Josh Stanton, a stalwart blogger at One Free Korea, and Sung-Yoon Lee, an assistant professor of Korean studies at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, explain how to take down Pudgy. They are absolutely right: the North Korean people suffer not because their country is poor but because they are forced to endure murderous, socialist, kleptocratic thugs as leaders.
This follows a WaPo editorial that was itself a response to the recent United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea. We may not be able to go to war with North Korea (rather, we certainly don't want to) but it's long-past time to stop rewarding the ruling clique and tighten the screws as hard as possible. The people of North Korea won't suffer more if we do; they can't.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/23/2014 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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#1
Imagine what the Kim's palace looks like given what they found in the Ukraine.
#2
When grain is given to these regimes, it goes straight to the cronies house holds. Never to the people. There should be no resources given to NKorea unless it is smuggled in directly to the people. And with each 50lb bag of wheat or rice, there should be a rifle with a full magazine in that bag of rice.
#6
Economic sanctions against a totalitarian dictator like Kim are BS ineffective. The only people ever hurt by economic sanctions are the common people. We proved this in Iraq, Iran, Libya, and now Nork. If you want to oust a regime, you have to put boots on the ground.
Economic sanctions are almost as big a crime as that which the leaders of the country are doing themselves.
Forget economic sanctions, the leaders will always find a way to get their champagne and caviar or Rolls Royce and Yacht. Stupid idea.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
02/23/2014 23:55 Comments ||
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#1
From a railroading blog I read, oil shippers are growing fonder of rail's flexibility to move product where the best profit may be realized, despite higher transportation costs (rail vs. pipeline) the end numbers are better. There are 2 major constraints; tank car safety regulations and what to do with the older DOT111 cars and track capacity. BNSF is pretty well tapped out for more oil unit trains headed to the west coast and CSX/Norfolk Southern has not a lot of capacity available either. And environmentalists and other activists are pressing regulators to place a moratorium on new refineries and more trackage to existing ones, as well as the tank car safety issues.
#2
And Warren Buffett's railroad is fighting the new safety regulations tooth and nail.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/23/2014 15:50 Comments ||
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#3
Not only that, USN, but crude must be diluted (28%) to be able to be pipelined (current Trains magazine). To pipe it into railcars take 17% dilution, and if they could get the track to the wellhead, it could go straight into railcars with no dilution. At unloading, the crude would need to be heated to 200 degrees, but many tank cars have steam heat coils that can do that.
The latter is far more efficient than piping an extra 28% that you don't know what to do with after you extract the crude.
I hate to see the enviro-weenies win one (killing Keystone), but it serves as a convenient distraction for the rest of the transportation of crude oil.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/23/2014 15:51 Comments ||
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#4
Rambler, agree that the railroads are fighting regulations that could be forced upon them by the gov't, but they are also seeking better rules that they can live with and better police themselves. There is a huge disagreement internally about whether the DOT111 cars can be upgraded to the 112 or 114 standards on a cost effective manner. Also be advised that Warren Buffet purchased a car building company that is separate from the BNSF.
#1
Yea well, far as I'm concerned, Tranzi ideology is the biggest danger to me & mine (and you and yours) right now*. So, any enemy of the EU gets the benefit of doubt---at least.
------
*Muslims are just vermin who can be suppressed once their Tranzi protectors are dealt with.
I found nothing on the website of The Nation, whose writers are seemingly too busy trying to find rationales for Putins attack on Ukraine. But fortunately, one voice was brave enough to defend Nicolas Maduro the former member of Congress, Joseph Kennedy II.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Sohrab Ahmari notes that Kennedy is busy airing TV ads heralding Maduro for providing cheap subsidized fuel to the poor in the Bay Area, provided to Kennedys corporation, Citizens Energy. The cold can overwhelm even the toughest among us, the ad states, and the heating bills keep piling on. Then Mr. Kennedy himself appears on screen, and says: The people of Venzuela and President Maduro are once again the only country to answer our call to provide heating assistance to the poor. Given that Kennedy makes this statement precisely at the moment when demonstrators are being shot and the opposition leader jailed, Mr. Ahmari writes that Kennedy now has the distinction of being the most prominent useful idiot singing the praises of Maduros crumbling regime. I would modify that statement. The regimes failings are so transparent that to praise it, as does Joseph Kennedy II, proves that he is actually simply an idiot, and hardly useful to anyone.
I await with bated breath the Obama administrations unqualified vocal support to the brave Venezuelans who are calling for an end to the regime of the would-be Castro of Venezuela.
It looks strongly to me like the local US tranzis are siding with Putin's rent-a-mob in Venezuela. (I'm not going to go to the Nation's website to check if they're actually sticking up for the Russian side, they might make a fraction of a cent off the click).
[DAWN] THE situation is not just about talks vs operation. The plot is far more complex than it appears. At the moment, an operation seems to be the better option; but there are many constraints. And as opposed to the state, it is the Pak Taliban, both 'good' and 'bad', that appear to be benefiting more from the current situation.
The political and security establishments have different perceptions of and responses to the quagmire of terrorism. While the security establishment takes a broader view, and factors in regional and strategic concerns, the politicianship has focused primarily on internal security. Nonetheless nothing should stop the two from evolving a common approach, though the government's view of national security is still developing.
But the current dynamics of the Taliban insurgency demand a quick and vigilant response. As the situation is changing daily, the government has to come up with a flexible approach.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2014 00:00 ||
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[11 views]
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Mr. Obama's supporters like nothing better than to portray him as the peacemaker to George W. Bush's warmonger. But it is now almost certain that more people have died violent deaths in the Greater Middle East during this presidency than during the last one.
In a January interview with the New Yorker magazine, the president said something truly stunning. "I don't really even need George Kennan right now," he asserted, referring to the late American diplomat and historian whose insights informed the foreign policy of presidents from Franklin Roosevelt on. Yet what Mr. Obama went on to say about his self-assembled strategy for the Middle East makes it clear that a George Kennan is exactly what he needs: someone with the regional expertise and experience to craft a credible strategy for the U.S., as Kennan did when he proposed the "containment" of the Soviet Union in the late 1940s.
So what exactly is the president's strategy? "It would be profoundly in the interest of citizens throughout the region if Sunnis and Shiites weren't intent on killing each other," the president explained in the New Yorker. "And although it would not solve the entire problem, if we were able to get Iran to operate in a responsible fashion . . . you could see an equilibrium developing between Sunni, or predominantly Sunni, Gulf states and Iran."
Moreover, he continued, if only "the Palestinian issue" could be "unwound," then another "new equilibrium" could be created, allowing Israel to "enter into even an informal alliance with at least normalized diplomatic relations" with the Sunni states. The president has evidently been reading up about international relations and has reached the chapter on the "balance of power." The trouble with his analysis is that it does not explain why any of the interested parties should sign up for his balancing act.
Well, because...
As Nixon-era Secretary of State Henry Kissinger argued more than half a century ago in his book "A World Restored," balance is not a naturally occurring phenomenon. "The balance of power only limits the scope of aggression but does not prevent it," Dr. Kissinger wrote. "The balance of power is the classic expression of the lesson of history that no order is safe without physical safeguards against aggression."
Maybe, on reflection, it is not a Kennan that Mr. Obama needs, but a Kissinger. "The attainment of peace is not as easy as the desire for it," Dr. Kissinger once observed. "Those ages which in retrospect seem most peaceful were least in search of peace. Those whose quest for it seems unending appear least able to achieve tranquillity. Whenever peace--conceived as the avoidance of war--has been the primary objective . . . the international system has been at the mercy of [its] most ruthless member."
Those are words this president, at a time when there is much ruthlessness abroad in the world, would do well to ponder.
#6
To be a global leader you have to work. Obama claims no one has to work anymore. He will pay all of your bills. He plays golf everyday and still gets 54 Christmas trees every Christmas. This is paid for by taxes on the rich like the tanning bed tax (well, only paid by white people, not black people) and tax from IRS audits of people who disagree (complain too much), etc..
#8
Sorry, but US-specific global - startegic = geopolitical retreat or pullback from East Asia + Pacific means my NOT-MADONNA-RELATED childhood dreams or visions from childhood, where the US may decide to sink or destroy Guam + other key Pacific isles wid "Earthguake/Tectonic Bombs", is that much closer to being prophetic.
To be forewarned is to be forewarned so that the above can be righteously avoided.
[HUGO CHAVEZ = RED BERET + PARROT, ARMY BOOTS WALKING DOWN WISCONSIN AVENUE = MICHELLE'S BRIGADE here].
As a courtesy reminder, its now 2014 - the US-World + our mighty future OWG-NWO that no Amerian = Amerikan has yet voted for, nor been asked to, nor will be iff certain Politicos have their choice, has over 1-1/2 Decades to build an effective SPACE DEFENSE + ASTEROID MANAGEMENT SYS, ETC. in order to prevent the good citizens of Guam + USA + Earth from watching massive explosions of the Moon vee COMET APOPHIS 2029 + 2036.
WHAT - 15 YEARS-PLUS ISN'T LONG ENOUGH???
BIBLICAL WHINING ISRAELIS IN THE DESERT = WHINING POST-MODERN, POST-INFORMATION, POST-MILLENIAL ISRAELIS/GLOBICANS [Globalist-Earthicans] IN SPACE = WELL YEAH, GOD WON OUR BATTLES + SAVED OUR LIVES A ZILYUHN TIMES, BUT WHAT HAS HE DONE FOR US LATELY!?
The "Govts-Perts OWG-NWO Consensus is there is no such Consensus".
William Jacobson has some insights on the latest moves by internet media. Worth reading:
I suppose the founder of First Look Media, who also was the founder of eBay, doesn't much care if he loses tens of millions of dollar to buy ego-journalists, but what about the others. How will traditional media deal with the raising of everyone's boat from the combination of ego-journalism and superlative-mania?
The bidding up of mostly mediocre journalism has to end badly.
Bubble always do end badly. And no one expects it.
#1
Hey, how many people do you hear of that refer to themselves as novelists or writers? These are journalist types working on the outside of the big box.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/23/2014 15:14 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
