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SEPTEMBER 4,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET:

IRMA ON THE WAY – FROM FOX:  Florida Gov. Rick Scott has declared a state of emergency in the state as rapidly growing Hurricane Irma, now a Category 4 storm, is expected to make landfall later this week.  The state of emergency has been issued for all of Florida’s 67 counties. Scott said that the state would “prepare for the worst and hope for the best” as Irma is expected to hit the state around Friday.  The governor tweeted Monday that he urges "all Floridians to remain vigilant and stay alert to local weather and news and visit FLGetAPlan.com today to get prepared."  CNN will no doubt blame President Trump for the storm, and suggest that he dreamed it up with Putin.

JAPAN PREPARES – FROM NIKKEI ASIAN REVIEW:  TOKYO -- As tensions on the Korean Peninsula reach new heights with Pyongyang's latest nuclear test, Japan is planning for a possible mass evacuation of the nearly 60,000 Japanese citizens currently living in or visiting South Korea.  "There is a possibility of further provocations," Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a Monday meeting with ruling coalition lawmakers. "We need to remain extremely vigilant and do everything we can to ensure the safety of our people."  In response to North Korea's sixth nuclear test, Japan and the U.S. seek to ratchet up economic pressure on the rogue state through an oil embargo and other measures. But U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis on Sunday also said any threat to the U.S. or its allies "will be met with a massive military response -- a response both effective and overwhelming."  An unpredictable situation.  No one knows exactly what is in the North Korean leader's mind.  Don't be shocked, should tensions rise more, to see anti-American and pro-North Korean demonstrations on some American college campuses.  Extra credit will be given.

NO MORE STRANGE VOICES? – FROM BUSINESS TIMES:  [PARIS] Scientists have pinpointed a part of the brain where "voices" torment schizophrenia sufferers, and partially muted them with magnetic pulse treatment, a team reported on Tuesday.  More than a third of sufferers treated with magnetic pulses in a patient trial experienced "significant" relief, the scientists said in a statement.  "We can now say with some certainty that we have found a specific anatomical area of the brain associated with auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia," the team said.  "Secondly, we have shown that treatment with high frequency TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) makes a difference to at least some sufferers."  This will be great news for certain Washington politicians, network executives and college professors. 

September 4, 2017       Permalink

MARVELOUS – QUOTE OF THE DAY –  AT 11:35 A.M. ET:  A relative newcomer to Texas talks about the state.   From the Austin American-Statesman: 

If there’s one lesson I’ve learned as an outsider looking in, it’s that there’s a sense of purpose to these people like I’ve never seen. A central passion runs through Texans unlike any other American identity. Pride percolates here. It’s something people who aren’t from Texas just can’t grasp. We may have a docile sense of civic pride for our hometowns, but nothing like this state demands of its residents.

The Texas flag flies as high as the American flag, while the state Capitol is just a smidge taller than the U.S. Capitol, because – Texas. There are Texas flags on everything. And folks all over this huge collection of miles expect a reverential obsession from those who choose to take up this address, if only for a while.

That sense of purpose and absolute unwillingness to bend in their pride is why Texas will only become stronger in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  It's terrific.  We're all in favor of flag-waving here, as long as it's a good flag.

September 4, 2017       Permalink

NIKKI ON NORTH KOREA – AT 10:52 A.M. ET:  Our superlative UN ambassador lays it on the line before the "international community."  I wish we had a hundred Nikkis in the State Department:  From Fox: 

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Monday asked the body’s Security Council to impose the strongest possible sanctions against North Korea in response to the rogue nation’s most recent nuclear test, saying “the time for half measures … is over.”

Haley spoke at U.N. headquarters in New York a day after North Korea claimed to have conducted an underground test on a hydrogen bomb.

It was the country’s sixth such test, following five previous ones on a nuclear warhead and recent launches of inter-continental missiles to land such weapons on foreign soil.

“We cannot kick this can down the road any longer,” said Halley at a special U.N. meeting convened after the weapon test overnight Saturday.

North Korea is “begging for war,” she also said Sunday. “The time for half measures by the Security Council is over.”

And...

And like Trump and other top administration officials, Haley also said the U.S. intends to impose economic sanctions on countries that do business with North Korea.

COMMENT:  Those sanctions will especially affect China, North Korea's largest trading partner.  Will China honor the sanctions?  If they don't, what do we do then?  Will Russia?

Imposing sanctions is one thing.  Getting them to work is quite another.  Nation sanctions are fine, but they must be joined by a credible threat of force, which means in part a major military buildup.

September 4, 2017       Permalink

NORTH KOREAN MENACE – AT 10:30 A.M. ET:  Apparently, the north is prepared to go ahead with its next missile launch.  From Fox:

North Korea appears to be preparing to launch a ballistic missile-- possibly an ICBM, South Korean media reported Monday.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said North Korea appeared to be planning a future launch to show off its claimed ability to target the United States with nuclear weapons, though it was unclear when this might happen.

Chang Kyung-soo, an official with South Korea's Defense Ministry, told lawmakers that Seoul was seeing preparations in the North for an ICBM test but didn't provide details about how officials had reached that assessment.

Following U.S. warnings to North Korea of a "massive military response," South Korea on Monday fired missiles into the sea to simulate an attack on the North's main nuclear test site a day after Pyongyang detonated its largest ever nuclear test explosion.

The heated words from the United States and the military maneuvers in South Korea are becoming familiar responses to North Korea's rapid, as-yet unchecked pursuit of a viable arsenal of nuclear-tipped missiles that can strike the United States.

The most recent, and perhaps most dramatic, advancement came Sunday in an underground test of what leader Kim Jong Un's government claimed was a hydrogen bomb, the North's sixth nuclear test since 2006.

COMMENT:  Secretary Mattis yesterday hinted at massive military action by the U.S. against North Korea, but did not detail the circumstances that would trigger it.

We await specific action by the administration.  A policy should have been in place by now.

September 4,  2017     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 3,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET: 

FIRST RESPONSE – FROM AFP:  Washington (AFP) - The United States will launch a "massive military response" to threats from North Korea, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Sunday.  He spoke after President Donald Trump met with his national security advisers following a test of what Pyongyang said was a hydrogen bomb able to fit atop a missile.  "Any threat to the United States or its territories, including Guam, or our allies will be met with a massive military response, a response both effective and overwhelming," Mattis said.  He added: "Kim Jong-Un should take heed of the United Nations Security Council's unified voice. All members unanimously agreed on the threat North Korea poses and remain unanimous in their commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.  Okay, good tough talk.  Now we have to follow up with significant action, short of war.  And that includes the ring of steel around North Korea that I mentioned this morning.  Can't just go back to more "negotiations."

MAJOR NEWS, EARTH-SHAKING – FROM THE HILL:  First lady Melania Trump wore stilettos for her departure Saturday to Texas to meet with victims of Hurricane Harvey, after facing criticism for wearing similar shoes on a trip earlier this week.  The first lady wore a tan rain coat with the high heels as she boarded Marine One with President Trump on their way to Houston to meet with storm victims and volunteers.  When Air Force One landed, Melania Trump exited wearing jeans, a blue shirt and sneakers as well as a hat with "Texas" on it.  I don't know how I could have lived without this information.  Thank you, mainstream media.  You truly are a credit to the First Amendment.

MAJOR HACKING – FROM PJ MEDIA:  Unknown hackers may have dropped private and sensitive information on several members of President Trump's inner circle onto an open source forum called Hastebin. While the exact time stamp has been masked, the information contains personal phone numbers, email addresses, parking tickets, moving violations, the names of people related to them, and even Amazon Wish Lists. (Disturbingly, obtaining someone's Wish List on Amazon is as easy as having the email address he uses to sign into his account. Are Amazon customers aware that their wish lists are open to anyone who knows their email address?)  You'd think our government could seal off those around the president.  I'm not sure we're up to speed on cyber-security.  An enormous vulnerability for the country. 

September 3, 2017       Permalink

MORE ON KOREA – AT 11:52 A.M. ET:  North Korea is claiming that its new nuclear test was actually a test of a hydrogen bomb.  A hydrogen bomb can be made many times more powerful than a standard nuclear bomb, or fission bomb.  Both the United States and the Soviet Union started testing hydrogen bombs in the early 1950s.

Some experts are saying that the size of yesterday's North Korean blast would put it at the lower end of the hydrogen, or thermonuclear, bomb capability.  But we still have not seen definitive proof that the North Korean device was actually thermonuclear. 

The president will meet early this afternoon with his national security team.  The advance buzz is that the group will talk about dramatically increased sanctions on North Korea, although sanctions have never worked with that country.  From Yonhap, South Korea's leading news agency:

SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Yonhap) -- The top diplomats of South Korea and the United States agreed on Sunday to push for the most powerful sanctions on North Korea during their phone discussion following its sixth nuclear test, Seoul's foreign ministry here said.

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had 25-minute talks to discuss countermeasures after North Korea earlier in the day conducted what it called a successful test of a hydrogen bomb that can be mounted onto an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Kang told Tillerson of the importance of using maximum sanctions and pressure to induce North Korea to change its behavior and come to the dialogue table, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She stressed the urgency of the efforts to prevent North Korea from realizing its goal of nuclear armament.

Kang also said Seoul will consult with the U.S. about joint measures including a new resolution by the United Nations Security Council and the deployment of U.S. strategic military assets in South Korea, according to the foreign ministry.

Tillerson affirmed that the U.S. will place the strongest-ever sanctions on North Korea based on its alliance with South Korea.

Both emphasized the need to work together in taking future steps on North Korea and shared the results of their consultations with other countries on the issue.

They agreed to have further discussion in the course of bilateral and multilateral diplomatic occasions including a U.N. General Assembly meeting scheduled for later in the month, the ministry added.

COMMENT:  I'm not sure that quite does it.  I doubt if President Trump will simply settle for more sanctions.  Here is where his instinct for the dramatic takes hold.  I would not be surprised if he chose to surround North Korea with a "ring of steel," consisting of American warships, including missile-firing submarines.  I would not be shocked if he activated the two Iowa-class battleships that, by law, are maintained in a ready state, even though they are now being used as museum ships.  The 16-inch guns of those ships, which were used against North Korea during the Korean War, two generations ago, concentrate the mind wonderfully.  North Korea is on a peninsula, very vulnerable to bombardment from the sea.

Nor would I be surprised if Mr. Trump, following the example of Jack Kennedy, mobilized reserve units as a show of resolve.

Then there is the matter of North Korea's maritime activity – especially its exporting of technology to Iran.  Is there some way we can embargo North Korea, as we did Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962?  I don't know, but I'd love to see North Korean ships stopped and inspected for any military or nuclear items.

This could be the start of something big.

September 3, 2017       Permalink

NORTH KOREA – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:  Clearly, a major, deeply disturbing escalation by the NORKS.  We're still sorting all the details, but we know they just set off their largest nuclear explosion yet, are bragging that they have the hydrogen bomb, and also bragging that they can now mate their nuclear weapons to ICBMs.  Not bad for a day's work.  From Fox:

President Trump on Sunday responded to North Korea’s nuclear test, calling it “very hostile and dangerous” to the United States.

The rogue nation claimed it detonated a hydrogen bomb with "perfect success," carrying out its sixth nuclear test that drew immediate condemnation from its neighbors. Trump said on Twitter the rogue nation's actions were "hostile and dangerous." 

“North Korea has conducted a major nuclear test,” Trump said in a series of tweets. “Their words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States.”

North Korea in recent months has escalated its pursuit of a nuclear weapon and a long-range missile that would land such a warhead on foreign soil.

COMMENT:  We've tried to monitor as much press reaction as possible.  Of course, I have what I call the "48-hour rule."  Under that rule, the political left takes about 48 hours to organize, and then gives us the party line full blast.  Expect that to happen.  Nut in the White House.  American provocations.  Legitimate grievances by North Korea.  You can even expect Israel to be blameworthy. 

The fact is that 23 years of negotiations with the NORKS have failed.  They are developing a major nuclear and missile capacity, and their technology will be shared with Iran.  This is the legacy of Obama, and, yes, Bush and Clinton before him.

The president's options are all bad.  He knows that North Korea will never give up its nuclear program, and yet that is the only change that would enhance our own security in the Western Pacific.

Expect some kind of new action, and possibly a presidential speech from the Oval Office. 

And I wonder who Trump is listening to right now.  I mean, really listening to.  Is it the Establishment folks who run his White House, or is it some of the Trump true believers who've been forced out?

September 3,  2017     Permalink