First Major FEMA Test Since DOUGEBAG

FEMA will have its first major test since TechGod Elon Musk unleashed the Department of Ungodly Greedy Executives Biased Against Government (DOUGEBAG).  

The storm is hitting on a Friday evening, a setback for government which often just runs during the week.  

Hospitals will need help as soon as the winds and water come down enough.  I say this having lived through a river flooded, teaching hospital in Virginia and worked to evacuate a Texas Gulf Coast hospital prior to a record hurricane (Hurricane Gilbert which failed to make the predicted turn and hit Mexico).

When the Bush White House seemed slow on Hurricane Katrina, I sent my estimate of the number of patients remaining in New Orleans hospitals, many of which needed urgent evacuations.

Hurricane Isaias is hitting deep Red Trump territory weeks before an election.  They may be more charitable to FEMA than most, but their patience and understanding could wane if help is too slow.  

Praying for people in harm's way to be in safe places and for the Lord to watch over and protect them.  

(Posted on PEUReport as many government contractors are private equity underwriter (PEU) owned and many PEUs served on DOUGEBAG.)

Update 10-19-26:  The Guardian reported:

US disaster survivors still await at least $10bn in federal aid: ‘It’s devastating’

Waking Up to Insurance Distortions from PEU Ownership

The world is waking up to the fact that insurance company investments may join pension plans in not being able to fulfill their commitments to beneficiaries.  In November 2023 PEUReport wrote:

Several years ago private equity firms began buying insurance companies and steering those pools of capital to their PEU offerings. This was framed as smart capitalism vs. a conflict of interest.

The world saw this with Mark Walter's using captive insurance companies to finance his private equity holdings.  The more investigators dig, the more they find.  $17 billion in undisclosed loans becomes $21 billion.  

Apollo founded Athene in the aftermath of the financial crisis, later taking it over completely in 2021.

Carlyle bought their initial stake in Fortitude Re in 2018 and later acquired a majority stake with T&D Holdings (a Tokyo based insurer).  Many private equity underwriters (PEU) bought insurance companies in their search for permanent capital.

Forensic accountant Tom Gober outlined the risks associated with strategies undertaken by PEU owned insurers in The Institutional Risk Analyst.   Investing legend George Noble had Gober on his podcast recently.

Retirement Income Journal reported on Gober's House testimony in July 2023.

Gober, in his presentation, focused on the conflicts of interest inherent in certain life/annuity companies’ purchase of assets from sibling firms in the same holding company (“affiliated assets”). As for offshore reinsurance, he called it a “sleight of hand” tactic for reducing the amount of surplus capital supporting pension liabilities.

The warning is relative to current insurance company investments and how they are valued.  Things can get worse if insurance companies answer BlackRock CEO Larry Fink's call to finance data centers.

Law firm Quinn Emanuel’s March memo on data-center debt was making the rounds in recent days, laying out worst-case scenarios for the hundreds of billions of dollars being borrowed and spent to fund the AI buildout. It does the one thing professional-services memos never do: It names names.

Their report states:

The scale and complexity of the financing structures underpinning the AI data center buildout are already raising concerns among regulators, investors, and policymakers. For example, in January 2026, four U.S. Senators urged in an open letter that regulators investigate the AI sector’s growing reliance on debt. The letter warned that companies are increasingly turning toward “complex and opaque debt markets to borrow staggering sums of cash” and their inability to service the debt “could cause destabilizing losses for an interconnected set of financial institutions, triggering a broader financial crisis that harms the economy.” The Federal Reserve and the Bank for International Settlements have expressed similar concerns.

My wise friend noted:

When these data centers announce they are borrowing money in the trillions and the whole group and everything related goes up 10X, you would expect an equal retreat when Open AI basically fudges their numbers by $28 billion.  

It's all funny games when it's other people's money.  No one gives a hoot under big number = big fee.  If it all collapses, don't blame me.  I just package and sell "investments."

Congrees heard about this three years ago and nothing has been done?  That's because politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.

SPAC-EX & Apollo Tie Up for "Epstein Level" Super Intelligence

 Elon Musk's SPAC-EX plans to borrow $40 billion and Apollo Global Management is leading the raise.

The smartest guys in the room, TechGods, are joining the other smartest guys in the room, private equity underwriters (PEU), to bring us "super intelligence" that furthers their wealth, standing and elite position in Western society. 

The public experienced such positioning over several decades as we learned of the predatory exploits of Jeffrey Epstein and how the "financial genius" was enabled at turn after turn by elected officials, those charged with public safety and our "Just Us" system.  

Epstein's largest financial sponsor, Apollo co-founder Leon Black, gave the predator over $150 million for "tax advice."  

Apollo's website has the following question:  What if the world doesn't work the way you think it does?

AI, recently rebranded by Trump II as super intelligence,  is already bringing us bad things.  It targeted a girl's school in Iran, killing hundreds of children.  

TechGods say it's just one of those "bad things."  Unsaid subtext:  their product is a very capable cyber and war criminal.  Their PEU financiers know, yet they still throw their retirees' money at this shockingly expensive, shoddy and dangerous product.

It seems super intelligence is supercharging predatory behavior along multiple fronts.  That is Epstein Level.

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one and they've long been a law unto their own.

"No fatties, No beardos & No weirdos"

The Guardian reported:

Donald Trump on Tuesday announced the opening of a new $6.6bn shipbuilding factory in Baltimore, partly funded by the US government but owned by Anduril Industries, a politically connected defense company.

Trump II wants to build ships faster.

Trump said US taxpayers would “receive a 40% stake” in the shipyard. It is unclear what he meant, and whether the US government is taking an equity share in the company, as it has in some other firms. 

 Anduril said the operation would not be ready to produce ship parts until 2030.

The Navy Secretary spoke at the event:

In a bizarre warning to adversaries, Cao said: “Piss us off [and] we’ll sneak into your country in the middle of the night and snatch you and your wife while you sleep in your beds.”

That may be the best this group of creeps can do for the next few years, given they are running a pass through entity.  

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU (private equity underwriters) and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.

Update:  My wise friend wrote:

ANDURIL Industries has $2 billion  in revenue with a $61 billion valuation.

We have no idea how profitable they are, yet venture capitalists investment bankers and private equity spreadsheet investors all get to mark up their positions based on some forecast of the future that goes bye bye if the US government doesn't take taxpayer money to create contracts to fit their narrative. 

There is our wealth inequality, everybody getting fees they don't deserve for valuations they don't deserve with the country's assets and reserves they don't deserve. 

Mom and Pop has to grow from retained earnings and borrowings which they have to cover out of their standard of living or bottom line. 

All these TechGods and PEUs get to borrow huge sums on forecasts which presume "numbers only go up" and therefore so does their net worth.  There is a pyramid on our currency, one inspired by Charlie Ponzi.  As far as management practice today, Charles looks like a founding father. 

Good Billionaire David Rubenstein

Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein plucked the employment rose off the STEM with his coaching for young people.  Fortune reported:

“For a young person, the best thing to do is learn how to read and enjoy reading, learn how to speak effectively and persuasively, and learn how to write reasonably well,” Rubenstein told Business Insider in a recent interview. 

Instead of simply chasing checks or prestige, the cofounder of $14 billion global investment firm Carlyle Group advised budding workers to “find something that you really enjoy and make it your life’s work.” Rubenstein believes success will follow when young professionals truly enjoy a job that doesn’t feel like work. After all, “Nobody ever won a Nobel Prize hating what they do,” the 77-year-old billionaire said.

Rubenstein built an industry (private equity) around extrinsic motivation (do this to get obscene profits).  That included buying politicians and squarely planting themselves (their affiliates) on the federal teat.  

American workers felt no love from Carlyle or its PEU peers as they sent jobs to China by the junk-load.  Flashback to July 2011:

I have seen so many people -- particularly those in their 50s - 70s -- taken apart by what has happened in their industry as greed has hollowed out the economy. These are people took pride in their jobs and held themselves to this invisible standard that we all just took for granted, but is being wiped out. 

The Carlyle Group scares me more than anything I've ever seen on Wall Street. It seems to exist to corrupt politicians and it's hard to know who they even represent. 

I watched a video interview of (David) Rubenstein and his arrogance is really beyond tolerance.

Many of those workers were "doing what they loved" when private equity bought their employer.  Rubenstein's magic PEU formula ignored that.

At the age of 77 the legendary private equity underwriter (PEU) shifts to intrinsic motivators (doing what you love)?  Please. 

Young workers must be confused by the sudden shedding of STEM, an area they've been coached to pursue for much of their lives.  Is AI is taking that too?  

...tech models are already very good at STEM, so soft skills like EQ, communication, and curiosity are a premium. Those who have “critical-thinking skills” and can “interact with other people” will be best set up to thrive.

Management, including our political leaders, scorned soft skills for decades in favor of spreadsheets, hard targets, disruption and relying on foreign labor or tech solutions over our people (U.S. workers).  HR turned into strategic human abuse.  

I question the motivations of TechGods/PEUs for their 180 degree U-Turn.  It must be because AI is taking all the "get that."  Is "what you love to do" the only thing left?  Remember 2011:  PEUs took it before and they will take it again.

This fits perfectly with their insatiable need for more billions, such that it becomes trillions.  As for help from elected officials, forget about it.  Trump II is the biggest taker of them all.  

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

Dying from PEU Ownership

Some elderly people are dying to invest in private equity underwriters (PEU).  Others are dying from it.

More private equity underwriter (PEU) owned hospitals equals more Medicare patient deaths.  

One does not need AI or prediction markets to understand this.

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

Did Disney Flip, Fold or Fail "Exited" Employees?

Disney President Dana Walden told the audience at Bloomberg Screentime:

“We’ve exited colleagues who I’ve worked with for most of my career... It is in many ways a harsh reality,” Walden said during the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles. 

UMBREX defines exit as:

"Exit" refers to the process by which an investor, typically a private equity firm or venture capital fund, sells its stake in a portfolio company to realize returns on the investment. 

Private equity underwriters (PEU) are known for reducing headcount but they don't use the work "exit" when firing people.  PEUs would rather pay interest than people in their pursuit of obscene returns.  They use "exit" when they (as sponsor) are done with their affiliate company.

Profitable exits include IPOs, trade sales, secondary sale, management buyout or recapitalization (flip to self).  Bad exits are liquidation and bankruptcy.  

How does one sell or liquidate an employee?  That sounds extremely painful.  

“It is extremely painful,” she (Walden) added.

The last 1,300 "exited" were from HR, IT and Marketing.  Management eats its own.  That is so very PEU.

Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Myers and John Oliver noted they are an endangered species last night on The Jimmy Kimmel Show.  Apparently, Trump II cannot find Comedy Central on his remote, thus Jon Stewart and the boys at South Park, recently renamed South America, are safe from his wrath.

Trump II made his television name "exiting" people.  This way to the great egress...