What is the North Korean Word for "Gulf of Tonkin?" by Publius Tacitus

The media drum beat portraying North Korea as a country in the hands of a "crazy", "insane" mad man is churning along at full speed. The messaging is so intense that even Helen Keller would see and hear it--we are going to war with North Korea. Whether or not Donald Trump and his team decide to actually push the button is a subject already addressed by Colonel Lang--(see,  Is the Korean war scare real?) 

What I want you to consider is the broader topic of how the media is being routinely used as medium for shaping and manipulating public opinion. The quantity of disinformation and propaganda flooding the internet, cable news and newspapers is akin to an avalanche in the Swiss Alps during the heaviest of winter snows. 

Consider the following demonstrably false statements that are widely accepted by the media and public as true:

Iran is world's biggest state sponsor of terrorism, US says    

Europe faces a 'real threat' from Russia, warns US army commander

"It's not an assumption. There is a Russian threat," Lt-Gen Frederick "Ben" Hodges said.

"You've got the Russian ambassador threatening that Denmark will be a nuclear target if it participates in any missile defence programme. And when you look at the unsafe way Russian aircraft are flying without transponders in proximity to civilian aircraft, that's not professional conduct."

Gen Hodges spoke to the Telegraph on the sidelines of a military debriefing after an exercise to move live Patriot missiles 750 miles across Europeby road and deploy them on the outskirts of Warsaw.

The sight of a US military convoy crossing the German-Polish border more than 20 years after the end of the Cold War made international headlines and brought traffic to a standstill as people posed for selfies beside the troops.

The Richest Man in the World Could Be Putin

Donald Trump's latest outburst against North Korea seems like a ready made sketch for Saturday Night Live. President Trump was hosting a meeting with his Administration officials combatting the Opiod Epidemic:

President Trump on Tuesday drew attention to the country’s opioid crisis, calling it a “tremendous problem in our country” ahead of a meeting with top administration officials on the issue.

It was during the press appearance that Trump talked trash about North Korea:

North Korea and the United States traded escalating threats, with President Donald Trump threatening Pyongyang "with fire and fury like the world has never seen" and the North's military claiming Wednesday it was examining its plans for attacking Guam.

The obvious joke is to wonder if the President was under the influence of opioids when he issued this threat. He certainly did not appear to appreciate the irony of promising action against a foreign leader who has said things characterized as "crazy" and "intemperate." Pot calling kettle black came to mind.

One final item in the news that caught my eye on the propaganda front concerned an FBI raid on the offices of President Trump's former campaign manager:

FBI agents raided the Alexandria home of President Trump’s former campaign chairman late last month, using a search warrant to seize documents and other materials, according to people familiar with the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Federal agents appeared at Paul Manafort’s home without advance warning in the predawn hours of July 26, the day after he met voluntarily with the staff for the Senate Intelligence Committee.

I find the "leak" of this info and its publication today to be quite strange. First, the event occurred two weeks ago. Second, the article is written in a way to cast more innuendo on Manafort to suggest he is hiding some nefarious activity. Yet, if you carefully read the article you find it is nothing but circumstantial speculation. But that  fact did not prevent the media from seizing on this as a major development. Most gave a cursory nod to the rebuttal from Manafort's attorney who insisted that his client was cooperating fully with Congressional investigators as well as law enforcement.

My fundamental point with respect to the points raised above is to simply encourage you to read with skepticism and doubt the conventional wisdom presented as "news" by the so-called mainstream media. There are agendas at work and information is disseminated, in my view, for the express purpose of shaping public opinion to manipulate the mass rather than informing the citizens of a Republic. That is a reality that jeopardizes our freedom and undermines the foundation of law this nation was built on.

 

Comments

[Greco]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-korea-trumps-fire-and-fury-leave-beijing-with-few-options-1502382552

Quote:
"Mr. Trump’s warning this week that any further threats from North Korea 'will be met with fire and fury' was aimed in part at jolting China into doing more to enforce the sanctions."

Quote:
"Worse for China’s leaders, the latest escalation comes as they are preparing for a Communist Party congress that will reapportion power across its top leadership and give President Xi Jinping his second five-year term. Mr. Xi and other leaders are believed this week to be meeting in the coastal resort town of Beidaihe [their version of Bilderberg], where top officials have gathered most summers to discuss policy and political matters in secret. This year, party leaders are likely focused on negotiating promotions and personnel arrangements, according to Chinese politics experts."

[kao_hsien_chih]

b,

The weaker power almost always takes more risk than the stronger power. This is especially more applicable in case of NK: the threat with which they blackmail their neighbors with is that, unless they are satisfied, they will create more instability in the region, with only they being allowed to decide when and if they should be satisfied, coupled with a sense of historical aggrievement that may or may not be justified. More than anything else, NK attitude strikes me as that of Imperial Japan, circa 1940. I actually think FDR made several mistakes that made a military clash more likely, but, no matter what happened until December 6, once the proverbial manure hits the fan, there's no turning back.

[scott s.]

zk:

It seem like the transition China is making is from an Empire controlling East Asia that declined and was dominated by Euro, American, and Japanese powers back to the status of Empire. If that reading is correct, then expect China to treat Joseon as its vassal state.

[Babak Makkinejad]

How much of Seoul, Pusan, and Tokyo Bay area will be destroyed during those 3 days, do you estimate?