June 12, 2018

The Trump-Kim handshake happened.

It is beyond me to know what it means. I think it's beyond everyone else too, but the journalists had to do their thing, and I suppose I could read/watch their work and say something about them.

Reuters rolled out body-language experts:
Body language experts said that in the 13 seconds or so the U.S. president held on to the hand of Kim for the first time, he projected his usual dominance by reaching out first, and patting the North Korean leader's shoulder. Not to be outdone, Kim firmly pumped Trump's hand, looking him straight in the eye for the duration, before breaking off to face the media.

"It wasn't a straight-out handshake," said Allan Pease, an Australian body language expert and author of several books on the topic, including "The Definitive Guide to Body Language". "It was up and down, there was an argy-bargy, each one was pulling the other closer. Each guy wasn't letting the other get a dominant grip," he told Reuters by telephone from Melbourne.as the father and the little guy is the son."
Definitive guide, indeed. Pease sounds like he's talking about all the power handshakes he's ever seen, not the specific one that I saw on video. But points for using the word "argy-bargy."

It's a word I've used exactly once on this blog, back in 2005, just to say I "loved" it, when somebody else used it, and to express determination to use it again. I'd thought I'd blogged about Justice Scalia using the word, but the person using the word back in 2005 was the playwright David Hare. It occurred to me that Justice Scalia had used the word "argle-bargle," and that turns out to be correct. Here, back in 2013, he'd written "the real rationale of today’s opinion, whatever disappearing trail of its legalistic argle-bargle one chooses to follow...." Does it matter what the legal issue was or is that something you feel you could say about any nonunanimous Supreme Court opinion? I see I thought it was such a useful embodiment of opinion that I made a tag for it — argle-bargle.

"Argle-bargle" means "Disputatious argument, bandying of words, wrangling" (OED). Trump's tweeting often has an argle-bargle quality, but his tweet for the Kim meeting is wordless. Form your own opinions of the body language:


Darrell said...

Body language experts.
Name two. Other than Allan Pease.
Start with a lie and it's downhill from there.

Oso Negro said...

It’s a better image than one of Seoul in flames. Good enough for today.

Ryan said...

Kim needs a new suit. Looks like David Byrne with those big boy pants.

I think his being chubby and always smiling helps his image. Better than than the sinister lean and hungry look.

whitney said...

Our media just hates everything about it because Trump just makes it harder and harder to erase him from history when the time comes

TwilightofLiberty.com said...

After 16 years of 'professional politicians', one of which was the SMARTEST MAN EVAH, setting fires around the world, its tricky for the media to take in a president seemingly putting one out.

Rusty said...

Kim found a new sugar daddy.
All he has to do is live up to his side of the bargain.

jwl said...

Is argle bargle even an expression or did Scalia mishear argy bargy?

The English Oxford Living Dictionary says argle bargle is American and means "Copious but meaningless talk or writing; nonsense" but I have never heard this before, or after, Scalia used it a few years ago. My Scottish grandmother used argy bargy all the time to describe heated arguments but argle bargle seems like nonsensical expression.

Big Mike said...

I’m pretty sure that “argy-bargy” is how the Brits pronounce “argle bargle.” Enough American TV shows and they’ll improve their English.

Carter Wood said...

Squeeze, 1980, the fine album, "Argybargy."

dreams said...

I'm with Don Surber. "The American press will get it all wrong. That's what they do."

And this.

"Mark Knoller, CBS News White House Correspondent, tweeted that Kim is the 70th head of state that President Trump has met privately. Wow.)

But I wonder why it took Kim getting nukes to bring an end to the Korean War.

I get that the Cold War made this impossible, but why didn't Clinton do this? Bush 43? Obama? I suspect they relied on experts. I suspect Condoleezza Rice and Madeleine Albright are affirmative action fools. We know Hillary is dumber. Never mistake her obsession with vengeance for intelligence. John Kerry is dumber than Hillary.

President Trump found out what Kim wanted and gave it to him in exchange for nukes, which may have been taken out last September by Mother Nature, North Korean incompetence, or the U.S. Navy.

We do not know the whole story. Wait 50 years. I'll be gone by then.

But I do know what diplomacy is. In this case, it was getting Kim to surrender without losing face.

Now to get Chairman Xi on board. That will take some work."


JAORE said...

Body language experts? Were there no phrenologists available? Ah well, back to the usual tactic of mind reading for the press to address Trump's motivations.

Brian McKim and/or Traci Skene said...

Soft "g" or hard one?

Brits, especially cockney Brits shorten everything, even if "shortening" doesn't result in time saved. Thus, "argy bargy."

The Aussie are inventive shorteners,"Arvo" for "afternoon" being a prime example. They go for the "o" on the end a lot.

Roy Jacobsen said...

"There's an old Vulcan proverb: Only Nixon could go to China." -- Spock

Birches said...

All the pomp and circumstance makes me a little uncomfortable, but I have high hopes. At least there isn't pallets of cash. This is probably closer to Cuba than Iran if it doesn't work out.

Kelly said...

I thought both men seemed nervous which is understandable.

CStanley said...

Agree with Kelly. Trump seemed uncharacteristically nervous.

Gretchen said...

Dreams said:

"President Trump found out what Kim wanted and gave it to him in exchange for nukes ..."

This was a preliminary meeting. I believe Trump and Kim had a private one on one earlier so Trump could assess what made him tick, in person. He is the ONLY opinion that matters in NK.

All the previous SoSs and certainly Obama assumed everyone wanted money. I think Kim wants a legacy of changing NK and bringing prosperity, so not just money, but Kim being the heroic figure who brought NK into the world stage. Trump afforded him a big propaganda victory at home, pictures with Trump. This bothers some people, but I am not sure why. It costs the US nothing and is very valuable for Kim. These are the kinds of things that should be lavishly given when negotiating. Pallets of cash, not so much.

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