Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Today is the 1-year anniversary of the consummation of Trump's love for Kim Jong un behind closed doors. There were no witnesses meeting with Kim where he most likely made some private deals and asked Kim to use North Korea's prowess in computer hacking to help him win reelection this fall. All you have to do to surmise what went on is ask yourself who and what the two men are and how they operate.

I hereby present the above clip in honor of Donald J. Trump's bullshit North Korean photo op and sell out of our country to yet another dictator who he worships and grovels before. It's a must see and a must forward. Post it on your own social media.

Is The Man Who Coined The Trump Description "Dotard" Dead Or Alive-- Or In Between?

Saint Pierre and Miquelon is a self-governing French territory in the northwest Atlantic off the coast of Newfoundland. The population is around 6,000 and there is one confirmed case of COVID-19. Yemen also reports one case. Remote countries like Bhutan, Mauritania and Greenland each reports fewer than a dozen cases. What about North Korea? South Korea-- which got it's church0related outbreaks under control fast-- started early and now has 10,728 confirmed cases and just 10 new ones announced today-- just 209 cases per million people, less than a tenth of the U.S. infection rate. North Korea reported no cases at all-- until they suddenly reported "a few" cases last week-- in Pyongyang, South Hwanghae and North Hamgyong province. Is one of the cases Kim Jong-Un?

Were the "medical experts" sent by China to North Korea actually embalmists and taxidermy specialists? NY Times' Choe Sang-Hun, reporting from Seoul, South Korea, noted that North Korea's silence on Kim Jong-Un's health has kept the rumor mill churning, even if South Korean officials insist the dictator/monarch to the north is alive and well. Another worthless source, Señor Trumpanzee, "has called 'incorrect' and 'fake' a report that Mr. Kim was 'in grave danger' after surgery. All this has done little to stop the rumor mill churning about Mr. Kim’s health and the fate of the nuclear state-- for the simple reason that North Korea has not reported a public appearance by its leader for two weeks. Nor has it responded to lurid claims about his health. The lack of real information from the hermetic country is giving rise to rampant rumor mongering, leaving North Korean experts, foreign officials and intelligence agencies to parse through it all for signs of the truth."

Depending on the news outlet or social media post, Mr. Kim, believed to be 36, is recuperating after a minor health issue like a sprained ankle, or he is “in grave danger” after a heart surgery. Or he has become “brain dead” or is in a “vegetative state” after a heart-valve surgery gone wrong at the hands of a nervous North Korean surgeon or one of the doctors China dispatched to treat him. Or Mr. Kim is grounded with Covid-19. Where did he get it? From one of those Chinese doctors.

One rumor circulating in South Korean messaging apps claims that after French doctors could not wake Mr. Kim from his “coma,” Kim Pyong-il, a half brother of Mr. Kim’s late father, seized power with the help of pro-Chinese elites in Pyongyang, the North’s capital. It goes on to say that Mr. Kim’s powerful sister, Kim Yo-jong, has been detained while Beijing is secretly bargaining with Washington over the future of North Korea and its nuclear weapons.

Seoul has questioned the accuracy of the unconfirmed reports, while the South Korean news media appears to dismiss most of them as online rumors spreading through Chinese social media and beyond. But they cannot be completely ignored, since North Korea is so secretive that the world’s most powerful intelligence agencies have been unable to penetrate Mr. Kim’s inner circles.

Mr. Kim last appeared publicly on April 11, when he presided over a Politburo meeting. Speculations about his health began swirling after Mr. Kim missed state celebrations for his country’s biggest holiday, the April 15 birthday of his grandfather and founder of North Korea, Kim Il-sung.

Rumors went into overdrive after Daily NK, a Seoul-based website relying on anonymous sources inside the North, reported on Monday that Mr. Kim was recovering from heart surgery performed on April 12. The next day, CNN added to the frenzy, reporting that Washington was monitoring intelligence that Mr. Kim was “in grave danger.” On Saturday, TMZ, a celebrity-news tabloid website in the United States, blared: “N. Korea dictator Kim Jong-un reportedly dead after botched heart surgery.”

More than once, Mr. Trump has wished Mr. Kim well if he indeed were ill.

“North Korea’s secrecy and our lack of reliable information create a breeding ground for rumors,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. “But his continued absence would be destabilizing as more people in and outside the country wonder if he is incapacitated or dead.”

In recent days, the South Koreans and their allies in Washington have scoured North Korea with the help of spy satellites and other resources for signs of Mr. Kim and preparations for missile launches.

Their efforts led them to Wonsan, an east coast town where Mr. Kim’s family has a seaside compound complete with yachts, Jet Skis, a horse track and a private train station.

A train “probably belonging to” Mr. Kim has been parked there since at least Tuesday, 38 North, a Washington-based website specializing in North Korea, reported on Saturday, citing commercial satellite imagery.

...Mr. Kim’s sudden demise could create a power vacuum with far-reaching implications.

Over the decades, American and South Korean officials have discussed top-secret contingency plans, including how to prevent the North’s nuclear weapons from falling into wrong hands, and what to do if Beijing sends troops into the North to stabilize its neighbor, which has long served as a buffer between China and American forces based in South Korea.

In this secretive society, any likely successor to Mr. Kim amounts to a guessing game, even for outside analysts who have spent their academic careers parsing the North.

Will it be his only sister, Kim Yo-jong, who has recently expanded her role in his government? What about Kim Pyong-il, who returned home last year after serving for decades as North Korea’s low-key ambassador to Eastern European countries?

Some predict a collective leadership to be led by Choe Ryong-hae, the No. 2 in government hierarchy. What if a yet-unknown but ambitious general engineered a putsch? How would North Koreans who have been trained to worship the Kim family respond?

Earlier today for the Washington Post, Kim biographer Anna Fifield asked if "the devious despot [is] dead after heart surgery? Is he lying in a vegetative state in a hospital bed? Or is he happily chain-smoking at his beachfront palace in Wonsan?" She doesn't know, more does anyone willing to speak.

She is reporting, though, that "There’s been panic buying in the capital, where locals are stocking up on everything from laundry detergent and rice to electronics to liquor. They started snapping up all imported products first, but in the past few days there’s been a run on domestically produced items, too, such as canned fish and cigarettes."

So what if the Chinese "doctors" were toxologists and are stuffing him now? Fifield warns that there is no clear line of succession. Rumors that Dennis Rodman is ready to take over have been shot down. "The Kims, wrote Fifield, "have claimed their right to lead through a mythical blood line they trace back to Mount Paektu, the legendary birthplace of the Korean people. Kim has constantly played up this Paektu bloodline to make the case that he’s a legitimate ruler. This is the reason he often rides his white horse on that mountain-- and it’s also the reason he had his half brother assassinated in Malaysia in 2017. Kim Jong Nam could have theoretically claimed the top job because he also had the Paektu blood pulsing through his veins. But there is no obvious male heir to Kim Jong Un. He’s believed to have one son, but he’s barely a toddler. He has an older brother, an Eric Clapton superfan who was reportedly passed over for being 'effeminate.' And an uncle, his father’s half brother who had been ambassador in Eastern Europe, a sort of cushy exile for almost four decades, until he was recently recalled to Pyongyang."

Fifield reminded her readers that "The baby clearly isn’t ready to lead, and the two others have no networks or profile inside North Korea. That leaves only one obvious candidate: Kim’s younger sister Kim Yo Jong, a woman who has taken on an increasingly prominent role in the regime, supporting her brother at summits and acting as his envoy to South Korea. She runs North Korea’s propaganda division and makes sure her brother looks his best, and she is clearly capable. She has been issuing statements in her own name in recent weeks-- another piece of kindling for the rumor fire-- but she has no military credentials. There has been no propaganda campaign around her. The state media has never even disclosed that she’s the First Sister. She also has one other major shortcoming: She’s a woman. The strict Confucian traditions of both Koreas value age and maleness; Kim Yo Jong has neither. Asking the octogenarian old guard to accept Kim Jong Un was one thing, expecting them to serve a millennial woman-- she’s about 31-- is quite another."

North Korea Is Back On Dotard Alert

I don't really like any of the characters in Silicon Valley, to which I've been addicted as I binge watch all 6 seasons but... if I had to pick one favorite, it would be Jian-Yáng (played by Hong Kong-born stand-up comedian and actor Jimmy O. Yang). Yang doesn't remind me of Kim Jong Un because they are both East Asian. Yang reminds me of Kim Jong Un because they are both hilariously funny assholes... even if one of them is nuclear-armed. If you're not familiar with Silicon Valley, watch the Best of Jian-Yang video clips above.

Yesterday Kim Jong Un threatened to resume insulting the Erlich Bachman of U.S. politics. Top North Korean officials have already reminded anyone who may have forgotten that Trump is a dotard.

Choe Son Hui, the first vice foreign minister, issued the warning via state media days after Trump spoke of possible military action toward the North and revived his “rocket man” nickname for North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un.

The comments came as prospects dim for a resumption of nuclear diplomacy between the two countries. In recent months, North Korea has hinted at lifting its moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests if the Trump administration fails to make substantial concessions in nuclear diplomacy before the end of the year.

Choe said Trump’s remarks “prompted the waves of hatred of our people against the U.S.” because they showed “no courtesy when referring to the supreme leadership of dignity” of North Korea.

She said North Korea will respond with its own harsh language if Trump again uses similar phrases and shows that he is intentionally provoking North Korea.

“If any language and expressions stoking the atmosphere of confrontation are used once again ... that must really be diagnosed as the relapse of the dotage of a dotard,” Choe said.

On Wednesday, the North’s military chief, Pak Jong Chon, also warned that the use of force against the North would cause a “horrible” consequence for the U.S. He said North Korea would take unspecified “prompt corresponding actions at any level” if the U.S. takes any military action.

During a visit to London on Tuesday, Trump said his relationship with Kim was “really good” but also called for him to follow up on a commitment to denuclearize.

“We have the most powerful military we ever had, and we are by far the most powerful country in the world and hopefully we don’t have to use it. But if we do, we will use it,” Trump said.

Kim, Trump added, “likes sending rockets up, doesn’t he? That’s why I call him rocket man.”

In 2017, Trump and Kim traded threats of destruction as North Korea carried out a slew of high-profile weapons tests aimed at acquiring an ability to launch nuclear strikes on the U.S. mainland. Trump said he would rain “fire and fury” on North Korea and derided Kim as “little rocket man,” while Kim questioned Trump’s sanity and said he would “tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.”

The two leaders have avoided such words and developed better relations after North Korea entered nuclear negotiations with the U.S. last year. Trump even said he and Kim “fell in love.”

Kim and Trump have met three times, starting with a summit in Singapore in June 2018. But their nuclear diplomacy has remained largely deadlocked since their second meeting in Vietnam in February ended without any deal due to disputes over U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea.

Trump, Rudy And Barr Seem To Have Finally Found Someone To Meddle In The 2020 Election

Trump-- with help from Giuliani and Barr-- has been asking foreign leaders to attack Biden. Kim Jung Un to the rescue! Yesterday, Jack Kim, reporting from Seoul for Reuters, wrote that North Korea’s state media attacked Biden for slandering its leader, calling Status Quo Joe "a rabid dog" and insinuating he should be killed, which is how Kim gets rid of his own critics.

The official KCNA news agency did not say how Biden had insulted the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, but the 2020 presidential hopeful has been critical of U.S. President Donald Trump’s policy, saying he was coddling a murderous dictator.

Misspelling Biden’s name, KCNA said the former vice president was showing signs of “the final stage of dementia,” and the “time has come for him to depart his life.”

In a commentary, it said, “Such a guy had the temerity to dare slander the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK,” using the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“It was the last-ditch efforts of the rabid dog expediting his death,” KCNA said. “Rabid dogs like Baiden (sic) can hurt lots of people if they are allowed to run about. They must be beaten to death with a stick, before it is too late.”

In contrast, the North has credited a “close personal relationship” between Kim and Trump for saving ties between their countries from a destructive pattern of hostility. The leaders have met three times to discuss improving ties and ending the North’s nuclear weapons program.

“It’s becoming more and more obvious that repugnant dictators, as well as those who admire and ‘love’ them, find Joe Biden threatening,” said Andrew Bates, a spokesman for Biden’s presidential campaign.

“That’s because he’d restore American leadership in the world on day one by putting our security, interests, and values at the heart of our foreign policy.”

North Korea is known for colorful attacks on foreign leaders, with propaganda posters believed to be from the country once describing Trump himself as a “mad dog.” Pyongyang also denounced Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton as a “war maniac” and “human scum.”

Trump backed a previous personal attack on Biden by the North and dismissed criticism that he was siding with a foreign dictator over a fellow American.

In May, North Korea had called Biden “an imbecile” for criticizing its leader.

While Trump's North Korean ally was sending out that crazy press release, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanocitch, was testifying in the impeachment hearing. Trump-- who claims he isn't watching the hearing tweeted-- in an attempt at witness tampering:

Elise Viebeck, reporting for the Washington Post took a look at Trumpist misogyny in regard to Yovanovitch today. She wrote that during the pivotal phone call Trump smeared her like this to the new Ukrainian president: "The former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news."

Trump then made an ominous prediction as he pressured Zelensky for investigations of his political rivals. “She’s going to go through some things,” he said of the ambassador.

As a leading female diplomat, a political target of the president’s allies and a figure at the center of the Ukraine drama, Yovanovitch has crucial knowledge to impart when she testifies at Friday’s impeachment hearing. She also enters the spotlight as the latest woman who has refused to acquiesce to Trump in the face of personal and gender-specific attacks.

The story of Yovanovitch’s removal as Ukraine ambassador reflects some of the most complicated gender and political dynamics of Trump’s presidency. Now the impeachment probe is magnifying those dynamics as the first woman to publicly testify prepares to confront Trump’s fiercest congressional defenders, nearly all men, about a campaign by other male allies of the president to force her from her post. The symbolism of that conflict underscores the significance of the historic probe, which was initiated by the female speaker of the House-- Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)-- and made possible by female voters who helped deliver the House to Democrats in the last election.

“Seeing someone like Masha Yovanovitch come forward is going to be an extremely difficult moment for Trump,” said Nancy McEldowney, a former ambassador to Bulgaria who served as director of the Foreign Service Institute and now teaches at Georgetown University, where Yovanovitch is a senior fellow.

“What I suspect the world will see when she walks into that hearing room is an individual who is not tall physically but really is a towering figure of integrity, inner strength and unswerving devotion to public service and telling the truth,” McEldowney said.

In what has emerged as a key episode for impeachment investigators, Yovanovitch was recalled early to Washington from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in May after facing an onslaught of attacks from right-wing media. With encouragement from Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani-- but with no evidence-- conspiracy theorists painted her as an enemy of the president who used her power to covertly undermine him and assist Democrats.

In an Oct. 11 deposition on Capitol Hill, Yovanovitch said she was told that the decision “was coming from President Trump” and that if she was not “physically out of Ukraine, that there would be, you know, some sort of public either tweet or something else from the White House” against her.

“I was upset,” she told lawmakers that day. “I wanted an explanation because this is rather unusual.”

She described her removal as “a dangerous precedent . . . that private interests and people who don’t like a particular American ambassador could combine to, you know, find somebody who was more suitable for their interests.”

Other career diplomats who pushed the State Department to defend Yovanovitch said they were met with silence. P. Michael McKinley, a senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, resigned in part because of the department’s unwillingness to support its personnel.

“The disparagement of a career diplomat doing her job was unacceptable to me,” he told lawmakers in a deposition on Oct. 16.

The sudden and unexplained removal of a respected ambassador, followed by the revelation of Trump’s July 25 comments about Yovanovitch to Zelensky, sent shock waves through the foreign policy world.

Trump Honored With North Korean Stamps-- Will He Direct The Post Office To Issue One With Little Kim On It?

I used to collect stamps; in fact, I still have my 60 year old collection. I don't think I have any North Korean stamps, something I'd probably remember if I did. Back when I was a kid, it was totally unpatriotic to buy them. I wonder how rare the new North Korean stamps that show Trump and North Korean hereditary tyrant Kim Jong Un palling around will be from an historical perspective. 

Even if eventually there are stamps of Trump palling around with Vladimir Putin (Russia), Xi Jinping (China), Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Turkey), Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (Egypt), Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud (Saudi Arabia), Viktor Mihály Orbán (Hungary), Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil) and Rodrigo Duterte (Philippines), how long will it take for there to be a stamp of Trump palling around with Jeffrey Epstein? That's the one the whole word is waiting for, don't you think?

North Korea issued a set of three stamps commemorating the Trump-Kim summit last June to mark the anniversary of Kim fucking Trump in Singapore. This week another stamp is due to be issued with Trumpanzee on it, this particular one mocking Trump for walking into Panmunjeom in the DMZ, just as North Korea was preparing to test more missiles that could deliver nuclear weapons to South Korea and Japan and demonstrate their new submarines.

Trump in the White House is a genuine dream come true for Kim Jong Un-- and for every other authoritarian on the planet. I wonder how many of Trump's ambassadors will be asking other dictators to match Kim in showing their appreciation for Señor Trumpanzee's unique way of dealing with foreign affairs. Would you rather have a roll of Trump stamps from Little St. James Island or from North Korea? That Little St. James stamp is very attractive but what if the one from North Korea due out tomorrow uses the design below by the DWT art director? If not, I suppose the Israeli's could use the design by removing Kim and inserting Netanyahu. 

And, yes, Trump isn't the first U.S. president to have his likeness on another country's stamps. Obama was pictured on stamps put out by Liberia, Dominica and Grenada. Posthumously, George Washington's imagine was used on Ecuadorian, Guatemalan, Monacan and Mexican stamps. Many countries used JFK, including Germany, Ireland, Argentina, the Philippines and Guatemala. And San Marino routinely uses America presidents on their stamps-- although not Trump-- including Abraham Lincoln and FDR. Argentina and Monoco also used pictures of Lincoln. France, Monaco, Uruguay, the Philippines, Laos, El Salvador, Liberia, Cuba and Rwanda used FDR. In 1975, Equitorial Guinea issued a stamp that had pictures of both James Monroe and John Quincy Adams on it. And Israel used a picture of Harry Truman, who was instrumental in their independence, on a stamp. Truman is the only U.S. president to be so honored, although Israel did issue a stamp with an image of Eleanor Roosevelt in 1964.

A year ago Antigua and Barbuda announced it would release a collection of stamps honoring all 45 U.S. presidents. As far as I can tell they've already released 11, commemorating the first 11 presidents.

Kim Jong-Un Has Played Trump For A Fool All Along, Building Up His Nuclear Arsenal While Reassuring The Gullible Trumpanzee

In the new Fox poll released last week-- the one that has him climbing the walls-- respondents were asked whether they approved or disapproved how Trump handles various parts of his job. When asked about how he handles Korea, 39% approved and 49% disapproved. and that was before the stories came out Friday about how Kim Jong-un has been playing him for a fool and building up Korea's nuclear arsenal while Trump danced around singing his praises.

I think it was a report by Sharon Shi and Clément Bürge for the Wall Street Journal, While Trump and Kim Talk, North Korea Appears To Expand Its Nuclear Arsenal, that got the ball rolling. "Over the past year, there have been handshakes, compliments and extravagant photo-ops-- in Singapore, in Hanoi and even at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas," they wrote. "Trump’s summit diplomacy has raised hopes around the world: Is North Korea now willing to surrender its nuclear arsenal?" Short answer? Not a chance... basically everyone in the world but Señor Trumpanzee has known all along.

Analysts who pore over satellite images of the isolated country paint a different picture: North Korea’s scientists have ramped up production of long-range missiles and the fissile material used in nuclear weapons.

Shipping containers, trucks and crowds of people moving materials and instruments at North Korea’s key weapons facilities like the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center and the Sanum-dong missile production site, suggest North Korea has continued producing fissile material and intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to analysts Jenny Town, a fellow at the Stimson Center, a think tank specialized on security issues, and Jeffrey Lewis, a researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, a research center analyzing the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

Analysts at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency say North Korea’s scientists may have produced 12 nuclear weapons since the first Trump-Kim meeting in Singapore last year. In total, Pyongyang could currently possess between 20 and 60 nuclear bombs, according to estimates by various security analysts.

President Trump has played down evidence gathered by security analysts that North Korea is continuing its nuclear operations, saying in a recent televised interview that Kim “promised he wouldn’t do it.” And Pyongyang has remained silent on the status of its nuclear and missile programs.

Trump's Pointless Election Stunt In Korea

Does anyone count Trump’s stunt at the DMZ for anything more than a re-election ploy? Trump couldn’t pull the wool over the eyes of the guys at Politico this time! Blake Hounshell and Dan Lippman saw right through him. Historic? OK, he was the first U.S. president— if he’s actually a U.S. president— to plat his tootsies on North Korea soil. And that well scripted theatrical gesture means?

It was a made for TV moment for the reality show-groomed president [and his reality show-addicted moron base back home] that unfolded at the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. Trump approached the border from the south, while Kim approached from the north. The two met at the line demarcating the two countries, grinned and shook hands.

“It’s good to see you again,” Kim said through an interpreter. ‘I never expected to meet you in this place.”

“Big moment,” Señor Trumpanzee said. “Big progress.”

Big progress for who? A photo op for a Trumpanzee and a nuclear arsenal for a tyrant?

Trump said Kim then asked him he would like to cross into North Korea. Trump said he would be honored and waddled about 20 steps into the country.”

…It’s hard to imagine any other president taking a bold step like this, let alone warmly embrace a third-generation tyrant who starves and imprisons his own people. But Trump has silenced the doubters within his own party, while Democrats have largely embraced his diplomatic efforts with Kim because they’d rather he try that than threaten ye olde fire and fury.

It remains to be see, of course, whether Kim is simply using Trump to advance his own agenda, or whether he genuinely believes, as he said today, “we want to bring an end to the unpleasant past and try to create a new future.” Even Trump sometimes seems aware of this; as he put it, “It’s just a step. It might be an important step, it might not.”

Trump also said, per pooler Jerome Cartillier of AFP, that he “would certainly extend the invite” to Kim Jong Un to the White House. Even with real progress on denuclearization-- which we haven’t seen yet-- that would probably be too much for most members of Congress.” [Whatever that means.]

Two questions: Had Kim kidnapped the orange-hued ape, would Americans have favored paying the ransom-- or paying Kim to keep him? And does Trump ever do anything to benefit the U.S. or is every single little thing just to benefit himself? We all know the answer to both questions. Oh... you're  not 100% certain? Maybe the latest polling from Ipsos (last week) will help you figure it out. Only 33% of registered voters feel the country is headed in the right direction (and only 28% of independent voters feel it is). Only 41% of registered voters approve of the job Trump is doing; (36% of independent voters approve).

Trumpanzee And Kim Agree That "Bidan" Has A Low IQ And That North Korea's Missile Tests Are Just Hunky Dory

Earlier today the Washington Post's Felicia Sonmez wrote that the White House put it out there that Trump and Kim Jong Un "agree in their assessment" of Biden. Unless today is the first time you discovered DWT, you probably know we've been warning about what a shit Biden is since 2005, when the blog was founded. It's something that's concerned me since the gutter-level Delaware racist and devoted corporate whore started clawing his way to the top of the American political system. Luring Democrats into backing Biden is Trump's strategy for reelection. He believes that Biden would be the easiest Democrat to beat in 2020 and-- ignoring non-starters like Frackenlooper, Gillibrand and Delaney-- he's probably right. His latest manifestation of this strategy was to tweet an outrageous statement about he and the North Korean butcher both agreeing on Biden:

Yesterday when Trump's goofball press secretary, Mike Huckabee's slow daughter Sarah went on Meet the Press to perform, she was asked by Chuck Todd whether Americans should "be concerned that the president of United States is essentially siding with a murderous authoritarian dictator over a former vice president in the United States."

“Chuck, the president’s not siding with that,” she said. “But I think they agree in their assessment of former vice president Joe Biden.”

Pressed whether Trump is taking Kim’s word about Biden, Sanders responded that the president “doesn’t need somebody else to give him an assessment of Joe Biden. He’s given his own assessment a number of times.”

Sanders was also asked about a tweet in which Trump appeared to contradict national security adviser John Bolton. Trump had said in the tweet that while some in his administration were “disturbed” by North Korea’s testing of ballistic missiles earlier this month, the president himself was unbothered.

“Some of the activity that’s taken place, as you can see from the president’s Twitter, isn’t something that’s bothering the president,” Sanders said Sunday. “He still feels good about the relationship that he has and about Chairman Kim’s commitment that he made to the president.”

Members of both parties sharply criticized Trump’s handling of North Korea on Sunday.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) said she “certainly wouldn’t trust” Kim. She described herself as disturbed by both North Korea’s recent missile test as well as Trump’s reaction.

“I think Japan does have reason to be concerned, and I am concerned as well. We need to see North Korea back off of those activities, and we need to take a very strong stance on that,” Ernst said on CNN’s State of the Union.

She added that she understand Trump “has a job to do in negotiating, but we do need to push back on North Korea and make sure that they are following U.N. guidelines.”

South Bend, Indiana., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who is running for the Democratic presidential nod, said that when Trump met with Kim last year in Singapore and this year in Hanoi, “he was essentially handling North Korea something they needed, which was legitimacy.”

“And the way diplomacy works, the way deals work is you give someone something in return for something,” Buttigieg said on ABC’s This Week. “It hasn’t worked at all.”

Trump is trying to manipulate the Democratic primary because he knows Biden is the weakest candidate

Lindsey Graham pulled his head out of Trump's ass long enough to babble something incoherent, his mouth being stuffed with so much shit, although Sonmez reported that he said Trump was just "trying to give North Korea some space to come back to the table and end this... I’ll give Trump the space he needs to deal with Kim, but I’ll remind the president, you have to deliver on this. This is one of the signature issues of your administration."

Do You Misinterpret Señor Trumpanzee?

That's the video. There's also an official White House transcript. What's to misinterpret? A Trump supporter who's a relative of a friend, claims he speaks in code and only The True Believers understand the code. Maybe it was that. Or maybe that there is a subtle white mustache on some of the videos (like the one above, as a matter of fact; look closely), proof that he had chopped up and snorted some Adderall before he marched out to meet the press. That would also help account for some of his more bizarre and incoherent behavior all through the Hanoi press conference.

But whatever it is, we know that Susan Collins (R-ME) publicly castigated him when he got back and Otto's home state senator, Rob Portman, had a minor meltdown on the floor of the Senate, insinuating Trump is "naive" about the "brutal nature" of his BFF's regime: "We can’t be naive about what they did to Otto, about the brutal nature of the regime that would do this to an American citizen."

Presumably Fred and Cindy Warmbier's widely released statement got to Trump when someone in the White House pointed out that even some of his idiot supporters wouldn't like this: "We have been respectful during this summit process. Now we must speak out. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. No excuse or lavish praise can change that."

Ro Khanna Introduced A Resolution Calling For The Formal End To The Korean War. Will Trump Pay Attention?

Khanna has 18 co-sponsors fo a resolution formally ending the 69 year old Korean War. Khanna is asking Trump to provide a clear roadmap to achieve a final peace settlement while highlighting the importance of reciprocal actions and confidence-building measures between the parties. Khanna: "Historic engagement between South and North Korea has created a once-in-a-generation opportunity to formally end this war. President Trump must not squander this rare chance for peace. He should work hand in hand with our ally, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, to bring the war to a close and advance toward the denuclearization of the peninsula."

Former Pres. Jimmy Carter, who supports Khanna's resolution predicted that, if adopted it "will help bring this nearly 70 year conflict to a close. I have visited North Korea several times to talk with their leadership and study the best path forward for peace. Ending the threat of war is the only way to ensure true security for both the Korean and American people and will create the conditions to alleviate the suffering of the ordinary North Koreans who are most harmed by ongoing tensions."

Co-sponsors include Barbara Lee (D-CA), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Bobby Rush (D-IL), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Andy Kim (D-NJ), and Deb Haaland (D-NM), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Judy Chu (D-CA) and José Serrano (D-NY). The resolution calls on the Trump Administration to make greater efforts to include women in the peace process, citing the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017 which Trump signed into law.

The resolution clarifies that ending the war does not necessitate a withdrawal of US troops from Korea or an acceptance of North Korea as a legitimate nuclear power. The resolution calls on the Administration to continue the repatriation of servicemember remains, and expand cooperation to achieve reunions of divided Korean and Korean-American families and facilitate people-to-people exchanges and humanitarian cooperation.

Trump is desperate for a deal with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un that he can spin into something that looks like "a win" for himself-- at least to his base, the base that didn't know, in Michael Cohen's sworn testimony that Trump "is a racist. He is a con man. And he is a cheat." The deal Trump looks like he's giving Kim doesn't look like a winner for the U.S., although at least it will include the peace declaration Khanna is calling for-- still not a peace treaty, but a step up from the 1953 armistice.

Trump is agreeing to establish quasi-embassies-- called liaison offices-- with North Korea and North Korea will agree to stop producing materials for nuclear bombs at Yongbyon, which will be shut down. For this to be real, Kim would have to agree to international inspections. Trump's quid pro quo is an agreement to advocate lifting some UN sanctions (so it can pursue joint economic projects with South Korea).

UPDATE: Trump Phucs Up In Hanoi

Maybe Trump was too preoccupied with thoughts of impeachment, imprisonment, Matt Gaetz, and his rotten kids behind bars to focus on Korean nukes, but the headlines this morning were all about how his poorly-planned talks with Li'l Kim had abruptly collapsed. I have terrible bronchitis and cough all night. At one point I woke from a fitful sleep and there was Trump on TV in Hanoi doing a surreal and completely incoherent press conference about Otto Warmbier. Has he slipped over the ledge of senility? Or was it just the cough medicine? Oh, there's a video:

Talks between President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un collapsed Thursday after the two sides failed to bridge a standoff over U.S. sanctions, a dispiriting end to high-stakes meetings meant to disarm a global nuclear threat.

Trump blamed the breakdown on North Korea’s insistence that all the punishing sanctions the U.S. has imposed on Pyongyang be lifted without the North committing to eliminate its nuclear arsenal.

“Sometimes you have to walk,” Trump explained at a closing news conference after the summit was abruptly cut short. He said there had been a proposed agreement that was “ready to be signed.”

...Mere hours after both nations had seemed hopeful of a deal, the two leaders’ motorcades roared away from the downtown Hanoi summit site within minutes of each other, their lunch canceled and a signing ceremony scuttled. The president’s closing news conference was hurriedly moved up, and he departed for Washington more than two hours ahead of schedule.

The disintegration of talks came after Trump and Kim had appeared to be ready to inch toward normalizing relations between their still technically warring nations and as the American leader dampened expectations that their negotiations would yield an agreement by North Korea to take concrete steps toward ending a nuclear program that Pyongyang likely sees as its strongest security guarantee.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Well, after 50 years, Cadet Bone Spurs is finally off to Viet Nam this week. Let's all congratulate him for finally making it! (For any Russian troll types out there, that's called sarcasm, a nuance they apparently don't teach in Moscow's foreign language schools.) Trump is paying a visit to his new financial interest and homicidal love Kim Jong-un, a man he no longer considers a threat to America and now considers a personal real estate opportunity worth sacrificing our security for. To the limited reptile mind of Trump, Central Americans with only the clothes and babies on their backs are a far bigger threat to America than a lunatic with undeveloped beach front property and nukes.

...they have great beaches...Boy look at that view, wouldn't that make a great condo behind...you could have the best hotels in the world right there...You have South Korea, you have China, and they own the land in the middle. How bad is that, right? It's great.

The above quote is excerpted from Traitor Don's endorphin-engorged comments after his first glorious private date with Kim back in June. We always knew Trump would put the bank accounts of his family criminal enterprise way ahead of The United States Of America. What we were a little slow to pick up on was what the phrase "Rocket Man" really meant in Trump's nocturnal dreams. It turns out that Trump was an easy score for Kim Jong Un. Kim learned from the best, Vladimir Putin, that Trump's sick ego craves flattery and praise. A few nice letters on some nicely scented paper were all it took to set those fat orange cheeks all a quiver. I bet Kim didn't even have to send flowers, before or afterward.

And, man, I bet Pence is so jealous he could spit.

A suggestion: When Trump and his plane load of Russian assets and agents attempt to return to the U.S. from the trip, ICE, backed by our military, should seize and secure Air Force One, dump the human contents into cages, and ship the cages from Hai Phong harbor to Vladivostok aboard the slowest-moving freighter they can find. Hell, just strap 'em to a barge. Putin can pick them up in Vladivostok. The Trump Administration would obviously be much happier if they were sent to Russia and so would we. They could all live in a new Siberian Trump Gulag Hotel. Oh, and just make sure the seas are very choppy and the waves are really starting to heave when they're shipped out.

North Korea announces new leader: John Bolton

Portrait by Chip Proser

by Reese Erlich

Pyongyang-- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un announced today that he was resigning and appointing John Bolton as the country's new supreme leader.

Kim, apparently acting under duress, declared, "I've made important concessions on our nuclear weapons program but nothing seems to satisfy the USA. So let's see if Bolton can do it any better." Prior to his ascension to power, Bolton was Donald Trump's national security advisor known for his hardline anti-communist views.

Chairman Bolton, as he now prefers to be called, attended the Pyongyang press conference dressed in a blue Mao jacket buttoned at the collar. In an apparent concession to Korean custom, Chairman Bolton shaved his famous walrus mustache, noting that no previous North Korean leader had such prominent facial hair.

Bolton agreed to continue certain other North Korean customs. After the Pyongyang press conference, he was feted by 100,000 synchronized dancers packed into Rungrado May Day stadium. Others in the adoring crowd held up placards displaying the visage of Donald Trump, hair flapping in the wind.

Over a booming but antiquated public address system, Bolton declared, "I plan to reunify the two Koreas under my rule in order to promote peace, prosperity and free market capitalism."

The crowd erupted in spontaneous applause and unfurled banners of smiling workers, peasants and financial advisers.

Bolton announced that the name of the new country would be the People's Capitalist Democracy of Korea. The White House had originally decided on "The Trumpian State of Korea," but didn't want to offend local sensibilities.

Bolton's ascension to power came as the logical outcome of his policies. By raising demands impossible for North Korea to meet, regime change was the only remaining option. And who better to lead the new regime than John Bolton?

Bolton also announced the removal of South Korea's elected president, Moon Jae-in, who had objected to Bolton's policies for some time.

"U.S. troops based in Seoul will continue to maintain peace and stability under my rule," said Bolton. "We will hold free elections throughout the Korean peninsula sometime soon. A few miscreant South Korean politicians who have tried to obstruct progress will face justice at special U.S. courts established in Guantanamo, Cuba."

The surprising turn of events took place against a backdrop of acrimony within the Trump administration. Trump held a famous face-to-face meeting with Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 12. Both sides agreed to denuclearization, but never agreed on a definition of that term, a flaw critics noted at the time.

A senior White House official said Trump never was able to spell denuclearization, "and certainly never comprehended its meaning." Trump relied on personal rapport with the leader he once called "little rocket man." Trump never developed a clear set of demands on North Korea, following the same approach he used in the Middle East and other world hotspots.

On the other hand, Bolton and other hard liners demanded that North Korea destroy all nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles and nuclear production facilities before negotiations could even begin. Kim's definition of denuclearization meant freezing Korea's current number of atomic bombs and missiles.

Earlier this year Kim made concessions by halting nuclear and missile testing, and blowing up a nuclear test site. On September 18, he agreed to dismantle a missile test facility and launchpad. He also proposed to dismantle the Yongbyon plutonium processing facility.

In return Kim wanted the US and South Korea to sign a formal peace treaty ending the Korean War. The war ended in 1953 with a ceasefire, not a formal treaty.

The United States has been reluctant to sign such an agreement. "If we ended the war," Bolton had declared before he became chairman, "the US would have had to pull its troops out of South Korea. That's the last thing we wanted."

Bolton acted at a time when North and South Korea seemed to make significant progress during a Sept 18-19 meeting in Pyongyang. Both sides favored a peace declaration ending the Korean War, improved economic ties, and were pleased with a promise by Kim to visit Seoul. It would be the first such visit since the two Koreas were partitioned by outside powers after World War II.

Bolton said regime change came just in time.

"Had I not acted," said a triumphant Chairman Bolton, "North and South Korea might have resolved important issues by themselves."

Are Trump's Torrents Of Lies Dangerous? Oh, Yes

Everybody knows Trump lies his ass off every single day-- everybody, that is, except for his 2-digit IQ supporters strung out on pharmaceuticalsl... about a third of the country's voters. Thanks largely to hate talk radio and Fox, they believe everything he says. Most of what he says barely matters; it's just hot air, empty braggadocio and utter nonsense for his dumbed down, early manipulated base-- like this random chimp talk from early yesterday morning:

He's obsessed with Fear, Bob Woodward's book, now a #1 best seller, thanks-- at least in part-- to Trump bleating and whining about it so obsessively. Yes, he'll write (obviously find someone to write) the "real book."

But sometimes his lies do matter and his moron supporters don't-- like in instances of national security. During his TV interviews over the weekend, Woodward got to the heart of the real problem with his bullshit and gas-lighting: "I’ve never seen an instance when the President is so detached from the reality of what’s going on. This has not been treated seriously enough. Some of the things Trump did and does jeopardize the real national security... People better wake up to what's going on." During the CBS interview about the book-- which will hit the stores today-- Woodward talked about what he contends was the most dangerous moment of Trump's nuclear standoff with North Korea.

"He drafts a tweet saying 'We are going to pull our dependents from South Korea-- family members of the 28,000 people there,'" Woodward said on "CBS Sunday Morning," referring to families of US troops stationed on the Korean peninsula.

The tweet never was sent because of a back-channel message from the North Koreans that they would view it as a sign the US was preparing to attack, according to CBS.

"At that moment there was a sense of profound alarm in the Pentagon leadership that, 'My God, one tweet and we have reliable information that the North Koreans are going to read this as 'an attack is imminent.'"

...Kim recently expressed his "unwavering faith" in Trump, and the US president on Sunday praised the North Korean for staging a huge military parade in Pyongyang without the customary display of nuclear missiles.

But the earlier brinkmanship between the two nuclear-armed states-- including Trump's threat September 19, 2017 to "totally destroy North Korea"-- had sent tensions soaring.

In his book, Woodward portrays the US president as uninformed and impulsive to the point of recklessness, with White Houses aides at times removing documents from his desk to keep him from taking rash actions.

The dotard is so obsessed with keeping his base persuaded that he's single-handedly saved America from Korean nuclear annihilation that he keeps lying about his "accomplishments" in Singapore. Kim is obviously manipulating him as easily as he manipulates the imbeciles who want to believe him in Mississippi.

Monday, NBC reported that, despite what Trump says in his self-glorificating tweets, North Korea is still building nukes-- and U.S. government is talking it seriously even if the senile coot in the White House isn't. Courtney Kube reported that as Señor Trumpanzee "issues a steady stream of praise for Kim Jong Un in interviews and on Twitter, a steady stream of evidence that North Korea is still making nuclear weapons has pushed his administration to take a much more aggressive stance toward Pyongyang."

The newest intelligence shows Kim's regime has escalated efforts to conceal its nuclear activity, according to three senior U.S. officials. During the three months since the historic Singapore summit and Trump's proclamation that North Korea intends to denuclearize, North Korea has built structures to obscure the entrance to at least one warhead storage facility, according to the officials.

The U.S. has also observed North Korean workers moving warheads out of the facility, the officials said, though they would not speculate on where the warheads went.

...U.S. intelligence assesses North Korea could produce five to eight new nuclear weapons in 2018, according to three current and former senior U.S. officials. That pace is virtually identical to their assessment of the regime's production of about six per year prior to the Trump-Kim summit.

...The Trump administration has launched what it calls a "maximum pressure" campaign against North Korea in response.

Public rhetoric, meanwhile, has a different tone. After his June meeting with Kim in Singapore Trump said, "There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea."

Trump tweeted a "thank you" to Kim on Thursday for proclaiming his "unwavering faith" after a South Korean official reported Kim wanted to denuclearize before the end of Trump's first term. The South Korean official said Kim emphasized "that he has never said anything negative about President Trump."

"We will get it done together!," tweeted Trump.

Friday morning, Fox News aired a taped interview with Trump in which he insisted, "Kim Jong un said very nice things. He said we want to get denuclearization during the Trump administration."

On Sunday, North Korea held its annual Foundation Day military parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the nation on Sept. 9. In past years, the Kim regime has used the parade to show off missiles and new technology.

This year, however, North Korea did not display any ICBMs. On Twitter, President Trump said “experts” were heralding the absence as a sign of the Kim regime’s “commitment to denuclearization.” He thanked Kim and called the lack of missiles a “very positive statement.”

“We will both prove everyone wrong! There is nothing like good dialogue from two people that like each other!”

The government insists Trump is personally directing all their push-back against North Korea. I guess that sounds better than what it actually is. Is there a simple English word that Trump supporters would understand for coup d'état ? Maybe "Deep State?"