Blackstone's Baratta Relieved

Joe Baratte is leaving Blackstone.  The reason is unclear:

1.  AI killed the video star

2.  Insurance shenanigans, i.e. actual crimes

3.  Trump II needs another billionaire to yell at

4.  All of the above

Bloomberg seemed to confirm that Blackstone could no longer afford its star executives.  The public will no longer see Joe Baratta in that annual Holiday video.  

Baratta dumped 213,000 Blackstone shares over the last four months.  If only he had a U.S. government job to shield some of that from taxes.

This man will land on his feet after he gets out of the plush recliner in his private jet.  Joe joined the billionaire club last year.  He may even run for office given...

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.

PEU Chief Leaving Blackstone

Blackstone Group Senior Managing Director Joe Baratta is stepping down after 28 years with the private equity underwriter (PEU).  GuruFocus reported:

Over the past year Joseph Baratta has sold 213,000 shares of Blackstone stock and bought zero shares

I thought he was leaving to avoid being in another Blackstone Holiday video with Founder Steven Schwarzman. 

 

Schwarzman attended last night's State Dinner for Chinese President Xi Jingping.  If Trump II is holding a big event Schwarzman is usually in attendance.  

The White House is tight lipped as to what Schwarzman, Trump and Xi discussed.  I doubt Joe Baratta even came up as a topic.  

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren (that crew was everywhere in yesterday's State Dinner).  Increasingly more are one and where Joe lands, so far nobody knows.

Trump Re-Founding USA

Executive founders require a compliant board of directors and in the case of Trump II, that's a subservient Cabinet, Congress and Supreme Court.  

Trump II is the kind of leader where anything that came before him is anathema.  It can only be saved by his personal touch, by his genius intervention.

Such executives' personal force is so powerful it exceeds societal norms, longstanding party platforms and even the law.  They are the law, a deity and what they say goes.  Period.

Founding Fathers must be usurped.  Like a dog pees to claim its territory, Great Presidents must be marked (Kennedy Center, Ford Theater).  New monuments must be built in Trump II's honor.  The elevation of the Washington, D. C. must be changed to reflect Trump II's greatness.  

This all requires money, lots of it, which brings us back to executive founders from Silicon Valley and storied private equity underwriters (PEU) like Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman, (another co-founder).  

Fortunately, Schwarzman's streak of State Dinner invites continued with last night's event for Chinese President Xi Jinping.  

TechGods populated the guest list.  This group of serial founders attended en masse.  Junior TechGod and PEU founder of Narnia Capital J.D. Vance attended in his current role of Vice President.  

Rather than alphabetical like most White House's, the list is in order of political importance.  It went::Trump II & Melania, Xi and his wife, Trump's closest advisors and spouses, the Chinese delegation (guests) and then the wider Trump family.  From there it was populated mostly by TechGods/PEUs/major donors with a smattering of media types.  

Two of Trump's largest donors attended, Miriam Adelson and Elon Musk.

Schwarzman fell between Larry Fink of BlackRock and Sam Altman of OpenAI.

Larry Fink, Blackrock, CEO 

Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone, 

CEO Sam Altman, OpenAI, CEO

Most spouses were listed next to their Trump associated significant other.  The exception was RFK, Jr.'s wife, Cheryl Hines.   She was dead last.  That's the way Trump II rolls.  

I worked for a Trump like boss early in my career and recall being at the bottom of a tyrant's arbitrary list.  God provided a way out then and I trust he will do likewise now.  

Petty dictatorship is so awfully human.  Christ called us to rise above and for that he rose again.  I have faith we will too.  Lord, help us.  Lord, help us all.

Update:  Our re-founder is front and center in a government paid for ad this political season.  I repurposed it to show Trump II's mental agility:

Maybe "annihilate" will make the list for Trump II's next brain examination when he shows us once again his super intelligence. 

Xi Dines with Trump II's Portfolio

TechGods were front and center for Trump II's State Dinner for Chinese President Xi.  Trump wingman Jeffrey Epstein noted how much his friend Donald enjoyed showing off his portfolio.  

Trump II's stock trading is historic and many CEOs of companies in his portfolio attended the State dinner event.

Xi should know that our TechGods are not content staying in their home/adopted country, some even want off the planet.

With South America and the Middle East covered, I can only hope Xi offers our global expansionist TechGods a disputed island between Taiwan and the mainland.

Xi to Dine with CEOs from Trump II's Stock Holdings

Trump II will host a State Dinner for Chinese President Xi.  The invitee list reads like a Trump stock trading portfolio.  

One used to be able to see the attendee list on the White House website, but those days of actual information availability have past (alongside ethics standards).  

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU (private equity underwriters) and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one and this crew loves to show off their insider connections and personal wealth.  Expect a legendary soiree of obscene excess.

Cipher Digital's Grid Connections

Cipher Digital's Lee Bratcher presented at Tom Green County Commissioners' Court yesterday.  He noted that their data center site Colchis (1GW) received conditional base load designation from ERCOT.

The question arose about ERCOT and the possibility that both Cipher's Colchis and Emergent Data Centers' SA1 (a competing application) could be awarded a portion of their requested power allotment from the same Red Creek substation.  (go to the 1 hour mark in the video)

Bratcher led with their Bill Blevins hire.  He stated Blevins was the former Head of Grid Integration at ERCOT and that he has looked at that substation which has massive capacity.  He said he did not see a scenario where both Emergent and Cipher got their full allocation in Batch Zero.  

Blevins joined Cipher in June, shortly after San Angelo Mayor Tom Thompson shared that ERCOT seemed to be leaning in their direction over Emergent.  

The jump from regulator to corporate executive is fairly common at the insider level.  It appears Bill Blevins picked a winner.

Politicians Red & Blue love private equity underwriters (PEU) and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one and for that the little people suffer.

Kalshi to Offer Margin Loans, Trump's Stock Trading

Kalshi, which brokers bets, wants to go Klarna, by allowing those bettors to borrow via margin loans.  If the CFTC grants approval, welcome to Kalsharna.

TechGods love offering addictive products that spin off mountains of cash.  Here's the hook.

1.  People struggling financially need their Kalshi bets to actually pay off. 

2.  79% of prediction market users lost money over the last year, placing them in a greater hole.

3.  Kalsharna will loan losers money so they can "win it back", but 4 out of five users continue to lose money on the site.

So if all this is stacked against the common person, who is winning?  Who is making a fortune predicting future stock prices?  

It's a nice gig if you can get it and Trump II has it in spades given he's traded more than all of Congress combined.