Showing posts with label South Korea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South Korea. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Wednesday, August 18, 1976. Panmunjom axe murder incident (Korean: 판문점 도끼 살인 사건).

A border incident on the Korean DMZ occured in which North Korean soldiers rushed American and South Korean troops and killed two Americans with primitive weapons.  

The tree being cut down two days later as part of Operation Paul Bunyan, a US show of force resulting from the incident.

South Africa announced a multiracial government was be created for South West Africa as it moved towards independence as Namibia.  South Africa had been holding on to the territory under the cover of a British League of Nations Mandate following World War One.

Catholic Priest the Reverend Roman Kotlarz was beaten to death by the Polish secret police.

Last edition:

Monday, August 16, 1976. Hey, ho, let's go.

Monday, August 17, 2026

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 151st Edition. Дональд Трамп. Нелегалы? Donald Trump, Moscow's man in the White House or just really stupid (probably really stupid)?



Is Donald Trump a Russian agent?

I don't think so, but it's no longer an irrational thing to ask.  Indeed, it has to be at least slightly pondered.

Yesterday Trump announced that the U.S. Army is scaling back on joint exercises with the South Korean Military.  More specifically:


I just think that this shows Trump to be really dumb, something I've been maintaining for awhile. 

But still, consider that North Korea is supplying troops and arms to Russia in Ukraine.  At least at one point, he apparently promised to stop the CIA from monitoring Kim Jong Un (my guess is that the CIA would continue to do it even if ordered to stop).  He's praised the North Korean despot repeatedly.

But then, he's done the same with Putin.  

And the fact of the matter is that he couldn't have done more to harm the US in the globe than he has, even if he was a paid agent.  He's wrecking the US economy, he's destroying our relationship with our allies (our real allies), he's threatened to seize territory belonging to our allies.  He's refused to give Ukraine the full amount of weapons it needs to defend itself, which aids Russia, and he's gotten us into a war which is depleting our supply of air defense munitions at an alarming rate and taxing the abilities of our Navy.

China will take advantage of this.

In order to successfully invade Taiwan, China needs relatively calm weather conditions, which only occur in that region in the spring and fall. Spring is gone, but fall is coming right up.  The war with Iraq that Trump illegally launched will still be going on in October and our supply of anti missile missiles will not have increased a bit by then.  It will likely have have grown worse.  The morale problem in the Navy (assuming its limited to the Navy, which is not a safe assumption) will be worse by October.  

Consider this.

Right now, the US can't be reliably counted on to contest a Chinese invasion of Taiwan at all.  Donald Trump could easily just say "oh, well, we're busy, and things and stuff" and let it happen. Frankly, I'd give less than 50% odds the US would actually attempt to counter a Chinese resumption of active hostilities against Taiwan, and unlike 1949, when the Republicans rallied to "Who lost China?"  the current GOP would just roll over like a wet dog if that occured.

But let's assume that the US attempts to do something.  We are still probably able to counter a Chinese seaborne effort, but we aren't going to be in very good shape to counter a missile offensive.  

Crossing the Taiwan Strait is a massive military undertaking.  Even right now China can probably not pull it off.  But it can try it, and if it does, the US can't endure a protracted aerial campaign.  Its not even showing the ability to do it with Iran, and that war will still be going on.

But let's take it one more step.  Can the US fight a sea and air war against China, an air war against Iran, and a ground invasion by North Korea of South Korea?

It's questionable.  And all those countries know that.

And Putin knows that if that occurs, U.S. aid to Ukraine is over.

The Second World War saw Nazi Germany allied to Imperial Japan and democratic Finland.  Wars make strange bedfellows.  All of these countries have relations with each other, and you can bet they're talking.

So, do I think the American President is some sort of odd agent in Russian employment?  Дональд Трамп.  Нелегалы?  No, I don't, but I do think he's stupid, and that stupidity is having disastrous consequences that are about to get much, much worse.  Much worse by October of this year, or perhaps the spring of next year.  Indeed, waiting it out would make strategic sense for China, while hitting in October would make political sense.

Creepy

Trump's relationship with Natalie Harp is approaching being creepy.

We can assume that Harp is an adoring sycophant, as to be employed by Trump, you have to be.  But still.  She apparently wrote him, stating:" You are all that matters to me." and "I don’t ever want to let you down."

Trump calls her “sweetie".

Okay, that doesn't mean that he's obtaining favors from her, but given Trump's track record, it's going to raise questions.  Trump is rumored to have had an affair with Playboy tart Karen McDougal some 20 years ago, when he was 60.  60 isn't young (trust me, I'm 63) but it isn't old either.  That's the same age he was when he reportedly had a one night stand with Stormy Daniels.  He'd been married in the American context to Melanija Knavs for two years at the time.  So if he quit cheating, we have to assume that at age 60 he was fornicating with women prostituting their image for pay (which he denies) twice and then suddenly reformed.  

Maybe.

Well, being a lech at age 60 isn't the same thing as being one at 80.  Harp is 35 and the 45 year age gap would be super creepy and just flat out too creepy for any woman of that age to engage in who wasn't um, a professional.  Besides, at this point it's fairly well established that Trump has an incomitance problem and stinks a lot of the time.

No, Harp is just another creepy fan of Trump's, seeing something in him that isn't there.

And, speaking of creepy.


Nancy Mace has been weird for a while, but she's rocketing to the bottom.

And even creepier.

A Trump speech from two days ago in front of policemen:
Every day I come to the White House, people are thanking me: ‘Thank you, sir. Thank you, thank you, sir,'

You know these young, beautiful girls. These young, beautiful girls. These young, beautiful girls in the White House. You know they come in. Now I'm not supposed to say beautiful, but what the hell?

These young, these gorgeous, beautiful girls — they want to be safe, and they come, 'Mr. President, may I speak to you? Thank you, sir. Thank you’ — I said, ‘Why are you thanking me?’

’Because a year and a half ago, I was afraid to leave. I was afraid to open the door of my apartment, and now I walk to the White House every morning, and I have absolutely no fear.’
Donald Trump.

That never happened, and it's really creepy.  Young beautiful adoring women are coming to Donald Trump and thanking him for making things safe. . . no, they are not.

Some predictions

Well, with all that cheery news, what can we say?

Just this. Things are about to get a lot worse.  As we progress into the fall the oncoming electoral disaster for the GOP is going to become more and more of a crisis for Trump, and he's going to start doing anything he can to steal the election if not outright suspend it.  A war we are losing will still be going on.  The economy is going to start tanking.  Trump's mental state will continue to visibly decline.  Republicans in Congress will continue to do nothing, if not outright support the subversion of democracy.

Related threads:

Donald Trump is a Russian Asset. Дональд Трамп — агент России.




Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 150th Edition. Why Karoline is departing. Donald Trump's Weird Obsession with monuments to himself. The Invincibly Ignorant.

Thursday, July 16, 2026

Tuesday, July 16, 1946. New agencies. Sentencing the perpetrators of the Malmedy Massacre.



The Bureau of Land Management was created within the U.S. Department of the Interior, by merging the Grazing Service and the United States General Land Office..


The BLM, which does good work, has been one of the most abused and derided agencies in the American West.

The Social Security Administration replaced the three member Social Security Board.



A US Army tribunal at Dachau sentenced 46 former members of the Waffen SS, including Joachim Peiper, to death for the Malmedy Massacre


On March 20, 1948, 31 of the death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.  In 1951 all the remaining death sentences were commuted, including Peiper's.  

US occupation authorities instituted a strict ban on civilian passage across the 38th parallel.

Last edition:

Friday, July 3, 2026

Court Watch Part VII. When the last law was down.

Lawyer, St. Thomas More, who was executed for his adherence to his faith. 

William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!

Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!

Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!

Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons: A Play in Two Acts

The Justice Department is going after James Comey for posting a photo of seashells arranged to spell "8647" on a beach somewhere, asserting it was a death threat on President Trump.  Apparently this is due to the old use of the term "86" to do away with and "47" for Donald Trump's completely illegitimate but widely accepted illegal claim to be President.

It wasn't.

This prosecution will go nowhere whatsoever, but it is more evidence that everyone in the Trump Administration is essentially a fascist with no regard for reality or the rule of law right now.  We are in monumentally dangerous territory.  It's 1534 in the United States with Donald Trump our King Henry VIII.

And the spirt of the age has spread:

What Gray did was flat out illegal.  Gray is relying, in essence, on the advice of the Attorney General and when that's a defense, the attorney client privilege is waived.  The AG's office knows that, but it has to defend the privilege  It's being pretty assertive about it.

Gray needs to suffer the penalty of the law here.

Nobody is more opposed to abortion than I am.  I wouldn't allow for the largely bogus "rape and incest" exceptions that many people will.  But this is really beyond the Pale.  Powell should be ashamed of itself for even appoint this guy to its city council.

Elsewhere, in a nation where we brought a modern justice system, it's still functioning.

South Korean court extends prison sentence for wife of ousted president 

May 5, 2026

Headline in the CST:

Judges reject Trump push to obtain state voter rolls

But of course our Secretary of State, Chuck "If you disagree with me you are a radical communist, fascist, monarchist, podiatrist" Gray just handed Wyoming's over.

May 16, 2026

Smith hasn't been confirmed as US Attorney for Wyoming yet.

May 21, 2026

It appears that Trump's settlement deal in his IRS suit may actually prove to be a bridge too far for Senate Republicans.  

The deal, which frankly is the epitome of corruption, would create a slush fund to pay pardoned January 6 criminals for their inconvenience in being prosecuted as traitors to their country.  That's what they are, and they should not have been pardoned, but Trump sought to go one step beyond that and reward the pack of Horst Wessels.  Frankly, as soon as possible, the pardons should be unrung as illegitimate (Trump isn't a legitimate President and can't pardon anyone).  Anyhow, Republicans are openly balking on the slush fund, amazingly.  It must be really angering constituents, or just too much to stomach.

Indeed, they not only are balking, they sidetracked the ICE funding bill, showing that they're actually willing to do something that is guaranteed to send the Orange Mussolini into a screaming fit, but the fit will pit Trump's ICE demands up against his now open and obvious corruption and the hemorrhaging of the US budget.  It'll be interesting to see where this goes, as once they break with Trump, their relationship with Trump is broken, and if he doesn't come to heel, they can't.

By way of an analogous example, Massie wouldn't come to heel on the Epstein files, but he was one man.  Once it's a pack, it tends to grow.

So, a match is on.

May 29, 2026

A court ruled that Trump's adding his name to the Kennedy Center was illegal and ordered it removed within two weeks.

A different judge enjoined the IRS settlement slush fund from going forward.

June 2, 2026

Trump's insurrectionist slush fund seemed to be getting questioned by the court and now the Attorney General is saying it won't occur.

While Wyoming's Congressional delegation didn't protest it, a lot of Republicans in Congress were finding it to be a bridge too far.

June 3, 2026

Lawyers ask Wyoming Supreme Court to intervene in Gray voter data complaint

June 4, 2026

A Wyoming district court held that the whiney fascist crybabies leading the GOP have to follow state law and seat elected Republican precinct members, something another court did two years ago. The state central committee didn't want to do so as that keeps it from picking fascists.  

It argues that its a private entity and doesn't have to follow state law. . . except of course when it comes to getting preferential places on ballots, having the state run party elections for it, and getting to pick members of certain offices when they become vacant. It's fine with all of that.

Satire aside, this would have been an opportunity for the Court to wipe all of that out, and it should have.

June 5, 2026

Wyoming GOP sues state, challenges constitutionality of ban on pre-primary candidate endorsements

All they really have to do is to quit having state funded primaries.

June 15, 2026

Last Friday retired Judge Campbell struck down a series of provisions regarding abortion.  There was some chance that these would survive challenge, as they did not directly restrict abortion, such as there being a time delay after seeking one, an ultrasound, etc., but he ruled that the Wyoming Supreme Court's earlier decision meant that these were in the nature of health care and could not stand.

I disagree with him on that, but given the absurd Wyoming constitutional provision on health care I've addressed here before, and the S.Ct. decision, it's an understandable result.  It'll go on to be challenged at the Wyoming Supreme Court level, probably.

I keep wondering if anyone has argued the true existential aspect of the questions.  I don't know if that's been done or not.

On the nature of things, one of the local news outlets has had photos of a woman protesting holding a sign that says "Forced Birth = Violence".

Almost all abortions in the US are due to people who just had sex, and then sex resulted in what it results in. That's not forced birth, that's nature.  The common "well what about ten year olds" and the like brings up a case scenario that's exceedingly rare.  The reply to that would be to ask that person if they're opposed to all other abortions, which they are not.

Even at that, however, killing is killing.  It would be just as logical to go out and determine every living American who came about due to rape or tike and shoot them dead now.  Yes, rape and incest are horrible.  Murder is probably the ultimate horrible, however.

Apparently the S.Ct asked, in its opinion, why those challenging abortion in Wyoming don't seek to amend the constitution.  It was a constitutional amendment that got us here, so that makes sense.  So far nobody's lifted a finger to do that.  The likely reason is that they know that amending the provision to allow for making abortions illegal won't pass in the state.  Instead, they feel their odds are better litigating about it, or complaining about it.

On other matters, the case challenging the primary system filed by Skovgaard is a pro se case, as I suspected, meaning it has about zero chance of actually succeeding.

June 18, 2026

Gordon sues Board of Equalization, asks court to enforce property tax cap

The governor filed suit against the 3-member board he appointed after it said it could not certify non-uniform residential property tax assessments.

In other news, some members of the WFC are criticizing Wyoming courts as "activist", an absolutely absurd accusation, for not upholding the most recent abortion laws when the legislature itself is completely responsible for the constitutional amendment that causes those laws to do down in defeat.

The legislature could forward a repeal of that amendment, but it won't, as it's afraid that would go down in defeat.  The whole thing is an example of playing a stupid game and winning a stupid prize.

June 19, 2026

Court sides with challenger to law banning drug users from possessing guns

What could go wrong?

On the topic mentioned above, we'll note that that you heard it here first, but now the drumbeat pointing out the hypocrisy is getting pretty loud:

Tom Lubnau: Sure, Pass Unconstitutional Bills And Blame 'Activist Judges'

Lubnau really throws the gauntlet down, stating:

The fix is simple. Pass a proposed constitutional amendment. I'll draft it for them: Article I, §38 is amended to add subsection (e): Abortion is not healthcare for purposes of this Article. 

Come on Sanchez-Williams.  Come on Bear.  But your legislating where you claimed values are. 

June 29, 2026

A good result:

Court prevents Trump from firing Fed governor


A 5 to 4 decision, with Thomas writing the dissent.

A bad result:

Court allows Trump to fire FTC commissioner and overturns major restraint on presidential power

A great result, but again 5 to 4:

Justices uphold state law allowing for late-arriving mail-in ballots

Trump's already bitching about this one, complaining that this provides why the SAVE Act needs to be passed.

And another good result:

Supreme Court will not consider $5 million verdict against Trump

Cont:

Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship

Yikes, that was the right result, but razor thin.

Cont:

And a bad one:

Justices strike down campaign finance law

Cont:

And a correct one:

Court rules that states can exclude transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports teams

July 3, 2025

A former Olympian has been falsely charged with vandalizing Donald Trump's Rhino Lined Algae pond as Trump is a baby and can't handle the truth.

These charges will fail, will result in a civil suit against the government which the government will ultimately settle for millions.

We've crossed the edge into the early stages of a fascist police state.

Gabriel Green has sued the State over residency requirements.  A long time Wyoming resident, he recently resided in Arizona so the Secretary of State, properly in my view, found he did not meet the residency requirements.

The Secretary of State's office faces two other election related legal actions at the presen ttime.

With this, we'll close out this edition.

Last edition:

Ballroom Batshit. A demented president goes full bonkers. The 25th Amendment Watch List Fifteenth Edition and Court Watch Part VI.

Thursday, October 2, 2025

Tuesday, October 2, 1945. Patton relieved.

Gen. Eisenhower was relieved of command of the Third Army and put in head of a military history detail due to his remarks about denazification.

United States Marshal Fred A. Canfil sent a gift to his friend Harry S. Truman of a painted glass sign mounted on a walnut base with the phrase "The Buck Stops Here".

Admiral William Sample, age 47, was on a flight which disappeared near Wakayama, Japan.

Korea was removed from Japan's political and administrative control.. 

Last edition

Monday, October 1, 1945. The OSS disbanded.