Who are the Democrats? https://www.youtube.com/watch?
And:
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/
Finally:
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1)
Chapter 10 – Udaipur
As Jaipur is known as the Pink City, Udaipur is known as the City
of Lakes. The palace here is built on a
hillside overlooking Lake Perchola, a man-made lake created by a dam. It is reliant on rainwater to maintain the
water level, and we could see that the water was down about a meter from full.
At its peak, the lake is about 9 meters deep.
Despite not being full, the lake was very scenic, as it held several
islands with former palaces perched on them.
Life as a maharaja must have been quite nice.
Yesterday, we were Chittaurgarh – remember? The siege of that city was in 1536, (Wikipedia
gives 1567 as the year, so take your pick) at which time Udai Singh II, the
heir to the throne, was an infant. His
mother, Rani Karnavati, left him in the care of his nursemaid and threw herself
into the fire along with the other women during the siege by the Moguls. The
nursemaid put her own son on the royal bed and smuggled the young prince out to
a safer place. I could find no info on
what happened to the poor baby who was left behind, but I doubt that it was
good.
When he grew up, Udai Singh was looking for a location for his new
capital when he came upon a hermit who blessed him and told him that this would
be a safe place for his fort and palace. He built a city wall 6 kilometers
long, with seven gates, just in case the hermit was not 100% correct.
As
the Mogul (Moslem) empire weakened, the Sisodia rulers reasserted their independence and recaptured
most of Mewar except for Chittaugarh. Udaipur remained the capital of the
state, which then became a princely state of British India in 1818. These princely states were allowed to keep
their royal families, but were governed “jointly” by the Brits and
Indians. It appears that the Brits were
quite agreeable as long as the Indians did what the Viceroy wanted. Otherwise, there was real trouble.
We’ve heard horror stories of Indians being hunted like
deer for sport, some guy wanting to move the Taj Mahal to England, and all
Indians being excluded from hotels and other services enjoyed by the
English. As we learned in Mumbai two
years ago, the Taj Hotel there was founded by an Indian who was upset that
Indians were not allowed in the fine hotels, so he built one just for them. It is now a chain of lovely, expensive hotels
in India, South Africa, and beyond. One
such hotel is here, the Taj Lake Palace hotel, on an island in Lake
Perchola. It was a palace built in 1754
as a summer retreat.
Being
a mountainous area and unsuitable for heavily armoured Mogul horses, Udaipur
remained safe from Mogul influence. At present, Arvind Singh Mewar is the 76th
custodian of the Mewar dynasty. This is
an honorary title these days, with nothing much to show for it in most cases,
but he does still get to live in the portion of the palace, which ain’t all
bad.
We took a morning boat ride on Lake Perchola to get a good view of
the palace/fortress on the hill and the other palaces on the islands in the
lake. Then we visited the fort and
palace, and toured parts of the palace museum, which were quite
interesting. They have one of the
largest crystal collections in the world – I think it is THE largest
privately-owned collection. The Maharana
(king, not warrior) had everything one could think of custom-made in Europe of
crystal: plates, desks, chandeliers, even
a bed. There was also a large silver
collection, including several carriages and beds carried by men or
elephants. This city is the heart of a
painting style that is extremely detailed and done with tiny brushes made of
chipmunk hair or camel eyelashes. Really
– I’m not kidding. They feed the
chipmunks eggplant, which causes them to lose their hair so that they can
collect it for these tiny brushes. (I’m
not sure how they get the camel eyelashes, but I don’t think the camels like
it.) There is a large exhibit of these
paintings in the palace, and, although they are not my style, they are amazing
in their workmanship.
The palace is currently divided into 3 sections – a portion for the
family, a hotel, and the museum. Some of
the exterior decoration of the palace is still intact and is beautiful.
We got back on the boat to go to one of the hotels on an island for
lunch. This spot had a lovely view, and
gardens to enjoy, as well as a beautiful dining room. Then we hopped back in the boat to return to
the fort and walk through some of the town within the walls.
The afternoon also offered an opportunity to shop! Hooray!
We went to a local co-operative showing the work of many artists in the
area, as well as a large storeroom full of antiques and other objets
d’arte. The paintings were of the
variety we had seen in the museum, so we were able to bypass those, and
actually left the store and went out for a walk. When we came back to find the group, we
discovered the back room with the things that were much more interesting to
us. We found a pair of elongated
elephants made of wood and metal that will soon be making their home in
Savannah.
Then it was back to the train for a brief rest (read work on
travelogue in my case) and dinner. They
keep us so busy that I don’t find much time to do my work. I’ve been getting up early to try to get some
work done before breakfast to try to catch up, but I’m afraid it is hopeless. Oh well, you’ll get the chapters as fast as I
can get them to you.
Photos from Udaipur are at: https://www.mmemery.com/Udaipur
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2)
RPT-ANALYSIS-Slump persists, China fails to stimulate markets hobbled by
By Samuel Shen and Andrew Galbraith
SHANGHAI, Oct 24 (Reuters) - China is struggling to restore confidence in its stock markets, which are being weighed down by a massive amount of shares that have been pledged as collateral as credit-starved companies seek to raise funds.
Analysts say the practice, which involves 10 percent of total outstanding shares, is a minefield for an economy already battling slowing growth and a trade war with the United States.
Tight credit markets in China means that many companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, have scarce recourse to banks or other sources of financing, and policymakers have yet to promise any actual money.
Many of those companies have turned to pledging shares to finance companies as a way of raising cash.
"Using pledged shares to borrow has become a very popular, and very important funding tool," said Wang Jin, a Shanghai-based lawyer who is dealing with an increasing number of disputes involving collateralized loans.
About $620 billion worth of Chinese shares currently trading on Chinese markets have been pledged, mostly by small and medium-sized companies. The practice boomed in 2016 and 2017 as Beijing started weaning companies off borrowing in the shadow banking sector.
But now, the nearly 20 percent slump in the broader market this year has triggered margin calls, forced liquidations, ownership changes, business disruptions and bond defaults for hundreds of listed firms.
Forced liquidations have a disastrous effect on companies involved, said Wang, a partner at Hiways Law Firm. "The impact to the real economy would be even bigger if the contagion spreads to affiliates and other businesses along the value chain," he said.
During the market slump of 2015/16, over 1,000 companies suspended share trading to avoid margin call risks. But regulators have now tightened rules for share suspension, giving no buffer to listed firms facing risks of forced liquidations.
That means the private sector, which drives half the economy and generates the bulk of jobs, is going to face huge funding problems, unless Beijing steps in with state money.
Beijing threw money at the problem in 2015, even asking state-owned funds to buy shares. Now, it is asking private sector funds to help these companies.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, central bank governor Yi Gang, as well as China's securities, and banking and insurance regulators, have called for private funds to pump money into struggling listed companies.
That pushed Shanghai stocks up 2.6 percent on Friday and 4.1 percent on Monday.
On Wednesday, however, markets moved lower as investor worries returned.
The most concrete measure announced so far to address the market fears has been an asset management scheme unveiled Monday by an industry association that targets struggling listed firms. But the initial 21 billion yuan ($3 billion) commitment from 11 brokerages pales in comparison to the nearly 3 trillion yuan worth of pledged shares that some estimate face margin calls.
"There aren't concrete policy measures being rolled out, and no new money is promised," said Hong Hao, chief strategist at BOCOM International.
DELAY NOT DEFUSE
The widespread practice of borrowing against share holdings has led to shares of 724 out of 734 companies listed on China's start-up ChiNext board being pledged for loans. By mid-2018, 16 percent of Chinese domestic A-shares were pledged on average, compared with 10.3 percent in mid-2015, according to Evergrande Research Institute.
Many analysts suspect that government rhetoric will only delay, but not defuse, the implosion of the massive "pledged shares" minefield among smaller companies - one of the biggest woes plaguing China's stock market.
"Risk (is) under control, with the exception of some small-to-mid caps," wrote Gao Ting, Head of China Strategy at UBS Securities, on Monday.
In the broader market, 148 out of 3,571 listed companies had more than 50 percent of their outstanding shares pledged for loans as of Oct. 19 despite an official 50-percent cap on pledged shares, and all but 86 listed companies had at least some shares pledged, according to China Securities Depository and Clearing data.
As of Oct. 9, the shares of 780 companies had fallen below the alert level - where the value erosion in pledged shares would require borrowers to put up more collateral - and 594 companies triggered margin calls, putting them at risk of forced liquidation, according to an estimate by Chinese brokerage TF Securities.
The funding stress is reshaping corporate share structures, with the number of share ownership transfer deals jumping 51.3 percent during the first nine months to 348, according to Huatai Securities.
The drop in share prices "has greatly reduced funding options for many listed firms," said Di Yang, analyst at credit rating agency China Bond Rating Co Ltd.
Tan Jialong, director of private securities investment at conglomerate Zendai Group, said that while the 2015-16 market crash hit mainly highly-leveraged stock punters, this year's crisis could deal a bigger blow to the real economy.
"The stock market drop this time is affecting operations of many listed companies, at a time when economic prospects are not good," Tan said.
The private sector's role in mainland China cannot be overstated. According to Vice Premier Liu, the sector contributes 50 percent of tax, over 60 percent of GDP, over 80 percent of urban employment and over 90 percent of newly-created jobs.
Zendai's Tan said his group has no plans yet to answer the government's call to rescue struggling listed firms partly because the worsening economic environment is disrupting existing valuation models, and there is no guarantee that investing now would be eventually profitable. ($1 = 6.9371 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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3) What’s at Stake in Rebuilding the Military
By Dakota Wood
We place a lot of demands on our fine military, and the good news is—at home and in many places around the world—it’s meeting those demands.
Now the bad news: We’re wearing it out. After 17 years of continuous combat operations, it’s in desperate need of a rebuild.
To be sure, Congress recently provided some welcome additional funding. That money has enabled the services to make progress in reducing maintenance backlogs, replenishing depleted inventories of repair parts and munitions, and regaining some measure of readiness for larger-scale conventional operations.
The new worry, however, is that folks will think the hard part is over—that our forces are, or will soon be, where they need to be. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Our military must overcome a generation of experience dealing with terrorist groups and non-state irregular forces, challenges that are dramatically different from what it’s faced in the past and may face again in the future: a larger-scale conventional war with a rival major power.
Think about it. The sustained counterinsurgency, counter-terrorism, security/stability, and train/advise/assist missions of the past 17 years haven’t required U.S. forces to deal with an enemy that possesses combat aircraft, a navy of any sort, armored formations, missiles, or even multiple-launch rocket artillery. In short, we’re out of practice.
Russia and China have these capabilities in large numbers. Worse, they’re rapidly improving them each year, augmenting them with unmanned systems, cyber warfare tools, space-based systems, robust conventional missile systems—and, let’s not forget, deep inventories of nuclear weapons.
The Army is just now getting a handle on what it will take for its operational units to gain competency in major land operations. It has invested heavily in realistic training for its heavy brigades at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California.
That’s good, obviously, but the learning curve has been steep, and they are only now discovering just how far they need to go to regain the big-battle competence of the Army they used to have.
The Marine Corps is wrestling with the implications of a naval campaign against a major competitor like China. Initial insights indicate that its portfolio of ground equipment and weapons, and supporting vessels operated by the Navy, may have to substantially change to be relevant in highly contested waters.
The Air Force is challenged by too few planes and a large deficit in pilots. During the Cold War, pilots would typically need 200 or more training flight hours to be considered competent for the rigors of air battle against their Soviet counterparts. Today, the average fighter pilot gets less than 140 hours per year. F-35A pilots are averaging roughly 75 hours a year.
The Navy has plans to grow its fleet from 285 ships to 355. But it takes time to build ships, even after you get the necessary funding, so we shouldn’t expect this needed fleet to be reached until the year 2050.
By comparison, China is on track to achieve a fleet of 350 ships by 2020. With no reduction in the demand for U.S. navy ships in key seas stretching from the Sea of Japan to the North Atlantic, the Navy is hard-pressed to catch up on years of deferred maintenance, which limits its ability to improve ship availability for the training it needs to prepare for “great power competition” and to slow the aging of the vessels it does have in the fleet.
These are but a sampling of the challenges our military must overcome to be the military our nation needs. Only one-third of American youth are even eligible for military service due to poor health, obesity, criminal records, and substance abuse. The nation’s fiscal condition is saddled with enormous debt (now at $21 trillion) and growing entitlement obligations.
Early debates in Congress about the fiscal year 2020 budget already indicate that current spending on defense may be the ceiling rather than a starting point on which to build.
At some point, Americans will have to make hard decisions about whether to sustain the relentless increases in debt that come from living beyond our means or to discipline “wants” in order to prioritize spending on “needs.”
But time is not on our side, and we certainly do not control the choices being made by our competitors. America needs to get serious rediscovering what it means—and requires—to be a great power.
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