Friday, May 1, 2026
Ben Sasse Has Hope & a Message
Trump Boys Love Tungsten!
The Trump boys and Dominari strike again. They plan to shift a NASDAQ company from resurfacing existing building exteriors into a rare minerals juggernaut. And it will do so with Uncle Sam's help.
Skyline Builders Group Holding Limited (NASDAQ: SKBL) is a Cayman Islands exempted company with limited liability with its main assets focused on the construction industry in Asia. In the third quarter of 2025, a group of US investors, led by American Ventures, took control of SKBL via a significant cash injection with a goal to divest of the legacy Asian construction business and acquire assets in the critical material supply chain. SKBL seeks to become a highly strategic supplier of critical minerals and nuclear fuels and will focus on supplying customers in the United States preferentially over customers in other regions to ensure that US customers have access to the critical materials they require. In November 2025, SKBL announced that it had subscribed for an approximate 20% membership interest in an LLC involved in the critical materials supply chain. In April 2026, SKBL announced a Transaction Agreement to effect a business combination with Cove Kaz, a U.S.-backed critical minerals development company focused on advancing strategic resource projects in Kazakhstan.
American Ventures has three funds associated with Skyline Builders. SEC filings reveal the first (American Ventures LLC, Series XIX SKBL) was for $17.5 million (9-9-25)
For the Projects, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) has issued a Letter of Interest for up to $900 million in project financing, and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has issued a Letter of Interest for up to $700 million. Cove Kaz will be responsible for marketing 100% of project output and has entered into a Letter of Intent with the International Trade Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce to prioritize U.S. Government and American commercial needs. Total development costs are estimated at approximately $1.1 billion.
Thursday, April 30, 2026
SPAC-EX IPO Coming
SpaceX, Elon Musk's personal rollup, filed for an IPO.
U.S. Senators floated cutting the capital gains tax to help the common person.
...nearly all of the tax break would go to the top 20% of earners, with the top 0.1% collecting the greatest savingsPoliticians Red and Blue love PEU (private equity underwriters) and their new TechGod.CryptoBro brethren. Increasingly, more are one.
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
State Dinner for a King
Synapse, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, served as middleware for approximately 100 fintechs and 10 million end users. Its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing revealed a shortfall of $65–$96 million in customer funds, with $54 million in deposits still frozen as of September 2024, stranding thousands of users. The crisis laid bare the risks of complex middleware systems that promised seamless integration but faltered under scrutiny [1].Scrutiny? More like failed under real world use.
Gaps in ledgering contributed to millions of dollars in unreconciled customer funds, a cautionary tale
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
TechGods Create & Destroy
An AI agent powered by Anthropic’s leading Claude model has deleted a company’s entire production database, leaving customers unable to access key data.
“We are a small business. The customers running their operations on our software are small businesses. Every layer of this failure cascaded down to people who had no idea any of it was possible.
TechGods: Giving customers headaches they don't even know to ask for.
TechGods giveth the database and their AI taketh it and all backups away.
Update 4-29-26: More on the harm done by AI:
Congress sat on its hands for decades freeing TechGod products to harm children and people. I doubt that is coming to an end, not while TechGods adorn White House state dinners.
Monday, April 27, 2026
Trump II Cans National Science Board
The White House reportedly fired the members of the National Science Foundation Board on Friday with little explanation.
The National Science Foundation advises the President and Congress on top scientific issues. The foundation's grant projects withered under DOGE with over 1,000 grants eliminated in April 2025.
The board is comprised of 25 appointed members serving six year terms. As of Friday the board had 22 members with most being university professors/administrators, while others are from the private sector.
One member is from Kleiner Perkins, a politically connected private equity underwriter (PEU) that invests heavily in tech. Former Vice President and Senior Partner Al Gore represents the Blue Team for Kleiner Perkins.
Trump II wants to steer the money to Red Team supporters while engineering profits for family members. It's a fractal repeated at various levels and scales across his administration.
I would say Trump needs better advisors but he does not listen to them. They are but props on a stage for the greatest leader ever to adorn the "halls of gubment."
Trump II and his TechGods/CryptoBros are in the midst of another hostile takeover. For that our country suffers.
Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod/CryptoBro brethren. However, the Reds do so in the most controlling manner possible while ceaselessly demanding donations.
How much will Trump II charge for a NSF board appointment? OpenAI Sam Altman already sends lots of money to Trump/Red Team initiatives.
Sunday, April 26, 2026
Trump II: Not Phelan It
Trump II fired Navy Secretary John Phelan, a private equity underwriter (PEU) mid-excursion into Iran. The current naval blockade is the President's signature strategy to get the Iranians to fold (even though they have no cards). Phelan cited two factors in his leaving, "competing equities" and "internal friction."
Here's why Phelan might choose the words "competing equities."
John Phelan is the Cofounder and Chairman of Rugger Management. Prior to launching Rugger, he cofounded MSD Capital—Michael Dell’s family office, as well as MSD Partners. John helped MSD post double-digit net returns and over $20bn in profits during his tenure, and serves as Chairman Emeritus. Before starting MSD, John was a Principal at Eddie Lampert’s ESL Partners. John was responsible for ESL’s Special Situation and Distressed Investments, and helped grow the firm from $50mn to >$2bn in AUM. Prior to ESL, John was a VP at the Equity Group and in charge of acquisitions (Western region) for Sam Zell’s Zell-Merrill Lynch Real Estate Opportunity Funds. He also spent a summer with Richard Rainwater. John began his career at Goldman Sachs, where he was a financial analyst in the Investment Banking Division and was mentored by Hank Paulson and Byron Trott.
His financial disclosure showed 10 different Rugger entities, all with the value column left blank. It also showed he owned stock in Apollo (private equity/private credit) and Blue Owl (private credit with a dabble of private equity).
Trump II spun the firing as a win for everyone. Phelan can even come back.
John Phelan's hiring as Navy Secretary was part of a strategic move to pair the Pentagon with PEUs.