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TRUMP PLAYS CHINESE CHECKERS
By Don Surber,  August 25, 2018 DonSurber@gmail.com

As readers know, I believe North Korea's nuclear capabilities ended last September when a tunnel in Mount Mantap collapsed, killing 200 workers. That was its nuclear testing facility. In May, Kim Jong Un formally blew up all of that facility. He has since dismantled his satellite and missile site.

Kim is playing nice, so why did President Trump cancel Pompeo's meeting?

(Twitter Messages) I have asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to go to North Korea, at this time, because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula...

...Additionally, because of our much tougher Trading stance with China, I do not believe they are helping with the process of denuclearization as they once were (despite the UN Sanctions which are in place)...

...Secretary Pompeo looks forward to going to North Korea in the near future, most likely after our Trading relationship with China is resolved. In the meantime I would like to send my warmest regards and respect to Chairman Kim. I look forward to seeing him soon!

What gives?

Kim is doing the things we asked, and the president stood him up?

Dilbert's creator has the answer.

Scott Adams Retweeted Donald J. Trump

China loses a bargaining chip.

It is that simple.

North Korea is on our side in the trade war. President Moon of the Republic of Korea has given Kim plenty of economic incentives to de-nuclearize, and Kim wants them. He wants a normal country. Being king of the Hermit Kingdom is no fun. He wants a McDonald's.

And yes, President Trump is behind this. He's the CEO of this project but Moon and Kim are working out the details. It is their peninsula. Let them take care of their problems.

President Trump has a bigger problem to tackle: Red China. He is lining up allies in the trade war. The states in the European Union are siding with us.

Heck, the Obama administration is.

CNBC reported, "The U.S. isn't alone in its frustration with Chinese trade policy, and the Trump administration should take advantage of that, former U.S. trade officials told CNBC on Thursday after the U.S. imposed new tariffs on $16 billion worth of Chinese imports."

It quoted Bruce Andrews, former U.S. deputy secretary of Commerce under Obama.

"I think the Chinese underestimated how frustrated and serious, not only the United States, but the entire global community, is with their practices that they need to change," Andrews said.

Of course, that has been President Trump's plan all along. It has the approval (and maybe authorship) of Arthur Laffer, he of Laffer Curve fame.

"President Trump won a victory for freer trade last week when he and the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, agreed to find ways to lower tariffs and other barriers to each other’s exports. The outlines of the deal are still sketchy, but it calls for the Europeans to buy more American petroleum, soybeans and manufactured goods and for Mr. Trump to reduce his auto and steel tariffs," he and two colleagues wrote last month.

The press called President Trump reckless for imposing those tariffs. Again, they were bargaining chips.

Meanwhile, the Washington Free Beacon reported Red China has bought off the media and political class with donations to the think tanks. I have long held that the Never Trump media reflects its donors.

The money comes from the Chinese Communist Party, which is headed by President Xi (which is why I call him Chairman Xi).

Those working for Red China include the Johns Hopkins School of Advance International Studies. I wish I had known that when I ripped one of its experts.

Others bought off by the Chinese communists include the Brookings Institution, Atlantic Council, Center for American Progress, EastWest Institute, Carter Center, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

This is war. Better a trade war than a military one. Still, you need allies. And you also need to purge the think tanks and cable news panels of their Red Chinese pawns.

HERE ARE THE DETAILS OF THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S PLAN TO REORGANIZE ONE OF ITS BIGGEST AGENCIES
Jason Hopkins, Energy Investigator,  The Daily Caller 8/30/2018

The Department of the Interior released its long-awaited reorganization proposal on Wednesday, a plan that calls on separating the agency into 12 “unified regions.”

In a memo sent to the Interior Department’s 70,000 staffers, Secretary Ryan Zinke unveiled his plan to streamline the agency by shifting offices across the country into 12 unified regions. The proposal aims to manage the Interior Department via watershed and ecosystem boundaries instead of state lines.

“Our new Unified Regions will allow important decisions to be made nearer to where our stakeholders and intergovernmental partners live and work, and will make joint problem-solving and improved coordination between our Bureaus and other Federal, State, and local agencies easier,” Zinke explained in the staff-wide email, adding that the new plan will “reduce bureaucratic redundancy, will improve communication between our experts in the field and leaders in Washington, D.C., and will allow us to share our knowledge and resources more effectively.”

The new management map, which can be found on the Interior’s website, has been in the works for months. The Interior Department had submitted its reorganization proposals to the Office of Management and Budget as early as September 2017, and Zinke had announced the overhaul in January.

The unified regions map is meant to better organize a department that has been characterized as inefficient and cumbersome by the Trump administration, however, critics counter that the proposal will be costly and result in employee layoffs. Zinke made clear in the email that no immediate personnel changes would take place.

“I want to reassure you that there will not be any office or personnel relocations during the initial implementation of our new Unified Regions, and your reporting structure is unchanged during the initial implementation phase,” the secretary guaranteed in the memo.

The process outlined in the memo will take place over the coming months and Zinke will be working with U.S. lawmakers in Congress — including key Democrats — to win over their support.

“In the next few months, many of our senior executives will be working in each Unified Region and focusing on and designing core elements of its operations, depending on the actual circumstances on the ground,” Zinke continued. The Interior secretary, who has long complained that too many bureaucrats lead from Washington, D.C., argues this new plan will establish more local control.

Reprinted with permission from The Daily Caller: http://dailycaller.com.

EDITORIAL
VOTE NO ON PROPOSAL 2
By Maureen Rudel

On the November ballot is a proposal for a Constitutional Amendment to change the way voting districts are determined.  The supposed reason for this change is the odd shape of some districts.