Fire and Brimstone!

Let’s get this note off on the right foot. Yesterday, the President said this of Kim Jong-Un. (click here ) Not to be outdone, and obviously not visibly quaking in his shoes,  North Korea’s fearless, all-powerful, all loving, all knowing leader instructed his news agency to tell the world he is preparing to reduce Guam to rubble. (click here to see that report.) Meanwhile, Secretary of State Tillerson is hopping around Asia trying to keep the lid on the pot. 

Keeping the lid on the pot when two wholly self absorbed leaders are engaged in a verbal jousting match is not easy. Maybe we should actually refer back to the good ole days and put the two of them on horses and let them have a run at each other with lances. What’s the downside?

I grew up in the “duck and cover” world. Some of you readers don’t even know what that is. Suffice to say, Americans over 50 were never wholly removed from the specter of nuclear Armageddon. Of course, the arms race with the Soviets led us down the path to a place called “mutually assured  destruction”, and neither the US nor the Soviet Union were particularly anxious to test that theory out. Of the whack-job in North Korea, who’s to say? It is true that Republican and Democrat Presidents alike have kicked the North Korean confrontation can down the road for decades. Democrats have generally been inclined to buy more time by dumping largesse on the totalitarian state. In hindsight, that has been rather foolhardy. Shockingly stupid, actually. 

Time (and probably not a lot of it) will tell where all this bluster will lead us. But there is some good news in all this. The main stream media is not really talking about it, but here goes: We actually achieved a 15-0 UN Security Council vote sanctioning North Korea. That means Nikki Haley was successful in getting Russia and China to support sanctions. That is no small feat. And on the other side of the globe, Rex Tillerson is quietly lining up support from a number of Asia countries to rally around the notion that we must be united in isolating the endlessly rogue nation that is North Korea.

And this brings me back to an oft-made point. The President, by design, grabs the spotlight, and insists on it shining directly on himself. He blusters and tweets inanities to his base. He appears to care less about reaching out to Republicans or Democrats with whom he disagrees. He attacks those he considers enemies, and those who thought he was their friend! He attacks his own cabinet picks!  But all the while, he has, actually, surrounded himself with very competent people. Notwithstanding the noise around the Communications Department, and Steve Bannon (the left love to hate Steve) Trump’s Cabinet is out doing its job. We are moving toward a more nimble, deregulated economy, and, believe it or not, we are working well with foreign states. 

If you find yourself pounding your head against the wall over Mr. Trump’s alleged daily shenanigans (real or contrived-just depends on which side of the fence you sit) take some solace in the fact that some really good people are actually working on your behalf and getting things done. 

And on that note, lest anyone think I am getting giddy, the GOP had better get its act together and pass the Trump  tax cut plan, or some variation thereof. If Obamacare isn’t replaced with some negotiated compromise, and a tax plan does not hit the President’s desk for signature, Katy can bar the door, but it will be too late. November 2018 will be an Old Testament style day of reckoning! The table is set folks. Let’s get it done!

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