Today’s News 21st August 2023

• Belarusian Forces Conduct Landing & Assault Drills Near Polish Border
  Belarusian Forces Conduct Landing & Assault Drills Near Polish Border

  Via Remix News,

  Belarusian soldiers are engaged in exercises near Brest, including parachute and landing operations…

  

  The Belarusian Ministry of Defense has confirmed that a five-day training exercise for land and assault forces is being conducted in Brest, a city in southwest Belarus on the Polish border.

  It is understood that officers have already practiced parachute landings and embarked on a 15-kilometer march in the region. The training area is just a few kilometers from the Bug River on the border between Poland and Belarus.

  A month ago, the training site near Brest was also used by the Wagner Group mercenaries. This too was acknowledged by the Belarusian defense ministry. 

  

  Source: Telegram/Belarusian Ministry of Defense.

  The Polish authorities are monitoring the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border very closely, and the Polish government announced measures last week to ramp up security in the region.

  The Border Guard is being supported by the army following the incident in which two Belarusian helicopters entered Polish air space.

  “We are increasing the number of our troops on the Polish-Belarusian border; eventually, 10,000 soldiers will defend the Polish border in this sector,” Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak told Polish Radio last Thursday.

  Belarus has also announced its intention to engage in joint military exercises with China.

  The Chinese defense minister has been in Minsk for talks on deepening military cooperation between the two countries. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 02:00

• Escobar: Central Asia Is The Prime Battlefield In The New Great Game
  Escobar: Central Asia Is The Prime Battlefield In The New Great Game

  Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,

  So long as Russia and China remain the region’s dominant political and economic powers, the Central Asian heartland will remain a US and EU target for threats, bribes, and color revolutions…

  

  The historical Heartland – or Central Eurasia – already is, and will continue to be, the prime battlefield in the New Great Game, fought between the United States and the China-Russia strategic partnership.  

  The original Great Game pitted the British and Russian empires in the late 19th century, and in fact, never got away: it just metastasized into the US-UK entente versus the USSR, and, subsequently, the US-EU versus Russia. 

  According to the Mackinder-designed geopolitical game conceptualized by imperial Britain back in 1904, The Heartland is the proverbial “pivot of History,” and its re-energized 21st century historical role is as relevant as in centuries ago: a key driver of emerging multipolarity.    

  So it’s no wonder all major powers are at work in the Heartland/Central Eurasia: China, Russia, US, EU, India, Iran, Turkiye, and to a lesser extent, Japan. Four out of five Central Asian “stans” are full members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO): Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. And some, like Kazakhstan, may soon become members of BRICS+.   

  The key direct geopolitical clash for influence across the Heartland pits the US against Russia and China on myriad political, economic, and financial fronts.   

  The imperial modus operandi privileges – what else – threats and ultimatums. Only four months ago, US emissaries from the State Department, Treasury, and Office of Foreign Affairs Control (OFAC) toured the Heartland bearing a whole package of “gifts,” as in blatant or thinly disguised threats. The key message: if you “help” or even trade with Russia in any way, you will be slapped with secondary sanctions. 

  Informal conversations with businesses in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand and Bukhara and contacts in Kazakhstan reveal a pattern: Everyone seems to be aware that the Americans will go no holds barred to hold the Heartland/Central Asia at gunpoint. 

  Kings of the Ancient Silk Roads

  There’s hardly a more relevant place across the Heartland to observe the current power play than Samarkand, the fabled “Rome of the East.” Here we are in the heart of ancient Sogdiana – the historical trade crossroads between China, India, Parthia, and Persia, an immensely important node of East-West cultural trends, Zoroastrianism, and pre/post-Islamic vectors. 

  From the 4th century to the 8th century, it was the Sogdians who monopolized the caravan trade between East Asia, Central Asia, and West Asia, transporting silk, cotton, gold, silver, copper, weaponry, aromas, furs, carpets, clothes, ceramics, glass, porcelain, ornaments, semi-precious stones, mirrors. Wily Sogdian merchants used protection from nomadic dynasties to solidify trade between China and Byzantium. 

  The meritocratic Chinese elite, which reasons in terms of very long historical cycles, is very much aware of all of the above: that’s a key driver behind the New Silk Roads concept, officially known as BRI (Belt and Road Initiative), as announced nearly 10 years ago by President Xi Jinping in Astana, Kazakhstan. Beijing plans to reconnect with its Western neighbors as the necessary pathway towards increased pan-Eurasian trade and connectivity.         

  Beijing and Moscow have complementary focuses when it comes to relations with the Heartland – always under the principle of strategic cooperation. Both have been engaged in regional security and economic cooperation with Central Asia since 1998. Established in 2001, the SCO is an actual product of the Russia-China common strategy as well as a platform for non-stop dialogue with the Heartland.  

  How different Central Asian “stans” react to it is a multi-level issue.

  • Tajikistan, for instance, economically fragile and heavily dependent on the Russian market as a provider of cheap labor, officially keeps an “open door” policy to every sort of cooperation, including with the west.         

  • Kazakhstan and the US have established a Strategic Partnership Council (their last meeting was late last year).

  • Uzbekistan and the US have a “strategic partnership dialogue,” set up in late 2021. American business presence is very much visible in Tashkent, via an imposing trade center, not to mention Coke and Pepsi in every Uzbek village corner shop. 

  The EU tries to keep up, especially in Kazakhstan, where over 30 percent of foreign trade ($39 billion) and investments ($12.5 billion) come from Europe. Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev – extremely popular for opening up the country five years ago – nabbed $9 billion in trade deals when he visited Germany three months ago. 

  Since the inception of the Chinese BRI a decade ago, the EU, by comparison, invested around $120 billion across the Heartland: not too shabby (40 percent of total foreign investment), but still below Chinese commitments.    

  What is Turkiye really up to? 

  The imperial focus in the Heartland is predictably Kazakhstan, because of its vast oil and gas resources. US-Kazakh trade represents 86 percent of all American trade with Central Asia, which was an unimpressive $3.8 billion last year. Compare that figure with only 7 percent of US trade with Uzbekistan. 

  It’s fair to argue that most of these four Central Asian “stans” in the SCO practice “multifaceted diplomacy,” trying not to attract unwanted imperial ire. Kazakhstan, for its part, goes for “balanced diplomacy”: that’s part of its Concept of Foreign Policy 2014-2020. 

  In a sense, Astana’s new motto expresses some continuity with the previous one, “multi-vector diplomacy,” established during the nearly three-decade rein of former President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Kazakhstan, under President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, is a member of the SCO, the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), and BRI, but at the same time, must be on 24/7 alert to imperial machinations. After all, it was Moscow and prompt intervention by the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) that saved Tokayev from a color revolution attempt in early 2022. 

  The Chinese, for their part, invest in a collective approach, solidified, for instance, in high-profile meetings such as the China-Central Asia 5+1 Summit, held only 3 months ago. 

  Then there’s the extremely curious case of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), formerly Turkic Council, which unites Turkiye, Azerbaijan, and three Central Asian “stans,” Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. 

  This OTS’ overarching aim is to “promote comprehensive cooperation among Turkic-speaking states.” Not much in practice is visible across the Heartland, apart from the odd billboard promoting Turkish products. A visit to the secretariat in Istanbul in the spring of 2022 did not exactly yield solid answers, apart from vague references to “projects on economy, culture, education, transport,” and, more significantly, customs. 

  Last November, in Samarkand, the OTS signed an agreement “on the establishment of a simplified customs corridor.” It’s too early to tell whether this would be able to foment a sort of mini-Turkiye Silk Road across the Heartland.  

  Still, it’s enlightening to keep an eye on what they may come up with next. Their charter privileges “developing common positions on foreign policy issues,” “coordinating actions to combat international terrorism, separatism, extremism, and cross-border crimes,” and creating “favorable conditions for trade and investment.”

  Turkmenistan – the idiosyncratic Central Asian “stan” which vehemently insists on its absolute geopolitical neutrality – happens to be an OTS observer state. Also as eye-catching is a Center of Nomadic Civilizations based in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. 

  Solving the Russian-Heartland riddle 

  Western sanctions against Russia have ended up profiting quite a few Heartland players. Because Central Asia’s economies are closely linked to Russia, exports skyrocketed  – as much, by the way, as imports from Europe. 

  Quite a few EU companies resettled in the Heartland after leaving Russia – with the corresponding process of selected Central Asian tycoons buying Russian assets. In parallel, because of the Russian troop mobilization drive, arguably tens of thousands of relatively wealthy Russians moved to the Heartland, while an extra lot of Central Asian workers found new jobs, especially in Moscow and St. Petersburg.  

  Last year, for instance, remittances to Uzbekistan shot up to a hefty $16.9 billion: 85 percent of this (about $14.5 billion) came from workers in Russia. According to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, economies across the Heartland will grow by a healthy 5.2 percent in 2023 and 5.4 percent in 2024.

  That economic boost is plainly visible in Samarkand: The city is a giant construction – and restoration – site today. Impeccably new, wide boulevards are springing up everywhere, complete with lush green landscaping, flowers, fountains, and wide sidewalks, all sparkling clean. No vagrants, no homeless, no crackheads. Visitors from decaying western metropolises are absolutely stunned.    

  In Tashkent, the Uzbek government is building a vast, stunning Center of Islamic Civilization, heavily focused on pan-Eurasia business. 

  There’s no question the key geopolitical vector all across the Heartland is the relationship with Russia. Russian remains the lingua franca in every sphere of life. 

  Let’s start with Kazakhstan, which shares an enormous 7,500 km-long border with Russia (yet there are no border disputes). Back in the USSR, the five Central Asian “stans” were, in fact, denominated “Central Asia and Kazakhstan,” because a large part of Kazakhstan lies in the south of West Siberia, and close to Europe. Kazakhstan sees itself as quintessentially Eurasian – it is no wonder that since the Nazarbayev years, Astana privileges Eurasia integration. 

  Last year, at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, Tokayev told Russian President Vladimir Putin, in person, that Astana would not recognize the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. Kazakh diplomats keep stressing they can’t afford to have the country as a gateway to bypass Western sanctions – although, in the shadows, that’s what happens in many cases. 

  Kyrgyzstan, for its part, canceled the CSTO “Strong Brotherhood-2022” joint military exercises scheduled for October last year – it is worth mentioning that the problem in this case was not Russia, but a border issue with Tajikistan.

  Putin has proposed to establish a Russia-Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan gas union. As it stands, nothing has happened, and may not happen. 

  All these must be considered as minor setbacks. Last year, Putin visited all five Central Asian “stans” for the first time in quite a while. Mirroring China, they held a 5+1 summit also for the first time. Russian diplomats and businessmen ply Heartland roads full-time. And let’s not forget that the presidents of all five Central Asian “stans” were themselves present in the Red Square parade in Moscow on Victory Day last May. 

  Russian diplomacy knows everything there is to know about the major imperial obsession to extract the Central Asian “stans” from Russian influence. 

  That goes way beyond the official US Central Asia Strategy 2019-2025 – and it has reached hysteria status after the US humiliation in Afghanistan and the impending NATO humiliation in Ukraine.  

  On the crucial energy front, very few remember today that the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, then reduced to TAP (India pulled out), was a priority of the American (italics mine) New Silk Road, concocted at the State Department and sold by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2011. 

  Nothing practical happened with that pie in the sky. What the Americans did manage to do, recently, was to scotch the development of a competitor, the Iran-Pakistan (IP) pipeline, by forcing Islamabad to cancel it, in the wake of the whole lawfare scandal designed to eliminate former Premier Imran Khan from Pakistan’s political life. 

  Still, the TAPI-IP Pipelineistan saga is far from over. With Afghanistan free from US occupation, Russia’s Gazprom, as well as Chinese firms, are very much interested in participating in the construction of TAPI: The pipeline would be a strategic BRI node, linked to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in the crossroads between Central and South Asia. 

  The ‘alien’ collective west

  As much as Russia is – and will continue to be – a known currency all across the Heartland, the Chinese model is unsurpassed as a sustainable development example capable of inspiring an array of indigenous Central Asian solutions.  

  In contrast, what does the Empire have to offer? In a nutshell: Divide and Rule, via its localized terror minions such as ISIS-Khorasan, instrumentalized to foment political destabilization in the weakest Central Asian nodes, from the Ferghana valley to the Afghan-Tajik border, for instance.  

  The multiple challenges facing the Heartland have been discussed in detail in meetings such as the Valdai Central Asian Conference.

   Valdai Club expert Rustam Khaydarov may have coined the most concise appraisal of West-Heartland relations:

  “The collective West is alien to us both in terms of culture and worldview. There is not a single phenomenon or event, or element of modern culture, which could serve as the basis for a relationship and rapprochement between the US and European Union on the one hand and Central Asia on the other. Americans and Europeans have no idea about the culture and mentality or traditions of the peoples of Central Asia, so they could not and will not be able to interact with us. Central Asia does not view economic prosperity in conjunction with the liberal democracy of the West, which is essentially an alien concept to the countries of the region.” 

  Considering this scenario, and in the context of a New Great Game that is becoming increasingly incandescent by the day, it’s no wonder that some Heartland diplomatic circles are very much interested in a closer integration of Central Asia into BRICS+. That’s something bound to be discussed at the BRICS summit in South Africa next week. 

  The strategic formula reads like Russia + Central Asia + South Asia + Africa + Latin America – yet another instance of “Global Globe” (to quote Lukashenko) integration. It may all start with Kazakhstan becoming the first Heartland nation accepted as a member of BRICS+. 

  After that, all the world is a stage for the re-energized Return of the Heartland in transportation, logistics, energy, trade, manufacturing, investment, infotech, culture, and – last but not least, in the spirit of the Silk Roads, old and new – “people to people’s exchanges”. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 00:00

• China's Shadow Bank Crisis Stokes Fear Of Housing Spillover
  China’s Shadow Bank Crisis Stokes Fear Of Housing Spillover

  By Charlie Zhu, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and strategist

  Three things we learned last week:

  1. One of China’s shadow banking giants fell into a liquidity crisis, showing how contagion from the troubled real estate industry is spreading and raising questions of how far the crunch will now go. Trust companies linked to Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Co., which has assets of more than 1 trillion yuan, missed payments on dozens of products, many of which may have been backed by real estate projects real estate projects.

  “Markets still underestimate the aftermath of the significant collapse in China’s property sector,” Lu Ting, chief China economist at Nomura Holdings Inc., wrote in a report. China’s trust wealth management industry is set to face turbulence in coming months, which is likely to cause further headwinds to its already weakening economic momentum, according to the report.

  Zhongzhi’s troubles have already sparked protests, leading the police to clamp down on unhappy clients. It has 270 products totaling 39.5 billion yuan due this year, according to data provider Use Trust.

  While the reported Zhongrong Trust defaults don’t yet appear to be of systemic concern, a disorderly wind-up of any large trust or wealth management company could test near-term financial stability, Zerlina Zeng, CreditSights senior research analyst, wrote in a note.

  

  2. Fallout from Country Garden is spreading to investment-grade names as China’s property downturn deepens. Dollar bonds from units of Gemdale Corp. and Seazen Group Ltd. — developers that were also among those chosen to sell state-guaranteed local notes like Country Garden did — accelerated declines last week. Notes issued by Longfor Group Holdings Ltd. and China Vanke Co., two of the country’s few private-sector investment grade developers, suffered the same fate.

  Country Garden’s delayed payment is likely already exacerbating a loss of confidence and a default would only worsen matters, S&P Global Ratings analysts led by Edward Chan wrote in a report. They said an “L”-shaped national sales recovery seems increasingly likely to shift into a “descending staircase” figure.

  

  3. The central bank stepped up to deliver unexpected rate cuts, and vowed to maintain financial stability. The People’s Bank of China lowered the cost of its one-year and seven-day loans to financial institutions, before the release of data that showed weak consumer spending growth, sliding investment and rising unemployment in July.

  In its second-quarter monetary policy implementation report, the PBOC vowed to “step up macroeconomic policy adjustment” and “resolutely prevent excessive correction in the exchange rate,” as the yuan slid toward its weakest level since 2007.

  It’s an age-old dilemma for central banks faced with a weakening economy — control the interest rate or the currency? Attempting to do both, as Bank of Japan recently tried, frequently fails to sway traders who see an opportunity.

  “If markets are convinced that property sector could be stabilized and the downward spiral is resolutely curbed,” sentiment toward the yuan could improve, said Zhi Xiaojia, head of research at Credit Agricole CIB.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 23:30

• Which Airports Move The Most Cargo Around The World?
  Which Airports Move The Most Cargo Around The World?

  From facilitating crucial international supply chains to ensuring the smooth delivery of personal Amazon packages, cargo shipping is an important part of the global economy.

  Total air cargo shipped measured around 117 million metric tons in 2022.

  In the following map, Visual Capitalist’s Avery Koop and Athul Alexander, using data from Airports Council International (ACI), showcase the global airports that move the most goods.

  

  The Busiest Cargo Airports

  The world’s busiest airport in terms of cargo is Hong Kong’s, which has held the number one spot for almost 28 years. Here’s a look at the ranking:

  

  Some of these busy airports are not well-known, and none of them, aside from LAX, rank as highly in terms of passenger traffic. For example, Anchorage ranks in the top 10 in cargo processed because it is cheaper for cargo carriers to stop over and refuel there, rather than flying nonstop from Asia to the United States.

  The Memphis airport handles the most cargo in North America, largely because of FedEx’s significant presence there. FedEx processes over 245,000 documents and 180,000 packages an hour at Memphis’ airport.

  On top of being home to UPS’ Worldport, the world’s biggest fully automated package processing facility, Louisville is also central to other transport routes in the United States. Packages come into this hub and then head out on the many highways and railways, as well as the Ohio River, which connects to the Mississippi River, one of the country’s main waterways for barge transit.

  Cargo Shipment

  Nearly every airport has seen significant increases in the amount of cargo moved year-over-year, with numbers now rising above pre-pandemic benchmarks. Notably, however, Shanghai and Hong Kong have experienced decreases due to geopolitical tensions.

  In Hong Kong, goods movement via air travel is integral to the economy. Around half of the entire region’s external trade went through the airport in 2022.

  Cargo transit is inherently important to the global economy. Around $6 trillion worth of goods move through airports annually, representing approximately 35% of world trade.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 23:00

• US 'Rent-A-Womb' Industry Thrives Due To Demand From Parents In China: Researcher
  US ‘Rent-A-Womb’ Industry Thrives Due To Demand From Parents In China: Researcher

  Authored by Ella Ella Kietlinska and Joshua Philipp via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The “rent-a-womb” industry pipelines children born of surrogates in the United States to parents in China, a researcher said. Babies born this way automatically gain U.S. birthright citizenship.

  

  Chinese “rent-a-womb” industry, has been burgeoning in the United States for about a decade, particularly in California, where laws regulating commercial surrogacy and in-vitro fertilization (IVF) are permissive, said Emma Waters, a research associate for the Center for Life, Religion, and Family at The Heritage Foundation.

  Surrogacy, a practice where a woman carries a pregnancy and gives birth to a baby for another person or couple, is completely banned in China.

  Therefore Chinese couples use services offered by American fertility clinics that create for them embryos potentially having the biological makeup of the Chinese nationals, and birth the baby in the United States, Ms. Waters said in an interview on Epoch TV’s “Crossroads” program on Aug. 11.

  With birthright citizenship laws in the United States, that child, who may be 100 percent Chinese national in their biology and genetic makeup, actually gains and maintains the full rights of U.S. citizenship, Ms. Waters explained.

  When that child turns 21, even the parents can apply for a green card and eventually get citizenship, “which is a much faster and cheaper process than if they were to apply for citizenship through some of the traditional methods,” she added.

  Threat to National Security

  Giving foreign nationals full access to American citizenship through the wombs of American women poses “a huge national security threat,” Ms. Waters said.

  “If a child is born and raised in China, inculcated in their culture, and very loyal to their lands, when they come to the United States, they’re not being flagged as a foreign national who’s applying for a job or applying to work in a research lab—they are applying as a U.S. citizen.”

  “There’s not a database that’s publicly available or easy to access where these children are being listed. And so should they apply for jobs, employers in government or private sector have no idea of the background that they’re dealing with.”

  The situation was made possible due to the lack of regulation and laws around this, Ms. Waters said.

  Ms. Waters suggested that the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, which has been studying Chinese investment in areas such as entertainment, farmland, and media, needs to spend more time investigating Chinese investment in Americans through Chinese children created in America by in-vitro fertilization and commercial surrogacy.

  How Fertility Industry Works

  

  When Chinese nationals connect with a fertility clinic, particularly in California, they have an option to “either create an embryo using their own sperm and egg or they can purchase a sperm or egg,” Ms. Waters explained.

  In many cases, they travel to the United States, but with the current technology, they are technically not required to leave China in order to create an embryo, she continued.

  “A Chinese couple or individual can simply work with a U.S.-based agency to send their reproductive material (sperm, egg, or embryo) to an IVF lab and implant it in a hired surrogate [in the United States] to produce a viable pregnancy,” Ms. Waters wrote for the Heritage Foundation.

  Ms. Waters reviewed recently about 450 fertility clinics, particularly in California, but there is many more outside of that. she said. “Many of these fertility clinics actually have a direct or indirect connection to China.”

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 22:30

• NYC Wants To Shove Migrants In Shuttered Jeffrey Epstein Jail
  NYC Wants To Shove Migrants In Shuttered Jeffrey Epstein Jail

  A New York jail which was shuttered following Jeffrey Epstein’s death, the Manhattan Correctional Center, may wind up housing illegal immigrants.

  

  A proposal mentioned in an Aug. 9 letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul aims to mitigate the impact of some 100,000 migrants estimated to have arrived in the city since last year after crossing the southern US border, AP reports.

  Under NYC rules, officials are legally obligated to obtain shelter for anyone needing it. And with homeless shelters packed to the brim, NYC Mayor Eric Adams (D) has been renting out hotels, shoving cots in recreational centers and school gyms, and creating official tent cities.

  The letter, written by a senior counsel for the city’s law department, identifies several other sites in which migrants could potentially be housed, including the defunct Metropolitan Correctional Center, which closed in 2021.

  That shutdown came after the detention center, whose prisoners have included Mafia don John Gotti, associates of Osama bin Laden and the Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, came under new scrutiny because of squalid conditions and security lapses exposed following Epstein’s death. -AP

  According to the report, lawyers have described the jail as ‘filthy’ and infested with bugs and rodents, as well as plagued by water and sewage leaks which caused structural issues.

  Pro-immigrant groups have denounced the plan.

  “Mayor Adams likes to say that all options are on the table when it comes to housing asylum seekers, but certain places should most definitely be off the table,” said Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, adding: “The Metropolitan Correctional Center was a notoriously decrepit jail, and is not a suitable place to support people trying to build a new life in a new country.”

  Meanwhile, hundreds of NY residents recently turned out to protest against a proposal to turn a former assisted living facility on Staten Island into a migrant shelter.

  Hundreds out in New York protesting against a proposal to turn a Staten Island former assisted living facility into a migrant shelter pic.twitter.com/WNBMtnBaxo

  — Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) August 20, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  While New York State has been accused of being slow to respond to the immigrants, a Hochul attorney pushed back, rejecting allegations that the state failed to deal with the migrant influx in a substantial way.

  “The City has not made timely requests for regulatory changes, has not always promptly shared necessary information with the State, has not implemented programs in a timely manner, and has not consulted the State before taking certain actions,” reads the letter.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 22:00

• Rep. Gaetz Introduces Bill To Censure, Investigate Judge In Trump 2020 Election Case
  Rep. Gaetz Introduces Bill To Censure, Investigate Judge In Trump 2020 Election Case

  Authored by Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is introducing a resolution to censure U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan and open an investigation into her “for showing open bias and partisanship in her official duties on the bench.”

  

  Judge Chutkan is overseeing a case against former President Donald Trump, brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for conspiracy in his challenge of the 2020 election results. She has already overseen many other cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol protest, which is being investigated by special counsel Jack Smith. About 1,000 people have already been sentenced for crimes related to the day’s events, and Judge Chutkan has been known to hand down harsh prison sentences.

  “Judge Tanya Chutkan’s extreme sentencing of January 6th defendants, while openly supporting the violent Black Lives Matter riots of 2020, showcases a complete disregard for her duty of impartiality and the rule of law,” Mr. Gaetz said.

  He appeared to be referring to remarks the judge made in one Jan. 6-related sentencing.

  “People gathered all over the country last year to protest the violent murder by the police of an unarmed man,” she said, referencing violent riots that erupted after the death of George Floyd. “To compare the actions of people protesting, mostly peacefully, for civil rights, to those of a violent mob seeking to overthrow the lawfully elected government is a false equivalency and ignores a very real danger that the January 6 riot posed to the foundation of our democracy.”

  Mr. Gaetz’s resolution points to a few other cases of “open partisanship,” including the fact that the Obama-appointed district judge had donated thousands of dollars to his presidential campaign, and that during another Jan. 6-related sentencing she “lamented” that President Trump “remains free to this day.”

  “Such partisan commentary by Judge Chutkan has been ongoing and calls into question her fitness as a judge and … Chutkan’s comments and activities on and off the bench violate all 5 canons of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges,” the resolution reads (pdf).

  The canons are that a judge should uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary; avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities; perform the duties of the office fairly, impartially, and diligently; engage in extrajudicial activities that are consistent with the obligations of judicial office, and refrain from political activity.

  “It is deeply concerning that a United States District Court judge would exhibit such blatant political bias from the bench,” he said in a press release. “Justice may be blind, but the American people are not—we see Judge Chutkan for her actions, and we rebuke them in the greatest possible sense.”

  Mr. Gaetz is proposing Judge Chutkan be censured and condemned via the resolution, and to have the House Committee on the Judiciary, on which he sits, launch an investigation seeking evidence showing that she should be removed from office on impeachment or other misdemeanors.

  The Epoch Times reached out to Judge Chutkan’s office for comment.

  Trump on Chutkan

  President Trump has been critical of Judge Chutkan in multiple social media posts given her earlier remarks.

  “She obviously wants me behind bars,” he wrote, describing her as “highly partisan” and “very biased and unfair.”

  A day after President Trump pleaded not guilty to the felony charges filed by Mr. Smith, he made a social media post: “If you go after me, I’m coming after you!” He later posted a campaign ad that claimed election interference on the part of the Biden administration.

  In response, Mr. Smith’s office filed a motion pointing to the initial social media post as evidence a protective order was needed. He requested the judge issue an order barring President Trump from sharing information about the case.

  “Such a restriction is particularly important in this case because the defendant has previously issued public statements on social media regarding witnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him,” Mr. Smith wrote in a filing (pdf).

  President Trump responded on social media yet again. “No, I shouldn’t have a protective order placed on me because it would impinge upon my right to free speech,” he wrote.

  His legal team filed an opposing motion arguing public speech was not grounds for a gag order.

  Judge Chutkan ended up issuing a limited protective order, which bars President Trump from releasing information the prosecutors label sensitive, not all information.

  The prosecution has also requested a Jan. 2, 2024, trial date, with jury selection to begin as early as Dec. 11.

  On Thursday, President Trump’s legal team proposed a April 2026 trial date, arguing that the prosecution was rushing the case.

  “The government’s objective is clear: to deny President Trump and his counsel a fair ability to prepare for trial,” the lawyers wrote. “The Court should deny the government’s request.”

  They cited a number of reasons an extension was required, including the 11.5 million pages of discovery Mr. Smith’s office has already provided.

  “That is the entirety of Tolstoy’s War and Peace, cover to cover, 78 times a day, every day, from now until jury selection.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 21:30

• Uniparty's Plan To Save "Our Democracy" Unfolds
  Uniparty’s Plan To Save “Our Democracy” Unfolds

  Authored by Roger Kimball via American Greatness,

  The fish are plentiful today…

  • There’s Hunter Biden and his various lies: about the sources of his prodigious income, his payment (that is, non-payment) of taxes, drugs, guns, child support, laptops and prostitutes.

  • There’s Joe Biden and his lies, the sources of his prodigious income, and – the latest – his use of pseudonymous email accounts when writing to Hunter and Hunter’s business partners to discuss the weather – or was it the whether and how to siphon 20 million of the crispest into virtually untraceable bank accounts?

  • There’s the seemingly endless series of indictments directed at Donald Trump. The latest news there, if I am up to date, is that he told people to watch election returns on One America News Network. Clearly part of a RICO conspiracy. Someone whose math is sharper than mine calculated that President Trump is potentially on the hook for 450 years in the slammer for . . . well, his torts are mostly in the eye of the beholder.

  This coming week, Fox News, whose leaders have made no secret of their contempt for Trump, are holding the first Republican debate. Problem: as of this writing, it looks as though Trump will not be participating. How rude! And to Fox News, which hates him, and to the RNC, which doesn’t like him very much. How could he do this?

  The really delicious thing is that even if Trump doesn’t show up for the debate, he will upstage everyone. The word at the moment is that he’ll do an interview with Tucker Carlson on Twitter at the same time as the debate. My bookies report that viewership of that interview, should it take place, would be far higher than the viewership for watching Chris Christie throw his, er, weight around. Quick: who is Doug Bergum and does anyone care? Yes, the event will be an opportunity for Tim Scott and Vivek Ramaswamy to shine. It will also be a sort of last bite at the apple for Ron DeSantis and his sputtering campaign.

  But let’s face it, whether Trump shows up or not, he is the star of the show. If he doesn’t show, his performance will be like that of Tallulah Bankhead who, late in her career, was dissed by some pushy ingenue. “I could upstage you dahling,” Tallulah said, “without even being on stage.” She did, too, by the simple expedient of precariously balancing a champagne glass half-on-half-off a table when she made her exit. The ingenue came on for her big scene, but all eyes were glued to the glass: would it or would it not fall off the table? (No one knew that she had put sticket tape on the bottom of the glass).

  I don’t know what is going to happen in this election anymore than you do, Dear Reader.

  But I have been amused by the absolute certitude of the chattering class, which assures us with hands wringing that:

  1) Trump is a very bad man,

  2) That he cannot win the general election,

  but that 3) The clever but insidious Dems will assure that he wins the nomination, thus assuring a Republican defeat come November 2024.

  

  Maybe.

  But maybe the Dems keep indicting Trump because they are terrified that he could win, and then what?

  Wouldn’t it be better to put him in jail, issue a gag order, say that anything he says is an effort to overturn the 2020, or the 2024, election and thereby undermine Our Democracy™?

  I think that is the more likely explanation, but I admit that these are deep waters.

  There are plenty of scenarios by which someone other than Trump becomes the Republican nominee, beginning with various acts of God. One big problem for the Republican aspirants, though, is that if Trump is prevented by chicanery from being the nominee, a critical portion of his millions of voters will stay home, thus depriving any other candidate of victory. If Trump fails to become the nominee because he is suddenly incapacitated or dies, that is a different story. But so far, he seems surprisingly robust.

  What many of these Trump-can’t-win prognostications overlook, I believe, is that he will not be running in a vacuum. What matters is not just the “37%” of voters (or whatever the real number is) who say they like or agree with him. There also is the candidate from the other party: Joe Biden, probably, but possibly Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, or even (some say) Michelle Obama.

  But let’s say it is Joe Biden. I think that the pollster (and former Clinton advisor) Doug Schoen is right. Despite his many legal woes, Trump could win, less because he is broadly popular himself than because Biden is so unpopular.

  “One has to go back to 1980,” Schoen wrote this weekend, “to look at the last time a Democratic incumbent president was in a situation where he was bordering on unelectable, and that was Jimmy Carter who had a 37% approval rating when Ronald Reagan won a landslide victory, taking with him the Senate, and helping Republicans to gain a net 35 seats in the House of Representatives.”

  Biden is currently hovering over that Carter territory, especially on the critical “it’s-the-economy-stupid” issue. Biden’s approval rating there is a mere 38%, a number that when suitably translated spells J-I-M-M-Y C-A-R-T-E-R.

  The point is, though, that Trump will not be running by himself. He will be running against someone. And that someone is likely to have liabilities at least as huge as Trump.

  The real question was posed by Michael Anton in “They Can’t Let Him Back In,” a black-pilled essay he published in Compact last summer.

  “The people who really run the United States of America,” Anton wrote, “have made it clear that they can’t, and won’t, if they can help it, allow Donald Trump to be president again.”

  Who are those people?

  Mostly Democrats, yes, but really, it’s a bipartisan, deep-state consensus, a uniparty assumption that Trump, being an existential threat to their continued existence must be kept from political power by any means necessary. 

  Think the 2020 BLM riots were awful?

  They were, but they will seem like Lake Placid if Trump is reelected.

  I put that down as a secondary reason to hope that Trump does win, but I understand that others disagree.

  It is curious, as Anton also points out, that for all the fury directed at Trump the individual, the real target of deep state animus is not Trump himself but his supporters, his “base.”

  Trump was right when he said “they’re not after me. They’re after you. I’m just standing in the way.”

  Anton got to the nub of the issue when he observed that “Anti-Trump hysteria is in the final analysis not about Trump. The regime can’t allow Trump to be president not because of who he is (although that grates), but because of who his followers are.”

  I think that is worth bearing in mind.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 20:30

• Progressive Insurance Sued Over 'Patently Unlawful' Racism For $25K Black-Only Business Grants
  Progressive Insurance Sued Over ‘Patently Unlawful’ Racism For $25K Black-Only Business Grants

  Progressive insurance is being sued for “patently unlawful” racism over a program which awards exclusively black-owned businesses $25,000, while allegedly discriminating against businesses owned by white, asian, hispanic and anyone else who isn’t black.

  

  Filed in an Ohio federal court on Wednesday by the conservative group America First Legal (AFL) – which is headed by former senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller – the class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of the owner of Freedom Truck Dispatch, Nathan Roberts, claims that Progressive racially discriminated against non-black small-business owners by offering the grants to 10 “black-owned small businesses to use toward the purchase of a commercial vehicle.”

  The lawsuit claims that on May 24, Roberts – a customer of Progressive – received an email advertising “a grant opportunity for their [Progressive’s] commercial-trucking small-business owners,” but that “Progressive decided that only black-owned businesses would be eligible for these grants,” since “studies have shown how inequities have made it harder for black entrepreneurs to access capital.“

  Progressive is joined by defendant Hello Alice, which it partnered with on the financial award extended to black-owned businesses with 10 or fewer employees and a turnaround below $5 million.

  The insurance company announced its 2023 winners in a Tuesday press release, which stated that “Progressive is stepping in to provide funding to Black entrepreneurs to help navigate their small business journey.”

  According to Roberts’ suit, the entire scheme was nothing more than “racially discriminatory grantmaking” with the “racially discriminatory requirement” to be black in order to qualify.

  AFL lawyer Gene Hamilton told the Daily Mail that the case was part of a larger pushback against big corporations injecting “racial considerations into every aspect of their business operations, employment practices, and so much more.”

  The lawsuit asks that the court declare Progressive’s grants illegal, and to award the plaintiffs “nominal” compensation and legal fees.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 20:00

• EPA Finds Toxic 'Forever Chemicals' In Water Systems Across The US
  EPA Finds Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ In Water Systems Across The US

  Authored by Bryan Jung via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The Environmental Protection Agency discovered toxic, cancer-causing “forever chemicals” in water systems across the country.

  

  The Aug. 17 finding comes after the U.S. Geological Survey found in July that perfluoroalkyl or polyfluoroalkyl chemicals known as PFAS, were found in 45 percent of water taps in the United States.

  The EPA’s separate findings are the latest evidence that these controversial chemicals are widespread in the environment.

  PFASs are called “forever chemicals” because they build up and accumulate in a person’s body over time instead of breaking down and have been linked to a number of serious illnesses, including cancer and birth defects.

  The chemicals are water resistant and do not break down in the environment and can remain in human bodies for years.

  The EPA reported that the toxins could affect the drinking water of 26 million people, according to an environmental advocacy organization called the Environmental Working Group which analyzed the latest agency data.

  The federal regulator said (pdf) that two of the most dangerous types of forever chemicals, known as PFOA and PFOS, were also found at unsafe levels in between 7.8 and 8.5 percent of public water systems.

  PFASs are used in hundreds of household items from cleaning supplies to pizza boxes, which broadens the chance of serious health risks, according to the USGS study.

  They were developed in the 1940s with the creation of Teflon, a non-stick coating for cookware, and are now used in everything from clothing, plastic products, cosmetics, and stain removers.

  Forever Chemicals Contamination Common Nationwide

  The EPA said the cities that had the high concentration of these toxic chemicals were Fresno, California, and Dallas, Texas.

  Samples from Fresno had 16 parts per trillion of PFOA and 29 parts per trillion of PFOS, which was 4 and 7.25 times more than the EPA’s proposed regulatory limit and 194.3 parts per trillion for PFAS particles.

  A sample from Dallas found that PFOA and PFOS were above the EPA’s levels, at 4.7 parts per trillion and 5.1 parts per trillion respectively, with a total PFAS concentration of 53.4 parts per trillion.

  The USGS study found no difference in PFAS exposure between samples from private wells, which are not regulated and public supply, which are monitored by the EPA.

  The study was based on samples collected from 716 locations across the country over several years and found that, in contrast to in rural areas, residents in urban areas are at higher risk of exposure to PFAS in drinking water.

  The chemicals were found in about 70 percent of areas that are either urban or have a known history of PFAS contamination, compared to just 8 percent of rural areas.

  PFAS contamination was more common in the Great Plains, Great Lakes, Eastern Seaboard, and in the Central and Southern California regions.

  New EPA Rules to Reduce PFAS Risks

  Scott Faber, senior vice president of Government Affairs at the Environmental Working Group, told The Hill that he was shocked by the test results.

  “Millions of people have been drinking dangerously high levels of PFAS all of their lives and are learning about it today,” said Mr. Faber.

  Exposure to PFAS can disrupt hormones and liver function, and it has been linked to illnesses including kidney and testicular cancer, thyroid disease, and high cholesterol, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

  The chemicals can also reduce birth weight in infants and compromise the health of pregnant women.

  Finally, after years of public pressure, the EPA proposed the first-ever national drinking water standards for six PFAS in March.

  The new rules would limit them to just 4 parts per trillion, but the new report shows that many water systems in big cities have levels of the chemicals that already exceed that.

  The monitoring of public water systems and disclosure when PFAS levels exceed limits will also be required.

  Meanwhile, the Biden administration allocated almost $10 billion from the recent infrastructure law to help communities reduce PFAS exposure and other chemical contaminants in the nation’s water supply.

  Reuters contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 19:30

• These Are The Dirtiest Cities In America
  These Are The Dirtiest Cities In America

  Baltimore is the dirtiest city in the United States, a new study from HouseFresh has laid out this week. The city received 47,295 complaints over the course of the last 365 days, according to the analysis. 

  The same study found that Milwaukee is the cleanest city in America, with only 309 complaints over the same period of time. Riverside is not far behind, the study noted, with just 1,609 complaints.

  

  The study found that 21213 is the dirtiest individual zip code in Baltimore, with 89,391 complaints about sanitary issues. The cleanest zip code in America is in Houston, 77546, which had just 19 sanitary-related complaints. 

  Houston had 5 of the 6 “fewest complaint” zip codes in the study, while Baltimore had 7 out of the 10 dirtiest.

  The analysis looked at the 12.3 million sanitation-related 311 complaints in a series of U.S. cities as part of its methodology. From there, it “calculated the number of these complaints per 100,000 population, both on a city level and on a zip code level” before ranking the cities based on zip codes and complaint density.

  

  The study looked at 644 categories related to sanitation issues, grouping them with terms like “waste” and “recycling”. Finally, the study crunched the zip codes that each complaint came from. 

  Baltimore was in close company with Sacramento and Charlotte, who received 34,186 and 31,112 complaints about sanitary conditions, respectively. Then came LA, Memphis and Boston, rounding out the top 6 dirtiest cities.

  In New York, Brooklyn was found to be the dirtiest zip code, using the same analysis. Though the city has “a surprisingly low complaint rate of 3,728 per 100k population”, the study notes that 7,664 complaints came from Brooklyn. New York’s sanitation complaints pale in comparison to its west coast counterpart, LA, which had 21,616 complaints per 100,000 population. 

  

  The cleanest zip code in New York was New Hyde Park, 11040, which had only 176 complaints. In LA the neighborhood with the most complaints was found to be Mission Hills and the cleanest, per the data, was found to be Inglewood. 

  West Englewood is home to the dirtiest zip code in Chicago, while Friendswood has that honor in Houston. South Philadelphia took the crown in the city of brotherly love. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 19:00

• FDA 'Clarifies' That Ivermectin Remains Unapproved For COVID-19 But Docs Can Prescribe
  FDA ‘Clarifies’ That Ivermectin Remains Unapproved For COVID-19 But Docs Can Prescribe

  Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Aug. 17 clarified that it had not authorized or approved the use of ivermectin in preventing or treating COVID-19.

  

  Ivermectin is an FDA-approved antiparasitic drug that is used to treat neglected tropical diseases, including parasitic worm infections (helminthiases), onchocerciasis (or river blindness), and scabies.

  The FDA stated that while it had approved ivermectin for certain uses in humans and animals, it had not issued any statement affirming the safety or effectiveness of the drug for treating COVID-19.

  “We’ve seen lots of chatter about ivermectin in the last week. Some of what you’re seeing in videos and social media posts isn’t true,” the FDA stated on X, formerly known as Twitter.

  Doctors in the United States, though, are able to and regularly prescribe approved drugs for purposes for which they are not approved.

  “Health care professionals generally may choose to prescribe an approved human drug for an unapproved use when they judge that the unapproved use is medically appropriate for an individual patient,” the FDA said.

  The FDA pointed cited the National Institutes of Health COVID-19 treatment guidelines, which recommend against using ivermectin for COVID-19 treatment due to a purported lack of evidence supporting its effectiveness. Some studies have found that ivermectin is effective against COVID-19.

  The agency was responding after some people, including Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-Wis.), claimed that the FDA has “quietly approved” the use of ivermectin for COVID-19.

  “The doctors I’ve been dealing with and talking to for years now, they believe that probably hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their lives because they were denied early treatment and they were denied because the FDA sabotaged, for example, ivermectin,” Mr. Johnson told FOX News on Aug. 11.

  “We are going down a very dangerous path, but it’s a path that is being laid out and planned by an elite group of people that want to take total control over our lives, and that’s what they’re doing bit by bit,” he added.

  Ashley Cheung Honold, a Department of Justice lawyer representing the FDA, had said during recent oral arguments in a legal case that the FDA “explicitly recognizes that doctors do have the authority to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID.”

  The government was defending the FDA’s repeated exhortations to people to not take ivermectin for COVID-19, including a post that said “Stop it.”

  The case was brought by three doctors who allege the FDA unlawfully interfered with their practice of medicine with the statements. A federal judge dismissed the case in 2022, prompting an appeal.

  Ms. Honold said the FDA’s statements “don’t prohibit doctors from prescribing ivermectin to treat COVID or for any other purpose.” She said the agency advised people to consult their health care providers and that they could take medicine if the provider prescribed it.

  “FDA is clearly acknowledging that doctors have the authority to prescribe human ivermectin to treat COVID. So they are not interfering with the authority of doctors to prescribe drugs or to practice medicine,” she said.

  Study On Ivermectin’s Effectiveness

  According to a new peer-reviewed ecological study, a natural experiment occurred when the government of Peru authorized ivermectin for use during the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in evidence of the drug’s effectiveness and ability to reduce excess deaths.

  The paper’s results, published Aug. 8 in Cureus, found a 74 percent reduction in excess deaths in 10 states with the most intensive ivermectin use over a 30-day period following peak deaths during the pandemic.

  When analyzing data across 25 states in Peru, researchers found these reductions in excess deaths correlated closely to ivermectin use during four months in 2020.

  When ivermectin was available without restriction, there was a fourteenfold reduction in nationwide excess deaths. Once access to ivermectin was restricted by the government, a thirteenfold increase in excess deaths was observed in the two months following the limitation of its use. The findings align with summary data from the World Health Organization for the same time period in Peru.

  Zachary Stieber and Megan Redshaw contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 18:30

• China Rapidly Building Airstrip On Disputed Island Close To Vietnam
  China Rapidly Building Airstrip On Disputed Island Close To Vietnam

  China is continuing to militarize disputed islands it has long exercised effective control over in the South China Sea, according to new satellite images.

  The images, taken by Planet Labs PBC in early August, show fresh construction on the westernmost island of the Paracel Islands close to Vietnam (and which are claimed by both Vietnam and Taiwan). What has regional and US officials alarmed is the large airstrip which appears to be progressing at rapid pace.

  

  The apparent Chinese military build-up of the island can be seen by comparing these latest satellite images (below) to prior ones.

  The Drive was the first to report on and analyze the images, with the publication writing:

  The sudden development on the Chinese-controlled Triton Island is revealed in satellite imagery. Clearly, work is still at an early stage, but it’s startling just how rapid the progress has been so far. Construction of this airstrip only began a few weeks ago at the most. The War Zone examined imagery from Planet Labs from mid-July showing no such activity.

  The new airstrip appears to be over 2000 feet in length according to analysis of the images.

  The Drive continues, “As well as the airstrip, satellite imagery reveals a huge new work area, including a cement plant. This has all sprung up within the last month.”

  “Previously, this Chinese outpost was home to an observation station with two radomes and some big Chinese flags, but not much more. The island was previously served by a small harbor and a helipad,” the report added. Chinese state-run Global Times has rejected the allegations. 

  #China Is Building A Runway On Its Closest Island Outpost To #Vietnam

  Triton is the westernmost island in the #SouthChinaSea’s strategic Paracel archipelago and added militarization of it has big implications.

  In just the last few weeks, China has begun to build what appears to… pic.twitter.com/VexSjCjlzn

  — Indo-Pacific News – Geo-Politics & Defense News (@IndoPac_Info) August 16, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  China has over the past years used both artificial islands as well as expanding military bases on the tiny land masses in the waters to extend its maritime claims, butting up against that of American allies in the region like the Philippines or unrecognized Taiwan.

  The Chinese military has also repeatedly charged that the US Navy has ‘frequently’ deployed warships in the South China Sea to “show off its force and severely infringe upon China’s sovereignty and security interests.”

  The Pentagon response has typically been that it’s conducting peaceful ‘freedom of navigation’ operations to ensure adversaries adhere to international law for open waters.

  

  The US also rejects Chinese claims of ownership over disputed island chain which are now becoming de facto PLA military outposts. Many of the islands have been under Chinese military control since at least the 1970s.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 18:00

• Milei Is Not Argentina's Problem, Socialism Is…
  Milei Is Not Argentina’s Problem, Socialism Is…

  Authored by Daniel Lacalle,

  Argentina’s problem is not Milei.

  The Central Bank of Argentina does not have to devalue the peso due to the victory of Javier Milei in the primaries.

  The Central Bank of Argentina and the Peronist government have been devaluing the peso and sinking the currency for years. It must devalue because the central bank has run out of reserves.

  Argentina is not facing an “anti-system” or “far-right” threat. They already have a far-left and anti-system government.

  

  The extractive and confiscatory monetary and fiscal policies of the XXI Century Socialism championed by Peronist Fernandez de Kirchner.

  The so-called “Inclusive” monetary policy, as Axel Kicilloff, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s ex economy minister, denominated it.

  The Peronist policy of maximum interventionism as well as fiscal and monetary irresponsibility has destroyed Argentina and left the central bank without reserves.

  The peso has lost more than 90% of its value against the US dollar since Alberto Fernández took office, and inflation in Argentina already exceeds 110% annualized, with 39% of the population living in poverty.

  In the years of the “XXI Century Socialism” governments of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Alberto Fernández, a completely uncontrolled increase in the monetary base obliterated the local currency. The center-right Macri government, which took office briefly between Kirchner and Fernandez, made the mistake of thinking that gradual and soft measures could curb the inflationary spiral, especially because he did not consider the evidence of the time bomb left by Fernandez de Kirchner in future monetary issuance commitments via short-term debt at very high rates accumulated at the central bank (the Leliq, Lebac, and Pases). This central bank remunerated debt grew by 22 billion equivalent US dollars during the years of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. The Macri government reduced it by $26 billion. These issuances of “remunerated” central bank debt are future monetary base increases and guaranteed inflation.

  The government of Alberto Fernández has left a timebomb of Leliq and Pases that exceed 12% of GDP. Thus, a gigantic devaluation of the peso is guaranteed since the central bank’s liabilities exceed its reserves by several times. This is why the central bank must devalue.

  According to data published by the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic in August 2023, Argentina has carried out the largest monetary experiment in the region, second only to Venezuela. The Monetary Base increased by 46.2% annually, 117.2% in two years, and 172% in three years. However, the monetary base, including deposits and the aforementioned Leliq, has soared by 392.6% in three years. This disaster is the legacy left by the Fernandez government.

  Peronism embraced “XXI century socialism” and implemented the most damaging “exchange clamps” (cepo cambiario) that drain exporting sectors of reserves and force them to convert their dollars at fictitious exchange rates. This is state-sponsored theft that has destroyed the entry of new reserves to the country. Instead of maximizing reserves, this policy stopped export growth.

  With the recent creation of the so-called “soybean dollar” (dólar soja), an artificial rate for agricultural producers to liquidate their foreign currency, in Argentina there are more than ten exchange rates.

  How can a country have ten exchange rates against one currency? The answer is simple. All those exchange rates imposed by the government are forms of expropriation of wealth to confiscate the dollars of exporters and citizens at an unrealistic rate.

  The government expropriates the recipients of US dollars with an exchange against the peso that the government itself would not find in any transaction on the open market.

  This monetary madness finances uncontrolled political spending, as the Argentine state cannot be financed via debt as there is no confidence in its solvency as an issuer since it has defaulted on several occasions.

  There is no real local or global demand for pesos, as investors and citizens know that the government will continue to print currency without control.

  In Argentina, in 57% of the provinces, state employment is greater than private employment. The state increases public spending more than tax receipts and inflation, financing it by printing more pesos, which creates more poverty and higher inflation. Meanwhile, the taxation implemented by the Peronist governments is one of the most confiscatory in the region, reaching 106% of its profits for a Small and Medium Enterprise that pays all its taxes, according to the Doing Business report.

  Thus, the government promises huge subsidies in a currency that is constantly losing value and presents itself as the solution to the problem created by its own fiscal and monetary policies. Peronism “gives away” money that is printed massively and has no value. The result, eighteen million poor citizens.

  Many great Argentine economists have analyzed in detail the importance of dollarizing to end this spiral of perverse incentives that leads the government to make citizens more dependent by issuing a currency without value or demand. From Nicolas Cachanosky to Steve Hanke and many others, they remind us that Ecuador, Panama, or El Salvador successfully dollarized.

  Argentina’s problem is not dollarization, but the evidence that they have an unviable and failed currency. Argentina is already dollarized in large part because citizens are fleeing the local currency.

  Why is the Peso a worthless currency?

  Because the government and the central bank have been implementing their own Modern Monetary Theory under the idea that the country’s problems can be solved by issuing more currency. After years of monetary destruction, global and national demand for the peso is at historical lows.

  The peso is, again in 2023, one of the worst currencies in the world against the US dollar, while the increase in the monetary base of the central bank of Argentina is an insane 46% year-to-date. And some people wonder why inflation is over 100%.

  No, Argentina does not face an abyss if Milei becomes president. Argentina, a rich country with enormous potential, is already in the abyss.

  Just like Chavismo in Venezuela, the Peronist governments have destroyed the currency and the productive fabric to boost political spending and turn the country into an economic wasteland where the salaries and savings of citizens are confiscated via high direct and indirect taxes as well as the inflationary tax.

  Milei wants to end this monetary and fiscal insanity with policies that are not radical but logical. Stop the insane monetization of government spending, end the central bank’s dangerous inflationary measures, dollarize, cut excessive political expenditure, reduce taxes, open the economy, and allow free trade and investment to flow back to Argentina.

  Something is very wrong in the developed world when some consider Milei a dangerous radical and say nothing about the radicalism implemented in the Fernandez-Kirchner years.

  Argentina must implement serious fiscal and monetary policies to reach its enormous potential. Milei’s proposals are not anti-system, they are pro-logic.

  Argentina’s problem is not Milei. The problem is that they have implemented point by point the fiscal and monetary policies that many so-called “progressive” parties demand.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 17:30

• Hilary Pounds Mexico's Baja Coast; Southern California Braces For Impact
  Hilary Pounds Mexico’s Baja Coast; Southern California Braces For Impact

  Hilary weakened from a Category 4 hurricane to a tropical storm, moving northward Sunday along the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. Conditions across Southern California are deteriorating as forecasters warned “catastrophic and life-threatening” flooding is likely. 

  The National Weather Service’s National Hurricane Center downgraded Hilary earlier today while indicating the storm made landfall around noon over the northern Baja California peninsula. 

  #Hilary makes landfall in northern Baja California. Tropical storm conditions and heavy rains already affecting portions of the southwestern United States. pic.twitter.com/OS9EYPUM0y

  — NHC Eastern Pacific (@NHC_Pacific) August 20, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Footage from X, formerly known as Twitter, shows major flooding across Santa Rosalía in Mexico’s Baja California Sur. 

  WATCH: Devastating flooding in Baja California brought on by Hurricane #Hilary pic.twitter.com/ONDnSKYiKo

  — PoliticsVerse 🇺🇸 (@PoliticsVerse_) August 20, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Here’s Hilary’s latest track:

  

  With forecasters calling for “life-threatening” flooding across Southern California, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Saturday. Then the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said Hilary “remains on track to impact much of Southern California with heavy rainfall and possibly strong winds this weekend and into early next week.” 

  

  Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula, Southern California, and southwestern Nevada are expected to receive heavy rainfall through Monday. 

  

  “Expect periods of heavy rain; areas of flooding especially in the mtns and deserts; and strong winds especially in San Diego Co, east Inland Empire, mtns, and deserts,” NWS San Diego posted on X. 

  Hilary has weakened to a Tropical Strom and is expected to make it into SoCal this afternoon. Expect periods of heavy rain; areas of flooding especially in the mtns and deserts; and strong winds especially in San Diego Co, east Inland Empire, mtns, and deserts. Be safe!#CAwx pic.twitter.com/TNXEfzFgV4

  — NWS San Diego (@NWSSanDiego) August 20, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Which means an elevated risk of destructive flash flooding. 

  

  In San Diego, the US Navy is taking no risks and ordered warships and submarines to leave naval bases before the storms arrive. 

  US 3rd Fleet has ordered all Navy ships in San Diego to get underway as Hurricane Hilary approaches. The ships will remain at sea until the storm subsides. Those still in port prepare for heavy wind & rain. Standard East Coast procedure, unusual in SoCal https://t.co/6OoUOT60th pic.twitter.com/sjxUV3B8JE

  — Chris Cavas (@CavasShips) August 19, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  NBC News said the tropical storm taking aim at Southern California would be the first time in eight years. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 16:00

• What A Steel: Biden Scrambles To Sell Off Trump's Uninstalled Border Wall Before 'Finish It Act' Passes
  What A Steel: Biden Scrambles To Sell Off Trump’s Uninstalled Border Wall Before ‘Finish It Act’ Passes

  Looking for a good deal on steel fencing material that could otherwise help maintain America’s border (and therefore national security?) Look no further!

  The Biden administration has been hawking sections of Donald Trump’s border wall on a government military surplus website called GovPlanet – where they’ve auctioned off 81 batches of square structural tubing and steel columns since April, the Daily Mail reports.

  

  Meanwhile, illegal border crossings (of future Democrats) hit the second-highest level on record in July.

  Last Tuesday, the Biden administration sold 700 28 ft. long hollow beams in five separate lots for $212 each, netting $154,200 according to the report.

  

  13 more lots are set to be auctioned on Aug. 23 and Aug. 30.

  According to Republicans, up to $300 million of taxpayer-funded wall components have been left to rust since the Biden administration took over.

  To address this, the Democrat-led Senate passed a Republican-sponsored bill last month – the “Finish It Act,” aimed at forcing the administration to extend the wall. The legislation will force the federal government to use the leftover materials on new wall construction – or hand them over to Texas to use for their own border defense inittiatives.

  Instead, the Biden administration is rushing to liquidate the wall leftovers before the GOP-led House can pass a matching version of the bill and make it law, the NY Post reports.

  

  “This sale is a wasteful and ludicrous decision by the Biden administration that only serves as further proof they have no shame,” the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MI) told the outlet, calling the move “outrageous, behind-the-scenes maneuvering.”

  “Leaving the border open to terrorists while selling border security materials at a loss is Bidenomics in a nutshell,” saic co-sponsor Tom Cotton (R-AR).

  “The pennies made from selling the border wall will not be enough to pay the families who suffer from a criminal act committed by someone who crossed our open borders during the Biden administration,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-OK)

  According to Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), the move to sell the materials is “reckless.”

  “Our borders continue to be overrun by an unprecedented number of illegal immigrants, turning every district into a border district, and compromising our national security,” she said.

  The GovPlanet auction schedule picked up markedly in May, when Wicker first introduced the Finish It Act, and increased again this month, days after the Senate’s defense bill passed on a bipartisan vote.

  A DOD spokesman identified the tubes, held in an outdoor storage lot in Pima County, Ariz., as “excess border wall materials.” -NY Post

  According to Lt. Col. Devin T. Robinson, who ‘used Defense Department lingo for the process of consigning military surplus items to commercial resellers or the trash heap’ (per the Post), “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers … has already transferred approximately $154 million worth of the roughly $260 million of bollard panels and other materials.”

  One insider told the Daily Upside that GovPlanet has been instructed to keep quiet about the border-wall connection.

  “We are legally not allowed to mention these are the border wall materials, or we could lose our jobs,” said the source.

  And while the lot listings scrupulously avoid identifying the tubes’ original purpose, viewers of the company’s Instagram page weren’t fooled.

  “Good for building a wall,” a user called honest_jake wrote Aug. 3 under a GovPlanet Instagram post touting the sale of “industrial steel tubing” — an entry that was deleted from the social media site Friday.

  “Why don’t you put that up instead of selling it,” added Brian Prewitt. “This is why tax payers are just about done paying taxes.” -NY Post

  “The federal government needs to be utilizing every tool in the toolbox to secure our border,” said Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), who slammed Biden for his “refusal to act.”

  

  “Instead of putting these materials to their intended use, they have been squandered, first collecting dust in the desert and now being auctioned off.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 16:00

• Lies, Damned Lies, And Statistics
  Lies, Damned Lies, And Statistics

  By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

  Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

  As we navigate through a month of partially staffed trading desks, it is more difficult than usual (and it is always difficult) to tell whether narratives are pushing markets or markets are pulling along the narratives.

  Are bond yields rising because there are so many bearish views being expressed (with the data to back up those views)? Or was the data already there and when bonds started to sell-off, those headlines (and the bears) just gained prominence? Ditto for the recent shift in articles away from the “soft landing” scenario. A soft landing seemed like a “certainty” a few weeks ago, but now it seems to be losing a little bit of steam. Did that cause stocks to sell off (about 2% last week and almost 5% for the S&P 500 this month), or did the sell-off just highlight the risks (that had gotten buried on the back pages) to the forefront?

  Making it even more confusing is how easy it is right now to pick and choose data to spin almost any narrative you want.
  For this weekend’s report, after a great week in our San Diego office (where Bloomberg TV interviewed us primarily on China), we wanted to focus on some statistics that have caught our eye and can also be used to spin a variety of narratives.

  China

  You had me at China. If there is a country whose data fits the lies, damned lies, and statistics theme it is China. However, if Bitcoin was a country, it too might qualify, but it isn’t a country so it gets a pass for now.

  We will come back to China, but I just wanted to use the line “you had me at China” before you got bored of reading the report, or it got buried below a bunch of charts.

  The Consumer is Tapped Out

  Despite retail sales (reported on Tuesday) crushing it (a 1% increase for the control group in July after a 0.5% increase in June), there is a narrative that the consumer is getting tapped out.

  Fastest Ever Rate of Increase in Credit Card Debt!!

  

  Credit card debt has been rising at what seems like an alarming rate.

  Credit Card Delinquencies Gapping Higher!

  

  This chart seems almost scary because it shows a rapid rise in delinquencies. While not quite “parabolic” it has increased by almost 50% in a little over a year! However, 0.8% to 1.15% seems a lot less scary than saying it has increased by 50% (which is why I tune out whenever anyone talks about credit spread moves in percentage terms).

  Not only is credit card debt rising at an alarming rate, it is also coming just as delinquencies spike higher!

  The Consumer is Normalizing

  Let’s revisit the prior two charts but use a different time horizon.

  Credit Card Debt Remains Below Trend

  

  Credit card debt rose at a steady pace from 2013 until late 2019. Then COVID, stimulus, work from home, and supply chain issues all seemed to coalesce into an amazing drop in credit card debt. While we can question whether credit card debt should have been rising at the rate that it was before COVID (and whether it was sustainable or not), we should just accept that it was. Maybe population growth has changed (or it was some other factor), but if you “strip out” the COVID phenomenon, we are basically back to trend. I do think that credit card balances are an issue, but it is an issue that we seem to have dealt with in the past.

  On credit cards, I completely ignore any impact from Fed hikes because credit card interest rates have always been very high relative to any other rate. What drives credit card balances doesn’t seem to be a thoughtful analysis of rates. It has always been (at least to some degree) about instant gratification.

  Bottom line is that while the trend may not be sustainable, the recent rise just brings us back to trend, which takes some of the sting out of the fact that the consumer is in dire trouble.

  Delinquencies are Below the 5 and 10-Year Averages!

  

  So, delinquencies aren’t even back to pre-COVID levels. This data series averaged 1.5% for the 5 years prior to April 2020, and was 2.1% for the 10-year period before COVID (and let’s not even think about where it was post GFC).

  I’m not all warm and fuzzy about the consumer, but I’m not alarmed either.

  Auto Loans

  Auto loans are a bit trickier. From the consumer’s point of view, they tend to be at a fixed rate and many were entered into when rates were low. In fact, if memory serves me correctly, the average maturity of auto loans extended in recent years allowing consumers to lock in low rates for longer (hopefully the lenders hedged their rate exposure on those auto loans).

  Used Auto Prices are Receding

  

  Used car prices are declining from record highs. That may pose problems to lenders who calculated too much residual value on loans and leases to consumers who thought that we were in a brave new world where even used cars went up in value.

  Having said that, the prices for used cars remain robust and my understanding is that it is still extremely difficult to buy the most popular new models (and they often fetch a premium to NAV). Nothing like in the heyday of the supply chain issues, but something that should “normalize” over time.

  Auto dealers benefited from a lack of inventory, and I will be curious to see if they can retain their sales with low levels of inventory and (ultimately) pass some of those efficiencies through to the consumer.

  With autos being such an important part of the economy, it is something that I watch, but much like the story we heard in credit cards, a lot of the negatives that I’m reading about are simply a “normalization” which may be healthy for generating not just a soft landing, but a sustainable soft landing. However, the “slowing” is something to think about.

  The Excess Savings Lie

  I will spare you the agony of going through bank deposit charts on a short-term and long-term basis and just jump straight to the long-term chart. I used purple and orange arrows because I generally reserve green for good and red for bad and I’m not sure that these are “good” or “bad” deviations from trend.

  Bank Deposits are Falling! But to Levels Still Around Trend.

  

  I have argued that the “excess” in bank savings was never going to be put into the stock market (one of the bull cases, which may even still be floating around). I also think that there is a lot more than meets the eye about why there is so much in “excess” savings. Sure, without a doubt, COVID boosted savings. One thing that I “forgot” to mention earlier (or maybe I saved it on purpose) about the good things that happened to consumers during COVID is that there were many moratoriums placed on various types of debt service (i.e., student loans).

  We can all agree that some amount of cash stayed in savings accounts because while savings accounts earned 0%, so did everything else. As people realized that they could earn more on their money market funds, some amount was going to be taken out of savings accounts paying little interest. Though, I do have to say that I was at the local bank branch a few weeks ago taking out money from the ATM and someone before me had left a receipt showing $99k in their bank account. I immediately thought “who does that?”, but there are obviously people who want bank accounts up to the FDIC limit.

  My view has been (and will continue to be) that many people “earmarked” money that they would have to pay in the future and set it aside in a savings account. If you know moratoriums will end (and let’s not forget, these loans typically accrued interest during these periods), then it would be prudent to set aside some money for when those payments got turned back on.

  If my theory is correct, you should see bank deposits decline faster as these moratoriums end and the money that was “earmarked” for certain payments is withdrawn to make those payments. Please see American Ingenuity.
  Not great for the economy or spending, but is “normalization” really bad?

  Generative AI

  My intention is to use generative AI to help me do a report on “outliers”. This would include warning signs or positive things that the market may or may not be missing. After about an hour or so of brutally failed attempts this weekend, I gave up. I try to write these T-Reports with an estimate of how long it will take and how long the report will be but had absolutely zero clarity on whether the ChatGPT process would work. Hopefully I can make some interesting progress on the report early this week or I will declare it a failure. In any case, was Google trends (using generative AI) all you needed to buy or sell stocks successfully this year?

  

  No one really cared about AI until February of this year. Yes, there were some searches, but very few. The Nasdaq 100 bounced in January, stagnated for a bit, and then started to do well from April until late July. It has sold off steadily since then. While not matching the trends in “generative AI” search, it might have been the best tool to use. The searches have stabilized and what will be interesting to see is if they peaked or if they increase as we end the summer and people are back at work fulltime across the board.

  We will be focusing more on AI as Academy’s Advisory Board has grown the number of advisors with significant experience in the area and who are active today in the ongoing development of cyber and AI.

  China

  I promised that we’d get back to China, but for now I only want to highlight one chart. And, ironically, it is not a lie. It is the truth, and it is logical.

  China’s Holdings of U.S. Treasuries

  

  I highlight three periods.

  • Post GFC. When the U.S. economy was in tatters and much of the world was struggling, China was able to (or was willing to) accumulate more and more Treasuries. There is a lot of chatter about the decoupling of our economy from China’s right now, which is logical and will continue (the friction is real between the two nations and not getting better). I did, however, find it interesting that China accumulated so many Treasuries in the aftermath of the GFC. Prior to the GFC, the trend seemed obvious (U.S. was growing and buying stuff from China).
  • The tariffs sparked some discussion of potential retaliation from China, including the possibility that they would dump Treasuries. There was some decline in their holdings, but that could just as easily have been COVID related.
  • Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the decision to freeze Russia’s dollar holdings, there has been a steady decline in China’s Treasury holdings.
    • Some of the decline is due to the weakness in China’s economy and their potential need to prop up the property market (and maybe even those overly exposed to the “shadow banking system”).
    • Not only did we freeze Russia’s holdings (which tells me that we can do it again), but we have also been going after China on a myriad of fronts (most notably high tech, but increasingly for rare earths and critical minerals).
    • Our own debt ceiling issues and ratings may not help, but I’d be shocked if that entered into China’s calculus.
    • What I cannot tell from this chart is if it is an indication that China is successfully generating trade globally in yuan and has less need for dollars. That would fit my “shifting from made in China to made by China” view to a tee, but I’d be lying if I said that I could support that on this chart! Maybe generative AI will help me find evidence supporting that theory in places that I haven’t thought to look.

  One thing that I think supports Treasury market bears is that there will be less of a global interest in holding Treasuries (with China leading the way).

  Jobs

  So much to do here and with or without AI, I will add more charts related to jobs later this week.

  We have covered some of these areas in the past such as discrepancies in JOLTS between job openings and hires and the Establishment versus Household gaps. The fact that all these reports come in with declining response rates is another issue. It is difficult (mathematically) to accept the continuity of a data series when the response rate is declining without a serious investigation into why the response rate might be declining.

  While we haven’t discussed it recently, the annual revisions always seem to dramatically reduce the published data for the prior year (but weirdly it doesn’t seem to have a market impact).

  Today, I just bring up one chart because I find it fascinating in the lies, damned lies, and statistics theme.

  The “Almost” Unbelievable Pattern of New Company Formation

  

  The birth/death model is an estimate of jobs created or lost as new companies are formed or go out of business (or at least close enough for our purposes).

  I challenge you to find any other jobs data that looks this “perfect”. It is a beautiful sawtooth pattern that looks almost uninterrupted! For most jobs data, the COVID period makes long-term charts almost impossible to review. The job losses and subsequent job gains are so large relative to any prior periods (or current periods) that these charts look like straight lines on either side of COVID.

  Yet this chart seems almost perfect. This is a symmetrical “beauty”, but it is just a “plug”. It is something that clearly relies heavily on seasonality and I find it almost impossible to believe that this is so “predictable” (which makes me wonder how many other “plugs” or adjustments might be meaningless after the COVID shock). Meaningless, but this data is still used to determine policy and drive markets.

  Inflation

  I couldn’t be bothered. Sure, I will dig into this more, but I really don’t think that despite some Fed jawboning, anything (other than a large/sustained change in inflation) will do much to the Fed’s decision (which means that it will do little for bond markets). I am prepared to be wrong on this and will delve into it this week (with help hopefully from friends at ChatGPT), but inflation is low on my radar screen. However, there is one exception – will companies be able to grow earnings in the current inflation environment where it seems to be more difficult to push through final product price increases while input costs remain elevated?

  Bottom Line

  Seems like we are back to an “inflection” point where the debate between soft landing and “something less fun” is back on the table. The lag effect is regaining credibility (it always should have).

  There are cases to be made for a variety of economic outcomes as we head into September and that is exciting from my seat!

  I do think that we are in a period where price action drives what narratives we see: continued downward pressure on stocks will bring out more and more negative reports. One more short squeeze and suddenly AI, soft landing, and praise for Powell is all that we will see.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 15:30

• "Pathetic, …Pessimistic": Non-White Focus Group Hammers Biden On Economy, Crime, Border
  “Pathetic, …Pessimistic”: Non-White Focus Group Hammers Biden On Economy, Crime, Border

  “Pathetic.” “Discouraged.” “Pessimistic.”

  Those are some of the sentiments shared by non-whites who were recently asked to share their feelings about the economy under President Biden, Politico reports. 

  Liberal polling firm HIT Strategies hosted a focus group of eight non-white voters last week, and found them uniformly unimpressed with President Biden’s handling of the economy. HIT uses “research and data to understand and communicate with hard-to-reach and underrepresented voters.”

  

  A new Quinnipiac University poll found 58% of all Americans give Biden a thumbs-down on the economy. In a worrisome stat for Democratic Party officials gearing up for the 2024 election, 35% of blacks give him a failing grade, as do 50% of Hispanics. The latest Emerson poll has a nationwide Biden-Trump contest as a dead heat, with Biden at 44.4% and Trump at 44.0%. 

  Some in the “people of color” focus group said they preferred the economy under Trump. “Our economy is the lowest it’s been in God knows how long,” said a Hispanic from New Jersey. “We keep [sending] money to Ukraine and other countries rather than helping ourselves.”

  “We don’t know what’s going to happen,” said an Asian American or Pacific Islander participant. “They’re kind of like saying that there possibly is going to be a soft landing, but they’re also expecting a recession of some sorts. It’s kind of a mixed message.”

  

  Some long for an alternative beyond Trump and Biden. “I’m definitely not happy with where America was when Trump was president,” said a black man from Cleveland who’s a registered Democrat. “And I’m not happy with where America is, now that Biden’s president. We’ve already had years of both of them being president and with no kind of good results. So I’m hoping there’s some other you know, candidate or alternative besides these two.”

  While members of the focus group said their economy was their number-one concern, they also hammered Biden on crime and management of the border. 

  Beyond individual candidates, focus group participants also expressed exasperation with America’s two principal parties. “I don’t feel like Democrats really have my back … or Republicans, you know?” said a Los Angeles black-and-Latino man. He gave Trump credit on the economy, however. “Trump got in there and he changed stuff.”

  Asked about indictments against Trump and accusations that he fosters white nationalism, the black-and-Latino man shrugged it off: “If you’re getting the job done, I can’t really hate on that.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 15:00

• Original Snow White Director's Son Slams Disney's 2024 Remake, 'Insulting,' 'Disgrace'
  Original Snow White Director’s Son Slams Disney’s 2024 Remake, ‘Insulting,’ ‘Disgrace’

  Authored by Patricia Tolson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  While the release of the new Snow White movie is still a year away, the son of the man who animated and directed the original version has called the new concept a “disgrace” and labeled the “woke things” they’ve made up as “insulting.”

  David Hand—son of the animator and director of the original version who was known by the same name—issued a harsh rebuke of the remake, telling the Telegraph on Aug. 18 that Disney’s “woke” version is an insult to his father’s work.

  

  “It’s a whole different concept, and I just totally disagree with it, and I know my dad and Walt would also very much disagree with it,” Mr. Hand said.

  He said he disagrees with the entire concept, calling it a “disgrace,” suggesting that Disney is “trying to do something new with something that was such a great success earlier.”

  “Their thoughts are just so radical now,” he said, noting how the Disney of today feels compelled to “change the stories” and “change the thought process of the characters.”

  Disney’s live-version remake of the animated film, “The Little Mermaid,” cast a black actress named Halle Bailey in the role of Ariel—originally portrayed as a white redhead became another box office flop that cost Disney $1 billion.

  “They’re making up new woke things, and I’m just not into any of that. I find it quite frankly a bit insulting,” he added, suggesting that what Disney has done “with some of these classic films” provides evidence that there is “no respect” for what Walt’s Disney and people like his father envisioned and created.

  “I think Walt and he would be turning in their graves,” Mr. Hand said.

  The original film, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” was released in 1937. It was Disney’s first full-length feature film. Along with “Pinocchio,” which was released in 1940, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” is heralded as Disney’s greatest film achievement.

  

  The Original Snow White

  The original film was hailed as a masterpiece, drawing worldwide acclaim and winning several awards from both the New York Film Critics Circle and The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.

  The budget for the movie, initially set at $250 thousand, exploded to $1.5 million due to various delays. The film, which included over 2 million sketches and 250,000 drawings, took about three years to produce.

  Ward Kimball, another animator, nearly quit after two of his main sequences were cut.

  Certain of the film’s demise, critics gave Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs the nickname “Walt Disney’s Folly.”

  In 1989, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was among the first 25 featured films to be preserved in the National Film Registry with the Library of Congress. In 2008, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was named the Greatest Animated Film of All Time by the American Film Institute.

  The Story of Snow White

  The storyline of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” is loosely based on the famous fairy tale, which had been passed down orally long before it was set to paper by the Brothers Grimm in 1812 under the German title “Schneewittchen” or “Little Snow White.”

  The plot of the story is set into motion when the heroine’s stepmother—a vain, wicked queen—consults her magical mirror. For many years, the mirror tells the wicked queen that she is “the fairest in the land,” until one day, the mirror tells her that Snow White now bears the title.

  Hearing this, the wicked queen becomes angry. She calls upon a woodsman and orders him to kill Snow White. For proof, the queen ordered the woodsman to bring back her heart. But the woodsman is unable to commit the murder. Instead, he helps the princess escape by taking her deep into the forest where the wicked queen would never find her. To fool the queen, the woodsman returns with the heart of a pig.

  Safe in the forest, Snow White discovers a cottage inhabited by seven dwarfs—Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sneezy, and Sleepy—who earn their living as miners. After she offers to earn her keep by cleaning their home and cooking for them, the dwarfs offer her to stay.

  The queen, however, learns that Snow White lives.

  Assuming the guise of an old hag, the queen tricks her stepdaughter into taking a bite of a poisoned apple. Snow White then falls into a deep, death-like sleep. It is a spell which can only be broken by a kiss of true love.

  When the dwarfs return from the mine they discover Snow White. Believing she is dead, they are heartbroken. They find the queen, who was attempting to flee back to her castle. They chase her to a cliff, where she falls to her death. To honor Snow White, they create a case to keep her body, standing guard over her. One day, a handsome prince comes upon Snow White and instantly falls in love. With a kiss of true love, he restored her to life and they lived “happily ever after.”

  The New Version

  While the new version isn’t expected to be released until March 2024, its plot and the actress cast to portray the new princess have already become sources of hot debate on social media.

  One obvious difference between the new live-action version of Snow White film and its hand-drawn, animated predecessor is apparent in the title itself, which eliminates “the seven dwarfs.” Moreover, those seven diminutive, white male characters—which have themselves become beloved, worldwide icons—have been replaced by a set of what Disney bills as “magical creatures” of varied colors, sizes, shapes, and genders.

  Prince Charming is cast as a “bumbling idiot.”

  The new Snow White is no longer white. She’s Cuban, played by Rachel Zegler, who also starred in Steven Spielberg’s remake of “West Side Story,” which was a massive flop.

  Ms. Zegler has been publicly critical of the original version.

  In a video on social media, Ms. Zegler dismissed the storyline of the classic version as old-fashioned, saying, “The original cartoon came out in 1937, and very evidently so.”

  “There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her,” Ms. Zegler said. “Weird! Weird. So, we didn’t do that this time.”

  Instead, Ms. Zegler explained that the more progressive version took “a different approach to what a lot of people will, I’m sure, assume is a love story just because we cast a guy in the movie, Andrew Burnap, great dude.”

  Also gone is the romance between the pair. In fact, the prince has all but been eliminated from the story.

  “It’s really not about the love story at all, which is really, really wonderful,” Ms. Zegler shared. “And whether or not she finds love along the way is anybody’s guess until 2024. All of Andrew’s scenes could get cut, who knows? It’s Hollywood, baby.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 14:30

Digest powered by RSS Digest