TRUMP WARNS NORTH KOREA: All options on the table.

WILL MUELLER EXAMINE THE DNC SERVER?: Of course he should. It’s in the public interest! He also needs to answer this question: Why didn’t Comey examine it?

On June 12, 2016, WikiLeaks announced that it would soon release stolen computer files that pertained to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Two days later, CrowdStrike, a computer security company working for the Democratic National Committee, announced that it had detected Russian malware on the DNC’s computer server. The next day, a self-described Romanian hacker, Guccifer 2.0, claimed he was a WikiLeaks source and had hacked the DNC’s server. He then posted online DNC computer files that contained metadata that indicated Russian involvement in the hack.

Much to the embarrassment of Hillary Clinton, the released files showed that the DNC had secretly collaborated with her campaign to promote her candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination over that of Bernie Sanders. Clearly, the Clinton campaign needed to lessen the political damage. Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton’s public relations chief, said in a Washington Post essay in March that she worked assiduously during the Democratic nominating convention to “get the press to focus on … the prospect that Russia had not only hacked and stolen emails from the DNC, but that it had done so to help Donald Trump and hurt Hillary.”

Thus was laid the cornerstone of the Trump-Russia-collusion conspiracy theory.

Since then, the mainstream media have created a climate of hysteria in which this unsubstantiated theory has been conjured into accepted truth. This has resulted in investigations by Congress and a special counsel into President Trump, his family, and his campaign staff for supposed collusion with the Russians.

I love this sentence: “Why would the purported victim of a crime refuse to cooperate with law enforcement in solving that crime?”

A possible answer: Because examining the server might expose the so-called victim’s campaign deceptions and current media lies?

ALL OPTIONS ON THE TABLE: Firebrand Trump’s response to Kim’s latest missile test was cool and crafted.

SWAMP DRAINING NEWS: Secretary of State Tillerson is trimming State Department staff, particularly suspect positions Obama created.

Of the 38 positions created under the former administration, 23 will be either removed or reassigned, a senior Trump administration official told Fox News on Tuesday. The staffers whose positions will be eliminated are those who worked on projects such as closing Guantanamo Bay, implementing the Iran Deal and the transparency coordinator position created in response to Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

Read the whole thing.

THE NAVY’S SM-6 ABM HAS A SUCCESSFUL TEST INTERCEPT:

The United States conducted a successful missile defense test that intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile off the coast of Hawaii early Wednesday morning, according to a statement from the US Missile Defense Agency.

The Standard Missile-6, built by major US defense contracter Raytheon, intercepted the missile target at sea in its final seconds of flight after being fired from the USS John Paul Jones.

BACKGROUND: A StrategyPage report on the SM-6 (July 2017).

OBAMA MUST BE SHOCKED SHOCKED SHOCKED: OK, he isn’t shocked. He’s busy playing golf.

Iran won’t let U.S. inspectors check out its nuclear weapons sites.

Iranian officials have rejected U.S. demands for United Nations inspectors to visit Tehran’s military sites, which is part of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal.

“The Americans should take the dream of being able to inspect our military sites, be it under the pretext of the [agreement] or based on any other justification, to the grave,” Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khameneii, told reporters.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran, which is the pivot of resistance in the region, will not allow the Americans and non-Americans to inspect [its] military sites, which are a crucial and strategic part of national security,” he added.

I saw this one coming: The Real Deal With The Iranian Deal (from 2015).

NORTH KOREA’S FAT KID HAD TO SHOOT AGAIN: Dictators can’t lose face and keep power. But did Kim really save face by lobbing a missile over Japan?

SWAMP DEFENSE SYSTEM KICKS INTO HIGH GEAR: FBI claims public isn’t interested in Hillary’s emails.

Total BS. Many of us are very interested in her crimes.

The FBI says it will only release records from its files if a subject consents, is dead, or is of such public interest that it overrides privacy concerns.

Mr. Clevenger said he thought it would have been clear why Mrs. Clinton’s case was of public interest, but he sent documentation anyway, pointing to a request by members of Congress for an investigation into whether Mrs. Clinton perjured herself in testimony to Capitol Hill.

“I’m just stunned. This is exactly what I would have expected had Mrs. Clinton won the election, but she didn’t. It looks like the Obama Administration is still running the FBI,” Mr. Clevenger told The Washington Times.

“How can a story receive national news coverage and not be a matter of public interest? If this is the new standard, then there’s no such thing as a public interest exception,” he said.

The FBI didn’t return a message seeking comment Tuesday on how it balances public interest versus privacy in open-records requests.

Great line: Obama Administration still running the FBI. This must change — now.

Lock her up.

TWO WEEKS OLD BUT INCREASINGLY EVERGREEN: South Korea and Japan are all-in on the Trump Administration’s pressure strategy. This morning’s bombing exercise by the South Korean Air Force was a response to the latest North Korean missile test — and it’s an example of coordinated policy.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: My latest Observer essay — the Trump Administration takes on the Afghanistan mess Obama left.

UNDERWRITER UNDERWATER: Key flood insurance underwriter already $23 billion in debt.

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), the singular source of flood insurance for most Americans, is already $23 billion in debt after servicing prior natural disasters, including Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina. Costs from Harvey are expected to increase that debt by billions of dollars. The NFIP, which is overseen by FEMA, has borrowed money from the U.S. Treasury, and thus from taxpayers, in order to keep itself running. That debt is due next month, when the program is also up for reauthorization in Congress.

The government has already said it would be impossible for the flood program to repay such a staggering amount of dues, causing some to believe the program needs a major overhaul to prevent structural debt accumulations every time there is a disaster situation.

Stay tuned.

FAILED COMEDIENNE UPDATE: Kathy Griffin says she is no longer friends with Anderson Cooper. Poor, dimwitted, Hollywood leftist Kathy — how could she know that imitating an Islamic State execution snuff flick would have an emotional and professional downside? Note she still blames President Trump for her predicament — instead of herself.

FREE FALL PARACHUTE EXERCISE IN QATAR: U.S. and Qatari special forces personnel have some fun. The USAF photographer snapped a heckuva shot.

IN RESPONSE TO NORTH KOREA’S LATEST MISSILE TEST SOUTH KOREA DROPS BUNKER BUSTER BOMBS IN FIREPOWER DISPLAY:

South Korea’s military has dropped eight heavy bombs near its border with the North in a show of what local media called “overwhelming force” following Pyongyang’s latest missile test.

President Moon Jae-in ordered the strike, by four F-15K fighter-bombers, at a firing range in the country’s east to “display a strong capability to punish” North Korea if it were to attack.

The MK-84 multi-purpose bomb is a 2,000lb munition that can penetrate some 11m of earth and 11ft of concrete. South Korea said all eight hit their targets at a testing ground on the country’s own soil.

These bombs could take out North Korean artillery in hardened positions –artillery that could shell Seoul. South Korea and Japan are all-in on Trump’s pressure strategy.

NORTH KOREAN MISSILE FIRED OVER JAPAN: The launch occurred today. Time to turn the pressure up another notch.

SECRETARY OF STATE TILLERSON PLAYS GOOD COP: In the wake of North Korea’s latest missile tests, Tillerson said:

“We’re going to continue our peaceful pressure campaign as I have described it, working with allies, working with China as well to see if we can bring the regime in Pyongyang to the negotiating table.”

Somebody needs to write about Trump’s pressure strategy.

A BOTTOM LINE GUY LIKE TRUMP HAS TO ASK “WHAT DOES AMERICA HAVE TO SHOW FOR 16 YEARS OF WAR IN AFGHANISTAN?” My latest Observer essay.

PHOTOS OF THE HOUSTON AREA: Taken by Houston Chronicle readers. The link goes to a photo of a policemen in League City saying goodbye to his son. Scroll through the photos. Some are poignant, like the photo of the policeman, all of them illustrative.

AIRBORNE EYES OVER THE THEODORE ROOSEVELT: A USAF E-3 Sentry and the USS Theodore Roosevelt participate in a composite training unit exercise.

A BOTTOM LINE GUY LIKE TRUMP HAS TO ASK “WHAT DOES AMERICA HAVE TO SHOW FOR 16 YEARS OF WAR IN AFGHANISTAN?”: My latest Observer essay.

HORNET BREAKING THE SOUND BARRIER: Shocking.

A BOTTOM LINE GUY LIKE TRUMP HAS TO ASK “WHAT DOES AMERICA HAVE TO SHOW FOR 16 YEARS OF WAR IN AFGHANISTAN?”

HARPOONING OFF GUAM: Nice shot.

NO ONE EVER REALLY WINS A WAR IN A COMPLICATED NOWHERE LIKE AFGHANISTAN.

INTERRING THE ISLAMIC STATE IN IRAQ: It’s dying in Iraq, still alive but severely wounded in Syria. Its hideous ideology must also die.