Politics And The Markets 09/28/23

''Kuo is widely followed for his checks on supply chains in Asia and the conclusions he draws from them. “My latest research indicates that ASML may cut EUV equipment shipment forecasts significantly for 2024 by about 20–30%,” he wrote in a post on social media and Medium.''
-Barron's
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The politics of trade sanctions will screw all sides in international trade. But Washingtonian genocidal warmongers, working with Davos Nat-Socs, care not.

I remain constructive about the future of $ASML. I consider it one of the most important tech companies of the world. ASML is trading at $538 euros a piece in Amsterdam. Below 500, I will wade in.

“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth."

George Orwell - 1984

Why would Wikipedia want to DELETE its page on Yaroslav Hunka?

“This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia's deletion policy.”

en.m.wikipedia.org/...

In 2023, Hunka made international headlines after he received a standing ovation from the House of Commons of Canada, and was recognized by Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Later, it was revealed Hunka was a member of the Waffen-SS, and Canadian government officials apologized to the worldwide Jewish community. Hunka is retired and lives in North Bay, Ontario.

Mayor Pete

Are you still riding your bicycle behind 2 massive gas-powered SUVs?

And flying around in your private FAA jet?

Thank you for supporting fossil fuels!

If the Races Were Reversed This Would Be A National News Story…

x.com/...

FT headlining:
''Deal-making languishes at decade low on private equity drought''
''Global dealmaking is languishing at a 10-year low as high interest rates chill private equity activity...''

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Fed Chair Powell is a hero.
Much higher for much longer. Raise FFR further.
Drain the Fed balance sheet. Bin the MBSs.

Peak Fed Bal Sheet in Apr '22, almost $9T.
Bal sheet now, $8T.
$1T taken out. Well done.

Comic book war propaganda. Poland pulls away from
the real situation
'Ukraine is behaving like a drowning person clinging to everything he can… but we have the right to defend ourselves against harm being done to us. A drowning person is extremely dangerous, he can pull you down to the depths… simply drown the rescuer. We must act to protect ourselves from the harm being done to us, because if the drowning person… drowns us, he will not get help. So we have to take care of our interests and we will do it effectively and decisively.'

www.lewrockwell.com/...

Could Mexico take on the US military?
Could Ukraine beat Russia?
No for both of those questions

Who lost the debate last night? All but Christie and Haley plus Fox Noise. -- www.msn.com/...

Who won the debate last night? -- Taylor Swift (probably true, lol). www.politico.com/...

Melania's ready to be First Lady again ... thought you'd want to know. www.msn.com/...

Donald Trump is increasing his support among Hispanic voters, according to a recent Univision poll, with 50 percent of Hispanic Republicans saying they will vote for him in the GOP primary. Nationally, Hispanic support for the former president stands at 36 percent – up four points since he left office in January 2021.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, once considered a legitimate threat to Trump for the 2024 nomination, polled a distant second on 12 percent, not far ahead of the hitherto unknown Vivek Ramaswamy, on nine percent.

The poll, which purports to be the largest Hispanic bipartisan primary public polling of the 2024 election cycle so far, also shows that when it comes to border security, Republicans have a slim advantage in trust among Hispanic voters, with 41 percent trusting Republicans to bring the migrant crisis under control compared to 40 percent who trust the Democrats.

With Univision taking this poll, you can be sure that his support is even higher than they polled.

House approves bill striking down Biden’s crackdown on hunting and archery in overwhelmingly bipartisan vote.

The House voted late Tuesday evening in favor of legislation striking down the Biden administration’s decision to block federal funding for school shooting sports courses.

In a 424-1 vote, the House approved the Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act with 216 Republicans and 208 Democrats voting in favor, and just one lawmaker, Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, voting against. Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., introduced the bill on Aug. 1, days after a Fox News Digital report in late July revealed the Department of Education was withholding funds for school hunting and archery courses.

“The Department of Education and Secretary Cardona are blatantly misconstruing the law to withhold funding from schools that choose to teach beneficial courses like hunter safety and archery,” Lawrence Keane, the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s senior vice president, told Fox News Digital in July.

Fetterman Will No Longer Be Able to Wear Shorts and a Hoodie in the Senate

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) will no longer be able to wear his trademark basketball shorts and hoodie in the Senate after a formal dress code was unanimously passed on Wednesday.

The resolution, which was led by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), will require men on the Senate floor to wear a jacket and tie — effectively banning Fetterman’s informal attire.

An investigation into Joe Biden’s classified documents is apparently casting a “wide net” and going all the way back to the President’s time as a Senator – but sources leaking to ABC have implied the investigation will end sympathetically, with Biden’s improper retention of sensitive material being classed as “more likely a mistake than a criminal act.”

Special Counsel Robert Hur was appointed to investigate the situation after classified documents were found in boxes near the 46th President’s Corvette, having also previously been found at his office in the Penn Biden Center.

Leaks to ABC News suggest Blinken and other senior figures have been interviewed by Hur’s team, with the investigation said to have “grown into a sprawling examination of Obama-era security protocols and internal White House processes,” indicating Hur’s report is going to focus on institutional rather than personal failings.

The soft-touch approach to Biden compared to Trump – who has been aggressively pursued and prosecuted by Special Counsel Jack Smith for allegedly mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House – comes in spite of the fact that Trump had enjoyed full declassifying authority as President of the United States. Biden, who took documents as a Senator and later as Vice President, had no such authority.

Let me get this straight. According to that hack NY judge, Mar-a-Lago's tax value increased $9.6 million for the 10 years ending in 2021. Yet it only increased $8 million for the 26 years between 1985 and 2011, a period which evidenced massive increases in real property values. This is why you never rely on tax assessments from local towns to determine market values.

Forbes had appraised the property, which is made up of 128 rooms, at approximately $160 million in 2018 following extensive renovations and its exclusive Palm Beach location on Billionaires’ Row. The property includes a 20,000-square-foot ballroom, five clay tennis courts and a sprawling waterfront pool.

And in the five years since, Palm Beach properties have only increased in value.

In March, Rush Limbaugh’s widow, Kathryn Adams Limbaugh, sold her husband’s longtime Palm Beach compound, on 2.7 acres, for $155 million.

And back in 2013, hedge funder Ken Griffin paid $129.6 million for four parcels in the area.

Granting Summary Judgment, instead of letting the case go to a jury, only happens where there is no material issue of fact in dispute for a jury to consider. Each and every material fact of this frivolous case is in dispute; from the statute of limitations, all the way to Mar-A-Lago's valuation. Just like every other case against Trump across the country, this is another obvious attempt to interfere with the 2024 Presidential election aka an attempt to divest half of Americans of their votes.

Whenever you hear someone self-describe as a “principled conservative” to differentiate themselves from MAGA, Trump supporters, populists, and common-sense newcomers to the GOP, and urge for a return to the “golden years,” you can confidently laugh it off as blissful ignorance.

For decades, these so-called “principled conservatives” have overseen and actively participated in policymaking that has degraded the family unit, delivered losses on abortion, brought you a 10-yearlong “assault weapons ban,” and ceded greater authority over and involvement of the federal government in education.

Not satisfied with the piecemeal destruction of society that they now b!tch about for clicks, these “principled conservatives” carry their feigned outrage and ideological purity to the economic realm, blindly devoting themselves to protecting the interests of global corporate giants while sacrificing American workers at the altar of “free markets.”

When faced with the consequences of their neoliberalism—the displaced workers and their families, once-great American small towns and cities in shambles, the industrial core of the country gutted, and all the social ills that emanate from these realities—the response from these upstanding moralists is to hawkishly scrutinize every dollar that could possibly go toward alleviating some of the pain and suffering they caused.

In other words, “f**k off!, you aren’t my concern.”

The false devotion to “fiscal conservatism” wouldn’t be so offensive if it wasn’t so easily discarded when constructing a national security apparatus that violates your constitutional rights, launching failed trillion-dollar regime change wars, providing foreign aid to corrupt oligarchs and regimes in quid pro quo deals, and subsidizing the social welfare expenses of other countries.

Advertisers paid a premium for airtime during the first Republican presidential debate on Fox News, but it looks like they'll be getting a major discount during round two on Wednesday night.

For the first debate, the cost of a single 30-second spot topped $495,000.

But the same 30-second spot during Wednesday night's contest would cost just over $200,000.

The drop-off in debate ad rates reflects the drop-off in drama during the 2024 primary.

As non-Trump Republicans candidates fail to gain traction in the polls, there's less incentive for advertisers to pay the same record rates as the first contest.

Sans Trump… these debates just aren't big-time TV, because the GOP primary race has become a snoozer.

At this point in the contest, the Republican candidates who are not supporting Donald Trump are simply showcasing their own selfish connections to the business end of U.S. politics. It really is that simple. These are not patriots who care about our country. These are self-interested representatives of multinational corporations and business interests who are paying for them to oppose Donald Trump.

The FBI took over a 2020 probe into voter registration fraud that began in Michigan but has denied a Freedom of Information Act request regarding the investigation, citing an exemption in that law regarding ongoing investigations.

According to the dozens of pages of police reports from the Muskegon Police Department and Michigan State Police, a firm called GBI Strategies was under scrutiny as an organization central to alleged voter registration fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The matter was initially investigated by city and state authorities before the FBI took over.

Contacts between local law enforcement and the FBI continued into 2022 but there is no evidence of what happened after that in the memos obtained by Just the News through requests made under Michigan's own Freedom of Information Act.

Last week, the FBI denied a Freedom of Information/Privacy Acts request from Just the News regarding records from the investigation into GBI Strategies.

The request sought “copies of all reports, documents, and records about GBI Strategies, including all communication and correspondence regarding investigations of GBI Strategies with Michigan government officials, city and state law enforcement agencies in Michigan, and all other state government officials and law enforcement agencies involved in investigations of GBI Strategies.”

The FBI’s response partially reads: “The material you requested is located in an investigative file which is exempt from disclosure.”

The FBI cited 5 U.S. Code § 552(b)(7)(A) for exempting disclosure of the records, specifically, "records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that the production of such law enforcement records or information … could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings."

The agency’s response continued: “The records responsive to your request are law enforcement records; there is a pending or prospective law enforcement proceeding relevant to these responsive records, and release of the information could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.” justthenews.com/...

Anthony Fauci Had a Secret, “No Record of Entry”, Visit to CIA to Influence Their COVID-19 Origin Decision

Given the nature of how the intelligence apparatus manipulates their work product in order to manipulate public opinion, the CIA willingly changing their determination of COVID-19 origin doesn’t come as a surprise. What is more surprising is that congress found out about it.

The Congressional Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic reported last night that former head of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease, Anthony Fauci, conducted a stealth visit to the CIA headquarters in order to influence their findings on the origins of COVID-19. Fauci did not want the U.S. govt relationship with the Wuhan lab and gain of function research becoming a risk, with the COVID-19 virus originating from that lab and relationship.

Dr. Fauci’s suspicious moments “without a record of entry” are especially concerning in light of recent whistleblower testimony alleging the CIA rewarded six analysts with significant financial incentives to change their COVID-19 origins conclusion from a lab-leak to zoonosis. It appears the secret visit by Fauci was the triggering mechanism to change the CIA findings.

Subcommittee Chairman, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), has requested “documents sufficient to show any Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General authorized, supported, or otherwise affiliated movements of Dr. Anthony Fauci from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2022 into any CIA owned, operated, or occupied building, including but not limited to the George Bush Center of Intelligence.”

The Chairman has also requested Special Agent Brett Rowland, the guy who worked with Anthony Fauci through the Department of Health and Human Services, is made available for a voluntary transcribed interview. oversight.house.gov/...

This is most assuredly,with what the judge just did to Trump,the tipping point of whether we get angry enough to fight or go quietly into that good night.