CNBC.com

President Donald Trump addresses the 72nd Annual UN General Assembly in New York on September 19, 2017. Trump at UN: ‘Rocket Man’ Kim Jong Un ‘is on a suicide mission’  President Donald Trump addresses the 72nd Annual UN General Assembly in New York on September 19, 2017. Trump at UN: ‘Rocket Man’ Kim Jong Un ‘is on a suicide mission’
A wave of shock rippled through Twitter and the media after President Trump called North Korean President Kim Jong Un a “Rocket Man” in his speech before the United Nations Tuesday.
“‘Rocket man’ made the TelePrompTer?!?!” “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd tweeted.
Another person wrote on Twitter that Trump’s use of the term showed that he doesn’t grasp the severity of the situation.
Oh, I think Trump knows EXACTLY what he is doing.
Remember when he ran against “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz and “Little Marco” Rubio in the primaries? Then, when he beat all of his GOP contenders, he ran – and won – against “Crooked Hillary” Clinton in the presidential election.

Kim Jong Un might be using missiles as his weapon of choice but when President Trump goes into battle, his weapon of choice seems to be ridicule – and a catchy nickname to make it stick.

Trump first debuted the nickname “Rocket Man” on Twitter over the weekend but pulled it out again at the United Nations on Tuesday, saying in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly:

“No nation on Earth has an interest in seeing this band of criminals arm itself with nuclear weapons and missiles. The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. The United States is ready, willing, and able, but hopefully this will not be necessary. That’s what the United Nations is all about. That’s what the United Nations is for. Let’s see how they do.”

Oh, it’s hard to count the multitude of ways this new moniker in the Trump ridicule machine works on so many levels. It’s insulting without being vulgar. It pigeonholes Kim down to his missile-test mania. And it’s even the title of one of the most popular pop songs of all time making it so easy to remember, parody, and enjoy. So you know who’s responsible when you hear “Rocket Man” on the radio even more than the usual 150 times per week right now.

President Trump may be the Commander-in-Chief, but he’s really the Marketer-in-Chief. And he may now be on the verge of marketing Kim Jong Un right out of power.

Think about it: Kim Jong Un’s most important commodity at his disposal is fear. That nuclear and missile program-created fear makes him a factor in a world that would otherwise not even care if he existed. Kim is certainly not loved outside his own country, and maybe not even in his own country, but he is not ignored or taken lightly.

Look for the president and the entire Trump team to start using this title when discussing Kim Jong Un more and more in the coming days and weeks. Trump’s already made it clear that he’s not afraid to use it anywhere — even on the floor of the United Nations.

The other brilliant marketing move President Trump used in his U.N. speech was repeating the term “America first” and explaining that idea in front of the entire world. That kind of naked patriotism may seem out of style in many parts of the world, but it’s part of the branding that got Trump elected especially in heartland states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. And saying something as nationalist as “America first” in the very building where nationalism is supposed to be supplanted by international common ground is brilliant marketing from a president who won’t ever stop branding and marketing himself.

If the U.N. weren’t such an abject failure in its stated mission to stamp out nationalism and aggression, perhaps President Trump’s words today would be an outrage. But the U.N. has failed to quell everything from North Korea’s nuclear tyranny, Iran’s funding of worldwide terror, a Syrian civil war that’s left hundreds of thousands dead, Russia’s bullying of its neighbors, and these are just the bad things that are happening this year.

Only a cloistered group of academics and self-important pundits would miss the fact that rhetorically defusing one of the world’s most feared dictators by calling him “Rocket Man” is a winning move.

Getting a ridiculous name, along with the catchy song it evokes, to stick will be absorbed by the populous and will likely help Trump gain support from voters in whatever strategy he decides to implement against Kim Jong Un – even if it’s something drastic like a removal strategy.

Think about it: If people have been saying “Rocket Man” and “suicide mission” around the water cooler for six months, they’re going to be a lot less shocked if they hear something in the news about Trump wanting to take out Kim Jong Un – and a lot more supportive of the solution.

Donald Trump may still be a political neophyte. But he knows marketing and branding and, if we’ve learned anything in the past year, it’s that it works.

God knows what the little devil is up to here?

That green soylent must be pure steroids. In the Soylent Green movie (1973 starring Charlton Heston), the stuff is dead human remains processed into food. Mass cannibalism.

I find current affairs programs are always bringing on experts from think tanks. I got thinking about the term think tank and realized the two words just don’t go together very well. Think connotes an intellectual endeavor, tank on the other hand conjures up images of big metal or glass containers. Not to mention battle tanks.

The two words are completely incongruous together. No matter, I digress, what are these think tanks?

A think tank, policy institute, or research institute is an organisation that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most policy institutes are non-profit organisations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax exempt status. Other think tanks are funded by governments, advocacy groups, or businesses, or derive revenue from consulting or research work related to their projects.

One of the biggest Think Tanks in the world is RAND Corporation. RAND (“Research and development”) is an American nonprofit global policy think tank originally formed by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financed by the U.S. government and private endowment,corporations,universities and private individuals. The organization has expanded to work with other governments, private foundations, international organizations, and commercial organizations on a host of non-defense issues, including healthcare. RAND aims for interdisciplinary and quantitative problem solving via translating theoretical concepts from formal economics and the physical sciences into novel applications in other areas, that is, via applied science and operations research.*

Headquarters in Santa Monica. Right off the beach, nice.

RAND has approximately 1,700 employees. Its American locations include: Santa Monica, California (headquarters); Arlington, Virginia; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the San Francisco Bay Area; and Boston, Massachusetts. The RAND Gulf States Policy Institute has an office in New Orleans, Louisiana. RAND Europe is located in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and Brussels, Belgium. RAND Australia is located in Canberra, Australia.

• Wikipedia

These guys just want to have power fun.

Team America will take out Kim Jong Un!

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BBC

Why is Kim Jong-un always surrounded by people taking notes?

There’s a newly released batch of photographs of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on a series of site visits. The dozens of photos all have one curious detail in common – the leader is surrounded by officials and generals making notes in identical notepads, writes Kathryn Westcott.

In the photographs – from the country’s official Central News Agency (KCNA) – Kim Jong-un observes a unit of women conducting a multiple-rocket launching drill. He strides around a fishery station. He gives a pilot on flight training a pep talk. He enjoys the facilities at a renovated youth camp.

But who are those men meticulously taking notes? They’re not journalists, but soldiers, party members or government officials, says Prof James Grayson, Korea expert at the University of Sheffield. What is happening is a demonstration of the leader’s supposed power, knowledge, wisdom and concern, says Grayson. It’s “on-the-spot guidance”, something instigated by his grandfather Kim Il-sung in the 1950s. “It’s part of the image of the great leader offering benevolent guidance,” says Grayson.

At a renovated youth camp

Offering advice at a soon-to-be commissioned fishery

What might that guidance be? Well, if Kim’s anything like his grandfather it could be practical advice. Very specific practical advice. After Kim Il-sung visited a fishery in 1976, KCNA published this: “Watching a truck at work, the president said that its bucket seemed to be small in comparison with its horsepower. He said the problem of carriage would be solved if the bucket was enlarged. Afterwards the truck’s bucket capacity increased to two tons from 800 kg. As a result, 20 trucks were capable of carrying the load to be done by 50 trucks.”

Kim Jong-il carried on the field guidance policy after his father Kim Il-sung died

Despite the fact that tablets are available in the country, paper notebooks remain the favoured medium. “These are pictures that will be broadcast on television and shown in the state media, so those who are there want to be seen recording Kim Jong-un’s every word,” says Grayson. “It’s about presenting him as having broad knowledge – however, it’s ridiculous, he can’t possibly know about all of these different things. It’s important, however, that the apparatchiks that surround him are seen to be hanging on his every word.”

According to Prof Steve Tsang, chair the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham, the note-takers will be writing extremely carefully. “They wouldn’t want to write down anything that was, say, politically inaccurate, or it might come back to bite them.” The notes are not usually published or available for the public to view, says Tsang. “If anything comes out of them, it would be via the propaganda department. Whether it was what was actually said, or is different to the guidance given at the time, doesn’t matter. No-one will ever question it. If you were at the factory and the advice that was released wasn’t quite what you had in your notebook – what are you going to do about it?”

Kim Jong-un visits a flight training centre

“In high school Kim Jong Un starred in a production of the musical ‘Grease.’ That’s also where Kim met his first wife, Olivia Newton Jong.” –Conan O’Brien

Here he is on a North Korean amphibious assault boat.

North Korea is the first and only communist totalitarian family dynasty the world has seen.  I wonder what Marx and Lenin would think of this.  Sort of goes against the idea of equality and justice for all.

This little fat bastard is crazier than his father and grandfather combined.

Problem solved once and for all.

His majesty Donald Trump could pull this off. It would be fantastic, a beautiful thing.

Under political fire at home, U.S. President Donald Trump sealed a $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia on Saturday on his maiden foreign trip as he struggled to shift attention from the aftermath of his firing of the director of the FBI.

The arms deal, plus other investments that U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said could total up to $350 billion, was the central achievement of Trump’s first day in Riyadh, first stop on a nine-day journey through the Middle East and Europe.

Speaking to journalists after a ceremony to exchange agreements, Trump said it was a “tremendous day” and spoke of “hundreds of billions of dollars of investments into the United States and jobs, jobs, jobs. So I would like to thank all of the people of Saudi Arabia.”

King Salman gave Trump a remarkably warm greeting, meeting him at the steps of Air Force One on arrival, shaking the hand of Trump’s wife, Melania, riding with Trump in his limousine and spending most of the day with him.

Trump gets more gold for his collection.

The Donald checked out the camel races. Below are some camel trick riders.

Donald even participated in a 200 meter camel sprint. He came in 4th. In a post race interview Trump said the race was rigged. He said he was given a lame, terrible and smelly camel.