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War with North Korea

theprestige said:
The regime controls the flow of information into the country. More importantly, the regime controls the propaganda context for interpreting what little outside information does arrive.

Interactions with the regime from the outside regime have no practical relevance to the stories the regime tells its citizens to persuade their loyalty.
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It controls the information coming into the country much like the US controls the drugs coming into the country.
 
angrysoba said:
It controls the information coming into the country much like the US controls the drugs coming into the country.
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Only a small percentage of the North Korean people have access to the internet and other sources of info outside the government controlled media.
I would say it is much more successful controlling information then the US controlling drugs.
 
angrysoba said:
It controls the information coming into the country much like the US controls the drugs coming into the country.
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The US is not a despotic totalitarian state that has enslaved its entire population behind relatively small and vigorously guarded borders.

It's hard to imagine the level of willful ignorance or malicious contrarianism necessary to mount such an equivalency as you have attempted here.
 
theprestige said:
The US is not a despotic totalitarian state that has enslaved its entire population behind relatively small and vigorously guarded borders.

It's hard to imagine the level of willful ignorance or malicious contrarianism necessary to mount such an equivalency as you have attempted here.
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But angrysoba didn't make any such claim. He was mocking the effectiveness of North Korea's control of information.

And I'm not too well-informed on these matters, but I understand that information does flow over the border, on USB sticks and the like. Just like drugs flow over the border here. I don't know how comparable the two situations are, but both borders are porous in these respective ways.

So, no, you've gone wildly off-course here. Our dear Soba was not alleging that trying to keep drugs out of the US is morally comparable to trying to prevent your citizens from information. He said nothing at all like that.
 
theprestige said:
The US is not a despotic totalitarian state that has enslaved its entire population behind relatively small and vigorously guarded borders.

It's hard to imagine the level of willful ignorance or malicious contrarianism necessary to mount such an equivalency as you have attempted here.
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Well Trump has only had 9 months, what do you expect miracles? He's doing his best, trying to build that wall to vigorously guard borders, and his continuing attacks on free speech, the media and any that oppose him, while claiming to be the only source of truth is certainly a huge step in the right direction to becoming the despotic totalitarian state. Hey he has another 3 years to get there, perhaps longer if he decides to use Putin's tricks to staying in power.
 
dudalb said:
Only a small percentage of the North Korean people have access to the internet and other sources of info outside the government controlled media.
I would say it is much more successful controlling information then the US controlling drugs.
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My understanding is that much of the information comes in on DVDs and CDs and that they can be played on cheap Chinese players. Much of this is for entertainment rather than political subversion, but it shows that the information blockade can be breached. Also, the number of phones is increasing. I am certainly not claiming that very many people are using the internet.

theprestige said:
The US is not a despotic totalitarian state that has enslaved its entire population behind relatively small and vigorously guarded borders.

It's hard to imagine the level of willful ignorance or malicious contrarianism necessary to mount such an equivalency as you have attempted here.
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Instead of attempting this display of phony outrage, you could probably try reading what I wrote.
 
phiwum said:
But angrysoba didn't make any such claim. He was mocking the effectiveness of North Korea's control of information.

And I'm not too well-informed on these matters, but I understand that information does flow over the border, on USB sticks and the like. Just like drugs flow over the border here. I don't know how comparable the two situations are, but both borders are porous in these respective ways.

So, no, you've gone wildly off-course here. Our dear Soba was not alleging that trying to keep drugs out of the US is morally comparable to trying to prevent your citizens from information. He said nothing at all like that.
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Thank you! You did indeed understand my point.
 
theprestige said:
USB sticks. Really? How many computers with USB ports do you imagine exist in North Korea right now? Who do you think controls them?
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I'm sure I don't know how effective the program is, but USB smuggling was well-reported back in January. See, for instance, this link, among many others.

I imagine the people smuggling USBs know the North Korea situation better than you or me and think that this is an effective program.
 
Some observation-driven speculations and predictions, or how to read Trump like a cheap paperback novel:


1. As Trump continues to fail and his popularity continues to decline, he will increasingly delude himself that merely hanging on to the presidency constitutes "winning".

2. Trump is no student of history, or anything else except manipulation, but I would be surprised if it has escaped his notice that FDR served most of 4 terms during the depression and WWII, and died in office.

3. Nor has it escaped my notice that Trump has now floated the Iran-deal-decertification balloon. If that balloon flies, he will have Iran back to enriching uranium to weapons grade, and probably in cahoots with North Korea.

4. If Trump gets away with resurrecting the Nuclear Iran zombie, he will consider himself quite cunning and will feel that he is indeed "winning". He will double down. He always doubles down. Every stinking time, no matter what his cards are.

"Winning" is such a malleable concept, after all.
 
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So, a hypothetical competent President would not be able to wrangle peace with North Korea because peace requires both sides to agree and North Korea will want to reunify Korea with Pyongyang as the capital. Perhaps South Korea should start calling itself Korea, after all if Virginia and West Virginia were to recombine it wouldn't make any sense to call the embiggened state 'West' Virginia.
 
Silly Green Monkey said:
... Perhaps South Korea should start calling itself Korea, after all if Virginia and West Virginia were to recombine it wouldn't make any sense to call the embiggened state 'West' Virginia.
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Just like how the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is Democratic.
 
Silly Green Monkey said:
So, a hypothetical competent President would not be able to wrangle peace with North Korea because peace requires both sides to agree and North Korea will want to reunify Korea with Pyongyang as the capital. Perhaps South Korea should start calling itself Korea, after all if Virginia and West Virginia were to recombine it wouldn't make any sense to call the embiggened state 'West' Virginia.
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South Korea calls itself the Republic of Korea.
 
JPK said:
Good morning. Which country is going to sign any treaty with the USA while the Deal Breaker in Chief is in charge? What would make anyone think he would hold up his end of any deal, providing he was actually able to craft one, considering his entire life was spent not living up to his agreements and obligations?
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An interesting question to pose this week, I guess, but you now need to account for all of the weeks between now and 1953. Got anything?
 
theprestige said:
USB sticks. Really? How many computers with USB ports do you imagine exist in North Korea right now? Who do you think controls them?
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Most of the computers in North Korea probably have USB ports. It's not like they have to build those computers themselves, they just buy them from China, and USB has been standard on all computers for a long time. Those are commodity parts. I don't know how many North Koreans can afford a computer, and there's no internet to connect to for those who have one, but they're probably not as rare as you think.
 
dudalb said:
North Korea is not going to sign any peace treaty if only because reunificstion of Korea under a Nork government is a very basic part of their doctrine.
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As far as they're concerned Korea is unified, with its southern part currently occupied by the US and its puppet government.
 
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