Notable Developments In the USA
260: Free Friday Post
Good afternoon kings.
If you missed it I recently put out one of many crypto guides — outlining my thoughts on where the market is, which assets have the highest probability of providing returns, and how to approach the coming bull cycle. You can find it below. Arb Letter is currently the #5 Crypto Publication on Substack.
It’s been awhile since I went on one of my political mini rants. Truth is there are multiple stories that could take up an entire post but I want to bring you only the most relevant and important updates from the last week or so today.
People’s attention spans are generally awful on Friday’s and open rates are subpar for newsletters — but who knows maybe we will catch some folks having lunch at their desk today or looking for a distraction before the weekend.
Quite a bit to touch on today as the world has seen some noteworthy developments on many different fronts. Today’s post will be a shorter one — and we will be back with posts on Tuesday and Thursday next week.
Mass Shootings & Public Violence
I you read Arb Letter regularly — you know I have predicted more public violence for some time now.
Before hopping into this section - I highly encourage you to read through my Guns in America Post. It will provide an overview of the 2nd Amendment, why it’s important, and get into technical definitions and dynamics you should be versed on before you go running your mouth about firearms.
This week there was another shooting in the US — at least 18 people, including 9 children, shot at the Super Bowl parade in Kansas City. Americans are justifiably tired of these incidents — as they happy time and time again and with shocking regularity. But the solution is not taking guns away from everyone or good citizens.
That thinking is utterly flawed.
Didn’t take long for the far left gun grabbers and progressives to come out of the woods with ignorant takes on what should be done to stop these types of things from happening. It amazes me how ignorant people are when it comes to crime, the 2nd Amendment, and human psychology.
All these idiots online and they are idiots — are tweeting with elitist smugness things like “ ITS THE GUNS” “HOW MANY KIDS NEED TO BE KILLED BEFORE YOU CARE” and a whole laundry list of emotional outbursts.
Let me say this as clearly as possible.
Criminals, felons, and evil people are never going to follow gun laws. It’s like saying if you hop into a cage with a hungry Tiger he isn’t going to eat you if you tell him eating you is not allowed.
Criminals do not follow gun laws them right now in cities like Chicago, New York, and other “gun free zones” — they obtain illegal firearms, add “switches” to guns to make them fully automatic (a serious felony), and shoot recklessly without any consideration for the seriousness of using a firearm.
Progressives and far left gun grabbers fail to understand or choose to intentionally overlook the fact that if you’re willing to murder innocent people or children, or fire a gun recklessly in a crowded public place — psychologically you are beyond a point of return. “Logic” or “reason” or “virtue” does not matter to these people.
They literally don’t give a f*ck. If they can’t find guns — which is completely unrealistic given there are over 700 Million firearms in the United States (nobody will EVER confiscate all guns) — they will use knives. They will use cars like in Waukesha (funny that story got virtually no coverage, wonder why). They will use bats or clubs or razors or anything else they can get their hands on because they’re evil and do not have respect for human life or innocent people.
To those getting sucked into the vortex of outrage and emotion on line - stop with the virtue signaling and naiveté it’s painfully cringe.
Bad people exist in the world and good people deserve the right to defend themselves against these monsters — the government is not always fit to do this job — see Uvalde.
If you want to actively choose to NOT protect yourself with a firearm that’s your prerogative — but you sure as hell don’t get to tell others they can’t. It’s perfectly acceptable to not like guns or firearms. But pushing hard to ensure your political opponents do not have them is the definition of fascism and is the first step towards being able to physically persecute or oppress those you don’t agree with or those the government sees as extremists.
I don’t need to recount how many lives have been lost to “gun control” throughout history do I?
But AmeriCa iS DiffErenT.
No it’s not. In fact it resembles more and more of a third world country by the day.
And ironically that’s the entire point of the second amendment. It’s the LAST check on government overreach or those who wish to do harm — no matter how minuscule you think the odds of those scenarios playing out are.
Another frustrating aspect that is directly related to both crime and reckless firearm use is race and societal trends. The extreme left and pro gun grabbing crowd like to make several false assumptions and stereotypes about who the issue is when it comes to guns.
It’s easy to think the majority of crimes are committed with AR-15s for example and that “assault weapons” a completely made up term, are the problem. The fact is very few crimes are perpetrated with AR15s. Its easy to blame “far right” or “MAGA” given the media repeatedly shills these talking points and people parrot them without having any context or facts. The numbers above are STAGGERING.
Facts are not racist. Data is not racist.
Nobody wants to have the race conversation about gun violence because the statistics and facts are damning and uncomfortable. Whenever a shooter is black, trans, minority, or anything but a white straight male — the story is buried. We haven’t even seen the suspects faces for the KC shooting despite all of them being in custody.
Why is that?
Conversely — if the shooter is white you will see the face plastered on the media for 72 hours. Blatant double standard and manipulation of public sentiment. There are observable and clear patterns in who is: a.) committing crimes with firearms and b.) who they are killing with said firearms.
Nobody is talking about the countless people killed by gun violence in Chicago or LA or NYC EVERYDAY. Nobody wants to find out why gun culture in young black communities is so harmful. Instead when something happens and it is politically convenient to demonize opposition — the media does so. They COMPLETELY ignore the individual or perpetrator and choose to blame an object instead.
The true issues that need to be addressed in order to have a meaningful reduction in these types of events is mental health, social conditions and culture, along with the drivers that cause people to so carelessly use firearms outside of structured self defense use cases. Whether it’s a white school shooter, trans shooter, or black gang members firing rounds off recklessly at a public parade — the issue is almost always:
Mental illness (much bigger discussion).
Failing to effectively deter this type of crime with zero lenience prosecution (re-releasing violent offenders over and over again)
You will never take all the guns in the USA. Logistically this is impossible.
Even if you do — bad people will find ways to kill or buy guns on the black market illegally.
It can be hard for those who “don’t get it” to understand — but there has NEVER been a more important time in this countries’ history for people to be able to protect themselves. The best hedge against bad people with guns is good people with guns. It’s not even close.
Taking guns or attempting to ban them will do nothing else besides hurt responsible firearm owners, embolden criminals, and make all people more vulnerable to those who do not give a sh*t about “laws” or “decency”.
Biden Address
We may have reached a pivot point in the 2024 election for the Democratic party.
In what was one of the most disastrous Presidential speeches I have ever witnessed President Biden spoke recently — addressing the findings of the report from special counsel Robert Hur, made public on Thursday, which did not levy any criminal charges against President Joe Biden.
However, it depicted a scenario where the commander-in-chief appeared forgetful and inadequate in safeguarding extremely sensitive classified information. Anyone paying attention can see that Joe Biden is not fit mentally to lead this country — he avoids unscripted interviews and questions from reporters, and has largely been absent from public appearances including the Super Bowl halftime show.
Several excerpts from the report were fairly damning — indicating declining mental health and instances of Biden forgetting key information like when his son died.
The press conference started off fine enough but then reporters from a range of publications started to get a bit more aggressive than usual led by Peter Doocy of Fox who has battled with Karin Jean Pierre and Biden for years now.
Biden addressed the findings of the report, repeatedly claimed he did nothing wrong and that he is mentally fit to run the country, and then snapped at Peter Doocy. As he was walking away from the odium someone asked a question about Israel.
I’m of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in Gaza — in the Gaza Strip has been over the top. I think that — as you know, initially, the President of
Mexico[Egypt], El-Sisi, did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in. I talked to him. I convinced him to open the gate.—Joe Biden
Biden stopped and walked back to the podium (I knew it was over at this point). He proceeded to give a disconnected rambling answer about Gaza and then called President of Egypt Abdel Fattah al-Sisi the “president of Mexico”.
I don’t care what your political views are or how you feel about Donald Trump or other candidates — Joe Biden is not fit to be the president of this country right now.
Is what it is — another term with him would be disastrous, many Americans can already see this and so can our enemies abroad. I bring this up because it is apparent that the media, Democrats, and internal folks in DC may be positioning Biden to be replaced by a new entrant into the 2024 race — maybe Gavin Newsom or Michelle Obama or god forbid, Kamala Harris.
Nobody who is honest and watched his speech can say that he is fit to control nuclear codes, make decisions globally that impact our security, or stay another 4 years in the White House.
Don’t let your hate for Trump blind you. All Americans should feel uneasy about the state of this country right now.
Banks Implicated In Surveillance of Americans
In another grave overstep of government power — it came out that the Federal Government was involved in working with financial insitutions to target and surveil conservative Americans who met several criteria.
The House Committee and Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government relayed that the federal authorities cautioned banks about individuals linked to the January 6 Capitol riots potentially making purchases, such as acquiring bibles, shopping at Dick’s Sporting Goods, or shopping at Bass Pro Shop.
"In other words, FinCEN used large financial institutions to comb through the private transactions of their customers for suspicious charges on the basis of protected political and religious expression," Jordan wrote.
Jordan and the committee are requesting Bishoff appear for a transcribed interview on the matter, saying he may "possess information necessary for our oversight."
The Treasury Department declined to comment.
But a source familiar told Fox News Digital that "the effort by FinCEN to work with law enforcement to assist with their post January 6 efforts began under the previous administration."
Jordan said the committee obtained documents showing that FinCEN distributed slides, prepared by Key Bank, to other banks to explain how they could use merchant category codes (MCC) to detect customers whose transactions may reflect "potential active shooters, and who may include dangerous International Terrorists/ Domestic Terrorists/ Homegrown Violence Extremists (‘Lone Wolves’)."
Jordan said the slide instructs financial institutions to query for transactions using certain MCC codes like "3484: Small Arms," "5091: Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies," and the keywords "Cabela’s" and "Dick’s Sporting Goods," "Bass Pro Shops," among others.
Key Bank declined to comment.
— Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan
You hear me talk extensively in Arb Letter about the targeting of political opponents and that’s exactly what this is. How long until Trump voters cannot access their money?
Kanye West had his accounts at JP Morgan shut down for comments on Jews.
Once again — the justification circles around January 6th, which, since it’s been used as the poster event for far left media, has been debunked objectively on multiple fronts. We know FBI agents were undercover and inciting violence, we know camera footage was withheld, and we know guards essentially let protestors inside the Capitol Building.
It was nothing like described — only far left zealots who hate the right still see January 6th as worse than 9/11 and an “attack” on our democracy. Countless Americans were imprisoned indefinitely for simply being there. Real coups or insurgencies are characterized by swift violence and force of action.
January 6th was neither it was a photo op event with dozens of overweight gullible MAGA supporters.
Now if you’re a hardline leftie who despises conservatives or Pro Trump Americans you probably don’t care.
But this problem leans one way — and objectively, one side is being actively targeted repeatedly by the Federal Government and current regime in power in DC — which I should note, is comprised of BOTH democrats and republicans. The regime in power in DC has used January 6th as a green light to openly target political opponents without consequence on multiple fronts.
If you pay attention — you’ll notice the ongoing pattern. The Federal Government, 3 Letter agencies, and officials are finding any excuse possible to target, surveil, and cancel those on the wrong side of the political and ideological spectrum.
We got our first glimpse of this when the Twitter files dropped — which detailed FBI, DHS, and Federal Government involvement in the suppression of many narratives online including Covid origins, Covid treatment, Afghanistan withdrawal content, and jokes against Biden and his son Hunter.
Conservatives and anybody moderate who deviated from the official narrative or “thing” was and has been intentionally throttled and silenced online. And the crazy thing is it’s not even just conservatives, it can be a moderate or even a democrat who doesn’t bend the knee to the approved regime in power and the societal narratives they govern with.
We enter dangerous territory when the Federal government is actively politicized, weaponized, and targeting political opponents. Ignorant sheep on the far left that border on Marxists — encouraged by the bold policies of the Federal government, who love calling people fascists, can’t even conceptualize that they are the true fascists, calling for drone strikes on Texas, taking kids from parents who don’t get vaxxed, and calling for Tucker Carlson to be detained. They seem to have missed the plot entirely.
The far left regime in this country — supported by a population defined more and more by cultural marxism has no desire to live side by side with anyone who falls outside of this viewpoint. Joe Rogan, Russell Brand, and many other former “liberals” have come to the conclusion in recent months that the modern definition of being politically left has been completely redefined to the point it is unrecognizable.
Big Tech amplifies this problem — as most of Big Tech is highly progressive. As the US election approaches in 2024 you can rest assured there will be new measures to control narratives, content, and voices online. Right now the Democrats are working hard to retain power in Washington amid a highly polarized environment. One in which, half of the country believes Biden is an illegitimate President.
We will have to wait and see how the charges against Trump impact his bid for election this year — but at present I am not highly optimistic he gets out of it unscathed.
See you all next week.
Andy
Disclaimer - I am a former trader, enterprise sales rep, and current entrepreneur. Nothing I say should be considered formal financial advice - always do your own research and diligence before investing and ensure you have a good understanding of your personal risk tolerance.
But right???
Wanted you to know that I have been sending your comments to my 91 year old Mother. She just subscribed and said she was so grateful to read truthful commentary. 91 - is that your oldest fan?? As a middle aged gal myself I am probably not your typical demographic but appreciate your work so keep on keeping on!!