No, nothing about livor mortis (postmortem lividity) indicates the body with a tat is a fake photo. He could have been dead for 8 hours and still have exactly the appearance shown in the photo.
Some notes on postmortem lividity on upper arms after death from various sources on the web...
"Typically, the upper arms of a body would remain pinkish and blanchable for about 8 to 12 hours after death"
"For a body in the supine position, upper arms might remain pinkish within the first 8 hours postmortem as lividity develops, turning purple-blue as it deepens. However, after around 12 hours, the upper arms are more likely to have fixed purple or blue color rather than pinkish, and pressing on them would not alter the color."
There's almost constantly crap happening at the DMZ. I've been in Korea when the NKs are shelling the South, mostly islands off the west coast, but still. Small unit raids happen.
But what are North Koreans known for? mining tunneling, engineering. With massive areas wrecked by fighting, a work force shortage and the North perpetually short of cash, why not employ them there for best effect?
The other crazy story I have read is that the N-Korean soldiers are starving. So we have an army that can sort out long range artillery and ballistic missiles but not rice, cabbages and pork. It's the same old fighting with rusty shovels and chips scavenged from washing machines nonsense.
That's the problem with propaganda, once you see it in broad focus over time the pieces just don't fit together.
Western Europe is threatened by Genghis Khan re-born, who is also a total bum who digs through the trash for food and begs for bus-fare.
Koreans are not Western soldiers, but they are reasonably well equipped, North and South. I can assure you that regardless of the situation, the only people not starving in North Korea will be the armed forces.
So the soldier are not starving but the farmers who grow their food and the miners, technicians and workers who make everything for the soldiers ARE starving ?
That system can't possible work, certainly not for 70+ years. Nobody not even communist dynastic dictatorships get to defy the laws of reality for 3 generations.
I think it is time to start considering if the stories we have heard about North Korea for all these years are in fact bullshit.
One important thing to note, have you ever heard or read anything from North Korea directly from North Korea? or was it fed to you through an American or European?
I personally have changed my opinions on a great many things once I started to listen to information about China and Russia from the Chinese and Russians.
The way even supposedly RF inclined people, as most here, have no idea of how are where to get information from and how to process this, but prefer MSM fantaisies
There have been genuine famines, harvests everywhere have bad years, and without access to agriculture from without - due to sanctions - that will be a disaster. At the same time, I've seen reports that claimed the DPRK have a middle class, and are pretty well developed.
But bear in mind they are still technically at war with the *USA*, and have to divert immense resources to counter-intelligence, military defence and development, all of which are non-productive activities and drain the treasury. The Cubans know all about such costs, and opportunity costs.
So its more complex than we typically get told, but at the same time life there is almost certainly pretty hard in reality too. Most of the time.
How did you learn this? To me sources are of the utmost importance.
The west has thrown away all standards of evidence and all I read or hear from MSM and the chattering class is bull-shit like this "sources close to______" Fill in the blank say bla bla bla. It happens many times per day and in now accepted or at least not challenged by the plebs.
Another trick is CNN will say, According to the NYT who will say, according to MSNBC who will say according to CNN and around and around they go. People seem to have accepted this trick as solid evidence. IMO people are going to believe what they want to believe and when it's political or religious, no amount of evidence will change their mind or at least not quickly. No one likes to admit they are wrong but it seems like admitting you were wrong about something is now looked upon as a sign of weakness, when in truth it's a strength. Over the last decade I have learned plenty about Russia and China, but there and I have not come across much material on N Korea or expats living there and vloging or bloging about what it is like.
Well, the famine part is just self-evident, regarding the dangers of agriculture combined with genocidal-intent sanctions "We think it was worth it!", combined with land still poisoned by US Korean-war munition use.
The middle class element came from watching several vids by mainly Westerners over the years, who explored beyond the normal corporate media bias zone, combined with several articles over the years - incl one spectacularly pro-Korean from a Leftist site (Link hopelessly lost over the years), that argued for Korean development far in excess of what we hear, or even sounded reasonable, and yet made it seem reasonable. I took that one with a grain of salt and yet it made some probably valid points, regarding what socialism usually achieves when it is able to, even in very hostile conditions (See Cuba, fx).
Bearing in mind Western corporate media's extreme hostility to Korea, and the rabid hostility to any form of honesty, I've blended all that into what I consider - until I go and visit myself - to be a moderate and hopefully reasonable position that does not dehumanise, takes into account likely and normal conditions that pretty much all humans create unless in extremis, while also accepting the challenging conditions that such a state would face from the USA and vassals, and the all-too-often support for this from other regional countries.
As an aside, about what they have faced, they are one of the few countries until the "Biolabs in Ukraine" and Covid outbreak that there is documented proof the USA used biological WMD against them. Imagine how many resources would a country have to devote to defend against a clandestine recurrence by an utterly amoral and implacable foe?
At the end of the day though, I freely confess that I do not "know", having never been there myself, nor personally knowing anyone who has. (I can however tell you that Iran is incredible, and probably the most civilised country on Earth). And that this OPINION of Korea is as honest as I can be.
In terms of hard evidence, I no longer have any of the links, and as you know finding hard evidence online in the Western censorship system is rarer than hen's teeth.
"But bear in mind they are still technically at war with the *USA*, and have to divert immense resources to counter-intelligence, military defence and development, all of which are non-productive activities and drain the treasury"
I wish you to look at exibit A: Russia, for dealing with sanctions and how what you said about wasting money is incorrect about NK with it's military adventures.
Ah yes, of course NK has VAST oil and gas reserves they can offer discounts to India, Turkey and China to maintain sales under sanctions. That had slipped my mind.
NK has been under a permanent threat from US invasion for decades, as well as a solid sanctions regime. Naturally they were forced to develop deterrence, for their own safety, considering how the US wages war whenever it feels like against helpless countries.
Now NK isn't helpless, and with the next-gen ICBMs, they'll be untouchable by the US unless its feeling suicidal (Never impossible).
" I doubt that the DPRK is a lot of fun but we've been feed a lot of kids' ghost stories for years."
As a first grader in Wisconsin I had a recurring nightmare about Russians chasing me around my bed. That is 1957 and the red scare is running at full tilt...wide spread mania... enough to scare the shit out of a 6 y/o. Bigly sad!
Both China and Russia have been trading with NK "under the table" for decades now, but this recent agreement between Russia and North Korea makes that trade overt.
North Korea made/was forced into the choice of having to support a massive war machine, which at times forced great privation upon them (which let certain of those in the West go "Ha ha! We told you so!") so emphasised by the meme picture from orbit of a dark NK sharing a border with brightly lit SK.
If the report from SK that NK has supplied 9 million artillery shells to Russia is anywhere near true, then that's a lot of Russian food they can buy in exchange. Further, if part of that trade is in Chinese currency (of which Russia may have an excess) then that's a LOT of Chinese goods that can be bought.
Now this is the point where a trickle of irony becomes a river, because for years this war machine has had to labour under the "impression" provided by "indoctrination" (as the West would have it) that they were preparing for war against the great Satan (USA). The SMO and world events have shown that these labours have not been futile, and they are IN FACT battling the great Satan, and the war machine can now produce *very profitably* for the people of NK.
Better, for the people of NK, they can now see the West (as a "defector" form NK who is attending college in the USA attests) "indoctrinates" its people far harder and to a greater degree than in NK itself has ever done.
Given how productive their southern brothers are, now that they have trade to participate in, thanks to that war machine, I think the future is bright for NK.
The financial times has reported how Russia is breaking UN sanctions by supplying oil and petroleum to North Korea. It's not a stretch to imagine that Russia is also sending what and other foodstuff as well considering they have now become close allies. https://www.ft.com/content/df23a473-ea0b-4882-be19-048ae0d501d2
Christ, you're STILL operating within the framework of western propaganda and assuming the trade is for food AT ALL. You can go on YouTube and watch more hours of Chinese tourists visiting the DPRK than you have hours in your lifetime. The famines were over 30 years ago, food production and flood prevention has been solved, you can see MASSIVE farms, you even see how people living in suburbs and cities are encouraged to garden in their own backyards, you can see factories that make processed food such as instant noodles, infant formula, and soft drinks. The info is all there, the west just tells you not to believe your lying eyes.
Exactly! This is still my biggest complaint to "westerners" who think they are more "worldly" and open minded. They (we) still cannot accept that they have been lied to and fed BS over decades. You can still see it here, in the comments, it is easy to see they still rely on totally unreliable sources for their world view.
US citizens that hold passports are less than half the population. That's relatively low among developed countries. I know people in the US who are so self-satisfied and non-curious that are proud of not having a passport.
I tend to heap onto the ever increasing pile of “everything I was ever told is either a half truth or an outright lie”. Building ones own dynamic model is a full time job…
Applying rationality is a lot of hard work, especially at first when you've grown up immersed in a purpose built disinformation environment and EVERYTHING needs to be reconsidered instead of reflexively responded to.
23 years so far and counting…heck it pretty much runs on auto pilot at this point….with a little partitioning I can maintain my sanity in this shartstorm.
Good comment. Yeah, I don't believe anything also anymore. Constant bullshite fantasies, like the Uyghur's concentration camps and how Russia is an Dictatorship.
I had an argument with a couple of my football buddies, they fully believed the whole evil Putin Dictatorship angle, I told them, if you go textbook definition of Dictatorship, Putin is no Dictator, because a Dictator has to have authority over Parliament and his Ministers, a Dictator can write down laws himself and nobody can oppose it. They looked at me with big eyes, as I explained to them, I saw bigfoot or something.
And I told them, that people immigrate to Russia, that there are asylum seekers who go to Russia, again big eyes. Most people are so brainwashed with lies, its sad, intelligent guys also. Those people are gonna have a rude awakening, well, their stories and delululand fantasies get dismembered in real time now...
American people are more provincial and yet they know everything. Don’t confuse them with evidence. And don’t challenge them with critical thinking. The propaganda has been going on since infancy. Try to undermine that foundation of insanity in a conversation.
Unless the individual THEMSELVES wants to truly learn something — they will cling to their biases and lifelong propaganda BY DEFAULT. Don’t beat yourself up by trying your best to educate. Have a civil conversation with those capable of conversation.
American people are more provincial and yet they know everything. Don’t confuse them with evidence. And don’t challenge them with critical thinking. The propaganda has been going on since infancy. Try to undermine that foundation of insanity in a conversation.
Unless the individual THEMSELVES wants to truly learn something — they will cling to their biases and lifelong propaganda BY DEFAULT. Don’t beat yourself up by trying your best to educate. Have a civil conversation with those capable of conversation.
Yes, I live in a City in Pennsylvania, most people who live here, (I do not want to guess but I would say 80-98% of the people have never left the US some travel to Puerto Rico but that is not considered leaving, these same people will repeat the same nonsensical talking points they hear on CNN about Russia and/or China
My words were chosen carefully. The NKs will keep their soldiers in the field. What happens to civilians is dependent on the national circumstances. What those are, I have no idea at the moment and can surmise based on conditions in the future, but cannot predict.
I've actually seen a lot of raw NK propaganda, at least. It's actually fairly entertaining. They have a real knack for it, moreso than most East Bloc countries did. I've seen cooler ones than the ones in this collection. The intel guys will post them up when exercising over there, to get everyone in the right spirit.
Just an important note; fertillizer is always heavily sanctioned because it can be used to make explosives, this usually has a huge knock on effect of causing agricultural problems
It's def bullshit. I've seen interview of Russian guy who work within NK for years and while he obviously doesn't paint rosy picture he also states that most propaganda about NK is just, well, propaganda. It's just like former SU - I lived there and when people from the west fantasize about life in USSR I roll my eyes 'do you really believe that crap?' but propaganda is a tool and it works
So have I. Completely switched my viewpoint 180 degrees once I started actually reading and listening to these Countries we call "poor third worlders where everyone starves and US military would destroy in 2 days".
Now I view the "West" as what it always was, a group of Countries playing follow the leader for the gibs, while punishing their own citizens for daring to think outside the taught in school narrative. Completely hopeless except for a tiny sliver of light come Nov 5th.
Isn't that true anywhere? If a world war erupts, the U.S. won't be able to rest the first few years, and rely on a biased media to portray the American effort as "heroic" and "game changing".
DPRK may not have been openly fighting in that time but they have been subject to existential pressure of all kinds from the west that requires a lot of discipline and readiness. The soldiers in that unit are probably some of the most motivated on the planet right now. And now they have a chance to deal a blow to the west directly. After 60 years of humiliation and, you know, having the USAF run out of buildings to bomb because they leveled every structure in your entire fucking country you’re gonna be ready to go, and what they learn will be rapidly assimilated into their own tactics. And if the war escalates bet on massive quantities of their stockpiled MLRS and artillery to appear.
This is just the latest symptom of absolutely fucking braindead so-called leaders in the west. Russia, China, Iran, North Korea pushed together in a military alliance at the same time the US somehow forgot to actually manufacture enough ordnance to fight them. Treason.
Why not integrate with them, for mutual benefit, as BRICS is showing can be done?
So it could reasonably argued that "making enough ordnance to fight them" is actually the treason that is being committed.
US taxpayers' money is being squandered on armaments, when it would be better spent on cultural outreach and the common goals facing us all - and I'm NOT talking about "combatting climate change", and "reparations for colonialism" etc etc..
You are correct that the US has never integrated - what I said was "Why hasn't it?"
The "weary Brits" came ashore as religious refugees, not as conquerors, as we all know.
Thus your first "Thanksgiving" dates from that time, when the weary Brits got together with the natives and had a meal with them.
What nobody wants to confront is that both Britain and the US have been subverted by a wandering tribe who seek to be hegemonic, and to steal everybody else's breakfast.
The US revolution showed that - the King was being pressured by these people, who had infested the City of London, ( and are still there ) and who wanted to be paid interest on their loans in GOLD, ( they love gold ) so refused the Colonial Scrip which was being offered.
The entire history of colonialism, slavery, exploitation, drug running, sex trafficking, and war making is directly traceable back to this tribe.
They are the Menace Within, and unless and until they are eradicated from all areas of public life, this madness will continue.
No we don’t all know – another yankee fable – you lot can not integrate without killing off everyone you come across
The religious were not the only brit pirates to plunder those shores- They scrambled up the beaches as putative and determined conquerors
You think they were ignorant of conditions before they set out
Other brits before them had already sampled the dubious pleasures of America and spread the glad tidings
Do not spout that fantasy about Thanksgiving - rather relate how many of what you call Native Americans were killed by those prissy Mayflower Maidens and the brit gentry who preceeded and also followed them, including the class that underwrote the rebellion against London governance
You lot never needed subversion, you were from the start the inversion of any real religion
Your words are useless when it comes to explaining or describing the modern world, unless as a veil of casuistical religiosity drawn across a pile of hate & designed only to kill and to oppress
The Crusades then were the same people the same class the same objective as the current crusades now
When you stop lying about yourself your country your origins and your purpose ,or the fake history you have been fed, you will have a clue as to the oppression you suffer from and killgrounds you are heir to
And you will not so gladly preach hatred or a smarmy kingdom come
The US is always fighting everybody because they're the world hegemon and they need to control the world's resources. If BRICS+ gets up and running it won't be long before they need to become the tough guy. We're soon approaching the end of cheap oil and cheap copper and all the rest. Revelation is playing out perfectly. It's hard to see us having even 10 more years.
Putin just cemented Kim's legacy as a great leader of his nation, there's zero doubt in my mind Kim is begging him to accept his best men. Also, Kim is always itching for a fight and NATO mercs in Kursk is the perfect outlet for him. I don't see how Putin could say no without dishonoring him
Kim is itching for a fight....not with VVP he is not, and he's far too intelligent to think that a fight in Ukraine is anything useful for him VVP the RF or his soldiers
The NK is trained to defend the NK and to finish the war with the SK and the US in the peninsula
To train and learn up some troops on RF machinery methods and disciplines would take a long time and create a disparate NK unit then no longer integrated in the NK army tactics training and procedures, in an irrelevant to KN SK conditions and terrain, annoying to the RF troops who need not outsider help for nothing that they have to do
Pointless and harmful
Both Kim and VVP are very much aware of this
Kim does not beg anyone for anything least off a friend
You are transmitting westie propaganda
You know that Kim is saying something to VVP? really?
Obviously I have first hand knowledge, but the Ukraine war is clearly a perfect chance for modern warfare experience to be integrated into elite units.
When you have spent enough time in magical thinking land and your audience has been gaslit for a generation or two anything is possible. Just say it, print it, and klick your heals together and there you have it!
MSM BlueAnon is having a full mental breakdown in their perpetual paranoid red scare. Bezos refused to let WaPo endorse a candidate. Kamala is flailing word salad about fascism. Orange man will be elected in a week. The downfall dominoes are accelerating and the memes will be epic. Are you not entertained?
And Trump just got hundreds of millions in free advertising with his 3 hour Rogan interview...followed by his devastating Madison Square Garden rally, with great speeches by people like Vivek and Tucker.....
It’s worth noting that he snatched that interview from under the nose of his opponent. Not that Joe would have agreed to all the preconditions, but it’s noteworthy that she was considering it as yet another last ditch effort to reach younger male voters.
Rogan’s style of interviews would do well for Harris; his conversational approach doesn’t overwhelm his guests. I don’t know if she has 3 hours of conversation in her but it couldn’t hurt her chances, she’s desperate.
Trump MAGA seems suspiciously like the Obama Hope and Change, perhaps the peasants have to be tossed some imaginary hope every decade or so to keep them from revolting. Regardless of the ringmaster the circus of state keeps grinding on and grinding down.
Both candidates are enslaved to a foreign power, whose name we dare not speak.
The MAGA one is slightly more truthful about what he will do if he regains the WH - like the bolsheviks of old, his first act will be to outlaw antisemitism, and make it a capital offence.
As they say, "Be careful of what you wish for, because you might get it."
A wind of change is blowing over the vast open spaces of America, and it smells like gefilte fish.
Trump business entities have filed for bankruptcy at least 4 times. This is clear proof that Trump never lets bankster sponsors get in the way of business.
Will he do the same for campaign donors? We will see.
As history would have it, he was then bailed out by a Rothschild bank and thus is in the pocket. This partially explains the appointment of Wilbur Ross during his administration. On thing that seems pretty clear: the faction that back Karmella is going to do more damage than the Orange Man.
You clearly did not read the comment you are responding to: why exactly would a person that has legally defaulted on loans for his businesses, at least 4 times, be considered someone beholden to banksters?
The people who never default, those are the bankster bitches.
Right. Neither leading candidate has a detailed, operational plan to improve/change even ONE demoralizing, destructive aspect of Big Government. It’s just a repeat of the “throw ‘em a fish” election process.
Why would any candidate publish such a detailed, operational plan?
And thus prepare the Federal Bureaucracy/Deep State to fight it?
The difference, this time, is Trump is not coming into the POTUS completely unprepared. The last time, he had zero Congressional support even from his own party nor did he have the 10K or so top Federal Bureaucracy appointee positions already filled with vetted people. That's why Bolton was brought in - the Republican party was asked to help and their response was to send in the neocons.
Not that Trump still does not have some bad personnel around him: Lindsey Graham and Pompeo spring to mind. But on the positive side: Tulsi and RFK Jr and their allies will help.
This is a valid and accurate point. Regardless of speculation and the assigning of values, something big is going to happen….there is nothing that can halt this momentum. The Don got effective skunked last time through lawfare and various other dirty tricks. If he is able to appoint useful people to important positions, things could get interesting…and dangerous.
" But on the positive side: Tulsi and RFK Jr and their allies will help."
Tulsi and Kennedy and Vivek and Nikki are waiting for the Trump fever to pass and they'll be in line for the next go-around. Vance, Mini-Trump, too. Tucker is also a prospect next time. The scariest thing about Trump aside from his non-stop bluster, blagging and exaggeration is the fact that he's likely NEVER read a book. EVER. Ergo, he's reliant on whoever has his ear. Don, with his imported wife, banging on about "immigrants". I'd find it funnier if I was witnessing this shit-show from another planet. They're eating cats and dogs...It's easy to dance to so I give it a 78. <<link>>
You have clearly not actually paid attention to what Trump says.
The main theme Trump played on in his first term: China was eating the US' lunch.
Is this is factually wrong?
As for the rest of your commentary: maybe some or all of the named people are seeking to be the next President.
So what? As if Kamala and Gretchen Whitmer and Shapiro are any different? Puh-lease.
The reason the liberals and never-Trumpers hate Trump is precisely because he actually is correct more often than not despite his failure to adhere to professional/managerial class etiquette.
Well, fuck the PMC class, I could care less what those incompetent morons think.
Hope and Change was always bullshit: Obama was primarily the tool by which the Pritzkers took low income housing and converted it into hotels and condos.
Trump, RFK Jr and Tulsi, however, are looking specifically at reforming the US government and fighting the Deep State.
Whether they succeed or not, impossible to say but it is a worthy goal.
I've heard that Trump will not listen to the hardliners and neocons this time. And I've heard he and his team have the intent to cut the budget of the federal agencies like the FBI or the CIA 75%. And fragment those alphabet organizations to the states with 50% or so. We will see. I am skeptical he can downsize the swamp it has to be downsized to. The empire will fall, this way or another like all empires fall.
I am Dutch born, and Rutte was much despised. Is he delusional, or what?! Try a million Ukies KIA/WIA. Rutte must not read Simplicius, Larry Johnson or Moon of Alabama. Or is he doing his job well? Yes, I'm entertained but not about so many men killed. Two years ago it was already clear who was going to win, and who would lose - country 404 and NATO.
Luridly, the “foundational values that have made Western civilization what it is,” to quote S above, are coming more sharply into focus in the self-interested deceit of imperial powers & their allies who have never relinquished a slave trade mind-set or blinked twice @ genociding a population when their claims & investments collided w/ unfathomable cruelty.
It is not that the Western order has given up on its "foundational values"--they are enacting their values & prosecuting them lustily in the most blatant & explicit form possible: via the cold calculations of erasing Gaza's women, children & elderly, via the subjugation of Georgians who dare to vote against subjugation, via the cynical exploitation of proxy soldiers in a war they cannot win, as if the meat will last forever.
I mean, Janet Yellen was warning Bibi yesterday "not to collapse the Palestinian economy." In Gaza, the death is constant, the destruction relentless & the shattering of a moral compass so extreme--but Yellen is thinking about money.
The Western system is not broken. It is working precisely as designed.
Yes you are worse than bad, ridiculous - CS's point which is all the truth and nothing but is that the US is founded on these money values (to stick only to that point) which is not the prerogative of any one tribe religion or ethnicity
But is the foundational aspiration of all settler societies
The accusations against the Jews etc are deflections and divide and rule
You should be aware, assuming you are USEU, of your time and place
Gerrard seems to have much to say, and much of it effluvia.
He does not recognise that although the US was to a large extent founded on "money values," a feature of its history is that it was largely concerned with resisting the setting up of a private central banking system, which came with the dread curse of usury - a diabolical feature previously anathematised by every other race of man.
Effectively, then, this race which he seeks to exculpate like the useful idiot he both is, and they call him, has perfected the art of lending money they don't have to nations which then have to pay back the non existent with the existent.
And thus, the "US National Debt" is a delusional construct which could be paid off in one fell swoop with a fiat note of the same kind as they have used to enslave it.
So by no means is this the ancient Roman concept of Divide et Impera - it is the Christian concept of slaying the dragon, which one carefully-aimed thrust would do.
If "the rest of my fiat money thing is delusional," I point you to the multi-part series by the US producer Bill Still, and his masterful expose of what fiat money is all about, in his series "The Money Masters."
"a feature of its history is that it was largely concerned with resisting the setting up of a private central banking system,"
That was in the really early days with clashing visions Jefferson's idea of a republic of yeoman farmers and Hamilton's pushing for a central bank. By the time Jefferson was President Hamilton's idea won out. From then on it's an ideology based on the Marketplace writ large and is now fucking up the globe.
Bill Still makes it clear that this was a perennial problem, until finally the dread Christmas Eve 1913 rolled around, and the chosen people won, on the back of a vote taken by a virtually empty Congress.
The Hamiltonian lust was implemented until Andrew Jackson dismantled it, so far from being ‘won out.’ But the idea would not take root until Lincoln implemented it per his mentor, Henry Clay after the south was thoroughly defeated. Thus it’s Lincoln that it rightfully known as the great centralizer.
According to Michael Hudson, in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century the American economy was based on industrial capitalism rather than financial capitalism due to the sheer dynamism of the industrial revolutions and their productivity and profitability. There was quite a muscular struggle between the two groups....but the financial capitalists are cunning. They found a way to get on top by cheating (the only way they could win); they manipulated the new Federal Reserve system into being. The rest is history.
Western values were clearly Christian in type, as in the ending of slavery, and the Schweizer-esque nurturing of the native.
However, they were entirely subverted when the chosen people bribed and stole and lied their way into its very beating heart - in the case of Britain, when Cromwell allowed them back into the kingdom, after their earlier expulsion, in exchange for them funding his New Model Army, whose successes enabled them then to require him to execute the king - a pattern also seen at other times, albeit with slight modifications, in France, Russia, and Germany.
This chosen people hates kingship, because it carries with it a requirement that God's laws are adhered to, rather than humanist laws of convenience and impermanence and hypocrisy - the so called "rules-based order" beloved of the modern western politician.
And thus "the west" as it is today bears no resemblance to "the west" in the period of its flowering; the flowers changed to "Les Fleurs du mal" as the poet would have it.
I don't see wokeness, or foreign entanglements, or financial feudalism as foundational values. Nobody ever voted for the latter 2 and it is debatable whether a majority voted for the former.
Who didn't know Janet was lying about "transitory" inflation? These people have no shame. Cannot wait for the Global American Empire to go down. I just need to stay alive another 25-30 years so I can witness it. And the implosion of those murdering, psychopaths' country, blowing up refugee camps, hospitals and religious buildings.
I wonder if the NK troops are there on Kim's request. There seems to be little upside for Russia to have them there. And I really don't buy the idea that they will assault anything. They'd be annihilated - a totally green unit, in unfamiliar territory, with no interoperability with Russian army units, and all kinds of other problems.
They won't be allowed on the front lines, since they are not properly trained and probably don't speak Russian...so the whole affair is silly...I think it is Kim's idea...
I would not be surprised if there are DPRK troops in Russia but not in combat. Language, differing military doctrines, and what is probably badly outdated equipment would make the DPRK troops more of a hazard than a help in combat.
That the troops are somewhere in Russia, probably in the Russian Far East, to learn about the new Russian ways of war and possibly to do a bit of training on modern Russian equipment is quite believable since the RF and the DPRK have just signed a mutual aid treaty.
There might be some Korean observers in Kursk Oblast to see how the Russians do things.
An interesting and largely forgotten piece of WWI history ~140,000 Chinese workers recruited by the French and British. That sort of work force had a major impact on the outcome of the war.
These North Koreans are military not civilians but North Korean society is highly militarized anyway and sapper/engineer battalions are also worker battalions.
All I have read about this is ignoramuses underestimating North Korea. It would come as no surprise to me if those soldiers are both highly competent and speak Russian. And of course they aren’t going to be sent to the front to die like 50 year old Ukrainians. North Korea has an absolutely huge standing army of professional soldiers, a huge stockpile of artillery and missiles, and the ability to manufacture massive quantities more very cheaply. They have multiple nuclear weapons and helped Iran build the missiles that have reversed the balance of power and escalation dominance dynamic in the Middle East. And yet we talk about them like they’re sending illiterate bumpkins fresh out the fucking rice paddy.
Which they will now commence building. Russia doesn’t need them to serve any purpose at all except to observe and learn. One trained soldier can train thousands more. Russian and North Korean gear is far simpler, easier to learn, repair, and use than NATO. They will learn how to interoperate.
"The entire Western order has at this point in its lurid, terminal panic given up on not only truth, but any and all foundational values that have made Western civilization what it was."
Yeah. I realized this about 20 years ago. It took a few years to validate and accept the realization. I "quietly quit" and began to protect my retirement.
"The entire Western order has at this point in its lurid, terminal panic given up on not only truth, but any and all foundational values that have made Western civilization what it was. Threats, lies, and propaganda are flung with no accountability or attempt at justification; it seems we’ve entered the rapid parabolic singularity point of the ‘post-truth’ era in the West. Just like how the Federal Reserve must now exponentiate its printing cycles just to stave off collapse, Western intelligentsia and its corrupt crony political class must now likewise balloon their brazen lies to infinity just to keep from drowning in them as if the buoyancy of volume will keep them from going down." - Simplicius
I do not understand the problem if Russia uses allied forces from NK to eradicate the invaders at Kursk? It is pure defence of Motherland - not an invasion of Ukraine.
There isn't a problem. There's nothing unusual about one country helping out another militarily. But when it's Russia and North Korea, two of the Evil Axis, naturally western leaders are soiling their Depends.
Yes, 54 countries have supported Ukraine. It sucks when you fight a real army. Now they're trying to claim its not fair because they are certainly seeing the writing on the wall. Uraaaa!
When you look at and listen to what passes for "western leaders" you see infantalism. Tantrums when they don't get their way. They manufacture their own realities.
I've pointed out before that eventually the progress starts to heat up as the front collapses. This is a collapsing front at this point. I'm not sure "year-long" timeframes are accurate. This is going to hell fast for the Ukes. If they can't stop the Russians now, where exactly are they going to?
To NATO countries? Surely if NATO have supported them throughout all these years they will receive their wounded, spiritless, decimated Slavic brothers with open arms. Oh, I forgot - they're fighting until the last Ukie...
Also, that American ex-Ranger is a little old looking for active duty. I'd say ...former merc. Prior to his foolish choice to engage in combat with Russians.
While I understand what you’re saying, the expression ‘active duty’ is simply a semantic game. “Hey LT, I’m going on vacation/early retirement…(to Ukraine/Kursk). So as far as the Act of War…sending active duty soldiers (which they have) is the least of it.
I think the semantics matter when dealing with this issue. I take John Galtsky's point about running the 'proxy' part of the proxy war as being an act of war Though what that says about Chinese/Soviet actions in say Vietnam/Korea or US actions in Afghanistan pre-1989 is not good. But if you send your combatants under your own flag into another nation to engage in armed conflict, that is an act of war as understood by the international conventions. There are other issues here. This guy was not in a national uniform. That means that if captured, it is legal to not grant him the rights of a prisoner of war, for instance. The briefs on these matters when you are heading into theater are no joke, even in a place like Korea where technically the US is no longer at war with North Korea. The ROKs are, so it's a little more complicated.
Edited to add: an active duty person can't take a vacation and go fight for someone else. They could take retirement and become an intelligence type or a merc. Intelligence types might be able to do things like that, but they aren't active duty combatants and are generally trying to avoid being identified as US assets. If I were them, i'd think twice about becoming combatants, but no one is asking my opinion on such things. For one, it doesn't enhance your mission to be the shooter. For another thing, it invites precisely this kind of issue. This dude looks like the US fighting against Russia. Where is the deniability here? Which is why I said merc.
You can tell ranger dude was old by the state of that tattoo - the ink was faded and becomes that signature green color. To get to that shitty looking state takes 15+ years. Assume he was in his mid 20’s when he got it, do the math.
Due to the fact that Russia and Nork shares a border, it's no stretch to imagine that there are tens of thousands of defacto Russians who look exactly like their neighbours and speak in the same local dialects. So, Nork soldiers can be indistinguishable from Russians living in that area. Furthermore, I bet the norks are itching to have a go at NATO. And who can blame them after the 50's genocide, courtesy of uncle scam and his "coalition of the willing" lapdogs? I wish those soldiers well. Nork can do with some young experienced soldiers. Kim's current military politburo resembles an old age home. They will need the experience to retake the south and possibly take Japan or at least obliterate them, which will also be retribution well deserved. At least now the RF troops can be put to better for se than building and guarding fortifications in the rear, inside mother Russia. Go Kim! Just nuke those fuck*rs already 😎
"it's no stretch to imagine that there are tens of thousands of defacto Russians who look exactly like their neighbours and speak in the same local dialects."
A friend had a Russian mate he used to talk about. One day when visiting he introduced me to what I thought was a Han Chinese; it was his Russian friend. Born in a border region.
Our post-reality era is a disorienting period when *nothing is true & everything is possible”—which brings losses as well as potential gains. Social media platforms, podcasts & alt-media spaces like substack, for instance, have reordered the information ecosystem @ an epic scale: the audience for broadcast TV meanwhile is decrepit and shrinking. Losses/gains.
But—tsk, tsk—when scores of info bubbles compete for everybody’s attention, it is easier, according to Axios, to propagate conspiracy theories & ‘manipulative news.’
As a legacy-media collective of state stenographers & chatbot summaries, Axios is part of the crusty, dusty & musty style of increasingly irrelevant old media.
Nonetheless, Axios fear mongers about how hard it is to catch Russian misinformation campaigns when podcasts or blogs or tweets remain *uncurated.* In an article on 28 October, Axios asserts that a designated outlet can indeed communicate “shared truths” or “unifying values,” but a multitude of disparate voices dilutes the possibility of finding those “shared truths,” let alone verifying them. The sheer numbers auger against curation.
Speaking of the diminishing audience for newspapers & TV, Jeffrey Katzenberg, a Hollywood exec, said, “You gotta fish where the fish are. They are not on cable & they are not on broadcast. They are not watching & they are not listening.” He characterized old-school outlets as “the top of the waterfall but no longer w/ the capacity to reach viewers/readers/consumers of news downstream.”
His description does not sound like the ‘top of the waterfall.’ It sounds like a once-roaring, tripping, over-flowing tributary that has now dried up.
Although Katzenberg remains bullish on the ability of legacy broadcast news to “give context and relevance and focus and priority,” the leg-work & shoe-leather are neither dynamic nor captivating in that domain. Besides which, none of those things—context, relevance, focus, priority—are the exclusive provenance of legacy broadcasts alone.
Coordinated broadcast voices state that someone is Hitler, Stalin or Mussolini and then amplify the messaging in a whole-of-media bromide, often using the same phraseology, reading from a script, as it were. The parroting is tedious, expected & predictable. Context, relevance, focus and priority are highly constructed & subjective messages under these circumstances, the result of manipulated coordination.
How do we know that someone is Hitler, Stalin or Mussolini—? Because those who engage in the manipulation believe it and insist that we should too. They think we need to be chaperoned through information—and they have self-appointed as our erstwhile chaperones.
Since Axios’s article appeared during Halloween week, the author ended w/ something scary: if DJT wins the election, the nexus of Rogan, right wing podcasters & X will form a new & influential media industrial complex. This may frighten Axios, but those of us who visit S’s Lyceum know how illuminating it is to consider the war in Ukraine, for example, or Israel’s multi-front bombardment of West Asia from angles the legacy media disallows.
CS - more of this please - these degrees of non reality must also result from an increasing despair at the current state of US real life, and expecially reputation across the world
Which must be shored up by whatever means possible - as in even if life is not so great it's the fault of the Russians and the Chinese and look how we are killing them for your revenge
Where once the legacy media had near complete control over the information stream, they are now left guarding a mostly empty theater. When observed from a safe distance all their trashing about and condemnation just looks like a series of desperate acts with each iteration being more outlandish than the last. To me this indicates that they are in fact loosing the battle for hearts and minds. Once the “trust is lost” it takes generations to be regained. One could argue that in that span of time in this era, the entire landscape will have changed to the point where it is not even the same playing field. Also: the more desperate they become and the more outlandish their claims, the more audience they loose. Thus we have a last ditch effort to shut it all down. Hack the internet archive, destroy consortium news, roll out every smear campaign your lackeys can think of and hope for the best. The backlash will be spectacular.
Thanks - people are puzzled about how come stories like the NK get 'invented' and many or most commenters, US I guess, on this site believe them
When all around everywhere in the US, as you point out, most everything reported broadcast or otherwise circulated is just fantasy, intended as fantasy, consumed as fantasy, and that somehow somewhere this is accepted as reality, nonetheless
The NK is wholly invented, with no shred of evidence
Yet people love these fakes more than they love......
Bright & shiny objects are neither bright nor shiny...
Yet people get sidetracked by the invented components of the unceasing fables. For instance, brainwashed Western pundits insist that VVP is prosecuting this war for territorial gain—as the tsar who brought Ukraine home—and cannot conceive of a world where VVP is prosecuting this war in order to keep OTAN from pushing right up against the Russian border.
It's as if reality is not interesting enough--they like to give it a gilded patina. It's the knee-jerk impulse of the marketing consultant, which professional propagandists are.
CheetosSpring, what a waste of time reading your comments, man. Almost always first class SitReps from Simplicius, and then this shit show in the comment section. He doesn’t deserve that.
NK has been armed to the teeth for a quarter century since emerging from it's late 1990s crisis. I would think they would be itching to perform under some live fire
No, nothing about livor mortis (postmortem lividity) indicates the body with a tat is a fake photo. He could have been dead for 8 hours and still have exactly the appearance shown in the photo.
Some notes on postmortem lividity on upper arms after death from various sources on the web...
"Typically, the upper arms of a body would remain pinkish and blanchable for about 8 to 12 hours after death"
"For a body in the supine position, upper arms might remain pinkish within the first 8 hours postmortem as lividity develops, turning purple-blue as it deepens. However, after around 12 hours, the upper arms are more likely to have fixed purple or blue color rather than pinkish, and pressing on them would not alter the color."
Sorry but this is so offtopic as to qualify as "schizo posting".
How can NK special forces be "seasoned" when they haven't been in a hot war since 1953?
There's almost constantly crap happening at the DMZ. I've been in Korea when the NKs are shelling the South, mostly islands off the west coast, but still. Small unit raids happen.
Well exactly.
But what are North Koreans known for? mining tunneling, engineering. With massive areas wrecked by fighting, a work force shortage and the North perpetually short of cash, why not employ them there for best effect?
The other crazy story I have read is that the N-Korean soldiers are starving. So we have an army that can sort out long range artillery and ballistic missiles but not rice, cabbages and pork. It's the same old fighting with rusty shovels and chips scavenged from washing machines nonsense.
That's the problem with propaganda, once you see it in broad focus over time the pieces just don't fit together.
Western Europe is threatened by Genghis Khan re-born, who is also a total bum who digs through the trash for food and begs for bus-fare.
Koreans are not Western soldiers, but they are reasonably well equipped, North and South. I can assure you that regardless of the situation, the only people not starving in North Korea will be the armed forces.
So the soldier are not starving but the farmers who grow their food and the miners, technicians and workers who make everything for the soldiers ARE starving ?
That system can't possible work, certainly not for 70+ years. Nobody not even communist dynastic dictatorships get to defy the laws of reality for 3 generations.
I think it is time to start considering if the stories we have heard about North Korea for all these years are in fact bullshit.
One important thing to note, have you ever heard or read anything from North Korea directly from North Korea? or was it fed to you through an American or European?
I personally have changed my opinions on a great many things once I started to listen to information about China and Russia from the Chinese and Russians.
Thanks
The way even supposedly RF inclined people, as most here, have no idea of how are where to get information from and how to process this, but prefer MSM fantaisies
Is alarming
There have been genuine famines, harvests everywhere have bad years, and without access to agriculture from without - due to sanctions - that will be a disaster. At the same time, I've seen reports that claimed the DPRK have a middle class, and are pretty well developed.
But bear in mind they are still technically at war with the *USA*, and have to divert immense resources to counter-intelligence, military defence and development, all of which are non-productive activities and drain the treasury. The Cubans know all about such costs, and opportunity costs.
So its more complex than we typically get told, but at the same time life there is almost certainly pretty hard in reality too. Most of the time.
How did you learn this? To me sources are of the utmost importance.
The west has thrown away all standards of evidence and all I read or hear from MSM and the chattering class is bull-shit like this "sources close to______" Fill in the blank say bla bla bla. It happens many times per day and in now accepted or at least not challenged by the plebs.
Another trick is CNN will say, According to the NYT who will say, according to MSNBC who will say according to CNN and around and around they go. People seem to have accepted this trick as solid evidence. IMO people are going to believe what they want to believe and when it's political or religious, no amount of evidence will change their mind or at least not quickly. No one likes to admit they are wrong but it seems like admitting you were wrong about something is now looked upon as a sign of weakness, when in truth it's a strength. Over the last decade I have learned plenty about Russia and China, but there and I have not come across much material on N Korea or expats living there and vloging or bloging about what it is like.
Peace
Well, the famine part is just self-evident, regarding the dangers of agriculture combined with genocidal-intent sanctions "We think it was worth it!", combined with land still poisoned by US Korean-war munition use.
The middle class element came from watching several vids by mainly Westerners over the years, who explored beyond the normal corporate media bias zone, combined with several articles over the years - incl one spectacularly pro-Korean from a Leftist site (Link hopelessly lost over the years), that argued for Korean development far in excess of what we hear, or even sounded reasonable, and yet made it seem reasonable. I took that one with a grain of salt and yet it made some probably valid points, regarding what socialism usually achieves when it is able to, even in very hostile conditions (See Cuba, fx).
Bearing in mind Western corporate media's extreme hostility to Korea, and the rabid hostility to any form of honesty, I've blended all that into what I consider - until I go and visit myself - to be a moderate and hopefully reasonable position that does not dehumanise, takes into account likely and normal conditions that pretty much all humans create unless in extremis, while also accepting the challenging conditions that such a state would face from the USA and vassals, and the all-too-often support for this from other regional countries.
As an aside, about what they have faced, they are one of the few countries until the "Biolabs in Ukraine" and Covid outbreak that there is documented proof the USA used biological WMD against them. Imagine how many resources would a country have to devote to defend against a clandestine recurrence by an utterly amoral and implacable foe?
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/26/the-dirty-secret-of-the-korean-war/
At the end of the day though, I freely confess that I do not "know", having never been there myself, nor personally knowing anyone who has. (I can however tell you that Iran is incredible, and probably the most civilised country on Earth). And that this OPINION of Korea is as honest as I can be.
In terms of hard evidence, I no longer have any of the links, and as you know finding hard evidence online in the Western censorship system is rarer than hen's teeth.
"But bear in mind they are still technically at war with the *USA*, and have to divert immense resources to counter-intelligence, military defence and development, all of which are non-productive activities and drain the treasury"
I wish you to look at exibit A: Russia, for dealing with sanctions and how what you said about wasting money is incorrect about NK with it's military adventures.
Ah yes, of course NK has VAST oil and gas reserves they can offer discounts to India, Turkey and China to maintain sales under sanctions. That had slipped my mind.
NK has been under a permanent threat from US invasion for decades, as well as a solid sanctions regime. Naturally they were forced to develop deterrence, for their own safety, considering how the US wages war whenever it feels like against helpless countries.
Now NK isn't helpless, and with the next-gen ICBMs, they'll be untouchable by the US unless its feeling suicidal (Never impossible).
<i>I think it is time to start considering if the stories we have heard about North Korea for all these years are in fact bullshit.</i>
Of course they are. I doubt that the DPRK is a lot of fun but we've been feed a lot of kids' ghost stories for years.
" I doubt that the DPRK is a lot of fun but we've been feed a lot of kids' ghost stories for years."
As a first grader in Wisconsin I had a recurring nightmare about Russians chasing me around my bed. That is 1957 and the red scare is running at full tilt...wide spread mania... enough to scare the shit out of a 6 y/o. Bigly sad!
Both China and Russia have been trading with NK "under the table" for decades now, but this recent agreement between Russia and North Korea makes that trade overt.
North Korea made/was forced into the choice of having to support a massive war machine, which at times forced great privation upon them (which let certain of those in the West go "Ha ha! We told you so!") so emphasised by the meme picture from orbit of a dark NK sharing a border with brightly lit SK.
If the report from SK that NK has supplied 9 million artillery shells to Russia is anywhere near true, then that's a lot of Russian food they can buy in exchange. Further, if part of that trade is in Chinese currency (of which Russia may have an excess) then that's a LOT of Chinese goods that can be bought.
Now this is the point where a trickle of irony becomes a river, because for years this war machine has had to labour under the "impression" provided by "indoctrination" (as the West would have it) that they were preparing for war against the great Satan (USA). The SMO and world events have shown that these labours have not been futile, and they are IN FACT battling the great Satan, and the war machine can now produce *very profitably* for the people of NK.
Better, for the people of NK, they can now see the West (as a "defector" form NK who is attending college in the USA attests) "indoctrinates" its people far harder and to a greater degree than in NK itself has ever done.
Given how productive their southern brothers are, now that they have trade to participate in, thanks to that war machine, I think the future is bright for NK.
Thank you- a drop of sanity in a cloud of propaganda
The financial times has reported how Russia is breaking UN sanctions by supplying oil and petroleum to North Korea. It's not a stretch to imagine that Russia is also sending what and other foodstuff as well considering they have now become close allies. https://www.ft.com/content/df23a473-ea0b-4882-be19-048ae0d501d2
RF is surely supplying grain and other food to NK, in greater quantities than before
The UN has no means of 'knowing' or anywhere near proving that RF is supplying NK with anything
The FT might as well accuse China of breaking UN sanctions in this regard, and indeed they will, but this accusation will be similarly fact free
Christ, you're STILL operating within the framework of western propaganda and assuming the trade is for food AT ALL. You can go on YouTube and watch more hours of Chinese tourists visiting the DPRK than you have hours in your lifetime. The famines were over 30 years ago, food production and flood prevention has been solved, you can see MASSIVE farms, you even see how people living in suburbs and cities are encouraged to garden in their own backyards, you can see factories that make processed food such as instant noodles, infant formula, and soft drinks. The info is all there, the west just tells you not to believe your lying eyes.
Naturally, the FT hasn't mentioned that Russia refused to renew the UN sanctions mandate, no doubt.
Which means they are only US and Western sanctions, and not legally binding upon Russia.
Exactly! This is still my biggest complaint to "westerners" who think they are more "worldly" and open minded. They (we) still cannot accept that they have been lied to and fed BS over decades. You can still see it here, in the comments, it is easy to see they still rely on totally unreliable sources for their world view.
US citizens that hold passports are less than half the population. That's relatively low among developed countries. I know people in the US who are so self-satisfied and non-curious that are proud of not having a passport.
Of course the stories are BS.
I tend to heap onto the ever increasing pile of “everything I was ever told is either a half truth or an outright lie”. Building ones own dynamic model is a full time job…
@Chevrus
Freedom! Horrible, horrible freedom!
https://youtu.be/amWu-idEw-w?si=FW8lcy-FE0hcbTQc
Freedom IS scary.
Applying rationality is a lot of hard work, especially at first when you've grown up immersed in a purpose built disinformation environment and EVERYTHING needs to be reconsidered instead of reflexively responded to.
Good luck-
23 years so far and counting…heck it pretty much runs on auto pilot at this point….with a little partitioning I can maintain my sanity in this shartstorm.
I've read that Russia is sending grain to North Korea.
@Myra
Wait until you hear where North Korea gets oil from?You won't believe it.
Good comment. Yeah, I don't believe anything also anymore. Constant bullshite fantasies, like the Uyghur's concentration camps and how Russia is an Dictatorship.
I had an argument with a couple of my football buddies, they fully believed the whole evil Putin Dictatorship angle, I told them, if you go textbook definition of Dictatorship, Putin is no Dictator, because a Dictator has to have authority over Parliament and his Ministers, a Dictator can write down laws himself and nobody can oppose it. They looked at me with big eyes, as I explained to them, I saw bigfoot or something.
And I told them, that people immigrate to Russia, that there are asylum seekers who go to Russia, again big eyes. Most people are so brainwashed with lies, its sad, intelligent guys also. Those people are gonna have a rude awakening, well, their stories and delululand fantasies get dismembered in real time now...
American people are more provincial and yet they know everything. Don’t confuse them with evidence. And don’t challenge them with critical thinking. The propaganda has been going on since infancy. Try to undermine that foundation of insanity in a conversation.
Unless the individual THEMSELVES wants to truly learn something — they will cling to their biases and lifelong propaganda BY DEFAULT. Don’t beat yourself up by trying your best to educate. Have a civil conversation with those capable of conversation.
American people are more provincial and yet they know everything. Don’t confuse them with evidence. And don’t challenge them with critical thinking. The propaganda has been going on since infancy. Try to undermine that foundation of insanity in a conversation.
Unless the individual THEMSELVES wants to truly learn something — they will cling to their biases and lifelong propaganda BY DEFAULT. Don’t beat yourself up by trying your best to educate. Have a civil conversation with those capable of conversation.
Yes, I live in a City in Pennsylvania, most people who live here, (I do not want to guess but I would say 80-98% of the people have never left the US some travel to Puerto Rico but that is not considered leaving, these same people will repeat the same nonsensical talking points they hear on CNN about Russia and/or China
Former head of the Central Intelligence Agency, William Casey, once reputedly said:
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false."
Casey's wet dreams were realized long ago.
My words were chosen carefully. The NKs will keep their soldiers in the field. What happens to civilians is dependent on the national circumstances. What those are, I have no idea at the moment and can surmise based on conditions in the future, but cannot predict.
I've actually seen a lot of raw NK propaganda, at least. It's actually fairly entertaining. They have a real knack for it, moreso than most East Bloc countries did. I've seen cooler ones than the ones in this collection. The intel guys will post them up when exercising over there, to get everyone in the right spirit.
https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/collection/bb6417911b
Just an important note; fertillizer is always heavily sanctioned because it can be used to make explosives, this usually has a huge knock on effect of causing agricultural problems
It's def bullshit. I've seen interview of Russian guy who work within NK for years and while he obviously doesn't paint rosy picture he also states that most propaganda about NK is just, well, propaganda. It's just like former SU - I lived there and when people from the west fantasize about life in USSR I roll my eyes 'do you really believe that crap?' but propaganda is a tool and it works
So have I. Completely switched my viewpoint 180 degrees once I started actually reading and listening to these Countries we call "poor third worlders where everyone starves and US military would destroy in 2 days".
Now I view the "West" as what it always was, a group of Countries playing follow the leader for the gibs, while punishing their own citizens for daring to think outside the taught in school narrative. Completely hopeless except for a tiny sliver of light come Nov 5th.
Isn't that true anywhere? If a world war erupts, the U.S. won't be able to rest the first few years, and rely on a biased media to portray the American effort as "heroic" and "game changing".
No he just takes free rides
DPRK may not have been openly fighting in that time but they have been subject to existential pressure of all kinds from the west that requires a lot of discipline and readiness. The soldiers in that unit are probably some of the most motivated on the planet right now. And now they have a chance to deal a blow to the west directly. After 60 years of humiliation and, you know, having the USAF run out of buildings to bomb because they leveled every structure in your entire fucking country you’re gonna be ready to go, and what they learn will be rapidly assimilated into their own tactics. And if the war escalates bet on massive quantities of their stockpiled MLRS and artillery to appear.
This is just the latest symptom of absolutely fucking braindead so-called leaders in the west. Russia, China, Iran, North Korea pushed together in a military alliance at the same time the US somehow forgot to actually manufacture enough ordnance to fight them. Treason.
Why is the US always focussed on fighting people?
Why not integrate with them, for mutual benefit, as BRICS is showing can be done?
So it could reasonably argued that "making enough ordnance to fight them" is actually the treason that is being committed.
US taxpayers' money is being squandered on armaments, when it would be better spent on cultural outreach and the common goals facing us all - and I'm NOT talking about "combatting climate change", and "reparations for colonialism" etc etc..
If you believe that the US has ever 'integrated with them' you are pipe dreaming
The US is founded on Empire, those weary brits came ashore fighting the natives and have never stopped
I think you missed the point.
You are correct that the US has never integrated - what I said was "Why hasn't it?"
The "weary Brits" came ashore as religious refugees, not as conquerors, as we all know.
Thus your first "Thanksgiving" dates from that time, when the weary Brits got together with the natives and had a meal with them.
What nobody wants to confront is that both Britain and the US have been subverted by a wandering tribe who seek to be hegemonic, and to steal everybody else's breakfast.
The US revolution showed that - the King was being pressured by these people, who had infested the City of London, ( and are still there ) and who wanted to be paid interest on their loans in GOLD, ( they love gold ) so refused the Colonial Scrip which was being offered.
The entire history of colonialism, slavery, exploitation, drug running, sex trafficking, and war making is directly traceable back to this tribe.
They are the Menace Within, and unless and until they are eradicated from all areas of public life, this madness will continue.
No we don’t all know – another yankee fable – you lot can not integrate without killing off everyone you come across
The religious were not the only brit pirates to plunder those shores- They scrambled up the beaches as putative and determined conquerors
You think they were ignorant of conditions before they set out
Other brits before them had already sampled the dubious pleasures of America and spread the glad tidings
Do not spout that fantasy about Thanksgiving - rather relate how many of what you call Native Americans were killed by those prissy Mayflower Maidens and the brit gentry who preceeded and also followed them, including the class that underwrote the rebellion against London governance
You lot never needed subversion, you were from the start the inversion of any real religion
Your words are useless when it comes to explaining or describing the modern world, unless as a veil of casuistical religiosity drawn across a pile of hate & designed only to kill and to oppress
The Crusades then were the same people the same class the same objective as the current crusades now
When you stop lying about yourself your country your origins and your purpose ,or the fake history you have been fed, you will have a clue as to the oppression you suffer from and killgrounds you are heir to
And you will not so gladly preach hatred or a smarmy kingdom come
The US is always fighting everybody because they're the world hegemon and they need to control the world's resources. If BRICS+ gets up and running it won't be long before they need to become the tough guy. We're soon approaching the end of cheap oil and cheap copper and all the rest. Revelation is playing out perfectly. It's hard to see us having even 10 more years.
I'm looking forward to the NK 300MM MLRS to be utilised.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyg0IZ60zF8
There are continual skirmishes with Sth Korean puppet military every week, and has been so since the 50ies. It is just not reported.
The NK are very focused on the SK
Much too much to be diverted by any such fantasy as sending soldiers to another front
Observers for sure - troops are required at home
Putin just cemented Kim's legacy as a great leader of his nation, there's zero doubt in my mind Kim is begging him to accept his best men. Also, Kim is always itching for a fight and NATO mercs in Kursk is the perfect outlet for him. I don't see how Putin could say no without dishonoring him
Kim is itching for a fight....not with VVP he is not, and he's far too intelligent to think that a fight in Ukraine is anything useful for him VVP the RF or his soldiers
The NK is trained to defend the NK and to finish the war with the SK and the US in the peninsula
To train and learn up some troops on RF machinery methods and disciplines would take a long time and create a disparate NK unit then no longer integrated in the NK army tactics training and procedures, in an irrelevant to KN SK conditions and terrain, annoying to the RF troops who need not outsider help for nothing that they have to do
Pointless and harmful
Both Kim and VVP are very much aware of this
Kim does not beg anyone for anything least off a friend
You are transmitting westie propaganda
You know that Kim is saying something to VVP? really?
Obviously I have first hand knowledge, but the Ukraine war is clearly a perfect chance for modern warfare experience to be integrated into elite units.
Good luck with your call to Kim
They’ll probably be EXTATIC with three meals a day.
Why would North Korea be short on food now, unless your diet is a healthy meal of dollar bills?
"unless your diet is a healthy meal of dollar bills"
They print those anyway.
Colonel McGregor said that it's common for North Korean soldiers to train in Russia. There presence has nothing to do with the SMO.
Or even "ecstatic."
and to put "it" in CAPS no less !
Chinese 5 Spice.
I guess they're just born that way 😉
When you have spent enough time in magical thinking land and your audience has been gaslit for a generation or two anything is possible. Just say it, print it, and klick your heals together and there you have it!
Samgyeopsal. Maybe?
MSM BlueAnon is having a full mental breakdown in their perpetual paranoid red scare. Bezos refused to let WaPo endorse a candidate. Kamala is flailing word salad about fascism. Orange man will be elected in a week. The downfall dominoes are accelerating and the memes will be epic. Are you not entertained?
And Trump just got hundreds of millions in free advertising with his 3 hour Rogan interview...followed by his devastating Madison Square Garden rally, with great speeches by people like Vivek and Tucker.....
It’s worth noting that he snatched that interview from under the nose of his opponent. Not that Joe would have agreed to all the preconditions, but it’s noteworthy that she was considering it as yet another last ditch effort to reach younger male voters.
Rogan’s style of interviews would do well for Harris; his conversational approach doesn’t overwhelm his guests. I don’t know if she has 3 hours of conversation in her but it couldn’t hurt her chances, she’s desperate.
It's difficult to spoof Kamala, since she's always spoofing herself, but here goes...
https://youtu.be/WMOpQVjCAk0?si=sSPxJftxTUjHA4KH
How crazy it is that they’re even trying. For so long we’d been told “fish bicycle”. Sucks to be them, lmao.
Too much Circus, not any bread.
Even the circus is no longer entertaining.
Exactly🥱
Was it ever.................so tedious.
Trump MAGA seems suspiciously like the Obama Hope and Change, perhaps the peasants have to be tossed some imaginary hope every decade or so to keep them from revolting. Regardless of the ringmaster the circus of state keeps grinding on and grinding down.
Both candidates are enslaved to a foreign power, whose name we dare not speak.
The MAGA one is slightly more truthful about what he will do if he regains the WH - like the bolsheviks of old, his first act will be to outlaw antisemitism, and make it a capital offence.
As they say, "Be careful of what you wish for, because you might get it."
A wind of change is blowing over the vast open spaces of America, and it smells like gefilte fish.
Trump business entities have filed for bankruptcy at least 4 times. This is clear proof that Trump never lets bankster sponsors get in the way of business.
Will he do the same for campaign donors? We will see.
As history would have it, he was then bailed out by a Rothschild bank and thus is in the pocket. This partially explains the appointment of Wilbur Ross during his administration. On thing that seems pretty clear: the faction that back Karmella is going to do more damage than the Orange Man.
You clearly did not read the comment you are responding to: why exactly would a person that has legally defaulted on loans for his businesses, at least 4 times, be considered someone beholden to banksters?
The people who never default, those are the bankster bitches.
I did read the comment you ninny
If you owe someone a favor, they have some sort of insulin on you. It isn’t rocket surgery.
Give me per capita numbers of trump failed businesses. 4 out of how many?
Nonsensical. What does per capita have to do with failed businesses?
There's this thing called the internet - go do a search.
If he’s 4:4 (100%) failed business, thats pretty bad, terrible even If it’s 4:100 (4%), then I dare say he’s done well for himself.
I don’t suppose you’re suggesting he’d need a 100% success rate for you to be satisfied?
It seems that Trump is loudest when engaging in misdirection.
I'm not confident, but hopeful, that may be the case here.
Right. Neither leading candidate has a detailed, operational plan to improve/change even ONE demoralizing, destructive aspect of Big Government. It’s just a repeat of the “throw ‘em a fish” election process.
Why would any candidate publish such a detailed, operational plan?
And thus prepare the Federal Bureaucracy/Deep State to fight it?
The difference, this time, is Trump is not coming into the POTUS completely unprepared. The last time, he had zero Congressional support even from his own party nor did he have the 10K or so top Federal Bureaucracy appointee positions already filled with vetted people. That's why Bolton was brought in - the Republican party was asked to help and their response was to send in the neocons.
Not that Trump still does not have some bad personnel around him: Lindsey Graham and Pompeo spring to mind. But on the positive side: Tulsi and RFK Jr and their allies will help.
This is a valid and accurate point. Regardless of speculation and the assigning of values, something big is going to happen….there is nothing that can halt this momentum. The Don got effective skunked last time through lawfare and various other dirty tricks. If he is able to appoint useful people to important positions, things could get interesting…and dangerous.
" But on the positive side: Tulsi and RFK Jr and their allies will help."
Tulsi and Kennedy and Vivek and Nikki are waiting for the Trump fever to pass and they'll be in line for the next go-around. Vance, Mini-Trump, too. Tucker is also a prospect next time. The scariest thing about Trump aside from his non-stop bluster, blagging and exaggeration is the fact that he's likely NEVER read a book. EVER. Ergo, he's reliant on whoever has his ear. Don, with his imported wife, banging on about "immigrants". I'd find it funnier if I was witnessing this shit-show from another planet. They're eating cats and dogs...It's easy to dance to so I give it a 78. <<link>>
https://youtu.be/3BrCvZmSnKA?si=9OeTRuY7-Bkd6Riu
You have clearly not actually paid attention to what Trump says.
The main theme Trump played on in his first term: China was eating the US' lunch.
Is this is factually wrong?
As for the rest of your commentary: maybe some or all of the named people are seeking to be the next President.
So what? As if Kamala and Gretchen Whitmer and Shapiro are any different? Puh-lease.
The reason the liberals and never-Trumpers hate Trump is precisely because he actually is correct more often than not despite his failure to adhere to professional/managerial class etiquette.
Well, fuck the PMC class, I could care less what those incompetent morons think.
Hope and Change was always bullshit: Obama was primarily the tool by which the Pritzkers took low income housing and converted it into hotels and condos.
Trump, RFK Jr and Tulsi, however, are looking specifically at reforming the US government and fighting the Deep State.
Whether they succeed or not, impossible to say but it is a worthy goal.
I've heard that Trump will not listen to the hardliners and neocons this time. And I've heard he and his team have the intent to cut the budget of the federal agencies like the FBI or the CIA 75%. And fragment those alphabet organizations to the states with 50% or so. We will see. I am skeptical he can downsize the swamp it has to be downsized to. The empire will fall, this way or another like all empires fall.
It is always a bit of both, entertained and concerned what they might be up to with their backs up against the wall (only figuratively speaking!)...
Not yet, it's only the opening act of something really spectacular.
The current entertainment is just the warm-up act. Wait until Orange Man gets elected.
Well the money people certainly seem to have placed their bets…
I am Dutch born, and Rutte was much despised. Is he delusional, or what?! Try a million Ukies KIA/WIA. Rutte must not read Simplicius, Larry Johnson or Moon of Alabama. Or is he doing his job well? Yes, I'm entertained but not about so many men killed. Two years ago it was already clear who was going to win, and who would lose - country 404 and NATO.
Luridly, the “foundational values that have made Western civilization what it is,” to quote S above, are coming more sharply into focus in the self-interested deceit of imperial powers & their allies who have never relinquished a slave trade mind-set or blinked twice @ genociding a population when their claims & investments collided w/ unfathomable cruelty.
It is not that the Western order has given up on its "foundational values"--they are enacting their values & prosecuting them lustily in the most blatant & explicit form possible: via the cold calculations of erasing Gaza's women, children & elderly, via the subjugation of Georgians who dare to vote against subjugation, via the cynical exploitation of proxy soldiers in a war they cannot win, as if the meat will last forever.
I mean, Janet Yellen was warning Bibi yesterday "not to collapse the Palestinian economy." In Gaza, the death is constant, the destruction relentless & the shattering of a moral compass so extreme--but Yellen is thinking about money.
The Western system is not broken. It is working precisely as designed.
Exactly! It is a great mistake to think otherwise. In the end we could say it was crumbling but for now they are doing the same business as usual.
Breaking stuff and then having their buddies rebuild it in theory own image at great expense.
Janet Yellen is Jewish - of course she thinks about money. (I know, I'm bad)
She is PAID to think about money, though, eh.
Yes you are worse than bad, ridiculous - CS's point which is all the truth and nothing but is that the US is founded on these money values (to stick only to that point) which is not the prerogative of any one tribe religion or ethnicity
But is the foundational aspiration of all settler societies
The accusations against the Jews etc are deflections and divide and rule
You should be aware, assuming you are USEU, of your time and place
Gerrard seems to have much to say, and much of it effluvia.
He does not recognise that although the US was to a large extent founded on "money values," a feature of its history is that it was largely concerned with resisting the setting up of a private central banking system, which came with the dread curse of usury - a diabolical feature previously anathematised by every other race of man.
Effectively, then, this race which he seeks to exculpate like the useful idiot he both is, and they call him, has perfected the art of lending money they don't have to nations which then have to pay back the non existent with the existent.
And thus, the "US National Debt" is a delusional construct which could be paid off in one fell swoop with a fiat note of the same kind as they have used to enslave it.
So by no means is this the ancient Roman concept of Divide et Impera - it is the Christian concept of slaying the dragon, which one carefully-aimed thrust would do.
You mean the US or it's banks does not practice usury?
Try telling that to your debt slaves
The rest of your fiat money thingy is delusional -
These guys are mere Christians slaying what lion sorry dragon - what is the dragon
You are talking in tongue whatever is the Anglo phrase for tu parles en langue
Gerrard, you're out of your depth here.
Give up now.
If "the rest of my fiat money thing is delusional," I point you to the multi-part series by the US producer Bill Still, and his masterful expose of what fiat money is all about, in his series "The Money Masters."
You can thank me later.,
Sure I am lost when you start in about Christians slaying lions or something
Keep this kind of beam me up language for true believers
Fait money indeed semper fidelis you'll come up with next
Mayflower Maidens singing songs decked in garlands
"a feature of its history is that it was largely concerned with resisting the setting up of a private central banking system,"
That was in the really early days with clashing visions Jefferson's idea of a republic of yeoman farmers and Hamilton's pushing for a central bank. By the time Jefferson was President Hamilton's idea won out. From then on it's an ideology based on the Marketplace writ large and is now fucking up the globe.
Bill Still makes it clear that this was a perennial problem, until finally the dread Christmas Eve 1913 rolled around, and the chosen people won, on the back of a vote taken by a virtually empty Congress.
The Hamiltonian lust was implemented until Andrew Jackson dismantled it, so far from being ‘won out.’ But the idea would not take root until Lincoln implemented it per his mentor, Henry Clay after the south was thoroughly defeated. Thus it’s Lincoln that it rightfully known as the great centralizer.
According to Michael Hudson, in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century the American economy was based on industrial capitalism rather than financial capitalism due to the sheer dynamism of the industrial revolutions and their productivity and profitability. There was quite a muscular struggle between the two groups....but the financial capitalists are cunning. They found a way to get on top by cheating (the only way they could win); they manipulated the new Federal Reserve system into being. The rest is history.
Yellen is one of those "intellectual " idiots from Ivy League schools (an underlying problem in power positions in America).
Victor, compared to some on here, that's mild mate.
🎯
Misdirection.
Western values were clearly Christian in type, as in the ending of slavery, and the Schweizer-esque nurturing of the native.
However, they were entirely subverted when the chosen people bribed and stole and lied their way into its very beating heart - in the case of Britain, when Cromwell allowed them back into the kingdom, after their earlier expulsion, in exchange for them funding his New Model Army, whose successes enabled them then to require him to execute the king - a pattern also seen at other times, albeit with slight modifications, in France, Russia, and Germany.
This chosen people hates kingship, because it carries with it a requirement that God's laws are adhered to, rather than humanist laws of convenience and impermanence and hypocrisy - the so called "rules-based order" beloved of the modern western politician.
And thus "the west" as it is today bears no resemblance to "the west" in the period of its flowering; the flowers changed to "Les Fleurs du mal" as the poet would have it.
The canker in the Rose.
I don't see wokeness, or foreign entanglements, or financial feudalism as foundational values. Nobody ever voted for the latter 2 and it is debatable whether a majority voted for the former.
What is happening now is diktat, not popular.
Who didn't know Janet was lying about "transitory" inflation? These people have no shame. Cannot wait for the Global American Empire to go down. I just need to stay alive another 25-30 years so I can witness it. And the implosion of those murdering, psychopaths' country, blowing up refugee camps, hospitals and religious buildings.
I wonder if the NK troops are there on Kim's request. There seems to be little upside for Russia to have them there. And I really don't buy the idea that they will assault anything. They'd be annihilated - a totally green unit, in unfamiliar territory, with no interoperability with Russian army units, and all kinds of other problems.
They won't be allowed on the front lines, since they are not properly trained and probably don't speak Russian...so the whole affair is silly...I think it is Kim's idea...
Are you then assuming the Western propaganda is true?
They want it to be true so they can fantasise
No..just pointing out that if it were true, it wouldn't matter....
I would not be surprised if there are DPRK troops in Russia but not in combat. Language, differing military doctrines, and what is probably badly outdated equipment would make the DPRK troops more of a hazard than a help in combat.
That the troops are somewhere in Russia, probably in the Russian Far East, to learn about the new Russian ways of war and possibly to do a bit of training on modern Russian equipment is quite believable since the RF and the DPRK have just signed a mutual aid treaty.
There might be some Korean observers in Kursk Oblast to see how the Russians do things.
Personally, I think the idea comes from his sister, or daughter.
It seems typically female in its lack of logic or accountability.
Genius level Christian Soldier
I wonder what Elvira Nabiullina would say to such a statement.
This guy is bovine US propagandist stuck in the Crusades
If she knows anything about the sisterhood, she would probably agree.
This may not be relevant, but there is also a population of almost 125,000 Koreans who live in Russia.
Are you aware of The Chinese Labour Corps?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Labour_Corps
An interesting and largely forgotten piece of WWI history ~140,000 Chinese workers recruited by the French and British. That sort of work force had a major impact on the outcome of the war.
These North Koreans are military not civilians but North Korean society is highly militarized anyway and sapper/engineer battalions are also worker battalions.
A Korean Labour Corp to help 're-build the Donbass would make lots of sense.
All I have read about this is ignoramuses underestimating North Korea. It would come as no surprise to me if those soldiers are both highly competent and speak Russian. And of course they aren’t going to be sent to the front to die like 50 year old Ukrainians. North Korea has an absolutely huge standing army of professional soldiers, a huge stockpile of artillery and missiles, and the ability to manufacture massive quantities more very cheaply. They have multiple nuclear weapons and helped Iran build the missiles that have reversed the balance of power and escalation dominance dynamic in the Middle East. And yet we talk about them like they’re sending illiterate bumpkins fresh out the fucking rice paddy.
The point you are missing is encapsulated in the word "interoperability," which NK and Russia don't have.
Which they will now commence building. Russia doesn’t need them to serve any purpose at all except to observe and learn. One trained soldier can train thousands more. Russian and North Korean gear is far simpler, easier to learn, repair, and use than NATO. They will learn how to interoperate.
You don't start building interoperability in the midst of a hot war.
Your first and second sentences are mutually exclusive.
"Observing and learning" are not the same as "interoperating," which is a far more dynamic and potentially deadly exercise.
Why assume they're here for this war? Probably training together for the big war down the lane. More likely to be combat engineers etc
You can start off with Belarus.
"The entire Western order has at this point in its lurid, terminal panic given up on not only truth, but any and all foundational values that have made Western civilization what it was."
Yeah. I realized this about 20 years ago. It took a few years to validate and accept the realization. I "quietly quit" and began to protect my retirement.
Has anyone seen my stapler?
Check your desk drawer, it's embedded in jelly.
ok
That was a lame attempt at a Jim Halpert scenario.
It's from the UK's 'The Office' too. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1PHpkdvNOs&
You bring me down to this.
Lol.
What, where on earth is the paper to staple? In fact where the hell did the printers go.
"The entire Western order has at this point in its lurid, terminal panic given up on not only truth, but any and all foundational values that have made Western civilization what it was. Threats, lies, and propaganda are flung with no accountability or attempt at justification; it seems we’ve entered the rapid parabolic singularity point of the ‘post-truth’ era in the West. Just like how the Federal Reserve must now exponentiate its printing cycles just to stave off collapse, Western intelligentsia and its corrupt crony political class must now likewise balloon their brazen lies to infinity just to keep from drowning in them as if the buoyancy of volume will keep them from going down." - Simplicius
Worth the monthly subscription right there.
I stopped and read that paragraph out to my wife.
I do not understand the problem if Russia uses allied forces from NK to eradicate the invaders at Kursk? It is pure defence of Motherland - not an invasion of Ukraine.
There isn't a problem. There's nothing unusual about one country helping out another militarily. But when it's Russia and North Korea, two of the Evil Axis, naturally western leaders are soiling their Depends.
Yes, 54 countries have supported Ukraine. It sucks when you fight a real army. Now they're trying to claim its not fair because they are certainly seeing the writing on the wall. Uraaaa!
When you look at and listen to what passes for "western leaders" you see infantalism. Tantrums when they don't get their way. They manufacture their own realities.
But in the end: Metal Talks and Bullshit Walks….which we are seeing right now. Proceed.
That's called dementia with too much power.
It's a pretext for further escalation. Nothing more.
I've pointed out before that eventually the progress starts to heat up as the front collapses. This is a collapsing front at this point. I'm not sure "year-long" timeframes are accurate. This is going to hell fast for the Ukes. If they can't stop the Russians now, where exactly are they going to?
To NATO countries? Surely if NATO have supported them throughout all these years they will receive their wounded, spiritless, decimated Slavic brothers with open arms. Oh, I forgot - they're fighting until the last Ukie...
You misunderstood the question.
If they can't stop the Russians now, where the hell are they going to stop them?
They're not.
Also, that American ex-Ranger is a little old looking for active duty. I'd say ...former merc. Prior to his foolish choice to engage in combat with Russians.
Was probably his first encounter facing a real army. FAFO.
Contractor.
Fell in love with randomly killing goat-herders from his HMMWV in Iraq/Afghanistan, thought he'd do the same to some Russian peasants.
Met the VDV or the Marines.
Who can say what with the face being blurred….and to be fair, it hardly matters at this point…
Active duty would be an undeniable act of war. Also blurred face or no, that dude is not in his 20s or maybe not even 30s.
While I understand what you’re saying, the expression ‘active duty’ is simply a semantic game. “Hey LT, I’m going on vacation/early retirement…(to Ukraine/Kursk). So as far as the Act of War…sending active duty soldiers (which they have) is the least of it.
I think the semantics matter when dealing with this issue. I take John Galtsky's point about running the 'proxy' part of the proxy war as being an act of war Though what that says about Chinese/Soviet actions in say Vietnam/Korea or US actions in Afghanistan pre-1989 is not good. But if you send your combatants under your own flag into another nation to engage in armed conflict, that is an act of war as understood by the international conventions. There are other issues here. This guy was not in a national uniform. That means that if captured, it is legal to not grant him the rights of a prisoner of war, for instance. The briefs on these matters when you are heading into theater are no joke, even in a place like Korea where technically the US is no longer at war with North Korea. The ROKs are, so it's a little more complicated.
Edited to add: an active duty person can't take a vacation and go fight for someone else. They could take retirement and become an intelligence type or a merc. Intelligence types might be able to do things like that, but they aren't active duty combatants and are generally trying to avoid being identified as US assets. If I were them, i'd think twice about becoming combatants, but no one is asking my opinion on such things. For one, it doesn't enhance your mission to be the shooter. For another thing, it invites precisely this kind of issue. This dude looks like the US fighting against Russia. Where is the deniability here? Which is why I said merc.
You can tell ranger dude was old by the state of that tattoo - the ink was faded and becomes that signature green color. To get to that shitty looking state takes 15+ years. Assume he was in his mid 20’s when he got it, do the math.
Yeah, you right
It looks pretty crusty
I have a couple friends that served in that outfit. They’re probably a little older, but same generation.
Due to the fact that Russia and Nork shares a border, it's no stretch to imagine that there are tens of thousands of defacto Russians who look exactly like their neighbours and speak in the same local dialects. So, Nork soldiers can be indistinguishable from Russians living in that area. Furthermore, I bet the norks are itching to have a go at NATO. And who can blame them after the 50's genocide, courtesy of uncle scam and his "coalition of the willing" lapdogs? I wish those soldiers well. Nork can do with some young experienced soldiers. Kim's current military politburo resembles an old age home. They will need the experience to retake the south and possibly take Japan or at least obliterate them, which will also be retribution well deserved. At least now the RF troops can be put to better for se than building and guarding fortifications in the rear, inside mother Russia. Go Kim! Just nuke those fuck*rs already 😎
"it's no stretch to imagine that there are tens of thousands of defacto Russians who look exactly like their neighbours and speak in the same local dialects."
A friend had a Russian mate he used to talk about. One day when visiting he introduced me to what I thought was a Han Chinese; it was his Russian friend. Born in a border region.
There are approximately 125,000 Koreans who live in Russia. So yes, Russians can look like their neighbors because they are indeed Russian.
An somewhere between 1 and 2 million ethnic Koreans in China.
Our post-reality era is a disorienting period when *nothing is true & everything is possible”—which brings losses as well as potential gains. Social media platforms, podcasts & alt-media spaces like substack, for instance, have reordered the information ecosystem @ an epic scale: the audience for broadcast TV meanwhile is decrepit and shrinking. Losses/gains.
But—tsk, tsk—when scores of info bubbles compete for everybody’s attention, it is easier, according to Axios, to propagate conspiracy theories & ‘manipulative news.’
As a legacy-media collective of state stenographers & chatbot summaries, Axios is part of the crusty, dusty & musty style of increasingly irrelevant old media.
Nonetheless, Axios fear mongers about how hard it is to catch Russian misinformation campaigns when podcasts or blogs or tweets remain *uncurated.* In an article on 28 October, Axios asserts that a designated outlet can indeed communicate “shared truths” or “unifying values,” but a multitude of disparate voices dilutes the possibility of finding those “shared truths,” let alone verifying them. The sheer numbers auger against curation.
Speaking of the diminishing audience for newspapers & TV, Jeffrey Katzenberg, a Hollywood exec, said, “You gotta fish where the fish are. They are not on cable & they are not on broadcast. They are not watching & they are not listening.” He characterized old-school outlets as “the top of the waterfall but no longer w/ the capacity to reach viewers/readers/consumers of news downstream.”
His description does not sound like the ‘top of the waterfall.’ It sounds like a once-roaring, tripping, over-flowing tributary that has now dried up.
Although Katzenberg remains bullish on the ability of legacy broadcast news to “give context and relevance and focus and priority,” the leg-work & shoe-leather are neither dynamic nor captivating in that domain. Besides which, none of those things—context, relevance, focus, priority—are the exclusive provenance of legacy broadcasts alone.
Coordinated broadcast voices state that someone is Hitler, Stalin or Mussolini and then amplify the messaging in a whole-of-media bromide, often using the same phraseology, reading from a script, as it were. The parroting is tedious, expected & predictable. Context, relevance, focus and priority are highly constructed & subjective messages under these circumstances, the result of manipulated coordination.
How do we know that someone is Hitler, Stalin or Mussolini—? Because those who engage in the manipulation believe it and insist that we should too. They think we need to be chaperoned through information—and they have self-appointed as our erstwhile chaperones.
Since Axios’s article appeared during Halloween week, the author ended w/ something scary: if DJT wins the election, the nexus of Rogan, right wing podcasters & X will form a new & influential media industrial complex. This may frighten Axios, but those of us who visit S’s Lyceum know how illuminating it is to consider the war in Ukraine, for example, or Israel’s multi-front bombardment of West Asia from angles the legacy media disallows.
Losses/gains.
CS - more of this please - these degrees of non reality must also result from an increasing despair at the current state of US real life, and expecially reputation across the world
Which must be shored up by whatever means possible - as in even if life is not so great it's the fault of the Russians and the Chinese and look how we are killing them for your revenge
Where once the legacy media had near complete control over the information stream, they are now left guarding a mostly empty theater. When observed from a safe distance all their trashing about and condemnation just looks like a series of desperate acts with each iteration being more outlandish than the last. To me this indicates that they are in fact loosing the battle for hearts and minds. Once the “trust is lost” it takes generations to be regained. One could argue that in that span of time in this era, the entire landscape will have changed to the point where it is not even the same playing field. Also: the more desperate they become and the more outlandish their claims, the more audience they loose. Thus we have a last ditch effort to shut it all down. Hack the internet archive, destroy consortium news, roll out every smear campaign your lackeys can think of and hope for the best. The backlash will be spectacular.
Thanks - people are puzzled about how come stories like the NK get 'invented' and many or most commenters, US I guess, on this site believe them
When all around everywhere in the US, as you point out, most everything reported broadcast or otherwise circulated is just fantasy, intended as fantasy, consumed as fantasy, and that somehow somewhere this is accepted as reality, nonetheless
The NK is wholly invented, with no shred of evidence
Yet people love these fakes more than they love......
Bright & shiny objects are neither bright nor shiny...
Yet people get sidetracked by the invented components of the unceasing fables. For instance, brainwashed Western pundits insist that VVP is prosecuting this war for territorial gain—as the tsar who brought Ukraine home—and cannot conceive of a world where VVP is prosecuting this war in order to keep OTAN from pushing right up against the Russian border.
It's as if reality is not interesting enough--they like to give it a gilded patina. It's the knee-jerk impulse of the marketing consultant, which professional propagandists are.
CheetosSpring, what a waste of time reading your comments, man. Almost always first class SitReps from Simplicius, and then this shit show in the comment section. He doesn’t deserve that.
Your own comment added exactly nothing. At least his was on topic.
Well, he is not alone. This whole comment section is always riddled with this type of nonsense.
I have been reading hundreds of comments every day since the beginning of the Internet.
They used to be a great source of information before. Now it's just censorship and BS accounts full of nothing.
So, treat us to your wisdom, or at least provide some specifics as to what you disagree with and why.
It sickens me that America's warriors would deploy to defend a foreign nation while their own is being destroyed
Not to defend even, but to invade.
rape, pillage and murder aka western values™ and defending democracy™.
Smedley Butler enters the chat
The US isn't at war, they volunteered. A type of Darwin Award, I'm sorry to say
Top 10 signs we are ruled by a death cult Jay Dyer podcast, to the western degenerates we are farm animals to be put to the slaughter
Whatever happened to his blog?! I used to live his takes on media culture!
NK has been armed to the teeth for a quarter century since emerging from it's late 1990s crisis. I would think they would be itching to perform under some live fire