I read some speculation yesterday–it may have been on Slate or Vox–that the main reason Trump hired Bolton in the first place was to make himself look more statesmanlike. You know, “my foreign policy adviser is gung-ho for all kinds of foreign wars, but I’ve resisted him because I’m more pragmatic!” As a foil, in other words. Interesting thought…
Other reports indicate that while “leaking the nuke-the-hurricanes” plan and general Trump-y spotlight-grabbing may have been contributing factors, the last straw was telling Trump to his face that inviting the Taliban to Camp David was a stupid idea.
(Sorry, no link; Patch Tuesday is happening on Wednesday on my PC right now, and this phone is … not convenient for typing with sausage fingers.)
Are you the Eggman?
To be fair, nuking a hurricane would be pointless, but at least it would not produce a radioactive hurricane. A hurricane is always dropping rain and sucking up more water from the ocean – so any radioactive molecules would be rapidly dispersed throughout the ocean.
Thank you for the clarification, but I wonder about the prefatory “To be fair.” Who is it we need to be fair to?
Peculiar man in oval-shaped office proposes exploding H-bombs for no discernible purpose. “To be fair, some ideas are even worse than this.”
Brilliant! I steal it!
Well, that didn’t take long:
Given the mobster mentality in the [del]Gilded Tower[/del] Oval Office, I had to chuckle at the phrasing. But I imagine there would be a completely different list of those the administration would consider double-tapping that way.
Oh, and apologies to FlikTheBlue; I’d somehow missed the NPR cite re: the Taliban/Camp David story back in post #18, and thought I was adding something new last night. Gonna blame the smartphone for the lack of reading comprehension on my part. :smack:
Yeah, they should’ve used something unambiguous, like “double-teaming.”
Well, I’d like to claim some marvelous powers of deduction, but it wasn’t a hard call. No one else is dumb enough to take the job plus Trump announced the position would be filled “next week.” Apparently Trump offered it to someone else (I can’t even remember who) and that person turned it down like a scalded cat. Who’s left besides Pompeo?
Remember, Pompeo supported Trump’s efforts to have “peace negotiations” (what a joke) with the Taliban at Camp David.
Honestly, though, I’m not sure even Pompeo will go for it. He’ll probably push another GWB flunky to take the job like Stephen Biegun.
So there ya go. Should be great.
Late in responding, but thank Christ he’s out. The world’s is appreciably safer now that he can’t influence the president. Reading between the lines, it seems as though he had stopped being in that position months ago, which is why he probably found a way to get himself fired.
About the only positive thing I could say about Bolton is that he wasn’t the kind of guy who was intimidated by Trump or who was going to back down. He was at least transparent enough about who he was and what worldview he represented that he allowed Trump to ultimately reach the decision that the WH wasn’t big enough for both of them. A more calculating adviser might have opted for more stealth and found ways to sabotage diplomatic efforts.