What a Luxury Car Should Be!

In the winter of 1941, a swallow appeared in a small village in the Baekdu Mountain region of what is now North Korea. The swallow came to announce the birth of a great future leader, a child sent by God to lead the people to peace and prosperity, to keep their enemies at bay and to teach them how to follow the path that leads to happiness. On the anointed day of February 1, a double rainbow appeared in the sky and a new star was born in the heavens. His name was Kim Jung Il.

The child was able to walk in three weeks and was speaking fluently in eight weeks. He developed a habit as a child of correcting his teachers and while in college wrote over 1500 books. When his father died in 1994 his destiny was fulfilled and he became the supreme leader of the country of North Korea.

While busy leading his country, he found the time to write six operas in two years, which were described in his official biography as the best operas in the history of music. Despite his vast God given talents, God made him a very short man. Officially, he was listed at 5’ 2” and he often wore platform shoes. I guess no man can have it all, if you get a new star in heaven you have to give up something?

At the spritely age of 69, he decided to try his hand at golf. His first round was played at a 7000-yard course in the city of Pyongyang. His security entourage and other folks were with him so we have plenty of witnesses who all confirmed his score of 38. Reports differ as to how many aces he scored, some say 5, some say 11.

Let’s do some quick math. Say he only managed 5 holes in one. That means he needed 33 shots to complete the remaining 13 holes or 2.5 shots per hole. If he one-putted all 13 holes we have a total of 18 strokes, leaving 20 shots for the 13 holes or 1.5 shots per hole. He’s a long hitter, that one. Not bad for a five foot, 69 year old man. He never picked up a club again and I bet Tiger is happy about that.

Korea became part of the Japanese Empire in 1910 and at this time most people were living as subsistence farmers. In the north the land was not suitable for large-scale agriculture operations, so the Japanese focused on building industrial facilities in this section of Korea.

After World War II the Korean peninsula was divided along the 38^th parallel with the north coming under Soviet influence and the south falling under American influence. The Russian agreement to this division was somewhat surprising as the city of Seoul was just below the 38^th parallel. Both new governments claimed to be the legitimate government of the entire peninsula and neither accepted the 38th parallel as a permanent boundary.

The Soviet Union installed Kim Jung Il’s father as leader of the new North Korea, touting him as fierce fighter for Korean independence during the Japanese occupation. From its inception as a sovereign nation, North Korea has depended on massive imports of food in order to feed its people. This has put tremendous pressure on the economic stability of the country from the beginning.

For reasons still not fully understood, North Korea invaded the south in June of 1950 in what has since become known in the United States as the Korean War. The United States entered the war as part of the United Nations security forces, contributing almost 90% of the personnel required for the effort. After 1.2 million people had died in the conflict, an armistice was signed in 1953 and the two countries remain technically at war.

Since time immemorial it has been an effective strategy of dictators to consolidate power by developing in the people they rule a siege mentality. There is a determined enemy at the door and only I can prevent them from trying to destroy our peaceful way of life. Sorry there is not enough food or water or electricity, but we have to have a strong military so I can protect you from those that would rape our women and eat our children.

For the leaders of North Korea, that barbarous horde, just waiting for the right time to invade, is the United States of America. The policy is known as “all-fortressization”

 

This policy of creating an impenetrable fortress, led directly to the development of a nuclear weapons program, which in turn led to a program to develop long-range ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons to the continental United States.

Kim Jung Il died in 2011 and his son Kim Jung Un took over leadership of the country. It is believed that he was educated in the west and he has pursued the nuclear missile program relentlessly.

 

So, we have a nuclear-armed country ruled by a family that asks its people to believe they have been endowed with extraordinary powers not possessed by mere mortals. That they have been given divine right to rule and it is the duty of the people to suffer whatever is necessary to keep them in power. If such rulers will go to such lengths with their own people to maintain their hold on power, what will they do if the international community or the United States of America threatens them? I think the photo above gives us the answer.

45 tried to elicit the help of China to stop or slow down the progress of North Korea’s missile program, but China is in a tough spot here. If they clamp down on their neighbor and people begin to starve or reach their limit of suffering, they will most likely flee into China. The last thing China wants is a bunch of North Korean refugees.

This past week the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to impose severe sanctions on North Korea. The Security Council almost never has a unanimous vote on anything, so this is a big deal and 45 and Nikki Haley (keep an eye on her, she’s impressive) deserve credit for this major accomplishment. Time will tell if this will achieve the desired effect or if it may in fact backfire.

The nuclear Genie is out of the bottle in North Korea and there is no way to get it back in. They are never not going to be a nuclear power again. North Korea has a million-man army and thousands of rockets and artillery guns trained on Seoul, so there really is no realistic military option here. A war in that region would very quickly escalate into a catastrophic global crisis on a scale not seen since the end of World War II.

The only thing left to do is to try and have discussions with the North Korean Government. Along with discussions, the United States needs to establish a diplomatic presence in North Korea; it is the only way to begin a flow of information into the people of that country. Even this is a huge undertaking, remember the Kim family has cemented their power by telling their people America is poised to attack at any moment and opening talks with us might seem like weakness. But at this point there are few viable options.

45 has called Kim Jung Un a whack job and he may very well be, but like Sherlock Holmes said in the Case of the Reigate Puzzle “there is method in his madness.” He is continuing the policies begun by his sires and taking them to the logical next step. 45 has stated that we will take care of North Korea but he needs to be careful with the tough guy talk. If this guy feels threatened he may start something we have to finish, and that finish will not be pretty.

How do you deal with a country whose leaders think it is cool to put giant portraits of themselves on top of Lincoln Continentals? Is Rex (a tiger in your tank) Tillerson up to the job? Is 45 up to the task or will he twitter something that might spark another world war?

This is something you better keep an eye on. This is something worth making your voice heard on because if we get this wrong, the price is going to be high, higher than anything we have ever seen before. I am sending messages to all National leaders I can think of and encouraging them to find some way, anyway to get this situation cooled down.

 Very soon this will not be an empty cardboard tube!

 

Love To All!