The Shitshow Macro Weekly Wrapup for Friday, January 17, 2025 is out:
-Apologies to our premium subscribers, but there won’t be an audio version up today. I’m very under the weather and between my shot voice and not being able to hear out of one ear it would be a Shitshow.
–I will try to record the audio podcast tomorrow if my brain and voice come back, but we shall see.
Domestic:
-Founding father Ben Franklin was born on this day in 1706 (via @epochtimes )
-Joe Biden decided that he would tell people that an X post was the Constitutionally-mandated way to add a new amendment to the US Constitution on his way out the door on Friday.
--It is not.
--Despite that, there was no shortage of shitlib “legal scholars” falling all over themselves to push their propaganda that it is.
--Expect this to be the first hubbub, and potential new impeachment hoax, when sane people stiff arm this after Trump takes office.
-CNN lost their defamation case against a Navy veteran who they defamed this week.
--I’m seeing a lot of people spread inaccuracies; I just happen to have had an unwanted first-hand view of how big defamation cases against the media work over the past 3 years, so here’s the 101 for this one:
--The jury found CNN guilty yesterday in the first phase. That phase awarded the plaintiff $4mm in economic damages and $1mm for emotional damages.
--In some states (like FL, where this case is), deciding guilt and “punitive” damages are entirely different aspects of the case.
--Punitive damages are often awarded for things like malice, reckless disregard for the truth, or behavior that the jury awards a sum to sway them from ever doing it again.
--The punitive award was always expected to be the big one in this case. While the jury was deciding what that award would be, the parties reached a settlement (amount undisclosed).
-The Biden admin also removed Cuba from the list of terror exporter states this week.
--Did you know that JFK was seeking rapprochement with Castro and they even had clandestine emissaries for each leader back channeling before Kennedy was taken out?
--This book JFK and the Unspeakable is teaching me quite a few things about that time period in US history that I didn’t know.
-Ohio made some news on Friday:
--New high tech defense contractor Anduril Industries announced it will be opening a new hyperscale manufacturing facility in Columbus, OH.
theepochtimes.com/us/us-defense-…
--Today (Friday) Vivek Ramaswamey announced his intention to run for Governor of Ohio.
-Over to another state, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ office has been hit with accusations of hush money, bribes, and legalized corruption:
nypost.com/2025/01/17/us-…
-Personnel is policy. Many wondered if Trump had learned this lesson from his first administration, and we keep seeing more proof points that he learned it in spades.
--Speaker Johnson announced that he removed Mike Turner, one of the IC’s most dependable lackeys, from his position on the HIPSC (House Intel Cmte) this week at Trump’s request.
theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/01/1…
-A new article is out with a triumvirate of great minds and insights.
--@im_1776 outlines the history of realpolitik, the way that President elect Trump operates, and what is needed for him to reinvigorate these United States, via @Partisan_O and @6Voodoo
im1776.com/2025/01/17/rea…
-If you still don’t get why any pro-personal freedom and anti-Deep State domestic spying panopticon get so up in arms about FISA & 702, Sundance lays it out for you quite well in the article below:
theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/01/1…
War/Military:
-A press release/statement on Friday put Pete Hegseth about the 50 votes in favor territory, making him the new SecDef.
--Congratulations, Pete. Please save our beloved military.
-While not quite as loud, other public mumblings point towards former Green Beret (and other things) Joe Kent taking over the lead Counter Terrorism role in the Trump admin.
--This would be a very good thing. I could not support this more strongly.
-Apologies to our premium subscribers, but there won’t be an audio version up today. I’m very under the weather and between my shot voice and not being able to hear out of one ear it would be a Shitshow.
–I will try to record the audio podcast tomorrow if my brain and voice come back, but we shall see.
Domestic:
-Founding father Ben Franklin was born on this day in 1706 (via @epochtimes )
-Joe Biden decided that he would tell people that an X post was the Constitutionally-mandated way to add a new amendment to the US Constitution on his way out the door on Friday.
--It is not.
--Despite that, there was no shortage of shitlib “legal scholars” falling all over themselves to push their propaganda that it is.
--Expect this to be the first hubbub, and potential new impeachment hoax, when sane people stiff arm this after Trump takes office.
-CNN lost their defamation case against a Navy veteran who they defamed this week.
--I’m seeing a lot of people spread inaccuracies; I just happen to have had an unwanted first-hand view of how big defamation cases against the media work over the past 3 years, so here’s the 101 for this one:
--The jury found CNN guilty yesterday in the first phase. That phase awarded the plaintiff $4mm in economic damages and $1mm for emotional damages.
--In some states (like FL, where this case is), deciding guilt and “punitive” damages are entirely different aspects of the case.
--Punitive damages are often awarded for things like malice, reckless disregard for the truth, or behavior that the jury awards a sum to sway them from ever doing it again.
--The punitive award was always expected to be the big one in this case. While the jury was deciding what that award would be, the parties reached a settlement (amount undisclosed).
-The Biden admin also removed Cuba from the list of terror exporter states this week.
--Did you know that JFK was seeking rapprochement with Castro and they even had clandestine emissaries for each leader back channeling before Kennedy was taken out?
--This book JFK and the Unspeakable is teaching me quite a few things about that time period in US history that I didn’t know.
-Ohio made some news on Friday:
--New high tech defense contractor Anduril Industries announced it will be opening a new hyperscale manufacturing facility in Columbus, OH.
theepochtimes.com/us/us-defense-…
--Today (Friday) Vivek Ramaswamey announced his intention to run for Governor of Ohio.
-Over to another state, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ office has been hit with accusations of hush money, bribes, and legalized corruption:
nypost.com/2025/01/17/us-…
-Personnel is policy. Many wondered if Trump had learned this lesson from his first administration, and we keep seeing more proof points that he learned it in spades.
--Speaker Johnson announced that he removed Mike Turner, one of the IC’s most dependable lackeys, from his position on the HIPSC (House Intel Cmte) this week at Trump’s request.
theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/01/1…
-A new article is out with a triumvirate of great minds and insights.
--@im_1776 outlines the history of realpolitik, the way that President elect Trump operates, and what is needed for him to reinvigorate these United States, via @Partisan_O and @6Voodoo
im1776.com/2025/01/17/rea…
-If you still don’t get why any pro-personal freedom and anti-Deep State domestic spying panopticon get so up in arms about FISA & 702, Sundance lays it out for you quite well in the article below:
theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/01/1…
War/Military:
-A press release/statement on Friday put Pete Hegseth about the 50 votes in favor territory, making him the new SecDef.
--Congratulations, Pete. Please save our beloved military.
-While not quite as loud, other public mumblings point towards former Green Beret (and other things) Joe Kent taking over the lead Counter Terrorism role in the Trump admin.
--This would be a very good thing. I could not support this more strongly.
The Epoch Times
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-CIA analyst Asif Rahman pleaded guilty to leaking Israeli strike plans to Iran.
-It rightfully caused a lot of hubbub when Biden decided to send US-made ATACMs to UKR…but it looks like it didn’t do them any good.
--The reported numbers are that 500 were sent, and they are now down to 50.
-Iran and Russia have announced the signing of a 20-year energy and defense deal.
--Article with the deets from @zerohedge :
zerohedge.com/geopolitical/r…
-4,000 US Marines will be moving from Okinawa to Guam under a 2012 US-Japan deal.
taskandpurpose.com/news/marines-o…
Markets/economics:
-We’ve discussed here previously how Scott Bessent is one of a very small number of people with the MacroEcon and intellectual chops to bring the US back from the brink of economic calamity right now.
--Here’s his opening statement during his confirmation hearing this week:
x.com/CortesSteve/st…
-The major stock indices ended Friday’s trading in the green.
--Oil and gold both ended red on the day.
-BTC is back above $100k, at $104,237.11 as of this writing.
-Janet Yellen, singing a very different tune when the Turnip’s handlers were still in charge, warned on her way out of the door that Jan 21 the US will hit its debt limit.
-The Federal Reserve (The Fed) is the latest economic behemoth to pull out of the ESG/Net Zero/Green Cult grift
-US bonds are still having “long tail” issues, although they have dropped a bit since last week:
--13-week: 4.193
--5-year: 4.140
--10-year: 4.6090
--30-year: 4.8450
Business:
-The FTC has announced actions against General Motors for collecting and selling drivers’ precise geolocation data and driving behaviors without their consent.
--Yes, as we discussed several months ago, your high tech cars are spying on you.
ftc.gov/news-events/ne…
-Starbucks is planning rounds of corporate layoffs to push for efficiency.
--Along different lines, they also implemented rules that only customers can use the inside of their stores.
-The FTC has approved the $53bn merger between Chevron and Hess.
-Walgreens has announced they will be closing another 450 stores this year, per @MacroEdgeRes
--I saw another story about some new high tech product cases they ordered that ended up being a huge bust, but we’ll have to cover Monday if my brain comes back online.
-As noted by @chigrl , Rio Tinto and Glencore are discussing combining their businesses, which would create a pretty significant mining operation between the two:
x.com/chigrl/status/…
-Barrick Gold has suspended operations in Mali (TS-Africa) after its gold was seized this week.
Health:
-The FDA decided to ban the artificial food coloring Red 3 this week - 30 years after Europe had done so, after it was banned in cosmetics but allowed into our food, and after decades of calling anyone a conspiracy theorist who asked about it.
Geopolitics:
-Romania’s high court has again ruled that democracy is so important that a vote cannot be allowed.
--Yes, they are really saying that the people can’t vote in order to “save democracy.”
-The South Korean police took President Yoon into custody at the behest of the opposition party this week.
This whole situation is so jacked up that I don’t even know what to make of it yet.
Societal/legal/culture war
-I finally got a chance to watch the Eastman Dilemma documentary that was shown at Mar A Lago last week.
This seems incredibly timely, as it revisits some of the questions about Nov 2020 that were never answered, that those who asked them faced a vicious all out assault (Professor Eastman especially), and that may finally be getting some actual investigations and answers in the near future.
--The documentary is free to watch via the link below, and is well worth your time:
madisonmediafund.org/eastman-dilemm…
Crazy Conspiracy:
Hey ‘member how there were two really strange attempts on Trump that got memory holed almost immediately? And how strange it was that the media seems wholly uninterested in pressing to figure out who was behind it and how they were allowed to get in place for their attempts?
-It rightfully caused a lot of hubbub when Biden decided to send US-made ATACMs to UKR…but it looks like it didn’t do them any good.
--The reported numbers are that 500 were sent, and they are now down to 50.
-Iran and Russia have announced the signing of a 20-year energy and defense deal.
--Article with the deets from @zerohedge :
zerohedge.com/geopolitical/r…
-4,000 US Marines will be moving from Okinawa to Guam under a 2012 US-Japan deal.
taskandpurpose.com/news/marines-o…
Markets/economics:
-We’ve discussed here previously how Scott Bessent is one of a very small number of people with the MacroEcon and intellectual chops to bring the US back from the brink of economic calamity right now.
--Here’s his opening statement during his confirmation hearing this week:
x.com/CortesSteve/st…
-The major stock indices ended Friday’s trading in the green.
--Oil and gold both ended red on the day.
-BTC is back above $100k, at $104,237.11 as of this writing.
-Janet Yellen, singing a very different tune when the Turnip’s handlers were still in charge, warned on her way out of the door that Jan 21 the US will hit its debt limit.
-The Federal Reserve (The Fed) is the latest economic behemoth to pull out of the ESG/Net Zero/Green Cult grift
-US bonds are still having “long tail” issues, although they have dropped a bit since last week:
--13-week: 4.193
--5-year: 4.140
--10-year: 4.6090
--30-year: 4.8450
Business:
-The FTC has announced actions against General Motors for collecting and selling drivers’ precise geolocation data and driving behaviors without their consent.
--Yes, as we discussed several months ago, your high tech cars are spying on you.
ftc.gov/news-events/ne…
-Starbucks is planning rounds of corporate layoffs to push for efficiency.
--Along different lines, they also implemented rules that only customers can use the inside of their stores.
-The FTC has approved the $53bn merger between Chevron and Hess.
-Walgreens has announced they will be closing another 450 stores this year, per @MacroEdgeRes
--I saw another story about some new high tech product cases they ordered that ended up being a huge bust, but we’ll have to cover Monday if my brain comes back online.
-As noted by @chigrl , Rio Tinto and Glencore are discussing combining their businesses, which would create a pretty significant mining operation between the two:
x.com/chigrl/status/…
-Barrick Gold has suspended operations in Mali (TS-Africa) after its gold was seized this week.
Health:
-The FDA decided to ban the artificial food coloring Red 3 this week - 30 years after Europe had done so, after it was banned in cosmetics but allowed into our food, and after decades of calling anyone a conspiracy theorist who asked about it.
Geopolitics:
-Romania’s high court has again ruled that democracy is so important that a vote cannot be allowed.
--Yes, they are really saying that the people can’t vote in order to “save democracy.”
-The South Korean police took President Yoon into custody at the behest of the opposition party this week.
This whole situation is so jacked up that I don’t even know what to make of it yet.
Societal/legal/culture war
-I finally got a chance to watch the Eastman Dilemma documentary that was shown at Mar A Lago last week.
This seems incredibly timely, as it revisits some of the questions about Nov 2020 that were never answered, that those who asked them faced a vicious all out assault (Professor Eastman especially), and that may finally be getting some actual investigations and answers in the near future.
--The documentary is free to watch via the link below, and is well worth your time:
madisonmediafund.org/eastman-dilemm…
Crazy Conspiracy:
Hey ‘member how there were two really strange attempts on Trump that got memory holed almost immediately? And how strange it was that the media seems wholly uninterested in pressing to figure out who was behind it and how they were allowed to get in place for their attempts?
Zerohedge
404 | ZeroHedge
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
Tucker and Sean Davis (@seanmdav from The Federalist) released a 1 ½ hour interview today breaking down and discussing the Trump attempts, the oddities surrounding them, and the alarming lack of answers that we have:
x.com/TuckerCarlson/…
Macro takeaways/lessons from the week:
-On the whole, the Trump cabinet confirmation hearings this week laid bare that elected Democrats still have not learned a single thing from the public’s rejection of their dishonest and virtue signalling ways shown in the November election. Histrionics and bad faith posturing are certainly a strategy, but people are disgusted by them finally.
-Many of Biden’s cabinet members made public self-congratulatory speeches on their way out the door, which seems odd. Regardless, I’m glad it was on their way out the door, finally.
-From the FDA to the FTC and even FBI pretending to “reinvigorate” the pipe bomber “investigation,” we’ve seen Federal agencies pretend to finally start doing their jobs as Trump’s inauguration draws near. I hope that a massive house cleaning starts on Monday.
White pill(s) for the week:
The usual suspects are still launching their expected, typical, lunatic-fringe attacks against anything Trump or his cabinet appointees do or say, but none of them are landing and people are simply shrugging them off and ignoring them.
We’ve discussed many times that there is a difference between being smart vs intelligent, and how the unintelligent cannot see a changing paradigm as it occurs. This is especially true with the hubris-filled midwits who gained fame, fortune, or social stature simply due to their family name, school they attended, or allegiance to the nefarious ones in politics.
Will this hold and these unserious midwits finally be cast into the dustbin of history? As the wise man once said, “we shall see.”
Weekend Meditation:
“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
-Marcus Aurelius
📷
Links mentioned in the show:
Intro & outro music: Mike Amabile and Run Over Twice “Blind”
x.com/TuckerCarlson/…
Macro takeaways/lessons from the week:
-On the whole, the Trump cabinet confirmation hearings this week laid bare that elected Democrats still have not learned a single thing from the public’s rejection of their dishonest and virtue signalling ways shown in the November election. Histrionics and bad faith posturing are certainly a strategy, but people are disgusted by them finally.
-Many of Biden’s cabinet members made public self-congratulatory speeches on their way out the door, which seems odd. Regardless, I’m glad it was on their way out the door, finally.
-From the FDA to the FTC and even FBI pretending to “reinvigorate” the pipe bomber “investigation,” we’ve seen Federal agencies pretend to finally start doing their jobs as Trump’s inauguration draws near. I hope that a massive house cleaning starts on Monday.
White pill(s) for the week:
The usual suspects are still launching their expected, typical, lunatic-fringe attacks against anything Trump or his cabinet appointees do or say, but none of them are landing and people are simply shrugging them off and ignoring them.
We’ve discussed many times that there is a difference between being smart vs intelligent, and how the unintelligent cannot see a changing paradigm as it occurs. This is especially true with the hubris-filled midwits who gained fame, fortune, or social stature simply due to their family name, school they attended, or allegiance to the nefarious ones in politics.
Will this hold and these unserious midwits finally be cast into the dustbin of history? As the wise man once said, “we shall see.”
Weekend Meditation:
“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
-Marcus Aurelius
📷
Links mentioned in the show:
Intro & outro music: Mike Amabile and Run Over Twice “Blind”
Let's keep in mind that it was in the last days of the Obama admin that RussiaGate & FlynnGate were hatched to cover up SpyGate.
In their infinite wisdom, the GOP confirmed all of the Obama flunkies who had roles in these ops for the Biden admin.
Nobody was held accountable, at all, so of course they will try to play more nation-damaging games.
Keep an eye out for the likely waves of hoaxes they will unleash.
In their infinite wisdom, the GOP confirmed all of the Obama flunkies who had roles in these ops for the Biden admin.
Nobody was held accountable, at all, so of course they will try to play more nation-damaging games.
Keep an eye out for the likely waves of hoaxes they will unleash.