BOMBSHELL ALLEGATION: Man Claims To Be Robinhood Employee & Says The White House Pressured Halt of GameStop Trading

Fueled by the “WallStreetBets” Reddit forum, GameStop’s market value has risen over 466% this week.

Thursday morning, Robinhood, one of the top free trading apps, put restrictions on trading $GME (GameStopCorp.) This action was immediately met with backlash across the internet. One Reddit user, Odin19199, claiming to be an employee of Robinhood, stated that the company was pressured to halt GameStop trading by Sequoia Capital and the White House. These allegations have not been independently confirmed by Breaking911.

In the post, he alleges that he overheard that “Vladimir, yes founder Vladimir [Tenev], and the C-Suite, received calls from Sequoia Capital and the White House that pressured into closing trading on GME.”

The user then goes on to state that he has information and documentation regarding the situation that he is planning to provide to Project Veritas and lawyer Glen Greenwald.

The newly-confirmed Treasury Secretary, Janice Yellen, has financial ties to one of the hedge funds that came to the aid of Melvin Capital, one of the companies that saw large losses after GameStop’s market surge. Yellen’s financial disclosure shows her receiving around $800,000 from Citadel for speaking fees.

White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, stated on Wednesday that Yellen is ‘monitoring’ the GameStop stock situation.

New York Attorney General, Letitia James, released a statement Thursday announcing that “we are aware of concerns raised regarding activity on the Robinhood app,” and that “we are reviewing the matter.”

https://breaking911.com/bombshell-allegation-man-claims-to-be-robinhood-employee-says-the-white-house-pressured-halt-of-gamestop-trading/

Janet Yellen Received $810K In Speaking Fees From Hedge Fund Embroiled In GameStop Saga

Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen received more than $800,000 in speaking fees from a hedge fund that has become embroiled in the saga over stock trades for video game retailer GameStop, according to her financial disclosures.

Citadel, a hedge fund founded by Ken Griffin, a major GOP donor, paid Yellen $810,000 to speak at several events from October 2019 to October 2020, according to Yellen’s filings with the Office of Government Ethics.

The Chicago-based hedge fund paid Yellen $292,500 for a speech on Oct. 17, 2019, $180,000 for one on Dec. 3, 2019, and $337,500 to speak at a series of webinars held from Oct. 9-27, 2020.

Citadel is invested heavily in Melvin Capital, a hedge fund that was reportedly on the brink of bankruptcy this week due to a surge in GameStop share prices.

Reddit users on a page called “wallstreetbets” encouraged purchases of GameStop shares in order to exploit Melvin Capital’s short position on the company. A buying spree from retail investors forced Melvin to cover its short position by buying shares of GameStop at elevated prices.

Citadel and another firm, 72Point, invested $2.75 billion in Melvin this week after it lost 30% of its capital, according to The Wall Street Journal.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that Yellen, who was confirmed by the Senate on Monday, is “monitoring the situation.”

There is no indication that Yellen has intervened to help Citadel or Melvin or that she plans to, but calls are growing on all sides of the issue for more regulation from the federal government.

Some institutional investors and regulators have called for more scrutiny of platforms like Reddit and social media sites that have allowed users to plot out investment strategies en masse.

https://dailycaller.com/2021/01/28/janet-yellen-gamestop-citadel/

U.S. Billionaires Boost Their Wealth by 40 Percent During Coronavirus Crisis

Billionaires in the United States have increased their wealth by nearly 40 percent since the start of the Chinese coronavirus crisis, new analysis finds.

The nation’s 660 billionaires have grown their collective net worth by $1.1 trillion since March 2020, when economic lockdowns closed small and medium-sized businesses, according to analysis by Americans for Tax Fairness.

In March 2020, U.S. billionaires had a combined net worth of just under $3 trillion. Today, that net worth has jumped to $4.1 trillion — a 38.6 percent increase in wealth for the nation’s richest one percent of earners.

At the same time, 18 million Americans remain jobless, 6.2 million are underemployed, and hundreds of thousands of small businesses have been forced to close.

The wealth growth among billionaires has been so vast that 46 former millionaires have become billionaires since the start of the crisis. Their $4.1 trillion combined wealth means that they have more money than the bottom half of earners — 165 million Americans — whose combined wealth stands at $2.4 trillion.

Specifically, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has grown his wealth by more than 60 percent since March 2020 while Tesla CEO Elon Musk has boosted his wealth by 628.5 percent. Similarly, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has raked in 23 percent more during the crisis than before and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has increased his wealth by nearly 70 percent.

The analysis shows the massive gap in economic gains and losses between the nation’s wealthiest and working and middle class Americans who have disproportionately been impacted by the crisis and the subsequent economic lockdowns various state governments have imposed.

Pew Research Center analysis from 2018 found that between the year 2000 and 2016, median household income for middle class Americans has been stagnant while the median household income for working class Americans is less than it was 16 years prior.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/01/28/us-billionaires-boost-their-wealth-40-percent-during-coronavirus-crisis/

JPMorgan Has Some Bad News For Hedge Funds Hoping The Nightmare Ends Soon

For a few hours this morning it seemed that all was lost for r/WallStreetBets and their crusade to teach Wall Street billionaires a lesson, when one exchange after another banned buying in the most-shorted stocks, an unprecedented unilateral decision made by brokerages (one of which, Robinhood, is effectively joined at the hip with hedge fund Citadel, which in turn is a part owner of Melvin Capital which was destroyed by the short squeeze that Robinhood banned, so a clear conflict of interest), and one which sent GME stock as low as $112 after trading at $500 just hours earlier.

However the hedge funds short Gamestop, who may have declared victory prematurely, had to put the champagne back on ice because just after the close, amid tremendous pushback from clients, Congress, and the public - not to mention what appears to be a liquidity crisis as millions of accounts bailed - Robinhood announced it would allow buying to resume on Friday, sending the stock up almost double after hours.

And since any victory for the WallStreetBets crowd means the short squeeze is back, it also means that a defeat for hedge funds, as can be seen in the chart below which shows that the Goldman most shorted basket is a mirror image of the Goldman hedge fund VIP basket.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/jpmorgan-has-some-bad-news-hedge-funds-hoping-nightmare-ends-soon

LA County Sheriff reveals stunning consequences of Soros-backed district attorney's justice reform on child porn case

George Soros donated millions in order to implement criminal justice reform

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva revealed the stunning consequences of new progressive justice reform policies on a case involving a suspect allegedly caught in possession of child pornography.

Villanueva published the incident on his official social media account on Thursday.

"#LASD Special Victims Bureau investigated a male for possession of child pornography with a previous sex crime conviction. Yesterday, the defendant pled "no contest" to the charges," he tweeted.

"Pursuant to the DA's new directives, both of the defendant's previous strike convictions for sex crimes with a child were stricken resulting in a low term 2 years in state prison sentence," he added in a second tweet.

"The defendant who has been in custody since his arrest in October 2020, has earned approximately 253 days credit towards his required half time to be served and will likely be released from custody in about 112 days," he concluded.

Villanueva was referring to new policies implemented by newly-elected District Attorney George Gascón, who won the position with the help of millions of dollars of donations from billionaire leftist George Soros.

Gascón immediately upon taking office rewrote the county's justice policies to abolish cash bail, to avoid seeking the death penalty for any offenses, and refusing to apply certain prosecution enhancements.

Among those, according to Villanueva, were previous convictions against the defendant for sex crimes with a child. As a result, the offender was sentenced to only 2 years in prison but would be released after 112 days.

Villanueva had previously objected to Gascón's decision to deny filing special circumstances in the case of a man accused of decapitating two children with an axe.

"As Sheriff of LA County, I firmly believe we are not safer by putting the interests of offenders over the needs of victims of crime," wrote Villanueva at the time.

Here's a video of victims' families criticizing Gascón:

https://www.theblaze.com/news/villanueva-gascon

At least 30 election fraud cases are still active, but so far not a single court will allow evidence to be presented

Ever since Nov. 3, the mainstream media has been saying that President Donald Trump failed to win a single court case alleging election fraud because there is “no evidence.” The truth, however, is that not a single court case has been allowed to present any evidence before a judge.

Thus far, there have been 81 court cases to date concerning the 2020 election. In 45 of them, President Trump was the plaintiff. In 34 of them, he was not the plaintiff. And in two of them, Trump was the defendant.

Seventy-two of these cases allege that illegal voting occurred. However, not a single one of them was allowed to present any evidence as proof. Of these, 30 cases are still active. You can review all of the 2020 election lawsuits at this link.

Attorney Sidney Powell and many others have put forth credible evidence to show that widespread voter fraud occurred. There were thousands of documented instances of fraud that have yet to be addressed.

Multiple states changed their laws at the last minute, without legislative approval, to allow for absentee ballots, as one example. Unless this change went through the proper channels first, it was not lawful.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has done nothing to date to address any of this, while the Department of Justice (DoJ) has denied all alleged material instances of fraud.

The Democrat Party, of course, has similarly denied any wrongdoing in the election, claiming that Joe Biden really did have more support than any other presidential candidate in history.

Multiple state legislatures ended up certifying their results with millions of ballots in question. The United States Congress accepted these fraudulent certifications and Vice President Mike Pence signed off on them, failing to demand that state legislatures take a closer look at the results.

Free and fair elections are gone from America

Had any of these cases and their corresponding evidence been given the chance to see the light of day, the election outcome certainly would have been different. Beijing Biden would not be signing dozens of executives order daily and Trump would be working hard to finish making America great again.

Instead, the broken criminal justice system capitulated to the Democrats and their insurrection against free and fair elections. The United States is now officially a banana republic as a result.

https://patriotrising.com/at-least-30-election-fraud-cases-are-still-active-but-so-far-not-a-single-court-will-allow-evidence-to-be-presented/

MSM have lost their way

The arrival of a new bugcouldkill millions of people

Spreads killer disease and thrives in cities

A new malaria mosquito is emerging in African cities, with potentially devastating consequences for those living there, according to a new study.

The larvae of Anopheles stephensi - India's main mosquito vector of malaria - are now "abundantly present" in locations across Africa, researchers from The Netherlands' Radboud University Medical Centre and Ethiopia's Armauer Hansen Research Institute said.

https://www.9news.com.au/world/new-malaria-mosquito-emerges-in-african-cities-and-experts-are-worried/d89bef67-2102-4a65-8255-5736298a056d

Belgian, Dutch Police Raid Illegal Tobacco Factories

Authorities seized 186 tonnes of cut tobacco and nearly 14 million cigarettes in raids on several illicit cigarette factories in Belgium and the Netherlands, Europol said on Tuesday. The cigarettes are believed to have been destined for the U.K. market.

img 3930 002Tobacco and equipment found during raid on illegal cigarette factory (by EUROPOL)Officers arrested seven workers during the raids and seized production and packaging equipment and three lorries. Would they had been smuggled to the U.K., the counterfeit cigarettes would have added up to millions of pounds in lost revenue for the country’s tax authorities – and large profits for organized crime groups.

The raid, carried out last Thursday, follows an investigation into tobacco smuggling led by the Belgian Customs Office and supported by the Polish Police Central Bureau of Investigation, the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service and Europol.

Authorities executed a similar operation in Spain in early January, targeting a tobacco smuggling ring that operated in Cordoba and Seville. Police arrested 12 suspects and seized more than 900,000 cigarettes, 4.2 tons of filters, 10.3 tons of cut tobacco, production machinery and vehicles.

Separately this week, British American Tobacco (BAT), one of the world’s largest tobacco manufacturers, said that it had seen an uptick in armed robberies of its headquarters in South Africa.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the company said an average of 2,845 cartons of its cigarettes were stolen each month since the country lifted lockdown sales restrictions in September. It said distribution vehicles were being attacked by armed groups.

“In February 2020, the last full month before the lockdown ban, there were four such robberies. In September, the first full month after the ban was lifted, there were 12, a fourfold increase,” BAT South Africa's General Manager Johnny Moloto said.

Meanwhile authorities in the United Kingdom declined to bring charges against BAT last week after a four-year probe into allegations of bribery in at least three East African countries.

The cigarette manufacturer has been accused of bribing officials in Burundi, The Comoros and Rwanda since 2015, using illicit payments to secure help in obstructing measures introduced as part of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

An investigation from The Guardian revealed in 2017 similar alleged activity by BAT’s representatives in another five African nations, including Uganda and Kenya.

OCCRP has published a series of investigations on the global tobacco industry.

One of them found that the world’s top cigarette manufacturers, collectively known as Big Tobacco, spent years trying to control the design of a new system that intends to curb the EU’s black-market tobacco trade. Big Tobacco companies ended up leaving the bloc with an ineffective system and now are lobbying for its further adoption in Africa.

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/13747-belgian-dutch-police-raid-illegal-tobacco-factories

Huntington Bank closing nearly 200 branches…

Huntington Bancshares Inc. intends to close 198 branch offices — about half of which are based in Meijer Inc. stores in Michigan — after completing the proposed $22 billion acquisition of Detroit-based TCF Financial Corp.

The planned closings include the 97 in-store branches located in Meijer locations that will occur after the deal between the Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington Bancshares (Nasdaq: HBAN) and TCF Financial (Nasdaq: TCF) earns regulatory approval and closes this spring.

“All of these branches have an existing traditional Huntington branch very nearby. Even with these consolidations, the combined branch network will be the largest in Michigan,” a Huntington spokesperson wrote today in an email to MiBiz.

In a Friday conference call with brokerage analysts to discuss fourth quarter results, Huntington Bancorp Chairman, President and CEO Stephen Stenour attributed the planned Meijer in-store closings to “just excess distribution in Michigan as a consequence of the combination” that “will allow us to cycle out of the in-store” branches.

“So, we are adjusting that partnership,” Stenour said. “We’ve been well served by the nature of the economics around the in-store branches, but there is a changing distribution, frankly, a thinning of distribution as we move forward. And as we’ve seen over the past year with the pandemic, more and more home goods (are) delivered, including groceries. And so store traffic, while the volumes are up, the revenues are up, traffic is down and preference for doing banking activities in the in-stores is changing a bit.”

https://nationalpreview.com/huntington-bank-closing-nearly-200-branches/

TD Bank closing 81 branches, including 11 in the Philadelphia region

TD Bank will close 81 of its 1,223 retail branches, almost 7% of all locations, as the Covid-19 pandemic accelerates the switch from brick-and-mortar to digital banking.

Cherry Hill-based TD, the U.S. retail banking arm of Toronto’s TD Bank Group (NYSE: TD), said the closings will take place by April 23. They include locations in 15 states in the bank’s Maine-to-Florida footprint, including 10 of the 123 situated in southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey, and one in Delaware. TD will also shutter 23 locations in five New England states, 21 in the New York City metro area, 14 in Florida, six in the Washington, D.C., metro, and four in the Carolinas.

Here are the TD branches closing in the Philadelphia region:

1428 Old York Road in Abington

1560 Paoli Pike in East Goshen

90 Upper Silver Lake Road in Newtown

111 S. 11th St. in Philadelphia

25 Second Street Pike in Southampton

212 E. Lancaster Ave. in Wayne

1506 Berling Road in Cherry Hill

601 College Drive in Blackwood

Route 38 and Eaterstown Road in Mount Holly

129 S. Black Horse Pike in Runnemede

1803 Marsh Road in Wilmington

Ernie Diaz, executive vice president and head of consumer distribution at TD, said the bank has a strategy to enhance its branch network and respond to changing customer expectations for digital, mobile and connected channel options.

“Those efforts were underway prior to the pandemic, but were paused in 2020 in an effort to provide colleagues with much needed stability in uncertain times,” Diaz said. “The decision to move forward with these changes at this time reflects our commitment to reinvesting in the business and in our communities in new and different ways. Stores are a vital part of our strategy, and we will continue to invest in them, which can mean identifying new locations, renovating existing locations, and expanding our ATM network.”

https://nationalpreview.com/td-bank-closing-81-branches-including-11-in-the-philadelphia-region/

COVID: A media pack that asks no questions and puts out only lies

It is an odd experience, is it not, to watch mainstream media patronise us about “fake news” when their own version of “real news” suggests we probably know far more than they’d ever acknowledge.

Did you know….

That Covid19 has never been isolated….a fact best understood by following Christine Massey et al’s exhaustive research into the subject.

That Covid19 is an invented name for just another Coronovirus – Number 7 – since the series began a considerable time ago….check out Dr Simone Gold talking about this with clinical accuracy and at length on Bitchute.

This probably helps explain PCR false negative results, in that ‘…..a negative result does not rule out COVID-19 and should not be used as the sole basis for treatment or patient management decisions.It is possible to test a person too early or too late during COVID-19 infection to make an accurate diagnosis via COVID-19 RT-PCR Test. In addition, asymptomatic people infected with COVID-19 may not shed enough virus to reach the limit of detection of the test, giving a false negative result. In the absence of symptoms, it is difficult to determine if asymptomatic people have been tested too late or too early. Therefore, negative results in asymptomatic individuals may include individuals who were tested too early and may become positive later, individuals who were tested too late and may have serological evidence of infection, or individuals who were never infected.’ Or in short, “Yes and No with reservations”. (See Official FDA report for details)

Although only 4% of PCR tests are dubbed “false positive”, this nomenclature is misleading for one simple reason outlined earlier above: no test can detect Covid19 with accuracy, because nobody has ever seen it. The PCR tests identify the presence of Coronavirus in the patient, not Covid19 specifically. Six previous strains have been around for decades, and in older/comorbid patients with reduced-effectiveness immune systems this can easily result in death with a strain of Coronavirus rather than death as a result of Covid19. This obviously makes all tests and ‘case rate’ data based on PCR completely meaningless.

Despite that reality, self-assigned ‘fact check’ organisation Politifact insists that “the idea that PCR tests don’t work or result in huge numbers of false positives is false”. These days, one has to fact-check the fact checkers….especially those who ignore false negatives – and proudly proclaim they are “partnered with Facebook”. UK MP Rebecca Harris for example uses her constituency site to assert “You should only accept information from trusted health bodies and authorities. They have scientific evidence to support their advice, these conspiracy theories do not.”. Severely lacking from that blatant, blanket lie is one iota of evidence to support it. The FT asserts, ‘The idea that we are suffering an ‘infodemic’ when it comes to Coronavirus is attractive — and wrong’. Also a ludicrous whopper: there are in excess of 1.4 million official ‘anti-disinformation’ sites out there according to Google.

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/covid-a-media-pack-that-asks-no-questions-and-puts-out-only-lies/

Seems about right

DeceptiCon Maneuvers, Don’t Forget Who Owns The New York Stock Exchange

With the elite financial class being increasingly exposed over the past 72 hours; and with the collusion between Big Tech and Wall Street in the public spotlight; and knowing the elite Washington DC establishment is a part of that entire corrupt system; and with millions of Americans more able to accept the scale of the issues; perhaps this is a moment to remind ourselves how the BIG CLUB works to deceive under false pretense.

Washington DC is part of the corrupt Wall Street, K-Street, Big Bank, and BIG TECH system. Everything within that system is self-serving and done deliberately with the intent to maintain a particular status for the people within it. This is the moment of opportunity to expose just how the DeceptiCons trick us… this is information and dot-connecting that created The Last Refuge. This is the bitter pill that needs to be swallowed.

Everything from within the DC system is designed to lie to you. Accept that and you begin to realize how events are NEVER what they appear on the surface.

The owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is Jeffrey Sprecher. Remember the position of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in regards to Senator Loeffler? Well, Mr. Sprecher is the husband of former Senator Kelly Loeffler.

Kelly Loeffler’s seat was purchased by their elite status and position. Why would a billionaire run for an elected office paying a few hundred thousand?

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell positioned Loeffler with committee assignments based on that status of influence and affluence.

Jeffrey Sprecher and Kelly Loeffler entered politics for their elite interests.

The ruse of the DecptiCons is always that a motive to the benefit of the republic lies behind their candidacy. This is the same ruse that lay behind Mitt Romney, another DeceptiCon. There are no purely altruistic motives behind these politicians, particularly in the Senate.

Their motives are all about status, power and greed. They are not representatives of the people; they are representative of their own elite fellowship and interests, and this crosses both parties. Everything else is chaff and countermeasures to ensure their position.

That is the brutal and uncomfortable reality to accept. The entire system is corrupt.

The swamp is deep and filled with DeceptiCons who will strike at any given moment once they attain a useful position. President Trump went to Georgia to campaign for Senator Kelly Loeffler. Simultaneous to President Trump’s visible support, Loeffler’s husband Jeffrey Sprecher, owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), announced the NYSE will not blacklist Chinese telecommunications firms outlined in Trump’s executive order.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2021/01/28/decepticon-maneuvers-dont-forget-who-owns-the-new-york-stock-exchange/

To My Followers,

I really care about you. I feel your pain. I saw this mess coming months ago. For the last many months, I have worked 20 hour days. I speak truth. The truth is I am tired.

I am fighting battles on every front. The State Bar of Georgia told me today they would demand a mental health exam from me if I wanted to keep my law license. My mind is sound. I have broken no rules. I asked what I had done wrong, I was only told it was about my social media comments. My speech.

I try to live a principled life. There is no basis for the Bar’s demand. But am I choosing my battles carefully?

I do not believe God has brought me this far to stop fighting now. I know he did instill within me a spirit of fear and I know I have never been a quitter.

But I need to spend some time tonight talking with My Perfect Father and My Best to Friend to ask Him what he wants me to do about these attacks, including those by my own family.

I am going to turn off the phone at 8 pm for 12 hours and spend some quiet time in prayer and reading God’s Word.

Pray for me tonight. Pray that God will make clear to me the path He wants me take - the battles He wants me to fight.

Whatever He wants me to do, I will do it. I will obey Him because I worship Him. He has done so much for me.

I never want to let you down. You have written so many kind and loving words to me. You have lifted me up when I was weary. God works through His children.

We will talk tomorrow. God bless you. God bless America.

Please know this is not about me. This is about you. We are all in this together.

Lin - 🙏❤️🇺🇸

https://t.me/s/linwoodspeakstruth

ARE YOU HAVING FUN YET?

Washington Times: ICE agents ordered to stop using ‘illegal alien’ term

Under the new Biden administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is asking agents to stop using the term “illegal alien,” the Washington Times reports exclusively Thursday.

Acting assistant director of domestic operations at Homeland Security Investigations David Shaw that the changes were “an effort to align with current guidance and to ensure consistency in reporting,” according to a memo obtained by the publication.

“Migrant” and “refugee” are still allowed, as is “seasonal worker” and “detainee.” But agents were told not to refer to the crime of sneaking illegal immigrants into the country as “alien smuggling.” The new approved term is “human smuggling.”

And the word “asylee” is gone, in favor of “asylum seeker.”

“These changes should be implemented immediately in all products and correspondence,” Mr. Shaw said in his new memo, which was reviewed by The Washington Times. HSI is the criminal arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE veterans called the changes stunning and Rosemary Jenks, vice president at NumbersUSA, which advocates for stricter immigration limits, said it suggested misplaced priorities.

“I would think HSI would have more important things to do than this absurd effort to remove legal language from their vocabulary,” she said. “Last I checked, we still have far too many dangerous criminal aliens, sex traffickers, smugglers and other threats to public safety and national security operating in the United States for HSI to be focused on becoming more woke.”

The new directive stands in contrast to federal law, which repeatedly uses the term “alien.” Title 8 of the U.S. code is actually named “Aliens and Nationality.”

It’s not clear how agents are supposed to square their new orders with documents that quote from the law.

ICE’s press office declined to comment on the reasons for the changes, citing a policy against speaking about “internal correspondence or leaked documents.”

Mr. Shaw’s memo didn’t mention what “current guidance” he had in mind when he issued the new rules, though the new White House is clearly not a fan of the old terminology.

https://saraacarter.com/washington-times-ice-agents-ordered-to-stop-using-illegal-alien-term/

Michael Jordan caught in the middle of Wall Street’s billionaire inferno

NBA legend Michael Jordan is rumoured to be hurting after falling into the Wall Street trading war with business partners.

NBA icon Michael Jordan has found himself in the middle of the GameStop trading inferno that has turned Wall Street on its head this week.

Jordan picked a very bad time to welcome new investors into his majority ownership of NBA franchise the Charlotte Hornets with business partners Gabe Plotkin and Daniel Sundheim — two hedge fund titans — reported to have taken “catastrophic” losses on their short-selling war with Reddit forum investors.

The war surrounding the GameStop share price between hedge fund managers and Average Joe investors is reported to have wiped out more than $5 billion from established hedge funds.

At the centre of it all is Plotkin and his Melvin Capital fund, which pursued an aggressive short-selling strategy before being caught in the act by individual investors — which had combined forces to drive up GameStop’s share price more than 1700 per cent.

Melvin Capital had bet against GameStop by short-selling its shares meaning it stood to gain if the price went down and lose if it went up.

By pushing up the price of companies like GameStop, members of Reddit group WallStreetBets put the “short squeeze” on hedge funds, which saw them lose more than $5 billion.

Melvin Capital admitted defeat yesterday, with boss Plotkin telling CNBC that his fund had closed its position in GameStop on Tuesday — accepting huge losses. It reportedly required a huge bailout to stay afloat.

The saga took another turn on Friday (AEDT) with GameStop shares crumbling by almost half their value on the back of a restriction of purchasing any of the company’s shares — temporarily at least giving hedge fund managers some respite from their world of pain.

It has now been reported that the painful losses experienced by Plotkin and Sundheim have dire consequences for Jordan and his future business options.

The 57-year-old is reported to have lost up to $300 million in his net worth in the past 12 months after a disastrous 2019-2020 NBA season for team owners as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

https://www.news.com.au/sport/american-sports/nba/michael-jordan-caught-in-the-middle-of-wall-streets-billionaire-inferno/news-story/968dc9cbb34051bad72a125092fadb02

PANIC

'Keep her away from children!' CNN host begs GOP leadership to do something about QAnon Congresswoman

https://www.rawstory.com/marjorie-taylor-green-2650164902/

GOP's Adam Kinzinger: We need to 'expose' people like 'unhinged' Majorie Taylor who've 'lost a sense of reality'

https://www.rawstory.com/marjorie-taylor-green-2650165912/

‘QAnon Shaman’ feels betrayed — and is now willing to testify against Trump: report

https://www.rawstory.com/qanon-shaman/

‘Sad billionaire’ slams ‘LOSER’ GameStop investors – then laments Biden taxes he voted for as ATTACKING THE WEALTHY

A hedge fund manager who famously cried over a Democrat tax proposal – then voted for Joe Biden anyway – slammed Robinhood investors buying GameStop stock as “losers” spending government stimulus money to gamble on the markets.

People “sitting at home getting their checks from the government, trading their stocks” are the problem, Leon Cooperman said on Thursday.

In a lengthy appearance on CNBC’s Fast Money: Halftime Report, the CEO of the New York-based Omega Advisors took aim at the small investors buying up stocks the “more knowledgeable” short-sellers had undervalued, blaming the Federal Reserve’s low interest rates and even the government’s coronavirus stimulus checks.

GameStop is overvalued because there are “speculators playing around,” said Cooperman, who added his hedge fund was not involved with the company one way or another. The Robinhood investing is a “losers’ game,” he added, and the people involved “have no idea what they’re doing.”

For the past week, small investors have been using brokers like Robinhood to buy stocks of GameStop and several other companies, having discovered that hedge funds had been “nakedly” short-selling them – borrowing over 100 percent of the company’s stock to bet on its failure – to make a profit. As a result, the hedge funds have taken over $70 billion in losses so far.

Earlier in the day, Robinhood actually blocked further purchases of GameStop and several other stocks, while leaving the option to sell them open – triggering a class action lawsuit in New York accusing the brokerage of “manipulating” the market.

Later in the show, Cooperman griped about the market conditions that led to this situation, denouncing calls from the ruling Democrats for the rich to pay a “fair share” in taxes.

“I hate that expression with a passion!” Cooperman said. “What does fair share mean?” He said he was willing to accept a marginal tax rate of 50 percent, but in places like California, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York “you’re already well past that.”

This fair share is a bullshit concept! It’s just a way of attacking wealthy people.

Listening to irate New York hedge fund billionaire Leon Cooperman on CNBC right now lamenting people "sitting at home getting their checks from the government, trading their stocks."“This fair share is a bullshit concept," he shouts. "It’s a way of attacking wealthy people." pic.twitter.com/zFW6o1MFND

— Jake Offenhartz (@jangelooff) January 28, 2021

Cooperman famously cried in another CNBC performance, back in 2019, when he objected to the wealth tax proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) as part of her primary presidential bid. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) even featured the segment in a campaign ad, which called Cooperman a “sad billionaire” unwilling to pay more in taxes.

Bernie 2020 literally released a video that put the words SAD BILLIONAIRE over Leon Cooperman. pic.twitter.com/9CdTpjHNsk

— People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) January 28, 2021

Ironically, in the same appearance Cooperman had denounced President Donald Trump for not being “presidential” even as he praised his economic policies. On Thursday, he revealed he had voted for Democrat Joe Biden, whose administration is now contemplating a Warren-like tax plan.

For all their talk about standing up for the little guy against billionaires and bankers, both Sanders and Warren approved Biden’s nomination of former Fed chair Janet Yellen to head the Treasury. Yellen had pocketed over $800,000 in speaking fees from Citadel, the very same hedge fund that may have influenced its client – the brokerage Robinhood – to stop the buys of GameStop stocks on Thursday to stem the hedge fund losses.

Janet Yellen received $810,000 in speaking fees in 2019 and 2020 from Citadel, the hedge fund wrapped up in the GameStop saga. Citadel has spent $240k per year lobbying Congress and the Treasury Department. https://t.co/nf5gHJ18o3

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) January 28, 2021

https://www.rt.com/usa/513969-sad-billionaire-hedge-gamestop/

(((Every time)))

Russia to slash oil exports to curb rising domestic fuel prices – report

The world’s second-biggest oil exporter, Russia, is planning to cut overseas shipments of its seaborne crude from the country’s western ports next month, to curb a record surge in domestic fuel prices.

The exports of Urals crude from Russia’s western ports will be slashed by up to 20 percent in February, Bloomberg reports, citing the loading program. Russia will reportedly ship around 1.13 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) against 1.38 million bpd recorded in January.

Sources close to the matter told the media that the crude would be diverted into refineries in Russia to raise domestic supplies, as the country attempts to gain control over fuel prices, which surged to the highest level, in ruble terms, in 13 years.

According to the data tracked by the Federal Statistical Service, Russia’s average retail price of gasoline saw a year-on-year surge of 2.6 percent as of December 28. Last week, it topped 47.31 rubles ($0.62) per liter, hitting the highest level in terms of the national currency since 2008.

Curbing the export of crude comes in line with government measures to tackle domestic food prices, which spiked amid the global coronavirus pandemic. Last year, the Kremlin introduced an export limit of 17.5 million tons for grains such as wheat, rye, barley and corn, for the remainder of the marketing year.

The measure also included imposing an export tax on wheat of $30.40 per ton. Earlier this week, the export duty for wheat was raised to $60.59 per ton, effective from March 1.

https://www.rt.com/business/513857-russia-crude-exports-fuel-price/

Syria supports China against any attempt of intervention in its domestic affairs

Damascus, SANA- Syria has affirmed its support for China against any attempts to interfere in its domestic affairs, expressing strong condemnation and absolute rejection of the US policy and the stances of its officials towards it.

“Foreign Ministry affirms that Syria stands by the friendly People’s Republic of China against any attempts to intervene in its domestic affairs,” an official source at Foreign and Expatriates Ministry said on Thursday.

The source added that the government of the Syrian Arab Republic reiterates its support to the One-China Principle, saying that it backs China against any attempts of intervention that contradict with the goals and principles of the United Nations’ Charter, especially in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

https://sana.sy/en/?p=219743

PRAY FOR EACH OTHER

Arizona’s Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Lied – EAC Updated Website after Gateway Pundit Report Discovered Their Auditors Were Uncertified

Let’s face it, if you are willing to steal a US Presidential Election, then you will do anything. Today’s actions by the EAC will shock you.

This morning we reported that the two ‘auditors’ selected in Arizona by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to perform an ‘audit’ of its 2020 election results had some notable issues.

The Maricopa Board of Supervisors limited their choices to two companies Pro V&V and SLI Compliance.

Pro V&V was also selected by Georgia’s corrupt Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for a recent sham audit there. Secretary of State Raffensperger used Dominion-linked Pro V&V, an Alabama-based testing laboratory, to do the Georgia audit of the Dominion machines.

We know that Pro V&V has only three company contacts and has been in business since 2011. The President of Pro V&B is Jack Cobb. Cobb has been called in to perform audits for Dominion in the past. He performed one audit in the Philippines in 2019, but he referred to himself as the ‘Laboratory Director’ during this engagement. Pro V&V once had a certificate of accreditation from the USEAC but it expired in 2017. (No recent accreditation was noted on its website.)

SLI Compliance also provides little support for its election certifications on its site. It has a website and a page dedicated to voting system certification testing. SLI Compliance on its website claims it was accredited by the USEAC but this morning we could find no support for this or if this was current. However, we did see that both entities were used by Dominion voting systems for their recent audits.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/01/caught-arizonas-maricopa-county-board-supervisors-lied-eac-updated-website-gateway-pundit-report-discovered-auditors-uncertified/