OK, now I’m worried. It’s bad enough that Der Gropinfuror has already been played like a cheap fiddle by Kim Jong Un, but we’re about to find out if he’s about to be put back in his case, and stored back up on the closet shelf.
Reporting is that North Korea canceled a previously scheduled meeting with South Korean leaders today due to the ongoing “Spring Exercises” by the joint US and South Korean military forces. This is despite the fact that the exercises have been planned for months, and in fact were delayed for the Olympics in Seoul, and Pynogyang’s previous ambivalence towards them. There are also indications that North Korea may pull out of the proposed June 12th summit between Kim and Glorious Bleater.
Sweet Jesus, can Trump actually be this fucking stupid? His Lowness is so fond of constantly reminding all and sundry that “The Fart of the Steal,” I mean “The Art of the Deal” is the second all time selling book in history, behind the bible, and that’s only because the bible has been on the shelves longer. While Kim most likely has never read the bible, he appears to at least have read Trump’s book, or been advised on it, which is more than we can say for Trump himself.
In his lame ass tome, Trump is fond of blustering, with his tough, ghost written New York swagger, that one of the secrets in negotiating is being ready to walk away from the table, or at least threatening to. He brags of going into the room, sitting down, presenting his demands and terms, and heaving to his feet if there is even a peep of resistance. What the fuck does Trump think that Kim Jong Un is doing right now?!?
In a few mere months, Trump has elevated Kim from being a Mansonesque madman to an almost Godlike deity, the image of sweetness and light. What exactly did Kim do to deserve this. Let’s see. He sent a team to the Seoul Olympics, and then stuck Seoul with the check for their housing and food. He stepped over an imaginary line, from one piece of dirt to another identical piece of dirt, and mugged for the cameras, shaking the South Korean President’s hand. You’ll notice they also stepped right back across that line to Kim’s side to chat. He’s shutting down a nuclear testing site that he can’t test on anymore, and doesn’t really need now that he has nukes anyway. And he released three American citizens that weren’t exactly creating an international crisis at the moment.
And for this shit, Kim is now the greatest statesman since Benjamin Disraeli? Kim has two objectives, to ease sanctions, and to separate South Korea from the US. You’ll notice that his summit with South Korea snubbed the US, and they spoke only of reconciliation of the North and South, a purely internal matter. And South Korea is going to be noticeably absent from Trump’s Singapore Palaver with the only human still wearing a Nehru jacket. Kim had previously stated that he understood that US forces would remain in South Korea, even after reconciliation, and that there would be joint military exercises. And now he’s pitching a snit, and for one reason only.
Because, being a “fucking moron,” Trump has tipped his hand. In his feeble, deluded mind, Trump has already signed the historic “peace deal” with North Korea, and he’s daydreaming about it aloud. Trump is already dusting off a spot in his trophy case, empty except for the Tim Tebo autographed helmet his charity bought for him, for his Nobel Peace Prize. And Kim Jong Un knows it.
Kim knows that Trump has hitched his horse to Kim’s wagon. And if Trump wants the chance to bathe in Kim’s dumpy glory, he’s going to make him grovel for it. There are two ways that this can go from here. The US can take the normal, expected hard line, announce that they are cancelling the Singapore summit until North Korea comes to it’s senses and stops being a party pooper. Or, Trump can make sympathetic noises of understanding, promising that such exercises can be on the table at the upcoming summit, and cutting South Korea off at the knees. Kim is betting that Trump is shallow and craven enough to sell out the South Koreans for a photo op, and personally, I’m putting my money down right next to his.
The next week is going to graphically show whether or not the sitting President of the United States is so blindingly fucking stupid that he’ll fall for a trick so old that he bragged about using it in his own book. It will also show whether or not there is one, single person in this administration that is willing to “speak truth to power,” and to drag Trump, kicking and screaming, away from the edge of throwing the entire Pacific Rim into political and possibly military chaos. I’m afraid I already know how this is going to go down, and it ain’t going to as smooth as a sip of Jack.
