The Trump North Korean Follies: Memories of Youth

The one good thing about Trump is that he does remind me of the days in Old Harbor Village. I moved from there when I was ten years-old so I know what I remember are happenings in my very early years.

You know what happened. Trump said “North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.” He then expanded the line to “fire, fury and frankly, power the likes of which this world has never seen before” 

Obviously North Korea backed off making threats. Well, that’s not true. It then a couple of hours after Trump’s warning replied:  

“it was “carefully examining” a plan to attack Guam,  . . . Kim Jong-un is weighing up firing intermediate range ballistic missiles at the Micronesian island, situated in the Western Pacific, less than 3000 kilometres north of the Australian coast, according to state-run media. The plan involves creating an “enveloping fire around Guam.”

Trump was in a box. North Korea did exactly what he told it not to so the consequences should have been “fire and fury.” Only it wasn’t. Trump had lost face, again. How would he save it. He resorted to doing the way we did it as kids. We bragged about something else when someone stood up to us.

Trump responded the next morning: “My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before.” All knew that was a lie and impossible to accomplish in such a short time.  It didn’t matter to Trump just like it didn’t matter to us first graders..

As young kids we’d get in disputes particularly during our made-up back yard games. “I dare you!” was a common threat. “Knock the chip off my shoulder another.” When put on the spot a fight threatened but since neither really wanted to fight (although often you had no choice) you’d start with the verbal stuff. “Oh, yeah, my father can beat up your father.” Or, “my father was in the Army and he’ll get the Army to help me.”  

This latter always bothered me because my father wasn’t in the service so I had no military force to fight on my side. My only response to that would be: “oh, yeah!” which would switch the argument to: “oh yeahs.” Arguing about those things avoided a fight and each contestant could eventually go back and after a few minutes we could continue playing the game which brought about the argument.

In effect now that Kim Jong-un called Trump he has changed the dispute into whose got the best nuclear force. Sort of silly since no one doubted that we did. But when you have to save face stating the obvious is no hindrance to doing it.

It’s only that Trump is not six or seven years old. Children of that age are not expected to act like adults as their brains are still developing. We like to say of children they should be seen but not heard. Perhaps someone should tell Trump that.

I was going t say he should be told to think before he speaks. But I decided that would not be appropriate. I’m not sure he has the capability to think.

 

14 Comments

  1. an active barometer of the size of the thread
    we weave is described in the book CLOAK and GAVEL
    by attorney Alec Charns

    Product details
    Author: Alexander Charns
    Publisher: University of Illinois Press
    Pages: 206
    Format: hardback
    ISBN: 0252018710
    The separation of powers becomes a meaningless cliche as Alexander Charns – using the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s own files – reveals how that agency undermined the independence of the U.S. Supreme Court for a half-century. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover’s goal was simple: to push the Supreme Court to the right on issues of civil rights and criminal law. His techniques ranged from illegal wiretapping to spreading disinformation, from using Justice Abe Fortas as an informant to trying to hound liberal Justice William O. Douglas off the bench. Cloak and Gavel, the definitive work on the FBI-Supreme Court relationship, is based on thousands of pages of FBI documents that Charns fought for eight years to obtain. One 2,000-page file was released only after he filed hundreds of Freedom of Information requests and brought lawsuits …
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    in other webs

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y5UyynjxAyw

  2. I have not read all of the postings, but, one stood out! The now Chief Judge Leslie Ann Rothenber, was one of the three original judges on the first 3rd District of Appeal board that heard John Connolly’s FIRST APPEAL. Within less than 30 days, the lead judge, not the chief judge at the time, issued a PCA [Per Curiam Afformance] in John’s case. By issuing a PCA she was not required to write an opinion supporting her decision. The only option left for John Connolly’s defense was to request an “en banc” hearing. Well, approximately one year later, the en banc hearing was convened. Judge Frank Sheperd, the chief judge, along with Judges Richard Suarez and [none-other-than Leslie Ann Rothenber] heard the re-hearing of the original charges. This time the court found 2-1 in favor of John Connolly. However, Judge Sheperd allowed the state to file any motion[s] challenging [attacking] the decision. Leslie Rothenberg, incensed over the 2-1 decision, wrote a 40 page dissent attacking the ruling. My point is, why did she not write an opinion supporting the decision following the first en banc hearing; she couldn’t because there were no statutes supporting John’s conviction. Now, after the 2-1 decision, the state did file a response. This required that the entire appellate court to be convened. During the courts review, [it is assumed] that Leslie Rothenberg convinced other members of the court to rule in her favor. Her efforts were successful as the court ruled 5 – 4 in the states favor. Of note, there are no state statutes that support the wrongful conviction of John Connolly; the members of the court know this to be true, or they are incompetent. As an aside, Leslie Ann Rothenberg was a paramour of Michael Lee von Zamft. This has been confirmed by two former paramours of dear Leslie. In explicit terms, von Zamft and Leslie were allegedly practicing “Caligula Sex” aka kinky sex, while they were assistant state’s attorneys together. Nothing like conflict of interest! Again, two of the people, supra, who were incarcerated with John Connolly provided statements confirming their relationship with Rothenberg. Oh, the web we weave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  3. John King McDonald

    msfreeh ….*subliminal not … sublimal . Your paranoid conspiracy mongering aegis is not what John Connolly needs as the heraldic symbol for a Free John Connolly Committee . You have a lot of good points , some interesting posts , but fortunately or not , you have the dinning of the cracked pot in much of your material . I offer your claim that the FBI brought the Murragh Federal Building down in Oklahoma City as sufficient indication . Tough to take a spam artist ( sic ) all that seriously. UGH .

  4. The first thing in creating a 501c3 organization to spring
    John Connolly is putting together a advisory board that is FBI Tamper Proof.

    Second no one is allowed to join until they
    are screened and committed to
    working on a committee

    Third you give a name to the organization like
    Massachusetts FBI Civilian Review Board

    Fourth you shame Matt into producing a
    weekly youtube show featuring guests,
    book reviews,action alerts, and the occasional John Connolly story
    inserted as a trojan horse at the sublimal level
    much like I do on this blog.

    Fifth you create a committe not adverse to civil disobediance
    and political actions designed to make the perps sweat.

    6th you accept and embrace the idea that large numbers of people
    is power so your goal is to make the organization as
    large as the NRA.

    This is as high as I can count for today

  5. Matt, thanks for the flash back to the future. Hopefully this ends like our childhood
    confrontations, but I doubt it. We are dealing with Communist who we are vowed to stop the spread of. It’s amazing how human nature is still unchanged ” YOU THROW
    THE FIRST PUNCH , NO YOU THROW THE FIRST PUNCH “.
    Bill C, Just to let you know the judge that turned the vote around after John was acquitted in appellate has just been made chief judge of the 3rd App. Court. It has been said that she brow beat and warned the two other judges that if they did not go along with her, things would be difficult. She was also VERY GOOD friends with the leed prosecutor Von Zamp in John’s trial. Also remember federal prosecutor Whyshak was
    His puppeteer, I mean adviser. So that means whatever John files in appellate court doesn’t stand much of a chance, and he does have something in appellate court . The trial in Florida was a joke and a huge miscarriage of justice. The deck was restacked and refined against him. Believe me everyday John and his supporters are trying and
    working to prove his innocence and get a release.

    difficult for them. It is also

  6. Our President, Donald Trump, has spent a lifetime successfully negotiating by means of outsized demands and shifting priorities. He does think, usually several steps of the fellow on the other side of the table. Those who idea of play is coin flipping do not understand chess. They have no concept of a long game.

    In Korea Trump inherited a problem sourced in the Clinton administration’s policy of aiding the development of nuclear power in North Korea as though it could not be adapted for weaponry. Of course he talked tough saying, “I made it as clear as I could that if they were to do that, they would pay a price so great that the nation would probably not survive as it is known today.”

    With blame on both sides the deal broke down and neither subsequent presidents were able to fix it. Bush extended the definition of US interests to human rights in the North. Not a good idea. Obama found the Kim regime in his own words, “extraordinarily provocative.” Then he blustered that he, “not hesitate to use our military might.”

    The point is this: Trump’s policy is a continuum of what has preceded in policy and in diplomacy. The rhetoric has not changed much though the reporting of it has. Whose fault is that?

    For a generation the can has been kicked down the road. Trump is in the mainstream. Same old, same old. The most notable difference is the loud squawking with unlimited media access of those unwilling to accept the decision of the American people last November.

  7. At this point, Connolly needs something to reenergize the effort to get him out of prison. Would be great if he could find a reporter from the New York Times, the Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal to take an interest in his case.

  8. Matt
    Reading about Old Harbor Village made me feel incomplete
    and disenfranchised having grown up in thr West End of Boston
    on Revere and West Cedar streets.

    Yes I often hunger for the authentic tribal experience
    that Southie provided to the Matt Connolly Irregulars.
    My earliest West End tribal memories are from the early 1950’s standing
    outside the Old Howard in the falling snow ,gazing intently
    at the building looking for some some small security flaw
    that would allow me to sneak in and warm my frozen body parts.

    But alas it was not to be and I had to settle for sneaking into the
    Rialto Theater to watch the latest episodes of Lash Larue and Tom Mix.

    Then it was off to Joe and Nemos for a hot dog and orange soda.

    This I realized was all preparation for my later life experiences
    learning how to cope with Donald Trump.
    Oh how I wish I could have had an authentic West End Tribal
    experience, eh?

    In other Tribal News see

    http://www.occurrencesforeigndomestic.com/2017/08/12/devil-loosed/

    in other authentic experiences see

    How young Donald Trump was slapped and punched until he made his bed
    BY SANDY MCINTOSH
    NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Friday, August 11, 2017, 5:00 AM

    • Orange sodie pop with a Joe and Nemo’s hot dog? Those steamed rolls and that dripping schlong of a tube steak, mustard, relish, ketchup with orange soda? Anything but a paper cone of root beer is a travesty. The prosecution rests.

      Shall we move on to Simco’s, By The Bridge?

  9. One other thought this Saturday morning. John Connolly’s jury was not sequestered. They went home on nights and weekends. One day they awakened to news blasted on every t. v. and radio, and plastered on the front page of every Florida newspaper: “Boston FBI found liable.” Some federal judge in Boston in cahoots with the Federal Clerk’s Office in Boston decided that a good time to release a Civil Suit Decision against the FBI was while John Connolly’s jury was considering his fate. The jurors’ minds likely were further polluted, although Wyshak had done his best to pollute their minds by repeating serial killers’ testimony that a previous Boston jury had rejected.

  10. Hello Matt, Great series on Agent Connolly, hopefully he still has options for an early release available. 2. Great picture of #18, it brings back many memories of much happier times at the “Old Harbor”. 3. By the way, a reunion for all former residents of that fabled Village, will be held on September 24th at the Fireman’s Hall in Dorchester from 1pm to 5. 4. The Globe reported yesterday that a Developer plans to spend 1.3 Billion Dollars on our place of birth. Hopefully this huge amount will include improvements to the “Statutes”, “Mrs Shea’s Shows” and of course ” Stogies”.

  11. 1. North Korea said it plans to fire four unarmed ICBMS over Japan and within 20 miles of Guam by the end of August. Let’s see: Will it or did Trump’s rhetoric deter it? Will Japan shoot them down? Will they fall harmlessly outside Guam territorial waters? If they go astray and hit inside, what will we do. Wait and see.

    2. Matt, I wanted to follow up with the Florida Appellate Court’s 6-4 decision to uphold John’s conviction. Here’s how the Court began its analysis: It quoted the State supposedly quoting Connolly: “If Callahan talks, we’ll all be in trouble.” We know that’s absurd because Callahan knew nothing about John Connolly and had nothing to say negative about him. Then the Court said Connolly was responsible for leaking info that led to Castucci’s death and Halloran’s death. He was never charged with that in Florida and was acquitted of those very things in Boston. The Court painted Connolly in the darkest light possible based on facts disproved in Boston and not proved, not accepted by the Florida jury. The Court simply accepted everything Martorano and Flemmi said as gospel, and ignored the Florida’s jury acquittal of John on conspiracy and murder one.

    In other words, the Florida Appellate Court began its analysis with blatant falsehoods. Even so, but for one judge, John would be free, as the 5-5 decision would have let the 2-1 decision overturning his conviction stand.