{"id":74,"date":"2017-07-08T19:02:50","date_gmt":"2017-07-08T19:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dinkinccmusings.com\/?p=74"},"modified":"2017-07-08T20:12:23","modified_gmt":"2017-07-08T20:12:23","slug":"74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dinkinccmusings.com\/?p=74","title":{"rendered":"The Bunny"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ImageI try to avoid the subject of Donald Trump. However, right now I am just so disappointed that I have to vent.<\/p>\n

In cricket, when a new batsman comes on the international scene, he is normally quite successful in his first few\u00a0games,\u00a0and makes big scores. After that, he either settles down to be just very\u00a0good,\u00a0or in rare instances, spectacularly successful throughout\u00a0his career. \u00a0Often he fizzles out and disappears forever.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons for that initial success is that he is an unknown. Even though he has played very well nationally, at provincial or county level, very few international players have played against him, and most of those would be from his own country.<\/p>\n

\"ImageAfter a few games, the opposition “figures him out”. They study his batting from every angle. They analyse it by computer. They look at which bowlers have more success. They study his movements, his habits, even his superstitions. Eventually, they figure him out.<\/p>\n

Some batsmen are almost flawless.\u00a0Don Bradman<\/a>\u00a0had a career average of just a fraction shy of 100 runs per innings. The English side devised a tactic of bowling at his chest, which forced\u00a0him to deflect the ball high to his left, where they stationed several fielders. Eventually, they had to change the laws of cricket to only allow two fielders there in that sort\u00a0of situation.\u00a0Daryl Cullinan<\/a>\u00a0of South Africa was a sensation, beautiful to watch, but he could only average 12 when Australia’s\u00a0Shane Warne<\/a>\u00a0was bowling.<\/p>\n

When a bowler figures out a batsman to that extent, he is known as the bowler’s “bunny”. “Hey,\u00a0Shane,\u00a0here comes your bunny!” the Aussies would cry out when Cullinan\u00a0came out to bat.<\/p>\n

Xi had Trump totally figured out from day one. He spent time with him, told him how wonderful Mar-a-Lago is, how lovely his chocolate cake is, how he would much rather spend time with Trump than do any of the fun things\u00a0that had been planned for him, smiled a lot,\u00a0agreed\u00a0a lot, told Trump again how clever he was to have won the election, and walked away with:<\/p>\n

1) The “One China” doctrine intact.
\n2) China is not a currency manipulator.<\/p>\n

In return for:<\/p>\n

\n

0) China will “help” with North Korea.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Mission accomplished — and not only that: he now knows what works.<\/div>\n
\"Image
\nSubsequently, when Trump threatened to withdraw from NAFTA, Trudeau and Nieto (separately) called Trump personally, and he agreed to rather renegotiate. Then he had to BRAG, not about his great decision, but about how nice they were to him! Clearly, they are fast learners.Now we go to meet Putin, another tinpot dictator with very dangerous toys and nasty behaviour. What do we do? We make kindergarten mistakes:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
1) We don’t set any expectations for the meeting. None.
\n2) We don’t set an agenda for the meeting. We’ll just see where it goes.Any middle manager in any decent corporation knows better than that.<\/div>\n
What does Putin do? He makes absolutely clear what his agenda is:<\/div>\n
1) Publicly mend the relationship;<\/div>\n
2) Gain better understanding of US policy to Russia (aka take\u00a0the opportunity for him to influence or even define that policy);<\/div>\n
\n

3) Discuss joint concerns over terrorism.<\/p>\n

He also set low expectations. There will not be “enough time” to discuss Ukraine. Russia did not interfere in the election, he agrees with Trump, nothing to discuss.<\/p>\n

\"ImageAfter the\u00a0meeting\u00a0Russia quickly announces that Russia had denied meddling in the\u00a0election,\u00a0and that Trump accepted this denial. And…Trump (sort of) did do so, even though Tillerson tried to weasel. Although Trump raised the meddling, his answer to Putin’s denials was a weak-kneed “…we need to move forward from this intractable disagreement…”<\/p>\n

That’s the battered wife asking her abusive husband what he wants for dinner.<\/p>\n

Putin walks away with a strengthened hand, but more importantly: Trump is his bunny.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I try to avoid the subject of Donald Trump. However, right now I am just so disappointed that I have to vent. In cricket, when a new batsman comes on the international scene, he is normally quite successful in his first few\u00a0games,\u00a0and makes big scores. After that, he either settles down to be just very\u00a0good,\u00a0or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinkinccmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinkinccmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinkinccmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinkinccmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinkinccmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/dinkinccmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84,"href":"https:\/\/dinkinccmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions\/84"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinkinccmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinkinccmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinkinccmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}