War

Barely had the market digested news of the latest, 6th - and this time allegedly thermonuclear - test by North Korea (with the South Korean Kospi cutting initial losses of as much as 1.6% in half on yet another BTFNWD ramp), when Yonhap reported that South Korea's spy agency said it had detected that North Korea is making preparations for a possible intercontinental ballistic missile launch, a move that would further raise tensions a day after it conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear detonation.

As has become custom, shortly after North Korea engages in some provocative activity, in this case its first ever hyrdogen bomb test, South Korea has traditionally responded with its own military drill, and today was no difference, with Yonhap reporting "that South Korea's military said Monday it conducted a combined live-fire exercise targeting North Korea's nuclear test site."

To be sure, it's not exactly clear how a "drill" can "target" a foreign military site, but we'll assume someone just used Google translate in this case.

Authored by James George Jatras via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

They say that most of the world’s real dangers arise not because of what people don’t know but because of what they do 'know' that just ain’t so.

As a case in point, consider three things about Korea that the bipartisan Washington establishment seems quite sure of but are far removed from reality:

Delusion 1: All options, including U.S. military force, are «on the table.»

In a bizarre twist to an already unusual story, a convoy of 17 buses carrying Islamic State terrorists and their families has remained stranded since Thursday in the Syrian desert as the US, Russians, and Syrians discuss their fate: attack the convoy or allow it to pass? Regardless of what happens, emerging photos and video depicting ISIS' retreat from Lebanon as well as their current helpless plight stuck in the middle of Syria constitutes perhaps the most significant blow to ISIS propaganda to date.

The town of Southampton, with its 55,000 year-round residents and vaunted reputation as a summertime playground for wealthy New Yorkers, now has its very own counterterrorism squad. And unsurprisingly, it’s making the out-of-towners nervous.

At least that’s what Joe Nocera, a former New York Times columnist who now writes for Bloomberg View, suggested in a recent column. Apparently, the image of police carrying automatic weapons roaming around the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival is just too gauche for Nocera’s wealthy friends to stomach.