#What Happened At The Battle Of The Monongahela

[pittsburghbeautiful]

Battle of the Monongahela

Battle of the Monongahela The Battle of Monongahela, a pivotal engagement during the French and Indian War, served as a crucible for military evolution. On July 9, 1755, British and colonial troops faced off against French and Native American forces in a clash that would have profound reverberations. The outcome of this battle not only shaped the course of the war but also had lasting…

[cheat-river-8y]

cheat river mod menu 0MVR%

💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 The Cheat River is a mile-long tributary of the Monongahela River in eastern West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania in the United States. Via the Ohio River, the Cheat and Monongahela are part of the Mississippi River watershed. The magnificent Cheat River flows from five major tributaries, known as the “Forks of the Cheat”, which originate in the rugged Monongahela National Forest. Located in Albright, in North Central West Virginia, the Cheat Canyon section of the Cheat River is West Virginia's premier springtime Class V whitewater run. The Cheat River is amazing! This river canyon is full of great rapids and we loved the guides on our trip. I can't stress how important it is to go with. The Cheat River in West Virginia is again a haven for whitewater rafting and smallmouth bass fishing after years of Clean Water Act funding. The Shavers Fork is acknowledged as the starting point of the Cheat River and emanates from the crest of Cheat Mountain at 4, ft, making it the highest river in the Eastern US. From Parsons, the scenic Cheat flows nearly 78 miles past the historic river towns of St. The Cheat River flows north throughout its entire length. The complete watershed spans an impressive square miles, and the river is one of the longest un-dammed waterways in the eastern United States. It does not appear that there were significant permanent native american villages in the Cheat River drainage, this is probably due to the steepness of the terrain and the harshness of winters. European settlers and trappers roamed the basin starting in The famous cornerstone, The Fairfax Stone, was placed in indicating the divide between the headwaters of the Potomac River and the Cheat River. The Dunkards, a religious sect, were the first Europeans to settle on the Cheat River, in , they established a village where present day Camp Dawson is located near Kingwood, WV. This combination of resources led to the creation of some of the earliest iron industry in the US contributing greatly to the armaments of the war of , cannonballs made along the Cheat River were used in the Battle of New Orleans. The iron industry along the lower reach of the river supported roughly 3, settlers, with the epicenter being at Cheat Neck, the site of current day Cheat Lake, a few miles above the confluence with the Monongahela. The Cheat River watershed is considered a biodiversity hotspot, a portion of it became a West Virginia Natural Area in In fact, land use within the watershed is dominated by forest, at a stunning More than ten endangered, threatened, or globally rare species occur in the Canyon, including the flat-spired three-toothed land snail, which exists nowhere else on earth. The other rare fauna that are hiding out in the hollers include Cheat Mountain salamander, Indiana bat, and the West Virginian northern flying squirrel. The Cheat River above Pringle Run Narrows takeout is an active fishery, boasting a lively small mouth bass population in addition to catfish and rainbow trout. Several Cheat River tributaries maintain native brook trout populations. The size of the watershed and lack of dams has made the Cheat River famous in whitewater circles because of the highly variable flows. One day the flow may be less than cfs, and the next day it will bee 10, cfs. To place in context, rafting river levels are between 1. Here are the top 3 Cheat River Historic Crests. The flood of , known as the Election Day flood, decimated the lower Cheat Valley. The first known descent of the Cheat River by a whitewater enthusiast happened in when John Berry, led a group that took 2 days to descend what we now call the Cheat Canyon. The whitewater rafting industry on the East Coast started on the Youghiogheny River, one drainage to the north in , shortly thereafter in , the Cheat River rafting industry began. The Cheat rafting industry went from nothing to 40, rafters in just 10 years, all of this activity took place during the 8 weeks of April and May. This breathed some serious life back into the Appalachian back water of Albright, WV pop. The Cheat River is best known for rowdy spring rafting on the Cheat Canyon when flows are highly variable due to spring rains. The variable flows mean that a smaller raft may be used to accomodate lower flows, yet still provide a big water feel and an amzing day in a wildreness canyon. Check out Cheat Canyon rafting trips. The amazing whitewater playground that is created by more than miles of whitewater in the Cheat River drainage became a magnet for diehard paddlers and innovaters in the whitewater sport. Along the banks of the Cheat the following companies have impacted the sport world wide:. More than miles of steep and small creeks that are boatable by experienced kayakers exist above the main stem of the Cheat. Do not be alarmed if you are driving around this beautiful country and what casually resembles a pool toy goes launching off a 15 foot water fall. Below are the primary and accessible to the public sections of whitewater that make up the main stem of the Cheat:. The watershed is still very sparsely populated due to the rugged character of the mountains that the river carves through. The cutting of the river has established very steep walls pretty much down to the rivers edge. The flood of also contributed greatly to the decline of these towns when homes were destroyed in the river corridor. In the late s, whitewater paddlers on the Cheat River noticed the water quality degrading. Acid mine drainage AMD was discharging from abandoned mine lands and active coal mines into the river. AMD occurs when water, oxygen, and bacteria come into contact with pyrite, a mineral that is often associated with the Upper Freeport coal seam. Every year, more rocks in the river were stained bright orange. Right now over miles of streams in Appalachia are polluted by AMD from abandoned mine lands. In the spring of , polluted water from an illegally-sealed major underground coal mine blew out the hillside and poured into Muddy Creek. The huge release of mine water entered the main stem of the Cheat River just upstream of the Cheat Canyon. The the river ran orange for miles. The resulting discharge impacted not only the Cheat Canyon, but also lowered the pH in Cheat Lake to 4. A second blowout in further made the problem worse. American Rivers, Inc. The mine blowouts forced the issue into the public eye. Concerned citizens and stakeholders organized Friends of the Cheat FOC to begin to address the problems resulting from over a century of coal mining. By , signatories included more state and federal agencies, academia, conservation groups, and local governments. Meeting quarterly and chaired by Friends of the Cheat, the ROP task force coordinates and initiates projects throughout the watershed. Millions of dollars in projects have been implemented since , including water monitoring programs, water quality assessments, and reclamation projects. Now the Cheat is off the list of endangered rivers, whitewater rafting trips are running, and fish are making a comeback. Stoneflies are a species of insect that indicates a healthy marine ecosystem. The festival takes place the first weekend of May, come show your love for the Cheat! You can donate to Friends of the Cheat. Come on out in the spring to experience this amazing corner of the world and to witness the resilience of nature up close and personal. Throughout the summer, following rain events, we sometimes are fortunate enough to be able to operate improptu raft trips to take advantage of river levels, join our Adventurers Club to be in the know. Cheat River History — Then and Now. Here are the top 3 Cheat River Historic Crests 1 Towns of the Cheat River The watershed is still very sparsely populated due to the rugged character of the mountains that the river carves through. Parsons, WV population located at the confluence of the Forks of the Cheat Rowlesburg, WV population a former railroad town and site of a Civil War skirmish Albright, WV population epicenter of the whitewater community in the valley Point Marion, PA population located at the confluence with the Monongahela Coal Mining Legacy of Appalachia In the late s, whitewater paddlers on the Cheat River noticed the water quality degrading. Now- Tags: cheat river , environment , west virginia , whitewater rafting.

[lovely-necromancy]

A Cure for Insomnia CH 1.

This is a reader insert I originally started posting on AO3. I’m cross posting here because I know some of the fandom still lives here.

Quick Disclaimer:

This is a fic I'm writing for my own comfort.

I was inspired by RaeBees (you can check out their works over on Quotev and AO3), and how they characterize the "proxies". Having always seen the characters different than most of the fandom I've interacted with I never really shared my thoughts until now. This work is only placed in the Creepypasta tag so it reaches its demographic. However, I am fully aware of the fact that no main character is considered a Pasta.

It may also appear to lean more Toby X Protag in the beginning but end goal is protag with all three, and Brian and Tim already in a relationship. How I picture it now is a slowburn but Toby and Protag will be in a friends with benefits relationship before either has any feelings, so I think that counts. Some may be confused by the asexual protag tag but it'll be explained in story, as an Ace myself I get frustrated with media that only show one version and say it goes for us all. That being said I don't represent the whole Ace community but I hope to provide a bit more representation for some others out there.

Protag will be depicted as agender, and will have a few tics that stem from their Autism. Again I don't speak for any others with Autism but I hope to provide some representation for those in similar positions.

Tags will be updated as the story progresses. Canon-Typical violence and mental health issues are to be expected if you feel uncomfortable with those aspects I advise you to not engage. This story will also have a lot of NSFW themes and scenes so I highly discourage anyone under the age of 18 from viewing this work. You will get warnings on chapters with NSFW and I will make it skippable as well.

I'm also very nitpicky and gave the main characters birthdays just because it irritates me when it gets mentioned once and you have to do the math or imagine your own conversation when a birthday was too close to a character's.

Tim January 1st, home state Alabama

Toby April 28th, home state Virginia (saw this years ago no clue if it's accurate)

Protag May 13th, home state Virginia

Brian May 23rd, home state Alabama

Connor the service dog July 18th, home state Kentucky

I've referred to Protag as Protag here but in story they're referred to as YN.

Everything felt impossibly dull; your senses, the dark room you're currently in, the noise coming from the fan just to the left of the bed on which you laid. Turning to the window beside your head you stare out into that weird midnight summer sky. More of a gray than a true dark blue night, cast in an orange glow that made the night seem closer to day than it truly was. While the time was just half past twelve, you felt it may have been more accurate to say it was closer to four in the morning.

You're exhausted but that true sort of exhaustion where whatever energy you have left buzzes all around. It consumes your entire being, dances between being deafeningly loud in your ears to giving you twitches in your legs. You'd laid down hours ago thinking you'd be tired enough to sleep once your tics started to spasm in closer intervals, but to no avail were you able to rest. That buzzing preventing you from dreamland. Maybe the hum of your body was right, you didn't really need to sleep, you just wanted it to feel normal.

Knowing the battle had already been lost you push yourself off the bed and grab a pair of shorts off the floor. Slipping them on you contemplate your options for the night. Going into town was out since it was Sunday...well Monday now, but there would be nothing but bars open and you were never one for drinking. And as fun as a drive sounds right now, you feel the buzzing in your bones grow stronger, you need to move. A late night hike should keep you occupied, with it being so quiet and the middle of the night you wouldn't even have to take your headphones to cancel out the sounds of other people, you aren't likely to run into many people tonight.

Deciding on a hike you grab a mask and car keys and make your way to your yellow Kia Soul. A going away present from your parents that they gave you the moment you got your driver's license after your 24th birthday. Having anxiety throughout your life you'd never been in the head space to start driving till later on, and while you still don't enjoy driving you are pretty good at it even with your “late” start. Surfing through radio stations as you let the car warm up you find your latest obsession, it's a conspiracy theory podcast that someone in Kepler managed to blast through the limited air ways of the town. Impressive considering Kepler was in a radio quiet zone and even cell phones couldn't work in the small town, luckily you lived just outside of the zone so you could send texts and call your parents every weekend.

It seemed today's episode was a rerun, Mothman: Murderer, Man, or Myth. It was actually one of your favorites, the paranormal stories tended to be more entertaining than hearing about how a man could murder sixteen people while working as a cop ruining evidence to lead the others off his trail. Humans could be more vial and cruel than any little gray alien from the future or tall Fresno Nightcrawler could ever be. And they weren't as entertaining to hear about, nor were their exploits as impressive. You could always see patterns, either connecting clues first or finding connections no one else saw, it was never hard to tell where a certain case would lead so you'd always end up disappointed in humanity when they overlooked such obvious clues. Though that often led you down a path of deep diving for information to see just how obvious it was, more often than not you'd find that the most logical conclusion was shady public officers. After investigating so many cold cases you're sure if you're ever in trouble you'll never involve the police, in the end they'd probably just ignore you and rule your case closed if anything ever did happen to you.

'I'd haunt them if they did.' You decide and you shift gears and begin driving to the Monongahela National Forest, as the timeline of Mothman sightings and events play out before for your ears.

Instead of going through town and possibly loosing the signal of the show, you drive on the old dirt road that runs along the very edge of the town, partially covered in trees. This over grown road is the main reason Kepler doesn't see many visitors, the second someone makes their way onto it coming off the interstate they floor it until they see civilization. Over the few months you've been here you've nearly been run right off the road by spooked tourists, trying to escape whatever ghouls their wild imaginations created. The only real thing on this road was a mini mart gas station, and even though it was shady as hell the cashier didn't bug you too much when you came in in the dead of night. Plus they had a cat, how could you not stop in and say hi to little ole Magnolia?

Speaking of which you should probably get a drink for your hike, you could already feel your throat drying out. Turning into the parking lot you're happy to see no other cars around, putting your face mask on you make your way inside. As usual the store is dead at this time, and Ronnie is manning the desk. What's unusual is the man also behind the counter, he has dark brown hair that he's tied into a small and low ponytail, thick sideburns frame his face. You immediately take note of the slight imperfections of his face, most would see the slit in his eyebrow as following the current trend or even just a genetic thing, but you can see the slightly off color of a healed scar that starts just above his eyebrow and ends mid eyelid, he has a few smaller discolorations on his crooked nose, you'd guess he's had it broken at least twice.

Briefly taking a glance to his brown eyes before looking away, today is not an eye contact day. Nodding in their directions, the best acknowledgment you can give right now, you make your way to the freezers. From the freezer section you can hear Ronnie “explain” you.

“That's YN, a regular mainly at night though. A bit skittish and rarely ever says more than 'thanks have a nice day'” Even though she's whispering you can hear everything. Including the high octave her voice takes to mimic you, it feels more like mocking.

If being mocked hadn't already put you on edge the eyes boring into you have. The eyes may not be roaming over your body but the icky crawling of your skin sure makes it feel that way. The feeling of being put under a microscope has always made you sick, the stares, the leers and sneers, and the judgment just makes you want to implode on the spot. Cease existence, be swallowed into the abyss. You're about to set yourself into an anxiety attack with all these thoughts.

'Mask, mask, mask' you repeat over and over in your head, it's the only thing you can focus on. You are wearing a mask, there is one thing they can't perceive, the face is the most important for humans to perceive, your mask protects you.

Without looking you pull a water bottle from the cooler. You don't think you like this brand but the sports mouth makes up for it, and you can't focus enough to grab another. As the imaginary spiders crawl their way under your skin and your breath hitches you make your way over to the counter head down, never looking up at the employees beyond the counter. Your vision is blurring in time with the beating of your heart, you can't tell if it's due to nerves or from being up for five days in a row.

“Hey YN, how're you?” Ronnie asks, her tone is different from the past times you've been in. It's higher and has a lilt in it that you'd expect from a teasing friend. But Ronnie isn't a friend and has never spoken to you like this, you hate it. You nod to politely move on with the process, between the crawling of your skin and the buzzing underneath it you feel sick. And you're now very aware of the existence of your eyelids, you try to focus on ignoring that awareness. You need to move.

“Hmm, that's good. Anyway this is Tim! He's just started so go easy on him.” you hear the sound of a hand hitting fabric and assume she's patted Tim's shoulder as she introduced Tim to you. Why was she doing this, what purpose could introducing you two have? You nod again, was anyone going to ring you out?

“Hi, this all?” a deep voice asked, it isn't extremely deep more of a standard baritone that has a slight raspy quality, probably a reformed smoker. You don't smell cigarettes currently so he could've quit after years. Unfortunately despite your efforts to stave them off your blinking tics emerge. Making it difficult to keep your eyes open for longer than a nano second.

Startled and ticcing you look up and catch his eyes, you see pity in them, before casting your glance back to the counter. You can never tell what's worse people seeing you as weird or seeing you as something needing to be fixed. Nodding again, Tim tells you the total; a dollar fifty eight, and you hand him two dollars from your wallet.

Tim doesn't ask if you want the receipt or a bag, he prints out the receipt and hands you your change. The change goes immediately into the cat food fund for Magnolia. She got diagnosed with diabetes about a month ago and having worked in shelters and pet stores you know just how expensive her prescription food is. After folding the receipt into your wallet, Tim gently slides the water bottle over to you.

“Have a good night.” he says it so low and gentle, as if he thinks you'll shatter in front of him. As kind as the gesture seems, you aren't that fragile...or maybe you are if you have to keep repeating 'mask' over and over in your head to ground yourself. With a final nod you turn and make your way to the door, and just as you open it you hear Ronnie call out.

“Awwww, c'mon YN at least say 'Hi' to Tim.” You really don't like how she squeaked out 'hi'.

Taking a deep breath you prepare yourself, you'll show them both you can do this simple task. Even if you can't stop blinking long enough to see straight. Once you've steadied yourself you turn and look at Tim. He's sending you a look that says 'You don't have to' all that's missing is a slow head shake to complete his unease with this “peer pressure”.

But you can do this you can say 'Hi, Tim.' Two words super simple, nothing complex like 'Hi, Tim, nice to meet you.' and so much better than the option of your next meeting saying 'Hi, Tim. Sorry for spazzing out the other night.'. Yup you can do this just breathe, you open your mouth and...and you've forgotten what to say. Looking like a deer in headlights, well at least the tics stopped, you say the first thing that pops in.

“Mask.” You've said it loud and clear both cashiers heard you.

Tim stares with wide eyes and you see Ronnie failing to hide her laughter. Out of all the ways this could've gone this was probably the best outcome for her. The blinking has started up again, this time growing more frequent. You can't even hold your eyes open, to the two cashiers it must look like you're in pain or crying. And while you want to die of embarrassment, crying is a bit of an extreme for you.

So with red face and the inability to see you leave through the door, and try to make your way back to your car. Once in you lock the doors, switch the car on, and rest your head on the steering wheel. Out of every way this stop could've gone, being perceived by a new comer and Ronnie was not what you expected. While this hadn't been the worst five minutes or so of your life, it definitely would be another thing keeping you up at night for the next twenty years.

Calming down in the cool quiet dark of your car your slowly brought back to the world by the beginning of a new episode. This one talking about the Tailypo legend. A favorite story of yours from when you were a kid living on the coast of Virginia. So with yet another deep breath and the wave of nostalgia, you pull out of the parking lot and slowly coast down the old dirt road. Heading yet again for the Monongahela forest.

It's nearly two in the morning when you roll up to see an RV parked by the forgotten entrance of the park. It isn't surprising at all to find an RV out here since the Monongahela Forest is one of the most beautiful parks you've ever been to. You also don't think anything of them being parked by this unused entrance because you use it all the time since finding it accidentally. Figuring they just wanted to camp and be left to their own devices rather than use the RV sites and be bothered with other campers here for the summer.

Climbing out of your car you notice the RV isn't new by any means but it isn't a total rust bucket either, looks like it's been passed around throughout the years. There isn't anything to suggest it's been here a while, nothing left set up outside, must have just gotten into town then. You do happen to notice dog tracks around the sandy dirt you've parked in, good to know they have a dog before you slammed your car door. Closing the door gently behind you so you don't startle a pup and wake up it's owner or owners, you make your way through the woods. No real direction in mind, with no real thought in your head. Just the thought of moving and to keep on moving.

You could walk the same path every time you came through and always find something different. In fact that's exactly what happens, you're almost positive that you've deepened the imprint of the path just from walking through several times a week. Following the same winding path you usually do, climbing over the fallen tree, and through a scattering of blueberry thicket's you find yourself on the edge of one of the forest's many streams. It's your favorite spot in the forest so far, and about as far as you've gotten considering these hikes of yours take place during the dead of night.

The wind picks up and sends a chill through you, taking that as a sign you slide down to sit by the stream. Vans placed to your side as you sink your feet into the cool water. It's peaceful out here, so cool, and quiet, save for the slight noises the stream makes, various bubbling and drips. You try to think on things like your recent move, your job, the embarrassing 'mask' incident, just life in general. But you can't seem to form a single thought, this happens a lot, you've recently been conscious of the fact that you've been running on auto pilot for the past two months, hell a lot longer than that. You think everyone must get like this from time to time, but you think you've always been this way. Keen to dissociating and slipping in and out of existence.

It's quite nice really, except for the times like right now where you'd love to figure out why the silence in your head is so painfully loud. The more you think on it the louder it gets and the stronger the buzzing under your skin feels. And right now the static in your mind has been getting louder and louder for the past few minutes. You feel your head jerk to the right of it's own accord, moving back in place it happens for a second time, and then a third, then jerks up, before jerking a forth time to the right effectively cracking you neck.

“There we go.” you mumble, you can relax a bit as the verbal tic indicates the end of this round of tics.

Sighing you look at the sky...that can't be right. The sky has been painted it's fresh baby blues for the day, but again that can't be right. You just got to the stream, that path is a thirty minute walk meaning it should be just about two thirty in the morning, but the sky suggests it's five or six at the latest. Reaching for your water bottle you find it empty next to you. You didn't fall asleep you know that much, perhaps you did dissociate tonight. Well this hike was disappointing if you knew you were going to dissociate you'd have saved yourself that embarrassment and stayed home. Maybe done some painting or tidied up.

Sighing you push yourself off the ground, collecting you vans you're about to put them on when you notice a figure off in the distance. You freeze out of shock and stare at the figure, it stares back. The figure is about ten yards away, god your near sighted ass should really remember to not leave your glasses in the car when hiking. The figure starts to make it's way to you and after a few steps you realize it hasn't moved from it's spot. Rolling your eyes you ignore the hallucination.

You'd really needed to get sleep last night, today is day six of no sleep and though you haven't had many episodes these past few days, you have a feeling they'll start to get more prominent today. Hopefully tonight you can manage to get some rest, the longer you go without sleep the more realistic the hallucinations become. But for today you're content with the knowledge that it's just shadow like beings that you'll be seeing.

After putting on your shoes you start the thirty minute hike back to your car. You're thankful for the weather in Kepler, nothing like back on the coast. Here you can go for a morning hike through the forest while a gentle breeze passes by and the sun starts to give the area a pleasant warmth. Back on the coast you couldn't run and grab the mail without getting drenched in moisture from either sweat, humidity, or a mixture of both.  The coast sucks, hell Virginia sucks altogether, you're glad to be in Kepler.

“I want to go home, home.” you say out of nowhere.

Before you reach the entrance you hear barking, oh the RV campers must be up. Should you be careful not to scare them, or just walk normally and say 'Good morning' in passing, maybe just nod your head in greeting. Oh and you've stopped just beside the entrance as you got lost in your rambling. You didn't mean to come to a stop here, and as you try to move you notice how silent it's gotten. Did the dog go inside, maybe they've already passed...no it's too quiet for that. No the silence is oppressive like the one you deal with nightly, there's a reason for the silence. The situation's making you feel uneasy, but that could be the sleep deprivation talking.

You're about to brush it off and move when you hear a whispered, “Seriously man, I don't think anyone's out there. Let's get inside.”

There's a noise of agreement before you hear shuffling. Oh no, you zoned out and now you look like a weirdo stalker. Just perfect, maybe if you wait around a little more you'll seem more normal or at least feel normal. Not knowing how long to wait you walk along the tree line for a bit, looking at the ground as you do making sure you won't step on any snakes. In you quest to not step on any snakes you spot something suspiciously off white. It seems purposefully buried under a dead blueberry bush and some fallen branches.

Having listened to too many true crime shows, you know better than to implicate yourself in a murder. Grabbing a stick off the ground you gently brush the foliage away from the supposed corpse. No way, you can't believe your luck, it's an actual fucking skull. An intact skull of a deer! That is so cool, you've only seen taxidermists on TikTok getting so lucky and finding these dudes. Since the jaw bone is connected by tissue it of course isn't with the skull but maybe it's close by? Clearly this got planted or hidden by someone, maybe they were planning on pranking a friend by 'uncovering' a skull later. Oh well, finders keepers and all that, you have way better plans for this guy, hopefully you can find that jaw bone.

You set off searching through the foliage and near by bushes with the branch while holding the skull in your other arm. After searching about three feet around and finding no more bones you decide that this is the only part of the deer's skeleton in this area. A little disappointed but still thrilled with your find, you decide it must be a good time to go back to your car.

Surely you won't look weird now. You a little forager with their treasure in hand. Looks like you'll be busy cleaning, then bleaching, and cleaning these bones today. Is that the order to treat found bones? You aren't sure but you can look into that later. Placing the skull in the trunk so it doesn't roll about and get damaged you make sure it's secure before closing the trunk and getting into your car and locking the doors.

Not once did you notice the pairs of eyes that had been watching you. One watching as you found the deer skull, and the other set seeing you place bones into your car. They kept watching as you fiddled with the radio while the car was starting up. They watched as you pulled out of the sandy dirt lot and drove back down the old road a little faster than before now that you could clearly see.

[thiswasinevitableid]

What about #1 with induck? :3

I decided to make this part of three of “oh no I called the hero and I like him” and “where’s the hero when I need a hug.” But you can also read it as a stand alone.

1: How to make a plot villainous enough to attract they attention but tame enough they won’t get hurt 

Indrid stares at the screens, flipping between images and notes, dismissing them one after another. 

The scheme needs to hit just the right balance. 

It’s been a month and a half since The Green Knight, alias Duck Newton, snuck into his hideout to comfort him after his body and mind betrayed him by making him sad.

They’ve spoken not a word about it to each other. And Duck has once again reverted to only fighting Indrid with another member of the Pine Guard present. Duck kissed his forehead when he left that night, Indrid would bet his entire fortune on it. But Duck won’t even banter with him during battles. 

He’ll barely even look at him.

Does he revile Indrid so greatly that any affection between them must be made up for by a double measure of disinterest and mild disgust?

Indrid has thrown everything he can think of at him; if Duck sees him as a villain, then he will be a villain. He will fight, he will scheme, he will swear revenge. No matter how often he thinks of the way Duck fit against him, a puzzle piece in strange picture of this life. How his fingers itch to call him each night.

Even as he runs through his inner monologue he knows he's oversimplifying the matter.

You see, it’s not strictly true Duck hasn’t spoken to him. There have been no face to face talks or phone calls, that is a fact. But if one were to look at Indrid’s personal phone, one would find a text chain that is mainly images. Birds, trees, sunsets, a cat. 

The most he gets for context is:

Thought you might like this

Made me think of you. Don’t know why.

And, on the ones of moths

Look, it’s a cousin. 

And an even more recent one of an ice cream cone

Tried that Gelato place you liked. You’re right, it’s fucking baller.

Indrid replied blue moon, excellent choice.

He did not add that the flavor is mellow, sweet, and a bit strange, just like the man himself. 

He’d considered orchestrating a run-in at that shop, since Aubrey Little’s Instagram suggests Duck has been going there often with his friends. But Indrid has no doubt Mrs. Nyguen would ban him if he started a fight in her shop. 

Instead, he’s narrowed down his plot options to two: an art heist, or breaking into the mayor’s mansion. 

He has had his eye on that one Gauguin….

------------------------------

Indrid limbers up in the entryway of the museum. Between his powers and technological abilities, the main security was easy to disable. And there is a route to the post-impressionist gallery that will keep him clear of the more heavily secured rooms.

He pads across the tiles to the entrance of the traveling Monet exhibit. 

And sticks his foot into the path of the motion sensor he knows is there, setting off an alarm. 

He continues forward, setting off more alarms as he goes. Its when he’s in the modernist exhibit that the wisps of unease floating through his system coalesce into a form.

No security guards have appeared. He planned to disarm them and knock them out, and they should be here by now.

A glimpse at the futures gives him just enough time to turn and see a shape stepping into the arched doorway behind him.

“I was wondering if you’d turn up.” A clipped, cold voice muses as the figure produces a small remote, clicking it once to shut off the alarms. He recognizes the reflective white glasses when the figure grins at him. 

“The Flame. I, it can’t be, how did I-”

“Not see me coming? I don’t know, little brother. But at a guess it’s because you’ve lost your touch. Which would be of little concern to me, had your carelessness not just alerted our enemies to our presence here. So I will be need to be certain you cannot cause such issues in the future. Not to mention, one fewer villain in the city means one less person to stop me from taking  total control of the underworld.”

Indrid narrowly avoids a blast of white light, diving into the annex to his right. He doesn’t retaliate, activates his wings and shoots straight up through the skylight instead.

He’s not ready to fight the Flame. He’s never been ready. Not when they were children, training together. Not when they were sparring partners. Not when he’d finally had enough, when he saw just how much The Flame enjoyed hurting people. 

That’s why he ran from him in the first place. 

Landing on the roof, he considers his escape routes. Where is his nearest hideout, where is is his defensive equipment, where-

A small, clear orb hits the toe of his shoe. Even as he throws his arms around his eyes, he knows it won’t be enough. The light is blinding, bleaching his eyes as he crumples to the bricks beneath him. The next phase of the disorienter kicks in, high pitched tones drowning out his ability to hear anything, save for The Flame’s voice.

“You’ve become such a disappointment, little brother. First you abandon the life we trained for, your constitution too weak to handle the realities of our profession.”

“You, you speak as though I haven’t spent the last several years a prominent villain in my own right.”

“You’ve thrown in with some two-bit thieves and blackmailers, perhaps an eco-terrorist or an anarchist superhero when the mood struck. And you’re soft. The Indrid I knew would never hesitate to kill his rival by any means necessary. You’ve spared the Green Knight so many times I lost count.”

“You spied on me.”

“Of course. I, unlike some people, know how to scope the hero/villain layout of a town before making my debut. Good god, brother, you must have used your powers to determine your enemy’s name and true identity by now.”

“What I do with my powers is no business of yours.” He kicks a leg out in the direction of The Flame’s voice. The fear flooding his mind, scanning the futures for escape, means he fails to see the weapon before it connects with his shoulders. 

The scream of pain as electricity courses through him goes unheeded. The Flame does it a second time, and Indrid collapses, limp, on the ground. 

“Goodbye, little brother. So nice of you to lend my grand entrance into the city’s awareness an extra victim.”

Indrid loses consciousness to the sound of sparks. 

---------------------------------------------

“Ned, can you get us closer?” Aubrey yells from her position on the wing of the hovercraft, “I need to be more in a closer range to control something this big!”

“I will do my best, but if the wings begin melting I reserve the right to get us the hell out of here!”

“There any way I can help, Lady Flame?” Duck leans over the passenger side of the craft, looking down at the blazing rooftop for the origin of the fire. 

“Grab me if I lose my balance?”

“Will do--oh, fuck! There’s someone down there. Aubrey, can you clear me a patch, right there, so I can jump down?”

“I can” the first half of the fire dies out when Aubrey makes a fist, “but that roof can’t be stable at this point.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

Aubrey circles his arm twice, and a landing pad appears around the figure. He leaps from the craft, hits his mark right by the body’s feet. The smoke is still thick, even with Aubrey’s intervention, so he squints as he gathers the figure into his arms. 

“Don’t worry, we’re getting you out of here--ah! Oh come the fuck on!” He yells to no one in particular as the roof gives out beneath him. 

Landing on his knees, he’s relieved to find the fire never made it inside , though smoke did. In the flickering orange and spinning red and blue from the nearby emergency vehicles, he shifts the body in his arms, looks down with clear eyes for the first time. 

“.....Indrid?”

Nothing.

Indrid’s chest is corpse-cold in spite of the fire when Duck puts his ear against it. There’s a heartbeat there, a faint flutter that’s the most beautiful noise to ever grace his ears. 

Duck turns to the portraits on the walls, “what the fuck do I do now?”

-----------------------

The first thought in Indrid’s mind is: pine?

As he noses the soft pillowcase, still half-dreaming of coastal woods and a campfire, his eyes blink open. 

The room is dark, unfamiliar. Thick curtains cover the windows, thicker blankets coat the bed in which he’s laying. 

Cautiously, he pushes the covers aside and eases his feet onto the ground. His glasses are waiting for him on the bedside table, and his reflection in the closet mirror shows his thin frame covered in black sweatpants and a large shirt that reads “Devils Lake State Park.”

Hell has a sense of humor, it seems. A sense of humor and a very rustic decorating style. 

He opens the bedroom door, poking his head out into the dark hallway. Moves slowly, half from the stiffness between his shoulder blades from where The Flame hit him, and half from apprehension of what’s at the other end of the hall. 

The answer turns out to be anticlimactic; a living room, with a kitchen off to one side. 

Maybe the flames and sulfur are waiting for him outside the front door.

Or maybe he’s not dead, maybe someone rescued him. 

No, that second option is ridiculous. 

“Mew?”

“AH!” He jumps as a black, scruffy cat bumps into his shin. 

“H-hello there, little friend, do you happen to know where I am?”

“Mew.” The cat hops onto the back of a nearby chair, and he pets it hesitantly. 

“My, you’re soft. Soft and familiar. Where have I seen you bef-, oh, oh my, it can’t be. He wouldn’t.”

The front door opens and Indrid grabs the cat protectively, spinning to face whatever comes through it. 

“Mornin.”

“It, it is your house.” Indrid stares at Duck, the cat wiggling free of his hold and bounding over to greet her owner.

“Uh, yeah.” Duck slips off his canvas sneakers, grocery bags slipping on his arms as he bends to pet the cat, “where else would it be?”

Indrid looks at the room around him more carefully; the poster for the Monongahela forest, photos on a shelf showing Duck with family and friends, the ranger had hung by the front door. 

“In retrospect, it was a tad obvious. But in my defense, I assumed I was dead and in hell.”

“Geez, my decoratin ain’t that bad.”

“Nono, I’m sorry, I mean-” he stops when a grin cracks Duck’s face, and is managing a smile in return when his back spasms and he grips the chair to keep from falling.

“Shit, you okay?” Duck sets the bags down and hurries over to him. 

“Yes. I, the weapon the Flame used, the side effects can be felt for over a week. It also scrambles the futures in my mind for several days, which tends to make me dizzy.”

“Fuck, that sucks. Uh, I got some Tylenol and other medicine and shit while I was out, wasn’t sure what you’d need, and, uh, don’t usually have it in the house on account of bein super tough. You should probably eat before you take anythin though.”

“Yes, good idea. I, uh, I don’t want to impose, I, I can get something on my way home.”

“Uhhhhhhhhhhh.” Duck scratches his arm, ashamed, “no, you can’t. You ain’t in any shape to travel, or to be on your own for longer than a few hours. I brought you here so I could look after you somewhere safe, where whoever hurt you couldn’t find you.”

“That’s very kind, Duck, but all the same I should go back to my hideout.”

“Also you’re under house arrest.”

“Excuse me?!” Indrid leaps up, then immediately sits back down, dizzy. 

“Look, when the police saw who I rescued, they kept clamorin for me to turn you over, or to send you to a hospital who would do the same as soon as you opened your eyes. I just...couldn’t do it. So Ned talked ‘em into a deal. You’d stay under house arrest with the Pine Guard, and we’d look after you while also makin sure you couldn’t start nothin.”

“So I’m going to live here. With you.” Indrid tries to sound resigned instead of excited.

“Yep. But, uh, if you need a break or change of scene, or we ain’t gettin along, even though it sees like we been doin a better job of that lately, you can stay with someone else. Aubrey’s place has a real nice garden, and Mama’s is real fortified and cozy-”

“Duck, I want to stay here. I am sure the others are lovely once you get to know them but, well, I trust you. I, you have seen me in vulnerable moments and did not harm me. You didn’t even mock me. I feel safe with you. Also, your cat likes me.” He points to where said cat is now kneading his leg, purring happily. 

“That is a point in your favor. Here, I’m gonna go put away groceries and get some pizza bagels heatin up. You just take it easy right here, okay?”

“I can manage that. But, before you do, please answer me one thing?”

“Shoot.”

“Why did you stop fighting me one on one?”

Duck sighs, sitting down so the cat is between them, “I wish I could say it was some strategy or because I wanted to be better at keepin the city safe. Real reason is, I was gettin fonder and fonder of you. I didn’t know what I’d do if we were alone, and not knowin scared the fuck out of me.”

“I see. Was it so alarming to feel affection for me?”

“Wha-no, no, what I meant was that I was afraid I wouldn’t want to hurt you but you’d still want to hurt me, or I’d want to do things with you that you didn’t want but felt like you couldn’t stop me, or, just, any combo of things where conflictin feelins lead to trouble.” 

“Oh.”

Duck stares at him for a moment, waiting for him to say more. But nothing comes. Indrid wants to confess, but he can’t figure out what, exactly, the confession would be. The shorter man’s face falls for an instant, before he smiles again. 

“Guess we’re roommates now.”

“Roommates. Yes.” Indrid wracks his brain for what he knows about how two people live in a space, something he has not done since he ran all those years ago.

When that fails, he draws on his nights in front of the T.V for clues.

“Do I need to label my food? Or hang a sock on the door?”

“What?” Duck giggles

“Those are roommate things!”

“You’re right, you’re right” Duck holds up his hands in surrender, still giggling, “You don’t gotta label food, and no need to hang a sock if you need privacy; that room you’re in is the spare bedroom. Mine’s just across the hall. We can figure out chores and things as we go; might make you clean the bathrooms to make up for all the punchin.”

“That is more than fair.” Indrid smiles.

“There it is.” Duck murmurs.

Indrid cocks his head.

“That smile. You’re happy one, not your evil one. Make’s you look so fuckin stunnin.”

He disappears into the kitchen before Indrid can decide on being flattered or flustered. Settles on both, rolls onto his back on the couch, pulling a large, plaid blanket down onto himself, fuzzes with the pillows to find a position that doesn’t hurt. 

The smell of processed cheese and cheap marinara fills the house as Duck walks in with something hidden behind his back. 

“You might need this while you’re nestin up on the couch.”

He produces the mothman pillow from Indrid’s hide-out, which the villain grabs, wrapping his arms around it.

“Kinda had to give away your hideout. Sorry. They’re gonna bring more of your stuff over later, but they let me put together a box of things you might need right away. Grabbed your toothbrush and such too.”

“Thank you.” Indrid’s replies, muffled against the pillow. “Duck, I, I don’t know how, what am I supposed to do now? How am I supposed to repay you?”

“You don’t got to. Yeah, there’s some things you could do that’d make both our lives a whole fuck of a lot easier. But Indrid?” He kneels down so they’re face to face, cups the back of Indrid’s head, and it’s tender and warm and Indrid presses into the gesture, desperate for more. 

“Long and short of it is I’m so fuckin glad you’re alive.” 

The chapped lips on his cheek can’t be written off as a dream this time. Duck turns his face gently by his chin to kiss the other and Indrid whimpers.

The timer dings.

“That’s lunch ready. I’ll go grab it, we gotta some calories into you, you been out for nearly whole fuckin day.” He stands, pauses, then reaches forward to trail a thumb on Indrid’s left cheek and down to his lips.

“Don’t you go anywhere.”

Indrid kisses the pad of the thumb before nipping it once, “Not a chance. You are stuck with me, Duck Newton.”

Duck grins, “Think I can handle that”

[ladyfl4me]

i’m honestly not satisfied with duck’s ending! i do not believe a man who loves the monongahela as much as he does, who knows everyone in town and genuinely cares about the dumb shit they get up too, who has a little sister he loves and whos town he protects just got fucking decimated... would go to brazil&date the woman who was his teacher for 35 out of 36 episodes! maybe its just me but ducks in his 40s i don’t think he’d suddenly just up and... basically skip town idk! srry 2rant in ur inbox

don’t worry, you’re good! i honestly felt some dissonance there, too, like. i understand why justin thought sending him to brazil was a good idea. as a recent anon that @ moschicanes got pointed out, the baptist really jumped out because he also sent jane to honduras doing mission work. so like. as someone who’s really outside the christian community/sphere, i’m coming from a place of extreme inauthority, but i’ve come to the assumption that it’s ingrained in justin to want to send a character to a foreign place in need, because of his background. and esp because a plant-based nature restoration goal is very very very much in Duck’s purview.

but… what about the home front? what about the damage done to kepler during the battle? what about his friends and family, people he’d known for decades, recovering from the disaster? why not help them too (unless he did before leaving and i forgot about it lmao) and stay, and help rebuild? as the TVTropes page for TAZ Amnesty brings up, Kepler is down in the fucking dumps economically at the start of the podcast. And duck cares enough about his town and the place he lives that he “believes that the town can market itself based on the area’s natural beauty.” that’s a duck who wants his town to thrive, and would love it to thrive based on a thing he cares deeply about.

the duck at the end of the podcast doesn’t seem to care about his hometown in the same way anymore. it’s as he’s eager to leave the place behind, eager to branch out and go elsewhere. and that could be called character development, if you’re so inclined. i can make an argument for it. maybe it makes sense that now that duck knows his place in the universe, he is using his power to change things for good and put some life into the world. maybe him expanding his boundaries beyond the borders of his hometown, for the first time in his life, is a good thing for him. rebirth and starting life over can happen at any age.

i don’t know. i’m not balls to the wall excited about duck’s decision to go to brazil, but i see why they thought it was a decent end to his arc. but like. going to brazil with minerva really wasn’t necessary, i don’t think. it almost seems like it came out of loneliness, because let’s face it - ned was dead, aubrey was on another planet, most of his friends except juno were off doing other things, and it makes sense that duck would latch onto one of the last people left in his corner. but it didn’t have to be that way. were we found family baited like a friend of mine says???? maybe so. idk this is very very very stream of consciousness right now but that’s the energy i’m getting. basically you’re right and i totally understand where you’re coming from on all of it

[clericduck]

To Warm A Soul

Pairing: Indruck

Words: 1694

Warnings: Almost hypothermia, death mention (doesn’t actually happen), self deprecation 

Indrid did not anticipate getting caught in the storm, but here he is. He cannot move because of the cold, but if he doesn't move, he might die. Luckily for him, Duck shows up, and Duck is warm in more ways than one.

READ ME ON AO3!

Indrid was cold- well, he always was cold, it was his last name after all, but this was a different kind of cold. Bone and brain numbing, he couldn’t quite figure out where he was, and the visions in his head had all gone to static. Not surprising, his future vision wasn’t the most effective in the cold. All he could remember was the snowstorm hitting, and vaguely noting that he wasn't gonna make it home in time before he went in a sort of torpor. Ah. That provided a bit more context. He was curled up under a tree, snow clinging to his hair, wrapped in the thin jacket that he had thought would be enough, but had ended up being very, very wrong about. Gosh, he probably wasn't going to be able to make it back to his trailer until after it had warmed up, and he wasn't sure when that was going to be. But he was was probably gonna die out here if he didn’t at least try. Well, he was very much fucked, it seemed.

Weakly, he tried to cry out. His voice barely worked. A soft “help-- anyone?” was absorbed into the vast snowy emptiness of the Monongahela. Slowly, as every nerve in his body protested against the movement, against fully waking up, he made himself sit up, resting his head against the broad trunk of the tree he had slept under. He wished he had telepathy. But no, he had stupid future vision that didn't even work half the time. Fuck this, man. He was gonna die of hypothermia, all because he had chanced a trip to the lodge to catch up with old friends. Barclay had offered to drive him back, but of course he refused, because the chances of him freezing to death were lower were Barclay getting them both killed on some black ice. Well, they had been when he left. Stupid, stupid, stup-

“Indrid?”

He was pulled out his pre-death pity party by a familiar voice. He looked up, and through his red glasses, he saw the familiar ranger, bushy eyebrows knit together in concern.

“Indrid, what the hell are you doing? You’re covered in snow-- God above, did y’all sleep out here?” Duck approached him hurriedly as Indrid tried to offer a reassuring smile. It probably didn’t come off as reassuring as he wanted, because Duck just grew more concerned.

“Can- fuck-- can you talk? Stand? Walk?”

Indrid sighed to himself, mustering up the scraps of energy he had left to speak again.

“My- My apologies- I am-- very c-cold. I can- I can talk. Don’t know-- about the rest.”

His shoulders slumped when he finished talking, and a panicked looked flashed across Duck’s mismatched eyes.

“Right- fuck, cool. Okay. Uh. Can- fuck- can I like, pick you up? I’m gonna carry you to my truck to get you warmed up. Is that okay?”

Indrid nodded. He didn’t care how, he just needed to get out of this cold. Duck scooped him up with a surprising amount of gentleness for such a clumsy, brawny man, and Indrid could already feel Duck’s body head radiating off of him. Vaguely, he curled closer to the warmth, not caring that Duck probably thought that was weird. That was a problem for future Indrid to deal with. Duck carried him through the snowy pines, to his familiar truck.

“Hey, Indrid, I'm gonna have to set you down for a sec to open the door, that alright?”

Indred hummed an affirmative, and Duck set him down gently on the hood of the forest green pickup, and he immediately felt the lack of Duck’s body warmth, shivering a bit as Duck quickly opened the door of his truck. He picked Indrid back up before setting him down in the passenger’s seat. He closed the door and walked around to the driver’s side, the first thing he did once he started the car was turning up the heat to full blast.

“So uh- Do you want me to drive you back to your trailer?” Duck said, glancing over at Indrid. He hummed another affirmative as the warm air started mercifully blasting his face. Duck didn’t start driving immediately-- instead, he took off his coat, probably because it was going to get too hot for him in the car, Indrid thought-- and gently laid it over Indrid. Oh. It was warm-- and smelled like pine needles. The warmth in his face was from the heater, obviously. Yeah. Another problem for future Indrid to deal with.

“Sorry, thought it might help since I’m pretty warm-- I shoulda asked first.” Duck said sheepishly.

“No-- no. Fine. Warm.” Indrid confirmed.

Duck started driving, and Indrid realized it was much easier to concentrate now that he was starting to warm up. Every once in a while, he would catch Duck sneaking a glance at him. Probably just making sure he was okay. Yeah. That had to be it.

When they got back to the Winnebago, Duck looked back at Indrid, before getting out and walking around to the passenger side, opening the door.

“You think you can walk now?”

“Uh-” tentatively, Indrid moved his legs. They seemed to move alright, but the question was whether they could support his weight. A quick check of his future vision told him that said future vision wasn’t clear enough yet for that to be a reliable guess. Well, guess he’d have to find out the old fashioned way. He scooted to the edge of the seat, and Duck held out a hand to help support him. He took the coat that Dack had draped over him and draped it over his shoulders, trying to sap the last bits of warm from it as the heaters lost the battle with the cold air coming in through the open door, and then took ducks hand as he exited the car--

And then immediately fell forward into Duck, face burying in his chest as Duck’s other arm wrapped around him to support him.

“Okay-- guess that’s a no then?” Duck said, concern and amusement lacing the twang of his accent.

“Sorry,” Indrid mumbled into his chest. The warmth of Indrid’s cheeks was just from the body heat radiating from Duck’s chest. That was it.

“You’re fine. I’m gonna carry you into the trailer then, that okay?”

“Yeah.”

After a bit of shuffling, Duck finally scooped Indrid back up into his arms. He carried him over to the trailer and paused.

“It’s unlocked,” Indrid mumbled.

“Why?”

“Thought I was gonna be home sooner.”

Duck nudged open the door with his foot before turning and catching it with his back.

“Damn it’s hot in here. Did you leave your fucking space heaters on while you were gone?”

“Again. Didn’t think I would be gone long.”

Duck set Indrid gently down on the couch, and all Indrid could do was lutch Duck’s coat closer to him as he waited to warm up.

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as Duck moved to the kitchenette of the Winnebago. Indrid waited quietly as he defrosted, waiting for the tv static in his head to calm itself. Duck searched through his cabinets for- something. Indrid couldn’t tell what, but, he did hear a little noise of triumph when he found it that made Indrid’s heart squeeze a little-- wait. No. Stop that, not this again. He cannot be falling for Duck. No. Duck didn’t like him like that. He’d looked, there were next to no timelines where Duck liked him back. If only he could remember which timeline that was-- no. He wasn’t gonna manipulate Duck into liking him, that would be beyond disgusting.

A soft whistling jerked him out of his thoughts. He looked over at the kitchen and-- Duck had the kettle on. Damn, Indrid forget he even had a kettle. He generally didn't really make tea. He didn’t think he even had any tea bags. He was about to tell Duck this, when the ranger pulled a small box out of of one of the pockets of his uniform. He opened it, and put a tea bag into a mug he had set onto the counter. Duck carried tea with him all the time. That was. Cute. No, it wasn’t, shut up Indrid.

“Hey, I hope you like herbal tea, all I really got,” Duck called from the kitchen.

“That’s fine. Just put some sugar in it, if you could?”

“You got it.”

Soon enough, Duck brought over the mug of hot tea, sitting on the couch after handing it to Indrid. Subconsciously, Indrid leaned into Duck. It was because he was warm, Indrid told himself as he closed his eyes for a moment. Just because he was warm.

“Just because I’m warm eh?” Duck teased, and Indrid’s eyes flew open, panic seizing his chest.

Had he said that out loud?

“Indrid?”

“I- uh. I’m so sorry. You. You probably don’t like me like that sorry I just made this really weird--” Indrid started to pull away, he immediately started missing Duck’s warmth , but Duck’s hand on his shoulder stopped him. He looked over at Duck, and even through the red tint of the glasses, he could tell that Duck’s cheeks were definitely a darker color than the rest of his face.

Duck mumbled something that Indrid couldn't quite hear, or more accurately, couldn’t quite believe.

“I’m… sorry?”

“I said,” he watched as Duck took a deep breath, “I said I like you too, Indrid.”

The way Duck said his name made his heart do that thing again, but this time, it didn't cause him to panic. Duck liked him, and he said it without changing his story thirty times so. He couldn't have been lying. Still, Indrid searched his eyes for any hint of deceit, but found only nerves. And so he put the mug of tea that he had been clutching like a lifeline on the table in front of the couch, and closed the gap between him and Duck, catching his lips in a kiss. He found that he had never felt warmer than in that moment.

[mebwalker]

An Update: French and Indian War

An Update: French and Indian War

Lt. Col. Washington on horseback during the Battle of Monongahela — Régnier 1834 —ooo— Dear readers, I had to rearrange my post on the Battle of Jumonville Glen. I added quotations I could no longer find when I finished writing on the Jumonville Skirmish. No one saw what happened, so reports vary. Yet we have a general depiction. No, I did not rewrite my post. I moved paragraphs up and down and…

[americanhistorynerd-blog]

July 9, 1755: Washington's leadership at the Battle of Monongahela helped save the remnants of Braddock's army and Becomes Legend 

“In the spring of 1755, a column of 2,100 British Regulars and 500 colonial militia commanded by Major General Edward Braddock, set out from Virginia to advance upon and take the French stronghold at Fort Duquesne. Braddock's column faced the daunting challenge of moving their men and material over the rough, densely wooded Allegheny Mountains.

George Washington accompanied Braddock's column as an aide-de-camp to the general. Washington, who knew the terrain well, was recovering from a terrible case of dysentery as Braddock's force reached the Monongahela River ten miles from Fort Duquesne. In a wooded ravine on the far side of the river, Braddock's leading force of 1,300 men was suddenly attacked and defeated by a smaller French and native force on July 9, 1755 at the Battle of Monongahela. During the attack, most of the senior British officers, including Gen. Edward Braddock were killed or severely wounded. With panic in the air, George Washington quickly rode into the fray and helped to reestablish some amount of order. During the savage fight, Washington had two horses shot out from underneath him and his coat was pierced by four musket balls. Washington's cool leadership helped many of the surviving soldiers to effectively escape the onslaught. Fifteen years after the battle, the chieftain of the Indians Washington had fought sought him out and gave this account to Washington of what had happened during the battle: "I am chief and ruler over my tribes. My influence extends to the waters of the great lakes and to the far blue mountains. I have traveled a long and weary path that I might see the young warrior of the great battle. It was on the day when the white man's blood mixed with the streams of our forest that I first beheld this chief [Washington]...I called to my young men and said...Quick, let your aim be certain, and he dies. Our rifles were leveled, rifles which, but for you, knew not how to miss--'twas all in vain, a power mighter far than we, shielded you...I am come to pay homeage to the man who is the particular favorite of Heaven, and who can never die in battle."

Despite the British loss of 977 killed or wounded, Washington was lauded as the "hero of Monongahela" by Virginia Governor Robert Dinwiddie and was given the rank of colonel in command of the 1,200 man Virginia Regiment.”

[shah2323-madtitan]

Pittsburgh Tomorrow Podcast: Richard Florida, Author, “The New Urban Crisis”

Donald Bonk interviews Richard Florida, influential professor, writer and concrete theorist, as a part of the Pittsburgh Tomorrow podcast sequence. That is the second a part of a three-part interview. The transcript is abridged and edited for readability.

View the episode archive here. Learn Richard Florida’s Inventive Class bio here. Learn his College of Toronto bio here.

“I feel focusing actually exhausting on ensuring that Pittsburgh isn’t pulled aside—respect for distinction—might be necessary. The truth that Pittsburgh is blue and purple is necessary. However in Pittsburgh, that isn’t a pitched battle like it’s within the nation. Folks even of their similar household have a Trump supporter and a Biden supporter.” —Richard Florida

Richard Florida’s ultimate quote from Episode 11 (Half 1)

Florida: I feel Pittsburgh might be the perfect, probably the most livable, probably the most sustainable. And I’d echo probably the most racially and economically inclusive. Mayor Peduto is an previous pal of mine from my Pittsburgh days. He’s put an emphasis on inclusive innovation. I feel this concept of a shared prosperity, reminiscent of the union motion, the steelworkers, to individuals who wrestle, who actually fought pitched battles within the streets of Homestead alongside the Monongahela River. I feel Pittsburgh must be the mannequin of the perfect, probably the most equitable, probably the most inclusive, the healthiest, the most secure and most resilient small metropolis on this planet.

Richard Florida Episode 12 (Half 2)

Bonk: That’s extraordinarily useful, simply tying that previous historical past, as a result of the union motion clearly shared wealth. Shared prosperity was Pittsburgh’s story via the late 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

Florida: Take into consideration additionally the devastating influence of the Spanish flu on Pittsburgh: The truth that individuals had been annihilated within the manufacturing unit and metal mill complexes, the truth that there wasn’t entry to well being care, and the way that stimulated a motion in Pittsburgh to offer significantly better public well being.

After which, that mixed with the nice floods and the air air pollution, with the air air pollution contributing to respiratory misery. This different motion after World Warfare II, to sort of do the Renaissance, which wasn’t a lot about altering the economic system because it was about making Pittsburgh a cleaner and safer and higher place to dwell.

If you happen to take the union motion to present working individuals a greater livelihood, and also you mix that with the environmental motion and the motion for well being, Pittsburgh has this sort of innovation in its very DNA. That’s the opposite factor I feel Pittsburgh has going for it within the wake of this COVID disaster.

My view is that the central enterprise district such as you see in Manhattan—the monetary district, the Mid-City Headquarters District—is a relic of the previous. It’s sort of the final echo of the commercial age. It’s what the manufacturing unit complexes had been to Pittsburgh and Detroit. There isn’t a motive that lots of of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of individuals have to get in vehicles and trains and busses and subways and commute a half hour, 45 minutes, an hour, 90 minutes every method to go to work.

Pittsburgh is a metropolis of neighborhoods. At its core, it’s a metropolis of neighborhoods. What urbanists are speaking about at this time is that the COVID disaster creates the power to rebalance metropolitan areas round a set of hubs and spokes. In fact, there’ll be a midtown and a monetary district. There’ll be a downtown Pittsburgh.

However you possibly can think about—there already is—out close to the schools, out in among the northern, southern and western suburbs, creating these spokes, these neighborhoods the place individuals can work, dwell and play and spend much more time with their household. Pittsburgh is completely laid out to do that as a result of it’s a metropolis like Toronto, a metropolis of neighborhoods. It isn’t only a metropolis constructed round one middle core, though it’s middle core, after all, is spectacular. It’s a metropolis constructed round quite a few spectacular neighborhoods with little facilities of their very own. In turning into this new sort of metropolis area, Pittsburgh can construct itself round its nice historical past of neighborhoods as a secure, inclusive and resilient place with round 15 and 20 minute neighborhoods unfold all throughout the area.

Bonk: You’ve listed a variety of concepts when it comes to fairness, innovation and the inexperienced motion. The writer is on this moonshot notion. If you happen to had one massive concept that Pittsburgh may take into consideration adopting, what wouldn’t it be? Do you assume there’s one singular concept amongst these concepts that will be transformative of Pittsburgh’s narrative?

Florida: Yeah, I do. Pittsburgh ought to put collectively each single philanthropic greenback it will possibly. We will go down the listing of foundations and the brand new wealth that’s been created in Pittsburgh, not simply of Pittsburghers in Pittsburgh, however individuals from Pittsburgh who made wealth exterior of Pittsburgh. Put collectively the largest pot of cash—Tepper, Cuban, Heinz, Mellon, Benedum, no matter—to draw the 100 finest and brightest celebrity geniuses on this planet, from pc science and synthetic intelligence to arts and tradition.

One of many issues the COVID disaster has achieved is make individuals really feel unmoored. For the primary time of their lives, individuals are saying, “How do I wish to dwell? I wish to spend extra time with my household. I don’t wish to return to the grind. I don’t wish to get on a aircraft. I don’t wish to go to the workplace day-after-day. I’m working from house. I’m spending time with my spouse and youngsters. Spending extra time with my pals. I’m dwelling in my neighborhood. I’m getting more healthy. I’m using my bike. I’m strolling.”

If Pittsburgh mentioned we wish to appeal to 100 MacArthur Genius Awards—which isn’t a MacArthur Genius Award that claims, “Keep the place you’re”—it will say, “Come to Pittsburgh and be a part of this cohort of 100 of those unbelievably good individuals from throughout disciplines.”

And use this to undergird Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon. Carnegie Mellon is the place that’s nonetheless closest to my coronary heart. I feel, pound for pound, Carnegie Mellon College is the best college on this planet. Bar none. It will not be as massive as MIT, will not be as massive as Stanford, however pound for pound, given what it does, as a result of it doesn’t have this grandiosity. It has a humility and the individuals there are simply unimaginable.

I don’t know everyone in my division within the Rotman faculty (College of Toronto), it’s so massive. Ninety 5 thousand college students within the College of Toronto. I knew nearly each college member at Carnegie Mellon. I had a joint appointment in pc science and software program engineering as a result of I used to be working with individuals there.

Anyway, make Pittsburgh the best middle of synthetic intelligence and computer-related, software-related city know-how on this planet. So one genius award every for 100 of the perfect and brightest, however an actual concentrate on synthetic intelligence, significantly because it applies to good cities.

This space of city tech—mobility, surveillance, city automation, supply, we will go right down to listing, micro-mobility—is massive. That is the largest sector of excessive know-how since software program.

Pittsburgh is a laboratory. It has the dimensions to attempt it out. It has Carnegie Mellon. I’d say, general, concentrate on these 100 geniuses, however make an actual deep dive transfer now into making Pittsburgh the middle of synthetic intelligence, computer-related innovation in cities and good cities of city know-how. These two issues are moonshots that may repay.

I keep in mind when Astro Teller (CEO of Google X) was at Carnegie Mellon and he got here up with this firm known as Physique Media, which was one of many first to place a sensor in your arm—I’ve a match bit on my arm now. He was the primary to do this sort of factor. All of that sensor know-how in your home and within the airport, temperature checks, well being checks, we’re going to must outfit elevators and buildings in order that they’re more healthy and safer: That stuff comes out of about 4 universities on this planet, of which Carnegie Mellon is one.

In order that’s the moonshot. The Heart for City Innovation, City Tech and the 100 finest and brightest on this planet come to Pittsburgh with their analysis financed. Boy, it will be one thing that will place Pittsburgh for achievement for the subsequent hundred years.

Bonk: As you mentioned, the human scale that exists permits individuals actually to have a cup of espresso in a means, in Pittsburgh, amongst these hundred geniuses or different college members at CMU, which may not exist at a large college.

Florida: Yeah. One different factor, Donald, that we all the time talked about, Herb Simon (1978 Nobel Prize profitable economist and a Turing Award winner, pc science’s highest honor) all the time talked about and I talked to my colleagues about once I lived in Pittsburgh: My home or condominium saved getting nearer to the college such that once I left, I lived on Devonshire Highway throughout the car parking zone from the Heinz College, renting a home that the college had acquired.

Now, why is that? In New York Metropolis, Toronto, Los Angeles or Boston, there are plenty of distractions. In Pittsburgh, there are fewer. I’m not saying that’s good or dangerous, however you gravitate to the place the power is. The place’s the power in Pittsburgh? On the Carnegie Mellon campus.

I in all probability would have been dwelling in my workplace had I stayed one other 5 years. The size of town is small. Many individuals dwell shut by. Most of us come to the workplace once we lived in Pittsburgh. Nobody ever goes to their workplace in New York Metropolis as a result of it’s exhausting to get to, it’s far, and there’s plenty of distractions. However in Pittsburgh, you gravitate to your colleagues and your college students into the on-campus life.

That’s one other massive benefit to the world surrounding Carnegie Mellon and the College of Pittsburgh—it’s nearly like an prolonged campus, a collegial campus. That’s an enormous deal. Extra individuals are on the lookout for that now. Extra individuals are saying, “I don’t wish to get on a aircraft. I don’t wish to do all this different stuff. I wish to do actually fascinating work and be near my household and pals.” And I feel Pittsburgh has that to supply.

Sensible individuals have all the time cherished Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh has good and progressive in its DNA. Pittsburgh has all the time revered intelligence. It’s not like a lot of the remainder of America is, so captivated by superstar tradition.

I’ll offer you a comic story. We spend the winter in Miami Seashore and, you understand, we like town and wish to assist the mayor. And also you see what’s occurring with the COVID disaster there. It finally ends up that my youngsters, despite the fact that I’m Catholic and my youngsters and my spouse are Catholic, my youngsters in Miami are in Jewish preschool. In our little Jewish preschool are DJ Khalid’s youngsters. DJ Khalid is Palestinian. It’s a really secular Jewish preschool.

Anyway, so, the mayor is attempting to get it collectively. COVID is spiking. My spouse says, “I’ll speak to Khalid and have him do a PSA (Public Service Announcement) for carrying a masks.”

The one particular person the parents in Miami would hearken to is DJ Khalid. Do you see what I’m saying? They wouldn’t know what to do with a professor like me if I mentioned, “Put on a masks.” They might say, “Who’s that man?” However in Pittsburgh, there’s a respect for intelligence. If you happen to’re at Carnegie Mellon, you might have standing locally the best way you don’t have even should you’re at MIT in Boston; you might have some. So there’s a respect for studying, for analysis, for intelligence in Pittsburgh.

In that means, it’s a magnet as a result of individuals say, “Oh, I can have help from my analysis, however individuals assume what I’m doing is definitely good. If I work at UPMC and I’m a transplant surgeon or working at tissue engineering, individuals assume I’m truly contributing to the society in a significant means.”

So I feel it’s each the truth that we’ve magnets for expertise and that there’s great respect for that expertise within the surroundings that’s very distinctive within the America of superstar tradition at this time. Tradition worships celebrities and wealthy individuals. Pittsburgh is very similar to, I hate to say, going again in time. It’s like being a part of the material of what America was and plenty of issues we misplaced. Intellectuals and researchers actually, actually like that local weather.

It’s actually fascinating that once I have a look at the USA from the vantage level of Toronto, I’d say our nationwide politics is in deep, deep hassle. We’re so darn polarized. I imply, look, Joe Biden will get elected. It might be means higher. The nation will pull collectively. He’ll truly put some Republicans in his administration. I feel this (time, now) is the low level.

However once I have a look at what’s nice about America, it’s the Pittsburghs and the Philadelphias and even Newark, my hometown and Bentonville, Arkansas, the place I’m doing work, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Omaha, Nebraska. It’s this up-from-the backside, public-private partnership anchored by universities like Carnegie Mellon, Penn, Drexel, or NYU—I might go down the listing—Rutgers, Newark and NJIT in New Jersey, which can be placing collectively these redevelopment efforts and now specializing in resiliency and inclusivity. It’s this up from the underside factor.

I feel one of many massive tendencies we’ve to vary within the wake of this COVID disaster is don’t strengthen the federal authorities. The very last thing we have to do is give our federal authorities extra energy. What we have to do is give the Pittsburghs of the world the facility they should develop.

Perhaps Pittsburgh won’t ever be the trendiest place for younger individuals. Perhaps younger individuals will all the time go to the large, massive cities, particularly of their 20s and early 30s earlier than they wish to have a household.

However then when you might have youngsters, you say, “Oh, it’s exhausting to dwell right here. The faculties aren’t superb. I’ve received to commute. I’ve received to attempt to discover a public faculty. I received to commute them a half an hour, an hour to a personal faculty. I don’t wish to put them round all elite wealthy youngsters. I’d quite have them in a superb public faculty or in a neighborhood faculty.”

Pittsburgh has an surroundings of affordability, cohesive neighborhoods and great housing inventory. There are just a few locations like that in the USA, however it’s not an infinite listing. Going again to the COVID disaster: When individuals develop into unmoored, they are saying, “I like New York. I like San Francisco. However I’ve two or three youngsters now and it’s getting much less reasonably priced. Do I actually wish to go to the suburb, or can I distant work from Pittsburgh, Nashville or Indianapolis?”

Now, it won’t be that everyone results in Pittsburgh, however everyone has a pal who mentioned that they favored Pittsburgh. Nashville had this vibe occurring 5 – 6 years in the past. Pittsburgh’s now there.

What I’d say to Pittsburgh is to be careful for the brand new city disaster. Be careful for the disaster of success. If you happen to mentioned to individuals in Austin 20 years in the past that Austin would develop into unaffordable, they might have checked out you such as you’re from the moon. If you happen to mentioned Nashville would develop into unaffordable, individuals would simply say you’re an insane particular person. However when you get this dynamic, it will get a maintain of you. Denver is within the throes of it now.

The opposite factor I’d say to Pittsburgh is to watch out, as a result of all the pieces that you simply’ve achieved proper, might develop into, paradoxically, a problem for you or part of a brand new city disaster that units up the lure of success.

Bonk: Only a sidebar right here shortly earlier than we get to the final query. I interviewed two individuals just lately. One is a Wharton grad who has a startup named Qlicket (www.qlicket.com). His identify is Vivek Kumar. He’s 35. He has his firm in Pittsburgh, however he additionally has distributed groups in New Delhi and San Francisco. What he does is arbitrage Pittsburgh. He lives in Pittsburgh, however he has a room in Silicon Valley, so he flies there, stays in his little room, after which flies again to Pittsburgh when he must. So it’s not essentially staying in a single place or the opposite, however Pittsburgh is a house base.

Florida: I feel you’re precisely proper. I feel this concept of the multi-locational family goes to develop into increasingly more. I’ve heard this lots about San Francisco, however I’ve additionally heard it more and more about New York.

San Francisco and New York are just too costly to have plenty of house. It’s actually exhausting to have the house it’s essential to have a house workplace and have youngsters. So what you do is hire or purchase a studio, which continues to be dearer than a home in Pittsburgh. Now, some individuals in San Francisco are going to the agricultural areas exterior of San Francisco. Some individuals in New York are going to the Hudson Valley, however others are saying, “The heck with that. I’d a lot choose Pittsburgh.”

My good pals on the Kaiser Household Basis in Tulsa have created this program known as Tulsa Distant, which an try and create a neighborhood of distant employees. There are individuals from New York, San Francisco, L.A., Chicago and Atlanta. I might go down the listing of those who mentioned, “I’d quite dwell in Tulsa.”

I feel I’ll all the time must be related to New York, Washington, D.C. or someplace. However you possibly can dwell in a single place and hook up with the hub facilities. And Pittsburgh is one.

Look, when individuals speak in regards to the rise of the remaining, they make a mistake once they discuss 300 locations. Once we actually drill down into the rise of the remaining, you’re speaking a couple of dozen or two dozen locations. And Pittsburgh is on that listing. There’s a very quick listing of locations that may be hub and spoke connections, and Pittsburgh is definitely one in every of them.

Bonk: So, the analogy is the hub and spoke within the Pittsburgh metro space—neighborhoods connecting to the good facilities like Oakland—is identical hub and spoke metaphor for the nation utilizing Pittsburgh.

Florida: Yeah. I forgot my one different moonshot concept. I had one other one which I received so enthusiastic about, which fits again to days in Pittsburgh speaking to people like Tim McNulty, who’s nonetheless at Carnegie Mellon, and Don Smith on the Regional Industrial Growth Company (RIDC).

We talked about how you could possibly make Pittsburgh extra of a hub. With the Biden administration more likely to come on stream and with main infrastructure spending, a part of the continued stimulus can be excessive velocity rail.

If we had been to undertake a excessive velocity rail initiative in the USA, we might join what John Gottman, the nice financial geographer who invented the concept of megalopolis known as the Chi-Pitts Mega Area—excessive velocity rail going from Pittsburgh, west to Detroit and Chicago and east to Washington, D.C. and New York, or connecting in via Washington, D.C. And perhaps sometime to Toronto; that’s extra of a pipe dream. However take into consideration an East-West Coast connection the place you’d have excessive velocity rail that would cut back the rail commute considerably.

That’s the sport changer, the best way to make Pittsburgh actually the core spoke in a multi-hub spoke system. So that will be my third moonshot: 1. A expertise genius grant to deliver them to Pittsburgh (for instance, the highest 100 in AI, Pc Software program, Robotics, City Sensible-Tech, Arts & Tradition) 2. Make Pittsburgh the AI-urban tech capital of the world. three. Join the rattling place via high-speed rail, as a result of the Biden administration goes to must do it.

Bonk: Proper, so, create the bodily equal of the digital infrastructure that we have already got in place. That’s actually great and I respect that deep thought on that stage.

Lastly, have a look at 2050, three a long time sooner or later. 1990 is as distant as 2050. If you happen to’re within the City Redevelopment Authority, the mayor’s workplace or the county government’s workplace in Pittsburgh, are there three extra Pittsburgh-centric, granular issues that you simply assume Pittsburgh might tackle as mission that will make an impactful distinction?

Florida: In 2050, I’d be 93. I don’t assume I’ll be alive. My youngsters are going to be of their mid-30s. I need them to dwell in an excellent world. That’s what I need greater than something—my two ladies to dwell in a incredible world. That’s one thing I’m nervous about.

I’d say Pittsburgh wants to actually double down on social cohesion. It’s a tough factor. It’s not like, you understand, create an incubator or develop an industrial incentive bundle. One of many issues that distinguishes Pittsburgh from the remainder of America, which I like about Toronto and why my ladies have twin citizenship, is it’s very cohesive and you’ll really feel it pulling collectively in a disaster.

We arrange our entrance porch right here. Folks stroll by and have a glass of wine and speak within the night. That’s a Pittsburgh factor. I feel focusing actually exhausting on ensuring that Pittsburgh isn’t pulled aside—respect for distinction—might be necessary. The truth that Pittsburgh is blue and purple is necessary. However in Pittsburgh, that isn’t a pitched battle like it’s within the nation. Folks even of their similar household have a Trump supporter and a Biden supporter.

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Pittsburgh Tomorrow Podcast: Richard Florida, Author, “The New Urban Crisis” Articles, Author, crisis, Florida, Part, PITTSBURGH, Podcast, Richard, Science, Tomorrow, Urban via exercisesfatburnig.blogspot.com https://ift.tt/31RiF72

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Trump’s ‘Easy’ Trade War Hits Snags as China Plays the Long Game

New Post has been published on https://worldwide-finance.net/news/commodities-futures-news/trumps-easy-trade-war-hits-snags-as-china-plays-the-long-game

Trump’s ‘Easy’ Trade War Hits Snags as China Plays the Long Game

© Bloomberg. MONESSEN, PA – JUNE 28: Presumptive Republican candidate for President Donald Trump speaks to guests during a policy speech during a campaign stop at Alumisource on June 28, 2016 in Monessen, Pennsylvania. Trump continued to attack Hillary Clinton while delivering an economic policy speech targeting globalization and free trade. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

(Bloomberg) — In June 2016, presidential candidate Donald Trump stood between bales of crushed aluminum and a crowd of supporters in a factory outside of Pittsburgh and made a promise on trade that wasn’t hard to keep.

“If China does not stop its illegal activities, including its theft of American trade secrets, I will use every lawful — this is very easy. This is so easy. I love saying this,” he told workers at the recycling firm Alumisource, a former steel plant in Monessen, Pennsylvania. “I will use every lawful presidential power to remedy trade disputes.”

Three years later, he has clearly delivered on the pledge.

Trump’s tariff-driven attack against the world’s No. 2 economy has shown that expanding trade powers has indeed been the easy part. But as events this week show, winning a trade war against China — which Trump once tweeted would also be “easy” — looks increasingly like a more difficult and protracted endeavor than anticipated, with Beijing now showing more signs of digging in than capitulating.

Trump’s hawks have been arguing ever since the president took office that the only way to get China to make meaningful changes to what some openly call a “deviant economic model” is to continue punching it in the nose until you force surrender. Yet the big question looming now is whether that belligerent approach may be backfiring with daunting consequences for the global economy.

After Trump escalated his tariff war on Chinese imports earlier this month and blacklisted Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co., Chinese President Xi Jinping called on citizens to join a “new Long March,” prompting echoes of that call in Chinese state media.

“All of the Chinese people are ready to embark on a new ‘Long March’ journey with greater courage and resilience and will never yield to foreign bullying and assault,” state-run Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary on Friday.

The hope for a respite from rising tensions now rests on a planned meeting between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of a late-June Group of 20 Summit in Japan. But it’s not clear that meeting will even take place. Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the U.S., told Bloomberg Television on Friday that there had not yet been any official discussions about a meeting, though “the possibility is always open.”

“If things continue the way they are why would Xi want to meet with Trump,” said Jeffrey Schott, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Every day the wedge between the U.S. and the Chinese side seems to get bigger and there’s no sign of any bridges being built.”

China is also not the only one showing signs of preparing for a longer trade war.

Trump this week announced a new $16 billion aid program for farmers caught in the trade wars to whom just weeks ago he had been promising a deal with China that would mean huge new purchases of their crops. He also has settled a dispute with Canada and Mexico over steel tariffs, which had led to retaliation by the U.S. neighbors against agricultural exports.

Commodity markets are reflecting the gloomy prospects for the trade talks.

The price of U.S. soybeans, which China has stopped purchasing during the trade feud, is hovering close to the lowest level in a decade just as planting season gets under way. A headline this month in the Des Moines Register, the biggest newspaper in Iowa, underscored the pain: “It can’t get any worse.”

Clothing, Smartphones

A bigger potential economic and political risk now confronting Trump is the risk that the next wave of his tariffs will hit consumer staples like children’s clothing and smartphones imported from China and thus envelop the entire U.S. economy.

The fear of rising prices caused Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to pick up the phone and speak with Walmart (NYSE:) Inc. Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs, who has warned that duties on Chinese imports will raise prices for American consumers.

“I am monitoring this situation carefully,” Mnuchin told the House Financial Services committee on Wednesday.

China is turning the tables on the U.S., accusing the Trump administration of overreach and government intrusion into private enterprise. Though many in Washington believe the administration has valid security concerns, the restrictions on Chinese companies such as Huawei, in particular, have raised fears of a bigger technological war that could backfire against the U.S.

Tech Progress

“What are people really up to under the pretext of national security? We don’t know,” Cui said Friday. “Can they really stop the technological progress? Can they really deprive people of the right to benefit from the technologies? I don’t think so. And do they really have the interests of the American people in mind? I don’t think so either.”

The escalating battle over Huawei has left U.S. suppliers caught in the middle and raised questions for some industries about what some already see as the inevitable long-term damage to their position in the lucrative Chinese market.

John Neuffer, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association, said chip makers like many U.S. industries supported U.S. efforts to bolster national security. But U.S. semiconductor companies had also faced a “significant and immediate adverse impact’’ from the blacklisting, he said.

2020 Elections

In playing the long game, China may be looking at Trump’s weak poll numbers and trying to wait him out, in the hopes that a Democrat might unseat him in the 2020 election. Trump and those close to him see that as a miscalculation, portraying his tough stand on China as a political asset.

That confidence might be overstated around the Monongahela River town where Trump laid out his trade strategy during the 2016 campaign. Even after tariffs on steel imports from China and other countries, the industrial rebirth there hasn’t happened as he promised.

“We really haven’t seen much of a change in the revitalization that he spoke of with the mills,” said Leanna Spada, director of the Mon Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce in Charleroi, Pennsylvania. “There are some people who think it’s going to happen, but some still don’t see it — it’s just not feasible.”

Read More https://worldwide-finance.net/news/commodities-futures-news/trumps-easy-trade-war-hits-snags-as-china-plays-the-long-game

[jettadarkwynd]

Trump’s ‘Easy’ Trade War Hits Snags as China Plays the Long Game

New Post has been published on https://worldwide-finance.net/news/commodities-futures-news/trumps-easy-trade-war-hits-snags-as-china-plays-the-long-game

Trump’s ‘Easy’ Trade War Hits Snags as China Plays the Long Game

© Bloomberg. MONESSEN, PA – JUNE 28: Presumptive Republican candidate for President Donald Trump speaks to guests during a policy speech during a campaign stop at Alumisource on June 28, 2016 in Monessen, Pennsylvania. Trump continued to attack Hillary Clinton while delivering an economic policy speech targeting globalization and free trade. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

(Bloomberg) — In June 2016, presidential candidate Donald Trump stood between bales of crushed aluminum and a crowd of supporters in a factory outside of Pittsburgh and made a promise on trade that wasn’t hard to keep.

“If China does not stop its illegal activities, including its theft of American trade secrets, I will use every lawful — this is very easy. This is so easy. I love saying this,” he told workers at the recycling firm Alumisource, a former steel plant in Monessen, Pennsylvania. “I will use every lawful presidential power to remedy trade disputes.”

Three years later, he has clearly delivered on the pledge.

Trump’s tariff-driven attack against the world’s No. 2 economy has shown that expanding trade powers has indeed been the easy part. But as events this week show, winning a trade war against China — which Trump once tweeted would also be “easy” — looks increasingly like a more difficult and protracted endeavor than anticipated, with Beijing now showing more signs of digging in than capitulating.

Trump’s hawks have been arguing ever since the president took office that the only way to get China to make meaningful changes to what some openly call a “deviant economic model” is to continue punching it in the nose until you force surrender. Yet the big question looming now is whether that belligerent approach may be backfiring with daunting consequences for the global economy.

After Trump escalated his tariff war on Chinese imports earlier this month and blacklisted Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co., Chinese President Xi Jinping called on citizens to join a “new Long March,” prompting echoes of that call in Chinese state media.

“All of the Chinese people are ready to embark on a new ‘Long March’ journey with greater courage and resilience and will never yield to foreign bullying and assault,” state-run Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary on Friday.

The hope for a respite from rising tensions now rests on a planned meeting between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of a late-June Group of 20 Summit in Japan. But it’s not clear that meeting will even take place. Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the U.S., told Bloomberg Television on Friday that there had not yet been any official discussions about a meeting, though “the possibility is always open.”

“If things continue the way they are why would Xi want to meet with Trump,” said Jeffrey Schott, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Every day the wedge between the U.S. and the Chinese side seems to get bigger and there’s no sign of any bridges being built.”

China is also not the only one showing signs of preparing for a longer trade war.

Trump this week announced a new $16 billion aid program for farmers caught in the trade wars to whom just weeks ago he had been promising a deal with China that would mean huge new purchases of their crops. He also has settled a dispute with Canada and Mexico over steel tariffs, which had led to retaliation by the U.S. neighbors against agricultural exports.

Commodity markets are reflecting the gloomy prospects for the trade talks.

The price of U.S. soybeans, which China has stopped purchasing during the trade feud, is hovering close to the lowest level in a decade just as planting season gets under way. A headline this month in the Des Moines Register, the biggest newspaper in Iowa, underscored the pain: “It can’t get any worse.”

Clothing, Smartphones

A bigger potential economic and political risk now confronting Trump is the risk that the next wave of his tariffs will hit consumer staples like children’s clothing and smartphones imported from China and thus envelop the entire U.S. economy.

The fear of rising prices caused Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to pick up the phone and speak with Walmart (NYSE:) Inc. Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs, who has warned that duties on Chinese imports will raise prices for American consumers.

“I am monitoring this situation carefully,” Mnuchin told the House Financial Services committee on Wednesday.

China is turning the tables on the U.S., accusing the Trump administration of overreach and government intrusion into private enterprise. Though many in Washington believe the administration has valid security concerns, the restrictions on Chinese companies such as Huawei, in particular, have raised fears of a bigger technological war that could backfire against the U.S.

Tech Progress

“What are people really up to under the pretext of national security? We don’t know,” Cui said Friday. “Can they really stop the technological progress? Can they really deprive people of the right to benefit from the technologies? I don’t think so. And do they really have the interests of the American people in mind? I don’t think so either.”

The escalating battle over Huawei has left U.S. suppliers caught in the middle and raised questions for some industries about what some already see as the inevitable long-term damage to their position in the lucrative Chinese market.

John Neuffer, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association, said chip makers like many U.S. industries supported U.S. efforts to bolster national security. But U.S. semiconductor companies had also faced a “significant and immediate adverse impact’’ from the blacklisting, he said.

2020 Elections

In playing the long game, China may be looking at Trump’s weak poll numbers and trying to wait him out, in the hopes that a Democrat might unseat him in the 2020 election. Trump and those close to him see that as a miscalculation, portraying his tough stand on China as a political asset.

That confidence might be overstated around the Monongahela River town where Trump laid out his trade strategy during the 2016 campaign. Even after tariffs on steel imports from China and other countries, the industrial rebirth there hasn’t happened as he promised.

“We really haven’t seen much of a change in the revitalization that he spoke of with the mills,” said Leanna Spada, director of the Mon Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce in Charleroi, Pennsylvania. “There are some people who think it’s going to happen, but some still don’t see it — it’s just not feasible.”

Read More https://worldwide-finance.net/news/commodities-futures-news/trumps-easy-trade-war-hits-snags-as-china-plays-the-long-game

[cute1dfacts]

Trump’s ‘Easy’ Trade War Hits Snags as China Plays the Long Game

New Post has been published on https://worldwide-finance.net/news/commodities-futures-news/trumps-easy-trade-war-hits-snags-as-china-plays-the-long-game

Trump’s ‘Easy’ Trade War Hits Snags as China Plays the Long Game

© Bloomberg. MONESSEN, PA – JUNE 28: Presumptive Republican candidate for President Donald Trump speaks to guests during a policy speech during a campaign stop at Alumisource on June 28, 2016 in Monessen, Pennsylvania. Trump continued to attack Hillary Clinton while delivering an economic policy speech targeting globalization and free trade. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

(Bloomberg) — In June 2016, presidential candidate Donald Trump stood between bales of crushed aluminum and a crowd of supporters in a factory outside of Pittsburgh and made a promise on trade that wasn’t hard to keep.

“If China does not stop its illegal activities, including its theft of American trade secrets, I will use every lawful — this is very easy. This is so easy. I love saying this,” he told workers at the recycling firm Alumisource, a former steel plant in Monessen, Pennsylvania. “I will use every lawful presidential power to remedy trade disputes.”

Three years later, he has clearly delivered on the pledge.

Trump’s tariff-driven attack against the world’s No. 2 economy has shown that expanding trade powers has indeed been the easy part. But as events this week show, winning a trade war against China — which Trump once tweeted would also be “easy” — looks increasingly like a more difficult and protracted endeavor than anticipated, with Beijing now showing more signs of digging in than capitulating.

Trump’s hawks have been arguing ever since the president took office that the only way to get China to make meaningful changes to what some openly call a “deviant economic model” is to continue punching it in the nose until you force surrender. Yet the big question looming now is whether that belligerent approach may be backfiring with daunting consequences for the global economy.

After Trump escalated his tariff war on Chinese imports earlier this month and blacklisted Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co., Chinese President Xi Jinping called on citizens to join a “new Long March,” prompting echoes of that call in Chinese state media.

“All of the Chinese people are ready to embark on a new ‘Long March’ journey with greater courage and resilience and will never yield to foreign bullying and assault,” state-run Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary on Friday.

The hope for a respite from rising tensions now rests on a planned meeting between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of a late-June Group of 20 Summit in Japan. But it’s not clear that meeting will even take place. Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the U.S., told Bloomberg Television on Friday that there had not yet been any official discussions about a meeting, though “the possibility is always open.”

“If things continue the way they are why would Xi want to meet with Trump,” said Jeffrey Schott, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Every day the wedge between the U.S. and the Chinese side seems to get bigger and there’s no sign of any bridges being built.”

China is also not the only one showing signs of preparing for a longer trade war.

Trump this week announced a new $16 billion aid program for farmers caught in the trade wars to whom just weeks ago he had been promising a deal with China that would mean huge new purchases of their crops. He also has settled a dispute with Canada and Mexico over steel tariffs, which had led to retaliation by the U.S. neighbors against agricultural exports.

Commodity markets are reflecting the gloomy prospects for the trade talks.

The price of U.S. soybeans, which China has stopped purchasing during the trade feud, is hovering close to the lowest level in a decade just as planting season gets under way. A headline this month in the Des Moines Register, the biggest newspaper in Iowa, underscored the pain: “It can’t get any worse.”

Clothing, Smartphones

A bigger potential economic and political risk now confronting Trump is the risk that the next wave of his tariffs will hit consumer staples like children’s clothing and smartphones imported from China and thus envelop the entire U.S. economy.

The fear of rising prices caused Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to pick up the phone and speak with Walmart (NYSE:) Inc. Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs, who has warned that duties on Chinese imports will raise prices for American consumers.

“I am monitoring this situation carefully,” Mnuchin told the House Financial Services committee on Wednesday.

China is turning the tables on the U.S., accusing the Trump administration of overreach and government intrusion into private enterprise. Though many in Washington believe the administration has valid security concerns, the restrictions on Chinese companies such as Huawei, in particular, have raised fears of a bigger technological war that could backfire against the U.S.

Tech Progress

“What are people really up to under the pretext of national security? We don’t know,” Cui said Friday. “Can they really stop the technological progress? Can they really deprive people of the right to benefit from the technologies? I don’t think so. And do they really have the interests of the American people in mind? I don’t think so either.”

The escalating battle over Huawei has left U.S. suppliers caught in the middle and raised questions for some industries about what some already see as the inevitable long-term damage to their position in the lucrative Chinese market.

John Neuffer, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association, said chip makers like many U.S. industries supported U.S. efforts to bolster national security. But U.S. semiconductor companies had also faced a “significant and immediate adverse impact’’ from the blacklisting, he said.

2020 Elections

In playing the long game, China may be looking at Trump’s weak poll numbers and trying to wait him out, in the hopes that a Democrat might unseat him in the 2020 election. Trump and those close to him see that as a miscalculation, portraying his tough stand on China as a political asset.

That confidence might be overstated around the Monongahela River town where Trump laid out his trade strategy during the 2016 campaign. Even after tariffs on steel imports from China and other countries, the industrial rebirth there hasn’t happened as he promised.

“We really haven’t seen much of a change in the revitalization that he spoke of with the mills,” said Leanna Spada, director of the Mon Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce in Charleroi, Pennsylvania. “There are some people who think it’s going to happen, but some still don’t see it — it’s just not feasible.”

Read More https://worldwide-finance.net/news/commodities-futures-news/trumps-easy-trade-war-hits-snags-as-china-plays-the-long-game

[breakbit]

Trump’s ‘Easy’ Trade War Hits Snags as China Plays the Long Game

New Post has been published on https://worldwide-finance.net/news/commodities-futures-news/trumps-easy-trade-war-hits-snags-as-china-plays-the-long-game

Trump’s ‘Easy’ Trade War Hits Snags as China Plays the Long Game

© Bloomberg. MONESSEN, PA – JUNE 28: Presumptive Republican candidate for President Donald Trump speaks to guests during a policy speech during a campaign stop at Alumisource on June 28, 2016 in Monessen, Pennsylvania. Trump continued to attack Hillary Clinton while delivering an economic policy speech targeting globalization and free trade. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

(Bloomberg) — In June 2016, presidential candidate Donald Trump stood between bales of crushed aluminum and a crowd of supporters in a factory outside of Pittsburgh and made a promise on trade that wasn’t hard to keep.

“If China does not stop its illegal activities, including its theft of American trade secrets, I will use every lawful — this is very easy. This is so easy. I love saying this,” he told workers at the recycling firm Alumisource, a former steel plant in Monessen, Pennsylvania. “I will use every lawful presidential power to remedy trade disputes.”

Three years later, he has clearly delivered on the pledge.

Trump’s tariff-driven attack against the world’s No. 2 economy has shown that expanding trade powers has indeed been the easy part. But as events this week show, winning a trade war against China — which Trump once tweeted would also be “easy” — looks increasingly like a more difficult and protracted endeavor than anticipated, with Beijing now showing more signs of digging in than capitulating.

Trump’s hawks have been arguing ever since the president took office that the only way to get China to make meaningful changes to what some openly call a “deviant economic model” is to continue punching it in the nose until you force surrender. Yet the big question looming now is whether that belligerent approach may be backfiring with daunting consequences for the global economy.

After Trump escalated his tariff war on Chinese imports earlier this month and blacklisted Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co., Chinese President Xi Jinping called on citizens to join a “new Long March,” prompting echoes of that call in Chinese state media.

“All of the Chinese people are ready to embark on a new ‘Long March’ journey with greater courage and resilience and will never yield to foreign bullying and assault,” state-run Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary on Friday.

The hope for a respite from rising tensions now rests on a planned meeting between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of a late-June Group of 20 Summit in Japan. But it’s not clear that meeting will even take place. Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the U.S., told Bloomberg Television on Friday that there had not yet been any official discussions about a meeting, though “the possibility is always open.”

“If things continue the way they are why would Xi want to meet with Trump,” said Jeffrey Schott, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Every day the wedge between the U.S. and the Chinese side seems to get bigger and there’s no sign of any bridges being built.”

China is also not the only one showing signs of preparing for a longer trade war.

Trump this week announced a new $16 billion aid program for farmers caught in the trade wars to whom just weeks ago he had been promising a deal with China that would mean huge new purchases of their crops. He also has settled a dispute with Canada and Mexico over steel tariffs, which had led to retaliation by the U.S. neighbors against agricultural exports.

Commodity markets are reflecting the gloomy prospects for the trade talks.

The price of U.S. soybeans, which China has stopped purchasing during the trade feud, is hovering close to the lowest level in a decade just as planting season gets under way. A headline this month in the Des Moines Register, the biggest newspaper in Iowa, underscored the pain: “It can’t get any worse.”

Clothing, Smartphones

A bigger potential economic and political risk now confronting Trump is the risk that the next wave of his tariffs will hit consumer staples like children’s clothing and smartphones imported from China and thus envelop the entire U.S. economy.

The fear of rising prices caused Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to pick up the phone and speak with Walmart (NYSE:) Inc. Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs, who has warned that duties on Chinese imports will raise prices for American consumers.

“I am monitoring this situation carefully,” Mnuchin told the House Financial Services committee on Wednesday.

China is turning the tables on the U.S., accusing the Trump administration of overreach and government intrusion into private enterprise. Though many in Washington believe the administration has valid security concerns, the restrictions on Chinese companies such as Huawei, in particular, have raised fears of a bigger technological war that could backfire against the U.S.

Tech Progress

“What are people really up to under the pretext of national security? We don’t know,” Cui said Friday. “Can they really stop the technological progress? Can they really deprive people of the right to benefit from the technologies? I don’t think so. And do they really have the interests of the American people in mind? I don’t think so either.”

The escalating battle over Huawei has left U.S. suppliers caught in the middle and raised questions for some industries about what some already see as the inevitable long-term damage to their position in the lucrative Chinese market.

John Neuffer, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association, said chip makers like many U.S. industries supported U.S. efforts to bolster national security. But U.S. semiconductor companies had also faced a “significant and immediate adverse impact’’ from the blacklisting, he said.

2020 Elections

In playing the long game, China may be looking at Trump’s weak poll numbers and trying to wait him out, in the hopes that a Democrat might unseat him in the 2020 election. Trump and those close to him see that as a miscalculation, portraying his tough stand on China as a political asset.

That confidence might be overstated around the Monongahela River town where Trump laid out his trade strategy during the 2016 campaign. Even after tariffs on steel imports from China and other countries, the industrial rebirth there hasn’t happened as he promised.

“We really haven’t seen much of a change in the revitalization that he spoke of with the mills,” said Leanna Spada, director of the Mon Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce in Charleroi, Pennsylvania. “There are some people who think it’s going to happen, but some still don’t see it — it’s just not feasible.”

Read More https://worldwide-finance.net/news/commodities-futures-news/trumps-easy-trade-war-hits-snags-as-china-plays-the-long-game

[taylordmorris]

Trump’s ‘Easy’ Trade War Hits Snags as China Plays the Long Game

New Post has been published on https://worldwide-finance.net/news/commodities-futures-news/trumps-easy-trade-war-hits-snags-as-china-plays-the-long-game

Trump’s ‘Easy’ Trade War Hits Snags as China Plays the Long Game

© Bloomberg. MONESSEN, PA – JUNE 28: Presumptive Republican candidate for President Donald Trump speaks to guests during a policy speech during a campaign stop at Alumisource on June 28, 2016 in Monessen, Pennsylvania. Trump continued to attack Hillary Clinton while delivering an economic policy speech targeting globalization and free trade. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

(Bloomberg) — In June 2016, presidential candidate Donald Trump stood between bales of crushed aluminum and a crowd of supporters in a factory outside of Pittsburgh and made a promise on trade that wasn’t hard to keep.

“If China does not stop its illegal activities, including its theft of American trade secrets, I will use every lawful — this is very easy. This is so easy. I love saying this,” he told workers at the recycling firm Alumisource, a former steel plant in Monessen, Pennsylvania. “I will use every lawful presidential power to remedy trade disputes.”

Three years later, he has clearly delivered on the pledge.

Trump’s tariff-driven attack against the world’s No. 2 economy has shown that expanding trade powers has indeed been the easy part. But as events this week show, winning a trade war against China — which Trump once tweeted would also be “easy” — looks increasingly like a more difficult and protracted endeavor than anticipated, with Beijing now showing more signs of digging in than capitulating.

Trump’s hawks have been arguing ever since the president took office that the only way to get China to make meaningful changes to what some openly call a “deviant economic model” is to continue punching it in the nose until you force surrender. Yet the big question looming now is whether that belligerent approach may be backfiring with daunting consequences for the global economy.

After Trump escalated his tariff war on Chinese imports earlier this month and blacklisted Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co., Chinese President Xi Jinping called on citizens to join a “new Long March,” prompting echoes of that call in Chinese state media.

“All of the Chinese people are ready to embark on a new ‘Long March’ journey with greater courage and resilience and will never yield to foreign bullying and assault,” state-run Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary on Friday.

The hope for a respite from rising tensions now rests on a planned meeting between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of a late-June Group of 20 Summit in Japan. But it’s not clear that meeting will even take place. Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the U.S., told Bloomberg Television on Friday that there had not yet been any official discussions about a meeting, though “the possibility is always open.”

“If things continue the way they are why would Xi want to meet with Trump,” said Jeffrey Schott, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Every day the wedge between the U.S. and the Chinese side seems to get bigger and there’s no sign of any bridges being built.”

China is also not the only one showing signs of preparing for a longer trade war.

Trump this week announced a new $16 billion aid program for farmers caught in the trade wars to whom just weeks ago he had been promising a deal with China that would mean huge new purchases of their crops. He also has settled a dispute with Canada and Mexico over steel tariffs, which had led to retaliation by the U.S. neighbors against agricultural exports.

Commodity markets are reflecting the gloomy prospects for the trade talks.

The price of U.S. soybeans, which China has stopped purchasing during the trade feud, is hovering close to the lowest level in a decade just as planting season gets under way. A headline this month in the Des Moines Register, the biggest newspaper in Iowa, underscored the pain: “It can’t get any worse.”

Clothing, Smartphones

A bigger potential economic and political risk now confronting Trump is the risk that the next wave of his tariffs will hit consumer staples like children’s clothing and smartphones imported from China and thus envelop the entire U.S. economy.

The fear of rising prices caused Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to pick up the phone and speak with Walmart (NYSE:) Inc. Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs, who has warned that duties on Chinese imports will raise prices for American consumers.

“I am monitoring this situation carefully,” Mnuchin told the House Financial Services committee on Wednesday.

China is turning the tables on the U.S., accusing the Trump administration of overreach and government intrusion into private enterprise. Though many in Washington believe the administration has valid security concerns, the restrictions on Chinese companies such as Huawei, in particular, have raised fears of a bigger technological war that could backfire against the U.S.

Tech Progress

“What are people really up to under the pretext of national security? We don’t know,” Cui said Friday. “Can they really stop the technological progress? Can they really deprive people of the right to benefit from the technologies? I don’t think so. And do they really have the interests of the American people in mind? I don’t think so either.”

The escalating battle over Huawei has left U.S. suppliers caught in the middle and raised questions for some industries about what some already see as the inevitable long-term damage to their position in the lucrative Chinese market.

John Neuffer, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association, said chip makers like many U.S. industries supported U.S. efforts to bolster national security. But U.S. semiconductor companies had also faced a “significant and immediate adverse impact’’ from the blacklisting, he said.

2020 Elections

In playing the long game, China may be looking at Trump’s weak poll numbers and trying to wait him out, in the hopes that a Democrat might unseat him in the 2020 election. Trump and those close to him see that as a miscalculation, portraying his tough stand on China as a political asset.

That confidence might be overstated around the Monongahela River town where Trump laid out his trade strategy during the 2016 campaign. Even after tariffs on steel imports from China and other countries, the industrial rebirth there hasn’t happened as he promised.

“We really haven’t seen much of a change in the revitalization that he spoke of with the mills,” said Leanna Spada, director of the Mon Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce in Charleroi, Pennsylvania. “There are some people who think it’s going to happen, but some still don’t see it — it’s just not feasible.”

Read More https://worldwide-finance.net/news/commodities-futures-news/trumps-easy-trade-war-hits-snags-as-china-plays-the-long-game

[benmauerberger]

Trump’s ‘Easy’ Trade War Hits Snags as China Plays the Long Game

New Post has been published on https://worldwide-finance.net/news/commodities-futures-news/trumps-easy-trade-war-hits-snags-as-china-plays-the-long-game

Trump’s ‘Easy’ Trade War Hits Snags as China Plays the Long Game

© Bloomberg. MONESSEN, PA – JUNE 28: Presumptive Republican candidate for President Donald Trump speaks to guests during a policy speech during a campaign stop at Alumisource on June 28, 2016 in Monessen, Pennsylvania. Trump continued to attack Hillary Clinton while delivering an economic policy speech targeting globalization and free trade. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

(Bloomberg) — In June 2016, presidential candidate Donald Trump stood between bales of crushed aluminum and a crowd of supporters in a factory outside of Pittsburgh and made a promise on trade that wasn’t hard to keep.

“If China does not stop its illegal activities, including its theft of American trade secrets, I will use every lawful — this is very easy. This is so easy. I love saying this,” he told workers at the recycling firm Alumisource, a former steel plant in Monessen, Pennsylvania. “I will use every lawful presidential power to remedy trade disputes.”

Three years later, he has clearly delivered on the pledge.

Trump’s tariff-driven attack against the world’s No. 2 economy has shown that expanding trade powers has indeed been the easy part. But as events this week show, winning a trade war against China — which Trump once tweeted would also be “easy” — looks increasingly like a more difficult and protracted endeavor than anticipated, with Beijing now showing more signs of digging in than capitulating.

Trump’s hawks have been arguing ever since the president took office that the only way to get China to make meaningful changes to what some openly call a “deviant economic model” is to continue punching it in the nose until you force surrender. Yet the big question looming now is whether that belligerent approach may be backfiring with daunting consequences for the global economy.

After Trump escalated his tariff war on Chinese imports earlier this month and blacklisted Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co., Chinese President Xi Jinping called on citizens to join a “new Long March,” prompting echoes of that call in Chinese state media.

“All of the Chinese people are ready to embark on a new ‘Long March’ journey with greater courage and resilience and will never yield to foreign bullying and assault,” state-run Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary on Friday.

The hope for a respite from rising tensions now rests on a planned meeting between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of a late-June Group of 20 Summit in Japan. But it’s not clear that meeting will even take place. Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the U.S., told Bloomberg Television on Friday that there had not yet been any official discussions about a meeting, though “the possibility is always open.”

“If things continue the way they are why would Xi want to meet with Trump,” said Jeffrey Schott, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Every day the wedge between the U.S. and the Chinese side seems to get bigger and there’s no sign of any bridges being built.”

China is also not the only one showing signs of preparing for a longer trade war.

Trump this week announced a new $16 billion aid program for farmers caught in the trade wars to whom just weeks ago he had been promising a deal with China that would mean huge new purchases of their crops. He also has settled a dispute with Canada and Mexico over steel tariffs, which had led to retaliation by the U.S. neighbors against agricultural exports.

Commodity markets are reflecting the gloomy prospects for the trade talks.

The price of U.S. soybeans, which China has stopped purchasing during the trade feud, is hovering close to the lowest level in a decade just as planting season gets under way. A headline this month in the Des Moines Register, the biggest newspaper in Iowa, underscored the pain: “It can’t get any worse.”

Clothing, Smartphones

A bigger potential economic and political risk now confronting Trump is the risk that the next wave of his tariffs will hit consumer staples like children’s clothing and smartphones imported from China and thus envelop the entire U.S. economy.

The fear of rising prices caused Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to pick up the phone and speak with Walmart (NYSE:) Inc. Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs, who has warned that duties on Chinese imports will raise prices for American consumers.

“I am monitoring this situation carefully,” Mnuchin told the House Financial Services committee on Wednesday.

China is turning the tables on the U.S., accusing the Trump administration of overreach and government intrusion into private enterprise. Though many in Washington believe the administration has valid security concerns, the restrictions on Chinese companies such as Huawei, in particular, have raised fears of a bigger technological war that could backfire against the U.S.

Tech Progress

“What are people really up to under the pretext of national security? We don’t know,” Cui said Friday. “Can they really stop the technological progress? Can they really deprive people of the right to benefit from the technologies? I don’t think so. And do they really have the interests of the American people in mind? I don’t think so either.”

The escalating battle over Huawei has left U.S. suppliers caught in the middle and raised questions for some industries about what some already see as the inevitable long-term damage to their position in the lucrative Chinese market.

John Neuffer, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association, said chip makers like many U.S. industries supported U.S. efforts to bolster national security. But U.S. semiconductor companies had also faced a “significant and immediate adverse impact’’ from the blacklisting, he said.

2020 Elections

In playing the long game, China may be looking at Trump’s weak poll numbers and trying to wait him out, in the hopes that a Democrat might unseat him in the 2020 election. Trump and those close to him see that as a miscalculation, portraying his tough stand on China as a political asset.

That confidence might be overstated around the Monongahela River town where Trump laid out his trade strategy during the 2016 campaign. Even after tariffs on steel imports from China and other countries, the industrial rebirth there hasn’t happened as he promised.

“We really haven’t seen much of a change in the revitalization that he spoke of with the mills,” said Leanna Spada, director of the Mon Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce in Charleroi, Pennsylvania. “There are some people who think it’s going to happen, but some still don’t see it — it’s just not feasible.”

Read More https://worldwide-finance.net/news/commodities-futures-news/trumps-easy-trade-war-hits-snags-as-china-plays-the-long-game

[bespokeanarchist]

A Continuing Tea Party: “A Gripping Tale Of Violence, Alcohol & Taxes”

This is, in part, a story about Appalachia – particularly Washington, Pennsylvania and the people who live there (like my family).

George Washington’s first Wilderness Expedition took him through Cumberland Gap (Maryland) in 1748. He complained bitterly in his journal about everything he came across: the mud, the bugs and the people – who he described as “a set of people as ignorant as the Indians”.[1] But connecting the American East to what was known at the time as The Wilderness was more than a patriotic endeavor: Washington was after land for speculation.

To his credit, Washington accepted military promotions without pay in order to achieve the station he felt commensurate to his dignity. Which also afforded him the patriotic thrill of battle.

“I heard the bullets whistle, Washington proclaimed, “and, believe me, there is something charming in the sound.”[2]

But Washington’s prejudice regarding the Wilderness mountain settlers was not uncommon. Alexander Hamilton and his Federalists (advocates of a strong Federal government and Central Bank), considered themselves “men of wealth and opulence, who could buy and sell the whole race of ragged whiskey drinkers twenty times over.” This attitude was reflected in our Federal government’s decision, after the Revolution, to pay creditors before soldiers[3]. While the families who fought the war struggled and waited, Washington himself undertook to buy up their parcels and other targeted Appalachian tracts before the Government made good on its promises. Part of the lore is that Washington secretly held up the soldiers’ payments so that he could make more deals with families who otherwise had no hope of income. Mount Vernon was cash strapped, after all, and apparently too big to fail.

During these perilous times, ‘financial radicals’ made themselves known. As early as 1732, a salt tax ignited populist furor equated in pamphlets and broadsides with the presence of a standing army to enforce the tax.[4] After the Revolutionary War, Massachusetts farmers (unpaid for their service) were pursued by creditors holding high lending rates (some of the same banks that the Federal Government chose to pay before the soldiers). The farmers staged a 1786 courthouse riot that moved toward a Federal weapons arsenal in Springfield. The Shays Rebellion, as it is known, was quickly put down and only strengthened the hand of Hamilton, Washington and the Federalists against regional and Wilderness populations.

Ordinary folk (the ones getting paid last), began to treat taxes as attacks on their liberty. Taxes were, after all, the reason for the Revolution. And even though The Wilderness had representation in theory, it must not have felt like it given the priorities of the Federal government. At least to the farmers of Massachusetts.

In 1791, Hamilton conceived of the new nation’s first excise: a whiskey tax. Large town producers were easily able to absorb the cash/discount price but smaller rural producers were forced into the alternative and punitive bond[5]. In the Wilderness, particularly at The Forks (where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio – present day Pittsburgh) whiskey became synonymous with liberty.

Whiskey is elemental, alchemical – the product of boiling down the involved substances to their very essence. “Fermentation makes a virtue of spoilage, but whiskey won’t spoil.”[6] Wilderness settlers consumed whiskey in epic amounts. That certainly describes by Grandfather but I have insufficient personal knowledge to comment regarding Dr. Thompson.

In September of 1791, the taxman came to the Washington, Pennsylvania. At first, he identified himself as a teacher but soon after being “somewhat deranged in his understanding”, (he) also suffered the delusion that he was “an excise man charged to travel the United States enquiring whether distillers were in compliance with the new law. The fellow’s vociferous claims to association with the tax soon resulted in an assault by a band of locals”. Correspondence from James Brison to Governor Mifflin, 1792.

The mob of men that set upon the ‘government agent’ were outfitted in women’s dresses and blackface for disguise. Indian disguises were also used for these rituals. “As Daniel Hamilton and the gang applied hot, noxiously fuming tar to the shaved pate and nude body of the tax man (variously referred to as Robert Wilson or Johnson), the sludge’s oiliness was absorbed by his skin, and a scalding crust grabbed hair, holes, and pores clung everywhere. When he was sufficiently sticky the gang applied poultry feathers, which, when shaken over a freshly tarred victim, or when he was made to lie down and roll in them, bonded only with time and effort. The triumphant gang took his horse and fled. Anguished by the scorn due all public enemies, the taxman was left alone in the dark forest”.[7]

Following this warning, as Hamilton considered bringing Federal troops to The Forks, Wilderness citizens formed the Mingo Creek Association at a local church for the purpose of mustering local militias against the Federal Government. Their plan was to storm and take Fort Pitt at the Forks.

What happened next – on November 13, 1791 – is known in local lore as The Dreadful Night.

[1] Thomas P. Slaughter, The Whiskey Rebellion, Page 79.

[2] Id. at 80.

[3] William Hogeland, The Whiskey Rebellion, Page 33.

[4] Slaughter at 16.

[5] Hogeland at 70.

[6] Hogleland at Page 65.

[7] Hogeland, at Page 23.