State and Treasury Departments Reportedly Investigating Dennis Rodman's North Korea Trip

Reason

According to The Daily Beast, the State and Treasury departments are investigating whether former NBA player Dennis Rodman broke the law when he gave Kim Jong-un and his wife gifts on his recent trip to North Korea.

From The Hill:

The State and Treasury departments are investigating whether Dennis Rodman broke the law on his most recent trip to North Korea, The Daily Beast reports.

The former basketball star reportedly offered luxury gifts to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un for his 31st birthday, including expensive whiskey and a fur coat for his wife. The gifts would violate the 2010 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, as well as several United Nations sanctions.

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Comments

[Hyperion]

So, was it a gift ... or a trade? I mean maybe Rodman received one excellent horse like woman in exchange and therefore it wasn't a gift. I think his lawyer should use this defense.

[Episiarch]

I don't think receiving Sarah Jessica Parker as a gift is a good defense. In fact, it's more like an indictment.

[Hyperion]

That's a woman with a face like a horse, as opposed to an excellent horse like woman, which I don't know what that means, the NORKs will have to splain it.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I think I've mentioned before the girl I knew in college that had a face like a horse (worse than SJP) but the body of a bikini model.

Like some bizarre creature out of Greek mythology.

[Episiarch]

It happens, but thankfully it's rare. Nature abhors such waste.

[jester]

Nature presumably would 'select' away from this, except Matthew Broderick.

[Curtisls87]

That's what paper bags, flags, etc, are for.

[Sevo]

Yeah, he went there. Yeah, he's an idiot. What's to investigate?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Are the comments back? Is it...safe? To post my comment?

[Hyperion]

The squirrel attack has been neutralized, for now...

[Snark Plissken]

Yeah, Rodman's a freakazoid. But sanctions don't work against regimes that are willing to happily see their people suffer, they merely reinforce said regimes. Best thing to do with NK would be to lift all sanctions and let freedom seep in by osmosis.

[Pro Libertate]

I don't see why the government should have the power to restrict what an American citizen does overseas, barring something treasonous. In fact, how exactly does it have that power?

[Francisco d Anconia]

how exactly does it have that power?

FYTW.

Duh.

[Episiarch]

Because it says it does. What are you going to do, ProL, not come home?

[Pro Libertate]

Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Come and see the violence inherent in the system. Help! Help! I'm being repressed!

[Almanian (yeah, I said it)]

Shut yer noise, you! You're marrying Princess Lucky....so you'd better get used to the idea!

[Francisco d Anconia]

But, all I want to do is si...

[Pro Libertate]

Shut your noise, you! And get that suit on! And no singing!

[Hyperion]

Your right to move about the planet is a privilege, comrade. Papers, please...

[Snark Plissken]

That part doesn't bother me so much. UN sanctions, US party to those sanctions, citizen decided to 'trade' with sanctioned country. I think it's fairly valid as a rule of law issue.

I have a huge problem with the UN in general and the idea that sanctioning tyrannies has ever proved to be a net positive. But it makes for awesome political posturing.

[Pro Libertate]

Discretion. When to prosecute, and when not to prosecute. A dying art, unless politics is involved.

[Snark Plissken]

I consider sanctions to be economic warfare a form of cold warfare, so I can buy violating them as a form of treason.

The problem is, like other forms of warfare such as dropping a few bombs or letting sending in some drones, it has become ridiculously common to engage in.

The greatest lack of discretion is the turning of acts of war into some sort of playground taunt.

[Pro Libertate]

Why prosecute Rodman? What's gained by worrying about trivialities like that?

[Hyperion]

I keep thinking that Obama secretly sent Rodman to get some useful tips from dear leader on how to govern.

[Snark Plissken]

YOU ARE DEFINITELY ON THE LIST!!!

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I'm sure they'll succeed in liberating Cuba any day now. Of course I'm convinced that everyone in Washington is just waiting for the Brothers Castro to die so they won't have the satisfaction of outliving the embargo.

[Almanian (yeah, I said it)]

lift all sanctions and let freedom seep in by osmosis

I recommend we try this in the US, as well

[Snark Plissken]

Duh, American exceptionalism.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Dear god.

Tyranny- When there are so many laws that you are always guilty of something.

[Pro Libertate]

Nothing is de minimis when Leviathan is defied.

[Hyperion]

When 3 felonies a day are enough, congress isn't doing it's job. Do nothing congress, that's the problem. Needz moar lawz!

[B.P.]

Jameson whiskey really isn't that expensive.

[Almanian (yeah, I said it)]

And cocaine is a helluva drug

[Pelosi's Rabbit]

Thank goodness.

[RishJoMo]

Dude I never thought about it like that.

http://www.AnonWork.tk