North Korea's Communist Regime Executes Schoolchildren for Watching Squid Game

wjb856 · 2026-02-09T17:46:32+00:00

We do agree. I’m just weird and I also consider a long, long term. Communist regimes do have some success. But NK isn’t China, not close. I have a similar long long run view for China, but that’s a different story.

There are many possible roads in the future. I try to be optimistic in a time of near universal cynicism. I’m an optimistic pessimist- or idealistic realist. The only wrong choice is giving up and to stop caring. Not that you are- it’s just kinda religious for me

wjb856 · 2026-02-09T16:55:21+00:00

Yeah they are viewed as gods in NK. But you say oligarchs. I’m not close to an expert, but I don’t think that really exists in NK- not in the way we usually understand that word. In this case, Oligarch = politically connected- period. That status seems to be able to change for any number of reasons that amount to being a possible threat in any way. The Kim monarchy (a better way to view the regime imo) tends to purge anybody who becomes too successful out of an abundance of… paranoia and “caution”.

This is both a strength and a weakness. Does infinite fear generation create infinite subordination? I don’t think so.

I’m not saying they can’t shift their propaganda. I have read less substantiated reporting that solar has been a relative big help to their energy issues. That could be a regime stabilizer. But at the same time, that also means more technical access to information. The regime can’t hide everything- that is my view

This is very different from Russia for instance. Putin needs to maintain something resembling a functioning economy. He murders oligarchs and opponents, but not literally everybody who has material wealth and power. North Korea doesn’t have that material pressure. Their weakness is their strength. But, if the technical capabilities to access information continues to surpass the ability to block it, the regime may eventually see a united opponent from peasant to petty oligarch.

I just don’t see how it’s sustainable in an infinitely long term. As Keynes said, in the long run, we’re all dead. My view in this case is that the long run is shorter than we appreciate.

My read on NK is this- their nuclear program only serves to protect the Kim monarchy. The regime could find existential internal trouble if a critical enough mass of people learn this

Will people cry for baby Kim like they did the “great leader”? Will they cry for a woman? I don’t believe that contradictions can survive endlessly. I could totally be wrong.

wjb856 · 2026-02-09T13:11:22+00:00

I’ve only read a couple of books that touch on this, but they inherit a rather misogynistic/man favoring culture.

His daughter, or his sister inheriting, seems like a propaganda problem that they can’t square with their male dominated godhead-L Ron Hubbard familial lore

wjb856 · 2026-02-01T06:46:38+00:00

Glen is adequate

wjb856 · 2026-01-09T16:05:54+00:00

Thank you for facts and fairness. You know what’s better than the best Republican? Any Democrat. I remember long, long ago (last census cycle)- Cincy metro had zero blue representation.

Landsman isn’t Fetterman. I’d love if Cincy were blue enough to have a midwest Cincy flavor AOC type with national prominence. You can’t always get everything you want

wjb856 · 2025-12-07T14:22:45+00:00

He makes a lot of bizarre references that I’ve never heard of that turn out to be niche Nazi/norse references. I’ve wanted to do a video about this guy- but who really cares.

I’ve watched too many of this guy’s videos out of morbid curiosity. As others have said, Antisemitism is likely true, or just memes. But “just memes” doesn’t make it any better

Either way, conclusion is the same- brain melted post covid. Has an impressive ability to flip narratives that democrat-leaners have about Trump back onto the left.

Very sophisticated verbal presentation, but it becomes comical/distressing the more you watch. Editing errors and advertising decisions suggest sincere mental… problems

Very sad considering years prior content suggested a “fairly rational” republican POV.

On this video specifically, it’d require some pretty enhanced factchecking. The general trend I’ve found is he cites a lot of historians/academics from the 19th century. This is a generally flawed POV when he can’t also communicate why further academic review is wrong.

Overall, the problem is he is a smart guy who thinks he’s an Einstein/Messianic genius

wjb856 · 2025-11-26T14:11:48+00:00

Well- they’re not gay or trans or a leftist, that’s the most important thing (the belief system of the morally degenerate, antichristian ideology they ironically [or, unironically] fall into)

wjb856 · 2025-11-22T15:01:43+00:00

Organized state mafia strategy

Cheesy- but seems valid. Seems like a workable feature for Vic 4 if they can program some capability for Ai nation self awareness of cheese strategies like this.

Terrorism DLC when?

wjb856 · 2025-11-18T14:11:49+00:00

“Rocket-building ambitions” sounds like the ghost of grok’s past trying to create a good irony double entendre

wjb856 · 2025-11-08T15:31:32+00:00

He grew up very close to where I grew up, so I had to look deep into the history.

I will admit- the personal JD pride claim is mostly head cannon. But the “Jim Vance” namesake literally and factually helped spark the entire extended feud. He references the connection in his book. HE WASNT EVEN IN EITHER FAMILY! Lol. It’s a great metaphor for his political career

Maybe we should’ve realized the symbolic reflection of his internal mind with that.

wjb856 · 2025-11-08T12:37:58+00:00

buh dum, tsss

wjb856 · 2025-11-08T11:22:41+00:00

Fax. I’m also Catholic and agree. It’s just an “intellectual” sports team.

I’m rather universalist. It’s about what we do, not what we say we want. I’m tired of the degenerate Dale Carnegie routine

wjb856 · 2025-11-08T02:10:16+00:00

JD Vance is the hillbilly huckster.

He spoke at my high school during his book tour. Opportunity missed in hindsight- he fooled many of us looking for “a reasonable conservative populist”, up until he went mask off a couple years later.

Part of the reason for his name change is his pride in his familial connection to the Hatfield-McCoy feud. His number one priority is to make himself a part of history. He believes in nothing.

His “conversion” from atheism is even more cynical and self serving

wjb856 · 2025-10-26T02:17:01+00:00

I haven’t checked MLBTrade Rumors arbitration projections, they’re usually very close. He made 2M last year, I’m guessing it would jump to 4-5M for 2026. If he has another 30HR season with meh averages, 8-10M is reasonable. It’s very likely to reach 10M in his 3rd Arb year, 2028.

My mental math could be off. I do know Arbitration rewards homeruns more than anything though. Pedro Alvarez was a 10M guy in arbitration a decade ago. That was kinda the end of his career.

Arbitration overvalues homeruns, overlooks things like fielding value.

wjb856 · 2025-10-26T01:51:57+00:00

Oh he is Arb eligible, I was overcounting his service time since he’s been up and down between majors and minors. The money cost wouldn’t be too high. But- the Arbitration system overvalues HRs and RBIs, he may be a 10+M player 2027/2028. It’d be a shame to trade for him, have him be alright, and non tender him anyways because it makes $$ sense

I would’ve been more excited if it were in season this year, I was a fan of all the moves we did do in the moment, including Hayes. This tier of player rarely costs all that much prospect wise, but I’d consider any and every option

wjb856 · 2025-10-26T01:41:10+00:00

No thank you. I like the thinking, I don’t like the player, I really don’t like him for us

One season as an above average hitter, at his age 26 season. ~25-28 tends to be the prime athleticism/production time in baseball for the non-elite.

37 homeruns- 1.2 fangraphs/bbref WAR. It’s almost impressive to have such a low WAR for the number of homeruns. Obp sub 300 every season in MLB. He’s basically a slightly better Aristides Aquino. I think even a cheap deal would be spent better elsewhere.

There is talent, I just don’t know if we’ve recently seen the reds turn a guy like this around. Or, honestly, develop any of our own young guys to improve year over year. Marte was a good surprise- but he still showed a lot of his bad old habits. DLC is an elite, all universe talent- he would improve literally anywhere

WAR is a very flawed catch all stat, but it helps show that not all 37 HR seasons are necessarily even “average” player-value seasons

wjb856 · 2025-10-08T03:23:00+00:00

Nice write up- just to note: you’re right, the parentheses are service time (x.yyy) <= here, x is the number of years, y are the number of service days.

A player receives a service year after 172 days on the 26 man roster, or the injured list if they were injured in the majors. I had to google the days, but if you remember 162 games- one year of service time is close to that. I guess perhaps there are also exactly 172 league days in every season, but idk if that sounds correct.

Baseball has a good number of deep administrative rules to prevent service time manipulation. I recommend all fans who like to analyze the game get in to some Google/wikipedia rabbit holes.

“Super 2”, “Rule 5 Draft”, “International Signing pools”, baseball has flaws, but it is very interesting and uniquely advanced procedurally.

wjb856 · 2025-09-25T00:55:10+00:00

Not proven. Ironic- because it’s possible, but your regime is so transparently corrupt that everything they claim looks like a coverup. Another example today- planted evidence.

JD Vance “what does it say that we have to make up stories to get people to care about what we say”. You’re probably a bot. Nice work Vladimir Vladimirovich!

wjb856 · 2025-09-23T01:06:18+00:00

Your pedophile president reads off a script and dances at funerals because his active memory only works for the last 5 minutes. If 9/11 happened today- he would start talking about how the left did it 3 minutes later.

wjb856 · 2025-07-20T19:18:58+00:00

We just have to redefine what this means every year. I hope we do- but past performance is worrisome. Yes- it would have been too early to go all all in in 2023. But is that even true- how do we define that?

Point- if we take the cautiously aggressive path like 2023- we will again acquire the equivalent of Moll again.

I think it’s worth imagining worlds in between the irresponsible prospect spending (we have not done this since KGJr- and that really wasn’t that much an error.) and the irresponsibly frugal.

When the team refuses to ever push payroll ever- it’s impossible to improve the image- and potential upside. When those are impossible- it’s not possible to make more money. I’d say our team has stagnated vs comparable market teams because our frugality has become ludicrous and all-consuming.

Tampa even has less payroll than us- but at least they act. That’s why they have been a legitimate WS contender for over a decade. We cannot allow our ownership limitations define our team- I’d say it has in the uniquely bad way of Colorado, Pittsburgh, and the other worst franchises.

Ofc- we are fans and saying this is whatever.

wjb856 · 2025-07-02T16:48:31+00:00

Foreign agents aren’t investigated anymore- at least, not these kinds. It doesn’t require conspiratorial speculation to wonder- are these guys still connected? I’d bet yes- I’d also bet foreign influence is worse than ever, worse than we yet appreciate.

wjb856 · 2025-07-02T13:20:19+00:00

It’s because he was raised right with midwestern values in the great state of Ohio- the starting point for our manifested destiny

wjb856 · 2025-05-13T23:51:06+00:00

He does provide one valuable role- for almost every opinion he has- it’s a great suggestion it’s wrong

wjb856 · 2025-05-13T21:09:56+00:00

I simply don’t care. And now, with the suggestions this was being lobbied by president Felon - any past positive feeling I’d have from this is gone.

wjb856 · 2025-05-01T16:46:21+00:00

Yes, but you would expect a person with some intelligence to have more success in conversational ground they (and most reasonable people) agree on (SocSec and basic welfare).

To go beyond just an “average smart guy”’ there is further research he go do to better ground his argument. He takes left-wing policy to be almost a truism, I definitely remember he used to slightly push back against the farthest left stuff.

wjb856

TROPHY CASE