While the confirmation farce rolls into its third week, important events are unfolding on the other side of the world.
The United States has just concluded a new trade agreement with South Korea. This gives the lie to the notion that the Trump administration is inept or in chaos. In fact, it is remarkably skilled at doing several things at once.
In this case, the trade deal supersedes one inked only five years ago, but whose terms clearly disadvantaged the US. The Beltway establishment condemns Trump for "beating up" our allies, but as agreements with South Korea and Mexico illustrate, he's doing nothing of the kind - he's merely standing up for the interests of American workers.
The signing of the Korea deal took place amidst continued negotiations with North Korea. After the landmark summit in June, things have proceeded quietly, with South Korea taking the lead. Completely ignored by the mainstream press, progress continues towards a final peace settlement and the de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
Alas, even specialized coverage has been polluted with anti-Trump bias. This piece in the Warzone is downright embarassing. It's not clear what the author actually expects Trump to accomplish other than having a flight of unicorns banish the weapons and rainbows to break out.
The provisions outlined in the latest agreement are tangible steps forward in de-escalating the conflict. The creation of a buffer zone, a ban on live-firing near the mutual border and the establishment of additional border crossings are major shifts.
Perhaps the know-it-all author has forgotten that the Koreas have been technically at war since 1950. A peaceful, unified Korea now lies almost beyond living memory. This isn't the sort of thing one changes overnight.
Of course one of the most amusing thing about the Warzone is that it's Korea coverage is so consistently wrong. If you scroll down through the piece, the links to related articles are a catalog of how the authors have blown every other prediction they've made.
Establishment figures like to whine about the "death of expertise," but what good are experts when they are uniformly incompetent?
And having been shown wrong time and again, it might serve these people better to show a little humility. Alas, Generation Snowflake's self-regard is impervious to the reality of their own failures.
One thing the article omits is that for the first time in a long time, North Korea is conducting no weapons tests of any kid. This is a welcome development and one can't help but observe that if the exact same series of events were unfolding under a Democrat, we'd be getting wall-to-wall coverage lavishing praise on the diplomatic genius at work.
But it's Trump, so let's talk about 35-year-old high school yearbooks.
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