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'Meme stocks' have Wall Street vultures worried! The complete moron's guide to GameStop's stock roller coaster

Kyle Orland
ars Technica
Wed, 27 Jan 2021 00:00 UTC
How does this epic rally end? And can it be repeated?
Game Stop
© Aurich Lowson/Getty Images
Pop goes the bubble...
Last week, an epic short squeeze had driven GameStop stock up to $40 a share, a roughly 1,500 percent increase from its low point nine months ago. Little did anyone know at the time that this would only be the beginning of the story.

As I write this, GameStop's stock price is hovering around $350, up another 775 percent or so since I wrote about this situation eight days ago. By the time you read this, that number may be horribly outdated, as the stock continues to bounce up and down with extreme volatility hour by hour (it dipped down as low as $61 and peaked as high as $159 on Friday).

The current stock price now gives the company a market cap of about $26 billion.

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Stock Down

GameStop Roller Coaster: Clown World Finance

Kristoffer Mousten Hansen
Mises Institute
Thu, 28 Jan 2021 00:00 UTC
GameStop clownworld
The recent blowup of GameStop shares has revealed, if anyone was still doubting, that the center of clown world is not Washington, DC, nor Silicon Valley — but Wall Street. To be clear, this is not meant to refer to the gallant band of redditors from r/wallstreetbets — those few, those happy few, that band of brothers who, as of this writing, may very well be poised to force several hedge funds into bankruptcy. Rather, the clowns are those hedge funds and all those other institutional investors who have been propped up by central bank intervention for decades while congratulating themselves that their seven-figure earnings were all due to their own financial brilliance.

What Happened?

The story of what happened (so far) is briefly told. It was revealed that GameStop was one of the most shorted shares in Wall Street, with the fund Melvin Capital taking the lead in shorting it. While this may or may not be a sound position based on market fundamentals — I have not investigated and think it's a mug's game to waste time on fundamentals these days — people did not take kindly to the revelation. Specifically, redditors at the subreddit Wallstreetbets saw that the short sellers were vulnerable, and they organized a campaign to drive them into the ground. Suddenly, retail investors flooded the market, bought up shares and drove GameStop shares, which had been trading below $20, into the stratosphere, topping $365 Wednesday morning (January 27). Melvin Capital suffered huge losses, up to 30 percent, and had to be saved by an infusion of $2.75 billion Tuesday afternoon.

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Handcuffs

The meme is more powerful than the sword: Delray Beach man accused of using social media accounts to intimidate voters during 2016 election

Andrew Boryga
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Fri, 29 Jan 2021 00:13 UTC
Douglass Mackey
© @RapinBill via Twitter
The former profile photo of Douglass Mackey, who operated under the Twitter handle @TheRickyVaughn. Mackey was arrested on Wednesday and charged with using his social media accounts to attempt to influence the 2016 election. The image used for his account is actually actor Charlie Sheen playing his role as pitcher Ricky Vaughn in the 1989 movie "Major League."
In the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, a Delray Beach man is accused of using his popular social-media accounts to intimidate and mislead voters in an effort to help former President Donald Trump win, according to a federal complaint.

Douglass Mackey, 31, conspired with others to use Twitter and Facebook accounts operating under the alias "Ricky Vaughn" to spread disinformation in the form of memes, messages and hashtags that he developed for the goal of influencing voters, according to the complaint. One of the images he shared included a claim that people could vote for Hillary Clinton in a text message.

Mackey is accused of violating a U.S. statute that makes it illegal for people to threaten or intimidate others from exercising any right secured to them by the Constitution, such as the right to vote.

Gerald Greenberg, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Florida, said speech that threatens or seeks to halt those rights is not protected by the First Amendment.

"You're allowed to lie to convince someone not to vote for Hillary Clinton," he said. "But you're not allowed to lie to block someone from voting for Hillary Clinton."

Mackey's charges stem from New York, where he previously lived before moving to Delray Beach in 2018, according to public records. Mackey was arrested in his home on Wednesday and later released on $50,000 bond.

His Twitter handle and alias is a reference to the character Ricky Vaughn played by Charlie Sheen in the 1989 film "Major League." One of Mackey's popular Twitter profile pictures featured a modified image of Sheen wearing a Make America Great Again hat.

Comment: It's just beginning.





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Megaphone

CDC researchers find little evidence of school related COVID-19 infection

Vishwadha Chander
Yahoo
Tue, 26 Jan 2021 20:24 UTC
school new york

FILE PHOTO: A school safety officer greets students as they return to New York City's public schools for in-person learning, as the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, at P.S. 506 in Brooklyn, New York
Studies in the United States and abroad found little evidence schools were spreading COVID-19 infections, showing a "path forward" to in-person classes, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Tuesday.

The risk of catching COVID-19 in schools and whether to allow in-person learning or stick with online classes has been a hot topic of debate in many countries, including the United States.

While there had been some evidence of in-school transmission, "the preponderance of available evidence from the fall school semester has been reassuring," the researchers said in an opinion piece on the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network. (

Comment: A Chinese study of 10 MILLION people found no evidence of healthy people spreading coronavirus. But that's just one of many reasons why schools should be open:

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Yellow Vest

Lockdown protests continue in Lebanon, Israel, and the Netherlands


The Daily Star Lebanon
Wed, 27 Jan 2021 11:37 UTC
tripoli protest
© AFP / Fathi AL-MASRI
Lebanese soldiers fire rubber bullet and tear gas at anti-government protesters amid clashes in the northern port city of Tripoli on January 26, 2021, as anger grows over a total lockdown aimed at stemming an unprecedented spike in coronavirus cases.
Overnight clashes in Lebanon's northern port city of Tripoli between security forces and demonstrators angered by a coronavirus lockdown injured at least 76 people, security sources said Wednesday.

The Lebanese Red Cross said it cared for 45 people who were hurt, including nine who were taken to hospital, following rolling scuffles in the city Tuesday night.

The Lebanese Army said 31 soldiers were injured in the exchange. The army statement said it arrested five people alleged to have "vandalised public and private property, incited riots and attacked security forces".

Comment: RT reports on just some of the other lockdown protests occurring across the globe:
Mayhem in Jerusalem as ultra-Orthodox Jews clash with cops amid ongoing lockdown resistance

Protesters in Mea Shearim, Jerusalem hurled rocks at moving vehicles and created street barricades using garbage dumpsters during Tuesday's unrest, according to local media. Police are said to have deployed a water cannon to disperse the crowd, and made several arrests.

Footage from RT's video agency Ruptly shows several fires burning in the streets as demonstrators skirmish with police. Cops in riot gear are seen dragging away several protesters who were blocking the road.



Similar unrest was reported elsewhere in Israel. In Beit Shemesh, a city outside of Jerusalem, hundreds of protesters threw rocks and eggs at police, resulting in three arrests.

In Modi'in Illit, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, ultra-Orthodox Jews tried to block police vehicles, resulting in confrontations with law enforcement personnel at the scene.



The protests come just days after Orthodox believers in Mea Shearim clashed with police after the community opened its yeshiva religious schools in violation of nationwide lockdown measures.

Israel is currently under its third nationwide lockdown. The restrictions are set to expire on Sunday, but the government has yet to announce a plan to gradually lift them. Health officials have warned that easing measures may be a slow process due to new variants of the virus spreading widely throughout Israel.

Israel's Orthodox community has been actively resisting the country's Covid-19 restrictions for months. Their protests against the measures, which have placed limitations on travel and shuttered schools and 'non-essential' businesses, have become a regular occurrence.
Dutch police record quieter night with only 131 arrests, as anti-lockdown rioting continues into fifth day

Tuesday night was considerably quieter than the previous evenings, the Dutch police concluded on Wednesday. Of the 131 people arrested across the country, 81 were arrested for confrontations with the police in Rotterdam.

The police said most of the detainees last night were under 25 years old and were mainly charged with violence and incitement offences.
lockdown protest netherlands
© REUTERS/Stringer
(FILE PHOTO) Police officers block a street during a demonstration against restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in Rotterdam, Netherlands,
On Tuesday, the authorities reported 184 arrests in connection with the previous night's disturbances.

Dutch cities have descended into mayhem every night for almost a week as disgruntled citizens vent their anger at the introduction of a controversial nighttime curfew meant to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

At least 500 people have now been arrested since the Netherlands imposed its first nationwide curfew since World War II.

Dutch Justice Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus said on Tuesday that rioters would face the full force of the law and would be sent to court quickly for sentencing.

"They won't get away with it. If you rob people who are struggling with the help of the government to keep their head above water, it's totally scandalous," Grapperhaus told reporters after another night of unrest that saw numerous confrontations between rioters and police, and the looting of stores in the port city of Rotterdam and the southern city of Den Bosch.

Despite the opposition to it, the justice minister said the curfew would remain.
France:


See also: The Inanity of RNA Vaccines For COVID-19

And check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal #34: Covid By Numbers




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Arrow Up

Did Covid help turn Americans into bloodthirsty killers in 2020? Some cities saw a 400% increase in homicides

Chris Sweeney
RT
Tue, 26 Jan 2021 19:57 UTC
police Chicago
© Reuters
Police crime scene South Side Chicago
Recently released figures show a shocking rise in murders across the US. Experts warn there's not a single explanation, but agree the pandemic and social unrest were major factors. Will the bloodshed continue in 2021?

St Louis has just recorded its most homicides in 50 years. In Boston, killings have also shot up, with a rise of 54 percent on 2019. Omaha has experienced an even more shocking increase, with numbers doubling in 12 months. And then there's Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, topping the league table of American cities with an incredible 400 percent rise. Murder rates surged all over the US in 2020. New York recorded 437 cases, up 39 percent, and Los Angeles 343, a 33-percent jump. After decades of stable or falling murder rates in most US cities and towns, the numbers are shocking. What lies behind them?

Speaking to RT.com, Emma E. Fridel, Assistant Professor at Florida State University's College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, explains:
"Cities often report seemingly high percentage increases in homicide, without providing context. Homicide is a relatively rare event, even in large cities. Percentages - especially percentages changes - are not stable when the denominator is a small number. An increase from one homicide to two, still a very low number, would be a whopping 100 percent increase. For example, some reports state Boston's murder rate skyrocketed by over 50 percent from 2019 to 2020. They failed to mention, however, that Boston only had 34 homicides in 2019, so that each additional murder in 2020 above 34 is an additional three percent increase."
That is the case in America's leader, Madison. It went from two to 10 homicides - hence the massive 400% percentage rise on paper.

But the point remains: many more killings occurred in 2020 compared to 2019. Chicago saw 267 more, Milwaukee 93 and Houston had an additional 96. Clearly, the pandemic has played some sort of part, but what exactly is that? Obviously, it can't be separated from the general turmoil that America underwent in 2020.

Comment: The plandemic/multi-city rioting combo appears to be playing right into gun reformists hands - the manufactured statistical leverage they have been looking for.

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Bizarro Earth

The scientific evidence I've studied on lockdowns suggests they don't work. The places with the highest death rates all had them

Malcolm Kendrick
RT
Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:43 UTC
coronavirus sign
© REUTERS/John Sibley
A person walks a dog next to a sign displaying the measures imposed by the government against the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in London, Britain, November 5, 2020
The history of medical interventions tells us that often the accepted way of doing things turns out to be dreadfully wrong. I fear this is going to be the case with this so-called Covid 'cure'.
"Paradoxically, human beings, when compelled to act, learn to justify a chosen course with an assurance unwarranted by the evidence for the course chosen." - Bernard Lown.
I have studied the history of medicine, and medical interventions, for many years. The most extreme disasters have always followed a fairly distinct pattern. A series of steps, if you like.

Step one: We have a serious disease that is killing lots of people.

Step two: It creates great fear, and the medical profession has nothing much in place to deal with it.

Step three: A charismatic leader emerges to decree that he (almost always a 'he' up to now) knows how to treat it/control it, etc. This is 'the idea'.

Comment: And what about all the other variables that come into play like regions where the monetary incentivization of hospitals to label all or most deaths as 'due to Covid' when not only the testing is unreliable, but the numbers of deaths attributed to the virus could not possibly be accurate?

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X

Facebook's secret settlement on Cambridge Analytica gags UK data watchdog

Natasha Lomas
TechCrunch
Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:17 UTC
fb facebook
© Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto / Getty Images
Remember the app audit Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg promised to carry out a little under three years ago at the height of the Cambridge Analytica scandal? Actually the tech giant is very keen that you don't.

The UK's information commissioner just told a parliamentary subcommittee on online harms and disinformation that a secret arrangement between her office and Facebook prevents her from publicly answering whether or not Facebook contacted the ICO about completing a much-trumpeted 'app audit'.

"I think I could answer that question with you and the committee in private," information commissioner Elizabeth Denham told questioner, Kevin Brennan, MP.

Comment: See also:

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Megaphone

Faced with the woke onslaught, the Left needs to wake up to the importance of free speech

Calvin Robinson
The Telegraph
Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:57 UTC
helen pluckrose
A new campaign to combat indoctrination led by a Left-leaning activist shows how we can turn the tide on woke.

Woke ideologies have infested every element of our day-to-day lives, swamping institutions from universities and charities to businesses and sports teams. Those who dissent from the orthodoxy have been sacked, cancelled and ostracised, punished for daring to critique ideas that most people regard as being somewhere between absurd and sinister.

The range of woke themes today is broad, stretching from Critical Race Theory - the absurd and offensive idea that relative levels of "privilege" can be decided solely by skin colour - to radical understandings of gender identity. Recognising there's no universal umbrella term for these various causes, Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsey of the New Discourses project coined the term "Critical Social Justice", which could indeed become useful terminology if it enters the public lexicon.

Comment: See also:

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Laptop

Trump's YouTube channel to 'remain suspended' after Capitol riot due to 'ongoing potential for violence'

Brooke Singman
Fox News
Wed, 27 Jan 2021 16:41 UTC
youtube trump
Comments under videos from Trump's channel will continue to be disabled indefinitely.

Former President Donald Trump's YouTube channel will "remain suspended," the company said Wednesday, pointing to an "ongoing potential for violence" in the wake of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6.

YouTube suspended Trump's channel earlier this month, meaning it could not upload new videos or livestreams, after Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat banned the president's accounts from their platforms.

Comment: Dorsey is right, if users don't like Twitter, they can go to Parler... oh wait.

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