monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/456338/why-media-fawning-over-north-korea?utm_source=Social&utm_medium=Facebook&utm_campaign=Shapiro

They're not America-Haters, traitors, ideological warriors, or sinister agents of a vast Left-wing conspiracy, they are a puerile claque more reminiscent of a group of 7th-grade girls than a leftist fifth column.

Gushing over the sister of a monstrous dictator and a member of an incredibly brutal and truly evil regime because of her no-nonsense sense of style or her giving the American VP the “deadly side-eye” is an indication that the MSM is truly now in full Hollywood mode, channeling Heda Hopper rather than Edward R. Murrow.

I disagree with Shapiro in one important respect, this isn't Edgar Snowe or Walter Duranty spinning false mythology to provide bloody-handed tyrants with cover because of ideological inclinations. They were the quintessential Useful Idiots who didn't deserve to be called journalists, but at least they were serving some sort of cause, as disgraceful as it may have been. Today's clique of snarky, self-absorbed sophisticates ignore the nature of the Kim dynasty and the horrors it has visited on the people of North Korea not because they are vacuous romanticists with a child's comprehension of communism and it's history of suffering and murder, but because Kim Yo Jong has provided them with a new means to attack and insult The President and Vice-President of the United States. It is far hipper and far more indicative of being woke, to consider these two as worse threats to the world than fat-boy, Kim Jung Un.

I've no real idea if the spare but smiling Kim Yo Jong wished to attend the Olympics in South Korea, although given that her job is Director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Workers' Party of Korea, one has to assume she saw it as her duty. At the same time what North Korean (even a high ranking member of the regime) would pass on the opportunity to spend time away from their hopeless national gulag and bask in the light and warmth of modern civilization (even if closely watched and only for a short time)? Additionally, even if the spartan Director loathed the idea of spending time among Capitalist Running Dogs and occupying the same VIP box as War-Monger Mike Pence, it's unlikely she would have had the nerve to refuse her brother's request, considering how he deals with siblings who displease him. I'm sure the fate of her brother Kim Jong-nam didn't escape her notice.

It would be incredible that the hypocrites who celebrate Colin Kapernick and his mates for refusing to stand during the US national anthem criticized Pence for his remaining seated during the playing of the North Korean anthem if it wasn't so typical of these twits.

Previously a member attempted to rebut allegations such as Shapiro has leveled against the MSM by arguing that the MSM is simply reporting factually on the events surrounding Deal Sister of the Dear Leader, and that many South Koreans are very excited and happy about the presence of the NK delegation. Unfortunately, that's pretty much nonsense. It is not factual that Kim "outflanked" Pence, that NK is winning the gold medal for diplomacy, or that the NK cheerleading bots have stolen the show. At best, these are the opinions of the fools who voiced them and anyone who believes they were voiced in the course of routine reporting and not intended to fire a shot at Trump & Pence is a fellow fool of the journalists or disingenuous.

As for the South Korean reaction to this cynical political theater, I've no doubt that a great many South Koreans who on a daily basis face the fear and anxiety of knowing that a neighboring nation has an entire enormous and deadly arsenal pointed right at them, are very much inclined towards grasping whatever straws are offered them. Add to this the fact that a great many of them have family imprisoned in the North who they might actually get to see again if there were normalized relations between the two Koreas (never mind reunification), and it's not difficult to imagine a positive reaction to anything that might provide hope. I have to believe though that in the quiet of their living rooms or kitchens, the average South Korean family has not been deluded by the presence of the stylish and laconic Ms. Kim or 200 or so peppy young Korean women who are either the daughters of the regime's elite or whose parents are being held as virtual hostages against their return to the Motherland.

To be fair not everyone in the Liberal Media is a prime example of an Useful Idiot as is evidenced by this piece in "The Atlantic" by Krishnadev Calamur. I have to believe Mr. Calamur is not a huge fan of Donald Trump or Mike Pence (hard to imagine any editor at NPR or The Atlantic might be) and while he is nowhere near as scathing as Shapiro in his remarks about his fellow reporters, he clearly has not allowed whatever opinions of the Administration, he might have, to lead him to engaging in their pathetic behavior.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/north-korea-olympics-kim-yo-jong/553064/

Every member of Intelligence community came before Congress today and all agreed Russia is continuing to interfere with the US electoral process. tRump won't do anything and Congress as a whole won't either. Why? They are all Republican and Russia is only leaning on Democrats. The obvious enemy of repukes is dems. Go figure! Get your guns boys, fighting in the streets soon.....

Trump’s Budget Cuts Trillions From Programs For The Needy
To Pay For His Tax Cuts

This is incredibly cruel. I wonder if he'll ever pay a price for this. If ever.

I agree with the general message of your post. No one in the media should fawn over the North Korean regime, whose human rights violations are horrendous. Speaking as one who detests Trump, trying to use a sinister figure like Kim Yo Jong to put Trump down simply won't work.

Well, I guess I've made everyone mad now.

Kudos to Julia Reinstein and David Mack at Buzzfeed

https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliareinstein/kim-jong-un-sister-kim-yo-jong?utm_term=.pePBV9RgJ#.ynY0Q53Xy

Whatever those human rights violations actually are, wmwcjr, you have to remember that all the info you get comes thru the gigantic US propaganda mill.

And they can't compare to the human right violations of the USA since 1900, or even since WWII.

You must have found some propaganda that tickled your fancy, eh, Finn? You do love your propaganda!

Out of curiosity, what specific message(s) in my post do you not agree with?

If fawning over the Kim regime is reprehensible aren't the people doing so reprehensible as well?

Who is fawning over anyone in the Kim regime?

I guess the North Korean pairs figure skaters did well enough to not be executed.

They're not in medal contention, but they were pretty good. A lot better than I expected from North Korea.

This is so typical of the anti-MSM crowd. If you don't mention the Fat Boy's crummy haircut then you must be a subversive Commie or a clueless dupe.

No, they're really not. One gets the impression that these people believe the audience should have booed the NK athletes and representatives. Childish.

No one in the US media (including the biased right-wing media) knows enough about that event to be using Warmbier's death for propaganda purposes. Cheap.

This is what dictatorships do. Duterte has his methods. Kabila has his. And while all have been condemned repeatedly in the media and by governments no action has been taken. It's easy to criticize and complain but no one seems to want to do anything else. Maybe they'd prefer anarchy? Ho hum.

How would the USA do under similar conditions?

Diplomatically isolated, the country is in a bind. The regime is barely functional. Everyone knows this. Only the right-wing media thinks every bit of coverage has to include a condemnation of the shithole country and insult its ruler.

Why? Because NK has something to do with the oppression of rich white people? The two situations have absolutely nothing in common. But the right must get in its little digs every time it possibly can. Ooh — "Colin Kapernick!" — that's red meat for the Fox audience, with all sorts of nice racial reverberations to echo around in their empty heads.

You're right to bring this up because it's so typical of mediocre political commentary on both sides. As I said the other day, "it's analogous to cows chewing cud while awaiting entrance to fresh pasture." here Such stories practically write themselves. Adopt a breezy manner, reference a few sacred touchstones, lob a few insults, make a few accusations, sum up with some overwrought attempt to tie it all together and make it part of some vast historical conspiracy. Perfect example right here:

This is pure drivel. BS is trying to make a point which will resonate for the ages over some insignificant cultural event which will be forgotten in a matter of weeks. But no matter. It makes rightists feel that their side is hard at work fighting for America's freedom while running up deficits and planning military parades. "Look over there everyone, look what the liberals are doing!"

Oh, in case people might think I never have anything good to say about the president, he's shown himself to be a great guy by paying off his porn star girlfriend out of his own pocket!

If Kim said Trump could open up another resort in Pyongyang, Finn's tongue would be up his arse in a shot.

If these hypocrites care so much about human rights they should do something about the amount of Americans who die needlessly because of inadequate healthcare. They don't because all they care about is getting their snouts in the trough.

The lickspittles may believe all the sound and fury, but the rest of us have more sense.

Better watch out, oralloy, you are in danger of fawning for NK.

It isn't about Americans, Izzy, it is about the 75 years of terrorism and war crimes committed against the people of Korea, both from the north of the country and the south.

The US was the one that brought nuclear weapons to the Korean peninsula in 1958, in contravention of the agreement. It is always the US who commits the war crimes, the terrorism along with its lap dog poodle, the UK.

What about the US/UK planned genocide of Iraqis in the 1990s?

Your common sense has failed you badly, as it has the vast majority of UKers, USians. You can't see the forest for the trees. You can't see the nanothermite or the molten/vaporized WTC steel given your blindness. One of the greatest crimes ever, done to foment anger for even greater crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

NYT

What is with this weird "disconnect"?

Trump (and presumably a good number of his supporters and apologists) appear to believe Putin's denial that anything like this is happening — or ever happened. The self-described great "dealmaker" apparently assumes that his ex-KGB buddy Vlad would never lie to him or countenance such activity. I honestly don't understand the hold Russia seems to have on this guy's imagination. Any theories?