Trump's hilarious Nobel Peace Prize nomination

President Trump made a spectacular claim the other day.

Responding to a question about the upcoming summit with North Korea on Friday, President Trump said that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Prime Minister Abe of Japan gave me the most beautiful copy of a letter that he sent to the people who give out a thing called the Nobel Prize,” Trump said. “I have nominated you, respectfully on behalf of Japan, I am asking them to give you the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Unlike many of Trump's claims, this one happens to be true.
However, there is an important catch.

President Donald Trump is apparently quite jealous of former President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize, which the former won in 2009 for “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people.” So, in the fall, the United States government, at Trump’s request, asked Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to nominate him for the prize for his negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, an unnamed Japanese government source told the Asahi Shimbun.

Shameless!
This is the same guy who vowed to rain “fire and fury” on North Korea and to “totally destroy” the nation of 25 million people.
As for his peace efforts since, let's set the record straight.

In May of 2018, Trump cancelled summit talks with North Korea.
In August, Trump cancelled high-level peace talks with North Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in had a 3rd Summit in 2018, that the Trump Administration refused to attend. Because the U.S. wasn't there, important progress was made.
The agreement even had things in it that Washington said that it wants.

At a news conference held in Pyongyang’s state guesthouse Paekhwawon, President Moon said that North Korea will permanently dismantle its Donchang-ri missile engine test site and launch pad and would allow international inspectors to observe. He added that the North would take the further step of closing its Yongbyon nuclear facility if the United States responded with further concessions.

"The South and the North also discussed denuclearization steps for the first time," Moon said of his talks with Kim in a joint press conference held at the North's state guesthouse Paekhwawon.

In a late-night tweet, President Donald Trump lauded Kim's diplomacy.
...The Yonhap News Agency reported Kim said he and Moon had agreed to remove all nuclear weapons and threats from the Korean Peninsula.

Trump has been less than useless in these peace talks so far. All the credit should go to President Moon. However, Japan and South Korea view Trump as unstable, so they've decided to give him the one thing he can't refuse - flattery.

In response to these fears, the leaders of U.S.-allied Japan and South Korea have sought to forge closer ties with the unpredictable Trump, and have also massaged his ego by crediting him with the burgeoning detente with Pyongyang.

Last March, at a bilateral summit at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, Abe showered praise on the U.S. leader for his role in the crisis.

“The situation surrounding North Korea, due to the decisive decision by President Trump on the first-ever U.S.-North Korea summit, is at a historical turning point,” Abe said.

And in April last year, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said that Trump deserved the award, according to the South Korean presidential office, suggesting the credit-hungry U.S. president “can take the Nobel Prize” — so long as the two Koreas achieve peace.

In January of that year, he also hailed Trump, saying he “deserves big credit for bringing about the inter-Korean talks.”
...Mintaro Oba, a former U.S. State Department official who worked on North Korean issues, noted Abe’s moves to cultivate a relationship with Trump, writing on Twitter that the news, if true, is “a pretty deft move to use on a man who has repeatedly proven receptive to flattery.”

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

than actually giving one to Obomber turned out to be.

up
0 users have voted.

chuck utzman

TULSI 2020

@chuckutzman
Flattery has almost no cost, and if Trump values it, then keep is coming.

up
0 users have voted.
thanatokephaloides's picture

@gjohnsit

.Mintaro Oba, a former U.S. State Department official who worked on North Korean issues, noted Abe’s moves to cultivate a relationship with Trump, writing on Twitter that the news, if true, is “a pretty deft move to use on a man who has repeatedly proven receptive to flattery.”

If you can't baffle Trump with brilliance (and you can't; Trump wouldn't appreciate brilliance if it bit his hangers clean off), befuddle him with bullshit!

Love it, in a wry Discordian sort of way.......

Wink

up
0 users have voted.

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

hell.jpeg

up
0 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@gjohnsit

First off because the teacher didn't just allow the kid to not say it and for sending him to a detention center and charged. Good gawd, what's next? You'd think that this would upset people for overreacting and then charging the kid. Guess not...

It's about damn time that retire the pledge of allegiance as something that is mandatory. "One nation under gawd." Whose gawd?

up
0 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Lookout's picture

@gjohnsit

...for the pledge. I didn't make a big deal about it. By the end of the year he was pledging. I don't know if it was peer pressure or my approach. I also don't know if that was for the best.

I do know we all go through expected rituals...largely without thought...as if by habit. I always liked kids who stood outside the mainstream. Sadly this kid was not a good student. I've wondered about his life today (and I hope it wasn't jail which is the fate of many poor kids who react to their condition).

So out of literally 1000's of student only one wouldn't stand.

up
0 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Deja's picture

@Lookout
High school. Mid to late 80s. They were Jehovah Witnesses. Our principal got on the PA system and said it had been brought to his attention (rat) that there were students who were not reciting the pledge. (They'd stand, just not put their hands over their hearts or recite the words.) He threatened that anyone not saying the pledge would be put in a classroom and not allowed to participate in pep rallies and assemblies.

The only reason I know they were JWs is because I had a crush on one, and was a few people away from him at a pep rally. So, I watched him. I also worked part time with a woman who was a JW, and had done a little studying with her. I knew they didn't say the pledge, celebrate birthdays or Xmas.
(She was always so calm and kind. I thought it was her religion. Years later my supervisor was also a JW, and he was a racist asshole who showed blatant favoritism toward his own ethnicity and gender. I decided the woman from decades ago was just a kind, calm person. It had nothing to do with her religion.)

Sorry, went off on a tangent. Your handling of the situation sounds much more appropriate than my principal's.

up
0 users have voted.

@Deja
one thing upon which I agree with the JWs: I believe that the Pledge of Allegiance is idolatry, in violation of the pertinent commandment. I also happen to believe that this particular commandment is deeply wise. Making the material sacred is seriously self-destructive, because it exposes you to manipulation and psychological torture from anyone who is happy to desecrate that which you have sanctified.

The Jesus of the New Testament is such a remarkable and inspiring moral philosopher. Judge not that ye be not judged. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. When you did not feed the starving man, you did not feed me. Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Pray in private, not in public. Etc.

How tragic, that he has been co-opted from the start by sociopaths and psychopaths, by self-hating humans determined to punish all of us for the things the hate in themselves, by all the worst of the worst.

up
0 users have voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Deja's picture

@UntimelyRippd
I've found it a bizarre ritual for decades. The flag is a piece of plastic (used to be cloth). I have allegiance to my family and close friends. I don't have to say a pledge to them. Saying a pledge to an inanimate object is bizarre to me.

Re: JWs, I found their belief in the literalism of the passage, "The meek shall inherit the earth" pretty fascinating. 144,000 chosen ones go to heaven, and the meek shall inherit the earth. My calm coworker and her husband agreed that when one of them died, the other would remain unmarried so there wouldn't be a third wheel once they inherited the earth.

Same fascination with abstaining from blood. They can have plasma but not whole blood in an emergency. No undrained meat either -- do people actually eat animals that haven't had the blood drained?

As for the things you listed about Jesus, those are the exact things I see people claiming to be Christians ignoring. I might have met 3 or 4 true Christians in my life because I believe they should walk the walk, not just get baptized, put on a cross necklace or lapel pin and call themselves Christians. A quick glance at my Facebook relative's posts reflect I'm not reall related to any real Christians, only CINOs.

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

should all resign in protest and close down for good. We have only wars to show for anyhow.

up
0 users have voted.
thanatokephaloides's picture

@mimi

..... but its nominators and bestowers need to change.

Sweden has plenty of 99-percenters who could perform this task admirably (and as Alfred Nobel would have it, too).

Remember, the invention of dynamite has saved far more lives than it has cost.

up
0 users have voted.

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

@thanatokephaloides
TNT has killed a fuck of a lot of people.

up
0 users have voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Deja's picture

@UntimelyRippd

up
0 users have voted.
thanatokephaloides's picture

@UntimelyRippd

is that really true?

TNT has killed a fuck of a lot of people.

First of all, TNT isn't dynamite. The substances have different properties, different histories, and different Karmas. For various reasons related to chemistry and explosive physics, TNT is a much more effective people killer than dynamite, as evidenced by the fact that the former is in major military demand while the latter (dynamite) is not.

Secondly, my remark wasn't snark. Trinitroglycerol (nitroglycerine) is some seriously nasty shit. In Alfred Nobel's largely pre-refrigeration days, it was much worse than it is today. The mere transportation of nitroglycerine, much less its attempted use, routinely killed the transporters. From the Wikipedia article :

Nitroglycerin was later adopted as a commercially useful explosive by Alfred Nobel, who experimented with safer ways to handle the dangerous compound after his younger brother, Emil Oskar Nobel, and several factory workers were killed in an explosion at the Nobels' armaments factory in 1864 in Heleneborg, Sweden.

[.....]

In April 1866, three crates of nitroglycerin were shipped to California for the Central Pacific Railroad, which planned to experiment with it as a blasting explosive to expedite the construction of the 1,659-foot-long (506 m) Summit Tunnel through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. One of the crates exploded, destroying a Wells Fargo company office in San Francisco and killing 15 people. This led to a complete ban on the transportation of liquid nitroglycerin in California. The on-site manufacture of nitroglycerin was thus required for the remaining hard-rock drilling and blasting required for the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in North America.

Liquid nitroglycerin was widely banned elsewhere, as well, and these legal restrictions led to Alfred Nobel and his company's developing dynamite in 1867. This was made by mixing nitroglycerin with diatomaceous earth ("Kieselguhr" in German) found in the Krümmel hills.

It is these lives that the invention of dynamite saved.

up
0 users have voted.

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Anja Geitz's picture

@thanatokephaloides

But for those of us not immersed in the chemistry of dynamite, it felt intentionally misleading.

up
0 users have voted.

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Anja Geitz

Perhaps your comment wasn't snark But for those of us not immersed in the chemistry of dynamite, it felt intentionally misleading.

My apologies; I had no intention of misleading anyone.

And it's the history of dynamite I know, largely because of its relationship to the Nobel Prizes.

Smile

up
0 users have voted.

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

@thanatokephaloides
TNT is evidently safer and more stable, but more expensive and less powerful than dynamite.

Have you ever scene the film Sorcerer, with Roy Scheider? These guys have to drive a truckload of old dynamite across mountainous terrain in Central America. Very tense, as the nitroglycerin has started oozing out of the absorbent.

up
0 users have voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@UntimelyRippd

Have you ever scene the film Sorcerer, with Roy Scheider? These guys have to drive a truckload of old dynamite across mountainous terrain in Central America. Very tense, as the nitroglycerin has started oozing out of the absorbent.

Yes -- one wicked scary flick!!

Bomb

up
0 users have voted.

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

OzoneTom's picture

@UntimelyRippd
I do have the original Clouzot "The Wages of Fear" film on DVD and will have to look at this re-imagined version now. It sounds really good!

up
0 users have voted.
Deja's picture

@thanatokephaloides @thanatokephaloides
I feel like I've probably heard this on some documentary or back when the history channel was cool, but forgot it.

Thank you!

Your description reminds me of an episode of Little House on the Prairie. It was in a wagon, and no explosions that I recall, just lots of anxiety during the transport. Probably not in the book series lol.

up
0 users have voted.
dervish's picture

@thanatokephaloides TNT potentiated the modern explosive artillery shell, and thus most of the casualties of the two world wars.

That's a lot of people.

up
0 users have voted.

"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

thanatokephaloides's picture

@dervish

If I'm not mistaken, TNT potentiated the modern explosive artillery shell, and thus most of the casualties of the two world wars.

That's a lot of people.

You are correct: that's TNT, not dynamite, that did this.

up
0 users have voted.

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Anja Geitz's picture

@thanatokephaloides

Remember, the invention of dynamite has saved far more lives than it has cost

.

up
0 users have voted.

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Anja Geitz

Please see this Comment for the details.

up
0 users have voted.

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Bollox Ref's picture

@thanatokephaloides

Is a Norwegian affair. I assume because of the Swedish-Norwegian Union that lasted until 1905.

Frankly, the prize has become a joke, and should be retired.

up
0 users have voted.

Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

all of its credibility.

up
0 users have voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.