HOW TRUMP’S MAXIMUM PRESSURE STRATEGY GOT NORTH KOREA TO THE NEGOTIATING TABLE Read the whole thing.

FROM RUSSIA WITH COLD WAR LOVE: It appears the Kremlin used a nerve agent named Novichok A-230 in the botched assassination attempt in Britain targeting a former spy. It’s highly toxic. “One of the group of chemicals known as Novichok – A-230 – is reportedly 5-8 times more toxic than VX nerve agent.” Some variants are liquid, other types can possibly “be dispersed as an ultra-fine powder as opposed to a gas.”

BAD NEWS FOR KIM JONG UN: The Pentagon is buying more MOPs (Massive Ordnance Penetrators). These bombs go deep.

VERY RELATED: A MOP delivery system deploys to Guam.

NORTH KOREA’S CYBER SLAVES: Kim’s digital spies and thieves.

MARINE LIGHTNING IN THE EAST CHINA SEA: Another photo of an F-35B landing on the USS Wasp.

PARARESCUE TRAINING IN AFGHANISTAN: UASF pararescueman makes a practice parachute jump near Bagram, Afghanistan, March 4, 2018. Great shot. The Himalayas provide the background.

RADIO FREE EUROPE: Why Putin wants a huge voter turnout in the upcoming presidential election.

JANE MAYER’S DOSSIAD: Powerline’s Scott Johnson continues to hammer Mayer’s idiotic New Yorker article defending the Cristopher Steele/Hillary Clinton propaganda smear mainstream media call a dossier. In her epic Mayer portrays Steele as a hero of the purest motive– verily, Stainless Steele. This is the third post in Scott’s series that utterly destroys Mayer’s trash. His title “Dossiad” plays on Alexander Pope’s poem “The Dunciad,” a poem satirizing heroic narrative poems. Is Powerline suggesting the The New Yorker is a contemporary Empire of Dulness? Stay tuned.

SEE, THIS STUFF EVEN CAN REACH OUT AND TOUCH THE REPTILE BRAIN OF KIM JONG UN: An oldie but a goodie, the USAF Bomber Trifecta.

UPDATE FROM ABOVE: Trump’s joke is priceless (See Glenn’s post immediately above). But it’s also psychological warfare. Hey, Rocket Man, Trump’s in charge of the Bomber Trifecta! This column of mine, written last Tuesday, notes Trump’s use of psychological warfare.

Trump has also engaged “Little Rocket Man” Kim in bouts of name-calling. Trump belittled Kim, and did so with humor. Insulting a dictator’s “dignity” is a potentially valuable act of psychological warfare. Dictators assert invulnerability by using physical threat to silence dissent. Kim’s inability to stop or ignore Trump’s taunts revealed a kind of vulnerability.

The Council on Foreign Relations types went ape when Trump gave Kim bombast for bombast. They missed it. Trump beat Kim in the bombast exchange. Per the Bomber Trifecta, Kim would also lose the bomb blast competition.

DENUCLEARIZATION NEWS: Based on what we’ve learned tonight, this column –written Tuesday– seems to be informative.

Note the column stresses “skepticism.” So stay tuned.

FAKE NEWS IS OLD NEWS:

This practice of buying favorable attention in the media is nothing new and is centuries old. The U.S. is unique in that, for about a century, the American mass media was largely free of this blatant bribery. But in most of the world, a clever journalist quickly attracts the attention of people who will pay for some favorable comments. It’s no secret, although many journalists insist they are not bought.

A long post, but worth the read.

“CASPER”: Slang for someone who always disappears when there’s work to be done. After the job is finished, the “goldbrick” reappears. From the cartoon character “Casper the Friendly Ghost.” As a verb, this means “to ghost” or “goldbrick.” (“We couldn’t find him. He pulled a Casper.”)

From EMBRACE THE SUCK, 2ND EDITION.

CATAPULT SHOT IN THE RAIN, PERSIAN GULF: Carrier crew launches an F/A-18E in wet circumstances, February 27, 2018.

TRUMP SAYS “THE U.S. IS READY TO GO HARD IN EITHER DIRECTION” WITH NORTH KOREA: My latest Creators Syndicate column. (bumped)

VERY RELATED, AS IN HALF-BROTHER RELATED: U.S. government sanctions North Korea for Kim Jong Un’s nerve agent assassination of his half-brother, Kim Jong Nam. This is called “maintaining the pressure.” The assassins used VX liquid chemical nerve agent — a banned WMD. The assassination took place in Malaysia in February 2017.

“THE U.S. IS READY TO GO HARD IN EITHER DIRECTION” TRUMP SAID: He was responding to North Korea’s new willingness to discuss denuclearization. “Denuclearization” is diplo-speak for getting rid of North Korean nukes.

MARINE LIGHTNING IN THE EAST CHINA SEA: Very cool photo of a USMC F-35B Lightning II landing on the assault ship USS Wasp. (bumped)

MARINE LIGHTNING IN THE EAST CHINA SEA: Very cool photo of a USMC F-35B Lightning II landing on the assault ship USS Wasp.

WINTER MEDEVAC: A winter field training exercise in North Dakota. Yes, it’s cold.

SEEMINGLY LEGITIMATE PERSONA: Don’t blame me, I’m just quoting the The San Diego Union-Tribune verbatim (albeit via SFGate.com). I’ll add that this dude is seemingly legit by California standards.

A Mexican man who was deported twice and had a history of arrests was able to assume the identity of an American citizen and receive more than $360,000 in government benefits for nearly four decades, California court records show.

Andres Avelino Anduaga used a fake birth certificate starting in 1980 to develop a seemingly legitimate persona by applying for a California driver’s license, Social Security number and U.S. passport, according to documents obtained by the San Diego Union-Tribune. The official U.S. documents identified him as Abraham Riojos, born in Texas in 1958.

More criminality:

Further investigation revealed the man claiming to be Riojos had a rap sheet that included 21 different names and six dates of birth, dating back to 1974, the newspaper reported. They included a firearms violation, forgery, cocaine possession and multiple DUIs, according to prosecutors.

What a scam. With long term rip-off talent like this he ought to be working for The Clinton Foundation.

EMBRACE THE SUCK ALERT: Get the second edition in paperback or on Kindle at Amazon.

BACK TO THE SOUTH CHINA SEA, FEBRUARY 2018: An F/A-18F Super Hornet lands on the USS Carl Vinson.

VERY RELATED: Disputing China’s spurious territorial claims in the South China Sea.

IT’S A TYPE OF GUN CONTROL: Ukraine Goes West For Sniper Rifles.

EMPEROR XI JINPING RIDES THE TIANANMEN TIGER.

So prepare for Emperor Xi, a high-tech 21st century monarch clothed in presidential garb, draped in Communist Party propaganda and supported by the globe’s second largest GDP.

…Zhou dynasty emperors invoked The Mandate of Heaven to justify their absolute monarchy. European royalists had their Divine Right of Kings. In the 21st century, the Central Committee Rubber Stamp Mandate satisfies Emperor Xi.

My latest Creators Syndicate column. (bumped)

USAF KC-135 TANKER REFUELING SWEDISH JETS: Russian bad behavior in Ukraine has consequences. Swedish Gripens and U.S. F-16s fly in formation below the tanker. The exercise took place in Swedish air space.

VIETNAM, FEBRUARY 1968, THE TET OFFENSIVE: A Marine 4.2 inch mortar (Four-Deuce) shells Viet Cong positions.