President Trump is as expected getting bashed for pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal with claims that it will impact his ability to negotiate with Kim Jong-un:
President Donald Trump announces Iran nuclear deal withdrawal. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal is a major setback to US negotiating credibility and will complicate efforts to reach an agreement with Pyongyang over its own more advanced weapons programme, analysts say.
Trump is set to hold a much-anticipated and unprecedented summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the coming weeks to negotiate over Pyongyang’s arsenal, after it last year carried out by far its most powerful nuclear test to date and launched missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.
But the US president Tuesday pulled Washington out of the 2015 accord with Teheran, pouring scorn on the “disastrous” agreement and describing it an “embarrassment” to the United States ― although European signatories and the IAEA say Iran has complied with its obligations.
Antony Blinken, who was deputy secretary of state under Barack Obama, said the White House move “makes getting to yes with North Korea that much more challenging”.
“Why would Kim … believe any commitments President Trump makes when he arbitrarily tears up an agreement with which the other party is complying?” he asked on Twitter. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but it can be argued that if the Obama administration thought the Iran nuclear deal was so great why did they not try and lobby the Senate to consent to the treaty as the Constitution requires? Consent from the Senate would have made it much harder for the President to withdraw from the treaty. This is what I will be looking for if President Trump is able to strike a deal with the North Koreans; will he try to get consent from the Senate?
As far as impacts to negotiating with Kim Jong-un, I think it is arguable that Trump is sending a message that North Korea will need to agree to denuclearize or there will not be a deal.
Even the North Koreans have decided to join in and bash the US for announcing that the US embassy would be moved to Jerusalem:
North Korea has lambasted US President Donald Trump for recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, renewing its description of him as a “dotard” in a statement released Saturday on state media.
Trump and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un have traded threats of war and personal insults in recent months as tensions remain high over the North’s missile and nuclear threats.
Now the hermit state has joined near-universal condemnation of the US president’s decision on Jerusalem, calling it a “reckless, wicked act”.
“Considering the fact that the mentally deranged dotard openly called for a total destruction of a sovereign state at the UN, this action is not so surprising”, a foreign ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the state-run KCNA news agency.
“But this move clearly shows to the whole world who is the destroyer of world peace and security, pariah and rogue in the international community”, he said, using epithets usually reserved for the North. [AFP]
You can read more at the link, but last I checked President Trump was not the one causing violence in the Middle East instead Palestinian rioters were.
The former commander of 2ID who became famous for leading the military response to Hurricane Katrina is now making the rounds in the media with his critical comments about the federal response to Hurricane Harvey:
Former Joint Task Force Katrina Commander Russel Honore said Wednesday the military’s rescue efforts in states affected by Hurricane Harvey resembles “amateur hour” because the federal government lacks a strategy for how to respond to large-scale natural disasters.
“The American people have put too much confidence in us,” Honore told CNN host Erin Burnett. “We have been too successful overseas to come out in amateur hour and incrementally deploy the force.”
The retired Army lieutenant general said the federal government should have “come in big” and arrived at the “edge of the storm” so that rescue efforts could begin immediately after it passes.
“We don’t have 100 helicopters here as of last night,” said Honore, who handled the response in New Orleans to Hurricane Katrina 12 years ago.
Despite an extensive study by the Army Corps of Engineers on how to handle these types of disasters, Honore said the government has left it to the states to create and carry out their own responses.
“The problem is we have 50 different solutions,” Honore added. “The federal government took their hand off it and went off to fight terrorism — and each time we have a Sandy or Harvey, the solution is different … It’s cooked up locally by the state.” [Washington Examiner]
All the Internet has been talking about is the man that was physically pulled off of a United Airlines flight in Chicago. It has been revealed the man’ name is David Dao and he is an internal medicine doctor in Kentucky:
The passenger who was dragged from an United Airlines flight is 69-year-old grandfather Dr David Dao.
Footage of the Vietnamese-American being hauled off the overbooked flight at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Sunday caused outrage on Monday.
Dr Dao was heard in videos captured of his shocking eviction saying he needed to get home to Louisville so he could see patients.
DailyMail.com can reveal Dr Dao is a father of five and a grandfather, who specializes in internal medicine. Four of his five children are doctors. [Daily Mail]
You can read more at the link, but if you haven’t seen the video yet here it is:
It seems a lot of people are directing their anger towards United Airlines for overbooking the flight without understanding that overbooking is standard policy in the airline industry. It has only happened to me once many years ago when flying American Airlines. It happened in the terminal and not on the plane which I can understand would make Mr. Dao more upset. However, I have seen overbooked flights have people removed while sitting in the plane as well and never have I seen anyone resist getting off the plane.
As upset as I am sure Mr. Dao was, he should not have become non-compliant with the United staff. Regardless Mr. Dao should have never been beaten by the Aviation Security Officers either. The guy that slammed Mr. Dao face into the arm rest to get him removed from the plane should find another line of work. However, before resorting to police to remove a non-compliant passenger the airline should have increased the compensation to get someone to volunteer. I would be surprised if the airline offered $2,000 and a hotel stay that someone would not have volunteered to get off of the flight. It seems that would be better business than the PR nightmare United is facing today.
This is why I fly Korean Air or Asiana Airlines when flying to and from Korea. I cannot imagine Korean Air or Asiana resorting to force to remove an overbooked passenger. However, with a domestic US airline something like this does not surprise me at all.
It sounds like Duterte may be trying to bring his country more closely into the orbits of Russia and China in a bid to keep control over their contested South China Sea islands:
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday he won’t allow government forces to conduct joint patrols of disputed waters near the South China Sea with foreign powers, apparently scrapping a deal his predecessor reached with the U.S. military earlier this year.
Duterte also said he was considering acquiring defense equipment from Russia and China. The Philippines has traditionally leaned on the U.S., its longtime treaty ally, and other Western allies for its security needs.
The remarks were the latest from a Philippine president who has had an uneasy relationship with the U.S. but also has tried to mend relations with China strained over South China Sea disputes.
Duterte said he wanted only Philippine territorial waters, up to 12 nautical miles offshore, to be patrolled by Filipino forces, but not other offshore areas that are contested. He added he opposes Filipino forces accompanying foreign powers like the U.S. and China in joint patrols which could entangle the Philippines in hostilities. [Associated Press]
Below is an excerpt from a much longer article that details what fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has been up to while in exile in Russia:
More than three years after fleeing the United States with a massive cache of top-secret documents, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden remains a federal fugitive, living in Moscow courtesy of President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
But Snowden — who is the subject of a new Oliver Stone biopic that hits movie theaters next month — is making the most of his exile: Over the past year, he has collected over $200,000 in fees for digital speaking appearances that have been arranged by one of the country’s elite speakers bureaus, according to a source close to Snowden who is intimately familiar with his business affairs. At least three of these paid speeches were hosted by public American universities, and documents obtained by Yahoo News highlight various concerns raised by college officials about paying Snowden.
The former intelligence analyst uses video chat technology to address audiences around the globe: In the last five months, a larger-than-life Snowden has appeared on giant screens to a sold-out audience at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, northern Europe’s largest music festival, a symposium on surveillance and civil rights in Tokyo, and Comic-Con in San Diego. In all of these cases, as with most of his appearances, sympathetic crowds greeted him with thunderous applause and praise for his decision to leak classified documents to journalists about U.S. surveillance programs.
“Arguing you don’t care about privacy because you’ve got nothing to hide is no different than saying that you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say,” Snowden, using one of his classic lines, last month told the Roskilde Festivalin Denmark. After the crowd — reportedly Snowden’s largest ever — sang “Happy Birthday,” the 33-year-old said: “Everyone, thank you. Really. You guys staying with me… is overwhelming. But this is not about me. This is about us.” (………)
At this point, more than three years and many revelations later, Snowden’s backers are aiming at a full pardon. According to Wizner, they are creating a new nonprofit organization that will promote the cause starting this fall, after the Stone movie is released on Sept. 16. Among the advisers to the campaign, he said, is veteran liberal public relations executive David Fenton. [Yahoo News]
You can read more at the link, but you would think the federal government would ban US institutions from paying a wanted fugitive large speaking fees? As far as the pardon I just can’t see President Obama allowing something like that to define his legacy once he leaves office.
Yesterday’s terrorist attack in France is an example of the type of attack these ISIS terrorists could attempt in South Korea with the massive crowds that gather for events in places like Seoul.
The French Embassy in Seoul raises the national flag at half-staff on July 15, 2016, to pay tribute to victims of a deadly terrorist attack which killed at least 80 people and wounded dozens of others in the southern French city of Nice the previous day. (Yonhap)
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