Does Donald Trump deserve credit for peace between North and South Korea? Not so much.

After this admittedly historic meeting, Donald Trump was quick to jump in and snatch the credit.

After a furious year of missile launches and Nuclear testing, a historic meeting between North and South Korea is now taking place. Good things are happening, but only time will tell!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2018

KOREAN WAR TO END! The United States, and all of its GREAT people, should be very proud of what is now taking place in Korea!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2018

But is it credit that he deserves?

What do you think?

Courtesy of The Independent:  

In a historic and opulent ceremony, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) to sign the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula during the Inter-Korean Summit and officially ended the war that began when the north and south split in a battle over communism and democracy that began on 25 June 1950.

Dr TJ Pempel, a professor at the University of California-Berkeley told The Independent while Mr Trump “deserves some credit but not as much as he’s taking”. While the United Nations sanctions on Pyongyang involved the US push from Ambassador Nikki Haley, that is “hardly the whole story”, Mr Pempel said. “China’s agreement to the sanctions was far more important,” he noted. 

The important point to note, he said, was that North Korea developed its nuclear programme considerably after Mr Trump took office. “The North is convinced that it has the upper hand in negotiations because of its nuclear and missile testing successes; the US thinks it has the upper hand because it believes Kim is negotiating because of the sanctions. It’s the combination that has triggered the North’s willingness to sit down”.

That is likely part of the explanation for Kim Jong-un's sudden cooperativeness, but this next story is likely an even bigger factor.

Courtesy of Forbes:  

North Korean president Kim Jong-un recently announced his country has halted its nuclear testing program. While it is unclear whether this is a political move in preparation for meeting with the United States president Donald Trump, recent evidence suggests the country may have been forced to halt testing. 

A recent study by a group of geologists discovered that the mountain used by North Korea for its nuclear bomb testing has collapsed as a result of the explosions. The collapsed mountain is raising concerns about radioactive fallout, which could make its way into China. 

Scientists from the University of Science and Technology of China believe this could be the true reason North Korean President Kim Jong-un announced the halt of their nuclear testing program.

So Kim Jong-un is not negotiating because he is suddenly all reasonable and shit, it's because he realizes that he needs to change tactics before his bluff is called and his enemies recognize that he is not the nuclear threat that he has made himself out to be.

He's like a thief who attempts to rob a liquor store, realizes that he forgot to load his gun, and then suddenly says "Look, Just give me a bottle of vodka and I will leave without taking your money. Deal?"

Donald Trump has a history of taking credit for other people's work, and this looks like one more example.

In escalating war of words leader of North Korea calls Donald Trump a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard.”

Courtesy of New York Times:  

Responding directly for the first time to President Trump’s threat at the United Nations to destroy nuclear-armed North Korea, its leader called Mr. Trump a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” on Friday and vowed the “highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history.” 

The rejoinder by the leader, Kim Jong-un, who is about half as old as Mr. Trump, 71, added to the lexicon of Mr. Kim’s choice of insults in the escalating bombast between the two. 

“A frightened dog barks louder,” Mr. Kim said in a statement, referring to Mr. Trump’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday in which he vowed to annihilate North Korea if the United States were forced to defend itself or its allies against it. 

“He is surely a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire, rather than a politician,” Mr. Kim said.

Damn I hate to agree with a deranged North Korean lunatic, but that is a fairly accurate description.

Of course the problem is that we expect this sort of name calling and childishness from the life size Weeble dominating the people of North Korea, but now we have our own man-child egging him on by flinging his own preschool level epithets, like Rocket man, in Jong-un's direction.

And all of this might simply be good theater, if it did not potentially devastating real life consequences.

Courtesy of US News: 

Hawaiian officials are reportedly preparing for the possibility of a nuclear attack, and they're doing it quietly. 

The Honolulu Civil Beat reported earlier this week that Hawaii lawmakers attended a closed-door briefing Tuesday by emergency officials on the topic of such an attack from North Korea. Officials reportedly viewed slides on the potential fallout from a nuclear attack that included information on where an attack might target and the fatalities that could result.

That's right we now have American citizens now terrified of being decimated by a nuclear bomb.

Only nine short months ago there was no such fear.

And there are no signs that the rhetoric will come to an end any time soon.

Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 22, 2017

In actuality Trump is simply increasing sanctions: 

President Trump ordered a widening of American sanctions on North Korea on Thursday to further choke off its trade with the outside world, in what some experts described as perhaps the most sweeping set of punitive economic measures enacted by the United States in many years. 

A new executive order signed by Mr. Trump aimed to cut North Korea out of the international banking system while targeting its major industries and shipping. The move suggested that for now, at least, the president was still committed to applying economic pressure rather than military action, despite his vow this week to “totally destroy North Korea” if the United States were forced to defend itself or its allies.

That may have some effect if others were not trying to remove themselves from the line of fire if this thing escalates any further.

Courtesy of CNBC: 

South Korea on Thursday approved $8 million worth of humanitarian aid for Pyongyang in a move likely to muddle international efforts aimed at isolating the nuclear-armed state. 

The package will include $4.5 million in nutritional products for children and pregnant women through the World Food Program in addition to $3.5 million worth of vaccines and medicinal treatments via UNICEF. The timing of the delivery has yet to be confirmed.

The news indicates South Korean President Moon Jae-In isn't backing down from direct engagement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un even as other major players in the long-simmering crisis push for a tougher approach.

Yeah, that is because South Korea realizes that the minute somebody decides to call the other's bluff it is their asses which get fried first.

There is a reason that voters are supposed to choose the most sober, experienced, and mentally stable candidate to the President of the United States.

Donald Trump's first UN speech had some diplomats squirming in their seats while others did not even bother to show up in the first place.

Courtesy of The Independent:  

Donald Trump’s provocative address to the UN General Assembly had ambassadors squirming in their seats as the US President refused to hold back on attacking America’s enemies. 

Mr Trump went on a rambling crusade against a number of states, including North Korea, Iran and Venezuela - prompting awkward responses from delegates. 

Some representatives even refused to listen to the speech; North Korea’s UN ambassador walked out before Mr Trump arrived, leaving a more junior diplomat to represent the country.

Now it may not bother too many people that Trump ranted against North Korea and Iran, but they were not the only countries that Trump made uneasy.

Courtesy of McClatchy: 

The list of state leaders missing the international event is long and growing. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are two of the highest profile absences. But there are many whose faces were noticeably absent during Trump’s aggressive speech Tuesday on confronting North Korea, terrorism and communism, including Germany’s Angela Merkel, Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and Mexico’s Enrique Peña Nieto. 

Diplomats say they’ve learned it can be risky to share the spotlight with Trump, who can turn even the most well-intentioned exchange into an international spectacle, such as his notorious call with the Australian prime minister about refugees or the dressing down of NATO leaders at the unveiling of a new headquarters.

These world leaders and diplomats are clearly afraid of getting too close to the Donald and getting a little crazy on them.

CNN actually offers photographic evidence of the reactions of the diplomats in the room during Trump's speech.

Russia

Iran

South Korea

Israel

Well of course Netanyahu liked it, he is almost as unhinged as Trump.

At one point in his speech Trump said that "America stands for every person living under a brutal regime."

Talk about projection.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tries to calm fears about war with North Korea as Donald Trump continues to puff up his chest like a middle school bully.

Courtesy of CNN:

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has sought to allay fears of a military confrontation with North Korea after President Donald Trump warned he could unleash "fire and fury" on the pariah state. 

Tillerson defended Trump's comments but said there was no sign that the threat level from North Korea had changed and that Americans should "sleep well at night." 

His unscheduled remarks, on a flight out of the region early Wednesday, appeared designed to dial back the unprecedented rhetoric from Trump.

Trump's remarks about  "fire and fury" has caused concerns all across the world, and especially in South Korea, Japan, and of course Guam which North Korea has specifically threatened.

However while Tillerson is desperately trying to put out these fires, Trump his running around with his leaky gas can.

My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 9, 2017

...Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 9, 2017

First off I don't think that seven months is really enough time to "renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal."

And secondly WTF?

You know if you do indeed have the biggest penis in the frat house, you do not have to go around whipping it out at every party. People know.

Donald Trump is sitting on perhaps the single most powerful nuclear arsenal on the planet, he does not need to flaunt that.

It is like his tiny little hands make him feel that he constantly has to prove he is a man.

Only in this case his insecurities can cost the lives of millions.

North Korea declares war....on balloons.

Courtesy of The Straits Times: 

North Korea's military on Sunday threatened to blow up balloons that South Korean activists plan to send over the heavily militarised border carrying 10,000 DVDs of the satirical Hollywood film The Interview. 

Activists plan to launch copies of the film - a comedy about a fictional United States Central Intelligence Agency plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un - as well as 500,000 propaganda leaflets across the border on or around March 26. 

"All the firepower strike means of the frontline units of the (Korean People's Army) will launch without prior warning... to blow up balloons," the North's frontline military units said in a notice to the South. 

You know I've seen a couple of North Korean weapons tests, and  my money's on the balloons.

I have little doubt that hours after the activists launch their "assault" that there will be thousands of copies of "The Interview" in the hands of the North Koreans.

The only question is how many military fatalities will North Korea suffer as their bullets invariably strike each other or soldiers choke to death on deflated balloons.

Hey, there's a reason we don't let toddlers play with them you know.

In attempt to insult HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Republican Congressman gets his Korea's mixed up.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) insulted either Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius or a U.S. ally Wednesday in a testy back-and-forth over Obamacare, in which he compared her answers to something he'd hear from the "Republic of Korea." 

Shimkus was attempting to get Sebelius to admit that the cost of providing preventive services under the Affordable Care Act will raise insurance premiums. But she was not buying it, arguing instead that preventive services lower costs. 

"You cannot say these preventive services are, quote unquote, free of charge, can you?" said a heated Shimkus. 

"They are free to the consumer, yes, sir," answered Sebelius, provoking apparent disbelief from the Illinois congressman. 

"There is no free lunch, Madam Secretary," Shimkus said as she tried to point out actuarial estimates of the benefits of preventive care. 

"All right, all right. I got it," Shimkus said before Sebelius was finished. "We're going to have to agree to disagree," he added before groping for a suitable, unflattering comparison. 

"It's like talking to -- the Republic of Korea or something," he said. 

The Republic of Korea is an American ally, generally known as South Korea. It does not have a reputation for being difficult to talk to. North Korea, which is notoriously difficult to deal with, is known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.  

You may remember Shimkus as the dipstick who denies the existence of man made global warming because only God can destroy what he created: 

Speaking before a House Energy Subcommittee on Energy and Environment hearing in March, 2009, Shimkus quoted Chapter 8, Verse 22 of the Book of Genesis. 

He said: 'As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease.' 

The Illinois Republican continued: 'I believe that is the infallible word of God, and that's the way it is going to be for his creation. 

'The earth will end only when God declares its time to be over. Man will not destroy this earth. This earth will not be destroyed by a flood."

I'm sorry serious public officials, who couch their arguments in science and facts should NOT have to suffer the indignity of being questioned and then shouted at by imbeciles like this.

Oh and by the way, Sebelius is right. 

Officials respond quickly as inflammatory rhetoric from Sarah Palin threatens to raise tensions between North and South Korea.

Courtesy of Korea Times:


Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said she “looks forward to regime change” in North Korea while calling on South Korea to help the North when its regime is finally ousted. 

“Being under the thumb of a dictator, the first victims of his regime are his own people,” said Palin during a keynote address at the 12th World Knowledge Forum in Seoul, Tuesday. 

Palin, who was the vice presidential nominee of the Republican Party in 2008, made the comment in a Q&A session with Ritz Kahn of Al Jazeera English immediately after her speech. 

The theme of this year’s forum is “The New Economic Crisis: Reforming Global Leadership & Asia’s Challenge.” 

Regarding Palin’s remark, the Seoul government showed a cautious response. 

Jo Byoung-jae, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said flatly “regime change is not a policy goal or the objective of this government.” 

He said he is not criticizing Palin or her statement, but just stating as clearly as possible what the North Korea policy of Seoul is, adding, “I think it is safe to say that it is also not the policy goal of the U.S. government either.” 

Palin’s statement drew attention as it came at a particularly precarious time for South and North Korean relations amid lingering tension on the Korean Peninsula. 

I like how the Korean people are much too polite to just come out and say, "Bitch, shut the hell up!"

Leave it to Snowdrift Snooki to travel overseas and almost cause war to break out.

Why do people pay to hear her speak again?

I would instruct my Korean brothers and sisters to follow America's lead, and do what we are just now starting to do, ignore her wrinkled old ass!

The Grizzled Mama uses Thanksgiving Facebook message to stomp her feet and throw a tantrum about "unfair" reporting on her North/South Korea gaffe.

In the beginning of this Facebook rant Palin's ghostwriters mashed together a number of gaffes made by President Obama, many of them occurring during his exhausting campaign and health care debate, apparently to illustrate that the media does not report HIS verbal blunders with the same aggression and consistency that they report Sister Sarah's.

I will not cut and paste it here because I want to focus on Palin's completely over the top response, on Thanksgiving Day no less, to the criticism that came from the fact that she mixed up South and North Korea. (You can read the cobbled together "speech" of Obama gaffes by clicking the "Facebook rant" link above.)

Of course, the paragraph above is based on a series of misstatements and verbal gaffes made by Barack Obama (I didn’t have enough time to do one for Joe Biden). YouTube links are provided just in case you doubt the accuracy of these all too human slips-of-the-tongue. If you can’t remember hearing about them, that’s because for the most part the media didn’t consider them newsworthy. I have no complaint about that. Everybody makes the occasional verbal gaffe – even news anchors.

Obviously, I would have been even more impressed if the media showed some consistency on this issue. Unfortunately, it seems they couldn’t resist the temptation to turn a simple one word slip-of-the-tongue of mine into a major political headline. The one word slip occurred yesterday during one of my seven back-to-back interviews wherein I was privileged to speak to the American public about the important, world-changing issues before us.

If the media had bothered to actually listen to all of my remarks on Glenn Beck’s radio show, they would have noticed that I refer to South Korea as our ally throughout, that I corrected myself seconds after my slip-of-the-tongue, and that I made it abundantly clear that pressure should be put on China to restrict energy exports to the North Korean regime. The media could even have done due diligence and checked my previous statements on the subject, which have always been consistent, and in fact even ahead of the curve. But why let the facts get in the way of a good story? (And for that matter, why not just make up stories out of thin air – like the totally false hard news story which has run for three days now reporting that I lobbied the producers of “Dancing with the Stars” to cast a former Senate candidate on their show. That lie is further clear proof that the media completely makes things up without doing even rudimentary fact-checking.)

“Hope springs eternal” as the poet says. Let’s hope that perhaps, just maybe, they might get it right next time. When we the people are effective in holding America’s free press accountable for responsible and truthful reporting, then we shall all have even more to be thankful for!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

- Sarah Palin

Wow!  Can you believe THAT post?

This is essentially an entire post that could be summed up with "Not fair! Not fair! Not fair! He said a stupid thing too, why is everybody always picking on ME?

What Palin, and whoever spent all day yesterday researching her little bitch-fest for her, fail to understand is that, unlike Palin, the huge majority of things that the President says are highly intelligent and delivered with authority. 

However Sarah Palin is a potpourri of ridiculous statements and uneducated responses to questions from reporters.  Even the reporters on Fox News.

From her Katie Couric interviews, to the turkey slaughter video I put up yesterday, Palin stumbles every time she is without a carefully scripted speech delivered to a receptive audience.  And even THEN she can fuck it up.

And then we have President Obama who almost always gives a seamless speech, and even when in a room full of hostile Republicans without the help of teleprompters, can not only stand his ground but use his vast intellect to eat their lunch for them.

You know the funny thing is I kind of agreed with Caribou Barbie about the North Korea slip up. I DID listen to the rest of the interview with Glenn Beck and heard her refer to North Korea in the proper context, and even though I was sent the link over a dozen times, I gave it a pass.  My feeling was that she had said more ignorant things in the past, and would say more ignorant things in the future, so jumping on this seemed a little petty.

That is until today.

Sure anybody can make a mistake, Sarah Palin's staff of researchers just proved that in this Facebook post, but what is much more news worthy is the Grizzled Mama's over the top reaction to being called out on HER mistakes.

Remember this is a woman who wants to seriously be considered for the MOST IMPORTANT job in America, and THIS is how she responds to criticism.

Sarah Palin is the most thin skinned and defensive person on the political stage, can ANYBODY seriously believe that she could handle the kind of intense scrutiny and criticism that she would receive on the campaign trail, much less in the White House?

Jon Stewart adresses BOTH the South and North Korean kerfuffle and the Israeli commando's boarding of vessels delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza. He has been off for awhile and has a lot of make up work to do.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Clusterf#&k to the War House - Korean Peninsula & Middle East
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