Politics

There was something different about today's ballistic missile test: according to a preliminary analysis from the Pentagon, the rocket was an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, which was reported to have flown for 50 minutes, on a very high trajectory reaching 4,500 km above the earth (more than ten times higher than the orbit of Nasa’s International Space Station) before coming down nearly 1,000 km from the launch site off the west coast of Japan.

Update 1: Following the cancellation of what was supposed to be a bipartisan meeting at the White House to discuss the budget and tax reform, President Trump just wrapped up a brief press briefing that touched on everything from his spat with "Chuck and Nancy" to North Korea's latest missile launch.

On tax reform, Trump predicted that "adjustments" will be required to get a bill through the Senate:

*TRUMP SAYS NOT SURPRISED SCHUMER, PELOSI SKIPPED MEETING

*TRUMP SAYS THERE WILL BE ADJUSTMENTS TO TAX LEGISLATION

Amid efforts to liberate the Iraq region from ISIS, the local army has discovered new details about how the terrorists operated, including their logistical infrastructure in stolen oil (which as a reminder was sold to Turkey in general and Erdogan in particular). A recently emerged video shows secret underground repositories of black gold, which the terrorists were presumably forced to create to hide their stolen wealth from the anti-terrorist coalition.

Somewhat calming anxiety over the tax reform bill making it out of committee, Senator Ron Johnson confirmed he would vote 'yes'...

Senator Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, pushed to change the way pass-through businesses would be treated by increasing a proposed 17.4 percent deduction for pass-through business income to at least 20 percent.

 

Johnson would pay for the heftier tax break by eliminating the corporate deduction for state and local taxes.

 

Well, US experts did warn that North Korea could conduct another missile test "within days", and for once, US experts were right, because moments ago Yonhap reported citing South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, that after a two and a half month hiatus, North Korea has fired a ballistic missile, the first such launch since September 15.