Attacking the YES PEU Train

If anyone was wondering what had former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former CIA Chief David Petraeus on trains in Ukraine when Russia attacked one nearby, here's your answer.  They all had attended the annual Yalta European Strategy (YES) meeting in Kiev.  

Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the UK (2019-2022), commented that: “The great advantage Putin has, and always has had, is clarity of purpose. He knows what he wants out of this thing. He wants to stop Ukraine ending up in the Western camp, one way or the other, and we’re failing to be clear ourselves. Only clarity will fix this thing.” 

“(Putin) is a creep, added Johnson. “He’s a thug. He’s a KGB man and he’s a bully. This is fundamentally an imperial war. It’s about Russia’s sense that there’s no possibility of a Russian future, or a Russian empire, or Russian dignity without Ukraine, and that is an absolute disaster.”

Johnson advises Bia Advisory as Principal and Petraeus holds lots of titles with KKR, the first of which is partner.

David Petraeus, Partner, KKR: “ His (Putin) theory of victory is fundamentally that time favours him. He thinks that he can out-suffer the Ukrainians and the West. He is hoping for the exhaustion of Ukraine and the West, and he wants to see political change in Europe and the United States so that elements start to question whether to continue to support Ukraine.” 

“I am very confident that Ukraine can withstand this winter,” added Petraeus “The question is: how painful will it be? The entire society of Ukraine is stepping up to meet this, but the question is whether there are knock-on effects that start to undermine the national resilience that has been on display so impressively until now.”

I doubt many people in this room have issues staying warm and fed this winter.  

  

Other private equity underwriters (PEU) and TechGods attended (see picture at the top of this post).  Former Army Chief and Flex Capital COO Dan Driscoll was there, as was Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO turned high tech military supplier.

White House special envoy Jared Kushner, himself a PEU with Affinity Partners, reached out to Petraeus' KKR and Apollo (of Jeffrey Epstein fame) for recovery funds.  

Will they change the country's name to U-KKR-aine?

I'm sure CNN's Fareed Zakharia will let us know.  He has a long history of fawning over global tamperers of the PEU variety.

As for Ukrainians staying warm this winter that will depend on their natural gas supplies, increasingly PEU owned.  It turns out the greed and leverage boys love carbon emissions.  Only four large countries stand in front of them in carbon emissions.

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

Buying Pardons from Trump II: "Strategery"

A pardon broker told 60 Minutes that their $1 million fee purchased his firm's "strategery."  I hope he pays a royalty to Saturday Night Live and actor/comedian Will Ferrell who coined the term in a 2000 skit.

The broker shows the clownish nature of the insider money funnel that has wound out of control the last few decades.

Politicians Red & Blue love private equity underwriters (PEU) and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one and they are insulated from following laws that apply to most Americans.  

On the rare case greedy miscreants are held to account for their evil deeds, pardon brokers stand to wipe out any blemishes in return for massive fees.  Strategery!

Sweeney Goes PEU for NOVIG

Sydney Sweeney joined the private equity underwriter (PEU) family by becoming a strategic advisor and equity holder in NOVIG, a 21-plus sports prediction market.  The ad has her saying "Just sports."  

The greed and leverage boys have been all over pro and college sports for the last few years.  They brought their ethical lapses with them in the case of LA Lakers owner Mark Walther.

Sweeney's boyfriend partnered with The Carlyle Group on Taylor Swift's music rights and that saga went on for quite some time.  An obsession for money can make people very ugly.

Just SPEURTS!  Beware the dividend....  It's coming, baby.  For you, they might make a special distribution.

Update:  This non-gambling site happens to have a gambling term in its name, vig.

Clarity into Those Pushing Clarity Act

Trump II is pushing hard for Congress to pass the Clarity Act.  His crypto conflicts of interest are legion, $TRUMP, USD1, WLFI token, Truth Social ETF funds, Truth.FI fund offerings and the game that seemingly never arrives, Trump Billionaires Club Game, which exclusively uses $TRUMP.

How many elected officials know Trump's top crypto advisor Patrick Witt worked for a Ponzi scheme (First Liberty Building & Loan)?  Witt served as Director of New Ventures and Strategic Growth, starting in 2023.

The SEC found the scheme in July 2025.  Trump II's "Just Us" department filed charges in April.  Edwin Frost IV pled guilty to one charge of wire fraud in May.

...starting around 2021, First Liberty stopped generating enough revenue to pay its investors, so it began using new investor funds to cover the shortfall and maintain the illusion of profit.

This story line fits amazingly well with crypto overall, the currency of nothing, pushed by people with conflicts.

U-KKR-aine & Bia Advisory in Putin's Sights?

The layers of PEUs around Ukraine include Trump II's special envoy Jared Kushner of Affinity Partners as well as KKR and Apollo, the two firms Kushner is recruiting to rebuild the country. 

Affinity, Apollo & KKR, oh my....

Trump innovated the bold assassination of whoever he targets as part of war or his lesser military skirmishes.  

Russian President Vladimir Putin may be doing likewise.  Ukrainian officials speculate a Russian attack on a train targeted KKR Partner, Chairman of KKR's Global Institute and Chairman of KKR Middle East David Petraeus and former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Principal Advisor for Bia Advisory.

A recent paper explored "The Sponsor Premium."  It:

"examined whether a private equity sponsor's reputation for fair dealing with lenders impacts the yields its portfolio companies must pay for loan capital. Using comprehensive leveraged loan data from 2016-2025, we find that sponsor fixed effects explain approximately twenty percent of the variation in loan yields that other observables cannot. Moreover, we find that, under three measures of reputation, portfolio companies owned by the most aggressive sponsors pay considerably higher yields than those owned by more genial sponsors."

The difficult to deal with list includes Apollo, Platinum Equity, ClearLake, KKR and TPG Capital.  Carlyle was smack in the middle of the distribution.  

If you are a difficult to deal with financier/sponsor and your affiliates make war products, are you now a war target?  

Leaders killing leaders would be quite the war innovation as it would not require legions of fresh citizen meat.

As of now politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.  Might this change as the rules of war are disrupted?  Time will tell.

J.R. Trump Returns to Dallas

The J.R. Ewing side of Trump II revealed itself, this time in Dallas.  J.R. is a fictional character from the television show Dallas.  He was an unprincipled businessman, like Donald J. Trump. Dallas.fandom describes J.R. as "covetous, egocentric, manipulative and amoral oil baron with psychopathic tendencies."  

Had the show occurred in the last fifteen years J.R. would be a private equity underwriter (PEU).  Writers could use Apollo co-founder and Epstein sponsor Leon Black as inspiration for a PEU J.R.  Bloomberg noted Black to be the "most feared man" in private equity in 2020.

How did J.R. Trump do in Dallas?  On night one the Great Usurper offered $5,000 dividends for adult voters if his team (Red) wins enough races to keep control of both houses of Congress.  

On night two Trump asked his audience to pledge to vote (even if they aren't registered) and for elected officials to cheat like hell. 

J.R. Trump uses mail-in ballots to vote but does not believe others deserve access to what he has found convenient.  

Trump accuses the Blue Team of cheating, while the Red Team plans to taint the midterm elections.  It matters not the color of the stain, Red or Blue.  

It just needs to be jacked up so Trump II can try to steer the outcome via a Congress he controls and a mostly subservient Supreme Court.

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.  J.R.Trump does not share.  He buys control, manipulates like hell to maintain it and if he thinks he'll lose that control, the man blows the whole thing up.  

An intervention will be required to stem Trump II's worst instincts (which result in savage whims).  Congress?  The Supremes?  The Divine?

Flags of All Colors Fly for Patrick Witt

Semafor sat down with Trump II's top crypto advisor Patrick Witt to discuss dwindling opportunities to pass the Clarity Act.  Witt warned that time is running out.  I wondered who is this Patrick Witt, other than a former McKinsey staffer and almost NFL quarterback.

Digital assets, emerging financial technologies, strategic capital for the country's defense...for one to be an expert in all these would be rather amazing.  Not for Patrick Witt, Trump II's Executive Director of the White House Council of Advisors for Digital Assets and Acting Director of the Defense Department's Office of Strategic Capital.  Witt was appointed in August 2025 to these positions.

Witt's background raised interest with "served as managing director for a lower-middle market private equity firm."  None of his bio's stated which private equity underwriter (PEU).

From January to May 2025 Witt was interim Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and Deputy Chief Technology Officer.  Was he able to steer any military contracts to firms associated with Eric and Don Jr.?

Internet sources show Witt founded Turnkey Contractor Solutions LLC, served as Managing Director for EcoFusion Solutions and worked in a director role for First Liberty Building and Loan.

Turnkey dissolved as a Georgia corporation in September 2024.  EcoFusion's website is no longer findable (per Witt's LinkedIn page link) and First Liberty Building and Loan failed and later turned out to be a Ponzi scheme.

There is no evidence that Witt knew his employer ran a Ponzi scheme, yet he was charged with growing that financial institution through new ventures and strategic expansion.

Working for two failures and a shady operation does not seem a strong hand to renew the Defense Department or pioneer Digital Assets (which has legions of shady operators).

Patrick Witt appears to be a person who can fill many roles, like James Fishback.  They seem to be able to get past the orientation but appear not to be long term players in specific fields of expertise.

It's good to be a PEU generalist nowadays.  To many that's a plus.  For me, it's a Red Flag.

Update 9-14-26:  Trump is pushing hard for Congress to pass the Clarity Act.  How many elected officials know Patrick Witt worked for a Ponzi scheme?  This story line fits amazingly well with crypto overall, the currency of nothing.