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North Korea: Unilateral disarmament not possible as US' coercive methods prevent trust building


RT
Sat, 29 Sep 2018 16:50 UTC
NK FM Ri Yong-ho
© TIMENorth Korea Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho, UN General Assembly
Denuclearization of the Korean peninsula should be implemented in a "step-by-step" manner and accompanied by trust-building measures between Pyongyang and Washington, North Korean Foreign Minister told UNGA.

"The reason behind the current deadlock is that the US is relying on the coercive methods that prevent trust building," Ri Yong-ho said during his speech at the UN General Assembly, referring to the nuclear disarmament of the Korean peninsula.

The "complete denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula was part of the joint statement signed by its leader, Kim Jong-un, and the US President Donald Trump following their meeting in Singapore in June. Ri said that Pyongyang is "fully committed" to implementing the document that doesn't set any deadline for nuclear disarmament.

Implementation of the Trump-Kim joint statement is a shared responsibility of both North Korea and the US, Ri Yong-ho, adding that it is also "in the best interests" of Washington. "If it becomes the victim of the US internal politics, the primary victim will be the US itself," the diplomat warned.

The process has effectively become hostage of the US internal politics, the North Korean top diplomat said. Some political forces in Washington have made "slandering" of Pyongyang its "daily business" while in fact competing with their rivals in the US political circles, he explained.

Comment: Maybe Trump needs to muzzle his staff or look elsewhere for team players.

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Arrow Up

Looking up: The Fed has raised interest rates for third time in 2018, upgrades US economic outlook

Emel Akan
The Epoch Times
Wed, 26 Sep 2018 00:00 UTC
Federal Reserve
© ETHNews.com
The Federal Reserve raised benchmark interest rates by 25 basis points after its two-day policy meeting concluded Sept. 26, and signaled it wants to continue gradually lifting them through 2019.

The move, which was widely expected, puts the federal funds rate at a range of 2 percent to 2.25 percent. That rate helps determine rates for mortgages, credit cards and other consumer borrowing.

It's the third increase this year and the eighth since December 2015, when the Fed started inching rates up from effectively zero percent.
"Our economy is strong. Growth is running at a healthy clip," Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said during a press conference. "Unemployment is low. The number of people working is rising steadily. And wages are up. Inflation is low and stable. All of these are very good signs."
Fed policymakers presented revised projections of future rate moves, as well as their outlook for the economy, unemployment, and inflation.

According to the new estimates, economic growth will be 3.1 percent in 2018, an upward revision from the 2.8 percent projected in June. And growth is expected to decelerate to 2.5 percent next year.

Comment: See also:

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Footprints

US builds new military base on the Syrian-Iraqi border


Sputnik
Sun, 30 Sep 2018 09:40 UTC
US troopschopper
© AP/Rahmat Gul
The US has been boosting its military presence in the region and, according to an SDF spokesperson, the base is being used in an offensive against the remaining Daesh militants in eastern Syria.

Xelil Şirvan, a commander of a group of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, told Sputnik that a US military base had been detected near the town of Al-Qa'im in northwest Iraq on the border with Syria.
"According to our data, the United States has set up a new military base in the strategically important region of Al-Qa'im in Anbar province on the Iraqi-Syrian border. Americans are building up [their] military presence in the region, which is why Iraqi government forces have sent more military reinforcements to Al-Qa'im to boost border protection," he said.
A spokesperson for the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led militant group, detailed that the new base was involved in an operation the SDF fighters launched earlier in the month against the last Daesh stronghold in Hajin in eastern Syria.

Al-Qa'im, an Iraqi town which lies near the strategic border crossing that links to the Syrian town of Abu Kamal, was retaken in the beginning of November last year; later the Iraqi military announced that it had restored control over the checkpoints on the border with Syria.
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Snakes in Suits

The US way or no way: Trump treated rest of world as America's footstool at UNSC

Finian Cunningham
RT
Thu, 27 Sep 2018 16:29 UTC
Donald Trump at the UN
© Carlos Barria / Reuters
Donald Trump chaired the UN Security Council this week to deliver a thuggish ultimatum to the world to obey American orders on Iran or face retribution for not kowtowing to Washington's diktat.

The world's highest forum for maintaining global security and peace was thus turned into a platform for brazen, criminal American rhetoric.

The 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York this week was a head-spinning spectacle of American bullying and arrogance - to the point where delegates couldn't contain their laughter at one stage over Trump's ridiculously self-righteous speech.

In his address to the assembly, Trump repeated the hackneyed accusations against Iran as being "the world's leading sponsor of terrorism." Nothing new in that, but what this US president is doing is putting Iran on notice that it either capitulates or faces violent aggression.
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Compass

Bombastic Interior Secretary says US could use Navy as 'blockade' to hamper Russian energy exports


RT
Sun, 30 Sep 2018 16:10 UTC
US and UK navy ships
© Hamad I Mohammed / ReutersUS and UK navy ships are seen conducting Mine Countermeasures Exercise (MCMEX) taking place at Arabian Sea, September 10, 2018.
US could use its Navy to prevent Russia's potential energy supplies to the Middle East, Internal Secretary Ryan Zinke said, Washington Examiner reports. The blockade would actually mean an "act of war," Russian Senator fired back.

Zinke alleged that Russia's engagement in Syria - notably, where it is operating at the invitation of the legitimate government - is a pretext to explore new energy markets.

"I believe the reason they are in the Middle East is they want to broker energy just like they do in eastern Europe, the southern belly of Europe," he has reportedly said.

And, according to to the official, there are ways and means to tackle it.

"The United States has that ability, with our Navy, to make sure the sea lanes are open, and, if necessary, to blockade ... to make sure that their energy does not go to market," he said.
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Wall Street

On Money, Power and Taxation


The Ludwig von Mises Centre For Property and Freedom
Fri, 28 Sep 2018 15:26 UTC
Money and charts graphic
Power and money, money and power,
Which is stronger, money or power?
Money can give you a lifetime of honey,
But power allows you to steal others' money.

Today, I'll look at money, political power, and the relations between them.

How the economy should be

I'll begin with a re-cap on how the world economy ought to work for all peaceful, honest, convivial human beings.

At the root of all economic activity is the creation of well-being. As I've said before, there is no nobler human activity than delivering what others are voluntarily willing to pay for. To get our own needs and desires satisfied, we trade with others the well-being we create. Thus, each of us creates a flow of wealth to those we trade with, and receives in return a corresponding flow of wealth. And if we are convivial people, we will always act with honesty and good faith, and strive to fulfill the promises we have voluntarily made.
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Chess

Bibi and the West are out of options: Russia's delivery of S-300's to Syria sets the stage for the standoff to end

Tom Luongo
The Strategic Culture Foundation
Fri, 28 Sep 2018 15:03 UTC
missile launch Syria
In the game of power politics, appeasement always ends in tears. Once you commit to a path you have no option but to see it through to its fullest end or fold when the stakes rise beyond an acceptable level.

Vladimir Putin responded to Israel's betrayal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the only move he could make short of touching off World War III, crossing the US/Israeli red line of giving S-300 missile defense systems to Syria and upgrading their anti-missile technology and integration to the point of creating, what The Saker is calling, "a de facto no-fly zone" over Western Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Ball's in your court Bibi and Trump.
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Handcuffs

Cuz it's worked so well in the past: Canada signs on to US-led renewal of war on drugs

Carlo Allegri
The Globe and Mail
Tue, 25 Sep 2018 00:01 UTC
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
© ReutersCanada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit during the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York, U.S., Sept. 24, 2018.
Canada was rebuked on Monday by a group of world leaders and experts on drug policy for endorsing a Trump-led declaration renewing the "war on drugs" and for passing up a critical moment to provide global leadership on drug regulation.

The Trudeau government's decision to sign on to the declaration, released by the White House on the sidelines of U.S. President Donald Trump's first attendance at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, contradicts Ottawa's previous skepticism of Washington's drugs war at home and abroad, and comes just weeks before cannabis legalization in Canada.

Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark said she believed that both Canada and Mexico − which also signed the declaration even though president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has repeatedly said that the "war on drugs" has failed and he will pursue new policy − likely have signed on reluctantly, held hostage by the North American free-trade agreement talks in Washington, over which a critical deadline looms.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Skripal case: Israeli expert uses logic to reveal why this was not the work of special agents


News Front
Fri, 28 Sep 2018 12:05 UTC
Petrov and Boshirov
An Israeli expert on international terrorism, writer Alexander Brass, shared his view on the case of the Skripals poisoning in Salisbury. Brass draws parallels between the work of the special services of Israel and Russia - he believes that if to compare the British version with the practice of the special agents, then the absurdity becomes obvious.

Alexander, so what, in your opinion, happened in Salisbury?

There was a rough provocation by the British special services. In my opinion, this is obvious.

Why do you think so?

Comment: It's funny that Israeli expert on international terrorism needs to explain what everyone with any sense already knows about the Skripal story: It doesn't make any logical sense. Either this is the most bumbling and ridiculous intelligence operation in the history of espionage, perpetrated by complete amateurs, or the Petrov and Boshirov story is complete nonsense. Anyone with two firing neurons knows it's the latter.

See also:

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Magnify

Flashback The tragi-comedy that is 'Brown Moses' aka 'Bellingcat'

BlackCatte
Off-Guardian
Tue, 18 Aug 2015 00:00 UTC
Eliot higgins bellingcat brown moses
The story of the unemployed office-worker, of strictly average abilities drawing lines on grainy photos with Paint and having the PTB hail him as a cyber-genius is the basis for a great unwritten novel. A bleak, black farce for our time. A modern-day "Our Man in Havana", with screen caps from Google Earth replacing the sketches of vacuum cleaner parts.

Bottom line is Eliot Higgins, aka BrownMoses, aka one-man 'research group' Bellingcat is funny. He just is. And there's nothing much his would-be promoters can do about that. They try to sell him as a gritty 'citizen journalist', but he doesn't have the face or the CV for it, and it always falls flat. Even casual conversation with him reveals the embarrassing truth that his "research", so lauded in the popular media, consists of entry-level computer skills and an awful lot of smoke-blowing. You or I or literally anyone over the age of seven with internet access could do it. If we thought it was worth while.

Which mostly we wouldn't.

His "BUk research" is little more than "oh look there's that lorry again" type photo comparison. Eliot, believing his own publicity, really doesn't seem to understand that there's nothing to show this particular and much-photographed BUK (or any BUK anywhere for that matter) had anything whatsoever to do with MH17. He doesn't get that all he actually has is a lot of random pix downloaded from the internet. His MSM backers do understand this, but try to elide it and hope none of us notice.

But when Eliot tries to venture beyond this things only get worse. Remember his claims to have "proved" the Russians photoshopped their satellite pics? The MSM are blurry on details of how he did this, because they are so damning to his and their credibility, and try to market his findings as marvellous but unspecified techy-magic.

Comment: More on Bellingcat and its dubious 'research':

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