In almost every discussion of the North Korea situation, I try to remind everyone that North Korea made its nuclear break out under George W. Bush – not under Bill Clinton and not under Barack Obama. A key part of that backstory is that over the course of the late 90s the US negotiated a series of agreements called the Agreed Framework which shuttered the North Koreans nuclear weapons program in exchange for a combination of commitments and aid. The Bush team argued that the agreement was ‘appeasement’ and that the US had caught the North Koreans cheating on the agreement during Bush’s first term. The cheating argument has always struck me as questionable – quite possibly true but questionable. But the bigger issue is this: Does any of this really matter today as more than affixing blame for a situation we have to grapple with today whoever is at fault? I would argue that it very much does. Here’s why. Read More
FBI raids Paul Manafort’s manse in northern Virginia burbs of DC, and it goes unreported for two WEEKS.
TPM Reader ML thinks I’m mistaken to believe Trump’s bellicosity has played a role in the recent escalation between the US and North Korea …
I am a big fan of your work. TPM is absolute “must-read” for me every morning (right after the Red Sox box score). But, I have a bit of of a dissent to offer related to something you said in your Korea piece. It will seem like a minor point on the surface, but there is a larger issue at stake that troubles me.
In response to a new round of threats from North Korea, themselves spurred by new US sanctions led by the US, President Trump has now, rather casually, threatened North Korea with a nuclear holocaust. At a meeting on the opioid crisis a short time ago Trump just said: “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen,” Trump said. “He has been very threatening, beyond a normal state, and as I said they will be met with fire and fury and, frankly, power the likes of which this world has never seen before.” Read More
I mentioned earlier that a number of publications, including TPM, have now spoken to the young New Jersey woman who is somehow involved in the “ProTrump45” Trump merchandise scam and was the basis of the “Nicole Mincey” persona. Her story keeps changing, with references to other fictive personalities, contradictory claims about money that was involved, how she became involved and so forth. She has insisted through multiple interviews that she only got involved because of her support for Trump and never received any money. In the latest interview, which I discuss below, she claims she left the scam group in June because, “the store was getting disorganized. They weren’t keeping up with the orders. I wasn’t getting paid.” The evolving story has all the hallmarks of a band of grifters, of uncertain size and collective intelligence, scrambling for cover stories. Read More
Several publications, including TPM, have now spoken to the woman who sort of claims that the “Nicole Mincey” persona is based on her. But her story changes by the minute.
Our team uncovered that Jared Kushner was the part owner of an Obamacare-dependent company that hired lobbyists to lobby against Obamacare repeal. I’m sure Freedom Caucus, right-wing types still smarting over the failure of repeal will be overjoyed.
Buzzfeed has now published an article on the “Nicole Mincey” story. It addresses a few of the points we’ve been discussing. One key point is that it suggests that what got Twitter to act was the unauthorized use of photos reported by the company behind the Placeit Mockup Tool, something we discussed here. But the really interesting part is the new explanation by the woman in New Jersey who originally claimed her identity had been stolen for the effort.
This morning I said our team was digging into the “Nicole Mincey” story. Here’s Matt Shuham’s first look at information available as of earlier today. (For a brief background on this story, see my overview from this morning.) The Post just moved a story suggesting that “Nicole Mincey” may actually be a Russian bot. At least that’s what the headline suggests. But there doesn’t seem to be anything in the article that really backs up that suggestion. Read More