Gamestop & the Revolt of the Public (1-28-21)

Posted on January 28, 2021 by Luke Ford

Friend:

Lost a lot of respect for Tucker’s intelligence and modus operandi watching his show on the gamestop reddit short squeeze. Mindless, rabble rousing. telling a story 90pct accurately is akin to lying. short sellers gettign tarred and feathered w markets at all time highs is absurd. There is rarely ever a good company that was shorted successfully. Enron was exposed by shorts. you need people incentivized and willing to take on risk to have a check and balance in a market. You have so many people needing to comment on the story who have such a facile understanding of how markets work. gme got so shorted and cheap cause its a dead business. why wouldn’t apple be cheap then? plenty of shorts bet against it. Tesla squeezed billions, no one complains. Without shorts having to cover you don’t get big up moves either. tucker is so mid tier iq shameful. seinfeld reruns > tucker. conflating short selling in general w billionaires getting bailouts and exchange shut downs to save a bad trade are two entirely separate things, or issue of allowing people with positions chance to pump or fear monger their positions on public airwaves another separate issue.

Luke’s elitist instincts serve him well. When you read high school graduates like NF, or lit professors like Melchy using this as proxy for their gripes w society you realize how blunt and ignorant much of their positioning is on this and on a lot more. ‘Bad shortsellers’ is ‘stop the steal’ or ‘just the flu’.

00:00 Louis Rossman: Wallstreetbets & the alt-right – the slander train is leaving the station, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_oNLeMuxvg
06:00 The New National American Elite, https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/new-national-american-elite
12:00 WALLSTREETBETS “HACKERS” DEFACING THE MARKET! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-U2rOHIv94
16:50 Brokers MANIPULATING MARKET to save hedge fund billionaires & punish retail traders @ wallstreetbets, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enLiJfijWBI
17:50 When Saul Steinberg Tried To Take Over Chemical Bank, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=114956
19:00 Saul Steinberg Vanity Fair profile, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2001/01/saul-gayfryd-steinberg-200101
30:00 Meet the author who predicted the upheavals of the 2010s, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/26/21004797/2010s-review-a-decade-of-revolt-martin-gurri
29:30 Attorney Ron Coleman on the plebs vs elites
32:40 Lee Cooperman: “It’s a way of attacking wealthy people.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI-nItz56Fs
58:00 Saagar Enjeti: Wall Street Elites REGULATE, DEPLATFORM Redditors Who BEAT THEM On GameStop, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t95Hxz6xioQ
1:04:00 GameStop: Intentionally Dying, https://americancompass.org/the-commons/gamestop-intentionally-dying/
1:05:00 NYT: The GameStop Reckoning Was a Long Time Coming, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/28/technology/gamestop-stock.html
1:18:00 Keith Woods: What Is Going On With GameStop Stock?, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F3k2ESpI9I
1:42:00 Kurt Lewin, social psychology, force field analysis, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koI6EXec4Yc
1:44:00 Kurt Lewin, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Lewin
1:52:00 Yuri Burlan’s System Vector Psychology. The anal vector 1/6, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFvjfRmDTd0
1:57:00 The Real ‘Social Dilemma’? It’s Our Clueless Elites, https://thedispatch.com/p/the-real-social-dilemma-its-our-clueless
2:24:00 Former SEC Commissioner Laura Unger compares short squeeze to January 6th at the Capitol
2:30:00 The New York Times and other elite media outlets have openly embraced advocacy over reporting, https://www.city-journal.org/journalism-advocacy-over-reporting
3:08:00 Tucker: Unprecedented censorship is taking over American media
3:16:00 Will the Truth on COVID Restrictions Really Prevail?, https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/01/27/will_the_truth_on_covid_restrictions_really_prevail_145128.html
3:18:45 Robinhood CEO on CNBC on why Robinhood app stopped letting people trade certain stocks
3:23:30 Saga of Angelo John Gage: Banned From Twitter
3:26:00 Why Madison Cawthorn is Trump 2.0, https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/28/politics/madison-cawthorn-mask-trump/index.html

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/26/21004797/2010s-review-a-decade-of-revolt-martin-gurri

Posted in America | Comments Off on Gamestop & the Revolt of the Public (1-28-21)

Gamestop Rally Is The Smarter Version Of The Capitol Hill Riots (1-27-21)

Posted on January 27, 2021 by Luke Ford

00:00 The GameStop short squeeze
29:30 Proud Boys played a key role in storming Capitol Hill Jan. 6
45:00 Social Media Influencer Ricky Vaughn Charged with Election Interference Stemming from Voter Disinformation Campaign, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/social-media-influencer-charged-election-interference-stemming-voter-disinformation-campaign
52:00 GAMESTOP HEDGE FUND MASSACRE CAUSED BY BIDEN ADMINISTRATION ATTACK ON BITCOIN, https://trad-news.blogspot.com/2021/01/gamestop-hedge-fund-massacre-caused-by.html
53:00 ARE THEY PLANNING A “FINANCIAL FALSE FLAG” ATTACK ON BITCOIN?, https://trad-news.blogspot.com/2021/01/are-they-planning-financial-false-flag.html
56:10 How r/WallStreetBets Made GameStop’s Stock Price Soar: Reddit Takes on Short Sellers, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH_F7mQIM0M
1:01:30 Gamestop populism, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ToOGrUQ7ME
1:06:00 Babs joins
1:34:00 Twitter troll arrested for election interference related to disinformation campaign, https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/twitter-troll-arrested-election-interference-related-disinformation-campaign-n1255864
1:35:00 Gandalf joins
2:15:00 DOJ vs Ricky Vaughn, https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1360816/download
2:30:00 Louis Rossman: Gamestop shorts are FULL OF 💩 about closing their short position, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX6-jPy98YA
2:36:00 How Trumpism explains the GameStop stock surge, https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/27/politics/gamestop-stock-surge-trumpism/index.html
2:43:00 John Kerry on the Biden’s administration’s decimation of the American oil industry
2:46:00 GameStop’s stock continues to soar, as small traders team up against big institutions, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/business/gamestop-stock.html

Comments at Steve Sailer:

* Hedge funds got too greedy shorting the stock of a pathetic little company they expected to tank even further. And a network of small but feisty stock-players tied together via reddit spotted this overreach and started buying the stock en masse to force the biggest “short squeeze of all time.”

The bigshots are screwed because they have to buy the stock by a certain date — at ridiculously inflated prices — to cover their short position. And they are so deep in the red that they’re liquidating other holdings to cover their bad bet, driving the overall market down.

The key mistake the shorts made was shorting even more shares than actually exist; when the reddit brigade saw this glaring discrepancy they swooped in.

* It’s basically a crowdsourced or “flashmob” stock manipulation organized on Reddit.

The hedge funds are pissed because “we’re the only ones who are allowed to manipulate the market.”

It’s a bit like the old fashioned “pump and dump” technique. Except everyone is clear that the stock is going up only because everyone is deliberately driving it up.

* The following conditions need to be met in order for the redditors to continue to disrupt markets:

1. Lots of stimulus money in the economy, much of it going to people who don’t need it.
2. Lots of people with too much time on their hands.
3. Zero commission trading.
4. Smartphone apps that take advantage of 3) above and make it easy to trade derivatives.

I suspect there’s nothing that can be done in the short run about 1) or 2), so either 3) or 4) will be changed by enforcing a “trading tax” or by restricting trades in certain financial products.

Posted in America | Comments Off on Gamestop Rally Is The Smarter Version Of The Capitol Hill Riots (1-27-21)

Non-native eucalyptus and biodiversity

Posted on January 25, 2021 by Luke Ford

From Wikipedia:

Eucalyptus plantations in California have been criticised, because they compete with native plants and typically do not support native animals. Eucalyptus has historically been planted to replace California’s coast live oak population, and the new Eucalyptus is not as hospitable to native flora and fauna as the oaks. In appropriately foggy conditions on the California Coast, Eucalyptus can spread at a rapid rate. The absence of natural inhibitors such as the Koala or pathogens native to Australia have aided in the spread of California Eucalyptus trees. This is not as big of an issue further inland, but on the coast invasive eucalypti can disrupt native ecosystems. Eucalyptus may have adverse effects on local streams due to their chemical composition, and their dominance threatens species that rely on native trees. Nevertheless, some native species have been known to adapt to the Eucalyptus trees. Notable examples are herons, great horned owl, and the monarch butterfly using Eucalyptus groves as habitat. Despite these successes, the Eucalyptus generally has a net negative impact on the overall balance of the native ecosystem…

Due to similar favourable climatic conditions, Eucalyptus plantations have often replaced oak woodlands, for example in California, Spain and Portugal. The resulting monocultures have raised concerns about loss of biological diversity, through loss of acorns that mammals and birds feed on, absence of hollows that in oak trees provide shelter and nesting sites for birds and small mammals and for bee colonies, as well as lack of downed trees in managed plantations. A study of the relationship between birds and eucalyptus in the San Francisco Bay Area found that bird diversity was similar in native forest versus eucalyptus forest, but the species were different.[109] One way in which the avifauna (local assortment of bird species) changes is that cavity-nesting birds including woodpeckers, owls, chickadees, wood ducks, etc. are depauperate in eucalyptus groves because the decay-resistant wood of these trees prevents cavity formation by decay or excavation. Also, those bird species that glean insects from foliage, such as warblers and vireos, experience population declines when eucalyptus groves replace oak forest.

Birds that thrive in eucalyptus groves in California tend to prefer tall vertical habitat. These avian species include herons and egrets, which also nest in redwoods.[110][111] The Point Reyes Bird Observatory observes that sometimes short-billed birds like the ruby-crowned kinglet are found dead beneath eucalyptus trees with their nostrils clogged with pitch.[41]

Monarch butterflies use eucalyptus in California for over-wintering, but in some locations have a preference for Monterey pines.

A friend notes:

There are a couple of other problems about Eucalyptus other than that they generally “sterilize” the area where they dominate of native plants and animals

The first is that they are not trees that can survive frost. When Oakland California had its devastating fires that wiped out half the homes in the hills, the previous year or (maybe a couple of years earlier) a frost had killed the trees. Even when alive and green Eucalyptus trees are full of oil and resin and burn easily. When they are dead they are even more dangerous tinder.

The second is that they are known as “widow makers” in Australia because often large branches fall from even seemingly healthy trees. If a person is unfortunate enough to be under the tree when this happens, they will be seriously injured or killed. Even if no one is there, the fallen branches will damage whatever they land on.

Posted in Diversity | Comments Off on Non-native eucalyptus and biodiversity

Natural Rights

Posted on January 25, 2021 by Luke Ford

I emailed a philosopher:

What do you make of the idea that people are born with natural rights? Some people believe that we are born with rights bestowed on us by God but “rights” receive virtually no attention in classical Judaism or Christianity or the Bible… so I am skeptical of transcendent rights.

I’ve been reading a lot of books on historicism and it has become a reflex for me when approaching an event or writing asking who wrote/did this, what was the context… So do you believe there are universal truths about the human condition that transcend a particular context? Are there writings that you approach without asking about the context they arose in ala who wrote this, when was it written, for whom was it written?

My reaction to situational ethics comes from Dennis Prager — the situation determines the absolute… Absolute ethics I ascribe to God and His revelation through Torah based upon a leap of faith on my end.

The philosopher responds:

Dear Luke,
Those are such hard questions. I guess my answer is… I don’t really know! I’m inclined to believe that there are some fundamental truths about the human condition, and moral truths in particular, but I’m also skeptical about “natural rights”. And I’m very skeptical about most of the “natural rights” that lots of people nowadays postulate. Maybe there is a natural “right to life” in some sense, or some kind of natural right to autonomy, but I can’t believe that there is a natural right to gay marriage. (And the question of whether there are objective or “absolute” moral truths might not be the same as the question of whether there are natural rights.) To take an example, I have the strong moral intuition that it’s wrong for adults to have sex with children. I can’t believe that this would be morally good or acceptable if our social or historical situation were different (though I can believe that we’d think​ it was okay if we’d been acculturated differently).

Here are some quick thoughts about your questions…

It always makes sense to ask who wrote something–and to ask about the point and context of writing. This helps us to understand the author’s meaning and reasoning, for one thing. No, there are no texts I’d read without asking these kinds of questions. On the other hand, someone might write in a specific context (and with some personal or political purpose, with a specific audience in mind) while also stating absolute truths about morality. So if historicism is the belief that everything people say or write is non-absolute (or “relative” or “subjective”) then I’m not a historicist. If historicists claim that Plato’s philosophy must be understood simply​ as a product of his historical situation, or that it can’t be both a product of his situation and also a statement of timeless ultimate truths, then I disagree.

But even if we allow that historical context (etc) doesn’t rule out the possibility of stating or knowing absolute moral truths, it could still be very hard or impossible to figure out which moral claims really are absolute or objective. I agree that a leap of faith is the only basis for believing that some particular set of moral rules or claims is objectively right. And I’d also allow that maybe there are none.

Posted in Philosophy | Comments Off on Natural Rights

Adam Green of Know More News (1-25-21)

Posted on January 25, 2021 by Luke Ford

00:00 Conflict solved through hierarchy
08:00 Adam Green joins
48:00 Daniel, Dooovid, Babs join
Adam Green’s website: https://www.knowmorenews.org/

Posted in America, Jews | Comments Off on Adam Green of Know More News (1-25-21)