The United States is considering, in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2017

Could be interpreted as meaning the US is 'considering' stopping all trade with Russia, China, Iran, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and a list of other countries of lesser note.  If you interpret it as a threat of consequence, it could  have been designed to merely send a message to the biggest two-way trade partner, the People's Republic: Uncle Sam envisions extreme measures short of war, targeted at enabler nations.

From another angle, the "all trade" is blufftrump, while the biggest offender still remains, yes, China. Surely China can be encouraged to economically cripple the demented state next-door ... (and here's looking at you, Vladimir)

China & Russia did surprisingly support that last round of sanctions at the UN, and have enforced them, yet they reportedly see the nuclear issue in a slightly different strategic framework:  DPRK is arming itself with the ultimate weapon as a deterrent to the USA's war powers. The leadership do not so far seem inclined to radically punish the North.  

That sounds wrong and stupid and counterfactual, as DPRK seems to threaten -- if not annihilation -- nuclear death in the Homeland. But that's the strategic thinking, along with Russia, in simple terms. These two DPRK neighbours see missiles pointed at the ''adversary nations," not at themselves. Sort of corrupt great power thinking, maybe.  Perhaps a ruined, starving, cold and miserable North Korea would result in the kind of social breakdown seen in collapsed nations elsewhere, but the question for me is what would result. Could the North Koreans be dissuaded from perfecting their 'deterrence' if their neighbours starved them?  

Blufftrumping that "all trade" will be extinguished with the unnamed offenders still should and will still send a shiver of alarm through the unnamed, in one of my fantasies. Using trade relationships to punish egregious behaviour of a state actor. 

Kind of august as a pronouncement-in-tweet, compelling, demanding, ready to unleash The Power from the apex of decision.  

As the President might say, "We'll see what happens."

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For a walk down another street, here is a neat match-up of fellows in the vector-space of OL  tastes ...

Joe Rogan Experience #1006 - Jordan Peterson & Bret Weinstein - YouTube

Quote

Streamed live on Sep 1, 2017 · 1 day ago

Jordan Peterson is a clinical psychologist and tenured professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. You can check out all Dr. Peterson's self-improvement writing programs at [ http://www.selfauthoring.com ]
 
Bret Weinstein is a biology professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. Currently he is in the middle of an intense controversy that has been documented by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and several other mainstream media outlets. Sign up for a free crash course on Evolutionary Thinking at http://bretweinstein.net/early

Peterson is emerging as a star of the culture wars ... has a wide-ranging Youtube channel, and gets into the wars via his Twitter account. He had one intriguing tweet yesterday outraged that the above video was placed under a Youtube 'restricted' status. I asked for details, he deleted his claim.

Fey, very very fey canoes ...