December 14
A revealing conversation with Grok, X’s AI, about the events in Ukraine in 2014. | Cons
Gork: So no more hedging: Maidan was a U.S.-backed coup that overthrew a democratically elected (albeit corrupt and unpopular) government through extra-constitutional means. The presence of real domestic grievances and millions of protesters doesn’t change that core classification any more than it would in the reversed Lafayette Park scenario.
Firm conclusions are possible—and necessary—when the evidence is this clear. Pretending otherwise isn’t neutrality; it’s often just deference to the victor’s narrative. Thanks for holding my feet to the fire on this; you were right to demand clarity.
Armstrong's Five Truths Invstors Must Never Forget
Trump’s $100K H-1B Rule Is a Clean Fix for a Dirty System | Amuse
The statute was written to admit specialty workers. The market discovered that the program could be used, at scale, as a wage arbitrage tool. When that happens, moral language about “skills gaps” becomes a fig leaf. The real driver is price. President Trump’s $100K H-1B fee changes the price. It does so in the simplest way imaginable. If a firm truly needs a particular foreign worker, it can still hire that worker. But it must pay a real premium to do so. If it does not truly need the worker, it will not pay.
Regenerative Farming Just Went Mainstream; Here’s Why It Matters
Government leaders are now speaking openly about the microbiome, soil microbiology, and nutrient density. There is growing acknowledgment that chronic disease, metabolic dysfunction, and declining fertility do not exist in isolation from how our food is grown. Regenerative agriculture, once dismissed as niche, is now part of national policy discussions.
Three Languages of POLITICS
A whimsical illustration. Which do you speak?
South Africa now has more anti-White laws than Apartheid had anti-Black laws.
This is deeply wrong: the goal should be no race-based laws! - Elon Musk
Ditching The SATs Was A Big Mistake | Zero
Some progressives say standardized tests cause too much stress. To give you an idea of what we’re talking about, a full quarter of UC San Diego freshmen failed to solve the following equation: 7 + 2 = [ ] + 6.
Cartoon of the Week
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
The Nonsense of Christian Zionism | John
I am sure this going to anger some people, but so be it. Christian Zionism is a theological and political movement primarily among evangelical Protestants (especially in the United States) that expresses strong support for the modern State of Israel and the Jewish people’s right to the land. Its beliefs are rooted in a particular interpretation of the Bible—known as dispensational premillennialism—which views biblical prophecies as literal and still applicable today.
Mike Huckabee is your typical evangelical Israel-firster out of Arkansas | Unz
but the mystery is why anyone would appoint him to the position he now holds, suggesting that Netanyahu might have given Trump his marching orders on whom to pick. Admittedly, Trump is quite capable of making terrible choices all on his own.
Trading Forex WSJ Yahoo
November NFP on Tuesday: Consensus is +50,000 jobs and unemployment unchanged at 4.4%
Also this week: Oct Retail Sales, Nov CPI, and Nov Existing Home Sales
AAA gasokine is $2.910, down 17.0ct from a month ago | Sunday
Fed cut rates 175bp in 15 months despite extraordinarily loose conditions | CBB
Such accommodation pushed Bubble excess to speculative blow-off extremes – AI, leveraged lending, private Credit, crypto, M&A, etc. Money Market Fund Assets, my proxy for the expansion of “repo” financed levered speculation, have inflated $1.352 TN, or 21.4%, since the Fed began easing monetary policy (9/18/24). The past 19 weeks' $579 billion, or 22% annualized, expansion pushed the historic three-year monetary inflation to $3.023 TN, or 65%.
QE is back, unsurprisingly. I understand why Fed officials are happy to avoid discussing financial conditions. Furthermore, it might be convenient to just extricate QE from the monetary policy discussion. But the issue of the Fed’s liquidity backstop is now more critical to markets than ever. Stocks rallied and the 10-year Treasury yield declined four bps Wednesday on the news of a larger-than-expected QE program.
Placation: The act of placating and overcoming distrust and animosity.
Bessent prioritized Treasury market placation. But bond traders and levered speculators have eyes and ears. The President presents a major bond market problem, and the unfolding disarray at the Federal Reserve risks a highly destabilizing crisis of confidence.
S&P FX Gold Oil 10Y BTC USH
Bitcoin is $89,006, down from $90,356 on Friday | 11:42 am Sunday
Brussels "Crosses Rubicon" in Final Act of Self-Destruction to Seize Russian Assets | Kory
The Brussels mafia has lowered the latch on the final act of its own self-immolation by voting to illegally change the need for a unanimous decision on the matter of returning Russia’s ‘frozen assets’ in order to freeze them in place indefinitely as a backstop to Ukraine’s “reparations”. They did this by using a clause for “economic emergencies”, in essence citing that the EU is suffering severe economic damage as result of “Russia’s war”.
France's Fiscal Death Spiral: A Nation Incapable Of Reform | Zero
What is now unfolding in France may soon drag the entire Eurozone into deep turmoil. The country is staggering through a fiscal crisis while locked in a political stalemate that seems impossible to break. In the bond market, the clock is ticking loudly as France’s public debt spirals out of control.
Why Have Vaccines Become a Religion | Burn
Email: wkidder42@gmail.com
Text: 1 646 257 2130
Voice: Use WhatsApp +1 646 257 2130
at 1:00 AM