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✈️Busiest Travel Weekend Of Year
🕶️’Summer of Fun’ Heats Up Inflation
🧨Stocks Fireworks Ahead of July 4th As Apple Hits Record
🏠Home Sales Highest In Year As 2-Out Of-5 Think They Will Never Afford House
🏫Biden Takes On SCOTUS
🧑🏭Russian Revolution-Putin and Rival Trade New Barbs’
💻TikTok Ban
🏛️TRUMP ‘SCARED $HITLESS’—Chief of Staff
Busiest Travel Weekend Of Year
It seems perfect — the Fourth of July falls on Tuesday allowing for a nice long weekend to get away. But it might be a little too perfect: Record-setting numbers of people are predicted to travel in the coming days.
AAA, the auto association, is projecting record-breaking travel volumes for the holiday weekend. The numbers are eye-popping: More than 50 million Americans are expected to travel 50 miles or more from home this weekend.
At the airports, the TSA expects to screen 17.7 million people over the course of the next week as more than 7500 flights have been canceled since Saturday!
Flight disruptions are mounting ahead of the busy July 4th travel holiday as severe storms and staffing issues kick off a rocky start to the summer.
To meet the demand, airlines have been scheduling more flights than they can handle, said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. United Airlines CEO shot back that it's the FAA's shortage of air traffic controllers that has caused the bottlenecks..
Get this: Starting Saturday, wireless companies start switching on 5G towers near airports. That's a problem for airlines, because one in five planes haven't been updated to prevent 5G signals from interfering with the plane's altimeter, which pilots need for landings in bad weather. That means 20% of planes will be rerouted to land somewhere else if skies aren't clear over their destination. More Delays Ahead.
🕶️’Summer of Fun’ Heats Up Inflation
Call it ‘Fun-Flation’
This summer consumers are splurging on through-the-roof airfare, expensive concert tickets, soaring hotel prices and pricey meals.
Some call the phenomenon “revenge spending,” the zeal to indulge in experiences now that Covid lockdowns are far in the past. It helps that many still have pandemic savings to draw on, or have seen their wages surge in the past year.
We’ll probably pay for it down the road, but what the heck —have fun!
🧨Stocks Fireworks As Apple Hits Record
Stocks soaring, the Nasdaq has surged 31.9%, for its best first-half of the year since 1983. The S&P 500 has popped 16.1%, and its headed for its best first-half of the year since 2019. The Dow boasts a more modest gain of 3.9%.
Apple's (AAPL) market valuation closed above $3 trillion on Friday, making it the first publicly traded company to touch the milestone.
A rocketing first-half of 2023 for tech stocks. They’re called ‘The Magnificent Seven”: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Tesla and Meta. Combined, the 7 are nearly 90% of the rally fueled by excitement about their exposure to artificial intelligence.
It comes as the creator of ChatGPT is calling for heavy regulation on artificial intelligence technologies. “My worst fear is that we, the technology industry, cause significant harm to the world,” OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman said. “If this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong.”
And this from President Biden, "I met in the Oval Office with eight leading scientists in the area of AI. Some are very worried that AI can actually overtake human thinking in the planet. So we've got a lot to deal with. It's an incredible opportunity, but a lot do deal with."
GisermanGroup Translator: BULL MARKET is one that has gained 20% from its last bottom. (Using the same logic, a bear market is one that has declined 20% from its last peak.
🏠2-Out Of-5 Think They Will Never Afford A Home
New-home sales advanced in May to the fastest pace in over a year. And though Mortgage rates turned higher again last week, more people took out loans to pay for those new homes. It comes even as 40% of Americans think they’d need to win the lottery to become homeowners, according to a new poll.
“Housing has been the Cinderella Story of the year,” SitusAMC’s Tim Rood, former Fannie Mae Exec has been saying it for months.”
Rood, a GisermanGroup Client breaks it all down to Fox’s Neil Cavuto
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Rood, on Scripps News says Housing is the Cinderella Story of the Year:
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🪙Bitcoin Takes Off
Bitcoin near its highest level in a year, around $30k.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has sued Coinbase, alleging the U.S.’s largest crypto platform violated rules that require it to register as an exchange and be overseen by the federal agency.
It comes after the S.E.C. accused Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, of mishandling customer funds..
Exiger’s Samar Pratt, a GisermanGroup Client, on FinTechTV says Crypto had recently gained a foothold at BNY Mellon:
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It’s a trying time for all of us.
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🏫Biden Takes On SCOTUS
Many in corporate America fear that years of efforts to promote diversity are now vulnerable to legal challenges. While the Supreme Court latest ruling may not upend such initiatives, lawyers and executives say, future ones that go before the Court could.
The Supreme Court struck down affirmative action policies at colleges and universities that use race as a factor in deciding who is admitted.
In a pair of decisions, the six conservative justices ruled that Harvard, the nation's oldest private college, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the oldest state university, were illegally discriminating based on race and violating the Constitution.
The decision, like tge momentous abortion ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, marked the realization of a long-sought conservative legal goal, this time finding that race-conscious admissions plans violate the Constitution.
President Biden slammed the decision. When asked if this is a rogue court, he replied: "This is not a normal court."
Meantime Biden plans to announce "new actions to protect student loan borrowers," after the Supreme Court overturned his signature program to eliminate up to $20,000 in student loan debt for millions of Americans.
⚾️Yankee Pitches Perfect Game
New York Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán threw baseball's first perfect game since 2012 as he retired all 27 Oakland A's batters he faced in order.
Germán's perfect game is just the 24th in baseball's long history and the first in MLB since Seattle Mariners great Felix Hernandez fired one against the Tampa Bay Rays on Aug. 15, 2012. It's the fourth perfect game all-time for the Yankees; Germán joins David Cone (1999), David Wells (1998) and Don Larsen, who threw the only perfect game in World Series history in 1956.
🎵Madonna’s Health Scare
Madonna is recovering from a "serious" health scare after landing in the ICU over the weekend. As a result, the 64-year-old singer's highly-anticipated world tour is rescheduled.
Guy Oseary, the icon's longtime manager, released a statement and revealed that Madonna developed a bacterial infection.
"On Saturday, June 24, Madonna developed a serious bacterial infection which led to a several-day stay in the ICU," he wrote on social media. "Her health is improving, however she is still under medical care. A full recovery is expected. At this time we will need to pause all commitments, which includes the tour. We will share more details with you as soon as we have them, including a new start date for the tour and for rescheduled shows."
🎤Billion Dollar Concert Tour
Taylor Swift's 106-night "Eras Tour" could become the first to rake in over $1 billion in revenue — potentially breaking an industry record held by Elton John.
Its success — which industry executives compared to Beatlemania, with reports of "post-concert amnesia" — could reset expectations for blockbuster tours by other major artists.
She's also playing 54 international dates, which could push her over the $1 billion mark for ticket sales, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The Journal's napkin math puts Swift's possible profit at over $500 million when accounting for merch and expenses.
☸️Ryan Seacrest’s Wheel Of Fortune
Ryan Seacrest has been named the next host of “Wheel of Fortune,” succeeding Pat Sajak.
Sajak announced he would step down next year after more than four decades on the job.
Vanna White is in negotiations to stay.
The show has demonstrated remarkable durability and ratings, even as traditional television has declined in the wake of streaming entertainment.
Now here’s a gig if you can get it: Sajak will work as a consultant on the show for three years after he retires.
🧑🏭Russian Revolution
They’re calling it the beginning of the end of the Russian President’s rule.
Vladimir Putin tried this week to show he was firmly in control after the dramatic attempted mutiny by mercenary commander Yevgeny Prigozhin.
But among the Kremlin and business elite, many powerful players aren’t buying it.
A banana republic was the phrase one former senior official who still maintains close government ties used to describe the spectacle of Prigozhin leading his column of tanks and fighters to within 125 miles of Moscow and then being allowed to leave for neighboring Belarus without facing criminal charges. A top business tycoon said the Russian president’s botched handling of the uprising was more of a shock than Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine last year.
If you think Wagner Group are the good guys here — think again:
Wagner’s internet troll farms target Western democracies and elections, including the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
A criminal who spent time in jail in the Soviet Union in the 1980s for armed robbery and other offenses, Prigozhin opened a hot dog stand after getting out and parlayed that into a successful catering business providing food to the Russian military. That led to a nickname he hates: “Putin’s Chef.”
President Putin said the organizers of an armed mutiny over the weekend will be “brought to justice.” The Russian president’s comments were his first since hundreds of Wagner Group mercenaries marched on Moscow over the weekend.
In an audio recording of his own, Prigozhin taunted Russia’s military, calling his march a “master class” on how it should have carried out the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The Wagner chief also mocked the Russian military for failing to protect the country, pointing out security breaches that allowed Wagner to march 500 miles inside Russia without facing resistance and blocking all military units on its way.
Dictatorships always appear stable — until, suddenly, they come crashing down. Like many dictatorships, Putin’s regime turns out to be less stable than it appears from the outside.
The White House, U.S. Military and spy agencies are watching closely.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is cheering-on the Wagner Group
🇨🇳China Takes On Biden For Calling Leader ‘Dictator’
China accuses Joe Biden of making a “public political provocation” by referring to Xi Jinping as a dictator, calling the remarks “absurd and extremely irresponsible.”
“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two boxcars full of spy equipment in it is he didn’t know it was there,” Biden told about 130 guests at a fundraiser . “No, I’m serious. That’s what’s a great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn’t know what happened.”
It comes after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Xi in Beijing, as the United States and China seek to pull relations out of a deep freeze, the first visit by an American diplomat to China in almost five years.
“I hope that, through this visit, Mr. Secretary, you will make more positive contributions to stabilizing China-U.S. relations,” the Chinese leader said.
Blinken told the Chinese leader it was in the “interest of the world” to steady ties, and described conversations with high-level officials during his trip as “candid” and “productive.”
US officials say the main goal of the talks is to stabilize a relationship that has become extremely tense. The state department labeled the talks “candid" and "constructive".
Xi may meet with President Biden in the U.S. in November.
In another high-stakes meeting, Friday the Chinese leader said the US and China can cooperate to “benefit our two countries” in talks with Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates .
The state broadcaster CCTV showed Xi saying he was happy to see Gates, who he called an “old friend,” after three years without meetings during the Covid-19 pandemic.
⏰TikTok Banned
China-based TikTok has filed suit in Montana seeking to block the state’s new ban on the app.
Montana is the first state to enact a complete ban on TikTok.
The Biden administration is demanding TikTok’s Chinese-owners sell their stakes in the video-sharing app or face a full U.S. ban.
Matt Hayden Former Cybersecurity Czar at the Department of Homeland Security and a GisermanGroup.com client on Scripps News says TikTok is dangerous:
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🏛️Newsom, Kennedy In?
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s rising media profile in recent weeks has renewed speculation over his Democratic presidential aspirations.
He’s made appearances on the national media with NBC’s “Today” show and Fox News’s “Hannity,” raising renewed interest in his political future.
Some of that national spotlight has been used to go after Republican Presidential candidate Rob DeSantis over several dozen migrants who were flown to California.
Meantime, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist with a celebrated Democratic lineage has emerged with unexpected strength in early polls even as he spreads conspiracy theories and consorts with right-wing figures and billionaire donors.
Kennedy’s support from Democrats, as high as 20% in some surveys, serves as a bracing reminder of voters’ appetite for a Biden alternative.
👨⚖️Hunter Biden Pleads Guilty
Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son, has reached an agreement to plead guilty to charges he willfully failed to pay federal income taxes, heading off what would have been a politically explosive prosecution while his father campaigns for re-election. Biden will plead guilty to two counts of willful failure to pay income tax and one firearm offense as part of the deal.
👵GOP Push To Raise Retirement Age
Republicans are pushing to raise the retirement age to collect Social Security, handing Democrats damaging political ammunition ahead of the 2024 election.
The proposal by the 176-member House Republican Study Committee would gradually increase the retirement age, ultimately hitting 69 years old for those turning 62 in 2033 or after. The current retirement age for full benefits now is 66 and rising gradually to 67.
Democrats successfully used similar proposals from fiscal conservatives to their advantage in the 2022 midterm election. Their message that the GOP was targeting old-age benefits resonated with voters and was credited with limiting Democrats’ losses in the House.
TRUMP ARRESTED & CHARGED
Donald Trump’s latest excuse for not returning boxes of classified documents: "Before I send boxes over, I have to take all of my things out," Trump said in an interview with Fox News. "These boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things — golf shirts, clothing, pants, shoes. There were many things."
Oh come now-who is he kidding?
A federal judge on Monday approved a protective order sought by special counsel Jack Smith to keep Trump from disclosing sensitive information in his classified documents case.
“He’s scared $hitless,” former White House chief of staff John Kelly told the Washington Post.
Trump has been booked, arrested and fingerprinted at the federal courthouse in Miami and arraigned on charges of mishandling classified documents. The first President ever to be arraigned in Federal Court plead not guilty to all 37 counts and then left for his New Jersey Golf Club where he typically denied any wrongdoing and claimed to be a victim of government persecution.
Inside the federal courtroom, where cameras and microphones are not allowed, when asked for his plea, one of his lawyers, Todd Blanche, spoke for Trump.“We most certainly enter a plea of not guilty,” he said.
The indictment gives the clearest picture yet of the files that Trump took with him when he left the White House. It said he had illegally kept hold of documents concerning “United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack.” It is the first time a former leader of the executive branch has been charged with obstructing the very agencies he led, and the first time a former commander in chief has been charged with endangering national security by violating the Espionage Act.
The former president had kept reams of classified documents in boxes at his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida until federal agents raided it last year and seized the records. The ex-president said he’s innocent and ripped the case as the “box hoax.”
Judge Aileen Cannon, who Trump appointed to the bench in 2020, is scheduled to preside over his trial. Judge Cannon was criticized by a higher court for handing him a series of unusually favorable rulings during the early stages of the investigation.
Special counsel Jack Smith has been investigating Trump over the removal of classified documents from the White House after he left office, as well as apparent efforts by Trump and his aides to potentially interfere in the government’s investigation.
Trump still faces two other criminal probes: Smith’s investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, pro-Trump riot at the Capitol, and an inquiry in Georgia looking into whether he attempted to interfere with the presidential election in that state.
🚨Piling On Trump
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced his Republican candidacy for president. Christie a one-time close Trump ally now calls the former president a "coward" and "puppet of Putin." Christie has cast himself as the one candidate unafraid to give voice to the frustrations of Republicans who have watched Trump transform the party and have had enough.
Christie calls Trump a loser because of his 2020 defeat, and said that he was unfit to return to the White House after inciting a mob to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He says that if Trump is the nominee, he will not vote for him.
Nikki Haley says, “ If charges are true, Trump was reckless with national security.”
Ron DeSantis says, “I would’ve been court-martialed for taking classified documents.”DeSantis was supposed to announce he is running for president during an audio only discussion with Twitter CEO Elon Musk at 6pmET….BUT the announcement was plagued with glitches. Not a good beginning for the start of DeSantis’ run for President.
Mike Pence declared his candidacy as well, saying he has no interest in pardoning the January 6th conspirators.
💻U.S. Government Hacked
Several U.S. government agencies, including the Energy Department, have been hacked, and a Russian group is demanding ransom.
The data-stealing cyberattack exploitEd a software bug that had already compro-mised major businesses in the U.K. and elsewhere is blamed. So far none of the information has shown up on the dark web or elsewhere.
🍗Tastes Like Chicken
For the first time, US regulators on Wednesday approved the sale of chicken made from animal cells, allowing two California companies to offer “lab-grown” meat to the nation’s restaurant tables and eventually, supermarket shelves.
The Agriculture Department gave the green light to Upside Foods and Good Meat, firms that had been racing to be the first in the US to sell meat that doesn’t come from slaughtered animals — what’s now being referred to as “cell-cultivated” or “cultured” meat as it emerges from the laboratory and arrives on dinner plates.
🏌️PGA Commissioner ILL-Crucial Time
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan is “recuperating from a unspecified medical situation,” and won’t be leading the organization’s day-to-day operations, just a week after announcing the stunning merger agreement he brokered with Saudi-backed LIV Golf to call a truce in the battle that divided golf. And as the U.S. Open gets underway.
The PGA Tour and LIV Golf, the Saudi-upstart that sent the industry into a tailspin, have agreed to a merger that ends the divide that has dominated the sport for the last year.
The new company came together so quickly that it does not yet even have a name and is referred to in the agreement simply as “NewCo.” It would be controlled by the PGA Tour but significantly financed by the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund. The fund’s governor, Yasir al-Rumayyan, will be the new company’s chairman.
Shocked *not* Saudi money we don’t care
📺 Licht’s Out
Chris Licht is out at CNN.
David Zaslav, CEO of CNN’s parent, Warner Bros. Discovery, informed staff he met with Licht and the CNN Chief was leaving, effective immediately.
“For a number of reasons things didn’t work out, and that’s unfortunate,” Zaslav said, “It’s really unfortunate, and ultimately that’s on me. And I take full responsibility for that.”
Licht's 13-month tenure has been disastrous: Ratings have declined to the point at which CNN now trails even Newsmax, in primetime.
An attempt to turn former CNN primetime anchor Don Lemon into a morning-show personality failed and a decision to provide a town-hall forum for Donald Trump, with a partisan crowd undermined Licht's credibility.
Then to top it off there was his decision to give Atlantic writer Tim Alberta unprecedented access over a period of months, including to Licht’s gym workouts, which seems to have provided the fatal blow.
It’ll be a long road back for anyone willing to take the reins. Zaslav may turn to an executive on CNN’s interim leadership team. They are Amy Entelis, executive vice president of talent and content development, Virginia Moseley, executive vice president of editorial, Eric Sherling, executive vice president of US programming and David Leavy, chief operating officer.
📺Tucker’s Twitter Show
Fox News notified Tucker Carlson's lawyers that the former prime-time anchor violated his contract with the network when he launched his own Twitter show on Tuesday, according to a copy of a letter obtained by Axios.
A breach of contract claim sets Fox News up to explore potential legal action against Carlson. Carlson’s lawyers told Axios that any legal action by Fox would violate his First Amendment rights.
🏓PickleBall Coming To YOUR Mall
Pickleball is coming to your local mall, replacing shuttered Bed Bath & Beyond, Old Navy and Sears stores.
It’s an effort to fill vacant spaces and draw in customers to shop.
Consumers are craving fun, social experiences after years of limited gatherings during the pandemic, and they have shifted their spending from goods to experiences like theaters, arcades and amusement parks.
Malls are responding to these trends by turning to a wider range of tenants and activities to draw traffic, real estate investment firm JLL said in a report this week that malls are drawing on the huge PickleBall crowds and building courts.
It’s a trying time for all of us.
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🍀Americans Spend More On Weed Than On Beer & Chocolate Combined
U.S Legal sales of marijuana and marijuana products -- like edibles -- reached an estimated $30 billion in 2022, according to a report from MJBizDaily.
That total is more than Americans spent on chocolate and craft beer combined, -- $20 billion and $7.9 billion, respectively.
And get this — legal sales are still vastly outweighed by illicit ones – Whitney Economics estimates that legal transactions constituted just 25% of total cannabis market in 2021.
💊Weight Loss Wonder Drug Worth Billions
What price beauty?
An Eli Lilly drug if approved for weight loss could become the best-selling drug of all time.
Experts are confident that the drug, called tirzepatide, will be granted approval by the Food and Drug Administration sometime this year. If that’s the case, it would join two other popular — and expensive — recently approved weight loss drugs on the market, Wegovy and Saxenda, both from the drugmaker Novo Nordisk.
The drugs have been shown in clinical trials to be highly effective for weight loss. All three drugs — which are given as injections — work in a similar way: They’re a class of drugs called GLP-1 agonists, which mimic a hormone that helps reduce food intake and appetite.
Oh yea it would cost you $13,000 a year (and most insurances won’t pay)!
💻They Want Your Password
Warning-New Scams to steal your passwords.
If you've had a password hacked recently, you aren't alone. The volume of password attacks has soared to an estimated 921 attacks every second. That's a 74% rise in one year, according to the latest Microsoft Digital Defense Report.
Exiger's Robert Kolasky with more on Bloomberg & CBS:
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