As you might remember, in response to a thermonuclear atomic weapons test by North Korea Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is now in the process of writing additional sanctions he will guide into the hands of U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Ambassador Haley will then create a U.N. Security Council resolution containing further economic sanctions toward North Korea using treasury department guidance.
However, as a direct result of the escalation from the DPRK, we can easily predict the final draft will not just target North Korea, but will more substantively target North Korea’s economic enablers.
This is where things get super interesting because all prior U.N. action has built upon itself to these specific ‘enabler’ state sanctions.
Through two rounds of Security Council resolutions both China and Russia have supported the economic sanctions, knowing they would use various workarounds to continue their duplicity.  However, now those sanctions become a risk to the economies of China and Russia because Secretary Mnuchin is likely to use the weight of the dollar in trade contracts as the trigger for sanctions against China and Russia.
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Two seismic events happening in North Korea are suspected to be a nuclear test.  The first event was reportedly measured at a 5.6 Richter Scale magnitude. The second event is being reported at 6.3.  Both seismic events are potentially related to a nuclear detonation:

SEOUL (Reuters) – An earthquake 5.6 was recorded on Sunday in North Korea near the country’s known nuclear test site Punggye-ri, Yonhap news agency reported, citing South Korea’s meteorological agency.
The quake appeared to have been man-made, Yonhap quoted the agency as saying, suggesting the isolated country had conducted a sixth nuclear test. (read more)

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To understand the China ‘One-Belt / ‘One-World‘ economic trade strategy it becomes necessary to understand how structurally weak the Chinese economy was when created.
People often talk about the ‘strength’ of China’s economic model; and indeed within a specific part of their economy -manufacturing- they do have economic strength.
However, the underlying critical architecture of the Chinese economic model is structurally flawed and President Trump with his current economic team understand the weakness better than all international adversaries.
Lets take a stroll and lightly discuss.
China is a central planning economy. Meaning it never was an outcropping of natural economic conditions. China was/is controlled as a communist style central-planning government; As such, it is important to reference the basic structural reality that China’s economy was created from the top down.
This construct of government creation is a key big picture distinction that sets the backdrop to understand how weak the economy really is.
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Things are going swimmingly, strategically, seemingly according to plan.  When the full measure of history allows time to review, observers will note the strategic victory was achieved on August 5th, 2017; that’s the original date when Russia and China agreed to the U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea.  That first, historic, Russia and China U.N. Security Council vote against North Korea came as a result of eight months of assembled economic leverage created by President Donald Trump.
As a result of this ongoing strategy, every time North Korea’s Kim Jong-un takes an action, President Trump hits China’s Xi Jinping with an additional economic squeeze.  As Beijing feels the squeeze, they tell Kim Jong-un to act. Every time Kim Jong-un acts, President Trump squeezes Beijing with more economic pressure.  Wash-Rinse-Repeat.
Communist Beijing has boxed themselves into this inescapable cycle. The only way out of the box is to concede and lay the DPRK defeat at the feet of Kim Jong-un.  The conceding will evidence itself when Beijing inevitably calls for ‘Six Party Talks‘.  Today:

(Via Associated Press) Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says his country will “fully and completely” abide by U.N. Security Council sanctions resolutions on North Korea.
Wang told reporters Wednesday China would work with other members of the council on how best to react to North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile over Japan on Tuesday.
He says, “We will make a necessary response.”

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China, via Beijing’s communist old guard, has played right into the hands of the Trump administration by overreacting to the economic pressure of President Trump.  Beijing authorized an atomic elbow via another provocative North Korean missile test. However, their response now empowers the Trump administration to point out the terrible DPRK behavior and simultaneously take a higher diplomatic road.
President Trump, Secretary Tillerson and Secretary Mattis’s “Fire and Fury” approach was essentially a dynamic Win/Win.  By utilizing diplomacy (Tillerson/Haley) while constructing the appearance of military possibility (Mattis/McMaster), while simultaneously President Trump put the BIG geopolitical economic squeeze on China, team U.S.A. created a multidimensional box – and Beijing walked directly into the trap.

Unintentionally, China has now created a diplomatic ‘high-road’ path in response to the DPRK for the Trump administration.  China, seeking to retain position behind the curtain of the DPRK, will not be able to oppose, publicly or in the U.N., any U.S. and allied position now or they run the risk of the entire world seeing their controls over Kim Jong-un.  Notice the strategy in the well coordinated approach today:

President Trump Speaks To PM Shinzo Abe – President Donald J. Trump spoke yesterday with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan to address North Korea’s launch of a missile that overflew Japanese territory. The two leaders agreed that North Korea poses a grave and growing direct threat to the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, as well as to countries around the world. President Trump and Prime Minister Abe committed to increasing pressure on North Korea, and doing their utmost to convince the international community to do the same. (LINK)

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The media are so predictable it becomes a little funny after a while.  CNN specializes in the State Department and sells their narratives. Washington Post specializes in the CIA and sells their narratives.  NYT focuses on DOJ, FBI and Intelligence Community overall.
Senator Bob Corker leaks a letter he received from Secretary of State Tillerson directly to CNN.  Secretary Tillerson is informing Senator Corker of State Department downsizing.  Republicans in congress have already threatened to sue Trump administration to force more spending on State Department.

(Via The Hill) Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is preparing to eliminate or downgrade special envoy positions at the State Department, CNN reported Monday.
The secretary, in a letter addressed to Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) obtained by CNN, proposed shaking up as many as three-dozen posts, by either letting go or transferring the envoys.

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Beijing (China) is attempting to “trigger” President Trump’s internal neo-con and militaristic opposition. Stay frosty, avoid emotional reports demanding military engagement, and remain steady with a high altitude perspective.
Multiple reports now confirming that North Korea has conducted a missile test. The flight path escalates the issues by crossing over part of Northern Japan. In essence, Beijing China just threw an elbow at President Trump. [The likely “Why” follows breaking report]

TOKYO (Reuters) – North Korea fired a missile that passed over northern Japan early on Tuesday, the Japanese government said. The government’s J-Alert warning system advised people in the area to take precautions, but public broadcaster NHK said there was no sign of damage.
The Japanese military did not attempt to shoot down the missile, which passed over Japanese territory around 6:06 a.m. local time (2106 GMT). (Reuters)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, speaking to reporters in Tokyo after the launch, said the missile appeared to have passed over airspace and that the government was urgently collecting intelligence on the incident and doing everything to ensure the safety of its citizens, according to remarks broadcast on NHK, Bloomberg News reports.
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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appears on Fox News Sunday with guardian and gate-keeper of the swamp Chris Wallace.

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[Transcript] QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, welcome back to Fox News Sunday.
SECRETARY TILLERSON: Pleased to be here, Chris.
QUESTION: Before we get to foreign affairs, I want to ask you as a native son of Texas and as the former chairman of and CEO of ExxonMobil your thoughts about Hurricane Harvey and especially the impact it’s having in the oil and gas sector there on the Gulf coast.
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United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, recently visited the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) to review the ongoing JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) as they continue to monitor Iran’s nuclear program.
Ambassador Haley outlined a summary of the IAEA meeting and fielded additional questions about North Korea and Venezuela.  She will be traveling to Washington DC on Monday to brief President Trump and Secretary Tillerson.

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As you might note from her remarks (see below), Ambassador Haley is keenly aware of the uniqueness, and effectiveness, of President Trump’s economic approach toward regional national security issues – specifically as it pertains to the recently announced Venezuela sanctions. Strong concise statements. Strong, short, effective and deliberate answers.
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It is being reported by multiple media outlets and their sources that Dr. Sebastian Gorka has parted ways with the White House.  Some reports say ‘forced out‘, others say ‘resigned’; it matters not.  Gorka was staff; simply staff, nothing more than staff; he and Bannon can go make cucumber sandwiches now.
Dr. Gorka was essentially a Steve Bannon employee in the administration; Gorka reported to Bannon, and Gorka took instructions from Bannon.  With General Kelly creating a formal chain of contact and message discipline within the White House; and with Gorka’s boss having resigned a week ago; it was entirely predictable that Gorka would leave.

Dr. Sebastian Gorka had been on a semi-hiatus since a week prior to Bannon’s departure when Gorka appeared on national television and did a big stupid.  Gorka asserting he held influence over Defense Secretary General Mattis and claiming Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was “nonsensical” and did not know the Administration’s military agenda toward North Korea.

“The idea that Secretary Tillerson is going to discuss military matters is simply nonsensical,” Gorka said at the time. “It is the job of [Defense] Secretary [Jim] Mattis, the secretary of defense, to talk about the military options, and he has done so unequivocally.” (link)

Anyone noticing a pattern here?
Yup, just like Steve Bannon claiming only he was skilled enough to direct U.S. foreign policy engagement from the State Department, Sebastian Gorka was way out of line with is “nonsensical” Tillerson statement. It’s not accidental that Bannon’s statements and Gorka’s statements were similarly framed.
To the extent you can know anyone from watching them, I like Bannon and Gorka. But, c’mon, I mean seriously… what level of stupid arrogance is needed for Bannon and Gorka to think they held free reign to undermine Cabinet Officers?  Have neither of these guys worked in a large corporate and/or institutional system where you understand your role and the number one rule: “never compromise your leadership.”
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