couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. god help the north korean people.
11.
Yutsano
@kdaug: Actually the first move to cement power is threaten the South. And depending on the PM in the South, the counterreaction is either measured or overblown. Then the North figures it can’t waste the bullets and backs down because China jerks their leash. China also will not risk their economic miracle. So it gets…interesting. But the succession wasn’t made hugely clear.
Let’s have an open thread about North Korea (via).
Did you realize what an inadvertently ironic statement you just made about having an “open” thread about the most “unopen” country on Earth?
14.
Raven
@Omnes Omnibus: The Bn Commander. I found him about 10 years ago and he sent me 45 minutes of video of our unit, the AO, firing the 105’s and all kinds of cool shit.
15.
suzanne
Let’s hope this transfer of power goes as uneventfully as possible. Because this could be the start of a big fucking shitstorm.
I’m assuming we just went up an alert level or two. Kim Jong Un is a fucking kid, and I can’t see the generals letting him go too far. This is probably the riskiest time for the Koreas in a lot of years.
17.
Mark S.
I hope Cole deletes and bans . . .
Oh fuck it, a true monster is dead. We’ll see how long this doofus lasts. I’m guessing a month before a bullet in the back of the head.
Upside: this will keep them busy for a while – ceremonies, memorials, statues to be built, schoolbooks to be re-written.
…getting hold of another crystal coffin to put the Dear Leader on display next to his dad. Not that many suppliers of Approved-For-Dead-Communists glass these days.
There’s a live stream of NK state television, though it may already be choking with the interest: link here. Lots of sighing over a photo montage in the brief bit I caught.
20.
Punchy
I heard his nickname recently had been changed to Kim Jong Ill.
21.
hhex65
“he did it his way” is still available, as are Tebow jokes
22.
Villago Delenda Est
The announcer, wearing black, said he had died on Saturday of physical and mental over-work.
Translation: He died with his boots on, just like Nelson Rockefeller, only it was with two babes, not one, and it was in a bubble bath.
23.
lamh35
Alright, so which GOP candidate or pol’s gonna be the first one to say something stupid… and no Herman Cain doesn’t count.
@suzanne: I have been agitating for a Havel thread all day and no one gives a shit. The VU is for the effect of the band and R’n’R in general on the people who led the Velvet Revolution.
I hear the son is in his late 20’s. Kinda young to inherit a dictatorship right??? So does the military have behind the scenes controls then?
I can understand why the Asia markets may be upset, can you imagine someone that young with his hand on a nuclear arsenal?
29.
CaseyL
People aren’t on edge, exactly; but the commentators are indicating there’s a high level of anxiety, particularly in S Korea. I don’t understand why, as I don’t remember there being comparable anxiety when his father, Kim Il Sung, died.
Is it because N Korea didn’t have nukes then, but does have ’em now?
Here’s something about possible instability in the succession from Wikipedia:
It has been reported that Kim Jong Il is expected to officially designate the son as his successor in 2012. However, there are reports that if leadership passes to one of the sons, Kim Jong Il’s brother-in-law, Chang Sung-taek, could attempt to take power from him.
It’s not fair to Vaclev Havel that he has to share his death date with that odious toad.
I bet Fidel dies tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Bill Kristol believes that this is the perfect time to invade North Korea.
36.
fasteddie9318
Thank FSM that Comcast just added BBC World so I don’t have to watch CNN and their collection of idiots.
37.
Narcissus
Man, I’m like the same age as Kim Jong-un. I don’t have an impoverished Orwellian dictatorship. FML.
38.
Petorado
To the folks in North Korea, for whom the tag “long suffering” stings like it came off a branding iron, may they not have to look at their next “Dear Leader” with the words of Dorothy Parker coming across their lips as they wonder “what fresh hell is this.” They’ve suffered long enough. Good riddance to the last incarnation of that nation’s hereditarily insane leadership.
39.
CaseyL
@Omnes Omnibus: Omnes, the lack of discussion about Vaclev Havel doesn’t reflect a lack of respect. He was one of my heroes.
But his passing is less newsworthy in that The Czech Republic is a stable, prosperous, First World Country (largely thanks to Havel); he had already been out of office for a while; and the world does not need to worry about his successor(s) being insane or his country collapsing.
N Korea, on the other hand…
40.
Raven
@CaseyL: Fucking right there is anxiety. The North Koreans have heavy arty on the DMZ that can reach Seoul without even coming across the Z.
41.
Omnes Omnibus
@middlewest: Death comes in threes. Old family tradition.
Meanwhile, Bill Kristol believes that this is the perfect time to invade North Korea.
Fuck. That asshole has never spent a winter in Korea, obviously.
But then again, he’s all in favor of plenty of wars as long as his ass isn’t personally on the line.
43.
Canuckistani Tom
As I see it, there are two extreme scenarios
One the one side, does BHO get to be the prez who signs the treaty ending the Korean War? Do we see a withdrawal of forces from Korea? (I won’t guess all the troops, as China is pretty close by)
at the other extreme, are forces in Eastern Asia on alert? who’s in charge in NK? Are they sane? Do we never find out how much radiation was leaked at Fukushima, because of all the additional radiation that gets dumped on Japan?
What happens will likely be somewhere in between.
Gonna be a few interesting weeks ahead for all of us
44.
Surreal American
Meanwhile, Bill Kristol believes that this is the perfect time to invade North Korea
Well then Kristol can take the next flight to Pyongyang and have at it. Who am I to stand in his way?
45.
El Cruzado
Vaclav Havel, Kim Jong-Il, and now a horse!
This is great news for John McCain.
46.
gnomedad
Slightly off-topic, Nothing to Envy describes the evolution of daily live in NK as pieced together from the stories of multiple defectors from the Chonjin region. Really good.
47.
Omnes Omnibus
@CaseyL: I know that the real world effect is different, but how often does one have a intersection between the VU and politics?
@Raven: That was astounding and important to see. Thank you.
49.
CaseyL
@Raven: Yes, but my question was, was there this kind of anxiety when his father died?
50.
Raven
@Villago Delenda Est: No shit. 44 years ago next Jan 21 they launched the Blue House Raid on our asses and three days later they took the Pueblo. We moved out into the field with nothing but a basic load of ammo and spent 2 weeks on the ground waiting to be overrun by who we lovingly called “Joe Chink”.
And so, I’m ronery
A rittle ronery
Poor rittle me
There’s nobody I can rerate to
Feewr rike a bird in a cage
It’s kinda sirry
But, not rearry
Because, it’s fiwring my body with rage.
had to be said.
52.
scav
Beeb’s being a little optimistic there with its boilerplate question: “Are you in North Korea? Please send us your comments using the form below.” Off to go look for some HIGNIFY footage of the supposed successor. Thingz iz moving fast.
When I was stationed there, some 23 years ago, the joke about the US presence in Korea is that we had combat troops deployed between the North and the South to prevent them from going after each other.
The US presence is meant as a trip wire to insure US involvement should the North try anything. This is as much to calm the Japanese (who have long seen Korea as a dagger pointed directly at them) as much as it is the Koreans living in the South.
The North has tried many things (attempts to build tunnels under the DMZ capable of moving armor and artillery through, for example) but I suspect they’ll be too busy sorting out the succession to try anything fancy.
56.
Mr Stagger Lee
Ronrey I’m so Ronrey
Poor Rittrle Me!
57.
Jewish Steel
May I stray off topic?
I got to thinking about our local trolls. I know, I know, one man’s troll is another man’s comrade. I’m talking about the dedicated bomb throwers and arguers in bad faith and wondered about their geographic distribution. When I try to imagine these folks my imagination conjures up with a dyspeptic Easterner. I think West Coast types are too laid back, Midwesterners are generally too friendly and, to be brutally honest, too stupid.
As near as I could tell, some of those folks on the ABL & John threads argued for 18hrs yesterday. That’s kind of breath-taking and deserves scientific scrutiny, I think.
58.
Raven
@CaseyL: Yes. The Korean DMZ has been called the most dangerous place in the world for almost 60 years. ANY kind of change has the potential to light that place up.
59.
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: Hey, were you FA? Some things you have said have led me to think that, but others, not so much.
60.
Mike G
I haven’t been this un-sad about the death of a national leader since Pol Pot died.
Enjoy your rusty chainsaw enema in hell, you torturing, oppressing, rotten murderous bastard.
61.
Anya
@lamh35: They’re all more than capable of saying something idiotic, but I’ll go with the sober one.
62.
pseudonymous in nc
I don’t understand why, as I don’t remember there being comparable anxiety when his father, Kim Il Sung, died.
KJI was de facto leader by the time his father died, having spent a couple of decades ascending the various diverse party committee ranks. Scott Jong Un hasn’t had that kind of transitional period.
63.
Mr Stagger Lee
@PaulW: Much Better said. I do wonder what was his last words?
I think NK’s nuclear arsenal is more of a dirty bomb arsenal, since the ones they’ve set off were probably fizzles. But a dirty bomb exploded over Seoul (or Tokyo) would still would make an enormous mess, of course.
67.
Raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Yep, 105’s 1/79th Arty. I was a truck driver in the ammo platoon of HHB. Not very glamorous, drive to the ASP, pick up a load, drive it back and unload it in the bunkers or take it to the field. In Nam I was a truck driver in a Signal outfit so that may account for the dissonance.
@Raven: Seriously. They don’t need nukes to wipe Seoul (and Yongsan Garrison, which I live right next to) off the map. They’ve had the means for the last 50 years.
73.
wasabi gasp
The world has one less interesting person. He did it his way.
“I haven’t been this un-sad about the death of a national leader since Pol Pot died.”
I think my level of unsad may even marginally exceed how much unregretful I will feel when Margaret Thatcher finishes decomposing while breathing, and finally gets a well deserved stake through the heart.
I remember the night bin Laden got what was coming to him and BJ was overrun with precious flowers who thought it in bad taste to speak ill of the dead.
By coincidence, I just last night finished reading Barbara Demick’s Nothing To Envy, about ordinary lives in North Korea, mostly in the northern city of Chongjin and mostly in the 1990s. You may think you’ve got an idea of how bad things have been there for the last couple of decades (I thought I did), but unless you’ve gone beyond news reports and a few magazine articles you probably don’t know just how bad. I’m not sure I could dream up such a horrific scene.
ETA Going back through the thread, I now see that Gnomedad recommended the same book. It really is a compelling read, albeit depressing.
79.
lamh35
So does Faux News cover international news unless it’s bad for POTUS?
So how can they blame Obama and still condemn the dead dictator?
80.
Raven
@rachel: I lived just south of Munsani when the MSR was a gravel road. When they paved part of it the Koreans came out and chopped up the asphalt and burned it in their stoves.
Anyone else here who has served in Korea, please chime in, even if you’re not a regular commenter. I’d very much like to get your inputs, rather than someone from the 101 chairborne.
BJ was overrun with precious flowers who thought it in bad taste to speak ill of the dead.
That wasn’t me. I love speaking ill. And I can think of no one more deserving of ill speak than, well, Kim Jong Il.
I’ll hold out hope for Hugo Chavez.
86.
Moonbatting Average
Goddamn. I had no idea about Vaclav Havel. RIP.
87.
nodakfarmboy
@Warren Terra: I second the recommendation on Nothing to Envy. It was quite the read. Saw it on the new book rack at the local library, picked it up on a whim, and read it in one day. The reality of the lives of the people of North Korea is shocking.
I’m not sure what the afterlife holds, but the existence of individuals like Kim Jong Il makes me hope there is a hell so he can rot in it. In any case, good riddance to an evil man.
88.
RossInDetroit
‘E’s not pinin’! ‘E’s passed on! This dictator is no more! He has ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e
rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed ‘im to the perch ‘e’d be pushing up the daisies! ‘Is metabolic processes are now ‘istory! ‘E’s off the twig! ‘E’s kicked the
bucket, ‘e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-DICTATOR!!
The worst thing is he was just about to finish 18 holes of golf – in 17 strokes.
94.
Warren Terra
@Raven:
Unless I misread your comment, you either are awfully blase about war or are accusing me of being so. North Korea has to change, desperately, but I’m far from convinced a war could do it without horrific cost. Even leaving aside the North’s alleged ability to devastate Seoul with conventional artillery and/or chemical or radiological weapons, from what I’ve read there are an awful lot of North Koreans in the army, and for whatever reason – fear, unit cohesion, 60 years of comprehensive indoctrination, nationalism – they might well resist an invasion.
95.
Suffern ACE
I can’t believe he was only 69. It seemed liked he was around forever. Booze will do that for you.
96.
Raven
@Villago Delenda Est: Same with us in 67-68 except that we were in what is called the DMZ War. They were constantly probing the DMZ and, as you know, had the big ass tunnels that they “infiltrated” through. This is part of a documentary called Running the DMZ. I’m surprised youtube hasn’t taken it down since I posted it 10 months ago.
For a really depresing read, try Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader by Bradley Martin, 880 pages of documented case after case about entire families, including children and grandparents, shipped off to almost-certain deaths in Auschwitz-like conditions in the NK gulug for the misstep of one family member.
For the sheer scale of misery he brought to millions, Kim Jong Il belongs in a deeper circle of hell even than Bin Laden — like the Hitler and Stalin section.
I remember the night bin Laden got what was coming to him and BJ was overrun with precious flowers who thought it in bad taste to speak ill of the dead.
I find it hard to believe they were anything close to 1 in 20 of the ill-speakers.
I remember the night bin Laden got what was coming to him and BJ was overrun with precious flowers who thought it in bad taste to speak ill of the dead.
That was one guy from Canada who wrote long winded posts.
100.
Raven
@Raven: I’m sorry, I didn’t intend it that way at all and I damn sure know we shouldn’t be invading North Korea.
101.
MikeJ
@Suffern ACE: I don’t think most of them were that upset that bin Laden was dead, just that Obama got it done. Much talk about foam fingers.
There’s one time when it’s ok to wave a foam finger, and that’s when your team wins the super bowl. Offing that evil fuck counted as the super bowl.
102.
Judas Escargot
I didn’t agree with Kim Jong Il on much. But I sure did love his writing.
Dear Leader’s dead, Dear Leader’s dead, the Dear Rat Bastard’s dead, dead, dead.
106.
Anya
Speaking of repulsive politicians/dictator wannabes, did anyone else see Bob Schieffer’s interview with Gingrich? This is what he said (among other idiotic things):
Do you want to move towards American exceptionalism, reassert the Constitution, reassert the nature of America, or do you, in fact, want to become a secular, European, sort of beaurocratic socialist society?”
Why can’t these asshole pundits ask proper questions or challenge these crazies. So, in order to “reassert the Constitution,” you arrest Federal Judges, if you disapprove their ruling? I wonder which countries do that?
For the sheer scale of misery he brought to millions, Kim Jong Il belongs in a deeper circle of hell even than Bin Laden—like the Hitler and Stalin section.
ah, but to some, does he attain the depths of Christopher Hitchens?
I’m with No one of importance, I’m looking forward to Thatchers shuffling off this mortal coil as an excuse for good champagne, but that one won’t make people as nervous as this one seems to be doing. Practically speaking, I think Africa should get the third dictators death (ahead of South America) but that may just be me.
the birds stopped tweeting in NK years ago because they’ve all been eaten by the starving humans who reside there.
111.
Raven
Ok, our UGA expert Dr Han Park just pointed out that it is the party and military that makes all the important decisions and that they are rubber stamped by the Dear Leader II. He also said the dude is not very bright. He generally knows exactly what he is talking about.
I have been agitating for a Havel thread all day and no one gives a shit.
Can’t offer up anything to say about Mr. Havel but we spent 4 or 5 days in Prague last year and decided it was one of the most fabulous cities on the planet. Liked it better than San Francisco or Honolulu.
He also said the dude is not very bright. This dude generally knows exactly what he is talking about.
But does the dude abide?
114.
maven
the ‘lights’ we see at night in N Korea are those we gather to put out in Durban. We whine. We gloat.
Leisure Suits are for a song on ebay.
115.
Mike G
Korean Central News Agency (Pyongyang) has yet to report his death.
In the meantime you can enjoy ideological sycophancy-journalism that would make Fox News blush (maybe) — stories about new agricultural implements that will ensure bountiful harvests, foreign visitors praising the glories of Kim Il Sung, and warnings of the sinister maneuverings of South Korea and the US:
A breaking news story:
Headgears Popular among Korean Women in Winter
Pyongyang, December 14 (KCNA) — Many Korean women have chosen headgears to wear in winter instead of boa or headscarf.
Headgears are made with woolen yarn, leather or overcoat fabric of various colors.
Pae Ryon Hwa, a 42-year-old woman living in Pothonggang District, Pyongyang, told KCNA:
“I like to wear a headgear. It is better than boa. I look stylish with this headgear. I think it is also good for health. I had used to wear a boa in winter. But it made me sweat and feel choky. So I had caught cold easily. Since I began wearing a headgear, I have felt better.”
Winter headgear is also economically better than boa or headscarf because woolen yarn for one boa is enough for three headgears.
I have it on good authority that his last words were, “you won’t have Kim Jong Il to kick around anymore”.
Also that he had a last minute conversion to the LDS it was the only religion offering a step up in status.
119.
Yutsano
@Viva BrisVegas: Man. No one can die officially atheist anymore. If you’re a world leader anyway.
120.
RossInDetroit
This happened at the airport today.
Just as I walked by, a young guy in fatigues and a crew cut drops to one knee, pulls a ring box out of his pocket and proposes to his girlfriend. About 30 people immediately gave them a round of applause. I saw the couple walking around for the next hour as I waited for my niece’s plane and they looked absolutely delirious.
Good luck to you, young people. Treat each other well and be happy.
121.
lurkie
Cue Greenwald post contrasting media coverage of Kim Jong Il’s death with that of Christopher Hitchens…
122.
Mike in NC
With his poll numbers sinking, this could be an opening for Newt to fly to North Korea to mentor the 20-something Kim Jong Un in the arts of being a bomb-throwing fascist wannabe dictator. He could even throw in some advice on dumping a sick wife.
@RossInDetroit:
I saw the same thing Friday, minus the fatigues and thirty people. Also different airport I am guessing. But he did do the one knee thing.
125.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I hope someone in N. Korea pisses on his grave.
Daily.
Prior to Kim Jong Il it was Kim Il Jong. Who is the next dick-tater; Il Jong Kim, Il Kim Jong, Jong Kim Il or Jong Il Kim?
Not that it will matter to the poor people of N. Korea, shits gonna suck no matter who it is.
126.
Arclite
Hmm, for some reason I thought he was younger than 69.
Korean Spring?
127.
Violet
I cannot think of Kim Jong Il without thinking of his Team America puppet. “Ronery, I’m so ronery…”
Can’t believe he’s gone. He’s the last of the terrible, flamboyant old-school dictators, isn’t he? Castro’s stepped aside, Chavez is second tier. Who’s left?
That now leaves just Iraq’s leader in Frum’s “Axis of Evil” left to knock-off.
I’m sure that McCain & Graham are submitting their war proposals to President Romney now as we speak …
131.
Violet
@No one of importance:
I’m thinking of the crazy, flamboyant dictators. Gaddafi. Idi Amin. Kim Jong Il. Castro. Mugabe probably counts, but Assad isn’t quite crazy and flamboyant enough. Putin might be getting there.
I know, one man’s troll is another man’s comrade. I’m talking about the dedicated bomb throwers and arguers in bad faith and wondered about their geographic distribution. When I try to imagine these folks my imagination conjures up with a dyspeptic Easterner. I think West Coast types are too laid back…
Depending on your definition, I know Samara-Chan says she’s in Colorado, and I believe Hall Monitor Allan is based in San Francisco. Forgive me if this was an attempt at trolling on your part…
136.
Ian
@russell:
I often use the example of their plight as to proof that said deity does not exist.
@Chuck Butcher:
Not really what I meant by flamboyant. I meant the funny hats, crazy outfits, weird hair, larger than life personalities, etc. Cheney always strove to come across as normal, even though he’s anything but. And being installed in a coup, well…yawn. That’s nothing for any of the old-school dictators. Unless they slit the throat of the previous ruler themselves,
And being installed in a coup, well…yawn. That’s nothing for any of the old-school dictators. Unless they slit the throat of the previous ruler themselves,
Just as a point of order, we do no have information yet that this has or has not occurred in North Korea.
@Yutsano:
what? you think maybe Un fixed daddy up with a couple girls to push him over?
exhaustion and all?
143.
Martin
Ok, now, I know that Obama had nothing to do with Kim’s death, but holy fuck has any president since FDR faced a different foreign policy world heading into their re-election than Obama is? Granted, Obama is responsible for some of the change, and a lot is just timing, but we’re talking about damn near a global reworking of leaders.
I think it’s notable that there’s so little drama related to it. Clinton is earning her pay like few other Sec States have ever had to – and doing a damn good job of it, IMO.
144.
cbear
Ol’ Kim may very well have been one of the most despicable fucks of the last century—but he pwned the shit out of MonkeyBoy and Big Dick, et al.
What’s that say about those useless fucks?
145.
Triassic Sands
It’s hard to imagine things being much worse for North Korea, but I’d like to take this opportunity to express the sincere hope that this death will lead to improved conditions and lives for all North Koreans. Nobody deserves to be born into a society like North Korea, which is in the running for worst place on Earth to live.
which is in the running for worst place on Earth to live.
There’s always Hoboken.
147.
Schlemizel
@Jewish Steel: HEY! As a Midwesterner born and raise and one time scientist for NASA I want to thank you for the shout out. Speaking of trollish comments.
148.
Suffern ACE
@Martin: Hey. There are lots of places that don’t have a Carlo’s bakery or Maxwell’s. Heck if North Korea tore down that vacant show city in the DMZ and replaced it with a line of people waiting to get into Carlo’s before heading to see Junior Brown at Maxwell’s, the South Koreans would start to wonder if maybe the North was onto something.
@Martin: There’s also Verkhoyansk in Russia, where the temperature increases/decreases by 130 degrees every six months, from -40f in January to +70f in July. Seems brutal but I guess we humans are a hardy bunch.
@Matt Mangels:
Am I having a math moment when I come up with 110 degrees?
Here in NE OR 0+/- Jan to somewhat less than 100 Aug. If Jan gets good and cold -15 to a hot August 105 so that’d be 120? How about Aug day 100 to Aug night 47?
I like this place and I don’t care for the coldest I’ve been at -37F + 60mph wind + 3′ snow in 6hrs in the Keewenaw in MI. That was a kinda rough night and next day. Superior is a rough bitch at times.
152.
Yutsano
@Chuck Butcher: It would, as always, be irresponsible not to speculate. I wouldn’t be half-shocked if KJI is just trolling us all about his death to get the South to do something stupid.
@Chuck Butcher: I looked at the climate chart on the Wikipedia page and did the math (i.e. used a calculator), and the average high temperature changes by 117 degrees, so you were close enough.
155.
AA+ Bonds
I watch a lot of NK TV when I can get my hands on it.
There is one scene in a dubbed documentary about Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il where the English-language narration, at least, explains that the two of them were talking about how pleased they were that industrialization and electrification had made “the People’s wishes come true”.
Except that they were obviously excitedly talking about their new weapons or war stories or some shit. This was obvious even without audio. You could see Kim Jong Il laughing and making a “rat-a-tat-tat” gangster motion with an imaginary rifle, and Kim Il Sung gesturing to show how mortars get loaded and how the bombs tumble through the air, they were like dumb little children
He’s the last of the terrible, flamboyant old-school dictators, isn’t he? Castro’s stepped aside, Chavez is second tier. Who’s left?
You must watch a shit ton of Fox News if you think Chavez is some sort of second-tier Kim Jong Il. Or hell, maybe you just read wire service reports, they’re just as inaccurate with the same slant.
Chavez sucks. But Venezuela is NOTHING like Communist NK or Communist Cuba. Many English-speaking expats from rich families will swear up and down that it is, but it isn’t.
Geez. Who pissed in your cheerios? You can say that during Obama’s first term there has been a lot of big changes around the world without giving him credit for them, you know. In fact the poster you linked to managed it well enough.
159.
JPL
@Mustang Bobby: Darrow would have been pleased with the obits today.
North Korea will probably have a power struggle between the military and the son for leadership. What happens next is anyone’s guess but I’m pleased that Obama is at the helm to deal with this situation.
160.
doofus
@Anne Laurie: I was betting Walla Walla. Maybe Rancho Cucamonga. Definitely not Lake Titicaca.
I liked Nothing to Envy as well. It’s a good read.
162.
Pseudonym
@Violet: Omar al-Bashir? Islam Karimov? Bashar al-Assad? Robert Mugabe? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad isn’t really a dictator but he has the flamboyancy down; maybe in combination with Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i? Hugo Chavez doesn’t seem like he’s in the same ballpark.
Thanks for dropping by, but you might want to get the lay of the land before you post comments that are “fucking unbelievable.” Martin isn’t one of the local bomb throwers. You really missed the mark.
I concur with the “who pissed in your breakfast cereal,” but this is essentially correct – the current environment isn’t by any stretch as big a deal as when the Wall came down.
Chavez sucks. But Venezuela is NOTHING like Communist NK or Communist Cuba. Many English-speaking expats from rich families will swear up and down that it is, but it isn’t.
vs obama having to deal with NK, waves of democratic revolution throughout the entire mideast and north africa, the figurative meltdown and possible dissolution of the european union and the literal meltdown of half of japan’s countryside. and trying to wrap up two inherited long-term wars.
all while dealing with an economic depression on the domestic side.
in terms of sheer numbers and variability, obama’s got herbert beat.
can you imagine someone that young with his hand on a nuclear arsenal?
You meant “shitty, third rate, unreliable and low powered” nuclear arsenal, didn’t you?
176.
Nix
Being around perverts and all if they ever do open the borders the fetish for miniature people will be something to behold. Over 18 and only 4 feet tall. The porno industry will have a field day with the dirt poor, like they do with Eastern Europeans.
177.
Violet
@AA+ Bonds:
Would you call Chavez a dictator? He’s got some of the old-school flamboyance, which is why I mentioned him at all. He’s more of a dictator than, say, Dilma in Brazil (I know it’s her first name. When I was there during the elections, that’s what all the signs said, so I think it’s how she’s known there.)
I don’t think Chavez compares to Kim Jong Il. Not at all. The atrocities committed by Kim are terrible. I was more thinking out loud, at something like 2:00 in the morning, as to whether or not there are any flamboyant dictators left. There don’t seem to be any like those that have recently passed.
178.
Sloegin
Nice Obama retweet in my feed this morning:
Kim Jong IL is dead but his role in Team America World Police will forever be cherished.
Hugo Chavez is nothing like a Kim Jong Il / Il Sung tyrant, but I’ll be damned if he doesn’t make sure and do everything he can to show how much he loved and respected KJI, his departed “comrade“.
Chavez has no creepier moments than in praising whatever nasty ally Venezuela has. It’s way beyond what would be tactically necessary to preserve trade deals and some degree of international buffering against continual pressure.
Strangely, Chavez has really been thrown a bit by the entirely rational and peaceful outreach and work done by the current, right wing but reformist, former army general President of Colombia, Santos. (This hasn’t made Santos, formerly a truly cheered-on pick by US fetish Alvaro Uribe, and now his bitter enemy, popular with those who wish to simply overthrow Chavez and reinstitute pre-Chavez crap government.)
182.
Gravenstone
@Yevgraf: Even a low yield nuke tends to make life hell for the poor sods on the receiving end.
There was a similar conversation at Sadly, No! last month about Chavez. Reposting what I posted then:
“I hesitate to call him a “dictator,” even if he is a bit of a clown personally, and way too in love with the sound of his own voice. Democratic countries often have very popular leaders gather a lot of personal power around themselves like Chavez has (for better or for worse), but the system survived. If we’re going to call Chavez a dictator, can we say the same thing about Andrew Jackson? Lincoln? FDR? Johnson? Nixon? Reagan? George W. Bush? How about Winston Churchill? How about Charles De Gaulle? How about Berlusconi, who’s been in power twice as long as Chavez using methods at least as questionable (including Mafia ties in his case)? How about the LDP in Japan, which via crony alliances with the government bureaucracy and big business, managed to rule Japan for half a century straight? Are we calling all these things dictatorships too?
As far as I can tell, Chavez is much more like any of these previous cases than like Hitler, Stalin, Mao or Castro. Again, I’m not his biggest fan. But most of what he’s done, as far as I can tell, doesn’t especially stick out when compared with many of the leaders we’ve had here in the “democratic” West. And unlike many of these guys I just cited, the basis of his popularity actually includes helping his people. George W. “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job!” Bush could’ve learned a thing or two from that. Berlusconi still could.”
ETA: none of this invalidates El Cid’s very valid criticisms of the guy. And indeed, he does have a disturbing boner for many of the world’s dictators. But IMHO he isn’t himself one of them.
Yutsano
Why do you hate OO?
Corner Stone
DRONES!!
Sorry AL.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: I know. someone could have posted the Havel thread and then stepped on it immediately, just to placate me.
::mutters and goes off to listen to the first VU album::
Raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Hang in there bro.
hhex65
and if you have nothing nice to say, just move along.
/…
kdaug
Upside: this will keep them busy for a while – ceremonies, memorials, statues to be built, schoolbooks to be re-written.
Downside: Kim Jong Un seems like a somewhat less stable Uday Hussein
gnomedad
NK television via the BBC via LGF:
Raven
Here’s the Korea I remember, a drunk pig being taken to market on a bike. (Taken by my BN Commander).
cokane
@hhex65: damnit i was gonna make this joke. F U !!
russell
couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. god help the north korean people.
Yutsano
@kdaug: Actually the first move to cement power is threaten the South. And depending on the PM in the South, the counterreaction is either measured or overblown. Then the North figures it can’t waste the bullets and backs down because China jerks their leash. China also will not risk their economic miracle. So it gets…interesting. But the succession wasn’t made hugely clear.
Omnes Omnibus
@Raven: Whose voice?
cmorenc
@DougJ:
Did you realize what an inadvertently ironic statement you just made about having an “open” thread about the most “unopen” country on Earth?
Raven
@Omnes Omnibus: The Bn Commander. I found him about 10 years ago and he sent me 45 minutes of video of our unit, the AO, firing the 105’s and all kinds of cool shit.
suzanne
Let’s hope this transfer of power goes as uneventfully as possible. Because this could be the start of a big fucking shitstorm.
@Omnes Omnibus: Whyfor so angsty?
ericblair
I’m assuming we just went up an alert level or two. Kim Jong Un is a fucking kid, and I can’t see the generals letting him go too far. This is probably the riskiest time for the Koreas in a lot of years.
Mark S.
I hope Cole deletes and bans . . .
Oh fuck it, a true monster is dead. We’ll see how long this doofus lasts. I’m guessing a month before a bullet in the back of the head.
Well, one musical tribute
Raven
Here’s some more at Camp St Barbara.
pseudonymous in nc
@kdaug:
…getting hold of another crystal coffin to put the Dear Leader on display next to his dad. Not that many suppliers of Approved-For-Dead-Communists glass these days.
There’s a live stream of NK state television, though it may already be choking with the interest: link here. Lots of sighing over a photo montage in the brief bit I caught.
Punchy
I heard his nickname recently had been changed to Kim Jong Ill.
hhex65
“he did it his way” is still available, as are Tebow jokes
Villago Delenda Est
Translation: He died with his boots on, just like Nelson Rockefeller, only it was with two babes, not one, and it was in a bubble bath.
lamh35
Alright, so which GOP candidate or pol’s gonna be the first one to say something stupid… and no Herman Cain doesn’t count.
Wag
Sounds like a GOP wet dream
Preemptive strike!!!!!!
jayboat
@kdaug:
Yeah, that’s how I recall my feelings about him.
Interesting times.
Raven
Ever see this night shot of the lights in North and South Korea?
Omnes Omnibus
@Raven: Cool.
@suzanne: I have been agitating for a Havel thread all day and no one gives a shit. The VU is for the effect of the band and R’n’R in general on the people who led the Velvet Revolution.
lamh35
@Mark S.:
I hear the son is in his late 20’s. Kinda young to inherit a dictatorship right??? So does the military have behind the scenes controls then?
I can understand why the Asia markets may be upset, can you imagine someone that young with his hand on a nuclear arsenal?
CaseyL
People aren’t on edge, exactly; but the commentators are indicating there’s a high level of anxiety, particularly in S Korea. I don’t understand why, as I don’t remember there being comparable anxiety when his father, Kim Il Sung, died.
Is it because N Korea didn’t have nukes then, but does have ’em now?
Here’s something about possible instability in the succession from Wikipedia:
(From the entry on Kim Jong Il)
PeakVT
Good riddance. And let’s hope Yusanto is right and China can see to it that NK doesn’t do something stupid.
middlewest
Why is everybody dying all of a sudden?
Villago Delenda Est
@CaseyL:
Yeah, as we learned in Hamlet, keep a lookout for asshole uncles.
lamh35
@CaseyL:
like I said at #28, the son is in the late 20’s can you imagine at 25-28 year old with their hands on the keys to a nuclear arsenal?
I’d be nervous.
suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Gotcha. I concur, if it makes you feel any better; a Havel thread is certainly warranted.
Hawes
It’s not fair to Vaclev Havel that he has to share his death date with that odious toad.
I bet Fidel dies tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Bill Kristol believes that this is the perfect time to invade North Korea.
fasteddie9318
Thank FSM that Comcast just added BBC World so I don’t have to watch CNN and their collection of idiots.
Narcissus
Man, I’m like the same age as Kim Jong-un. I don’t have an impoverished Orwellian dictatorship. FML.
Petorado
To the folks in North Korea, for whom the tag “long suffering” stings like it came off a branding iron, may they not have to look at their next “Dear Leader” with the words of Dorothy Parker coming across their lips as they wonder “what fresh hell is this.” They’ve suffered long enough. Good riddance to the last incarnation of that nation’s hereditarily insane leadership.
CaseyL
@Omnes Omnibus: Omnes, the lack of discussion about Vaclev Havel doesn’t reflect a lack of respect. He was one of my heroes.
But his passing is less newsworthy in that The Czech Republic is a stable, prosperous, First World Country (largely thanks to Havel); he had already been out of office for a while; and the world does not need to worry about his successor(s) being insane or his country collapsing.
N Korea, on the other hand…
Raven
@CaseyL: Fucking right there is anxiety. The North Koreans have heavy arty on the DMZ that can reach Seoul without even coming across the Z.
Omnes Omnibus
@middlewest: Death comes in threes. Old family tradition.
Villago Delenda Est
@Hawes:
Fuck. That asshole has never spent a winter in Korea, obviously.
But then again, he’s all in favor of plenty of wars as long as his ass isn’t personally on the line.
Canuckistani Tom
As I see it, there are two extreme scenarios
One the one side, does BHO get to be the prez who signs the treaty ending the Korean War? Do we see a withdrawal of forces from Korea? (I won’t guess all the troops, as China is pretty close by)
at the other extreme, are forces in Eastern Asia on alert? who’s in charge in NK? Are they sane? Do we never find out how much radiation was leaked at Fukushima, because of all the additional radiation that gets dumped on Japan?
What happens will likely be somewhere in between.
Gonna be a few interesting weeks ahead for all of us
Surreal American
Well then Kristol can take the next flight to Pyongyang and have at it. Who am I to stand in his way?
El Cruzado
Vaclav Havel, Kim Jong-Il, and now a horse!
This is great news for John McCain.
gnomedad
Slightly off-topic, Nothing to Envy describes the evolution of daily live in NK as pieced together from the stories of multiple defectors from the Chonjin region. Really good.
Omnes Omnibus
@CaseyL: I know that the real world effect is different, but how often does one have a intersection between the VU and politics?
Paddy
@Raven: That was astounding and important to see. Thank you.
CaseyL
@Raven: Yes, but my question was, was there this kind of anxiety when his father died?
Raven
@Villago Delenda Est: No shit. 44 years ago next Jan 21 they launched the Blue House Raid on our asses and three days later they took the Pueblo. We moved out into the field with nothing but a basic load of ammo and spent 2 weeks on the ground waiting to be overrun by who we lovingly called “Joe Chink”.
PaulW
And so, I’m ronery
A rittle ronery
Poor rittle me
There’s nobody I can rerate to
Feewr rike a bird in a cage
It’s kinda sirry
But, not rearry
Because, it’s fiwring my body with rage.
had to be said.
scav
Beeb’s being a little optimistic there with its boilerplate question: “Are you in North Korea? Please send us your comments using the form below.” Off to go look for some HIGNIFY footage of the supposed successor. Thingz iz moving fast.
robertdsc-PowerBook
Holy crap. What a shock.
gnomedad
@lamh35:
@Hawes:
Well, that didn’t take long.
Villago Delenda Est
@Canuckistani Tom:
When I was stationed there, some 23 years ago, the joke about the US presence in Korea is that we had combat troops deployed between the North and the South to prevent them from going after each other.
The US presence is meant as a trip wire to insure US involvement should the North try anything. This is as much to calm the Japanese (who have long seen Korea as a dagger pointed directly at them) as much as it is the Koreans living in the South.
The North has tried many things (attempts to build tunnels under the DMZ capable of moving armor and artillery through, for example) but I suspect they’ll be too busy sorting out the succession to try anything fancy.
Mr Stagger Lee
Jewish Steel
May I stray off topic?
I got to thinking about our local trolls. I know, I know, one man’s troll is another man’s comrade. I’m talking about the dedicated bomb throwers and arguers in bad faith and wondered about their geographic distribution. When I try to imagine these folks my imagination conjures up with a dyspeptic Easterner. I think West Coast types are too laid back, Midwesterners are generally too friendly and, to be brutally honest, too stupid.
As near as I could tell, some of those folks on the ABL & John threads argued for 18hrs yesterday. That’s kind of breath-taking and deserves scientific scrutiny, I think.
Raven
@CaseyL: Yes. The Korean DMZ has been called the most dangerous place in the world for almost 60 years. ANY kind of change has the potential to light that place up.
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: Hey, were you FA? Some things you have said have led me to think that, but others, not so much.
Mike G
I haven’t been this un-sad about the death of a national leader since Pol Pot died.
Enjoy your rusty chainsaw enema in hell, you torturing, oppressing, rotten murderous bastard.
Anya
@lamh35: They’re all more than capable of saying something idiotic, but I’ll go with the sober one.
pseudonymous in nc
KJI was de facto leader by the time his father died, having spent a couple of decades ascending the various diverse party committee ranks. Scott Jong Un hasn’t had that kind of transitional period.
Mr Stagger Lee
@PaulW: Much Better said. I do wonder what was his last words?
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus:
Na, I was a Signal puke. You know, one of those people you can talk about, but can’t talk without?
I spent a few years in arty units, though, and so the redlegs have a special place in my heart, not to mention ringing in my ears…
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike G: You forgot short. It apparently bothered him.
PeakVT
I think NK’s nuclear arsenal is more of a dirty bomb arsenal, since the ones they’ve set off were probably fizzles. But a dirty bomb exploded over Seoul (or Tokyo) would still would make an enormous mess, of course.
Raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Yep, 105’s 1/79th Arty. I was a truck driver in the ammo platoon of HHB. Not very glamorous, drive to the ASP, pick up a load, drive it back and unload it in the bunkers or take it to the field. In Nam I was a truck driver in a Signal outfit so that may account for the dissonance.
Moonbatting Average
@Omnes Omnibus: Hitchens… Kim… Castro?
lamh35
@Moonbatting Average: Assad? Mugabe???
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: WHAT?
Raven
@Villago Delenda Est: Damn, I thought he was talking to me! Here’s a weird one. I was RA but spent 6 months in a NG outfit from Rhode Island. Last year I found that they have a website.
rachel
@Raven: Seriously. They don’t need nukes to wipe Seoul (and Yongsan Garrison, which I live right next to) off the map. They’ve had the means for the last 50 years.
wasabi gasp
The world has one less interesting person. He did it his way.
Mike G
@Moonbatting Average:
Unfortunately, the next may be Mandela.
South African media are currently hovering around his residence on rumor that he is seriously ailing.
No one of importance
@Mike G:
“I haven’t been this un-sad about the death of a national leader since Pol Pot died.”
I think my level of unsad may even marginally exceed how much unregretful I will feel when Margaret Thatcher finishes decomposing while breathing, and finally gets a well deserved stake through the heart.
But only marginally.
MikeJ
@Mark S.:
I remember the night bin Laden got what was coming to him and BJ was overrun with precious flowers who thought it in bad taste to speak ill of the dead.
Villago Delenda Est
@lamh35:
Brooks? Gingrich? Todd? Halperin? Cheney?
Warren Terra
By coincidence, I just last night finished reading Barbara Demick’s Nothing To Envy, about ordinary lives in North Korea, mostly in the northern city of Chongjin and mostly in the 1990s. You may think you’ve got an idea of how bad things have been there for the last couple of decades (I thought I did), but unless you’ve gone beyond news reports and a few magazine articles you probably don’t know just how bad. I’m not sure I could dream up such a horrific scene.
ETA Going back through the thread, I now see that Gnomedad recommended the same book. It really is a compelling read, albeit depressing.
lamh35
So does Faux News cover international news unless it’s bad for POTUS?
So how can they blame Obama and still condemn the dead dictator?
Raven
@rachel: I lived just south of Munsani when the MSR was a gravel road. When they paved part of it the Koreans came out and chopped up the asphalt and burned it in their stoves.
Canuckistani Tom
@Villago Delenda Est:
Anyone else here who has served in Korea, please chime in, even if you’re not a regular commenter. I’d very much like to get your inputs, rather than someone from the 101 chairborne.
Villago Delenda Est
@wasabi gasp:
The wailing of the Village will deafen even OO when The Maverick finally exits this mortal coil.
Raven
@Warren Terra: Let’s hear from the people that say there is never a reason to go to war.
Calouste
@lamh35:
“All of them, Katie.”
suzanne
@MikeJ:
That wasn’t me. I love speaking ill. And I can think of no one more deserving of ill speak than, well, Kim Jong Il.
I’ll hold out hope for Hugo Chavez.
Moonbatting Average
Goddamn. I had no idea about Vaclav Havel. RIP.
nodakfarmboy
@Warren Terra: I second the recommendation on Nothing to Envy. It was quite the read. Saw it on the new book rack at the local library, picked it up on a whim, and read it in one day. The reality of the lives of the people of North Korea is shocking.
I’m not sure what the afterlife holds, but the existence of individuals like Kim Jong Il makes me hope there is a hell so he can rot in it. In any case, good riddance to an evil man.
RossInDetroit
‘E’s not pinin’! ‘E’s passed on! This dictator is no more! He has ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e
rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed ‘im to the perch ‘e’d be pushing up the daisies! ‘Is metabolic processes are now ‘istory! ‘E’s off the twig! ‘E’s kicked the
bucket, ‘e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-DICTATOR!!
Calouste
@lamh35:
That’s funny, in North Korea there is never any foreign news on TV unless it was good news for SLoNK.
The prophet Nostradumbass
Did the birds all stop tweeting when Kim died?
gnomedad
The Onion checks in:
Kim Jong-Un Privately Doubting He’s Crazy Enough To Run North Korea
MikeJ
So nobody thinks I’m playing favorites, I’ll just post what I said in the Hitchens thread:
He may have been wrong, but he wasn’t dull.
LT
The worst thing is he was just about to finish 18 holes of golf – in 17 strokes.
Warren Terra
@Raven:
Unless I misread your comment, you either are awfully blase about war or are accusing me of being so. North Korea has to change, desperately, but I’m far from convinced a war could do it without horrific cost. Even leaving aside the North’s alleged ability to devastate Seoul with conventional artillery and/or chemical or radiological weapons, from what I’ve read there are an awful lot of North Koreans in the army, and for whatever reason – fear, unit cohesion, 60 years of comprehensive indoctrination, nationalism – they might well resist an invasion.
Suffern ACE
I can’t believe he was only 69. It seemed liked he was around forever. Booze will do that for you.
Raven
@Villago Delenda Est: Same with us in 67-68 except that we were in what is called the DMZ War. They were constantly probing the DMZ and, as you know, had the big ass tunnels that they “infiltrated” through. This is part of a documentary called Running the DMZ. I’m surprised youtube hasn’t taken it down since I posted it 10 months ago.
Mike G
@Warren Terra:
For a really depresing read, try Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader by Bradley Martin, 880 pages of documented case after case about entire families, including children and grandparents, shipped off to almost-certain deaths in Auschwitz-like conditions in the NK gulug for the misstep of one family member.
For the sheer scale of misery he brought to millions, Kim Jong Il belongs in a deeper circle of hell even than Bin Laden — like the Hitler and Stalin section.
LT
@MikeJ:
I find it hard to believe they were anything close to 1 in 20 of the ill-speakers.
Suffern ACE
@MikeJ:
That was one guy from Canada who wrote long winded posts.
Raven
@Raven: I’m sorry, I didn’t intend it that way at all and I damn sure know we shouldn’t be invading North Korea.
MikeJ
@Suffern ACE: I don’t think most of them were that upset that bin Laden was dead, just that Obama got it done. Much talk about foam fingers.
There’s one time when it’s ok to wave a foam finger, and that’s when your team wins the super bowl. Offing that evil fuck counted as the super bowl.
Judas Escargot
I didn’t agree with Kim Jong Il on much. But I sure did love his writing.
(Too soon?)
LT
@MikeJ:
Here’s the OBL thread. Show us.
magurakurin
@Mike G: Yeah, more or less this.
PIGL
Dear Leader’s dead, Dear Leader’s dead, the Dear Rat Bastard’s dead, dead, dead.
Anya
Speaking of repulsive politicians/dictator wannabes, did anyone else see Bob Schieffer’s interview with Gingrich? This is what he said (among other idiotic things):
Why can’t these asshole pundits ask proper questions or challenge these crazies. So, in order to “reassert the Constitution,” you arrest Federal Judges, if you disapprove their ruling? I wonder which countries do that?
scav
@Mike G:
ah, but to some, does he attain the depths of Christopher Hitchens?
I’m with No one of importance, I’m looking forward to Thatchers shuffling off this mortal coil as an excuse for good champagne, but that one won’t make people as nervous as this one seems to be doing. Practically speaking, I think Africa should get the third dictators death (ahead of South America) but that may just be me.
piratedan
this is kinda one of those moments when you wanna say ‘The Ministry has fallen, run for your lives!’
Anya
Why is my comment in moderation?
magurakurin
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
the birds stopped tweeting in NK years ago because they’ve all been eaten by the starving humans who reside there.
Raven
Ok, our UGA expert Dr Han Park just pointed out that it is the party and military that makes all the important decisions and that they are rubber stamped by the Dear Leader II. He also said the dude is not very bright. He generally knows exactly what he is talking about.
Mike in NC
@Omnes Omnibus:
Can’t offer up anything to say about Mr. Havel but we spent 4 or 5 days in Prague last year and decided it was one of the most fabulous cities on the planet. Liked it better than San Francisco or Honolulu.
Mike in NC
@Raven:
But does the dude abide?
maven
the ‘lights’ we see at night in N Korea are those we gather to put out in Durban. We whine. We gloat.
Leisure Suits are for a song on ebay.
Mike G
Korean Central News Agency (Pyongyang) has yet to report his death.
In the meantime you can enjoy ideological sycophancy-journalism that would make Fox News blush (maybe) — stories about new agricultural implements that will ensure bountiful harvests, foreign visitors praising the glories of Kim Il Sung, and warnings of the sinister maneuverings of South Korea and the US:
http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm
A breaking news story:
Headgears Popular among Korean Women in Winter
Pyongyang, December 14 (KCNA) — Many Korean women have chosen headgears to wear in winter instead of boa or headscarf.
Headgears are made with woolen yarn, leather or overcoat fabric of various colors.
Pae Ryon Hwa, a 42-year-old woman living in Pothonggang District, Pyongyang, told KCNA:
“I like to wear a headgear. It is better than boa. I look stylish with this headgear. I think it is also good for health. I had used to wear a boa in winter. But it made me sweat and feel choky. So I had caught cold easily. Since I began wearing a headgear, I have felt better.”
Winter headgear is also economically better than boa or headscarf because woolen yarn for one boa is enough for three headgears.
Mike in NC
@Mike G:
Hell, I sure wouldn’t want my old job back tonight as a watchstander in the Pentagon.
Chuck Butcher
maybe this is a better place to plug nice to Kim
Viva BrisVegas
I have it on good authority that his last words were, “you won’t have Kim Jong Il to kick around anymore”.
Also that he had a last minute conversion to the LDS it was the only religion offering a step up in status.
Yutsano
@Viva BrisVegas: Man. No one can die officially atheist anymore. If you’re a world leader anyway.
RossInDetroit
This happened at the airport today.
Just as I walked by, a young guy in fatigues and a crew cut drops to one knee, pulls a ring box out of his pocket and proposes to his girlfriend. About 30 people immediately gave them a round of applause. I saw the couple walking around for the next hour as I waited for my niece’s plane and they looked absolutely delirious.
Good luck to you, young people. Treat each other well and be happy.
lurkie
Cue Greenwald post contrasting media coverage of Kim Jong Il’s death with that of Christopher Hitchens…
Mike in NC
With his poll numbers sinking, this could be an opening for Newt to fly to North Korea to mentor the 20-something Kim Jong Un in the arts of being a bomb-throwing fascist wannabe dictator. He could even throw in some advice on dumping a sick wife.
PeakVT
@Anya: WordPress hates you.
Jebediah
@RossInDetroit:
I saw the same thing Friday, minus the fatigues and thirty people. Also different airport I am guessing. But he did do the one knee thing.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I hope someone in N. Korea pisses on his grave.
Daily.
Prior to Kim Jong Il it was Kim Il Jong. Who is the next dick-tater; Il Jong Kim, Il Kim Jong, Jong Kim Il or Jong Il Kim?
Not that it will matter to the poor people of N. Korea, shits gonna suck no matter who it is.
Arclite
Hmm, for some reason I thought he was younger than 69.
Korean Spring?
Violet
I cannot think of Kim Jong Il without thinking of his Team America puppet. “Ronery, I’m so ronery…”
Can’t believe he’s gone. He’s the last of the terrible, flamboyant old-school dictators, isn’t he? Castro’s stepped aside, Chavez is second tier. Who’s left?
No one of importance
@Violet:
Assad, Putin, Mugabe…
And don’t forget those who haven’t yet paid for their sins, like Thatcher, Cheney and Co.
TooManyJens
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Actually it was Kim Il-sung.
/pedant
mk3872
That now leaves just Iraq’s leader in Frum’s “Axis of Evil” left to knock-off.
I’m sure that McCain & Graham are submitting their war proposals to President Romney now as we speak …
Violet
@No one of importance:
I’m thinking of the crazy, flamboyant dictators. Gaddafi. Idi Amin. Kim Jong Il. Castro. Mugabe probably counts, but Assad isn’t quite crazy and flamboyant enough. Putin might be getting there.
Chuck Butcher
You know if NK weren’t such a cesspool of misery it would be good for all kinds of humor and you have to admit that in Somalia it is at least warm.
Chuck Butcher
@Violet:
Damn, I’d have thought shooting your buddy in the face and getting him to apologize was pretty… flamboyant
as for crazy…
I think maybe he was installed by a coup as well…
Pete
Paraphrase of a tweet I saw earlier: It was nice of God to let Hitchens and Havel pick the third.
Anne Laurie
@Jewish Steel:
Depending on your definition, I know Samara-Chan says she’s in Colorado, and I believe Hall Monitor Allan is based in San Francisco. Forgive me if this was an attempt at trolling on your part…
Ian
@russell:
I often use the example of their plight as to proof that said deity does not exist.
Chuck Butcher
@Anne Laurie:
DougJ is from UpEast…
Violet
@Chuck Butcher:
Not really what I meant by flamboyant. I meant the funny hats, crazy outfits, weird hair, larger than life personalities, etc. Cheney always strove to come across as normal, even though he’s anything but. And being installed in a coup, well…yawn. That’s nothing for any of the old-school dictators. Unless they slit the throat of the previous ruler themselves,
Chuck Butcher
@Pete:
If god were at all concerned about nice… well there you go.
Yutsano
@Violet:
Just as a point of order, we do no have information yet that this has or has not occurred in North Korea.
Chuck Butcher
@Violet:
OK, I’ll just stop trying to be funny.
this is the kind of night where DougJ thought about quitting and I just wanted to get into the spirit.
Chuck Butcher
@Yutsano:
what? you think maybe Un fixed daddy up with a couple girls to push him over?
exhaustion and all?
Martin
Ok, now, I know that Obama had nothing to do with Kim’s death, but holy fuck has any president since FDR faced a different foreign policy world heading into their re-election than Obama is? Granted, Obama is responsible for some of the change, and a lot is just timing, but we’re talking about damn near a global reworking of leaders.
I think it’s notable that there’s so little drama related to it. Clinton is earning her pay like few other Sec States have ever had to – and doing a damn good job of it, IMO.
cbear
Ol’ Kim may very well have been one of the most despicable fucks of the last century—but he pwned the shit out of MonkeyBoy and Big Dick, et al.
What’s that say about those useless fucks?
Triassic Sands
It’s hard to imagine things being much worse for North Korea, but I’d like to take this opportunity to express the sincere hope that this death will lead to improved conditions and lives for all North Koreans. Nobody deserves to be born into a society like North Korea, which is in the running for worst place on Earth to live.
Martin
@Triassic Sands:
There’s always Hoboken.
Schlemizel
@Jewish Steel: HEY! As a Midwesterner born and raise and one time scientist for NASA I want to thank you for the shout out. Speaking of trollish comments.
Suffern ACE
@Martin: Hey. There are lots of places that don’t have a Carlo’s bakery or Maxwell’s. Heck if North Korea tore down that vacant show city in the DMZ and replaced it with a line of people waiting to get into Carlo’s before heading to see Junior Brown at Maxwell’s, the South Koreans would start to wonder if maybe the North was onto something.
Matt Mangels
@Martin: There’s also Verkhoyansk in Russia, where the temperature increases/decreases by 130 degrees every six months, from -40f in January to +70f in July. Seems brutal but I guess we humans are a hardy bunch.
Fucking Unbelievable
@Martin:
I was wondering who would be the first braindead obot to make this about the President. Congratulations dipshit. Congratulations.
“Ok, now, I know that Obama had nothing to do with Kim’s death”
Wow. Not even ABL’s scooby gang would be so bold. Yet. MAYBE IT WAS THE SEAL TEAM?!
Yeah, George H.W. Bush. You know, when the Soviet Union, the Eastern bloc, and fucking communism fell? All of twenty years ago. You cannot be serious.
Tens of thousands of people are fucking dead across north Africa and the middle east.
Beyond pathetic.
Chuck Butcher
@Matt Mangels:
Am I having a math moment when I come up with 110 degrees?
Here in NE OR 0+/- Jan to somewhat less than 100 Aug. If Jan gets good and cold -15 to a hot August 105 so that’d be 120? How about Aug day 100 to Aug night 47?
I like this place and I don’t care for the coldest I’ve been at -37F + 60mph wind + 3′ snow in 6hrs in the Keewenaw in MI. That was a kinda rough night and next day. Superior is a rough bitch at times.
Yutsano
@Chuck Butcher: It would, as always, be irresponsible not to speculate. I wouldn’t be half-shocked if KJI is just trolling us all about his death to get the South to do something stupid.
Triassic Sands
@Martin:
I said “on Earth.” I wasn’t including Hell.
Matt Mangels
@Chuck Butcher: I looked at the climate chart on the Wikipedia page and did the math (i.e. used a calculator), and the average high temperature changes by 117 degrees, so you were close enough.
AA+ Bonds
I watch a lot of NK TV when I can get my hands on it.
There is one scene in a dubbed documentary about Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il where the English-language narration, at least, explains that the two of them were talking about how pleased they were that industrialization and electrification had made “the People’s wishes come true”.
Except that they were obviously excitedly talking about their new weapons or war stories or some shit. This was obvious even without audio. You could see Kim Jong Il laughing and making a “rat-a-tat-tat” gangster motion with an imaginary rifle, and Kim Il Sung gesturing to show how mortars get loaded and how the bombs tumble through the air, they were like dumb little children
AA+ Bonds
@Violet:
You must watch a shit ton of Fox News if you think Chavez is some sort of second-tier Kim Jong Il. Or hell, maybe you just read wire service reports, they’re just as inaccurate with the same slant.
Chavez sucks. But Venezuela is NOTHING like Communist NK or Communist Cuba. Many English-speaking expats from rich families will swear up and down that it is, but it isn’t.
Mustang Bobby
To paraphrase Clarence Darrow, I’ve never wished anyone was dead, but I have read a few obituaries with great pleasure.
A Humble Lurker
@Fucking Unbelievable:
Geez. Who pissed in your cheerios? You can say that during Obama’s first term there has been a lot of big changes around the world without giving him credit for them, you know. In fact the poster you linked to managed it well enough.
JPL
@Mustang Bobby: Darrow would have been pleased with the obits today.
North Korea will probably have a power struggle between the military and the son for leadership. What happens next is anyone’s guess but I’m pleased that Obama is at the helm to deal with this situation.
doofus
@Anne Laurie: I was betting Walla Walla. Maybe Rancho Cucamonga. Definitely not Lake Titicaca.
dogwood
@gnomedad:
I liked Nothing to Envy as well. It’s a good read.
Pseudonym
@Violet: Omar al-Bashir? Islam Karimov? Bashar al-Assad? Robert Mugabe? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad isn’t really a dictator but he has the flamboyancy down; maybe in combination with Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i? Hugo Chavez doesn’t seem like he’s in the same ballpark.
dogwood
@Fucking Unbelievable:
Thanks for dropping by, but you might want to get the lay of the land before you post comments that are “fucking unbelievable.” Martin isn’t one of the local bomb throwers. You really missed the mark.
DLew On Roids
@Martin: GWB?
While I understand that people are glad to see him go, let’s not forget that the world of golf has lost one of its all-time greats.
Marc
@dogwood:
Yea, the Obama haters really can be over the top. The original comment was pretty mild to draw such a frothy response.
But then I remind myself that it’s a big country, and even a few kooks can feel like a movement on the internet.
Chris
@Fucking Unbelievable:
I concur with the “who pissed in your breakfast cereal,” but this is essentially correct – the current environment isn’t by any stretch as big a deal as when the Wall came down.
@AA+ Bonds:
Also this.
dogwood
@Marc:
I wasn’t what he said that tipped his hand; it was who he said it to. Drive-by commentary should be discouraged.
seanindc
how this hasn’t devolved into a youtube posting war of clips of team america makes me weep for what this website used to be.
chopper
@Fucking Unbelievable:
vs obama having to deal with NK, waves of democratic revolution throughout the entire mideast and north africa, the figurative meltdown and possible dissolution of the european union and the literal meltdown of half of japan’s countryside. and trying to wrap up two inherited long-term wars.
all while dealing with an economic depression on the domestic side.
in terms of sheer numbers and variability, obama’s got herbert beat.
chopper
@Punchy:
jesus, punch. didn’t your mom ever teach you to not speak dead of the Il?
wenchacha
So long, K-to-the-J-to-the-I-L! And thanks to The Stephanie Miller Show for giving me ways to laugh about you, ya dipshit.
And your kid is a douchebag.
different-church-lady
Meet the new boss. Son of the old boss…
different-church-lady
@TooManyJens:
Kim, Kim, bo-baim,
Banana-fana fo-fim
Fee-fi-mo-mim
Il!
different-church-lady
You guys thought I was crazy for predicting Huntsman.
http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2011/12/jon-huntsman-long-hours-new-hampshire-begin-pay-off/KiORRrc2rtq62Wk8g3lRYO/index.html?p1=Well_Politics_subsection_links
(BTW, how can you have an open thread about a specific topic?)
Yevgraf
@lamh35:
You meant “shitty, third rate, unreliable and low powered” nuclear arsenal, didn’t you?
Nix
Being around perverts and all if they ever do open the borders the fetish for miniature people will be something to behold. Over 18 and only 4 feet tall. The porno industry will have a field day with the dirt poor, like they do with Eastern Europeans.
Violet
@AA+ Bonds:
Would you call Chavez a dictator? He’s got some of the old-school flamboyance, which is why I mentioned him at all. He’s more of a dictator than, say, Dilma in Brazil (I know it’s her first name. When I was there during the elections, that’s what all the signs said, so I think it’s how she’s known there.)
I don’t think Chavez compares to Kim Jong Il. Not at all. The atrocities committed by Kim are terrible. I was more thinking out loud, at something like 2:00 in the morning, as to whether or not there are any flamboyant dictators left. There don’t seem to be any like those that have recently passed.
Sloegin
Nice Obama retweet in my feed this morning:
Kim Jong IL is dead but his role in Team America World Police will forever be cherished.
xian
now let’s all drink to the death of a clown
Mike G
Now that the tyrant is dead, it’s time for the
North Korean People’s Army Funky Get Down Juche Party
El Cid
Hugo Chavez is nothing like a Kim Jong Il / Il Sung tyrant, but I’ll be damned if he doesn’t make sure and do everything he can to show how much he loved and respected KJI, his departed “comrade“.
Chavez has no creepier moments than in praising whatever nasty ally Venezuela has. It’s way beyond what would be tactically necessary to preserve trade deals and some degree of international buffering against continual pressure.
Strangely, Chavez has really been thrown a bit by the entirely rational and peaceful outreach and work done by the current, right wing but reformist, former army general President of Colombia, Santos. (This hasn’t made Santos, formerly a truly cheered-on pick by US fetish Alvaro Uribe, and now his bitter enemy, popular with those who wish to simply overthrow Chavez and reinstitute pre-Chavez crap government.)
Gravenstone
@Yevgraf: Even a low yield nuke tends to make life hell for the poor sods on the receiving end.
Chris
@Violet:
There was a similar conversation at Sadly, No! last month about Chavez. Reposting what I posted then:
“I hesitate to call him a “dictator,” even if he is a bit of a clown personally, and way too in love with the sound of his own voice. Democratic countries often have very popular leaders gather a lot of personal power around themselves like Chavez has (for better or for worse), but the system survived. If we’re going to call Chavez a dictator, can we say the same thing about Andrew Jackson? Lincoln? FDR? Johnson? Nixon? Reagan? George W. Bush? How about Winston Churchill? How about Charles De Gaulle? How about Berlusconi, who’s been in power twice as long as Chavez using methods at least as questionable (including Mafia ties in his case)? How about the LDP in Japan, which via crony alliances with the government bureaucracy and big business, managed to rule Japan for half a century straight? Are we calling all these things dictatorships too?
As far as I can tell, Chavez is much more like any of these previous cases than like Hitler, Stalin, Mao or Castro. Again, I’m not his biggest fan. But most of what he’s done, as far as I can tell, doesn’t especially stick out when compared with many of the leaders we’ve had here in the “democratic” West. And unlike many of these guys I just cited, the basis of his popularity actually includes helping his people. George W. “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job!” Bush could’ve learned a thing or two from that. Berlusconi still could.”
ETA: none of this invalidates El Cid’s very valid criticisms of the guy. And indeed, he does have a disturbing boner for many of the world’s dictators. But IMHO he isn’t himself one of them.
ETA again: come to think of it, the closest thing to a Hugo Chavez America ever had might have been Huey Long. My opinion of him is on the Balloon Juice public record – https://balloon-juice.com/2011/10/31/human-banner-in-san-francisco-reads-tax-the-1/#comment-2851636.
gaz
I found this interesting piece while skimming the net for MOAR ill kim jong il.
Wasn’t the first time I’d looked at sat-pix of NKorea by night, and the general notion had occurred to me before: but an interesting read nonetheless:
http://blog.emap.com/boris/2009/09/03/the-glow-of-growth/
No it’s not ANOTHER pic of KJI nekkid. I swear. I’m cruel. but not quite *that* cruel.
gaz
Also, Too:
Kim Jong Il’s state car was dope as hell (yes – dope).
I’ve always wanted a merc 600
I wonder if his kid will put it on ebay?
gaz
@Mike G: Made my day!
Sweet.