TRUMP FAILURE - Post North Korean Summit

North Korea is not about to give up its ONLY hold-card in negations.  North Korean Nuclear Weapons was the only reason for the summit in the first place.

Also, when in comes to rockets, the only difference is the payload.  A satellite payload has different consequence than a nuclear weapon payload.

"After failed summit, what’s next for U.S. policy on North Korea" PBS NewsHour 3/8/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  A little over a week after the second summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un ended early and without a deal, North Korea watchers have published satellite imagery indicating that a dismantled rocket launch facility is now being reassembled.  What does this development mean for U.S. strategy on denuclearization?  Nick Schifrin joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.

OPINION - Shields and Brooks 3/1/2019

"Shields and Brooks on Cohen testimony, North Korea summit" PBS NewsHour 3/1/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to analyze the week in politics, including reverberations from Michael Cohen’s appearance before the House Oversight Committee and conclusions from the Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi.

Judy Woodruff (NewsHour):  It has been a turbulent week in the Trump administration, from hours of damning testimony from the President's former personal lawyer, to the collapse of nuclear talks with North Korea.

To help navigate the different twists and turns, we turn to Shields and Brooks.  That is syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.

Welcome to both of you.  Are you ready to navigate the twists and turns?

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

David Brooks, New York Times:  Just another week in Caligula's Rome.

(LAUGHTER)

Mark Shields, syndicated columnist:  Ooh.

Judy Woodruff:  Ooh.

All right, on that note, we're going to talk about Michael Cohen's testimony all day long this Wednesday, David, before the House Oversight Committee, Government Oversight Committee.

What was your main takeaway from it?

David Brooks:  There were some things we learned.

We learned that Trump asked about the Moscow building project all the way through the campaign.  We learned about the $35,000 check.  We learned a few things.

But, to me, it was more of a moral occasion, more than anything else.

Judy Woodruff:  A moral occasion?

David Brooks:  A moral occasion.

What it illustrates is a President and, frankly, Michael Cohen who long ago decided that celebrity and wealth is more important than being a good person.  And they have dragged us all down there with us.

And the people they have dragged most effectively are the House Republicans, a lot of them on that committee, who decided that they were completely incurious about whether Donald Trump was a good guy or a bad guy or a really awful guy, that — their own leader, they didn't seem to care about that, but they were going to rip the skin off Michael Cohen.

And so they attacked him.  And what struck me is how moral corrosion happens, that you decide you're going to defend or ignore Trump, and then to do that, you have to morally distance yourself from him.  And then you have to morally distance yourself from him every day.

And, eventually, you just get numb to everything.  And so Jim Jordan and other people on the committee were saying, oh, we all knew this, like, it's all unremarkable.  And so that's — that's how moral corrosion happens.

Judy Woodruff:  How did you see the — I mean, was it — what role did the Republican questioning take, when most of them went after Michael Cohen, as David was saying, rather than talking about President Trump?

Mark Shields:  They took the old attack route, Judy, which is, if you can't argue the substance, you go after the source.  If you can't deal with the message, you shoot the messenger.

And that's what their whole strategy was.  The very fact that not a single member of the Republican committee defended Donald Trump or what he was charged or alleged to have done, to me, was revealing.  They just decided to go after Michael Cohen.

Now, it was — Michael Cohen's defects are there.  They're on the record.  He's going to pay for them, the legal defects in particular.  But there was no payoff for him to lie.  I mean, the Mueller crowd was sitting there, the Mueller, special counsel office.

They know exactly what he said.  If he said anything that was false or perjured himself, he faced further problems from them.  So there was a strong incentive for him not to lie.

And, to me, it reminded me of scripture's injunction that the meek will inherit the earth.  If that's the case, then the congressional Republicans someday will be land barons, because they are the meekest, most docile, most submissive group of people when it comes to any judgment at all, any opinion on what Donald Trump does.

Judy Woodruff:  Well, David — go ahead, David.

David Brooks:  What strikes me is that they don't fear final judgment.

I don't mean that in the ultimate sense, just like…

Mark Shields:  Primary judgment.

David Brooks:  Primary judgment.

The idea that you can side and suborn your soul to someone who lies constantly, and that you won't ultimately pay for that, how does that work?  Michael Cohen ultimately paid.  In my suspicion, Donald Trump will ultimately pay.  Most people who lie and cheat their way through life ultimately pay.  Maybe some get away from it.

But why you would want to hitch your career to that kind of wagon is just a mystery to me, because that's just not the way the law of the universe works.

Judy Woodruff:  But, of course, the Republican argument, Mark, is that Michael Cohen is a flawed character, that he's lied before, he's lied a lot.  Why should we believe him now?

Mark Shields:  Well, I mean, I just come back to the — there was no incentive and there was a strong disincentive for him to lie on — in his appearance under oath on television before the world.

So, I mean, everybody in the world could hear what he was saying.  And it could be stacked up to what he had — he had previously said and sworn to.  So, no.  And he acknowledged the fact.

I mean, you spend 10 years with Donald Trump, and it's going to come at a moral cost.  I'm sorry.  I mean, that is the lesson we have learned.  The one person in this entire administration that has gotten away with a reputation enhanced seems to be Nikki Haley.  Everybody else who's near him [Trump] is somehow tarnished, diminished, hurt, wounded by that association.

It is absolutely remarkable.  I think…

(CROSSTALK)

David Brooks:  Dan Coats.  You can think of a few.

(CROSSTALK)

Mark Shields:  Yes, Dan Coats.  Yes, Dan Coats.  You're Right.

David Brooks:  He's the Director of National Intelligence.

Judy Woodruff:  Yes.

David Brooks:  The thing that got me about Cohen is, how many times did you become a thug to small businessmen to stiff them for dealing with the Trump administration?

Mark Shields:  Yes.

David Brooks:  Five hundred times.

Mark Shields:  Yes.

David Brooks:  And so that's — I don't know if it's illegal or what.

But it's unbecoming in the extreme.  And so I don't treat Michael Cohen as sort of the repented Chuck Colson.  I mean, he — I think he didn't have any the air of someone who's really repented or really faced the spiritual music.  He's just decided one side is against his interest, which is Donald Trump, and now the other side is for his interest, so he will say things that are nice for his interests.

I don't think he lied.  I think what he told was basically the truth, but he was basically catering now to the left and some sort of GoFundMe campaign that will help pay his legal bills.

Judy Woodruff:  But does this advance…

(CROSSTALK)

Mark Shields:  I don't know.  I don't have that kind of moral X-Ray.

(LAUGHTER)

Mark Shields:  I mean, I don't know if he was a sinner and became a saint.

I will say this.  The story of 500 people did you threaten or entities, did you threaten on Donald Trump's behalf, it was a good question asked by Congresswoman Speier from California.  And it was a — and he said 500 — 50, 100, 200, 500.  Let's say 500.

And — but the thing about it is, when he stiffed those small business — the plumbers and the electricians who did the work in the Trump projects, and he came back, and Donald Trump loved to hear about it, I mean, reveled in it.

Now, I mean, at what point do you say that there's no honor here?  I mean, there's nothing to admire.

Judy Woodruff:  And he made a point of telling that — of sharing that…

(CROSSTALK)

Mark Shields:  He did.  He was not — he did not set out to flatter…

(CROSSTALK)

Judy Woodruff:  But quickly, to both of you, does this advance the case against Donald Trump, advance the case of impeachment, David?

David Brooks:  I think a little.

We know the Trump Tower stuff in Moscow, the hush money.  I tend to think there's much more — and, actually, everybody agrees, and I agree too, that AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, did a very good job of laying down specific questions for specific predicates.

And she focused quite a lot on the business side of the Trump empire.  And if I'm a Republican, I'm thinking there's a lot of bad news to come from there, and just whether it's taxes for all — whether it's other things.

And that's what the Southern District of New York is looking into.  And so I think I'm less concerned that — there seems to be less to the Russia collusion and a lot more to everything else.

Mark Shields:  I agree.

I mean, he advanced the collusion case not at all, but he certainly laid out — I mean, he gave them leads, suggestions, people to talk to, to interview, and I would say enough stuff to keep several committees going.

I did want to give a shout-out to Elijah Cummings, the chairman of the committee.

Judy Woodruff:  The chair.

Mark Shields:  I thought he did a good job.

I mean, I thought there was an earnestness and a directness about him.  And I thought his summation is worth repeating and thinking about for all Americans, that this is important and we have got to return to normal.  This is not normal.

TRUMP FAILURE - North Korean Summit

The build-up:

"Can U.S. post-war relationship with Vietnam serve as a model for North Korea?" PBS NewsHour 2/26/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  In Vietnam, President Trump is preparing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un -- and the summit's location isn't a mere coincidence.  Indeed, U.S. officials are touting the rapprochement and economic ties that now exist between the U.S. and Vietnam, only decades after brutal warfare divided them.  Nick Schifrin reports on whether U.S.-Vietnam relations can serve as a model for North Korea.

"In Hanoi, Trump looks to develop a ‘phased’ North Korean denuclearization" PBS NewsHour 2/27/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Last June's summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un marked the first time a sitting U.S. President met a North Korean leader.  Now the two are convening in Vietnam, whose economic resurgence U.S. officials hope can serve as an incentive for North Korea to prioritize cooperation with the U.S.  Judy Woodruff talks to Nick Schifrin, who is reporting from Hanoi, about the summit's policy goals.

"What Trump’s personal relationship with Kim Jong Un means for U.S. policy" PBS NewsHour 2/27/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Last June, President Trump called his first meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a new chapter in the historically adversarial relationship between the two nations.  Since then, American policy toward North Korea has evolved from demanding complete denuclearization to emphasizing peace on the Korean peninsula.  Nick Schifrin reports from Hanoi on how and why that change has taken place.

The collapse:

Kim sucker-punches Trump, again.  So much for the 'good relationship.'
Trump does not understand Kim.  Kim does NOT care about money issues, he ONLY cares about his personal power at home and the world, which overrides all other considerations.  Kim is not about to give up his ONLY negotiating tool, Nuclear Weapons.  After all, the only reason for the summit was Kim's Nuclear Weapons.

"After months of buildup, Hanoi talks conclude early — with no deal" PBS NewsHour 2/28/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  After 8,000 miles of travel and hours of high-stakes discussion, President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walked away from the Hanoi summit without a deal.  U.S. officials said that while North Korea agreed to reduce its nuclear facilities, their concessions didn't warrant the requested lifting of U.S. sanctions.  Nick Schifrin reports on the much-anticipated meeting's abrupt conclusion.

TRUMP - Shutdown Fallout

"Why shutdown’s impact will continue to be felt for ‘years to come’" PBS NewsHour 2/18/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Although a second government shutdown has been averted, Yamiche Alcindor reports that repercussions from the one that ended in January are still being felt -- and they extend far beyond federal employees.  She also talks to the Partnership for Public Service's Max Stier about the shutdown's long-lasting effects and how they could make federal hiring more difficult.

TRUMP AGENDA - Failure to Lower Drub Prices

"Why the Trump administration isn’t making much headway in lowering drug prices" PBS NewsHour 9/25/2018

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Trump made reducing drug prices a focus of his campaign, and his administration has taken some steps to do so.  But a recent analysis of more than 26,000 U.S. brand name prescription drugs found 96 price hikes for every one price cut in the first seven months of this year.  Judy Woodruff learns more from Elisabeth Rosenthal of Kaiser Health News.