AND IN THE REST OF THE WORLD – AT 6:44 P.M. ET:   We forget that there's big stuff going on outside Iowa and New Hampshire.  A good part of the world is in chaos.  The Mideast is in flames.  Asia is becoming unstable and threatening.  The president visited a Baltimore mosque today to tell the parishioners how much he loved them. 

North Korea is becoming increasingly defiant in one of the most volatile parts of the globe.  From AP:

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea warned on Wednesday of "searing" consequences if North Korea doesn't abandon plans to launch a long-range rocket that critics call a banned test of ballistic missile technology.

The South's rhetoric about unspecified harsh consequences comes less than a month after North Korea's defiant fourth nuclear test and as diplomats at the U.N. work on strong new sanctions against the North.

North Korea on Tuesday informed international organizations of its plans to launch an Earth observation satellite on a rocket between Feb. 8 and 25, and if North Korea's past patterns are any clue, angry warnings by its neighbors and Washington probably won't dissuade a coming launch.

The launch declaration, which is meant to warn civilians, shipping and aircraft in the area about the rocket and falling debris, follows North Korea's disputed claim on Jan. 6 to have tested a hydrogen bomb, the country's fourth nuclear test. A launch would be seen as a snub by North Korea of its only major ally, China, whose representative for Korean affairs landed in the North for talks on Tuesday.

South Korean and U.S. officials said the launch would threaten regional security and violate U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban the country from engaging in any ballistic activities.

"We warn that if North Korea proceeds with a long-range missile launch, the international society will ensure that the North pays searing consequences for it as the launch would constitute a grave threat to the Korean Peninsula, the region and the world," senior South Korean presidential official Cho Tae-yong said in televised remarks.

COMMENT:  Why should North Korea heed any warnings?  Why would they be afraid of Field Marshal Obama or Grand Admiral Kerry?

America's allies must feel very alone.

February 3, 2016