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The World Without Us – Alan Weisman

by Myrna Posted on March 9, 2019

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The World Without Us

Alan Weisman

Genre: Environment

Price: $1.99

Publish Date: July 10, 2007

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Seller: Macmillan


A penetrating, page-turning tour of a post-human Earth In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us.In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; which everyday items may become immortalized as fossils; how copper pipes and wiring would be crushed into mere seams of reddish rock; why some of our earliest buildings might be the last architecture left; and how plastic, bronze sculpture, radio waves, and some man-made molecules may be our most lasting gifts to the universe. The World Without Us reveals how, just days after humans disappear, floods in New York's subways would start eroding the city's foundations, and how, as the world's cities crumble, asphalt jungles would give way to real ones. It describes the distinct ways that organic and chemically treated farms would revert to wild, how billions more birds would flourish, and how cockroaches in unheated cities would perish without us. Drawing on the expertise of engineers, atmospheric scientists, art conservators, zoologists, oil refiners, marine biologists, astrophysicists, religious leaders from rabbis to the Dali Lama, and paleontologists—who describe a prehuman world inhabited by megafauna like giant sloths that stood taller than mammoths—Weisman illustrates what the planet might be like today, if not for us. From places already devoid of humans (a last fragment of primeval European forest; the Korean DMZ; Chernobyl), Weisman reveals Earth's tremendous capacity for self-healing. As he shows which human devastations are indelible, and which examples of our highest art and culture would endure longest, Weisman's narrative ultimately drives toward a radical but persuasive solution that needn't depend on our demise. It is narrative nonfiction at its finest, and in posing an irresistible concept with both gravity and a highly readable touch, it looks deeply at our effects on the planet in a way that no other book has.

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The World Without Us – Alan Weisman

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Obama Accomplished Way More In His First Month Than Trump

by DelmarF45lfkuqxm Posted on February 13, 2017

Mother Jones

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I’m jumping the gun a little here, but I’d like to remind everyone that during his first month in office, Barack Obama:

Signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
Banned torture.
Signed a $787 billion stimulus bill.
Sent 17,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.
Ended the month with a net job approval rating of +27 percent.

Donald Trump still has a few days to go, but so far he has:

Signed no legislation.
Mostly signed executive orders that are either routine (pay freezes, a halt to new regulation, reversing the Mexico City rule) or little more than PR messages to his base (cracking down on drug cartels, financial regulatory reviews, rebuilding the military, etc.).
Signed one executive order that was important, but rolled it out so incompetently that it caused massive chaos and was promptly overturned by the courts.
Sat idly by at dinner while aides discussed a North Korean missile launch and then failed to respond in any way at all.
Has presided over a White House so epically leak-prone and amateurish that people are already taking bets about which senior officials will get fired within the next few weeks.
Ended the month with a net job approval rating of about -8 percent.

This comparison extends to the new Republican Congress too. Obama’s Congress was busy immediately with serious legislation. Trump’s Congress is struggling to confirm cabinet nominees; is completely at sea about how to tackle Obamacare; and can’t seem to agree on how to handle corporate taxes and tariffs. I assume that big tax cuts for the rich are still on the agenda, but it’s not yet clear what else is.

Obviously Trump has done some genuine damage already,1 and both Trump and Congress have plenty of time left to wreak a tsunami of even more. But for a guy who was elected to shake things up, he sure hasn’t done much real shaking yet. Just a lot of big talk.

1In other words: don’t let your guard down. That’s not what I’m suggesting here.

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Obama Accomplished Way More In His First Month Than Trump

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President Trump Likes Graphics and Maps

by Mariam89Z29516 Posted on February 13, 2017

Mother Jones

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Here is more on President Trump’s reading habits:

While Mr. Obama liked policy option papers that were three to six single-spaced pages, council staff members are now being told to keep papers to a single page, with lots of graphics and maps. “The president likes maps,” one official said.

One page with lots of graphics and maps? Is there room for any words at all? Hell, even comic books have words. We also learn this:

Two people with direct access to the White House leadership said Mr. Flynn was surprised to learn that the State Department and Congress play a pivotal role in foreign arms sales and technology transfers. So it was a rude discovery that Mr. Trump could not simply order the Pentagon to send more weapons to Saudi Arabia — which is clamoring to have an Obama administration ban on the sale of cluster bombs and precision-guided weapons lifted — or to deliver bigger weapons packages to the United Arab Emirates.

Congress keeps getting in his way! But I guess that’s not going to last long. Here is Stephen Miller on Face the Nation, where John Dickerson asked him about yet another branch of government that’s been getting in Trump’s way:

We have a judiciary that has taken far too much power and become in many case a supreme branch of government….The idea that you have a judge in Seattle say that a foreign national living in Libya has an effective right to enter the United States is beyond anything we’ve ever seen before.

The end result of this, though, is that our opponents, the media and the whole world will soon see as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.

Tough talk! Dickerson also asked Miller what Trump is planning to do about North Korea’s “intolerable” ballistic missile test yesterday:

MILLER: So you saw the president following through on exactly what he said he would. He went out last might in front of the TV cameras and stood shoulder to shoulder with the prime minister of Japan and sent a message to the whole world that we stand with our allies….

DICKERSON: So no other show of strength in terms of military —

MILLER: That show last night was a show of strength, saying that we stand with our ally. Having the two men appear on camera worldwide to all of planet earth was a statement that will be understood very well by North Korea.

That’s…not so tough. In political movies, the final act often has the president going in front of the cameras and saying something strong and resolute—which somehow makes the opposition melt away. I guess Miller and Trump believe this is how the real world works too. Merely appearing on camera is a show of strength that will surely stop these North Korean tests in their tracks.

Then again, Trump has warned us many times that he doesn’t like to signal military action before it happens. Maybe he’s planning to lob a nuke at Pyongyang on Monday. Can anyone say for sure that he won’t?

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President Trump Likes Graphics and Maps

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Donald Trump Has Nice Things to Say About Megalomaniac Autocrats

by John Parks Posted on July 13, 2016

Mother Jones

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When Donald Trump recently praised former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein at a rally in North Carolina, it was not his first time expressing admiration for dictators and despots. In the past, he has complimented North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin. His top political operative, Paul Manafort, a veteran Republican lobbyist and consultant, has made millions of dollars working the system on behalf of corporations seeking government favors as well as Third World strongmen and kleptocrats.

In fact, the two men have been involved with an unusual number of the world’s autocrats and despots. Here are a few whom Trump has praised or for whom Manafort has worked, and some of their most notable abuses of power.

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein: During Saddam’s reign in Iraq from 1979 to 2003, human rights groups documented numerous instances in which the regime engaged in brutal torture, systematic rape, arbitrary executions that included beheadings, and other abuses. After Saddam was captured in 2003 by US forces, the New York Times estimated that his regime had contributed to approximately 1 million deaths in Iraq’s prisons and in the war he had launched against Iran.

Trump connection: At a rally in North Carolina in July, Trump said of Saddam: “He was a bad guy—really bad guy. But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn’t read them the rights. They didn’t talk. They were terrorists. It was over. Today, Iraq is Harvard for terrorism.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin: Since returning to power in 2012, Putin has passed laws and instituted policies that crack down on freedom of expression and assembly. A 2012 law targeted groups that accept foreign funding—often NGOs with social justice causes. Authorities have arrested hundreds of activists at opposition rallies across the country. Under Putin, the Russian parliament also unanimously passed several pieces of anti-gay legislation, including the “gay propaganda” bill, passed in the run-up to the 2014 Sochi Olympics, that emboldened vigilante gangs to torment gay people. Some Russia researchers and Putin opponents suggest a link between Putin, one of his allies, and the 2015 killing of Boris Nemtsov, a prominent opposition activist, as well as the deaths of other opposition figures.

Trump connection: “I think Putin’s been a very strong leader for Russia,” Trump said during a GOP debate in March. “He’s been a lot stronger than our leader, that I can tell you.” A few months prior, Trump said in an interview with ABC, “In all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people. I haven’t seen that. I don’t know that he has.”

Former Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi: Gaddafi’s 42-year reign in Libya was marked by the arrest, imprisonment, disappearance, or torture of thousands of government critics, protesters, and civilians perceived to be in cahoots with the political opposition. The regime also sanctioned televised public hangings and mutilation of political opponents. In 1996, security forces fatally shot more than 1,000 inmates at a Libyan prison.

Trump connection: In a February GOP debate, Trump said, “We would be so much better off if Gaddafi were in charge right now.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un: Last week, the US government issued sanctions against the North Korean leader as well as 10 other North Korean officials for their complicity in human rights abuses. “Under Kim Jong Un, North Korea continues to inflict intolerable cruelty and hardship on millions of its own people, including extrajudicial killings, forced labor, and torture,” said Adam J. Szubin, acting undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, in a press release. The Treasury Department singled out Kim Jong Un’s Ministry of State Security, which maintains a network of prison camps that hold 80,000 to 120,000 people. Egregious abuses in these state-run camps are common, according to the Treasury Department, and include “torture and inhumane treatment of detainees during interrogation and in detention centers. This inhumane treatment includes beatings, forced starvation, sexual assault, forced abortions, and infanticide.”

Trump connection: At a January rally in Iowa, just days after North Korea said it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, Trump said, “If you look at North Korea, this guy, he’s like a maniac, okay? And you got to give him credit. How many young guys—he was like 26 or 25 when his father died—take over these tough generals and all of a sudden, you know, it’s pretty amazing when you think of it. How does he do that? Even though it is a culture, and it’s a culture thing, he goes in, he takes over, he’s the boss. It’s incredible.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: According to a 2016 Human Rights Watch summary on Syria, Assad’s government has been carrying out “deliberate and indiscriminate” attacks on civilians while doing little to end the ongoing civil war. “Incommunicado detention and torture remain rampant,” Human Rights Watch noted. A UN Human Rights Council report found that many detainees in Syrian prisons had been beaten to death or died as a result of injuries sustained during torture or due to inhumane living conditions. “The Government has committed the crimes against humanity of extermination, murder, rape or other forms of sexual violence, torture, imprisonment, enforced disappearance and other inhuman acts,” the UN concluded.

Trump connection: On a June 2015 episode of The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News, Trump discussed his Middle East policy shortly after announcing his run for president. “So we’re helping the head of Syria, who is not supposed to be our friend,” Trump said, “although he looks a lot better than some of our so-called friends.”

Ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych: Yanukovych served as Ukraine’s president from 2010 to 2014 before being ousted in February 2014, following mass protests against his regime in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. His rule was marked by a slide from democracy to a more authoritarian style of government. Yanukovych’s regime jailed officials of the previous administration, including the former prime minister. Following Yanukovych’s ouster, a warrant was issued for his arrest due to involvement in the “mass killing of civilians,” related to the deaths of at least 82 people, primarily protesters, in Kiev earlier that winter.

Trump connection: Manafort was first hired to work for Yanukovych on his 2004 presidential campaign. Yanukovych was momentarily victorious but lost power after allegations of massive electoral fraud led to the Orange Revolution and a revote in which Yanukovych lost. He was appointed prime minister in 2006 and soon hired Manafort again to help his party win that year’s parliamentary elections. Manafort then stayed on as a general consultant. He worked on Yanukovych’s messaging and brand, trying to help the strongman and his party improve their image in the eyes of the Ukrainian people. After the 2010 presidential election, which Yanukovych won, Manafort continued working for him as an adviser. A former associate familiar with Manafort’s earnings told Politico that his total pay from work with Yanukovych ran into the seven figures.

Jonas Savimbi, former Angolan guerilla army leader: Savimbi and his guerilla army, UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola), tried for decades to overthrow the Angolan government. In the process, they maimed or killed tens of thousands of civilians with land mines, and a Human Rights Watch report described men being forcibly recruited to fight, girls held in sexual slavery, and random killings or beatings of suspected government sympathizers.

Trump connection: With Angola in the middle of a civil war in 1985, Savimbi paid Manafort’s DC lobbying firm $600,000 to help him get funds and other support from the US government for UNITA’s work to overthrow the government. The lobbying effort led Sen. Bob Dole to encourage the United States to send additional arms to UNITA and the Reagan administration to funnel $42 million to UNITA from 1986 to 1987. Several sources, including Sen. Bill Bradley, have credited Savimbi’s continued willingness to pay large sums to Manafort’s firm, and the continued US funds that Manafort’s firm lobbied for, with delaying a cease-fire and protracting the violence in Angola.

Mobutu Sese Seko, former ruler of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo): Mobutu seized power of the Democratic Republic of Congo in a 1965 coup. He renamed the country the Republic of Zaire in 1971 and would remain its president until 1997. Mobutu established a political structure that kept most power in his hands, and he used his power to steal a fortune from the state for himself, while the rest of the country floundered economically. His regime was also marked by brutal treatment of its citizens: widespread torture of political opposition, illegal searches, military looting, beating, rapes, and arbitrary arrest and detention, often without a fair trial.

Trump connection: In 1989, Mobutu hired Manafort’s firm to orchestrate a PR campaign to clean up his image. Mobutu paid the firm $1 million a year for this service.

Sani Abacha, former president of Nigeria: Abacha became the head of Nigeria in 1993, when he overthrew a transitional government. The following year, he formally assigned absolute power to his regime, issuing a decree that placed his jurisdiction above that of the courts. His rule ended in 1998 with his death, but in the intervening years Abacha’s regime engaged in brutal treatment of Nigerian citizens: He arrested or executed his opponents, shut down democratic institutions, and reportedly stole nearly $500 million from the government for his own personal coffers.

Trump connection: Abacha hired a firm run by Manafort in 1998 to help him orchestrate a PR campaign that would convince Americans that he was the leader of “a progressive emerging democracy,” wrote the New York Times in 2000. The Times reported that the Abacha account was handled primarily by Manafort himself.

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Donald Trump Has Nice Things to Say About Megalomaniac Autocrats

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North Korea Praises "Wise Politician" Donald Trump

by SusannaVolz Posted on May 31, 2016

Mother Jones

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Just days after President Barack Obama said international leaders were justly “rattled” by the unlikely rise of Donald Trump, state-run media from North Korea—one of the world’s most unpredictable dictatorships—has endorsed the presumptive GOP nominee.

In an editorial on Tuesday, the country’s state-run media outlet DPRK praised the presumptive Republican nominee as a “wise” and “far-sighted” politician who would work toward unification with South Korea.

“In my personal opinion, there are many positive aspects the Trump’s ‘inflammatory policies,'” Han Yong Mook, who according to the outlet is a Chinese North Korean academic, wrote. “Trump said he will not get involved in the war between the South and the North. Isn’t this fortunate from North Koreans’ perspective?”

The editorial also called on American voters to reject “dull” Hillary Clinton. The article criticized the likely Democratic nominee for pushing sanctions against North Korea in order to limit its nuclear capabilities, similar to the strategy adopted in Iran.

In previous remarks, Trump has proposed withdrawing American troops to abandon its stations in South Korea, and he has slammed the country for being a national security freeloader by not paying to protect itself and forcing the US to foot its national security bill. The real estate magnate has also suggested replacing troops with nuclear options—comments that alarmed both South Korea and neighboring Japan.

The plan, however, has apparently found support in North Korea.

“Yes, do it now,” Han wrote. “Who knew the slogan ‘Yankee Go Home’ would come true like this? The day when the ‘Yankee Go Home’ slogan becomes real would be the day of Korean Unification.”

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North Korea Praises "Wise Politician" Donald Trump

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Why North Korea’s Nuclear Test Isn’t Business as Usual

by NealAQPXdtff Posted on January 6, 2016

Mother Jones

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There’s still plenty of doubt about whether North Korea did in fact detonate a sophisticated hydrogen bomb on Wednesday local time, or if the explosion that triggered a 5.1-magnitude earthquake was a nuclear test more akin to previous ones in 2006, 2009, and 2013. Even as the UN Security Council held an emergency session on Wednesday, the White House said initial US findings were “not consistent with North Korean claims of a successful hydrogen bomb test”—something that would have represented a major ramp-up in North Korea’s nuclear capabilities.

But this test was not business as usual for North Korea in one important way, believes Charles K. Armstrong, a leading expert in Korean history and politics at Columbia University: “It’s not clear that they are really interested in using this as a negotiating tactic.”

That diverges somewhat from previous nuclear brinkmanship from North Korea’s leaders. In the past, the international community has managed to cool some of the persistent tensions set off by North Korea’s nuclear tests and missile launches by offering energy and food. That, in turn, was aimed at getting the country’s leaders back to the negotiating table, on a long and fraught road to potential nuclear disarmament. Now, Armstrong explains, Kim Jong Un appears less interested in building leverage for negotiations than in bolstering his internal political clout—and after North Korea’s continued broken promises on nuclear testing, it’s not clear that the United States and its allies could even offer him more enticements.

“There’s not much we can do anymore to increase the economic pressure on North Korea,” Armstrong said in a phone interview Wednesday.

In any case, this time the nuclear test appears to be more geared toward amassing power for the young leader than engineering a way to get much-needed relief. “Number one: They’ve conducted this nuclear test for themselves,” Armstrong said. “Not so much, this time, for the outside world, but to demonstrate the strength of the Kim Jong Un leadership, and the position that they are a force to be reckoned with.”

“I think they are very serious about a nuclear program,” he added. “They do want to engage with the US, in my view, and break out of their isolation and improve their economy, but in a kind of perverse way, they feel this is the best way to do it. They want to negotiate from a position of strength.”

Other North Korea experts have expressed similar sentiments. “North Korea’s armament program is on its own timetable, and it’s not unlikely that every potential new stage is tested out as quickly as possible, regardless of what is going on elsewhere in the world,” B.R. Myers, the author of several books on North Korea and a North Korea analyst at Dongseo University in South Korea, told Slate. “I think the West needs to get away from the habit of regarding the regime’s nuclear tests and ballistic launches as isolated provocations timed to generate maximum attention.”

Nuclear ambitions are key to the regime’s identity, Armstrong says, and shouldn’t be discounted. “The pillar of North Korea’s sense of identity and power under Kim Jong Un is having nuclear weapons,” he explained.

One dominant theory is that North Korea provokes the international community with nuclear and missile tests to try to exact aid as an inducement to calm down. After North Korea’s first nuclear test in October 2006, the six-party talks between the regime and the United States, South Korea, Japan, China, and Russia fell apart, only to come together the following year when North Korea was promised shipments of 50,000 tons of fuel oil in return for a “freeze” of the country’s Yongbyon nuclear facility. But North Korea’s second nuclear test in May 2009 effectively ended discussion of US energy assistance to North Korea.

In 2012, Kim Jong Un promised his country would suspend nuclear tests and allow inspections in exchange for American food aid. But that also fell apart when North Korea launched a long-range missile later that year. North Korea again tested a nuclear device in February 2013.

This time, another key world event might be driving Kim’s decision-making: 2016 will be the first time in 36 years that the entire ruling Workers Party has met for a congress, hosted in the capital in May. “This is a very big deal,” Armstrong told me. “The nuclear test is part of the preparation in a way. It’s demonstrating Kim Jong Un’s strong leadership, and that North Korea is a strong and powerful state in the run-up to his major meeting.”

In this high-stakes game of nuclear chess, Armstrong stresses that it’s important not to lose sight of the North Korean people.

“What I hope does not happen, however, is cutting off of humanitarian aid, because this is really gravely needed by many millions of people in North Korea,” he said. “I would hope there can be a way found to move forward without making the people of North Korea suffer more than they already have.”

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Why North Korea’s Nuclear Test Isn’t Business as Usual

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You Can’t Go To Prison For Destroying The Economy, But Bad Peanut Butter Is Another Story

by AntoniaDWQ Posted on September 22, 2015

Mother Jones

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Food company executives who play a role in outbreaks that sicken and kill consumers now face the prospect of decades in prison because of a recent precedent-setting case and a crackdown by federal prosecutors.

Stewart Parnell, an executive from Peanut Corporation of America, a now-defunct company behind one of the worst Salmonella outbreaks to hit the US, was sentenced Monday to 28 years in prison. He sold contaminated food products that claimed nine lives and sickened more than 700 people in 46 states.

It is by far the most severe punishment ever given for criminal food safety violations. His brother, Michael Parnell, also a top official at PCA was sentenced to 20 years and quality assurance manager, Mary Wilkerson was sentenced to five.

The hefty sentences signal that the feds are stepping up prosecutions against high-ranking officials and underscores some of the challenges agencies face when they want to hold companies accountable. Still, the crimes committed by the Parnells could have led to much stiffer sentences. Stewart Parnell was convicted of 47 offenses, which qualified him for a sentence of up to 803 years—and he was facing life behind bars.

“Honestly, I think the fact that he was prosecuted at all is a victory for consumers,” says Bill Marler, a foodborne illness lawyer who represents more than 50 victims of the outbreak. “Although his sentence is less than the maximum, it is the longest sentence ever in a food poisoning case. This sentence is going to send a stiff, cold wind through board rooms across the U.S.”

The massive 2008 Salmonella outbreak prompted officials to strip 4,000 products made by 361 companies from store shelves, resulting in roughly $200 million in losses. Ultimately, the tainted food was traced back to PCA—a manufacturer that sells peanut-based-products to companies like Kellogg, Sara Lee, and Little Debbie, as well as government programs that produce food for poor children and the military. According to a federal investigation, company officials spent years covering up unsanitary production conditions, faking test results, and lying to customers and consumers when salmonella was detected in their facilities.

Salmonella victim Jacob Hurley with his father Peter J. Scott Applewhite/ AP

Jacob Hurley was one of the victims infected with salmonella in 2008 after eating one of his favorite snacks—peanut butter crackers. At the time, he was only 3-years-old. Hurley, now 10, survived and traveled with his father to the sentencing on Monday. “I think its OK for him to spent the rest of his life in prison,” he told the judge.

Nine victims, such as Clifford Tousignant, a Korean War hero with three Purple Hearts who became ill after eating a peanut butter sandwich died from their infections caused by contaminated food.

The indictment against Parnell, which relied on uncovered emails and investigations, revealed that between 2003 and 2009 PCA shipped products before the results of tests were complete. Parnell green-lighted the use of faked and fabricated certificates of analysis, documents that certify food has been properly tested. Even after Salmonella had been detected numerous times, the company continued to claim that their products were safe and sell them to customers.

In several emails Parnell instructs his employees to violate standards. After being told in 2007 that salmonella testing results would take longer than expected and shipping would be delayed, he responded, “Shit, just ship it.” Soon after an employee sent an email saying that some peanut totes were “covered in dust and rat crap,” to which Parnell responded “Clean em all up and ship them.”

After the outbreak, PCA was liquidated through bankruptcy proceedings.

“Our prosecution is just one more example of the forceful actions that the Department of Justice, with its agency partners, takes against any individual or company who compromises the safety of America’s food supply for financial gain,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Stuart Delery in statement after the sentence was announced.

While victims and advocates are pleased that the case is finally coming to a close and the Parnells are on their way to prison, Marler says he hopes more will be done to stop shoddy business practices that could lead to future infections.

Largely because of the outbreak linked to Peanut Corporation of America the FDA has introduced new rules, along with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)—a bill signed into law in 2011 intended to crack down on contamination before it reaches consumers. However, so far the agency has lacked the resources to fully implement them. Congress has appropriated less than half of what the Congressional Budget Office recommended was necessary to fund implementation of FSMA.

To make up for investigations into potential risks, Marler says the FDA has beefed up its prosecution of law-breakers.

And, in some cases, like Parnell’s it’s warranted, he added.

“I am not a huge fan of criminalization of things but I think there are instances where it’s necessary,” he says. “This is one of those necessary cases—the facts are so horrific and the clear knowledge that they had that they were shipping contaminated product.” But, he adds, “We would all be better served if we spent more money to have more FDA inspectors—and just avoided these problems to begin with.”

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You Can’t Go To Prison For Destroying The Economy, But Bad Peanut Butter Is Another Story

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What the Hell Is Going On in North Korea? Here Are the 5 Best Rumors About Kim Jong-Un

by UIALeonard Posted on October 10, 2014

Mother Jones

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North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un—known as “Supreme Leader,” or “Fatty the Third,” depending on where you are—has been conspicuously absent over the past month. At a July event, he was seen walking with a limp, and he hasn’t made a public appearance since September 3rd. That’s unusual for Kim, who made 25 public appearances in July alone. North Korean State media was forced to admit he’d been suffering from “discomfort.”

Most observers figured Kim was sidelined with gout, which might as well be a Kim family tradition. Today, Kim was expected to make a comeback for a deeply important annual event—the anniversary of the founding of North Korea’s Workers’ Party. He was, shockingly, a no-show. No one ever knows what’s really happening in North Korea, but the rumor mill, abuzz for weeks, has gone wild with speculation. Here’s some of the craziest rumors the world’s come up with to explain Kim’s extended absence:

1. Kim is being phased out as leader of North Korea. Some version of this is fast becoming a popular take on the situation. The Daily Beast‘s Gordon C. Chang posited that Kim may have been “politically weak” this whole time and kept around as a pawn because of the cult of personality surrounding his family. Chang suggests that a shadowy group of army officials—led by Gen. Hwang Pyong So—could be moving to take power, rendering Kim nothing more than a figurehead.

2. There was a straight-up coup, and Kim fled. In a more extreme version of Rumor 1, some are saying that Kim did indeed exercise total control, and that a coup was staged to get rid of him. People are even saying his wife was executed. Super-credible “Pyongyang watchers” point to tightened security in the capital, an odd shuffle of party leaders and dissatisfaction with Kim’s violent rule to back this one up. So who’d want to take him out? The army is a candidate, as is Kim’s powerful but little-known younger sister, who could’ve made a play. If you’re wondering how seriously to take these rumors, consider that some people thought a particular general—Vice Marshal Jo Myong-Rok—overthrew Kim. That guy is dead.

3. Kim was addicted to cheese. Judging from state media coverage, Kim has steadily put on weight since taking power. His alleged cheese addiction—he’s rumored to have sent out officials to procure rare, expensive cheese in Europe—may be the culprit. An Indian newspaper reported that cheese-induced gout didn’t strike Kim: apparently, his ankles broke because he got too fat. So, he may be recovering in a hospital, or cheese rehab.

4. Kim got too excited in a military drill and injured himself. A British tabloid alleged, among other things, that Kim walked with a limp after involving himself in a military drill. After “crawling” and “rolling around,” he’s said to have “injured his ankle and knee… because he is overweight.”

5. Kim is fine! North Korean officials insist there’s no problem—health-related or otherwise. “We must firmly establish the monolithic leadership system of Kim Jong Un,” North Korea’s state-run newspaper said. Guess that settles it.

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What the Hell Is Going On in North Korea? Here Are the 5 Best Rumors About Kim Jong-Un

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What Does North Korea Have to Say About Seth Rogen and James Franco Trying To Kill Kim Jong Un in "The Interview"?

by ShereeSZRpk Posted on June 13, 2014

Mother Jones

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“I am incredibly proud and a little bit frightened to present the first teaser for our next movie, The Interview,” actor/director Seth Rogen tweeted on Wednesday. The reason he might have been a bit frightened was because of the film’s plot. Here’s the official synopsis of the movie, which is set for theatrical release on October 10:

In the action-comedy The Interview, Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his producer Aaron Rapoport (Seth Rogen) run the popular celebrity tabloid TV show “Skylark Tonight.” When they discover that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is a fan of the show, they land an interview with him in an attempt to legitimize themselves as journalists. As Dave and Aaron prepare to travel to Pyongyang, their plans change when the CIA recruits them, perhaps the two least-qualified men imaginable, to assassinate Kim Jong Un.

In The Interview, the binge-drinking, Kobe Bryant-loving, human-rights-allergic ruler is played by Korean-American comedian Randall Park. Here’s the trailer:

“We read as much as we could that was available on the subject,” Rogen told Yahoo Movies. “We talked to the guys from Vice who actually went to North Korea and met Kim Jong Un. We talked to people in the government whose job it is to associate with North Korea, or be experts on it.” Rogen also said that he and co-director Evan Goldberg asked North Korea experts to check the script for authenticity, because Rogen thought the truth about the dictatorship is “so crazy you don’t need to make anything up.” There is a joke in the trailer about how the regime once claimed that Kim Jong Un doesn’t urinate or defecate; this is based on actual propaganda about his father Kim Jong Il.

North Korean officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the upcoming Rogen-Franco comedy that involves the pair trying to kill their leader. (It’s really hard to get in touch with them.)

But as the film’s release approaches, don’t be too surprised if someone issues an angry statement. In 2005, shortly after the release of Team America: World Police, North Korea’s embassy in Prague demanded that movie be banned in the Czech Republic, insisting that it harmed their country’s reputation. Team America was made by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and uses a cast of puppets to satirize the war on terror, as well as liberal Hollywood. A Kim Jong Il puppet is the main villain.

Now, here is the new poster for The Interview:

Courtesy of Columbia Pictures

View the original here:

What Does North Korea Have to Say About Seth Rogen and James Franco Trying To Kill Kim Jong Un in "The Interview"?

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Retired Army General Explains Why We Lost in Afghanistan and Iraq

by BrockCecil Posted on May 23, 2014

Mother Jones

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Army lieutenant general Daniel Bolger, who recently retired from the service after multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, has written a book called Why We Lost. Long story short, he says we never had a chance:

“By next Memorial Day, who’s going to say that we won these two wars?” Bolger said in an interview Thursday. “We committed ourselves to counterinsurgency without having a real discussion between the military and civilian leadership, and the American population —‘Hey, are you good with this? Do you want to stay here for 30 or 40 years like the Korean peninsula, or are you going to run out of energy?’ It’s obvious: we ran out of energy.”

….“We’ve basically installed authoritarian dictators.” The U.S. wanted to keep about 10,000 troops in Iraq post-2011…and a similar sized force is being debated for Afghanistan once the U.S. combat role formally ends at the end of 2014. “You could have gone to that plan in 2002 in Afghanistan, and 2003 or ’04 in Iraq, and you wouldn’t have had an outcome much worse than what we’ve had,” Bolger says.

“They should have been limited incursions and then pull out — basically like Desert Storm,” he adds, referring to the 1991 Gulf War that forced Saddam Hussein’s forces out of neighboring Kuwait after an air campaign and 100-hour ground war. The U.S. wasn’t up to perpetual war, even post-9/11. “This enemy wasn’t amenable to the type of war we’re good at fighting, which is a Desert Storm or a Kosovo.”

Hmmm. It seems to me that we had endless discussions about the difficulties of counterinsurgency and the fact that the United States is really bad at it. Books were published, reports were written, and David Petraeus became famous as the guy who finally got it on the counterinsurgency front. For several years it was the hottest topic in military circles, bar none.

Still, late to the party or not, Bolger’s conclusions are welcome. America’s modern track record in counterinsurgencies is terrible. The track record of every developed country in counterinsurgencies is terrible. I don’t know if anyone will remember this the next time we’re thinking about fighting another one, but the more experienced voices we have reminding us of this, the better.

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Retired Army General Explains Why We Lost in Afghanistan and Iraq

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