Tonight, the Drudge Report points to a Reuters report, North Korea says to enter "state of war" against South Korea: KCNA How can a country that can't keep the lights on at night actually be capable of war? This isn't the 1950's. This is a drone-war or highly technical warfare era we live in now. There's no way that North Korea could do much damage. They are barely more than a 3rd world country. (Image from CBS News.) On the March 16th episode of Fareed Zakaria's GPS on CNN, Donald Gregg, who served in the CIA from the 50's to the 80's and was an ambassador to South Korea gave Zakaria an opinion about all of this. One that it would be nice if our country would listen to. Below is the quote of importance. Unfortunately, CNN doesn't provide the video of the Korea segment. And Donald Gregg, a former adviser to then-Vice President George H.W. Bush and former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, said North Korean contacts he has met recently told him "that they have given up on their diplomats, and the military is now in control." "What they want is to talk about moving from the now-disbanded armistice agreement to the creation of a peace treaty," Gregg told GPS. "That's what they want to talk about, and anyone who is willing to talk about that, they will listen to. Anyone who wants to talk about what they call the old way, which was give up your nuclear weapons and then we'll talk, is going to get nowhere." Gregg recommended engaging the North Koreans in new talks. But Cha, a former National Security Council official in the second George W. Bush administration, said that can't be done so soon after their nuclear and missile tests, and he predicted "a very difficult period for the next couple of months or so." "They don't want to give up their nuclear weapons. They want to be able to have their cake and eat it, too," he said. "U.S. policy for the past quarter century or so has been, 'These things are all on the table if you're willing to give up your nuclear weapons.' This is the problem. This is the dilemma right now." Here is the audio segment from the GPS podcast. The first 10 minutes cover the interview and is worth listening to Gregg. You can also read this article from 2011, written by Donald Gregg. In this article Gregg says Obama has increased ties with South Korea. Also, John Kerry (at that time Kerry was not Secretary of State) was open to bi-lateral talks with North Korea. Gregg seems hopeful for diplomacy to end the conflict. To sum up. The U.S. won't come to the table unless there are "conditions for surrender" that North Korea agrees to. The North Koreans don't want conditions they just want to end the war. And there probably is some chae-myun (saving face) going on here too of course. For North Korea, the only way out is war. In my opinion they know they're toast. But to end this conflict sooner rather than later they need to escalate matters, try to inflict at least some pain somewhere, and then lose the war with dignity. What should the U.S. do? Donald Gregg says to go to the table and work out a truce. Perhaps John Kerry works out the truce and Obama fulfills his Nobel Peace Prize. Will the other side of the aisle and the military agree to go along? Or are we going to allow politics to run yet another war? Perhaps there's a little bit of chae-myun working on our side too which doesn't allow us to do negotiations. Thus, what will probably happen is a short war, then a peace treaty, and perhaps then North Korea can move on and finally get their lights on at night. ### Continue reading

Over cards last night someone mentioned they knew a friend who had hosted a gold party. Having never heard of such a thing I asked for more information. Turns out this friend ended up making $400 on just hosting fees alone where the host gets a cut of what is generated. There was $4,000 worth of gold that changed hands at the party. Doing a simple Google search shows there is lots of activity on the Internet for these parties. Reading some of the news sites that talk about gold parties it is mainly a female party similar to the basket, Tupperware, chef, Mary Kay parties of the past. In this case, there is a buyer from a company that brings their checkbook who first tests the gold to find out how pure it is and then makes an offer with a check for the gold. Here in Nebraska there are a couple of bills in the state legislature (LB 109 and LB 226) that try to put more restrictions on the sale and purchase of gold. These laws would certainly make it harder to conduct a gold party. Scrap metal dealers and pawnbrokers are already restricted on how they must perform a transaction with gold. The new legislation attempts to add anyone else doing the same to these restrictions. You can read more here. As someone who saw the stock clubs spring up during the .dot com bomb which then lead into friends buying rental or fixer-upper homes before the real estate crash one has to wonder if this gold party is the sign that we've reached the top of the gold bubble? There's a general rule I use that if it plays in Nebraska you're near the top. It might be time to move on. Reason I say that is that due to our slowness to "get it" and also the lack of population, by the time something popular comes here (a newish restaurant chain, popular musical artist in concert, clothing craze, etc.) that something has hit its peak with no growth left, i.e. no more suckers to find. Time will tell if this is the peak of the gold bubble (chart). The money printing will never go away, but bubbles do go bust. If gold is in a bubble, then what's next? (Note: If you get financial recommendations from blogs, please stop now and just give me your money. Also, I happen to like the fact that we don't "get it" as fast as the rest of the country. That's why we're more conservative in this state then in others. And that's fine by me.) ### Continue reading

Came across two great videos on two different blogs in regard to China and their working class that supports our demand for gadgets. First up from Saturday Night Light (h/t to The Big Picture). Second, from Leslie Chang's TED talk titled The Voices of China's Workers. (h/t to Naked Capitalism.) The two don't seem to add up. Would think first hand knowlegde by someone living there for 2 years would be good information. Are we improving the lives of the Chinese with our demand for gadgets? ### Continue reading

Now Glenn Beck is on it. Readers of the RedStateEclectic first read about my rant in regard to the Keystone Pipeline one year ago, here and here. In those blog posts I also discuss the Warren Buffett connections. (Joe Herring at American Thinker picked up on the story from here last fall too.) Now, Glenn Beck is all over this. It's about time. All Aboard, Glenn! h/t ZeroHedge ### Continue reading

Those who have followed my economic blathering will understand this post/video. As I've stated before, money is debt and debt is money. This video/presentation, When Credit Helps, Hinders and Hurts(pdf) by Dirk Bezemer mentions this fact. What it also discusses is how the balance of credit held by the financial sector and the related debt in the private sector can never balance. At sometime you cannot create more and more credit (financial sector) expecting debt (private sector) to keep up. Bezemer says we must reduce the credit on the financial sector side. To do this we can do the austerity plan but that will be long and painful. Instead we need to allow the market to play this out. He doesn't go into details at the end due to time. Even though he trashes the Austrian idea of barter and trade (think Schiff), he does recognize that the market through regulation (maintaining contracts) will only be the way to reduce this credit in the system. ### Continue reading

Happening live in Kearney Nebraska a debate between Republican senate candidates. Watch live at www.rlcne.org/senatedebate. ### Continue reading

In regard to a recent post here at RedStateEclectic, there's a discussion on diets and impact by carbohydrates. I saw this a couple days ago via the Big Picture blog and the post Pasta, Not Bacon, Makes you Fat. (You can click on the image to see the fullsize graphic.) ### Continue reading

In the Friday edition of the Omaha World Herald there was a syndicated editorial by Floyd and Mary Beth Brown who are political consultants and have worked within the GOP in the past. Their editorial (copy of similar editorial here) speaks to the heart of what Ron Paul's message really is. Kicking out the bureaucrat that lives off the government largesse. And not only the bureaucrat (government paid employee), but the apparatus that surrounds the bureaucrat via the party. They describe the individual who works inside the party in D.C.: The insiders who actually run the GOP look nothing like the membership of the GOP. Walk the halls of the Republican National Committee in D.C., and you'll find preppy ladder-climbers who shift political philosophies to accommodate whichever boss will pay the most. And here is the insiders goal: For the D.C. crowd, the battle for the presidency is more a battle for booty and perks than it is about changing the course of the nation's future. As conservative pundit Stan Evans famously said, "we came to D.C. seeing a cesspool, and now we have come to understand it is really a hot tub." And these Republicans enjoy the steak dinners, Super Bowl tickets and foreign trips as much as any Democrats do. The Browns conclude with this: If the dictators who rule the GOP from D.C. don't watch out, they will find that Ron Paul is more than an irritant. They will find that he is the candidate who, if he runs a third-party platform, could potentially keep them from beating President Barack Obama. If the GOP elites exercise the power they hold to freeze these people out, or "marginalize" them, as Palin says, it will be a mistake the entire country could pay the price for with the re-election of Obama. Instead of trying to limit the participation of the great unwashed, Republicans should embrace anyone who will join in the great crusade to unseat Obama. If they give the Ron Paul activists the cold shoulder, they do so at greater risk than we think they understand. Powerful stuff, but there is more that they haven't said. As stated above the people in power in D.C. working for the GOP, "accommodate whichever boss will pay the most". Just remember that these people still have jobs when a Democrat is in office too. They still get the bones thrown at them and work to get their share of the government dollar for their own people they are working for. And they don't work for us, but the corporate shill looking for a hand out. If you think about it, there are no winners and losers in D.C. They all get the money. Holding second place still has its perks. And as such, why would anyone in D.C. look to fundamentally change the game, reduce the largesse that these people feed off of, and actually change how D.C. and this country work? Ron Paul and his legion of followers are the real threat to this system. And those of you who read this who are not on Ron Paul's side due to his "foreign policy" need to ask if they've been told the truth about foreign policy or are they being lied to by this internal D.C. crowd hellbent on maintaining their place at the government trough. ### Continue reading