So yesterday Donald Trump tried to write the Washington Post's headline for them.

The Fake News Washington Post, Amazon’s “chief lobbyist,” has another (of many) phony headlines, “Trump Defiant As China Adds Trade Penalties.” WRONG! Should read, “Trump Defiant as U.S. Adds Trade Penalties, Will End Barriers And Massive I.P. Theft.” Typically bad reporting!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 5, 2018

Well, SOMEBODY is a little thin skinned about this upcoming trade war with China.

Unfortunately for Trump the Washington Post focuses on the facts.

Besides they likely remember what happened the LAST time that Trump wrote a headline.

Talk about fake news.

Donald Trump openly expresses admiration for President of China's power grab, while behind the scenes his frustration and anger threatens to overwhelm him.

Courtesy of CNN:

President Donald Trump bemoaned a decision not to investigate Hillary Clinton after the 2016 presidential election, decrying a "rigged system" that still doesn't have the "right people" in place to fix it, during a freewheeling speech to Republican donors in Florida on Saturday. 

In the closed-door remarks, a recording of which was obtained by CNN, Trump also praised China's President Xi Jinping for recently consolidating power and extending his potential tenure, musing he wouldn't mind making such a maneuver himself. 

"He's now president for life. President for life. No, he's great," Trump said. "And look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll have to give that a shot some day." 

The remarks, delivered inside the ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago estate during a lunch and fundraiser, were upbeat, lengthy, and peppered with jokes and laughter. But Trump's words reflected his deeply felt resentment that his actions during the 2016 campaign remain under scrutiny while those of his former rival, Hillary Clinton, do not. 

"I'm telling you, it's a rigged system folks," Trump said. "I've been saying that for a long time. It's a rigged system. And we don't have the right people in there yet. We have a lot of great people, but certain things, we don't have the right people."

What President Xi did was push to abolish term limits, effectively making him China's leader for life.

If President Obama had even hinted at such a thing, there would be outrage echoing throughout Washington, and it would be subject one on every Sunday morning talk show in the country.

Especially if the public were aware of what was in this Washington Post report as well: 

Inside the White House, aides over the past week have described an air of anxiety and volatility — with an uncontrollable commander in chief at its center. 

These are the darkest days in at least half a year, they say, and they worry just how much farther President Trump and his administration may plunge into unrest and malaise before they start to recover. As one official put it: “We haven’t bottomed out.” 

Trump is now a president in transition, at times angry and increasingly isolated. He fumes in private that just about every time he looks up at a television screen, the cable news headlines are trumpeting yet another scandal. He voices frustration that son-in-law Jared Kushner has few on-air defenders. He revives old grudges. And he confides to friends that he is uncertain about whom to trust.

In an unorthodox presidency in which emotion, impulse and ego often drive events, Trump’s ominous moods manifested themselves last week in his zigzagging positions on gun control; his shock trade war that jolted markets and was opposed by Republican leaders and many in his own administration; and his roiling feud of playground insults with Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Retired four-star Army general Barry McCaffrey said the American people — and Congress especially — should be alarmed. 

“I think the president is starting to wobble in his emotional stability and this is not going to end well,” McCaffrey said. “Trump’s judgment is fundamentally flawed, and the more pressure put on him and the more isolated he becomes, I think, his ability to do harm is going to increase.”

Trump is becoming increasingly isolated within that White House, feeling abandoned and increasingly mistrustful, left only with his increasing madness to keep him company.

Even his attempts at levity are tinged with darkness and insecurities.

Courtesy of Variety:

President Donald Trump joked about impeachment, Jared Kushner’s security clearance and Melania Trump leaving him as he attended his first Gridiron Club dinner, a highly formal and traditional event full of the news media he often dubs “fake news.”

A number of his quips made fun of the atmosphere in the West Wing after a chaotic week, what with more staff departures and rumors of more to come. 

“It’s been really another calm week at the White House,” he quipped. “We finally have it running like a fine-tuned machine.” 

He was joined on the dais by his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, and the most controversial joke of the evening involved her. 

“I like turnover. I like chaos. It really is good. Now the question everybody keeps asking is, ‘Who is going to be the next to leave? Steve Miller or Melania?”

Trump is known for saying out loud the things that are bothering him or frightening him, and then attempting to pass them off as jokes.

Trump also tried to joke about Jared Kushner's security clearance,  the attention Mike Pence pays to news about impeachment, and his difficult relationship with Jeff Sessions.

You do not have to have a PHD in Psychology to recognize that he finds none of those topics actually humorous.

Trump is crumbling before our eyes.

And we can only hope that when he finally snaps, he does not take the whole country down with him.

So wait, WHAT almost happened with the nuclear football?

Courtesy of Axios:  

On Thursday Nov. 9, when President Trump and his team visited Beijing's Great Hall of the People, Chief of Staff John Kelly and a U.S. Secret Service agent skirmished with Chinese security officials over the nuclear football. 

I've spoken to five sources familiar with the events. Here's what happened, as they describe it: 

When the U.S. military aide carrying the nuclear football entered the Great Hall, Chinese security officials blocked his entry. (The official who carries the nuclear football is supposed to stay close to the president at all times, along with a doctor.) 

A U.S. official hurried into the adjoining room and told Kelly what was happening. Kelly rushed over and told the U.S. officials to keep walking — "We're moving in," he said — and the Americans all started moving. 

Then there was a commotion. A Chinese security official grabbed Kelly, and Kelly shoved the man’s hand off of his body. Then a U.S. Secret Service agent grabbed the Chinese security official and tackled him to the ground. 

The whole scuffle was over in a flash, and the U.S. officials told about the incident were asked to keep quiet about it. Trump's team followed the normal security procedure to brief the Chinese before their visit to Beijing, according to a person familiar with the trip — but somebody at the Chinese end either didn't get the memo or decided to mess with the Americans anyway.

The article goes on to state that at no time did the Chinese have the nuclear football in their possession, but I do not take a whole lot of comfort in that.

It sounds to me like the Trump Administration barely avoided yet another foreign relations nightmare.

This is what happens when a puppet of the Kremlin fills his cabinet with the modern version of the Keystone Kops.

All I have to say is that we NEVER heard stories like this during the Obama Administration.

The Trump team would like to do a federal takeover of our cell phones to "protect" us against the Chinese. Uh, no.

Oh I'll keep your phones safe alright, you can trust me.

Courtesy of Axios:  

Trump national security officials are considering an unprecedented federal takeover of a portion of the nation’s mobile network to guard against China, according to sensitive documents obtained by Axios. 

Why it matters: We’ve got our hands on a PowerPoint deck and a memo — both produced by a senior National Security Council official — which were presented recently to senior officials at other agencies in the Trump administration. 

The main points: The documents say America needs a centralized nationwide 5G network within three years. There'll be a fierce debate inside the Trump administration — and an outcry from the industry — over the next 6-8 months over how such a network is built and paid for. 

The proposal apparently offers two different plans for protecting cell phones, one involves nationalizing the industry, while the others has the cell phone companies competing with each other to provide safe, hack resistant 5G network.

However sources say option number two is really not the goal as the administration sees only a government controlled network as being "safe."

It seems clear to me that the choices are really to risk the possibility that the Chinese might hack our phones, or hand our service over to the Trump Administration and insure that the Russians will definitely hack our phones.

Keep in mind that this guy does NOT work for us.

Just take a moment to imagine the incredible Right Wing backlash that would have occurred if President Obama had even suggested something remotely similar to this.

They would STILL be screaming about it.

Trump's "fake news" meme is also popular with another group of folks, authoritarian despots.

Courtesy of Politico:

Authoritarian rulers across the globe are adopting President Donald Trump’s favorite phrase to limit free speech, with prominent leaders or state media in at least 15 countries using his “fake news” line to denounce their critics, according to a POLITICO review. 

By aligning themselves with Trump’s words, despots have been able to use the U.S. president as a shield for their attacks on press freedom and human rights, said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. 

“I’m seeing it more and more,” he said. Trump, he added, “is providing a context and framework for all sorts of authoritarian leaders—or democratic leaders and others who are dissatisfied or upset by critical media coverage—to undermine and discredit reporting.” 

In February, for example, Syrian President Bashar Assad brushed off an Amnesty International report that some 13,000 people had been killed at one of his military prisons by saying, “You can forge anything these days, we are living in a fake news era.” 

In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte has complained of being “demonized” by “fake news.” Last month, with Trump laughing by his side, he called reporters “spies.”

Over the weekend, a state official in Myanmar attracted notice when he said, “There is no such thing as Rohingya. It is fake news,” referring to the persecuted ethnic group. 

Those are hardly the only examples of Trump’s phrase being deployed internationally: In March, Chinese state media dismissed a prominent rights activist’s account of torture as “fake news.” And in May, the People’s Daily ran an op-ed with the headline, “Trump is right, fake news is the enemy, something China has known for years.”

Possibly the worst American export ever!

America, making the world a more shitty place since 2017.

So that guy that the Russians put into the White House was up early embarrassing America again.

It wasn’t the White House, it wasn’t the State Department, it wasn’t father LaVar’s so-called people on the ground in China that got his son out of a long term prison sentence - IT WAS ME. Too bad! LaVar is just a poor man’s version of Don King, but without the hair. Just think..

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

...LaVar, you could have spent the next 5 to 10 years during Thanksgiving with your son in China, but no NBA contract to support you. But remember LaVar, shoplifting is NOT a little thing. It’s a really big deal, especially in China. Ungrateful fool!

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

Jesus!

Trump then followed that up by bitching that the NFL may simply keep players in the locker room during the playing of the National Anthem, which is what they used to do before making that deal with the Pentagon.

The NFL is now thinking about a new idea - keeping teams in the Locker Room during the National Anthem next season. That’s almost as bad as kneeling! When will the highly paid Commissioner finally get tough and smart? This issue is killing your league!.....

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

Not a "new idea."

And then Trump also retweeted this beauty.

The ungratefulness is something I’ve never seen before. If you get someone’s son out of prison, he should be grateful to you! Period. I don’t care. If Hillary got my kid out of prison, as much as I hate the woman, I’d thank her corrupt ass!

— Joey Mannarino (@Realjmannarino) November 22, 2017

Let me remind everybody, that like it or not, this man is the president of the United States.

He represents all of us, and his tweets are read by people all over the world. 

Donald Trump suggests that an American basketball player should have remained in a Chinese jail because his father did not adequately kiss his ass.

So as you all probably heard these three UCLA basketball players got busted in China for shoplifting and spent some time in jail over there.

Eventually they were released and Donald Trump wanted to make sure that everybody knew that he was the one that made that happen.

Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will say thank you President Trump? They were headed for 10 years in jail!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2017

To the three UCLA basketball players I say: You're welcome, go out and give a big Thank You to President Xi Jinping of China who made.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2017

....your release possible and, HAVE A GREAT LIFE! Be careful, there are many pitfalls on the long and winding road of life!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2017

So gracious, don't you think?

Anyhow one of the player's dads was interviewed about the incident yesterday, and he clearly is not a Trump fan.

Courtesy of ESPN: 

LaVar Ball downplayed his son's shoplifting incident in China, as well as President Donald Trump's involvement in getting LiAngelo Ball and two other UCLA basketball players back to the United States earlier this week. 

"Who?" LaVar Ball told ESPN on Friday, when asked about Trump's involvement in the matter. "What was he over there for? Don't tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out."

Now that may seem a little ungrateful since Trump DID intervene on the player's behalf with Chinese president Xi Jinping, though the Chinese themselves suggested that the players were going to be released anyhow.

Courtesy of WaPo:

For their part, the Chinese government wasn’t eager to say that Xi had followed through on Trump’s request to intervene. 

“I am not aware of the details, but I believe the Chinese police would have handled the case in strict accordance with the law,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a news conference Wednesday, when asked if Xi had intervened.

Whoever is actually responsible for getting the players released is almost beside the point, because the real news is how Trump responded to not being given the credit.

Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2017

Seriously?

Now keep in mind that the young man, LiAngelo Ball, already personally thanked Trump during a press conference for helping get him out, but now that his father refuses to do the same, Trump is actually suggesting that should have left the players to rot in a Chinese prison.

Damn! That is the very definition of thin skinned.

Trump does not seem to have any understanding of what is means to be a public servant and to do selfless things for his constituents.

Instead he demands that everybody applaud every simple fucking thing that he does, as if he is a one year old who successfully made his first boom boom in the big toilet. 

Steve Bannon drunk dials reporter for liberal rag to apparently slam his boss by mocking his chest thumping about North Korea and the constant infighting in the White House.

I know that some of this is going to read like an SNL skit gone bad but apparently Bannon called this reporter, Robert Kuttner, from the American Prospect right out of the blue.

This is a portion of what he had to say: 

Contrary to Trump’s threat of fire and fury, Bannon said: “There’s no military solution [to North Korea’s nuclear threats], forget it. Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that ten million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, they got us.” 

Actually that's not really crazy, not even a little bit.

But then the topic turned to Gyna. (No I did not misspell China, that is how these idiots pronounce it.): 

“To me,” Bannon said, “the economic war with China is everything. And we have to be maniacally focused on that. If we continue to lose it, we're five years away, I think, ten years at the most, of hitting an inflection point from which we'll never be able to recover.” 

Bannon’s plan of attack includes: a complaint under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act against Chinese coercion of technology transfers from American corporations doing business there, and follow-up complaints against steel and aluminum dumping. “We’re going to run the tables on these guys. We’ve come to the conclusion that they’re in an economic war and they’re crushing us.”

But what about the folks in the State Department who are not on board with these aggressive tactics against Gyna?

Funny you should ask:

“Oh, they’re wetting themselves,” he said, explaining that the Section 301 complaint, which was put on hold when the war of threats with North Korea broke out, was shelved only temporarily, and will be revived in three weeks. As for other cabinet departments, Bannon has big plans to marginalize their influence. 

“I’m changing out people at East Asian Defense; I’m getting hawks in. I’m getting Susan Thornton [acting head of East Asian and Pacific Affairs] out at State.” 

But can Bannon really win that fight internally? 

"That's a fight I fight every day here,” he said. “We’re still fighting. There’s Treasury and [National Economic Council chair] Gary Cohn and Goldman Sachs lobbying.” 

“We gotta do this. The president’s default position is to do it, but the apparatus is going crazy. Don’t get me wrong. It’s like, every day.”

So much for Trump's assertion that everything is running smoothly in the White House.

And why is Bannon talking like HE'S the president? Wait, is HE the president?

To give Bannon a little credit he certainly came out harder against the protesters in Charlottesville than his boss ever did:

He dismissed the far right as irrelevant and sidestepped his own role in cultivating it: “Ethno-nationalism—it's losers. It's a fringe element. I think the media plays it up too much, and we gotta help crush it, you know, uh, help crush it more.” 

“These guys are a collection of clowns,” he added. 

Cannot argue with that last part. But then Bannon switched gears and went after the Democrats:   

“The Democrats,” he said, “the longer they talk about identity politics, I got ’em. I want them to talk about racism every day. If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.”

That sounds a little more like the Steve Bannon that we know, and loathe. 

Well this should make for some awkward cabinet meetings in the White House for the next couple of days.

And didn't Bannon just essentially out himself as a White House leaker?

When the Mooch called up a reporter and started talking smack he was out the door in less than 24 hours.

Let's see how much longer Bannon holds onto his job.

Well Sarah Palin seems very excited about the prospect of war with China.

The ghostwritten post on Palin's website links to this article on the conservative Daily Caller:  

The U.S. Navy challenged China’s vast claims to the South China Sea on Thursday, Navy officials revealed. 

The U.S. Navy conducted the third freedom-of-navigation operation under President Donald Trump in the South China Sea on Thursday. The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John McCain (DDG-56) sailed within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef in the Spratly Island chain, according to Fox News. 

A Navy P-8 reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft reportedly flew nearby.

Now these intermittent challenges to other countries by each other's military are fairly common, as demonstrated here in Alaska by Russian jets entering our air defense zone repeatedly over the last forty years or so.

Typically there is a little chest pounding, some diplomatic reminders of boundaries and sovereignty and everybody goes about their business.

But things are a little different right now.

For one thing we have an unhinged commander-in-chief who is not only comparing penis size with North Korea, but also bitching that China is not helping to keep them under control.

I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

...they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

You know, when you are trying to convince another country to aid you with a potentially dangerous adversary it does not seem to be in your best interests to troll them with your military.

Apparently it is Donald Trump's goal during his stay in the White House to alienate every country he possibly can before leaving office.

Except for Russia of course, because THEY are Donald Trump's only true friend.

That is why they gifted him with an election victory.

Protesters trolled Trump with giant inflatable chicken.

It appears some protesters have inflated this behind the White House. pic.twitter.com/TduZC591BK

— Steve Kopack (@SteveKopack) August 9, 2017

There's a giant inflatable Trump chicken behind the White House. pic.twitter.com/z41FJNAG6X

— Philip Lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) August 9, 2017

Courtesy of The Hill: 

A large inflatable chicken meant to resemble President Trump was placed near the White House on Wednesday. 

The inflatable chicken, which features a golden coif of hair and hand gestures similar to Trump's, is modeled after a statue unveiled in December as the mascot for a Chinese mall. Since the statue's unveiling last year, smaller copies have appeared across the United States. 

The inflatable chicken that appeared Wednesday appears to have been put up near the Ellipse area by the White House that is open to the public. 

Trump of course is off visiting one of his golf courses so he did not see the fowl with whom he shares such a remarkable resemblance.

The chicken is based on a statue placed near a mall in China.

Which was recreated by an artist in Seattle, and now apparently ANYBODY can buy one.

I have no idea what Trump thinks about the inflatable homage, because as it turns out he was too busy desperately looking for a favorable poll online that he could retweet.

Who is a better President of the United States? #ObamaDay

— ProgressPolls (@ProgressPolls) August 4, 2017

I imagine that you will be less than surprised to learn that Progress Polls is a fake poll created by a pro-Trump Twitter troll.

US Admiral says that he would launch a nuclear attack against China if Donald Trump commanded it. WTF?

Courtesy of NPR: 

At a security conference in Australia on Thursday, this scenario was posed to the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet: If ordered to do so by President Trump, would he would launch a nuclear attack on China next week? His response: Yes. 

An academic in the audience posed this question to Adm. Scott Swift: "At risk of being blunt ... If, when you return to your command next week, you were to receive an order from the commander in chief, the president of the United States, to make a nuclear attack on China, would you do it?"

As the audience tittered at the premise, the admiral smiled and said, "So far, these were yes and no answers." 

"The answer would be yes," Swift went on. "Every member of the U.S. military has sworn an oath to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic and to obey the officers and the president of the United States as the commander in chief appointed over us."

"This is core to American democracy and any time you have a military that is moving away from a focus and an allegiance to civilian control, then we really have significant problems," Swift added.

Okay now I have never been a member of the armed services but isn't it the duty of the United States military to defy and order that they believe is dangerous to the country or that comes from a superior clearly suffering from an mental illness?

Attacking China would be suicide. This guy has to know that.

Right?

Jesus Christ, if anybody needs me I will be curled up in the fetal position under my bed.

Germany and China to join forces and take on the role traditionally filled by the United States, now that there is a lunatic in charge of that country.

It's up to us now.

Courtesy of Bloomberg: 

The U.S. traditionally takes point in the search for common approaches to the big global issues of the day at G-20 summits. Not this time. 

When world leaders meet in Hamburg on Friday, China and Germany will move in to usurp the U.S.’s role.

The two industrial powerhouses of Asia and Europe are being nudged into an informal alliance to pick up the leadership baton that the U.S. is accused of having dropped since President Donald Trump’s inauguration earlier this year, according to diplomats and officials from several Group of 20 members. 

The situation has crystallized ahead of this year’s annual G-20 meeting, which will be held in Germany’s busiest commercial port. That’s in part because, for the first time since the group’s founding, the U.S. will be represented by a president who embraces protectionism, abandoning decades of American cheer-leading for free trade.

Boy color me confused.

What part of Make America Great Again is played by having German and China usurp America's role as the leader of the free world?

And while this is going on Trump will be backstage playing footsies with Putin and getting instructions on how best to damage America next.

Only a short time in office and already Donald Trump has virtually destroyed America's reputation. Are we winning yet?

Courtesy of Pew Research Center:

Although he has only been in office a few months, Donald Trump’s presidency has had a major impact on how the world sees the United States. Trump and many of his key policies are broadly unpopular around the globe, and ratings for the U.S. have declined steeply in many nations. According to a new Pew Research Center survey spanning 37 nations, a median of just 22% has confidence in Trump to do the right thing when it comes to international affairs. This stands in contrast to the final years of Barack Obama’s presidency, when a median of 64% expressed confidence in Trump’s predecessor to direct America’s role in the world.

The sharp decline in how much global publics trust the U.S. president on the world stage is especially pronounced among some of America’s closest allies in Europe and Asia, as well as neighboring Mexico and Canada. Across the 37 nations polled, Trump gets higher marks than Obama in only two countries: Russia and Israel.

" Trump gets higher marks than Obama in only two countries: Russia and Israel." Color me unsurprised.

The poll cites two reasons for the decline in Trump and America's popularity, his policies and his character.

The policies essentially speak for themselves, but get a load of their take on his character:

In the eyes of most people surveyed around the world, the White House’s new occupant is arrogant, intolerant and even dangerous. Among the positive characteristics tested, his highest rating is for being a strong leader. Fewer believe he is charismatic, well-qualified or cares about ordinary people.

You know that is going to elicit an angry tweet.

And this might as well: 

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin also get poor marks, though neither is rated as negatively as the U.S. president. Across the 37 nations surveyed, a median of 28% voice confidence in Xi, while 27% feel this way about Putin.

Trump comes in at a dismal 22% confidence rating.

Jesus, an American president even more disliked by the world than Vladimir Putin. 

There's something to brag about to our friends.

Ivanka Trump's clothing line is manufactured in a Chinese sweatshop that makes its employees work 60 hour weeks for around 62 dollars.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Workers at a factory in China used by the company that makes clothing for Ivanka Trump’s fashion line and other brands worked nearly 60 hours a week to earn wages of little more than $62 a week, according to a factory audit released Monday. 

The factory’s 80 workers knit clothes for the contractor, G-III Apparel Group, which has held the exclusive license to make the Ivanka Trump brand’s $158 dresses, $79 blouses and other clothes since 2012. The company also makes clothes for Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and other brands. 

Inspectors with the Fair Labor Association, an industry monitoring group whose members include Apple and Nike, found two dozen violations of international labor standards during a two-day tour of the factory in October, saying in a report that workers faced daunting hours, high turnover, and pay near or below China’s minimum wage. 

The inspection offers a rare look at the working conditions of the global manufacturing machine that helped make Trump’s fashion brand a multimillion-dollar business. 

Its release also comes as the president’s daughter has sought to cast herself as both a champion of workplace issues and a defender of her father’s “buy American, hire American” agenda. Trump, whose book “Women Who Work” debuts next week, was in Germany on Tuesday for public discussions about global entre­pre­neur­ship and empowerment. 

“We can add billions to the global economy by creating an enabling environment, increasing women’s labour force participation and business ownership, and improving the productivity of their work,” Trump wrote in a Financial Times essay Monday.

Well it would certainly be hard to improve productivity past 60 hour work weeks now wouldn't it? 

And since it is quite likely that a clothing manufacturing plant would hire mostly women, I guess this is how Ivanka Trump empowers women in the workforce.

Clearly Trump's own High Society Barbie is just as full of shit as her Cheeto tinged father.

Apparently Ivanka Trump has inspired a cult of Chinese admirers. Update!

Goddess Ivanka with her very first worshiper.

Courtesy of the Daily Mail: 

Her father's brand may be struggling for popularity in the US, but Ivanka Trump is cultivating a cult following in China. 

An online fan club on the website Weibo, which is similar to Twitter, even refers to the president's daughter as 'Goddess Ivanka'. 

NBC News reports the page with the same title has about 12,000 followers, many of whom are effusive in their praise for the 35-year-old. 

Hu Xingdou, a Beijing professor, told the network much of Ivanka Trump's popularity comes from people thinking she is supportive of China. 

'Most people in China love Ivanka because of her friendly gestures towards the Chinese people,' Xingdou said. 

'Ivanka is an important bridge during this period of uncertainties in China-US relations.' 

Seriously?

I swear that Trump has people so freaked out that they will cling to any possibility that somebody can rein him in.

However as John Oliver pointed out over the weekend, it is unlikely that Ivanka is that person.
Yeah let's face it the only thing that can rein Donald Trump in is a conviction for treason and some much needed prison time.

Hopefully that is what looms in his future.

Update: Apparently the Germans are not quite as gullible as the Chinese.

This is what happened when Ivanka attempted to defend her father during a  W20 conference in Germany.

Ivanka gets booed and hissed by audience when she says her father is a"tremendous champion of supporting families."

— Annie Karni (@anniekarni) April 25, 2017

The crowd audibly rumbled, booed when Ivanka mentioned her father's support of women.

— Emily Jane Fox (@emilyjanefox) April 25, 2017

Well that seems like a more rational response to Trump's little apologist.

So how's that war with North Korea coming along?

Go ahead make a move, I dare you.

Courtesy of ABC News:  

North Korea's deputy U.N. ambassador accused the United States on Monday of turning the Korean Peninsula into "the world's biggest hotspot" and creating "a dangerous situation in which a thermonuclear war may break out at any moment." 

Kim In Ryong told a news conference that "if the U.S. dares opt for a military action," North Korea "is ready to react to any mode of war desired by the U.S." 

He said the Trump administration's deployment of the Carl Vinson nuclear carrier task group to waters off the Korean Peninsula again "proves the U.S. reckless moves for invading the DPRK have reached a serious phase of its scenario." 

Kim stressed that U.S.-South Korean military exercises being staged now are the largest-ever "aggressive war drill" aimed at his country, formally the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. 

"The prevailing grave situation proves once again that the DPRK was entirely just when it increased in every way its military capabilities for self-defense and pre-emptive attack with a nuclear force as a pivot," he said.

Yep rising paranoia, highly agitated saber rattling, and the overwhelming fear of losing face in front of one's people, the very recipe for a disaster.

So has Trump's careless posturing had any positive impact in curbing North Korea's missile testing?

Courtesy of the BBC: 

North Korea will continue to test missiles, a senior official has told the BBC in Pyongyang, despite international condemnation and growing military tensions with the US. 

"We'll be conducting more missile tests on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis," Vice Foreign Minister Han Song-ryol told the BBC's John Sudworth. 

He said that an "all-out war" would result if the US took military action.

So that would be a "No" then.

And how are the Chinese and Russians handling all of this?

Courtesy of the Salt Lake Tribune:

China and Russia have dispatched intelligence-gathering vessels from their navies to chase the USS Carl Vinson nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which is heading toward waters near the Korean Peninsula, multiple sources of the Japanese government revealed to The Yomiuri Shimbun. 

It appears that both countries aim to probe the movements of the United States, which is showing a stance of not excluding military action against North Korea. The Self-Defense Forces are strengthening warning and surveillance activities in the waters and airspace around the area, according to the sources. 

Yes but surely the American people are feeling safer having such an aggressive commander-in-chief in charge of our security, right?

Courtesy of Fox News: 

As tensions with North Korea mount, Hawaii lawmakers anxiously are dusting off the state’s emergency plans in preparation for the possibility – however remote – of an attack on the islands. 

The plans were last revisited in the 1980s. But the Hawaii House Public Safety Committee on Thursday formally called for the state’s defense agency to repair their hundreds of Cold War-era fallout shelters and restock them with medical supplies, food and water. 

"They haven't been updated since 1985," Rep. Matt LoPresti, a Democrat who serves as vice chair of that committee, told Hawaii News Now. “I was 11 years old when they were last updated. Many of the buildings that are on the fallout shelter list don't exist anymore.”

So the North Koreans are agitated, the Chinese and Russians are on high alert, and the American citizens of Hawaii are in fear for their very lives.

Yep, we're fucked. 

Donald Trump takes to Twitter to threaten North Korea. Because Apparently that's how things are done in 2017.

North Korea is looking for trouble. If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! U.S.A.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 11, 2017

In an earlier tweet Trump also bragged that he told the President of China that he would be willing to make a "better" trade deal with him if he would help deal with North Korea.

Is this Trump's version of "making an offer that you cannot refuse."

By the way it is probably worth mentioning that we have now sent an aircraft carrier and a bunch of warships toward the Korean peninsula as a "show of force by the Trump Administration."  

Hey remember when diplomacy was accomplished behind closed doors, and it actually utilized...you know...diplomacy?

North Korea is now using Trump's missile attack on Syria as justification for their nuclear weapons program.

Good job in Syria, we are so grateful for the excuse.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

North Korea says the U.S. airstrikes in Syria prove that its nuclear weapons program is justified, calling the strikes “absolutely unpardonable.” The remarks were made by an unnamed official from the country’s foreign ministry, according to state-run Korean Central News Agency. “We will bolster up in every way our capability for self-defense to cope with the U.S. evermore reckless moves for a war and defend ourselves with our own force,” the North Korean official said. 

The North Koreans have long used "US aggression" as the justification for their nuclear weapons program, and this Syria attack just provided more credibility in that arena.

As it turns out North Korea's benevolent overlords, China, were ultimately unimpressed with Trump's first outing as commander-in-chief as well.

Courtesy of the New York Times: 

With President Xi Jinping safely out of the United States and no longer President Trump’s guest, China’s state-run media on Saturday was free to denounce the missile strike on Syria, which the American president told Mr. Xi about while they were finishing dinner. 

Xinhua, the state news agency, on Saturday called the strike the act of a weakened politician who needed to flex his muscles. In an analysis, Xinhua also said Mr. Trump had ordered the strike to distance himself from Syria’s backers in Moscow, to overcome accusations that he was “pro-Russia.” 

That unflattering assessment reflected China’s official opposition to military interventions in the affairs of other countries. But it was also a criticism of Mr. Trump himself, who Mr. Xi had hoped was a man China could deal with.

So much for the tyrannical toddler approach to diplomacy. 

I think that Trump was hoping that by doing something militarily, anything militarily, that he would suddenly be viewed as an actual leader worthy of holding the most powerful position in the world.

Instead he appears pathetic, impulsive, and essentially impotent.

And unfortunately so does America.

Is Donald Trump threatening to start a war with North Korea? Because that is kind of what this sounds like.

Courtesy of the Financial Times:

Donald Trump has warned that the US will take unilateral action to eliminate the nuclear threat from North Korea unless China increases pressure on the regime in Pyongyang. 

In an interview with the Financial Times, the US president said he would discuss the growing threat from Kim Jong Un’s nuclear programme with Xi Jinping when he hosts the Chinese president at his Florida resort this week, in their first meeting. 

“China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t,” Mr Trump said in the Oval Office. “If they do, that will be very good for China, and if they don’t, it won’t be good for anyone.” 

But he made clear that he would deal with North Korea with or without China’s help. Asked if he would consider a “grand bargain” — where China pressures Pyongyang in exchange for a guarantee that the US would later remove troops from the Korean peninsula — Mr Trump said: “Well if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you.” 

"It won't be good for anyone." Yes, I would agree that if Trump does anything "unilaterally" about North Korea it most definitely will not be good for anyone.

Hey look I get the frustration at North Korea and that human buttplug leading their country.

I do not think there are too many people in this world that could hide their joy at seeing the whole place go up in a giant mushroom cloud.

However threatening to "eliminate the threat" on our own in a country essentially dangling from China's nutsack is like a drunk guy in biker bar yelling that wearing leather makes you a pussy.

We are all kinds of bad ass strolling into sand covered third world countries without indoor plumbing acting like John Wayne on steroids, but China is definitely not that kind of place.

Here is how one expert tried to excuse Trump's shit talking:

“What President Trump is trying to do here is to press the Chinese hard by warning them what comes next if they don’t help or join with the US to deal with this problem,” said Dennis Wilder, a former CIA China analyst who later served as the top White House Asia aide to George W Bush. 

So in other words Trump is trying to intimidate a country with over a billion people and the world's largest military force into stepping up before he does something crazy.

I know a guy who expressed admiration for Donald Trump because he "Did not talk like a politician, and just said whatever was on his mind." Yeah, well in times like this you can understand why you might prefer somebody who has an internal filter and knows what the word "diplomacy" means.

So hey did you know that Trump's closest adviser, and our shadow president, is convinced that we are going to war with China? Well he is.

You know every single time I convince myself not to panic, something like this happens, and I find my hair is standing straight up on end again.

Bannon does realize that China is now a superpower in its own right with a nuclear arsenal at its disposal, right?

This is not like invading Afghanistan, these guys have over a billion people to throw at us.

If this guy wants to die so badly just tell him to continue his present lifestyle and leave the rest of us out of it.

 Shouldn't take long.