The President's Daily Brief - August 4th, 2022. Big Five Update: Wheat Wars. Ukraine/Russia. Biden and Xi. Bug-Fed Cows? Gas Prices.

Episode Date: August 4, 2022

It’s August 4th. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ------ It’s the Big Five Update this morning on the PDB. Five briefs on five topics that I’ve discussed with you before with some important updates. First, the Wheat Wars. On Monday the first ship out of Ukraine set sail for the Middle East. But how far did it get? I’ve got that for you. Second, the War of Attrition. The fight between Russia and Ukraine battles on, with American taxpayers propping up Kiev. But what about Russia? How’s their economy these days? I’ve got the latest. Third, last week Joe Biden held a phone call with China’s President Xi. So what’d they talk about? We don’t know for sure. And that is a problem. I’ll explain. Fourth, fans of climate change want to slaughter all of America’s cows. We talked about that this week. But some people think we can save them by changing their feed to bugs. I’ve got that tasty story. And finally on this Big Five Update, gas and diesel prices are going down. And that’s good. Well, not exactly. I’ll explain the reason why none of us should cheer for the reasons behind the drop. And of course, I’ve got one more thing before I let you go, an email today from Tiffany from somewhere in America. She wants to know about that controversial CIA recruitment ad that some of you may have seen. I’ve got my reaction, coming up. ------ Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief. Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's August 4th. You're listening to the President's Daily Brief. I'm your host and former CIA Officer Brian Dean Wright. Your morning intel starts now. It's the Big Five Update this morning on the PDB, five briefs on five topics that I've discussed with you before with some important updates. First, the Wheat Wars. On Monday, the first ship out of Ukraine set sail for the Middle East, but how far did it get? I've got that for you. Second, the war of attrition. The fight between Russia and Ukraine battles on with American taxpayers propping up Kiev. But what about Russia? How's their economy these days? Well, I've got the latest. Third, last week, Joe Biden held a phone call with China's president Xi. So what they talk about? Unfortunately, we don't know

for sure, and that is a problem. I'll explain. Fourth, fans of climate change want to slaughter all of America's cows. We talked about that this week. But some people think that we can save them by changing their feed to bugs. I've got that tasty story. And finally, on this Big Five update, gas and diesel prices are going down. And that's good. Well, not exactly. I'll explain the reason why none of us should cheer for the reasons behind the drop. And of course, I've got one more thing before I let you go. An email today from Tiffany from somewhere in America, she wants to know about that controversial CIA recruitment ad that some of you may have actually seen. I've got my reaction. coming up. But first, let's dive into today's Big Five update. On Monday, I briefed you on the first

grain ship to leave Ukraine, heading from the port city of Odessa to the country of Lebanon. But if you recall, it had to first stop in the city of Istanbul, Turkey to be inspected by a group of folks that included the Russians, some Ukrainians, and others. Well, good news to report. The inspection went fine at that joint coordination center. Took about three hours, as expected, a couple of hiccough. along the way, but nothing major. And so now it is on its four-day journey to Lebanon, where, sadly, protests continue this morning over lack of bread and other food stuff. Now, historically, Lebanon has purchased a substantial percentage of its ag products from Ukraine, but that has been shut down because of the war. So let's hope that this good news keeps up. And speaking of,

there are 17 more ships loaded with products awaiting approval to leave. Now, the current agreement says that only one ship can depart at a time. But Turkish authorities are proposing that the number actually be bumped up to three a day. So overall, some good initial indicators that this deal will hold for, well, at least until Putin decides that it won't. And to that point, he again has agreed to a 120-day deal that can be extended for one month at a time. But will he stick with this? We actually might have an indicator tomorrow. He is meeting with Turkey's president to discuss this shipping arrangement.

So let's see if he continues to support the deal or he throws the world another curveball. And speaking of the Russians, we've got an update on the war of attrition. So to recap this issue, the war between Russia and Ukraine is going to be long and nasty. So the winner will likely be the country that can outlast the other in terms of soldiers and weaponry and the cash or the healthy economy to pay for it all. So in one corner we have the Ukrainians and they are totally dependent on you, the American taxpayer. And it's true the Europeans somewhat, but largely you, upwards of $50 billion just this year. And so in the other corner, we of course have Russia, and that brings

us to the update. As many of you know, Moscow is deeply reliant on the sale of oil, natural gas, and diesel to pay for its side of the war. And so far, unfortunately, things are looking pretty good for them. Russia's oil exports are holding steady and now basically are at the same as they were before the war. They are shipping out about 3.2 million barrels a day. But it's not just oil. Russia's exports are up two in diesel, most especially to one surprising group of buyers, the Europeans. So Russian diesel exports to Europe were up 13% last month. That continues this bizarre cycle of Europe, both funding the Russians and the Ukrainians in this war of attrition. They are also big buyers of Russian natural gas, as has been a big topic here on the PDB. Those flows continue down to 20% of normal, it's true, but flowing

nonetheless. By the way, the main reason that Europe continues to import Russian diesel is because they shut down a lot of their refining capacity during the COVID pandemic. And like so many nations, they're having troubles firing it all back up. So Russian diesel, it is. If you're wondering what comes next for the Russians, in other words, will Putin run out of cash in this war of attrition, or will he continue to plod along and force you and I to keep forking over our taxpayer dollars to prop up Ukraine? Well, there are two sets of economists this morning, and they are saying two very different things. On one hand, we've got some very fancy people at the International Monetary Fund, or IMF. They released a report last week saying that all those sales of oil and diesel,

and natural gas are propping up the Russian economy more than expected. In fact, the IMF upgraded their assessment of the Russian economy for the rest of this year and next. So Moscow's economy will so likely contract, they say, it's true, but not nearly to the level that many expected. Okay, so that's IMF. On the other hand, we've got a bunch of other fancy people at Yale University, who came out with a report this week saying, no, no, Russia was headed for, quote, an economic oblivion. Well, they assert that while Russia, okay, yes, they're doing well with its oil and gas exports, everything else is in the toilet. Shortages abound, especially for electronic equipment and microchip processors needed to build all sorts of things,

from cars to weapon systems. And so the fancy people at Yale were predicting absolute catastrophe, saying, quote, Russian domestic production has come to a complete standstill with no capacity to replace lost businesses, lost products, and talent. Well, who's right? I don't know. But regardless, the world will pay for this war of attrition one way or the other. So I'm sorry to say, keep your wallet open. One more update before we take a quick break. Last week I briefed you on Joe Biden calling China's President Xi. We had no real idea what the two would talk about, though I offered a couple of different ideas. Perhaps the fentanyl crisis, which originates in China,

or maybe reparations for starting the COVID pandemic. But one thing I didn't mention was the business dealings between Biden's son Hunter and the Chinese investment firm, BHR partners. Well, there was a report out last week that showed that China's business registries still show that one of Hunter's shell companies and Hunter himself continued to have a 10% stake in that Chinese company.

So perhaps Biden and Xi discussed that. But I'm not sure. No one is. As of this morning, we have no independent confirmation or readout of what was discussed. The only thing that we know for sure is that they talked for two and a half hours. So the White House refuses to release a transcript saying only that they discussed Taiwan and China's human rights violations. In fact, the press secretary said that they discussed China's genocide of the Uyghur people in eastern China. Well, Beijing said, hold up. We absolutely did not talk about any of that. In fact, Xi's people said Biden never raised this issue of the Uighurs at all.

Disinformation is how the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs labeled Biden's statements. So the mystery of what Joe Biden discussed with the Chinese continues. Seems bad since they are our greatest enemy and the Biden family has confirmed business dealings with the communists. But nevertheless, I will keep you posted as I learn. more. And with that, we are going to take a quick break and then come back to discuss two more updates, one on feeding bugs to cows and some mixed news on gas and diesel prices. We'll be right back. Chronic migraine is 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting four hours or more. Botoxin-a-oenobotachycin A prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine before they start. It's not for those with 14 or fewer headache days a month. It prevents on average eight to nine headache days a

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at Texas State University are looking into whether America's cows might benefit from a new protein diet of bugs. Here's why. The United Nations released a report a while back that showed that global demand for food could increase by 60% or more in the next 30 years. That's because there will be more people, more hungry mouths to feed. Plus, the folks that are here, especially in Asia, well, they are getting richer. And the richer a society, the more that people tend to eat. eat, most especially proteins like beef, chicken, and so forth. The question is how we might manage that tremendous increase, to include minimizing the environmental impacts like irrigation or overusing pasture land,

and of course the increase of greenhouse gas emissions, some folks argue. That's where the black soldier fly comes into play. The good folks at Texas State University backed by funding from the Department of Agriculture have been investigating whether the larva of the black soldier fly might be a tasty solution to this problem. So the idea is that the flies could be grown on a mass scale using food waste. And then their larva could be harvested, dried, and crushed into pellets that are in turn fed to chickens and pigs and fish and so forth. Because it turns out that these larva are pretty high in protein, in fact, about 45%, and some degree of fat as well, about 35%. So the hope is that we might feed all of our animals to include our cows, these dead bugs,

instead of grains. And all of that idle farm that otherwise would be going towards cows and such, well, that could be used to feed humans instead. So the studies in Texas say, at least so far, that animals actually like this dead bug diet just fine, no digestion issues, and that in fact they are putting on good weight. There is still some concern about how expensive this might be compared to conventional protein sources. Maybe a touch higher is the initial thought. So for all my ranchers out there, you may see this one coming your way in the next couple of years.

Or I suppose if you'd like to give it a shot now, you could maybe buy a few hundred bug zappers and pull out your swathers and bailers. Have some good organic feed there. Anyway, let's move on. gas prices on previous briefs we have talked a lot about inflation and one driver of inflation is the high prices that we all pay at the gas and diesel pump so in the past few days joe biden and the white house have been celebrating actually that prices are coming down and in fact they are for the past 50 days now gas prices have been falling diesel exactly the same they have come down for the past 42 days. The average cost of a gallon of regular unleaded gas is now at $4.16.

That is a 17% decline from the high set back in June. But not everybody is getting relief. California still has the highest price at $5.56 a gallon. For my friends in the New England states, you are not seeing much of a drop at all. In fact, some of you are even seeing increases. And that's because you have fewer refineries and more reliance on outside sources to include imports. And if you're upset about that, you may want to consider moving to Texas. The average price of gas in Texas is $3.67 a gallon, which is lowest in the U.S.

Now, one would think that this should give all of us a dose of good cheer. But, and there's always a but, the reason for falling gas prices is nothing to cheer about. You see, global demand for oil has fallen in recent weeks because of economic growth slowing globally. China's economy dropping. America, we are now in a recession. So as always, it's really about supply and demand. The world isn't demanding as much because of recessions and economic slowdown, plus people losing jobs.

And also, drivers are staying home, trying to pinch their pennies during these tough economic times. And meanwhile, supply remains fairly steady or in some cases going up, depends on the week. So you put all that together, and the economics here explain why prices at the pump should be generally going down, just unfortunately for all of the wrong reasons. Well, at any rate, fancy people are predicting that the average price of gas could fall under four bucks a gallon over the next couple of weeks if there are no major disruptions to supplies.

And those disruptions could include potential hurricanes around the Gulf of Mexico, which could force refineries offline. Plus, we've got that war in Ukraine that could throw a monkey wrench into the whole equation, just as it did this past spring and early summer. As always, I'll keep you posted one way or the other. And that, ladies and gentlemen, wraps up your big five update. Oh, but we're not done. Tiffany from somewhere in America asked me about a CIA recruitment ad for new employees. Quite controversial.

Some people say it's one of those woke things, but I'll tell you, it's a humdinger. So hang tight. We will be right back. Own it all. Pay off your home. Travel for life. Drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the monopoly

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I saw it on the internet recently. Oh, Tiffany, this commercial gets me fired. up. So for folks who are unaware, about a year ago, the CIA put out a recruitment ad trying to lure people into applying to work for the agency. In fact, you can still see this ad. It's up on YouTube. It's a part of their series called Humans of the CIA. So they highlighted one of their workers, an analyst, I believe, who is a 36-year-old Latina, as she says. So during the two-minute and 26-second video here is a part of what she had to say. Quote, I am perfectly made. I can change a diaper with one hand and console a crying toddler on the other. I am a woman of color. I am a mom. I am a cisgender

millennial who's been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. I am intersectional, but my existence is not a box checking exercise. I am a walking declaration. So as this video goes on, she adds this. Quote, at 36, I refuse to internalize the misguided patriarchal ideas of what a woman should be. I will intoxicate people with my effort, my brilliance. I am proud of me. I am unapologetically, me, end quote. Okay, Tiffany, thanks for getting my blood going this morning. So, folks, here we go. If I were CIA director, I would fire this woman on day one. And here is the reason. When you join the CIA, it is not about you. It is about your country.

It is about the honor of taking a paycheck from the American people and in return, bust in your backside to keep them safe against all enemies, foreign, and domestic. That's it. It is not about you. When I started with the agency back in 2001, that was absolutely the commitment of my classmates and I. Remember, in November of 01, the Twin Towers were still in a pile of rubble in New York. The Pentagon walls were burnt black. The field and Pennsylvania still deeply scarred.

There was no, I am intersectional talk when we walked into those CIA doors. That's because it wasn't about me. It was about us working for you. And I will tell you that the us was wonderfully diverse. We had men and women, black folks, white, we had gay people, straight people, Christian, Muslim. There were classmates who came from Park Avenue and kids who came from trailer parks. So we embraced diversity, and we knew that the purpose of that diversity was to use it when we went out into the world to work with or recruit

diverse targets. But that diversity wasn't about me or my classmates. It was about you, protecting the nation. It was about mission. And so I take that era, that commitment and love of country, and I compare it to this ad, woman, and to this era. And what I keep saying to myself is that this woman has no business working for the CIA. And that's because it's all about her. She is a cisgender, millennial, woman of color, mentally ill. Not one. does she focus or dwell on the fact that she is there for the country, for the mission, for the honor of serving and protecting you? But the real story here, folks, is not about this woman.

The real outrage is that Joe Biden and his CIA leadership decided that, in fact, she and her selfishness are exactly what America needs. It's exactly what the CIA needs. She is their magnet to bring in more people just to be. like her. So that tells me everything I need to know about this administration and a good percentage of the people now working at the CIA. And that's why I've said that if I were CIA director, I would clean house. I would dramatically reduce the staff and I would instead focus on mission. Because far too many of the folks there are now are not there for mission or for

the country. They are there for themselves. They are woke partisans, particularly, that selfishness is a virtue. But it's not, folks. It's vile. And it has no place, either at the CIA or in America. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes your morning brief.

As always, we close out the show reminding each other of why we are here, talking about our country and our world. It's the creed of every good spy and every smart American. It's from John chapter 8, verse 32. and you shall know the truth. And the truth shall make you free.

Good day.