where did you get this from?
This thing you email me.
Oh, it's harrett Okay, and it's and i've never heard of this before this is um The anecdote of kushner telling them that they're overstepping was about what now?
Uh remember Didn't uh, was it wasn't the document something about they they wanted to make sure trump wouldn't uh, Uh acknowledge the nuclear arsenal.
Yeah, and they wanted him to sign something promising that he wouldn't say something about that I mean, obviously everybody knows that israel has nukes.
Basically the policy Is what they call strategic ambiguity, right?
Like whether or not they recognize taiwan as sovereign or whatever.
They kind of always just sort of go Or yeah, so they don't officially announce they have nukes Their policy is we will never officially introduce them in the region.
Whatever that means Um, but they all have everybody knows they have 200 nuclear bombs or so Uh mordecai vanunu says so um, and so um but then there's the policy in the united states is to respect that and For american politicians to pretend that they don't know or to never quite officially answer whether or not they know and of course charles schumer and colin powell and others have Violated that and and spoken frankly about it in the past.
But anyway, um But so now the scene is dermer comes And tells jared get the president to sign this and this is the thing that jared tells dermer.
Hey step off pal.
You're You're over the line here.
I just like the anecdote interesting and i'd never heard of such a thing And seriously, how dare they what the hell are they talking about sign this?
Well in the trump reaction the trump family is you don't come to us and tell us to sign something buddy Yeah, we'll come to you and then you tell us to sign stuff Um, all right God dang, man.
I'll tell you what.
All right.
Well, um Yeah, you know what?
I gotta say though You know, we are talking about trump here.
And if there's something that's um You know a thing about him for good or for ill it's that he's very impressionable And a lot of what matters to him is who flatters him That's why he flatters kim so much is because he figures that's what matters to him And so that must be what matters to kim right which is probably true um but so maybe if Somebody did as you said the media always gets this wrong and the liberals always attack them all wrong I mean, maybe that's good for the liberals to attack him on this and then for other people to tell him Hey, we support you on this man.
This is great and and let him think that hey, you know what?
People really hate george bush And they hate him because of the wars.
That's his legacy the wars that people hate And you know even john mccain admits now, did you see that even john mccain admits now?
Yeah, I guess we shouldn't have done iraq war two You bastard after all of this, you know Yeah, um and so um It it seems like donald trump has got to be able to have it's not that much of a vision To say, you know what?
We don't have to be at war We could just be a normal country in a normal time.
We'd call this whole terror war bull and just stop and and Donald trump ought to be able to come up with that, right?
He could do that.
And you know what and I know people say Oh, come on He's just a puppet and he can't do it and this and that and the other thing and I say Oh, yeah, you underestimate the power of the american presidency The president could do damn near anything He wants including fire the top 10 generals in charge until he gets to one He likes in chart to make in charge of the army to do to carry out his orders You know, I saw someone say that's what fdr did The us army didn't want to go to europe and fdr fired All their leaders and then got some new guys who said we're going to europe and they said, okay Yeah, but the reason I can't I mean you make a lot of sense But the reason I can't rest easily about this and you probably share this is that there's two things that I think are going on with trump Number one there is this american exceptionalism.
I know he said during the campaign We're not exceptional or something like that, but I don't I wonder if he believes that so there's this american chosen people complex And then with trump, there's this there's this chosen person complex namely him Yeah, so he's the chosen person in the midst of the chosen people His chosen by history, of course, so I just don't see him totally abandoning The empire the empire and which is why I think explains a lot of what's going on I mean, he's had a year and a half now And we're still at war in all these countries He's not he talks about once in a while We're gonna bring him out but then you know that doesn't happen so I'll believe it when I see it and we should encourage him, but it's hard to be optimistic Yeah Yeah that's the thing of it man is uh You know He even you can tell gets the thrill out of being the tough guy and ordering bombings and this and that and the other thing That was obama's thing too.
Remember obama ordered the cia to start bombing pakistan immediately On the third day in office, he killed a bunch of women and children in a cia drone strike um, you know just I mean the wars were ongoing anyway But that was like a specific thing at his hand Letting some blood to prove what a tough guy leader he is and this and that kind of thing And trump's the same thing but worse when it comes to that So and you know, we talked about this during the campaign before he was ever president He's nominally better on regime change in damascus doesn't look like he wants to do that but when it comes to fighting against jihadist types, uh As broadly defined as you can define it Uh, he's all for it and from now on and as he says take the gloves off torture him Hey, even if it doesn't yield good information, they still deserve it.
Anyway, he said uh kill their their families That'll teach him to mess with us this kind of attitude He really feels that way in a typical, you know, 70 something year old fox news fan You know country club type of a guy like he is That's pretty much consensus man, there's no limit on on what you can do to this enemy, so maybe don't go Continue overthrowing secular dictators anymore.
That's getting pretty tired Any any fox news fan can tell you that too?
But when it comes to killing the consequences of those recent regime changes, oh, yeah Huh?
Well my look my attitude overall with trump is he is everybody knows he's got this powerful ego And i'm all for harnessing the this that power in the cause of peace Yeah, well somebody tweet to him and encourage him So i'm for the nobel prize i'm saying he definitely has to have the nobel prize His only regret is he'll have to share it with With kim and moon, but uh, that's that's the breaks.
Yeah, but you know what?
I think he'll like that.
Anyway I think to him that'll be like a a fun little thing I mean, I don't know about his relationship with moon, but I bet moon kisses his ass all day long when they're together You know, so i'm sure it's fine.
I think I think he's going to propose when they Give them the award in uh, was it oslo?
They'll have that thing they have at the olympics where one guy stands higher, you know The guy with the gold he'll want a gold one.
The others get bronze and And he'll be I bet moon and kim would both be for that.
You know what?
All right, i've had the right line on this stuff they could be doing great, uh Great sketches, but yeah, hey, you know what?
Let me ask you one more thing while I got you on the line here.
Okay uh What difference does it make about trump's trade policies?
Since taking over for barack obama.
I hear a lot of rhetoric.
I don't know what the actions really are but uh, apparently he's um You know picking fights generally speaking with china europe and canada too.
So what's the deal?
No, this is very bad.
Uh, he's just put what uh tariffs now on uh, what 50 billion dollars worth of chinese goods uh It's the same deal as we say all the time on this trade is good He doesn't understand anything about trade.
I like what he says trade is good, but it's got to be reciprocal The idea of reciprocity is built into the concept of trade right trade means each is giving up something Because they want the other thing that they're going to get more than the thing they're giving up It's by definition reciprocal if it's not reciprocal then it's either a gift or it's theft So that's not what we're talking about So he doesn't even understand the most basic thing about trade that if you and I trade it means I want the thing that you're giving me Over the thing i'm giving you and the vice versa So he doesn't get that so he doesn't understand trade deficits trade surpluses, which is all nonsense Anyway, because it you're you're only looking at one part of the ledger books Of course you get a you get a picture that doesn't uh, that doesn't give you the full picture Because you're only looking at one part of it.
He talks about how oh with canada.
It's terrible.
We're sending him all this money Yeah, we're sending the money that's called buying something You know like My supermarket i've written about this on libertarianism my supermarket.
I keep giving them all this money If I stop the picture there, you might say well, you're crazy.
You're getting ripped off by your supermarket Oh, I forgot to tell you.
I also bring home bags and bags of stuff.
I want You know like food and other things.
Uh, that's how he sees trade I don't know and he's a rich guy.
He's got to understand this stuff Not I don't and he's a bit you think as a businessman, of course, he liked to screw his vendors and contractors and stuff But uh, there's a whole line of them waiting to you know, who would like to get some of their money Uh, I don't know.
I don't know the guy.
Thank goodness.
I've never been in the same room with him Uh, whether he just a demagogue or if he really thinks he knows this, you know He likes to say I have a great brain and I went to wharton okay, uh, I don't know I don't know if he's just a liar in a demagogue or an idiot, I mean and I guess he could be both but either he knows this is right and he's saying he knows he's wrong about that But says that anyway because he thinks that's what most people will believe And most people don't understand trade either especially foreign trade or he actually thinks Believes what it is.
He says in which case That speaks pretty poorly of him, too.
I don't know which is worse being a total ignoramus Or being a demagogue You decide which is worse.
I don't know He's totally wrong about all of it adam smith said there's nothing more absurd than this doctrine The whole doctrine of the balance of trade.
So that was written in 1776 or published in 1776 People we've had enough time now to learn that trade is good and government interference with trade.
Our trading activities Is bad.
We're poorer as a result of it and trade wars can break out which means We have access to fewer goods.
That's bad Americans who might want to sell their goods abroad and old power to them if they want to do that we'll have fewer opportunities to do that because of The foreigners will have fewer dollars because they're selling less here But also they'll put their governments will these policies help somebody though, right?
I mean it seems like the supply is organized and demand is unorganized So and supply it hates demand because demand is never high enough So supply always wants to bribe government to and and do some rent seeking at the expense of the consumer, right?
That's the irony that trump likes to portray himself as a populist and an america first guy, but it's not populism It's elitism If if the steel industry which is highly organized and the steel workers with them can lobby for tariffs And keep out foreign steel or make it much more expensive so that uh, it's you know, it's priced out of the market Uh that helps in the short run it helps a few steel workers, you know and those companies But there are many more steel buyers in the united states than steel producers like all think of all the industries auto everything else Airplanes that need steel as an input.
They have to buy steel They're hurt because now they have to spend more on steel more money on steel.
So they're now their products Uh are more expensive And they they can have they have a harder time selling those products and then consumers of course are hurt by all this So to help a very small number of people everybody else is hurt.
I'm not even talking about foreigners.
They're hurt, too So how is that populism in america first if you're helping a small group of americans?
And hurting every other american again, not to mention the foreigners.
How is that populism?
And america first it's not it's a big lie now again Either he knows this and he lies about it or he doesn't understand it in which case What the hell is he doing?
He doesn't even understand such a basic thing as trade Yeah, it's just unbelievable what he says day in and day out about trade.
It's just unbelievable Then he has this idiot peter navarro in his ear Who uh who thinks we should have a trade war basically with everybody?
It's just incredible now, you know what I wish uh I'd had you on the line too when I was talking with uh, mike swanson a little while ago about uh federal reserve interest rate policy And trump's tax cut policy and then but now his tariff policy where you know all of these things are either accentuate or contradict each other in terms of uh, yeah being stimulative and and expansionist type policies or or fighting against that tendency, but so um, I kind of uh I didn't bring up trade in that conversation.
But so this is uh, really contrary to his overall policy, which is cut taxes and try to claim Sky high record high everythings and and take credit for all that, right?
No, that's right.
He's going to muddy the the results of the of the deregulation that has occurred.
There's been deregulation All right deregulation as well as the tax cuts.
Yeah And so and also the uh, yeah the somewhat the cutting of the tax rates and some simplification and it was hardly revolutionary But some simplification taking less money from people uh He's going to muddy the outcome of that With trade wars, which is going to you know We'll like I say we'll force up prices and make fewer goods available To americans and hurt lots of american companies.
We're already seeing the result results every day There's stories in the press about firms that are harmed.
I mean the the what is it the the craft beer industry's harm because Uh kegs are going to cost more money because of the steel and the aluminum terrorist Uh, that's going to muddy up the you know, he's interested in these national economic statistics.
They're going to look worse He's not going to be able to point to clear benefits from his tax And and what will get blamed of course will be the tax right the people that want to raise taxes will blame the tax cut Uh for any bad results not they won't blame the trade policies and uh, so he's not even helping himself I I don't understand I don't know if there's anybody that could talk sense to him on this subject This has at least been one consistent thing in trump's career Uh, he's been a protectionist like all the time.
This is not some new position.
He's thought up uh during the campaign, so he's stuck to this one, which doesn't speak well for him, but It's not some new thing that that somebody just talked him into uh, it's it's it's very bad.
I mean trade wars can be extremely destructive and I mean if You know, there are plenty of things not to like about these bilateral trade Or multilateral trade deals like nafta There's always bad stuff like uh intellectual property laws and stuff like that But they do to some extent in in something like nafta Basically got rid of tariffs except for the few things they made exceptions for like, uh, You know the the sugar lobby so strong that they could exclude sugar from the free trade, but it did get rid of tariffs Which is great, uh for everybody Uh, if he kills that it's unbelievable what disruption that'll be because the three countries their their structure Of production is so integrated now with suppliers and going in all directions supplies uh, you know vendors, uh inputs to producers here that originate in mexico or canada, uh That's a very uh, fragile structure fragile not fragile sort of economically but fragile politically the government is like a bull in a china shop and if he you know tears that up and there's destroys any uh What to the extent we have a free trade zone in north america that's going to be extremely harmful to an awful lot of business owners Employees and consumers he doesn't seem to even understand that Yeah All right, you guys that's sheldon richmond The column is tgif.
The goal is freedom runs every friday at the libertarian institute libertarian institute.org This one is called trump north korea and iran.
Thanks again, sheldon Anytime scott.
Look forward to talking to you next week absolutely
