Earlier today President Trump participated in the annual wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown, Arlington National Cemetery:
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President Trump Memorial Day Message…
From the White House…
We Remember, We Honor, We Celebrate
Today all across this great land we call America, we pause to remember those who have fallen. We give thanks for their final sacrifice, for their love of country, and we say prayers for them, for their families, for the country they serve. We fly flags to honor their service, to observe our own dedication to America. But, being the ever optimistic Americans we are, we have turned this day formerly known as Decoration Day into a nation wide party, a celebration of patriotism, family, summer’s promise, and just any old other thing we choose it to be.
Tracking the origins of Memorial Day proves to be a somewhat difficult task. Some attribute it to former African slaves paying tribute to fallen Union soldiers. There is strong evidence that women of the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War. On May 30, 1868, flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetary. By 1890 all the northern states were observing the day. The South would not observe the same date until after World War I, when it became more than an observance recognizing those fallen in the Civil War.
So, it took another war to unite Americans in remembrance of those
fallen heroes. Stubborn aren’t we? Here in the South, I grew up visiting the cemetary on birthdays, holidays, and whenever my mother felt a need to connect with those gone from her – but never forgotten. Each visit to the cemetary (my mother never let us call it a graveyard) was a fascinating experience to me as a child.
Always walk around the plots, never step on one. Wander away as my mother knelt in the grass coaxed lovingly into growth in the red Georgia clay. Look first for relatives, those my mother spoke of, and those strange names I was unfamiliar with. Look for the little stone with the lamb on top – the resting place of my mother’s baby sister, Carole. Look for more lambs and little angels – they were dotted around the older section with alarming frequency, something I noticed even as a child. Take note of all the flowers.
It was a fine thing for a family to have many who remembered to honor their dead. I also very vividly remember the little American flags stuck in the ground on days such as Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. Not too long ago, I found a small cemetary with a mass grave of Confederate soldiers who mostly died of an outbreak, possibly flu, during the war. Those little flags had been put in the ground around the few individual markers. I wondered if they minded that 50 star flag, or if they were grateful to be remembered, honored, prayed over.
It was something I lived with as a child, this presence of the dead. I never thought much about it until recently. Here you literally cannot stray far outside your own yard without encountering some reminder of the war fought on this soil, and those fallen. As a child, many of our parents remembered grandparents who fought in the war. It is alive for us, and so has colored how we honor our dead, those who have fallen in battle, and those who in the words of many a fire and brimstone preacher, “The LORD has called home to be with HIM.” Believe me, no disrespect intended, just an indication of a little local flavor.
And so, I find myself wondering. Is this a southern thing? Is it an American thing? Or is it something common to all of us, this need to return to the place we left our loved ones for the final time on this earth? Is it a regional custom, tied deep in the roots we are so tangled in, or a need born with our souls? I think it must be the latter, with a twist of regional observances that may vary from place to place, but
sooth the heart of those who wait here, on this side. Perhaps, after all is said and done, it meets our needs more than just paying respect to the dead. We wander there, among those peaceful plots, wondering, imagining, where are they? How is it there? When will my time come? Will I be with them again? Then, that most human of all questions. Who will honor me in my time, when I lay beneath the grass coaxed lovingly into growth in the red Georgia clay?
I hope you enjoyed the video of my hometown. I couldn’t be more proud to live in a place like this little town. We Remember, we honor, we celebrate.
President Trump Protects Dancing Korea Brothers – Announces U.S. Advance Team Arrival in North Korea…
Interesting dynamics at play. President Trump has announced via Twitter the U.S. advance team has arrived in North Korea to position for a possible June 12th summit between President Trump and North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un.
(link)
Yesterday South Korean Prime Minister Moon Jae-in and North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un held an impromptu summit/meeting in the DPRK to display their unified smiles.
The influence agent, Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping, has been unusually quiet since President Trump asserted that Chairman Xi was the agent provocateur behind Kim Jong-un’s diplomatic bi-polarism. Apparently, Chairman Xi did not anticipate President Trump being so public with the sunlight; and there’s no way Xi anticipated the economic consequences POTUS Trump outlined in the 232 Auto-Sector review.
It’s a smart strategy for Team USA to engage with Team Rocketman while a Chinese trade visit from U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross looms on the Beijing calendar, June 2nd. Given the tenuously adversarial position Chairman Xi has boxed himself into, the dragon would be unwise to stir the pot until after Secretary Ross delivers his trade terms.
Chairman Xi has only one way out of the current box. However, if Xi were to move Kim into an aggressive proxy position too soon, like now, Secretary Ross would likely unload on the economic consequences come June 2nd. Rut roh,… dragon thrashing amid panda box.
China has recently violated the terms of the August 2017 U.N. economic sanctions against North Korea. Economic Panda is naked to his enemies. The consequences outlined and enhanced by the U.S. in support of those U.N. sanctions was a threat to cut off any violating country from the U.S. banking system and economic engagement therein.
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Ross and POTUS Trump didn’t respond to the recent China/DPRK violations because Rocketman was moving in the right direction. However, the economic consequences now loom like a sword of Damocles if Chairman Xi attempts to move Kim Jong-un again.
In the big picture we can see how President Trump has moved Xi away from having influence. Against this strategic success, with Chairman Xi sidelined, President Trump is now in position to be more assertive in his presentations toward a Korean peace process.
Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un can play happy sandwich makers and without knowing it they are quietly protected by the strategy President Trump has constructed.
If Xi attempts to break up the happily dancing Korea brothers, President Trump tells Secretary Ross to cut the horsehair and the sword of Damocles falls on the Chinese economy.
Brilliantly played.
Little Rocketman Kim Jong-un: “I feel closer to Moon again”…
After the sandwich-maker summit the two Korean boys held hands and began skipping in circles around the park while the band played Ode To Joy. So goes the end of the latest chapter in the ongoing komance between Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in.
If you don’t believe it, just look at this quote directly from Reuters:
…”Kim said he feels closer to Moon after talking again.”
SEOUL (Reuters) – After a surprise meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he hopes that U.S. President Donald Trump keeps his planned meeting with Kim in June, Seoul-based news agency Yonhap reported Sunday. (link)
Additionally, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressed “his fixed will” on a possible June 12 summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in a meeting on Saturday with the president of South Korea, North Korea’s state news agency said. During what it called in-depth discussions, Kim and South Korea’s Moon Jae-in agreed to hold high-level talks between their two nations on June 1, news agency KCNA said. (more)
“Maybe”…
President Trump Welcomes Joshua Holt Back To the U.S…
This evening President Trump welcomed home Joshua Holt, a young man who had been imprisoned in Venezuela for nearly two years. Mr. Holt and his family are from Utah. The family, the State Department team and a group of U.S. politicians who participated in the negotiations for his release, held a short Oval Office press availability.
Senator Orrin Hatch (Utah), Senator Bob Corker (Chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee), Senator Mike Lee (Utah), Representative Mia Love (Utah) and a number of key State Department officials were present. Toward the end of the remarks President Trump spoke briefly about the latest discussions surrounding a possible summit with North Korea.
Sandwich Makers Hold Surprise Meeting in North Korea…
South Korean Prime Minister Moon Jae-in is the Asian version of Barack Obama, and much like North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un essentially irrelevant in this geopolitical confrontation. Take a seat, or make a sandwich…. it matters not.
Behind the fanciful Korean ‘denuclearization talks‘ and lofty ‘peace initiatives‘ a far more consequential geopolitical economic battle is taking place between the worlds largest two economies. U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping are engaged.
The Sandwich Maker Summit – (Reuters) – “South Korean President Moon Jae-in held a surprise meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday in an effort to ensure that a high-stakes summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump takes place successfully, South Korean officials said.
[…] Their two hours of talks at the Panmunjom border village came a month after they held the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade at the same venue. At that meeting, they declared they would work toward a nuclear-free Korean peninsula and a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War.
“The two leaders candidly exchanged views about making the North Korea-U.S. summit a successful one and about implementing the Panmunjom Declaration,” South Korea’s presidential spokesman said in a statement. He did not confirm how the meeting was arranged or which side asked for it.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. But White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said an advance team of White House and U.S. State Department officials would leave for Singapore on schedule this weekend to prepare for a possible summit there.” (read more)
Sandwich Press
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Chairman Xi made a strategic decision in his adversarial approach toward President Trump. Again, as noted in the briefing by Secretary Pompeo – Panda China is telling Pompeo they too want to see peace, Korean stability and denuclearization. However, Dragon-China is using the panda mask, and simultaneously leveraging Chairman Kim to aid their trade and economic conquest objectives.
However, Beijing made a fatal mistake; Xi exposed too much dragon face -and brought great shame and embarrassment to the Chinese people- he did not expect President Trump to call him out publicly.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross heads to China June 2-4 with •Steel and Aluminum tariffs; •auto-sector 232 evaluations; •intellectual property penalties; •over $150 billion in additional trade sanctions/tariffs pending; •and financial sanctions against Chinese banks as economic arrows in his dragon slaying quiver.
Don’t doubt for a minute, based on Chairman Xi’s mid-May maneuver with Chairman Kim, Wolverine Ross is not about to fire one -or several- of those arrows directly into the heart of Beijing. My guess would be the Steel (25%) and Aluminum (10%) tariffs for China go into effect regardless of the disposition of current trade negotiations.
Chairman Xi Jinping made a strategic mistake. Communist Xi genuinely has no idea the level of hurt President Trump is looking for an excuse to deliver. Xi Jinping showed great disrespect by attempting to embarrass U.S. President Donald Trump over the Singapore summit. Things are fixing to get ‘Old-School’.
Breakthrough Headline: “Did China interfere with the North Korean summit?”
Credit to Fox Business for finally admitting the role Xi Jinping played in leveraging North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to become more adversarial to the U.S.- North Korean denuclearization talks and summit in Singapore. Perhaps this is the first reality shift for Western media to discuss, with greater accuracy and honesty, the extent of influence held by China over the activity of North Korea. The DPRK is a proxy province of China.
The first U.S. trade delegation visit to China happened May 2-5. Then there was an unexpected second trip by Chairman Kim to Beijing (May 8-9). Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping instructing Chairman Kim to change his approach publicly in order to provide China with leverage in the next U.S./China trade summit which took place shortly thereafter on May 15-18. China is leveraging North Korea for a better trade outcome.
As noted by President Donald Trump during his Oval Office remarks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the specifically scheming and cunning influence by Chairman Xi, what we customarily call ‘Red-Dragon-China‘, was -and is- accepted by President Trump as evidence of Beijing’s manipulative intent.
President Trump Tweets Cautious Optimism Regarding DPRK Summit Talks – June 12th…
Current Steel and Aluminum tariff exemptions expire June 1st. Secretary Ross scheduled to be in Beijing, China June 2nd, 3rd, 4th. The G7 Summit in Charlevoix, Quebec is on June 8th and 9th. The tenuous Singapore summit was previously scheduled for June 12th.
President Trump Participates in Naval Academy Graduation Ceremony…
Earlier today President Donald Trump delivered remarks to the graduating class of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis Maryland. In addition to the speech, President Trump remained on stage for 90 minutes to shake the hands of every graduate.
Centinel2012 