Would you debate a creationist for a bottle of Thunderbird and a pack of cigs? » « I’m lacking this level of delusional arrogance

He’s not wrong

The current president of South Korea is a conservative jerk, but that doesn’t mean everything he says is wrong. Sometimes he’s on the money, especially when the truth is obvious.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol was caught on a hot mic Wednesday insulting U.S. Congress members as “idiots” who could be a potential embarrassment for President Biden if they did not approve funding for global public health.

A bit impolitic, maybe, but yeah, many members of congress are idiots. They don’t get elected for being smart.

Maybe more impolitic than I thought. He spoke in Korean, and called them “saekki deul”, which apparently means something more like “sons of bitches”. Still accurate.

By the way, I discovered a video where I learned about the richly profane Korean vocabulary. Useful for learning what not to say around my Korean daughter-in-law.

Would you debate a creationist for a bottle of Thunderbird and a pack of cigs? » « I’m lacking this level of delusional arrogance

Comments

  4. moarscienceplz says

    The Korean penisula is home to an amazing culture. Unfortunately, due to geography the Korean people have been buffeted between Chinese, Japanese, and western powers for centuries. I am glad South Korea now has some clout on the world stage, it’s just too bad they had to imbibe so much mid 20th century American garbage to accomplish it.

  5. birgerjohansson says

    Korea is also home to a surprising number of megalith monuments. But the various empires that have lorded it over the peninsula have had zero interest in investigating this rich past, in a place they considered home of mere servants. And the modern Korean state(s) have had much else to do.

  6. birgerjohansson says

    What is Korean for “corrupt, incredibly ignorant grifters who would kill their mothers if the pay was enough”?

  7. Akira MacKenzie says

    Ever since Biden took office, I’ve watched Manchin, Sinema, and other centrist shits derail any sort of progress. I keep asking myself doesn’t Biden have any leverage on these people? He has nothing to threaten them with? No dirt to blackmail them? No corrupt family members to investigate? Nothing he can use to get these people to do what he wants.

    For someone who supposedly has so much experience, Biden knows nothing about how REAL politics is done.

  8. Larry says

    Biden knows nothing about how REAL politics is done

    Possibly. But he is certainly no Lyndon Johnson who would have had Manchin and Sinema singing Ava Maria while juggling running chainsaws toot suite.

  9. KG says

    For someone who supposedly has so much experience, Biden knows nothing about how REAL politics is done. – Akira Mackenzie@7

    When you’ve succeeded in becoming POTUS, I’ll take your claim to know more than Biden about how REAL politics is done seriously.

  10. Matt G says

    Don’t forget that American Christian missionaries infected Korea with their highly anti-intellectual form of Christianity.

  11. birgerjohansson says

    This is beautiful. 😂
    The eejit Republican leader in the house accidentally published their exreme agenda, and people took screenshots before he took it down.
    We now know the Republucans intend to criminalizing women’s healthcare and increasing the cost of prescription drugs.
    I love incompetent crooks.
    https://youtu.be/B1jZ3CpSN2g

  13. PaulBC says

    I think Biden understands politics as well as anyone, and has accomplished the intersection of what he wants to do (which may disappoint many people) and what he possesses the leverage to accomplish (which is beyond anyone’s control). He’s not brilliant, and obviously still wishes the Senate was something it stopped being a long time ago, but he does have the experience and operational knowledge to be effective given the opportunity.

    Manchin and Sinema care more about their own “brand identity” and especially in Manchin’s case their special interests than they do the success of the Democratic party. Unless you see a clear opportunity for Biden to coerce them, that sounds like a lot of wishful thinking. They are useful in getting the numbers up to the point where Republicans aren’t the ones forming Senate committees, and their usefulness ends right there.

    Mitch McConnell would look like a freaking political genius judged by outcome, but all of his conniving would be useless except for raw power. Anyone can sit around and make up new “rules” for SCOTUS confirmation, but what actually mattered in his case was that he had the power block or consider a nominee.

  14. birgerjohansson says

    Methinks Kevin McCarthy wil be looking for a new career after the latest oopsie.
    You only get away with this level of mistakes if you are a billionaire.

    We now know that house Republicans are definitely behind a nationwide abortion ban.

    We now know the house Republicans are going all-in on election denial

    We now know House Republicans are against reducing the cost of prescription drugs.
    Elderly are major consumers of prescription drugs.
    Most elderly people vote for Republicans.
    So house Republicans are selling out their own voters in favor of the Pharmaceutical industry.
    We knew this before, but thanks to Kevin McCarthy it is all there in writing.

  15. StevoR says

    @ ^ birgerjohansson :Question is will it make enough of a difference at the next election to matter?

    I wish and hope the answer to that is a big yes but who knows and I have a disturbingly large amount of doubt whether it will be. As noted, it was already known / expected and these Trump voters like conservative regressive voters here in Oz and elsewhere have a worrying tendancy to vote againt their own rational best interests as well as against the national interest generally.

  17. outis says

    @14 and 15: quite right, the implication is that voters want and will follow (real) news, and that they’ll make informed choices about politics, mindful of their interests and those of the community.
    This is something that disappeared long ago, I fear. Many, many voters today are ready to choose policies that will end with them being b*uggered with a piece of rusty rebar (this from John Oliver) and they’ll never understand why, and they’ll always blame someone else, mostly migrants / LGBT people / socialists / what have you.
    That ship christened “Informed Citizen” sank long ago, in the waters of many countries…

  18. says

    American Christian missionaries infected Korea with their highly anti-intellectual form of Christianity.

    And they returned the favor by amplifying it right back at us; the most obvious examples being Watchman Nee and everyone’s favorite loony, Sun Myung Moon (and his Yakuza-adjacent right-hand-man Bo Hi Pak).