UNFTR Weekly Roundup

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This week in our Members Only Newsletter you missed:

Max Notes on the U.S. Economy.
The Tuesday Top Five news articles everyone should be reading.
An original essay from News Beat’s Rashed Mian on Kash Patel and the FBI.
And “Not for Nothing” on RFK in the shower, Jane Fonda & Martial Law in South Korea.

So I guess the question is…what are you waiting for? Sign up today to become a member and level up to unlock a slew of additional perks!

Max Notes

Not like this. It’s time for pitchforks, protest and pushback but the gleeful response to the assassination of the United Healthcare CEO isn’t the way. Vigilantes have a way of channeling populist rage. I get it. Shitbag CEO who made his bones leading a division of a company known for denying claims gets what he “deserves.” Nah. This is the same type of fever that swept NYC when I was a kid and Bernie Goetz was gunning people down on the subway. The only positive outcome here is the feigned (or is it?) shock mainstream media talking heads are displaying. “Wow, the reactions to this cold blooded killing are really revealing! People are really mad about healthcare in this country.”

Stop. Just, stop. Of course people are mad. Stop playing stupid. If Trump returning to office isn’t the sign you needed to diagnose the underlying problem of economic insecurity in this country I don’t know what is.

In the member newsletter this week I listed out a number of troubling economic signals that are being masked by the relentless stock market gains. Anyone who takes to the airwaves to talk about the precariousness of this economy is mocked as Chicken Little. The net worth of the people on TV that have generous healthcare coverage, compensation packages and retirement plans is as disconnected from reality as the Marvel universe. So there’s no reality check to be had there.

I’m going to do my best to square the circle in the coming weeks to talk about the poor health of this economy to illustrate just how close to the edge we are as a nation. My working hypothesis is that any one of a number of Trump economic policies has the potential to push us right over the edge and force the Federal Reserve and Treasury into another late inning save position. And we know how this works. There’s a pecking order. And you’re not in it.

Other things I’m obsessing over…

The Young Turks leaning MAGA for the money grab.
The Hawk Tuah crypto scam.
Gene Hackman in Mississippi Burning.

-Max

Chart of the Week

ISM Manufacturing Data

Source: Trading Economics

I wrote about this chart, among a handful of others, in the member newsletter this week and am building some additional context around it for an upcoming episode. What you’re looking at is ISM manufacturing data, which essentially demonstrates where new manufacturing orders are in an economic cycle. You’ll see the numbers fall off during recessions and it’s usually a good leading indicator as these numbers begin to depreciate prior to a technical recession being called in retrospect. What this chart shows is that we’re in a very precarious time. The data are well below the normal threshold for a recession or early/late stage cycle turn. The persistence of the low cycle mean is unusual in its depth and duration so we’ll be talking more about this in the coming weeks.

Headlines

Trump’s first authoritarian test will be… TikTok???

So Trump has said that he supports TikTok in the past. Also, Trump is anti-China everything. There will be mayhem among young people and creators if TikTok goes offline in America, which it’s scheduled to do the day after Trump is inaugurated. Will the incoming dictator have the power to turn it around or will he celebrate this as an accomplishment of some sort?

From the article:

“American lawmakers and intelligence officials have said that TikTok poses a national security threat under ByteDance. They say that the Chinese government’s oversight of private companies would allow it to use the app to retrieve sensitive information about Americans or to spread propaganda, though they have not publicly shared evidence that this has occurred. They have also noted that apps like Facebook and YouTube are banned in China and that the country does not allow TikTok there.”

New York Times: TikTok Faces U.S. Ban After Losing Bid to Overturn New Law

This Feels Like the Opening Scene of a Horror Movie

Small outbreak in a remote area of a foreign nation. Incoming president to the most powerful nation in the world dismisses all scientists and puts an anti-vaxxer in charge of healthcare agencies. Funding for international monitoring organizations dries up. The script kind of writes itself…

From the article:

“At least 79 people have died from an unknown disease that is causing flu-like symptoms in south-western Democratic Republic of Congo, the health ministry says. The health ministry says the majority of people who have died are between the ages of 15 and 18. More than 300 people have been infected with patients exhibiting symptoms like fever, headaches, runny noses and coughs, breathing difficulties and anaemia.”

BBC: Unknown flu-like disease kills at least 79 people in DR Congo

Cowards in Robes

The Supreme Court appears ready to punt on the issue of transgender care. Suddenly, they’re not scientists. Huh.

From the article:

“This Supreme Court, dominated by a 6-3 majority of Republican appointees, doesn’t usually take such a modest posture toward government regulation. But when it does, it’s often in cases that will allow a state to implement a constitutionally questionable and partisan-motivated policy. If Wednesday’s case, United States v. Skrmetti, is decided this way, it will be one in a line of decisions where the court deferred to state legislatures so it could avoid facing the constitutional deficiencies those same lawmakers created.”

Mother Jones: John Roberts Has a Plan to Deny Transgender Rights

This Week on the Pod

“Russputin” and the Tsar

Russell Vought’s Plan To Destroy America

Russell Vought smiling in front of an apocalyptic city background

In this week’s episode we identify the most dangerous man in America that no one is talking about, the tool he is going to use to dismantle government agencies, and what we can learn from three young Republicans who helped the GOP rise from the ashes of the Obama years. Get to know Russell “Russputin” Vought and how he believes he can override Nixon-era legislation to consolidate budget and spending authority within the executive branch.

Here’s a snippet from the pod:

MAX: “The central thesis of the Russputin’s think tank is that the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional, despite multiple attempts to dismantle it that failed in federal court. Russputin believes that Trump has the legitimate authority to override the act to divert funding away from the Biden budget for 2025 as well as the ability to simply shutter federal agencies without seeking Congressional approval. It’s a bold stance given the legislative and judicial history of upholding the act over the years. But Russputin is banking on one crucial difference between now and all the other attempts to repeal this provision: The complete control of Congress and the higher courts.”

Read The Essay

Access Episode Resources

Resources

Pod Love

“Matt Taylor, an expert on the New Apostolic Reformation and author of ‘The Violent Took It By Force,’ joins this episode of SWAJ. Speaking at an event in San Diego, Taylor discusses the implications of MAGA—a populist authoritarian movement fueled by Christian nationalism—on America’s liberal democracy. The episode emphasizes the need to look beyond American history for comparisons and learn from global instances of populist regimes. Taylor elaborates on the societal divisions and the potential threats MAGA poses to democracy, while Brad encourages strategic resistance and community mobilization in anticipation of new political challenges.”

Straight White American Jesus: Is Trump’s Authoritarianism Apocalyptic?

Book Love

“The Essential Galbraith includes key selections from the most important works of John Kenneth Galbraith, one of the most distinguished writers of our time—from The Affluent Society, the groundbreaking book in which he coined the term conventional wisdom, to The Great Crash, an unsurpassed account of the events that triggered America’s worst economic crisis.”

The Essential Galbraith by John Kenneth Galbraith

**Unf*cker Comment of the Week**

From Kellam:

“I risk atomization here but it’s to make the point that if Democrats and the left are interested in rebuilding a coalition, they need to be thinking about the interest of factions within classes and how Trump led each to see a future for themselves in what he offered. Trump seems to have few convictions other than racism and few interests aside from himself. Trump presents little personal substance allowing people to see what they want to see in him, which more often than not is a projection of their own factional interests.”