Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been engaged with Southeast Asian nations for the past five days during his trip to the ASEAN conference.  The issues surrounding North Korea took up most of the dialogue.  En route to Guam Secretary T-Rex holds a brief press conference aboard Air Force 2:

As you know CTH takes a different approach at significant world events. We try to share the untold stories as they shake out, in real time, in granular details not noted by the MSM.  We discuss the stuff on the way to the destination.  That way when we arrive at a ‘way point’ we have a historic reference, a back-story, to comprehend consequential headlines when they happen.
With that in mind, here’s another non-discussed granular detail, spotted recently, building toward a much more significant geopolitical outcome, vis-a-vis Russia.
You might remember on August 4th President Trump and French President Emmanuel had a phone call.  The outline of the phone conversation is HERE, but there was no real reason for them to be chatting…. or was there?
Western media has paid virtually no attention to how Trump’s big picture economic policy enmeshes and bolsters his national security policy.
Quite literally, and I really want to emphasize this, Secretary Mnuchin (Treasury) and Secretary Ross (Commerce) are just as important as Secretary Mattis (Defense) and Secretary Tillerson (State).
Stop and think about that for a minute.
When President Trump went to Saudi Arabia for the Arab Security Summit the two most visibly active cabinet members were Mnuchin and Ross.  When has a Treasury Secretary and Commerce Secretary ever had as much importance during world security events?
Think about it.
Who was Obama’s Commerce Secretary during Iran negotiations?
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Fox News host Laura Ingraham interviews President Trump Senior Policy Adviser Stephen Miller:

During a Monday Rotary Club meeting in Kentucky senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took questions from audience members who asked McConnell to explain why Republican lawmakers have been unable to deliver major legislative accomplishments for the president.
Senator McConnell responded by saying President Trump’s expectations are too high.

“I’d ask for a show of hands, but I know everybody’s saying, ‘been there, haven’t done anything,’ which I find extremely irritating — and I’m going to tell you why. A Congress goes on for two years. Part of the reason I think that the storyline is that we haven’t done much is because, in part, the president and others have set these early timelines about things need to be done by a certain point.”
“Our new president, of course, has not been in this line of work before, and I think had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the Democratic process.”

Fortunately, this ridiculously elitist and arrogant establishment tone will likely not play well. This, along with a host of other ridiculous comments and realities could doom Luther Strange in the upcoming Alabama special election. Luther Strange is the loyal Decepticon favorite of Mitch McConnell and Karl Rove.  Mo Brooks and Roy Moore are more aligned with President Trump.
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– “Walking in a Winner Wonderland” –

Two years ago CTH began discussing the ramifications to a new emphasis on the economy outlined as a possibility of candidate Donald Trump’s economic policy outlook. Within the overall discussion we walked through the anticipated changes possible if A.) Trump won the election, and B.) Trump began instituting Main Street economic policy ahead of Wall Street policy (the past 20+ years).
We discussed the new dimension that would occur between two economic engines (Main Street -vs- Wall Street) as three decades of federal policy shifted. CTH outlined anticipated economic activity in the space between the two dynamics.

Part of those discussions focused on energy costs (we see them lowering), product costs (we explained how inflation would be weird), and importantly, wage rates. It takes several months of policy emphasis, actual outcomes, before the labor market wage rates would grow. We anticipated seeing that impact in Q1 of Fiscal Year 2018, which is October 1st 2017.
Today the Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey, “JOLTS report”, begins to show the initial stages of that wage rate increasing trend. The job market has tightened,… considerably. *Note* We are ending fiscal year Q4 (July, Aug, Sept.) and the trend within MAGAnomics is responding according to predictions. For those of us who argued these policy theories for the past two decades, these results are really cool.
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WASHINGTON – President Trump on Tuesday said one of the best ways to prevent addictions to drugs such as heroin and prescription painkillers is to keep young people from taking them in the first place.
“If they don’t start, they won’t have a problem,” he said in remarks to the media, according to pool reports. “If they do start, it’s awfully tough to get off. So if we can keep them from going on and maybe by talking to youth and telling them, ‘No good, really bad for you in every way.’ But if they don’t start, it will never be a problem.” (read more)

Responding to continued nuclear missile provocations from North Korea, and against the backdrop of a unanimous 15-0 Security Council U.N. resolution, today President Trump delivered the following strong remarks toward the DPRK and Kim Jong-Un.

The Real Battle is the Battle For Your Mind…

CTH takes a different approach at significant world events.  We share the untold stories as they shake out, in real time, in granular details not noted by the MSM.  Readers here know the back-story behind the most consequential headlines when they happen.
♦We outline the policy approach and the intent of each sequential step in achieving a larger objective never discussed by the MSM; ♦we share the results as the significant horizon moments are encountered; ♦and then we share how the MSM shapes victories in the best diminishing way possible.  The latter point is specifically how the biased media shapes the mind of the consuming audience while the audience doesn’t actually notice it happening.

Cue today’s audio visual demonstration.
Everyone knows the first North Korean missile test was conducted during Bill Clinton’s presidency. That was over 20 years ago.  It would be intellectually dishonest in the extreme to think that after two decades, and with modern technological advancement, North Korea would not have missile capable nuclear weapons.  Of course they would.
Today the Washington Post, together with the “intelligence community” (note such leak and narrative partners are not accidental – they act in synergy) maneuver to diminish the hard won and historic policy and security advancement of the Trump administration -that could not be achieved by Bush or Obama policy- by pushing a “NEW HEADLINE” that North Korea already has nuclear missiles.
See what the media objective is there?
The left-wing media goal is to take the strategic policy win from the administration they oppose, and position it such that no win is actually worth celebrating.  See how they do that?
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U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley went into her full Mrs. Rubio mode earlier today as she took credit for single-handily bringing North Korea to heel. Apparently Secretary Tillerson and President Trump assisted Mrs. Rubio in achieving her policy objectives.

Dr. Sebastian Gorka appears on Sean Hannity TV show to discuss the ongoing issues with North Korea and the latest developments with U.N. sanctions.