Numerous sources are reporting that the Democratic People's Republic of Best Korea has launched a rocket into space, and that the government of Best Korea is declaring its effort to launch a satellite into space a success. Almost exactly one month ago the Democratic People's Republic of Best Korea claimed success in testing a hydrogen bomb. During the 20th century Cold War between the USSR and United Soviet Socialist America the capability to launch satellites into space was used as a proxy that demonstrated the ability to deploy nuclear weapons at any range. Continued space launches on the part of the Democratic People's Republic of Best Korea would indicate an aerospace industry significant enough to sustain the production and maintenance of intercontinental ballistic missiles and add further credibility to the nation's growing nuclear deterrent.
Category Archives: Asia
Bank Of Japan Takes Interest Rates Negative
The Bank of Japan has introduced a negative interest rate policy a mere week after Bank Governor Haruhiko Kuroda assured the world his bank would not taking such a course of action anytime "soon" (archived). The move helped to take Bitcoin and the United States dollar higher against the yen. The euro spiked higher against the yen and then regressed.
Activists Targeted In Years Long Spear Phishing Campaign
Robert Falcone and Jen Miller-Osborn of Palo Alto Networks have published a write up on the Scarlet Mimic series of attacks carried out against various activist groups (archived). This campaign carried out over at least four years largely against Tibetian and Uyghur activists is another reminder of the serious danger presented by small scale social engineering efforts like spear phishing, which demand different mitigation and risk reduction strategies than macro scale social engineering attacks.
Two US Navy Boats And Ten Sailors In Iranian Custody
Iran has reportedly taken custody of two small United States Navy boats and the ten sailors accompanying them in an Iranian controlled portion of the Persian Gulf (archived). Representatives of Iran and the United States are reportedly negotiating a resolution to this situation.
China Continues Forcing Stockholders To HODL
Reports are emerging that China's stock market regulators will continue to ban stock holders possessing more than 5% of a companies shares from selling (archived). The measure which appears intended to prevent actual market valuation of securities deprives the most significant investors in companies of their ability to reclaim value they put in while there is still value to save. As the global fiat system continues to decline expect more national market regulators to take extreme measures like this in order force disproportionate loss on the system's most critical private investors. Sorry for your loss.
DPRK Successfully Tests Hydrogen Bomb
The Democratic People's Republic of Best Korea is reporting their successful test of a thermonuclear weapon following an 4.9 to 5.1 magnitude earthquake originating from a shallow depth at one of Best Korea's known nuclear testing sites (archived). North Korea tested their first nuclear weapon on October 9th, 2006 to alleviate doubts expressed by diplomats from other nations about their nuclear weapons status. A successful thermonuclear weapons test means that Best Korea has transitioned from an entry level membership in the Nuclear Club to a Diamond Level Nuclear Club membership.
Silk Road Fallout Updates
This week United States Secret Service operative Shaun Bridges was sentenced to 71 months in prison for his theft from the Silk Road, the exact amount sought by the prosecution. Back in October more interesting Silk Road thief Carl Mark Force IV received 78 months in prison while prosecutors requested he received 87. Meanwhile last week the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation managed to have a Canadian citizen arrested in Thailand for consulting on the design of a website which happened to be used as a drug marketplace by others. The arrest of a Canadian in Thailand is consistent with the severe clinical depersonalization revealed by the United States Government's consistent pattern of having foreign nationals in still other foreign countries arrested with the aim of prosecuting them in the United States.
Obama at ASEAN: Money Overwhelms Ideas
President Hussein Bahamas
At a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations United States President Barack Hussein Obama told a group of young Asian leaders to avoid flaws in the political system which elected him president twice (archived). Chief among the problems Obama sees in the United States political system is that "money overwhelms ideas" even though his campaigns in pursuit of elected office were never starved for funding.
As a United States president elected to his final term under the current constitutionally imposed term limits, Obama's re-election campaign "Obama for America" still operates as a "community organizing project" under the name "Organize for Action" actively engaged in shaping political conversation in the United States. This organization in its present incarnation is chartered as a 501(c)(4) non-profit allowed to lobby for legislation but disallowed from endorsing any particular candidate for office as a part of its transition after the 2012 election. In spite of this "Organize for Action" still runs barackobama.com and the handle @barackobama on Twitter. "Organize for Action" has further been linked to recent outbreaks of racial unrest in the United States.
Barack Hussein Obama could not be reached for comment on how he feels about his own participation and victory in this electoral system. The one which allowed him to triumph over so many ideas through his raw power of accessing lots of money.
Karpeles Arrested on Still More Embezzlement Charges
Shingetsu News Agency is reporting on their Twitter feed that Mt Gox CEO Mark Karpelès has been rearrested in Japan on still more embezzlement charges. Japanese police are only allowed to hold a suspect in detention for a limited period of time, so re-arrest on further charges is a common tactic used to keep charged suspects detained indefinitely before trial.
India Imposes and US Considers Tariffs on Hot Rolled Steel
Last week India imposed a 20% tariff on a number of hot rolled steel products to "safeguard" domestic production. According to the Business Standard this has lead domestic producers to drop their customarily negotiated discounts and begin charging customers according to their actual published price sheets (archived). Earlier this month the United States began an investigation (archived) into hot rolled steel products of their own and have just announced that based on early findings they intend to continue the investigation (archived) as imports appear to impose "harm" on US producers in their determination through low prices. The US can be expected to follow India in introducing protectionist tariffs on hot rolled steel soon. As a larger tend expect bureaucracy heavy states struggling to support domestic industry such as the United States and India to begin ramping up their imposition of protectionist tariffs in an effort to keep the remains of their domestic production capacity from being gutted.