Longstanding concerns over the condition of North Korean buildings have reemerged following the collapse of a 23-story apartment building in downtown Pyongyang on May 13th. The collapsed apartment was part of a residential complex initiated on the orders of Kim Jong Il and completed under Kim Jong Eun. 

According to defectors, the teams mobilized for the construction were made up of servicemen affiliated with the Ministry of People’s Security, and did not include experienced construction workers. Moreover. like the majority of other construction projects in the country, the site suffered from a chronic lack of good quality concrete and steel reinforcements. On those occasions where materials do become available on state projects of this nature, rampant corruption and the disincentives of socialist means of production mean that they are regularly siphoned off and sold.

The apartments formed part of Kim Jong Il era plans to modernize Pyongyang. With an intended completion date of December 2012, construction began in September 2009 in 13 different districts of Pyongyang. However, in 2011 and with the impossibility of completing all projects now clear, the construction of prominent apartments on Changjeon Street in the central Mansudae District was prioritized, and workers were moved there to meet the demand.

At the time, sources reported to Daily NK that the authorities had shifted factory workers to work on residential dwellings on the outskirts of Pyongyang, but as resources all went to the core project resentment grew amid accusations of incompetence.

After Kim Jong Eun came to power, there appeared to be little interest in the project to build "100,000 homes in Pyongyang." The Kim regime is now absorbed in construction projects that cater to specific professions, such as satellite and military scientists and engineers, along with academics from Kim Il Sung University.

Requesting anonymity, one senior defector explained to Daily NK, “Kim Jong Eun goes back and forth. On the one hand he focuses on building up Changjeon Street as part of ‘gift politics’ for high-ranking cadres. It's like he has nothing to do with this particular collapse. If anyone must pay for this collapse of this apartment, it’s Kim Jong Eun.”

Furthermore, the defector said, “The residences on Changjeon Street were completed within a year. It may be that the harmful effects of North Korea’s focus on ‘speed’ cannot be avoided. Only the homes of the top leadership are constructed with high-grade cement, and with the exception of these, it’s not considered at all strange that buildings in the North could crumble and fall at any time.”

The North Korean state media has reported on the collapse of a multi-story apartment block in Pyongyang last week, noting that it led to loss of life.

“On the afternoon of the 13th a 23-floor apartment in Ansan 1-dong of Pyeongcheon district in Pyongyang collapsed,” a South Korean government official revealed earlier today. “It is normal in North Korea for people to move into apartment buildings before they are officially complete, and it is presumed that 92 households were living in this apartment, too.”

“A large number of people are going to have died in the collapse,” the official concluded.

In a highly unusual step, the North Korean state news agency, Chosun Central News Agency, and Rodong Sinmun, the Party publication, also reported the news today. Using the same article, the two outlets declared that it was “the irresponsibility of workers” who failed to supervise the construction appropriately that had caused the “serious accident” to occur.

Though the article acknowledged that the collapse “claimed casualties,” it did not report how many people died or under what circumstances. Rather, it focused on an apologetic visit to the site by the Minister of People's Security and other officials. Minister Choe Pu Il, it said, “Met the bereaved families, citizens in the district and other Pyongyangites to express deep consolation and apologies.”

Choe claimed public responsibility for the accident, saying that he had “failed to uphold well the [Chosun Workers’ Party’s] policy of love for the people.” Also, “He repented of himself, saying that he failed to find out factors that could put at risk the lives and properties of the people and to take thoroughgoing measures, thereby causing an unimaginable accident.”

Another official, Pyongyang Municipal People’s Committee Chief Secretary Kim Su Gil, distanced both the Party and Kim Jong Eun from the incident, stating that “Marshal Kim Jong Eun sat up all night in great pain upon receiving a report of the accident, and instructed leading officials of the Party, state and army to not only set aside all other affairs and rush to the scene to command the rescue battle, but also to recover the damage as early as possible.”

Following the collapse of an apartment block in central Pyongyang last week, the spotlight has turned to what measures, if any, the regime of Kim Jong Eun will enact in response to the tragedy.

There has been no news of punishment for those responsible, but the outside world would not expect to witness such things in any case. However, there are also no outward signs to date of change in terms of one key contributing factor; namely, the insistence that construction be carried out as quickly as possible, rather than as well as possible. Indeed, programs carried by state television in the last 24 hours have continued to laud the speed with which major construction projects are being completed in the Kim Jong Eun era.

This is because since Kim took power in late 2011, one key propaganda trope has been his oversight of the construction and architecture field. A multitude of construction projects, including a ski resort at Masik Pass, a water park in Pyongyang and sector-specific housing developments, have been reported as being done at the behest of Kim Jong Eun, and at high speed.

Those responsible for this most recent incident may need to be held accountable, some commentators believe, if only to ensure that Kim maintains the appearance of a responsible, caring leader. However, as the collapse was not highly political, extreme punishment may not be deemed necessary. The public apology delivered by Minister of People's Security Choe Pu Il may be sufficient; only time will tell.

Policy change to avoid future accidents are another matter entirely, however, and appear unlikely.

Professor Kim Yong Su of Sogang University explained to Daily NK, "It's likely that Kim Jong Eun will deal with the matter behind the scenes, doing it quietly within the Party instead of announcing measures publicly. There will be no effect on the ‘Chosun Speed’ that they have been emphasizing for construction tasks, since the apartment in question was built when they were talking about 'Masikryeong Speed'."

"Accidents like this have happened many times before in the North. Just the act of showing a Party cadre bowing to the people and apologizing has harmed their prestige, so everything else will probably be dealt with internally," he continued.

Requesting anonymity, a second North Korea expert pointed out, "This is far from the first time that an apartment building has collapsed in the North, but they've always continued on with their 'speed battles' regardless. If they were to abandon them now because of this incident, it would be akin to accepting blame for everything that's occurred up to this point, and that will absolutely never happen. Future acts will merely be to show that something is being done; they won't have any actual meaning."

“Saying that the Marshal [Kim Jong Eun] lost sleep due to his concern for the people after the accident was a ploy to raise his status following the execution of Jang Song Taek. It was also mentioned to try and etch into people’s minds an image of Kim as an ‘affectionate leader,’” the expert concluded.

On May 14, the US Marines announced the deployment of 200 marines to Sicily, in southern Italy, as a “crisis response” force for Libya. They did so at the behest of the US State Department, who at the time insisted there was no specific threat, nor any imminent plan to evacuate the embassy in Tripoli.

Just four days later, General Khalifa Hifter and his self-proclaimed Libyan National Army attacked Tripoli, took over parliament, and announced his intention to “purge” the nation of Islamists, starting with the parliamentarians themselves.

It’s Gen. Hifter’s second attempted coup this year, and seems to be going quite a bit better than the February fiasco, which began with statements announcing his takeover, and never really expanded much beyond that. The timing of the marine deployment suggests this latest move did not come as a major surprise to the administration, but Hifter’s US connections may run much deeper.

Gen. Hifter got his start, and his generalship, as a close ally of Moammar Gadhafi, but changed sides when he was captured during the failed late 80′s invasion of Chad. Released at the behest of the US, after which he was set up as a military leader in the National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL), a rebel faction based out of Chad which was backed by the CIA.

The NFSL didn’t last much longer in Chad, however, as a takeover of Chad by Gadhafi ally Idriss Deby led the US to evacuate the rebels. Hifter quietly relocated to the DC suburbs after that, and lived there through 2011, when he left to declare himself a rebel leader during the fight that ousted Gadhafi.

His post-revolution career has been perplexing, as Gen. Hifter has hung around in Libya, and often claimed to be a leader, if not the leader, in the Libyan military, but never seems to have been formally appointed to any post of serious power.

Eventually, the general got his army, or at least his self-styled army, forming the Libyan National Army, which has no official connection to Libya’s actual army, but inexplicably has at times been able to muster attack helicopters and artillery in attacks on Islamist groups. The “army” has been fighting an on-again, off-again crusade against Islamist factions, with the government of former Prime Minister (and former NFSL leader) Ali Zeidan mostly looking the other way.

His attack on Benghazi on Friday seemed to change things considerably, and the new Libyan government was harshly critical of the operation, even sending the real military to the outskirts of the city to prevent either side from bringing more reinforcements to the battle.

Instead of being chastened by his lack of a government imprimatur, Hifter’s forces marched straight for Tripoli, and by Sunday had taken over the airport and parliament. General Hifter has since castigated parliament as a den of Islamists,

how many shares do you want released. Once this is gone the IPO needs to be over. I want to see where the value will stabilize

A tea-party lawmaker is offering an amendment to protect a government-surveillance reform bill from being hollowed out due to pressure from the Obama administration and national-security hawks.

Rep. Justin Amash filed an amendment Monday that would take a key section of the USA Freedom Act—which aims to effectively end the government's mass collection of Americans' phone records—and strap it onto the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual funding bill that Congress will vote on later this week. The Amash amendment would strip funding from intelligence programs justified under Section 215 of the post-9/11 Patriot Act except in certain circumstances, an anti-spying move reminiscent of one the Michigan Republican pulled last summer.

The amendment, offered to the Rules Committee, is meant as a fail-safe in the event the Freedom Act does not also come up for consideration this week in its current form or something closely resembling it, said Will Adams, Amash's chief of staff. House leadership has scheduled the bill for "possible consideration" this week, but backdoor dealings that may change it continued through the weekend and spilled into this week.

Sources tell PJ Media that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s long-time top consultant, Ray Allen, has “angrily” stated to multiple individuals that he intends to bankrupt the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV), to install his own people throughout all levels of RPV’s State Central Committee, and to rebuild the RPV with money from Eric Cantor’s donors.
[...]
Slating involves disenfranchising all properly registered delegates at a district convention in favor of a vote by only a few dozen handpicked delegates. This tactic was employed to protect the incumbent chairmanships of some Cantor allies: hundreds to thousands of Tea Party/conservative delegates have been forcefully ejected from VA RPV conventions over the past few weeks and months.

However, the ejected delegates and others opposed to Team Cantor have since had success appealing the slating attempts, leaving Allen and Cantor with little to show for their hardball tactics other than alienated constituents, a terrible local public relations problem, and worse, a rapidly gaining primary opponent in challenger Dave Brat.

I think England is lost for ever. The Pink mafia has taken over all the institutions there. They are aiming for a gender-less society. Soon there will be no males or females in England. 

Mexican cartels don't deal with Meth. It is a complicated process to prepare Methamphetamine from Muriatic acid, Ethyl Ether, Lye and Ephedrine. If something goes wrong, then explosions can occur.

Uruguay will exempt marijuana production and sales from taxes in a bid to ensure prices remain low enough to undercut competition from black market pot smuggled in from Paraguay, according to consultants advising the government on a legalization plan.

Congress approved a law allowing the cultivation and sale of marijuana in December, making Uruguay the first country to do so, with the aim of wresting the business from criminals.

"The principal objective is not tax collection. Everything has to be geared toward undercutting the black market," said Felix Abadi, a contractor who is developing Uruguay's marijuana tax structure. "So we have to make sure the price is low."

Children as young as nine will be given controversial drugs on the NHS to prepare them for sex-swap surgery, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The treatment, which halts the onset of adulthood, is aimed at youngsters who believe they are trapped in the wrong body. But critics accused the clinic offering the puberty- postponing injections of ‘playing God’.

‘I think many people will be horrified at the thought of a nine-year-old being provided with a drug that effectively stops them developing and maturing naturally,’ said Conservative MP Andrew Percy.

Others insisted that undisputed research shows that the vast majority of under-16s who
are troubled about their gender do not go on to take the drastic step of surgery. Many turn out to be gay, but no longer feel confused about whether they are male or female.

the meeting focused on how bitcoin could empower a new wave of commerce innovation – opening new markets to merchants, driving capital flows to the developing world and increasing global economic consumption.

The report specifically stated that Congress is interested in Bitcoin because of its effect on the ability of the “Federal Reserve to meet its objectives
(of stable prices,          : Fail
maximum employment, : Fail
and financial stability)”  : Fail
and discusses whether or not “Bitcoins {Will} Affect the Fed’s Conduct of Monetary Policy.”

No.  All the shares at .005 and .007 have sold out.  There are now just under 2000 shares at .01 remaining.  No more shares will be released (without shareholder approval) before March 2015.