Is Kim Jong Un Alive?

According to multiple reports, Kim Jong Un is in critical condition due to a "botched Heart Surgery". Anything surrounding Kim Jong Un's health, is a rumor or was through multiple sources, which makes this a very difficult discussion to talk about, because all possibilities are being talked about such as "his sister will take over for him" or "Kim Jong-Un's well travelled uncle could become next North Korean leader". NK News wrote an article 9 days ago called "We don't know" if Kim Jong Un health rumors are true, Trump says". Then another article states "South Korean minister dismisses "fake news" surrounding Kim Jong Un's health", and that was written on April 28.

Wherever you look online, you will find multiple stories discussing the supreme leader, and almost all of the stories will contradict each other. There is no clear statement on what is going on with Kim Jong-Un and this is what makes this conversation so hard to talk about, because rumors and fake news can easily be misinterpreted as facts which causes a lot of confusion and disarray.

This is a very interesting topic because although Kim Jong Un hasn't had a a major impact on the world, he sure has one on North Korea. If he truly is gone, there will be another North Korean leader, and he is most likely to continue the dictatorship regime that Kim Jong-Un left.

What's crazy to me is that we finally had a President who would work to build a strong relationship between the dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong Un. President Trump became the first sitting U.S. President to cross the 1953 armistice line separating North and South Korea and then in addition, they met for 50minutes with only interpreters. The reason why I bring this up, is because the United States hasn't had this much progress with North Korea EVER, and now that Kim Jong Un could be dead, does this mean that the United States has to start over?

The Future Will Tell!

Disinformation

Disinformation can be defined in many ways...

• "false information which is intended to mislead, especially propaganda issued by a government organization to a rival power" 

• "false information deliberately and often covertly spread (as by planting rumors) in order to influence public opinion or obscure truth" 

Whether you choose read one definition over the other, they basically mean the same thing. I decided to choose Disinformation as my key word to research on, because I feel like we live in a time where we are constantly trying to determine whether news is wrong by human error, or deliberately false to push a certain narrative out. Overall, I believe that disinformation is extremely dangerous to the world and could be the death of us, if we don't have our heads screwed on right. A great example would be Coronavirus. 

The other day, during a White House Press Conference, President Trump spoke about experiments that the CDC were doing on Disinfectants and COVID-19. The President spoke about a possible disinfectant to "clean out" the virus in minutes. It was beyond clear that he was speaking in regards to a government experiment, but the President was taken way out of context. 

Business Insider: Transcript

This story made headlines, and as the story got bigger, the story got more twisted. I find this to be a great example of Disinformation, because the other day, my girlfriend told me that Trump is an idiot, but I searched for the full, original video and it was beyond clear that he wasn't telling people to go home and consume disinfectants. However, my girlfriend showed me the story on Snapchat and it was very twisted. It showed the President talking about disinfectants using soundbites rather than showing the entire clip. I recommend any that is reading this, to go watch the actual press conference. 

Although there are many bad sides to Disinformation, I would like to touch on the possibility of disinformation having a positive affect. A great example would be using disinformation in war or in sports. In war, you could create fake attacks planned out on paper and have your enemy see it on purpose, so you then can plan around your enemy coming after you. It allows you to trap your enemy in war or even in sports. 

Now that I have done research on Disinformation, it makes me wonder who's most vulnerable? I came to the conclusion that people who are not involved on social media nor pay attention closely to the news are the ones that are most vulnerable because the further away you are from being involved the more you are to believe any type of news. People who are constantly reading up on news, and checking their sources will be able to detect fake or disinformation better than most people. 

I recommend watching the video below, which shows a great example of disinformation:

Defending Disinformation

Online Footprint

After reading about this task by Professor Dean, I decided to search my name on Google, "Addison Antico".

The first to pop up was my Facebook account and then my Twitter account.

But after that, the real stories started to show. 

I began to see numerous stories about my support for President Trump and also my ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. I didn't find anything that I was shocked by, however there was a link that was called "Addison Antico at NH Rebellion". I was blown away once I saw the link, but once I clicked on it, the web page was blank. I doesn't bother me that it exists, because if the day ever comes where I have to defend myself from my online foot print, then I will clear the misunderstanding. 

Someone once asked me about future jobs seeing my support for Trump and how it might affect whether I am hired or not, but I believe that I am who I am. And if a company doesn't hire me for that reason then maybe they are making a mistake. I believe that no company or business should not hire someone based off of a news story, especially related to anything about Trump, because there will be bias. 

I don't want future companies to look at me as a Trump supporter, but as someone who is strong and has no problem stating their opinions even if theres not popular. I want them to see someone with courage who went against the force, because at the end of the day I am for Free Speech and no ones should be violated because theres is different. If it is disrupting the work force then that is an entire different story, but we must be open to diversity.

Tiger King and the 1st Amendment

In at time where we live quarantined, almost every American is watching either Netflix or Hulu. If you used Netflix, you must've noticed Netflix's top shows. The #1 top rated show on Netflix is a documentary called, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness.

The popular documentary series evolves around a man known as Joe Exotic, who owns a Big Cat Zoo somewhere in Oklahoma. Throughout seven episodes, you get to experience what it was like to live and work on the zoo, as well as seeing several other Big Cat Zoo's across America. The most interesting part about the show was seeing what the industry was like. I mean, it got so competitive between Joe Exotic and competitor zoo owner known as, Carol Baskin. It even got to a point where Joe was threatening to physically hurt Carol by hiring a Hitmen.

Joe started his own internet show that was produced professionally by Rick Kirkham. The show received millions of views by creating content that included music videos, threatening, shooting, and even blowing up objects with Carols face on it. Joe not only used the First Amendment, but he abused it to the point where it hurt him lawfully. Joe Exotic is now serving 22 years in prison. 

I personally feel that in order to have an opinion on any subject matter regarding Joe Exotic, you must watch the documentary series on Netflix. It allows you to see everything, from multiple perspectives without biases.

Coronavirus

Due to the fact that this is all we are hearing or talking about, I didn't want to write a story about COVID-19, but how can I not when this affects our daily lives 24/7.

COVID-19 (CDC)

It's crazy to think how life has changed, here are some examples

- Schools and Colleges CLOSED

- Religious Gatherings CLOSED 

- Wall Street CLOSED (USAToday: a switch to electronic trading)

- All non-essential businesses CLOSED (How is each US State handling Coronavirus)

- No audience at Democratic Debate (NBC)

These are massive, but only a few changes that have taken place due to the outbreak of this virus. We are living in a time where the enemy isn't one person or another army, but rather an invisible enemy. This isn't a black or white issue, but a humanity issue. I personally feel that this is an issue that shouldn't contain any political biases, however we live in a time where it is nonviable. 

I personally feel that we live in a time where political divisiveness is at an all time high, especially because of the mainstream media and our current politicians including President Trump. This should be an issue that all Americans want to solve, people are dying. But for some reason this has to be another long-term political issue for congress to even secure paychecks for unemployed American workers. Massachusetts unemployment rate could reach 25%, report says. According to an article written by Jeff Brady from NPR, there are many clean energy and climate change advocates that want the $2.2T stimulus bill to not only stimulate the U.S. economy, but also climate change. However, there are split decisions over this and it appears to be partly responsible for the delays in passing the bill.

Although this is mainly the democratic politicians, each side of the aisle is guilty of filibustering bills that only hurt the American people. This is why it is imperative for the American people to show unity around it's leader so we can all defeat this disease together. Coronavirus doesn't care who you are, it will kill any gender through any social class. We can only defeat this together.