Outside the Beltway

As America prepares for a Presidential transition, an old conflict with a history of turning dangerous rears its head.

North Korea continues to advance its nuclear program but it’s unclear what anyone can do about it.

North Korea conducts yet another nuclear weapons test, and it’s unclear what anyone can do to stop them.

President Obama will leave office as the first two term President who presided over eight years of war. It didn’t start with him and it won’t end with him.

The Ramming Speed Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima left just the impression it should have.

A treasure trove of documents from a law firm in Panama could prove problematic for a large group of international leaders.

Marco Rubio is ruling out a return to politics, at least for now.

More saber rattling from Pyongyang.

Can anything restrain the North Koreans besides direct action by China? That’s unclear, but the new round of sanctions pending at the U.N. seem unlikely to accomplish much of anything.

Marco Rubio was the man in the cross hairs in last night’s Republican debate.

The United States and South Korea are hinting at increased military cooperation in the wake of last week’s North Korean nuclear test.

Experts are casting doubt on North Korea’s claim that it tested a thermonuclear device earlier this week.

The North Koreans claim to have made a major advance in their nuclear weapons program, but there are many reasons to be skeptical.

North Korea’s mercurial leader now claims to have thermonuclear weapons, but analysts are saying this is likely braggadocios nonsense.

In a new book, former President George H.W. Bush is highly critical of two of his son’s closest advisers in the White House.

Any discussion of the Iran deal has to be about realistic alternatives, not fantasies.

Depending on who you listen to, it’s either peace in our time or an epic catastrophe.

It’s easier for an American citizen to go to Iran or North Korea than it is for them to go to Cuba, That’s insane.

North Korea now claims it has miniaturized nuclear warheads sufficienctly so that they can be placed on missiles. They also say they can launch missiles from submarines.

North Korea’s mercurial leader has apparently executed yet another high ranking official.

Chinese analysts are telling their American counterparts that North Korea’s nuclear arsenal is far more sophisticated than previously believed.

Senate Republicans have done more harm to the goal of stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons than they have done good.

Amateurish? Condescending? Yes. Treasonous? No.

Reversing a previous decision, Sony will allow The Interview to be screened in a small number of theaters.

There are again reports of Chinese frustration with the Kim regime in North Korea, but change is unlikely to happen in the DPRK until Beijing is ready to let it happen.

There’s not a whole lot the United States can do to respond effectively and proportionally to North Korea’s hacking attack against Sony.

President Obama believes the North Korean attack on Sony was “an act of cyber vandalism” rather than “an act of war.”

President Obama criticized Sony for backing down, and said that the U.S. would respond to North Korea’s cyber attack “at a place and time we choose,”

The U.S. Government has formally charged North Korea with responsibility for the hacking attack on Sony. How to respond to that attack is a more complicated question.

With major theater chains having pulled out, Sony bowed to the inevitable, but now there appears to be proof that a foreign power is behind the Sony hacking attacks and threats of violence.

Hackers who have divulged embarrassing secrets from deep within Sony Pictures are now threatening violence if a film about a plot to kill Kim Jong Un is released.

Sony is warning the press not to publish material leaked by hackers, but it doesn’t have much of a legal leg to stand on.

Thinking about that the state, law, violence, and the Garner incident (and contributing to the tl;dr phenomenon).

Good news for two released Americans, but no clue what’s motivating North Korea’s latest actions.

The mystery continues.

Once again, there’s speculation that something is up in the world’s most closed society.

The The Manolo Will Not Be Pleased Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

George Will has come under criticism for pointing out what seems to be an undeniable fact.

There’s little evidence for the conservative contention that the President has damaged America’s position in the world.