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Were sanctions against North Korea a factor in the death of Otto Warmbier?

Konstantin Asmolov, PhD
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 12 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC
Otto Warmbier
© KCNA/Reuters
U.S. student Otto Warmbier speaks at a news conference in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang February 29, 2016
On 10 October 2018, several American doctors, who were involved in caring for and treating the fairly well-known Otto Warmbier, confirmed the theory, proposed by the student's parents, that Otto's teeth and gums looked as if they had been cut with a saw, and as a result, the US citizen had died from torture inflicted on him. This "medical conclusion" was sent to a court in Washington.

In response, on 27 October, the Head Doctor at a Pyongyang hospital reminded the public that US doctors, who took part in repatriating the student, gave the North Korean side a medical note stating that at the time of transfer he was in normal state of health. The doctor also referred to an article in the American newspaper USA Today from 21 June 2017, which mentioned the fact that a neuropathologist from the US University of Cincinnati carried out a medical examination of Warmbier, and confirmed absence of any signs of starvation or physical abuse, either in the form of fractures or damage to internal organs. In addition, the doctor said that, according to the report by the US network NBC from 27 September 2017, an expert, who conducted the autopsy on Warmbier's body, also did not find any signs of torture, and an examination by forensic odontologists indicated there was no evidence of any trauma to the teeth.

However, if we distance ourselves from yet another attempt by grieving parents to find culprits, responsible for the death of their son, among the North Korean authorities, a very sad picture begins to emerge.

Based on Warmbier's symptoms, it seems very likely that the young man died from after effects of a stroke, or a serious problem with circulation in the brain, which had gone unnoticed, and the treatment, he had received, was not of good quality. This, of course, is connected to the overall state of North Korean medicine, as it is one of the sectors most affected by imposed sanctions.

Comment: Sanctions disproportionately affect innocent civilians and as French analyst Alain de Benoist said, sanctions are a form of war:
The policy of sanctions, again, is not a form of diplomacy but a form of war. It comes when diplomacy has abdicated. Sanctions are intended to bring about both physical effects (scarcity, impoverishment, disorganization of the economy, inability to export or import) and psychological effects (raising discontent in the population of so that it puts pressure on its government).
More on Otto Warmbier:

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Stop

Russia to separate terrorists, extremists from other prison inmates to halt recruitment and spread of radicalism


RT
Wed, 12 Dec 2018 16:16 UTC
russian penal colony separates terrorists
© Sputnik / Mikhail Voskresenskiy
In order to crumble the extremist cells that are being formed behind bars, the Federal Penal Correction Service will be given the power to relocate inmates that promote radical ideas to other prison institutions.
Terrorists and extremists will be kept separately from other inmates in Russian prisons to avoid recruitment and spread of radical views among the convicts, according to the legislative amendments supported by the State Duma.

Previously, those, sentenced for terrorist and extremist crimes, could have been placed in various types of correctional institution, including mild general regime colonies. But the MPs behind the draft law, which was approved in the first reading on Tuesday, believed it to be a dangerous practice.

In colony settlements, "the convicts are kept in brigades and are able to communicate with a significant number of people, which still allows the spread of extremist ideology," Pavel Krasheninnikov of the ruling Untied Russia Party said.

Comment: While Russia works to end the spread of malignant jihadi ideology, Western nations are quite willing to spread the 'disease' in service to geopolitical aims, no matter how much misery and devastation is inflicted on the rest of the world:

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NPC

Why are late night comedians humorlessly lusting after Mueller and mindlessly going after Trump?

Michael Tracey
Spectator
Mon, 10 Dec 2018 18:11 UTC
Stephen Colbert

Lambasting Trump and pining for Mueller is a defining feature of most of Stephen Colbert’s monologues
For those desperately awaiting the Trump presidency's spectacular collapse, Robert Mueller has acquired an almost mythic status - forever looming in the background with astonishing 'bombshells' that could drop at any moment. Mueller himself never speaks, except through terse court filings, which lends his aura a mystical quality. His newfound fans have been known to light votive candles in his honor, wear apparel sporting his heroic visage, and spend day after day speculating on the internet about the time, date, and profundity of his next miraculous intervention.


Comment: It's high time some smart comedians call Mueller out for his deep state-motivated witch hunt proclivities - and for all the considerable s**t he's responsible for. But until someone has the courage and talent to do so, we will be stuck with the mind-numbing-status-quo-NPC banalities that pass for the comedy we see now.

See also:

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Pirates

Sad radicals' paradigm of suspicion fosters the conflict they seek to end

Conor Barnes
Quillette
Tue, 11 Dec 2018 18:33 UTC
sad radical
When I became an anarchist I was 18, depressed, anxious, and ready to save the world. I moved in with other anarchists and worked at a vegetarian co-op cafe. I protested against student tuition, prison privatization, and pipeline extensions. I had lawyer's numbers sharpied on my ankle and I assisted friends who were pepper-sprayed at demos. I tabled zines, lived with my "chosen family," and performed slam poems about the end of the world. While my radical community was deconstructing gender, monogamy, and mental health, we lived and breathed concepts and tools like call-outs, intersectionality, cultural appropriation, trigger warnings, safe spaces, privilege theory, and rape culture.

What is a radical community? For the purposes of this article, I will define it as a community that shares both an ideology of complete dissatisfaction with existing society due to its oppressive nature and a desire to radically alter or destroy that society because it cannot be redeemed by its own means. I eventually fell out with my own radical community. The ideology and the people within it had left me a burned and disillusioned wreck. As I deprogrammed, I watched a diluted version of my radical ideology explode out of academia and become fashionable: I watched the Left become woke.

Comment: Truth and knowledge is not a part of the radical's ideology. Rather, they live in a garish fantasy where everything is defined by oppression and power. Situational and historical context have no place, reducing understanding to oversimplified explanations that do not align with reality. As the author details, the result isolates the individual in being able to genuinely connect with other people and with knowledge that is beyond such a myopic worldview. The natural outcome is compounded suffering stemming from isolation, which is in turn incorrectly identified as proof they are in the right, and the cycle continues. It's a self-destructive feedback loop that not only affects the radical community but also spreads conflict upon others.

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NPC

Inside a Google Summit on 'diversity' and 'inclusion'

Joseph Klein
Quillette
Tue, 11 Dec 2018 16:18 UTC
google
© Reuters / Chris Helgren
How could any reasonable person oppose diversity and inclusion in the workplace? Answer: Because "diversity and inclusion" in the work context is actually a euphemism for something else.

During an October 30 summit held by Google, attendees listened to a panel discussion titled, "Beyond Hype, How Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace Maximizes Your Bottom Line." The panelists' comments amounted to a very irregular definition of "diversity and inclusion:" A desire for equal outcomes among all identity groups, and disadvantaging individuals in overrepresented demographic categories.


Adam Berlew, head of Americas Marketing for Google Cloud, moderated the panel, which featured guests Joanna Dees, VP of educational programs at Women in Cable Telecommunications; Maribel Perez Wadsworth, president of the USA Today Network; Tom Kazmierczak Jr., head of diversity and inclusion at T. Rowe Price Associates; and Lori Rosenkopf, vice dean and director of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, undergraduate division.
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X

Airbnb prevents Palestinian hosts from listing homes in occupied West Bank

Tumna Patel
Mondoweiss
Wed, 12 Dec 2018 16:03 UTC
Ariel Gold disrupts Ashton Kutcher's Airbnb presentation.

Ariel Gold disrupts Ashton Kutcher's Airbnb presentation.
Mondoweiss has learned that Airbnb is currently preventing Palestinian hosts from listing their homes in the occupied West Bank.

When attempting to list a property for rent in a Palestinian city in the West Bank, users are denied by the website, and given a message saying "country code is invalid."

Mondoweiss attempted to post a listing in the West Bank cities of Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Nablus, and received the same notification.

Airbnb and other websites that require addresses and GPS coordinates have historically had issues with users in places like the West Bank, where many Palestinian areas do not have formal residential addresses.

But when speaking with an Israeli Airbnb customer representative, the rep told a Mondoweiss reporter that the issue was not with the lack of a formal address for the listing, but that their listing in the city of Bethlehem was not being approved because they were in the West Bank.

When asked if it was a possible website glitch, and that Palestinian listings were accidentally being affected due to their proximity to settlements, the representative said "it is not an issue with the algorithm."

Comment: It looks like the courage of airbnb's convictions only goes so far. Their original justification was the illegality of the Israeli settlements. The Palestinians being denied new accounts have broken no laws.

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Bad Guys

US court documents in 'foreign agent' Butina case suggest deal made - UPDATE - Putin says she was jailed for nothing, has no ties to Russian intel


RT
Mon, 10 Dec 2018 16:28 UTC
Maria Butina
© Reuters / Alexandria Sheriff's Office
Maria Butina, after months in solitary confinement
Maria Butina, a Russian national detained in the US and accused of failing to register as a foreign lobbyist under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), appears to have reached a deal with prosecutors.

Documents entered on Monday request that a federal judge schedule a hearing this week so Butina can change her not guilty plea which she entered in July. There is still no indication what Butina intends to plead guilty to.

Butina's accusations stem from her rubbing shoulders with Republican operatives and gun-rights advocates in the US. Prosecutors initially attempted to paint Butina as a cold-blooded seductress who traded sex for influence in the corridors of power, but later retracted these more salacious allegations.

Butina denies the charges, and the Russian government has complained about her detention to the US State Department.

Butina's father Valery told RT that he has "no information" about any deal between his daughter and the US prosecutors. Media reports on it are nothing but "speculations" at the moment, he said.

Comment: Meanwhile there's another trial involving a Chinese executive who, on US request, has been imprisoned in Canada, is receiving similar inhumane treatment, and which is also serving to degrade relations with China: Break-in at jailed Chinese tech CFO's house in Canada, pending extradition to the US

UPDATE Dec 12 - Putin, in his first comments since Butina was arrested has said she has no ties to Russian intelligence and the whole case against her was thin. He admitted that she has had some links to the Russian Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament and that she could have actually worked with some officials there, but said that still does not justify the US legal action against her. Putin also said he asked all the heads of the Russian intelligence and security services about who she is and whether she had any links to their work. "No one knows anything about her at all."

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Snowflake

Parents outraged after children hit the stage in KKK costumes for well-known play 'The Foreigner'

Zach Crenshaw
KGUN 9
Mon, 10 Dec 2018 13:05 UTC
KKK Costume controversy
A high school play with controversial costumes has some parents outraged.

Three students at the Arizona State University Preparatory Academy Phoenix campus dressed in Ku Klux Klan costumes for a school play. Parents say the school never notified them or the rest of the student body that was not in the drama class.

The popular play, "The Foreigner," was performed at an assembly for all high school students.

"Three students dressed as the KKK walked down the middle of the assembly as part of a play," explained one parent, who wanted to remain anonymous at his daughter's request. "They were in hooded robes."
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Ambulance

Nine-year-old girl takes her own life after facing relentless bullying and racism at school

Jackie Salo
NY Post
Mon, 10 Dec 2018 12:54 UTC
McKenzie Adams
© Facebook
McKenzie Adams
A black 9-year-old girl in Alabama allegedly took her own life after facing relentless bullying and racism in class, according to reports.

McKenzie Adams' relatives said she hanged herself Dec. 3 in her home in Linden, about 100 miles west of Montgomery, and was discovered by her grandmother, according to the Tuscaloosa News.

Since the start of the school year, the fourth-grader had been the target of bullying at US Jones Elementary School, where she was teased over her friendship with a white male classmate, according to her family.

Her aunt, Eddwina Harris, said the group of students taunted McKenzie by telling her to commit suicide.

"She was being bullied the entire school year, with words such as 'kill yourself,' 'you think you're white because you ride with that white boy,' 'you ugly,' 'black bitch,' 'just die,'" Harris told the newspaper.

Harris said she's speaking out about her niece's death because she wants to promote anti-bullying.

"There are so many voiceless kids," Harris said. "God is opening great doors for justice for my niece."
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Heart - Black

Sick! Video gamer arrested after accidentally livestreaming assault of pregnant partner


The Guardian
Wed, 12 Dec 2018 12:20 UTC
MrDeadMoth livestream video game
A man will face court after he allegedly assaulted a woman at a home in Sydney's south-west while livestreaming to an online gaming site.

The 26-year-old was arrested at a home in Oran Park on Sunday night, three hours after he unintentionally streamed the attack and it was reported to police by fellow gamers.

His 21-year-old partner was not seriously injured but was distressed and shaken by the alleged assault, police said.
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