Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

A writer for lefty woke outlet Medium is facing ridicule for penning an article complaining about the lack of black actors in a new TV show about Samurai warriors in Japan in the year 1600.

The show, produced by FX, is a remake of the popular Shōgun series from 1980, which also featured no black actors.

Because it’s about ancient Japan.

The network’s guide to the series states “FX’s Shōgun, based on James Clavell’s bestselling novel, is set in Japan in the year 1600, at the dawn of a century-defining civil war. Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) is fighting for his life as his enemies on the Council of Regents unite against him, when a mysterious European ship is found marooned in a nearby fishing village.”

There are European people in the series too, because Europeans travelled to Japan in boats at that time.

Japanese and Europeans, but no blacks? Medium writer and critical race theorist William Spivey cannot abide that.

🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/pQYDFcaHb3

— Asian Dawn (@AsianDawn4) March 11, 2024

He writes “The white characters appearing in the first episodes representing Portugal, Spain, England, and Holland could hardly be deemed heroic. However, the character John Blackthorne, now played by Cosmo Jarvis, is already a pivotal figure and will be a hero, along with several Japanese characters.”

Oh no! the horror.

” I ask the question now that I naively didn’t ask in 1980. Where are the Black people?” he adds.

In Africa, that’s the short answer. But no, Spivey isn’t done. He goes on to claim that there absolutely were black people in Japan in 1600 and some of them were Samurai warriors.

“I don’t ask out of a desire to see representation when it wasn’t historically accurate. I inquire because there were Black people in Japan in 1600 and before, though Japan could teach Florida a thing or two about rewriting history,” he claims.

Spivey continues, “According to multiple sources, one of the early real-life Shoguns, Sakanoue no Tamuramaro (758–811), was Black, though denied by others. There is a consensus he was something other than pure Japanese, and he is often considered descended from the Ainu, the darker-skinned indigenous people of northern Japan who were subjected to forced assimilation and colonization.”

Not content with that unverifiable and inaccurate claim, he made up a ‘Japanese’ proverb, that goes “For a Samurai to be brave, he must have a bit of Black blood.”

Note Spivey’s capitalisation of the word ‘black’. This proverb, if it exists at all which it likely doesn’t, is not referring to black people, but rather darkness of the soul.

Respondents, including black people, pointed out that all of this is nuts and yet another example of the insane fringe effort to blackify history, which has included baseless claims of black ancient Britons, Romans, scholars, Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, and the list goes on.

There’s no evidence that it’s any kind of Japanese proverb. Proverbs come from somewhere. They are normally attributed to a person or some literary source. Without a source, then there’s no reason to believe it’s a legitimate saying.

— Final Legion (@THEFinalLegion) March 9, 2024

In other words, no, you don’t have a source.

— Final Legion (@THEFinalLegion) March 9, 2024

1) He can’t source this proverb because it doesn’t exist

2) It doesn’t need capitalizing of “black” because it’s a color

3) It doesn’t refer to black people (even if the proverb existed) – it refers to darkness (capability of violence)

— AlphalphaMale (@pdoherty972) March 11, 2024

You made it up, bro. You are retconning Japanese culture to include black people as some kind of pivotal component to boost your pride. Also–Ainu aren’t black.

Take the L.

— dmduncan (@dmduncan2010) March 11, 2024

this is like insisting that “black-hearted” refers to blacks.

— Goebbels (@NationofArya) March 11, 2024

Where are the black people in Shōgun?

Exactly where they actually were in 1600–Not Japan.

— Clawed Monet (@jackalspat) March 12, 2024

Ummm in Africa? Which is not in Asia?

— ج (@herebczadhd) March 11, 2024

The belief that it is an automatic natural force of nature that black people should somehow inherit part of all other communities and groups is maybe the reason why sub-Saharan Africa never achieved anything.

— Velvet Robot Elvis (@avelvetrobot) March 11, 2024

William Spivey writes books on critical race theory…nothing more to be said really.

— 卂几卂ㄥ ㄒ乇匚卄几丨匚丨卂几 (@AnalTechnician) March 11, 2024

I’m Japanese, a native speaker, born in Japan, grew up in Japan and learned Japanese history in Japan. But I have never heard such a proverb: Don’t make up your own theory.

— Manchun Milky Naomi Tåkãnø🏊 (@honten) March 11, 2024

Just because one random black guy write a nonsense article does not mean we asked or share his views. Ok ✌🏿🤷🏾‍♂️

— K. N. T. C (@ColeKamil) March 11, 2024

African/black people have wonderful culture and history. How about you write about that instead of trying to inherit someone else’s culture

— Schmogli (@SchmogliMakaron) March 11, 2024

It’s a story about European settlers trying to get a foothold in Japan, not everything needs to be about black American representation. Finding a black person that’s not a tourist in Japan today is next to impossible, let alone in the 1600s.

— Lunaetic (@Lunaetic66) March 11, 2024

Shogun, a story written by a white guy about feudal Japan who was racist against blacks making everyone white. After all, the world is racist against blacks because the entire world is black. And they are responsible for all the advances of civilization, except black countries.

— Odinn (@OdinnAuga) March 11, 2024

Uhhhh, let me be frank. When this sort of nonsense is put forth, you mostly just put people off and make them resent you more than they already do.

That’s a bold statement, but you know it’s true.

— Pedro Poloma (@PPoloma26325) March 11, 2024

He must have used Google’s Gemini AI to research the series.

— 𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐜𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐥 (@anacottsteel) March 12, 2024

They think Japanese and Chinese were black and that wakanda is real.

— (Uncivilized) 🇹🇼🇹🇭🇰🇷 (@Mokrewki) March 11, 2024

Where are the Inuit trans one armed dwarves?

— Stand and Deliver (@DandyHywayMan) March 11, 2024

*  *  *

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Former Special Counsel Robert Hur, who led the Biden classified documents probe – and concluded that the president is too cognitively gone to face prosecution – began testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee today at 10 a.m. in the Rayburn House Office building.

Hur will testify as a private citizen after resigning from the DOJ following the conclusion of his work, according to The Hill, though he will still be bound by DOJ policies and protocols because he’s testifying about his work for the agency.

According to his prepared remarks, told the committee that his “report reflects my best effort to explain why I declined to recommend charging President Biden” for his mishandling of classified records.”

“My assessment in the report about the relevance of the President’s memory was necessary and accurate and fair,” Hur wrote in a copy of his remarks obtained by Fox News. “Most importantly, what I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows, and what I expect jurors would perceive and believe. I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the President unfairly. I explained to the Attorney General my decision and the reasons for it. That’s what I was required to do.“

Watch:

Former President Trump, meanwhile, claimed on Tuesday that the DOJ gave Biden a “free pass” on his handling of classified documents.

“Big day in Congress for the Biden Documents Hoax,” Trump said on Truth Social. “He had many times more documents, including classified documents, than I, or any other president, had. He had them all over the place, with ZERO supervision or security. He does NOT come under the Presidential Records Act, I DO.”

“The DOJ gave Biden, and virtually every other person and President, a free pass. Me, I’m still fighting!!!” Trump added.

Hur, who released his report to the public in February, did not recommend criminal charges against Biden for mishandling and retaining classified documents and stated that he wouldn’t bring charges against Biden even if he were not in the Oval Office.

Trump, on the other hand, was charged out of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation related to his retention of classified materials. Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony charges out of Smith’s probe. The charges include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements. –Fox News

Prior to Hur’s testimony, the transcript of his interview with Biden was released to select news outlets and spun hard. But what we do know from the selective reporting is that Biden was confused over several key dates – such as when he was Vice President, and when his son died. Biden, not Hur, brought up his son’s death. And Hur expressed deep sympathy for Biden’s loss – directly contradicting Biden’s claims about Hur.

As Jonathan Turley notes via X:

The transcripts are now released. President Biden claimed no knowledge of any of the classified documents in his home and open in his garage. That is 40 years of memory lapse in the face of open violations of federal law. The transcript also confirmed that it was the President, not Hur, that raised his son’s death despite his later anger expressed in his press conference. The President also stated that he did not recall roughly four dozen times.

Biden asks in the transcript when his son died and asks others “was it 2015 he died?” In his press conference, Biden lashed out at Hur, asking “How in the hell dare he raise that? It wasn’t any of their damn business. Ironically, Biden could now claim that he just didn’t remember raising that with Hur…precisely the problem that Hur raised in questioning Biden’s mental faculties. If he did remember the interview, his public attack seems knowingly false.

And according to the House Judiciary GOP:

𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲, 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐁𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧 “𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝  𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬” 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐧.

President Biden kept classified documents, “critical to  his legacy,” about Afghanistan and the Afghanistan troop surge “in a badly damaged box  surrounded by household detritus” in his Delaware garage. At his Delaware home,  President Biden also kept notebooks containing classified information in unlocked  drawers in his office and basement den. President Biden kept these classified documents  to cite in his memoirs to prove “he was a man of presidential timber.” On at least three  occasions, President Biden “read from classified entries aloud to his ghostwriter nearly  verbatim.”

𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐁𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧 “𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩” 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞.

Evidence suggested President Biden “was deeply familiar with the measures taken to  safeguard classified information and the need for those measures to prevent harm to  national security.” The Special Counsel noted that President Biden has nearly fifty years  of experience with classified information, and previously publicly acknowledged limits on how a sitting or former president or vice president may properly handle classified  information. Moreover, he said of President Trump allegedly keeping classified  documents: how can “anyone . . . be that irresponsible” and “voiced concern about  ‘[w]hat data was in the there that may compromise sources and methods.’”

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐥 𝐇𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐁𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧’𝐬  𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝, 𝐭𝐡𝐮𝐬, 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝.

The  Special Counsel worried that jurors might be persuaded by President Biden’s presentation  “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Special Counsel  Hur found that President Biden’s “memory was significantly limited, both during his  recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017, and in his interview with [the Special  Counsel’s] office in 2023.” Finally, Special Counsel Hur pointed to DOJ principles of  prosecution that weigh in favor of not prosecuting because “there is no record of the  Department of Justice prosecuting a former president or vice president for mishandling  classified documents from his own administration. The exception is former President Trump.”

𝐔𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐁𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧, 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐠𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫  𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.

However, there are material  distinctions that weigh in President Trump’s favor. The documents in President Trump’s  case came from his time in the White House—when he possessed the ultimate  classification authority. The documents in President Biden’s case span forty years, as  far back as the 1970s, and include material from his time in the Senate and the Vice  Presidency. At no time did President Biden possess ultimate classification authority.  The Justice Department has never prosecuted a former president for maintaining  classified information after office—until Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted President Trump.

Southwest Airlines released a new filing that warned it must trim its capacity and reassess financial forecasts. The airline attributed these adjustments to a decrease in Boeing 737 Max jet deliveries this year amid the aircraft manufacturer’s ongoing regulatory and criminal investigations. This news comes ahead of Chief Executive Officer Bob Jordan’s presentation at the JP Morgan Industrials Conference at 1000 ET. 

“To that end, and especially in light of further second half 2024 planned capacity reductions discussed below, the Company has halted hiring classes for multiple workgroups, including Pilots and Flight Attendants, and now intends to end the year with headcount down on a year-over-year basis, compared with its previous expectation of flat to down, year-over-year,” the filing said. 

Boeing informed the Dallas-based airline to expect only 46 Max model deliveries this year, down from 79: 

Boeing has advised the Company to expect 46 737-8 (“-8”) aircraft deliveries in 2024, a reduction from the Company’s previous expectation of 79 737 MAX aircraft deliveries, which included 58 -8 aircraft. Further, the Company now assumes no 737-7 (“-7”) aircraft deliveries and continues to assume no -7 aircraft are placed into service this year based on the current certification status.

As a result of Boeing’s continued challenges, the Company expects the delivery schedule to be fluid and, therefore, plans to reduce capacity and re-optimize schedules, primarily for the back half of 2024, which will likely result in at least a one point reduction to the Company’s full year 2024 capacity plans on a year-over-year basis.

Boeing’s troubles stem from a US Justice Department criminal investigation into the door plug that ripped off a 737 Max operated by Alaska Air Group. The Federal Aviation Administration also placed a production cap on the Max manufacturing program to ensure that the “incident must never happen again.” 

Southwest’s situation highlights how Boeing’s problems are rippling across the industry. The airline must “reevaluate all prior full-year 2024 guidance.” 

Shares of Boeing plunged 13% in the early cash session. 

Today’s decline is the largest since the early Covid panic. 

Last week, United Airlines said it would have to pause pilot hiring because of a delay in Boeing aircraft deliveries. 

Great job, Boeing. 

While it is possible that the market had priced in a hot print (as we previewed) and which explains the rise in futures after the hotter than expected CPI print, it is certain that – as Bloomberg’s Chris Anstey writes – this isn’t good news for the Fed: the second straight 0.4% reading for core CPI suggests that January wasn’t a one-off anomaly, contrary to what Goldman claimed with its bet on the “January effect.” 

And while this certainly isn’t good news for the Fed, it’s hardly good news for the Biden administration either. This year was meant to be one of dis-inflation but today’s data really lean into the idea that the last mile is the hardest. Still, Biden may take some solace from the fact that the food index was unchanged given his administration has been going hard on the theme of “shrinkflation” and that supercore inflation didn’t come in superhot, unlike last month. 

Still, overall inflation is looking stubborn.

With that in mind, here is a snapshot of the kneejerk reactions by a selection of Wall Street analysts, economists and strategists.

 Brian Coulton, chief economist at Fitch Ratings:

“That is not the direction the Fed wants to see.”

Derek Tang, economist with LH Meyer/Monetary Policy Analytics:

“CPI came in a touch higher than expected but not so high to stop them from cutting in June as we expect. Powell and others have warned inflation will come down in a bumpy way. There’s still a few more prints before they meet in June, and what matters if the whole path down. As Powell said, they’re ‘not far’ from gaining the confidence they need to start cutting, and this report alone doesn’t detract from that.”

Augusta Saraiva, Bloomberg:

“After a brisk January reading, the report adds to evidence that inflation is proving stubborn, which is keeping central bankers wary of easing policy too soon.”

Kathy Jones, Charles Schwab’s chief fixed-income strategist:

“This will probably be seen as a reason to keep policy on hold a while longer. Through the volatility, the downtrend in inflation seems to be leveling off and the Fed would like to see it continue to move lower before easing rates.”

Bloomberg Intelligence Rates Strategist Ira Jersey (who confirms what we said yesterday: a hot print was mostly priced in).

“The rates market looks to have been set up for an even worse inflation print. “But we don’t think this print warrants a sustained rally from these levels.”

to David Russell, Head of Market Strategy at TradeStation:

“Inflation came in a little hot but the bulls aren’t ready to throw in the towel yet. Investors remain optimistic that shelter costs will come down. We still have three more reports before that key Fed meeting in June to confirm or reverse that hope. Wall Street is keeping the faith for now but that could change if future prints don’t improve. Stocks are still climbing the wall of worry.”

Alan Detmeister, UBS Research:

“Overall, this report, while strong, was a good sign the elevated January pace is unlikely to persist into the spring, but, as we have noted before, today’s report is unlikely to have any effect on the upcoming FOMC meeting.”

Torsten Slok, Apollo:

“Fresh upward momentum is building in inflation. Inflation has started to move sideways and remains well above the Fed’s 2% inflation target. This means the Fed will keep rates higher for longer.”

Leo He, UBS Macro Sales:

“Markets are finding relief from the US inflation data as core CPI rose less than the CPI fixing market had expected (36bp versus 41bp priced). The US 2y yield rose more than 8bp in a knee-jerk reaction but is now falling back. The USD is slightly lower and equities are higher after the data release.”

Marvin Loh, State Street

“I think the real concerns were that we were going to get accelerating supercore and housing, and since that didn’t happen, we are off to the races again. The market wants to read into the positivity that the Fed will be able to start the rate-cutting process over the summer. It does not want to fret the details of what comes after that until after it starts.”

Ali Jaffery, CIBC Capital Markets:

“Labor market rebalancing and decelerating wage growth suggest softer service price gains down the road. The Fed will remain highly data-dependent, and we expect they will be more comfortable easing policy in the second half of the year.”

Rubeela Farooqi, chief US economist at High Frequency Econ:

“The latest data further reinforce the case for a patient and vigilant approach from Fed officials as they consider future policy decisions.”

Jay Hatfield, founder of Infrastructure Capital Management:

“The core print was only 3.6% without rounding and the components that drove the beat are likely to reverse in the future, particularly airline fares, up 3.6% for the month. PCE core should be below 0.3% which means core PCE will slowly decline over the next three months setting the stage for a June or July rate cut, with the ECB moving in June.”

Anna Wong, Bloomberg Economics:

“The hot core CPI reading won’t build Fed confidence to cut rates imminently — but it also doesn’t rule out the chance of a mid-year rate cut. More importantly, the reversal of the unusual spike in owners’ equivalent rent showed January’s reading was likely just an aberration, not a signal of stickier housing inflation. We still expect the Fed to gain enough confidence to cut rates as soon as May — our base case — as both inflation and the labor market cool further.”

Andrew Hollenhorst, Citi:

“We expect 0.20%MoM core PCE inflation for February based on details of CPI. We will further refine our projection following the release of PPI Thursday – with medical services prices particularly important.”

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

Over the last few years, digital currencies and gold have become decent barometers of speculative investor appetite. Such isn’t surprising given the evolution of the market into a “casino” following the pandemic, where retail traders have increased their speculative appetites.

“Such is unsurprising, given that retail investors often fall victim to the psychological behavior of the “fear of missing out.” The chart below shows the “dumb money index” versus the S&P 500. Once again, retail investors are very long equities relative to the institutional players ascribed to being the “smart money.””

“The difference between “smart” and “dumb money” investors shows that, more often than not, the “dumb money” invests near market tops and sells near market bottoms.”

That enthusiasm has increased sharply since last November as stocks surged in hopes that the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates. As noted by Sentiment Trader:

“Over the past 18 weeks, the straight-up rally has moved us to an interesting juncture in the Sentiment Cycle. For the past few weeks, the S&P 500 has demonstrated a high positive correlation to the ‘Enthusiasm’ part of the cycle and a highly negative correlation to the ‘Panic’ phase.”

That frenzy to chase the markets, driven by the psychological bias of the “fear of missing out,” has permeated the entirety of the market. As noted in “This Is Nuts:”

“Since then, the entire market has surged higher following last week’s earnings report from Nvidia (NVDA). The reason I say “this is nuts” is the assumption that all companies were going to grow earnings and revenue at Nvidia’s rate. There is little doubt about Nvidia’s earnings and revenue growth rates. However, to maintain that growth pace indefinitely, particularly at 32x price-to-sales, means others like AMD and Intel must lose market share.”

Of course, it is not just a speculative frenzy in the markets for stocks, specifically anything related to “artificial intelligence,” but that exuberance has spilled over into gold and cryptocurrencies.

Birds Of A Feather

There are a couple of ways to measure exuberance in the assets. While sentiment measures examine the broad market, technical indicators can reflect exuberance on individual asset levels. However, before we get to our charts, we need a brief explanation of statistics, specifically, standard deviation.

As I discussed in “Revisiting Bob Farrell’s 10 Investing Rules”:

“Like a rubber band that has been stretched too far – it must be relaxed in order to be stretched again. This is exactly the same for stock prices that are anchored to their moving averages. Trends that get overextended in one direction, or another, always return to their long-term average. Even during a strong uptrend or strong downtrend, prices often move back (revert) to a long-term moving average.”

The idea of “stretching the rubber band” can be measured in several ways, but I will limit our discussion this week to Standard Deviation and measuring deviation with “Bollinger Bands.”

“Standard Deviation” is defined as:

“A measure of the dispersion of a set of data from its mean. The more spread apart the data, the higher the deviation. Standard deviation is calculated as the square root of the variance.”

In plain English, this means that the further away from the average that an event occurs, the more unlikely it becomes. As shown below, out of 1000 occurrences, only three will fall outside the area of 3 standard deviations. 95.4% of the time, events will occur within two standard deviations.

A second measure of “exuberance” is “relative strength.”

“In technical analysis, the relative strength index (RSI) is a momentum indicator that measures the magnitude of recent price changes to evaluate overbought or oversold conditions in the price of a stock or other asset. The RSI is displayed as an oscillator (a line graph that moves between two extremes) and can read from 0 to 100.

Traditional interpretation and usage of the RSI are that values of 70 or above indicate that a security is becoming overbought or overvalued and may be primed for a trend reversal or corrective pullback in price. An RSI reading of 30 or below indicates an oversold or undervalued condition.” – Investopedia

With those two measures, let’s look at Nvidia (NVDA), the poster child of speculative momentum trading in the markets. Nvidia trades more than 3 standard deviations above its moving average, and its RSI is 81. The last time this occurred was in July of 2023 when Nvidia consolidated and corrected prices through November.

Interestingly, gold also trades well into 3 standard deviation territory with an RSI reading of 75. Given that gold is supposed to be a “safe haven” or “risk off” asset, it is instead getting swept up in the current market exuberance.

The same is seen with digital currencies. Given the recent approval of spot, Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the panic bid to buy Bitcoin has pushed the price well into 3 standard deviation territory with an RSI of 73.

In other words, the stock market frenzy to “buy anything that is going up” has spread from just a handful of stocks related to artificial intelligence to gold and digital currencies.

It’s All Relative

We can see the correlation between stock market exuberance and gold and digital currency, which has risen since 2015 but accelerated following the post-pandemic, stimulus-fueled market frenzy. Since the market, gold and cryptocurrencies, or Bitcoin for our purposes, have disparate prices, we have rebased the performance to 100 in 2015.

Gold was supposed to be an inflation hedge. Yet, in 2022, gold prices fell as the market declined and inflation surged to 9%. However, as inflation has fallen and the stock market surged, so has gold. Notably, since 2015, gold and the market have moved in a more correlated pattern, which has reduced the hedging effect of gold in portfolios. In other words, during the subsequent market decline, gold will likely track stocks lower, failing to provide its “wealth preservation” status for investors.

The same goes for cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is substantially more volatile than gold and tends to ebb and flow with the overall market. As sentiment surges in the S&P 500, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies follow suit as speculative appetites increase. Unfortunately, for individuals once again piling into Bitcoin to chase rising prices, if, or when, the market corrects, the decline in cryptocurrencies will likely substantially outpace the decline in market-based equities. This is particularly the case as Wall Street can now short the spot-Bitcoin ETFs, creating additional selling pressure on Bitcoin.

Just for added measure, here is Bitcoin versus gold.

Not A Recommendation

There are many narratives surrounding the markets, digital currency, and gold. However, in today’s market, more than in previous years, all assets are getting swept up into the investor-feeding frenzy.

Sure, this time could be different. I am only making an observation and not an investment recommendation.

However, from a portfolio management perspective, it will likely pay to remain attentive to the correlated risk between asset classes. If some event causes a reversal in bullish exuberance, cash and bonds may be the only place to hide.

Authored by Austin Alonzo via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Moments after more than 100 million Americans finished watching the Super Bowl, a post on President Joe Biden’s personal X account showed an image of him smiling, while his eyes emanated red beams. The Feb. 11 post read, “Just like we drew it up.”

For the uninitiated, the message seems confusing at best and scary at worst. But the picture wasn’t for them. It was designed for the online supporters and detractors of President Biden, who are already well aware of the so-called Dark Brandon meme.

Dark Brandon is just one of hundreds, if not thousands, of political memes that are subtly shaping the thoughts and perceptions of millions of voters in 2024.

In practice, an internet meme is any image, phrase, video, or other electronic material that people enjoy replicating, sharing, or reinterpreting to share with others.

“If you have a very, very potent meme that ruins a politician’s reputation enough, that could potentially sway an election,” said Don Caldwell, the general manager and editor-in-chief of Know Your Meme.

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins originally coined the term “meme” in his 1976 book “The Selfish Gene.”

There, Mr. Dawkins said a meme is any thing or behavior humans or other animals want to copy. An influential idea, he postulated, continues to live in human minds through the power of memetic cultural transmission.

Author and video blogger Tarl Warwick said he, too, believes memes are as old as human history.

Mr. Warwick, who’s been active in internet culture since 2008 and wrote a book on memes: “Occult Memetics: Reality Manipulation.”

The book centers on what some refer to as “meme magic,” he told The Epoch Times.

This “magic,” Mr. Warwick says, is the ability of Internet users to create, remix, and share seemingly irreverent content in a way that changes the way people think, act, or speak.

Memes are irreducible, he said. They take an abstract concept and make it easy to understand. When human society was largely illiterate, he said, people used universally understood painted or carved pictures to communicate ideas on a massive scale.

Pamela Rutledge, director of research organization Media Psychology Research Center, said memes are a potent form of communication because they are both social and visual.

Humans are inherently social animals, Ms. Rutledge told The Epoch Times, and they feel rewarded when they’re included. It’s nice to be in the know. In prehistory, it was necessary for survival.

Furthermore, pictures are processed by the brain much quicker than text, Ms. Rutledge said. When the two are juxtaposed, an image influences how viewers interpret the text.

Political memes exploit the human mind by creating a sensory rather than a critical response. Moreover, they link pieces of information together to take advantage of the so-called availability heuristic—a mental shortcut in which humans gravitate toward whatever is most accessible in their minds.

For example, a meme of President Biden tripping while climbing the stairs of Air Force One creates a lasting mental image of the executive as a doddering 81-year-old man.

“All of these little memes can really influence how people experience someone, whether it’s true or not,” Ms. Rutledge said. “Because these memes have created this image, and this image has now been repeated and is in our brains, it then frames the information that we receive next.”

Feels Right

The power of a meme lies in its simplicity. In politics, memes can circumvent the multimillion-dollar world of consulting and advertising.

Mr. Warwick, who’s made political memes and describes himself as a “general in the meme war,” said political candidates pay communications firms to craft a message they hope will catch on with voters. Meme makers do it in their spare time.

“The powers that be will pay a million dollars for a focus group to develop a 30-second video,” Mr. Warwick said. “Then there are those of us who open MS Paint.”

Mr. Warwick went on to say he and many others like him who work either anonymously, under a nom de guerre, or with their real names see themselves as engaged in a battle between the people and the powerful.

“We’re doing it ourselves, often not for any particular central goal or anything,” Mr. Warwick said. He said most meme-makers remain unpaid or are “paid a pittance.”

Because memes utilize mental shortcuts like the availability heuristic and confirmation bias—the tendency to believe information that reinforces existing beliefs—not every single one needs to hit home; especially as they’re relatively easy to make. Ms. Rutledge said just a handful of viral memes can go a long way toward crafting mental frames and influencing people’s political outlook.

“We are looking for something that feels right,” Ms. Rutledge said. “So memes are very powerful in the fact that they condense information so much that they can skip lines of logic.”

Mr. Caldwell said the rapid rise and spread of political memes is a sign that social media is the new town square.

“Everybody finally recognized that social media [is] now the battlefield where political wars are waged,” Mr. Caldwell said. “Memes are … one of the more sophisticated and effective weapons that can be used.”

Most importantly, people who make memes have fun doing it.

“If they’re entertained or they believe, erroneously or truthfully, that … they’re changing something within socio-politics, that’s an incentive,” Mr. Warwick said.

“If you can get people to do work, but they’re being entertained at the same time … it’s not work at all.”

That Escalated Quickly

The history of a political meme predates the Internet, according to Mr. Caldwell. He defines political memes as any viral cultural phenomenon that touches on the world of politics.

Know Your Meme is the world’s largest online database of memes, and includes their origins as well as most popular iterations. It is part of Literally Media Ltd., which owns humor sites like Cracked and eBaum’s World.

In American history, Mr. Caldwell said political cartoons were the first kind of political meme. Everything began to change with the arrival of the Internet and the smartphone.

Mr. Caldwell, who’s been immersed in the meme world for at least 13 years, told The Epoch Times digital political memes started as funny viral moments. However, they turned more mean-spirited and are now targeted at putting down one group or person while lifting up another.

The first big modern political meme was the so-called Dean Scream. It began when Democratic Party presidential candidate Howard Dean enthusiastically yelled at his supporters after coming up short in the party’s 2004 Iowa Caucus. That moment effectively ended the former Vermont governor’s political career.

Read more here…

Calley Means, a one-time consultant for big food and pharmaceutical companies in the Washington, DC, swamp, and now the founder of TrueMed, a company that enables tax-free spending on food and exercise, has been on a multi-month roadshow exposing how eye-popping bills for Novo Nordisk A/S’ Ozempic, its sister drug Wegovy and similar medications, known as GLP-1s, should not be covered by taxpayers, but instead use the funds to address the root cause of the metabolic crisis. 

“If our kids are being poisoned by our food, the solution is not to let that happen + inject them w government-funded Ozempic for life,” Means wrote in an X post in early February, commenting on his interview with Tucker Carlson. 

.@elonmusk is the most important living American, but he’s dead wrong on Ozempic.

If our kids are being poisoned by our food, the solution is not to let that happen + inject them w government-funded Ozempic for life.

It’s to stop poisoning them.

This is a first order issue. pic.twitter.com/zs6nI3PToj

— Calley Means (@calleymeans) February 4, 2024

In a separate interview with Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Means explained Novo Nordisk’s market capitalization has jumped to over $600 billion on expectations that US profits will soar when taxpayer monies cover the injections, upwards of $15,000 per patient per year. 

He then asked: “Is $15,000 per obese American – should that money be going to a band aid lifetime injection? What else could we do with that money to fix the root cause?” 

Means continued: “The chronic disease treadmill hasn’t worked. The more medications we prescribe, the more heart disease goes up. The more SSRIs we prescribe, the more suicide and depression go up. And on and on and on…”  

“Literally, to my account, there hasn’t been a chronic disease treatment in American history that has lowered rates of the chronic disease it’s trying to treat,” he said. 

“We must ask how all these chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, depression, and kidney disease, are connected – and they’re connected by metabolic health,” he said. 

Means asked: “So then, what can we do with that $15,000?”

He simply answered: “We can incentivize metabolic habits and fix the food system.” 

LISTEN: Calley Means on How Ozempic Exacerbates the Chronic Disease Epidemic

“The fundamental question we have to ask is…$15,000 per obese American, should that money be going to a band-aid lifetime injection? What else could we do with that money to fix the root cause?”… pic.twitter.com/UksREpFc6E

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) March 10, 2024

However, our leaders’ path is clear: overlook the toxic food system and minimally promote healthy lifestyles. The government and big pharma have a lot to profit from hooking obese Americans on yet another injectable drug. 

More than ever, Americans must break free of the food-industrial complex and big pharma or risk early death. 

Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Some California voters are questioning the electoral process after they received the wrong ballot leading up to the Primary Election March 5.

One such voter said he is a lifelong registered Republican, but received a no-party preference ballot in the mail.

He said he noticed there was an issue because he wanted to vote for former President Donald Trump and found no such option on his ballot.

“I got my ballot in the mail, and I was going to vote early, but when I looked to where it said president of the United States, it didn’t have anybody there,” Saul, a 48-year-old wine bottle manufacturer from Madera who only gave his first name, told The Epoch Times.

Alarmed by the error, he said he took the ballot to the Madera County Government Center on Super Tuesday and alerted election officials that he received the wrong ballot.

At first, they told him he had registered as no party preference.

“Somebody switched it,” Saul said. “I know that I did not switch it.”

But after arguing his point and demanding a new ballot, officials re-registered him as a Republican and gave him the correct ballot.

“All of this that’s going on, it’s kind of fishy,” Saul said. “I just hope my vote counts.”

Concerned for residents in rural areas without easy access to the government center, he wondered how widespread the issue was.

“And if that’s happening here, it might be happening across the whole country,” Saul said. “And if that could get mixed up so easily, what about two ballots going to the same person?”

A Madera County poll worker told The Epoch Times moments after the incident Saul’s case was not the only such error of the day.

“There have been multiple people who experienced this,” the poll worker said. “We don’t know how or why their party affiliation was changed.”

Polls workers said that any voter who brought in a ballot and told them there was a mistake was immediately re-registered and given the proper form, but it is unclear how many wrong ballots were distributed in Madera or other counties.

The county recorder’s office confirmed that several voters experienced similar issues but said such was likely due to not choosing a party when renewing drivers licenses or registering to vote.

“We had a few calls about the ballots, and some people came in with a no party preference ballot that believed they were registered Republican,” Justin White, chief assistant county clerk/recorder for Madera County, told The Epoch Times March 7. “But everyone received the ballot they wanted and were able to vote.”

Additionally, every registered voter in Mendocino County—a rural region of the state about two hours north of San Francisco—received a Republican ballot, no matter how they had registered to vote, that additionally contained the wrong district information.

All voters subsequently received the correct ballot along with a bright yellow notice instructing them to destroy the prior ballot and informing them that voting twice is a crime.

One Mendocino County voter said there was confusion surrounding the two-ballot error.

“The ballots basically looked the same,” Desiree Morales, 42, told The Epoch Times. “And some people could have sent the wrong one in without realizing.”

She suggested that such mistakes are detrimental and jeopardize the integrity of elections in the Golden State.

“This is why people think our elections are a fraud,” Ms. Morales said. “Why are we getting two mail-in ballots?”

County officials blamed the issue on a third-party vendor that supplied ballots for the county, according to a Feb. 8 press release from Katrina Bartolomie, the assessor, recorder, and county clerk of Mendocino.

Other concerns exist about who is voting, given the lack of voter ID laws in the state. California is one of 16 states that has such a rule.

“All these [illegal immigrants] that are coming in, you got how many million of them?” Saul, the Madera County voter said. “Why do you not need an ID to vote?”

Arguing that IDs are needed to drive, fly, and buy certain items—including guns, alcohol, and tobacco—he said he is strongly in favor of checking photo IDs during elections.

“It’s not right,” Saul said. “I just hope for the best for our country.”

As a veteran, he said the state needs to do more to secure elections.

“I’ve been all around the world, and this is the best country in the world, but we just need to keep it like that,” Saul said. “Our kids and the future we’re leaving them, that’s what I’m worried about.”

To start the week, Ehsan Khoman, the Head of Commodities at MUFG Bank, points out that iron ore ended the session in Asia as one of the weakest major commodities. This downturn was primarily due to the lack of enthusiasm from China’s National People’s Congress event on Monday amid mounting concerns about worsening macroeconomic headwinds. 

Futures in the critical steelmaking ingredient are down 25% year-to-date in Singapore, and they fell nearly 7% on Monday to around the $107 a ton level. 

The 7% drop in Singapore was the largest daily decline since the near 10% plunge on April 22, 2022. 

Iron ore has slid about 25% from a peak of $142 a ton in early January as China’s real estate and manufacturing secotr remain under pressure. Monday’s annual National People’s Congress in Beijing provided investors with no clear insight into demand-boosting policies. 

Construction activity remains lackluster as China’s yearslong crackdown on property debt squeezes a vital source of steel demand, while Beijing has refrained from deploying the type of massive infrastructure stimulus that it has used to revive the economy in the past. There had been hopes for a stronger pick-up in construction after the Lunar New Year holiday that ended in mid-February, but that hasn’t eventuated. -Bloomberg

Iron ore prices are expected to tumble to around $100 a ton as stockpiles of the metal in Chinese ports are quickly building. 

“Prices will have to drop further for inventories to be withdrawn,” Jinrui Futures Co. wrote in a note to clients. The broker suggested that clients initiate a short iron ore position before the Chinese steel demand returns. 

Weak iron ore prices in Australia led to big losses in the mining-heavy materials sector. Australian shares tracked iron ore prices lower. 

Could sliding iron ore prices be a bellwether of global economic growth?

Is a global slowdown ahead? 

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Police in St Louis, Missouri have arrested a teenage girl after footage emerged of a confrontation showing a savage beating of a student from Hazelwood East High School.

The disturbing video shows the girl repeatedly smashing the other student’s head into the concrete while repeatedly calling her a “bitch,” and then leaving her having a seizure on the ground.

A group of students then began an all out brawl before police were called to the scene close to the school this past Friday.

Warning, GRAPHIC FOOTAGE. Police in Missouri have arrested a teenage girl after video emerged of a confrontation showing a savage beating of a fellow student that left the victim seizing on the ground and with a traumatic brain injury. Report here https://t.co/8HQg3BAV5z pic.twitter.com/bYOjelyQfs

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) March 11, 2024

The girl reportedly suffered a traumatic brain injury and is listed in critical condition in hospital, while the assailant was arrested on assault charges Saturday, taken to the St. Louis County Family Court and held in custody through to Sunday.

Social media content suggests that the victim had been the target of bullying at the school.

James Clark, vice president of public safety and community response at the Urban League, described the incident as “a glimpse into the mentality and the culture of our young people.”

“The social pressure is to be socially dysfunctional,” he told KSDK, adding “Who can be the loudest? Who can be the most disruptive?”

“Bullying and fighting in the community is an issue for which we all need to take ownership and work towards a resolution for the sake of our children,” school officials said in a statement.

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