Women set sights on quorum court seats
Garland County electoral politics is awash in the national movement that’s brought women to courthouses and capital buildings in record numbers to file for public office.
Five women who filed as Democrats for seats on the Garland County Quorum Court are part of the wave, one that intends to bring greater diversity to a 13-member panel that has been occupied by 12 men during the 2017-18 term.
The gender imbalance has not sat well with District 3 Justice of the Peace Denise Marion, the lone woman on the quorum court and the only county Democrat to win a contested race during the 2014 and 2016 cycles. As recruiting chairwoman for the Democratic Party of Garland County, she’s working to make the county’s legislative body resemble the demographics of its constituents.
“My time on the quorum court has been wonderful,” Marion, who didn’t file for re-election, said. “We have a great selection of people who make decisions for the county. But on the other hand, I sometimes feel beleaguered.
“When Mary Bournival and Ellen Varhalla were on the quorum court, you couldn’t find two people farther apart in political perspective from me than those two. But we really stood up for each other and made sure each of us were heard when we had points to make.
“Sometimes it’s hard for me to make my point. And they’re all taller than me,
in 2018, and the same goes for cars. Wolf notes that it’s unclear if China is blocking such exports or North Korea simply can’t afford them. But either one, he wrote in a recent report for the company, would be a clear signal the North’s economy is “under a great deal of stress.”
“While China’s role over the past few months has often been overlooked or little understood, it appears a strategy could be emerging: China wants to play a central role in ‘resolving’ this crisis, but wants to do it on its own terms,” he wrote. “It’s increasingly clear that Chinese pressure is a driving force and China will play a central role in any future talks.”
Kim announced in his New Year’s address he would reach out to the South to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula. He then agreed to hold a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on April 27 and with Trump after that. But to the surprise of many, Kim suddenly showed up in Beijing first for a summit with President Xi Jinping last month, underscoring the continued primacy of China in North Korea’s foreign relationships.
Lu Chao, director of the Border Study Institute at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, noted that China accounts for almost 80 percent of the North’s total trade, meaning the onus for implementing U.N. sanctions has been mainly borne by Beijing, whose enforcement has created “huge pressure on North Korea.”
“There is no doubt China is doing more than ever when it comes to sanctions,” he said, adding restrictions on sales of textile and seafood products to North Korea imposed by China last autumn “have dealt a huge blow to the country.”
“China has played a very important role in promoting the current change of the situation,” he said.
The decrease in trade isn’t just about politics.
China’s economy is also dealing with overproduction in many industries and its demand for North Korean imports is low. Efforts at joint development projects have languished and difficulties suffered by Chinese firms in North Korea — especially problems receiving payment — have soured enthusiasm for cross-border trade.
But the deficit presents an obvious dilemma for the Kim regime: the more it depletes its foreign reserves by buying in excess of what it sells, the less money it has to buy anything at all. Normally, that would lead to inflation — and even hyperinflation — as imported necessities become scarcer and people who can afford to do so dump their holdings in the local currency to buy safer U.S. dollars or Chinese yuan.
Georgetown University economist William Brown said he believes the North’s current account deficit has risen dramatically since the strengthening last November of sanctions on North Korean exports by China, which he said are by now “certainly biting.”
“Why is Kim venturing his offer now? My impression is he is feeling very strong pressure from China’s virtual embargo on North Korea’s exports, and what he must see as a gradual ratcheting down of needed imports, even petroleum,” Brown wrote in a recent blog post. “This is an enormous economic hit of a sort the country has never had to deal with on this scale.”
Brown believes an important indicator of the North’s economic health will be movement of the unofficial but widely used exchange rate for the North Korean currency, which has been surprisingly stable at around 8,000 to the U.S. dollar for years but should now be under intense inflationary pressure.
“China is giving us the chance, and (we should) use it cleverly to get what we want out of the nuclear program and systemic reform,” he added. “It’s not so impossible if you realize everyone, even young Kim, can benefit.”