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What Do You See Here?

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

A K-pop star holding a pair of Chuck Taylors was enough. Crop the frame, squint at a star-shaped spotlight, and a Nike subsidiary is suddenly in the business of hoods and hangings, according to disturbed leftists who see racism everywhere.

Instead of ignoring the demented behaviour, Converse pulled the image, apologised on cue, and promised to "do better." The people filming themselves crying and torching sneakers got the ritual they wanted.

The still came from Converse's Chuck 70 X campaign with Aespa singer Karina, rolled out internationally from late August. She stands inside the brand's five-pointed star, in a long white skirt, holding black high-tops.

A few black activists online (like actress Yvette Nicole Brown and U.S. Rep. Troy Carter) said that this ad was "White Supremacy", so Converse apologized & took it down.
It's a Korean K-Pop girl.
Never apologize to the woke mob.
They're crazy. pic.twitter.com/gkmCwUPYfp

— Mr Reagan (@MrReaganUSA) September 21, 2026

Online, the crop did the work. Lighting on the fabric became a pointed hood. The shoes became dangling feet. The full picture - an Asian pop star in a logo spotlight - was conveniently left out.

Louisiana Democrat (experts on the KKK) Rep. Troy Carter fumed "Nike and Converse, what the hell were you thinking?Your campaign shows what looks like a hooded Klansman, framed by what appears to be the dangling feet of a lynching victim. There is nothing creative or artistic about it. It is racist, reckless and deeply offensive."

He went further: "Black pain is not a marketing prop. Lynching is not a creative concept. The Ku Klux Klan is not an aesthetic." He also said repairing the alleged harm would take "more than an apology written by your public relations department."

Converse delivered that apology anyway. "We're sorry," the company said. "We understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognize that we got this wrong. We removed it from our channels and are working to remove it everywhere it appeared. This should not have happened, and we will do better."

Converse apologizes for shoe ads that critics blasted as evoking the KKK https://t.co/fpi8ITThA7 pic.twitter.com/rhYhu4niYg

— New York Post (@nypost) September 19, 2026

A second campaign - Converse x Palmes, with figures on a ladder reaching shoes near a tree - was dragged into the same pile-on. Two different shoots, one moral script.

How any American who is remotely educated can look at this horrifying ad & not see a klan hood and the feet of a hanging body...makes me speechless.

I cannot fathom why @Converse would green light something so abhorrent. Lynchings of Black people in the US is NOT ancient history pic.twitter.com/t0fou2Ct4Q

— NanaSue ? ?????? (@NanaSueSpeaks) September 19, 2026

Chicago photographer Stephanie Schwartz claimed on Threads: "Shadow, light, and composition. Every photographer can tell you, whoever did this ad knew EXACTLY what they were doing."

Replies called it a Rorschach test. One user wrote that an Asian woman holding sneakers "tells nothing about the picture" and "everything about you."

One X respondent put the optical-illusion case in the open. "People are demanding mass firings at Converse and Nike over 'blatant racism' in an ad of K-pop star Karina holding a pair of sneakers." The account added: "Look at the photo....It's an Asian woman in a white skirt, standing in a star-shaped spotlight, holding shoes. Some people squint and see a Klan hood and a lynching. That's pareidolia the same thing that makes you see faces in outlets and Jesus in toast."

Treating an accidental shadow as a "coordinated hate ritual," the post argued, is not justice. It is assuming the worst and then demanding the company prove a negative.

People are demanding mass firings at Converse and Nike over "blatant racism" in an ad of K-pop star Karina holding a pair of sneakers.

The problem is...most of the people who approved this ad ARE LIKELY BLACK!

Look at the photo....It's an Asian woman in a white skirt, standing... https://t.co/tAnKQOcbWv pic.twitter.com/sdjJATulQx

— Clerpatriot (@clerpatriot) September 19, 2026

Once the crop went viral, the content shifted from captions to performance. People cut logos, painted over stars, dumped new pairs in bins and set them alight.

NEW: Boycott of Converse has spread among the left-wing woke mob, with some people burning, cutting up, painting over the logo and throwing away the brand's shoes after the company released a new ad for its iconic sneakers.

The campaign featured a female model holding a pair of... pic.twitter.com/N2tDlHQXq9

— I Meme Therefore I Am ?? (@ImMeme0) September 19, 2026

I found even more desperate people manufacturing outrage over Converse, virtue-signaling for clout, and proudly burning and throwing away their shoes. https://t.co/edkiudEorv pic.twitter.com/KdoBZX99qB

— I Meme Therefore I Am ?? (@ImMeme0) September 21, 2026

Lindsay Clancy fan burns her Converse over an ad TikTok decided is a "coded message" from white supremacists

We have a serious mental health crisis pic.twitter.com/dbYVrM9nml

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 20, 2026

Another user circulated clips of lunatics weeping over the still, then a follow-up of a woman binning brand-new Chucks. "When normal people look at the ad all they see is a girl holding a pair of shoes," the account wrote.

"When woke black people who have a constant need to play victim about something look at the ad they see a Klan member lynching a black a man." A later update noted "woke whites have joined the party."

WOW ?

Black Liberals are filming themselves crying over the new converse ad that they have now deemed as racist??

In their never ending quest to be victims of nonexistent racism they've now resorted to flipping through ads looking for something to be offended by.

When normal... pic.twitter.com/G7K7tPvbgp

— Cinema Shogun (@CinemaShogun) September 19, 2026

Not every Black voice played along. One woman said the fatigue was real and the boycott was theatre. "When will this nonsense stop? It's out of control. We are tired. So burn your Converse, cancel Converse, cancel Nike. Nobody cares." She praised the ad and said the company should not have apologised.

Black woman slams the woke mob over the backlash against Converse, saying the fatigue is real and nobody cares about their boycott.

She praises the ad and says the company shouldn't have apologized. She adds that people can boycott the brand all they want, but companies will... https://t.co/edkiudEorv pic.twitter.com/OlQIufGZWF

— I Meme Therefore I Am ?? (@ImMeme0) September 20, 2026

Has anyone checked on this K-pop star Karina after she has been dragged all over the internet for the Converse ad???

She probably thought she booked an adorable Converse campaign that would open doors and bring her more money...

Instead, the American left has cropped her ad,... pic.twitter.com/woGUOot8xG

— Clerpatriot (@clerpatriot) September 20, 2026

If you looked at that Converse ad and saw a KKK hood, you need to log off and touch grass https://t.co/yAuaCYjMSE

— Clown World ™ ? (@ClownWorld) September 20, 2026

Karina did nothing wrong with this Converse ad.

If you looked at this and saw a KKK ad, you're psychotic and need to be checked into a mental asylum. pic.twitter.com/1moVP3flzI

— Kangmin Lee | ??? (@kangminlee) September 20, 2026

Karina and SM Entertainment did not immediately respond to press queries. The singer is now attached to a controversy designed in social media feeds, not Seoul studios.

Bloomberg later obtained an internal memo from Converse CEO Aaron Cain. "The images should not have been used, and we began removing them from all channels as soon as the concern was raised," he told staff. "The leadership team and I are taking a hard look at our internal review process and the critical lens we apply to our work." Cain did not spell out the changes.

The timing is ugly for a reason that has nothing to do with hoods. Converse has been one of Nike's stubborn weak spots through a long run of falling sales. A brand that cannot ship growth now cannot ship a star-shaped light without a struggle session. Calls for firings and boycotts filled the replies.

There is a difference between historical memory and a bizarre hunt for racist shapes in fabric. One is serious. The other is manufactured content. Converse chose the audience that treats every shadow as a manifesto. The rest of the country still sees a girl holding sneakers.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 13:00

The brutal stabbing continued “the most tragic 48 hours” for Deputy Commissioner Peter McKenna.

The crash came just as the actor seemed to be finding real success in his career after more than a decade in the business.

Jennifer Eckhart, a former Fox Business associate producer and podcast host, was found dead Friday at her Martin County, Fla., home, authorities said.

“We appreciate that some of the nation’s largest and most prestigious hospital systems have agreed to cease harming minors under the guise of ‘gender-affirming care’ and agreed to pay for potential violations of federal law when they did so,” said US Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate.

There is a lot of focus on Aaron Glenn’s game management from this loss and rightfully so. There were a number of questionable decisions by Glenn. It makes me wonder how calling the defense is affecting him as the head coach.

SoftBank To Sell $11 Billion In Junk Bonds At Soaring Yields To Fund OpenAI Investments

It's only appropriate that just hours after we published an extensive report looking at the trillions in debt funding the AI supercycle - which just this year stands at $568bn, of which $259bn issued in IG, followed by $256bn across Private Credit, Direct Lending, and other bilateral/non-syndicated lending (for SPVs and infrastructure finance), another $40bn for HY and $11bn for institutional loans...

... that SotBank launched what Bloomberg dubbed "one of the biggest junk bond deals ever", as the Japanese conglomerate seeks the equivalent of more than $11 billion in high  yield debt as Masayoshi Son’s conglomerate ramps up its investments in ChatGPT creator OpenAI. 

If SoftBank sells about $11 billion in debt it would be one of the largest junk bond sales ever by a single firm, excluding distressed debt exchanges. The near-record offering would come in 5 tranches: the company is looking to issue $10 billion of dollar securities across three tenors, and €1 billion ($1.1 billion) of euro debt across two maturities, according to BBG sources.

The proceeds from the debt sale will be used to fund a follow-on investment in OpenAI expected to close next month as well as general corporate purposes; the deal is expected to price as soon as Thursday, depending on demand. 

One of the world’s largest investors in AI, SoftBank’s fortunes have become increasingly intertwined with its ability to monetize its holding in OpenAI after committing close to $65 billion to the tech pioneer. That’s put Son’s firm at the epicenter of debt-fueled bets on artificial intelligence, at a time when safety concerns about the industry have flared.

SoftBank and its lead banks are sounding out investors on potential pricing for the proposed junk bond sale, offering an early glimpse of roughly how much the conglomerate may pay for the deal. All discussions are early stage and figures could change.

The table below shows the indicative prices that SoftBank is feeling out with investors, though such initial price guidance has yet to be discussed and could wind up differing from these earlier discussions based on investor feedback:

Those yields would all be records for SoftBank in those specific currencies and tenors if priced at those levels, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, though details in corporate note offerings often change before they are actually priced.

As Bloomberg notes, the latest deal adds to a flurry of recent activity by SoftBank, as it builds out its artificial intelligence financing capacity. The conglomerate entered into a $40 billion bridge loan in March to fund an additional investment in OpenAI, and recently repaid the outstanding balance of $25.9 billion on that facility.

SoftBank closed out last week with nearly $21 billion in potential fresh borrowings. The group increased a margin loan backed by shares of its chip unit Arm Holdings by $5 billion to $25 billion, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. And it recently secured an additional $450 million to an existing credit line, bringing the total to $6.5 billion.

In short, if OpenAi goes down it is absolutely dragging SoftBank with it. 

Apollo Global is also in talks to boost the size of a loan to SoftBank by $3.6 billion to $9 billion to help it finance its investment in AI giant OpenAI. On top of that, the firm founded and led by billionaire Masayoshi Son secured an $11.87 billion loan, also to support its OpenAI investment. 

As part of its funding campaign this year, SoftBank has sold almost $15 billion of notes across currencies, making it the biggest junk-rated borrower in bond markets so far in 2026, Bloomberg-compiled data show. There was also a $10 billion loan earlier this year backed by its OpenAI stake.

The deals come amid a broader increase across markets in borrowing costs, as most major economies grapple with inflation. The yield on SoftBank’s dollar bond maturing in 2031 climbed to 8.2% earlier this month, up from as low as 6.7% in January, as spreads have blown out and underlying Treasury yields have risen.

Recent calls by heads of some of the world’s biggest artificial intelligence platforms, including OpenAI, to slow AI advances on safety concerns, have introduced another layer of uncertainty. That contributed recently to an increase in the cost to insure SoftBank’s debt against default to the highest in three years. 

In another hit to SoftBank, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s remarked that the company won’t go public this year - a move that would increase the liquidity of SoftBank’s investments - have been closely watched by investors.   

Citigroup Inc. is acting as the lead bookrunner and a joint global coordinator, alongside Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley for dollar tranches. JPMorgan is the lead bookrunner for the euro-denominated notes and among the joint global coordinators, together with Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 12:40

Fertilizer Stocks Tumble As Trump Says "Working On Massive" Belarus Potash Deal

"The United States is working on a massive Deal with respect to the purchase of Potash from Belarus," President Trump wrote on Truth Social just before 11 a.m. ET.

Trump continued, "The pricing would be for substantially less than we are currently paying to Canada, very good news for our Farmers and Ranchers."

The immediate market impact: Intrepid Potash, CF Industries, and Mosaic shares fell to session lows.

Intrepid Potash: -4.6%

CF Industries: -3.5%

Mosaic: -4.5%

The move follows Trump slapping 50% tariffs on some Canadian goods last month after the US and Canada failed to reach a last-minute trade deal. However, the levies included significant exemptions for major Canadian imports such as oil, gas, and potash. 

However, earlier, Russian news agency Interfax quoted Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko as saying his country lacks the capacity to supply potash fertlizer to the West. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 12:20

Qatar's Energy Minister Says Bessent's "Worthless" Hormuz Claim Is "Completely Wrong"

Qatari Energy Minister Saad Al-Kaabi blasted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday, saying he was "wrong" to claim the Strait of Hormuz would become "worthless" to the oil industry in two years.

"I think this is completely wrong," Saad Al-Kaabi said Sunday at the Qatar Economic Forum in New York.

Speaking to Fox Business's Larry Kudlow on the sidelines of the Group of 20 finance ministers' summit in North Carolina earlier this month, Bessent said the Hormuz maritime chokepoint, in about "two years will be… a worthless piece of water," adding that oil "will be going on pipelines across land."

🚨𝗝𝗨𝗦𝗧 𝗜𝗡: 🇺🇸 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says

“In 2 years, the Strait of Hormuz will be like a worthless piece of water.” pic.twitter.com/B94NIWtews

— DustyBC Crypto (@DustyBC) September 1, 2026

Al-Kaabi, who also heads QatarEnergy, argued that rewiring the Hormuz area with pipelines to bypass the critical maritime chokepoint, as Bessent described, would not eliminate the broader trade flowing through the strait.

"I don't think this is ever going to be obsolete," he said.

Qatari Energy Minister Saad Al-Kaabi responds to Secretary Bessent’s remark that “in two years, the Strait of Hormuz will be like a worthless piece of water.” pic.twitter.com/rFKewRONIR

— Annmarie Hordern (@annmarie) September 20, 2026

Bessent's comments come as a generational rewiring of energy flows in the Gulf, and really the world, is underway, and allies in the Gulf have already announced plans for new pipeline exits out of the region that bypass the strait.

New routes through the UAE and Iraq could eventually carry roughly 4 million additional barrels a day. Combined with increased flows through Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, that could replace around 40% of the 20 million barrels a day that previously transited Hormuz.

The rewiring is all part of meaningful diversification but carries risks, as demonstrated by the recent drone attack on Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline that has rendered it useless in the short term.

Alternative pipelines can reduce dependence on Hormuz. But warfare has forever changed, with low-cost one-way attack drones putting every critical infrastructure asset in the region in the crosshairs.

Beyond the Gulf, the Trump administration is diversifying oil supply chains by signing a mega deal with Venezuela and allowing US energy giants to begin investments to ramp up oil production. The aim is to bring energy and critical materials supply chains closer to home, a key pillar of Trump's Western Hemisphere revival.

Making Hormuz worthless is a long game for the Trump administration while it builds out energy assets in the West.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 12:15

While CAR T-cell therapy has shown promising effects on blood cancers, its effects are limited when treating solid tumors, until now.

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Jon Gruden blamed the Los Angeles Chargers' 0-2 start on a concerning issue between quarterback Justin Herbert and his coaches.

NY Post readers discuss Yale freshman being more critical of Israel than China and more.

Bessent Hails "Very Successful" China Talks As Trump-Xi Summit Puts AI, Rare Earths And Energy On The Table

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent emerged from roughly eight hours of talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York on Sunday calling the meeting "very successful," with Washington and Beijing agreeing to new mechanisms covering trade and artificial intelligence just days before President Donald Trump hosts Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington.

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, shakes hands with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Sept. 20, 2026. Bai Xueqi/ | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

The talks, held at JPMorgan Chase headquarters, were intended to lay the groundwork for the Trump-Xi summit later this week. Working-level discussions are continuing as the two sides try to lock down whatever can be agreed before the leaders meet.

On paper, the immediate deliverables were relatively modest. In practice, the timing is anything but.

The two sides agreed to establish a U.S.-China AI dialogue, with Washington proposing a notification mechanism for AI incidents serious enough to reach the national-security level. Bessent framed the concept as an effort to move the world's two leading AI powers from opacity toward greater transparency and establish some common understanding of threats.

As we noted Friday, artificial intelligence was already emerging as one of the summit's most consequential issues, sitting alongside trade, semiconductors, Taiwan and rare earths. The two governments also moved to operationalize the previously proposed Board of Trade. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said negotiators are looking for baskets of "non-sensitive" goods that could potentially be treated separately from future trade restrictions. Washington is considering lower-tech Chinese consumer goods, while Beijing is looking at U.S. energy, agricultural products and potentially medical devices.

There was no announced breakthrough, however, on some of the much larger outstanding disputes, including Chinese rare-earth flows, additional purchases of U.S. agricultural goods or Boeing aircraft. Advanced AI-chip export restrictions were also not part of Sunday's AI discussion.

Perhaps more revealing was how little Beijing itself said about AI. Xinhua described the talks as "candid, in-depth and constructive" before relegating the subject to the final sentence of its brief readout: "They also held dialogues on AI-related issues."

Chinese state media Xinhua has a very brief report on the Bessent and He Lifeng meeting in New York.

AI only mentioned in last line: “They also held dialogues on AI-related issues.” pic.twitter.com/HsUQmdujJ3

— Kyle Chan (@kyleichan) September 21, 2026

But Xi is also heading to Washington against a considerably different geopolitical backdrop than the one surrounding Trump's May visit to Beijing.

For starters, two of China's most attractive sources of discounted crude have been sharply constrained. Venezuela had become an important supplier of cheap heavy crude to Chinese refiners, but those flows fell dramatically after Washington's intervention in the country's oil trade earlier this year. As we noted at the time, Chinese refiners initially compensated by increasing purchases of heavily discounted Iranian barrels.

Meanwhile, the renewed U.S. campaign against Iran's oil exports disrupted shipments to Asia and left tens of millions of barrels in transit or floating storage. As we reported in July, roughly 63 million barrels of Iranian crude were at one point either moving or idling aboard tankers as sanctions pressure intensified. That does not mean China is running out of oil. Beijing accumulated large inventories and can source replacement barrels elsewhere, but the combination of reduced Venezuelan flows and disrupted Iranian supply has diminished some of the cheap-energy advantage Chinese refiners previously enjoyed.

Russia can fill part of that gap, but its own energy infrastructure remains under pressure from Ukrainian long-range attacks on refineries, export terminals and storage facilities. Earlier this month, Goldman estimated that the attacks had taken roughly 300,000 barrels per day of Russian refining capacity offline during August and early September. China has also encountered setbacks around another strategic chokepoint. Panama's Supreme Court voided Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison's concessions to operate the Balboa and Cristobal ports at opposite ends of the Panama Canal. As we noted in January, the ruling stripped the legal basis from a China-linked operator at two port facilities adjoining one of the world's most important shipping routes.

Then there is Greenland. Washington announced Friday that it had reached a security agreement intended to guarantee a long-term U.S. role on the island while preventing Russia, China and other non-NATO countries from establishing military bases there. The arrangement would strengthen the U.S. position in an Arctic region that both Washington and Beijing increasingly view as strategically important. On Monday, Denmark confirmed that the Trump-Greenland deal would boost arctic security. 

The political landscape across parts of Latin America has shifted as well. Reuters described Colombia's June election of Abelardo De La Espriella as part of a broader regional movement to the right that has also included Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, Panama and Peru.

Brazil is now the major unresolved contest. As we noted last week, Polymarket pricing recently moved in favor of Senator Flavio Bolsonaro over President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Prediction-market prices are not opinion polls, however, and Monday's BTG Pactual/Nexus survey showed Lula at 46% and Bolsonaro at 45% in a hypothetical runoff, within the survey's margin of error.

Markets, meanwhile, entered the weekend already showing signs of pressure. According to Newsquawk, the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield closed Friday 6.5bps higher at 5.004%, while the two-year rose 7.5bps to 4.745%, producing a modest bear flattening of the curve.

Yet Xi is hardly arriving in Washington without leverage of his own.

China still controls roughly 70% of global rare-earth mining and more than 85% of refining capacity, leaving Beijing with substantial influence over supply chains critical to U.S. autos, semiconductors, aerospace and defense. As we noted this weekend, disrupted Chinese yttrium shipments alone have already forced Western aerospace, energy and semiconductor companies to scramble for alternatives. Beijing also retains enormous manufacturing capacity, large accumulated energy inventories and considerable purchasing power over everything from American agricultural commodities to aircraft.

In other words, Thursday's summit is taking shape less as a grand reconciliation than an attempt by two heavily intertwined rivals to fence off portions of the relationship before the next confrontation.

Washington arrives with greater influence over Venezuelan oil flows, intensified pressure on Iran's exports, a strengthened strategic position around Greenland and reduced China-linked influence around the Panama Canal, while the political map across portions of Latin America has changed considerably.

Beijing arrives with its own formidable counters: dominant critical-mineral supply chains, a resilient manufacturing and export base, substantial energy reserves and enormous leverage as a buyer of U.S. goods. Oh, and let's not forget - open-weight AI models that have completely upended the frontier AI model. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 12:00

What does a Knicks championship mean when you’ve waited your whole life for it? Brooklyn rapper and lifelong New York Knicks fan Skyzoo joins Dexter Henry on NY Got Game to talk about finally seeing the Knicks win it all, a summer of blue-and-orange celebrations, and watching his song “Blue and Orange Everything” become part...

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Are the Giants getting enough respect from the betting market?