Third Saturday Seminar 2017-2018
Return of the Elders, Unleash your Wisdom
Session 9
Has history just been made?
Or, has it just been repeated?
And, what are the consequences?
(North Korea)
(Don’t (be) Panic(ked))
Saturday, 16 June 2018 9:30AM to 12:00 NOON (3d Saturday))
Room B-102, Lone Star College – Montgomery
3200 College Park Drive – Conroe, TX – 77384 – 936.273.7000
This is the Nineth Session of the Third Saturday Seminar for the 2017-18 Academic Year.
We do not meet in July and August. The next meeting is Saturday, September 15, 2018
INTRO
What a week! As usual our hyperactive president continues to suck all the air out of the news cycle. First the G-7 meeting became the G-6+1 when Canada’s Prime Minister made a statement objecting to the new US Tariffs. Canada is one of the few countries with which we have a positive trade balance.
Trump left the G-7 meeting early to fly to Singapore, and saw Trudeau’s statement on one the many TV’s that are kept playing on Air Force One. He responded, by insulting our closest ally in war and peace with a mocking tweet.
And then we were treated to a series of photo ops and a joint statement intended to give the world assurances that a nuclear war with North Korea has been avoided with the following four points:
- The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new US-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.
- The United States and DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
- Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula
- The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.
These words are obviously intended to make the world feel a nascent nuclear conflict sparked by the vitriol between the leaders of N. Korea and the US has been avoided. But there is little here that we can take to the bank. In the mean-time President Trump voluntarily announced that the joint South Korea-US military readiness exercises that have been run twice a year will be canceled. South Korea was caught by surprise.
As our president says, we will see what happens. Apparently someone asked him what he would do if it turns out that Kim Jong Un lied or failed to keep the “commitments.” His response was that he would simply lie about it. This is surreal!
The Take-Away:
A positive future for the North and South Korea is far from assured. However, it appears that President Trump now feels he has a close trusting relationship with the young dictator of the most oppressive country in the world who has demonstrated his willingness to starve his people and kill members of his own family, including the uncle that mentored him.
Will dealing with the foibles of North Korea become a major national distraction for America, freeing up China to pursue it’s expansionism and Russia to pursue it’s efforts to break up western democracies and alliances? If this agreement actually starts to produce the desired results, North Korea will certainly expect and/or demand financial assistance. How much? From whom? North Korea is ridden with corruption is ranked 171/180 according to Transparency International 1917 rankings (www.transparency.org) What assurance will we have that financial aid will be used for the purposes intended. Iraq and Afghanistan were failures.
Assuming that the two Koreas, begin to develop commercial and social relationships, how will that affect the status quo in North Korea and how might Kim Jong Un deal with it?
Will the Communist establishment feel secure enough to allow changes that will happen naturally?
For those who like to read ahead, I suggest the following link to get started:
Trump-Kim summit: Donald Trump vows to ‘end war games’ in ‘new history’ with North Korea
Donald Trump unexpectedly suspended “war games” on the Korean peninsula yesterday as he convinced Kim Jong-un to back “complete denuclearisation” in a written agreement.
The US president said joint US-South Korean military exercises were “very provocative” and “tremendously expensive”, attacking a policy his own administration has pursued until now.
Mr Trump also floated the possibility of one day pulling America’s tens of thousands of troops out of South Korea, though he said the move was not currently under consideration.
Read more here
As usual, our world is still in “interesting times” We will start the session with Current Events (Distractions)
Think about this: How much wrong do we have to watch until we decide, that we have seen enough, and, decide something must be done
President Donald J. Trump will have been in office for 512 days by Saturday. There are 143 days to the next mid-term Congressional General election, 6 Nov 2018. PLEASE PLAN ON VOTING
- For at least a few days, his hot war withRobert Mueller has turned cold. Trump last tweeted about the Russia investigation on June 7. But there’s considerable anxiety that the détente is about to end.
- President Donald Trump said Monday that he has the “absolute right” to pardon himself, a bold assertion that raises the stakes as he and Special Counsel Robert Mueller may be headed toward a Supreme Court battle that could test once and for all how much a president is above the law.
HALF BAKED: Gay rights in America: By a 7-2 margin America’s Supreme Court yesterday ruled in favor of a Christian baker who had refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. Colorado’s civil-rights commission had ruled against the baker. The justices, though, avoided giving clear guidance on where gay rights end and religious freedom begins. Indeed the swing judge, Justice Kennedy, was more exercised by the rudeness that the commission showed towards the baker
- Mueller Accuses Paul Manafort of Attempted Witness Tampering. Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, tried to contact witnesses in the case against him by phone and through an encrypted messaging program, prosecutors said.
- Suicide Bomber Attacks Afghanistan’s Top Imams, Kills 7 Council member Ghofranullah Murad publicly read a statement less than an hour before the attack in which the council declared a fatwa, or Islamic ruling, denouncing the Taliban’s war in Afghanistan as illegal and forbidding killing by any means.
Democratic hopes to take back the House may have gotten a major boost on Tuesday, with the party seeming likely to avoid its worst nightmare as Democrats appear to have survived California’s top-two “jungle primary.” Ballots were still being counted in many of the most contentious races Wednesday morning but Democrats were comfortably positioned to stay in contention in every key race in the state. Republicans also avoided a political headache as they managed to get their top candidate into the race for California governor.
- And whatever comes up … You can always get a quick Current Events briefing here
Bring your insights and your concerns to Third Saturday Seminar on Saturday and we will share.
LSC-Montgomery
3200 College Park Drive, Conroe, TX 77384
ALL- Montgomery Links:
Academy for Lifelong Learning: LSC-Montgomery
http://www.lonestar.edu/all-montgomery.htm
Steven Gorman
Program Manager, Academy for Lifelong Learning,
LSC-Montgomery 936.273.7259
steven.gorman@lonestar.edu
Registration
How do I register for a class? You can download a registration form and submit it to ALL:
· In person: LSC-Montgomery (3200 College Park Dr., Conroe, TX 77384), Continuing Education/ALL Office Building E (Room 205)
· Phone: 936.273.7446 ,Fax: 936.273.7262
Third Saturday Seminar – Fall 2018 – 3 Sessions
To refer to an “ancient Chinese” saying, “Our world is in interesting times” and individual citizens are assaulted with a blinding array of propaganda from every conceivable source. The Third Saturday Seminar is about demystification of what is going on around us. Time will also be spent on current events.
Meets on Montgomery Campus 9/15, 10/20 &11/17 IN B-102.
XXXXX SA 9/15-11/1718 9:30 A.M.-12 P.M. B 102
Find the Schedule for other ALL Courses at: http://www.lonestar.edu/all-montgomery.htm
Montgomery Courses start on page 30. http://www.lonestar.edu/ALL-Schedule-PDF.htm
You can attend ALL courses on all the other campuses by registering for global membership ($55).
ALL Website: http://www.lonestar.edu/all-montgomery.htm
Registration Form at: http://www.lonestar.edu/departments/ce/ALL_Registration_Form.pdf
Campus Maps http://www.lonestar.edu/maps-montgomery.htm
“Some part of our being knows this (the universe) is where we came from. We long to return. And we can. Because the cosmos is also within us; We’re made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” Carl Sagan
See you this Saturday, 16 June 2018 at 9:30am, Room B-102 for our 9th meeting of the 2017-2018 Academic Year. For questions call me (mobile) Best way to reach me during the day. If you email me – and it’s important – please call my cell and leave a message. I go days without looking at my inbox. Curt
2018 continues to be an “INTERESTING” year! We will keep you informed to the best of our ability. See you on Saturday.
Curt Gibby