Category: Politics-US

Who knows how accurate this comment is, but it is of course making the rounds as a headline:

Inevitably, the book includes disturbing new detail about Trump’s subservience to Russian President Vladimir Putin. During an Oval Office briefing in July 2017, Trump refused to believe U.S. intelligence reports that North Korea had test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile — a test that Kim Jong Un had called a Fourth of July “gift” to “the arrogant Americans.”
Trump dismissed the missile launch as a “hoax,” McCabe writes. “He thought that North Korea did not have the capability to launch such missiles. He said he knew this because Vladimir Putin had told him so.”

Washington Post

You can read more at the link.

Only Bob Mueller can save Korea now. https://t.co/c3Wtg3I9It

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) February 9, 2019

Trading away our national security & that of our allies for a short-term political advantage. Which it is, because Pyongyang isn't disarming. https://t.co/YYEj7uqPwL

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) October 7, 2018

Via a reader tip comes news that Senator Diane Feinstein had a driver that worked for her for nearly 20 years that was a Chinese spy:

A staffer in U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s San Francisco office was fired a few years back after being linked to Chinese spying in the Bay Area.

According to a Politico Magazine story on Silicon Valley espionage, the Feinstein staffer was suspected of providing political intelligence — but nothing classified — to his handlers, with one former intelligence official telling author Zach Dorfman that the suspected informant was “run” by officials based at the local Chinese Consulate.

A local source who knew about the incident confirmed to us that the FBI showed up at Feinstein’s office in Washington, D.C., about five years ago to alert the then-chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee that her driver was being investigated for possible Chinese spying.

“Dianne was mortified,” said our source, who spoke to us only on condition he not be named.

Besides driving her around when she was in California, the staffer also served as gofer in her San Francisco office and as a liaison to the Asian American community, even attending Chinese Consulate functions for the senator.  [SF Chronicle]

You can read more at the link, but the US media has definitely done a good job keeping this quiet.  However, it has now come out and of course President Trump has jumped on this news since Senator Feinstein is a leading Democrat involved in investigating Trump over Russian spying.

I would not be surprised if there is more to this story then what is being reported:

The U.S. government deported a Mexican woman on Friday who had lived in the country illegally for nearly two decades despite efforts by lawmakers to keep her in Florida with her husband, a Marine Corps veteran, and her two American children.

Alejandra Juarez, 38, was joined by her family and her congressman, Darren Soto, at Orlando International Airport for tearful farewells before her flight back to Mexico.

Juarez sought to illegally enter the United States in 1998 and was ordered to be removed, precluding her future chances at getting a visa or becoming a citizen, according to Soto and media interviews Juarez has given.

She illegally re-entered the country in 2000, the same year she married Temo Juarez, a Mexico native who went on to serve in the war in Iraq with the U.S. Marines and is now a naturalized U.S. citizen.

After being discovered in the country during a 2013 traffic stop, she had been required to check in every six months with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.  [Reuters]

You can read the rest at the link if you want to read all the anti-Trump stuff even though her deportation process began under the Obama administration.

I feel bad for the kids, but their parents had nearly 20 years to work on her immigration status which leads me to believe there is more to this story.  With that said should illegal immigrant wives of US military servicemembers receive special immigration status?  That is basically the argument being made here.

Here is another example of no matter the subject Democrats will find a way to oppose President Trump:

A pair of Democratic senators on Wednesday introduced an amendment to the annual defense policy bill that would stop President Trump from withdrawing U.S. forces from South Korea without the Pentagon’s input.

The amendment “would help prevent the President from making a rash decision about troop reductions on the Korean Peninsula that negatively impacts our national security,” Sens. Tammy Duckworth (Ill.) and Chris Murphy (Conn.) said in a joint statement.

Introduced for the Fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the provision would stop a withdraw “unless the U.S. Secretary of Defense certifies it is in our national security interest and would not significantly undermine the security of our allies in the region.” [The Hill]

You can read more at the link.

I have to admit I cringed a little bit when I first saw this, but the follow on criticism has been over the top:

Newly released video footage from North Korean state media shows President Donald Trump returning a salute to a North Korean military general during this week’s summit in Singapore, an extraordinary display of respect from a US president to a top officer of a hostile regime.

In the military, returning a salute from a military officer of a friendly foreign nation is common practice for US military officers and considered a display of military professionalism. There is no rule that a US president is obliged to return a salute, which is considered a sign of mutual respect.

After Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walked down a colonnade to shake hands, the pair entered into a room filled with various members of Kim’s delegation, the video from North Korean broadcaster KCTV news shows.

Trump starts to shake hands with those in the room. Upon encountering North Korean Gen. No Kwang Chol, who was in full uniform, Trump first extends his hand, to which the general responds with a salute. Trump then salutes back, extends his hand again and the two men shake hands.  [CNN]

There’s no regulation that stipulates presidents must salute the troops. In fact, for the first 192 years of our republic, it didn’t happen. None of the first 38 commanders in chief did it. And some of those dudes had some serious military experience. Eisenhower? Grant? I mean, Teddy Roosevelt was a war hero. Surely he felt compelled to click his heels together and cut a perfect knife-handed salute when he passed a uniform service member, right? Wrong. It was literally something that Ronald Reagan made up one day.  [Task and Purpose]

A cursory check of photo archives shows that Obama on occasion returned a foreign official’s salute.  [Dallas Morning News]

A fan of President Trump’s decision to stop joint wargames against North Korea is Guam Governor Eddie Calvo:

Gov. Eddie Calvo met with President Donald Trump as the president made a pit stop at Andersen Air Force Base early Wednesday morning.

Trump was on his return trip from Singapore after a historic summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. (……)

“The war games are very expensive. We pay for a big majority of them. We fly in bombers from Guam,” Trump said after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jung Un.

“I said — when I first started, I said, ‘Where do the bombers come from?’  ‘Guam.  Nearby.’ I said, ‘Oh, great, nearby.  Where’s nearby?’  ‘Six and a half hours.’ Six and a half hours — that’s a long time for these big massive planes to be flying to South Korea to practice and then drop bombs all over the place, and then go back to Guam. I know a lot about airplanes; it’s very expensive. And I didn’t like it.”

Calvo said he supports Trump’s decision to halt bomber flights from Andersen. Calvo said the exercises were “threatening,” and put Guam in North Korea’s crosshairs.  [Guam PDN]

You can read more at the link, but Governor Calvo as was reported to have told Trump that the people of Guam breathed a “big sigh of relief” after the summit since the island has been repeatedly threatened over the years by North Korea for missile attacks.

It looks like President Trump is starting his own charm offensive before his summit with Kim Jong-un:

U.S. President Donald Trump praised North Korean leader Kim Jong-un Tuesday for being “very open” and “very honorable” ahead of their potential meeting in May or June.

Trump made the remark as he prepares to sit down with Kim to talk about the denuclearization of the regime.

“We are going to be having a meeting with Kim Jong-un, and that will be very soon,” Trump said at the start of talks with French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House. “We have been told directly that they would like to have the meeting as soon as possible and we think that’s a great thing for the world.”

The North Korean leader has expressed a commitment to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, and Trump has agreed to meet Kim in May or early June.

The two sides have been having “very good” discussions, Trump said. “Kim Jong-un — he really has been very open and, I think, very honorable from everything we’re seeing.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

The Trump administration may be sending a message to North Korea by sending a well respected US Navy admiral to possibly be the next US ambassador to South Korea instead of Australia as previously announced:

U.S. Navy Admiral Harry Harris, who was formerly nominated as ambassador to Australia, may be re-nominated as the ambassador to South Korea, according to media reports, Wednesday.

The U.S. and South Korean governments have not confirmed the nomination, but Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop noted the change, Wednesday, after being informed by U.S. Acting Secretary of State John Sullivan a day earlier, according to an AP report.

“While we would have welcomed Admiral Harris here as the ambassador to Australia, we understand that there are significant challenges for the United States on the Korean Peninsula,” she was quoted as saying.

U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Harris to be ambassador to Australia in February.

Harris, 61, reportedly planned to retire this year, but decided to take the post as ambassador to Australia based on his deep interest in bilateral relations between the countries. He is known to have less experience in dealing with South Korea.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.