Thanks to you at home for joining us this hour.

Super happy to have you here.

It is September 9th today, so you know what that means.

Obviously, it means happy birthday North Korea.

Hope you remember to get them something nice.

North Korea traces its founding to this date in 1948, and so today it was full of palpably terrified

North Korean citizens marching through the streets of Pyongyang dressed

identically doing synchronized things with flags and

banners all pledging loyalty till death to the third generation of

totalitarian dictators who have ruled that country since its

founding in 1948. The cult of personality that undergirds the North Korean

dictatorship involves essentially the worship of the Kim family as

gods on earth. Today on the to North Korea. A warm congratulations to Kim Jong-un, praising his dictatorship,

promising closer relations and cooperation in the future. And at some level, maybe the birthday card from China and Russia for North Korea makes sense.

I mean both China and Russia do border North Korea.

All three of those countries are dictatorships

of one kind or another.

But China and Russia are kind of in different boats, right?

I mean, Russia used to be communist,

briefly tried on the idea of being a democracy now under Vladimir Putin

it's devolved into a variety of fascist dictatorship. Russia currently waging the largest

land war in Europe since World War II.

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