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WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY COULD BE THE BEGINNING OF A NEW WORLD ORDER And I don't say that lightly. Yesterday there was a concerted effort by some guys on Reddit to drive the price of Gamestop up to hurt the hedge funds who were trying to destroy it by shorting the stock. What does "shorting the stock" mean? Here is the best succinct explanation I've seen sent to me my listener Justin (author unknown to me)
Also yesterday, Charles Payne from Fox Business went on THIS EPIC tear about what was happening.
He is 100% right, of course. No one complains when hedge funds short a stock and destroy a company, which happens ALL THE TIME. And yet, when the geeks fight back, it's the end of the world. So what did I mean when I said this could become the beginning of a New World Order? This destroys the façade that we are treated equally by the markets. This exposes what many have always suspected, and that is the Big Guys will ALWAYS protect themselves. And retail trading (which is what normal humans on Etrade and Robinhood do) is a danger to the carefully constructed world where hedge fund managers rarely lose and if they do it's temporary and fleeting. The problem is that the people tasked with regulating this stuff are all BFFs and run in the same circles as the hedge fund guys so I don't expect much in the way of regulation from the top and fully expect Congressional hearings to end up with limitations on retail investors. Unless we all decide to demand that President Joe "I'm a regular guy" Biden proves it and fights for the little guy on this. I'm not holding my breath. This is a great article that further explains what happened with Gamestop. This is a great interview with Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports about this.
Just remember, when something is free, you are the product.
ARE YOU WATCHING BATTLE BOTS? Y'all I am OBSESSED with Battle Bots, rebooted once again on Discovery Channel. It is the most glorious celebration of Nerdom EVER and if you've got a kid who loves tinkering with stuff instead of playing outside, watch this with him or her. It's so entertaining.
YOU CAN ENROLL FOR HEALTH CARE PLANS WITH THE STATE AGAIN Because of one of the new President's gazillion Executive Orders. Find out more by clicking here.
WHEN DOES LIFE BEGIN? That question is steeped in fake controversy because of the abortion debate, but biologists almost uniformly agree that life begins at conception. This article is a fantastic review of a secular book designed to make that point. I'm buying some copies of it for Q's school library.
ARE WE ARGUING ABOUT THE DEFINITION OF "IS" AGAIN? Remember the halcyon day when President Biden talked about bringing us together? Those were the day. It's over now, but the Washington Post wants us to know that just because Joe Biden undid all the things President Trump did via Executive Order it's ABOUT UNITY. Except then they spend a thousand words parsing what the word "unity" means and it apparently means when every Democrat is in agreement with something it's good, when they don't, it's political violence. Mmmkay. I'm going to use this logic on Q.
A YEAR WITHOUT HUGS IS NOT GOOD FOR OUR MENTAL HEALTH This article discusses the negative ramifications of a year in isolation without human touch. For those of us lucky enough to have family members to hug, this is still hard, but not nearly as hard as those living alone. I will be happy when hugs are a thing again.
RAND PAUL DID A WONDERFUL JOB SHUTTING DOWN GEORGE STEPHANOPOLOUS And he's being hailed here as an example of how to deal with a media who eats, lives and breathes Democratic talking points. Watch it here.
RIP CICELY TYSON She was a gorgeous and talented trailblazer who made it easier for black actresses in Hollywood. This is a lovely overview of her life and accomplishments.
GM IS SETTING AGGRESSIVE GOALS FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES This is why we don't need to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement. General Motors has committed to making it's products and production carbon neutral by 2040. As transportation is a huge driver of carbon pollution, this is pretty significant. It's also going to be interesting to see how we are all shoved into electric cars. My guess is that if we don't buy enough of them voluntarily (and I'm not opposed if you can promise me lots of battery life at a reasonable price) there will be a carbon tax put on gas engines that make them more expensive to buy than electric. That's just my guess.
GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO MAY HAVE TO GIVE HIS EMMY BACK Because the news media JUST NOTICED that his policies forcing nursing homes to take Covid patients without retesting them DEVASTATED his state's most vulnerable population. After a report by New York Attorney General Letitia James called Cuomo's "official" numbers into question, the Public Health Director was forced to respond. And guess what? Cuomo's policies killed almost 13,000 old people in his state. Which is almost double the number reported up until now.
THIS TWITTER THREAD ABOUT MAXINE WATERS URGING PEOPLE TO VIOLENCE IS GOLD And the back story is some dude or dudette on Twitter took an old Maxine Waters quote, changed ONE WORD and lawmakers are LOSING their MINDS over it. It's Gold, Jerry, Gold!
STOP SENSATIONILIZING THE THREAT OF RIGHT WING VIOLENCE Because aside from what happened on January 6th, which we all agree was awful, there isn't much "there" there. Great column on it here.
A NEW MOVIE ABOUT SOVIET RUSSIA SEEMS TO BE A MUST SEE Here is a column about "Dear Comrades!", which is an Oscar contender this year from Russia. I will be seeing it asap.
HOW AM I GOING TO GET A PANDA? Because they just seem very fun.
OR A LION, THAT WOULD BE GOOD TOO Who doesn't want to cuddle a lion?
I'M PRETTY SURE THIS IS LITTLE DAVE Even though his name is allegedly "Jonathan" and he is three years old conducting Beethoven's 5th Symphony's 4th Movement. Thanks to middle school band teacher Loni for this one!