Is North korean president a good tactican or does he commit a wrongdoing by giving up the ultimate weaponry?
Regardless, beautiful pictures of the korean ledaers hugging and walking between north/south demarcation line today. I hope this leads to something good.

Posted by: Anon | Apr 27 2018 15:05 utc | 104

Wow. The contempt being shown DPRK here is surprising. Yeah, the place has its problems; but it has also contributed quite a few bright-spots on the quilt of E. Asian history.
Most of the comments condemning it, here, sound like they were authored in the ROK Ministry of Propaganda; or perhaps in the Kenpeitai? I mean, hey: how many of you knuckleheads out here denigrating the DPRK know that Kim Il Sung was the leader of the only military outfit in E. Asia to defeat the Japanese army on-the-field, and emerge from WWII still standing?
And how many of you same chuckleheads know that Mr. Abe, of Japan, is the grandson of a realio, trulio war criminal who would have been executed at Nuremberg, except that MacArthur preferred Japanese war criminals over justice? Ever heard of “Comfort Women”? Ever heard of “The Japanese bought and sold Korean slaves”? Abe’s grandfather was the administrator of that part of the Empire: he literally **created** the Comfort Women program. If any of you care to shuffle through his cabinet, you’ll find that all of his primary ministers and administrators are men born of the same lineage: the descendants of unrepentant war criminals.
Seriously: it’s like today’s Japan is being run by the offspring of Goering, Himmler, and Goebbels.
Today’s step forward owes a great deal to both DPRK and ROK leadership. Anyone saying the advance made today will fall apart just doesn’t understand Korea, nor E. Asia in general.
And anyone saying it’s not going to profoundly alter the geography of global political relationships should not be listened to.
It will; and the US/Japan will be the first parties to feel the pain.
Just today, I heard profoundly anti-Chinese Taiwanese musing out loud: “Wow. I wonder how long it will be before we re-unite with the mainland.”
Think on that.

Posted by: Pacifica_Advocate | Apr 27 2018 15:07 utc | 106

Wow! The supposed Douma ‘chemical attack’ killed so many humans, but the chickens survived unharmed. Luckily the Porton Down assassins were not around to cremate the inconvenient avian witnesses, unlike the Skripal guineapigs and cat.
“Russian experts performed a detailed analysis of the information on the ground,” Major-General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection (RKhBZ) Troops, said. “Two gas cylinders, allegedly dropped by the government forces from helicopters, were found in two apartments.”
…
The cylinder was likely hauled by the “authors of the staged video” from outside, the official stated, as “multiple chips and dragging marks at the stairwell” indicated. An apartment below was being used by its owner to breed chickens, and all the livestock miraculously “made through the so-called chemical attack alive,” according to Kirillov.
Presentation to OPCW

Posted by: BM | Apr 27 2018 15:15 utc | 108

@ Quentin and juliania about monotheistic religions and such
Monotheistic religions support patriarchy and treat non believers as heathens. They represent myth just like the rest of our “Got to have an answer” flailing and only exist if you have enough faith. AND, if these professing do gooder faith breathers are for real then why don’t they provide alternative “finance tools” to counter the usury of the private folks? As a species we went through what historians call the Enlightenment period where we first saw the hubris of monotheistic religions. I posit the these same religions survived with the support of the finance folks of the day needing a “theological” front for their form of social organization and excuses for geographic expansion.
I had 12 years of US Catholic education with 4 years under the Jesuits. I now chuckle at the thought that our species which knows a bit about matter which makes up only 5% of the Cosmos and has only theories about the other 95% can believe that its hubristic God myths are real.
Deep State is another of those made up obfuscation concepts to cloud the reality that the elite that own global finance are the ultimate lever movers. To the extent we cloud how are world works with this obfuscation, we hinder, IMO, our ability to identify and change the social structure killing our species…..make all finance a public utility!!!!

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 27 2018 15:33 utc | 110

And then there’s Taoism, which is not a religion and can’t be defined. It’s open for anyone to discover and define on his or her own terms. This turns life into a personal discovery trip for whatever works, rather than trying to adapt oneself to a silly bunch of rules designed to belittle followers of a defined faith, with faith defined as believing in something one knows is not true.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 27 2018 15:39 utc | 112

@31, Almand
Posted by: Lil Bub | Apr 26, 2018 6:22:01 PM | 44
I agree with Lil Bub the German reunification was more of an annexation.
East Germany had a much better social system than West Germany and even more so than unified post-austerity Germany, and I have noticed time and time again that many East Germans are much more well balanced and socially responsible people than West Germans, because they were brought up to help each other, to work together, and to look after those who needed assistance. There was a very good safety net. The cost of living was very low and the quality of life very high compared to Germany today, because of the strong social services and easily affordable accommodation. Even today, former East Germans often are much more sympathetic towards other human beings and are always ready to help (doesn’t apply to all of them! The former party apparatchiks soon got themselves well established in the capitalist bureaucracy and now out-do the capitalists in ruthlessness).
I can’t remember the name, there was a minister in Kohl’s Interior Ministry who tried to protect East German families from being totally destroyed by the ruthless capitalist annexation. At one point when Kohl demanded something specific (I can’t remember the details unfortunately) he said “not over my dead body” – within a couple of days he had been shot dead in the street near his home. The police investigation was closed almost immediately with virtually no investigation and no arrests.
The “reunification” led to massive scale sell-offs at highly depressed prices of East German industry, which was almost always closed down and all the workers laid off – they were bought up for next to nothing by West German competitors and just closed down to reduce competition. Vast swathes of East Germany were left with little employment, leading to huge social problems especially the rise of neo-nazism.

Posted by: BM | Apr 27 2018 15:53 utc | 114

re 1
Get well soon b.
Frankly when a man of your caliber comes down with the flu it
looks so suspicious.
You have powerful enemies out there.

Posted by: CarlD | Apr 27 2018 16:07 utc | 116

@Pacifica_Advocate 107
Eva Bartlett has also traveled to North Korea and come up with a more nuanced perspective that msm.

Eva Bartlett
“”While corporate media outlets have used recycled smuggled footage of North Korean ghettos, starving orphans, starving people, and other gritty aspects, Eva Bartlett was able to bring back pictures of a country with excellent infrastructure, plenty of food, healthcare, and a people who, in her words, were not in any way “cowed.” Bartlett praised the level of education that the children in the schools that she visited as above the level of anything the United States or Canada is able to provide and was even able to take a few rides on the roller coaster at the amusement park in Pyongyang.
Bartlett describes a country full of people who want peace with the United States but who are not afraid of the U.S., nor are they afraid of defending themselves should that war come.
North Korea has, however, managed to stay free from Western central banking and the dictates of the Anglo-European financier system and, for this reason, it has found itself in the crosshairs of the imperial West.””

Posted by: financial matters | Apr 27 2018 16:27 utc | 118

Psychohiustorian @82–
“I posit that the West thinks that it is fighting a mythological monotheistic religious war and the rest of the world thinks it is fighting against ongoing private ownership of the lifeblood of all global economic activity.
“What are the proper terms for what I am describing karlof1?…grin…….new definition of obfuscation or just a long running historical example?”
It would be helpful if you were to add further context to what you’re positing: “a mythological monotheistic religious war” against what exactly–infighting between the 3 Abrahamic Religious Sects, or? Then wouldn’t the Globalists be seen as fighting for the preservation and further expansion of the “private ownership of the lifeblood of all global economic activity” and thus retain their positions of power?
Obfuscation through euphemisms and Big Lies are all very much in play as we try to ascertain Truth. I think it necessary to morph the God of Mammon into a two headed god–Mammon and Mars–as it better reflects the dualism we see daily. This begs a few questions; first, are Mammon and/or Mars mythological and immortal or actual and mortal? If immortal, does that mean they can never be vanquished or could they be driven into exile to no longer plague humanity? If mortal, what would it take to secure their demise?
Other questions needing an answer: Is it possible for humanity to live in a state of “modest prosperity” and still be resilient over millennia? Should that be humanity’s goal? Must Mammon and Mars be slain first if the latter goal’s desired? Or shouldn’t Mammon and Mars be slain regardless humanity’s goal? Are the Abrahamic Sects, or just one or two actually Mammon and Mars in disguise? Or are we doomed since the Spirit resides within us all in our Genes as Reg Morrison posits? Are these even the correct/proper questions to ask?

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 27 2018 17:07 utc | 120

This so disgusting
Existing Iran deal ‘not sufficient’ to curb nuclear program – Merkel
https://www.rt.com/news/425345-existing-iran-deal-not-sufficient/

Posted by: test | Apr 27 2018 18:31 utc | 122

karlof1
Merkel is a symbol for Germany in this regard, a puppet to american interest, add to that the sucking up o israel and the result
is a vassal neocon-zionist warbent regime.
Will Germany be part of another conflict of war, this time with Iran? Crazy state (no offense to germans, this is the illogical behaviour by all of eu which of course not will follow Germany and thus US in its new warmongering).

Posted by: test | Apr 27 2018 19:27 utc | 124

Tony M
I have no problem commenting but I agree that he seems very touchy about certain issues.
At the same time, he was one of the most outspoken on Skirpal case and also the Syrian strike/chemical bs.

Posted by: test | Apr 27 2018 19:57 utc | 126

Re:Until you confront 9/11 you are babes in the woods. Trying to bite your own tail. Sad.
Posted by: Pft | Apr 27, 2018 8:05:17 AM | 96
I agree completely and confronting it IMO could begin with a lawsuit against Silverstein for conspiracy to murder, all his actions point to foreknowledge.

Posted by: frances | Apr 27 2018 20:54 utc | 128

Posted by: Pacifica_Advocate | Apr 27, 2018 11:07:25 AM | 107
I agree, I also see PRNK as extraordinary, that they survived the horrors of the Korean War and rebuilt the country while under universal sanctions is a testament to their courage and leadership. And that young Kim has been able to create a nuclear weapons defense is astounding. If you look at videos of the country, yes you see a great deal of poverty and clearly a cult of personality but they have a literacy rate of 100% percent compared to the US. “A long-awaited federal study finds that an estimated 32 million adults in the USA — about one in seven — are saddled with such low literacy skills that it would be tough for them to read anything more challenging than a children’s picture book or to understand a medication’s side effects listed on a pill bottle.” When freed of their iron shoes North Korea will soar, which is why the US put sanctions on NK in the first place.

Posted by: frances | Apr 27 2018 21:17 utc | 130

fyi “Canada, along with 16 other countries, issued a joint-statement decrying Russia’s disinformation meeting at OPCW regarding chemical attacks in Syria. This was nothing more than a propaganda exercise.’
Of course FM Freeland has it back-asswards – It is her team disseminating ‘disinformation’ and ‘propaganda.’ Syria and Russia provided actual real, living Douma witnesses, not White Helmet video propagandists to which Freeland recently announced Canada is giving $12 million more.
https://twitter.com/CanadaFP/status/989610816310796288

Posted by: John Gilberts | Apr 28 2018 0:10 utc | 132

– had – I think – a good point to make – but can’t seem to get through.

Posted by: ashley albanese | Apr 28 2018 7:24 utc | 134

@Tony M – spare us your laments about Craig Murray
@”From the resistance trench blah-blah-blah”
Find a decent name to comment here or get banned.

Posted by: b | Apr 28 2018 18:37 utc | 136

i guess the glitch is gone…
john helmers latest…
http://johnhelmer.org/?p=17707#more-17707

Posted by: james | Apr 28 2018 20:14 utc | 138

Reminds me that we lost Pissed Off American. Good blogger, then.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 29 2018 1:10 utc | 140

james | Apr 27, 2018 6:04:48 PM | 132
I’ll try to give some of the more obvious examples, I mentioned above his ambiguous and now shifting position on Syria when the game is all but up. But he’s still hoping the baddies (them) get it in the neck somehow yet, from the goodies (him, the US Army, Navy and Air Force, the Boy’s Brigade, the Women’s Institute, William Hague and sundry long-dead ghosts of Empire).
He persistently calls Crimea’s democratic accession back into Russia, illegal annexation. On Malaysian Airways flight MH-17: Putin/Russia/Donbass rebels done it, case closed, no evidence required, based on I suppose something, his infallible intuition perhaps, or someone, ‘deep-throat’ maybe who put him right in confidence which clinches it and any further debate (or resistance) is futile and those not in the know, unlike him, must be idiots.
He has long been in denial about the true nature of the Kiev regime and its duped followers, inculcated in a long-game of visceral and unhinged hatred of Russia and Russians, for the sins of the higher echelons of the Stalin regime up until the late-1930s – in which Russians were a powerless minority, token figures – a vile coup regime then which he presumably supports unreservedly, the virulent anti-Russian indoctrination of its members and the population of western Ukraine, Britain has been instrumental in shaping and brainwashing as a long-term weapon against Russia since the aftermath of the second world war when war-criminal Bandera and then his latter-day followers were the darlings of and received limitless support and propaganda enlightenment from British then US spook agencies in the decades since, culminating in their easy conscription to the rotten cause of the 2014 coup and the ongoing hot-war against modern-day Russia its infrastructure and its peoples.
As a former cold-war warrior steeped in deception, with Russia as the eternal enemy, he’s still in that element and hard-wired mind-set, he won’t go near or be drawn on this sorry affair in Ukraine, except to parrot the western-establishment line, as it would be impossible to deny that his dearly beloved rotten through and through EU and its rabid attack dog NATO have been up to their necks in these events, with Poland and Germany (which both in the 1930s had incompatible territorial designs on Ukraine and ‘the east’ that lead to war) particularly implicated in training and funding the fascist militia terrorists and Merkel adding lots of arms including almost every piece of former Soviet era military kit, including tanks and heavy weaponry from the former East Germany to the Ukranian fascists already burgeoning arsenal.
It’s all still a ‘great-game’ a jolly wheeze, for Murray, un-people expended in the process it appears count for nothing. He hates to see all that muck-spreading hard-work and late nights back in the day come to naught. All of his much vaunted ‘insider info’ is anodyne axiomatic self-evident chatter that has long been exposed and debated endlessly already in the public domain. He’s living in a tawdry pulp sixties spy novel and the present Russian government is in his imagination the living embodiment of the long extinct Soviet regime of the most frigid and hysterical period of the cold-war.
He has too decidedly odd and dogmatic fixed views on the downing of Pan-Am 103 over Lockerbie, actually chiming perfectly in sync with his supposed nemesis malignant spook SNP back-room top-dog Morag Kerr, blames Syria or perhaps Iran, it depends, and was carried out for them by the PFLP-GC, ignoring that the PFLP-GC was well-known to be penetrated fully and run by Jordanian and another non-Arab middle-eastern intelligence service since the mid-seventies -blaming the monkey and not the organ-grinder behind the curtain. Though the blame for Lockerbie was preposterously blamed on Libya it still serves even today to discredit Syria, Iran, Palestinians or whoever the most fashionable official enemy of the day might happen to be at any moment.
He’s a stopped clock, right only quite fortuitously twice a day, he’s certainly inscrutable, but I’ve been absent both from reading his site and from attempting comment there for more than two years due to ill-health, and no sooner back and after half a dozen or so polite on-topic and constructive comments, wham the mods jump on me like a ton of bricks for daring to call out a persistent and disruptive and downright offensive liar, one of his regular and protected house-pet vermin, spewing forth its usual effusions of war-mongering and hate. Alarm bells are ringing loudly that something is not quite right, it is his hypocrisy and double standards and the downright devious and malicious trolls who are allowed to run riot on the site unchecked that mar the experience and sow grave doubts as to what exactly is going on there. It would seem certain contributors are untouchable, have the whip hand over the mods and the sites host, each it seems being in fear of them and under their thumb and to whom they bow and scrape in an unseemly and downright suspicious manner.
I advise caution, the place is a treacherous trap-filled swamp and all is not what it seems with the former ambassador, supreme highness and excellency, esteemed envoy to the Republic of Clickbait.

Posted by: Tony M | Apr 29 2018 2:47 utc | 142

Some interesting links from Chinanet
The take away quote from the first
”
Xi urged efforts to “maintain the new development philosophy, pursue progress while ensuring stability, focus on winning the three tough battles, and solve the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development.”
Forestalling and defusing major risks, carrying out targeted poverty alleviation, and preventing and controlling pollution have been identified as the three tough battles that China must win.
”
The second and third are about Syria
The take away quotes from the second
”
Russia, Iran and Turkey said Saturday that international meetings in the Astana format have made the most efficient contribution to the settlement of the Syrian crisis.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif and Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu issued a joint statement after a trilateral meeting on Syria in Moscow.
They said the talks in the Kazakh capital helped combat terrorism, reduce the level of violence and create favorable conditions for a political settlement, including through facilitating the establishment of a broad intra-Syrian dialogue.
The three ministers agreed to hold the next round of international talks on Syria in Astana next month.
The three countries rejected all attempts to create new situations under the pretext of anti-terrorism and opposed separatist plans aimed at undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria and the national security of neighboring countries.
”
The take away quotes from the third
”
The Syrian army on Saturday fully secured four neighborhoods in southern Damascus after battles with the Islamic State (IS) militants.
The army closed in on a key bastion of the terror-designated group in the area of the capital, state news agency SANA reported.
The army fully captured the neighborhoods of al-Qadam, Mazniyeh, Asali, and Jourah, from IS around the Hajar al-Aswad and the Yarmouk Camp areas in south of the capital, said the report.
”

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 29 2018 5:12 utc | 144

Vesti News report from the apartment with “gas cylinders”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqV-EuMgM9c (with English subtitles). They find remnants of yellow paint on the edges of the steps leading up to the apartment, the caps have been manually unscrewed from the cylinders, the cylinders curiously preserving shape while supposedly falling from great height; also some extremely chlorine-resistant chicken in the apartment below. The chicken have already been discussed here, but the video is good for sending to friends/relatives/co-workers who still believe in the “attack”.

Posted by: S | Apr 29 2018 8:16 utc | 146

This 25 min on-the-ground reportage from ARTE (voice over in French, available direct for some days) shows Raqqa and ppl coming back to it.
The new Mayor is a young woman, her no. 1 adjunct (ex town-hall employee who stepped in when his boss was killed) – trying to get things together. See the destruction, and the dire threat of unexploded ordnance. (water no 1 prob., but it isn’t spoken about much.)
Towards the end you see the Mayor going to a huge refugee camp outside Raqqa. The ppl living there (as one can see) are almost all women and children who have adopted the ‘islamic life-style’, the men were either never there (fighters, mercenaries) and/or are now dead / vanished. The Mayor makes a short speech about the power of women, if they can endure and prevail, take care of life, of children, there is hope.
The death of Omar Alloush is a big part of the narrative. ex. news:
https://thedefensepost.com/2018/03/17/omar-alloush-murder-turkey-syria-arabs-kurds/
Worth watching even without understanding the language, the pictures say it all.
ARTE is F state TV, 100% state + EU funded. Needless to say every person in the vid. speaks about occupation by DAESH, aka ‘islamists’, etc. ‘Moderate rebels’ or ‘civil war’ are never mentioned at all. F state TV (arte is little watched) contradicts the dominant political discourse.
Arte: Life after Daesh
https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/081793-000-A/syrie-raqqa-une-vie-apres-daesh/

Posted by: Noirette | Apr 29 2018 17:01 utc | 148