Morning Roar: Russia Invites Kim Jong Un To Visit, Navy Developing Robot Sharks, What Happened To Kony 2012 Charity?
If you like the content here at Lions of Liberty, make sure to sign-up for our weekly newsletter at the bottom of this feature. That way you’ll never miss an installment of The Morning Roar or any of our other great weekly content, including the Lions of Liberty Podcast!Russia Invites Kim Jong Un To VisitIf you live in the United States and have more than a handful of friends, then your social media feeds are probably jam-packed with people complaining about Sony cancelling the release of the movie “The Interview.” The cancellation comes after hackers leaked embarrassing emails between Sony employees and sensitive financial information, and threatened to blow up movie theaters that show which screen the film.Rumors have swirled that North Korea is behind the attack on Sony, but the government of North Korea has denied the claims. Their continued denial of involvement seems less credible as the North Korean government continues to openly cheer the hackers.There was already sufficient reason to detest North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but the growing belief that he directed this attack on a motion picture studio seems to have pissed off more people than the countless human rights violations set in motion under his command. The North Korean leader might just be the most hated man in the world right now.Enter Vladimir Putin.Earlier this year, the U.S. government enacted sanctions against Russia as a consequence to their involvement in the Ukraine upheaval. The sanctions have coincided with a downturn in the Russian economy and tumble in the value of the Russian ruble. The chaos in the Russian market may be pushing Putin to align Russia with the nation currently most hated by the citizens of the United States, North Korea.Reuters reports on the likely visit to Russia by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un:
Kim would probably meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, as North Korea backs Russia in the Ukraine crisis and Moscow needs Pyongyang's cooperation in boosting natural gas exports to South Korea, the paper said, quoting unnamed diplomatic sources.But it was unclear at the moment if Kim would accept the invitation, the Asahi said.North Korea is seeking closer ties with Russia as it faces international criticism over accusations of human rights abuses and its nuclear program.Putin held talks with Kim's personal envoy last month and called for deeper ties with North Korea to improve regional security.Kim’s visit, if he accepts, would not occur until May of 2015. Russia has invited the leader of North Korea to attend a ceremony marking the end of World War Two. This visit would mark Kim’s first foreign visit since taking over for his father in 2011.
There is absolutely nothing good that can come from a bitter Vladimir Putin meeting with a psychotic tyrant like Kim Jong Un. We’ll continue to monitor this situation as well as how the Russian government responds to the deteriorating economic conditions in the country.Navy Developing Robot SharksIn today’s weird, wild news the U.S. navy has manufactured and began testing remote-controlled robot sharks. If this doesn’t scare the shit out of you, check your pulse. We’re talking about frickin’ ROBOT SHARKS!Vice has the scoop:
These sharks aren't some new addition to the Navy's already sizeable menagerie of dolphins and sea lions trained to sweep the seas for mines and swoop in on those swimming too close to bases. Ominously christened Ghost Swimmers, they are five-foot-long, 100-pound robot sharks (well, they're meant to be Bluefin tuna, but the visual difference is lost on anyone but marine biologists and longshoremen). And they're part of the Navy's Silent NEMO project (so named, presumably, as part of the War on Childhood Innocence), which aims to fill the oceans with unmanned underwater drones disguised as fish and other sea critters.The joystick-controlled Ghost Swimmer tested last week is right now intended for use as an unmanned sensor system to gather data on tides, waves, and weather. But this conservative deployment belies the military's clear intention to someday use the devices in the same way we use aerial drones: surveillance and other stealth operations. Except underwater. Developed by Boston Engineering's Advanced Systems Group, a military robot contractor, the robot's fishy form isn't just a matter of disguise. It also mimics the mechanical swimming motions of a fish, which are far more efficient than most ships' propulsion systems, giving these drones of the future a leg-up in speed and mobility as well.
I wonder if they’ll dedicate a section of the next installment of “Shark Week” to the U.S. government’s escalation of their shark drone activities?What Happened To Kony 2012 Charity?More than two years ago the interwebs were overtaken by a viral video posted by the California-based organization Invisible Children. The video aimed to raise awareness about Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda and central Africa. Kony had and continues to terrorize the region by kidnapping children and converting them into child soldiers. The man is easy to hate.The video over simplified the complicated dynamics of the Kony situation. It encouraged viewers to order Kony 2012 kits (signs and other propaganda), then spring into action at a later date and canvass the streets with Joseph Kony signage. The goal was to make Kony famous and as a byproduct force his crimes into the light.Turn the page to December 2014 and #Kony2012 campaign has dried up.The Washington Post reports on the current state of the Invisible Children organization:
It made a splash. That video currently has more than 100 million views on YouTube, and Invisible Children raised $28 million in 2012, which it used to significantly expand its operations in Central Africa.Flash forward a little more than two years later. Joseph Kony is still free. The LRA still exists. And, as per a major announcement on Monday,Invisible Children has been unable to get enough funding to continue its efforts and will wind down its operations. "Stop Kony" has itself stopped.In a message to WorldViews explaining the decision to shut down, Invisible Children communications director Noelle West pointed to the remarkable backlash that had made it "easier for people to decide to sit on the sidelines rather than participate," as she put it. And there's certainly no denying that the backlash was huge. Within weeks of the video going viral, Invisible Children was criticized for oversimplifying the conflict, for focusing too much on making films rather than finding practical solutions to the problem, for an alleged covert religious factor, and even for posing with machine guns. The pressure was enough to give one co-founder a very public breakdown.
I’ll leave you today with an excerpt from an article that Editor-in-chief Marc Clair wrote in March of 2012 during the height of the Kony pandemonium. Marc provided some commentary on a possible hidden agenda driving the Kony 2012 video. He hypothesizes that the #Kony2012 campaign was being used to gain support for U.S. intervention in central Africa.
…While raising awareness of an issue and trying to rally people around a worthy cause is commendable, attempting to use money looted from the taxpayers of another country is a whole different story. Let’s put aside the fact that the United States already has troops spread out all over the globe and is bogged down in several unconstitutional, undeclared and unwinnable wars. The fact remains there is no such thing as “federal money”. Every dime the federal government spends is taken by force from its citizens. So when a group lobbies for and receives anything from the government, be it direct aid, troops, training or a box of flippin’ marshmallows, it is really asking for the government to first take this money from its’ citizens, and then redistribute it to that group by force. Essentially, what Invisible Children is advocating is for the government of one country to take money from it’s citizens to pay for troops and training of the troops of another government, so that it can violently go after another group.
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