As of yet, we haven’t seen any comment from Trump on yesterday’s emergency in South Korea, possibly because none of his top advisers have yet succeeded in explaining to him that it’s not the Korea whose leader he’s smitten with, or because Trump can’t be convinced to stop making racist jokes about all those funny Korean names.
//
Maybe they just haven't figured out how to turn it into a comic book centered on him, so that he'll pay attention to it.
Trump responded the same way he responded to J6…do nothing and see if it somehow benefits him. Trump did nothing for 2+ hours while the Capitol and Congress were under siege, and police and rioters were battling each other. I’m convinced he wanted to see if they would succeed. They were acting out his rage at losing, and he wanted to see if Congress would stand down, indefinitely adjourn, or perhaps suspend the electoral vote count. Only when his minions were mulling around the Capitol and stealing trophies did he finally cave to outside pressure.
I would expect he was tantalized by the words “Korea” and “Martial Law.” He wanted to see how it turned out. He’s probably furious the entire assembly wasn’t arrested or shot, and he surely despises Yoon’s decision to back down and respect the decision of parliament. “This Yoon is a very weak guy. Very low energy. A beta male. He had the power of the military to destroy his opposition and didn’t use it. Very sad.”
"Soon after he was elected, however, Mr. Yoon began turning to lawsuits, state regulators and criminal investigations to clamp down on speech that he called disinformation, efforts that were largely aimed at news organizations. Police and prosecutors repeatedly raided the homes and newsrooms of journalists whom his office has accused of spreading “fake news.”"
And here I thought we were the only country that got those Greatest Hits!
"Trump can’t be convinced to stop making racist jokes about all those funny Korean names" He was going to tweet about President You Suck Y'all but then he learned that that was the "strongman" whose side he was on.
So now South Korea will impeach but not convict him, take 3 years to charge him with obvious crimes, get their high court to grant him immunity, ignore the clear language of their constitution and let him run again, then blame the opposition party for "woke" when he barely wins.
"South Koreans’ immediate and aggressive response to a man trying to take away their democratic rights is an inspiration. Among other things, it illustrates that for all the claims that autocracy can react to events more quickly than democracy can, in fact autocrats are brittle. It is democracy that is determined and resilient.
"The events in Seoul also cemented the shift in social media from X to Bluesky, where news was breaking faster than anywhere else, in a way that echoed what Twitter used to be. Since Twitter was a key site of democratic organizing until Elon Musk bought it and renamed it X, that shift is significant.
"And finally, the events in South Korea emphasize that for all people often look to larger-than-life figures to define our nations, our history is in fact made up of regular people doing the best they can."
-- Heather Cox Richardson, "Letters from an American, December 3, 2024"
"At least for a while," said Elrond. "The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.”
This really falls under the heading "WTF." The S. Korean leader really didn't think this through, did he! Imposing martial law suddenly and without any remotely plausible excuse? What the hell was that idiot thinking?
Great article Doc , At least for now they are sill a democracy . Saw a map last night on countries that have or are moving away from democracy , yes united states was on it , It was a sad and scary thing to see . Thank you and all at Wonkette for keeping us informed , peace to all
While we’re on the subject of Korea, it occurs to me that we have an opportunity to see Plato’s allegory of the prisoners in the cave play out in real life. Those North Korea soldiers that have been sent to fight in Ukraine are getting their first look at what the world outside of their “cave” really looks like. So far, it turns out that they like porn. But they’re also seeing how the outside world differs from how it’s portrayed in state propaganda.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens when they return home and describe the real work to their fellow prisoners.
There's a guy on YouTube who gives really informed takes on Ukraine and Russia-- Paul Warburg. In his opinion, those North Korean troops were never going to return home. They were sacrifices, payment for whatever Kim got from Putin.
One thing that both Putin and Kim seem to have forgotten is that Ukraine already has a Korean minority, courtesy of Stalin's population shifts. One of the provincial governors is from a Korean family. It was stupid to send those troops to a place where people of their race and culture have been accepted.
He has that habit. Several units that embarrassed him in the early part of the war by war-criming too blatantly were subsequently fed into the meat grinder and disposed of that way. Not for the crimes themselves, I presume, but for making Big Daddy look bad.
Some of them already knew. Large quantities of South Korean and other foreign media has been smuggled in via things like USB thumb drives for years. Penalties for being found with foreign media are harsh, including execution if they really want to make an example of you. But people still do it.
The introduction to Bob Woodward’s “Fear” (yes, that one) details how in his first term, Trump would order his staff to draft a letter for him to sign declaring that the U.S. is withdrawing from the trade agreement with South Korea. Because of “trade deficit” and how it “unfair” it is for us to pay for troops in South Korea. Basically, he wanted to unwind our entire alliance with Korea.
Anyway, one of his advisors would sneak into the Oval Office and take the letter off of his desk before he could sign it. Stinky would then forget about it for a while until he remembered how “unfair” South Korea is to us and demand another letter. And the cycle would repeat.
Just a thought to consider as we go into the sequel, this time without any adult supervision.
//
As of yet, we haven’t seen any comment from Trump on yesterday’s emergency in South Korea, possibly because none of his top advisers have yet succeeded in explaining to him that it’s not the Korea whose leader he’s smitten with, or because Trump can’t be convinced to stop making racist jokes about all those funny Korean names.
//
Maybe they just haven't figured out how to turn it into a comic book centered on him, so that he'll pay attention to it.
Trump responded the same way he responded to J6…do nothing and see if it somehow benefits him. Trump did nothing for 2+ hours while the Capitol and Congress were under siege, and police and rioters were battling each other. I’m convinced he wanted to see if they would succeed. They were acting out his rage at losing, and he wanted to see if Congress would stand down, indefinitely adjourn, or perhaps suspend the electoral vote count. Only when his minions were mulling around the Capitol and stealing trophies did he finally cave to outside pressure.
I would expect he was tantalized by the words “Korea” and “Martial Law.” He wanted to see how it turned out. He’s probably furious the entire assembly wasn’t arrested or shot, and he surely despises Yoon’s decision to back down and respect the decision of parliament. “This Yoon is a very weak guy. Very low energy. A beta male. He had the power of the military to destroy his opposition and didn’t use it. Very sad.”
"Soon after he was elected, however, Mr. Yoon began turning to lawsuits, state regulators and criminal investigations to clamp down on speech that he called disinformation, efforts that were largely aimed at news organizations. Police and prosecutors repeatedly raided the homes and newsrooms of journalists whom his office has accused of spreading “fake news.”"
And here I thought we were the only country that got those Greatest Hits!
Ta, Dok. Coup Coup Ka Joo.
Maybe I should get my martial law degree - might come in handy.
Marshall University doesn’t have a law school. But they do have a pre-law club! :)
"Trump can’t be convinced to stop making racist jokes about all those funny Korean names" He was going to tweet about President You Suck Y'all but then he learned that that was the "strongman" whose side he was on.
So now South Korea will impeach but not convict him, take 3 years to charge him with obvious crimes, get their high court to grant him immunity, ignore the clear language of their constitution and let him run again, then blame the opposition party for "woke" when he barely wins.
Oh, wait, that was us.
When you put it like that, it sounds as bad as it is.
"South Koreans’ immediate and aggressive response to a man trying to take away their democratic rights is an inspiration. Among other things, it illustrates that for all the claims that autocracy can react to events more quickly than democracy can, in fact autocrats are brittle. It is democracy that is determined and resilient.
"The events in Seoul also cemented the shift in social media from X to Bluesky, where news was breaking faster than anywhere else, in a way that echoed what Twitter used to be. Since Twitter was a key site of democratic organizing until Elon Musk bought it and renamed it X, that shift is significant.
"And finally, the events in South Korea emphasize that for all people often look to larger-than-life figures to define our nations, our history is in fact made up of regular people doing the best they can."
-- Heather Cox Richardson, "Letters from an American, December 3, 2024"
"At least for a while," said Elrond. "The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.”
This really falls under the heading "WTF." The S. Korean leader really didn't think this through, did he! Imposing martial law suddenly and without any remotely plausible excuse? What the hell was that idiot thinking?
How about "my wife is about to be arrested for corruption"?
That would have to be the worst "reason" for such an action ever.
Great article Doc , At least for now they are sill a democracy . Saw a map last night on countries that have or are moving away from democracy , yes united states was on it , It was a sad and scary thing to see . Thank you and all at Wonkette for keeping us informed , peace to all
Thanks Doc. I read about this last night on NBC and I was confused with the situation
I thought that I would get the low down on here. AND sure enough
When KOREA does democracy better than you do...
My darling --
Korea doesn't have weaponized ignorance AND white supremacist Confederates AND the latter's enablers.
Not if they haven't bopped over from the United States.
While we’re on the subject of Korea, it occurs to me that we have an opportunity to see Plato’s allegory of the prisoners in the cave play out in real life. Those North Korea soldiers that have been sent to fight in Ukraine are getting their first look at what the world outside of their “cave” really looks like. So far, it turns out that they like porn. But they’re also seeing how the outside world differs from how it’s portrayed in state propaganda.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens when they return home and describe the real work to their fellow prisoners.
There's a guy on YouTube who gives really informed takes on Ukraine and Russia-- Paul Warburg. In his opinion, those North Korean troops were never going to return home. They were sacrifices, payment for whatever Kim got from Putin.
One thing that both Putin and Kim seem to have forgotten is that Ukraine already has a Korean minority, courtesy of Stalin's population shifts. One of the provincial governors is from a Korean family. It was stupid to send those troops to a place where people of their race and culture have been accepted.
So if any of them survive the war Putin gets to shoot them?
He has that habit. Several units that embarrassed him in the early part of the war by war-criming too blatantly were subsequently fed into the meat grinder and disposed of that way. Not for the crimes themselves, I presume, but for making Big Daddy look bad.
Some of them already knew. Large quantities of South Korean and other foreign media has been smuggled in via things like USB thumb drives for years. Penalties for being found with foreign media are harsh, including execution if they really want to make an example of you. But people still do it.
One of the other things I believe Plato said (paraphrasing) is that
one of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by the corrupt.
And - by and large - here we are
If a) they survive, and b) the survivors are allowed to return home.
I suppose that there are more than enough South Koreans still alive who remember the shit show of 1980.
The introduction to Bob Woodward’s “Fear” (yes, that one) details how in his first term, Trump would order his staff to draft a letter for him to sign declaring that the U.S. is withdrawing from the trade agreement with South Korea. Because of “trade deficit” and how it “unfair” it is for us to pay for troops in South Korea. Basically, he wanted to unwind our entire alliance with Korea.
Anyway, one of his advisors would sneak into the Oval Office and take the letter off of his desk before he could sign it. Stinky would then forget about it for a while until he remembered how “unfair” South Korea is to us and demand another letter. And the cycle would repeat.
Just a thought to consider as we go into the sequel, this time without any adult supervision.
Without supervision, but with a much more diminished brain.
That is so pathetic. Toddler asshole.
If anyone does BlueSky, please go read the posts that Sarah Jeong (Verge editor). has made. Absolutely amazing work. She has also posted this. https://www.theverge.com/24312920/martial-law-south-korea-yoon-suk-yeol-protest-dispatch
Reporting on an attempted coup... while drunk! I was glued to her posts all day.
I must admit. I did not know of this person before today.
I had read some of her stuff on the Verge before but she wasn't really on my radar as a writer I should follow until yesterday.