It’s all about the Benjamins. Either gaining more or not losing what they have.
smithsb
April 22, 2026, 1:30am
4843
Graft, grift, larceny, bribery, just another day for the family business. Interview with the CEO of Kalshi, one of the predictive betting scams.
Just keep on tap dancing there, bud. The rubes will never notice.
Smapti
April 22, 2026, 2:26am
4845
Today’s attempt at diplomacy via one-sided tweets; Iran didn’t close the strait, it was me me me me me. Plus a “sir” story thrown in for free.
Monty
April 22, 2026, 2:37am
4846
@Smapti By now, the official name for that body of water should be Strait of Schrödinger .
I’m very suspicious that the people who came to him didn’t have tears in their eyes. Might be fake news.
Spoons
April 22, 2026, 3:07am
4848
I’m skeptical of anybody approaching him, calling him “sir,” with tears in their eyes.
Trump is so well protected that I’m pretty sure that nobody can approach him. At least, not without an appointment, a full background check, and a security scan that puts the TSA’s scans to shame. Nobody ever “just approaches” him.
Maybe they were delivering McDonald’s to the White House front door.
Monty
April 22, 2026, 5:41am
4850
I’m skeptical of anything at all the convicted fraud says .
It’s grift all the way down! (The bolding is mine.)
More than a year into Trump’s second administration, you may have picked up on a pattern: Trump says something shocking, and the markets either spike or drop in response. Maybe that’s just because this administration has been chaotic, or maybe it’s something deeper. A new report from the BBC investigated suspicions of insider trading tied to President Trump’s big announcements — though it’s unclear who, if anyone, is engaging in illegal activity.
We’re breaking down the coincidences the BBC uncovered — and other instances that have raised questions about potential conflicts of interest within the Trump administration.
The BBC analyzed trade volume data on a number of financial markets, including betting apps like Kalshi and Polymarket, and cross-referenced them with some of Trump’s significant policy moves and announcements. They looked at statements about the Iran war , tariffs, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, and the like. The BBC found “a consistent pattern of spikes just hours, or sometimes minutes, before a social media post or media interview was made public.”
For example, on March 9, just nine days into the war with Iran, Trump told CBS News that the war was “very complete, pretty much.” That comment was made public at 3:16 p.m. ET, and then the price of oil fell about 25 percent. What’s interesting is that 47 minutes earlier, a surge of bets was placed that oil prices would drop. The BBC reported that the people who placed those bets would’ve made millions of dollars from the fluctuations in oil prices.
A similar phenomenon occurred ahead of Trump’s announcement of a pause on his Liberation Day tariffs on April 9, 2025. At 1 p.m. on April 9, the BBC flagged that traders started placing large bets on the stock market going up. Eighteen minutes later, Trump announced the pause on the tariffs, which caused a historic surge in stocks — and with some traders betting $2 million on the surge, they could have earned as much as $20 million on a single prediction.
The BBC focused on five instances in which a spike in bets was placed on a certain outcome, Trump made an announcement or statement shortly after, and markets responded, enriching those who placed the bets.
Some experts told the BBC that these patterns bear “the hallmarks of insider trading,” while others posited that traders may simply be getting better at anticipating Trump’s next moves and wagering accordingly .
The part I put in bold is a laugh. The felon himself doesn’t know what he’s going to do or say even while he’s doing and saying it.
And it’s time for the next round of Survivor: 1600 P. NW
Online gamblers are already placing bets on who will be booted next from Donald Trump’s unraveling cabinet after his labor secretary resigned Monday.
Lori Chavez-DeRemer is now the third cabinet member—and woman—to be exiled from the president’s cabinet within weeks, following former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on March 5 and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on April 2.
But on Polymarket, a crypto-based online prediction marketplace, bettors are turning their attention to the boys.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were the two leading contenders on Tuesday afternoon, both hovering at around 37 percent odds of being next to go. Lutnick has been under fire after the DOJ’s botched release of the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files revealed the Trump appointee’s relationship with Epstein “did not end until at least 2018”—a decade after the late pedophile was convicted in Florida of soliciting a minor for prostitution.
Read the whole article, especially the embedded graphic, before you buy a square on the anchor pool.
This has to be a long shot.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted Tuesday on federal fraud charges alleging it improperly raised millions of dollars to secretly pay leaders of the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups for inside information, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.
The Justice Department alleges the civil rights group defrauded donors by using their money to fund the very extremism it claimed to be fighting, with more than $3 million paid to informants through a now-defunct program to infiltrate white supremacist and other extremist groups. Prosecutors allege some of the money was used by extremists to carry out other crimes, but court papers did not include specific examples.
“The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred,” Blanche said.
The civil rights group faces charges of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in the case brought in the federal court in Alabama, where the organization is based.
The indictment came shortly after the SPLC revealed the existence of a criminal investigation into its disbanded informant program to gather intelligence on extremist group activities. The group said the program was used to monitor threats of violence and the information was often shared with local and federal law enforcement.
The SPLC said it “will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work" against what it described as false allegations. The group said its informant program saved lives.
“Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do,” interim CEO and president Bryan Fair said in a statement. “The actions by the DOJ will not shake our resolve to fight for justice and ensure the promise of the Civil Rights Movement becomes a reality for all."
I wonder why this is happening. (Same link)
The SPLC has faced intense criticism from conservatives, who have accused it of unfairly maligning right-wing organizations as extremist groups because of their viewpoints. The center regularly condemns Trump’s rhetoric and policies around voting rights, immigration and other issues.
It’s more grifting, this time to the tune of one and one quarter (Carl Sagan voice, if you please) billion dollars.
In January 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing an organization called the Board of Peace, whose stated purpose is to promote peacekeeping around the world.
Three months later, in April 2026, social media posts online claimed the Department of State had authorized the transfer of $1.25 billion in funding to the board. Social media users claimed the transfer effectively placed the money, which was supposedly intended for international relief and peacekeeping efforts, directly in the hands of Trump, the board’s chairman .
Trump and the board’s executives control funding for the Board of Peace — and Trump selects the executive board — and the president will continue to do so even after his second term ends in January 2029.
Pitiful Patel sent packing by judge.
A day after FBI Director Kash Patel filed a $250 million lawsuit against The Atlantic, he has lost a different defamation claim, against news analyst and pundit Frank Figliuzzi.
U.S. District Judge George Hanks Jr. dismissed Patel’s lawsuit against Figliuzzi, former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, who has been an analyst for NBC News and MSNBC.
Patel sued after Figliuzzi, appearing on MSNBC’s Morning Joe last year, said of the FBI director, “Well, reportedly, he’s been visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover building.”
Hanks wrote, “A person of reasonable intelligence and learning would not have taken his statement literally: that Dir. Patel has actually spent more hours physically in a nightclub than he has spent physically in his office building. By saying that Patel spent ‘far more’ time at nightclubs than his office, Figliuzzi delivered his answer ‘in an exaggerated, provocative and amusing way,’ employing rhetorical hyperbole.”
Amusing? Right. It’s funny because it’s true.
smithsb
April 22, 2026, 6:47am
4851
Rumor is that calling Patel, “J. Edgar Boozer” is a no-no.
It strikes me as odd that they refer to Epstein as “the late pedophile.”
Monty:
Online gamblers are already placing bets on who will be booted next from Donald Trump’s unraveling cabinet after his labor secretary resigned Monday
Wouldn’t you expect him to dismiss/fire/throw under the bus all the women first before he starts on the men? Just sayin’.
solost
April 22, 2026, 12:22pm
4854
Spoons:
I’m skeptical of anybody approaching him, calling him “sir,” with tears in their eyes.
Trump is so well protected that I’m pretty sure that nobody can approach him. At least, not without an appointment, a full background check, and a security scan that puts the TSA’s scans to shame.
The ‘security scan’ step also involves a freshly cut onion being held up to the visitor’s nose.
Folacin
April 22, 2026, 12:49pm
4855
What women are left? There’s the official liar/press secretary, but she’s going on maternity leave sometime soonish, so no need there.
Gyrate
April 22, 2026, 2:15pm
4856
Linda McMahon? She did say she wanted to put herself out of a job…
From here (article dated 4/6/26):
In an appearance on "The View" ahead of the 2024 election, Mark Cuban said that President Donald Trump "doesn't like to be challenged" by "strong, intelligent women." | President Donald Trump appointed several women to high-ranking roles in his...
In terms of the cabinet, there are Brooke Rollins and Linda McMahon in Agriculture and Education, respectively. But both seem to be doing …not a ‘good’ job exactly but doing the job they were hired to do, aren’t obvious drunkards, and not in a position to screw things up via military adventurism or the use of jackbooted thugs domestically.
Tulsi Gabbard is a coin flip. She should be a clear candidate for purging but she’s also a Putin stooge, so that may ultimately save her.
They’re likely safe enough compared to the likes of Patel or Hegseth or Lutnick or Bessent. Mullin or Blanche may not be long in their ‘Acting’ capacities, either, but they’re likely ok for now since there are other more visible targets for underbussing.
(quote from article, not Monty directly)
It should be absolutely easy to see who is engaging in insider trading before major announcements. Simply look to see WHO is making the trades an hour before the announcement.
They keep good records of trades. It’s not rocket science. The names of the insider traders should be known immediately.
I’m pretty sure that the powers that oversee this knew who the insider traders were within hours/minutes. I’m also sure that they’ll never be revealed, and nobody will face consequences. Because that’s the way the world goes.
How else would they know who to pay the money too? If they don’t destroy the records immediately after payout they should be easily available to any law enforcement agency that has an interest in looking.
