Meanwhile on the International front....

Was listening to an NPR report that said Russia is losing more than 1,000 soldiers a day against Ukraine. HTF is that sustainable? Geez.

 

Having South Korea nearly implode while North Korea is in serious cahoots with Russia, China and Iran makes me wonder how the left let it get to this.

 

Georgia forcing Russia to send additional forces to quell dissention is a boss move. The ruble is getting hammered and China's basically propping up Russia's economy while pulling strings in North Korea.

And a big chance for Ukraine to make hay before Trump gives the keys to his pal Putin. I read that article posted about the U.S. concerned about fighting a multi-front war but nobody mentioned what happens if Russia gets over its skis in Iran, Syria, Georgia and Ukraine.

Gaza. Syria. Ukraine. Georgia. Taiwan. South Korea. 2025 could play out like a real world game of Risk. Hold all tickets until the race is official.

 

Yoon tried to go full Trump and got knocked down by not only the opposition party that controls Parliament but also his own party. Meanwhile, let’s go back a month or so and look at the root caused of this:

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol denied wrongdoing on Thursday in a burgeoning influence-peddling scandal involving him and his wife that is severely hurting his approval ratings and providing political munition to his rivals.

The political firestorm coincides with South Korea facing a slew of critical foreign policy issues, such as Donald Trump’s election win to become the next president of the United States and North Korea’s reported entry into the Russia-Ukraine war.

The scandal centers around allegations that Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee exerted inappropriate influence on the conservative ruling People Power Party to pick a certain candidate to run for a parliamentary by-election in 2022 at the request of Myung Tae-kyun, an election broker and founder of a polling agency who conducted free opinion surveys for Yoon before he became president.

For weeks, the scandal has been making headlines in South Korea as Myung’s leaked phone conversations show he boasted of his influence over the presidential couple and other top ruling party officials.

Asked about his ties with Myung during a news conference Thursday, Yoon said, “I didn’t do anything inappropriate and have nothing to hide regarding Myung Tae-kyun.” …

Recent surveys showed Yoon’s approval rating has fallen below 20% for the first time since his inauguration. Kim Keon Hee has been grappling with other scandals, such as spy camera footage purportedly showing her accepting a luxury bag as a gift from a pastor.

Yoon apologized for causing public concerns about him and his wife, but stressed that many of the allegations raised were not consistent with the facts.

Some ruling party lawmakers have accused the Democratic Party of deliberately ramping up political attacks on Yoon and his wife in an effort to rescue its embattled leader, Lee Jae-myung, from legal troubles.

Lee, a firebrand lawmaker who narrowly lost to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election, is undergoing four separate trials over corruption and various other allegations. The first two district court rulings on Lee over his election law violation and perjury charges are set for Nov. 15 and Nov. 25.

Either a prison sentence or a fine of more than 1 million won ($750) in the election law case would unseat Lee as a lawmaker and disqualify him from running in elections for five years, although he is likely to appeal any guilty verdict.​

https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-yoon-wife-scandal-ba065a2f07d5fc4a63fe0e4d36de12f6

 

Sigh. She's the incumbent VP too.

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah: From freedom fighter to Namibia's first female president

 

Eastern Europe will be brought to heel once we start shipping over our weapons cache to Uncle Vlad, or at least all the stuff we aren’t using to smoke brown people and mouthy liberals over here.