Winston Churchill echo about the arms race *danger*

As Winston Churchill* (1874-1965) warned, if we ramp up the arms race, we'll just "make the rubble bounce." ~ an echo** from The Dallas Morning News editorial:

The stakes are even higher today because so many countries have nuclear weapons - and they could set the world on fire. This moment calls for a strong, but nuanced and strategic policy, not incendiary bluster. (Attention, you-know-who).

In Europe, there's increased talk of a European Union nuclear weapons program that would refocus France's arsenal to protect the rest of Europe and operate under a common European command. Supposedly this plan would be enacted only if the Continent could no longer count on American protection.

Therein lies the problem. The world is rapidly moving away from reducing nukes toward adding nukes, an escalation in Europe's military power and a break with American leadership. This is one of the consequences of Europe's insecurity about the White House's relationship with Russia and Russia's more aggressive policies.

Similar angst is being stirred in Asia, where Kim Jong-un has forced the proliferation issue like a teen-ager playing "chicken" by firing four ballistic missiles toward Japan. 

To counter the continuing recklessnessby Kim Jong-un, the U.S. is in the process of sharing its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense - known as THAAD - with South Korea, which is most immediately at risk.

Both China and Russia have yelped loudly in protest - they complain the THAAD radar might allow us to peep into their military activity. But the U.S. already has that capability in other radar systems and has every right to defend itself.

At the same time, Russia has escalated stakes in the region by launching a cruise missile in violation of the 1987 INF treaty.

The U.S. is being tested on multiple fronts. President Trump's statements have been divergent: He is on record saying, "Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all." He also talked of reaching a new arms agreement with Moscow that would reduce arms "very substantially."

A show of strength is warranted, but it's good to keep in mind the American arsenal is as much about reassuring allies as deterring enemies. Reassurance is about credible commitments backstopped by steady leadership. Both are now in question.

Projecting an image of sobriety and resolve must be at the core of our statecraft. We might not convince Russia and China of our best intentions, but we do have allies who want to be reassured.

And Trump should let his friends in Russia know - preferably by high-level talks rather than tweets - that we will make sure NATO's deterrence forces are well-prepared with the latest technology to counter a first-strike from Russia.

An arms race is hard to stop, but U.S. policy shouldn't speed it up.

*Winston Churchill- British statesman, army officer and writer, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955.

**MaineWriter "echo"- opinions published and re-blogged, found in randomly selected newspapers

Donald Trump- if he didn't have bad luck, he'd have no luck at all

Americas won't know if Donald Trump is the multi-millionaire or financial mogul he pretends to be, because only a few people have access to his tax returns to either prove or disprove his claims about wealth.  What we know about Trump's finances are what's publicly reported in the list of bankruptcies, foreclosures, lawsuits, multiple divorce settlements and unpaid contracts.

Obviously, the list of bad luck financial information has followed him into the White House. Perhaps, Trump had justifiable reason to believe that his leadership as president would exempt him from the onslaught of lawsuits he faced as a failed financier; but, his time in Executive Leadership reads like a saga from the saga, Rhyme (Rime) of the Ancient Mariner.  

It's like Trump has a tarnished albatross around his neck. 
His short time in the role as president has been faced with continuous challenges, through which Trump has been unable to negotiate- like the ship, left to drift, as described in "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner"- and the albatross is his omen:
by, 

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

'I fear thee, ancient Mariner! 

I fear thy skinny hand! 

And thou art long, and lank, and brown, 

As is the ribbed sea-sand. 

And the coming wind did roar more loud, 

And the sails did sigh like sedge, 

And rain poured down from one black cloud; 

The Moon was at its edge. 

Here is a short list of Donald Trump's "albatross"- bad luck leadership challenges:

1.  Lost the election's popular vote: Calls into question the validity of the Electoral College because it undermined the value of one person-one vote.

2.  "Russia if you're listening", the fact is, yes they were listening. Russia's invasion of the 2016 election is undeniable.  Coupled with the loss of the popular vote, the Russia connection to the 2016 election outcome calls into question whether or not Donald Trump's leadership is legitimate.

3.  During his first months in office, Donald Trump has hired and fired everybody who was supposed to be his "advisers", except for his personal family members. He hired Lt.Gen.Flynn, to be his National Security Adviser, but he fired him within days of taking office, because he was compromised by the Russians and had been paid to work for Turkey's government. Following Flynn's departure, there was a list of others who took their positions in the White House as some sort of platform for creating a dogmatic right wing administration.

4.  Russia, Russia, Russia...infiltration of the US government.- Putin's revenge for Russia losing the Cold War.

5.  Then, there was the unnecessary firing of the FBI Director James Comey.

6.  Hiring of a special prosecutor Robert Mueller to focus on the Russian invasion of the 2016 presidential election.

7.  Inability to create national health care reform.

8.  Hurricane devastation in Texas, Gulf Coast, Key West Florida, American   Virgin Islands and the devastation of Puerto Rico by a direct hit, by Maria.

9.  Mass casualty gun violence in Las Vegas, Nevada- 59 dead and over 500   reported injured by preventable "lone wolf" violence.

10. Kim Jong-un threatens nuclear war.

'God save thee, ancient Mariner! (aka "Donald Trump")

From the fiends, that plague thee thus!— 

In fact, if Donald Trump didn't have bad luck, he wouldn't have any luck at all.

Unfortunately, America is now sucked into a bad luck vortex and we feel adrift, looking for a sail of hope to save us, on the horizon.

Secretary Rex Tillerson is being undermined by his boss

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson should not be criticized by Donald Trump, especially during delicate North Korean negotiations

It's doubtful that the US Secretary of State Tillerson's career has been challenged by many among his wealthy executive corporate peers. Otherwise, Tillerson's success as an oil company executive and energy tycoon would've been undermined by his opponents, a long time ago. In other words, Mr. Tillerson is seldom challenged for exercising his expertise.

Consequently, it makes no sense, whatsoever, for Donald Trump to criticize Secretary Tillerson for negotiating through back door diplomatic channels, to prevent a nuclear war with North Korea. Instead, Secretary Tillerson must be supported for his efforts to save the earth from experiencing a nuclear war with North Korea.

Frankly, somebody must be an adult at this dangerous *brinkmanship* negotiating table. 

Obviously, (at least, in my humble opinion) Secretary Rex Tillerson is far more capable of exercising mature behavior than are the two key international leaders, who are fooling around with the future of the planet. 

In fact, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump are incapable of creating peace. They're driving our two nations closer to the proverbial edge of begin a devastating nuclear war.

Nevertheless, Donald Trump is posting critical Tweets: NYTimes

Trump Says Tillerson Is ‘Wasting His Time’ on North Korea

Although I'm not particularly a fan of Secretary of State Tillerson, because he has very little high level diplomatic negotiating experience, the fact is, he is entitled to do his job without public criticism from the even less experienced Donald J. Trump.

Nevertheless, the problem is, when will the Donald Trump voters going to figure out how dangerously incompetent Donald J Trump is, before it's too late to save our planet from the holocaust of a nuclear war?

(Under the title of "what kind of an idiot would do this?!)....DonaldTrump:

A day after his secretary of state said the US had direct lines of communication to North Korea and was “probing” to find ways to resolve escalating nuclear tension between the two countries, Donald Trump tweeted that his top diplomat should “save his energy” as “we’ll do what has to be done!”

"...he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with 'Little Rocket Man'", Donald Trump wrote, from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, using the (immature) nickname he adopted for North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Un.

Having Donald Trump undermining the US Secretary of State is another terrible example of his inability to rise to the intellectual level needed by a political leader to resolve problems. Donald Trump continues to demonstrate stupidity. Nevertheless, those who are supposed to be advising him don't appear prepared to challenge his authority. Perhaps, Secretary of State Tillerson can show some integrity and tell Donald Trump to keep his mouth shut, especially when it comes to challenging Kim Jong-un in North Korea.  

How's all that "fire and fury" working out?

No 'fire and fury' as Trump team talks North Korea with Congress

There's a lot more "fire and fury" in the 2017 dangerous hurricane season than in the anticipated US response to North Korea's potential deployment of nuclear weapons, via a missile attack.

North Korea's President Kim Jong-un, continues to threaten aggression. Apparently, he isn't deterred and has not responded to the proposed reciprocity laid out by Donald Trump, who described the US reaction as being "fire and fury".

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson seems intent to keep his diplomatic cool, in the face of North Korean military aggression.

Donald Trump obviously needs a mentor to help him respond to the evil threats of Kim Jong-un, who demonstrates an obsession for launching a nuclear weapon. My suggestion? Check out the stoic attitude of his Trump's idol, Vladimir Putin. Although I have no use for Russia's President Putin, because he's a 100 percent Cold War veteran who served in the clandestine KGB, the fact is, he knows how to respond to an international crises.  Putin has no flair for bellicose rhetoric.  Rather, his style is to be cool, albeit knowing how his brain is calculating a strategy to design winning moves.

Thankfully, Donald Trump's advisers are more "Putin-esque" in their response to North Korea's danger, than is their "bellicose" boss. 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s top national security advisers stressed efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the North Korea crisis to Congress on Wednesday, staying far from Trump’s tough talk of potential “fire and fury” military responses to Pyongyang’s missile program.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford held classified briefings on North Korea and Afghanistan for the entire House of Representatives and Senate.

Lawmakers said the officials discussed efforts including consultations with allies, sanctions, pushing for action at the United Nations and military options.

But they said the briefings’ tone was sharply different from some of Trump’s recent public statements. After recent missile launches and nuclear tests by North Korea, the president has vowed to stop the weapons program and said he would unleash “fire and fury” if Pyongyang threatened U.S. territory. (MaineWriter: HELLO?- how many threats does it take to constitute a "threat to US territory"?)

Mattis also warned of a “massive” military response if the United States or its allies were threatened.

“Each of them was very professional, very measured in what they were saying, and understand the stakes that are in play here. So there’s nothing over-the-top, no over-the-top rhetoric, just a layout of where they are in trying to deal with this issue,” Senator Bob Corker, Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters.

Representative Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said after the briefing it was clear that the administration would like to negotiate an agreement with North Korea. “There was really no bluster whatsoever,” Engel said.

Members of Congress from both parties called for stricter sanctions against North Korea, and said the United States should seek to work closely with allies like South Korea, push China to do more and see action at the United Nations.
“The best strategy would be deploying sanctions... sustained financial pressure in which we do not let up on those financial institutions that are assisting North Korea,” said Republican Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House committee, who just returned from a trip to South Korea.

Republican Representative Mac Thornberry, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said there had been more members of the House at the briefing than he could remember at similar sessions.

“There was a tremendous amount of interest,” he said.

Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Lisa Shumaker

MaineWriter- Diplomacy may be a temporary band-aid to bridge North Korea's aggression, while diplomats attempt to bring the rogue nuclear nation to the peace table. Nevertheless, the fact is, when Donald Trump jumped to a "fire and fury" response, to threaten Kim Jong-un, it was a hallow and bellicose response that failed to deter North Korean aggression.

Trump Immaturity - more Foreign Policy evidence

"...China is not a subcontractor on a construction project, and it has means at its disposal to apply its own pressure on the new US administration."  

Christopher Hill in Project Syndicate: World Affairs.

Christopher R. Hill, former US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia, was US Ambassador to Iraq, South Korea, Macedonia, and Poland, a US special envoy for Kosovo, a negotiator of the Dayton Peace Accords, and the chief US negotiator with North Korea from 2005-2009.

In all honesty, Donald Trump is the dangerous example of a man who got what he wished for and "now what?" Being elected president (by a minority of voters) is not a "genie" joke and he can't go back inside his prophetic bottle on the Florida beach at Mar-a-Lago. Christohper Hill writes about Donald Trump and North Korea in an essay for World Affairs. 

Here's my abstract about what he wrote:
Obviously, MaineWriter isn't an expert on international diplomacy. Yet, I know enough to realize my inadequacies. Nevertheless, I have opinions, just like Donald Trump.  He and I share equal opinions because his are probably as informed as mine- since he is easily bored and doesn't like to sit through intelligence briefings. 

Of course, that's the problem.  I'm allowed to contemplate my opinions or modify them over time. On the other hand, Donald Trump cannot govern international affairs from just taking seriously his own opinion.

Can Trump Manage North Korea? By Christopher Hill

DENVER, CO – US President Donald Trump’s administration, like many before it, has had a rocky start; but the most pressing challenges are yet to come. 

Among them will be North Korea, whose leader, Kim Jong-un, used his New Year’s Day address to announce that his country has built – and is prepared to test – an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Trump, who was still the president-elect at the time, sprang into action, tweeting, “It won’t happen!” One can only imagine how the North Korean government might have interpreted this statement. Trump may have been issuing a threat and establishing an official red line through his favorite means of communication; he also might merely have been making a prediction, and betting against North Korea’s technical prowess. Or maybe he just wants to keep everyone guessing about what he will do.

Whatever his motivation, Trump has now inherited the perennial North Korea problem – a recurring global crisis that has been on every US president’s list of foreign-policy concerns since the 1980s. But this time, the threat is real: during Trump’s watch, North Korea could very well obtain the means to strike the United States with a weapon of mass destruction.

The North Korean government is not so much interested in testing the new US president as it is in testing nuclear devices and missiles. As its weapons program lumbers forward, it has made little effort to hide its periodic failures, marking a departure from past practices. Speculation about North Korea’s motives for pursuing nuclear weapons is as old as the effort itself. But while it would be useful to know North Korea’s true objective – regime survival, global prestige, self-defense, and regional hegemony are the most frequent explanations – it ultimately doesn’t really matter.

There are no good options for addressing the problem; and yet Trump cannot simply ignore it, or outsource it to China, as he suggested doing during the presidential campaign. An effective strategy requires that all forms of US power be deployed, especially diplomacy and cooperation with China.

Beyond North Korea, Trump has also inherited difficult challenges elsewhere in East Asia. China has continued to take a hard line on its territorial claims in the South China Sea, which means that the US will have to remain vigilant to ensure safe access to the region’s vital shipping lanes. 

Meanwhile, South Korea has been mired in a corruption scandal that culminated in the impeachment of its president, Park Geun-hye. A presidential election could be held as early as May, but there is considerable uncertainty ahead. And while Japan’s relationship with South Korea has improved in recent years, that might change as the latter’s political situation evolves.

For Trump, any strategy to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear program against this complicated backdrop should include some obvious, but crucial, elements. 

For starters, the US must maintain strong ties with its two regional allies – Japan and South Korea. The new administration will have to be smart about pursuing other goals, such as trade and military cooperation, with these countries. Both tend to be extremely sensitive to changes in public opinion, and the US must take care not to arouse grievances over secondary issues, especially during what could be a turbulent year in South Korea.

Of course, the difficulty of managing these two alliances pales in comparison to managing the relationship with China. For China, the North Korea problem cannot be reduced to concerns about regime collapse and a resulting wave of refugees. Chinese officials’ opinions about North Korea vary, and they are not all favorable; but an important one holds that North Korea’s demise could affect China’s core interests, if changes on the Korean Peninsula – such as South Korea’s emergence as a successor state – are seen as putting China at a disadvantage vis-à-vis the US.

After the US election, Trump and his advisers appeared to have concluded that the best way to upend China’s strategic position was to subject all past conventions, including the “One China” policy, to reexamination. The thinking behind this approach is that China will ultimately make concessions to regain its prized status as the only Chinese government that the US will recognize.

But, to use Trump’s phrase, (ie, in Trump's opinion)“It won’t happen.” China is not a subcontractor on a construction project, and it has means at its disposal to apply its own pressure on the new US administration. Raising issues that have long been resolved is not conducive to bilateral cooperation, and will only exacerbate the growing strategic mistrust between China and the US.

Governance is about setting priorities, and US foreign policy toward China has too often sought a broad array of goals, without stopping to ask if some objectives might be more important than others. For example, will major trade concessions from China really do more to advance US interests than nullifying the North Korean threat? It is now incumbent upon the Trump administration to make a clear-minded assessment of US interests in the region, and to prioritize its policies accordingly. (MaineWriter: In other words, don't assume a Trump opinion is a solution!) One can only hope that Trump can focus on the North Korean nuclear threat, which is very real – because it could become acute (OMG!) sooner than anyone expects. 

(MaineWriter:  Kim Jong-un just had his own half brother poisoned in Malaysia- probably in an act of jealous sibling rage. Could this revenge be a harbinger of what the crazy despot wants to do to the world? And how will Donald Trump respond? In my opinion, it's doubtful that Kim Jong-un cares to learn how to use Twitter.) Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un share a particular kind of immaturity, meaning, they both seem to believe in their opinions as being omnipotent.

An Axis of Evil Refresher - North Korea is still in the trio

It was President George W. Bush (43) who created the "Axis of Evil", label by trying to awaken Americans to the dangers posed by the triumverate nations and their leaders in Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Since Bush identified this trio, Iraq has been invaded and is re-occupied by some US troops and Iran has become a lukewarm ally. Therefore, the Evil Axis trio must be refreshed. Tragically, the triumvirate today is even worse than the trio Bush described.

Kim Jong-un is the epitomy of the Axis of evil, using sheer terror to rule like a diabolic maniac over North Korea

Kim Jong-un was born January 8, 1983- (his death is to be determined).

Today's Axis of evil is led by Kim Jong-un, the lunatic president of North Korea. He's a monster of an man who is has become as close to being a weirwolf as any human has ever known. 

President al-Assad is the second angle in the evil triangle.

Assad was born September 11, 1965- (his death is to be determined)

North Korea's bizzare leader rules by using sheer terror over his own people. Equalled with the weirwolf is Bashar al-Assad, the evil president of Syria. This diabolic man has caused tens of thousands of Syrians to flee their homes because of the carnage, death and destruction Assad showered on his own people, without justifiable reason. 

Completing the Axis triangle is Vladimir Putin, who is president and perhaps the newest Czar of Russia. There's little doubt about Putin's ambitions to somehow rule the world according to him. In my opinion, if Putin's Russia had the money to do it, he would sign Kim Jong-un and al-Asssad to a blood pact to conspire for world dominance. He'd bribe both of them until he didn't need them anymore in which case they would likely be fed tea tainted with plutonium.

Vladimir Putin is the king-pin of the Axis of Evil. If Russia's currency could sustain his evil ambitions, it's likely Putin would engage in even more international agression.

Putin was born on October 7, 1952- (his death is yet to be determined)

Probably, the curret low cost of world oil is further tanking the worthless Russian ruble (just like it's hitting hard at the stock market). 

Possibly, if the long term purpose of the world's current oil glut is to take down Russia's economy, then the sacrifices made by small Wall Street investors might be the price we all pay to pull the rug out from Putin's evil expansionist ambitions.

Syrian humanitarian genocide by Assad over his own people is now estimated to have taken 470,000 lives or 11.5 percent of the nation's people.  The Guardian reports from the Syrian Centre for Policy Research, that human development in Syria has been ruined after 45% of the nation's population has been displaced.

Syria’s national wealth, infrastructure and institutions have been “almost obliterated” by the “catastrophic impact” of nearly five years of conflict, a new report has found. Fatalities caused by war, directly and indirectly, amount to 470,000, according to the Syrian Centre for Policy Research (SCPR) – a far higher total than the figure of 250,000 used by the United Nations until it stopped collecting statistics 18 months ago.

In all, 11.5% of the country’s population have been killed or injured since the crisis erupted in March 2011, the report estimates. The number of wounded is put at 1.9 million. Life expectancy has dropped from 70 in 2010 to 55.4 in 2015. Overall economic losses are estimated at $255bn (£175bn).

A devastating and stark account of the Syria's war’s toll came as warnings multiplied about Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, is in danger of being cut off by a government advance aided by Russian airstrikes and Iranian militiamen. The Syrian opposition is demanding urgent action to relieve the suffering of tens of thousands of civilians.

The International Red Cross said on Wednesday that 50,000 people had fled the upsurge in fighting in the north, requiring urgent deliveries of food and water. Obviously, Russia is supporting Assad under the cover of providing relief for the Syrian people but the alternative motive is to control the outcome of the war. This humanitarian carnage won't likely be resolved in any of our lifetimes, because generations of misplaced and murdered people will eventually have their horror stories revealed with demands for justified reparations.

Kim Jung-up in North Korea is causing his own unimaginable carnage. In fact, rumors of a coup by the North Korean army against Jung-un was reported, especially since a senior North Korean military leader was executed for "factionalism, misuse of authority and corruption," reports CNN, from a South Korean government official with knowledge of North Korean affairs.

The official, who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity, declined to give further details on how or when General Ri Yong-gil, chief of the North Korean Army's general staff, was executed.

What does this Axis of Evil mean for Americans? Well, to me it looks like the future of civilization as we know it is at a crossroad.

Therefore, as the US Presidential 2016, campaign advances, it seems like Americans are "whistling past the graveyard", trying to remain aloof, by ignoring the "Axis of Evil" refresher.  

A World at Odds with Vladimir Putin

Russian President Putin is a self appointed czar without a crown. Nevertheless, even his bona fide royal predecessors couldn't imagine the ambitious agenda the Russian Czar-dictator has established. In spite of the civilized world's resistance to his power grabbing and serial killing of political opponents, Czar Putin is planning an invasion of the Ukraine while continuing to prop up the evil Assad regime in Syria. 

All the while, the Russian ruble is junk currency. Worse, Putin has prevented his citizens from learning about military deaths because, he says, the information is a matter of national security. In other words, when a Russian mother says farewell to a child who joins the country's military, she may never hear from her offspring again.

Internally, Russia has to be in a state of turmoil. Oligarths (people with tons of money) have left the country to find residence in other nations. Opposition leaders are being serially murdered, either by poison or outright violent assassinations. Military people who die while fighting (like in the Ukraine) are cremated at the scene of their demise in portable cremation machines. When military people die, their deaths  are kept secret. It's impossible to understand how Putin can even support a loyal military when morale must be at rock bottom low. Besides all of the above, Putin has created a mausoleum of  his own making in Sochi, a community he built to the cost of unbelievable amounts of money, with no return on investment, to pay for the 2014 Russian Olympics.

Although the world is well aware of Vladimir Putin's dangerous ambitions, it doesn't seem like anybody wants to do much about the problem. Of course, the world is at odds with Vladimir Putin. In fact, world leaders have kicked Putin out of the G7 leaders. Whoo-hooooo.....! So, Putin created his own pack of influence with President Assad in Syria, China's President Xi Jinping and the evil idiot North Korean President Kim Jong-un. It's difficult to understand how Putin gets along with the ego-maniacs in this cauldron, but the buzzards are birds of the same feather, so to speak. They instinctively know how their axis will be formidable opposition to world leaders who are unwilling to take military action to defend their high minded anti-Putin principles.

Now Russians are expected to invade the Ukraine. Of course, the Russian army has been fighting "incognito" in the Ukraine for a long time. Yet, it seems like Putin, now, has nothing to loose by just taking the charade off the invasion. If Russia doesn't report military deaths and everyone who has died fighting are cremated where they are killed in battle, then Putin can just run roughshod over the Ukrainians and destroy all evidence of the military campaign. Of course, when the Russian military is caught in the Ukrainian campaign, there will be fewer troops to prop up the Syrian Assad puppet government. It's probably a risk worth taking for Putin, because, if he's able to finally steam roll a Russian highway to a warm water port in Crimea, he can then reinforce his bases in Syria. Of course, that's assuming there's any viable money or military leadership remaining to succeed. 

Furthermore, Putin's ambitions are also predicated on his survival. Surely, Putin must be facing the risk of his own mortality! After all, given how many people Putin is responsible for murdering, surely there is "Kremilin intrigue" plotting some kind of revenge.  (In fact, the same thing is going on in North Korea. Perhaps, it's just a matter of time before Kim Jong-un is also dead. Unfortunately a lot of perpetrators against Kim Jong-un are, themselves, going die trying to do away with the dictator, before somebody finally succeeds.)

Although western world leaders are aware of Putin's dangerous ambitions, it seems as though they're just waiting until something more horrible happens, before reacting. As the world waits for another Russian driven crises, Putin's brinkmanship continues with no end in sight.....yet.

Although the world is at odds with Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader is clearly not impressed by their snubs. He's obviously not interested in being popular. Instead, Putin is crafting his own reign of terror for as long as he can get away with it.  

Sony allowed censure of it's right to free speech

It's just unbelievable how Fox News Fiction Network (FNFN) hasn't leaped on Sony's kowtow to North Korea's hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment, when the corporation decided not to release the movie "The Interview".

In a year-end press conference, Obama said that he wishes Sony had spoken to him before deciding to back down on the "The Interview" release. In the movie, a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is the story.

"I would have told them 'Do not get into a pattern in which you're intimidated by these kinds of criminal attacks,'" said President Obama, at today's news conference.

"That's not who we are. That's not what America's about," he said. ..."I think they (Sony) made a mistake."

Media should be all over Sony Pictures Entertainment. Not releasing "The Interview" is a wrong minded decision by Sony to respond to censorship by the puny tyrant dictator of the despicable North Korean government. North Korea suppresses it's people and there's evidence that he starves them to death. 

Given the over reaction to a cynical movie, it's frightening to imagine what the North Korean dictator Jong-un does to his own people, without due process. 

As a matter of fact, Kim Jong-un murdered his own uncle who apparently wound up on the wrong side of a power struggle.

Obviously, Jong-un finds this cyber attack to be a real time computer game.  Un has the joy stick and now holds up control of the release of "The Interview". What's next? Will the evil despot also put his joy stick on the mark of releasing some rogue weapon of mass destruction? It's possible because,frankly, Jong-un is crazy.

Regardless of who launched the Sony cyber attack, the fact is, the corporation responded to censorship from a rogue nation. They acquiesced in a way the decision making executives would never have accepted and repelled if it came from our own government.

Sony has a lot of explaining to do and learning how to stand tall for freedom of speech  should be part of the corporation's education.

The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as one of the ten amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights.

Sony violated their corporate responsibility to uphold this basic tenet of the US democracy. Sony is super sensitive to threats from weird and crazy despots like Jong-un, so maybe it's time for the company to live in a place where censorship is acceptable....like North Korea.