Tag: Kim Jong Un

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Opinion Viewpoint

Dangerous Diplomacy

If he were alive today, Mark Twain might say the following: “There’s lies, damned lies — and Donald Trump.” The president of the United States not only lies routinely, but he believes other people’s lies without a modicum of skepticism.

Mark Twain

Last week, the liar in question was North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who claimed to have known nothing about what appears to have been the torture and, ultimately, the murder of American college student Otto Warmbier. After holding a second nuclear summit for which he was grossly unprepared, this time in Vietnam, President Trump said Kim “tells me he didn’t know about it, and I will take him at his word.” He added that Kim “felt badly about it. He felt very badly.”

Right. Because Kim’s empathy and compassion toward his starving countrymen and those he has had killed, including his half brother, are legendary.

It is mind-numbing and breathtaking to hear such nonsense from a president who, if normal, would vindicate the victim through punitive actions rather than side with a violent dictator in some weird, contrived, nonproductive chitchat about nuclear weapons. Warmbier’s parents were appropriately outraged by the president’s cavalier comments — especially since he had used the Warmbiers as props during his 2018 State of the Union address — and they issued a harsh rebuke.

The 21-year-old Warmbier had been touring North Korea when, on January 2, 2016, while going through airport security to leave the country, he was detained by North Korean authorities. He was accused of stealing a propaganda poster from the Pyongyang hotel where he was staying. No conclusive evidence was provided that he did so, but he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

After 17 months, Warmbier was sent home in a coma, having suffered severe brain damage from possible multiple beatings, and he died a few days later. His brutal death was surely no accident, as Cindy and Fred Warmbier asserted in their statement rebuking Trump, nor was it likely unknown to Kim, whose supreme leadership doesn’t leave much wiggle room for independent action. No one familiar with North Korea believes that Kim wasn’t well aware of his American captive. How could he not have been after a year-and-a-half of international news coverage and outreach from the State Department? Thus, make no mistake, Warmbier’s death was as much an assault on America as it was on this young American.

But Trump, who confessed to having a “warm relationship” with Kim, based presumably on whatever pheromones passed between them, said he believed the man he previously called “little rocket man.” This is because the president is a) a useful idiot; b) a malevolent force in the universe; c) a small-pawed, big-dog fanboy; d) a strategic genius.

I think most of us can eliminate option “d.”

Option “c” is probable, given Trump’s attraction to tyrants, dictators, murderers, and thieves. He has used similar terminology with other strongmen, with whom he has been equally credulous. Trump believed Russian President Vladimir Putin when he denied knowing about Russian interference in the 2016 election. And he believed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman when he denied knowing anything about the torture, murder, and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

At the same time Trump believed their lies, he disbelieved the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies, which, in each case, pointed a finger at the top guys.

Even if we pretend that Trump is a strategic genius who is flattering his foes by faking belief in their lies, one is left to wonder to what end? To win their approval? To charm them into believing he’s one of them, that they are essentially the same but for minor differences resolvable through the art of the deal?

If only he were trying to seize a widow’s home to make space for a new limo parking lot at one of his casinos. Or negotiating Trump Tower in Moscow. But the stakes are a little higher now. And Trump, in trying to be a tough guy, has created the opposite perception.

What every foreign ruler, dictator, president, or potentate now knows is that every American tourist, journalist, college student, and diplomat is fair game for capture, arrest, hostage-taking, torture, or murder — all without consequence. All they have to do is lie to the president, a proven weakling, and the bad thing that happened will just go away.

The American people must not let him get away with it.

Kathleen Parker writes for the Washington Post Writers Group.

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Opinion The Last Word

Zingers and Jello

CREDIT: Reuters | Kyodo

Those North Koreans do the darndest things. Now they’ve gone and launched another missile of some sort. Thankfully, this time they didn’t cause an earthquake in their own country, as they did back in January, when they reportedly tested a hydrogen bomb, apparently in an effort to build up an arsenal to bomb the United States. I don’t know exactly why, but I laughed myself off the edge of my bed when I heard that one.

I don’t think I will ever understand why there are people in the world who live just to make other people miserable. Terrorists, gangs, bigots, serial killers — the list goes on and on. Why do some people choose to be horrible instead of just trying to be happy and spread that happiness? It’s a lofty thought, and the world is an incredibly complicated place, but still, why wake up each day and think of ways to be horrible?

Reuters | Kyodo

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un

This is one of the reasons I try not to watch the news about the presidential campaign going on (and on and on and on and on and on and on) right now. I feel bad that I don’t have much interest in it, but I just see it as a pile of goons grandstanding for their own ego-driven interests.

The GOP debates would be entertaining, at the very least, except none of the candidates appear really interested in doing anything to improve society as we know it. They just want to gnaw on each other and come up with “zingers.”

I actually saw a professional television news commentator ask Jeb Bush why he didn’t come up with any “zingers” after one of the debates. Of course, poor Jeb appears to be in a walking coma most of the time, so how would he come up with “zingers?” I did actually crack up when, after Jeb got his mother Barbara Bush to get out and stump for him a little, Donald Trump made fun of him bringing out his mommy and making her walk in the snow. Why is Jeb Bush still even in the election? And who is John Kasich? I keep seeing him in the lineup, but I honestly had never heard of him. I see in my search that he is the governor of Ohio. Is this man really a viable candidate for president of the United States?

And why did the Donald have to go and resurrect Sarah Palin? Why bother her when she is busy dealing with her son’s domestic violence issues and his arrest (all of which she blamed on, of course, Barack Obama)? Why not leave her to her hunting and gathering in the woods? Donald, please don’t make us relive having her on the news a lot. She’s still as gross as she always was, and her endorsement of you didn’t do you too much good in Iowa. Leave it alone, and just tease Jeb about his mommy.

And why the hell does the opinion of Iowans mean so much to the political process? I’ve never understood that one. Iowa is probably the least diverse state in the country. It’s almost all white and mostly rural. I secretly think that no one really lives in Iowa and the campaign people just ship people in for the caucuses during presidential elections.

The whole process is just strange. The people who are reportedly residents of Iowa (I still don’t believe anyone really lives there) gather at local spots in each county, including schools, churches, and individual’s homes (thank you, Wikipedia!). So, to the best of my understanding, all of these rural white people huddle up and try to figure out who they want to win the presidential primary. And they seem to eat a lot of food items that are stuffed. Like big, nasty stuffed flapjacks and fried bread stuffed with cabbage. I feel certain they also indulge in their fair share of Jell-O with canned fruit.

But back to their caucuses, food notwithstanding. They gather and talk about the pros and cons of the candidates, but they do it differently for Republicans than they do for Democrats. Ya think that’s a red flag? And apparently, if there’s a tie, they flip a coin. Fortunately, it’s not just all tater tot casseroles (sorry, there I go again) and secret voting. They actually did give Barack Obama 98 percent of their votes, or delegates, or whatever it is, the last time. But the caucus winner in the Republican caucus the same year was Rick Santorum. Ick.

So why Iowa, and, for that matter, why New Hampshire? Again, approximately 94 percent white. I’m not saying white people don’t know what they’re doing, but why choose almost white-only states for these important elections to reflect the diversity of the country? Why not have the caucuses in New York or California? What am I missing here?

Admit it. Have you ever actually met someone who was from Iowa? I don’t think I ever have. Nor have I ever met anyone from North Korea. I would like to meet some people from these places to get their take on what really goes on there. In the meantime, I’m going to find a way to cast my presidential vote for the late New York Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Rant (December 26, 2014)

CREDIT: Carrienelson1 | Dreamstime.com

Everybody laughs at Dennis Rodman. He is America’s favorite, cross-dressing, tattooed metalhead. His piercings set off alarms
at airports five minutes before he arrives. He’s dyed his hair every shade of the color chart wheel, plus a few other hues not seen before on this planet. He was married to Carmen Electra and linked romantically with Madonna — but then, who hasn’t been? He wore a wedding dress and full make up to promote his 1996 autobiography, claiming that he was bisexual and marrying himself. And his nickname is “The Worm.”

Rodman is also a seven-time NBA rebounding champion, and a two-time defensive player of the year. He wears five NBA championship rings with the Chicago Bulls and had his number retired by the Detroit Pistons. He entered the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011. Rodman’s drunken bellicosity has cost him his credibility, which is too bad since he’s one of the only living Americans to have had a laugh with North Korea’s Dear Leader, Kim Jong-un.

Rodman went to North Korea in 2013 to assist their national basketball program and returned the next year with a group of former NBA players for a tour of the country. Afterward, Rodman claimed Dear Leader was a “friend for life,” and that Obama should, “pick up the phone and call Kim,” since the two leaders were basketball fans. But he was drunk and verbose upon his return. His agent claimed Rodman had been drinking heavily to an extent “that none of us had seen before,” and he promptly entered a rehab facility.

But Rodman’s message was simple: North Koreans are nuts over basketball. So, before we enter a second Korean War over a Seth Rogen stoner movie, perhaps we should consider invading with basketball. There is a precedent. In 1971, the U.S. Table Tennis Team was invited to China, where no American had been since 1949. On the team was a long-haired, redheaded hippie named Glenn Cowan, and everywhere the team went Cowan was mobbed by fans who were perhaps seeing what freedom was for the first time. The press dubbed it “Ping-Pong Diplomacy,” and it helped thaw relations with China leading up to Richard Nixon’s famous handshake with Mao Zedong, who enjoyed a game of ping-pong himself. Nelson Mandela once said: “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does.”

Speaking of sports, the island of Cuba, one of the last existing communist countries, produces great baseball players. Even Fidel Castro was reputed to be a decent pitcher. Cuban baseball stars like El Duque and Livan Hernandez risked their lives to come to this country. But with Obama’s singular destruction of the mummified, Cold-War corpse of calamities lasting from the Kennedy administration, we may soon see some free-agents.

The fastest way to transform a communist country is to give them a Major League Baseball franchise. The professional suits should get in there fast. I believe there’s already a pretty good ball club in Havana called the Leones. There’s a team in Toronto, and they’re already looking at Mexico City, so let’s give the other half of the hemisphere a chance to compete. New York could play Havana, and they could bring back all those posters that say, “Cuba, si. Yanqui, no,”

Over a half century, the CIA has tried to kill Castro by exploding cigars, poison pills, bacteria, LSD, snipers, bombers, and thallium salts to make his beard fall out. Fidel said, “If surviving assassination attempts were an Olympic event, I would win the gold medal.” Before another Bay of Pigs, let’s invade with pro baseball, Coca-Cola, and Mickey D’s.

Given the chance, I would love to go to Cuba and habla a little espanol. I’d like to see the marketplace and the old cars. A new car in Cuba is a ’57 Buick, but now they can finally get some genuine GM parts. In return, we get the near-mythical Cuban cigar. I smoked a few Hav-a-Tampa jewel sweets with the wooden tip back when I was in college until I realized that the taste was disgusting, but even I would smoke a Cuban cigar just for the hell of it. I could pull one out at a party and scream, “Say hello to my little friend.” We can also learn how to say “banana daiquiri” in Spanish and see some of those racy shows where Hyman Roth would never go. I’m sorry. I just love Godfather references.

One thing’s for sure: The Castros can’t live forever, and their successors won’t have personal connections to the revolution. Maybe an MLB all-star team could tour Cuba like the ping-pong team did China. Then dry out Rodman and make him our ambassador to North Korea. Even Lil’ Kim plays a little ball. Wilt Chamberlain and Jong-un each hold the record for scoring 100 points in a game. The only difference was that Chamberlain did it with other players on the floor. Let’s play ball for a change.

Randy Haspel writes the “Recycled Hippies” blog, where a version of this column first appeared.