Corruption, Chaos, and a Market in Freefall
501: Minnesota Funding Terror, ICE Raids in Charlotte
Morning guys.
When the markets dump, you know that means it is time for another Arbitrage Andy classic schizo rant.
Today on the docket we have some utterly insane shit to talk about. We are also doing TWO posts. This one for all subs to cover global, us news, and other major stories, and a crypto focused post on this insane sell off we find ourselves in. The second post is going to come out likely around the end of the day before the weekend so make sure to subscribe if you want it.
I highly suggest if you are involved in crypto, rattled by this sell off, or just wondering what to do, that you give it a read. The tequila sodas can wait 30 minutes, this is important stuff.
Corruption, gaslighting, and absurd subversion were all on display in the US this week like never before.
We will kick off and then get into some spicier content that left my jaw on the floor this week.
Markets & Crypto
Things are certainly not looking super great at the moment. No doubt about that. Crypto is continuing what is likely a massive series of liquidations as Bitcoin falls close to $80,000. The selling simply will not stop. Ethereum is following suit and so are alts (which shouldn’t surprise anyone).
Coinglass reports $1.9B in crypto liquidations took place in the last 24 hours.
This is absurd.
Is this THE bear market? Well it is certainly A bear market. I will be expanding in the crypto post that will drop this afternoon and breaking down what may come next.
There’s some interesting reactions to this chaos across the board today. Polymarket rate cut odds have actually spiked today back to the 50% to 70% region. Something we will discuss later today.
Equities haven’t been immune to crypto’s sell off chaos either. Over the last three days, stocks have rolled over, and the tone across the index has shifted from cautious optimism to outright discomfort.
While crypto is getting liquidated violently, equities have been dealing with their own pressure. We have:
Major indices have drifted lower — not an outright crash, but a steady bleed that tells you positioning is getting unwound
Mega-cap tech finally cracked a bit, with NVDA, MSFT, AMZN, and others giving back recent strength. NVDA corrected after its post earnings surge
Cyclicals, banks, and small caps are all red, showing you this isn’t a sector-specific pullback, it’s broad
Volatility has picked up, even without a major headline catalyst
Yields falling, but not enough to cushion the equity selling
Jim Cramer joined CNBC this morning to express his bearish views on Bitcoin and the market by saying:
“Williams comes on and then suddenly everything’s fine. I don’t think so. You don’t think everything’s fine? No, there’s a lot of people have to get out. Let them get out. This is not what suddenly they wave a magic wand. We always have real issues”
Quick market headline review before we dive into the global and US news stories of the week:
Verizon VZ, says it will move to cut 13,000 jobs
Last night the CNN market Fear and Greed Index was at a mega low of 6
$AMZN record layoffs have hit engineers the hardest with ~40% of the cuts across NY, CA, NJ & WA coming from engineering roles (Polymarket)
The crypto market experienced a $1.9-2.0 billion liquidation event across the last 24 hours
U.S. equities are now set for their worst week since April
Grayscale Sui Trust (GSUI) Begins Trading on OTCQX Market
Bath & Body Works (BBWI) missed expectations this quarter
Millennium Management, one of the largest multi-strategy hedge funds in the world, sold a minority stake that values the firm in the mid-teens billions
Walmart (WMT) posted a strong quarter, growing revenue by nearly six percent and raising its full-year sales guidance
Expect chop leading to the Fed meeting in December. Now is not the time to do anything hyper emotional, but you should be paying attention. This is a unique market environment where anything seems possible.
We will expand on market views this afternoon.
Let’s rant a bit on this fine Friday shall we?
Minnesota Tax Payers Funding Al Shabaab Terror Cells
Pretty insane headline right?
The kind of sentence that gets put together in a game of Apples to Apples.
But it’s real.
Turns out in Minnesota, a Somalian hotbed in the United States, and the home state of former Democratic VP nominee Tim Walz, there’s been an elaborate scam developing for a number of years. It makes the Covid era scams in this state look like child’s play.
Millions of taxpayer dollars were laundered through Minnesota autism clinics to fund Al-Shabaab terrorist groups.
Read it again.
The radical Sunni Islamist militant and political movement based in Somalia is receiving US taxpayer funds under the guise of “autism clinics”. Ryan Thorpe and Christopher F. Rufo of the City Journal dropped an article in which they report that Somalians in Minnesota have been using fraudulent autism Medicare claims in order to fund the Somali terror group.
Claims rose from $3 million in 2018 to $399 million in 2023, which effectively makes Minnesota taxpayers the group’s largest funders.
What the f*ck is going on in our country lol?
This makes even the most ridiculous USAID scam look insane.
THIS IS YOUR MONEY FOLKS.
Being used in this case to benefit foreigners scamming our system and terrorism overseas.
Insulting doesn’t begin to broach this transgression.
The full story is available here.
The non profit/US AID shell company/charity type scam seems to be the flavor of the day.
Democratic Florida Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick was just charged with stealing $5M in FEMA funds. She faces up to 53 years in prison if convicted.
You remember when I made the comment that the elite are simply robbing the treasury before the collapse?
Not only is there a financial component but a security one as well in Tim Walz’ home state. Minnesota has long been a focal point for U.S. counterterrorism efforts due to recruitment by the Somalia-based terrorist group Al-Shabaab within its large Somali-American community.
In February 2024, it was reported that an unnamed Al-Shabaab affiliate was arrested in Minnesota, nearly a year after having been released at the U.S. southern border. The individual was allegedly involved in arms dealing during his time in the U.S. Then in October 2025, an ISIS supporter in Minnesota ended up pleading guilty to attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, with officials noting that keeping the state safe from groups like ISIS and Al-Shabaab is a top priority for the FBI. Is it guys? Doesn’t seem like it.
As we move through the post today you will start to see common trends between the core three concepts that are at the center of recent political debate: immigration, crime, and security.
Charlotte — Illegal Immigration Case Study
Few people ever really want to have a brutally honest conversation on illegal immigration in the US. But the fact of the matter is it’s likely so much worse in scale than many of us realize.
Federal authorities launched a new operation dubbed Operation Charlotte’s Web in mid-November in the Charlotte, North Carolina area, targeting undocumented immigrants, particularly those alleged to have criminal records, after local officials declined to honor immigration detainers.
Mamdani in New York City has similar plans.
Charlotte, North Carolina (the same city where Iryna Zarutska was viciously murdered by a 10x felon) came under discussion again online this week after ICE posted before and after photos of traffic congestion ( reportedly before and after deportations).
The difference is staggering and while we would need time stamps, etc. to verify, even if this is remotely lined up (anecdotal reports by Charlotte residents online claimed it is), it is a sobering realization you come to, understanding that many of the issues in the US today are the result of us being absolutely swamped with more and more people (many of which shouldn’t even be here).
This would bleed into rent, prices of consumer goods, service wait times, literally everything.
Who knows how many people are even in the country at this point.
It wasn’t just traffic either.
This video shows a Charlotte job site after ICE raids — almost entirely empty. Similar videos popped up all over X showing restaurants, shops, and other job sites were also entirely empty.
A teacher from the public school system in Charlotte described the sheer scale of absences during ICE raids, painting a picture of how many illegals are in the school system. The district had over 30,000 kids absent Monday, over 20% of their entire student body. Some other schools were reporting absences over 65% of the student body.
Insanity.
The left is outraged calling ICE nazis and gestapo, pointing to the absences across the city as proof of evil and the Trump Admin’s reign of terror. ICE of course, is none of those things lol - they are literally enforcing the law.
But here’s the important question for anyone sane.
How many foreigners are here living off taxpayer money, services, and accommodations?
Charlotte officials just recently confirmed of 900,000 residents, more than 150,000 are foreigners.
Why don’t more people care?
Protests are breaking out with hundreds of people waving flags for OTHER nations.
The Charlotte Observer posted an article to X called “Here’s what to do if Border Patrol comes to your home or workplace in Charlotte”. As an X poster put it: does the Charlotte Observer care as much about women getting their throats cut on public transportation as they do about protecting illegal migrants?
Why is something as basic as border security and lawful citizenship this controversial?
This phenomenon is proof of the scale of the illegal migrant problem in the US — the truth is we have no idea how many illegals are in our country.
The US Department of State posted the following to X this week continuing the coverage this issue is getting at a global level:
Mass migration poses an existential threat to Western civilization and undermines the stability of key American allies.
Today the State Department instructed U.S. embassies to report on the human rights implications and public safety impacts of mass migration.
And here’s the thing.
If you are a native born American citizen or even an immigrant who went through the proper channels and came here LEGALLY, this type of thing should make you angry.
When did we become okay with all of this? It hits at the core absurdity of the left’s staunch defense of illegal immigration, these people are here illegally, they broke the law. They need to go.
End of story.
I don’t care about what jobs they are working, who they brought with them, where their kids go to school, or even what the detainment and deportation looks like.
They are here ILLEGALLY. If you defend that in any capacity than I have to assume you want to live in some borderless shit hole with no laws OR you want to destroy my country by turning it into a refugee and foreigner filled flea market that anyone can come extract from at the detriment of those who are legal citizens.
Oh and it keeps getting worse, Detabian Fortenberry a 56 times previously charged felon was arrested again in Charlotte on Friday for assaulting a woman multiple times.
Are you seeing a pattern?
Blue cities dominated by Democrats, like Charlotte, are flooded with illegals and entirely okay with the continuation of violent crime.
Democrat Sedition & Trump’s Truth Social Tirade
The trend of the left doing everything in their power to resist Donald Trump isn’t letting up anytime soon. We have seen all sorts of tactics used over the years, chief among them trying to murder Trump twice, trying to imprison him, and dragging him through court for years.
The latest smear is endless speculation that there is some sort of final blow career ending piece of information in the Epstein documents on Trump. As I have said before he is likely referenced in these documents, but if there was some mythical golden bullet, the Dems and the left would have used it long ago.
This week however we got a new flavor of subversion from the left, dressed up in some cutesy pro democratic double speak.
A group of Democratic lawmakers, all with military or intelligence backgrounds, released a video addressed to U.S. service members, saying that when orders violate the law or the Constitution they must be refused.
The message stressed that loyalty to the oath is not loyalty to a person or party, and reminded troops they have the duty to disobey illegal orders.
Here’s the kicker — anyone that’s been watching the left’s tactics for years knows this is a dog whistle. Of course military members have a duty to disobey illegal orders, but they’ve received none yet. This is a not so subtle form of sedition, to encourage military members to turn on Trump or work against him, like our good friend General Milley.
It’s not only Anti American but political violence dressed up as “Hey remember! Don’t do illegal things!”
Entirely disingenuous to put it lightly.
It’s obvious and they aren’t fooling anyone but they like to play in this zone where they have deniability that THAT is what they are doing. It’s the same train of thought that comes with the left’s push to make ICE not wear masks. They want the masks gone so they can dox, identify, and instigate lunatics to target them violently. It has nothing to do with them wanting ICE to do their job in good faith.
Although the video did not cite a specific order or scenario as unlawful, it triggered fierce push-back from the White House, which accused the lawmakers of encouraging insubordination and labeled their message “seditious behavior.”
Trump responded to the debacle with some less than graceful behavior on Truth Social.
He posted “Seditious Behavior punishable by death” and also appeared to repost another users’ message: Hang them George Washington would.
Not super tactful or diplomatic to be fair lmao (that is not lost on me, I get it). This of course is drawing widespread condemnation.
But I am not going to scream like a little girl when someone has the balls to clap back at the political fringe that has entirely normalized violence against those they don’t agree with. The resistance against rule of law by the left (as evidenced in blue cities resisting ICE and lawful deportations) shows us this.
It’s a laughable double standard across the board.
The Dems in this video are doing what the media, institutions, and federal agencies did for years — subverting Trump by all means necessary. Military members already know they should disobey illegal orders, that was never up for debate. This is a not so clever little game of “let’s chip away at Trump’s legitimacy and see what happens”.
The left erupted online with pearl clutching about “assaults on democracy” and “our President is calling for the death of political rivals!” when Trump responded. The media outrage was entirely predictable.
Which is ironic considering the majority of the left wants Trump and conservatives dead or in jail.
Here are the facts about their perverse double standard they try to hide behind when they play these games:
If military members turned on Trump tomorrow, attacked/harmed him, laid down their arms over a LAWFUL order, or turned on Trump supporters in the next term, the left would cheer and celebrate it all.
If a group of rogue military members apprehended Trump and walked him on the White House lawn and killed him over unclear charges — they would cheer it all on and see absolutely no problem with it. The media talking heads would cackle and say “Oh wow that was violent and wrong, but what led to this? Did he deserve it?”
Do you doubt for a second that they wouldn’t cheer or be entirely okay with it?
If so you’re not paying attention to what’s driving all of this.
The radical left thinks Trump is Hitler. They think ICE are the Gestapo. They cheered when Charlie Kirk was murdered. They live in an alternate reality where all who oppose their insane ideology deserve to be dealt with violently. Nothing is off limits. They will interfere with ICE operations or ambush them, they will dox judge’s home addresses, they will burn our country, they will cheer when those on the right are killed, they will lash out in violence, and they will tell you the entire time that YOU are the radical for being against it.
They will post an inflammatory video that is clearly aimed at spreading rebellion in our military and then play it off like it’s a friendly reminder about following orders.
Enough is enough. Tired of it. Call it for what it is. It’s darkly humorous to see them get all flustered when someone finally says “nah f*ck you, if you want to spark treason or sedition, the punishment would be death” which of course, it has been throughout the majority of history. If you continue to resist lawful federal orders and enforcement, you are going to be charged.
This blanket tantrum throwing, promotion of violent resistance, and subversion of the Trump administration was entirely predictable from the start and it is probably just getting started.
See you guys later today for our Crypto Red Alert Post.
We will unpack these liquidations, what the top minds in crypto are saying is going to come next, and look at the most relevant triggers (bearish and bullish) that we can expect before year end. I will try to get this out by 4pm ET so make sure to look out for it.
Andy
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Disclaimer - I am a former trader, enterprise sales rep, and current entrepreneur with a monkey brain. Nothing I say should be considered formal financial advice or life advice, these are my opinions - always do your own research and diligence before
Oh no, what will the childless 40+ year old Charlotte hipsters do without Anthony Bourdain approved Mexican street food