Good morning, and Happy Tuesday, C&C! In today’s roundup: good news about Dr. Joe Ladapo; Yellen calls for crypto regulation, of course; Hegelian dialectics and crypto; the New York Times defends FTX.COM; Katie Hobbs takes the lead in Arizona and Kari Lake prepares to challenge; Amazon prepares for a difficult recession and Jeff Bezos says DON’T buy Amazon products; and a little good election news.

🗞WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY 🗞

🔥 First, some good news: Florida’s courageous and highly-credentialed Surgeon General has agreed to serve for a second term.

Ron DeSantis @GovRonDeSantis

Dr. Ladapo has done a great job as @FLSurgeonGen. His evidence-based principles serve as a counterweight to the increasingly political positions of the entrenched medical establishment, especially on schools, masks and mRNA shots. Happy to announce he’ll return for our 2nd term!

🔥 President Trump is scheduled to make his long-awaited “announcement” tonight at 9pm EST. It is not entirely clear what the announcement will be, not exactly, but most people anticipate it’s his announcement of a 2024 run.

RSBN 🇺🇸 @RSBNetwork

President Trump is making a MAJOR announcement tomorrow night at Mar-a-Lago 🚨 Tune in at 7:30 pm ET for LIVE coverage before he delivers remarks at 9:00 pm ET. 🇺🇸 rsbnetwork.com/video/watch-li…

rsbnetwork.comWatch LIVE: President Donald J. Trump Makes Special Announcement at Mar-a-Lago – 11/15/22Tuesday, November 15, 2022: Join RSBN live from The Mar-a-Lago Club in West Palm Beach, FL as President Donald J. Trump, 45th President of The United States, makes a ‘special announcement’. 45th President of the United States Donald J. Trump to Hold a Special Announcement at the Mar-a-Lago Club Tues…

As you can imagine, reactions are mixed. MAGA Republicans are excitedly anticipating for details. Other Republicans’ sentiments range from wary to nauseated. Democrats hope that Merrick Garland will arrest Trump before he can make his announcement, or at least, they hope the news networks will refuse to air it.

Ever the showman, yesterday President Trump posted that his announcement might be one of the most important days in the history of the United States. You never know.

To me, it seems simple. The only rational way forward is for Trump to have a free and fair chance to run in the primary — without sneaky tricks and without being undermined by the GOP. Stopping Trump from even running in the GOP primary will just push MAGA toward a third party. And if DeSantis does run, he’ll need the practice of a battle with Trump anyway, to get him ready to fight the Democrats, who will be ten times worse.

🔥 Coincidentally, the Earth’s population reached 8 billion folks today. I’m not sure what to call this kind of reproductive milestone, it seems pretty unique, but it clearly was bad news for Malthusian maniacs Bill Gates and the gang down at the World Economic Forum.

Axios @axios

8 billion humans are living on planet Earth — a huge milestone officially being recognized Tuesday by the U.N. trib.al/eiQUxfI

Choropleth map showing all 195 countries colored by their population. The total world population is eight billion as of Nov. 15, 2022. China has the highest population, with 1.43 billion people. India is second, with 1.42 billion.

🔥 Right on schedule! The New York Post ran a story yesterday headlined, “Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Says Crypto Must Be Regulated After FTX Collapse.”

Haha, told you. And, not JUST regulated. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Bloomberg Saturday that the digital assets market needs “very careful regulation.” Very careful indeed.

New York Post @nypost

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says crypto must be regulated after FTX collapse trib.al/qsNuT5c

This FTX situation appears to be a classic form of an Hegelian dialectic. The Hegelian dialectic is a process described by the triad: “Problem—Reaction—Solution.” For example, in the political context, let’s say the government wants to do something that it knows will be unpopular with citizens, a right stinker.

Instead of doing that unpopular thing and aggravating everyone, the government craftily creates a problem, a problem that it can blame on certain unpopular others. Then, if the problem worked right, the citizens will react by demanding the government solve the current problem and protect them from future problems. Then, the government offers its solution, which by a marvelous coincidence is exactly the same as the previously unpopular thing it wanted to do in the first place.

Except now, it’s popular!

There is a compelling argument that the covid pandemic was a massive Hegelian dialectical operation. But whether or not that is true, it sure looks like CryptoScam 2022 is a government-fueled Hindenburg designed to explode and politically oil up the regulatory slip-n-slide.

The government’s chocolate-stained fingerprints were already all over the FTX enterprise, right from the start. There sure are a lot of political connections to this “upstart tech darling.” Connections with one political party, in particular.

— Sam Bankman-Fried’s father is a “progressive” government expert who advocates for using digital currency to improve tax collections.

— All the main players, like Sam and his girlfriend Caroline, are heavily connected to Democrat politics.

— Sam spent an enormous amount of other people’s money on politics. Democrat politics.

Sam Bankman-Fried is an unlikely person to create a multi-billion-dollar corporation from scratch, and Caroline Ellison is an unlikely person to manage Sam’s key corporation. Let’s review the list of problems with the theory this duo were a pair of high-powered wunderkind geniuses with Mesmer-like powers to deceive investors.

— Sam is not smart. He brags about never having read a book, and called reading books a waste of time. He brags about playing computer games during business meetings and calls. He advocates a strategy of gobbling uppers during the day to work faster, and taking downers at night to get to sleep.

— Neither is Caroline smart. She brags openly about being bad at math while running a multi-billion-dollar financial company.

— By their own words, Sam and Caroline clearly appear to be distracted by an ongoing drug addiction.

— By their own words, Sam and Caroline clearly appear to be distracted by a deviant, hedonistic sexual lifestyle.

— Sam dressed like a slop, choosing dumpy t-shirts and sneakers to wear to business meetings and live events, probably because he doesn’t look good in a suit, like how John Fetterman wears hoodies to cover his neck lump.

— Sam says a lot of stuff that SOUNDS smart but ISN’T smart. For example, he likes to refer to his biological memory as “RAM,” a term describing computer memory. But biological memory is only superficially analogous to computer memory. A real computer expert would understand the difference, and would not likely use that metaphor.

So, the narrative wants us to believe these two low-powered “geniuses” somehow created a multi-billion-dollar financial empire from scratch, despite all their obvious disabilities and myriad, self-destructive distractions?

And then we have the sketchy media behavior toward the story. Yesterday, the New York Times ran a credulous article headlined, “How Sam Bankman-Fried’s Crypto Empire Collapsed.” They’ve already got it all figured out, and nobody even knows where Sam is.

According to the Times, who interviewed him on Sunday night, Sam seems curiously unconcerned with how things are going to play out, or whether his investors will ever get their money back or not, or whether he’s headed for prison.

[H]e sounded surprisingly calm. “You would’ve thought that I’d be getting no sleep right now, and instead I’m getting some,” he said. “It could be worse.”

Sam isn’t working on his legal defense, or starting a new company, or helping the bankruptcy attorneys recover as much money as possible for investors. No, the genius tech wunderkind is blowing off steam by playing video games in all his new spare time:

He has also found other ways to occupy his time in recent days, playing the video game Storybook Brawl, though less than he usually does, he said. “It helps me unwind a bit,” he said. “It clears my mind.”

For interest, here’s how the game ‘Storybook Brawl,’ is described on its website:

Storybook Brawl is a thrilling, free-to-play card game. Featuring hundreds of fairy tale characters you know from children’s stories, but often with a humorous twist! During Early Access, you can play single-player practice games or test your skills against seven other online players to claim the crown!

So, he’s not playing 4D chess or anything. He’s playing an animated kid’s card game. But WHERE is Sam playing Storybook Brawl? Nobody knows. Even the Times, who interviewed him Sunday night, doesn’t know where Sam is: “Mr. Bankman-Fried … declined to comment on his current location, citing safety concerns.”

My guess: he’s playing games in a CIA safe house someplace. But I’m just spitballing.

According to the Times, Sam has already been working with the government to REGULATE the cryptocurrency market: “Mr. Bankman-Fried’s most ambitious aim was to shape crypto regulation in Washington, where he testified to Congress and met with regulators.”

As I hope you can see, Sam Bankman-Fried was totally unqualified to help “shape crypto regulation.” He is nothing like Steve Wozniak. Sam is more like the computer guy from Jurassic Park, or what the computer guy from Jurassic Park would have been like if he’d been on drugs and was even less attractive.

So Sam wasn’t going to cut it in Congress. He wasn’t smart enough to carry the act. But blowing up FTX would REALLY help the government regulate crypto. It was Sam’s greatest contribution to his “most ambitious aim.”

Anyway, the Times piece is essentially a glowing apologia for the hyphenated computer game aficionado. The Times would like you to believe that FTX’s downfall was mostly due to the company’s being TOO successful (“growing too fast”), and because Sam was TOO hardworking (“too ambitious”).

At no point in the story does the Times ever use any words like “fraud,” “crime,” or “stole,” or otherwise even hint that Sam may have done ANYTHING wrong, at all.

• All of that to say, we can either believe that this babbling moron created a multi-billion-dollar company on his first try, or, alternatively, we can believe that the CIA tried to groom a new Jeffrey Epstein character and carefully guided the meteoric rise of FTX with black funding and by coercing reluctant investors to dump money into the company, to both wash money for democrats through Ukraine, and also provide a straight-from-central-casting sacrificial Judas goat for crypto regulation.

Let’s call that an “alternative theory.” You decide.

🔥 Investigative journalist Thomas Paine claimed that an FBI source told him the FBI has been wanting to investigate FTX but the DOJ stopped them.

Thomas Paine @Thomas1774Paine

FBI source says they wanted to probe FTX for some time based on numerous tips but DOJ blocked. But they'll lock up grandma for touring Capitol. It's all a show folks.

🔥 NBC and Fox called the race for Katie Hobbs as Arizona Governor last night.

Bill Melugin @BillFOXLA

NEW: The @FoxNews Decision Desk projects that Katie Hobbs (D) defeats Kari Lake (R) in race for Arizona governor. The race may go to a recount under AZ law.

But for some reason, some people remain skeptical that there actually was a free and fair election in Arizona. Something about how Katie Hobbs, the state’s current Secretary of State, oversaw the counting of her own votes, or something. I’m in that group.

Gregg Phillips of True the Vote fame, recently released from federal prison, told Steve Bannon last night that Kari Lake intends to fight to try to keep Katie Hobbs from certifying her own election.

PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 @patriottakes

Gregg Phillips claims the Arizona election could be “stolen,” has been talking to Kari Lake and they agree they should fight it. Phillips: “We’re going to fight [Katie Hobbs] to the bitter end. We will not allow her to certify a stolen election.”

It may come down to a recount. I’m not getting my hopes up, but I AM hoping for the best.

🔥 CNBC ran an alarming story yesterday headlined, “Amazon Reportedly Plans to Lay Off About 10,000 Employees Starting This Week.” That seems like awkward timing, right at the start of the holiday season. What numbers must Amazon be looking at to consider a massive layoff right before Christmas? And, Joe Biden assured us the economy was NOT headed toward recession. So.

The Amazon story is not quite as alarming as it sounds. First, according to the article, the layoffs are “primarily in corporate and technology roles,” not operations. Second, it’s not a significant reduction in Amazon’s force, either, because 10K employees represents less than 1% of Amazon’s global workforce, and only 3% of its corporate employees.

Finally, the New York Times, cited as the original source of the story, reported its source said the total number of layoffs “remains fluid” and could change. So, we don’t know.

But the retail giant is showing other signs of preparing for a downturn. In recent months, Amazon: switched off its telehealth service, canned an odd video-calling projector for kids, closed all but one of its U.S. call centers, axed its roving delivery robot, shuttered many brick-and-mortar stores, and is currently closing, canceling or delaying a number of new warehouse locations.

Financially, Amazon appears to be struggling. Amazon’s latest earnings report was lower than expected, and Amazon stock is down about 41% for the year, and is on pace for its worst year since 2008.

If we only knew what Jeff Bezos was thinking!

🔥 As it happens, we know what Jeff Bezos is thinking because he told CNN this weekend. He’s not listening to Joe Biden, and he appears to be thinking America should get ready for bad recession. Business Insider ran a story yesterday headlined, “Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos Warns a Recession Is Looming - and Americans Should ‘Prepare for the Worst’.”

“The probabilities say, if we’re not in a recession right now, we’re likely to be in one very soon,” Bezos told CNN on Saturday. “The probabilities in this economy tell you to batten down the hatches.”

Whatever he’s looking at must be pretty grim, because Bezos even advised people NOT to spend money on retail goods. Amazingly, he said people should put off big-ticket items like new TVs, refrigerators, and cars. And, he suggested small-business owners should hold off on buying new equipment. Instead, they should build up cash reserves.

But Bezos cheerfully suggested, “hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.”

I believe Bezos is telling the truth, or at least, what he believes is the truth. Amazon’s recent downsizing looks like the retail giant is following Bezos’ advice.

🔥 Last week, Republicans did well in downticket races, like state judges. For example, the GOP won all three Supreme Court Justice seats in Ohio, plus three in Texas.

In North Carolina, Republicans flipped two democrat incumbent Supreme Court seats. So in 2023, instead of being in a 4-3 minority, the GOP will hold a 5-2 majority on the court. That’s really good news for North Carolina.

Before last Tuesday’s elections, the most important strategy was LOCAL LOCAL LOCAL. After last Tuesday’s elections, the most important strategy is still, LOCAL LOCAL LOCAL.

Have a terrific Tuesday, and I’ll see you back here tomorrow for more.

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☕️ C&C NEWS ☙ Tuesday, November 15, 2022 ☙…