Tag Archives: Kim Jong Un

International news

What? Trump to meet Rocket Man?

So, how does the president of the United States change the subject from an alleged affair with a porn queen and Republican rage over trade tariffs?

Donald Trump agrees to meet with the leader of a nation deemed in some circles to present an existential threat to the United States of America.

That’s correct. Trump now plans to meet face to face with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

The man Trump derided with the Rocket Man epithet, declared North Korea faced “total destruction” if it attacked South Korea and threatened to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea if it continued to threaten the United States now wants to meet with the source of all this white-hot rhetoric.

Details are to come. The president said he would meet Kim no later than May. The place will be determined later. So, too, will the agenda, or so many of us should presume.

This does beg an important question: Has the tough talk about “fire and fury” and “total destruction” actually persuaded Kim to meet with Trump and begin the arduous task of negotiating a peace treaty with the South?

Trump’s critics — and I include myself in that crowd — have derided the president’s rhetoric as gratuitously provocative. He didn’t need to remind Kim that his “button is bigger” than the North Korean’s nuclear button.

I also have said I’d be willing to eat my words if Trump’s clownish behavior actually produced tangible, constructive results.

An intended meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un isn’t enough by itself for me to dine on my own criticism. There’s too much groundwork to be laid. Too many details to work out. Too much can go wrong between now and when the two leaders actually meet.

What’s more, I am not entirely sure who between these two men is less trustworthy than the other.

Kim keeps provoking Trump, who responds with provocations of his own. Kim has nukes. The United States arsenal is infinitely larger.

However, if this meeting leads to more discussion, well … that’s a major start.

First, we need to learn that there will be a meeting. I am holding my applause.

International news, military news

Russia remains off Trump’s danger-zone radar

I want to join the chorus of Donald J. Trump’s critics who cannot fathom why the president of the United States cannot bring himself to say anything critical about Vladimir Putin, the strongman who runs Russia.

Putin this past week announced the unveiling of weapons systems he said would neutralize the U.S. missile defense systems. His aim seems to be able to strike the United States of America whenever he felt like it.

The response from Trump? Nothing. Not a frigging sound! He isn’t challenging Putin’s assertion of military superiority the way he has done, say, with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

What the hell is the matter with this guy, the president of the United States?

I endorse the view put forward late this past week from a retired U.S. Army general, Barry McCaffrey, who contends that Russia in reality is nothing more than a developing Third World country. It economy is smaller than California’s economy, McCaffrey said; Russia’s standing army is inferior; it has a population that is less than half of that of the United States; its submarine and surface-missile weapons systems essentially are a joke, he said.

In no way, according to McCaffrey — a Vietnam War combat veteran who had a major command during the Persian Gulf War — would Russia dare launch a first strike against the United States.

Where is the “Little Rocket Man” epithet that the president could use against Putin? Why doesn’t he tweet some idiotic rejoinder about how his “button is bigger” than the one at Putin’s fingertips?

Good grief, man! Has the Russian strongman cast some sort of spell over the president of the United States?

Or … is there validity to reports of something fishy involving Trump’s business dealings in Russia?

Oh, I forgot. Trump said he has “no business activity” in Russia. No deals have been struck.

And we are supposed to believe him? Sure thing.

International news, military news, national news

Here’s a thought: Stress diplomacy over nukes

Donald Trump has offered a word of praise to Hawaii officials.

The president lauds them for taking “full responsibility” for the near-panic caused when someone “pushed the wrong button” and sent out an false alarm that declared there was an incoming missile from … possibly North Korea.

As The Hill reports:

“That was a state thing but we are going to now get involved with them. I love that they took responsibility. They took total responsibility,” Trump told reporters Sunday.

“But we are going to get involved. Their attitude and their — I think it is terrific. They took responsibility. They made a mistake,” he continued.

When asked what he will do to prevent a similar false alert from taking place, Trump didn’t answer directly but said, “we hope it won’t happen again.

He added, again according to The Hill:

“Part of it is people are on edge, but maybe eventually we will solve the problem so they won’t have to be so on edge,” Trump said.

Yes, they are “on edge,” Mr. President. Indeed, Trump’s bellicosity along with the unpredictability of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has put millions of Americans — not just those in Hawaii — on edge.

With that, I’ll offer a modest suggestion for the president: How about stressing diplomacy and setting aside the threats of “fire and fury,” “total annihilation” and using a “big nuclear button”?

The military option we keep hearing about ought to be the option of last resort — not the first, second or third resort. Military confrontation with North Korea is, shall we say, fraught with grievous consequences.

I, too, am glad that Hawaii officials have owned their mistake. Hawaii Gov. David Ige has apologized to his constituents and, by extension, to the rest of the nation.

Yes, the federal government can get involved. The commander in chief can set aside the tough talk and start sending signals to North Korea that it’s time to settle our differences through diplomacy.

national news

This is what can produce panic

You’re sitting at home in Honolulu, or Hilo, or Lihue, Hawaii.

Your smart phone starts buzzing. You look at it. Then you see a message that declares “Ballistic missile inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.”

Have you ever feared such a thing might occur?

It took 38 minutes for Hawaii’s residents to react to what turned out to be a false alarm.

I don’t know about you, but I might decide to panic at that moment.

It turns out that “human error” caused these minutes of grave concern.

Details remain sketchy. Someone reported today on CNN that a shift change at Hawaii’s emergency response center resulted in someone “pushing the wrong button.” Huh? What the … ?

We live in terribly tense times. The United States and North Korea are engaging in a war of wills. Our nation’s president keeps using his Twitter account to needle North Korean dictator/fruit cake Kim Jong Un about the size the two men’s nuclear “button.”

Hawaii residents hear all this right along with the rest of the country. Then they get a text message on every smart phone in the state that says missiles are incoming?

Hawaii wasn’t hit by a missile. For that the rest of the nation is grateful. But, oh brother, some of our fellow countrymen and women in Hawaii have some serious questions to answer.

Starting with: How in the name of nuclear holocaust does this happen … and how are we going to prevent this type of “human error” from recurring?

International news

‘This is not a game’

Donald John Trump keeps demonstrating something what many of his fellow Americans have believed since the moment he declared his candidacy for the presidency of the United States.

He doesn’t know — or chooses willfully to ignore — what it means to be leader of the world’s most powerful nation.

He now is taunting the leader of another nuclear-armed nation, telling North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un that the United States has a bigger nuclear button than the North Koreans have. “My button works,” Trump said in a tweet.

Good, ever-lovin’ grief, dude!

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who knows a thing or two about power and its consequences, said “This is not a game … This is not about, ‘Can I puff my chest out bigger than yours.’ It’s just not presidential.”

Trump has drawn intense criticism not just from Democrats, such as Vice President Biden, but from foreign-policy experts. They say Trump’s public boasting about the American nuclear arsenal dismisses decades of presidential protocol.

As Politico reports: “You don’t brandish these weapons. You allude to them, obliquely,” said Joe Cirincione, a former congressional aide and president of the pro-disarmament Ploughshares Fund.

Trump doesn’t have an “oblique” bone in his body. He doesn’t grasp the nature of nuance. He doesn’t understand the consequences of the rhetoric that flies out of his mouth.

He taunts Kim Jong Un as “little Rocket Man” and now declares what the entire world knows already, that the United States can obliterate the entire planet if it so chooses.

This is a dangerous game the president is playing. His itchy Twitter fingers along with his big and boastful pie hole are potentially placing all of his fellow Americans in grave peril.

But … his base keeps insisting: He’s just “telling it like it is.”

Frightening.

media news, national news

Donald Trump: master of the obvious

I probably shouldn’t concern myself with yet another presidential Twitter tirade from Donald John Trump Sr.

But … here goes anyway.

The president of the United States just had to tell North Korean dictator/goofball Kim Jong Un that the United States has a bigger bomb than the North Koreans have and that his “button works.”

Why in the world does the commander in chief of the world’s greatest military machine have to goad, chide, needle someone who just might do something terribly and tragically foolish? That would be to start a nuclear exchange with the U.S. of A.

The world has known for a long time that Kim was battling to become the world’s nuttiest head of state. I am having trouble grasping that the Donald Trump is now rivaling the North Korean nut job for that dubious distinction.

However, he is doing the seemingly impossible.

Social media, of course, went crazy overnight regarding the president’s goofy tweet. Imagine my non-surprise at that!

I suppose it’s fair to remind everyone who reads this blog that Donald Trump said he’d likely set his Twitter habit aside once he became president.

To think that many of us actually had hope he would deliver on that pledge. Silly us.

So “unpresidented.”

International news, national news

Trump seeks to tighten screws on N. Korea

Donald J. Trump has acted appropriately with regard to North Korea. Instead of blustering about delivering “fire and fury” to the Marxist regime, he has returned North Korea to the list of nations that sponsor terrorism.

The president has made the correct call.

He is seeking to isolate North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in his effort to build a nuclear weapons arsenal. The aim, according to Trump, is to impose the strictest economic sanctions possible on the rogue nation. It’s also meant to pressure China, North Korea’s chief trading partner, into following suit.

I don’t know about you, but I believe this approach holds far greater potential than threats of military strikes.

The designation — which reverses a decision made by President George W. Bush in 2008 — puts North Korea on a short list of state-sponsored-terrorist nations; the others are Sudan, Iran and Syria.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson doubts the designation will have much practical effect, given that the United States already has imposed heavy sanctions on North Korea. But he is talking openly about his “hope for diplomacy” in the effort to persuade North Korea to stand down in its effort to build a nuclear arsenal.

The great Winston Churchill once told us it was better to “jaw, jaw, jaw than to war, war, war.”

The late British prime minister’s wisdom ought to apply to the present-day crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

International news

This shouldn’t be funny, but it is

I shouldn’t be giggling when a head of state declares a death sentence on another head of state.

Except that the guy who’s issuing the death sentence is Kim Jong Un, the North Korean dictator/strongman/fruitcake. The object of his death sentence? None other than Donald John Trump Sr., the current president of the United States of America.

My goodness. I’ll be brief with this one.

Kim didn’t like being called “short and fat” in a tweet flashed around the world by Trump. Except that the president said he “wouldn’t” call Kim “short and fat.” Not ever. Oh, but wait. He did anyway!

Rodong Sinmun, the North Korea government-run newspaper, wrote in an editorial: “The worst crime for which he can never be pardoned is that he dared [to] malignantly hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership.”

As if Kim had any “dignity” that could possibly be “malignantly hurt.”

I don’t know, though, what could be worse. That Kim would issue this bogus “death sentence,” or that the president will be prompted to fire back an idiotic response.

International news

Trump tweet is ‘almost funny’

I now am going to admit something.

I giggled a bit when I read something about what Donald Trump tweeted about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Kim supposedly said something about Trump being “old.” The president took offense. He said he’d never call Kim “short and fat.”

Oops! Didn’t he just do exactly that? Sure he did.

Actually I found the president’s tweet kinda/sorta clever. But I don’t want to encourage him to keep doing it.

You see, the worldwide stakes are pretty damn high. Kim wants to build a nuclear weapon delivery system that reaches the United States of America. He’s said so publicly. Trump keeps yammering about “the military option” being on the table.

It’s a dangerous world out there, Mr. President. Going to war in Korea isn’t an option — and I don’t give a damn what the president threatens to do if Kim keeps “threatening” the United States and South Korea.

He’s dealing with someone no one outside of North Korea seems to know. No one can determine with any certainty how he will respond to these kinds of personal insults.

I just wish the president would stop saying out loud what he’s entitled to think in private.

International news

Now POTUS welcomes talks with North Korea

Donald J. Trump is all over the pea patch regarding North Korea.

The president a few weeks ago tweeted that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was wasting his time seeking a direct meeting with North Koreans regarding that country’s threats to use nuclear weapons against the United States and South Korea.

Oh, but while visiting South Korea this week, the president has let it be known that he would be willing to talk to North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un.

Which is it, Mr. President?

Frankly, I welcome the second overture far more than the first one.

Trump did offer some tough rhetoric during a speech this week to the South Korean parliament, warning the North about “underestimating” the United States. He told Kim that his efforts to bolster his nuclear arsenal put his regime in “grave danger.”

That all might be so much bluster and bravado if negotiation remains somewhere on the large table of options.

I continue to believe, as many others have said publicly, that there is no “good” military option in seeking to “de-nuclearize” the Korean Peninsula. A diplomatic solution is the only sensible path.

My strongest hope is that the president is going to lead the nation down that path, rather than the one that is fraught with grave danger for the entire planet.