May 12, 2025

NOW ... Watch the NJ PBS Democratic gubernatorial debate at 7 PM

https://newjerseyglobe.com/campaigns/watch-the-nj-pbs-democratic-gubernatorial-debate-at-7-pm/

May 6, 2025

Secret Deals, Foreign Investments, Presidential Policy Changes: The Rise of Trump's Crypto Firm ...

World Liberty Financial has eviscerated the boundary between private enterprise and government policy in ways without precedent in modern American history.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/us/politics/trump-crypto-world-liberty-financial.html?unlocked_article_code=1.FE8.gowM.bV5KMfdwqctB&smid=url-share

By Eric LiptonDavid Yaffe-Bellany and Ben Protess
April 29, 2025

"..... Mr. Trump’s return to the White House has opened lucrative new pathways for him to cash in on his power, whether through his social media company or new overseas real estate deals. But none of the Trump family’s other business endeavors pose conflicts of interest that compare to those that have emerged since the birth of World Liberty.

The firm, largely owned by a Trump family corporate entity, has erased centuries-old presidential norms, eviscerating the boundary between private enterprise and government policy in a manner without precedent in modern American history.

Mr. Trump is now not only a major crypto dealer; he is also the industry’s top policy maker. So far in his second term, Mr. Trump has leveraged his presidential powers in ways that have benefited the industry — and in some cases his own company — even though he had spent years deriding crypto as a haven for drug dealers and scammers...

....He and his older brother, Donald Trump Jr., are actively involved in World Liberty, though they rely on three partners to oversee the daily operations. Two of them, Mr. Folkman and Chase Herro, have a mixed track record in crypto. The other is Zach Witkoff, the son of Mr. Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who is also a World Liberty founder..."

May 1, 2025

'This Is What We Were Always Scared of': DOGE Is Building a Surveillance State

Rachel covered this story tonight.


https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/opinion/musk-doge-data-ai.html?unlocked_article_code=1.D08.wM9J.LUKIOA-Md2ip&smid=url-share

"... President Trump could soon have the tools to satisfy his many grievances by swiftly locating compromising information about his political opponents or anyone who simply annoys him. The administration has already declared that it plans to comb through tax records to find the addresses of immigrants it is investigating — a plan so morally and legally challenged, it prompted several top I.R.S. officials to quit in protest. Some federal workers have been told that DOGE is using artificial intelligence to sift through their communications to identify people who harbor anti-Musk or -Trump sentiment (and presumably punish or fire them).

What this amounts to is a stunningly fast reversal of our long history of siloing government data to prevent its misuse. In their first 100 days, Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump have knocked down the barriers that were intended to prevent them from creating dossiers on every U.S. resident. Now they seem to be building a defining feature of many authoritarian regimes: comprehensive files on everyone so they can punish those who protest.

“This is what we were always scared of,” said Kevin Bankston, a longtime civil liberties lawyer and a senior adviser on A.I. governance at the Center for Democracy & Technology, a policy and civil rights organization. “The infrastructure for turnkey totalitarianism is there for an administration willing to break the law.”

Over the past 100 days, DOGE teams have grabbed personal data about U.S. residents from dozens of federal databases and are reportedly merging it all into a master database at the Department of Homeland Security. This month House Democratic lawmakers reported that a whistle-blower had come forward to reveal that the master database will combine data from such federal agencies as the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Health and Human Services. The whistle-blower also alleged that DOGE workers are filling backpacks with multiple laptops, each one loaded with purloined agency data..."

May 1, 2025

New Mideast Project Is Latest Trump Company Deal Tied to a Foreign Government

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/world/middleeast/trump-family-qatar-dubai.html?unlocked_article_code=1.D08.Ot8I.u-2sEiRBUgAk&smid=url-share


"The Trump Organization has agreed to a new Middle East golf course and real estate deal that involves a Qatari government-owned firm, two weeks before President Trump is set to travel to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on a state visit.

The project in Qatar, a key U.S. ally and home to a major American military base, is a partnership with Qatari Diar, a real estate company established by the country’s sovereign wealth fund and chaired by a government minister.

Eric Trump, the president’s son who runs the family business, traveled to the Middle East this week to attend a cryptocurrency conference and promote the company’s real estate developments, which include a separate Trump-branded tower in Dubai, the largest city in the Emirates.

The two projects will also involve Dar Global, the international subsidiary of the private Saudi real estate firm Dar Al Arkan, which is leading the project and has close ties to the Saudi government. The Qatar project was initially reported by Reuters..."

April 27, 2025

Technical Analysis of Stock Market Not out of the woods...yet

&t=2s

FWIW ...15 minutes.

Three trading left in April, Possible monthly hammers, need follow through. The .236 retracement is from the 2009 low, the .50 from the 2022 low.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hammer.asp

https://www.tradingview.com/x/WosnVwRP/

April 5, 2025

Are We On The Cusp Of Another Global Crisis?

FWIW and have not listened to this yet as it was just posted ...about 30 minutes long.

I've listened to his weekly updates for a few years and debated whether or not to post the link here, longer term money manager.

One thing he said a few weeks ago, I'll paraphrase ...

'There are two decisions when you decide to sell, one is when to sell, the other is when to get back in.'

April 5, 2025

Happening now on the Senate floor, Chris Murphy speaking ...

The Senate is considering a revised version of the 2025 House Republicans' budget resolution.

https://www.c-span.org/event/us-senate/us-senate/432231

March 29, 2025

Bernie Sanders - From the Senate Floor: Where do we go from here?

Below is from the transcript starting at 16 minutes ... click on more in the description, then "show transcript"

"16:01
need mr president we don't talk about it
16:03
too much maybe we
16:06
should but there are three Wall Street
16:09
firms Black Rockck Vanguard and State
16:12
Street that
16:14
combined are the major stockholders in
16:18
95% of our corporations got that three
16:22
Wall Street firms three are the major
16:26
stockholders in 95% of American
16:31
corporations so Mr president that is one
16:34
America people on top doing phenomenally
16:37
well not only do they have economic
16:41
power they have enormous political
16:44
power that's what's going on there they
16:47
live like kings that's one America but
16:50
there is another America
16:53
and in that other America 60%
16:58
60% of our people are living paycheck to
17:02
paycheck"

March 25, 2025

The Importance of Being SpaceX - Tesla might be suffering, but SpaceX is poised to profit off billions in new government

contracts

Full article ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/us/politics/musk-spacex.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6k4.LhI3.gQNE4ty0X3Fe&smid=url-share

"Much attention has been paid to how Elon Musk’s high-profile role in President Trump’s White House has hurt Tesla: Sales are falling, its stock price has slipped from its peak and embarrassed liberals are turning their cars back in.

Some of that attention is being supplied by Trump himself. “I know you’ve been through a lot,” Trump told Musk during today’s cabinet meeting, at which Musk perched at one end of the table wearing a red hat that said “Trump was right about everything.” Trump portrayed him as stoically weathering the backlash against his businesses.'

... SpaceX is positioning itself to win billions in new federal contracts from the Pentagon, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Communications Commission and NASA, Eric writes. The scale of the business is staggering, as is the potential for conflicts of interest.

... All of this appears to be good for SpaceX’s bottom line. The company is privately held, but Forbes recently estimated that Musk’s stake in the company was worth $147 billion, more than his stake in Tesla... "

March 23, 2025

Why Maids Keep Dying in Saudi Arabia - NYT full article

"East African leaders and Saudi royals are among those profiting off a lucrative, deadly trade in domestic workers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/world/africa/saudi-arabia-kenya-uganda-maids-women.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6E4.ym8s.bTK7pccglwmG&smid=url-share


"On any given day in Kenya, dozens, if not hundreds of women buzz around the Nairobi international airport’s departures area. They huddle for selfies in matching T-shirts, discussing how they’ll spend the money from their new jobs in Saudi Arabia.

Lured by company recruiters and encouraged by Kenya’s government, the women have reason for optimism. Spend two years in Saudi Arabia as a housekeeper or nanny, the pitch goes, and you can earn enough to build a house, educate your children and save for the future.

While the departure terminal hums with anticipation, the arrivals area is where hope meets grim reality. Hollow-cheeked women return, often ground down by unpaid wages, beatings, starvation and sexual assault. Some are broke. Others are in coffins.

At least 274 Kenyan workers, mostly women, have died in Saudi Arabia in the past five years — an extraordinary figure for a young work force doing jobs that, in most countries, are considered extremely safe. At least 55 Kenyan workers died last year, twice as many as the previous year...."