By David Futrelle
Donald Trump took a few minutes out from his golf vacation today to threaten North Korea with the “fire and fury” of a massive, possibly nuclear, military strike. “They will be met with fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before,” a stern-voiced Trump, his arms uncharacteristically crossed, told reporters at his Bedminster golf club.
On Reddit’s TheDonald — the popular subreddit, with nearly half a million subscribers, that is home to the site’s most fervent Trump superfans — the regulars are itching for Trump to pull the trigger.
Some are using the occasion as an excuse to make jokes that are awful in every sense of the word:
![JW_1213 214 points 5 hours ago also if this doesn't go down in history as the Pyongyang gang bang I'll be very disappointed permalinkembedsavereportgive goldreply [–]Hatefullynch1776 20 points 4 hours ago Now I'm going to be too Son of a bitch](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/td7.png?ssl=1)
Others are happily talking about the effect the president’s apocalyptic rhetoric allegedly had on their penises.
![anticusIIKY[?] 3 points 2 hours ago Well I'm fully erect](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/td9.png?ssl=1)
More than a few were happy to write off North Korea’s entire population, greeting the prospect of the literal genocide of the North Korean people with a shrug.
For many TheDonald regulars, the possible annihilation of millions matters far less than the prospect of “triggering” their ideological foes.
![johnbillaby 272 points 5 hours ago Oh man, the vaginas are going to be very upset by this permalinkembedsavereportgive goldreply [–]BarackHusseinBobama1776 194 points 5 hours ago Complaining from wherever](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/td12.png?ssl=1)
There’s the requisite anti-Asian racism:
![GunsAreForFun1776 69 points 5 hours ago Kim's autistic screeching was just heard 'round the world RRREEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeee permalinkembedsaveparentreportgive goldreply [–]JPO398CT 5 points 4 hours ago LLLEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeee FTFY permalinkembedsaveparentreportgive goldreply [–]Peacocking74 3 points 4 hours ago Lmao permalinkembedsaveparentreportgive goldreply [–]REDBEARD4-19-1775TX 1 point 4 hours ago HO REE FUK!](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/td13.png?ssl=1)
And an assortment of other bigotries, because why not use the possibility of nuclear war with North Korea as an opportunity to make jokes about Muslim rapists and “tr*nnies” and a former president many deplorables have decided was secretly gay in addition to being Kenyan.
Only a few commenters struck a note of caution.
![PM_ME_BUTT_STUFFINGPA[?] 13 points 5 hours ago If something does happen to "happen" will our stock market take a hit like 9/11? Or will it be unaffected since pretty much everyone is after NK? permalinkembedsaveparentreportgive goldreply [–]BreadcrumbBernard 32 points 5 hours ago Depends on what happens. If they land a hit on a major city like Seoul or somewhere in Japan, then every stock market will probably take a hit permalinkembedsaveparentreportgive goldreply [–]NIMBLE_NAV_FANMAGA 21 points 5 hours ago Japan has third largest economy in the world in terms of GDP. Shit would get real!](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/td18.png?ssl=1)
Finally, someone they can show a little sympathy to — themselves!
Just a reminder, when then-candidate Trump did an “Ask Me Anything” appearance on Reddit, he didn’t do it in the subreddit where AMA’s traditionally have taken place. He did it in TheDonald. The subreddit’s 470,926 subscribers aren’t fringe characters in Trump World; they are his base.
@numerobis
I’m pretty sure Canada would take a lot of damage too. It’s not like we can move out of the way of nuclear shockwaves and fallout from the U.S.
I’ve just finished reading To Kill The President by Sam Bourne (aka Jonathan Freedland, Guardian journalist). It’s a fictional account of an unnamed President, with a lot of familiar traits, which begins with a late night attempt by Potus at nuking N Korea. I’d just read the beginning before going to sleep last night, then woke up to “fire and fury” this morning. So you can imagine I was keen to find out what happened next.
It’s not my favourite novel of his and wraps up rather too neatly, but if you like political thrillers and fancy reading what I’m sure some of the characters would call “libtard fantasy”, there it is. Even if it’s a little too close to home to be entirely comfortable.
Well, North Korea has already upped the ante by threatening Guam.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/north-korea-mulling-plan-strike-guam-state-media-announces-n790996
I really hope that Trump is content with bluster, because I don’t like our chances otherwise.
This all makes me very very nervous. I do hope that Weird Eddie is right, with this comment:
It sounds right to me. But then, I was convinced Trump would never be elected, so I don’t trust my own judgement about these things any more.
Re: refusing an order from the President, the question has been asked before. Listen, and be afraid:
I don’t teach English, I shouldn’t be correcting people’s work:
Actually, this one is accurate aside from the spelling and punctuation. If Pyongyang gets taken out as the opening salvo to a war between the US and China, it’s taking Seoul with it, and as someone already said Seoul is the core of South Korea.
Ack! That didn’t work. Here’s the link to copy and paste into a browser. Actual podcast starts at about 5:15.
http://www.radiolab.org/story/nukes/
Looks like about 0.5% of the US population is Korean or of Korean descent. I wonder when they’ll be packed off to happy camps, just in case.
The problem with Seoul isn’t that NK might nuke it if the US goes to war.
The problem is that NK will reduce it to rubble with all that artillery they’ve got holed up in the mountains, and they won’t even need nukes. There’s no way to take out those cannons in time to prevent them from firing on Seoul, and NK knows it, that’s why they’ve been using the city as a hostage. You can’t really bomb something that’s hidden in a mountainside, you can’t nuke off a whole mountaintop, and ground soldiers would be discovered long before they’d have a chance to disable that artillery. And unlike nukes, you can’t really set up a “shield” against conventional artillery strikes.
There’s just no way around it : if NK feels threatened enough, they can and absolutely will turn Seoul to rubble without a second thought. The only reason they haven’t done so yet is that it would anger everyone and they wouldn’t have a hostage covering their ass anymore – but if Trump fires the first shot, all of that amounts to nothing. The Tiny Tyrant doesn’t seem to give the shadow of a flying fuck about that, and Seoul has apparently made it off the list of “unacceptable casualties”.
I’m scared.
You know, I always had the approach that people aren’t really evil, they are misguided or foolish or uneducated…
I redact that approach. The people writing these statements are fucking EEEEEVUL!
North Korea has been acting mostly in a rational way, which will continue at least as long as there are people keeping Kim Jong-un’s behavior in check (presumably with plenty of movies and sports TV, expensive food, and Hennessy cognac). The DPRK makes threats to get leverage in obtaining food aid, which it spends mostly on the military and the relatively affluent (by North Korean standards) middle class in Pyongyang, rather than the food-insecure people who need that food aid. North Korea knows that attacking the US or its allies would be a horrible idea.
Plus, maybe Trump just needs a distraction.
Moggie said
Except you know Steve Bannon is lurking in the background with a highlighter.
@TheKND
Honestly, at this point one cannot differentiate evil from stupid, or rather they’re two sides from the same coin. Actually scratch that, “stupid” is borderline ableist because it discriminates against a persons inherent mental capacities, something they have no control over. What is actually at play here is “willful ignorance”.
It’s not that they don’t know they’re wrong. These people have been told they’re wrong; they’ve been proven wrong; each and every one of their arguments and motives have been carefully analyzed, deconstructed and refuted; each one of their sets of beliefs has been analyzed, traced to a source of individual or societal bias, and refuted. And yet despite all of that they continue to double down on these beliefs.
That’s not stupidity, that’s willful ignorance. They know too damn well that science and logic contradict their set of beliefs, yet they get pleasure and reassurance from watching their truth impose itself by means of force upon everyone else.
Sort of a “if it isn’t true, then I’ll make it true”.
About the cannons that could destroy Seoul : we have currently 0 idea of how useable they still are.
They might have been kept in a good state by the NK. It’s even likely one of their main objective. But given their general dereliction, did they really ?
this!!!
THIIIIIISSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@Ohlmann Cannons are fairly simple devices these days. If you don’t fire them, all they really need is anti-corrosion treatment. The shells? If kept dry, fair quality ammo keeps indefinitely.
There are museum pieces from the Civil War (and probably before) that still fire.
I don’t think we want to risk lives on whether they still work.
1) it’s rather amazing that all these oh so Macho guys are the same folks that freak out about a terrorist attack in another country almost to the point of bedwetting
2) if memory serves during the last months of the Nixon Administration a discrete notice went out to the US Military that no presidential order was to obeyed unless countersigned by the Joint chiefs – this was when folks were worried that Nixon might order troops to clear out congress. One would not be surprised if something like this hasn’t already been installed – witness the Military’s reaction to Trump’s Trans ban.
S’why I’m happy calling them bullies. They’re tough guyse – as long as the fighting’s over there and they get to kick over someone elses’ sand castles. As soon as the fighting looks like it might actually affect them? Tears and fearful screaming.
I think if there’s one universal common factor linking MRAs, Nazis, animal abusers etc, that’s it.
@Ohlmann and JS
Well, in the scenario we’re talking about it’s not just the maintenance of the guns themselves; also consider the fire control systems and the training to use them. Of course if we’re talking about a just a big strike on an area target, where they’re just trying to hit any part of a metropolitan area just to terrorize and cause civilian casualties, I guess that’s less of a concern. Do the North Korean preparations use just field artillery in pre-planned positions with pre-planned firing data? I assume the guns aren’t in fixed mounts (like old-school 1930s-1940s) nobody has had anything like that since the 1950s, I don’t think and even then it was for a different thing, i.e. coast defense guns. It does make pre-planning fire control and getting the data easier, though, I’m would think.
The other limitations for an operation like that is logistic…do they have the ammo for something that massive stockpiled? Of course it wouldn’t have to be that massive to be devastating to a civilian population center.
So, point taken not to take chance with lives.
Yes, we hope the south korean won’t have to try that chance.
The horrible thing being, if NK fail at it, this will be used as a “proof” it was a risk worth taking.
I just had a thought in regard to what I wrote earlier. I’m not going to diminish the evil these people are causing or excuse them in any way whatsoever, I’m also not against retaliating by any means necessary to prevent them from actively taking away rights from women and vulnerable groups.
However, in regard to the existence of this echo-chamber of theirs and ways to ultimately defeat it and overcome it. Could it be that this resistance toward the truth is, in a way, founded upon internalized ableism? Why is it so hard for anyone to admit that they are wrong, over even the smallest thing? I was mentioning earlier that “stupid” is borderline ableist. It is also the most common insult hurled between people, to try to discredit one another, during political debates.
What exactly is the extent of the role of shaming someone’s mental capacities in regard to their resistance to accept logic and facts (if any)? Could it be that this doubling down on terrible ideas or notions be rooted in the internalized notion that to be proven wrong is synonymous with being unintelligent or less mentally capable and the societal shaming that goes along with it? And if so to what extent does this sort of internalized ableism help in maintaining echo chambers?
@Scildfreja
“They’re tough guyse – as long as the fighting’s over there and they get to kick over someone elses’ sand castles. As soon as the fighting looks like it might actually affect them? Tears and fearful screaming.”
Yes.
The U.S. Army (and I’m confident the other services as well) are full of men and women ready to risk their lives in ways those cowards would not…and many of the men in that group hold to values of equality and progressivism that would render us beta cuck manginas, etc. etc. [insert favorite pejoratives]..in their minds, even though our daily lives on the surface look more like the embodiment of masculine vigor that they claim to champion (though their claims are empty).
Weird Eddie
Funnily enough, I was just watching a cable news channel and one of the panel said exactly that – that Trump thinks that and Sebastian Wotsisname actually said it out loud “Trump has taken firm action” (or something very like that.
(I can’t be the only 70 or + person who’s wondering where and when they got rid of their … and kiss your children goodbye posters with the mushroom cloud in the background.)
@ pavlov’s house
Fraid so. An assessment in the 70s calculated 20,000+ artillery pieces on fixed mounts (often just barrels on simple frames or concrete bollards) in fixed firing positions aimed at Seoul.
Presumably they’re still there. And I suspect even in NK you can get something like WD-40.