DPRK morning brief

Morning round-up.

It is now 1:30 AM in Seoul

US looking at deploying resources to South Korea later this year or early next year (http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2017/09/27/0200000000AEN20170927012300315.html)

US military chiefs are willing to back Trump up if military option becomes reasonable. But, a former CIA director suggests that while NK is doing what it usually does, Trump is provoking right back.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-09-27/military-chiefs-back-trump-on-north-korea

USA Secretary of Defense visited Afghanistan and India over the past 24 hours.

The #DPRK and #NoKo hashtag is full of pro-war Twitter accounts.  There's an account arguing that North Korea was a terrorist training center.

The Bulletin suggests that China's big interest is preventing another war. The Korean war took a heavy toll on them. China's big ask here is:

We hope that the United States will incorporate the following four “don’ts” into its relevant policies regarding the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: [D]on’t seek regime change; don’t incite a collapse of the regime; don’t seek an accelerated reunification effort of the peninsula; and don’t send its military north of the [38th] parallel.

http://thebulletin.org/north-korea-don%E2%80%99t-expect-china-change11145

More actual fallout from Warmbier - an adjunct prof of anthropology was harsh towards Warmbier and didn't get rehired. A new front in the culture wars just opened up, I think.... https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/06/26/university-delaware-cuts-ties-professor-who-said-warmbier-deserved-die/427846001/

Some breakdown of NK consumer tech. Baaasically, Big Brother, bro! https://dprktech.info/

Seeing NK as backwards, dumb, etc, causes major interpretive issues. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/world/asia/north-korea-missiles-fuel.html?_r=0

DPRK notes

Notes taken over the last 12 hours. Future updates will come in on blogger and be cc'd to mastodon.

That's weird. suddenly a twitter campaign in the last hour ranting about how koreans eat dog. (I really don't care).

Bolton (a hardcore hawk) is arguing for pre-emtive strikes.

Some poor guy got shot near the DMZ, but reports are indistinct at this point.

The parents of guy who got jailed in NK and sent back to die are pissed off and calling NK "terrorists". They are being used as props in the current drama, looks like.

Hey, what appears to be an official NK site: http://exploredprk.com . It is not approximately a backwards country in tech if you look at the tools used.

http://behindthecurtain.asia/ essentially a private spy made a apple-only book on NK.

The US is demanding 100% denuclearization. Why? Face? Pride? Won't work.

China and Russia looking to try to stabilize the situation. Some Russian troop movement, but I"m unsure of the implications.

Japan's PM Abe has called a snap election, hoping to stregnthen his position. There's instability there. But, he can actually deal with Trump, a major bonus. (when will he be backstabbed??)

Looks like the South Korean soldier was probably killed by a live-fire training by South Korea nearby. Note that these sorts of things *happen* in military training. When some poor sod gets killed, and there's not a clear indication of a shooting war, "unintentional mistake" is the typical result.source for the note

Oh here we go, here's Foreign Minister of NK's Official Submitted Statement in that inflammatory response recently. Strongly advise reading. Not as inflammatory as even the more reputable US news orgs made it out to be.

A report exists claiming that there is NK troop movement to east border, readiness increased.

Random trump types on The Twitters wanting to send liberals to NK because we dislike Trump.

Note on propaganda. Russia and China have significant incentive to tamp this situation down. They don't want a full US deployment sitting off *both* of their borders grinning. My speculation is that their bots and propagandaists will start playing the anti-war games (and boy howdy I hope that works)

I have, by the way, a huge anti-nuclear-war bias. I understand realpolitik and that yeah, war is sometimes required because that's humanity. But I loathe the idea of WMDs being deployed.

At this point in the updates, it's 10:15 AM Seoul time. A full day of work is underway for our fellow-humans on the Korean peninsula.

Reports exist claiming the US is going to run a carrier group into NK waters(I doubt that, it's a huge provocation).

Reports exist claiming that US/SK joint forces - bombers & fighters - will be flying by and grinning at NK (like the B1 run a few nights ago). This seems likely.

UN sanctions have been laid down, for what good /that/ does. Meh. Probably time to give up the sanctions game.

The US Secretary of State is going to visit China.

A NK specialist in the US is heading to Russia to talk.

A few bots are starting to agitate relating to the Warmbier death at NK hands. Fox Live Talking Heads are pounding it right now I guess. Haven't checked the US propaganda outlets yet (breitbart, drudge).

Nothing unusual by NK military says US general; says NK wants nukes for regime survival

And for a round up of the 10:30PM Seattle time news:

• The right-wing on Twitter is getting triggered over Warmbier on #noko hashtag.
• A few bots are copypasting war-boosting propaganda over Warmbier.
• Drudge Report is screaming about hillary and how Obamacare isn't repealed. No Korea whatsoever.
• Breitbart is howling over the AL Senate election and has 2 small links on Korea - one Warmbier and one of a NK propaganda video.
• Fox is aligned with Brietbart on this: very NFL focused. Minimal NK coverage.
• MSNBC: no Korea, just dragging Trump.
• CNN: front page Korea, a bit of information.
• Then, the NYT has a more meditative article on it.

In summary, as I close up the TrumpenWarring notes for the night, the rightwing media are mostly ignoring it, the right-wingers are starting to foam on Twitter, and a couple bots are whipping up war.

Stand in solidarity with your society.

One big thing I argue for repeatedly on the Mastodon fediverse is to not disengage from the social systems and big institutions. They are required for a high-complexity society such as ours, and one of the major keys to keeping them working is engagement and accountability, so that you can trust them, because you're involved and because you can believe in the accountability structures.

A canonical error of thinking is the Occupy Wall Street-style thinking of "the elites hate us", or the "elites want to oppress us". That's not how it typically works outside of very unusual confluences of history. Thinking that the 1% are out to get you is conspiracy theory thinking.  The elites are not a homogeneous force. They are human, with all the fractiousness that implies. They have an interest in maintaining the status quo. But, many elites throughout history understand the balance between their interests and the interests of the total society. Britain in the 1800s, for instance, transitioned from a monarchy to a Parliament, and by the time World War One had ended, the king had no power. This took a lot of work - a lot of protests and social tension - and many people had to be persuaded - or outmaneuvered - but it happened. The aristocracy chose (in total) to allow change rather than, like Tsarist Russia, suppress change.

Now, that is not to say there aren't groups working to discredit and damage Western society and your particular small group. There are significantly organized nasty actors out there. To name a few.... Hoover's FBI. Some CIA. Some FSB. AQ. AfD. KKK. ISIL. Etc. Disorganizing and disengaging from your society and becoming insular or non-participatory gives them power to coopt your society. The TV show South Park is a poison in this regard - it discourages participation, and gives a handy narrative to mock people who care about their place.

The last 30-40 years of Boomer and Gen X disengagement and cynicism have given us Trump and the alt-right/alt-light/KKK resurgence, because many of the chaos people - the Chaotic Neutral, the Chaotic Good, the Neutral Good - they walked away, because '60s dogma said "be yourself". That was a terrible mistake. The people left over in power are more authoritarians, you see. You can't just be yourself and encourage everyone else to be their own cell. That's not how societies work. There are family structures, justice structures, plumbing structures. By walking away from organizing, collective action, and institution building, you both make yourself vulnerable and make your society worse. One human, one individual is an assailable island.

Solidarity is a big deal, folks. Unions are built out of that principle. So are armies. A company is a group of people in common purpose. Think about that, and the power of mass action. 

Engage, fight for accountability, fight for your principles. Demand transparency. Remove corruption, even when it benefits you.