The North Korea problem in a nutshell

George W. Bush cried wolf in Iraq, and now when faced with a genuine threat, Democrats and Republicans alike think Trump is evil for crying like a wolf. They are in denial, shrinking from reality, and incapable of anything save appeasement. There is incontrovertible evidence of a pattern of North Korean use of force, not just threats of it. Do they really want to be responsible for the deaths of many innocents before we are forced to take out North Korea's nuclear capability?

They both agree on abortion, so I guess the answer is yes.

Cost-effective warfare using the B61-12

The B61-12, here:

The B61-12 atomic bombs, for instance, are to undergo a life-extension program that will cost roughly $9.5 billion. There are 400 to 500 of these bombs, says Gronlund, which means refurbishing one will cost about $20 million.

Flashback to 12/6/2016 to Mitch McConnell: "The ObamaCare repeal resolution will be the first item up in the New Year"

Here at The Hill.

No hurry, mate.

h/t Rush

Has anyone connected Otto Warmbier's death with the North Korean novel by Han Sorya?

The North Korean novel "Jackals" from 1951 by Han Sorya provides an MO for what might have happened to Otto Warmbier.

In the novel an American missionary is showcased injecting germs into a Korean boy to kill him. You can read about it here.

I don't think it's a coincidence an American visits North Korea and suffers a similar fate at their hands. I'm guessing the North Koreans actively gave something to Otto Warmbier which they knew would kill him eventually.

Rush is absolutely right: Trump is purposely not acting "presidential" toward North Korea to keep them off balance

It's actually a North Korean value to commit spontaneous outbursts of violence. The North Koreans have never encountered the same from an American president, until now.

Smoking pot increases blood pressure and risk of death from hypertension

Story here.

Alabama US Senate race to replace Sessions shows how divided is "conservatism"

Trump has endorsed Luther Strange (all those promises to pick the very best people should have been a warning).

Mo Brooks is endorsed by Hannity, Ingraham and the Tea Party Patriots.

Judge Roy "10 Commandments" Moore, endorsed by Chuck Norris, has a 10-point lead.

Story here.

Multiple jobholding in July peaked in 1997, the go-go decade for jobs, at 8.05 million

In July 2017 it's only 7.3 million, not seasonally adjusted.

Complain that it's not more, not that it's too many.

Some people just don't get it. 

The Wall, a concrete policy which can't be reversed instantly by the next president

Levin: Republican Congress can't agree to repeal Obamacare, now we're supposed to give them war power?

Now you're talkin'.

Mark Levin is at his best to start the show this evening

He's ripping every president back to G. H. W. Bush as appeasers of North Korea, our feckless Congress, our fifth column media, and even the libertarians, observing that the president is almost alone in facing this problem.

One of Trump's biggest enemies on the radio is tonight one of his biggest supporters.

You'd better pray I don't win Megamillions tonight

With my luck I'll win and a nuclear war will start with North Korea.

Loretta Lynch now numbered among Obama's minions using e-mail aliases to avoid detection

Reported here.

She went by Elizabeth Carlisle, not Publius or Brutus.

Sort of like how Liizah Mercowsky of Alaska uses Republican as an alias for Democrat.

Medicaid enrollment increases, the number with private coverage decreases

“The danger is that the previously insured are now at risk of becoming the new uninsured,” reports Jarrett Stepman for The Daily Signal.

Hm, California has 11 counties with more registered voters than voting age adults

Reported here.

Hiroshima survivor admits school girls were being trained as decoders for the Japanese army

So they were legitimate targets.

From the story here:

On the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, Setsuko Nakamura sat with her Grade 8 classmates on the floor of her private girls school, listening to a lecture about duty to the emperor. Setsuko and some of her classmates had been training as decoding assistants for the Japanese army, in preparation for the final invasion by Allied forces.

Like most libertarians, Ben Domenech is a progressive who imagines America began as a tabula rasa on which we wrote "manifest destiny"

I'll bet he's memorized Emma Lazarus' poem, too. Ben is deeply confused about the American founding.

Here, where you might be forgiven for thinking he's talking about Australia:

Once there was a country born without an inheritance. It was a civilization carved by the rejected refuse of the old world, by the religious freaks, criminals, bastards, and orphans. They were the type of men and women willing to risk all to cross the wine-dark sea in search of their fortune. They came from all the corners of the world, and in this land they worked the good earth and made their way. In time they built marketplaces and cities and governments, and threw off the shackles of their far-off, old-world rulers to make their own law. Where other revolutions had been crushed, they prevailed. They risked it all, and won.

The individual insurance market has shrunk by 13% in one year, led by those unsubsidized

From the story here:

As of March 2017, the individual insurance market totaled 17.6 [million-doh!] people. That is down from 20.2 million one year prior. This is a decrease of 2.6 million people, a 13 percent drop in the size of the overall individual-health-insurance market. 12.2 million bought their health insurance on the state- and federally run Obamacare exchanges [vs. 12.7 million the previous year]. 5.4 million people bought their insurance off of the Obamacare exchanges [vs. 7.5 million the previous year]. ... In other words, enrollment is steady among those who receive subsidies but declining dramatically among those who do not. ... In fact, in 2015, 7.5 million people paid the fine, while 6.5 million paid the fine in 2016, according to the IRS. ... After four years of attempts by the Obama administration, no more than 40 percent of those eligible for subsidies availed themselves of the program.

Liberalism has become illiberalism, insisting that bombing is the only way forward

Usefully discussed here.

"We have to destroy the village in order to save it."

Three easy steps to joining the middle class

1. Get a job

2. Marry someone who also has a job

3. Pool your resources and buy a house