Sunday Post

It's a hot one.

South Korean President Moon Jae-In, once a lawyer with the Pro-North Korean leftist group, Minbyun, and a supporter of former president, Roh Moo-Hyn's failed Sunshine policy and who blind-sided the US prior to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, secretly met with Kim Jong-Un (again) and now the talks appear to be back on - for now:

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Sunday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un committed in their surprise meeting to sitting down with President Donald Trump and to a "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

The Korean leaders' second summit in a month saw bear hugs and broad smiles, but their quickly arranged meeting Saturday appears to highlight a sense of urgency on both sides of the world's most heavily armed border.

At the White House, Trump said negotiations over a potential June 12 summit with Kim that he had earlier canceled were "going along very well." Trump told reporters that they are still considering Singapore as the venue for their talks. He said there is a "lot of good will," and that denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula would be "a great thing."

I believe that was promised before, Donald.


China (it should be obvious that it pulls Kim Jong-Un's strings) and Kim Jong-Un have decided to play the game a little differently. Instead of letting sanctions carry on for months before returning to the table, Kim allowed his rubber arm to be twisted by China and the leftist South Korean president and jerk Trump back and forth until either he tires of the entire process and walks away or takes a harder line and precipitates conflict.


Many on the left who have never given North Korea or its suffering masses a second thought are pleased to see that Trump has fallen for the same ruses previous administrations had while those on the right feel that Trump has Kim on the ropes.


Both are incredibly wrong.


Nothing coming from Asian communists can ever be trusted. Since 1949, communism has ravaged much of Asia and is still keeping ruling over its populations with iron fists. Xi has assumed total power over China and is extending his influence abroad. While South Korea was attempting to put a close to the Korean War, North Korea was waging cyber-attacks against its southern neighbour. None of that indicates a want for peace or a regime change that could bring about peace. Asking China to rein in North Korea is like asking partners-in-crime for their co-operation. Neither will turn on one another unless they have no choice. North Korea can always rely on China and Russia and China already has one Korea in the bag. Along with the military bases being set up in the South China Sea and no strong Asian power (save India) to stand in its way, China just needs to remove an American obstacle.

To assume that this time will be different is simply another way to maintain a crumbling status quo. For Trump to achieve what others have not, he has to treat each party, even South Korea, as someone who must earn his good will. Trump doesn't have to go to war with China. He just has to raise tariffs on Chinese products (or send some rather impressive looking war ships). He doesn't have to threaten North Korea. He just has to enforce existing sanctions and support dissident groups. He doesn't have to withdraw armed forces from South Korea. He just has to remove THAAD. That is what Trump can do to defend American interests in that region.


Also:

Former North Korean diplomat Thae Yong-ho told the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo in an interview published Friday that Kim regime leaders view Christianity as a true challenge to because “they know that Christianity would hamper the Kim family’s dynastic succession to power.”

He added an urgent plea to the South Korean Christian community to advocate for building churches in the North and fighting against religious persecution there, which is generally considered among the worst on the planet.

Christianity has always been a threat to any dictatorship. Supporting churches will only dilute the Kim regime's influence. Will Trump be on board with that?


(Kamasahamnida)




That's nice, Australia and the Netherlands, but how will you make Russia be accountable? :

A day after international prosecutors said they had unequivocal evidence of Russian involvement in the downing of a Malaysian passenger jet over Ukraine nearly four years ago, the Netherlands and Australia on Friday announced they were holding Moscow legally responsible for its role in the missile attack.

The move puts further strain on already tense relations between Russia and the West and opens a new legal front in the long-running process of apportioning blame for the July 17, 2014, missile strike that blew Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 out of the sky and killed all 298 people on board.

"State responsibility comes into play when states fail to uphold provisions of international law and that's clearly the case," Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told reporters in The Hague.

On Thursday, a Dutch-led international team of investigators said they had strong evidence that the Buk missile system that brought down the Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur flight came from a Russia-based military unit, the 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade based in the Russian city of Kursk. It was the most explicit link yet published by the investigators between Moscow and the downing of the flight known as MH17.

Rutte demanded that Moscow fully co-operate with the criminal probe.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop called for international support for the Dutch-Australian legal initiative.

"If military weapons can be deployed and then used to bring down civilian aircraft in what was essentially a war zone, then international security is at risk and we call on all countries to inform the Russian Federation that its conduct is unacceptable," she said.

Also -  Россиянине, улыбайтесь:

In light of Russia's near-pariah status in much of the Western world, many Russians are treating the 2018 World Cup soccer tournament as a chance to put a more welcoming face on their country.   

So in a classroom next to noisy train tracks in southern Moscow, language teacher Evgenia Zaborskaya is grilling about 20 Moscow transit staff on how to be polite and helpful — in English. 

"We want to attract more foreign tourists; it's good for our economy," Zaborskaya says as she leads the class through a discussion on how give out directions to popular sites such as Red Square.

Trump's tariffs would cripple the auto industry, claims group:

Donald Trump is considering imposing tariffs of up to 25 per cent on all vehicles imported into the United States — a decision being referred to as "the most outrageous trade action that's ever been taken by the Trump administration."

The Trump administration said Wednesday it had launched a national security investigation into car and truck imports that could lead to new U.S. tariffs similar to those recently imposed on imported steel and aluminum.

Bill Anderson, director of the Cross-Border Institute at the University of Windsor, describes the move as "very, very extreme."

"It would essentially shut down or cripple the industry. And, in this case, you're protecting American firms from themselves because most of the cars are being produced by American firms in Canada and in Mexico."

Too late:

“One stat I read is that 69 times since 2001, Windsor has had the highest national unemployment and we’ve seen that particularly because of the loss of jobs in the auto sector,” he said.

This isn’t about jobs going to Mexico. It’s about us losing jobs and manufacturing to nearby competitors — neighbouring states and other provinces, he said.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne promises to stanch a heavily bleeding and fatal economic wound if re-elected:

The Ontario Liberals promised new legislation on Saturday that would reduce the province's debt, saying they were presenting the only realistic financial plan between the three major parties.

HA!


Also - it's just money:

The budget deficit for last fiscal year should have been no more than $10 billion.

And next year, it should have been on the way to being balanced.

Of course, that would only have been the case if Justin Trudeau could keep his promises, and we’ve all seen that he can’t.

Instead, the budget deficit for 2017-2018 is projected to be $19.4 billion, adding even more to our growing national debt.

This was promised in 2015.

I am convinced that if one offered Canadians magic beans for the low, low price of an entire year's salary,  they would take them, plant them in their backyard and watch them not grow.




Jody Wilson-Raybould is a stupid b!#ch:

Wilson-Raybould put out a tweet of her own.

"Thank you, Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau, My thoughts are with the family of Colten Boushie tonight. I truly feel your pain and I hear all of your voices.

"As a country we can and must do better — I am committed to working everyday to ensure justice for all Canadians."

That message prompted a flurry of responses from Canadians to Wilson-Raybould's office. CBC News has obtained more than 500 pages of correspondence through the access to information law.

Almost all of those messages are negative in tone and content, with many writers angrily accusing the minister of undermining the judicial system.

"Your tweet 'feeling their pain' and commenting that 'our country can do better' is inappropriate and serves to undermine the difficult decisions that the jurors faced," wrote one person.

From the same man who refused to answer if the Liberal government would reverse its decision to remove FGM as an intolerable practice in an immigration guide:

As the illegal border crossing crisis continues, Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen was questioned for four hours by Opposition MPs.

In all that time, he refused to give any substantive answers as to how the Trudeau government will deal with the crisis.

As noted by the Globe & Mail, “The Immigration Minister is refusing to say whether the federal government will seek the power to automatically turn away thousands of refugee claimants who walk across the border under an asylum agreement with the United States.”

When Conservative Immigration Critic Michelle Rempel asked whether Hussen would take action by declaring the entire border an official point of entry – a common sense proposal which would deal with the loophole letting people enter illegally – Hussen said “Transforming the whole border into a port of entry would be impractical in terms of providing border and immigration services along its entire length, which is 9,000 kilometres.”

Do note that the member of Parliament for the riding of York-South Weston refused, as he has done before, to answer a straight-forward question.