And then he does this speaking at a fundraiser last night.
Maybe we should all vote for good old "Uncle Joe".
Biden tells minority voters in Iowa that ‘poor kids’ are just as bright as ‘white kids’
His remarks prompted a stir on social media Thursday night, with many focusing on the equivalence he drew, whether intentionally or not, between poor and minority children. AND..........................
Earlier in the day, Biden had mixed up one of his standard lines while addressing a crowd at the Iowa State Fair, saying that Americans should “choose truth over facts.” He also referred to Margaret Thatcher instead of the more recent British prime minister Theresa May.
Waning of American Power? Trump Struggles With an Asia in Crisis
"Trump has been saying all week that he’s not a racist. And then he does this speaking at a fundraiser last night. P [ Trump also made fun of US allies South Korea, Japan and the European Union — mimicking Japanese and Korean accents — and talked about his love of dictators Kim Jong Un and the current ruler of Saudi Arabia."
The Trump administration has taken a hands-off approach to conflicts — from Kashmir to Hong Kong to the rivalry between Japan and South Korea — as Asian officials escalate the battles.
President Trump in Seoul. Mr. Trump has stood back during the intensifying feud between South Korea and Japan. Erin Schaff/The New York Times
By Edward Wong
Aug. 13, 2019
WASHINGTON — For two and a half years, President Trump has said he is finally doing in Asia what he asserts his predecessor, Barack Obama, failed to achieve with a strategic pivot: strengthen American influence and rally partners to push back against China.
The inability or unwillingness of Washington to help defuse the flash points is one of the clearest signs yet of the erosion of American power and global influence under Mr. Trump, who has stuck to his “America First” idea .. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/26/us/politics/trump-allies.html?module=inline .. of disengagement, analysts say.
“Without the steady centripetal force of American diplomacy, disorder in Asia is spinning in all sorts of dangerous directions,” said William J. Burns .. https://carnegieendowment.org/experts/1014 , a deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration and the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The net result is not only increased risk of regional turbulence, but also long-term corrosion of American influence.”
[Insert: The Liar in Chief Trump also said that the India Prime Minister Modi asked him to mediate the Kashmir Conflict. Trump said that to the Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan saying he would consider that. P - India Calls Out Trump Lie That He Was Asked To Mediate Kashmir Conflict P - “No such request has been made” by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the U.S. president, said a spokesman for India’s government, despite what Trump claimed. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=150078153]
South Korea announced on Monday that it was dropping Japan from a list of preferred trading partners, ramping up a conflict .. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/04/world/asia/japan-south-korea-feud.html?module=inline .. that jeopardizes Washington’s most important alliances in Asia. Mr. Trump’s top foreign policy officials had advised both nations to settle their differences, to no avail.
Tweeting on Tuesday that the Chinese were moving troops to the border with Hong Kong, Mr. Trump issued no warnings other than: “Everyone should be calm and safe!”
“The inability to manage the issues shows some real weakness in the president’s actual commitment to the strategy or any forward diplomatic engagement in Asia,” said Michael J. Green .. https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014Rb4XAAS/michael-green , a senior Asia director for the National Security Council under President George W. Bush.
Mr. Green, now a professor at Georgetown University, added that while the Trump administration was carrying out some useful strategies or tactics in Asia, “it is striking how ineffective the administration is on this Japan-Korea issue and how quiet on Kashmir.”
Mr. Trump also lavishes praise on East Asia’s authoritarian leaders — he said that he and Kim Jong-un of North Korea “fell in love,” and that he and Xi Jinping of China “will always be friends.”
So far, he and his top officials have failed to send any strong signals .. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/13/us/politics/hong-kong-trump.html?module=inline .. on the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests. On Aug. 1, Mr. Trump employed the language used by Communist Party officials when he said Hong Kong has had “riots for a long period of time.”
“Somebody said that at some point they’re going to want to stop that,” he added. “But that’s between Hong Kong and that’s between China, because Hong Kong is a part of China.”
Analysts said those comments would be interpreted by Chinese officials as a green light to take whatever action necessary to quell the protests.
[Create-a-crisis president, then struggle to contain or settle it.]
Mr. Trump has also stood back during the intensifying feud between South Korea and Japan. On Friday, Mr. Trump said, “South Korea and Japan have to sit down and get along with each other.”
Administration officials say they do not want to be a mediator in the dispute, even though American security interests in the region could suffer — es .. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/22/world/asia/south-korea-intelligence-sharing-japan.html?module=inline .. supported by Washington that is intended to help with North Korea containment. In late July, John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, called both sides to ask them to freeze their hostilities, and Mr. Pompeo made the same request of their foreign ministers at a summit in Bangkok.
“By failing to act and assume leadership in the region, Trump is allowing nations with long, complicated histories to fall back into traditional rivalries,” said Jean H. Lee .. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/jean-h-lee , a Korea expert at the Wilson Center.
“The more these nations feel the United States is an unreliable partner,” she added, “the more they will feel compelled to defend themselves. I’m already starting to hear growing calls in South Korea for their own nuclear weapons.”
In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pushed ahead with what appears to be a yearslong plan by Hindu nationalist politicians to control Kashmir, a majority-Muslim region.
Some Indian analysts say Mr. Modi might have accelerated the move because of remarks made by Mr. Trump .. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/22/world/asia/trump-pakistan-afghanistan.html?module=inline .. after his meeting last month with Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan. Mr. Trump said that Mr. Modi had asked Mr. Trump earlier if he could mediate the Kashmir dispute. “If I can help, I would love to be a mediator,” Mr. Trump said.
That is a position welcomed by Pakistan, while India opposes outside involvement. India’s Ministry of External Affairs denied that Mr. Modi had any such conversation with Mr. Trump. Then on Aug. 5, the Indian government revoked Kashmir’s special status .. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/world/asia/india-pakistan-kashmir-jammu.html?module=inline .. and began arresting top Kashmiri politicians — a complete rejection of Mr. Trump’s offer of mediation.
“There’s more the United States should do,” Asad Majeed Khan .. http://embassyofpakistanusa.org/biography/ , Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, said in an interview on Monday. “The United States is perhaps the only country that can make a difference.”
John J. Sullivan, the deputy secretary of state, is traveling to India this week for meetings planned before the outbreak of the Kashmir crisis. It is unclear what he will say. Mr. Burns, his predecessor, said, “Modi’s India seems unfazed by any American concerns over the potential for escalation.”
Edward Wong is a diplomatic and international correspondent who has reported for The Times for more than 20 years, 13 of those in Iraq and China. He received a Livingston Award for his Iraq War coverage and was on a team of Pulitzer Prize finalists. He has been a Nieman Fellow at Harvard and a Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton. @ewong
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