Uncovering China

It's Monday. Two days ago I was told to stay home yesterday and store some water because some workers were going to come to check the "tubes." And they were going to turn off the water for the day. (So I assume tubes=pipes) Sunday, ah no problem! I don't need no steenking water! Except for cooking, cleaning, doing the dishes, flushing the toilet, laundry, watering plants, brushing my teeth and the air conditioner. Other than THAT...

But at least it wouldn't be so bad if I couldn't have a shower because I haven't found the right church for me as yet over here in China, so I don't do that much on Sundays. I can go a day in my own funk if I have to. And if I absolutely can't live with myself, I can pour some water over my slimy body and lather up. I have enough stored for Armageddon.

That's about 30 litres of water. Plus I have a full pitcher and kettle of drinking water. This is all tap water so not the best to drink. Just to be safe I don't even make ice cubes with it.

So I got up early, because, (of course), I wasn't given a time when the workers would show up, just "the morning." I showered and shaved and did everything that needed water I could think of. Even washed the floors. By 8 o'clock I had a house that was spic and span! And, since it's still hot and muggy here, I was ready for another shower. A few days before, I was sleeping and someone hammered on my door at 10:00 AM. This is when I get my best and deepest sleep. In my experience so far, Chinese knocks are like their voice volumes and the loudness and earliness in the day are directly proportionate. THIS 10 AM knock had 5 AM volume! It startled me out of a deep sleep and I jumped out of bed, fumbled for shorts and shirt and staggered to the door. But I wasn't in time. That day, both my employer and Faith got phone calls from the apartment superintendent so I assume theirs was the 10 AM knock.

But I was ready. Vigilantly avoiding a second shower so as not to miss their call a second time, I just sat at the computer and watched some pre-season NFL, surfed, watched a movie, ate, had an online argument, watched some TV... Incidentally, I WISH I was on The Amazing Race Canada this season! So far the only place they've been that I haven't LIVED was the starting point in Labrador. They went to Vancouver, where I lived for a few years, then Castlegar, where I lived for many years, then Nelson, where I lived for a few years, then Beijing where I lived last year. And they went to places IN these cities where I've been! Zuckerberg's Island, the big, orange bridge in Nelson I lived 100 yards away from, the Canadian Embassy in Beijing where I went several times... What next, Hamilton? Dundas? Jakarta? Maybe little Minokamo, Japan? Calgary? Ignace? Thunder Bay? How about Korea? Anyway, I'd be a ringer this season for SURE!

10 o'clock, no knock. 12 o'clock, so much for them coming in the morning. I waited all day. ALL DAY! Nothing. It seems that most things here change from day to day, even hour to hour, so they don't like to make advanced plans. It's annoying to someone like me, and let's face it, to ANYone, because advanced notice is nice. But it's something I've been told to get used to. When I was called at 7:30 to come to the school and teach an 8 AM class, I mentioned that it was tough to make it on time even though I live so close to the school. Joshua, who was my supervisor at the time, but like everyone else, quit, said, "Get used to it!"

I went to the cable company office to pay my internet/phone bill this morning. It's something I do on Mondays because there's no KBO so I pay the bill, a good 45-minute walk away, and then stroll in the park, another 20 minutes from the cable building. I usually get McDonald's. Today I was just early enough to get an egg Mcmuffin and coffee. The trip is never without its annoyances either. At least half a dozen people on foot, bike, car, truck, it makes no difference cut me off. I mean it's pretty obvious they see me, they know I am going to be in front of them when we meet so they SPEED UP to get in front of me. But they speed up only enough to get the calculated bonus of inconveniencing me and making me slow down or completely stop for them. It's the worst when it's pedestrians. I feel perfectly within my rights to continue walking at my pace, but I know that would cause me to trip the person or at least give them a flat tire. I think, "It would serve them right!" But even as I'm thinking that I always slow down or stop no matter how awkward it is for me.

Then at the cable office. I have been there 7 times not including the time I signed up. Each time I brought my official sign-up sheet with my account number circled on it in three places. I memorized the phrases duo shao qian, (how much money), and jiao fei, (pay bill). 6 times I've showed them previous bills. I pull out my wallet, take out some money, give them my account number, say how much and pay bill and without fail there has been mass confusion every time. Nobody yet has showed me how much I owe and it usually takes me at least 20 minutes to go through the miming and looking up words on my phone Chinese translator and they look up words on their translators and sometimes they want to refer me to the machines but usually don't. Actually today we used the machine, and it looked pretty easy. I thought you needed a card but cash worked fine. I might just try that next time to avoid the requisite panic. I called Faith and she was able to talk the person off the ledge and show him that exactly what he thought I wanted WAS what I wanted.

I got this in Korea a lot. People assume that they just won't be able to understand you because you're not Korean. Even if you make it blatantly obvious, even if you SPEAK Korean, sometimes they still don't understand. Or believe they don't. I think that's what happened to this guy today and maybe the ones before. It reminds me of an old Chinese folk tale. (how's this for foreshadowing?) A man from Cheng wanted to buy new shoes. He carefully measured his feet, then walked to the store. When he got to the shoe store, he realized he had forgotten his measurements. So he went back to get them. Huh? Huh?

But my whole point is it happens, and then I let it go. Unlike Korea. When a person speeds up to cut in front of me at, for example, the E-Mart in Korea, and I politely let that person in front of me, if that person stops directly in front of me so I can't move, begins contemplating some imaginary item on the shelf, because it's the fifty thousandth time this has happened to me in Korea I KNOW the person is just being a fucking douchebag and either I do something about it, or ruin my day WISHING I had done something about it.

Maybe it's because the Chinese haven't cut me off fifty thousand times yet. Maybe it's because I have been either off or on a low stress schedule for a while. Or maybe, in the land of Taoism, I'm starting to do what my life goal is, and what a T-shirt told me to do today. I can't remember the exact wording but I enjoy reading T-shirts here and a girl walking toward me had one on that read, "Change your mind to a new." Only a slight grammar error and tame compared to some you see over here. And, in Korea...

But the message was read loud and clear. So some of this stuff was expected, some wasn't and some is just at a higher or lower degree than anticipated. The biggest culture shock for me has been the number of little kids I see wandering the streets in these crotchless pants.

Now, the kids using the entire city as a toilet was something I got used to seeing in Korea. But the folks there had to pull down pants, underwear, maybe diapers. Here in China it's just squat and blast away. Kid convenience. Maybe they ARE still inventing things in China. Just in case you think I'm alone in my observations or being too harsh...


But I would have to say the best "aha moment" for me so far I stumbled across during this spell of downtime I've had. I've been trying to learn about China and although I have avoided history and politics and things that are heavily biased, I have always enjoyed the great stories from this part of the world. Yarns, myths, folk tales, Confucian anecdotes, Buddhist fables and Taoist allegories, I've read quite a few and even own books of them! I just LOVE that kind of stuff! And I have come to expect a certain wise, conservative, edifying tone to them. I'm sure you've heard a few and know what I mean.

Anybody remember this book? It was one of my favourites when I was a kid. I remember these exact pictures! And when I got to China, some of the boys in Beijing told me that this is a very conservative, sexually temperate country. A few of the guys who, unlike myself, still engaged in the courting of the fairer sex, told me that the ladies all tell them they are old style and traditional girls. Even the mention of any sexual adventurousness or, GASP, mental afflictions like homosexuality were positively shocking! Being gay was illegal until 1997 and was officially considered a mental illness until 2001. This supposed timorous, unenterprising sexual attitude in the Chinese has always seemed a bit odd to me. Hello? 1.4 billion people! I mean you look at India - Kama Sutra. What literature must be hidden in a country as populace as China?

So imagine my not-so-surprise when I dug up the following allegory of karmic retribution: And if you're like me, you can't help but read this in your mind in the voice of Christopher Walken telling the watch story in Pulp Fiction. It's called, "The Farmer and the Pig."

Ahheeemmm!!! Once there was a farmer in the Yangtze River region of China who maintained a relationship with his castrated pig. But one day he sold the pig to a butcher. After the pig was slaughtered its soul could not rest. After much mental anguish and suffering, the pig's soul traveled deep down into the bowels of the earth for an audience with the Emperor of the Nether World. There he met with the Emperor and said, "I cannot bellyache about being butchered for I was destined to reincarnate into a pig. But since my master had affection with me, he should not have sent me to the butcher for money."

After some deliberation, the Emperor decided that the pig was right and allowed it to take revenge on the farmer. That very night, the pig entered the farmer's bed chamber and bit him on his ass while he dreamt. When the farmer awoke, he felt an horrendous itching as though 100 mosquitoes had performed their proboscian penetration simultaneously around the ring of his ass hole. He scratched and scrubbed but to no avail. Somehow he knew that the relief he sought could be found solely through sodomization. Indeed, for many years that was the only cure for the incessant tickle in his anus. But as the farmer grew older, he found it difficult to attract men to perform this service for him. And so, he had to resort to bamboo stakes for relief. One day, the old farmer got drunk and the prickling sphincter returned. He happened to be near that same butcher's shop where he had sold his castrated pig. He hopped into the butcher shop half crazed with rectal irritation. He saw a knife that was used for butchering pigs and in desperation used it in an attempt to stop the infernal itching. Alas, he accidentally pierced himself and bled to death.

 

Now go to sleep little ones. Sweet dreams. Ha ha ha! I admit, I augmented the tale to make it roll off the tongue, but only through word choice. I have added nothing to, nor taken anything away from the plot. It's interesting that in a culture in which homosexuality is roundly hidden, (only 3% male and 6% female describe themselves as completely out), there is plenty of homosexuality in the old tales. Many animal fairies in Chinese mythology enjoy homosexual relationships with young men or boys. Dragons, as in "Old Farmer and a Dragon," prefer more seasoned sodomites. Interestingly, I thought, the stories usually include a thunder storm while dragons captured old men for sex. Dragons were connected to rain storms and were symbolized by, you guessed it, the rainbow.

There was even a temple in the south of China called "Double Flowers Temple" where a deceased gay couple were worshipped by the general public. But like so many, it was destroyed by the Japanese in WWII.

There have been books written by eunuchs who were the only man, well, "men" allowed into the Forbidden City and imperial palaces of Chinese emperors. They all had many concubines in their harems and were not shy about having sex. Even today polygamy is practiced in China, though it is not legal. Mostly rich businessmen have the "privilege."

Did I ever tell you how much I love the Taoists? For centuries they have had their own Kama Sutra which they call "Pillow Books." They are stories and descriptions on sexual positions and techniques that "maximize life energies." I read "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck and loved it. Although she was not Chinese, she captured that mythological tone of the stories that I love. But it was far from sexy. She describes the book, "The Golden Lotus" as China's greatest novel of physical love.

If you think this is pretty male dominated, it is, but fear not, ladies, there's a book about the life of China's only real ruling Empress, Wu Zetian, called "The Fountainhead of Chinese Erotica: The Lord of Perfect Satisfaction." I'm ordering that one online RIGHT NOW! It's famous for being China's first novel to depict sexuality in a very graphic manner. So I guess she had concubines too. Is there a word for a male concubine? YES, there is!

There was also a guy named Li Yu who I hear wrote some of the more humourous erotic novels and short stories in the 1600's. His work was banned in one dynasty or other, so you know it was good. I'm gonna have to find some of that stuff. I think I'll start with "The Twelve Towers." It's twelve stories with one common phallic theme: a "tower." I think I know what I'll get.

So now you know what I'll be reading for the next few months to a year. Not that I'll be able to employ anything I learn practically. But it's fascinating to me how sexually rich cultures, like China's, are covered up in shame. I'll be, if you will, peeking under those covers for a while. I think it'll be fun. Join me!

The Don of a new era

Well I got the visa! FINSCALLY! So now, for the last half of August, I can work, so long as the boss gives me the okay. I called my buddy Faith and she has already set me up for some work next week. It's actually good news! I can't say I haven't enjoyed the down time but I am sure I will enjoy coming out of hibernation, getting out of the house, and mixing with the populace again. I've actually tried to get a little bit done every day so as not to waste the month off. A little exercising, a little studying... My sole companion has been my computer and this has lead to my learning a lot about two things, and these will be the subjects of this blog.

One of the subjects was inescapable and I have little doubt that I'd be better off now had I learned nothing about it at all. Still, in a guilty pleasure sort of way, it is kind of interesting. The subject is Donald Trump. Geez, it was difficult to write his name properly! I think almost nothing of him as a human being and because of that have a habit of using any of a thousand nicknames when referring to him. Most recently I think I called him the "cheese doodle in chief." I'm sure you've heard many more. Even "trump" means to fart. It's pretty hard to take him seriously. He is all that is terribly wrong with our world and because we have made virtues of all that is terribly wrong with our world, he's now the president of the United States. The whole fiasco that ended with him as president that they VERY euphemistically call an "election," to this day in America, has never been given an ounce of credence in my mind. He is not their president and he was not elected. And it's not the first fraudulent presidency they've had.

But we are meant to think that nobody wants to undertake the massive project of giving democracy in America a complete overhaul starting from scratch. We're supposed to believe Americans prefer to settle. So the 90% disappointed people continue to play act their way through the next four years, like they did with Dubyuh, hoping and praying the president stays out of the big people areas and doesn't do anything that's completely un-undoable. And the people who put him there hope and pray the general public's apathy in the midst of yet another fake presidency holds out while they, the rich, get richer and richer. All the while hoping that the trials looking into DNC fraud favouring Hillary over Bernie Sanders, who, polls consistently show is the OVERWHELMING favourite of the American people, and looking into outside influence of Russia, (Putin), in setting up this bozo as a figurehead who will obediently restructure national laws to favour the rich, take just about four years to come to the conclusion that, he wasn't honestly elected. It was all a big fraud. Oh well, whatareyagonnado?

As we'll see, this is how President Hairpiece does business. He enters into it in unscrupulously bad faith, goes to court when his business partner finds out about his ethical flexibilities, drags the court case on longer and longer until it doesn't much matter who wins or loses it any more because during the court proceedings, he has run the company so far into the ground that there's nothing left for the partner to collect on. That's right, if his business pattern holds, he's fixing to run America into the ground, then declare bankruptcy!

How can I make these claims? Who is this guy they have in charge of the most powerful country in the world and why is he the perfect stooge for the people who fraudulently placed him there? The more I see of him, the more I think he's a robotic drone devoid of personality and empathy. He's single-minded in purpose, obsessed with money and power, infatuated with himself and would qualify as a poster boy for sociopathy if he had the charm and charisma that is usually part of the package.

Like many, I thought George W. Bush was a big joke and there couldn't possibly be a worse president. But at least he had a sense of humour. And there should be no underestimating of that! A sense of humour is without doubt a sign of intelligence and should be mandatory for any world leader! It is also a sign of humanity and soul. It makes us feel that a person is more down to earth and a member of our struggle when he or she can have a good laugh.

Watch this interview of Donald McDonald. Terrifying! Especially the part where he talks about Syria, missiles and killing people. He says "killing people" twice! Then he flippantly tosses it off with, "I hate it. But things have to be done." At the 5:50 mark the interviewer tells him an old George W. Bush joke, which Trump clearly doesn't get then tries to act like he HAD understood it while the interviewer explains it to him. The buck stops with you. The Oval Office has no corners to hide in. You are the final authority. Do yourself a favour and go to the end of the interview where, like a willful child, Grumpy Trumpy refuses to answer a question and waves the interviewer out of the oval office as though TRYING to give an A1 illustration of why the buck should absolutely NOT stop with him. Then goes to a desk and looks at some papers trying to give a presidential appearance.

Sense of humour - Survey says....   X  BZZZT!

Another thing that might make a person feel like Heir Schtroompfmeister is someone we can relate to is if he were ever seen to be having a good time. You know, like a few beers at Oktoberfest, singing, dancing, socializing with other people, having a few laughs. Does he? EVER? Do this? The only thing I've seen him do that he appears to enjoy is

 

He golfs far more often than Obama did even though he bashed Obama frequently about wasting his time golfing while president. But I'm a sports fan. I believe in sport we can learn many of the lessons that are most important in life. This is why I'd be willing to bet Darnald Palmer probably cheats like a Banshee on the links. If you ask him what he got on the last hole, he'd be evasive. "I think the record will show what I got on the last hole. A beautiful, well maintained hole! The greens keepers should be congratulated. A lot of very, very great people at this course. Tremendous people. The best people."

Does he sing? I apologize for this one. Just look at Melania's face and that should be good enough. You don't have to make your ears bleed by pressing play.

And this is a song about the national U.S. sport. It may be just as dear to the average American as their national anthem. Roseanne Barr probably sings it better.

Can he sing? Survey said...  XX   BZZZZT!

What about dancing? He's a big guy and maybe it's an unfair question, but look at Dan Aykroyd  and John Belushi. They could dance. If you're going to be visiting different countries all over the world and doing the job of president, it calls for dancing. I saw Trump in Saudi Arabia at a sword dancing ceremony trying to bust out of his crusty, all business persona and move his body a little bit and it was a sad thing to behold. Much like his visit to a black church somewhere, (I assume), in the U.S. There was a gospel song playing and people were praying, worshipping, singing and dancing and Trump must have got a little jolt of the spirit because he did something approximating dance. In both cases to me it looked as though he was wishing he were anywhere else. Or maybe he was thinking that since he had no partner, therefore no shot at getting laid as part of the deal, the effort expended should reflect that. Both can be viewed on the internet, but they're sad spectacles, be forewarned.

If you want to watch something difficult, just watch the Trumps first dance at the inaugural ball. Now, they embraced, and moved around so, technically they danced. Barely. But the whole thing was spooky to me. The song "My Way" to which Trump mouthed the words during the dance, was used at two inaugural balls as the first dance music. At one, the singer just completely missed his cue to start singing. This didn't help the president's moves that were described by political journalists as "wooden." They were joined by other members of the political team and their spouses all decked out in their finery and rocking back and forth like pendulums. I guess to a narcissist the spotlight might have had its attraction, but this certainly didn't look like fun to me!

Can he dance? Survey said.......   XXX  BZZZZT!

The famous, or infamous Connie Chung interview of Trump reveals that his brother, Freddy, smoked, drank heavily and liked to have a good time. Donald said he watched his brother and learned from him. He was loved, liked to have a good time, enjoyed flying, cared about other people, had friends and was described by Donald as, "the opposite of me." So this, ostensibly, is why Donald Teetotaller doesn't drink, smoke, and maybe why he doesn't want to have fun. Here's an article that explains it in more detail. Trump said he was a wonderful guy but he opened up to everybody and was taken advantage of.

In the same Connie Chung interview, however, Trump comments that he is always looking for more excitement. "It's achieving something... When I buy the Plaza Hotel, to me that's exciting because it's a trophy. It's a total trophy. They're important deals and the importance turns me on."

So I'm thinking that maybe the presidency is just a "trophy." He's trying to make some important "deals" like flight bans, healthcare repeals, and maybe, because things have to be done, wars. That's what turns him on. I suppose that and sex. And I don't want to get into his pussy grabbing ways. We KNOW that about this man.

What we don't know about him is how deep he's into the pockets of dangerous men like Vladimir Putin. We don't know this because he refused to reveal his tax information. And since he's probably lost half the marbles he had when he did the above interview, we also don't know if he's crazy enough to work with Putin on some big, important trophy deal, perhaps like bombing the shit out of North Korea and then buying up all the cheap resources from the war torn country. North Korea has a lot of gold, coal and other minerals and it's one of few places that has yet to be fully investigated for oil and natural gas, but some has been found and there are signs that there is more both on and offshore.

If people are killed in the vulture capitalism North Korea "deal," I'm sure when the trillions of dollars are rolling in any innocent victims, be they American, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, whatever, they'll be acceptable collateral damage to a wooden, robotic, money-addled, soulless man like this. As long as he and his friends make tons of money and by cowardly bombing, droning and maybe sending in a troop or two, HE appears like he's got balls. The great white Trump. It kinda looks like him, doesn't it? Just think of the skill and masculinity required to hunt down a dangerous beast like a lion... without damaging your sunglasses that are dangling below you chins!

Or it could be Guam. Or it could be Venezuela. It seems like he's just itching to make his mark. In an interesting report entitled "Leaving a Mark," Rachel Maddow gives us a rare glimpse into exactly how Agent Orange does his job. The phrase that sums it all up is what the auditor of that first big NY deal he talks about with Connie Chung says about it. The Commodore Hotel that he "bought" then changed into a Hyatt Hotel. He cheated the city he talks about loving so much and because the city was participating in the deal financially, they had access to his books. The auditor called their content, "Extraordinary flim-flammery." And the important thing I want to point out is that maybe you think this makes what was done sound clever or extraordinarily ingenious or something a 5-year-old kid couldn't have thought up, but it's not. The extraordinary maneuvers were things like declaring the hotel made less money than it did so that he wouldn't have to pay the city their fair share of the profits. "Give your brother half your bubble gum. How many bubble gums do you have?" "I have six, no, I have TWO."

Then there are incriminating documents. How were they ingeniously disposed of? "Oh, they were sent to Chicago. They're not there? Hmmm, well then they were lost in a flood. Yeah, a flood! That's the ticket."  And here's another of his brilliant business policies: when he makes a deal, he makes promises, in writing, to pay back certain amounts of money he has borrowed. When that money comes due, he just doesn't pay it. Isn't that clever? In his book, "Think Big and Kick Ass," he was asked about his "troubles" with banks in the 1990's and this was his reply, “I figured it was the banks’ problem, not mine. What the hell did I care? I actually told one bank, ‘I told you you shouldn’t have loaned me that money’.” Then when the banks sue him for defaulting on the loans, he just countersues. His recent loan from Deutschebank to make his mark on the Chicago skyline with a massive skyscraper there is in default. But he won't pay because of the predatory lending financial crisis of 2008 in which Deutschebank was a major contributor. He's actually suing THEM for losing him money during the crisis. He personally guarantees he'll pay them back 30 million, he sues them for 3 billion. Can you see the genius here? 3 billion is MORE than 30 million.

Other banks stopped loaning him money years ago because of shenanigans like this in the 80's and 90's. It's rumoured, and I am very excited to have the details exposed, that he had to resort to borrowing money from the richest guy in the world. If you think that's Bill Gates, you're probably off by 12 figures. Yeah, we're talking hundreds of billions. The new Tsar of Russia, Putin, has loads of cash. And wouldn't he think it was great if the president of the U.S. owed him money? For years before Trump was president, his name was bandied about as someone who might throw his hat in the ring. How much of a stretch is it to imagine Vlad seeing Trump holding out his small hand for a loan and thinking, "He's not gonna pay this back, but if we could make him president and have him in our debt... hmmmmmm..." I've heard unconfirmed estimates that Trump, through Deutschebank, borrowed 4 billion from Vlad the Enabler. Or one of the various banks and businesses he rules with an iron fist. With what we know about Humpty Trumpty, when he falls off his little wall and all of his shady dealings are exposed and he finally gets the real estate he has earned, (a jail cell), he'll be yelling through the bars, "I'm a great man! You can't put me in here! I wasn't afraid of the banks! Fuck them! I wasn't even afraid of Vladimir Putin! You think I'm afraid of jail time?"

He's an absolute phony! He is a failure as a businessman, though, inexplicably, people continue to think he "Kicks Ass" at business. The source may not be the least biased, but here's an article that sums up a lot of his failed ventures, bankruptcies and bailouts by Daddy. The only thing that makes him rich is money that people loan him because they think he's rich. When he blows all of that and defaults on the loan, the banks eat it, he declares bankruptcy or Daddy bails him out.

Kicking Ass!

I guess the one positive out of all this might be that he doesn't drink. Can you imagine this buffoon drunk? But even that gets me wondering. It seems a bit of an extreme overreaction to never smoke or drink or party or have any friends because this caused his brother to be "taken advantage of." I wonder what that means. And was it the partying and drinking that caused Freddy's death or the harsh life as a Trump which lead to the drinking and death. And apparently Daddy was no picnic either. A suspected member of the KKK, (which explains a whole lot), and a man who would disown you if you didn't choose the path he wanted for you. That was one of the things that reportedly led Freddy to the bottle.

We are all living a massive, international practical joke, my friends. It's a new era of big money coming out of hiding. They are no longer concealing their fraud and greed and the world's foolishness is being exposed by our apathetic non-action. If anyone survives to look back at this, it will be looked back at with awe and embarrassment. The fact that we already know what should get Trump's ass impeached and thrown in jail will inspire the future citizens of Earth to ask why he lasted as president so long or how the hell he made it to that position in the first place. I don't know about you but every DAY I'm in awe that he continues to be the president. What does he have to do to get thrown out of office? I'm almost sorry I asked that because I fear it will be something drastic and un-undoable. And even THEN he might hang around.

One last story that ties Trump to Russia and Putin. Ever notice how he never says anything bad about his boyfriend Putin? Even when he sends US diplomats home in response to tougher UN sanctions on Russia, Trump thanks him for relieving the US of that expense. Probably because he's in league with the Devil. Or however you say "the Devil" in Russian. Folks when another company in the shady-at-best business of scavenging for failed real estate and picking over the bones, pays 6 million dollars to have your toxic name removed from one of its ventures, you should probably know where you stand. And yet, president he remains...

Anyway, I've spent too much time on the Nuclear Nobhead. The second topic I've been looking into, Chinese folk tales, will have to wait for another post. I have to get ready for work tomorrow! Like everybody, I'm going to enjoy the un-Trumped-up world for as long as I can. I sure hope it's longer than I suspect it's going to be! Fingers crossed!

 

 

 

 

 

Dream Summer

I woke up in a sweat this morning/afternoon startled, no TERRIFIED awake by my dream. It was MUCH worse than the previous awakening by mosquito a couple hours before that. I'm used to that. Now, to clarify, I've woken up in a sweat on average about half a dozen times a night all summer long so there's no way of knowing if the dream had anything to do with the sweat. I always sweat when I sleep. A lot. I have to wash my bedding every week. I have to but don't. Hey, what the hell? I'm the only one who has to smell my funk. So, as the Vassar Clements Band might say, "Don't mess with my funk, just let me be."

It's summer in Asia. Even just sitting around dong nothing I sweat. I think, so far, (touch wood and thank God simultaneously), the reason I still haven't broken out in my annual sweat rash is because I haven't had to work since early July. If it were up to me I'd take every summer off and just hang out in gotch alone. Well, I'd wear gotch and Johnson's baby powder. That's it.

I've explained this before, I'm sure, but here's how I've been sleeping for this past month off. It's the old six in one hand, half a dozen in the other, air con vs. mozzies. If I turn on the air conditioner and close the bedroom door, it gets too cold and with the humidity and poison in the air around here, I get an air con cold. If I leave the door open and keep the air conditioner on, the air is relatively fresher, but I'm wasting energy and letting in the mosquitoes. If I have no air conditioner, my gasping, wheezing and snoring are like dinner bells for the mosquitoes. The gasping and wheezing are partially sleep apnea and partially long term effects of breathing in polluted air. Nasal, chest and throat blockages begin as soon as I lay down and create a symphony of sounds lemme tell you!

So what I do is go to bed really late, like around 4 AM. I'll be fighting mosquitoes from nightfall till then. Last night I'd guess I killed about 20 or so. Then for the first phase of sleep I turn on the air and hit the hay. I'll be up in two hours or less to take a leak so I don't worry too much about breathing in too much air conditioned air. I get up, turn of the A/C, go to the bathroom and go back to bed. Now with the door open because it's light outside and light disperses the mosquitoes. This way for the second phase I get cleaner air and even a couple of times this summer it was cool air. This lasts about 2 hours until a mosquito finds me. I wake up, kill the bloodsucker, maybe go to the can again, and go back to sleep in a sweaty bed, with the door open. Another couple of hours, another mosquito, same drill. As the day heats up and gets brighter and brighter, I get my best sleep. This is the time I usually remember my dreams. They've been characteristically weird and I do believe I've been sleepwalking. Something I don't think I've done since I was a little boy although it's hard to be sure.

Two nights ago I was having a dream that I was on a TV show being interviewed by this beautiful host in a multicoloured dress made of flashy material. You know the movie poster of Tootsie?

 The dress from that is similar. It was that material only it was red and burgundy and maybe a little brown in a thick stripey pattern. It's weird that I remember any clothing but this was a stand-out garment! She had a scale model of my Uncle Jim and Aunt Valerie's property in Hamilton, Ontario. I spent a summer with them, my cousins, Shawna, Chris and Kim and my brothers Andy and Rob. It was probably the summer that made the second biggest impression on me and I have had a million and a half dreams about my cousins, my Aunt and Uncle, the Stoners, (who were the neighbours), and the property. I think I was 11 at the time so it's a very impressionable period in the life of a man.

In case you're wondering, the summer of love in Penticton when I insinuated myself into my best friend, Grant Pilla's family vacation, was probably number one. Who's to say though? You can't really measure. But I was 15 and there were bikinis, waterslides, video games were coming into their own, go carts in the rain, Fast Times at the drive in, summer love and the soundtrack was the endlessly repeated Journey Escape album. What a summer!

But back to my TV show... Yeah, a model of the property I remembered from my childhood. I was me in the dream. Today. This age and everything. I'm sometimes not. Anyhoo, the gorgeous TV hostess points out the old house where everybody used to live and said they don't live there any more. I said I remembered helping to paint that house and cutting the grass and such. But the host said it's just abandoned now. Nobody lives in it. They still use the pool behind it sometimes. I said to the host that I remembered a lot of fun times in the pool. But we couldn't splash too much. They had a diving board but we hardly used it because too much water splashed out of the pool. My Uncle Jim was a truck driver and he delivered water! He had more water than anybody! That didn't bother me though. Conserve. Always a good thing. The pool was still awesome. And we slept outside in a tent sometimes right beside the pool. Wow! That was a great summer too!

Now we're on the property. Me and the gorgeous host in her flashy dress. She's still carrying a microphone. She shows me how they bought the land further up and built a huge house on it. I said, well let's go see if anybody's home! They'd kill me if I was in the neighbourhood and didn't visit! And then I inexplicably asked the hostess if she'd do me a favour and say she was my wife. NO idea why I asked that but she said she'd do it. We knocked on the basement door. This was a massive house! A young boy answered the door and invited us in. It was obvious to me that he was my cousin Chris' kid because of an uncanny resemblance, but I let on like I didn't notice. I'd say he was 12 or 13. He had a friend with him about the same age who didn't resemble anyone to me. I assumed he was just a friend. So I asked the kid if anyone was home. He was playing a game on his phone and just mumbled something. I looked around the unfinished, obviously new basement and said, "This is huge! When did they build this place?" He didn't answer. I asked again and he didn't look up from his game. A swell host he was! Then I picked up a hockey stick with a plastic superblade that was just lying on the cement floor and tapped it a few times saying, "Hey, Chris' kid, looga me!" I did the two finger point to the eyes. "When did they build this place?" That got his attention and he said, "I dunno, like ten years ago?"

Since I had the stick anyway I asked if he was any good at street hockey. He immediately predicted that he could score on me about 20 percent of his shots if I were in goal and that I could score on him on only 50% of MY shots. I conceded the 20% prediction because I suck in net. Always have. But I said, "Oh yeah? Get in net." So I got the tennis ball that was on the floor and started doing some stick handling with it and scored on some dekes and some shots. Then the blade changed into a sort of spoon blade with a concave indentation just large enough for a tennis ball. Like this pic only it obviously was not a teaspoon. It was not at the very end of the blade either.

 

It allowed me to pick up the ball lacrosse style and kinda THROW it into the net. Well, now I was scoring on almost every attempt. I don't know what happened to the other kid or my fake wife, I never did get to visit anyone but this nephew or first cousin once removed or whatever the frig, but he and I invented the sport of "lacrockey." I'll probably get shafted on that. He'll take all the money. Whatever. He's going to live longer and needs it more than I do.

Anyway, when I woke up that day for the last time, I noticed something on the floor of my bathroom. It was a lugi. I know it was me who hocked it because there hasn't been anyone else in my house for weeks. I must have spat on my bathroom floor the night before. Then I remembered that while I was taking shots on my nephew in my dream, he spit on the basement floor. You need to spit when you play floor hockey, street hockey, ice hockey and, apparently, lacrockey, so I spat too. Was I wandering around my apartment the night before taking imaginary shots and spitting? I'll never know.

Although that wasn't the terrifying dream, you can read through what I've written so far and imagine for yourself why I was terrified. Okay, I'll end the suspense because I know you're all BURSTING to know! I was in an unfamiliar house. I think it was mine because I was looking for something nice to wear to a wedding and telling my Mom, who was sitting on the couch behind me, that I didn't even own a suit. I don't own a suit. In real life. In my dream I said, "Mom, I don't even own a jacket!" Then I sat down on the couch beside her and asked, "I don't suppose anyone has rented a tux for me, have they?" Mom said, "Yes, Andy's bringing one." Andy is my oldest brother. I said, "But the wedding is in an hour and Andy's not here yet." Mom said, "Don't worry. He will be here. If not you can wear what makes you feel comfortable. As long as you are in love, it doesn't matter." I thought about my future wife. She was Asian. A bit plump with a cute round face. In my dream I definitely DID love her. My Mom said, "If Andy doesn't show up till tomorrow, he doesn't show up till tomorrow." And I said, "When I'll see him as a MARRIED man!" That brought a feeling WAY beyond cold feet!

You already know some of my sleeping habits. Can you imagine putting any woman through THAT torture? Who wants a noisy, smelly, sweaty, sleepwalking, possibly spitting partner to sleep with? Many other habits I have that a lifetime of bachelorhood has entrenched in me would be thrust upon this poor girl as well. I can't even have a roommate, why the hell am I getting married? And my days of freedom - gone! If I want, I can sleep till noon, get up, eat spaghetti and binge watch 15 episodes of Get Smart if I want. Or I could pour myself a rye and Coke. I'm not working tomorrow. The dirty dishes in the sink can wait. The laundry isn't too backed up and the bedding won't get much funkier if I wash it later. Hell, I can just go to the airport, roll a die and go to a random country for a week if I want. If it's the Philippines I can go kayaking into a mountain in El Nido. If it's Vietnam I can see Halong Bay and visit some friends there I haven't seen in ages. If it's Thailand I can go golfing with my old buddies I also haven't seen in ages. Laos, Cambodia, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, I could have a blast! And in all but Korea, I would surely meet some cute girls who really like old, fat, bald guys, "No shit, I love you!" NOT if I have a wife!

What kind of wife, and I'm sorry but even more so, what kind of Asian wife would allow her husband to take an entire month off in the summer? Even though I have a good reason to do so? What kind of wife would let me eat the foods I eat, the amounts I eat, and at the times I eat them? What kind of wife would allow me to spend as much time, or maybe more accurately, WASTE as much time as I do in front of my computer? There are little habits I wouldn't get away with too, like using a plate I used yesterday that didn't get too, too dirty. Never making my bed. Stinky cheese spaghetti... I'm no bargain to live with, believe me! I'm getting a bit of a panic sweat on right now as I type this!

The dream ended abruptly. She seemed like a nice girl, this nameless, pudgy Asian I've never seen before, but I am pretty sure I would have left her at the altar. If I were snorkelling and saw a great white shark swimming toward me, I don't know if I'd feel fear as strong as that dream invoked in me.

Crazy, isn't it?

Well, I've been told that I will be getting my passport back this week sometime so the sleeping schedule will need to change. That's if I get some little bits of work here and there, which I plan to do. If, for some reason, I can't find any work, I'll just continue batchin' it and doing what I do in my downtime. Aside from the freaky sleeping, it hasn't been totally bad. In fact it hasn't be UNproductive either. I'm on a rough regimen of either exercising, (and sweating even MORE), or studying China and Chinese every second day. I've cheated a couple of days but it hasn't been too bad. I'm learning to make sentences in Chinese, something I never did in Korean. I have lots of Korean vocabulary but can't make sentences. In Chinese I can already make a few useful sentences. I just need vocabulary to fill in the blanks. I think this is the better way to go about learning a language.

And speaking of that, it's time to do one or the other.

Is Korea it's own worst enemy?

In 1988, then prime minister of Canada, Brian Mulroney, made an official apology to Japanese-Canadians who were sent off to internment centres and camps during WWII. According to this article, written by one heck of a good hockey player, Paul Kariya, it was because they were uprooted from their lives, their assets were seized and not returned, and they were branded enemy aliens by Canada. Canada was at war with Italy, Germany and Japan, yet no Italian-Canadians or German-Canadians received the same treatment. It was clear discrimination against the Japanese. Between the 22,000 uprooted Japanese-Canadians the estimated losses were 443 million dollars. Survivors in '88 received an apology and 21,000 bucks. To my knowledge, Japanese-Canadians have made no further organized pleas for apology or compensation.

In this article, there is mention of something that happened to Ukrainian-Canadians who were interned like the Japanese, only during WWI. Its main focus is the Chinese head tax, which totally shafted Chinese immigrants, who were instrumental in the building of the Trans Canada Railway. Between 1885 and 1923 in Canada, people who governed the country or wrote for newspapers were mostly proper English loyalist snobs. They would have no personal truck with the dirty, stinking, inferior Chinese. However, the Chinese did twice the work of a white guy for half the money so they were tolerated. The Chinese were treated horribly! They were blamed for everything from disease to financial hard times. Though never interned, their suffering was probably worse than the Japanese or Ukrainians in Canada. For it, surviving head tax payers and spouses received an apology from our worst prime minister ever and 20,000 bucks each.

 

 

Here's a Canadian newspaper cartoon from the time. The caption says, "And he went for that heathen Chinese."

I am certain there are Chinese or Japanese Canadians who feel these not much more than ceremonial apologies and token payments were not sufficient, but most have chosen to put it in the past and move on. Neither of the past issues interferes with modern business or international relations between the countries. In fact in both articles, and in many personal examples, Chinese and Japanese Canadians say that the apologies made them very happy.

In a matter of let's say 100 years things have changed a lot in Canada. Why, a person would be lynched, drawn and quartered or worse for publishing a cartoon like the one above. In Vancouver and Toronto, where most Chinese-Canadians settled, you can see signs in Chinese, bank machines have Chinese, many places of business have service in Chinese. A Chinese person could live an entire life without speaking a word of English or French.

As for Japanese Canadians, they too mostly settled in Vancouver and Toronto, but not in Japanese towns. Most Japanese Canadians are Canadian born, unlike the Chinese-Canadians. They have adapted to the Canadian culture, speak Canadian languages and fit in seamlessly. Asking them where there from is not different than asking me where I'm from. I'd either answer with what part of Canada I'm from or my ancestral heritage. So would they.

As a Monty Python troop member might say, "And now for something completely different." The relationship between Japan and Korea. It's a brutal one complete with attempted genocide, and cultural elimination, rape, murder, pillaging, and all with one being the aggressor and the other the victim. It's hard to empathize, but not hard to sympathize with the Korean hatred of the Japanese. For anyone. Including the Korean descendants of those victimized by Japan. But Koreans believe differently.

What the average Korean believes might shock the average non-Korean. I can't tell you how many intelligent people I've had conversations with in Korea that I thought were tongue-in-cheek but turned out to be completely serious. Conversations about the origins of their "race" from the union of a god and a bear turned into a woman that resulted in Dan Geun, the first Korean. Conversations about how one of Dan Geun's descendants, a Korean princess, mated with a large, hairy aboriginal of the Japan area, which gave rise to the Japanese "race." About what foods to eat and NOT to eat before exams; about how babies and mothers need to be kept warm, and not eat or drink anything cold for a long time after childbirth; about how fans can kill you; about how Koreans are great at science because they use chopsticks; about how countless foods give you "stamina"; about their language is extraordinarily "scientific"; about how you can tell the sex of a baby by the shape of the baby bump; about how Koreans learn differently and think differently than other people; about how there are no gay people in Korea; about how only Koreans share a special kind of love they call "Jung"; about how an interviewer can judge the character of an interviewee by his face; about fortune tellers, name choices, the list goes on and on. In my 20 year relationship with Korea and the dozen years or so that I lived there, I argued some of these points and found no solid evidence backing the ideas. I found it was best to just write them off as interesting quirks of the people so as not to impinge upon their rights to their own personal beliefs. Who knows, maybe some of their crazy ideas might even be true. Maybe kimchi cures cancer. Maybe dreaming of pigs means you'll win the lottery. I haven't done the research. The research I HAVE done lead to the finding that more than a little opposition to a cherished Korean belief can quickly and permanently lose you a Korean friend.

A couple mental conventions that are supposedly shared by all Korean blooded beings are called Hwa Pyung and Han. These are states of rage and melancholia respectively which are believed to be the result of Korea's history of unavenged mistreatment, most of it at the hands of the Japanese. These, like many other strange Korean beliefs, should not be challenged too vehemently by any foreigners because we just can't hope to  understand.

 

These two guys? Sure, they understand because they have Korean blood. Just look at all that rage and melancholia! But foreigners must try to understand that we can never understand the Koreans' "unique situation."

Almost every male foreigner has either tried to stop, or witnessed another guy trying to stop a Korean dude from assaulting his girlfriend. I have. It was the female, not the male who told me to mind my own business and let her boyfriend continue beating shit out of her. Basically, "Try to understand our unique situation."

I've asked some female students who had bruises on their necks or arms from fighting with boyfriends why they don't just dump the guys. The reply was usually, "Because they're passionate." I went out with one Korean girl who was constantly baiting me and obviously trying to get me to hit her. If I had, maybe we'd still be together. I think possibly this is all written off as this Hwa Pyung or Jung or Han or whatever. But only if you're Korean.

North Koreans still believe their leader to be a sexless god. Kim Jong Il got 5 holes-in-one the first time he ever golfed. The emperor of Japan was considered a god until I think 1989 when Hirohito died. The Chinese too. They called their emperors "Sons of Heaven" and still believe the Dalai Lama to be a reincarnation of a god-like being. And Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon martial artists flying through the trees is not yet so much the stuff of fantasy as it might appear to us in the west.

What I'm saying is that over here in Asia, there are some traditional beliefs that are hard for foreigners to subscribe to. Some are hard not to laugh at or even make fun of. "Fan death" makes an uproariously funny Halloween costume. But if I've said this once, I've said it a thousand times, like soooo many other things, Koreans carry things to the extreme. I'll give two examples.

During a trip to South Korea for a soccer friendly between the North and South national teams, the passengers on the North Korean team bus saw a banner on the side of the road for the event. It had the image of their then leader, Kim Jong Il on it. And it was raining. The bus was immediately stopped and several people got out of the bus in order to shield his holy countenance from the elements.

The second incident took place in the south. There are two statues of girls that are monuments to comfort women in Korea. As this article explains, one is outside the Japanese embassy in Korea's largest city, Seoul, and the other is outside the Japanese consulate in Korea's second largest city, Busan. Notice the stocking cap and scarf placed with love onto the statue to keep her warm in the harsh, Korean winter.

This is a dangerous time here in Asia. Trump recently said that if China won't deal with North Korea, the U.S. will. Martin Luther King Jr. said that the U.S. is the greatest purveyor of violence on the earth. He said this during Viet Nam, which was one giant war crime. Civilian killings went unpunished, rape was rampant, napalm was designed to stick better to skin and even burn under water, as so many well done Viet Nam movies can give us a sense of, it was pure hell.

Similar to Vietnam, the U.S. bombing of North Korea during the Korean war was described in the identical words: "Kill anything that moves." As this article attests, the bombing, and napalming, they used napalm in N. Korea too, was merciless and endless. A key line is,  "After running low on urban targets, U.S. bombers destroyed hydroelectric and irrigation dams in the later stages of the war, flooding farmland and destroying crops." This is war crime. You can't DO this! You are killing innocent people, and in a Noam Chomsky video on YouTube I recently watched, he says American solders were glorying in it talking about the awesome sight of all that water washing over the farmland killing all those people and crops.

Knowing what kind of man Donald Trump is, knowing the hatred North Korea has for America, which is not quite as deranged as we are meant to believe it is, and knowing that the first thing North Korea or China will do in response to U.S. aggression is bomb the shit out of Seoul, it should be one of the most important things on the Korean political agenda to mend ties with Japan and present a more formidable defense against this. Japan has a more powerful military than most people think.

Yet I hear nothing about Korea pursuing issues of unity with Japan and am constantly finding divisive reminders of things like Dokdo and the comfort women. Nobody is expecting Korea to forget about the horrible atrocities committed by Japan against them. The two Canadian analogies that started this article can't compare in brutality. But the spirit of the two examples is something that would be healthy to foster in Korea and maybe through it begin forgiving individual things such as the comfort women issue, which they have received apologies and payment for no less than three times. The most recent settlement in 2015 netted each of the 46 remaining comfort women 187,000 American dollars each. That's WAY more than Canada pays for atrocities!

The argument goes that the apology was proven untrue because Japan didn't include the story of their occupation of Korea and war crimes against them in their history books to the extent that Koreans would like. The fact is, it is mentioned, including the comfort women. If Korea want the Japanese to have a full feature article with a pull-out poster or to write a Broadway play about it, I think they're asking too much. I didn't learn of the Chinese head tax in school and only briefly learned about the Japanese internment areas and camps.

At any rate, it doesn't help when you say you will get rid of the comfort woman statue in Seoul in exchange for the apology and payments, then not only go back on that promise, but you build ANOTHER one in front of the Japanese consulate in Busan. Worst of all is the terrible Korean melodramatic acting of Kim Eun Sung behaving like he's stunned at the Japanese "overreaction" to this intentional act of defiance and provocation. "How can a statue hurt Japan?" he muses.

More recently a film clip has been released that people are told is the first verifiable film clipping of Korean comfort women. But you look at it and the soldiers are Chinese, one girl is wearing a kimono, and the girls could be farm workers waiting for a ride home. I presented a simple question asking how we know they are comfort women. The soldiers are talking but my video had no sound. I asked if others had sound and if the soldiers are saying something incriminating. I was met with extreme hostility. People instantly jumping for the jugular. "Have you ever been repeatedly sexually assaulted?" "Do you loathe Korea so much that you rationalize the rape and murder of hundreds of thousands of women?" "You must be a Trump supporter." Then, after the video alone was enough to convince the previously convinced, this came out:

 

 

Now they have comparisons between the video and some photos. Okay, that's a little better, but still... I mean seriously, if you put a black and white, blurry photo of Jackie Chan next to some of these girls, you'd see as much resemblance. It shows how little evidence there must be for them to say that this further solidifies the evidence of Korean comfort women. The strongest evidence is in the minds of the old folks in Korea and in the many, many stories that are spread through Korea in every way possible to make sure this is not forgotten and the Hwa Pyung and Han do not diminish. Even though while the stories were told of Japanese burning textbooks and killing people, stealing land and possessions, forcing Koreans to be their slaves, to speak Japanese and to pledge allegiance to the Japanese Empire, oddly, the comfort women were not part of these stories until the early '90's. That's 50 years after the fact.

Whatever! Don't challenge this story, it's like walking through a mine field. Ask Park Yu Ha.

Korean representatives of the comfort women, (it's important to note, it's NOT the comfort women), have discounted apologies from Japan as not sincere while at the same time making promises to bury the hatchet that are not sincere. The newspaper, T.V. and internet stories, the protests, the ads, the building of statues in other countries, these things are actually increasing and so is the anger and the alienation of the Japanese people. A friend of mine took at bus in Los Angeles and saw a sticker on it that read, "Dokdo is Korean territory."

And for all I know, Korea may be in the right. I believe there WERE comfort women, I just believe there are reasons why they were kept secret for so long that aren't yet part of the official narrative, and may never be. As for Dokdo, I don't know or care.

What I care about, despite, or maybe somehow because of their crazy quirks, are the Korean people and I don't want to see them blown up. One of the people who attacked my challenging of the above video clip was a Korean girl who accused me of being one of many foreigners trying to tell Koreans how to feel about Korean issues. If you don't think about it, you may think she's made a good point. But if you understood how insular Koreans can be about ideas they hold dear, you'd know that it can't possibly be a Korean who encourages them to put Dokdo and the comfort women on the back burner for now and try to patch things up with Japan. That person would be lynched. But a foreigner has access to news, opinions and facts outside the Korean peninsula and they are not held to as high a standard of blind faith in Korean beliefs. The catch 22 of the whole deal is that the foreigner cannot be expected to understand the Korean plight so his/her advice will not be heeded.

 

So you see, it is their culture that will be the downfall of their culture. I don't literally think that. There is a disturbing trend to Koreans they call the brain drain. A lot of their smarter citizens are leaving the country and the most common reason stated is it's because of the way Korean people think. This article explains several more examples of the way Koreans think including a lot of the duties forced on everyone and the pressured they cause. I feel sorry for the creative Korean who wants to express him/herself or have different ideas. There is a saying in Korea that the nail that sticks up will be hammered down. It will take a little while for all the older more traditional opinion makers of Korea to die off before the younger Koreans can modernize the national thinking, but I think it will happen. If they aren't blown up first.

Meanwhile, yesterday a statement was made by Lindsey Graham, a U.S. senator from S. Carolina that conflict with North Korea is inevitable if the ICBM program continues. This is something that has always struck me as the height of arrogance in international politics. Who gets to have nuclear weapons? Who has them? We all know Russia and the U.S. have most of them. But there are seven other nations that have them. France, U.K., China, India, Pakistan, Israel and, you guessed it, North Korea. Why can some nations have nukes and some others can't? North Korea says their nuclear weapons are a deterrent. We've been conditioned to think the leadership of North Korea is too crazy to have nukes. But they haven't pressed the button yet. Who has? Only one country. And present leadership of that country is peerless in lunacy if you want my honest opinion.

Who fears a deterrent? Those who don't want to be deterred. See we don't want you to have nuclear weapons because we might want to nuke you at some point and we don't want you to be able to respond in kind. The fact is we don't want to fight unless we have an absolutely HUGE advantage. And this has always been my problem with the American ideal of bravery. Western movies, action movies, folk tales, even their history, guns. I don't like you. I get a gun and shoot you. I am a hero. This has never played well in my mind. This is not bravery, it's cowardice.

Having supreme firepower is not cowardice but the use of it could be. It all depends upon the values held by the person whose finger presses the button. Donald Trump has a habit of borrowing money for business ventures, reneging on those ventures and then suing the lenders. This is why he can't get money from most banks any more. But he's found one. Deutschebank. A bank that has strong ties to Russia. Russia is the kingdom of Putin. He is the 200 billion dollar man. It has been speculated that Trump is into Russia, (Putin or one of his army of thugs), for 4 billion and that this is why he refuses to reveal his tax information.

While we were busy over the weekend watching his new gameshow The Whitehouse Apprentice and The Mooch was fired, there was something very important going on. Bill Browder was giving testimony, damning testimony for Vladimir Putin, at the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings. Read the whole thing and you will see the kind of gangster kingpin control Putin has over Russia. It's sickening! The very idea that he has total control over Russia and, with Trump deeply in his debt financially and possibly for helping him get elected, this means Putin has a lot of power.

Now you may think this makes it less likely for the U.S. vs. North Korea hostilities to amount to much. If so, you haven't been watching the world lately. Putin has been strengthening his ties to North Korea, but it could be the old wolf in sheep's clothing. China's long relationship with North Korea is cooling. The North Koreans need an ally. Putin steps in. This may make North Korea feel safe, but it is actually the opposite. In true international vulture capitalist style, Putin, with his influence over Trump, might encourage a U.S. strike on North Korea simply to weaken the country. Then Russia can step in and "save" the North Koreans from the U.S. getting the country and all its resources at its most vulnerable and cheapest.

Maybe I'm overthinking this, and maybe even an allied S. Korea/Japan would STILL not be enough to stop this from happening, but I think now, maybe more than ever, Korea would be wise to buddy up with the Japanese instead of pissing them off.

I sure hope I'm wrong about all this!