Enough of Russia and Obamacare, Let's Get Back to North Korea

Enough of this Russian intrigue and the Obamacare soap opera. That stuff is for political dilettantes and weenies. Let's get back to North Korea. After all it isn't every day--at least not until recently--the world is forced to deal with two separate, but equally bat shit crazy wankers who have control of nuclear weapons.

This week, Donald John Trump addressed the UN. His idea of cooling off the increasingly dangerous situation on the Korean peninsula was to tell the general assembly if Kim Jong-un  doesn't stop acting weird the United States will, "...have no choice, but to totally destroy North Korea." He added, "Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime."

Ah, quite the diplomat.

The problem is Kim Jong-un is so nuts he just might think a vast nuclear holocaust would be a great way to go out. In fact one can almost picture him standing on a huge, burning, chemical tank paraphrasing James Cagney in the film "White Heat." Made it, Dad! Top of the world! 

And while El Donald might think huge mushrooms clouds would be a fitting end to Kim, who he called a madman in a Twitter attack yesterday, the current resident of the White House doesn't seem to understand that wars as a whole tend to be messy affairs. They create a lot of spill over, collateral damage, and such.

All of which might include a large portion of the 51,000,000 South Koreans, 10,000,000 of whom live in Seoul which is a mere 35 miles from the North Korean border. They would be same the people we consider our friends, not to mention being the very ones we say we're determined to save.

Kim responded to Trump's words with his own insults. In short order he called The Big Orange Guy, among other things, "a frightened dog and a deranged U.S. dotard. This sent tens of thousands of United States citizens, not into a panic, but rather to their online dictionaries so they could find out what the hell, "dotard," means. (it's a noun meaning an old person, especially one who is weak, or senile.)

None of this school yard bull shit bothers Trump's base, because, quite frankly, they like it when their man acts like a bellicose psychotic. However there are others out there who are starting to sweat. You know, like the professional diplomats and scholars who specialize in studying Kim and the North Korean government.

One of them, Paik Hak-soon of the South Korean Sejong Institute was quoted by the New York Times as saying, "The way North Korea's supreme leadership works, Kim Jong-un has to respond more assertively as its enemy gets more confrontational like Trump has." He added, "There is no backing down in the North Korean rule book. It's the very core of their leadership identity and motive."

According to the Times article most analysts agree that because of Trump's insults and Kim's personal response to them North Korea is now, more likely conduct further nuclear and missile tests. Another expert, Lee Sung-yoon put it this way, "Trump shot himself in the foot with his unabashedly undiplomatic United Nations General Assembly speech. In effect Trump gave Kim Jong-un a freebie for another major provocation. Kim will oblige and claim that it was in self defense against Trump's unnerving threats."

The North Korean foreign minister didn't take long to ham handedly hint just that. The Times reports Ri Yong-ho told the media in New York, that while it's up to Kim, North Korea might conduct the, "biggest ever hydrogen bomb test in the Pacific."

Well, that will certainly calm everyone, Don Trump included, down won't it?

Today a 72 year old North Korean woman named, Ryu Ri Hwa was questioned by a foreign journalist as she stood in front of a giant screen TV in a Pyongyang public square. She told him,  "Trump is a lunatic, lunatic! A lunatic who knows nothing.!"

Honestly, it's hard to argue with that assessment right now.

Of course her observation doesn't mean Ms. Ryu isn't a little funny in the head herself--or immune from the Orwellian allure of her own savage cracked pot. She went on to say, "Now we have nuclear weapons so I am feeling very confident. We can win the war a hundred, a thousand times so long as we have our leader!"

Immediately after she said those words the crowd around her applauded.

Right.

Ladies and gentlemen, given the circumstances, the bar is most definitely open.



9-22-17