UPDATE: 
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Chairman Kim may never be freed, but for U.S. interests the Nuclear threat is gone.
Chairman Xi now owns any actions taken by North Korea. The open engagement by Xi now transfers all DPRK behavior openly to Beijing. North Korea is no more a nuclear threat than China. Technically, this has always been the reality; however, now things are public. China cannot hide or deny their involvement.
Remember, generally speaking President trump held two connected objectives: (1) removing the threat posed by North Korea by severing the ability of Beijing to use the proxy province as a weapon; and (2) deconstructing the growing economic influence of China.
The first objective has been achieved. President Trump can now go into full economic war against China without the worry of Beijing using Pyongyang to launch rockets.
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Big Happenings: President Xi’s visit to NK (the first such visit by a Chines leader in 14 years) kicks off a flurry of high-level diplomatic activity around the Korean Peninsula ahead of the G20 summit in Japan later this month.
Long before media pundits starting noticing/considering how serious President Trump was about structurally resetting the entire landscape of a U.S-China trade relationship ... President Trump quietly and methodically laid the groundwork.
The November 2017 tour of Asia was President Trump traveling to meet directly, face-to-face, one-on-one with the manufacturing heavyweights of Southeast Asia
For two-and-a-half years U.S. President Trump has been working on two connected objectives: (1) removing the threat posed by North Korea by severing the ability of Beijing to use the proxy province as a weapon (Kim is hostage to China); and (2) deconstructing the growing economic influence of China.
Both issues are directly connected to U.S. national security; and both issues are being approached by President Trump through the use of economic leverage to achieve national security results.
Critical Background HERE and HERE
Additionally, President Trump has been openly, albeit with coded messages, telling the world North Korea was already no longer a threat.
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(Reuters) – Apple Inc has asked its major suppliers to assess the cost implications of moving 15%-30% of their production capacity from China to Southeast Asia as it prepares for a restructuring of its supply chain, according to a Nikkei Asian Review report on Wednesday.
Apple’s request was a result of the extended Sino-U.S. trade dispute. The iPhone maker has decided the risks of depending heavily on manufacturing in China are too great and even rising, it said.
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TOKYO— Nintendo Co. is shifting some production of its Switch videogame console to Southeast Asia from China to limit the impact of possible U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made electronics.
Japan’s Sharp Corp. , which is controlled by Foxconn, said last week that it planned to move production of personal computers to Taiwan or Vietnam.
Read it all @ CTH 
by sundance
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"President Trump Just Revolutionized Health Care — And Nobody Noticed"
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There are two big ways Washington can affect healthcare for Americans. The first is by working to expand the range of affordable, high-quality options available in every community. The second is by purposefully eliminating these options in order to drive more people toward centralized, government-run healthcare schemes.
Here’s an example: Health Reimbursement Arrangements, or HRAs, allow workers to shop for a health insurance plan that’s right for them and their families. The previous administration imposed crushing fines and penalties on HRAs to prevent employees from selecting the plan of their choice. “It was impossible,” President Trump said
On Friday, President Trump announced that HRAs will now receive the same tax treatment as other employer-provided health plans. The move is crucial for America’s small businesses: It’s estimated that 90 percent of the businesses that will take advantage of HRAs have fewer than 20 employees.
“The Obama administration had made it illegal for our business to help employees with their health insurance costs,” Maryland small business owner Tom Kunkel said at the White House on Friday. “After the Obama ruling we had to stop all reimbursements . . . which caused a great bit of hardship for our employees.”
Now, his business and others can help defray healthcare costs for employees again.
The Trump Administration expects that 800,000 employers will offer these new HRAs to more than 11 million employees and family members once employers fully adjust to the rule. As a result, some 800,000 Americans who would otherwise be uninsured are projected to gain coverage.
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More indications of the growing financial exit to avoid the predictable response from totalitarian moves by Beijing. [Backstory – Backstory]
Now we see reports growing of mass financial moves out of Hong Kong, as billionaires see the looming shadow of Red Dragon closing in…
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HONG KONG (Reuters) – Some Hong Kong tycoons have started moving personal wealth offshore as concern deepens over a local government plan to allow extraditions of suspects to face trial in China for the first time, according to financial advisers, bankers and lawyers familiar with such transactions.
One tycoon, who considers himself potentially politically exposed, has started shifting more than $100 million from a local Citibank account to a Citibank account in Singapore, according to an adviser involved in the transactions.
“It’s started. We’re hearing others are doing it, too, but no-one is going to go on parade that they are leaving,” the adviser said. “The fear is that the bar is coming right down on Beijing’s ability to get your assets in Hong Kong. Singapore is the favoured destination.”
By sundance - Continue reading → 
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"I think Trump ought to start going to California. I think he ought to go there once a month. I think the Republican National Committee ought to schedule a debate in California. I think the campaign should have ads showing and highlighting the homelessness in downtown Los Angeles and pointing out that this is what happens when Democrats run things with no opposition, no checks, no balances."
So there’s a downside to owning a state. And the downside is, the state has heap big problems, and the Democrats do not have to even care. The Democrats don’t dare go there. The Democrat presidential candidates don’t dare highlight problems in California. It can do nothing but hurt them.
Read it all @ 
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UNION BOSS: L.A. Mayor’s ‘Green New Deal’ Is Pushing Members Toward GOP And Trump
July 11, 2019: Organized labor in Los Angeles recently launched an ad campaign blasting Democratic Mayor Eric Garcetti over his proposed "Green New Deal," claiming the environmental plan would cost union jobs, increase energy bills, and erode the middle-class.
Television and radio spots supported by a seven-figure ad buy began permeating Southern California airwaves earlier this month. A TV commercial broadcast during primetime viewing hours references an unfulfilled, six-year-old Garcetti vow to eliminate homelessness in L.A. if elected mayor.
Partial transcript as follows:
Remember when Eric Garcetti pledged to end homelessness in L.A.? A billion of our tax dollars spent and the crisis is worse than ever. Now he wants green taxes on L.A. drivers and utility rate hikes on local families. Let’s pump the brakes on Garcetti’s new taxes. The only thing green will be money coming out of our wallets.
The drive is sponsored by the Working Californians Research Fund, a nonprofit advocacy organization and front group for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 18.
By Jeffrey Cawood. Read More @
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Posted by William A. Jacobson