Pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that is the 2024 election heist all began fitting together Friday as illegal immigrants took over New York City’s Times Square to demand the abolishing of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to what was already a toothless and symbolic executive order from President Joe Biden.
And so begins the long foretold Cloward–Piven strategy that will not only secure for the radical Left another election cycle, but perhaps a permanent toppling of the capitalist/democratic system via Marxist revolution.
There are 7 conditions that must be met for a color revolution to successfully topple a government and it all must revolve around a national election. Well, this election season in America, ALL 7 are met. pic.twitter.com/UBLOCslbt5
In retrospect, it may seem clear all along that it was the “newcomers” and not the Hamas-indoctrinated college kids who would be the George Floyd rioters of the current season, after having invaded the country to the tune of some 11 million.
The earlier protests were, of course, a test run for Soros-funded organizers to dust off their riot gear and update their four-year-old call lists for when a spontaneous flash-mob is needed, the underlying cause being moot (as many of the terrorist sympathizers demonstrated in on-the-scene interviews).
Once all is said and done, it would not be the least bit surprising if the corrupt Biden administration has not only declared martial law, but granted de-facto citizenship and enfranchisement to all of the foreign interlopers, using the pretext that blanket amnesty will be the only way to placate these paid, well-organized rioters.
However, American citizens may be too distracted dealing with other things to put up a political fight over the issue. Looming on the horizon is the prospect of a new pandemic-level shutdown that is now being advocated by both the World Health Organization and the United Nations over the livestock-borne bird flu. No matter that the one human fatality thus far documented is likely a hoax.
The WHO is running a scam on Bird Flu
1) He died on April 24th
2) He was in the hospital for 3 weeks bedridden already for other reasons.
3) He likely died of those causes, not Bird Flu
They used a PCR test which have been widely criticized as set so sensitive that many result… pic.twitter.com/44mZdHaCXT
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) June 6, 2024
When one’s basic human needs are in question—such as the nation’s food supply, and access to friends and family—things like freedom and civil liberties may suddenly seem trivial.
Meanwhile, the great MAGA champion himself, presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, will be in jail, if that is where they want him to be.
Doing so inevitably would result in an uprising of some kind from conservatives, which is the one thing that the Left could not control—although with AI-operated F-35 drones they might contain it fairly well.
A united conservative front actively rallying against them is, nonetheless, a bad look for the illegitimate U.S. administration, particularly if the vast majority of the people sympathize with and support the movement.
Rather, the Trump thread is likely to merge in the near future with the incessant efforts by ethically bankrupt Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., to discredit the U.S. Supreme Court, which will be forced to intervene in order to prevent the constitutional crisis that results from a local district attorney in a deep-blue city attempting to lock up the leading presidential candidate on spurious federal charges that not even the judge and jury seem to be clear on.
Enter the aforementioned flash-mob rioters to threaten and intimidate the SCOTUS justices, having recently doxxed Samuel Alito by plastering pictures of his home in every leftist media outlet. Nothing is keeping these unhinged, bloodthirsty Bolsheviks from actually following through on “releasing the whirlwind,” to use the euphemism for assassination coined by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Such an act, in their warped minds, would be payback for having been deprived of their due when Merrick Garland was prevented from stealing the seat held by the late, great Antonin Scalia; and when Amy Coney Barrett replaced their own icon, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In a true dose of poetic justice, Garland would be complicit in the foul deed by failing to enforce the federal laws preventing it.
Nonetheless, swapping out a single justice will not deliver them what they desire, which is to own the entire court system, so they will proceed to use whatever public outrage they engineer to push through more court oversight hearings, efforts to pack the court and even to put it under the direct purview of Garland’s Justice Department.
The one saving grace might be the refusal of centrist Sens. Sinema, Manchin, Fetterman, etc., to go along with the ploy. But with brute force as the alternative, what choice will there be?
Suffice it to say, the 11 million extra votes will be just the boost that the eventual Democrat candidate needs to prevail, and at that point, if Trump hasn’t had the good sense to flee, he will have at least three more show trials to look forward to while in Rikers Island.
Don’t think for a moment that, as America slept, leftists haven’t spent the last half century gaming out such a sequence of events and waiting for their moment to come. And they will stop at nothing now that it has arrived.
Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/realbensellers.
Teton Pass Collapse In Landslide Could Spark Worker Shortage In Jackson Hole
On Saturday morning, the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WY DOT) shared a Facebook post from Governor Mark Gordon. The post included footage of a landslide that swallowed a section of Teton Pass, which connects Jackson Hole with the communities around Victor, Idaho.
“This morning I met with state officials from the Wyoming Department of Transportation and Wyoming Office of Homeland Security to coordinate a response to the catastrophic landslide that has closed Teton Pass,” Gov. Gordon wrote in the post on Saturday.
Drone video of the “catastrophic failure” of Wyoming Highway 22 over Teton Pass…
The governor said, “WYDOT geologists and engineers will be on site today to conduct an assessment and develop a long-term solution to rebuild the roadway,” adding, “At this point, we do not have an estimated timeline for the road to reopen.”
This is wild! “Catastrophic failure of Teton Pass between Jackson Hole and Victor Idaho. It is a key artery for commuters and commerce. Going to be a rough summer for employees and businesses” pic.twitter.com/vVEMJwy88D
“The buzz is it will be closed for several weeks or months,” Teton County Commission Chairman Luther Propst told local media outlet WyoFile.
With the closure of Teton Pass, a once convenient 35-minute journey now stretches to a grueling 1 hour and 35 minutes, or even longer if there are any detours. This is a big blow to the low-skilled workers of J-Hole who rely on this route due to the unaffordable living costs in the resort town. The new detour will only compound the challenges for these workers – and who knows – some may quit over the new commute.
Propst noted, “The county’s looking at camping options at the fairgrounds” for Idaho commuters who work in Jackson Hole.
Here’s what X users are saying…
Not good. A lot of people who work in Jackson Hole live in Victor. This is the one direct route between the two. The only alternative is 90 minutes one way. Hope they can rebuild this quickly. #USArmyCorpsOfEngineershttps://t.co/0R5iMmH00h
Thank goodness no casualties. But this is very bad for the Jackson Hole economy. Many service workers live on the other side of the pass. 🤞🏻 https://t.co/KkeO7c476m
Epic disaster for Jackson Hole and those who commute (for low wages) and deliver to Jackson over Teton Pass. This could be years away from being rebuilt. https://t.co/MrtfsRa8h6
That’s because the billionaires make the rules in Jackson hole. Ignorance of the law is no excuse council Woman. FYI Jackson hole is a communist hell hole people who work there have to live 30 plus miles away because of the cost of living https://t.co/N8LPgPUmu5
While President Joe Biden has repeatedly insisted he has nothing to do with his family’s business dealings – going so far as to say he’s never so much as discussed them with relatives, a new report from Politico completely destroys that lie.
“I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or with anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses. Period,” said Biden. “
“And what I will do is the same thing we did in our administration. There will be an absolute wall between personal and private [business interests] and the government. There wasn’t any hint of scandal at all when we were there. And I’m going to propose the same kind of strict, strict rules. That’s why I never talked with my son or my brother or anyone else — even distant family — about their business interests. Period.“
As Politico notes, Joe Biden’s political journey, stretching back to his first Senate bid, has always been a family affair. His first campaign was significantly supported by his family, setting a precedent for how his personal and professional lives would intertwine. Throughout his career, Biden’s relatives have not only been a staple in his campaigns but have also engaged in business ventures that at times involved his political patrons, converting some business partners into campaign supporters.
This longstanding blend of family, business, and politics has made it an absurd notion that Biden has distanced himself from the actions and ventures of his relatives, particularly his son Hunter Biden and his brother Jim Biden, whose foreign business dealings have been a continual source of controversy.
Meanwhile…
In 2009, Joe Biden became VP.
Between 2009 and 2017, Hunter Biden and his “business partners” opened 15 companies.
None of those companies produced one product or sold one service.
There are no invoices, no accounting records, and no expenses.
What’s more, for years, Joe Biden shared key professional services with his family members: a bookkeeper with his son and a personal lawyer with his brother. This overlap extends beyond service providers to the very core of his advisory circle. Many of Biden’s closest staffers and advisers have, at different times, doubled as business associates for his relatives. These overlaps suggest an all-in-family approach that has persisted despite Biden’s assertions that he has kept a professional distance from his family’s business dealings.
Investigations and Ethical Questions
Particularly revealing is the hiring of the former head of Biden’s Secret Service detail by Jim Biden to investigate a Chinese executive, Patrick Ho, who Hunter Biden was doing business with in 2017. Despite claims of maintaining a professional distance, this move, ahead of a significant business meeting in Hong Kong, highlights how deeply enmeshed personal and professional lines can become. Jim Biden’s assertion during his February impeachment inquiry interview that he did not discuss business specifics with Hunter during the trip only adds layers to the opaque nature of the family’s business dealings.
“10 for the Big Guy”
One phrase found in a series of alleged emails linked to Hunter Biden — “10 for the big guy” — has become a focal point of controversy, drawing scrutiny to the business dealings of the president’s son and the implications for Biden. These emails, reportedly related to Hunter Biden’s interactions with the Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC, have raised questions about potential influence peddling and conflicts of interest.
This email came to light as part of a larger trove of data discovered on a laptop that Hunter Biden left at a Delaware repair shop and never retrieved – and was recently entered into evidence as authentic by federal prosecutors during Hunter Biden’s ongoing trial for a federal firearms offense.
This weekend, the Hunter Biden team is reportedly debating whether to have him take the stand on Monday, a move rife with risk. Most criminal defendants avoid such appearances given the potential damage of a withering cross examination. Those risks were evident in the recent testimony of Hunter’s daughter, Naomi, which backfired badly on key points.
I have sometimes been in the minority among defense attorneys and legal commentators on this question. In celebrity trials, a jury can feel alienated or even disrespected by a defendant not taking the stand. That was the case, in my view, with Martha Stewart. When a defendant brings forth a host of others to speak for him or her, the refusal to testify can become more glaring and concerning.
Hunter Biden is in that position. He has had a host of relatives testify, including his daughter Naomi. When you put your daughter on the stand and subject her to a tough cross examination, many jurors can wonder how you can stay safely behind the defendant’s table.
Yet, Naomi’s testimony is precisely why defense counsel are risk adverse on the question. She gave moving testimony on her love for her father and his struggle with addiction. However, her attempt to establish that Hunter was not using drugs at the time of his gun purchase fell apart on cross examination. She testified that she was thrilled during this period with how “healthy” and clean her father appeared: “He seemed like the clearest I had seen him since my uncle died…I told him I was so proud of him and I was proud to be able to introduce Peter to him.”
Prosecutors showed her text messages that told a different story. In some, Naomi appears alarmed by her father’s conduct and lack of responses. On October 18, for example, she texted “I’m sorry daddy, I can’t take this, I don’t know what to say.” That message coincides with messages from Hunter seeking to score drugs from a guy named Mookie and stating that he was doing crack in a car. In other messages, Naomi complains that he was not responding. She finally received a response when, at 2 a.m, Hunter asked her to have her boyfriend drop off keys to a truck for him in Manhattan. Naomi was asked if she saw the drug residue or paraphernalia in the truck.
Any cross examination would focus less on Naomi than it would on Mookie.
Any decision to put Hunter on the stand is obviously dependent on your defense strategy. As I have previously written, all of the defenses suggested by Abby Lowell in his opening argument collapsed within two days. That includes the suggestion that someone else checked the box on the form denying that Hunter was using drugs. These claims seem so unbelievable and unsupported that they might insult a jury. However, the real strategy in this open-and-shut case appears to be simple jury nullification. The defense is trying to get one or more jurors to ignore the law and the evidence to acquit Biden.
Nullification efforts in the case appear to be a combination of both political and social association. First and foremost, this is Bidentown. It is the hometown of President Joe Biden and voted overwhelmingly for him in past elections. It is the opposite of the Manhattan trial of former President Donald Trump. This is the best possible jury pool for a Biden.
Second, all of the jurors testified to knowing someone with drug problems. Hunter has written moving accounts of his struggle with addiction. Some jurors may resist convicting someone who has seemingly overcome the scourge of addiction.
So, if this is a nullification strategy, does Hunter testifying help or hurt? The answer is that it could seal the deal or shatter it with jurors. Hunter will make a good witness on his struggle to overcome drugs and alcohol abuse. He can claim little or no memory of the gun store purchase. Hearing from him directly can establish a connection, even a bond, with jurors that could reinforce a nullification vote.
However, it will also subject him to cross examination by prosecutors who have been lethal in their well-planned and well-executed case. They can delve into his texts and the later intervention by his family to deal with his self-destructive lifestyle. He also faces the potential of triggering new criminal offenses through perjury.
That latter concern is particularly real after the formal referral of three House committees to Attorney General Merrick Garland. Hunter is accused of lying to Congress in his recent testimony on key issues under investigation. While many expect Garland to ignore the referral to protect the President and his family, the allegations are compelling and the Justice Department has previously prosecuted individuals in cases with far less support. This would appear a relatively easy perjury prosecution, but the politics may be insurmountable for Garland.
Most attorneys would advise Hunter to remain behind the defense table and not take the stand. After all, this is a great jury rendering a verdict on a Biden in Bidentown with the First Lady seated behind him for much of the trial. They just need one. The risk of testimony is that Hunter could burst into flames on the stand and torch any chance to nullify the crime.
We will know soon. However, if Hunter checks this box and testifies, it is the one decision that he will not be able to blame on others.
Bird Flu Triggers Supply Chain Snarls In Dairy Industry As “Farmers Increasingly Culled Cows”
The latest US Department of Agriculture data shows bird flu has infected at least 80 dairy herds across ten states. There are growing concerns about rising cow mortalities from the virus and the risk of farmers culling cows to stop the spread. This could ignite economic stress across the farm belt and unleash a supply shock.
Reuters spoke with a USDA spokesperson who was aware of H5N1 virus-related deaths among cow herds but said that most cows recovered. No official figures have been provided on the number of cow mortalities in South Dakota, Michigan, Texas, Ohio, and Colorado.
Here’s more on the cow deaths:
In South Dakota, a 1,700-cow dairy sent a dozen of the animals to slaughter after they did not recover from the virus, and killed another dozen that contracted secondary infections, said Russ Daly, a professor with South Dakota State University and veterinarian for the state extension office who spoke with the farm.
“You get sick cows from one disease, then that creates a domino effect for other things, like routine pneumonia and digestive issues,” Daly said.
A farm in Michigan killed about 10% of its 200 infected cows after they too failed to recover from the virus, said Phil Durst, an educator with Michigan State University Extension who spoke with that farm.
Michigan has more confirmed infections in cattle than any state as well as two of three confirmed cases of US dairy workers who contracted bird flu.
In Colorado, some dairies reported culling cows with avian flu because they did not return to milk production, said Olga Robak, spokesperson for the state Department of Agriculture.
Ohio Department of Agriculture spokesperson Meghan Harshbarger said infected cows have died in Ohio and other affected states, mostly due to secondary infections.
The Texas Animal Health Commission also confirmed that cows have died from secondary infections at some dairy operations with avian flu outbreaks.
Officials could not provide figures for the number of statewide cow mortalities.
New Mexico’s state veterinarian, Samantha Uhrig, said farmers increasingly culled cows due to decreased milk production early in the outbreak, before the US even confirmed bird flu was infecting cattle. Culling decreased as farmers learned that most cows gradually recovered, she said. -Reuters
Last month, the USDA informed farmers lactating dairy cattle are not eligible for interstate transportation, which has snarled the dairy supply chain.
Southern dairy farms that raise baby calves from more northern states until they’re ready to be returned and milked have been impacted the most by delays in shipping when a herd tests positive for the virus, according to Joe Armstrong, a professor of cattle production at the University of Minnesota.
“Some of these systems are built to constantly move animals, and if you can’t move them, you run out of space really fast,” Armstrong said. “This is big money.” –Bloomberg
Shipping delays could intensify following the USDA’s announcement of expanded testing for dairy cows, which is likely to reveal more infections.
“What’s clear is this disease has really slowed down the interstate movement of cattle,” Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-NM) told Bloomberg’s Skye Witley.
Traders are watching rising milk futures in Chicago, up more 27% since early April.
Here’s a larger timeframe for milk futures.
The dairy industry could be in the beginning stages of a mess as farmers cull cows and supply chains become snarled due to bird flu.
One major concern is whether the virus jumps from dairy to beef cows. If that’s the case, then culling beef cows to stop the spread could catapult retail prices even higher because the nation’s total herd population has collapsed to 1951 levels.
Can you guess which billionaire has been advocating to ban cow farts?
As we noted days ago, if the government starts claiming that culling the nation’s dairy and beef cows is the only way to combat bird flu, it will raise alarm bells that there might be an underlying agenda at play.
Documents obtained by the American Accountability Foundation have revealed that Virginia retirees’ pension funds are being used to implement a far-left agenda. This is an outrageous betrayal. Pension fund managers should be focused on maximizing returns, not on pursuing ideological goals.
The Virginia Retirement System (VRS), a state agency that manages the pensions of hundreds of thousands of state residents, holds voting rights at the annual shareholder meetings of companies in which they are invested.
Typically, voting at these meetings focuses on shareholder resolutions related to furthering good corporate governance practices and maximizing returns for shareholders. But these shareholder meetings have become ideological battlefields, as woke liberal groups (left-wing nonprofits, unions, progressive state treasurers, and others) have adopted a strategy of purchasing just enough stock in big corporations to put forward proposals of their own geared toward imposing their leftist Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) vision. Sadly, on this battlefield, the bureaucrats at VRS are fighting alongside the woke Left.
AAF’s review of proxy votes cast by VRS or its asset managers since 2022 found 74 votes supporting extreme leftist policies such as racial and gender pay-gap reports, efforts to defund conservative candidates and pro-business trade associations, radical climate policy, and pro-abortion initiatives.
Here are just a few examples:
On May 24, 2023, VRS, advised by proxy advisor ISS, voted for Proposal 13 at Amazon, which called for additional reporting on gender and racial pay gaps at the company. This type of request for a “report” is a tactic used often by the Left to shame and intimidate corporations into adopting its preferred policies – in this case, racial and gender quotas. The proposal, brought forward by Arjuna Capital, chastised Amazon for “alleged unfair pay and working conditions” and claimed that “diversity in leadership is linked to superior stock performance and return on equity.” The proposal noted that “minorities represent 70 percent of Amazon’s workforce and 34 percent of leadership. Women represent 45 percent of the workforce and 23 percent of leadership.”
On May 31, 2023, VRS, advised by ISS, voted in favor of a resolution at Meta Platforms that called for a “report on data privacy regarding reproductive healthcare.” The resolution derided the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision as “the revocation of the constitutional right to an abortion” and requested that Meta “issue a public report assessing the feasibility of diminishing the extent that the Company will be a target of abortion-related law enforcement requests.”
At the May 2022 annual shareholder meeting of supermajor oil and gas company Shell PLC, VRS’s investment manager, Lansdowne Partners, voted for a resolution calling for Shell to set and publish emissions targets in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. This is a stunning betrayal of the nearly 200,000 Virginians who depend on energy jobs for their livelihoods. But the resolution didn’t just affect the energy industry itself—it aimed to limit use of energy by everyone, requesting that Shell adopt emissions-reduction targets that apply not only to the company’s operations but also to the end use of its energy products.
Laws and regulations covering racial issues, gender issues, abortion, and the environment should be decided by American voters – not by leftist activists and faceless corporate bureaucrats. But these are the forces that have come to be known as the ESG movement. They seek to circumvent our constitutional system of government in order to impose a far-left agenda that goes against the interests and values of the American people.
The Virginia Retirement System’s complicity in this disgraceful scheme should be investigated fully and corrected immediately.
Warren Buffett Controls 3% Of Treasury Bill Market, More Than “International Organizations, Stablecoin Issuers …”
Berkshire Hathaway has struggled to find sizable deals in recent quarters, leaving Warren Buffett sitting on a mountain of cash and cash equivalents. According to JPMorgan analysts, Buffett now wields control over a staggering 3% of the entire US Treasury Bill market.
At Berkshire’s annual meeting in May, Buffett told the audience, “It’s a fair assumption” that its cash pile would exceed $200 billion at the end of this quarter amid the dearth of big-ticket deals due to very few opportunities.
Buffet’s growing cash and or cash equivalents stockpiles intrigued fixed-income analysts at JPM, including a team led by Teresa Ho, who wrote in a recent note to clients that Berkshire Hathaway keeps excess cash primarily invested in T-bills.
“Over the years, their T-bill position has grown so large that, as of March-end, it owned $158bn in T-bills, comprising 3% of the market,” Ho said.
She continued, “Berkshire Hathaway currently holds more T-bills than international organizations, stablecoin issuers, offshore MMFs, or LGIPs.”
Berkshire Hathaway’s current cash position is about 17.5%, which is in line with its long-term average when measured against the firm’s total assets. Since 1997, the firm has kept cash on its balance sheet at an average of 13%.
Current figures from Bloomberg show Berkshire’s cash and cash equivalents total $188 billion.
“We’d love to spend it, but we won’t spend unless we think there’s really something that has very little risk and can make us a lot of money,” Buffett said at last month’s annual meeting.
Buffett and his companies are cautious about finding deals as the high-for-longer interest rate environment unfolds, especially after Friday’s screaming hot payrolls data forced Citi to shift its first rate cut forecast from July to September.
*CITI CHANGES FIRST FED RATE-CUT FORECAST TO SEPTEMBER FROM JULY
These things have become a total joke. Changing your “forecast” every month has zero value to anyone
Right-Wing Tsunami: France “Stunned” After Macron Announces Snap Elections Following Crushing Defeat In European Parliament Vote
Update (4:20pm ET):
Following a historic loss to Marine Le Pen’s right-wing party in European elections on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he is dissolving the French parliament.
Macron said France will hold new elections on June 30 and July 7, a high-stakes maneuver that the WSJ said “stunned” the nation after projections based on early ballot counts came in for Sunday’s elections for the European Parliament. The projections showed National Rally garnering around 31% of the vote, twice the support for Macron’s Renew Party.
Bardella and Le Pen humiliate Macron in European elections. Macron dissolves National Assembly and calls new elections in a month. pic.twitter.com/oSDnUjl5EJ
“This is a serious, weighty decision, but above all it’s an act of trust,” Macron said. “Confidence in you, confidence in the ability of the French people to make the right choice for themselves and for future generations.”
Macron’s decision to call parliamentary elections opens the door for his party, which is deeply unpopular at the moment, to shed even more seats to rival parties in France’s National Assembly, the country’s lower house of Parliament.
If that occurs, Macron could be forced to appoint a prime minister from another party, such as the center-right Les Républicains, in a power-sharing arrangement known in France as a “cohabitation.”
“A dissolution means a cohabitation,” said Alain Duhamel, a prominent political analyst.
* * *
As we await the results from the European Parliament vote (previewed here), the exit polls from Germany are already in and they are a disaster for both the alliance of French president Macron, who was steamrolled by Marine Le Pen, and for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats, which crashed to their worst-ever result in European Parliament elections Sunday, as conservative and right-wing parties soared across the old continent, a result which will help tilt the European parliament further towards a more anti-immigration and anti-green stance.
According to preliminary results from five countries, right-wing parties are estimated to have won at least 33 of the 174 seats available in Austria, Cyprus, Germany, Greece and the Netherlands, according to official exit polls from those countries, up from 19 seats at the last election in 2019. And – as the ultraliberal FT admits – “the surge, at the expense of liberal and Green parties, would complicate European commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s bid for a second term as head of the EU’s executive.”
In Germany, Chancellor Scholz’s Social Democrats crashed to their worst-ever result, falling to third place with 14% of the vote behind the populist and nationalist Alternative for Germany, which has become the second-largest German party in the European Parliament with 16.4%. The conservative CDU/CSU alliance was on course for a comfortable win with 29.6%, according to an exit poll Sunday from public broadcaster ARD. The other two parties in Scholz’s ruling alliance — the Greens and the Free Democrats — got 12% and 5% respectively.
As reported overnight, the German exit polls are among the first results from the European election, which started Thursday and culminates Sunday, and will determine the make-up of the bloc’s legislative assembly. The outcome will establish which leaders have the most leverage to claim the EU’s top jobs, including the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council.
The catastrophic showing for Scholz’s coalition underscores the increasing difficulty the German government faces in leading European policy. Support for Scholz’s ruling alliance in Berlin has dropped to record lows in recent months, with the three parties’ combined support currently around 35%, down from more than 50% in the 2021 federal election.
As Bloomberg reports, CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann questioned whether Scholz retains the authority to lead the country and blamed the ruling coalition’s policies for the rise of the AfD. “He was the one on the election posters so really he should submit to a vote of confidence,” Linnemann said.
The AfD managed to post substantial gains despite experiencing a series of setbacks in recent weeks involving bribery and spying scandals. The Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht, or BSW, which she co-founded in January after splitting from the Left party, got 5.7%.
Kevin Kuehnert, the SPD general secretary, said the party won’t be seeking “scapegoats” and insisted that it had been the right decision to make Scholz a central figure in the election campaign despite his relatively low approval rating.
“For us this is an extremely bitter result,” Kuehnert said in an interview with ARD. “We will have to look at where we weren’t good in our mobilization,” he added. “The promise now is that we’ll fight back from this.”
Kuehnert said the priority for the coalition in coming weeks is to broker an agreement on next year’s budget, which has been another source of infighting in the three-party alliance.
Amid continued losses for the establishment, right-wing and conservative parties in Europe are slated to pick up more seats compared with the last election five years ago, as migration swings to the top of the political agenda, while the EU’s ambitious climate goals may face greater hurdles.
Still, at the EU level, centrist parties on the left and right are due to maintain their grip on the majority. That means a degree of continuity on key policies at a time of immense geopolitical uncertainty with Russia’s war on Ukraine raging to the east and China becoming ever more assertive.
As further discussed overnight, the EU is also confronting challenges including how to maintain fiscal sustainability while investing in a greener future, boosting the competitiveness of European manufacturing and strengthening defense capabilities amid the prospect of Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency, which could impact everything from trade to environment policy.
Germany’s next national vote is due in the fall of next year. The ruling parties are expected to fare just as poorly in their next major electoral test — three regional ballots in September in the eastern states of Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg with the AfD is leading in the polls in the three states, but is unlikely to get into government as all other parties have ruled out joining it in coalition.
In the Netherlands, Dutch conservative Geert Wilders notched significant gains on Thursday, though fell short of winning the most Dutch seats in the European Parliament. That victory was claimed by a coalition of left-wing parties.
In perhaps the biggest shock of all, however, the French right-wing has inflicted a staggering defeat on the Macron alliance: with Le Pen’s gathering 32-33% of the vote to Macron group’s 15% according to pollsters.
— FRANCE 24 – Breaking (@BreakingF24) June 9, 2024
According to AFP, voter turnout in France was up two points as of 5pm, with 45.26% of eligible voters casting ballots compared with 43.29% in 2019. The turnout for EU elections is generally low, but the last elections in 2019 showed the first uptick in 30 years with a turnout of 50.7 percent.
In Austria, the right-wing, national-conservative anti-immigrant Freedom Party was in the lead with an estimated 27 percent, Austrian national broadcaster ORF said. If the number is confirmed later Sunday, it would be the first time the OFP wins the European Parliament election in Austria.
The conservative People’s Party (OVP) and the Social Democrats (SPO) are currently too close to call, it said, estimated to have raked in 23.5 percent and 23 percent of the votes respectively.
— ORF Breaking News (@ORFBreakingNews) June 9, 2024
Finally in Spain, more of the same anti-establishment, anti-liberal, anti-immigrant tsunami:
*SPAIN’S OPPOSITION CONSERVATIVES LEAD IN EU VOTE: EXIT POLL
About 360 million people are eligible to vote for the 720 lawmakers who will serve in the EU assembly for the next five years, 96 of them from Germany. A majority of the 27 member nations are holding their ballots on Sunday, with results due to trickle in throughout the evening. Results from France are due after 8 p.m. local time.
My intuition is telling me this is it. This is the end of the bull market.
Before I get into my reasoning, I want to remind my readers that this is not financial advice, and I have been wrong about the market being overdue for a pullback over the last 2 1/2 years since interest rates have started to rise.
About a year ago, I corrected myself and began a series of mea culpas, explaining that it was my timing that was off, but also that I still believed the mathematics of 5.5% interest rates were all but a guarantee that the market and other financial assets, including things like real estate and commodities, at some point would have to deflate.
I didn’t set out this past weekend with premeditated intentions of writing an article about why I think the market has peaked for the time being. Rather, it was a string of events that took place over the last 48 to 72 hours that have my spider senses tingling.
I think the shark has been jumped, the tab has come due, and the American consumer, as well as the retail investor, are completely exasperated, out of options, and out of ideas. Here’s my reasoning.
On top of Nvidia’s mind-numbing S&P concentration, single-handedly driving broader market moves, I raised the question of whether or not the growth that the market expects from the company could be far overshooting the company’s actual trajectory in years to come, despite the fact that artificial intelligence will likely remain in a secular bull market for years to come.
No sooner did I publish that article than all eyes turned to “Roaring Kitty” on Friday.
For those unfamiliar with Roaring Kitty, also known as Keith Gill, he is the man that stoked the flames of excitement with GameStop’s astronomical short squeeze higher some years back, and the man who profited the most handsomely — about $40 million to $50 million in the first run up — as a result.
He has become somewhat of a legend among retail investors and saw his fellowship increase exponentially in the days, weeks, months, and years after the initial GameStop squeeze higher. They even made a movie out of his story, called Dumb Money, with Paul Dano in the starring role.
At this blog and at QTR central, we have no beef with Gill. I though the movie Dumb Money was great and I generally find any type of anomaly in the system that temporarily shifts the power back to the people interesting (hence my curiosity around bitcoin). And I generally root for any story that takes away from Cathie Wood’s CNBC airtime.
GameStop stock has been bubbling higher over the last couple of weeks, making retail investors wonder whether a repeat of history—and subsequently their chance of getting rich—is possible again. Hell, on Thursday night last week, GameStop shares had reached all the way into the $60 range before it was announced Friday morning that the company would be selling stock to raise cash at the company’s inflated prices.
As usual, price becomes a rationing mechanism, and GameStop is getting the deal of the century by selling into this retail euphoria. The company added more supply to the market and GameStop wound up finishing the day on Friday at $28.
But the last few runs up in GameStop haven’t stopped roaring Kitty from taking what used to be around a $50 million bankroll and parlaying it into what appears to be a nearly quarter-of-a-billion-dollar bankroll.
It’s difficult to try and figure out how he could have amassed such wealth without trading in the name after recently reactivating himself on his Twitter account and posting this Tweet-gone-round-the-world.
One thing driving the euphoria in GameStop shares heading into Friday was the expectation that Gill might do something crazy on his live stream. Would he come out and buy another couple million shares live? Would he introduce some grand plan that would help shares skyrocket even higher and punish shorts even further? Is it possible he would exercise his options live on the air, leading to the entire stock market breaking? People were waiting with bated breath to see what his plan was.
But while everybody was waiting for Gill to answer this question, reality was already setting in with GameStop shares. The company’s issuance of new stock was diluting existing investors and making it more difficult for the stock to move higher.
As the stock percolated around the $30 to $35 level before the live stream began, a queue of interested investors, analysts, and market participants lined up to see what Gill had to say. By the time he went live at about 12:20 Eastern time on Friday, there were over 600,000 people watching his live stream.
The format was reminiscent of the original live stream Gill used to do before the first GameStop run-up: the screen was structured in the same way, he poured himself a beer, he gave everybody a look at his portfolio holdings, and he ran back a half-assed thesis on why he thinks GameStop could turn around its business for the long term.
It was what he didn’t do that made his appearance a “sell the news” event. He didn’t say anything unexpected, he didn’t offer up a war cry or a price target, nor did he reveal some intricate trickery to try to further stick it to “the man” in the hedge fund industry. The appearance was devoid of hype, devoid of actual analysis, and uninteresting enough that the number of live viewers started to dwindle as quickly as 10 or 20 minutes into it.
I’m not saying there won’t be an audience for Gill in the future, because there will be. And chances are, it’ll always be a multiple of my outreach. His stream sits at the intersection of the stock market, the roulette table, a late night Mountain Dew fueled Dungeons and Dragons game and the underdog plots of the movies Rudy and Rocky combined. And there’s always going to be an audience for that.
But there was something about watching the number of viewers on his stream dwindle in real-time that caused a thought to wash over me with a calm resolve as though I had been a Buddhist monk in seclusion, meditating about it for years:
“If this isn’t the absolute peak of this market cycle, I don’t know what is.”
Leading into the stream, I was taken back by how 600,000 people could be watching.
🔥 24 Hours Only: 80% OFF: Offering up my largest discount of the year for Fringe Finance. Subscribe in the next 24 hours and you can take 80% off an annual plan.
I am never going to offer a larger discount than this and the discount stays for as long as you remain a subscriber: Get 80% off forever
The enormity of the number of people tuning in to watch somebody host their own version of stock-market-ComicCon was fascinating to me.
On one hand, I loved it because it was probably 10 times the amount of viewership CNBC got at any point during the day Friday, which furthers my long-held belief that the mainstream financial media is generally useless and can be easily replaced, but on the other, I started to wonder if this could be the biggest “sell the news” event in retail investor history.
If one wanted to generalize and put a bow on the retail investor base from this most recent market cycle, there would be no better way to do it than the people that hang out on r/WallStreetBets.
The Reddit crowd and the people who started the meme stock frenzy are the quintessential examples of the everyday investor for this particular market cycle. And, frankly, they’re outright amusing: they have a gripe with “the man”, they love a good underdog story, they’re slightly less informed than they probably should be but are doing their damndest to learn, they ridicule the industry’s norms and they’re self-deprecating — all of which, the last two especially, make them tough for me to hate.
But they’re still arguably the lowest rung of retail money on the Wall Street totem pole — a designation I’m sure they’d embrace.
I’m not trying to poke fun at them in the slightest, but only to make the objective point that its fair to think that once they have fired their last bullets or have psychologically capitulated, we could be seeing this lowest rung of market investors lead the charge of others out of the market. Once the necessity of raising cash and de-leveraging starts, it has a tendency to snowball as price pressure comes in. First it’s the meme stocks — and then its very easy to see how it can move to more serious names like Nvidia, which, again, I’ve said is basically the entire S&P 500. Here’s a post from r/WallStreetBets this weekend:
Now, multiply that by a couple million investors who just got trounced by GameStop to end last week.
I couldn’t quite put my finger on what felt different about this last GameStop run-up, but now I know.
While the first squeeze higher in the name was fueled by a tidal wave of excess liquidity and downtime as a result of the Covid pandemic, the latest run-up felt like one last desperate attempt to chase losses.
While the first run-up felt like it may have been motivated to make some type of statement against Wall Street, however misguided, this second run-up feels like the sole purpose is to try for everybody to repeat the rare success that Gill himself had during the first run-up.
This time around, it feels as though hundreds of thousands, or millions, of retail investors are simply hoping that history will repeat itself and they will be positioned at the right place at the right time for one last bite of the apple.
Put simply, as is the case when trying to relive any great moments of days past, it simply isn’t the same the second time around.
And in the wreckage of the failed experiment this time around, people are not going to be replete and flush with cash like they were at the end of Covid. As I have consistently pointed out on this blog, consumer credit and personal savings metrics look nothing short of atrocious, with consumer credit ballooning to all-time highs and personal savings hitting lows.
Source: Zero Hedge
And as this below chart about retail sales indicates, the American consumer is simply tapped out.
There is a huge difference between taking a wildcard shot on GameStop and still having a job or savings to fall back on and firing your last bullets of desperation with literally no other plan and no other option for replacing the capital destroyed as a result.
The entire idea that short sellers were repressing the company to begin with and that manipulating GameStop stock higher was somehow going to save the company was partially misguided to begin with. Now, in order for GameStop to save itself as a result of its ballooning stock price, it has to issue shares and dilute holders.
The more shares it issues, the tougher the squeeze becomes, and it soon becomes very clear that “investors” following Roaring Kitty now are one half of a Chinese finger trap that, at some point, they’re not going to be able to get out of.
I can’t predict what’s going to happen to GameStop over the next few weeks: maybe we do some type of repeat of history, maybe Roaring Kitty becomes a billionaire. But extrapolated over a longer period of time than a couple weeks, reality, mathematics, and the macroeconomic environment are going to take hold and eventual gains for those who hold will, in my opinion, be limited.
There’s always ways out of bear markets. It used to just be recession and then eventual growth in productivity. Nowadays it’s excessive money printing. I’m not saying we’re heading into a Great Depression that will last decades. But its foolish to think there won’t be any rough road ahead for markets. And Friday’s fiasco was a warning sign, in my opinion.
In fact, Friday was a shining beacon at the very peak of the mountaintop for the market if you ask me. What better way to justify attempting to call a short-term market top than watching those who can least afford it shell out what little cash they have left? When you combine this with the backdrop of pure euphoria in Nvidia, the one stock that is seemingly driving the market by itself, combined with lackluster retail sales data, rising delinquencies, defaults, supply and demand in the housing market starting to rebalance, and the fact that any cuts to rates to “save” a crash will likely take 18 to 24 months to work their way through the system – you have, in my opinion, the best case yet for arguing the worst is yet to come.
QTR’s Disclaimer:Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only.In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. These positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I’m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.
Israel’s Gantz Quits Coalition Government, Charges Netanyahu With Making “Total Victory Impossible”
Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz on Sunday announced that he is quitting Israel’s emergency government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a statement he blamed Netanyahu for making “total victory impossible” and further accused him of neglecting achieving the release of the remaining hostages. Gantz blasted Netanyahu and urged him to prioritize returning the hostages above his own “political survival”. Netanyahu’s coalition still holds a 64-member majority in the Knesset, and won’t immediately fall apart, but this is expected to unleash destabilization toward an unclear outcome.
Gantz was initially expected to announce his departure Saturday, but postponed it amid news of the successful IDF hostage recovery operation in central Gaza, which resulted in the return of four Israelis in good health.
Below are Gantz’s words wherein he called on other coalition leaders as well as members of the Knesset to join him in forming a new government, and to hold new future elections:
Exiting the coalition, National Unity chairman Benny Gantz calls on all members of the Knesset “who understand where we are going” to join forces with him and “obey the command of your conscience,” particularly Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
“Yoav, we have known each other for many years. Even when there were tensions between us, I always respected and appreciated you. In this war – I learned to appreciate you even more,” he says of his now-erstwhile war cabinet colleague.
“You are a brave and determined leader and above all – a patriot. At this time, leadership and courage are not only saying what is right – but doing what is right,” he adds.
He tells the nation he is not a conman and nor is he a politician who will put his political career above the needs of the state. “I will promise you one thing: I’m prepared to die for your children,” he says. “My colleagues and will always stand up and be counted when the country needs us… at any political price. I risked my life for the state in the line of fire dozens of times,” he says, and vows he won’t be deterred by political risk.
Gantz also apologizes to the families of the hostages for failing to save their loved ones. “We did a lot [but] failed when it came to results,” he says. “We haven’t been able to get many of them back home yet. The responsibility is also mine.”
Gantz has also previously punched hard against the more extreme members of Netanyahu’s coalition, calling them “fanatics”…”If you choose the path of fanatics and lead the entire nation to the abyss — we will be forced to quit the government,” he has warned in prior weeks leading up to Sunday.
The centrist politician had already previously verbalized a plan to hold new elections by October, and three weeks ago he demanded in a provocative ultimatum that Netanyahu had until June 8 to present a clear strategic plan for the Gaza war.
Gantz hopes to inspire a domino effect of departures, eventually collapsing the Netanyahu war government…
Four resignations in less than an hour, Like dominos they fall one after the other.
Huge anti-Netanyahu protests have continued in Tel Aviv and in front of government buildings and even Netanyahu’s residence, and have been led by hostage victims’ families. They are outraged there’s been lack of clarity or prioritization of getting the rest of the hostages home, also as truce negotiations with Hamas have all but collapsed.
Gantz’s Tamano-Shata party has previously stated that “The 7th of October is a disaster that requires us to go back in order to receive the public’s trust, to establish a broad and stable unity government that can lead us safely in the face of the enormous challenges in security, the economy and, above all, in Israeli society. Submitting the bill now will allow us to bring it up in the current session.”
