Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

A few days back, after Trump removed an Inspector General for the State Department, it became public knowledge that (1) the Secretary of State had been giving a 23 year old aide personal tasks -- i.e. had him walking his dog and arranging dinner reservations (2) the inspector general had been looking at this, and (3) that august official, Mike Pompeo, told the President that he should fire the IG. It is of course temping to connect these dots....President Trump has not even bothered to discourage the connection. He has said that he would rather have the S of S working to resolve outstanding issues between the two Koreas rather than walking his dog. In how many ways is that wrong? I'll try to keep this short. First, I have no confidence that anybody involved in this administration has been or is likely to do any good with regard to Korea. I think it more likely that any time the S of S devotes to that purpose does harm than good. So, yes, I'd rather have him walking his...

As I noted yesterday, one of many matters that worry me when I put on my "geopolitical strategist" cap is that the passing of Kim will leave a power vacuum that the Kim family itself can not fill, and that there will be a grab for power by some of the officers in North Korea's military. A junta seeking to secure its power could well do desperate things, like (say for example) lob a nuclear missile in the direction of Seoul, or Tokyo, or (depending on how confident they are in their technology) Honolulu. By the way: that geopol strategists' cap? It is metaphorical, but if it were real it would probably look a lot like a traditional dunce's cap. I have no knowledge in these matters. But, on the specific questions that bother me, neither it seems does anyone else. Imagine this simple scenario. Junta fires missile in the direction of Hawaii. The missile, it transpires, is poorly made and falls harmlessly into the Pacific without detonating. Rather optimistic a n...

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/trumps-saturday-of-lies-president-says-official-who-briefed-reporters-doesnt-exist.html What does this mysterious hypothetical existent look like? If he existed, he would look a lot like the smiling fellow above. The Orange One's lies get more bizarre as his office and its trappings go to his discolored head. On May 26  The New York Times reported (accurately, the videotape backs them up on this) that senior White House official had said that there wasn't enough time to hold the North Korean summit on the originally scheduled date of June 12. Almost immediately, POTUS -- who seems to have convinced himself that his cancellation of that meeting is a matter of no consequence, that he is still making up his regal mind whether to attend the already-cancelled meeting -- tweeted that the Times was lying, that nobody said that, and in fact that the senior administration official in question "doesn't exist." This ...

Our President fancies himself the great dealmaker. In his head, he's gotten into a room with "little rocket man," whose "button" is so much smaller than his own, and talked him into nuclear disarmament and perhaps with a five year plan for dissolving the North as a country and recognizing the capital city of a unified peninsula as Seoul. I have zero expectations for the forthcoming meeting. In fact, I'm hoping for zero because there is a considerable possibility of a negative outcome. The great deal-maker, after all, has led his companies into repeated bankruptcies. That is the basis of the "business success" of which he brags -- using "the system" -- which means a system of laws designed to relieve debtors. But where is the bankruptcy court judge who is going to bail him out if he makes a mess of this?

Finishing up a thought of yesterday's. Though recent North Korean rocket launches have sent projectiles in the general direction of Japan, and though Japan is the "former colonial power," I very much doubt that there is any close connection between those two facts. Why? Because I ask myself, Where else could they have directed those missiles? Southward? Only when they're ready to resume the war paused more than 60 years ago. North? Siberia, a/k/a Russia. They wouldn't dare.   West? The People's Republic of China. Again, they wouldn't dare. They send the missiles over the open seas, even though that makes Japan nervous, because that is the only testing range they dare employ. Mystery solved. You're welcome.

North Korea has been lobbing missiles in the direction of Japan, as a deliberate act of provocation and bravado. Commentators on television can't mention this fact without at once saying "Japan is the country's former colonial overlord." And so it is, but I don't think the pertinent history has anything to do with the choice of missile-test target, or whatever 'this' is. Just so no one will say I ignored it, though, let's say a few words about that history, even though we're just taking this stuff from wikipedia. Korea was never colonized by one of the usual suspects, one of the western European powers one thinks of when the subject comes up. The Russo-Japanese War was fought at the start of the 20th century largely over the issue of in whose sphere of influence did Korea fall. The Japanese won. Not long thereafter, in 1910, the Japanese forced on the Koreans a Treaty of Annexation. This begins the period referenced when the news talkin...