The Shitshow Macro Weekly Wrapup for Friday, January 3, 2025 is out:

-Happy New Year; 2025 seems to be off to a…well, a start. So it’s got that going for it.

Domestic:
-1 and 2 January were not what one would describe as a “great” start to 2025:
--NOLA attack on Bourbon Street.
--Las Vegas car explosion (there’s a reason I use that term rather than another).
--SC highway shut down due to bomb threat.
--Hamas supporters march in NYC (again).
--Dude (allegedly) tried to take out a train in the Midwest (Payette, ID).

-As with many things, people rushed to find connections anywhere they could and ran with them immediately. Some oddities popped up in the first two, as well as what seem to be red herrings.
--We will cover some of these aspects in the Conspiracy-y theory section.
--The NOLA attacker was a former 82nd Airborne supply (S1) and IT guy. Many started saying that he was active duty (he was not).
--He was living in a trailer outside of Houston, traveled to NOLA for the attack, and the AirBnB he stayed in “mysteriously” burned down before it could be investigated.
--It’s highly unlikely that this guy acted alone, IMO.
--Bourbon Street apparently has relatively new (2019) anti-vehicle posts that are hydraulic and can be raised before large events - but they weren’t used on NYE for some reason.
--Strangely, a NY Post reporter was allowed to take a camera crew through what was purported to be his house yesterday. Many called out how weird this was to happen so soon after the attack, others pushed back and said it was normal.
--Today, news started coming out that they had found explosives (today) at the house that the camera crew was allowed to waltz through yesterday.

--The Green Beret in Las Vegas had many of us who know how things work immediately asking questions, as nothing seemed to add up regarding the situation as it was being reported.
--To be perfectly upfront, this guy was in my old unit (1-10 SFG(A)). He went there after my time, but I know people who knew him.
--Even without any personal bias, an 18 series choosing the place, time, and payload for what they were calling a potential terrorist event didn’t add up from the get-go.
--With the amount of time that guy had in Group, it never made sense that he would make such a sub-par payload, and put it in the only vehicle that is manufactured from materials that would reduce any external damage from said payload.
--To add to that, the Desert Eagle pistol thing was a severe oddity as well; video of the vehicle arriving showed no muzzle blast, and that of a DE is significant - it would have been seen, probably heard, and likely left an exit blast hole in the roof of the car.
--It seems that the GB at the heart of this may have tried to contact @shawnryan762 and @samosaur in advance, trying to get a message to the widest possible audience.
--I say “may have” because there are so many oddities and unanswered questions. We’ll get into those more in the later section, but here’s a 1-hour interview that Shawn and Shoe did and posted today:
x.com/ShawnRyan762/s…
open.spotify.com/episode/79leVR…

--Please watch or listen, we’ll get to this in more depth below. Moving on for now.

-Current GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson has won enough votes (today) to remain as House Speaker.
--You may not like this, but understand the realpolitik that goes behind it before staking out a position on it.

-On the heels of multiple USGOV reports that show the lawlessness and ulterior motive nature of the January 6th committee, Biden decided to award medals to two of its ringleaders, Dick Cheney’s daughter and Bennie Thompson.

-Speaking of USGOV reports, Loudermilk’s committee released another report covering the gross discrepancies, obfuscations, and what they call blocking any attempt to look into the J6 “pipe bomber.”

--Wouldn’t you know, the FBI seemed to re-invigorate that search, 4 years later, right before Loudermilk released this report.
--Weird, huh?
--As one of the few reporters who has been tracking the gross discrepancies between what the media/J6 committee said versus reality from day one, here’s a wrap up of the report from @julie_kelly2:
declassified.live/p/house-report…

--And here’s the Press Release from Massie & Loudermilk’s report, with links to the actual report included in it:
cha.house.gov/press-releases…

-As we’ve covered several topics that have led the greater public to not trust the FBI in its current state, here’s a flashback from @FDRLST about an FBI handler caught telling his assets to “tear up Texas” 10 years ago before they perpetrated the Garland, Texas shooting:
thefederalist.com/2025/01/02/fla…

-And since the US press seems intent on crying about their loss of trust from the public rather than fixing the root cause issue, here’s a rundown of the Top 10 MSM hoaxes from 2024, also via The Federalist:
thefederalist.com/2024/12/30/the…
--Again, full disclosure, I and my former non-profit currently have several active defamation lawsuits against various aspects of the US media, but the hoaxes above were different media attacks against others.

War/Military:
-We discussed last year (on Monday, hardy har har) that China had sanctioned 7 US companies for their arms sales to Taiwan.
--China has now put 28 US companies on “export controls” citing national security, meaning that China won’t send potential “dual-use” (civilian and MIL) products to those US companies - including the big defense contractors Boeing Defense, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Missiles & Defense, and General Dynamics.
--10 US firms have also been labeled as “unreliable entities” based on their arms sales to Taiwan.
--Spoiler: It was always a bad move (stupid at best, treasonous at worst) to outsource so much of our critical manufacturing capacity and abilities.
sofx.com/china-imposes-…

-The Taliban decided to pick a fight with Pakistan, and now Pakistani airstrikes have killed 46 of their fighters.
--At least someone is doing something about them, as the Biden-Harris administration continues to send them tens of millions of our tax dollars every week.
sofx.com/pakistani-airs…

-French fighters and US Reaper drones dropped 7 payloads on ISIS targets in Syria last weekend.
sofx.com/france-conduct…

-The end-of-year stats show that RUS took a little over 4k km worth of new territory into UKR, most of it at the end of the year (Q4 24). Their advance seems to be gaining pace.
--Zelensky publicly admitted that UKR soldiers are growing weary, and there are records of desertions across their lines.
--Toretsk and Chasov Yar seem to have collapsed for UKR with RUS breakthroughs.
--UKR officials cited that RUS has lost 400k soldiers in their efforts - but RUS sources cited that 440k new recruits have been added, meaning their replacement rate is higher than losses (if the numbers from both/either side are accurate).

-A US Army soldier was arrested on Thursday for selling hacked telecom data in what is being called a wide-scale hacking scheme - that allegedly included AT&T data for President Elect Trump as well as Kamabla Harris.
sofx.com/us-army-soldie…

-The Ivory Coast has now joined the list of African nations kicking French troops out; the nation said that French troops will be out of their country this month.
sofx.com/ivory-coast-an…

Markets/economics:
-For some good news, the ISM (Manufacturing Index) numbers were a “beat,” coming in better than expected.
--Estimate: 48.2
--Actual: 49.3

-Fartcoin is now up to a $1.3 billion market cap.
--I guess that’s a perfect summary of the 2024-2025 world of markets.

-US mortgage demand/activity has fallen 22%, near post-lockdown lows.
--Here’s a post from @texasrunnerDFW , and I’ll include the chart in the show notes.
x.com/texasrunnerDFW…

-All major US markets ended Friday in the green after some bad days.
--Oil ended up, gold ended down, and silver also ended up.

-European markets traded in the red to end the week.

-Asian markets, except for the Heng Seng (HK) also ended in the red on Friday.

-The USDJPY currency pair is still elevated, at $157.27
-The USDGPB pair is still down, at $0.8050
-The USDAUD pair held relatively steady on Friday, currently at $1.6088
-USDCAD moved up towards the end of the day, up to $1.4445
-USDMXN, which has had some ups & downs, is now up to $20.6170

-Bitcoin is nearing $100k again, now up to $98,075.13 (as of this writing)

Business:
-The Biden-Harris admin has rejected a deal for Nippon Steel (J-Pan) to purchase US Steel.

-Microsoft has announced that it is planning on investing $80 billion into its AI-enabled data centers this year.

-Apple has agreed to pay a $95mm settlement in a lawsuit accusing the company of deploying its Siri assistant to eavesdrop on people via their phones and other devices.

Health:
The rounds are certainly being made by @NicoleShanahan in her fight to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA), and as a parent I am 100% here for it.
--This week we have a piece from Nicole that is in a publication that I often share, but this is a first for this section (Health). Here’s the piece called The War for Humanity’s Future from Nicole in @im_1776:
im1776.com/health-of-a-na…

Geopolitics:
-South Korean police attempted to arrest their current President (who was just impeached), but gave up after a 7-hour standoff with the military who would not allow them to access his location.
sofx.com/south-korea-se…

-The world and even Britons have started waking up to a decade-long issue with Pakistani “grooming gangs” that have been plaguing that country whilst being covered up by police, politicians, and media.
--This couldn’t come at a worse time for Starmer, who some say had a role in the cover upping, as new polling shows that his fraudulent promises to win office have come home to roost and his support has cratered.

Societal/legal/culture war
An Ohio school district has now been ordered to pay $450k to a middle school teacher who resigned for refusing to address two trans students by their preferred names and pronouns.

Crazy Conspiracy:
Ok, I’m going to try to be as nice and cordial but also as brief here as possible.

This is merely me trying to help people learn to use discernment, and understand that there is a known practice of nefarious actors purposely seeding inaccuracies, non-existent connections, and completely wild aspects to emerging stories in an attempt to veer “unwanted truths” way off of course.

From what we know or think we know so far, this situation seems ripe for that type of thing to be happening.

This practice was described in the last long form Defining the Deep State post and podcast with links to a video from @Cernovich , Tim Pool, and Luke Rudkowski where they describe how “it” works.

Sometimes this is unwittingly done by “influencers” who feel (and monetize) being “first” to something rather than being accurate. A gentle reminder that this practice is a large reason why people don’t trust the media anymore, as it often leads to being grossly inaccurate about things.

Both the NOLA and Vegas incidents had a USMIL connection. The NOLA guy was no longer active duty, the Vegas one was - but the immediate aftermath had people claiming they both were. This wasn’t accurate.

People tried to force a connection to Bragg; while the NOLA guy had been in the 82nd which is at Bragg, the Vegas one was stationed in Germany. 10th Main is at Carson, which is in Colorado, which is also not Bragg.

Yes, he had been in the Q course at Bragg, but take it from me - there is not much interaction, if any, between those in the Q and the 82nd - especially between an SF trainee and an S1/IT dude from the 82nd. Yet people still tried to force a connection.

There is a lot of Shitshow-iness going on in the current USMIL, and there are a lot of people currently trying to tie every bad thing to Bragg. This is a fast way to make yourself look like a moron to people who know anything about Bragg, which may be the purpose (getting people to share obviously ridiculous theories).

Bragg is enormous. Yes, it used to be the home of both 3rd and 7th SF Groups - but it isn’t anymore, except for one of them.

Yes, there is a PSYOPs unit there - but not the only one in the USMIL. Yes, there are SMUs there - but not the only ones.

It’s an enormous place, and there are a ton of different units there. As is the case with many large USMIL bases around the country.

There is someone who made a claim online that one of the Trump attemptees had visited Bragg 147 times - but he offered no evidence. There are many of us who could confirm if the places he went there showed potential nefarious or “dark side” connections, as we know the layout of the base, but no evidence was provided to back up those claims.

Yet many are running with it as if it were verified truth. Allowing the conversation to get hijacked by inaccuracies or red herrings can derail the entire search for truth, and is sometimes done purposely by those who don’t want anyone to get too close to the actual truth.

With the Vegas event, here’s just a handful of the oddities that we know so far:
-18 series makes an obviously sub-par payload in a vehicle that is one of the few that would contain the blast.

-Desert Eagle present, but seemingly not used at the hotel - this brings up questions of when it was fired and potentially even who was actually in the vehicle, as it has self-driving capabilities.
--Elon has dispatched a team to try to recover video from inside the car, so I’m eagerly awaiting what that shows.

-He had tried to reach out to multiple people in advance, asking them to help get a message out to as wide of an audience as possible.

-His “safety number” on Signal (used to verify that you’re actually talking to who you think you are) changed before the event (this happens when you change SIM cards, as in changing from a Germany-operable SIM to a US one), but changed again AFTER the event.
--This brings up the question of whether he was actually in the car, or if someone else had access to his Signal account. Either seems to be a valid option at this point.

-Family, friends, and unit members say he was a Trump supporter - this further supports the notion that the place & payload was meant to get attention, not do harm.

-He allegedly sent what is being deemed a “manifesto,” but isn’t really an accurate term for the email he sent, in advance.
--The email is linked in the same thread as the interview linked above from Shawn Ryan, and you can read it for yourself. It contains some pretty significant allegations.

-The email was sent via Proton Mail, which makes it difficult to be 100% certain that it came from him, even though it contains some bona fides that are verifiable (and some have been).
--Again, I know some people that knew him, and those confirmations seem to be accurate from what I can gather.

This story is far from over, and there are more questions than answers. I would caution trusting or giving too much credence to anyone, from any station/authority, who claims that they 100% know what in the world this whole thing “is” or what led to it at this point.

That’s my personal opinion and position on it for now. As the wise man once said, “we shall see.”

Macro takeaways/lessons from the week:
-2025 got off to a pretty rocky start. Let’s be honest, many of us expected the “crazy” to get ratched way past 11 before Trump could take office. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ve seen the end of it yet.

-If conservatives are good at anything, it’s shooting themselves in the foot and infighting. Discourse is good and healthy, purposely dividing common groups is not. It seems there was a deal struck between Trump and Johnson, so let’s see if something positive comes from today’s vote.

As the wise man said, we shall see.

-Fartcoin at $1.3 billion market cap shows there’s still too much stupid money slushing around in the system, as do other variables. You may hate to hear this, but it seems like there is still (ugly) work to do if we want to tame inflation.

White pill(s) for the week:
As I try to pepper in from time-to-time, keeping a sense of humor no matter what is going on can be quite helpful, for your own sanity and to keep some levity about not allowing bad news to dominate your life.

So…here’s a fart keyboard playing a Slayer riff. It’s funnier than it seems in writing, believe me. Thanks to @punt_rd for sharing this, you made me laugh (again):

x.com/punt_rd/status…

Because this year got off to such a bad start, we’ll add in another bit o’ funny but in a very funny-cute manner. Here’s one from @AMAZINGNATURE that is definitely worth a few seconds to watch, smile, and giggle:

x.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/…

Weekend Meditation:
I know that I typically give self-help and big life lesson mantras from the Stoics and others here, but this one from @HardPass4 is about as pertinent to the place we find ourselves at current than anything else I can think of.

As Steve Bannon said, “You didn’t think they were going to give you your country back without a fight, did you?”

For those viewing this in an X post, the meme says, “Hey friend, we are going to win - it’s just going to be really ugly getting us there.”

(Meme won't disply on X but is in the Sub post)

Links mentioned in the show:
Intro & outro music: Mike Amabile and Run Over Twice “Blind”
open.spotify.com/track/6SG99nL3…

Mortgage Activity Nosedives 22%
(Chart won't disply on X but is in the Sub post)

I just got around to reading both of Matt L's (Vegas Green Beret) "letters/manifestos" side-by-side.

Just my opinion but it seems extremely unlikely that these both came from the same person.

Note the grammar & spelling errors in the 2nd email (white background).

These seem like errors consistent with someone who doesn't speak English as a first/primary language, and the extreme shift in both tone and message doesn't match.