Month: September 2024

Authored by John Haughey, Nanette Holt, Michael Clements, Darlene McCormick Sanchez, Stacy Robinson via The Epoch Times,

Work defines us. It shapes our days, fills our hours, gives meaning to what we do and who we are.

For some, it’s a profession, a career, a calling. Others see a job as a necessity that allows them to do their most important work: raising a family, building a community, pitching in to help others.

This is the work that has built America. This Labor Day weekend, we pause to praise the American worker.

‘There Ain’t No Quit in Me’

Farrier Robb Hoffman thinks a lot about the state of America as he drives between commercial horse operations and backyard hobby farms throughout North Florida.

His “office” is a small, white pickup with a mobile workshop in the bed, filled with tools for trimming horses’ hooves and shaping horseshoes.

For job security and because he has five grandchildren, he hopes the next president will bring about “a good, strong economy and a strong border,” he told The Epoch Times. “That’s more conducive to business.”

Without those things, “the people start to suffer and they start to cut the fat. They start to do away with things they don’t need, like horses.”

Hoffman, 59, hopes the upcoming election will put someone in the White House who is “for the people, and for our country. They’re Americans first, and they’re politicians second.”

“I can tell you straight up, there’s been many a day that my wife and I have ate less, so our kids can eat more. And I think all families go through that.”

Horses’ hooves continuously grow and need to be trimmed and balanced about every 4-6 weeks. Some need shoes that must be customized for each hoof. Some need corrective or therapeutic shoeing in order to move freely and without pain.

Hoffman went to farrier school out West to become certified in his craft. Then he apprenticed with pros near Ocala, Florida, said to be the horse capital of the world.

To make ends meet, he often works 12- to 16-hour days, sometimes six days a week. It’s the kind of bent-over work that makes a guy’s back, legs, and arms ache.

Between each horse, he rests a bit and takes a few sips of water he keeps in his truck.

“If you don’t like hard work, and working when it’s 105 degrees, or working when it’s pouring down rain and all your tools are getting wet, it’s just not a career somebody would want to pursue.”

So why do it?

It’s simple, he told The Epoch Times.

“I love horses, and I love people.

“Plus, my dad instilled in me a work ethic that, no matter what, you don’t give up.

“He used to tell me all the time, that there’s nothing more important in your life than your job … you always provide for your family. You feed your kids, you clothe your kids, and you take care of your kids and your wife.”

Hoffman has had “a lot of health issues and a lot of debilitating things”… “but I just don’t quit. There ain’t no quit in me.”

He works wearing therapeutic shoes and leg braces.

“I just don’t look at it like a disability. I just look at it like, this is the cross that I bear, and I’m gonna do everything I can to do everything that I do well.

And he doesn’t see his work as just providing foot care for horses.

“I’ve tried to use this as a ministry. Sometimes that has to deal with Christianity, and sometimes people just need to talk, to get things off their chest, like therapy.”

One client calls him a “farr-apist.” It’s a moniker he’d like to put on a hat some day.

The Value of Work

Darryl Burkett doesn’t fit the stereotype of a CEO. With his ball cap cocked back on his head, he contemplates the grease under his nails, takes a break from restocking his truck with plumbing supplies, and opines about why he’s proud of his work in Durant, Oklahoma.

Since 2009, he’s owned and operated KD Plumbing & Construction, LLC., a business that has grown to employ 14 people in a warehouse near the airport. He figures the keys to his entrepreneurial success are his dedication to his family and his community and an education that extends beyond classrooms and lectures. His most skilled instructor, he says, was his father.

“My dad told me that if you learn how to do everything and you’re willing to do anything, you’ll always make a living. You make yourself valuable,” he told The Epoch Times.

Like most ranchers, tradesmen, and blue collar workers in this Southeast Oklahoma town, Burkett has amassed a variety of skills. He welds, fixes equipment, repairs plumbing, builds things, and operates all kinds of vehicles.

“There’s nothing that I’m scared to do.”

He played some baseball in college, then went to work at the Choctaw Casino & Resort-Durant. But realizing he “was not an inside guy,” he moved on to work with his father, who taught him valuable technical skills.

But more importantly, he said, his father taught him the value of work.

Eventually, he bought a truck, gathered his tools, and opened his own business. But it’s the work ethic, taught by his father, that has kept his company open and his family fed, he said.

“I like to work with my hands. I’ll get down in the hole like anyone else. If I have to keep my crew late, I’m right there with them.”

He likes knowing that others, far beyond his immediate family, depend on the jobs he provides. Few think about the workers who tend a city’s infrastructure … until the water stops.

“If [tradesmen] quit for a week, the country would fall apart,” he said.

Burkett wants his children to feel the same pride and satisfaction in their work, regardless of the career they choose. He’s less concerned about the kind of work they do and more focused on the type of workers they become.

“I want to teach them well enough to be my competitors someday.”

Blue Collar Skills Pay

Blue collar workers deserve the same respect as other professionals, some told The Epoch Times.

Nine years ago, Kevin Dougherty was a cybersecurity specialist with a company in Houston, Texas. Today, he prefers to wield a chainsaw from an elevated bucket mounted to a truck as part of a three-man tree-trimming crew in Bryan County, Oklahoma.

“I’m tired of working in an office,” said Dougherty, 39, foreman of Texoma Dirty Work Tree Service. “As much as I can, I like to get in the bucket.”

Along with co-workers DJ Henson and Billy Derryberry, he trims limbs away from roofs and electrical lines and removes trees that could fall on buildings or other property.

His coworker, Henson, left the loan department of a local bank about a year ago to trim trees. All three men in the crew agree: They find fulfillment and enjoyment in providing an essential service that protects their customers’ property.

“[Without us] trees would fall on houses,” Henson said.

Plus, running chainsaws and wood chippers pays better than shuffling papers and typing on computer keyboards, they said.

Henson spends about 55 hours a week raking tree debris and hauling away the limbs Dougherty drops to the ground from more than 20 feet above. Then he feeds them into a chipper.

“It’s harder work“ than at the bank, Henson said, ”but I make a lot more money.”

Dougherty said most of his coworkers were raised in politically and socially conservative homes. Most still lean that way, he said, and they base political preferences largely on policies affecting their work.

When it comes to who will inhabit the White House next, he said, issues such as the Keystone pipeline make the best barometers of blue collar sympathies.

“When they shut that down, a lot of blue collar guys started reaching [out to be] Republican. They’re deciding on [voting for] whoever will keep them at work.”

He believes salaries for blue collar vocations are rising because fewer people are willing to do physically demanding work. And despite what some may think, education matters, even in blue collar work. The more skills you master, the more you can earn, he said.

“You can make six figures easy.”

But, some things matter more than money.

“I get out here and do it because I love it,” he said. “People don’t realize that blue collar jobs are honorable.”

Every Shift Brings an Opportunity

Gina Rivera, 27, is filling shifts this Labor Day weekend as a server at a restaurant where patrons will be celebrating the holiday that honors workers.

She’s fine with that.

In fact, it’s an opportunity. Not only will the single mother earn some side-hustle cash, but she’ll also be able to market herself.

Rivera, of Lakeland, Florida, holds three jobs. She’s a licensed cosmetologist and a real estate agent, too. For her, each job blends into the others.

“I like networking. I like meeting new people, talking with people,” she told The Epoch Times.

Every diner, salon client, and prospective home buyer is a potential customer at one of her other businesses.

Those are Rivera’s jobs.

Her “work” is caring for her three children. At 7, her oldest, Malachi, is just starting second grade. Her middle child, Luca, is 4, and the youngest, Rosemar, is just 3 three months old.

It’s constant motion, a work in progress.

“It’s hard,” the Massachusetts native said. “I had to push myself. There were times I wanted to give up.”

If not for her mother—a fellow cosmetologist, who encouraged her to pursue that licensing—and a friend who watches her children, Rivera couldn’t support her family.

“It takes a village,” she said. “A lot of women don’t have a village.”

Read the rest here…

As the number of fees for booking Airbnb’s rise, more and more consumers are questioning whether or not it just makes sense to book a hotel. After all, at a hotel, you’re guaranteed customer service, housekeeping and amenities. With Airbnb, those add-ons can be exactly that…add-ons.

Travel site founder Michael Rozenblit is one of those dissatisfied customers, a new report from AOL/Insider says. 

Him and his partner, Maggie, have “fallen out of love” with Airbnb. They discovered that Airbnb rentals are now pricier than hotels, and many hosts no longer provide basics like toilet paper, trash bags, or coffee.

Rozenblit noted that cleaning fees are excessively high, even though guests are still expected to do chores. One host mentioned charging $400 for cleaning.

He commented: “There are almost always over-the-top cleaning requirements for checkout, often including the requirement to take out the trash and strip the beds at the minimum.”

The Insider report says that travelers have noticed a shift with Airbnb becoming more expensive than hotels and offering less value, leading to frustration over high fees and uncooperative hosts, according to travel experts.

Locals in popular tourist destinations like Barcelona and Athens have protested against Airbnb hosts buying properties and driving up prices.

Airbnb recently warned investors of declining customer demand, lowering its Q3 earnings projection from $3.8 billion to between $3.67 billion and $3.73 billion, with profits down 15% from the same quarter last year. The company’s stock dropped 14% in one day.

Despite Airbnb’s statement claiming these issues aren’t widespread and bookings are up, hotels are seeing a resurgence with some achieving pre-pandemic occupancy levels. The hotel industry is projected to grow 3.72% annually, reaching $511 billion by 2029, according to Statista. Travel experts argue that hosts are largely to blame for Airbnb’s struggles.

One full time traveler commented: “Airbnb essentially allows anyone to sign up to be a host, which will always prove to be problematic. Because when you have people flooding in year after year who are seeing it as a way for them to make quick cash, you’re going to be met with bad customer service.”

Bad Airbnb experiences often make headlines, partly because viral TikTok videos from dissatisfied guests amplify their stories. Examples include a freezing cold trailer, an “Airbnb from hell” with a toilet not attached to the wall and a bed in the garage, and a host trying to triple the price of a booking for Taylor Swift’s tour. 

Airbnb responded by stating that the stories were “cherry-picked” and emphasized that most stays are positive. They also noted that bookings and listings are increasing and that over 200,000 low-quality listings have been removed to improve guest experiences.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court on Monday ruled to uphold a countrywide ban as well as fines on Elon Musk’s X social media platform amid a high profile spat between the billionaire and the court.

Of a five-member panel of the country’s’ high court, three judges formed a majority to upheld Justice Alexandre de Moraes’s previous ruling to shut down the platform for not complying with local regulations.

Justices Flavio Dino and Cristiano Zanin sided with de Moraes, forming a majority before Justices Luiz Fux and Carmen Lucia had cast their votes. Moraes and Musk have been locked in a monthslong feud after X was required to block accounts implicated in investigations of alleged spreading of distorted news and what court officials said is hate speech.

“It is not possible for a company to operate in the territory of a country and intend to impose its vision on which rules should be valid or applied,” Dino said in joining with de Moraes. “A party that intentionally fails to comply with court decisions appears to consider itself above the rule of law. And so it can turn into an outlaw.”

X was taken down in Brazil, one of its largest markets, in the early hours of Saturday following a decision by de Moraes, after the platform missed a court-imposed deadline to name a legal representative in Brazil as required by local law.

In a shutdown order last week, de Moraes wrote that X has to be shut down until the firm complies with the order and set a daily fine of $8,900 for individuals or firms who attempt to circumvent the ban by using a VPN, also known as a virtual private network, or through another way.

Over the weekend, Musk fired off multiple X posts that criticized de Moraes, with one saying that “he should be impeached for violating his oath of office” and that his “actions are against the will of the Brazilian people he is supposed to represent.”

Some critics, including a professor of political science at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, said they believe the ban and fines are overboard.

“I used VPNs a lot in authoritarian countries like China to continue accessing news sites and social media. It never occurred to me that this type of tool would be banned in Brazil. It’s dystopian,” professor Maurício Santoro wrote on X before the ban went into effect.

The Brazilian Bar Association said on Friday in a statement that it would request the Supreme Court review the fines imposed on all citizens using VPNs or other means to access X without due process. The association argued that sanctions should never be imposed summarily before ensuring an adversarial process and the right to a full defense.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has issued public statements to support de Moraes’s decision to block the social media company, as has Supreme Court Chief Justice Luis Roberto Barroso.

“I have already said publicly, and I repeat, that a company that refuses to present a legal representative in Brazil is not able to operate in Brazil,” Barroso told the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo published on Sunday, according to a translation of his comments. “But I will still evaluate the specific case, if it is brought to the panel, and any appeals, always considering all the arguments.”

The ban officially went into effect on Saturday. An Epoch Times reporter based in the United States who attempted to access X through a VPN could not reach the site.

Brazil is one of the biggest markets for X, according to the Oosga research company, with tens of millions of users.

Some X users based in Brazil indicated on similar social media platforms such as BlueSky and Threads that they were migrating there in the meantime. The CEO of BlueSky, which was cofounded by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, wrote in a post over the weekend that traffic has risen.

“At peak traffic over these past few days, we’ve had 20x the usual load on our infrastructure!” Bluesky CEO Jay Graber wrote on the platform Sunday, adding that there might be “slow loading times” ahead.

She also delivered a separate message in Portuguese, ostensibly to the rash of Brazilian users that joined in recent days, about how the website works.

Reuters contributed to this report.

In a surprise and unusual escalation of Washington’s actions against Venezuela, the Unites States has seized President Nicolas Maduro’s airplane on allegations its acquisition was a violation of US sanctions.

The plane is a Dassault Falcon 900, estimated to have cost around $13 million, and was seized at an airport in the Dominican Republic. It had been in the country for several months for unknown reasons, where the US Department of Homeland Security began monitoring it.

Anonymous US officials have confirmed to several media outlets that they flew the aircraft, which serves as the equivalent of Venezuela’s Air Force One, to Florida on Monday.

Maduro had frequently used to make state visits around the world. For the past multiple years he has enjoyed closer ties with Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, Damascus, and other nations deemed ‘pariah’ states by Washington.

A Biden administration official said to CNN that is is largely about sending a strong ‘message’ to Maduro and other countries who engage in flouting US-led sanctions.

“This sends a message all the way up to the top,” the unnamed official said. “Seizing the foreign head of state’s plane is unheard-of for criminal matters. We’re sending a clear message here that no one is above the law, no one is above the reach of US sanctions.”

Below is a statement from the Department of Justice, which along with Commerce was involved in the operation to take the plane:

“This morning, the Justice Department seized an aircraft we allege was illegally purchased for $13 million through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States for use by Nicolás Maduro and his cronies,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

“The Department will continue to pursue those who violate our sanctions and export controls to prevent them from using American resources to undermine the national security of the United States.”

Separately, a US National Security Council spokesperson framed the whole episode as punishment from allegedly stealing the national election in July…

“Over the past month, as demonstrated by a wide variety of independent sources, Maduro and his representatives’ have tampered with the results of the July 28 presidential election, falsely claimed victory, and carried out wide-spread repression to maintain power by force,” the spokesperson said.

Mixed reactions, some called it theft and a “rogue” action, but others like Erik Prince celebrated the move…

The increasingly rogue US government has stolen the plane of Venezuelan president Maduro in the Dominican Republic, and flew it to Florida pic.twitter.com/YHtlnXVBJr

— Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) September 2, 2024

Caracas will no doubt see this as brazen theft and a huge shot across the bow by Washington, which Maduro has accused of sponsoring several coup attempts in his country.

Authored by Jeff Louderback via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Highlighted by parades and backyard barbecues, Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer in a leisurely and restful way for many Americans, but the origins of the national holiday reflect a darker time for workers and include unrest over oppressive working conditions and a strike that turned violent.

Amid the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century, workers toiled for at least 12 hours a day, six days a week in factories, mines, railroads, and mills.

Appealing for shorter work weeks and better working conditions, the labor movement arose and escalated in the 1860s and 1870s.

Signed into law by President Grover Cleveland on June 28, 1894, the first Labor Day was celebrated on the first Monday in September that year following decades of conflict as American industry accelerated.

Here are five things to know about Labor Day in the United States.

Labor Day Origins

As with Independence Day, Labor Day is a time when many small towns and big cities alike host celebratory parades. In the late 19th century, activists from the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor spearheaded what is known as the first Labor Day event when about 10,000 workers marched through the streets of New York City on Sept. 5, 1882.

Organizers proclaimed it “a general holiday for the workingmen of this city.” The parade became an annual event, and in 1884 it was set for the first Monday in September, according to the New-York Historical Society.

Between 1887 and 1894, Labor Day became an official holiday in several states. The day varied between the first day of September, the first Monday of September, and the first Saturday of September.

Oregon was the first state to designate a Labor Day holiday in 1887. Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York followed the next year.

In 1893, U.S. Sen. James Kyle of South Dakota introduced a bill to declare Labor Day a federal holiday. The bill languished without discussion in the Senate until June 26, 1894. Cleveland then signed the legislation, and response to the new holiday was positive.

Parades across the country drew large crowds. At the first official Labor Day parade in Chicago, Chairman of the House Labor Committee Lawrence McGann told 30,000 revelers, “Let us each Labor Day, hold a congress and formulate propositions for the amelioration of the people. Send them to your Representatives with your earnest, intelligent indorsement [sic], and the laws will be changed,” according to the Office of the Historian for the U.S. House of Representatives.

A Holiday Created Amid Strife

Another labor-centered holiday, May Day, was created in the aftermath of the Haymarket Riot on May 1, 1886. Workers flooded Chicago’s streets to demand an eight-hour workday. Scuffles between police and workers ensued over several days. Police ordered the crowd to disperse, and a bomb detonated on May 4.

At an international gathering of socialists in Paris in 1889, May Day was declared as a holiday honoring workers’ rights. Cleveland feared that May Day would become “a memorial to the Haymarket radicals.” He encouraged state legislatures to celebrate a labor-centric holiday in September instead and eventually signed the federal holiday at the same time tension arose in a company town outside of Chicago.

Employees of the railway sleeping car titan George Pullman went on strike on May 11, 1893.

Pullman, Illinois, was founded by Pullman in 1880 and designed to serve as a utopian community for workers.

Residents worked for the Pullman Palace Car Company. Their paychecks were drawn from the Pullman bank and their rent was set by Pullman and automatically deducted from their paychecks.

In 1893, there was a nationwide economic depression. Orders for railroad sleeping cars declined. Pullman laid off hundreds of employees. Workers who remained saw their wages cut while rents remained consistent.

Employees walked out, demanding higher pay and lower rents.

Led by Eugene V. Debs, who later ran for president in 1920, the American Railway Union aided the striking workers. Railroad employees across the country boycotted trains carrying Pullman cars. Burning, pillaging, and rioting of railroad cars followed. Mobs of nonunion workers participated.

Faced with a national crisis, Cleveland declared the strike a federal crime and sent federal troops to end the unrest on July 3, days after signing the Labor Day legislation.

Troops fired into a crowd of protesters on July 7, killing as many as 12 people.

The strike ended on Aug. 3, 1894.

Even with the creation of Labor Day, it wasn’t until the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act when the U.S. established a minimum wage, mandated a shorter work week, and limited child labor.

The Tradition of Barbecues

The tradition of backyard chefs preparing cookouts for their family and friends has defined Labor Day weekend since its inception.

Robert F. Moss, a food writer, culinary historian and author of “Barbecue: The History of an American Institution,” wrote on his website that “staging a big outdoor barbecue was one of the standard forms of civic celebration in the late 19th century, so it’s little surprise that some of the earliest Labor Day events features barbecue.”

When labor conditions improved in the 20th century, Moss said the focus of holiday barbecues started to reflect the evolution of the holiday itself as a celebration among family and friends in backyards to mark the unofficial end of summer.

“It still has a lot of that same communal sense, gathering around the grill, eating together,” he wrote.

Among the first celebrations traced to what is now known as Labor Day include the Volunteers Firemen’s Associations’ annual picnic and barbecue at Brommer’s Union Park at the southern tip of the Bronx borough of New York City on Sept. 3, 1888. It was an existing event that was moved to early September to commemorate the labor movement.

A 1,200-pound ox was roasted that day, Moss wrote.

When Labor Day was declared a federal holiday in 1894, workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, celebrated. The governor, mayor, and other dignitaries delivered remarks at a city park after a parade of floats constructed by labor unions.

Attendees then sat down for a feast that included “twenty beeves, thirty sheep, ten shoats and fifteen goats” along with “coffee, Kentucky bergoo’ and fresh bakery bread,” Moss wrote.

The Father of Labor Day

Kyle, the senator who introduced the bill to enshrine Labor Day as a federal holiday, is regarded as the father of the formal celebration.

Born at his family’s farm in Cedarville, Ohio, in 1854, Kyle’s family moved to Illinois when he was 11. He eventually made his way to South Dakota and entered politics in 1890 shortly after his new home became a state.

First elected to the state senate, he soon became a U.S. senator.

During his time in office, Kyle was chairman of the Great Industrial Commission, which was tasked with investigating questions regarding immigration, labor, agriculture, manufacturing, and business.

Kyle was also chairman of the Education and Labor Committee and introduced the bill that Cleveland signed into law establishing Labor Day.

Cedarville calls itself “the home of Labor Day.” Signs at the entry points of the rural village recognize Kyle as “the father of Labor Day.”

The village celebrates the holiday each year with a community festival called “Cedarfest.”

Grover Cleveland

Cleveland is the only president to leave the White House and return for a second, nonconsecutive term, a feat that former President Donald Trump is currently trying to accomplish.

First elected president in 1884, Cleveland won the popular vote in 1888 but was defeated by Republican Benjamin Harrison in the general election. He and his wife moved to New York, where he became a father and told a colleague that he “had entered the real world” for the first time.

Life as a private citizen proved unfulfilling for Cleveland. He saw an opportunity to defeat Harrison in a rematch because the president had grown unpopular with many Americans. Cleveland won his party’s nomination and defeated Harrison in the rematch.

After Cleveland signed the legislation that established a national Labor Day holiday and summoned troops to Chicago to enforce the injunction against a railroad workers strike, he said, “If it takes the entire Army and Navy of the United States to deliver a postcard in Chicago, that card will be delivered.”

He faced backlash for his treatment of the railroad workers, and his policies amid a depression during his term were mostly unpopular.

Eric Weinstein told Chris Williamson on the “Modern Wisdom” podcast that Donald Trump’s presidency has disrupted the old “rules-based international order,” which many view as an attempt to control global stability and wondered if the Republican nominee will “be allowed” to reenter the White House if elected in 2024. Weinstein argued that Trump’s unorthodox approach challenged the status quo, exposing flaws in the system and revealing that the impact of populist leaders on democracy and international agreements is more complex and significant than previously understood.

CHRIS WILLIAMSON: When we spoke at the start of the year, I said it was way too close to November to switch anybody out. Turns out that I was wrong.

ERIC WEINSTEIN: Beginner’s luck.

CHRIS WILLIAMSON: You said what are the odds that Joe Biden has a debilitating event between now and November including death, so he runs a one in 20 chance of dying in any given year or above that. I don’t think you know whether he’s even going to make it to November debilitating event could have been a debilitating public event

ERIC WEINSTEIN: I purposefully left it vague. I didn’t say the other part of it, which I now feel comfortable saying, which is…

CHRIS WILLIAMSON: What do you mean by that?

ERIC WEINSTEIN: I think there’s a remarkable story, and we’re in a funny game, which is: are we allowed to say what that story is? Because to say it, to analyze it, to name it, is to bring it into view. I think we don’t understand why the censorship is behaving the way it is. We don’t understand why it’s in the shadows or why our news is acting in a bizarre fashion. So let’s just set the stage, given that that was in February.

There is something that I think Mike Benz has just referred to as the rules-based international order. It’s an interlocking series of agreements, tacit understandings, explicit understandings, and clandestine understandings about how the most important structures keep the world free of war and keep markets open. There has been a system in place, whether understood explicitly or behind the scenes or implicitly, that says the purpose of the two American parties is to prune the field of populist candidates so that whatever two candidates exist in a faceoff are both acceptable to that world order.

From the point of view of, say, the State Department, the intelligence community, the defense department, and major corporations involved in international issues—from arms trade to, oh, I don’t know, food—they have a series of agreements that are fragile and could be overturned if a president entered the Oval Office who didn’t agree with them. And if the mood of the country was, “Why do we pay taxes into these structures? Why are we hamstrung? Why aren’t we a free people?” So what the two parties would do is run primaries with populist candidates and pre-commit the populist candidates to support the candidates who won the primaries. As long as that took place and you had two candidates that were both acceptable to the international order—that is, they aren’t going to rethink NAFTA or NATO or what have you—we called that democracy. And so democracy was the illusion of choice, what’s called magician’s choice, where the choice is not actually, you know, “pick a card, any card,” but somehow the magician makes sure that the card that you pick is the one that he knows.

In that situation, you have magician’s choice in the primaries, and then you’d have the duopoly field: two candidates, either of which was acceptable, and you could actually afford to hold an election. That way, the international order wasn’t put at risk every four years because you can’t have alliances that are subject to the whim of the people in plebiscites.

Under that structure, everything was going fine until 2016, when the first candidate ever to not hold any position in the military nor any position in government in the history of the Republic, Donald Trump, broke through the primary structure. Then there was a full court press: “Okay, we only have one candidate that’s acceptable to the international order. Donald Trump will be under constant pressure—he’s a loser, he’s a wild man, he’s an idiot, and he’s under control of the Russians.” And then he was going to be, you know, a 20-to-1 underdog, and then he wins. There was no precedent for this. They learned their lesson: you cannot afford to have candidates who are not acceptable to the international order and continue to have these alliances. This is an unsolved problem.

I don’t have a particular dog in this fight. I believe in democracy; I also believe in international agreements. And it is the job of the State Department, the intelligence community, and the defense department to bring this problem in front of the American people and say, “We have a problem. You don’t know everything that’s going on, and if you start voting in populist candidates, you’re going to end up knocking out load-bearing walls that you don’t understand.”

Via The Cradle

Turkey has formally requested to join the BRICS group of emerging economies, Bloomberg cited informed sources as saying on Monday. 

Ankara “seeks to bolster its global influence and forge new ties beyond its traditional Western allies,” the sources said. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan believes “that the geopolitical center of gravity is shifting away from developed economies” and that the push to join BRICS “reflects its aspirations to cultivate ties with all sides in a multipolar world, while still fulfilling its obligations as a key member of NATO.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in early June that BRICS serves as a good alternative to the EU. Later that month, he confirmed that dialogue between Ankara and BRICS nations was ongoing – coming as Turkish frustration continued to grow due to stalled efforts to join the EU. 

While Turkey has long been a member of NATO, accession talks for EU membership have faced several obstacles since they began in 2005. Turkey had applied to join the EU predecessor organization, the EEC, in 1987.  

“Turkey submitted an application to join BRICS some months ago amid frustration over a lack of progress in its decades-old bid to join the EU,” Bloomberg’s sources went on to say. 

After Russia became the most sanctioned nation in the world following the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, the BRICS bloc began seriously pursuing the creation of a common currency to de-dollarize trade and circumvent western sanctions. 

A coalition initially made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, BRICS at the start of this year expanded for the first time since 2010 to include Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, and the UAE.

Palestine’s ambassador in Moscow, Abdel Hafeez Nofal, said on August 26 that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is planning to apply to join BRICS.

“The different and beautiful thing about BRICS compared to the EU is that it includes all civilizations and races. If it can become a little more institutional, it will produce serious benefits,” Fidan said in early June.

Fidan confirmed in an interview later that month that his country may apply for an upgraded dialogue partnership with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). 

Erdogan has also shown interest in joining China’s Shanghai Cooperation Council (SCO). In early, he attended the SCO summit in Kazakhstan. 

“We do not have to choose between the EU and the SCO as some people claim. On the contrary, we have to develop our relations with both these and other organizations on a win-win basis,” the Turkish president said over the weekend. 

“Turkiye can become a strong, prosperous, prestigious and effective country if it improves its relations with the East and the West simultaneously. Any method other than this will not benefit Turkiye, but will harm it,” he added. 

August was rollercoaster month in financial markets – at least in the beginning – with the VIX briefly spiking to levels last seen in March 2020 during the Covid-19 market turmoil, before just as rapidly sinking back. The catalyst for that was a weak US jobs report, which raised fears that the US might be heading into a downturn. That interacted with an unwinding of the yen carry trade, and there was a massive slump in Japanese markets, with the TOPIX falling by over -12% in a single day on August 5. But calm swiftly returned, after better data and a dovish message from Fed Chair Powell at Jackson Hole helped to reassure investors. So despite everything, global stocks and bonds rose in August, with both the S&P 500 and US Treasuries posting a 4th consecutive monthly advance.

As DB writes in its monthly performance review note, August got off to an incredibly rough start as fears mounted about an economic slowdown in the US. The catalyst for this was the US jobs report on August 2, although there were several underlying factors that also contributed to the turmoil. The report showed that nonfarm payrolls were softer-than-expected at +114k in July (vs. consensus of +175k), and there were also downward revisions to the previous couple of months (followed by even bigger downward revisions during the annual QCEW rebenchmarking process). Significantly, the unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, which meant that the Sahm rule was breached. This suggests that a recession is underway when the 3-month average of the unemployment rate has risen by half a point within a year.

The jobs report came shortly after the Bank of Japan had hiked rates on July 31. That hike had hawkish elements, which contributed to a strengthening yen, but with the US jobs report as well, that led to further dollar depreciation as investors dialled up their expectations for rate cuts from the Fed. So investors were now reassessing the likely interest rate differentials between Japan and the US, which in turn caused significant problems for the yen carry trade. This trade relied on Japan being a lowyielding currency, as investors borrowed in yen and then invested that in highyielding currencies.

The combined effects of this led to a massive slump in Japanese markets on August 5. For instance, the TOPIX index was down -12.2% in a single day, and the TOPIX Banks index was down by -17.3%. This quickly spread across global markets, and later that day the VIX index of volatility peaked at 65.73pts, which is its highest intraday level since the market turmoil in March 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic began. Risk assets slumped more broadly, and the S&P 500 was down -3.0% that day, marking its worst daily performance since September 2022. At the height of the turmoil, futures were even fully pricing in that the Fed would cut rates by 50bps at their next meeting in September.

But after August 5, calm immediately began to return to markets. In part, that was helped by an almost immediate capitulation by the BOJ which vowed not to raise rates again during periods of market instability, coupled with more positive data on the US economy, which helped to ease fears about an imminent recession. Indeed, markets were lifted by the weekly initial jobless claims that came out on August 8, which were lower than expected. The following week, the retail sales numbers for July were also robust (if entirely thanks to seasonal adjustments). In addition, comments from BoJ Deputy Governor Uchida helped to reassure markets, as he said that “the bank will not raise its policy interest rate when financial and capital markets are unstable.”

Later on in the month, Fed Chair Powell’s speech at Jackson Hole helped to cement investors’ conviction that rate cuts from the Fed were finally on the horizon. He delivered a dovish message, saying that “The time has come for policy to adjust.” And he also said that “We do not seek or welcome further cooling in labor market conditions.” Expectations for a rate cut got further support from the US CPI release the previous week, which showed core inflation falling to +3.2%, the lowest since April 2021. So that solidified expectations that the Fed would cut rates in September, with the potential that they could deliver larger 50bp moves if required in response to economic weakness.

With all those developments, it meant that equities actually managed to advance on the month, recovering swiftly from their slump. In the US, the S&P 500 closed up +2.4% in total return terms, marking its 4th consecutive monthly gain, while Europe’s STOXX 600 was up +1.6%. Japan’s Nikkei (-1.1%) was an underperformer given that much of the turmoil had centerd on Japan, but the general trend for risk assets was positive. That included emerging markets, where the MSCI EM Index was up +1.6%.

For sovereign bonds there were also gains as investors priced in more rate cuts. US Treasuries were up for a 4th consecutive month for the first time since July 2021, posting a +1.3% gain in total return terms, whilst Euro sovereigns were up +0.4%. Gold (+2.3%) was another beneficiary, since it tends to do well in a lower-rate environment given it doesn’t pay any interest itself, and prices exceeded $2,500/oz for the first time.

Which assets saw the biggest gains in August?

• Sovereign Bonds: With investors pricing more aggressive rate cuts, it was a strong month for sovereign bonds, and US Treasuries in particular. US Treasuries were up +1.3% over the month, and Euro sovereigns were up +0.4%.
• Equities: Despite the initial turmoil, equities were mostly higher on the month. That included the S&P 500 (+2.4%) and the STOXX 600 (+1.6%). However, it wasn’t all positive, and the Magnificent 7 (-0.4%) fell for a second consecutive month for the first time this year.
• Japanese Yen: The Japanese Yen strengthened against the US Dollar for a second consecutive month, up +2.6%.
• Precious Metals: With interest rate cuts moving into view, gold moved above $2500/oz for the first time. On a YTD basis, gold and silver are among the top-performing major assets, having both risen by +21.3%.

Which assets saw the biggest losses in August?

• US Dollar: The US Dollar weakened against every other G10 currency in August, and it was the worst monthly performance for the dollar index (-2.3%) since November 2023.
• Oil: Brent crude (-2.4%) and WTI oil (-5.6%) were both down for a 2nd consecutive month in August.

And here is a snapshot of the best and worst performing assets in August, both in local currency and USD…

… and YTD:

More in the full DB note available to pro subscribers.

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

In my new book and prior columns I have described a “radical chic” in academia, faculty who thrill audiences with extremist rhetoric and calls for radical reforms, even revolution. The latest example comes from Arizona State University where professors laid out their dystopian vision of America, a vision that apparently can be avoided by “dismantl[ing] capitalism” and “elect[ing] a female president.”

At the outset, it is important to note two things. First, the program covered by the conservative site College Fix was a small event. Second, these faculty members have every right to espouse these views and it is good for students to have a wide variety of viewpoints on campus.

My objection in the past has not been the presence of far left faculty on campuses but the purging of conservative, moderate, and libertarian faculty.

It is also important to address what are becoming common and extreme arguments on our campuses, including a growing anticapitalist movement.

The event titled “Jenny Irish’s HATCH: A Speculative Future for Reproductive Rights” was held both in person and via Zoom. Jenny Irish, an ASU English professor, was joined by Angela Lober, director of the Academy of Lactation Programs at ASU’s Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation.

Lober, who runs major programs at the school, offered some of the most extreme viewpoints, including the assertion that “the United States hates women and everything the female body does.”

It was a remarkable claim for a nation that has been a leader in the world in women’s rights for over a century and has long had major female leaders from the Vice President to the Speaker of the House of Representatives to cabinet members.

Not to be outdone, Irish expressed her fear that the United States could see “forced breeding camps” and “cannibalism.” She told the students and faculty that “so much of our reality points toward those futures.” She was less clear on what specifically is pointing to that future other than the Supreme Court’s decision to leave abortion to the states.

Lober was, however, clear about the solution in calling for the audience to help “dismantle capitalism” and “elect a female president.”

The event was co-hosted by ASU Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics, which hosts events that aim to design “a future keyed to human flourishing.”

Putting the hyperbolic rhetoric to the side, the anti-capitalist calls have become ubiquitous on campuses. Socialism has become a rallying cry with polls showing that young people have a more positive view of socialism than capitalism.

There is an interesting dynamic to the push for socialism in the United States. Advocates may have a harder time convincing new migrants and citizens who fled socialist countries like Venezuela.

The draw of a “land of opportunity” has been due to not just our laws but also our economic system. The ability to sustain that growth (or support the existing social welfare systems) depends on a competitive economic system.

The irony is found in comments like those of Fidel Castro who declared that “my idea, as the whole world knows, is that the capitalist system now doesn’t work either for the United States or the world, driving it from crisis to crisis, which are each time more serious.” Cuba was (and continues to be decades later) an utter economic basket case without either liberty or prosperity.

Hugo Chavez made the same claim before driving his country into an economic tailspin.

As a student at the University of Chicago, I was fortunate enough to attend lectures by Milton Friedman and, despite being a liberal, I was convinced that there was a connection between capitalism and individual liberty. There are liberty-enhancing economic systems and those that are liberty-reducing. The freedom of economic choice in a capitalist system has historically reinforced individual liberty in my view.

The ASU event captures a rising call for dismantling an economic system that helped drive industrial innovation and massive wealth creation. It has also left great wealth disparities. We have sought to address poverty with social programs that offer greater opportunity for those who have not been able to escape cycles of poverty. We have much work to be done. However, the anti-capitalist movement often offers few specifics on the alternatives, as at the ASU event.

This is a debate that should be welcomed but not in this type of one-sided, jingoistic presentation. Imagine how much more substantive this panel would have been with an alternative viewpoint. Let’s have a discussion on the merits of capitalism and the record of alternative systems. That would offer educational and not merely emotive benefits to our academic community.

*  *  *

Jonathan Turley is a Fox News Media contributor and the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage” (Simon & Schuster, June 18, 2024).

As the Greek-flagged oil tanker MV Sounion burns in the southern Red Sea, Iran-backed Houthi militants targeted two ships with missiles and drones in the critical maritime chokepoint on Monday. 

Reuters reports projectiles hit a Panama-flagged oil tanker and a merchant vessel. Security firm Ambrey confirmed the oil tanker was hit by two missiles, with sources indicating the tanker is named “Blue Lagoon I.”

Ambrey and the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said the tanker was hit by missiles about 70 nautical miles northwest of Yemen’s port of Saleef. The merchant ship was hit about 50 nautical miles off Yemen’s Hodeidah.

The security firm said it “assessed that the tanker was targeted due to company affiliation with a vessel calling Israeli ports.” 

Monday’s attack comes as the world braces for what could be one of the worst tanker spills this century. The Sounion tanker remains on fire and could be leaking oil. 

Red Sea littoral states brace for the worst tanker spill this century https://t.co/HKEpT6nAdY pic.twitter.com/WoXAzMqLCz

— Splash (@Splash_247) August 28, 2024

Here’s the latest on Sounion:

• Houthis Release New Footage On Tanker Explosion; Satellite Imagery Suggests Oil Leak Has Begun
• Houthis To Allow Salvage Crews To Access The Oil Tanker They Hit In The Red Sea
• US Warns Tanker Hit By Houthis Could Cause Largest Ship Oil Spill In History

Maritime news outlet Splash 247 noted the parallels between the Sounion and FSO Safer incidents. In recent years, a projected oil spill map for the FSO Safer was published due to the risk of a leak from the tanker anchored in the Red Sea. Fortunately, the tanker was emptied last year, averting a spill. However, that spill map could serve as a guide for assessing the potential impact if a leak from the Sounion materializes.

The Sounion is carrying 150,000 tons of crude oil from Iraq. The badly damaged ship risks spilling four times as much oil as the Exxon Valdez, arguably tanker shipping’s most famous casualty, potentially becoming the fifth worst oil spill of all time, according to statistics carried by the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF). 

The ship is carrying a similar amount of oil to the FSO Safer and is in a similar location to that vessel, leading shipping consultant Lars Jensen to highlight today the potential environmental catastrophe unfolding in the Red Sea. 

Splash has repeatedly reported on the United Nations’ operation to remove the FSO Safer from Yemeni waters. Last year, the UN bought a Euronav tanker and was able to empty the rusting, abandoned FSO Safer’s cargo of 1.14m barrels of crude oil.

Carrying over 1.1m barrels of oil, the FSO Safer was abandoned off Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hudaydah after the civil war broke out in the country in 2015. Since then, the vessel deteriorated significantly in the absence of any servicing or maintenance, prompting fears of a major environmental disaster 

To fund the FSO Safer operation the UN issued a report outlining the consequences if the FSO Safer situation was not resolved. 

“Now that study can be seen as a reasonable proxy for the consequences of a major spill from the Sounion given that both the geographic location and the amount of oil involved is almost the same,” Jensen, who heads up Vespucci Maritime in Copenhagen, wrote in a LinkedIn post today. 

According to the UN report, the FSO Safer oil spill impact would have devastated the fishing communities on Yemen’s Red Sea coast where 500,000 people make their living from the fishing industry with 1.7m dependents.

Desalination plants on the Red Sea coast could be closed, cutting off water supply for millions, the UN report warned, adding that oil could reach the shores of Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia.

The UN estimated the clean-up bill from a possible FSO Safer disaster could have reached $20bn, just $1bn shy of the annual GDP of Yemen. 

“It does raise the question as to whether or not it is ethically prudent to operate major oil tankers through the area under the current circumstances,” Jensen mused.

Pictured below from the UN report on the FSO Safer, whose precarious circumstances were very similar to the Sounion’s, are maps showing the areas at risk by using colours to indicate how much oil is expected on the surface in different places and times. Ports are marked with black dots, and water treatment plants are marked with blue dots.

The Houthis have targeted more than 80 merchant ships with missiles and drones since Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza started in October. This continued turmoil in the Red Sea shows how the West’s “credibility and deterrence” is quickly eroding. 

Where is the rightful outrage from environmentalists? Thousands of tons of crude oil will now pour into the Red Sea.
This is a clear sign of the collapse of American credibility and deterrence. Letting the Iranian proxy Houthis shut off a major maritime seaway is an epic fail.… https://t.co/ThmzZ5FAED

— ErikDPrince (@realErikDPrince) August 24, 2024

This perceived weakness could only embolden China to escalate disputes in the South China Sea, which by the way, was seen over the weekend (read: “South China Sea Flashpoint: Philippines Accuses China Of “Intentionally Ramming” Coast Guard Vessel”).