The state of Idaho has been ordered by the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to pay for a prison inmate’s gender reassignment surgery.
Adree Edmo, 31, is currently incarcerated at the Idaho State Correctional Institution after pleading guilty to sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy at a 2012 house party. The same year, he was diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
For the past seven years, the prison has provided Edmo with hormone therapy. Now, Edmo wants his penis turned into a vagina – and Idaho taxpayers get to pay for it, according to the Washington Examiner.
“Hormone therapy has not completely alleviated Edmo’s gender dysphoria,” the court ruled – adding that his penis continued to cause him distress.
“Edmo testified that she feels ‘depressed, embarrassed, [and] disgusted’ by her male genitalia and that this is an ‘everyday reoccurring thought.’, and that Edmo had bought underwear “to keep, in Edmo’s words, her ‘disgusting penis’ out of sight.”
After describing in graphic detail Edmo’s multiple attempts to self-castrate, the court argued that failing to provide gender reassignment surgery at taxpayer expense would be a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. “We apply the dictates of the Eighth Amendment today in an area of increased social awareness: transgender health care,” the court wrote in its conclusion. “We are not the first to speak on the subject, nor will we be the last.”
“They certainly would treat a prisoner with cancer, they treat a prisoner with diabetes, or other chronic conditions,” Edmo’s lawyer, Deborah Ferguson, told local CBS affiliate KBOI. “So, we have a medically recognized condition that’s very treatable and we have been trying to get her the treatment that she very much needs.” –Washington Examiner
Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) says that the state will appeal the decision with the US Supreme Court.
“The court’s decision is extremely disappointing,” said Little, adding “The hardworking taxpayers of Idaho should not be forced to pay for a convicted sex offender’s gender reassignment surgery when it is contrary to the medical opinions of the treating physician and multiple mental health professionals.”
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/34acFa4 Tyler Durden
One could see it coming from a mile away, but still the breakout in Chinese pork prices as a result of the country’s “pig ebola” outbreak and the ongoing trade war with the US, is a sight to behold.
As the chart below shows, pork prices in China have soared to record highs in the past two weeks, adding pressure on a government trying to contain food-price inflation during the trade war with the U.S., even as the country’s Producer Price index posted its first negative print in 3 years, putting China in a bind: contain soaring food inflation, or stimulate the economy and risk an angry public backlash (something we discussed extensively two weeks ago).
Prices of China’s favorite protein – used in dishes such as lunchtime dumplings and spicy mapo tofu — have surged 18% in China in just two weeks, since the week ended Aug. 9 and are up more than 50% in the past year. The average price of pork, excluding offal, in the week ended Aug. 23 was 31.77 yuan a kilogram ($2.02 a pound), according to data from China’s Ministry of Commerce.
The cause for the price surge is well-known: African swine fever, which has been raging across China, and Asia, has decimated pork supplies. China’s pig herd had fallen 32% on year in July, according to data released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Some analysts expect 2019 production could fall as much as 50% by the time the “pig ebola” is contained.
Breakouts of African Swine Fever in 2019
Speaking to the WSJ, Darin Friedrichs, senior Asia commodity analyst, at INTL FCStone in Shanghai said “it’s hard to know where prices are going to go. We’re in uncharted territory.” He said his own grocery bills have increased by 35% for pork belly since November and 32% for pork chops since January.
As we reported earlier in August, the surge in pork prices and increases in the cost of vegetables were already the main driver of a 2.8% rise in the CPI in July, the fastest pace in 18 months, even as PPI dipped negative.
The 27% surge in pork prices – a core component of the Chinese CPI basket – lifted the headline inflation index by 0.59%. It could not have come at a worse time: due to the trade war between the US and China, Beijing’s tariffs on U.S. pork have increased prices of American meat.
Traditionally, Chinese people typically eat far more pork than other meat; in fact China is the single biggest consumer of pork in the world. However, a customer at a wholesale market in Beijing told the WSJ her family was now eating more chicken than pork. Indeed, as pork prices rise to levels that are prohibitively high for many, consumers are changing their buying habits, pushing up prices for other meat. Chicken breast is about 20% more expensive than a year ago, while duck breast has nearly tripled in price to 14,600 yuan (US$2,125) a tonne, making duck farmers into overnight millionaires.
Pork prices are likely to remain elevated for some time, said Betty Wang, a senior economist at ANZ. She said farmers have culled so many pigs that it would take a while for supplies to build up again. “If people feel that food inflation is going up, it may spur policy actions,” she added, although it wasn’t clear just how Beijing can find a quick and easy substitute to domestic farms.
Until things normalize, Beijing has taken an idea from the Trump administration: outside the wholesale market, red banners advertised government subsidies for pork slaughterhouses. The government has been trying to push farms and slaughterhouses to increase production to relieve pressure on prices, but herd numbers continue to fall.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Xiao Tong, a vendor who has been selling pork for nearly 20 years in Beijing. “Every day the price rises more.” Prices are so high that not only retail customers, but businesses can no longer afford to buy pork: she said even her longtime clients, such as local restaurants and construction companies, are trimming purchases.
Making matters worse, another major spike in prices is coming once short-term inventories are depleted. Chenjun Pan, a senior analyst at Rabobank in Hong Kong, said storage levels of frozen pork seem to have also fallen in recent months.
Meanwhile, China’s pork imports have jumped more than 60% in the second quarter, but foreign supplies have been constrained or are more expensive, especially with Chinese tariffs on US products. Beijing levied new tariffs totaling 50% on pork from the U.S. last year and in June suspended pork imports from Canada.
Pork prices have been a concern for Beijing because of its importance in the local diet. Chinese consumers eat an average of about 67 pounds a person each year, while per-capita consumption in the U.S. is around 51 pounds a year, according to data from the OECD.
One final tangent: roughly one year ago, there was a “modest proposal” floated in the darker corners of the internet, that if Trump wanted to win the trade war with Beijing and spark a social revolt, all he had to do was spark a deadly epidemic affecting China’s preferred food source. One wonders if said proposal did not eventually make its way to the oval office…
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/30J3x9X Tyler Durden
Former President Barack Obama announced a return to the political arena with an initiative designed to ‘favorably position Democrats’ by ‘combating partisan gerrymandering.’
Obama tweeted a message about a program known as ‘Redistricting U,’ which is part of the All on the Line campaign. That campaign is a merger of his Organizing for Action group with former Attorney General Eric Holder’s National Redistricting Action Fund.
“I’ve always believed that training is at the heart of organizing,” Obama explains. “It’s why I made it a priority in my 2008 campaign and throughout our larger movement for change in the years since. The movement for fair maps will determine the course of progress on every issue we care about for the next decade.”
Fair maps, or favorable maps?
He’s Back
Holder warned in 2017 that Obama would be making a return to politics and that his role would specifically involve this effort to combat gerrymandering.
“It’s coming. He’s coming,” Holder told reporters at an event for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. “And he’ll be ready to roll.”
Well, he’s now rolling …
Training is at the heart of organizing. It’s why I’ve always made it a priority – from my 2008 campaign until now. And it’s why I’m proud to announce @allontheline’s in-person training initiative, Redistricting U. Join us: https://t.co/yrWJ50wSdEpic.twitter.com/HiKvGd2XyE
Former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker counters that the effort has little to do with opposition to drawing congressional districts based on partisan interests, and more to do with benefitting the Democrat party solely.
If anyone tells you that @EricHolder is “fighting against gerrymandering” and for “fair maps,” just look at the form his organization filed with the IRS. The truth: their mission is to “FAVORABLY POSITION DEMOCRATS FOR THE REDISTRICTING PROCESS.” pic.twitter.com/1f6J2SnIlX
Fox News reports that ‘Redistricting U’ is “focused on impacting the redrawing of congressional districts, which will take place in 2021 following the collection of data in the 2020 census.”
In other words, Democrats are okay with redrawing maps as long as it’s in their favor.
Like, for instance, in Maryland where a three-judge federal court panel ruled that the state unconstitutionally drew the boundary lines to benefit Democrats after the 2010 census.
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, nominated by Obama in 2010, even asserted during oral arguments in a request to take up the case that Democrat efforts were “excessive.”
The 6th District of Maryland’s composition was flipped “from 47 percent Republicans and 36 percent Democrats to, instead, 45 percent Democrats and 34 percent Republicans, effectively ensuring that Republicans will never win this seat again,” she explained, “how is that not excessive?”
Obama Post-Politics
Did Obama ever really leave the political arena?
In June of 2018, he held private meetings coaching Democrat hopefuls on how they can beat Trump in 2020. He met with a wide range of hopefuls such as Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and his partner in crime, former Vice President Joe Biden.
He has perpetually badmouthed the President since he left office, including comments that compared the political climate under the Trump administration to 1930s Nazi Germany.
While George W. Bush exited the White House gracefully by not criticizing his successor or meddling in Republican political efforts, Obama seems unable to tamp down his ego enough to do the same.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/32aDmJK Tyler Durden
The India economy is set to deteriorate through 2H19 despite the government’s stimulus unveiled last week. A global synchronized slowdown and a negative fiscal impulse have sent the economy into a tailspin. Regional instabilities in Jammu and Kashmir, a currency rout with the rupee plunging underneath 72 against the dollar, and a trade war between the US and China, are other factors that have not helped the situation.
Automotive manufacturing in the country has been one of the hardest-hit sectors. Indian auto sales in July plunged 30.9% to 200,790. It’s the ninth consecutive month of declines and the steepest drop in 18 years. The sales declines forced hundreds of thousands of layoffs in the last several months, with many companies forcing to idle factories.
Reuters obtained company notices to employees that showed Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor and South Korea’s Hyundai Motor are the latest companies idling factories amid the downturn that could last through 1H20.
Denso Corp’s Indian unit, which makes powertrain and air-conditioning systems for cars, laid off 350 temporary workers at its Manesar plant in northern India, a source told Reuters.
Bellsonica, which is owned by Maruti Suzuki, had to idle its fuel tank and brake pad plants this month and lay off several hundred workers in Manesar, two sources said.
Already, the auto sector has cut as many as 350,000 jobs; this includes auto manufacturing, auto parts manufacturing, and dealership jobs.
The downturn in the automobile industry is a significant obstacle for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government because autos account for 50% of India’s manufacturing output.
Automobile companies, directly and indirectly, employ more than 35 million people.
“If this industry goes down, then everything gets hurt. Manufacturing, jobs, and revenue to the government,” Vishnu Mathur, director general, SIAM, told Reuters earlier this month.
In another memo viewed by Reuters, Toyota told workers the company would pause production at its plants in Bengaluru in southern India on Aug 16 and 17 “due to low market demand of vehicles.”
From Rs 36,000 cr turnover two decades ago & employing10M people, Indian automotive industry is today worth Rs 8.3 lakh cr and employs 32 M people. Govt cannot afford to let this sector slide. Implications go beyond economics, may even lead to social unrest. pic.twitter.com/R1ojBMnJHX
N. Raja, deputy managing director, at Toyota’s Indian unit, told Reuters that its plants would have been idled for at least 16% of the entire month (or about five days) to thwart a rapid build in stocks due to decreasing demand.
“The industry is deeply concerned with the reality of poor customer sentiment faced by the sector,” said Raja, adding he expected the government to provide stimulus to the industry.
In another memo viewed by Reuters, Hyundai said it has halt body, paint, engine, and transmission plants for several days this month.
Last month, Bosch Ltd, the largest parts maker in India, published a memo that outlined how it suspended operations at its Gangaikondan plant in Tamil Nadu for a week in late July to “avoid unnecessary build-up of inventory.”
Ram Venkataramani, President, Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA), said the 15% to 20% cut in auto production had triggered an auto crisis in India, could lead to at least one million people being laid off in the coming quarters.
The Indian auto crisis – regarded by industry executives as a disastrous downturn that could be one of the worst seen in the country’s history.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2PmQ1rH Tyler Durden
The IMF just broke its own record of incompetence: less than a year after its record, $57 billion bailout of Argentina was finalized, S&P just downgraded the country from B- to Selective Default – the equivalent to a default rating – following the government’s “reprofiling” of its debt on August 28, when it unilaterally extended the maturity of all short-term paper due to the continued inability to place short-term paper with private-sector market participants. Some $101 billion in debt is affected.
However, the selective default state will last for just one day, as only a few hours later, S&P will upgrade Argentina from SF to CCC-. As S&P explains, “under our distressed exchange criteria, and in particular for ‘B-‘ rated entities, the extension of the maturities of the short-term debt with no compensation constitutes a default. As the new terms became effective immediately, the default has also been cured. Therefore, we plan to raise the long-term ratings to ‘CCC-‘ and the short-term ratings to ‘C’ on Aug. 30, in line with our policies.”
Here is the full summary of today’s action, per S&P:
Following the continued inability to place short-term paper with private-sector market participants, the Argentine government unilaterally extended the maturity of all short-term paper on Aug. 28. This constitutes default under our criteria, and we are lowering the local and foreign currency sovereign credit ratings to ‘SD’ and the short-term issue ratings to ‘D’.
The administration is also sending legislation to Congress seeking support from the Argentine political class to engage in a re-profiling of the remaining debt, so we are lowering our long-term foreign and local currency issue ratings to ‘CCC-‘ on heightened risk of a default under our criteria.
As the new terms for short-term debt have become effective already, we plan to raise the sovereign credit ratings from ‘SD’ on Aug. 30. We plan to raise the long-term sovereign credit ratings to ‘CCC-‘ and the short-term sovereign credit ratings to ‘C’.
The rating agency also provided the following rationale for its action:
Following the continued inability to place short-term paper with private-sector market participants, the Argentine government unilaterally extended the maturity of all short-term paper on Aug. 28. Under our distressed exchange criteria, and in particular for ‘B-‘ rated entities, the extension of the maturities of the short-term debt with no compensation constitutes a default. As the new terms became effective immediately, the default has also been cured. Therefore, we plan to raise the long-term ratings to ‘CCC-‘ and the short-term ratings to ‘C’ on Aug. 30, in line with our policies.
Lowering the long-term issue ratings on Argentina to ‘CCC-‘ from ‘B-‘ reflects heightened risk of another distressed exchange as the Macri Administration seeks approval from Congress to engineer a possible maturity extension of all long-term debt in the remainder of its current term in office. This action is in line with our ‘CCC’ rating criteria and distressed exchange criteria as we see the most likely scenario as an extension of maturities, which will not be compensated by the issuer. Alternatively, there are risks associated with failure to advance, and prospects for ongoing stressed market dynamics post the national elections.
We lowered our transfer and convertibility assessment to ‘B-‘ from ‘B’. The transfer and convertibility assessment remains higher than the sovereign rating because the government aims to avoid capital controls and preserve international reserves with its action on short-term debt and potential action on long-term debt.
The heightened vulnerabilities of Argentina’s credit profile stem from the quickly deteriorating financial environment, the absence of confidence in the financial markets about policy initiatives under the next administration–elections are not until October–and the inability of the Treasury to roll over short-term debt with the private sector.
This has immensely stressed debt dynamics amid a depreciating exchange rate, a likely acceleration in inflation, and a deepening economic recession.
These factors have stressed capacity to pay, leading to the maturity extension of short-term debt.
The catalyst for the downgrade was Wednesday’s largely expected announcement by Economy Minister Hernan Lacunza, who said that the government will postpone $7 billion of payments on short-term local notes held by institutional investors this year and will seek the “voluntary reprofiling‘’ of $50 billion of longer-term debt. It will also start talks over repayments on $44 billion it has received from the IMF (this means that the IMF’s biggest source of funding, the US, will likely be impaired).
Argentina’s currency and bonds, which have been in freefall since opposition leader Alberto Fernandez routed market favorite President Mauricio Macri, in an Aug. 11 primary vote, plunged more today, with the peso down more than 20% since then and bonds have hit record lows. CDS traders now price in an over 90% chance of default in the next five years.
S&P’s downgrade to SD follows two, less draconian actions from both Fitch, and itself: on Aug. 16 Fitch cut the country’s long-term issuer rating by three notches to CCC from B, while S&P lowered the country’s sovereign rating to B- from B and slapped a negative outlook on it.
IMF officials who were visiting Argentina at the time of the announcement said they are analyzing the measures. “Staff understands that the authorities have taken these important steps to address liquidity needs and safeguard reserves,” the lender said in a statement.
The discredited IMF, which was also intimately involved (and some say caused( in Argentina’s prior bankruptcy, is expected to disburse another $5.3 billion in the next few months from a record $57 billion agreement, although it’s no longer certain given the current crisis, especially with Christine Lagarde leaving the IMF on her way to take over the ECB and destroy Europe.
Should the IMF cut off Argentina, and without markets access, the country is facing a quick and painful insolvency. According to Bloomberg, Morgan Stanley estimated that Argentina needed $12.9 billion for repayments on Treasury bills and bonds in the last four months of the year. Most of those payments have now been pushed back to next year.
Meanwhile, Argentina is burning through its last remaining dollar reserves. Gross foreign exchange reserves have fallen to $57.5 billion, but Capital Economics estimates that net reserves which exclude deposits at commercial banks are currently at $19 billion, down from $30 billion in mid-April, and the central bank has been spending about $300 million per day to avoid a total collapse in the ARS. According to Bloomberg, that amount only covers a quarter of Argentina’s gross external financing needs of $100 billion, which includes debt maturing over the next year plus the current account deficit. In other words, either the country’s creditors will agree to a massive haircut, or the IMF must prepare for another, even recorder bailout of Argentina with no assurance that the state won’t just keep defaulting.
And speaking of humiliation, while this is the IMF’s 2nd default involving Argentina, for Argentina it’s just another day in the park: the Latin American country has had 8 defaults since independence. After this week, mark it 9.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2UdZ396 Tyler Durden
Big tech is in the throes of a heady, voyeuristic power ride: Siri is listening to people having sex, Alexa is gathering intel inside the home to target advertising, and the smart television is, in reality, watching you. How Americans have accepted this invasion of privacy is beyond the pale. But it is also commonplace for consumers eager to grasp the latest shiny technical gizmo in return for their last modicum of privacy.
It must be gratifying and perhaps a bit titillating, this super-spy phenomenon; so much so that New Jersey cops have decided to get in on the action. The police department of Gloucester Township has unveiled a new program called 911eye, which allows emergency-dispatch operators to live stream video from emergency callers. On the surface, it seems to be a solid tool in assisting law enforcement and first responders in evaluating what kind of scene they are approaching. Because witnesses are notoriously inconsistent in relaying real-time information, many welcome this boon for police preparedness.
What could possibly go wrong?
Eye In The Sky
Criminals loathe the smartphone technology that can provide so much information to the authorities. A tap of laptop keys and GPS is enabled. With a few keystrokes, cell phones, laptops, televisions – all can live stream to the National Security Administration or, in New Jersey’s case, to the 911 dispatcher. That’s a lot of power for the locals to wield. But criminals aren’t the only ones being watched, and therein lies the rub of crime-fighting widgets.
Capita Secure Solutions and Services developed the software, and, as it stands now, Gloucester Township must seek permission from the emergency caller and send an app to click on before being able to live stream and share with first responders. It’s a bit cumbersome if bullets are flying and cell service is sketchy.
But it’s a giant stride down the slippery slope, as the momentum gathers and morphs into its true purpose: an infrastructure that can turn any internet-capable device into a superspy surveillance gadget with the click of a remote. Inventors call it “pre-crime” technology, and you won’t believe the troupe of actors involved in the creation of such invasive technology.
Spies Like Us
The 911eye technology was created to compete with Carbyne911, which warns on its website it is “building for the dramatically different 911 environment that is coming.” And, frankly, the masterminds behind Carbyne could be considered a sinister lot.
Jeffrey Epstein, yes, the now-deceased felonious financier, was the man with the money. But the who’s who list on the company roster is to be noted with interest: former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak; Nicole Junkermann, a major shareholder of China’s third-largest sports retailer; and former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, co-author of the US Patriot Act. Can you say embedded in global power circles?
The team behind 911eye is a bit more localized: former state law enforcement heavyweights and several highly decorated veterans from Army Rangers to US Marine Special Operations Command. But the technology is the same, and it can be abused if an American hero decides to become a soldier of fortune. The point: In the wrong hands, 911eye could cause a massive security breach because it allows dispatchers to remotely control the camera and microphone of any internet-capable device within a certain range of the person who made the call.
Add a hacker to the mix and you have absolute invasive chaos that may be unknown to the intended target, who receives a link and clicks on it. As easy as one, two, three, and a smartphone camera and microphone become James Bond-worthy surveillance devices.
But stay calm, everyone: They’re from the government. What’s not to trust?
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2LuaqG7 Tyler Durden
Some call a one-way troop movement a “rotation”. I tend to call them “buildups” or simply an “invastion” — writes Hayman Capital’s Kyle Bass. While Chinese military officials and state media are still claiming ‘nothing to see here’asfresh People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops and armored vehicles have continued to pour into Hong King since early Thursday morning, the influx could mark the early phase of a looming major military crackdown from Beijing feared by many.
As we reported earlier, while the People’s Daily and other state media say it’s part of a routine and planned 22nd annual rotation of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) garrison in Hong Kong — a normally significant logistical feat given PLA troops at the garrison number between 8,000 and 10,000 troops on either side of the border — there areclear alarming signs Chinese forces are prepping specifically for riot control and crowd suppression operations.
Further suggesting the timing is not just fortuitous, the major “troop rotation” is happening a mere days before anti-Beijing protesters plan to hold a large march focused on calling for “full democracy” for the semi-autonomous city.
Some signs of what’s about to come…
* * *
What’s not “routine” is that the PLA appears to be sending in gear and vehicles equipped for anti-riot operations.
Xinhua’s photos showed that the PLA garrison had changed its armoured vehicles, of which it has about 50,from Type 092, the military version,to WJ-03B, the model used by armed police. The changes suggest the garrison is ready for anti-riot missions #HKexit@SariArhoHavrenhttps://t.co/a28mKiPl5W
State media footage appears to show WJ-03B 6X6 anti-riot Wheeled Armored Vehicles (a variant or upgrade of the WZ901 armored vehicle) moving into Hong Kong.
These vehicles are specifically designed for People’s Armed Police (PAP) anti-rioting and internal security missions, precisely what one would expect if the mainland were prepping operations to crackdown on HK democracy protests.
No mere ordinary or “routine” troop transport vehicles among the many pouring in as part of the turnover in HK garrison troops.
Via WeaponsSystems.net: The WJ-03B is a police version of the WZ551A chassis that is primarily meant for riot control. It has vision blocks instead of gun ports and a fully armored one man turret with 12.7mm machine gun. On the turret there are several types of gas grenade launchers. The WJ-03B is not amphibious.
Chinese-made armored military vehicles specifically modified as variants for urban riot control are evident in Thursday’s footage and photos.
Some real observation and useful information here.
I believe most Hong Kongers missed this point. I highly recommend the Hong Kongers to know more about the WJ-03B amoured vehicle.
This follows early this month the PLA releasing a video that featured an emergency response “drill” involving Chinese troops taking positions around an mock-up urban environment. The promo video was unveiled at an event honoring the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA’s) Hong Kong garrison.
The footage was described as “a promotional video showing various activities and stating that troops stationed in the city were able to protect its long-term stability.”
The recently produced PLA “riot control” video, which The Washington Post described as showing soldiers practicing shooting protesters:
One Hong Kong lawmaker, Dennis Kwok of the Civic party said at the very least the large-scale troop movements are political posturing.
“I believe this is a deliberate posture on the part of the PLA to tell or warn the Hong Kong people that it may be deployed,” Kwok told public broadcaster RTHK, according to The Guardian.
“As I said time and again, the use of troops in Hong Kong will be the end of Hong Kong, and I would warn against any such move on the part of the central people’s government,” he said.
* * *
If the internet goes dark, it will be a strong final sign a mainland military crackdown is underway, as The Guardian reports:
As concerns about a possible crackdown intensify in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association said on Wednesday it was troubled by reports that the local government might issue an executive order to block selective websites or applications.
It said such an order would be the “end of the open Internet of Hong Kong” and “permanently deter international businesses from positing their businesses and investments in Hong Kong”.
The group also said it would be an ineffective move as it “would not deter nor stop determined users from accessing their desired services” through a virtual private network (VPN).
Hong Kong legislator Charles Mok previously warned the government has lately considered passing emergency regulation allowing it to shutdown the internet — as has been done during prior unrest on the mainland.
“Internet shutdown” will truly be the darkest day for Hong Kong: Emergency Regulations Ordinance grants the Chief Executive sweeping powers to bypass the legislature and control everything inc telecommunications and may shutdown the Internet.
Two nutritionists (Dariush Mozaffarian and Dan Glickman) have sounded the alarm about the American diet, saying bluntly what most of us know intuitively to be true:
Americans are sick – much sicker than many realize. More than 100 million adults – almost half the entire adult population – have pre-diabetes or diabetes. Cardiovascular disease afflicts about 122 million people and causes roughly 840,000 deaths each year, or about 2,300 deaths each day. Three in four adults are overweight or obese.
What is making us so sick, and how can we reverse this so we need less health care? The answer is staring us in the face, on average three times a day: our food. Poor diet is the leading cause of mortality in the United States, causing more than half a million deaths per year.
It’s fascinating to contemplate the implications. Here we are debating the healthcare system as a major political issue. Politicians on the stump are calling for this and that. And yet the number one problem with American health can be solved simply by making better choices.
The best fix for the vast number of issues rests with the volition of every person.
Why isn’t it happening on its own?
The authors of this paragraph above sense that it has something to do with economics. And they are probably right about that. But rather than seek an end to agricultural subsidies (which make bad food absurdly cheap and plentiful) and the deregulation of food supply chains (which would increase access to healthier choices), our authors call for more command and control.
They push:
Taxes on sugary beverages and junk food can be paired with subsidies on protective foods like fruits, nuts, vegetables, beans, plant oils, whole grains, yogurt and fish. Emphasizing protective foods represents an important positive message for the public and food industry that celebrates and rewards good nutrition. Levels of harmful additives like sodium, added sugar and trans fat can be lowered through voluntary industry targets or regulatory safety standards.
Before we add more government force, why not experiment with what has been shown to work, namely more market forces?
Corn subsidies can be abolished, as one obvious thing. No one wants to talk about that problem even though (to quote my piece from last year):
The percentage of crops devoted to corn have gone from 24% in 1999 to 30% today, more than 96% of all grains. Meanwhile, the crops devoted to soybeans, hay and wheat have all gone down, thereby increasing feed costs for ranchers and consumers. Again, this is not the market talking. This is not what any actual market players are pushing. This all results from government mandates and subsidies. Government intervention has created corn nation. We feed it to our cars, our animals, ourselves.
Truly, corn is in everything. Try to find food at the local convenience store that isn’t made of corn. It’s not easy. The other day, I ordered some brussels sprouts at a restaurant. Now that’s some good food, right? Not so much. They came fried in corn oil and then drizzled with a syrup made of corn. Amazing! How can you take a perfectly wonderful vegetable and turn it into a vessel for the delivery of corn? Americans specialize in that.
A second path would be deregulation to make it easier for products to move from farm to table without endless regulatory hectoring. Every regulation you impose on the food supply works as a kind of subsidy to highly capitalized companies that can afford the costs of compliance. Deregulation would be the best gift to small growers and ranchers (perhaps those who feed their animals something other than…corn) that you could give.
A third path would be practicing free trade. Hardly anyone talks about this but the US currently has very strict limitations on the import of sweeteners other than corn as yet another way to subsidize corn. This is why our sodas are packed with corn while sodas in the rest of the world are sweetened with genuine sugar, which is vastly healthier. It’s the same with ketchup, salad dressings, and even whipped cream. Nuts! But that’s only the beginning: US import restrictionson food are legion.
Look, this whole problem of the disastrous state of American health wasn’t always with us. As the Center for Disease Control has shown, it only became massively serious following the 1973 shift in agricultural policy that prioritized massive production of grains. That’s when the markets became insanely distorted with the central plan of producing more, more, more. The Secretary of Agriculture at the time said there was no such thing as too much.
The whole thing is remarkable. The US today complains about industrial subsidies in China and Europe but no country in the world is aggressive and profligate about agricultural subsidies as the US is today. Despite a massive health crisis, a tremendously sickened population, and being surrounded by the catastrophic results of bad government policy, there is almost no movement at all to free the market, fix the food, and get healthy again.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/349NOCZ Tyler Durden
A much anticipated Iranian satellite launch, long criticized by the US as an alleged violation of a UN Security Council resolution banning ballistic missiles with nuclear capabilities, appears to have failed.
Satellite images show the aftermath of an apparent explosion at the Imam Khomeini Space Center in Iran’s Semnan province, southeast of Iran’s capital, as the rocket and satellite were scheduled to launch, which would constitute the Islamic Republic’s third failed launch this year.
The AP reports that “satellite images by Planet Labs Inc. showed a black plume of smoke rising above a launch pad there, with what appeared to be the charred remains of a rocket and its launch stand.”
Professional satellite imaging analysts said the photos suggest either an explosion during ignition or possibly a very brief lift-off before crashing back down to the pad.
Iranian officials and state media made no immediate comment or acknowledgement in the wake of the explosion marking an apparent failed launch.
CNN cited a US official familiar with an intelligence assessment of the matter as saying the US believes the accident most likely occurred during fueling operations.
Iranian state media had previously described the satellite prepped for launch, the Nahid-1, as a telecommunication satellite which was to conduct a low orbit around the Earth for two-and-a-half months.
Source: Planet Labs Inc. via Middlebury Institute of International Studies, via NPR
Given the US scrutiny and prior condemnations of Iran’s satellite launch and space ambitions, the incident is likely to prove a deep embarrassment for Tehran officials and the fledgling program; however, most countries satellite programs were achieved by lengthy trial and error.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/32fzYgN Tyler Durden
Huawei is the greatest national security threat that America has ever faced, according to former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon, even greater than the threat of nuclear war.
The Chinese company Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Bannon noted, and it is vying for control of 5G, the fifth generation of cellular mobile communications.
“The backbone of the future of technology is 5G,” Bannon said in an interview with The Epoch Times’ program “American Thought Leaders.”
“Right now, the path that Huawei’s taking, as a front for the PLA, is to basically take over the networks and the components throughout the world.
If we allow this to happen even for a couple more years, Huawei is going to control basically the communications systems of the West, and therefore will be able to control the West.”
Under the laws in communist China, companies have to cooperate with Chinese authorities and grant access to data when asked. U.S. legislators have highlighted the fact that Huawei equipment could be used by Beijing to engage in espionage or disrupt communication networks.
“Huawei has a methodology, a high-tech methodology to basically have domination over the world,” Bannon said. In his view, Huawei expanded its business largely under the radar for years.
It now operates in more than 170 countries across the globe and serves more than 3 billion people, according to the Huawei website.
The threat of Huawei is spotlighted in a new film, “Claws of the Red Dragon,” which was executive produced by Bannon. The plot of the film was largely inspired by the 2018 arrest of the chief financial officer of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, who is also the daughter of Huawei’s founder. In the indictments, U.S. prosecutors charged Huawei with stealing trade secrets from T-Mobile and violating sanctions against Iran.
The film calls attention to the intimate relationship between telecom giant Huawei and the CCP and highlights the regime’s hegemonic ambitions.
“People will be shocked when they see it,” Bannon said. The 54-minute film, which will be released in September, is being distributed by New Tang Dynasty Television.
Huawei, Bannon said, isn’t a “fine corporate citizen,” as they would have people believe. Instead, “it’s a branch of the People’s Liberation Army. It’s an intelligence branch.”
Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart, is currently chairman of the Rule of Law Society and co-founder of the Committee on the Present Danger: China. Both organizations focus on the communist China threat to the West, as well as the Chinese regime’s suppression of the Chinese people.
The film, Bannon said, will “cause a lot of controversy. It’s going to cause a lot of conversation. That’s what we want.”
The Culpability of Corporate America
The indictments of Meng and Huawei speak of decades-long abuses, so “why did both the Bush and the Obama administration kind of look the other way, while investigators at the Department of Justice and other places were pursuing this?” Bannon said.
“Every administration, every president of both political parties,” he said, has “folded when it came into the spotlight with the Chinese” and allowed the Chinese communist regime to freely renege on its promises.
In Bannon’s view, the crux of the problem was the marriage of corporate America and the CCP.
“Here’s the analogy I make: Wall Street is the investor relations department for the Chinese Communist Party, because they’re the ones that raise capital for them. The corporations are the lobbyists,” Bannon said.
“The tragedy and the crime,” in Bannon’s view, are the corporate elites who have knowingly chosen to look the other way in the face of egregious human rights abuses in China.
“They know all of it, and they don’t care.” Involvement with the Chinese regime “means more money. It means higher stock prices. It means lower slave labor [costs],” Bannon said.
“Wall Street’s the cheerleader. And corporate America has been the lobbyist.”
“They have no moral authority. They have totally bought into a system that’s completely corrupt, and they know all about it,” Bannon said. Yet, they “mock Donald Trump and say, oh, he’s the barbarian. He’s the wild man. He’s the disruptor to the system.”
In the end, Bannon said, “the blood and guilt is on their hands,” because they sought to profit from a close relationship with the Chinese ruling regime.
“And it’s the working men and women in the middle class in this country [who] have paid the price,” Bannon said.
“Over the past 20 years, we’ve de-industrialized the United States, and we shipped those manufacturing jobs to China,” Bannon said. And in return, “they sent in the opioids and the fentanyl to go into the old manufacturing areas in Ohio and Pennsylvania and Michigan.” Former manufacturing workers, mired in depression and hopelessness about future job prospects, have been especially vulnerable to this influx of drugs from China.
“This is not just a crisis. It’s a tragedy of the United States,” Bannon said.
Wall Street and the corporate elites are “going to be held accountable by history for what went on in this time and place, what went on in China, and what they knew about and looked the other way.”
“Donald Trump, the central reason he’s president is this: He said, we have to return America to her former greatness. We have to make America great again. And the way we’re going to do that [is] we’re going to confront the [CCP]. Wall Street has shipped those jobs over there, and I am going to bring them back,” Bannon said.
In Bannon’s view, Trump is the first president to take a strong stance against the Chinese communist regime.
On Aug. 23, Trump raised existing tariffs even higher and ordered U.S. companies to exit China, after Beijing announced retaliatory tariffs on $75 billion of U.S. goods.
It was a “warning shot” to corporate America, Bannon said, to bring their manufacturing supply chains back to the United States.
The move has caused controversy among people who don’t believe the president’s mandate includes the power to order private corporations out of China.
“He does have emergency powers,” enumerated in the National Emergencies Act of 1976, Bannon said. The president has threatened to declare a national emergency to force U.S. businesses to cut ties with China.
Many people don’t have a clear understanding of the ruling Chinese regime, Bannon said.
Advocates of free trade, in Bannon’s view, are well-intentioned, but they often “have this kind of soft, gauzy notion that they read in Adam Smith about free trade, not understanding that you have a gangster organization that runs a totalitarian mercantilist state.”
For decades, Americans were made to believe a lie, Bannon said—namely that once China entered the World Trade Organization, received Most Favored Nation status, became wealthier, and started to develop a middle class, then China would gradually democratize and become more of a free market with rule of law.
Yet “we’ve seen the exact opposite. In the past 20 years, the CCP has become more radical,” Bannon said.
“Why is that? Because they have a totalitarian system” where the elite “essentially skims the money off the top.” Bannon said.
“You go to Belgravia, you go to the West End of London—a lot of that is Chinese money,” Bannon said, and “not from the Chinese people, not from the hardworking ‘Old Hundred Names’ that breaks his back every day in a factory for a buck a day. That’s from the elites and the [CCP] that have skimmed the money off the top of the slave labor of China, money-laundered it through banks and investment banks, and bought real estate and hard assets in the West.”
“The Chinese Communist Party is the Frankenstein monster created by the elites in the West—the capital provided by the elites in the West, the technology that’s provided by the elites in the West,” Bannon said.
“At Breitbart, for years, we were talking about the threat of, not a rising China, [but] the threat of the [CCP] and how it’s getting more radicalized over time and how it had hegemonic designs on the world.
“The people of China are some of the most hardworking, decent people on earth. They’re enslaved by a radical totalitarian surveillance state of the Chinese Communist Party and really a radical cadre inside that Communist Party that suppresses, enslaves the Chinese people.”
The nature of the Chinese regime becomes especially clear, in Bannon’s view, in the way the police are treating the Hong Kong protesters.
“When you see the tear gas, you see the beatings, you see the rubber bullets, you see exactly what they are. This is a gangster organization that doesn’t believe in any individual rights,” Bannon said.
“What they’ve done to the Uyghurs, what they’ve done to the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhists, what they’ve done to the Evangelical Christians, what they’ve done to Falun Gong, what they’ve done to the underground Catholic Church is unacceptable,” Bannon said. “These are criminals that don’t abide by any rule of law.”
The Fight for Freedom
“The defining event I believe in the first half of the 21st century is the freedom of the Chinese people,” Bannon said. “I think the freedom of China starts in Hong Kong. I think it’s going to spread from there.
“The people in Hong Kong are among the most orderly and decent folks on earth. If you’ve ever been there, it’s basically a rock island with no resources, that the grit and determination of the Chinese people, coupled with English common law, has created the third-greatest capital market in the world,” Bannon said.
Historically, Hong Kongers have tended to be apolitical and business-focused, in Bannon’s view. Yet now, millions of Hong Kongers have flooded the streets over the past few weeks to protest an extradition bill that would allow the Chinese regime to wantonly extradite Hong Kongers—including dissidents and activists—and sentence them in a Chinese court.
“They’re standing up for freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech. They’re free-market capitalists. Many of them are Christians. To me, it’s very motivating to see young people that are not prepared to back down in the face of totalitarian brutality,” Bannon said.
“Those young men and women are exactly what the patriots of 1776 were in the United States. They have the grit, they have the determination, they have the indefatigability. They are not going to back down. They’ve been tear-gassed, they’ve been beaten, they’ve had rubber bullets shot at them, and time and time again, they show up.
“I think they’re heroes of the modern world. I think they deserve to be nominated for and win the Nobel Prize for peace.”
The moment that the CCP decides to stamp out the protests like they did with the Tiananmen pro-democracy protesters, the moment the Chinese regime repeats the Tiananmen Square massacre, Bannon said, “that’s the beginning of the end of the Chinese Communist Party.”
In Bannon’s view, China would be swiftly ostracized and shut off from Western technology and capital markets. But more importantly, he said, “I think even with the firewall, the contagion of freedom will start to spread in China.”
Eventually, Bannon believes, the Chinese people will stand up and say, “‘We’ve had enough of 100,000 people or 50,000 people ruling a country of 1.4 billion and stealing all our money, stealing all our wealth, taking it for themselves, making us live in a totalitarian surveillance state.”
‘A Profile in Courage’
“Only the Chinese people can free the Chinese people,” Bannon said. But people in the West can help by putting the spotlight on the Chinese regime’s brutal persecution of dissidents and religious believers.
The Huawei exposé film, “Claws of the Red Dragon,” seeks to inform people around the world about the opaque inner workings of the Chinese communist state—where major corporations are deeply influenced by the Chinese regime.
In the film, Canadian government officials grapple with whether they should hold the Chinese regime accountable, when doing so could potentially endanger Canadian citizens in China. China arrested two Canadians and charged them with espionage last December, a move that has largely been seen as retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Huawei’s Meng.
“Claws of the Red Dragon” is “a profile in courage,” Bannon said, that highlights the difficult moral dilemmas that ordinary individuals face in confronting a goliath regime like the Chinese Communist Party. It’s a “tense situation where people are making moral trade-offs all the time.”
“I think it’s a very powerful film, and I’m very proud to be associated with it,” Bannon said.
“The pursuit of truth and pursuit of your higher moral self comes at a great cost. It’s just like in Hong Kong. There is a huge cost they are paying. They’re being jailed. They’re being beaten. They are being [told] your careers are ruined, your careers are finished. This is a high cost in the modern society, and yet they refuse to back down,” he said.
“They will rise up to their higher, highest self.”
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2L48YLu Tyler Durden
