Talk About Tennis 2.0

Time to move my money to Europe...

Dare Obasanjo
‪@carnage4life.bsky.social‬
They’ve laid off so many people that the government is now getting its economic data from DoorDash.

The chairman of Goldman Sacks said that the $38 Trillion debt is something that the USA will have to reckon with.
It went from $7T to $38T in five years.
Imagine if you ran your house like that.

And when the USA will have to reckon with that debt, all of S. America will have to reckon with it too.

I got about 15% "raise" so far this year due to US economic mismanagement. Still it's not a good sign globally...

Company backed by Donald Trump Jr.’s firm nabs $620M government contract

Vulcan Elements, a rare-earth magnets startup backed by Donald Trump Jr.’s VC firm 1789 Capital, has secured a $620 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense, as reported by the Financial Times.

The contract is part of a $1.4 billion partnership with the U.S. government and ReElement Technologies to expand and boost the domestic supply of magnets, according to the company.

Trump Jr. joined 1789 Capital as a partner in 2024. The firm is said to have invested in Vulcan Elements around three months ago, according to Bloomberg. In August, the company announced a $65 million Series A led by Altimeter Capital.

This government contract represents the largest ever made by the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital, the FT reported. This year alone, at least four 1789 companies have received government contracts, FT reported. The firm is also a backer of SpaceX and Anduril, two long-time sellers of tech to the government.

Vulcan denied to FT that Trump Jr. had involvement with the contract negotiations, as did a spokesperson for Trump Jr., who said he “had no involvement in negotiations with the government on behalf of 1789’s portfolio companies.”

Dominic-Madori Davis

https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/03/compa ... -contract/

Something, something about Hunter Biden, a laptop, and trying to make a business deal is nagging at the back of my mind...

They are so blunt about it.
Was talking to a friend yesterday. I said: Your famous system of checks and balances was total fiction. The USA really has no way to rein in the executive branch. It was all a mirage.
He could not disagree (not that he tried).

‪Carl Quintanilla‬
‪@carlquintanilla.bsky.social‬
· 4h
PANTHEON MACRO: “.. September’s data foreshadow a very weak Q4.

“.. Real after-tax income rose at a mere 0.4% rate in Q3—the slowest pace since Q2 2022—and likely will be broadly flat again in Q4, as more tariff-related price rises trickle through and payrolls take a big hit ..”



Don't forget they haven't released any government stats since they fired everyone at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Netflix deal to buy Warner Bros. ‘could be a problem’ because of size of market share, Trump says


By DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Updated 4:41 PM EST, December 8, 2025
Leer en español
Comments 25

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has suggested that a deal struck by Netflix to buy Warner Bros. Discovery “could be a problem” because of the size of the combined market share.

“There’s no question about it,” Trump said Sunday, answering questions about the deal and various other topics as he walked the red carpet at the Kennedy Center Honors.

But asked again during a White House event with farmers a day later, Trump said he “didn’t know anything about the deal.”

“I know the companies very well, I know what they’re doing,” Trump said, while also adding that he had to “see what percentage of market they have.”

The president also said, “None of them are particularly great friends of mine,” but added, “I want to do what’s right.”

His second round of comments came after Paramount launched a hostile takeover offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, backed by a group of investors that includes an equity firm founded by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Trump said he had not spoken to Kushner about the matter, and suggested instead that his son-in-law is “trying to work on Gaza,” a reference to Kushner’s work to promote a U.S.-backed ceasefire to halt fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The Republican president has said he will be involved in the decision about whether the federal government should approve the $72 billion Netflix-Warner deal. If approved by regulators, the merger would put two of the world’s biggest streaming services under the same ownership and join Warner’s television and motion picture division, including DC Studios, with Netflix’s vast library and its production arm.

The deal, which could reshape the entertainment industry, has to “go through a process and we’ll see what happens,” Trump said Sunday night.

In his first comments at the Kennedy Center, Trump was more effusive in his praise of Netflix, calling it “a great company.”

“They’ve done a phenomenal job. Ted is a fantastic man,” he said of Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, noting that they met in the Oval Office last week before the deal was announced Dec. 5. “I have a lot of respect for him but it’s a lot of market share, so we’ll have to see what happens.”

Asked Sunday if Netflix should be allowed to buy the Hollywood giant behind “Harry Potter” and HBO Max, the president said, “Well that’s the question.”

“They have a very big market share and when they have Warner Bros., you know, that share goes up a lot so, I don’t know,” he said. “I’ll be involved in that decision, too. But they have a very big market share.”

Sarandos made no guarantees at their meeting about the merger if it is approved, Trump said, adding that the CEO is a “great person” who has “done one of the greatest jobs in the history of movies and other things.”

He repeated that a merger would create a “big market share” for the company.

“There’s no question about it. It could be a problem,” Trump said.

___

Associated Press writer John Carucci contributed to this report.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-netfli ... 38af4a2934

TL;dr

MosquitoValentine_
•
10h ago

Just in case anyone was wondering...

Ted Sarandos (Netflix CEO) is a long-time supporter of the Democratic Party, making significant donations to figures like Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Obama, and hosting Democratic fundraisers with his wife, Nicole Avant, a former Ambassador under Obama.

So unless he gives Trump money, this acquisition isn't happening.

I have friends that work in HBO (part of warner).
Either it is not happening, or they all are screwed. There is no in between.

‪Carl Quintanilla‬
‪@carlquintanilla.bsky.social‬
· 11h
“.. The US economy is in a hiring recession. Almost no jobs have been added since April.

“Wage gains are slowing.

“710,000 more people are unemployed now versus November 2024.”

@byheatherlong.bsky.social

Major Kentucky bourbon maker Jim Beam shuttering distillery for 2026
By Janet Patton and Karla Ward Updated December 20, 2025 4:42 PM

One of Kentucky’s largest bourbon producers apparently is pausing whiskey production at the end of the year. Jim Beam, which is one of the largest makers of American whiskey in the world, is planning to shut down production in Happy Hollow in Clermont on Jan. 1 through 2026.

The visitors center on site will remain open for Kentucky Bourbon Trail visitors.

“We are always assessing production levels to best meet consumer demand and recently met with our team to discuss our volumes for 2026,” according to a statement from the company. “We’ve shared with our teams that while we will continue to distill at our (Freddie Booker Noe) craft distillery in Clermont and at our larger Booker Noe distillery in Boston, we plan to pause distillation at our main distillery on the James B. Beam campus for 2026 while we take the opportunity to invest in site enhancements. Our visitor center at the James B. Beam campus remains open so visitors can have the full James B. Beam experience and join us for a meal at The Kitchen Table.” Bottling and warehousing will still be operating at Clermont.

The news was first reported by Louisville Business Journal. Kentucky bourbon industry troubles The move comes as Kentucky’s $9 billion bourbon industry grapples with a glut of whiskey and a slump in demand at home. In response, the industry has pulled back production by more than 55 million proof-gallons (an industry unit of measurement) or more than 28% through August, the lowest level since 2018. At the same time, exports have been curtailed to major trading partners; Canada has been boycotting American spirits since March in retaliation for President Trump’s ongoing trade war and U.S. whiskey sales to that country are down by more than 60% through October. Other Kentucky companies including Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey maker Brown-Forman also have announced layoffs or shorter pauses in production earlier in the year. Will there be layoffs at Jim Beam? So far, Beam has not filed a lay-offs notice with the state of Kentucky, according to the state’s WARN Act online database. It is unclear how many jobs might be impacted.

Read more at: https://www.kentucky.com/news/business/ ... rylink=cpy

Can't say I will miss them. Bourbon is not my thing.
Nor whiskey.