CHANGE: Space Force officially ends launch partnerships with Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman. “The plan from day one was to discontinue the LSAs with companies that did not win a National Security Space Launch procurement contract. Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman lost to ULA and SpaceX, which were selected in August 2020.”
Archive for 2021
January 27, 2021
JEFF DUNETZ: On Holocaust Remembrance Day: Silence About Antisemitism Allowing People To Forget.
Exit quote: “It’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. I would say, have a little decency, but our media is full of morally bankrupt individuals. Hence, how headlines like this take shape.“
SOMEONE SET UP US THE BOMB: How GameStop, Bernie Madoff, and Dave Portnoy Have Mets Fans Panicked.
I WAS ASSURED IT WAS HARMLESS BY ALL THE BEST PEOPLE: Long-term study reveals harm in regular cannabis use.
EUGENE VOLOKH: May N.Y. Businesses Fire Employees for Using Parler and Gab?
JIM TREACHER: When Will Biden Apologize for Accusing the Capitol Police of Racism?
The Capitol riot was a complete outrage, and I fully support holding to account every single person who played a role in it. That includes convicting Donald Trump in the Senate for inciting that riot, although it’ll never happen because the Republicans don’t have the spine for it. They want everyone to just forget it ever happened, just like every other criminal wants everyone to forget about their crimes. They’re only looking out for their own miserable hides, and they don’t care about the cops who paid the price in blood.
But that doesn’t mean President Biden should get away with smearing the very Capitol Police who kept that riot from becoming an even bigger disaster. They kept an angry mob from killing the vice president of the United States, after his own boss called him out in front of that mob. Those officers put their bodies on the line to defend the ideals that have held this country together for hundreds of years. It’s absolutely shameful to smear them as racists, and if Biden had any brains left in that shrunken apple on top of his shoulders, he’d apologize to them.
Read the whole thing.
THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Jen Psaki On GameStop Stock Surge: ‘We Have The First Female Treasury Secretary.’
At her daily White House press conference Wednesday afternoon, Psaki responded to questions over whether the administration might get involved in the ongoing stock surge by noting that they’d just hired Janet Yellen as Treasury Secretary.
“Is the White House concerned about the stock market activity we’re seeing around GameStop and now some other stocks as well?” one reporter asked Psaki. “Have there been any conversations with the SEC about how to proceed?”
“Well, I’m also happy to repeat that we have the first female Treasury secretary and a team that’s surrounding her and often questions about markets,” Psaki replied.
She continued by noting that the White House would send reporters to the Treasury for comment, “but our team is, of course, our economic team, including Secretary Yellen and others, are monitoring the situation.”
When asked about the steep stock Dow decline, Psaki responded with a confusing excuse.
“It is a good reminder that the stock market is not the only measure of the health of our economy,” she said, “and it does not reflect how working and middle-class families are doing.”
The GameStop stock surge, of course, appears to be built on the day-to-day financial dealings of non-professional traders.
Psaki will no doubt “circle back” to GameStop at a later press conference.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. GameStop rally is warning that market bubbles have gone mad.
GameStop is a video game retailer that has been priced at about $3 to $10 a share for much of the year. But in the past few days, individual investors have driven the share price above $300.
Many of these buyers are using Robinhood, an app that lets anyone trade stocks without a commission. Because of the pandemic, people have plenty of time on their hands, and are looking to make cash, and it’s fueled a spectacular rise in individual day trading.
Why are they buying GameStop? Well, some of the commentators on “WallStreetBets,” the Reddit message board driving the frenzy, believe it’s a good company.
But mostly they’re out to hurt the big guys.
Hedge funds love shorting stocks, a trading technique where you make money when stock prices go down. Companies often go belly up amid short selling “bear raids.” That’s why small investors hate hedge funds so much.
When word spread among Robinhood traders that GameStop was heavily shorted by the big guys, the tables were turned into a bull raid. They drove up the price, and all those bets that GameStop would decline in value failed. A “short squeeze” was on at a level sophisticated market players hadn’t seen in years.
At least one big hedge fund, Melvin Capital, needed a bailout as prices of GameStop spiked a gazillion percent in a matter of days. My trading sources say there will likely be other big players seeking money to stay alive.
Delicious, right? For those who think — not unwarrantedly — that the market is rigged against them, the Robinhood revolt is a wonderful bit of schadenfreude.
But nothing has changed about GameStop’s business. It’s still primarily a brick-and-mortar retailer in an electronic world. It’s certainly not worth $300 a share. So while Robinhood buyers who got in early made a good bit of money — at least on paper — the bubble will eventually burst, and the shares will likely fall back to earth again.
The problem is that GameStop isn’t the only stock this is happening to. Blackberry, makers of the handheld device you no longer use, and AMC, owners of movie theaters you no longer go to, are also looking like Apple on steroids.
Iowahawk has seen the future, and knows how this will end:
Old and busted: partying like it’s 1999.
The new hotness? Partying like it’s 1985!
Related: Discord bans the r/WallStreetBets server.
Glad to see that blue checks are getting their takes on Wall Street from the latest season of Babylon Berlin.
Earlier: The Gamestop ($GME) Saga.
BILL KRISTOL is just pathetic now.
I DON’T SEE DRIVE-THROUGH TESTING USING THIS APPROACH: COVID Anal Swabs for Beijing Residents More Accurate, Says Chinese Expert.
THE BILL OF RIGHTS IS AN OBJECTION TO GOVERNMENTAL AUTHORITY: Biden DHS Issues Domestic Terror Alert Warning of ‘Objections’ to ‘Governmental Authority.’
CHURCHILL SMILES: Afternoon nap could boost mental agility, study says.
FAVORITES OF THE RULING CLASS: FAT CRIMINALS? Howie Carr: Fat chance! Obese cons in line for early release in new bill.
SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Study: Children who use touchscreens more easily distracted than peers.
IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: Move over granny; press, politicians jump vaccine line.
My folks have gone without the greatest joy of their lives, time with family. And the caretakers they need to come to their home have been severely limited. If family shouldn’t visit them then certainly strangers shouldn’t. Their quality of life has suffered.
As I write this neither of my parents have been able to get a COVID vaccine. And not for lack for constantly trying.
My son who has Down syndrome and an underlying heart condition — he required open heart surgery at 3 weeks old — hasn’t received a vaccine.
So, who has had access to a vaccine? Our state legislators. Yep. State legislators can jump in front of the most vulnerable people in the state including the elderly and handicapped.
So much for a “citizen” legislature. All people are equal. But some are more equal than others.
Read the whole thing.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: 6 Great Home Defense Shotguns for Less.
NOT ALL HEROES WEAR CAPES: Chick-fil-A Saves the Day, Fixes City’s Vaccination Snafu.
HEINLEIN’S CRAZY YEARS (CONT’D): California prof: Heterosexuality is ‘tragic.’
I was tempted to lead with “MAYBE THE WAY YOU DO IT, HON.”
SCIENCE MARCHES ON: Intercontinental study sheds light on the microbial life of sourdough.
THAT’S BECAUSE THEY ARE: Veteran Film Scribe Fears Dems Are Crushing Free Speech. “Sasha Stone cheers ‘Run Hide Fight,’ says political press can’t tell the truth.”
Good stuff from Christian Toto.
DOMINIC GREEN ON OLIGARCHY IN AMERICA:
The American oligarchy is capitalism with American characteristics: always friendly, strategically diverse and gender-neutral, obsessed with race and blind to class, sentimental about Nature and enraptured by technology, and, above all, belligerently optimistic that it is honoring the unique promise of America. Until, that is, you get on the wrong side of it.
Read the whole thing.
GOOD NEWS FOR ASIAN ELEPHANTS: Humans have an obesity problem, Asian elephants don’t.