Authored by Steve Cortes via RealClearPolitics,

Undeterred by even the sting of a would-be assassin’s bullet, Donald Trump charged strongly onward into Wisconsin for the Republican National Convention. This demonstration of determination and life force provides a stark contrast to the dithering and often incoherent meanderings of his opponent, Joe Biden.

Trump further accentuated that show of vitality by selecting a running mate who is sure to help him win, serve as an invaluable second-in-command for the next four years, and then carry the banner of America first into the future after Trump completes his second term.

As someone who has spent many hours with J.D. Vance and campaigned for him vigorously in his successful underdog Senate win, I can provide insight into the five best reasons that Vance was the pitch-perfect pick:

1. His Backstory: Like Trump, Vance arrives in politics as an outsider. J.D. gained national recognition when he captured hearts and minds with his bestselling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, and the Academy Award-winning movie adaptation. With searing eloquence, he describes the challenges facing working-class America, especially heartland communities decimated by economic decline and cultural decay.

Vance shares his rare perspective as someone who rose from a troubled family and poor communities to an Ivy League law degree and professional success. For J.D., a devoted grandmother and the U.S. Marine Corps formed his path toward upward mobility – the keys to his Horatio Alger life story that will resonate with voters, especially blue-collar citizens in battleground states.

2. America First Foreign Policy: As a veteran who was deployed with the Marines to a war zone, Vance speaks with personal authority and authenticity when he counters the schemes of the interventionist Washington foreign policy establishment. In fact, Vance has emerged as one of the most persuasive voices for a true Trumpian international approach of realism and restraint. Regarding trade policy with China or military assistance to Ukraine, Vance represents well the growing populism of Republican and independent voters who insist that we secure America’s own prosperity and our own border before prioritizing foreigners and faraway regional battles.

These issues matter materially to voters. In fact, Trump’s 2016 victory was decisively propelled by key voter shifts in the areas of battleground states with the highest concentrations of injured veterans. Those patriots rallied to Trump’s peace agenda, and they will again.

3. Media and Debate Skills: Vance won his Senate seat as an outsider political novice in a hotly contested primary against far better-financed opponents with significant political experience. This grueling come-from-behind win sharpened his media abilities enormously, and that trend has only accelerated since he joined the Senate. Unlike many Republican elected officials, Vance willingly and enthusiastically welcomes tough, confrontational interviews on hostile platforms, and handles those interrogations with aplomb.

In addition, anyone rooting for Donald Trump to serve a second term should relish the prospect of a Vance vs. Kamala Harris debate, which might prove almost as much of a mismatch as Trump’s drubbing of mumbling Biden. Vance commands mastery of policy details, yet delivers that knowledge with clarity and likeability. As for the current vice president? Well, let’s just say she will not enjoy trying to match Vance’s intellect or authenticity. 

4. The Correct Political Detractors: Vance acts as a magnet for particularly heated vitriol from the spokesmen and platforms of the American ruling class. Why? Because they see him as a former insider who turned on them. In other words, just like Donald Trump, Vance was once considered part of the “club” of elites, given his educational pedigree and experience in finance. Moreover, the huge success of his book and movie made him, briefly, the toast of the town in places like Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Like Trump, he could have continued on that path of lucrative deals and constant adulation from the supposed “important people.”

Instead, to pursue better lives for Americans in circumstances he knew as a child and young man, Vance chose the more difficult path as a populist political thinker and officeholder. He knowingly passed on rewards and accolades for higher patriotic goals, which speaks to his true character as a man and as a candidate.

5. Youth and Vigor: In a race where the cognitive state of the current president becomes a front-and-center theme of the campaign, the vitality and strength of Vance provide an important contrast. But even more importantly, beyond this election, Vance is perfectly positioned to be Trump’s effective partner and understudy for four years in the White House – and then to lead the America First movement well into the future after Trump’s term.

Intraparty contests can be tough and bruising, whether primary fights or competitions for running-mate selection. Clearly, there were other super impressive candidates in the mix for this key position as vice-presidential nominee. The GOP bench is populated and healthy!

But all Republicans should now march in lockstep behind this ticket and trust that our fearless nominee, Donald Trump, has made the best possible selection in J.D. Vance.

Unicorn companies are privately-owned, venture-backed startups worth at least $1 billion, and are therefore not publicly traded on normal stock markets.

In this chart created by Trendline, Visual Capitalist’s Ryan Bellafontaine looks at the world’s highest-valued unicorn companies, based on data from CB Insights as of June 1, 2024.

TikTok on Top

The Chinese media and entertainment company ByteDance, which owns the social media platform TikTok, is the world’s most valuable unicorn company at $225 billion.

However, as U.S. regulatory pressure grows for ByteDance to divest TikTok in the U.S., this leading valuation may be in doubt going forward.

Source: CB Insights.

Meanwhile, the largest unicorn company in the United States is SpaceX, led and founded by Elon Musk, valued at $150 billion. SpaceX is the only company on the list in the industrial category.

OpenAI, founded in 2015, is the world’s highest-valued artificial intelligence pure-play company. Best known for its groundbreaking program ChatGPT, it is worth $80 billion.

American Exceptionalism

The United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, and China appear only once in the top 10, while the United States takes six places.

Australia’s only appearance is its graphic design company, Canva, which is worth $25 billion. Canva was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Sydney.

Revolut, a fintech company, is the United Kingdom’s highest-valued unicorn. Founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko, it is valued at $33 billion.

Finally, home to fast fashion company Shein, Singapore is the only Asian entry besides ByteDance in the top 10. That said, Shein is the world’s largest retail unicorn, valued at $66 billion.

Authored by Mark Ford via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

You have two adult children. Alissa and Tony. They are twins. At the time of their birth, you had set up a trust account designated to go to them when they turned 30.

They are 29 years old now—happily married, each with two children. As twins, they share many of the same traits. But there is a significant difference between them. Alissa is a neurosurgeon, making $400,000+ a year. And Tony is a violinist in a regional orchestra, making an eighth of that.

Alissa has already developed a net worth of $1 million and will likely become a decamillionaire before she turns 40. Tony has a net worth of zero and zero prospects of ever making a lot of money. He isn’t complaining. Nor is he jealous of his sister. He’s comfortable with the life he chose. And his wife and children are happy and thriving.

The trust account is worth $1 million. If you move forward as planned, Tony and Alissa will each be $500,000 richer on their next birthday. That will give Tony a net worth of $500,000 and Alissa a net worth of $1.5 million.

That’s a good outcome for both of them. But is it fair?

Because of the advantages Alissa already has, one could argue that the right thing to do would be to give Tony the entire $1 million. That would leave them each with the same net worth: $1 million. They would be even.

Is that what you would do?

You know the answer. You would not. You would give them each $500,000. Giving Tony a million and Alissa nothing would achieve an equal outcome, i.e. they would both end up with an equal net worth. But it would be insanely unfair.

It would be unfair to Alissa who worked her entire life to get into and through medical school. She would feel, justifiably, that she had earned the net worth she has. And it would send the wrong message to Tony: that he is entitled to have the same net worth as his sister, even though he chose a profession that is poorly paid.

This little mental exercise is meant to illustrate an ethical and social argument that is raging in American culture today. And though it is unnoticed by many, it’s beneath and/or behind some of the most important issues affecting every U.S. family, almost every U.S. company, our military, our educational institutions, and even the entertainment industry.

I’m talking about the distinction between equal and equitable.

Two Similar Words That Have Come to Mean Two Very Different Things

The first principle stated by the Declaration of Independence—as every citizen knows—is that “all men are created equal.” And when Thomas Jefferson penned those words in 1776, he was talking about equality in terms of the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Of course, he didn’t mean all men exactly. He wasn’t suggesting that slaves had those equal rights. And his usage of “men” in this case did not include women with respect to such things as voting and property.

Some of these disparities were addressed in 1863 with the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation and in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th Amendment. And during the Civil Rights era, the term “equal rights” was used to include access by minorities to education, public facilities, and job opportunities.

This tells us something we should keep in mind: The original, constitutional definition of equality has been expanded to include additional rights that our Founding Fathers never even thought of.

Like equality, equitable derives from the Latin for “uniformity, impartiality, fairness.” And like equality, its meaning has evolved over the years.

Here are two simple dictionary definitions:

• Equality: The quality or state of being equal; having the same rights, social status, etc.
• Equity: Fairness or justice in the way people are treated

It’s easy to understand what equality means. But equitable is a slippery fish. Going back to the mental exercise above, giving Alissa and Tony $500,000 each would be, by definition, an equal action. But not necessarily an equitable one. And this difference, as I said, underpins arguments we are having today about just about every aspect of our lives.

Affirmative action is one example.

At one time, African Americans were not given equal opportunities for employment. The establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson helped, but the situation improved only marginally.

To remedy that, some businesses and educational institutions introduced their own affirmative action policies. The argument was that factors other than raw intelligence and hard work were holding minorities back. To make it fair, it was necessary for them to make adjustments to standards for minorities. The idea was something like, “Just give them a leg up. They will get the rest of the way themselves.”

I don’t have a problem with that thinking. I have promoted affirmative action efforts in my businesses and in my personal life. Giving help to people who want help seems like a sensible course of action in all areas of human interaction. (How well affirmative action works, however, is a subject for another essay.)

But in recent years, the definition of equitable has expanded beyond “equal” or even “more-than-equal” opportunities and treatment. Today, when you hear equitable used in political or social debates it means equal outcomes.

It’s not enough that everyone has an equal start. We must also guarantee an equal finish. And for those who espouse this line of thinking, that means equal outcomes in everything from childhood competitions, to test scores, to hiring and promotions, and wealth.

That is a problem.

The Only Measure of Achievement That Makes Sense

If our objective is equal outcomes, we must disregard all the factors that determine success in the real world. Such as aptitude. And ambition. And hard work. And persistence. And intellectual and emotional intelligence. And we must admit that affirmative action—and all laws, regulations, and protocols that provide disadvantaged communities with extra help and second chances—is not enough because it does not result in equal earnings.

Equal-outcome advocates are like parents who believe the fair thing is to give Tony the million and Alissa nothing, because they want their children to have equally happy and fulfilling lives. And for them, that means having an equal net worth.

They don’t understand that giving each of them the same amount is giving them the same opportunity. Tony is every bit as smart and savvy as Alissa. He can invest and grow that money as well as she can. But they also know that Alissa has a big head start with her existing net worth and a much better financial future because of her income.

They don’t want to face the reality that, unless something terrible happens to Alissa or Tony decides to give up music and get a job as, say, a plumber, Alissa and her family will continue to grow richer while Tony and his family may very well grow poorer.

They can’t change those facts. But what they can do is make their children equal for a moment in time. That, and that alone, they can do. So, they will do it.

What they refuse to see is all the damage it will do—to both children and to the relationship between them, a topic worth digging into, but that is for another day.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”  – William J. Casey, CIA Director (1981)

The always mysterious question when trying to figure out what is happening in this insane world and why it is happening is who are “they”? In the current chaotic atmosphere, “they” are in the process of throwing their senile child sniffing pedophile Trojan horse president overboard because his dementia ridden brain has been laid bare for all the world to see. It isn’t just the Democratic Party throwing him to the wolves.

When you witness the party, supposedly loyal politicians, the regime media, surveillance state spooks, Hollywood celebrities, and globalist billionaires all simultaneously turn on the person they installed in 2020 through a rigged election, you realize the voting public have no say in how this country is run. Whether you refer to “they” as the Deep State, invisible government, ruling elite, globalist oligarchs, or shadowy men in smoke filled backrooms, we are just bit players in this surreal horror movie.

It is no longer a conspiracy theory that we are ruled by unelected men using their wealth to pull the levers of society to benefit themselves and the apparatchiks who do their dirty work. At some level, this type of control has existed since the inception of our country. Andrew Jackson’s tirade in the 1830s revealed there were deceitful men operating in the shadows, with their greedy agendas prevailing over what was best for the people.

 “Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out!”

The capture of our government, media and financial system accelerated during the last century as described by Edward Bernays in his 1928 book – Propaganda. Of course, he wrote this fifteen years after the capture of our financial system, with the Creature from Jekyll Island – the Federal Reserve being created by a cabal of bankers and politicians intent on lining their pockets.

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons… who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”– Edward Bernays – Propaganda (1928) pp. 9–10

The traitorous president who signed the bill creating the Federal Reserve, in the same year he signed into existence the loathsome income tax, and later promised to keep the U.S. out of World War I, before taking us into that war, supposedly regretted handing over control of the government to a small cabal of dishonorable men. Politicians and Wall Street bankers have been using the debasement of our currency to enrich themselves at our expense, ever since.

“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world — no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.” – Woodrow Wilson – 1919

For decades the Deep State was able to remain hidden, working in the shadows behind the scenes, with the general population oblivious to their existence. But their existence was outed when they assassinated John F. Kennedy in front of the entire world and took out their CIA patsy on national TV. The CIA, along with their media mouthpieces, created the term “conspiracy theorist” as a derogatory term to keep the public sedated and onboard with whatever narrative they were selling.

The Church Committee in the mid-1970s further revealed the depth and breadth of the traitorous activities of the CIA and the surveillance state bureaucracy. Mike Lofgren defined the Deep State in his 2016 book, describing how the consent of the governed has been nothing more than a fantasy for many decades in this country.

“I have come to call this shadow government the Deep State…a hybrid association of key elements of government and parts of top-level finance and industry that is effectively able to govern the United States with only limited reference to the consent of the governed as normally expressed through elections” ― Mike Lofgren, The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government

Still, anyone questioning the officially approved narrative, as propagated by the bought off politicians; captured propaganda spewing regime media; paid-off “experts” in academia, finance, the military and the sciences; globalist organizations; and billionaires with fake foundations, was ridiculed and censored as nutjob conspiracy theorists.

But, since Trump’s unlikely rise to power in 2016 and the subsequent traitorous acts by the Deep State and their lackeys in the government, media, and surveillance state bureaus, in attempting to destroy Trump through the fake Russiagate investigations, two impeachments based on nothing, creating a fake pandemic to rig the 2020 election, instigating a fake insurrection to keep him from running again, using the power of the DOJ to bring multiple fake charges against him, raiding his residence with orders to shoot if necessary, allowing millions of illegals to enter the country and encouraging them to vote illegally to throw the 2024 election, vilifying him as a threat worse than Hitler, and now being exposed using a patsy to try and assassinate him while his Secret Service detail pretended to protect him.

There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind a Deep State/Invisible government is running the show, and we are all nothing more than spectators who are brainwashed into doing what we are told by those who “have our best interests at heart”. After they failed by one inch in blowing Trump’s head off (ala JFK), the narrative being spun is that we all must unite and tone down the vitriol. It is too late, and they know it. This is all for show.

We are now at war with the Deep State, and anyone associated with their criminal deeds. Their need to retain power grows more desperate by the day. They have concluded they must win the upcoming election at all costs, or their unlawful acts over the last eight years will be revealed and retribution doled out to the perpetrators. Their failure in assassinating Trump, does not mean they will not try again.

Their biggest hurdle is their ballot rigging operation only works in the swing states when the vote is reasonably close. The presidential debate and subsequent embarrassing press conferences have revealed Biden to be dementia ridden husk, who can’t even read a teleprompter at this point. Only the most brain-dead liberal kooks will vote for this walking dead candidate.

After Trump’s triumphant post assassination attempt photo-op, with fist raised in victory, his odds of winning the election went through the roof. The potential replacement candidates for Biden are a motley crew of idiocy, failure and low IQ diversity options. When the Deep State was blindsided in 2016 with the Trump victory, they proceeded to derail his presidency by convincing him to hire their Deep State operatives into key roles, while keeping the Congress, DOJ, DOD, FBI, and CIA at war with everything Trump tried to accomplish. If he wins this time, he won’t make the same miscalculations again. And they know it.

We have less than four months until the election. These being the waning years of this Fourth Turning, whatever happens from here on out will only be intensified. There will be no unity. There will be no compromise. Fourth Turnings do not wind down. They accelerate towards a bloody crescendo, with clear winners and losers. The potential for civil and global war rises on a daily basis.

Most of the ignorant, I-gadget distracted, narrative believing masses, have no clue how close the world is to erupting in violent no-holds barred death and destruction. Virtually no one is alive who remembers the horrors of WWII. That is why Fourth Turnings re-occur every eighty years or so. We forget the past and are condemned to relive it. There are several scenarios that could play out.

The Deep State may have provided Trump with a stark reminder about who really runs the show. Will he heed their warning? If so, they may let him win and then continue their control behind the scenes, letting him know they can take him out at a time of their choosing. Trump’s cooperation in this scenario is possible, but after the last eight years of unbridled attacks on him, this may be unlikely.

They could try another assassination attempt, but the world is now aware of their hatred for Trump, and would likely react negatively towards all parties involved in the murder of the past and future president of the U.S. The question is how desperate are these godless authoritarians? How many innocent people are they willing to sacrifice at the altar of mammon and power, to continue their stranglehold on the political, financial, social, and economic structures of the U.S. and western world.

Knowing they will do anything to win and remain in control of the levers of our society, what may seem unthinkable to you and me, wouldn’t make these sociopaths pause for a second. They’ve already killed tens of millions with their fake pandemic and their toxic antidote gene therapy. All done to rig an election, enrich themselves, and cull the herd. We already know the neo-con branch of the Deep State has been saber rattling towards both Russia and China.

We also know false flags are one of their favorite tools to initiate conflict and fill their coffers with blood money. Our blood and their money. We’ve already seen a possible scenario with their puppet Zelensky in the Ukraine. If you can create a national emergency through either a civil or foreign war, you can cancel the election until the emergency is over.

A successful assassination of Trump this past weekend would have initiated some form of chaos in the streets, with the political powder keg poised to be lit by one side or the other. The Deep State is certainly capable of creating a false flag that kills hundreds or thousands of innocents, blaming white nationalist Trumpers for the tragedy. Another George Floyd incident could be cooked up, with Soros unleashing his Antifa and BLM terrorist hordes on cities across the land.

The normal citizens supporting Trump will only be pushed so far, and if they begin to fight back, all hell could break loose. This is what the Deep State wants. Chaos and violence in the streets would be their excuse to “delay” the elections. That would even cause more violence and upheaval. The Deep State thrives on violence, chaos, war, and a fearful populace, begging to be saved.

The Deep State is conducting the war against Russia. The Ukrainian soldiers are being chewed up by the Russian army, but the high-tech aspects of the war are being carried out by Americans, who are the only ones capable of operating the drones and advanced missiles being used against Russia. They know Putin’s red lines. If they choose to start World War III, they will initiate an attack guaranteed to force Putin into a drastic response, attempting to ignite a conflagration across Europe, into the Middle East.

With the US/EU sanction war having pushed Russia, China and the rest of the BRIC countries closer together, China and possibly India would side with Russia in a global conflict. The use of nuclear arms becomes more and more likely as the warring countries become more desperate and pushed into a corner.

The Deep State has no qualms about killing millions to attain their goals and retain their wealth, power and control over the masses. I do believe the next four months will mark a turning point in the history of the world. I fear there will be much bloodshed, but will continue to try and decipher the path of this Fourth Turning and guide my family and anyone choosing to listen towards the light and away from the darkness. I do believe Strauss & Howe’s possible outcomes for this Fourth Turning are an accurate portrayal of what awaits us within the next decade. 

1.  This Fourth Turning could mark the end of man. It could be an omnicidal Armageddon, destroying everything, leaving nothing. If mankind ever extinguishes itself, this will probably happen when its dominant civilization triggers a Fourth Turning that ends horribly. For this Fourth Turning to put an end to all this would require an extremely unlikely blend of social disaster, human malevolence, technological perfection and bad luck.

2. The Fourth Turning could mark the end of modernity. The Western saecular rythm – which began in the mid-fifteenth century with the Renaissance – could come to an abrupt terminus. The seventh modern saeculum would be the last. This too could come from total war, terrible but not final. There could be a complete collapse of science, culture, politics, and society. Such a dire result would probably happen only when a dominant nation (like today’s America) lets a Fourth Turning ekpyrosis engulf the planet. But this outcome is well within the reach of foreseeable technology and malevolence.

3. The Fourth Turning could spare modernity but mark the end of our nation. It could close the book on the political constitution, popular culture, and moral standing that the word America has come to signify. The nation has endured for three saecula; Rome lasted twelve, the Soviet Union only one. Fourth Turnings are critical thresholds for national survival. Each of the last three American Crises produced moments of extreme danger: In the Revolution, the very birth of the republic hung by a thread in more than one battle. In the Civil War, the union barely survived a four-year slaughter that in its own time was regarded as the most lethal war in history. In World War II, the nation destroyed an enemy of democracy that for a time was winning; had the enemy won, America might have itself been destroyed. In all likelihood, the next Crisis will present the nation with a threat and a consequence on a similar scale.

4. Or the Fourth Turning could simply mark the end of the Millennial Saeculum. Mankind, modernity, and America would all persevere. Afterward, there would be a new mood, a new High, and a new saeculum. America would be reborn. But, reborn, it would not be the same.

The odds are stacked against us, but if we give up the fight, we will surely lose. Our choices and actions in the coming days will surely matter. We must fight, fight, fight!! Godspeed and good luck.

Hedge fund managers have ramped up their bearish bets on US corn futures to record levels, driven by elevated grain supplies and the best early crop ratings in years. These factors have pressured corn prices lower.

Bloomberg data reveals that money managers have boosted their short-only positions in Chicago corn futures and options to 507,901 contracts, exceeding the previous record of 506,000 contracts in 2019. The net position, which accounts for the difference in long and short holdings, was bearish by 353,983 contracts, the largest since 2006.  

Last month, Reuters reported that an above-average volume of corn remains unsold, and if these grain inventories are not depleted, then supplies could reach six-year highs by late summer 2025.

“Farmers risk waiting too long to sell as a flood of newly harvested grain is likely to drag down prices this October and November. Buyers, aware the harvest is coming, still need enough supplies to keep processing plants running and exports flowing this summer,” Reuters said. 

Elevated supplies have pressured prices in Chicago to under the $4 a bushel level, the lowest level since early 2020.

Bloomberg noted last week that US farmers are now holding the largest stockpiles of corn since 1988:

“The US farmers, who are the world’s largest corn producers, have been holding off selling early in the season as prices of the key grain slide toward $4 a bushel for the first time since 2020.” 

The USDA’s latest monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report revealed that demand for corn moved slightly higher. The report, released last Friday, has so far put a floor under prices. 

The USDA’s WASDE report was “enough to halt, at least temporarily, the bear market in corn prices,” Sal Gilbertie, chief investment officer at Teucrium Trading, told MarketWatch. 

“It looks like short sellers began to actively cover their positions upon the release of today’s WASDE, which occurs just as corn in the US begins to enter the critical pollination stage of development,” Gilbertie added.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s Mike McGlone noted grain deflation while broader commodity markets remained positively diverged: 

“Volatility in the grains (corn, soybeans and wheat) is higher than broad commodities: It’s the most elastic sector and prices are accelerating downward, with deflationary macroeconomic implications. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a good test of the propensity for commodities to go down, because they went up and the trajectory at the start of 2H may prove autocorrelation forces are more powerful than ever. Our graphic shows the tendency for the Bloomberg Grains Spot Index to lead broad commodities and potential for the Bloomberg Commodity Spot Index to drop about another 30%, to simply catch up to the grains.” 

While falling grain prices may signal lower food costs for consumers, the combination of sliding prices and high production costs spells trouble for farmers’ incomes.

Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,

Just days after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, theories are flying from all directions. Many who ridiculed the “conspiracy theories” of conservatives are now suggesting the whole event was a set-up to boost Trump in the polls ahead of the election. Others suggest it was the “deep state” or even foreign actors who organized it.

Former US Navy Seal and founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince, claims that “The fact that [the Secret Service] allowed a rifle armed shooter within 150 yds to a preplanned event is either malice or massive incompetence.” He went on to observe that, “unaccountable bloated bureaucracies continue to fail us as Americans,” adding that “unserious and unworthy people in positions of authority got us to this near disaster. Merit and execution must be the only deciding factors in hiring and leadership, not the social engineering priority of the day.”

Video has emerged showing that for at least two minutes law enforcement knew someone with a gun was on a roof aiming at the former President and no one communicated the need to pull Trump from the stage. You can clearly hear the crowd warning law enforcement that someone was on the roof. Yet he was unhindered until the first shots rang out.

Considering this fact, Erik Prince has a point.

If this is like any previous governmental foul-ups, we can expect hearings, investigations, and commissions that will actually serve to hide the official errors or even malicious intent by some in the government.

That’s what government does no matter who is in office: protect itself from actual scrutiny and resist being exposed as incompetent or worse.

But what if there was a genuine investigation that actually revealed the truth about what happened at the Trump rally over the weekend?

Could we rely on the mainstream media to even report it?

This is the same media that, after Trump was clearly shot on live television, reported “Trump escorted away after loud noises at PA rally.” (Washington Post). And “Secret Service rushes Trump offstage after he falls at rally.” (CNN).

This is the same mainstream media that has been comparing Donald Trump to Hitler for years, and now pretends to be shocked that their vile rhetoric ended up in violence.

There is a good reason why the mainstream media is regarded by the American public with record levels of contempt.

The current Director of the Secret Service has been interviewed expressing her dedication to “diversity” in hiring agents.

What if her dedication to DEI goals led to an agency that is more “diverse” but fails at its core mission? Can we rely on the media to inform us of this? Or will they, as usual, just blame it all on the Second Amendment?

What if the problem with the Secret Service is that it was moved into the bloated, incompetent, and menacing Department  of Homeland Security, the creation of which I strongly opposed when I was in Congress?

We shouldn’t count on hearing the truth about the attempted assassination from the mainstream media.

No wonder the elites remain determined to censor social media sites like Twitter/X and TikTok.

We live in an empire of lies, propped up by the mainstream media. And seeking the truth in this empire of lies is the greatest challenge for us in the moral bankruptcy in which we live.

Formed in 1975, the G7 is a group of seven advanced economies (U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Japan) that cooperates on economic policy and promotes global stability. At the time of the group’s inception, these countries were leading nations in the post-World War II economic order, and shared similar political and economic systems.

While much of this is still true today, the G7’s collective economic influence has fallen significantly as emerging nations in other parts of the world have grown.

To learn more about this trend, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu visualized the G7’s share of global GDP beside the G20’s, from 1990 to 2022. Numbers come from the World Bank, accessed via the Council on Foreign Relations.

Data and Key Takeaway

The G20 is an expanded group that was established with the goal of bringing together advanced and emerging economies to promote international cooperation. Major economies that are in the G20, but not in the G7, include China, India, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia.

The data we used to create this graphic can be found in the table below.

From this dataset we can see that the G7’s share of global GDP has shrunk from 67% in 1994, to 44% in 2022.

Over this same time period, the G20’s share of global GDP has remained relatively steady near 80%. In short, this means that emerging markets are accounting for a relatively greater share of the world’s economy.

What Does This Mean for the G7?

Here are some possible consequences of the G7’s declining share of global GDP:

• Reduced Global Influence: Diminished ability to shape global economic policies and standards.

• Changes in Trade Dynamics: Potential shifts in trade relationships and alliances as other countries gain economic prominence.

• Altered Investment Flows: Redirection of global investment towards faster-growing economies outside the G7.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this infographic that visualizes the top six countries share of global GDP over time.

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday filed an appeal after a judge dismissed his lawsuit to shut down the nonprofit organization Annunciation House for allegedly facilitating illegal immigration.

District Court Judge Francisco Dominguez blocked the lawsuit in March, saying that Mr. Paxton “acted without regard to due process and fair play” in trying to revoke the registration of the nonprofit organization.

The judge ruled Mr. Paxton’s agency must use the state court system if it wants to investigate the Catholic nonprofit, which has been operating in El Paso, Texas, since the 1970s, offering shelter and other services to illegal immigrants.

Mr. Paxton said Monday he filed an appeal to the Texas Supreme Court against the judge’s decision.

“For too long, Annunciation House has flouted the law and contributed to the worsening illegal immigration crisis at Texas’s border with Mexico,” the Republican attorney general said in a statement.

He said the Office of the Attorney General has been investigating nonprofit organizations in Texas for their involvement in facilitating illegal immigration following Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s request.

The investigation found Annunciation House was “openly operating in violation of the law without any pretense of trying to comply with the law,” Mr. Paxton’s office said. “According to Annunciation House’s in-court admissions, its employees enter Mexico to retrieve aliens, including aliens who have been denied entry by Border Patrol, to bring them into the United States.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to Annunciation House for comment but has not heard back as of publication time.

Annunciation House describes itself on its website as “a volunteer organization that offers hospitality to migrants, immigrants, and refugees in El Paso,” which is “rooted in Catholic social teaching.”

The Office of the Attorney General issued a Feb. 7 “request to examine” the nonprofit’s records, including documents detailing what services it provides to immigrants who are in the country legally or illegally.

According to Mr. Paxton, Annunciation House refused to turn over documents and sued his office soon after, seeking to halt his efforts to obtain their records. On Feb. 20, Mr. Paxton announced he was asserting a counterclaim, seeking to shut down Annunciation House’s operations within the state entirely.

In his legal filings, Mr. Paxton states his initial request to inspect Annunciation House’s records “was not made in a vacuum.” Rather, he alleged state investigators had been monitoring the “unusually covert way” Annunciation House operates.

Annunciation House’s Previous Response

Annunciation House said on Feb. 23 that Mr. Paxton’s attempt to shut down the organization was “unfounded” and said that it was asking the court to decide which documents the Attorney General is allowed to access.

“There is nothing illegal about asking a Court to decide a person’s rights. The AG has now made explicit that its real goal is not records but to shut down the organization,” it said in a statement.

The organization said it has provided hospitality to “hundreds of thousands of refugees for over 46 years” and that its work was listed in the National Catholic Directory.

“Annunciation House’s work is central to the City of El Paso. El Paso has made it a point of pride to provide humane support for people coming through our community in need,” the organization stated.

“The work helps serve our local businesses, our City, and immigration officials to keep people off the streets and give them a shelter while they come through our community,” it added.

Jane J. Pruet and Ryan Morgan contributed to this report.

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

In the past three years China has accelerated export agreements and industrial operations in Africa, becoming the continent’s largest bilateral trade partner. Given Africa’s complete lack of development and GDP, the Asian rush to cement economic ties might seem strange. However, I would argue that China is adapting to events that haven’t quite happened yet.

I’m referring to a major global shift away from interdependent markets (i.e. traditional globalism) into a chaotic period of trade “protectionism”. I’m talking about the end of the current model of export-based nations supplying goods to the west in exchange for advantageous trade deficits and access to dollars. This will be the era of what I call the “Great Resource Grab.”

I believe China is positioning itself for this era, perhaps out of desperation due to the disastrous economic decline they are currently trying to hide from the rest of the world, or maybe the CCP has been given a warning from globalist interests (China’s government has been exceedingly supportive of the IMF’s one-world digital currency push, and it makes sense that globalists would give them vital information on future disasters in exchange).

Why Africa? Because of the lack of modern development, Africa is a vast land mass loaded with untapped natural resources. China is importing billions in raw materials including vital metals from Africa and they are trying to establish infrastructure to increase the extraction of these commodities. If you’re familiar with China’s rotting domestic conditions, then you understand what is happening here – China has hollowed out their own country and they must spread into other regions to survive.

To be sure, Africa is not the only place in which the Chinese are quietly setting up camp. There are diplomatic agreements with Russia that have given them access to farm land in the north, and the Chinese have even been buying up farmland in the US (nearly 400,000 acres according to official reports). In America, anyone that questions this trend is immediately accused of “conspiracy theory” and I would argue this tells us A LOT about what is really happening.

Yes, other nations besides China are buying up farmland in the US (over 43 million acres of farmland to be precise), and frankly, no one in the establishment media is talking about it. The Chinese purchases make the news because communist nations buying resource rich land in the US makes Americans nervous; but the overall problem is being ignored. Foreign land holdings in the US dwarf those recently purchased by Bill Gates, and no one is addressing the issue.

There is a change happening on a global scale; it’s a silent race to secure as many raw resources as possible.

Those who know are stacking land assets, mining assets, energy assets, fresh water sources and circling undeveloped nations like hungry piranha.

Some will claim that the Great Resource Grab is about climate change and governments positioning for impending weather calamity. This is incorrect. If that was the case then China would not be coveting Africa, a continent that would be devastated should global warming predictions ever come true (they won’t). Instead, I believe the change is about impending war, both economic and kinetic.

Global war will be the catalyst for massive trade protectionism and disruption of existing supply chains. Economic sanctions and trade embargoes will shrink exports between East and West down to nothing. And, sadly, western nations with their paper markets will be most injured by this. Our economies are mainly abstract, rooted in currencies with abstract values, equities with abstract values, and debt instruments with abstract values. All of this comes crashing down when nations start desiring physical resources over the false promises of market speculation.

In other words, what we have in the US in terms of raw commodities will be ALL we have for many years to come should the Great Resource Grab come to fruition. Buying from other countries may not be possible, simply because we will be in conflict with them, or because we won’t have anything they want. Meaning, America will have to return to production again on a level surpassing that of the 1960s and early 1970s.

To be sure, this era will be short, maybe lasting around a decade. Eventually, globalists will try to use the worldwide division and subsequent crisis as a vehicle for total centralization. They’ll say “this is why nation states are a bad idea.” They’ll argue that a one-world digital currency system and global economic governance is the only solution. During this debate the average person will face a much different consumer environment than they are used to – One of scarcity instead of plenty.

Globalists will make promises of plenty that they do not intend to keep as western populations struggle to return to domestic production.

By extension, investment in vital commodities used for production and wealth protection would be a good move. Look at what certain foreign entities, central banks and globalist companies are buying up right now and ask yourself “why?” Look at past world wars and what kinds of resources were in short supply; there is a way to protect yourself financially even in the midst of international calamity.  You just have to know some history and accept the fact that the world we live in today is not any safer than it was in the days of international conflict and government rationing.

*  *  *

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There continues to be a very clear factor footprint across the market, with rotational pressures driving Small over Big / Low Momentum over High Momentum / Growth into Cyclicals / Popular shorts over Longs.

On the day, Small Caps literally exploded higher (+3.5%) with Nasdaq unchanged…

Today also saw a continuation of yesterday’s “Trump Trade” with Bitcoin (+370bps) and Infrastructure (+240bps) leading the market higher.

Since ‘soft’ CPI struck last week, the Russell 2000 has exploded over 10% higher… and the Nasdaq 100 has slumped…

Yes, The Dow has followed Small Caps higher (mostly due to Energy and Financials), but a glimpse at the S&P 500’s lackluster performance destroys the hope-filled narrative that this is just a “healthy rebalance into a broadening rally.” With the concentration and positioning in mega-cap tech so high, the majors will suffer no matter what and passively drag the ‘broader’ names down too.

Source: Bloomberg

For more clarification, this is just a massive short-squeeze on all the ‘short alpha’ that has been laid as mega-cap tech took over the world. ‘Most Shorted’ stocks are up for 10 straight days… (April 2015 was the last time we saw 11 straight days of gains for this basket). This is one of the biggest periodic squeezes in the last four years…

Source: Bloomberg

For context, this four-day reversal is the great shift in the Small-Cap/Big-Tech pair since the collapse of the DotCom bubble…

Source: Bloomberg

For more excitement, this is the largest five-day outperformance of Small Caps over the S&P 500 since Oct 1987…

Source: Bloomberg

As a reminder, before the 2000 bubble burst, the three “dullest” S&P 500 sectors (Consumer Staples, Healthcare and Utilities) had performed badly in the months leading up to the tech peak in late March that year. But as tech rolled over, these sectors turned round and rallied +25-35% in the final 9 months of the year when the overall market struggled and tech slumped.

Goldman’s trading desk noted that volumes elevated vs the trailing 20days and ETFs capturing 28% of the broader tape.

• We are slightly better to buy with LOs leading the way skewed +6% better to buy though on small notional. Demand is concentrated in Fins and Hcare, vs supply in Tech + Discretionary names.

• HFs better buyers of tech and cons discretionary, but overall skewed slightly better for sale led by supply in Hcare and fins.

Mag7 stocks ended lower…

Source: Bloomberg

Treasury yields were down across the curve today, despite spiking on the stronger than expected Retail Sales print briefly. The long-end outperformed (2Y -3bps, 30Y -8bps)…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar continues to drift nowhere fast , unable to bounce notably off the CPI slump lows…

Source: Bloomberg

Oil prices continue to leak lower with WTI back to $80 handle, hovering near one-month lows…

Source: Bloomberg

On a side-note, oil volatility has dropped to its lowest level since 2018 as a low conviction in large price changes has reduced interest from speculative investors while systematic investors have sold volatility…

Source: Bloomberg

Cryptos continue to see ETF inflows dominating any govt supply overhangs…

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin Rallied back up to $65,000…

Source: Bloomberg

Ether also rallied, hitting $3500 on reports that ETH ETF approval is imminent…

Source: Bloomberg

Gold surged higher again, breaking out to new all-time record highs today…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, it does make us wonder, just what kind of crisis Gold is seeing that means a massive swing to negative real rates…

Source: Bloomberg

Stocks are hoping for re-liquification too…

Source: Bloomberg

Thata  $12 trillion ‘gap’ in central bank liquidity priced into stocks – what would that kind of liquidity jolt do to gold and crypto?