Balloon Juice - What Fresh Hell Is This Archives

[ETA: Events, dear boy, events! See the discussion of the rapidly developing fallout from today’s disgraceful WH meeting with President Zelensky in the comments. And also this cartoon:]

Sir Keir Starmer has returned from his first visit to the U.S. following Trump’s re-election. He was attempting to shore up what Churchill called the “Special Relationship” between the two countries (a Special Relationship that seems to matter a lot more over here). His meeting seems to have gone better than most people expected, even after Starmer decided to correct the president (and then later the vice president) to his face in front of the press. “Whatever they pay him over there,” said Trump, “he earned it.”

Starmer isn’t a charmer—he’s a stiff, timid lawyer who really is only capable of standing up to people in his own party—but it probably helped that he came bearing one of the things Trump loves best: an invitation to hang out with Actual Royalty.

Robert Hutton, writing in The Critic, recapped this exchange in an article titled “Visiting Great-Uncle Don”:

You may have sat with an aged grandparent, listening to them rambling on trying to pick the right moment to interject. Perhaps there was something you needed to persuade them to agree to: a visit to the doctor, a signature on a power of attorney, or Article Five of the Nato Treaty.

The prime minister was the latest in a queue of visitors to the president’s study, so tastefully decorated in the style I think of as “School of Fredo Corleone”. Like grandchildren who have heard that the house is about to be signed over to some Russian toyboy, European leaders have been reminding the president who his real friends are. Of course, you can’t just come out and say that. You have to be patient and flatter him. Starmer had brought along a gift that no one else could offer: “A letter from the king!”

The president was as thrilled as any centenarian receiving their royal telegram. “Am I supposed to read it right now?” he asked. Usually, these moments happen behind closed doors. But then usually, the recipient can remember what happened last week. “I’ve got to tell him what your reaction is!” the prime minister replied, bedside manner fully engaged.

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Foreign Office Briefing: The Super-Special Relationship Lurches OnwardPost + Comments (168)

Breaking, via the BBC:

“In the last half hour, the president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, has declared martial law.

In an unannounced late night television address he says the move is necessary to protect the country from North Korea’s communist forces and to eliminate anti-state elements.

Yoon said the decision was made to remove pro-North Korea forces from the country and to protect the liberal constitutional order.

Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to martial law, but did not say in the address what specific measures will be taken.

The Yonhap News Agency is reporting that the leader of South Korean opposition Democratic Party, Lee Jae-myung, has said the declaration of martial law is unconstitutional.

Yonhap is also reporting that Han Dong-hoon, the head of the ruling People Power Party – of which President Yoon Suk Yeol is a member – has also vowed to block the declaration, describing it as ‘wrong’.”

I don’t follow Korean politics, but various international relations academics on Bluesky seem to agree with the reporting above – Yoon is going rogue here, but it’s not yet clear why. Feels like yet more bad news for democracy.

If any of our Jackals in Asia are still awake and can shed light on this situation (or if you’re up to speed on Korea), please chime in below.

ETA: Baud found a subject-matter expert on Bluesky, one Karl Friedhoff of the Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs. He appears to be providing a credible explainer about the background of the situation here, which will sound very familiar to us all: right-wing president elected on a narrow margin with an administration facing corruption investigations goes for a desperate move to hold onto power. All very ominous.

Link to one of the more hopeful posts in Friedhoff’s otherwise quite bleak thread:

Prepare for MASSIVE protests. I’d venture the coming protests will outdo those that saw Park Geun-Hye removed from power. One thing about Koreans: they will absolutely not be cowed. They’ve overthrown dictatorship and removed a president from power, all with largely peaceful protests.

— Karl Friedhoff (@kfriedhoff.bsky.social) December 3, 2024 at 2:28 PM

You know they’re taking notes down at Mar-a-Lago. Americans opposed to this kind of thing should be taking notes, too.

ETA 11:35 a.m. EST: Further reports indicate that 190 members of the 300-member SK National Assembly were able to convene in spite of an apparent blockade of the building. Everyone present voted to lift the martial law, and Yoon must, by law, comply. Protesters have gathered in the streets. Whether this actually resolves the situation remains to be seen, but it’s very inspiring to see a legislative body immediately smack this shit down. Best of luck to the Koreans.

Developing Situation: South Korea’s President Declares Martial LawPost + Comments (112)

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

No one could have predicted…

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

“Alexa, change the president.”

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Be a wild strawberry.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

This blog will pay for itself.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

The world has changed, and neither one recognizes it.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Foreign Office Briefing: The Super-Special Relationship Lurches Onward

Developing Situation: South Korea’s President Declares Martial Law