Trump Has Allies Abroad-- Mostly From Enemies Of Democracy

 

Trump isn't generally admired around the world. In fact, he appears to be the most unliked American president in any of our lifetimes-- both by ordinary citizens and by most democratic governments. Just 6% of Danes, for example, want him to win reelection. With a still active fascist movement, Italians are the only people in Western Europe who back Trump with any strength at all-- and it's just 20%. Fascist governments in Hungary, Russia, Israel and Brazil, on the other hand, all think Trump is swell. In fact, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covered an Eric Trump COVID-spreading event in a Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin bowling alley basement this week. Eric announced that the first person who "came out to wish" the president well was "Little Rocket Man," a reference to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Little Rocket Man, who inherited his job from his father who had inherited it from his father, is, in effect, the king of one of Asia's poorest countries. But that doesn't mean he is. Kim was born into great wealth and it is estimated that he's much richer than Trump, with a personal fortune of at least $5 billion. The best paid workers in North Korea earn around $62 a month.

On the other hand, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh is not a billionaire. He worked as a professor and then dean of Birzeit Universit, a non-profit school near Ramallah in the West Bank. It should come as a surprise to no one that the rabidly anti-Palestinian Trump doesn't many fans on the West Bank or Gaza. The Associated Press quoted him as saying "If we are going to live another four years with President Trump, God help us, God help you and God help the whole world."

The Palestinians have traditionally refrained from taking an explicit public position in American presidential elections. Shtayyeh’s comments reflected the sense of desperation on the Palestinian side after a series of U.S. moves that have left them weakened and isolated.

The Palestinians severed ties with Trump after he recognized contested Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in late 2017 and subsequently moved the American Embassy to the holy city. Trump has also cut off hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid to the Palestinians, shut the Palestinian diplomatic offices in Washington and issued a Mideast plan this year that largely favored Israel. The Palestinians have rejected the plan out of hand.

The Trump administration also has persuaded two Arab countries, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel and promised that other Arab nations will follow suit. These deals have undercut the traditional Arab consensus that recognition of Israel only come in return for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal-- a rare source of leverage for the Palestinians.

Shtayyeh expressed hope that a victory by the Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden would raise prospects for a peace deal.

“If things are going to change in the United States I think this will reflect itself directly on the Palestinian-Israeli relationship,” he said. “And it will reflect itself also on the bilateral Palestinian-American relationship.”

The Taliban, on the other hand, is enthusiastically backing Trump's reelection. CBS News reported that in a phone interview Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid basically parroted dishonest and misleading Trump campaign talking points: "We believe that Trump is going to win the upcoming election because he has proved himself a politician who accomplished all the major promises he had made to American people, although he might have missed some small things, but did accomplish the bigger promises, so it is possible that the U.S. people who experienced deceptions in the past will once again trust Trump for his decisive actions. We think the majority of the American population is tired of instability, economic failures and politicians' lies and will trust again on Trump because Trump is decisive, could control the situation inside the country. Other politicians, including Biden, chant unrealistic slogans. Some other groups, which are smaller in size but are involved in the military business including weapons manufacturing companies' owners and others who somehow get the benefit of war extension, they might be against Trump and support Biden, but their numbers among voters is low."

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."

World Leader? Nope

Other than nations that have transactional relationships with Trump, the whole world generally detests him. Both friends of the U.S. like the EU countries and foes of our country, like North Korea, look at him like a buffoon. Even if you don't understand German, the video above gives you an idea of what kind of esteem Germans hold the president-- especially when you compare that to how admired Barack Obama was there.

Last week Trump mouthed off about how great his relationship is with murderous Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, boasting how the U.S. would have been at war with north Korea if not for him. "I received a nice note from him recently. It was a nice note. I think we’re doing fine," referring to stalled nuclear talks with North Korea. The following day, the North Korean Foreign Ministry put out a statement saying there was no letter from Kim Jong Un and that Trump had just made it up out of thin air. "The relations between the top leaders of [North Korea] and the U.S. are not an issue to be taken up just for diversion nor it should be misused for meeting selfish purposes."

National Security Action, a Democratic organization, hired Hart Research to do a poll of voters in battleground states. Most Americans say Trump has made the U.S. less respected on the world stage. Only 31% think he's made the U.S. more respected. "Among the 16% of voters who remain undecided ahead of November’s election," wrote Axios' Dave Lawler, "59% agree that Trump is making the U.S. less respected, compared to 16% who say the U.S. is now more respected." This chart shows the share of voters who approve or are concerned about Trump's handling of key issues:

Standing up to China ranked last, suggesting Trump’s recent campaign to brand Joe Biden as "soft" on China may not resonate strongly. Especially harmful for Trump's reelection prospects is that 22% of voters in these key states say that Trump has increased the likelihood of war.

Jim Harper is a civil rights attorney contesting a gaggle of conservative Democrats for a blue seat in northwest Indiana. He noted that morning that "allies and world leaders don't take Trump seriously, and Americans know this. Now more than ever, we need international cooperation to overcome this global pandemic. Unfortunately, Trump has shredded American diplomatic credibility and, with it, our ability to lead. This is just another example of how Trump's incompetence will cost lives at home and abroad."

Eva Putzova progressives with the only opportunity for adding an Arizona progressive to Congress. She's the opposite of insular and is very aware of the danger Trump's narcissistic personality put's America in.She told me he's "made the world less safe and harmed our reputation with other countries. He has abrogated nuclear arms treaties with Russia and is developing low-yield nuclear weapons which increases the chances of them actually being used. He has increased tensions with China over his racist 'China Virus' statements related to the coronavirus. And with the exception of brutal dictators like MBS, Bolsonaro, and Duterte he is despised and disrespected by world leaders. Like his domestic policy, his foreign policy is driven by self-interest, not national interest. It is no wonder that 22% of voters in battleground states say that Trump has increased the likelihood of war. We need a President who will seek peace between nations and bring us back from the brink of armed conflict. Whether that is Joe Biden remains to be seen. A progressive Congress and progressive movement will be necessary to insure that is the case."

Lauren Ashcraft is the progressive candidate running in a congressional district that spans parts of Manhattan's East Side, Queens and Brooklyn, a unique situation. Her opponent has ignored Queens and Brooklyn-- and most of the Manhattan parts of the district, just lavishing attention on Wall Street and the wealthy neighborhoods of the Upper East Side. This morning, Lauren told me that "Trump's foreign policy has been to compliment leaders who compliment him or help him or his friends to personally profit-- an approach that is otherwise completely maniacal and without any logic or foresight. It’s time we have a new generation of leaders who won’t budge on being anti-war and anti-imperialism."

Having won his primary, history professor Liam O'Mara is running for a Riverside County congressional seat held by corrupt conservative Ken Calvert. "Our standing in the world matters, and not just with tin-pot dictators and foreign influence peddlers," he told me earlier today. "That this needs to be said at all is sad, but it does. Republican voters are always talking about keeping Americans safe-- so why do they ignore the evidence and throw out strategies proven to work? At the end of the day, it's apparently not our safety that matters, it's how 'tough' we appear, how much we push others around, and this approach to foreign policy consistently increases dangers for Americans and is objectively harmful."

"Trump, he continued, "entered office determined to hamstring the State Department, slashing the aid budget that helps us to maintain good relations and solve problems before they affect us, and attacking the diplomatic corps because it was devoted to the country and not to his personal interests. He has also repeatedly slammed NATO and the EU, maligned our close neighbours Canada and Mexico, and undermined pro-democracy forces in dozens of countries, while at the same time cozying up to dictators like Kim, lawless killers like Duterte, and overt neofascists like Bolsonaro. He has also continued the longstanding American subservience to the Saudi monarchy and the Israeli far right, in both cases ignoring core American principles and commitments to human rights. And he has pursued military action in at least eight countries that escalates the blowback risk to Americans, since military action alone will not and cannot defeat terrorism. We know what works and has worked, repeatedly and over many decades, in cases all around the world. We can spread liberty and stability, decrease the threat of terrorism and insurgencies, and strengthen economic and political ties in ways that ensure major wars are a thing of the past. And the way we do that is... pretty much the opposite of everything the GOP does in Washington. I had friends present and offering expert analysis before the Iraq War... which was promptly dismissed, with predictable and disastrous consequences. It's time we paid attention to the evidence again, and stopped letting this country be run by an organized crime family."

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.

The Worst Foreign Policy "President" In Living Memory

Did South Korea put him on a postage stamp? No-- but North Korea did. According to a report from Nicole Gaouette and Kylie Atwood at CNN, Trump has soured on South Korea, not North Korea, South Korea, our allies. The orange-hued imbecile "has reacted to four North Korean missile tests in less than two weeks with little more than a shrug," they wrote. "Instead, he appears to be turning his frustrations about the peninsula on South Korea. Trump chided Seoul on Twitter Wednesday for paying 'virtually nothing' for US protection, while two administration officials said that behind closed doors, the President is fuming that South Korea is not doing more to contain Pyongyang's increased aggression."

Speaking to reporters Wednesday on the White House South Lawn, Trump said the US and South Korea "have made a deal" in which Seoul will "pay a lot more money" toward the costs of basing US military personnel in the country-- the second increase the Trump administration has pushed for and gotten this year.

"We've been helping them for about 82 years and we get nothing, we get virtually nothing," Trump said, incorrectly, and hinted that he would push for still higher payments in future. "They've agreed to pay a lot more and they will agree to pay a lot more than that."

Two US officials said that Trump has further soured on South Korea in recent months. As North Korea has grown more aggressive with its missile launches, the President sees it as South Korea's role to rein in Pyongyang and does not think Seoul has done much to deliver. NSC officials declined to comment on those assertions.

Trump's dismissal of Pyongyang's missile tests, his push to ratchet up South Korea's payments to stay under the US security umbrella and his criticism of Seoul raise concerns that North Korea is successfully driving a wedge between Washington and Seoul, analysts said.

At the same time, Trump's transactional approach to South Korea prompts questions about whether he is committed to an alliance that serves US interests as much as it does South Korea's.

"The US-South Korean alliance was forged in blood during the crucible of the Korean War," said Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation. "Its enduring motto is katchi kapshida-- 'we go together'-- not 'we go together, if we are paid enough."

Klingner and others said the US defense of its national interests in Asia requires US bases, access, enough deployed military forces to deter aggression, robust follow-on forces and strong alliances with South Korea and other Asian partners.

Kim has been focused on undermining the US-ROK alliance in particular, said David Maxwell, a senior fellow at Foundation for Defense of Democracies. One of Kim's "main line of efforts is to divide and conquer the US-ROK alliance," Maxwell said.

Vipin Narang, a political science professor at MIT, called Trump's assessment of the alliance "a stark break from 70 years" of US presidential custom.

"2019 is weird," Narang said. "The President has more respect for Kim Jong Un than he does for South Korea ... our formal ally."

On Wednesday, Trump tweeted that "South Korea has agreed to pay substantially more money to the United States in order to defend itself from North Korea. Over the past many decades, the U.S. has been paid very little by South Korea, but last year, at the request of President Trump, South Korea paid $990,000,000."

Trump went on to say that "talks have begun to further increase payments to the United States."

South Korea spends about 2.6% of its GDP on defense spending, more than most NATO allies, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The US spends about 3.2% GDP on defense.

Seoul has also long reimbursed the US for various operating costs for the American troop presence there.

But Maxwell and others raised concerns that Trump could badly strain or even undermine the alliance.

"With Trump making these demands on South Korea, it could be a perfect storm to damage the alliance," Maxwell said.

Despite Trump's tweet saying talks on more payments had begun, a South Korean official said they haven't and added that a starting date hasn't even been set. The White House on Wednesday countered that at least some discussions are underway.

Eliana Johnson wrote for Politico about how Señor Trumpanzee, delusional as always imagined he would be heading "into the 2020 campaign season as the world’s consummate deal-maker. He may instead enter his reelection campaign not just empty-handed, but vulnerable to the charge that his policies have helped sow chaos across the globe. His trade war with China keeps escalating, with mounting costs to the U.S. economy. Diplomatic overtures to Iran and North Korea have so far failed to yield the president’s desired outcome. Jared Kushner’s Middle East peace plan, two years in the making, is nowhere to be seen. And America’s retreat from Syria, where the president once boasted he had defeated ISIS, has allowed the terrorist group to regenerate, according to a new Pentagon inspector general’s report."

Trump’s critics see these data points as alarming signs that the president is out of his depth on international affairs, if not complicit in the breakdown of global order. And while his allies enthusiastically support his efforts to squeeze Iran, some are quietly nervous-- if not openly scornful-- of his policies elsewhere.

“He’s trying to pivot from being sort of a militarist to being a deal-maker and delivering on diplomacy. That’s his sort of political goal going into 2020,” said Thomas Wright, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “He’s made all of these decisions and choices that are sort of getting him into trouble and he’s having to cope with the decisions and consequences.”

...Whether pushing for troop withdrawal from Afghanistan or imposing tariffs on China, many of the administration’s most consequential foreign policy moves over the past few months have taken place over the objections of the president’s senior advisers. Trump allies describe a wear-down factor among his top aides in the face of Trump’s uncompromising views on these issues as they work to manage crises across the globe...The sheer number of complex international standoffs, former officials said, threatens to overwhelm an already taxed foreign policy apparatus in Washington.

...[T]here are signs, too, that the president’s penchant for personal diplomacy is bumping up against the harsh realities of global power politics.

And now the Pentagon is warning that ISIS has been taking advantage of Trump's drawdown in Syria in anticipation of a come-back. "Despite losing its territorial 'caliphate,' the Islamic State solidified its insurgent capabilities in Iraq and was resurging in Syria. The reduction of U.S. forces has decreased the support available for Syrian partner forces at a time when their forces need more training and equipping to respond to the ISIS resurgence." Basically everything turns to shit that Trump touches.

Chuck Park, a career foreign service officer, resigned from the State Department and penned a blistering op-ed in the Washington Post that he could no longer serve in "The Complacent State," particularly in the wake of the El Paso mass shooting. He wrote that he "worked to spread what (he) believed were American values: freedom, fairness and tolerance. But more and more I found myself in a defensive stance, struggling to explain to foreign peoples the blatant contradictions at home... I let free housing, the countdown to a pension and the prestige of representing a powerful nation overseas distract me from ideals that once seemed so clear to me. I can't do that anymore. My son, born in El Paso on the American side of that same Rio Grande where the bodies of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter were discovered, in the same city where 22 people were just killed by a gunman whose purported 'manifesto' echoed the inflammatory language of our President, turned 7 this month. I can no longer justify to him, or to myself, my complicity in the actions of this administration. That's why I choose to resign."

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.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

And, of course our own country's severely mentally ill leader did this just a couple of days after attending the G20 Conference and enjoying some laughs about election rigging with another homicidal maniac named Vladimir Putin and who knows what with Saudi royals who made the arrangements for the killing and dismemberment of a Washington Post contributing journalist, but, nothing to see here folks, nothing to worry about. Pattern? What pattern?

All The Trappings Of An Autocracy

The Washington Post reported that Ivanka— beauty, according to Trump, to Pompeo’s beast— played a prominent role in the Trumpanzee excursion to North Korea. Ivanka also got a signed album from EXO, a top K-pop band. Did you know the presidential daughter is a high level diplomat. I guess if her dad qualifies to be president she can be Secretary of State or… whatever. Same for the talentless husband. CNN reported that “back in Washington, national security officials bristled at the large presence Ivanka assumed while overseas. But those close to the President described it as business as usual.”

EXO

The administration-- the East Wing, in particular-- has made it clear that Ivanka Trump is not the first lady. But Melania Trump, who accompanied the President on recent trips to Europe and Tokyo, skipped the visit to Osaka for the G20 summit and following trip to Seoul. Her communications director and now White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, declined to provide a reason for the absence. In turn, the first daughter asserted herself abroad this week in unique and unprecedented fashion as both a member of the US delegation and a member of the President's family.

Never before has a President's child had the proximity, influence and the marketing savvy to create a space in an administration, and that was on display from the G20 to the demilitarized zone as she appeared on equal footing with Cabinet-level officials. One sign of that: Her efforts to build relationships with world leaders at gatherings such as these.

Over the course of the four-day trip, Ivanka Trump attended multiple bilateral meetings at the G20 in Osaka. She was on stage for a women's economic empowerment forum with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, delivering remarks on her Women's Global Development and Prosperity initiative. The French government released a video of her trying to make conversation with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, IMF chairwoman Christine Lagarde and British Prime Minister Theresa May.

She appeared on camera in a video published by the White House giving a readout of a trilateral meeting between the President, Indian President Narendra Modi and Abe, a responsibility traditionally carried out by a national security staffer in a written statement. In the video, Trump speaks directly to the camera about the "productive morning, to say the least," occasionally averting her eyes.

Trump also traveled with the delegation to Seoul, where she attended the dinner at the Blue House, had a discussion on women in the global economy with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and visited the DMZ, where her father shook hands with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and became the first sitting US president to step into North Korea.

Trump's national security adviser was absent from the stop because an aide said he had already departed Korea for a scheduled visit to Mongolia to "discuss regional security, infrastructure and economic issues." And Pompeo remained largely in the background during the high-profile trip, only appearing on camera behind the President as he made closing remarks. But while her father met with Kim inside for approximately 50 minutes, Trump crossed the line into North Korea-- inside a blue shelter and away from the cameras-- while senior officials like acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney waited outside. Asked by a reporter in the traveling press pool how North Korea was, she replied, "Surreal."

Ivanka Trump previously raised eyebrows among Trump critics during her attendance at the 2017 G20 summit in Hamburg when she briefly sat in for her father during one of the meetings with world leaders. She has since become more neatly tailored to issues of women's economic empowerment and workforce development. Yet she still advises her father on a myriad of issues internally. She has been one of his longest and most-trusted advisers, starting with her time in the family real estate business.

Former Obama State Department spokesperson, Pentagon press secretary and CNN analyst John Kirby said that her outsized role during the trip raises "legitimate concerns" regarding the transparency of Trump's responsibilities as a White House official, and, subsequently, her lack of accountability mechanisms as an unelected staffer.

"It raises real questions about what policy issues does she have a stake in and does she have authority to speak for the United States on," Kirby said to CNN.

To him, her visibility is an "optics problem" for the administration.

"I found it fairly stunning that she had a seat at so many tables and was involved in so many bilateral policy discussions," he said. "It certainly doesn't help America's standing on the world's stage as a democratic representative government because she wasn't elected by anybody and hasn't been formally appointed to any position."

…"If she ever wanted to run for president," Donald Trump said in an interview with The Atlantic earlier this year, "I think she'd be very, very hard to beat."

Meanwhile one of Trump’s other top-advisors, Tucker Carlson, defended his effusive praise of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, saying part of leading a country “means killing people.” Who knew? Putin, of course. Carlson added “Not on the scale the North Koreans do, but a lot of countries commit atrocities, including a number that we are closely allied with.”

We all love a parade

Hopefully Trump isn’t planning to kill anyone to show what a strong leader he is. He just wants tanks in his parade Thursday. He wanted them last year too. But the Pentagon talked him out of it. Yesterday, Rolling Stone reported that his “Salute to America” extravaganza, really a salute to Señor Trumpanzee, extravaganza on the National Mall “is poised to be one of the gaudiest, most over-the-top displays of jingoism in American history. President Trump wouldn’t have it any other way. [Trumpanzee himself] “has advised on just about every aspect of the event’s aesthetics, which, if he gets his wish, will feature ‘tanks or other armored military vehicles’ stationed around the National Mall.” No one will say how much this is going to cost or how much damage the tanks will do to DC streets. And as far as that idiot's parade... according to a new Monmouth poll, just 20% of Americans have heard anything about it. Among those who have heard about it-- and are presumably aware of the controversy surrounding this decision-- just 37% approve and 56% disapprove.

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).