ROK Drop Open Thread – August 21, 2026

Let’s start the day with the national anthem of Setnaffaria.

Song of Setnaffaria

Verse I
On a very legal patch of land,
We drew a brand-new line,
With a Sharpie and a master plan
Scribbled out in wine.
No more forms, no more experts,
No more facts to check,
Just vibes, resolve, and confidence
And a glorious flag we’ll spec.

Chorus
Oh Setnaffaria! Loud and proud!
The greatest, some have said,
A perfect nation, huge and strong,
At least inside our head.
We’re winning big, we always were,
Despite what maps may show,
Setnaffaria marches on
In tweets and overflow.

Verse II
With trusted friends from far away
Who swear they mean us well,
They loan us tanks and talking points
And promise not to tell.
From Beijing’s scripts to Moscow’s nods,
Such generous advice!
They say our freedom’s very real
(Just don’t read the fine-print twice.)

Chorus
Oh Setnaffaria! Bold and new!
Uncancelled, free, and loud,
A nation built on grievances
And feelings deeply proud.
We’ve got the best beliefs around,
The strongest truths by far,
Setnaffaria shines so bright
It blinds the fact-check czar.

Bridge
We love free speech so very much
We shout it into law,
Unless you disagree with us,
Then that’s a serious flaw.
Courts are fake, but justice real,
As long as we agree,
And every loss is rigged, of course—
Except our victories.

Final Chorus
Oh Setnaffaria! Stand and cheer!
Salute the chosen few,
Where loyalty is currency
And facts are optional too.
So raise the flag (design TBD),
And sing both near and far,
Setnaffaria forever reigns—
The best that never was.

Song of Koreathingastan

Deep within a squatters camp
Nodding on some fent
Dreaming of utopia
Where pedos are frequent

Many aliens and trannys
Who celebrate the filth
For lefties and for retards
(But i repeat myself)

Do you guys have any people that you don’t hate?

You owe Europe $8 trillion, and they’re not lending you any more money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeYzq2dO2V8

Oh shut up maga.

That it what somebody says when they find their own ideas indefensible, are fully mentally and idelogically defeted, and intend to sulk off with tears in their eyes and mumble the terrible things they would do if the world would just give them power.

Yes, you Setnaffarians give me plenty of power by your inability to logically counter my valid and logical points and the use of personal attacks as a feeble attempt to drown out my valid and logical points.

You are paid by the Chinese and Russians to be pro America

Obviously, ChickenHead got this wrong.

The correct phrase would be

You are being funded by Chinese and Russian interests to advance their agendas, while remaining convinced that your actions are actually serving America’s interests.

For the first time in over 20 years, a majority of South Koreans have an unfavorable opinion of the U.S

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/08/24/how-south-koreans-view-their-relationship-with-the-us/

It looks like they don’t like you.

It is to laugh…

Imagine that.

Trump puts America first and the world, accustomed to taking advantage of America, looks at Trump unfavorably.

Nations don’t have friends. They have interests. Koreans are looking out for Korea and Koreans are transactional. That is reasonable.

When an American president hooks up Korea, such as Biden renegotiating the financials of USFK early so he could hook up Korea instead of America, Korea has a favorable view of America.

When Trump leverages America’s economic power to ensure fair trade, Korea has an unfavorable view of America.

This is not unexpected. It is the way the world works.

And Korea’s opinion of America doesn’t matter.

Korea, like all nations, will adapt to the new system where they can benefit from good relations with America but they cannot take advantage of America.

And once things settle, since it is still a benefit, Korea will like America again.

Everyone had better get used to it.

Trump has two more years. The next president will very likely continue much of Trump’s work for 4 to 8 more years. That gives at least 6 to 10 year. That length of time requires adaption rather than trying to wait it out.

Mad Bob, one of your flaws is you criticize America for things that Americans don’t care about because it makes no difference.

You don’t sound like a wise statesman.

You sound like a little dog that will nip your ankle the moment you turn your head.

950,000 American auto workers in 26 states are in danger of losing their jobs, as “America First” Trump tariffs kick in soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2gHKNZIQCQ

I hope he does it. I want to see the US auto industry completely shut down, and there’s a bloodbath in American streets.

Do it maga!

“Let me ask you a simple question. Besides Israel and North Korea, which countries are America’s allies?”

Every single country that has an interest in America’s success is an “ally” at some level.

But why would anyone care about America’s success, you ask snidely.

Because America owes them money.

A European kingdom once got into debt from a stronger kingdom but was paying it off.

The stronger kingdom would not attack it and would not allow other kingdoms to attack it.

This event in economic history made a lot of people go hmmm.

And lessons were learned… that persist until today.

And, again, countries dont have allies. They have interests.

“America’s success”.

A very strange way to get America’s success, if you ask me. By blowing up relations with every country in the world, friend and foe?

“America has brain power”

I don’t think so. America is full of stupid people and stupid leaders. lol.

Watch FOX for few minutes, and you realize this.

America’s “brain power” came from immigrants traditionally. That era is now over. Since nobody wants to move there anymore. You think some hick named Billy Bob with fifth grade education from Tenessee can invent you anything?

RIP Dolly Parton.

“When you only have concepts of plans, and have incompetent people running things…”

Leftards say “incompetent”, “racist”, “corrupt”… but when asked to give examples… nothing. Because there is nothing.

“Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s threat of yesterday that the U.S. intends to strangle Iran’s economy isn’t faring much better than Trump’s attempt to rename Lake Ontario.”

Iran’s economy is being strangled. Shipping is the only way they can do the volume of economic activity needed not to be strangled. And the blockade is quite strangling.

It is unclear if Lake Ontario name change is Trump being Trump and everyone clutching their pearls. But HALMS works. Gulf of America is kinda sticking.

“As economist Paul Krugman pointed out in his newsletter today, China can supply much of what Iran needs and has incentive to do so”

How exactly will they supply it in the volume needed? Overland really can’t supply the volume and America owns the sky… so bridges aren’t safe if the blockade appears violated.

Plus Trump promised secondary sanctions against countries doing business with Iran. So either Iran is really strangled or Trump has an excuse to sanction China. Typical Trump win-win.

“as Trump’s “self-inflicted quagmire in Iran” saps U.S. strength and respect.”

It is not a quagmire in any way (starting with it hasn’t been going on long enough to even be considered that yet). Strength isn’t getting sapped… massive weapons improvements based on lessons learned and fantastic realworld training.

“Krugman warned that Bessent’s threat “reeks of desperation,” a scent China would surely smell.”

Nothing to smell. Everything being done is a logical progression.

“Krugman concluded with a prediction: “I can safely predict that the Chinese will make sure that the Iranian regime survives, and that they will thoroughly enjoy watching Trump slowly twist in the wind over the Strait of Hormuz.””

There is not a great deal China can do. It is unclear if you have been paying attention but the US Navy is escorting tankers through the straits. It is open for business. Iran’s radar network has been destroyed so they are blind to ship traffic. Any new radar use gets a HARM missile right to the source. Fastboats and drones get destroyed by American air power.

America is blockading Iran and Iran’s blockade has failed. They probably don’t talk about this on The View.

“Indeed, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian today rejected the administration’s call for isolating Iran economically. “Cooperation between China and Iran has always been conducted within the framework of international law and should not be interfered with or disrupted,” Lin said.”

Whenever “international law” is mentioned, you know it is all talk. There is no such thing outside of rhetoric or when everyone agrees somebody weak needs put down. We can discuss this further if you disagree.

Once again, what is China going to do?

“China has already stated many times that it firmly opposes illegal unilateral sanctions.… China will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard its own rights and interests.”

Twice again, what is China going to do?

And the sanctions aren’t illegal.

“As Krugman pointed out, the Iran war has forced the U.S. to abandon many of its Middle East bases—that’s why the USS Lincoln couldn’t be resupplied—and it has little prospect of reclaiming them now that Iran has been emboldened to attack the troops there.”

They aren’t fully necessary. There are long range bombers and carriers and cruise missiles and all sorts of things. I we were planning a ground invasion, maybe this would be a problem. When this is done, America will reclaim them.

“MS NOW national security analyst Barry R. McCaffrey, a retired Army general, posted Saturday: “In my judgement, the US Armed Forces have probably permanently lost access to 15 Persian Gulf bases. Iran now poised to control access [to] the Gulf States. US will have to negotiate new access in western Saudi Arabia, Israel, southern Europe.”

MS NOW… the outfit so insanely left they got abandoned by the far left. So what is he talking about. What is there to renegotiate? Especially in southern Europe. Was this general in charge of LGBQT+?

“On Sunday, in The Atlantic, Robert Kagan noted that the Iran war has reconfigured the Middle East. For years, Iran was on the ropes, with the U.S. dominating the region alongside countries aligned with the U.S., including Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Now Iran has withstood six months of attacks from the U.S. and Israel. Its survival has reconfigured the power structure of the region, with Iran emerging as the area’s dominant power as it has demonstrated its ability to damage the oil and gas infrastructure of its neighbors.”

Ah, the Atlantic… another far right rag. So Iran had a decent relationship with a few Arab countries. After attacking their infrastructure, that is gone. It is unclear how they are dominating. They lost their influence with Hezbollah and Hamas. They can no longer supply them and Yemen. Consider that, unlike a few drones doing relatively minor damage to repairable Arab oil infrastructure, America could completely destroy Iran’s oil infrastructure. This has not been done in hopes of regime or attitude change and Iran returns to supplying oil.

“It is plain, Kagan wrote, that “Washington fears escalation more than Iran does,””

What escalation is possible? They have no navy. They have no air force. They have no eyes on the straits. Based on usage, it appears they are short of drone and missiles and likely the ability to target them on anything meaningful.

Escalation would have to be terrorism. That might be considered a tactical win but would be a strategic loss.

“limiting what the U.S. can do as Iran not only exercises the right to collect tolls on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz but also decides who can use the strait.”

Get with the times. The straits are open and nobody is collecting tolls or will collect tolls.

“That control, Kagan notes, gives Iran “leverage every day, over dozens of countries.” It can “reward friends, punish enemies, extract revenue, force the loosening of sanctions, and make governments think twice before opposing Iranian policies…without firing a shot.”

Not happening. Not going to happen. Typical leftist creating imaginary problems and then criticizing everyone who imaginarily caused them.

“The policy of Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to bring a “warrior” ethos to the Pentagon by putting it “on offense, not just on defense” using “maximum lethality, not tepid legality,” and having “violent effect, not politically correct,” has given the U.S. a tremendous loss in Iran.”

How is that? Must have something to do with minorities and queers. A military full of warriors doesn’t sound diverse. And diversity is our strength.

“And a report today from Megan Rose and Hannah Allam of ProPublica suggests that officers in U.S. Central Command recognized the dangers of Hegseth’s approach to warfare.”

ProPublica, you say? The hits keep coming.

If officers see a danger in winning, there needs to be more firings of the old DEI officers.

“Rose and Allam report that when Hegseth polled top commanders about cutting the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response program instituted after civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan hardened opposition to the U.S., they universally objected.”

A side note: I keep in close contact with a number of Iranian people. The government has done everything possible to maximize civilian casualties such as locking the subway… and, of course storing weapons in schools until they exchanged them with schoolgirls. Everyone gets their information from Israeli radio telling them what areas will be attacked and to stay away.

“Current and former defense officials told the journalists that Hegseth apparently thought senior officers would agree with him that focusing on civilian security was “woke” and would hamper “maximum lethality.” Instead, they uniformly disagreed, warning that scaling back the effort to protect civilians would “result in decreased efficiency of U.S. lethal operations due to an increased risk of target misidentification and reduced battlespace awareness.” Hegseth gutted the program anyway, and U.S. strikes have killed hundreds of civilians. Now it appears the administration is considering rebuilding the program”

Iranians know civilians are not being targeted and they cheer when government targets are hit. Average Iranians hate the government. But nobody resists. Think about the ridiculous self-destructive stuff people accepted during covid and you will understand why Iranians go along.

That and possible death by torture.

But none of this matters. America is going to keep doing what it is doing, perhaps harder, and it will all be lubricated with the tears of anti-American leftards.