Winter Olympics

[GeneChing]

Not usually our thing here because there aren't really any martially-derived sports in the Winter Games (except Biathalon and that's skiing marksmen). Nevertheless, we've discussed the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi & are following the Winter Olympics 2022. But now, the next Games next year are in the spotlight, so I'm launching this general winter games thread.

Russia Olympics ban: Kremlin calls for calm amid anger
1 hour ago


Russian bobsleigher Alexander Zubkov, pictured at the Sochi Winter Olympics opening ceremony in 2014, has been banned for life over alleged doping violations

The Kremlin says Russia must avoid an "emotional" response to being banned from the Winter Olympics.
Spokesman Dmitr Peskov said the International Olympic Committee's decision to exclude Russia from the Games in South Korea next February instead required serious analysis.
His call for calm comes amid fury from Russian politicians and athletes.
The IOC made the rulings after two investigations outlined a state-sponsored doping programme in Russia.
Russia will be banned from competing in Pyeongchang, and there will be no Russian flags, anthems or uniforms.
But athletes who can prove they are clean - and have not previously been sanctioned - will be allowed compete under a neutral flag and the name "Olympic Athlete from Russia", the IOC says.
"The situation is serious, it calls for deep analysis. It would be wrong to give in to emotion here," Kremlin spokesman Mr Peskov told reporters on Monday.
Mr Peskov said it would be wrong to jump to conclusions until Russia's athletes had met and the IOC had been contacted.
But he added that it would not be a priority to hold Russian officials responsible.
A member of the Russian parliament, Valery Rashkin, has filed a lawsuit against former sports minister Vitaly Mutko over the row. Mr Mutko has been accused of presiding over a systematic cover-up of doping in Russian sport.
Meanwhile, 22 Russian athletes have appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport over the IOC ban.
'Humiliation and insult to Russia'
Steven Rosenberg, BBC News, Moscow
The IOC's decision to exclude Russia from the Winter Olympics has sparked a furious reaction here.
The figure skating trainer Tatyana Tarasova described it as "the murder of Russia's national sport".
The deputy speaker of Russia's parliament said it was a humiliation and an insult to Russia.
In a defiant post on social media, the spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry said Russia would survive this - like it survived world war, the collapse of the Soviet Union and Western sanctions.
Although the Russian team has been banned from competing in South Korea, Russian athletes who can prove they are clean will be permitted to participate under the Olympic flag. But will the Kremlin allow them to?
President Vladimir Putin has in the past described such a scenario as a humiliation for his country.
In 2016, a report by lawyer Richard McLaren said that more than 1,000 Russians - including Olympic medallists - benefited from a state-sponsored doping programme between 2011 and 2015.
The IOC announcement on Tuesday followed a second investigation - the Schmid report - which found evidence of "the systemic manipulation of the anti-doping rules and system", despite repeated Russian denials.
The IOC said the ban "should draw a line under this damaging episode".

[GeneChing]

...but Jackie is all over it.

Jackie Chan and Lang Lang on Hand for Official Unveiling of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Logos
Tom Arnstein | Dec 17, 2017 1:00 pm

On Friday, Dec 14, athletes, government representatives, Beijing 2022 Organising Committee (BOCOG) members, and the press came together at Beijing's Water Cube for the official unveiling of the official 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games emblems.


Fans posed for photographs with athletes prior to the unveiling

The event got off to a slow start with an initial gong signaling to the only half-present crowd that the run of celebrities, songs, and presentations were about to begin. At that time, 50 or so child choir singers shuffled onto the stage but wouldn't be permitted to sing their unity-espousing song, accompanied by the world-renowned concert pianist Lang Lang, for another 40 minutes.


CPC Secretary of Beijing Cai Qi demonstrates two screens are better than one

However, once the initial pomp finished, what followed was a quick succession of speeches, including a pre-recorded message from International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, reminding attendees that Beijing is on track to become the first ever city to host the summer and winter Olympic Games. Then it was the turn of Cai Qi, BOCOG president and Communist Party Secretary of Beijing, to drum up excitement before the final run of Spring Festival gala-type numbers.


Jackie Chan sings "Wake Up Winter"

The most notable of those performances was Jackie Chan's rousing "Wake Up Winter" alongside snowflake-twirling, sequined dancers. It also took gold for the most convincing live act, what with everyone else lip-synching their way through and a further reminder that when it comes to conveying an assertive appearance, China will leave nothing to chance.

Before the crowd had time to blast out grainy sights of Big Brother, the star-studded stage backdrop parted to give the audience what they'd been waiting for, the official 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics logo.



And here it is:



Said to have taken inspiration from the character 冬, winter, the colorful and lively ribbon-like lines of the emblem also outline the figure of a downhill skier; knees bent, poles horizontal, and head down.

The Paralympics logo is more vivid and is said to be based on the character for fly, 飞. The lower legs of the skier in the logo above have been replaced by two semicircles, representing a wheel in motion.



The logos were designed by Li Cunzhen, who also had a hand in creating the emblem for 2014's Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, and were chosen from 4,506 submissions from around the world, according to olympic.org.

I'm going to copy some of these Winter Olympics 2022 posts to our fledgling Winter Olympics thread, just to help it grow for now.

[GeneChing]

North Korea to Send Olympic Athletes to South Korea, in Breakthrough
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By CHOE SANG-HUNJAN. 8, 2018

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea agreed on Tuesday to send athletes to February’s Winter Olympics in South Korea, a symbolic breakthrough after months of escalating tensions over the North’s rapidly advancing nuclear and missile programs.

In talks held at the border village of Panmunjom, North Korean negotiators quickly accepted South Korea’s request to send a large delegation to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, next month, according to South Korean news reports. In addition to the athletes, the North will send a cheering squad and a performance-art troupe.

The event will be the first time North Korea has participated in the Winter Games in eight years. The country has competed in every Summer Olympics since 1972, except the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and the 1988 Games in Seoul, both of which it boycotted.

In fact, the North’s attendance will be a historic development in inter-Korean sports exchanges.

The North not only shunned the 1988 Seoul Olympics but also tried to disrupt them after talks on co-hosting them fell apart. Its agents planted a bomb on a Korean Air passenger plane in 1987 in a terrorist attack that the South said was aimed at sabotaging the 1988 Olympics. All 115 people on board were killed.

It was not immediately clear whether North Korea attached any conditions to its decision to attend.

The agreement was reached in talks between Cho Myoung-gyon, the South Korean cabinet minister in charge of relations with the North, and his North Korean counterpart, Ri Son-kwon.

The development came after Mr. Ri opened the talks by throwing a curveball: He suggested that the talks be open to reporters. That way, he said, the people in both Koreas would be able to witness the North’s sincerity about improving ties.

But, wary of North Korea’s mastery of propaganda, Mr. Cho agreed to open only parts of the talks to pool reporters.


South Korea’s unification minister, Cho Myoung-gyon, left, with Mr. Ri before the start of their talks. Credit Pool photo by Yonhap, via Associated Press

The closed-circuit television footage of the talks at Panmunjom, in the middle of the world’s most dangerous border, was relayed in real time to Seoul, where officials scrutinized North Korean tactics. The North transmitted the audio of the meeting to its capital, Pyongyang.

While the focus of Tuesday’s talks was the Olympics, South Korean officials were also expected to explore whether North Korea is interested in talks with the United States to ease tensions over its nuclear arms programs.

In his New Year’s Day speech, Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, proposed holding the dialogue with South Korea to discuss his country’s participation in the Pyeongchang Games. In the same speech, he also claimed to have acquired a nuclear deterrent, including intercontinental ballistic missiles that he said he could unleash on the United States with his “nuclear button.”

Some analysts said Mr. Kim was hoping to use his country’s self-proclaimed status as a nuclear weapons state as leverage to win concessions from Washington, particularly the easing of increasingly crippling sanctions. President Trump and Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson said that Mr. Kim’s decision to start dialogue with South Korea was a sign that their campaign to isolate the North was working.

The talks at Panmunjom provide an opportunity to gauge whether North Korea is willing to moderate its behavior after a year of provocative nuclear and missile tests that have raised fears of all-out war on the Korean Peninsula.

But the initial focus was on the Olympics.

South Korean officials must still nail down the travel route, lodging and other logistics of a North Korean Olympic delegation.

North Korea has traditionally sent only a small delegation to the Winter Games and has never won a gold medal at them.

The International Olympic Committee is eager for the North to return, promising to help cover its athletes’ expenses in Pyeongchang.


The border posts of North Korea, top, and South Korea near the Demilitarized Zone on Tuesday. Credit Ed Jones/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The only North Korean athletes to qualify for the Pyeongchang Games so far are a pairs figure skating team. But North Korea missed an Oct. 31 deadline to accept invitations from the I.O.C. and South Korea to join the Games. The I.O.C. has said it remains flexible, willing to consider wild-card entries for North Korean athletes.

In Tuesday’s talks, South Korea also suggested that the two Korean teams march together during the opening ceremony of the Olympics, Chun Hae-sung, the vice minister of unification, told reporters in Panmunjom after the morning’s negotiations.

The South also proposed that the two countries revive their program of temporarily reuniting elderly people who have not seen their cross-border relatives since the Korean War unofficially ended in 1953. Such reunions could take place in time for lunar New Year’s Day on Feb. 16, a traditional season for family reunions in Korea, the South Korean negotiators told their North Korean counterparts.

“We told them that both sides should cooperate, based on mutual respect, and end any acts of raising tensions on the Korean Peninsula,” Mr. Chun said. “We also called for the resumption of dialogue on denuclearization and peace-building.” The North’s response was not immediately available. The negotiations continued in the afternoon.

In recent decades, North Korea has alternated between provocation and dialogue, and it remained unclear whether its participation in the Olympics signaled an overall softening. For the South Koreans, who have been rattled by the exchange of threats of war between North Korea and the United States in the past year, the border talks provide a welcome reprieve, although some analysts warned that it might be short-lived.

South Korea hopes that the talks at Panmunjom will lead to other moves to ease tensions, like temporary reunions of elderly people in both Koreas who have been separated from family members since the Korean War.

South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, is a strong proponent of dialogue with North Korea, even as his country’s American allies say military action remains an option to halt the North’s nuclear brinkmanship.

Mr. Moon’s government says North Korea will be less likely to conduct a nuclear or missile test during the Olympics if its athletes are competing in the South. It hopes to use such a lull in the standoff to create a momentum for negotiations between North Korea and the United States.

A version of this article appears in print on January 9, 2018, on Page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: North Korea to Send Athletes to Olympics in South Korea in Breakthrough.

To me, this is what the Olympics is all about.

[GeneChing]

This is one of the great contributions that martial arts gives to the world. It crosses borders and unifies.

Koreas to be united by traditional martial art of taekwondo -- again
2018-01-17 23:44
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SEOUL, Jan. 17 (Yonhap) -- The Korean martial art of taekwondo brought the divided Koreas together, if only briefly, south of the tense border last summer.

And it will do so again at the tail end of winter, during the Feb. 9-25 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

North Korea agreed Wednesday to send a taekwondo demonstration team of about 30 to PyeongChang, 180 kilometers east of Seoul. The team will give performances in both PyeongChang and Seoul during its stay. The two sides will decide on a specific schedule later.



In this file photo taken June 24, 2017, South Korean President Moon Jae-in (fourth from L, back row) poses with taekwondo demonstrators from South Korea and North Korea after the opening ceremony of the World Taekwondo (WT) World Taekwondo Championships at T1 Arena in Muju, North Jeolla Province. (Yonhap)


Last June, during the World Taekwondo (WT) World Championships in Muju, 240 kilometers south of Seoul, North Korea sent a demonstration team for a total of four performances, including during the opening ceremony of the world championships. The taekwondo practitioners from the North belonged to the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF), a separate taekwondo entity from the WT.

The WT and the ITF have different sets of rules, and the WT is the only taekwondo body recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). But that hasn't prevented the two organizations from making efforts to work together.

Most notably, they signed a landmark agreement in August 2014, titled "Protocol of Accord," which outlined areas of mutual cooperation. And ITF sent its delegation to Muju last summer to honor the agreement. It was the first instance of inter-Korean sports exchange under the new Moon Jae-in administration in the South.

During the ITF team's visit, Moon called on North Korea to participate in the PyeongChang Olympics and expressed his hope for a joint Korean team.

The WT was scheduled to pay a reciprocal visit to Pyongyang in September but the trip never materialized, amid a series of North Korean military provocations.

The North's nuclear test and missile launches also threatened to derail plans for a joint taekwondo demonstration by the WT and the ITF during the PyeongChang Olympics. But the mood changed for the better at the turn of the year, after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offered to send an athletic delegation to PyeongChang in his New Year's message.

The two Koreas met eight days later, exchanging ideas on North Korean athletes' participation and also on visits by taekwondo practitioners and an art troupe.

On Wednesday, they settled on the size of the taekwondo team, which will be tasked with bringing the Koreas closer.



In this file photo taken June 24, 2017, taekwondo demonstrators from North Korea break bricks during the opening ceremony of the World Taekwondo (WT) World Taekwondo Championships at T1 Arena in Muju, North Jeolla Province. (Yonhap)

jeeho@yna.co.kr
(END)

Thread: Winter Olympics
Thread: Taekwondo

[wolfen]

This is one of the great contributions that martial arts gives to the world. It crosses borders and unifies.

Thread: Winter Olympics
Thread: Taekwondo

There is no "uniting" Communism and Capitalism. These are now two different countries. Martial Arts doesn't unify political systems, it fights against them and hopefully freedom wins over tyranny.



Reconciliation
They could maybe live together in relative reconciliation. this, not "unification", is a realistic goal. even though no dictatorship lives in peace with a Democratic Country.
The teams from the North will have many secret agents in them,the rest will be part of the elite and so be trustworthy and have their families under threat of execution if they don't return.
This is a political move on a political chessboard.
The North's best strategy would be to try to undermine the South with Cultural Marxism and Progressive Leftist Propaganda techniques and probably is encouraged by the examples of Germany , Canada and California where Democracy has been subverted. The South will try to undermine the North with their example of personal freedom and wealth but the people they will have there will probably be quite hardened adversaries.

"Unification" Under Communist Dictatorship and Oppression or under Democracy and Capitalism? It's one or the other, there is no middle ground.
The North wants "Unification" without democracy, The South wants Unification without Communism.


The North has three demands for "reunification", they sound a little reasonable but they are very treacherous.- These three demands will annihilate Democracy and install an Northern Run dictatorship in the South. The North has always been unwavering in these demands. The following book in Graphic Comic format explains the situation quite excellently:

Korea Unmasked In Search of the Country, the Society and the People (New Edition) (Graphic Novel Format)

Product Description
by Won-bok Rhie; Louis Choi, Jung Un (translation) 236 pages. publisher: Kimyoungsa, 2002.


About this book

This is an English edition of the bestseller comic book Far Countries, Neighboring Countries 9 - Korea (Sae Mon Nara Iun Nara 9 - Uri Nara). The book is to introduce real aspects of Korea that are sometimes misunderstood and unknown to foreigners. Through skillfully chosen subjects - e.g., spicy food, education fever, conglomerates, the tension between North and South Korea - Won-bok Rhie explores the unique manifestations of Korean attitudes that are often misunderstood by foreigners. It is a fascinating exploration of the Korean mindset that weaves together history, sociology and cultural anthropology. The insightful discussions on Korea's place between China and Japan, its more well-known neighbors, also clear the fog away as to who the Korean people are.

Table of contents
Foreword
Introduction

1 Neighbors but Strangers : Korea, China and Japan

2 The Korean People

3 The Successes and Tribulations of the Koreans

4 The Long and Treacherous Road to Reunification

Translators' Notes : Jung Un, Louis Choi

De Oppresso Liber

[GeneChing]

OLYMPICS 2018
What to Know About the Opening Ceremony for the 2018 Winter Olympics: When, Where and How to Watch


A South Korean dancer performs during the handover ceremony of the Olympic flame at the Panathenaic Stadium, in Athens, Greece, on Oct. 31, 2017. Yannis Kolesidis—EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
By KATIE REILLY 9:00 AM EST

The 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea will officially kick off on Feb. 9 with its highly-anticipated opening ceremony.

The Olympics opening ceremony, which will have a peace theme, is expected to feature K-pop performances (fans may be hoping for BTS), heated patriotic uniforms and some very cold temperatures.

Here’s what we know about the Olympics opening ceremony festivities so far, including when and where it will take place:

What time does the 2018 Olympics opening ceremony start?

The Olympics opening ceremony will take place in PyeongChang on Friday, Feb. 9, beginning at 8 p.m. local time (6 a.m. EST). The opening ceremony is expected to last about two hours.

The official Winter Olympic Games schedule begins the day before the opening ceremony, with curling and ski jumping events starting on Feb. 8.

PyeongChang 2018
✔
@pyeongchang2018
Almost 8 billion eyes are focused on one place! 🇰🇷
Just under 10 days left until the #PyeongChang2018 Opening Ceremony! 🔥✨ 80억 인구의 시선이 단 한 곳으로🇰🇷 #2018평창 동계올림픽 개막일까지 단 "10일" 남았습니다. #JangKeunSuk #TaeYang #LeeDongWook

1:33 AM - Jan 30, 2018 · Pyeongchang-gun, Republic of Korea
7 7 Replies 321 321 Retweets 523 523 likes
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How can I watch the Olympics opening ceremony?

Early-bird Olympic enthusiasts in the United States will be able to watch the opening ceremony live beginning at 6 a.m. EST on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app, which is available on streaming devices, including Roku, Amazon Fire and Apple TV. Later that day at 8 p.m. EST, NBC will air a “fully-produced” television broadcast of the opening ceremony, featuring interviews and commentary by hosts Katie Couric and Mike Tirico.

View image on Twitter

NBC Olympics
✔
@NBCOlympics
.@katiecouric and @miketirico are ready for the #WinterOlympics opening ceremony!

1:34 PM - Jan 17, 2018
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Where will the opening ceremony be held?

The Olympics opening ceremony will take place in the new PyeongChang Olympic Stadium, which seats 35,000 people. The venue will be used just four times — for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2018 Olympics and Paralympics — before being torn down. Construction of the stadium was part of the roughly $13 billion that South Korea is spending on the Olympics, the Associated Press reported.

But amid severe winter weather warnings, organizers fear that the Olympic stadium, which has no roof, might make the opening ceremony too cold for spectators to endure. Conditions inside the venue at the start of the Olympics are expected to feel like 7 degrees Fahrenheit due to wind chill, Reuters reported, citing an Olympic organizing committee internal document. The forecast has prompted organizers to work on measures to prevent cases of hypothermia.

“This is a very serious issue,” South Korean lawmaker Shim Ki-joon told Reuters in December. “This is creating a headache to not only the organizers but the presidential office, which sent officials to the venue to figure out ways to fight the cold.”

View image on Twitter

PyeongChang 2018
✔
@pyeongchang2018
It's less cold than yesterday!😉 #PyeongChang2018 - What’s the temperature where you are right now?🌤️☀️

여러분이 계신 곳의 날씨는 어떤가요? #2018평창 #겨울

1:23 AM - Dec 13, 2017
12 12 Replies 39 39 Retweets 92 92 likes
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What will happen at the Olympics opening ceremony?

As in every Olympics opening ceremony since 1908, athletes will march into the stadium under their country’s flag during the Parade of Nations. Olympic athletes from North and South Korea will march together under a single flag — a historic diplomatic decision that has caused some controversy.

IOC MEDIA
✔
@iocmedia
For the first time in @Olympics history the two Korean teams will unite to compete as one team in a sport. The unified women's ice hockey team will be represented by the Korean unification flag and will compete as Korea. @PyeongChang2018

4:52 AM - Jan 20, 2018
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Even before North and South Korea agreed to unite, organizers had planned for the Olympics opening ceremony to have a theme of peace. “We have worked on all of our scenarios under the theme of peace,” Song Seung-whan, the executive creative director for the opening ceremony, said at a press conference in January, according to Reuters. “Although North Korea’s participation was decided belatedly, we think this will serve as a good opportunity for us to convey our message more clearly.”

The Olympics opening ceremony is expected to connect aspects of Korean history with current Korean culture, likely featuring K-pop performances, Reuters reported.

Pita Taufatofua — the oiled-up Tongan flag-bearer who became a social media sensation during the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics — is set to compete in PyeongChang as a cross-country skier. It’s likely he will carry his country’s flag once again because he is the only athlete from Tonga who qualified for the Winter Olympics this year. But he will presumably be more fully clothed, as freezing temperatures in PyeongChang are expected to cause the coldest Olympic games in decades.

Team USA is preparing to weather those bitter temperatures by wearing heated parkas as the athletes parade into the Olympic stadium. The uniforms, which feature American flags made of heat-conductive ink, were designed by Polo Ralph Lauren, the official outfitter for the 2018 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams.

View image on Twitter

U.S. Olympic Team
✔
@TeamUSA
#TeamUSA and @RalphLauren unveil the Opening Ceremony parade uniforms, introducing a unique wearable heat concept. 🇺🇸👏 http://go.teamusa.org/2DyeCT4

5:44 AM - Jan 22, 2018
26 26 Replies 198 198 Retweets 549 549 likes

I'm intrigued by this heat-conductive ink.

[GeneChing]

"What happens in the (Olympic) Village stays in the Village."

Olympic Village stocked with 110,000 condoms
Anchor Muted Background
By Robert Jimison, CNN

Updated 10:56 AM ET, Fri February 2, 2018


On February 1, the Olympic villages in Pyeongchang welcome the nearly 3,000 athletes traveling from 90 National Olympic Committees.

Story highlights
Organizers will hand out 110,000 condoms to athletes during the winter games
The Olympic villages are expected to welcome 2,925 athletes

(CNN)Are organizers of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang expecting the most promiscuous Winter Games in modern history?
The Olympics are set to begin next week, and with no plans to be outdone by previous winter games host cities, organizers of the South Korea games have supplied athletes with 110,000 condoms. That's 10,000 more than the number doled out to athletes during the previous Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia -- and only about 100 more athletes are participating in this year's games.
It's not like there's nothing else to do. Athletes typically enjoy amenities such as a fitness center, round-the-clock dining, a media center and dedicated multifaith areas for worship.
All the comforts of home will be provided within a staged community called the athletes' village and the larger Olympic village, including a selection of shops ranging from international postal services to a flower shop.
Speaking with local media, a spokesperson for the South Korean condom manufacturer Convenience said it was supplying the condoms "with goodwill."
OK let's do the math: the Olympic villages are expected to welcome 2,925 athletes representing 90 nations. That works out to around 37 condoms per competitor. That seems like a lot of condoms for an event scheduled to last two weeks.
Members of the media and spectators need not feel left out. The contraceptives will be made available to them as well.
As former Olympic swimmer Dara Torres told CNN in 2012, "What happens in the (Olympic) Village stays in the Village."

Condoms at Olympic Games

In case you were wondering, here's a brief history of condoms at the modern Olympic Games.

1988 Summer Olympics: Condoms were first publicly distributed at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, to reduce the spread of HIV.

1994 Winter Olympics: Olympic organizers distributed free condoms to athletes, news media, and celebrities as part of an AIDS awareness campaign at the Games in Lillehammer, Norway.

2000 Summer Olympics: Olympic organizers reportedly distributed some 90,000 condoms to athletes at the Games in Sydney, Australia.

2010 Winter Olympics: The British Columbia Center for Disease Control distributed about 100,000 condoms for athletes and officials at the venues in Vancouver.

2016 Summer Olympics: At the most recent Games, organizers allocated about 450,000 condoms to distribute to athletes in Rio de Janeiro. That worked out to 42 condoms per person.

[GeneChing]

Military deployed as norovirus outbreak hits Winter Olympic security guards
By Sol Han and Ben Westcott, CNN
Updated 6:32 AM ET, Tue February 6, 2018

(CNN)South Korea has deployed 900 military personnel after 1,200 security guards were pulled from duty following an norovirus outbreak at Winter Olympic facilities in Pyeongchang.
Organizers said 41 security guards had suffered a sudden onset of vomiting and diarrhea on Sunday and had been taken to hospital. The outbreak comes just days before the opening of South Korea's 2018 Winter Olympics on Thursday.
To prevent the spread of the disease, the other guards were withdrawn and replaced with 900 military personnel as of Monday afternoon, a statement from the Pyeongchang Olympics committee said.
"The military personnel ... will be responsible for security checks of the 20 venues as they take up jobs such as security searches, previously done by civilian safety personnel, until the patients' condition is normalized," the statement said.
All the civilian guards were in a stable condition, according to the statement. Organizers said that all Olympic accommodation and buses were being disinfected.
The first Olympic events are set to be held on Thursday, February 8. Competitions will run for two weeks before the closing ceremonies are held on Sunday, February 25.
The Korean Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said in a statement Monday that the 41 security guards had been staying at the same building in Pyeongchang.
"KCDC dispatched an immediate response team to the Pyeongchang site to check additional people for symptoms, check the origin of the exposure, take measures to control infection and prevent spread," the statement said.
It's not clear how the guards become infected in the first place.
Water and food at the accommodations are currently being tested, while the Winter Olympics committee said it would strengthen checks on sleeping quarters for staff working at the games to prevent further infections.

Good thing they supplied all those condoms?

[GeneChing]

We've been getting record-breaking temperatures this week in the SF Bay Area. It's early February and we're all wearing T-shirts, sandals and shorts.

Am I bad for thinking I'll have extra schadenfreude watching the Winter Olympics this year? I only watch for the biathalon and curling.

Coldest Olympics in history? PyeongChang organizers break out the hats and blankets.
By Chelsea Janes February 6 at 7:14 AM Email the author


Small moving robots project weather forecasts on the floor in the media village at Gangneung, South Korea. The PyeongChang Olympics could be the coldest in history. (Barbara Walton/EPA-EFE/Rex/Shutterstock)

DAEWALLYEONG, South Korea — Lee Hee-boem, president and CEO of the PyeongChang Olympic Organizing Committee, a man with an MBA from George Washington University and a doctorate in business, sat on a dais in front of several dozen reporters from around the world Tuesday and held up a fleece blanket — his unexpected defense against a flurry of questions about what might be the coldest Winter Olympics in history.

“I have tried this blanket on my lap,” he declared, his message translated from Korean by a translator. “And I think this blanket will work in quite cold weather.”

He wasn’t finished. He then pulled a red knit cap over his head.

“You can cover your ears with this hat,” he said, providing what probably wasn’t a necessary demonstration. “If you wear it like this, you can endure the cold.”

The blanket and beanie are part of a kit that will be distributed to spectators at Friday night’s Opening Ceremonies, which will be conducted in an open-air stadium despite the biting cold and howling winds.

The Opening Ceremonies have become a focus of concern. Temperatures in Lillehammer, Norway, plummeted before zero degrees Fahrenheit in 1994, but the 2018 Olympics could top that. PyeongChang is known for bitter winters and pounding winds that blow in from the Manchurian plains and Siberia and never seem to stop this time of year. Unlike Vancouver in 2010 or Sochi in 2014, where organizers scrambled to combat unseasonably warm temperatures, organizers here are engaged in widespread efforts to keep spectators safe.

They may dodge the worst case scenario. After enduring what organizers are referring to as a lengthy “cold snap,” temperatures here are supposed to rise over the next few days and peak around 40 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday — just in time for the Opening Ceremonies later that evening.

“On the ninth, there is no forecast for snow or rain,” said Lee, who also said he plans to summon a weather expert to address reporters Wednesday. “On the day of the Opening Ceremony, the weather will be warmer than it has been so far.”


Lee Hee-Beom, head of PyeongChang Olympic Organizing Committee, talks to reporters about the weather at a Tuesday news conference. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)

Nevertheless, the organizing committee has redoubled efforts to convey weather concerns to those planning to attend. Those efforts have worked a little too well, Lee said, as some try to return tickets.

A few spectators at a concert held at PyeongChang Olympic Stadium in November had to be hospitalized with hypothermia, though Lee explained that they had been wearing “autumn clothes.” Many of the 20,000 or so spectators at a dress rehearsal this past Saturday left early, too.

So organizers decided to provide the kits Lee showcased Tuesday, and add 40 large heaters to the second floor of the stadium. Lee said the committee also wanted to provide free hot drinks, but could not do so because of a sponsor contract with Coca-Cola. Instead, he said, hot drinks will be sold for roughly $1.

Logistically, organizers do not yet foresee the need to adjust the competition schedule because of the weather. The International Olympic Committee has regulations in place about the maximum wind speeds in which ski jumping can take place, and built wind shields around that course to minimize the risk of cancellation. Otherwise, the cold will likely have less effect on the scheduling of these Games than warm temperatures did on those before it.

The Olympians themselves, though accustomed to performing in the cold, have nevertheless expressed surprise at and the need to adjust to the extent of this chill.

“It’s truly winter here,” said four-time Olympian Ted Ligety, an alpine skier who said these Olympics are by far the coldest he’s experienced in his career.

Ligety plans to attend those Opening Ceremonies in a battery-powered jacket that heats the back, designed by U.S. Olympic outfitter Ralph Lauren.

“I mean, Opening Ceremonies is one of the coolest things you can ever do in your life. You just have to prepare,” said American luger Chris Mazdzer, who will be competing in his third Olympics. “The jeans we have from Ralph Lauren are really tight, and I’m not going to be able to fit a whole lot under there. But handwarmers, foot warmers, you do whatever you can. You just have to be there.”

Staying warm enough to “just be there” is one thing; being comfortable enough to compete in peak form is another.

U.S. snowboarder Jamie Anderson, who won the gold medal in Sochi’s balmy temperatures, said she and her teammates had little desire to explore the slopestyle course when they first arrived here. Even for women who spend their lives on the snow, the cold was intimidating.

“I think I’m going to have to play with my layers and neckies and everything just to feel comfortable because I believe the cold does affect our performance,” Anderson said. “Trying to stay good, when you’re out in the freezing, how can you go and perform? I’ve been drinking a lot of warm liquids. I don’t ice anything. I always drink warm tea or warm water with lemon. Thanks to the Chinese medicine teachings.”

Ligety said he’ll have to adjust his equipment and keep his boots warm. Most of the U.S. skiers say they train in places with comparable cold, particularly those who have trained in Lake Placid, N.Y., whose February temperatures are similar PyeongChang’s.

Those competing in the sliding sports will likely have to adjust even more. The deeper the chill, the harder the ice. The harder the ice, the faster the sled, meaning bobsledders, lugers, and skeleton racers will see conditions change dramatically.

While in skeleton and bobsled, riders are used to sliding side to side as they wrestle the ice for control, lugers have less margin for error, Mazdzer explained.

“Skeleton and bobsled? They’re more rounded, so they don’t have to worry. They slide around. They hit walls,” Mazdzer said. “If we hit walls, game over. We’re trying to drive this perfect line. So we need to have that sharpen our steel [on the runners].”

Mazdzer and his luge teammates will be among the coldest competitors at the Games. They wear skintight suits, the competitive effects of which none of them can afford to compromise by stuffing them with coats or base layers. For the two minutes of their race, they will have little defense against the cold.

“Once you’re going down though,” Mazdzer said, “you’re so focused on what you’re doing you don’t feel anything.”

[GeneChing]

Thread: Vantablack
Thread: Winter Olympics

[wolfen]

Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton discussed North Korea’s participation in the Winter Olympics on Thursday’s Breitbart News Daily with SiriusXM host Matt Boyle.

“I think the North Koreans are making a last-ditch effort to get across the finish line with their nuclear program while the world’s attention is focused on the Olympics,” Bolton said. “I think it’s all propaganda.”

He foresaw North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s sister competing with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence for media attention while both attend the Olympic games. Other aspects of North Korea’s charm offensive, such as North and South Korean teams marching together, he dismissed as “nothing new.”

“One thing about North Korean propaganda is that it’s predictable. It repeats itself. That’s what they’re doing here,” he observed.

“Let’s not forget that that sound you hear in the background is the whirring of North Korean centrifuges enriching uranium,” Bolton cautioned. “This program continues. Their ballistic missile testing continues.”

“I think Vice President Pence actually has a very important, delicate mission in South Korea as the Olympics open, to show that we’re sticking with South Korea and Japan,” he said. “We’re not going to let North Korea try and confuse the world with the female hockey teams playing together.”

FORMER US ambassador John Bolton said that force was the only way that the North Korean threat to the US would be neutralised, as tensions escalate towards a military outbreak.
By Oli Smith
PUBLISHED: 08:45, Sun, Dec 31, 2017



John Bolton, who remains a top US security advisor, said the world only had "one play left" in dealing with North Korea.

This follows remarks from US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the South Korean Government that diplomatic efforts have not been exhausted yet.

However, Mr Bolton claimed that sanctions had no impact on Kim Jong-un's regime and one way or another the leadership will have to be toppled.

Speaking to Fox News, Mr Bolton said that US President Donald Trump should now focus on persuading China that wiping out the North Korean regime was in their national interest.

He told the US broadcaster: "These threats will only grow worse next year, especially with both China and Russia trying to two-time us this week.

"I don’t think North Korea will ever voluntary give up their nuclear programme. Enormous pressure through sanctions has not slowed down the regime at all.

"This is a prison-camp of an economy, its people live desperate lives - but there's been no impact on the nuclear tests.

"There is one diplomatic play left here. You cannot coerce China into this, but you can persuade them that their national interest requires getting rid of this regime.

"Reunification of the peninsula is the way to go but there may be other options.

"As long as this regime stays in place, you will have a nuclear threat, not just in Asia, but they are capable of selling it to anyone around the world - be it Iran, ISIS, Al Qaeda."

A South Korean Marine aims his rifle on a snowy hill during a joint winter drill with US Marines in Pyeongchang


The latter article misrepresents former UN Ambassador John Bolton. He is currently NOT one of Trump's or the USA's current advisors, he was NOT hired by the Trump administration, he is very hawkish and DJT is against that. However he does have a handle on the situation. This just puts the Olympics in light of the larger situation NK is a world nuclear threat and that is not going away.


North Vietnam "unified" South Vietnam with a tank crashing through the gate of the Presidential Palace. Eight to twelve million people died in the holocaust in SE Asia shortly thereafter , two million in South Vietnam. Communism does not compromise.
Today under Viet Communism, The North together with occupied South Vietnam is ranked 77 of 149 in terms of prosperity and personal freedom is 121 of 149. The American Left forced the US Military to leave after victory and military stability had been achieved. The new progressive marxists of America would love to do the same thing to South Korea.

[wolfen]

A North Korean army entered South Korea — an “Army of Beauties,” that is.

That’s the colloquial name for North Korea’s 230-strong, all-female cheerleading squad. They form part of the country’s delegation to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, which also includes athletes, artists, and politicians — many of whom arrived ahead of the games.

North Korean cheerleaders arrive in South Korea for PyeongChang Games
(From Arirang News, Arirang is a state-run international English-language network based in Seoul, South Korea)

Approximately 230 young women strong, the squad arrived for the Pyeongchang Games in matching red wool coats, buttoned at the waist, with black fur trim at the neck and wrists and matching black caps, high-heeled ankle boots and sheer hosiery. They toted matching red wheelies and handbags, and all grinned matching grins.

Imagine a cross between Pan Am “stewardesses” of the 1960s, “Red Sparrow” and the Dallas Cowboys squad, and you’ll get the idea. In North Korea they are reportedly known as “the army of beauties.”

The allure of the North Korean cheerleading squad is connected with the degree to which its members appear to be under complete control.

The Mesmerizing Spectacle of North Korea’s “Army of Beauties” at the Winter Olympics

Cheerleading, by nature, is a form of propaganda—I can say this, I think, having cheered in Texas for six years. But the North Korean cheerleading squad, which will perform at the Winter Olympics opening ceremonies, this Friday, in Pyeongchang, South Korea, occupies its own stratosphere of weaponized comeliness and discipline. The squad, which has been dubbed, in South Korea, the “army of beauties,” presents a doll-house version of military service: girls in their late teens and early twenties are plucked from the country’s most prestigious universities and charged with making North Korea look good. The cheerleaders are chosen on the basis of appearance and ideology—they undergo background checks, to insure that there are no defectors or enemy sympathizers in their families, and they must be pretty (and at least five feet three). At this year’s Olympics, two hundred and thirty cheerleaders from North Korea will be in attendance. The country is sending about two dozen athletes.

The cheerleaders haven’t been seen outside North Korea for some time. A sparse collection of aughts-era photos and video shows them in unnerving numbers, as uniform and multitudinous as bees on a hive. They’re often dressed like golf caddies, in baseball hats and crisp polo shirts in bright red and white. Sometimes, they wear modernized hanbok. (At a 2002 basketball game against the Philippines, the girls wore singing-telegram outfits, and, at a 2013 basketball game in Pyongyang that put twelve North Korean players against four Harlem Globetrotters and ended, reportedly, in a 110–110 tie, Dennis Rodman watched the cheerleaders dance in miniskirts.) Instead of doing floor routines, they mostly stick to the stands, chanting and wielding a variety of props in unison: flags, tambourines, fans, megaphones that look like flowers.

Past cheer captains have inspired dedicated online fan clubs in South Korea, where the cheerleaders have been accumulating devotees since 2002. That year, two hundred and eighty-eight of them arrived in Busan, for the Asian Games—the largest group of North Koreans to arrive in South Korea since the Korean War. In 2003, three hundred cheerleaders, clothed in attire that the Washington Post described as “part Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, part Red Army,” travelled to the Universiade Games, in Daegu. “What do we want?” they shouted at the South Korean crowd. “Unification!” the crowd shouted back. They raised North Korean flags and chanted, “Skill! Technique! Focus!” On the same trip, the cheerleaders caused a scene when they spotted, mid-transit, a welcome poster featuring Kim Jong Il that was getting rained on. Six buses stopped on the side of the road. Thirty or so sobbing girls ran back to retrieve the poster. A South Korean police officer told the Chosun Ilbo newspaper that the cheerleaders were “wailing loudly as they got on the bus, like women who had just lost their husbands. People who were at the scene were saying that it was beyond their comprehension, and some even said it gave them the chills.”

In 2005, a hundred and one North Korean cheerleaders were sent to Incheon, South Korea, for the Asian Athletics Championship. Among these girls was sixteen-year-old Ri Sol Ju, the daughter of a top officer in North Korea’s Air Force, who, four or five years later, would go on to marry Kim Jong Un. (A commentator told Newsweek that Ri’s work as a cheerleader served as a sort of prequalification for marrying the dictator.) The next year, reports emerged that twenty-one cheerleaders who had travelled to Incheon had been sent to a prison camp for talking about what they saw in the South. The girls had apparently pledged, before leaving, that they would regard South Korea as “enemy territory” and would never speak about their experiences. The squad has not returned to South Korea since. (In 2014, North Korea withheld its cheerleaders from the Asian Games, in Incheon, after South Korea refused to pay for expenses. Fretting politicians told The Economist that the cheerleaders were an “essential condition” for the games’ success.)

A friend who grew up in Seoul told me that the cheerleaders’ appeal in South Korea is a matter of contrast: the girls are fresh-faced and traditional, seemingly unspoiled by materialistic concerns. (“Whereas our cheerleaders are sort of K-popped out,” my friend texted me.) The Korean phrase “nam nam buk nyeo” refers to the idea that North Korean women and South Korean men make the best mates—a term that hints at female bodies becoming a conduit for the larger reunification. About eighty-five per cent of defectors who have moved to South Korea since the Korean War have been women. There are even matchmaking agencies “specializing” in North Korean women: one C.E.O. told the Dong-A Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper, that “North Korean women are highly likely to be matched because they value the character of their spouse and are less picky about age, vocation, and academic background than their South Korean counterparts.”

Today, ironically, North Korea may be the nation that gives cheerleaders the most credit, in a way. The squad is supposed to have incredible power—but that power is directly connected to the degree to which the girls appear under control. It will be absurd, in Pyeongchang, to watch one of the world’s most repressive, totalitarian nations attempt to deploy two hundred and thirty smiling women as a diplomatic shield. The underlying idea is so ridiculous that it’s almost thrilling. Female youth, beauty, and obedience are supposed to be that distracting—a spectacle that could even dissipate thoughts of nuclear war. (Exactly. A spectacle to distract from thoughts of whirring nuclear producing gyroscopes.)

Every totalitarian cloud has a silver lining.
However,these are the privileged, they left the inmates of "Camp 22" behind. It's the Jungian Thing.

[GeneChing]

Darkest material on Earth creates a 'schism in space' for Winter Olympics
By Temujin Doran and Katy Scott, CNN
Updated 7:31 AM ET, Mon February 12, 2018

Story highlights
Vantablack absorbs 99.96% of the light that hits its surface
The makers say they have been inundated with requests to use the material
A derivative has been used on a building unveiled at Winter Olympics

(CNN)A building described as the "darkest on Earth" has been unveiled at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, in South Korea.
It's the work of British architect Asif Khan, who achieved the super-black effect by coating the building in a revolutionary material that absorbs 99% of light.
The Hyundai Pavilion, which Khan describes as a "schism in space," has four curved walls, each of which is studded with thousands of tiny lights -- like stars against the night sky.
"It will be like you're looking into the depths of space itself," said Khan, ahead of the Games. "As you approach the building that star field will grow to fill your entire field of view, and then you'll enter as though you're being absorbed into a cloud of blackness."
Juxtaposed against the pristine whiteness of the Olympic Winter Games, Khan hopes his building will provoke a philosophical experience by presenting visitors with a "void of infinite depth and possibility."



The building's exterior is covered with a substance called Vantablack VBx2, a derivative of nanomaterial Vantablack. Touted as the darkest man-made substance in the world, the original Vantablack is so black the human eye can't quite decipher what it is seeing.
It is said to be the closest thing to a black hole we will ever experience.
That's because Vantablack is not a color, it's the almost complete absence of color.
Since the material was first developed by Surrey NanoSystems three years ago, the British firm has been flooded with inquiries from designers, architects and aerospace engineers -- and even people who want to wrap themselves in it or eat it.
Part of the appeal of the original Vantablack is that it absorbs 99.96% of the light that hits its surface.
"When you have no light reflected back to the viewer, you see nothing, so your brain paints it as black," Ben Jensen, co-founder of Surrey NanoSystems tells CNN.
When used as a coating, Vantablack appears to change the dimensions of an object, rendering 3D objects completely flat.
It's this absence of color, light and depth that first drew Khan to Vantablack.
"To break the fundamental rules of perception, as this material does, turns 3D things into 2D things, it absorbs light instead of reflecting light, it's as powerful as switching off gravity. That's the possibility of it in architecture," said Khan.

Breaking down Vantablack -- can I eat it?

One square centimeter of Vantablack consists of about one billion carbon nanotubes spaced perfectly apart. When light comes in it is bounced around and ultimately trapped and converted to heat.
"Carbon nanotubes are like very, very long blades of grass," explains Jensen. "Now you imagine if you were a human walking around in grass 1,000 feet tall how little light would get down to you. It's like that but on a very tiny scale."
The nanotubes are "grown" under powerful lamps that bring the surface temperature to 430 degrees Celsius or higher.


Each carbon nanotube measures roughly one millionth of a millimeter.

The spray-applied version used by Khan isn't based on carbon nanotubes and absorbs 99% of the light that hits its surface.
Vantablack was originally designed for engineering in space, but, since launching in 2014, Jensen has been inundated with requests to use the material.
"The inquiries built like an avalanche... everything from superstars wanting to coat their guitars in it to people wanting to coat their cars in it," he says.
The strangest request Jensen received was from someone wanting to film themselves eating it and then post the video on YouTube. "Obviously that's not a really good idea," Jensen says.
Nor is crafting a little (Vanta)black dress, as the material would irritate your skin, and you'd look like shapeless piece of cardboard.

But the material has been used in a $95,000 limited-edition watch by Swiss watchmaker MCT. Set against a Vantablack background, the elements of the watch seem to be floating in a bottomless void.
The nanotubes are "grown" at temperatures of 430 degrees Celsius or higher.


Photos: Vantablack: The world's darkest material
The world's darkest material – Vantablack has been used in various aesthetic applications including this luxury watch by Manufacture Contemporaine du Temps (MCT) in Switzerland.

Blacking out light in space

A company in Sweden is using Vantablack to coat the inside of an optical telescope, which will be attached to a microsatellite. The coating will block stray light from the sun and city lights.
"We would like to make sure that the light that comes from the telescope comes from the atmosphere and not from any disturbing sources," says engineer Arvid Hammer of Omnisys Instruments.
By doing so, scientific researchers can get clearer pictures of the atmosphere and better data to improve current climate models, he explains. This can help make better weather and global warming predictions.


Vantablack coated baffle for tracking stars.

Despite this range of applications, Jensen is keen to stress Vantablack cannot simply be "painted" on just anything.
"There's this misconception out there that it's a black paint. It's not," says Jensen. "It's something that's grown through very complex means ... definitely not something you can paint out of a bucket."
Clarification: This story has been updated to better clarify the type of materials architect Asif Khan is using in his designs.

"can i eat it?" NOT a freakin tide pod...

Thread: Vantablack
Thread: Winter Olympics

[wolfen]

The MSN shows their true totalitarian colors again.



Liberal's New Hero - by Mark Dice

There’s a new competitive sport at this year’s Winter Olympics in South Korea. Its participants are members of the establishment media. Their aim: to s*** up to the despotic regime in North Korea.
...
the current field of play is the media’s fawning coverage of Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, who has become the media’s belle of the ball. As a CNN headline put it, she is “stealing the show” at the Winter Olympics.

The Zucker News Network, vying for the gold, trilled about Kim’s ability to offer “a smile, a handshake and a warm message” to fellow attendees. And CNN didn’t stop there: “If ‘diplomatic dance’ were an event at the Winter Olympics,” it added, “Kim Jong Un’s younger sister would be favored to win gold.”

Not to be outdone, Reuters jumped into the competition with this headline: “North Korea heading for diplomacy gold medal at Olympics.”
..

And make no mistake, it is murderous. The North Korean regime is run like a Stalinist police state, enslaving and killing millions of its own people, including his own family members. Human Rights Watch calls it “one of the most repressive authoritarian states in the world,” and Amnesty International agrees. Kim Yo Jong, who heads the “Propaganda and Agitation Department” of the country’s communist party, is a major bloody cog in that monstrous system. For the unfortunate souls who live under her family’s regime, any rejection of her propaganda will get you a death sentence or your entire family a prison sentence.

On that last point, United Nations inspector Michael Kirby spoke in 2013 about the “unspeakable atrocities” committed in North Korea’s political prison camps, including “survivors who suffered through childhoods of starvation”–forced to survive on lizards, rodents, and grass–due to the regime’s practice of “guilt by association” to punish “other generations for a family member’s perceived political views or affiliation.” Kirby also heard testimony of women forced to drown their own babies in buckets.

If there were any justice in this world, Sister Kim would be locked up for crimes against humanity. But instead, the establishment corporate media piles on the praise, making themselves once again useful idiots for a mass murderer’s propaganda machine.

Why would anyone with a scintilla of moral discernment do this? I can think of three reasons:

1. The Media ♥ Commies

The establishment media has had an historic romance with communism. Back in 1932, The New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize for its completely false coverage—whitewashing the evil darkness—of Joseph Stalin’s deliberately induced famine in Ukraine, then an unwilling part of the Soviet Union. That planned calamity killed millions (we might note that the words “killed millions” and “communism” go well together). Then, in the 1950s, the Times ladled equally laudatory coverage on another communist monster, Fidel Castro.

And the more howlingly anti-American a communist regime is—and most, if not all, of them have been—the more love the media bestows on them. So, is it any wonder they love Sister Kim? After all, her brother—the man who has repeatedly threatened to nuke the U.S.—is an honorary member of the #Resistance.

2. “Okay, so he’s killed a lot of people, but I’ll ask him about that in the interview!”

In addition to its left-wing-ness, the establishment media has another ideology: ego gratification. Reporters would love nothing more than to get the “get.” And the big “get” rigjt now is an interview with Kim Jong Un. They are happy to walk over corpses to get access to him. So, they are sucking up to the North Koreans any which way they can; the industry jargon is “beat sweetening.”

Of course, there’s nothing new about this cynical tactic. Back in 2003, Eason Jordan, a top CNN executive, confessed that his network went easy on Iraq to maintain its access to Saddam Hussein. On this point, former Bush 43 press secretary Ari Fleischer nailed it when he tweeted:

3. Sister Kim might have murdered people, but Mike Pence won’t bake gay wedding cakes!

For the establishment media, pro-North Korea coverage is also anti-Mike Pence coverage. As The New York Times put it, “Without a word, only flashing smiles, Kim Jong-un’s sister outflanked Vice President Mike Pence in diplomacy.” Take that, Pence!

Yes, the media finds it pleasing, for PC reasons, to depict Pence as worse than the North Korean dictatrix. Okay, mass-murder is bad, but Pence-style social conservatism is worse.

You think that that’s too strong a statement? That I’m exaggerating the nature of establishment media bias?

Let me introduce you to this year’s Gold Medalist for Morally Bankrupt Murderous Tyrant Bootlicking: Jeet Heer of The New Republic.

Heer tweeted on February 10: “Do you realize how massively you have to f*** up so that Kim Jong Un’s family looks good by comparison? But Trump & Pence have pulled it off.”

So there you have it: Pence, and, of course, Trump, are worse than the murderous North Korean regime.

[wolfen]

Fake News Pushes North Korea Propaganda | Michael Malice and Stefan Molyneux

Michael Malice is the author of Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il 2014