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This short entry on Instapundit made me LOL. I’ve taken the liberty of reposting it in one of Glenn Reynolds’ own favorite formats - the shot/chaser.An espresso glass for those mornings when a shot just isn’t enough SHOT: Survey suggests shame around mental illness fading in U.S.CHASER: YEAH A LOT OF STUFF SUGGESTS THAT Ain’t that the truth. Or at least some people’s truth. If we can normalize the current fad of transgenderism what can’t we normalize? Naturally this ‘survey’ doesn’t distinguish between types of mental illnesses, so for the purpose of asking the question, anxiety is comparable to psychotic...

Two stories headlining the news this morning: Melania Trump Vacations Using Gov’t Plane As Trump Blocks Pelosi’s Flight - MsNBC’s Larry O’Donnell has the last word on it (he doesn’t approve). Warning: It takes him a full 18 minutes to express his disapproval. And it’s 18 minutes of your life you’ll never get back, so click the link cautiously.AP reports that high-level secret talks between US, North Korea taking place in Sweden Wouldn’t it be fun if  Melania were part of that North Korean envoy? “FLOTUS stands in for furloughed ambassador and saves the world from a nuclear armed madman.” ...

Make no mistake about it: Citizen President Donald Trump has just accomplished something that much of the world had written off as simply impossible, or, at the very least, so unlikely that efforts to create change were completely halted by previous administrations. President Trump has brought North Korea to heel, and delivered an agreement between our nations in which the DPRK will be denuclearizing themselves – something that was long thought to be an impossibility given the stubborn and ornery nature of the Kim dynasty. Yet, here we are, seeing incredible images from Singapore in which Kim and Trump shake...

Liberal billionaire George Soros told global leaders and economists at Davos Thursday night that President Trump is a "danger to the world," who has helped bring the planet to the brink of nuclear war. Soros, the 87-year-old Hungarian-born financier, spoke at the World Economic Forum, harshly criticizing Trump, who was not present. He said the threat of nuclear war has grown as the U.S. and North Korea continue to antagonize each other. "The situation has deteriorated," said Soros. "Not only the survival of open society, but the survival of our entire civilization is at stake."

War with North Korea can be avoided if the Trump administration uses sanctions modeled after President Barack Obama's much-excoriated Iran deal and if everyone just avoids "irresponsible" war predictions that risk "millions of lives," Ohio's Republican Governor John Kasich wrote on Monday. Kasich—who battled Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination last year—outlined a plan for stronger U.S. sanctions against North Korea in an opinion column in The Washington Post published Monday evening. He slammed Republican Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina and other politicians for "predicting odds on the probability of war" against North Korea when there is still...

HANOI (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said in a tweet on Sunday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had insulted him by calling him “old” and said he would never call Kim “short and fat.” Trump made the comment after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam. In a series of tweets he also said Chinese President Xi Jinping was “upping sanctions” on North Korea in response to its nuclear and missile programs and that Xi wanted Pyongyang to “denuclearize.” During Trump’s visit to Beijing last week Xi reiterated that China would strive for the denuclearization...

Corker to hold hearing on president's nuclear weapons authority By Brandon Carter - 11/08/17 07:41 PM EST Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) announced Wednesday the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would hold a hearing next week on “the executive’s authority to use nuclear weapons.” “A number of members both on and off our committee have raised questions about the authorities of the legislative and executive branches with respect to war making, the use of nuclear weapons, and conducting foreign policy overall,” Corker said in a statement announcing the Nov. 14 hearing. “This continues a series of hearings to examine these issues and...

[This is a news brief from an e-mail compilation]: Information emerging from furtive North Korea indicates that a tunnel at the regime’s nuclear test site collapsed last month after a nuclear test, killing about 200 people. A report from Japanese broadcaster TV Asahi, citing unnamed sources, said 100 people were killed in an initial collapse around Sept. 10, and another 100 died in a rescue operation. Other reports put the date of the collapse as Oct. 10. No official North Korean announcement was made about the date of the collapse. North Korea’s massive Sept. 3 test caused multiple tremors and...

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Saturday the threat of nuclear missile attack by North Korea is accelerating. In remarks in Seoul with South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo at his side, Mattis accused the North of illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear programs and vowed to defeat any attack. Mattis said the North engages in "over-the-top rhetoric'' and behavior. And he said the U.S. will never accept a nuclear North.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been railing against President Donald Trump for his approach to North Korea, despite the fact that her own efforts to deal with the rogue regime failed.Speaking in Seoul, South Korea, Clinton urged the Trump administration to present a strong front but remain “patient” while avoiding “bellicose and aggressive rhetoric,” according to Reuters. She suggested that the president’s “cavalier” threats are “dangerous and short-sighted.” In past talks, she argued that his words might trigger nuclear war.Clinton also expressed a need to use pressure to bring North Korea to the negotiating table, which has essentially...

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has reportedly said he would be prepared to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in an attempt to bring "permanent peace" to the Korean Peninsula. "Should former President Carter be able to visit North Korea, he would like to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and discuss a peace treaty between the United States and the North, and a complete denuclearization of North Korea," Park Han-shik, professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia, said in an interview published by South Korea's JoongAng Daily on Tuesday. Park claimed that Carter visited his...

As President Trump is in deep contemplation on the North Korean dilemma, he understands that the military might of the United States is now also its currency. Nations around the world are being led by China and Russia to remove the US dollar as the primary world reserve currency. This is a gang-up against the United States to destroy its long-held standing as the number one world economic power. But how does this current economic battle to circumvent the US dollar affect President Trump’s decision to show North Korea the military might of the United States? If the United States...

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday designed to choke North Korea's economy by penalizing nations that trade with the communist dictatorship. The order enables the Treasury Department to ramp up punishing sanctions in an effort to dissuade Pyongyang from pursuing its nuclear missile program. 'Our new executive order will cut off sources of revenue that fund North Korea's efforts to develop the deadliest weapons known to humankind,' the president told reporters ahead of a luncheon meeting with the leaders of Japan and South Korea. Trump warned that Pyongyang's textiles, fishing, information technology and manufacturing industries were potential...

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis hinted that the United States still had military options left for dealing with North Korea, but did not elaborate when asked for details Monday. Most experts think a military strike on North Korea would invite a devastating response from Pyongyang. The city of Seoul, South Korea, home to 25 million, is well within artillery range of the North, which would most likely use conventional artillery munitions and chemical weapons. But according to Mattis, the Pentagon has a few tricks up its sleeve that wouldn't involve the decimation of Seoul.

Using the military option sooner is less risky and less costly than giving North Korea more time to advance its nuclear capabilities, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton told Fox News on Tuesday. Bolton was reacting after President Donald Trump warned Kim Jong Un's regime "all options are in the table" Tuesday after North Korea fired a ballistic missile designed to carry a nuclear payload over Japan. The former ambassador said Pyongyang's action was "as clear a demonstration as you're going to get without actually hitting American or Japanese or South Korean territory what this regime has in...

At this moment, Japan is not laughing at her Keystone Kops neighbor. However, it may not be the misfiring missiles that Japan should be watching. The Daily Mail is reporting that some Nork-watchers fear that Kim Jong-un, despairing of missile delivery of nuclear warheads, could turn to an almost ancient aviation technology for his delivery vehicles: his fleet of Antonov AN-2 bi-wing transport aircraft, of which he reportedly has several hundred. The Annie, as this aircraft is known by the thousands who have flown it and continue to do so all around the world, looks like something from WWI, having...

Resistance Hero Maxine Waters has quite the strategy for dealing with escalating tensions with North Korea: figure out if the U.S. can give them the “things that they’re asking for.” That’s right, the California Democrat sees a resolution to the crisis through diplomacy, telling a TMZ reporter that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson needs to fill the State department with those who can engage Pyongyang. "We're on the verge of nuclear war, what are your thoughts on this?" the reporter asked. "I want us to be very careful, very alert to what is happening and to avoid war," Waters said....

Sen. John McCain said Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s threat against North Korea was a bit of bluster that fell short of the example set by previous American presidents. The Arizona Republican, one of Congress’ most vocal exponents of U.S. military power, told Phoenix radio station KTAR News 92.3 that Trump should be more measured in his rhetoric on North Korea.

Message to NOKO from PDJT via Drudge: See? This is why you can’t have nice things.And on an unrelated note: the angels will be rockin’ it out tonight.RIP Glen, You’ll always be gentle on my mindPosted from: MOTUS A.D.

White House: 'Clock has now run out' on North Korean nuclear program All options on the table, official says By: JEREMY DIAMOND Posted: Apr 04, 2017 03:36 PM PDT Updated: Apr 04, 2017 03:54 PM PDT WASHINGTON (CNN) - A senior White House official issued a dire warning to reporters Tuesday on the state of North Korea's nuclear program, declaring "the clock has now run out and all options are on the table." "The clock has now run out, and all options are on the table," the official said, pointing to the failure of successive administration's efforts to negotiate an...