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It’s the personal economy, stupid

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 28: U.S. President Joe Biden talks to reporters as he departs the White House on June 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. Biden is traveling to Illinois to speak on what the administration has dubbed “Bidenomics" and to attend a campaign fund raiser before returning to Washington later in the evening.

 Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

Bruce T. Boccardy

October 29, 2023

Some of the media are preoccupied with a baffling question; Why are Americans not celebrating the economic accomplishments of the Biden administration?

A poll from the Suffolk University Sawyer Business School and USA TODAY released this September reported that 70 percent of Americans believe the economy is worsening; 84 percent said their cost of living was rising.

The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Research reported this August that 36 percent of adults approved of the Biden administration’s direction of the economy.

A CNN poll this July reported that 58 percent think that his policies have exacerbated the economic conditions in the U.S. This is an increase of 8 points since last fall.

It is important to realize how structural components of our economic model maintain chronic economic burdens plaguing working people; the numbers above provide an economic dashboard they live every day

Highly regarded progressive author and radio talk show host Thom Hartmann asserted that the problem for the Biden administration is the fault of the corporate media to report those economic accomplishments.

But those accomplishments are, well, just not enough for some people and many Americans do not recognize them for valid reasons.

It has been suggested that it is the result of a mass “menticide,” a scientific term from Latin meaning “a killing of the mind.” Webster’s defines it as “a systemic and intentional undermining of a person’s conscious mind.” Perhaps Americans are susceptible to the pathological normalization of lies spread by Mr. Trump and his collaborators.

Hourly Wage/Earnings Reports

That Suffolk University Sawyer Business School/USA poll also reported that many Americans trust Mr. Trump to improve the economy if re-elected. What makes this profoundly disturbing is the actual economic record of Mr. Trump. His administration did virtually nothing to ameliorate the daily lives of working people.

FactCheck listed many of the Trump Administration’s economic failures. However, one measure should be mentioned for clarification.

The Trump administration was credited by FactCheck in a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) interactive chart from January 2012-July 2022 with increasing average weekly earnings by 8.7 percent.

However, applying the BLS standard method of CPI-U, the real wage seasonally adjusted average hourly increase was 7.1 percent during the Trump years.

The increase still appeared to be a success. Yet, the year of January 2020 to January 2021 was a time when the country suffered the anguish of the Covid-19 virus.

Dean Baker of the Center for Economic Policy Research observed during that time 20.5 million employees were released; most jobs lost were from the low end of the wage scale. This skewed average wages artificially higher.

Factcheck’s method reported average weekly earnings from a BLS website already cited. The standard BLS method is to report average hourly earnings which is more accurate because the length of the workweek is a variable.

For example, an employee earning $30 an hour working 35 hours earns less than an employee working 40 hours a week though both are at the same pay rate. That is not a pay increase. Working more hours for different reasons skews the average artificially higher.

The Trump administration’s 8.7 percent increase in weekly earnings is a misrepresentation. The hourly wage is a more accurate number at 7.1 percent, though still with the two flaws already demonstrated.

Administrations’ Effect

Actually, presidential administrations do not significantly affect the trajectory of our economic model in basic income numbers. Monetary and fiscal policies can temporarily mask the worst excesses.

However, the underlying economic relationship between the dominant economic class and both the working middle class and working class determines earnings as wages and salaries.

Most economists realize that the president does not have a significant effect on those earnings as wage and salary numbers.

Nevertheless, the impression is cemented into our political culture that it does; a large majority of Americans will blame a president rather than question the economic model responsible for their economic burdens. Subsequently, it is usually manifested in national elections.

A review of the real wage seasonally adjusted average hourly percentage during the Biden administration is not impressive so far. The Biden administration began in January 2021. The real wage seasonally adjusted average hourly percentage through this September decreased at -4.3 percent.

This percentage does not provide the Biden administration with a much-needed victory but rather another reason why working people are not so enamored by its economic accomplishments.

Cost of Living

Earnings as wages and salaries depend on a number of variables such as occupation, industry, education level, location, and demographics.

A more accurate method for determining how income affects working people is to compare the percentages against a realistic cost of living framework. The cost of living varies notably in different regions of the country.

The Economic Policy Institute has a trenchant cost of living measure. It is a Family Budget Calculator and calculates a monthly minimum standard of living measured by housing, food, childcare, transportation, other necessities, and taxes.

For example, in the Boston, Massachusetts area, a working family of two parents and two children would require $131,028 to meet an “adequate “standard of living. In the Jackson, Mississippi area the amount required is $76,848. In the Sante Fe, New Mexico area, the amount required is $81,217. In the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma area, the amount required is $82,545. In the Los Angeles/Long Beach/Glendale, California, area the amount required is $102,626. In the Salem, Oregon area the amount required is $89,412.

When reviewed against the current household income of earnings as wages and salaries, the vast majority of working people have no reason to celebrate.

It is more dispiriting when an “Economic Tree” is taken into consideration. The trunk of the tree are earnings as wages and salaries. The branches of the tree are healthcare, housing, education, nutrition, transportation, and the environment. Again, working people are not receiving their fair share in these basic social requirements.

Personal Economy

The "personal economy” is largely unreported in the corporate media. The "personal economy” reframes the issue from standard numbers to a clearer view of the daily economic burdens faced by all working people.

Unemployment

The Ludwig Institute of Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP)

Using data compiled by BLS, the True Rate of Unemployment tracks the percentage of the U.S. labor force that does not have a full-time job (35+ hours a week) but wants one, has no job, or does not earn a living wage, conservatively pegged at $20,000 annually before taxes.

LISEP reported this September an unemployment rate in September at 22.8 percent.

The BLS reported the September unemployment rate at 3.8 percent.

Shadow Government Statistics (SGS)

Using data from the BLS, SGS included workers who stopped looking for a job for one year, but were inexplicably removed from the BLS reports in 1994.

SGS reported in June that the unemployment rate in May was 25 percent.

The BLS reported the May unemployment rate was 3.7 percent.

Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE)

Using their measures ALICE created an Essentials Index.

The ALICE Essentials Index measures the increase over time in the costs of the essential goods and services that households need to live and work in the modern economy. These minimum costs are itemized in the ALICE Household Survival Budget.

The ALICE Essentials Index includes only essential household expenses, i.e., child care, food, transportation, health care, and a smartphone plan.

From 2007 to 2023, the average annual increase for the ALICE Essentials Index was 3.3 percent, while the standard Consumer Price Index increased by 2.5 percent on average for U.S. households in 2021.

A troubling 29 percent of ALICE households earned above the Federal Poverty Level but not enough to afford the basics in the communities where they live. Even worse, 41 percent of households were below the ALICE threshold of poverty.

If 29 percent of American household were just above and 41 percent of households were below this poverty measure, it is reasonable to conclude that an appalling number of households are living around the poverty line.

More Numbers

A Bankrate report in June this year stated that 48 percent of Americans have only enough emergency savings to last three months and 57 percent are “uncomfortable with what savings they do have.”

A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas in October 2022 provided numbers that earnings as wages and salaries of U.S workers are falling further behind.

Another corporate con that affects earnings is “shrinkflation.” The BLS released a report this February describing it. It ss the downsizing of household commodities in size and packaging. The result is a subtle method for companies to increase profits and reduce the purchasing power of working people.

Not much for working people to celebrate here.

Working Peoples’ Quandary

The numbers confirm that the “personal economy” does not allow for the vast majority of working people to maintain comfortable living conditions.

Their earnings as real wage and salary percentages are decreasing during the Biden administration; the cost-of-living threshold is squeezing the vast majority of working people with no relief in sight. It is a grinding pulverization that cannot be varnished over with glossy commercials and fanciful essays of wishful pundits.

Our country continues a trend toward a spiritual malaise and a secular decomposition. It is important to realize how structural components of our economic model maintain chronic economic burdens plaguing working people; the numbers above provide an economic dashboard they live every day.

It answers why the Biden administration’s economic accomplishments do not resonate with a substantial majority of working people.

Why did Mike Johnson Scrub 69 podcasts from his website?

House Speaker Mike Johnson with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in October 2023 (Creative Commons)

David Badashand
The New Civil Rights Movement

October 30, 2023


Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA), who House Republicans unanimously voted for last week, has scrubbed his personal website, apparently deleting all 69 weekly podcasts he and his wife Kelly began recording last year.

Kelly Johnson’s business website, Onward Christian Counseling, has also been scrubbed. HuffPost reports she “runs a counseling business that advocates the belief that homosexuality is comparable to bestiality and incest, according to its operating documents.” Attempts to access both websites now result in an “Error” message, although those web addresses have been archived.

Speaker Johnson has been described as a far-right Christian nationalist and Christian dominionist.

Last week, after Johnson was elected the third-most powerful official in America, Politico published a profile on “the Christian nationalist ideas that shaped House Speaker Mike Johnson.” The New York Times wrote, “The new House speaker has put his faith at the center of his political career, and aligned himself with a newer cohort of conservative Christianity that some describe as Christian nationalism.”

An MSNBC columnist last week wrote, “Mike Johnson’s Christian nationalist track record isn’t a mystery — it’s a tragedy,” and added, “The new speaker cut his teeth trying to erode the separation of church and state and abortion and LGBTQ rights as a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund.”

On Thursday, in a Daily Beast opinion piece, David Rothkopf wrote, “Here’s Why Mike Johnson Is More Dangerous Than Donald Trump.”

“In interviews he has spoken of the fact that ‘We don’t live in a democracy’ we live in a ‘Biblical republic,'” Rothkop said. “He asserts this was because the founders sought to follow a ‘biblical admonition’—which must be a reference to a different group of people than those I cited at the outset. In the same set of remarks he described democracy derisively as ‘two wolves and a lamb deciding what is for dinner.'”

READ MORE: Mike Johnson Once Agreed to Speak at ‘Kill the Gays’ Pastor’s Conference – Until an NCRM Report

A Louisiana-based weekly, reporting on Johnson’s podcasts says the episodes are “focused primarily on politely and genially supporting the anti-civil rights and anti-human rights agenda at the heart of evangelical-infused Republican politics.”

Speaker Johnson and his wife published the 69 podcasts, “Truth Be Told with Mike and Kelly Johnson,” with individual titles including, “Who We Are and How We Should Lead (in Washington and Around the World).” Or, “How to Stand for Religious Freedom & Address the ‘Separation of Church and State,'” which he calls, “one of the most important–and most misunderstood–principles in American society today.”

Another, “Responding Biblically to ‘Pride Month’ and the Culture Wars,” reads: “As truth is now openly challenged and a deluge of huge cultural issues are hitting close to home for every American, it’s becoming more important than ever for all people of good conscience, and certainly Christians, to be able to think through the issues and respond appropriately. In this episode, Mike and Kelly discuss the impact of the explosive documentary, ‘What is a Woman?,’ how conservatives and traditionalists are finally awakening from their slumber and fighting back, and what the Bible says about our specific approach to the culture wars. They also discuss the new initiative to recognize June as ‘Fidelity Month,’ to help restore Americans’ belief in the importance of values like patriotism, religion, family, and community.”

Huffpost’s report on Kelly Johnson’s business point to an operating agreement and adds, “Onward Christian Counseling Services is grounded in the belief that sex is offensive to God if it is not between a man and a woman married to each other. It puts being gay, bisexual or transgender in the same category as someone who has sex with animals or family members, calling all of these examples of ‘sexual immorality.'”

Meanwhile, notes for the couple’s podcast last year titled, “Biblical Responses to a Divided Nation (A Conversation with Ken Ham, CEO of Answers in Genesis),” read: “In this episode, Mike and Kelly have an important discussion with Ken Ham, the CEO and founder of the Answers in Genesis ministry, the highly-acclaimed Creation Museum, and the world-renowned Ark Encounter theme park in Kentucky. His books have sold more than 3 million copies, and his latest publication, Divided Nation: Cultures in Chaos & A Conflicted Church, explains what is happening in our society, why persecution is increasing and more and more people are rejecting the truth of Scripture, and what Christians ought to DO about it. As he reminds us, ‘it only takes one generation to lose a culture’–and we must act now before it’s too late.”

Johnson may have scrubbed his personal website, but the podcasts have not been removed from other sources including Apple Podcasts.

Inside Mike Johnson's close ties to 'extreme Christians' who cheered J6

Alex Henderson

October 30, 2023

After Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) was confirmed as House speaker, countless pundits noted that he has a much different temperament from Rep. Jim Jordan — the Ohio Republican, far-right firebrand and speaker nominee who had lost three votes in a row. Jordan is flamboyant, theatrical, performative and in-your-face; Johnson, in contrast, is much more reserved.

Yet from a policy standpoint, Jordan and Johnson aren't far apart. Johnson is a far-right Christian fundamentalist known for his-gay and anti-abortion views as well as his efforts to help former President Donald Trump stay in office despite losing the 2020 presidential election to now-President Joe Biden.

In an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on October 30, religious scholar Matthew D. Taylor emphasizes that Johnson's politeness doesn't make him any less extreme.

"Hot-off-the-presses profiles of Mike Johnson, the new speaker of the House, contain a seeming paradox," explains Taylor, a prominent figure at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies. "Some emphasize that he is a 'mild-mannered,' 'soft-spoken,' and temperamentally courteous individual. They similarly describe him as a 'Christian conservative' and a 'deeply evangelical Christian.' But many of the same profilers have also highlighted Johnson's troubling activity surrounding the 2020 election and Trump's attempt to overturn the American people's verdict. Johnson’s involvement was substantial enough that he has even been labeled the 'mastermind of the January 6 plot' and “a threat to democracy.'"

Taylor continues, "So, which is he: an anti-democratic politician and an insurrectionist, or a mild-mannered Christian? Part of the problem is that we have come to imagine that a person cannot be both at the same time. Mike Johnson shows that you can."

The religious scholar notes that he has "spent nearly three years researching the Christian theologies and Christian leaders that drove the January 6th insurrection," emphasizing that "many of them are mild-mannered, conservative, deeply evangelical."

"There are principled, conservative Christians with heartfelt moral views on abortion, LGBTQ-rights, and a host of other cultural issues who value democracy and pluralism and recognize their preferred policies won't always win the day," Taylor argues. "Think Russell Moore and David French. And there are politically extreme conservative Christians who might hold the exact same views on the same issues as Moore and French, but who are also willing to upend democracy to see their agendas realized, which Moore and French simply are not."

Taylor continues, "Politically extreme conservative Christians were some of the foremost leaders who bought into and bolstered Trump's 2020 election lies, who used theology to justify their own authoritarianism, and who have brought their extremist theologies into the heart of right-wing politics. Mike Johnson can be located in this group."

Taylor goes on to point out that the "key Christian instigators of January 6th" who he has "tracked" are "part of an amorphous, nondenominational network called the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR)."

"They believe and propagate extreme theologies that provide a mandate for Christians to take over society, and they have become increasingly influential in Republican politics in the past eight years," Taylor observes. "Several New Apostolic Reformation leaders — they usually call their leaders either apostles or prophets — were influential evangelical advisers to Donald Trump. Presumably, some of them still are."

The religious scholar adds, "While he is not formally attached to the NAR movement, Mike Johnson, a Southern Baptist, has spent years hanging around with NAR leaders, looking to them as mentors and friends, and pursuing their agenda."

READ MORE: GOP's Big Lie about 2020 is 'more about identity than evidence': expert

Read Matthew D. Taylor's full article for The Bulwark at this link.

John M. Crisp: The majority of Americans want their country back
2023/10/30

Win McNamee/Getty Images North America/TNS

While I was familiarizing myself with Mike Johnson of Louisiana, our new speaker of the House, news arrived of a uniquely American event, another mass shooting, this time in a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston, Maine.

The details are characteristic: Kids were having a good time at youth night in the bowling alley when a white male opened fire with an assault-style, semiautomatic rifle with a high-capacity magazine. Despite Maine’s permissive gun laws—concealed carry is allowed without a permit—no good guy with a gun stepped up. At least 18 are reported killed and many more wounded.

Which made me wonder: Why can’t we Americans have a society that more closely resembles the one that most of us want?

The fact is, polling shows that most Americans favor stricter gun laws in general, and when specific elements of gun policy are assessed, the numbers are persuasive. For example, according to the Pew Research Center, 61% of Americans say that it is too easy to obtain a gun and 79% favor raising the minimum age to buy a gun to 21 years.

When it comes to the technologies that make mass murders possible—assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines—most Americans want them banned, at impressive rates: 66% (Pew); 55% (Gallup); 67% (Statista); 61% (PBS, NPR, Marist).

Even though most Americans want to eliminate or restrict these dangerous weapons, somehow we’re not able to do it. The mass shootings continue.

I wondered what our new House speaker thinks about this. Mike Johnson’s website isn’t enlightening. A tab labeled Issues links to bland boilerplate about Rule of Law and Human Dignity, which are “issues” that most Americans already support.

But since the statistics that indicate most citizens’ preference for stricter gun laws tend to reflect party affiliation, it’s a good bet that our new House speaker—a devoted right-winger—does not support the gun control measures that most of us do.

In fact, Johnson appears to hold minority views regarding other issues, as well. For example, he’s an outspoken opponent of abortion rights while 61% of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases (Pew). And while 71% of Americans support same-sex marriage (Gallup), in 2004 Johnson wrote in the Shreveport Times that homosexuality is “inherently unnatural” and that gay marriage would lead to similar rights for pedophiles.

But here’s something that should worry us all: The great majority of Americans believe that Joe Biden won the last election. Not only did Mike Johnson vote against certifying the election, he is credited with coming up with a legal theory to justify Trump’s fabricated objections to the election, and he supported a Texas lawsuit to overturn the results in four states clearly won by Biden.

In short, Johnson is an election denier; most Americans are not.

It’s a puzzle: How did a man whose views are so out of line with most Americans’ achieve the powerful House speakership, a position that puts him second in line for the presidency?

Some of the answer involves the inherent advantages that the minority perspective enjoys in our system, the Electoral College, for example, and disproportionate representation in the Senate. Crafty gerrymandering has also boosted the power of the minority view.

But radical minority views such as Johnson’s get a lot of energy from the continuing hold that former President Donald Trump has on the Republican Party. In fact, it appears that no candidate could have become speaker without Trump’s imprimatur. That represents a lot of power for the minority and helps explain how the Election Denier in Chief managed to get an election denier into the speakership.

Therefore, we can probably expect to have more policies forced upon us that are the opposite of what most Americans want, which is a sorry situation in a democracy.

And, therefore, a prominent MAGA slogan has some resonance with Americans who wish that public policy would more closely reflect what the public actually desires: “We want our country back.”

———

ABOUT THE WRITER
John M. Crisp, an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service, lives in Texas and can be reached at jcrispcolumns@gmail.com

GOP's speaker once filed lawsuit seeking public cash for Ken Ham's creationist Ark museum

DESANTISLAND

FL homeowners buried by skyrocketing insurance costs after DeSantis’ handout to big insurers

HIDING HIS CLOWN NOSE

Carl Gibson

ALTERNET

October 24, 2023

Homeowners in Florida are finding themselves on the hook for thousands of dollars more than they budgeted for this year, as home insurance premiums continue their precipitous climb.

According to a new report in Courier Newsroom's Floricua publication, insurance premiums in Florida now hover around $6,000 annually, which is more than three times the national average of $1700 per year, according to the Insurance Information Institute. 54-year-old Arnaldo Pérez-Miró told Floricua that he's considering selling his property due to excessive insurance costs.

"My property insurance almost tripled. That is insane! How can I retire and afford almost $7,000 a year in home insurance?" Pérez-Miró said. "For me and my wife, leaving the home we love, where we saw our children grow, where we made memories, where we’ve celebrated every birthday, every Christmas, is heartbreaking."

Floricua noted that these premium hikes came after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — also a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — and his Republican legislature passed an overwhelmingly pro-industry legislative package in May of 2022. That legislation provided both a $2 billion taxpayer-funded reserve for insurance companies to prevent bankruptcy that they typically bought on the open market, and provisions that limited insurers' liability in court. The insurance reform bill also shortened the window of time in which homeowners could file lawsuits against insurance companies, and ended homeowners' ability to recoup attorneys' fees — even in cases they won.

Supporters of the package countered that insurance companies that wanted to access the reserve had to promise to lower premiums, and that insurers' claim of high legal fees leading to rate hikes necessitated the tort reform portion. The AP reported in 2022 that Florida was home to roughly 80% of property insurance lawsuits, despite only 9% of insurance claims nationally being filed in Florida.

The Center for Popular Democracy, a campaign finance watchdog group, noted in a 2023 report that Gov. DeSantis has received large amounts of campaign cash from the insurance industry over the course of his political career. According to the group's findings, DeSantis' campaign and his chief PAC have received nearly $4 million in campaign contributions from big insurance between January of 2019 and March of 2023.

Insurance premiums will likely to continue rising in the Sunshine State due to the likelihood of homes being in the path of future cataclysmic weather events. In fall of 2022 Florida was hit by Hurricane Ian, which the National Hurricane Center estimated cost the state approximately $112 billion in damages, making it the costliest hurricane in Florida history and the third costliest storm in US history (behind Hurricanes Katrina in 2005 and Harvey in 2017, respectively).

(Full disclosure: This author is a licensed flood insurance adjuster and handled dozens of residential claims in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in 2022.)

Far-right Evangelical leader accused of 'serious allegations spanning several decades'

RAPE IS ABOUT POWER, PATRIARCHY IS RAPE

Story by Carl Gibson •  AlterNet

Image: Wikimedia Commons /

Mike Bickle, the leader of the Kansas City-based International House of Prayer (IHOP), has been accused by multiple women of sexual abuse dating back years.

In a statement released over the weekend, Dwayne Roberts and Brian Kimm — who are former leaders of Bickle's organization — along with the Rev. Wes Martin, allege that Bickle used his position to sexually abuse several women. Roberts, Kimm, and Martin said there were "serious allegations spanning several decades," and that the victims, who have not yet disclosed their names, "have always been viewed as credible, trustworthy, and courageous."

"None of these victims had any intention to punish Mike Bickle and they had nothing to gain by sharing their experiences except the pursuit of truth, repentance, mercy, and grace," the statement read.

According to a report in Religion News Service, Bickle may have had advance knowledge of forthcoming allegations, as he preached on October 20th about the dangers of false allegations. In leaked video of an IHOP meeting posted to YouTube, church leaders and staff can be heard warning against the use of the term "black horse," which Bickle has deployed in the past to describe false allegations against church leaders.

Bickle's fellow clergymen stated that the accusations "seemed out of character to the man we thought we knew, but they were so serious we could not ignore them."

"[T]he allegations made about Mike Bickle’s misconduct were sexual in nature where the marriage covenant was not honored. Furthermore, the allegations made also reveal that Mike Bickle used his position of spiritual authority over the victims to manipulate them," the statement read. "We do not share this process to fill in salacious details, but to protect the integrity of the victims and their experiences that were shared."

Mike Bickle has been a leader in Evangelical Christian circles for decades. His ministry is known for setting up round-the-clock "prayer rooms" that are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. After Donald Trump was elected to the presidency, Bickle said it was a "huge reprieve from heaven." Church leaders have reportedly asked Bickle to not attend any prayer meetings, preach any sermons, or post to social media while its investigation into the allegations against him is ongoing.

READ MORE: Editor of Christianity Today talks 'never' supporting Trump over sexual assault and slams Pence's 'character'

Related Articles:

・Evangelical insider thinks he knows how to break up Trump and the church

・Editor of Christianity Today talks 'never' supporting Trump over sexual assault and slams Pence’s 'character'

・Evangelical expert weighs in on church's brink of collapse following leader's resignation over 'inappropriate' behavior

Judge shuts down Fox bid to subpoena George Soros and Smartmatic

By Liam Reilly, CNN  • 

A New York judge on Monday shut down an attempt by Fox News to subpoena George Soros, the Jewish billionaire and frequent target of far-right conspiracy theories, and search for additional links between him and Smartmatic, a voting technology company at the center of false election claims during the 2020 election.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice David B. Cohen rejected Fox Corp. and Fox News’ attempts to subpoena George Soros, his son Alex Soros, and their philanthropic organization Open Society Foundation (OSF) for documents related to the election defamation case. Soros, who has donated heavily to progressive causes, has been the frequent target of right-wing attacks, often playing into antisemitic tropes.

Fox argued that Alex and George Soros, as well as OSF, possess material necessary to the network’s defense in the defamation trial. The documentation, Fox argued, would establish a connection between George Soros and Smartmatic. But Fox’s documentation was irrelevant, the judge said, adding that the matter was peripheral.

“I base that on the finding that the crux of Smartmatic’s claims is that Fox has asserted they were part of rigging [the election], not that Smartmatic was affiliated with George Soros, Alex Soros, or the OSF,” Cohen said. “That’s a peripheral matter — at best, it’s a possible rationale for defamation.”

A Fox News spokesperson attempted to portray the hearing as a victory, telling CNN, “We are pleased that counsel for Soros and Smartmatic conceded during the hearing today that there are connections between Smartmatic and Soros, as confirmed by documents from Smartmatic and the public record.” Smartmatic did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.

Smartmatic sued Fox Corp. and Fox News for $2.7 billion in the wake of the 2020 election, accusing the network of destroying its business prospects by promoting a false conspiracy theory that the vote was rigged. Fox has since filed a counterclaim, arguing that Smartmatic is using the high-profile lawsuit to attract investors and quell free speech.

Fox’s requests to subpoena George and Alex Soros and OSF stem from statements made by former New York mayor and Donald Trump attorney, Rudy Giuliani, as well as former Trump attorney Sidney Powell, who alleged after Trump’s electoral loss that Smartmatic has ties to George Soros.

“Why did we serve the Soros group?” Aaron Marks, an attorney for Fox, asked the courtroom Monday. “In the complaint, there are allegations by Smartmatic that Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, on the airwaves of Fox News, made defamatory remarks, largely implying that Smartmatic — a supposedly neutral and apolitical voting machine company — was rather, in fact, biased and was likely to chat in the direction of Democrats.”

Using comments made by the two former Trump associates, attorneys for Fox highlighted that Mark Malloch-Brown, a long-time friend of George Soros, chaired Smartmatic’s parent company ahead of the election and that Malloch-Brown was also a board member for OSF, which was founded by George Soros.

Attorneys for Fox alleged that comments made by Giuliani and Powell did not constitute defamation but were instead intended to question the nature of this relationship.

“We’re interested in the closeness of the relationship, what Soros has done for Smartmatic over time,” Marks said. “The evidence we got from Smartmatic about these meetings, we believe that that is pertinent for us to develop that further.”

“The picture is incomplete, and we believe we have the right to seek discovery from a non-party,” he said.

Through the subpoena, Fox sought to direct OSF to search for any mention of the key term “Smartmatic” to clarify the relationship between the voting technology company and Soros, Marks said.

Benjamin McCallen, a lawyer for Soros, said the request wasn’t actually related to the statements made by Giuliani and Powell but concerns the relationship between Soros and Malloch-Brown — which was not the issue at hand.

“They’re trying to prove something that’s not in dispute,” McCallen said, adding that Fox was using the closeness of the two men as grounds for the subpoena.

“They’re seeking any documents we have on Smartmatic generally,” McCallen said. “Fox’s argument is maybe it’s peripherally relevant, we just want them to run a search term. We are non-parties to this case and we wish to remain so.”

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VOLUNTARY REGS ARE NO REGS AT ALL

Fate of Canada's first grocery code of conduct in doubt with 2 big players on the fence

Loblaw, Walmart express worries code will increase food prices

Jake Edmiston
Published Oct 27, 2023 

A shopper browses products at a Loblaw Cos. grocery store in Toronto. Loblaw said it has worries food prices will go up under a grocery code of conduct. PHOTO BY COLE BURSTON/BLOOMBERG
Article content

The fate of Canada’s first-ever grocery code of conduct appears to be in doubt, with two of the country’s largest retailers expressing concerns that the document as drafted will be bad for business and drive up food prices for customers.

Industry leaders have been trying to reach an agreement on a code of conduct for more than two years after legislators ordered them to come up with new rules to govern dealings between grocers and suppliers. The hope is the rules will put a stop to alleged bullying tactics in the food chain and end decades of acrimony over the fees and fines manufacturers say they’re forced to pay just to get their products on shelves.

Canada’s Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne has become one of the most vocal proponents of a code of conduct, promising to help accelerate work as part of the federal government’s recent push to fix a national affordability crisis. A code has the power to make “meaningful improvements across the whole of the grocery supply chain,” he said in a statement earlier this month.

But at this point, the industry-led negotiations have come up with a voluntary system that allows companies to decide whether or not they want to sign the code and abide by the new rules.

The benefit of a voluntary system is it’s simpler and quicker to roll out than a mandatory, government-regulated code. Ottawa has already determined that such a code isn’t under federal jurisdiction, so it would fall to the provinces to implement, and few in the industry are keen on trying to navigate a patchwork of different regional codes spread across the national food supply chain.

But the downside of a voluntary code in an industry where five chains control 80 per cent of grocery sales is that it just takes one or two holdouts for the whole thing to start falling apart. That appears to be what’s happening now.

“We don’t know whether everybody is going to play right now,” said Michael Graydon, a manufacturing lobbyist who leads the Food, Health and Consumer Products of Canada and co-chairs the committee of industry associations that has been leading the negotiations. “There are organizations out there that still don’t believe this is the way forward.”

At a Toronto grocery conference this week, he said the process is now in the 11th hour, with consultations on a final draft already completed. A draft distributed at the conference included rules against unilaterally altering supply contracts, as well as provisions outlining when grocers can charge fines and how parties manage situations when demand outstrips supply.

We don't know whether everybody is going to play right now

MICHAEL GRAYDON

The code will establish a watchdog to help resolve disputes, but that office won’t have much punitive power against bad actors outside of public shaming, Graydon said.

The code and the watchdog office are expected to be up and running by the first quarter of 2024. But some major players are pushing back.

Graydon told the crowd at the conference that if the voluntary code doesn’t get off the ground, the industry can expect more government intrusions.

“They do not understand our business, so we’ve got to keep them out of it as best we can,” he said.

Following the remarks, the Financial Post asked the five major grocers whether they planned on signing the code.

Costco Corp. didn’t respond, while Sobeys’ parent Empire Co. Ltd. and Metro Inc., the second- and third-largest grocers, said they support it. But Loblaw Cos. Ltd., the largest grocer, said it is worried the code will backfire for shoppers.

“We have ongoing concerns that the code, as currently drafted, will increase food prices for Canadians and impact grocers’ ability to have the right products on store shelves to meet customers’ demands,” Loblaw spokesperson Catherine Thomas said in an email. “We remain actively engaged in an effort to improve the code so that it works to benefit everyone — particularly customers.”

An employee at a Walmart store in Ontario. The company says it has concerns over a grocery code of conduct. 

PHOTO BY PETER J. THOMPSON/FINANCIAL POST FILES

Wal-Mart Canada Corp. had similar worries.

“While we support initiatives that will ultimately deliver value and low prices to our customers, we’re also conscious of adding unnecessary burdens that could increase the cost of food for Canadians, especially during inflationary times,” spokesperson Stephanie Fusco said in an email.

Graydon called their comments “disappointing” and suggested the two chains were using concerns around inflation as an excuse not to participate.

“Come into the code, work with us for a year, see how it goes, make certain modifications if we have to, and if it doesn’t work out then leave,” he said, adding that other countries that have implemented grocery codes, including the United Kingdom, haven’t experienced higher prices because of it. “To sit on the sidelines today and make those accusations today without any experience, to me, it doesn’t make sense.”

If Walmart and Loblaw ultimately decide not to sign the code, Graydon said it will put the industry on a new path.

“Our focus will revert to trying to get this thing regulated and force them to participate in the code,” he said.

Our focus will revert to trying to get this thing regulated and force them to participate in the code

MICHAEL GRAYDON

Talks around the code date back to the first few months of the pandemic when food manufacturers complained the major grocery chains were slapping them with extra fees and penalizing them for short orders, even though food producers were struggling to stay on top of a sudden jolt of demand for food.

In what became a flashpoint for manufacturers, Walmart and Loblaw in 2020 unilaterally imposed fees on their suppliers to help cover the cost of the retailers’ investments in e-commerce and other upgrades as online grocery orders skyrocketed during the lockdowns.

The suppliers said they had no choice but to pay up, since each grocers’ market share was so big they couldn’t afford to stop doing business with either of them. Politicians took notice, including a coalition of federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers who launched an investigation into grocery fees.

By the summer of 2021, the ministers brought in a mediator to help draft a code of conduct with lobby groups representing farmers, food processors, independent grocers and national retail chains.

At the time, the ministers told the industry that if they couldn’t come up with a solution on their own, government would step in and do it for them. By January 2023, Marie-Claude Bibeau — Canada’s then-agriculture minister — said she expected the code to come into force by year-end.

Big grocers cagey about their inflation-busting plans

Ottawa wants to stabilize food prices. The question is how

Code of conduct to have no impact on food prices: McCain

Gary Sands, a member of the code’s steering committee and senior vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, said it was “disingenuous” for Walmart and Loblaw to bring up concerns about price impacts so late in the process.

“You’ve had close to three years and we’ve never heard that concern,” he said.

• Email: jedmiston@postmedia.com

As economy falters, more Chinese migrants take a perilous journey to the US border to seek asylum

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The young Chinese man looked lost and exhausted when Border Patrol agents left him at a transit station. Deng Guangsen, 28, had spent the last two months traveling to San Diego from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, through seven countries on plane, bus and foot, including traversing Panama's dangerous Darién Gap jungle.

“I feel nothing,” Deng said in the San Diego parking lot, insisting on using the broken English he learned from “Harry Potter” movies. “I have no brother, no sister. I have nobody.”

Deng is part of a major influx of Chinese migration to the United States on a relatively new and perilous route that has become increasingly popular with the help of social media. Chinese people were the fourth-highest nationality, after Venezuelans, Ecuadorians and Haitians, crossing the Darién Gap during the first nine months of this year, according to Panamanian immigration authorities.

Chinese asylum-seekers who spoke to The Associated Press, as well as observers, say they are seeking to escape an increasingly repressive political climate and bleak economic prospects.

They also reflect a broader presence of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border — Asians, South Americans and Africans — who made September the second-highest month of illegal crossings and the U.S. government’s 2023 budget year the second-highest on record

Related video: Major influx of Chinese migrants cross US-Mexico border (The Associated Press)  Duration 2:25   View on Watch

The pandemic and China’s COVID-19 policies, which included tight border controls, temporarily stemmed the exodus that rose dramatically in 2018 when President Xi Jinping amended the constitution to scrap the presidential term limit. Now emigration has resumed, with China's economy struggling to rebound and youth unemployment high. The United Nations has projected China will lose 310,000 people through emigration this year, compared with 120,000 in 2012.

It has become known as “runxue,” or the study of running away. The term started as a way to get around censorship, using a Chinese character whose pronunciation spells like the English word “run” but means “moistening." Now it's an internet meme.

“This wave of emigration reflects despair toward China,” Cai Xia, editor-in-chief of the online commentary site of Yibao and a former professor at the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing.

“They’ve lost hope for the future of the country,” said Cai, who now lives in the U.S. “You see among them the educated and the uneducated, white-collar workers, as well as small business owners, and those from well-off families.”

Those who can't get a visa are finding other ways to flee the world’s most populous nation. Many are showing up at the U.S.-Mexico border to seek asylum. The Border Patrol made 22,187 arrests of Chinese for crossing the border illegally from Mexico from January through September, nearly 13 times the same period in 2022.

Arrests of Chinese people peaked at 4,010 in September, up 70% from August to become the ninth-highest nationality at the U.S. border and the highest outside of Mexico, Central and South America. The vast majority were single adults.

The popular route to the U.S. is through Ecuador, which has no visa requirements for Chinese nationals. Migrants from China join Latin Americans there to trek north through the once-impenetrable Darién and across several Central American countries before reaching the U.S. border. The journey is well-known enough it has its own name in Chinese: walk the line, or “zouxian.”

The monthly number of Chinese migrants crossing the Darién has been rising gradually, from 913 in January to 2,588 in September. For the first nine months of this year, Panamanian immigration authorities registered 15,567 Chinese citizens crossing the Darién. By comparison, 2,005 Chinese people trekked through the rainforest in 2022, and just 376 in total from 2010 to 2021.

Short video platforms and messaging apps provide not only on-the-ground video clips but also step-by-step guides from China to the U.S., including tips on what to pack, where to find guides, how to survive the jungle, which hotels to stay at, how much to bribe police in different countries and what to do when encountering U.S. immigration officers.

Translation apps allow migrants to navigate through Central America on their own, even if they don’t speak Spanish or English. The journey can cost thousands to tens of thousands of dollars, paid for with family savings or even online loans.

It's markedly different from the days when Chinese nationals paid smugglers, known as snakeheads, and traveled in groups.

With more financial resources, Xi Yan, 46, and her daughter Song Siming, 24, didn’t trek the Ecuador-Mexico route, but instead flew into Mexico via Europe. With help from a local guide, the two women crossed the border at Mexicali into the U.S. in April.

“The unemployment rate is very high. People cannot find work,” said Xi Yan, a Chinese writer. “For small business owners, they cannot sustain their businesses.”

Xi Yan said she decided to leave China in March, when she traveled to the southern city of Foshan to see her mother but had to leave the next day when state security agents and police officers harassed her brother and told him that his sister was not allowed in the city. She realized she was still on the state blacklist, six years after being detained for gathering at a seaside spot to remember Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel peace laureate who died in a Chinese prison. In 2015, she was locked up for 25 days over an online post remembering the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre.

Her daughter, Song, agreed to leave with her. A college graduate, the daughter struggled to find work in China and became depressed, the mother said.

Despite the challenges to survive in the U.S., Xi Yan said it was worth it.

“We have freedom,” she said. “I used to get nervous whenever there was a police car. Now, I don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

Migrants hoping to enter the U.S. at San Diego wait for agents to pick them up in an area between two border walls or in remote mountains east of the city covered with shrubs and large boulders.

Many migrants are released with court dates in cities nearest their final destination in a bottlenecked system that takes years to decide cases. Chinese migrants had an asylum grant rate of 33% in the 2022 budget year, compared with 46% for all nationalities, according to Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

Catholic Charities of San Diego uses hotels to provide shelters for migrants, including 1,223 from China in September. The average shelter stay is a day and a half among all nationalities. For Chinese visitors, it’s less than a day.

“They get dropped off in the morning. By afternoon they are looking to reunite with their families. They're going to New York, they're going to Chicago, they’re going to all kinds of places,” said Vino Pajanor, the group's chief executive. “They don’t want to be in a shelter."

In September, 98% of U.S. border arrests of Chinese people occurred in the San Diego area. At the transit stop, migrants charge phones, snack, browse piles of free clothing and get travel advice.

Signs at portable bathrooms and information booths and a volunteer’s loudspeaker announcements about free airport shuttles are translated to multiple languages, including Mandarin. Taxi drivers offer rides to Los Angeles.

Many migrants who spoke to the AP did not give their full names out of fear of drawing attention to their cases. Some said they came for economic reasons and paid 300,000 to 400,000 yuan ($41,000 to $56,000 for the trip).

In recent weeks, Chinese migrants have filled makeshift encampments in the California desert as they wait to turn themselves in to U.S. authorities to make asylum claims.

Near the small town of Jacumba, hundreds huddled in the shadow of a section of border wall and under crude tarps. Others tried to sleep on large boulders or under the few trees there. Small campfires keep them warm overnight. Without food or running water, the migrants rely on volunteers who distribute bottled water, hot oatmeal and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Chen Yixiao said he endured a hard journey to come to the U.S. He said life had become difficult back home, with some migrants experiencing issues with the government and others failing in business.

“I’m very happy to be in the U.S. now. This is my dream country,” said Chen, who planned to join his relatives in New York and find work there.

At San Diego’s transit station, Deng planned to head to Monterey Park, a Los Angeles suburb that became known as “Little Taipei” in the 1980s. Deng said he worked a job in Guangdong requiring him to ride motorcycles, which he considered unsafe. As he lingered at the transit station, sitting on a curb with his small backpack, several Africans approached to ask questions. He told them he arrived in the U.S. with $880 in his pockets.

When he didn’t provide the Border Patrol with a U.S. address, an agent scheduled an initial immigration court appearance for him in New York in February. Deng tapped his meager savings for a one-way flight to New York. He ended up with thousands of other migrants at a tent shelter on the city's Randall's Island, unsure of his next move.

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Tang reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Christopher Sherman in Mexico City and Eugene Garcia in San Diego contributed to this report.

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Follow AP's global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

Elliot Spagat And Didi Tang, The Associated Press