Category: Wacky Stuff

What was Starbucks thinking with this promotion? There is no way this guy could have been this clueless. I wonder if anyone on his staff tried to warn him this was not a good idea?:

President Lee Jae Myung delivers a speech during a ceremony on May 18, 2026, in Gwangju, commemorating the 1980 democratization movement in the city located some 270 kilometers south of Seoul. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

The head of Starbucks Korea was dismissed Monday after the coffee chain faced strong backlash over a promotional event that evoked painful memories of South Korea’s military rule on a pro-democracy movement anniversary, Shinsegae Group said. 

Son Jung-hyun, head of SCK Company, which operates Starbucks Korea under E-Mart, was fired hours after the coffee franchise launched its “Tank Day” online promotional event, which offered discounts on “Tank” tumbler sets along with the phrase, “Put it on the table with a sound of ‘Tak!'”

The event quickly drew criticism from civic groups and online users, who argued that the word “tank” recalled the military vehicles deployed by martial law troops during the uprising in the southwestern city of Gwangju on May 18, 1980, while the phrase “tak” was seen as evoking the 1987 torture death of student activist Park Jong-chol. 

Hours later, Starbucks Korea suspended the promotional event and issued an apology to those who were involved in the nation’s democracy movement, including victims of the Gwangju uprising and the bereaved family of Park.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is a new level of crazy:

The suspected arsonist behind a fatal fire that broke out Monday morning at an apartment in Bongcheon-dong, Gwanak-gu, southern Seoul, was found dead at the site, police said Monday.

The scorched body of a 61-year-old man, the prime suspect, was found on the fourth floor of the 21-story apartment building, authorities said, after the fire was extinguished at around 10 a.m., leaving one dead and six injured.

The suspect, according to the police, lived on the third floor of the apartment building and frequently had fights with his upstairs neighbors due to noise complaints.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but the man started the fire with a pesticide sprayer he converted into a flamethrower. In his suicide note he thoughtfully left 50,000 won ($35) for his mother’s medical bills.

Can you imagine this person in a room trying to negotiate nuclear disarnament with North Korea?:

A nuclear policy expert appointed to the Department of Energy under the Biden administration in February 2024 previously co-authored an article entitled “queering nuclear weapons” which argued “queer theory” should be used to inform American nuclear policy.

Sneha Nair works as a special assistant at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency responsible for maintaining the safety and security of America’s extensive arsenal of nuclear weapons. (…..)

Nair co-authored a piece titled Queering nuclear weapons: How LGBTQ+ inclusion strengthens security and reshapes disarmament which was published in June 2023 by the influential Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a magazine which focuses on the threats to humanity from emerging technologies. (…..)

They said: “The queer lens prioritizes the rights and well-being of people over the abstract idea of national security, and it challenges the mainstream understanding of nuclear weapons—questioning whether they truly deter nuclear war, stabilize geopolitics, and reduce the likelihood of conventional war. (…….)

The authors spoke positively about nuclear disarmament writing: “Queer theory helps us not only see the bad of a world with nuclear weapons, but also imagine the good of a world without them.

“It envisions using the resources freed up by nuclear disarmament to build structures that tangibly increase people’s safety and well-being through health care, social housing, etc.”

Newsweek via a reader tip

You can read more at the link if you can stomach it. Basically Nair wants the U.S. to denuclearize to advance the left’s socialist utopia cause. I would like to know what Nair’s position is when after the U.S. denuclearizes and is threatened with nuclear annihaliation by North Korea prior to launching an attack on South Korea. Should the U.S. just let authoritarian regimes with nuclear weapons attack and take over any country they want in order to advance the left’s socialist utopia vision?

Ultimately alll Nair’s viewpoint would do is expand nuclear proliferation. In Asia countries like South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan that are threatened by authoritarian regimes would do is develop their own nuclear deterrent if the U.S. got rid of its nuclear weapons. So instead of nuclear weapons tightly controlled by one nation the U.S., they would be spread among multiple nations increasing the odds of a miscalculation and their use.

Some people look for racism any chance they can get:

As a K-pop fan, I was delighted that Stray Kids were attending the Met Gala on May 6, 2024. K-pop fans generally and Stays (the name of Stray Kids’ fandom) specifically celebrated the increasing inclusion of K-pop. Perhaps the US media now took K-pop seriously and would treat its artists respectfully.

We were wrong.

A few members of the paparazzi’s treatment of Stray Kids was shameful and racist, and embarrassed me as a fellow American. However, none of it was surprising and all of it was reminiscent of America’s history of racist treatment of Asian Americans.

I watched the behind-the-scenes footage shot by someone standing behind the photographers first posted on X and later to YouTube. Many K-pop fans have commented on this viral video. Below, I’ve transcribed what I could hear. It is loud in the room, and everyone is shouting. These lines are spoken by the photographers, but it was difficult to hear all of them. They are mostly shouting at the group members, but some commentary takes place amongst the photographers. My comments are in parentheses.

“How many are there? Guys, can you step back?”

“Guys, you need to be on the same level.”

“You all look crooked.”

“Get close. Move back, move back.”

“Can everybody face us? They’re diagonal.”

“Annyeonghaseyo” (mockingly).

“That guy is like 20,000 feet back.”

“We need them straight.”

Korea Herald

You can read the rest at the link or watch the video and judge for yourself, but in my opinion this all just the paparazzi being their normal rude selves. The paparazzi are well known for how rude they are and you can watch whole Youtube videos of this. Being rude doesn’t make you a racist unless your a sociology and professor of ethnicity, race and migration professor at Yale University where everything is viewed through a racist lens.

Just imagine the outcry from the American media if people protested building a mosque like this in the U.S.:

A Korean Muslim YouTuber’s plan to build a mosque in the western port city of Incheon has been stopped in its tracks as a land purchase contract he signed has been canceled upon the request of the landowner amid a backlash from local residents.

According to real estate industry officials, Sunday, YouTuber Daud Kim, or Kim Jae-han, agreed with the property owner the previous day to cancel the contract, signed on April 11.

The property owner asked for the contract cancelation, citing that he did not know about Kim’s plan to build a mosque, according to local media reports.

Kim, who garnered over 5.52 million YouTube subscribers and 3.5 million Instagram followers from posts about living as a Korean Muslim, purchased 284.4 square meters of land on Incheon’s Yeongjong Island for 189.2 million won ($136,500). On April 13, he said in YouTube and Instagram posts that he paid a deposit of 20 million won in advance and was to pay the remainder next month.

“Finally with your help, I have signed a contract for land to build Masjid in Incheon. I can’t believe this day has come. I plan to build a prayer place and Islamic podcast studio for D’awah to Koreans,” he said.

Kim also shared his bank information online, asking for donations from subscribers.

However, Kim’s plan immediately triggered objections within the local community, which protested the construction of the religious facility on land that is near schools and residential areas.

Korea Times

I wonder if this is the reason that Kim converted to being a Muslim:

The backlash against Kim grew as local news media reports resurfaced a sex crime he committed in 2019. Kim was referred to the prosecution for attempting to rape a foreign woman.

You can read more at the link, but of course he was punished for attempted rape because he apologized.