Reports The Daily Mail in "Bring it UN! Kim Jong-un arrives in Singapore on an Air China flight two days before historic summit with Trump - after North Korea dispatched his private jet on dummy flight as a security diversion."
Let me digress, because I'm feeling a little distanced from politics, though of course, I hope for the best at the big summit, and I do see the other Trump-and-foreign-policy story, "Trump Refuses to Sign G-7 Statement and Calls Trudeau ‘Weak.'"
I'm the sort of person who reads the passage quoted above and the first thing I want to talk about is "Vivian Balakrishnan... him..."... a man named Vivian... Vivian, the man's name:
Vivian... is a given name... derived from a Latin name of the Roman Empire period, masculine Vivianus and feminine Viviana, which survived into modern use because it is the name of two early Christian female martyrs as well as of a male saint and bishop....Here's a short article on Saint Vivianus:
The Latin name Vivianus is recorded from the 1st century. It is ultimately related to the adjective vivus "alive"... The latinate given name Vivianus was of limited popularity in the medieval period in reference to Saint Vivianus, a 5th-century bishop of Saintes...
The name was brought to England with the Norman invasion, and is occasionally recorded in England in the 12th and 13th centuries. The masculine given name appears with greater frequency in the early modern period. The spelling Vivian was historically used only as a masculine name, but in the 19th century was also given to girls and was a unisex name until the early part of the 20th century; since the mid 20th century, it has been almost exclusively given as a feminine name in the United States...
Saint Vivianus (Vicratius) was one of the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste who refused to sacrifice to pagan gods, and suffered for Christ around 320....
A company of forty Cappadocians.... was stationed in the Armenian city of Sebaste under the command of the pagan Agricola. When these soldiers refused to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods, Agricola locked them up in prison.... The holy soldiers were lined up and thrown into a [freezing cold] lake near the city, and a guard was stationed on the shore to prevent them from coming out of the water. In order to break the will of the martyrs, a warm bath house was set up on the shore...
In the morning, the torturers were surprised to see that the martyrs were still alive.... They led the soldiers out of the water and broke their legs.... They put the bodies of the martyrs on a cart and committed them to fire....
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It's always a bad job to go against the beliefs of the bosses.
I expected him to arrive by regular parcel post. That's the way royal jewels are transported, for security.
I'd buy a drink called Pagan Agricola.
“Committed them to the fire” is an interesting use of “committed.” Speaking of commitment, there’s a saying that the difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed.
Funny, because I was just at a retirement party for a friend, and another old friend, a man named Vivian was there, too. I never inquired about where his name came from.
I knew a man named Shirley, so off to Wiki I go --
Shirley was originally a male name, but its use in Charlotte Brontë's novel Shirley (1849) established it as a female name. The name is also common in Hebrew, in which it means "song unto me" or "I have a song".
"Saint Vivianus (Vicratius)"
Here "Vivianus" is they guy tormenting "Vicratius".
around 320
And here, Saint Vivianus died in 490, over 170 years old. He musta had a special diet, perhaps a diet of worms.
The accuracy of these old stories in amazing.
I have a college friend whose first name is Sharon, like his father. The father defied anyone to identify an older woman than he with that name (he was born ~1921), and he would win the bet every time.
There was a guy called Vyvyan in BBC show The Young Ones, he was most punk looking character.
I worked with a guy named Lynn. He was once summoned to the company nurse to have a Papp smear. So he presented himself and demanded that they smear his Papp. This was before That's-Not-Funny took hold, so everybody had a laugh about it, and they never asked him again.
Kim will trade his nukes for a weekend at Mar a Lago with Stormy Daniels.
Lolita tries to confuse Humbert by telling him that Vivian is a man and that Clare Quilty is a woman. Later in life, Darkbloom writes a biography of Clare Quilty, My Cue. Her name is an anagram for Vladimir Nabokov.
I don't see how anything but mumble mumble can come out of this "summit" meeting. Kim and Trump just don't have much to talk about until the Kim regime opens up a bit to the countries it shares land borders with.
Even a Chinese KFC opening in downtown Pyongyang would be bigger news.
I know a male Vivian. A liar and a thief, an Indian ex-Dubai. He crossed me once, then doubled and tripled down. I spent a month putting a case together and ruined his foreseeable future. Not proud of that, and against my nature, but he just didn’t know when to quit, even after he knew I knew. Possibly the only psychopath I’m aware of having known. I think his name made him crazy.
And Air China? Flying tourist class?
See the incredible story of Vivien Thomas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivien_Thomas) - the black man without a degree who was a partner with Dr. Alfred Blalock at Johns Hopkins in developing the first heart surgery. The master surgeon with the golden hands who was never allowed to operate on a human being, but trained a generation of Johns Hopkins surgeons.
Eventually Hopkins gave him an honorary doctorate so that they could call him Doctor, and his portrait was hung next to Blalock's.
The movie about him is called "Something the Lord Made", HBO. It's very good.
That Air China jet was an American-made Boeing. Bet bet that all the dinners to be served will have bottles of Trump Natural Spring Water
For more see,
https://www.trump.com/merchandise/
Funny, it never goes the other way. "A Boy named Sue" didn't start a trend, and I don't see any men named "Ashley"
I wonder if anyone is calling their Baby Boy "Trump".
Off Topic: The MSM, as usual is completely uninterested in talking about trade. They're all "Free Traders" and perked up when Trump wanted a "Free Trade Zone" but then quickly lost interest when that proposal died like a dog.
Now, judging by NPR and CNN and they're back to "Trump is a meanie to Justin and no one liked him. And he insulted the girls, by showing up late to their party" - international relations as junior HS gossip.
"They're all "Free Traders""
I'm so old, I remember when Dems wanted "fair trade."
And hey, whaddayaknow, lefties are still bitching about it, as I google Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch.
They happen to be opposed to, wait for it, NAFTA and TPP.
Ashley Wilkes?
It is not "free trade" if it is all tightly regulated by government agreements.
Judging from the reactions, I think Trump again did the right thing in throwing some M-80s in among the chickens.
That picture of Angela Merkel berating him with the crowd behind her and Trump's body language and facial expression is just priceless.
And I saw an article that said they are all busy raising their tariffs in case the Chinese take it into their heads to dump their excess steel and aluminum in their countries since Trump's tariffs made them uneconomical in the U.S.
So, it indeed seems Trump had/has a point.
Sebastian said...
They happen to be opposed to, wait for it, NAFTA and TPP.
You should google a little more and find out why they were opposed. The left has always been concerned about the quality of life of American workers and thus concerned about trade with countries that treat their own workers as pieces of meat.
He deserves to be hung from a street lamp by his own people. Or anyone else.
here's hoping he either already realizes that is his other eventual option here, or that someone explains it to him in small words, as to an idiot child, so there is no possibility of his misunderstanding.
Any time you see a law proposed with the word "fair" in it, you know someone is looking for an unfair advantage.
Lefty concern always leads to the unintended consequences of failure and tax payer bailouts.
Well, THAT was an awkward family Thanksgiving.
A few days ago, I wrote it was a trade war. Said alliances with allies are shifting and under strain.
People told me I was wrong. People told me I misunderstood the situation and there was NO problem.
The left has always been concerned about the quality of life of American workers and thus concerned about trade with OTHER countries that treat their own workers as pieces of meat.
The left lost interest in American workers about 25 years ago. You have been far more interested in other countries workers, though. That I agree with.
The master surgeon with the golden hands who was never allowed to operate on a human being, but trained a generation of Johns Hopkins surgeons.
Not quite true but close. I have a section on him in my medical history book.
He is not the only one. Al Starr had a lab tech, sort of like Thomas, who did hundreds of heart valve surgeries on cats. Cat mitral valves are pretty small and it was said by Starr's fellows at Oregon that the guy was the best heart surgeon in the world.
The heart surgery that Vivian Thomas and Blalock did was pretty primitive compared to now.
The entire leftist concern for workers consists of getting them in unions so their wages can be plundered for democrat politicians.
Period. The end.
more often than not:
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/06/secrets_travel_fast_in_dc.html
If you ONLY read the MSM, you would have NO idea how international trade works.
All they do is screech TRADE WAR!!! or babble about how "Tariffs are bad"
Nor do they discuss how all this "Free Trade" is regulated by thousand page trade agreements. Or that China is communist and subsidizes its industries.
And the fact that other countries have massive tariffs against us - is never mentioned. IOW, we let in their goods free of charge, and they keep our goods out. That is "Free Trade".
That's why Trump says you can't lose a trade war when when you're running a $800 billion trade deficit.
Here's another thing that's never talked about in the MSM. Most of our former Trade negotiators go to work for foreign lobbyists when they retire. Many of our former Congressman and Senators do the same. Perot was talking about this 25 years ago - and it hasn't changed.
I was told, just a few days ago, it we were not gonna get into a trade war.
I was told that alliances are not shifting. The meeting at the G-7 suggests otherwise.
The trade war begins. Pork tariffs on Wisconsin and Iowa farmers start early July.
rcocean said...
If you ONLY read the MSM, you would have NO idea how international trade works.
Or that China is communist and subsidizes its industries.
Not really true. From 2009.
The trade war will not be with China or our antagonists.
It'll be with former friends. The EU, Canada, the UK and Mexico.
I hope this goes well, not just for Trump, but for the world and North Korea.
“Well, THAT was an awkward family Thanksgiving.
A few days ago, I wrote it was a trade war. Said alliances with allies are shifting and under strain.
People told me I was wrong. People told me I misunderstood the situation and there was NO problem.”
—————————————-
Yes I remember thinking, she’s going to prove them wrong.
“The trade war will not be with China or our antagonists.”
Yes, why?
It'll be with former friends. The EU, Canada, the UK and Mexico
Yes why?
60-70 years ago the industrial trade unions accounted for about 35% of the total labor force. Today they have about 5%.
There is a reason for this. They got in bed with the Government.
Where is Drago to tell us again that no Trade Commissioner ever was influenced by a lobbyist? That was epic, lol.
wwww: People told me I was wrong. People told me I misunderstood the situation and there was NO problem.
You're still wrong. If you had any clue about trade you'd stop taking stuff put out as press fodder for some in-depth explanation of what's going on.
"Said alliances with allies are shifting and under strain."
I hope you don't think that "alliances are shifting and under strain" is a novel insight that everybody else has missed. That the post-War/post-Cold War political and econommic international order is in a state of transformation is pretty much any reasonably observant persons default assumption, and has been for many years now.
Glad to see you're catching up, though. Helpful hint, wwww: the current political and economic order is unstable, and has been in the process of falling apart for a while now, despite efforts to shore it up and maintain the status quo. This state of affairs long precedes Trump, and the status quo ante will not be reinstated after he's gone. It can't, because global conditions have changed too much for that equilibrium to be maintained. Regardless of what the gossip columns in the "foreign affairs" section of the Globe and Mail would like you to believe.
But I hope that you're not too disappointed when the massively damaging and de-stabilizing trade war with Europe and Canada you're so expertly predicting doesn't come to pass.
Wwww,
Perhaps Iowa pig farmers will be harmed.
But what about Wisconsin dairy farmers? Will they be harmed by tariffs on Canadian dairy products?
Canada currently has a 270% tariff on us dairy. We have 0% on their's.
Wi dairy will benefit.
If it is a hammer to beat all tariffs to 0, we'll all benefit.
I've been adamant about theneed for 1 sentence trade agreements for years. Eg
"ther shall be no restrictions or tariffs between our countries"
John Henry
John Henry:
Perhaps Iowa pig farmers will be harmed.
But what about Wisconsin dairy farmers? Will they be harmed by tariffs on Canadian dairy products?
Under current trade rules, some producers benefit, and some producers lose out. Under any new trade rules, some producers will benefit, and some producers will lose out.
Some producers would benefit, and some would lose out, even under ideal conditions of perfectly free trade.
(Of course you know that I didn't type out the above for your benefit, JH. Some people seem to have a hard time wrapping their heads around the obvious, though.)
ARM Inga and wwww love them some crony trade agreements.
The longer and more carve outs for Obama and Clinton cronies the better.
Trump put actual Free Trade on the table.
He is demonstrating you are all liars and finks like Trudeau and everyone sees it.
We are so lucky to share this blog with experts on international trade.
I'm sure wwww and ARM have made fortunes in international trade.
What does Trump know anyway ? He has only been building projects in foreign countries for 40 years.
Such experts we have here.
Sort of like all the experts on single payer who went to my blog to post nasty comments about my family 14 years ago.
Yes, we can learn a lot from Inga and ARM.
Well, where was the James Bond undersea SAM missile that was to take out Kim's plane when you need it? I would think Soros would have some so he could destabilize the world.
I like the photo at the bottom of that NYT article on the G7. Looks like a showdown.
Sydney: I like the photo at the bottom of that NYT article on the G7. Looks like a showdown.
Canada sends its best gunslingers.
(Best appreciated listening to this.)
“People told me I was wrong. People told me I misunderstood the situation and there was NO problem.””
Not just wrong, but comically wrong. Of course our teen-aged allies were going to protest any new rules that they clean up their bedrooms and empty the dishwasher. But if you think they’re going to move out of the house you are woefully ignorant of economic realities.
Achilles said...
Trump put actual Free Trade on the table.
Actual Free Trade would involve lowering tariffs.
A bad doctor who has been sued, and forced to retire should not be casting aspersions. Stop hurting people like when you were still allowed to practice while doped up. Trump is a physical blob, and a mental midget. I, therefore, understand the feeling of kinship, but you should stay out of politics and obviously medicine for everybody's sake including your own.
Martyrs are valuable.
This is why the Church made so much of them.
Encouraged them even, they were the beau ideal of those who went into the mission field. It was typical of them, well into the 19th century if not later, to aspire to martyrdom.
This is a great difference between Catholic and Protestant cultures, its hard to speak across that gap, I have run across it fairly frequently.
This has fallen out of favor with the Church, why I don't know. Creeping Protestantism? There are many martyrs, or potential martyrs, all over the world people still die for Christ, or suffer for their Christianity. And even in the US there are many ways of inviting suffering for his sake.
Trumpit is going well past the edge. Take your meds poor guy !
Pakistan for instance is a steady creator of Christian martyrs, most of them Catholic. The Church does very little with or for these people.
The Church does very little with or for these people.
The Church is now in the hands of a Libertarian Theology Jesuit. Paul II tried to rid the Church of these people, like the minister in the Nicaragua communist junta.
It is into politics, not theology.
They got in bed with the Government.
Actually, they got in bed with the Government when the Government and the Democratic Party were about synonymous. "Union labor" now consists 2/3 of teachers and government employees and a good part of the remaining 1/3 are tied to government installations and projects where "unions" are mandatory.
Regular Joes have the strange feeling these "unions" are more interested in the welfare of the Democratic Party than in them and avoid joining if they can.
Actual free trade would end tariffs.
Fuckin' Trumpit !
Nobody does Pee Pee wet the bed Ritmo better.
Fantastic....
ARM: "Actual Free Trade would involve lowering tariffs."
Then tell your European and Canadian pals to lower their much higher tariffs!
But you know they won't. They don't quite yet believe Trump is going to take their piggy bank away.
Trump ought to commission a study to move our major military installations out of Germany and into Poland and Hungary as well...
....all the while shutting down the European "back door" NAFTA trade violations into the US via Canada and Mexico.
Let's get it all on the table.
Not that ARM will agree to that. Like obama, he probably believes its best to bleed the US dry...to establish a more perfect global community.
Germany sells 3 times as many cars into the US at a mere 2.5% tariff level as the US sells into Germany at a 10% tariff level.
Of course, what this means to ARM and the lefties is Germany isn't charging us enough!!
I'll wager that Vivian as a female name got popular on the heels of "Gone With the Wind". Vivien Leigh's name is spelt and pronounced ever so slightly different than the male variant. Vi-vi-ɛn as opposed to Vi-vi-ən, but most baby-namers didn't bother to check. Americans can be stupid that way.
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