A list of all the ideologies (within the game files), including their descriptions. Enjoy.

Conservatism

Conservatism is a political and social philosophy promoting traditional social institutions in the context of culture and civilization. The central tenets of conservatism include tradition, human imperfection, organic society, hierarchy and authority, and property rights. Conservatives seek to preserve a range of institutions such as monarchy, religion, parliamentary government, and property rights, with the aim of emphasizing social stability and continuity.
National Conservatism National conservatism is a variant of conservatism that concentrates more on national interests and upholding cultural or ethnic identity than most other conservatives. In Europe, national conservatives are usually Eurosceptics.
Gaullism
Gaullism is a French political stance based on the thought and action of World War II French Resistance leader General Charles de Gaulle, who would become the founding President of the Fifth French Republic.
Corporatism I do not know where the description for this is. Considering corporatism doesn't exactly fit within conservatism I believe this is a mistake, but I'm including it here anyway.
Republican Party [sic]
The Republican Party is one of the two major political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, a major ideology of the American Revolution. Founded by anti-slavery activists, economic modernizers, ex-National Republicans, ex-Free Soilers and Whigs in 1854, the Republicans largely dominated politics nationally and in the majority of northern states between 1860 and 1932.
Religious Zionism Formed as a nationalist opposition and acts as the basis of the Israeli right, Revisionist Zionism envisions territorial integrity over the historical Land of Israel and supports Jewish nationalism. Revisionist Zionists believed that Jews have sovereignty over both banks of the Jordan river and its followers question the legitimacy of the Kingdom of Jordan. Currently, Revisionist Zionism is regarded as a fringe ideology but its proponents have recently began a push to make the ideology more moderate and hence more electable.
Black Conservatism Black Conservatism is a type of conservative ideology popular among Africans in both hemispheres. Individuals which would promote black conservatism would likely be advocates of free market capitalism, promotion of traditional beliefs (generally in regards to Catholic and Protestant Christianity), and Patriotism or Jingoism. Black Conservatism generally is opposed to Pan-Africanism, Socialism, and Anti-Imperialism.

Liberal Conservatism

Liberal conservatism combines conservative policies with liberal stances, especially on economic, social and ethical issues. It incorporates the classical liberal view of minimal government intervention in the economy, according to which individuals should be free to participate in the market and generate wealth without government interference. However, individuals cannot be thoroughly depended on to act responsibly in other spheres of life, therefore liberal conservatives believe that a strong state is necessary to ensure law and order and social institutions are needed to nurture a sense of duty and responsibility to the nation. They also support civil liberties, along with some social conservative positions.
Conservative Liberalism Conservative liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies with conservative stances, or simply representing the right-wing of the liberal movement. It is a more positive and less radical variant of classical liberalism.

Christian Democracy

Christian democracy is a form of conservatism and a political ideology which emerged in 19th century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching, as well as Neo Calvinism. It was originally conceived as a combination of traditional Catholic beliefs and modern democratic ideas, and it grew to incorporate the social teaching of other Christian denominations, such as the Lutheran Church and the Reformed Church.
Vatican [sic]
The politics of Vatican City take place in a framework of an theocratic absolute elective monarchy, in which the Pope, religiously speaking, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and Bishop of Rome, exercises ex officio supreme legislative, executive, and judicial power over the Vatican City, a rare case of non-hereditary monarchy.

Socialism

Socialism is a range of economic and social systems characterized by social ownership and workers' self-management of the means of production as well as the political theories and movements associated with them. Social ownership may refer to forms of public, collective or cooperative ownership, or to citizen ownership of equity. There are many varieties of socialism and there is no single definition encapsulating all of them, though social ownership is the common element shared by its various forms. Socialist economic systems can be divided into non-market and market forms. Non-market socialism involves the substitution of factor markets and money, with engineering and technical criteria, based on calculation performed in-kind, thereby producing an economic mechanism that functions according to different economic laws from those of capitalism. Non-market socialism aims to circumvent the inefficiencies and crises traditionally associated with capital accumulation and the profit system. By contrast, market socialism retains the use of monetary prices, factor markets and in some cases the profit motive, with respect to the operation of socially owned enterprises and the allocation of capital goods between them. Profits generated by these firms would be controlled directly by the workforce of each firm, or accrue to society at large in the form of a social dividend. The socialist calculation debate discusses the feasibility and methods of resource allocation for a socialist system.
Democratic Socialism Democratic socialism is a political philosophy that advocates political democracy alongside social ownership of the means of production, with an emphasis on self-management and democratic management of economic institutions within a market or some form of decentralized planned socialist economy.
Market Socialism Market socialism is a type of economic system involving the public, cooperative, or social ownership of the means of production in the framework of a market economy.
Royal Socialism No information in the game files. Probably a scrapped ideology, but still here for showcase purposes.
Neocommunism Ditto to above.
African Socialism African socialism is a belief in sharing economic resources in a traditional African way, as distinct from classical socialism. Common principles of African socialism are social development guided by a large public sector, incorporating the African identity and what it means to be African, and the avoidance of the development of social classes within society.
Ujamaa The Swahili word Ujamaa means 'extended family', 'brotherhood' or 'socialism'; as a political concept it asserts that a person becomes a person through the people or community. Ujamaa was a term made popular by the political philosophy applied under Julius Nyerere's social and economic development policies in Tanzania after it gained independence from Britain in 1961.
Labor Zionism (Mapai) Labor Zionism is the left-wing of the Zionist movement. For many years, it was the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizations. It saw itself as the Zionist sector of the historic Jewish labor movements of Eastern and Central Europe, eventually developing local units in most countries with sizable Jewish populations. Labor Zionists believe that a Jewish state could only be created through the efforts of the Jewish working class settling in the Land of Israel and constructing a state through the creation of a progressive Jewish society with rural kibbutzim and moshavim and an urban Jewish proletariat.
Kemalism Kemalism is the founding ideology of the Republic of Turkey. Kemalism, as it was implemented by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was defined by sweeping political, social, cultural and religious reforms designed to separate the new Turkish state from its Ottoman predecessor and embrace a Westernized way of living, including the establishment of democracy, secularism, state support of the sciences and free education.
Oriental Personalism Oriental Personalism is the official ideology of Ngo Dinh Diem's Can-Lao Party in South Vietnam. Owing as much to the influence of his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu as Diem himself, Oriental Personalism has diverse ideological influences, including Emannuel Mournier's theory of Personalism, Marxism, and the folk traditions and religions of Vietnam. The Can-Lao manifest calls for the gradual transformation of Vietnamese society through two phase. In the first phase, the Personalist Revolution, the Social and Working Classes will tear their divisions and join as one. Then comes the Social Revolution, where all forms of capitalism and colonial influence will be swept out on a triumphant march to a utopian, socialist, and proudly Vietnamese society.

Social Democracy

Social Democracy is a political, social and economic ideology that supports economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a capitalist economy, as well as a policy regime involving a commitment to representative democracy, measures for income redistribution, and regulation of the economy in the general interest and welfare state provisions.
Democratic Party [sic]
The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party.
Labor Zionism Functionally the exact same as Labor Zionism (Mapai), with the same description. I have no clue why it's divided as such.

Social Liberalism

Social liberalism is a political ideology that believes individual liberty requires a level of social justice. Like classical liberalism, social liberalism endorses a market economy and the expansion of civil and political rights and liberties, but differs in that it believes the legitimate role of the government includes addressing economic and social issues such as poverty, health care, and education.

Progressivism

Progressivism is the support for or advocacy of improvement of society by reform. As a philosophy, it is based on the idea of progress, which asserts that advancements in science, technology, economic development and social organization are vital to the improvement of the human condition.
Green politics Green politics is a political ideology that aims to create an ecologically sustainable society rooted in environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice and grassroots democracy.

Centrism

Centrism is a political outlook or specific position that involves acceptance or support of a balance of a degree of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy, while opposing political changes which would result in a significant shift of society either strongly to the left or the right.

Classical Liberalism

Democracy (yes, that is the entire description)
Libertarianism Libertarianism is a collection of political philosophies and movements that uphold liberty as a core principle. Libertarians seek to maximize political freedom and autonomy, emphasizing freedom of choice, voluntary association, and individual judgment. Libertarians share a skepticism of authority and state power, but they diverge on the scope of their opposition to existing political and economic systems.
Zionism (General Zionism) Many people and parties chose not to follow any of the distinct Zionist schools of thought and chose to stick to the core ideology of Zionism, settling in Israel and the establishment of the Jewish State. Many of the parties that stick to the 'core' of Zionism are centrist parties that don't associate themselves with either the left nor the right and tend to be economically liberal.

Marxism-Leninism

Marxism-Leninism is the ideology combining Marxist socioeconomic theory and Leninist political praxis, which is the official ideology of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and of the Communist International. The purpose of Marxism-Leninism is the revolutionary development of a capitalist state into a socialist state, effected by the leadership of a vanguard party of professional revolutionaries from the working class.
Liberal Communism I can find no reference. I presume this refers to the like of Gorbachev.
Stalinism Stalinism is the means of governing and related policies implemented from around 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. Stalinist policies and ideas as developed in the Soviet Union included rapid industrialization, the theory of socialism in one country, a totalitarian state, collectivization of agriculture, a cult of personality and subordination of the interests of foreign communist parties to those of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, deemed by Stalinism to be the leading vanguard party of communist revolution at the time.
Juche Juche is the official state ideology of North Korea, described by the government as Kim Il-sung's original, brilliant and revolutionary contribution to national and international thought. It postulates that the Korean masses are to act as the masters of the revolution and construction and that by becoming self-reliant and strong a nation can achieve true socialism.
Ho Chi Minh Thought Ho Chi Minh Thought is the official ideology of the Communist Party of Vietnam under the leadership of Chairman Ho Chi Minh. Though firmly Marxist-Leninist, Ho believes in a more nationalistic reintepretation of Marxism for the unique conditions of the Vietnamese revolution, even taking some influence from Sun Yat-Sen's "Three Principles of the People" and the American revolutionaries. Ho Chi Minh Thought is as proudly Vietnamese as it is Communist, and calls for a "national democratic revolution" -- a truly Vietnamese path to socialism where worker, peasant, soldier, and merchant will unite against inequality and imperialism in all its forms.

Revolutionary Socialism

Revolutionary socialism is the socialist doctrine that social revolution is necessary in order to bring about structural changes to society. More specifically, it is the view that revolution is a necessary precondition for a transition from capitalism to socialism.
Revolutionary Islamic Socialism Your guess is as good as mine.
Trotskyism Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Russian Leon Trotsky. Trotsky identified as an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist. He supported founding a vanguard party of the proletariat, proletarian internationalism and a dictatorship of the proletariat based on working class self-emancipation and mass democracy.
Sartre Thought No description given.
Anarcho-Communism Anarcho-communism is a theory of anarchism which advocates the abolition of the state, capitalism, wage labor and private property in favor of common ownership of the means of production, direct democracy and a horizontal network of workers' councils with production and consumption based on the guiding principle: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.
Posadism No description. Another relic.
Titoism Titoism is described as the post-World War II policies and practices associated with Josip Broz Tito during the Cold War, characterized by an opposition to the Soviet Union. It usually represents Tito's Yugoslav doctrine in Cold War international politics. It emerged with the Yugoslav Partisans' liberation of Yugoslavia independently of the Red Army, resulting in Yugoslavia being the only Eastern European country to remain socialist, but independent after World War II as well as resisting Soviet Union pressure to become a member of the Warsaw Pact.
Left-wing Military Dictatorship a Left-wing Military Dictatorship is a government which may espouse specific socialistic beliefs to gain second world support, but is however a military-controlled oppressive autocratic state. [sic]
Person Dignity Theory (Nhuism) Person Dignity Theory, also known as Spiritualistic Marxism, describes the more radical worldview of Ngo Dinh Nhu. Influenced by his involvment with French syndicalism in the 1930s and the left-wing nationalism of the Viet Minh, Nhu's views are significantly to the left of his older brother. Nhu's interpretation of \"True Marxism\" calls for a total centralization of state power in the Can Lao Party and the complete destruction of traditional society in favor of the strict regimentation of the peasants in collectivist \"Strategic Hamlets\" and the city dwellers through \"Urban Revolutionary Syndicates\". Some believe Nhu's ambitions may lie beyond Vietnam, given his calls for a worldwide crusade against \"Materialistic Capitalism\". [sic]

Maoism (Mao Zedong Thought)

Actually clumps together "anti-revisionist" ideologies, but for our purposes we'll start with Mao Zedong Thought.
Mao Zedong thought is the product of the combination of the basic principles of Marxism Leninism and the specific reality of the Chinese revolution. It is the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the Chinese Communists. It is a political, military and development theory advocated by Mao Zedong and widely practiced in the Chinese revolution in the 20th century. It is generally considered to be the development of Marxism Leninism in China.
Anti-Revisionism A Marxist-Leninist position emerging after the XXth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Anti-revisionist movements oppose the reforms of the Khrushchev period and uphold Stalinist and Maoist developments in Marxism.
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism The synthesis of Marxism–Leninism–Maoism did not occur during the life of Mao Zedong. From the 1960s, groups that called themselves Maoist or which upheld Maoism were not unified around a common understanding of Maoism and had instead their own particular interpretations of the political, philosophical, economical and military works of Mao; these disorganized ideological trends comprised, and still comprise, Mao Zedong Thought.
Scientific Socialism Scientific Socialism was founded by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, but was widely used by Deng Xiaoping of the PRC to reform Maoism. It is often Maoism, but with a few reforms that add more emphasis on science, industrialization, and overall a new focus on the economy.
Hoxhaism Hoxhaism is a variant of anti-revisionist Marxism-Leninism that developed in the late 1970s due to a split in the Maoist movement, appearing after the ideological dispute between the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labor of Albania. The ideology is named after Enver Hoxha, a notable Albanian communist leader.
Guevarism Guevarism is a theory of communist revolution and a military strategy of guerrilla warfare associated with communist revolutionary Ernesto \"Che\" Guevara. The ideology promotes exporting revolution to any country whose leader is supported by the empire (United States) and has fallen out of favor with its citizens. The ideology has three main points, namely that the people can win with proper organization against a nation's army; that the conditions that make a revolution possible can be put in place by the popular forces; and that the popular forces always have an advantage in a non urban setting. [sic]

Third Positionism

Encompassing a variety of ultra-nationalist movements, third positionism typically venerates devotion to the state and uniting the people under a strong leader. Third Positionism is presented as its own unique ideology as a third option to capitalism or communism.
Falangism An authoritarian ideology with traits of fascism and conservatism, Falangist values national and Catholic identity.
Rexism Strongly opposed to both liberal and communist ideals, Rexism is a staunchly conservative nationalist movement who advocate a corporatist economic policy. Employing increasingly populist and authoritarian rhetoric, their ideals are shifting closer to other fascist movements.
Hindu Nationalism Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expression of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of the Indian subcontinent.
Salazarism Salazarism is a nationalist authoritarian ideology focusing on 'God, Fatherland and Family' and emphasizing the social role of Catholicism - setting it apart from mainstream variations of Fascism.
Neo-Nazism Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II militant, social or political movements seeking to revive the ideology of Nazism. It borrows elements from Nazi doctrine, including ultranationalism, racism up to xenophobia, ableism, homophobia, anti-Romanyism, antisemitism, anti-communism and initiating the Fourth Reich. Holocaust denial is a common feature, as is the incorporation of Nazi symbols and admiration of Adolf Hitler.
National Bolshevism National Bolshevism is a political movement that combines elements of nationalism and Bolshevism.
Baathism Baathism is an Arab nationalist ideology that promotes the development and creation of a unified Arab state through the leadership of a vanguard party over a progressive revolutionary government.
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan is an American white supremacist hate group. The Klan has existed in three distinct eras at different points in time during the history of the United States. Each has advocated extremist reactionary positions such as white supremacy, white nationalism, anti-immigration and-especially in later iterations-Nordicism and anti-Catholicism.
Kahanism No information.
Authenticité Ditto.
Trujillism Ditto.
Peronism Ditto.

Nationalism

Encompassing a variety of ultra nationalist movements, Nationalism typically venerates devotion to the state and uniting the people under a strong leader.
National Democracy no desc.
Pan-Africanism Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all people of African descent. Based on a common fate going back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement extends beyond continental Africans, with a substantial support base among the African diaspora in the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States.
Leftwing Nationalism Leftwing Nationalism is a form of nationalism which promotes the raising of societal standards for one's own national people generally through the introduction of social equality and government nationalization. Leftwing Nationalism is often anti-imperialist and can commonly represent national liberation fronts. Generally, Leftwing Nationalism will be a response to repeated exploitation of a nation by outside factors.
Bourguibism No desc.
Nasserism Nasserism is a revolutionary ideology, inspired by the second Egyptian President, Gamal Abdel Nasser; espousing the unification of what is referred to as the Arab world. It asserts that the Arab people constitute a single nation or federation, based upon a shared language and culture, transcending Islam and Christianity. Advocates of Nasserism have often been described representing political and economic positions which are secular, socialist, nationalistic, socially progressive, and anti-imperialist.
Revisionist Zionism See above.

Monarchism

A monarchy is a form of government in which a group, generally a family representing a dynasty, embodies the country's national identity and its head, the monarch, exercises the role of sovereignty.
Islamic Monarchy Islamic monarchies are a type of Islamic state which are monarchies. They are historically known by various names, such as Mamlakah, Caliphate, Sultanate, or Emirate.
Negusa Nagast
Negusa Nagast, or king of kings, is a type of selective hereditary imperial monarchy that became the prevalent leadership of Ethiopia since Negus Zemene Mesafint ended the Age of Princes period where Ethiopia was fractured between small principalities, kindoms, and sultanates.

Reactionary (also Neutrality)

In political science, a reactionary is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the status quo ante, the previous political state of society, which he or she believes possessed characteristics that are negatively absent from the contemporary status quo of a society.
Despotism Despotism is a form of government in which a single person rules with absolute power.
Military Dictatorship A military dictatorship is a form of government wherein a military force exerts complete or substantial control over political authority.
Oligarchic Oligarchy is a form of government in which a group of people rule with absolute power.
Colonialism Colonialism is the policy of a foreign polity seeking to extend or retain its authority over other people or territories, generally with the aim of opening trade opportunities. The colonizing country seeks to benefit whilst the colonized country or land mass, as many of the colonized countries were not countries at all, modernize in terms defined by the colonizers, especially in economics, religion, and health.
Independent An independent politician is an individual politician not affiliated with any political party.
Haredi no desc.
Vennamoism Vennamolaisuus, or Vennamoism in english is name given to the ideology and political movement of Veikko Vennamo, the leader of Finnish Rural Party. It is categorized by populism, reliance on slogans and support for agriculture.

Islamism

Sunni Islam is the largest denomination of Islam. Its name comes from the word Sunnah, referring to the exemplary behavior of the Islamic prophet Muhammad
Democratic Islamism Islamic democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Islamic principles to public policy within a democratic framework. Islamic political theory specifies three basic features of an Islamic democracy: leaders must be elected by the people, subject to sharia and committed to practicing \"shura\", a special form of consultation practiced by Prophet Muhammad
Ibadi Imamate no desc.

Radical Shiaism

Shia is a branch of Islam which holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor (Imam).
Shia Monarchy no desc.
Houthiism
Houthiism is an armed movement stemming from a sect of Shia Islam, Zaidiism. Houthiism is almost nonexistent outside of Yemen. The Houthi movement strongly opposes Saudi Arabia, the US, and Israel and seeks to combat the 'underdevelopment and marginalization' of Yemen.

Salafism

Salafism is a reform branch or revivalist movement within Sunni Islam that developed in Egypt in the late 19th century as a response to Western European imperialism, with roots in the 18th-century Wahhabi movement that originated in the Najd region of modern day Saudi Arabia.
"Eereerhmm... where are the ideology tags?" NOWHERE! I will not add them.

I posted about the book in Collapse here but I'm trying to spread it around to (hopefully one day) get a trad publisher to take a look at it. However, it's an odd book. All the satire is based very explicitly on headlines I've picked up around reddit. I'm trying to Keep_Track of the barrage of BS in an era where the noise is meant to distract from the signal. So, it's fiction with footnotes, satire with sources, David Foster Wallace-for-dummies, etc
It's all at https://zimri.ink/ with (free) audiobook-as-podcast links. It's read (hopefully halfway decently) by me. The whole book is kinda my reaction to the collapse. I hope it's more of a 'major shrinkage' than a total collapse, bc I just had a daughter, but you get the idea. If we're going down, the least we can do is go down together! Stay strong when you need to be strong and give yourself a break when you need to give yourself a break. I'm gonna keep writing to delude myself into thinking I can scream loud enough to alter the course of this greed-driven, short-sighted sinking ship. Woo!
Anyway, the book is about a gig worker who inherits the entire company and then finds out things at the top don't work as advertised. He's disillusioned. It's kind of like a corporate version of Candide, where Candide and Pangloss go from disaster to disaster, always seeking the 'best of all possible worlds'. It's a tragedy. But funny!
Woo!

This game has exceeded my expectations of what I imagined a remake would be in my childhood.
The combat system is the best iteration on the Final Fantasy combat system I could imagine. It has a perfect blend between action and turn based and can be played to either extent almost as much as the player wants. It's skills and magic resistances/weaknesses, buffs/debuffs and materia system all work and translate well into the modern era of action rpgs, and add even more depth to a lot of the systems. You can seamlessly switch between characters and command your team remotely, which is some combat system magic that a lot of RPGs dream about when they sleep.
And they pulled off an open world! Not only that, a gorgeous one that runs smooth and isn't a buggy MESS! It's also packed full of things to do which most modern AAA games would blush at.
NOT ONLY THAT IT'S GOT QUEENS BLOOD
Most of the bosses are pitch perfect and the fights can be epic, involving certain loadouts and strategies. In my humble option they trump a certain other recent Final Fantasy in boss fights, maybe not in pure spectacle, but in intensity and tactics
THERES 7 PLAYABLE F**KING CHARACTERS. And they are all fun to play
It is also genuinely funny. I burst out laughing at the queen's blood player who is one of those living statue guys who told me I'm going to regret bringing him to life
It's saddening that people care about sales numbers so much and that it becomes the only headline associated with a game that is still early in its lifecycle and casts doubt about the future of the series, but it is also heartening to see a game with so much care and attention to detail be put together (without ruining muh childhood) in this day of boring, paint by numbers open world rpgs.

This week, OpenAI unveiled GPT-4o, its newest A.I. model. It has an uncannily emotive voice that everybody is talking about. Then, we break down the biggest announcements from Google IO, including the launch of A.I. overviews, a major change to search that threatens the way the entire web functions. And finally, Kevin and Casey discuss the weirdest headlines from the week in another round of HatGPT.
Additional Reading:

• A.I.’s ‘Her’ Era Has Arrived
• ChatGPT Gets an Emotional Upgrade
• Google’s Broken Link to the Web
• Can Google Give A.I. Answers Without Breaking the Web?

You can listen to the episode here.

Written 5/8/2024- updates attached below

I tried posting this on kendrick almost a week ago and it got no response, I messaged the mods to ask about Karma restrictions or account age requirements and they never replied. I made a new account and it was the same issue, but I found out last night I wasn’t fully banned, so I figured I’d throw it up and see if anyone finds it valuable. It’s written for people who have no prior knowledge of the rap game/music business. I don’t have to go as hard on obscuring names this time. One of the influencers I mentioned in my last post is known for doxxing and threatening violence against people who mention the many contradictions in their stories. (Sorry for any typos/mistakes I want to go to bed.)
Origins
I believe the current Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef is either completely or partially fabricated by certain industry leaders or the parties involved in an effort to distract from something bigger going down behind the scenes. If you were an influential label owner facing major accusations, and you needed to deflect media attention from yourself, recreating one of the most defining moments in rap history during the social media era would be a way to do it. It also wouldn’t hurt that two of the biggest rappers in the world were already sending shots at each other in their music for years prior. The public consensus is they are simply two famous rappers who hate each other and fighting over the spot for the top like in the 90’s. Only people who were directly involved could paint a more cohesive picture of the whole story. Even when all the cards drop, there is a good chance the average person won’t be able to find direct sources on their own and will continue to support their favorite artists and dismiss any evidence of their crimes like the drizzy subreddit or Ak fans.

As I said the beef between Kendrick and Drake has been brewing in the background for years, with both rappers sending shots and sneak dissing each other over the course of at least 8 years. The most agreed upon origin story is the first diss was the 2016 Big Sean and Kendrick collaboration, “Control,” and Drake responded with, “The Language”. Things stayed relatively lighthearted for a while and both were intentionally vague for many years. Before I go deep into the Kendrick and Drake stuff, it’s really important to examine some of Drake’s prior beefs because they add a ton of context to my theory. In my opinion Kendrick and Co. started scheming all of this some time around Mid 2020-Mid 2022, well after the whole Pusha T beef had transitioned into the Kanye beef.

What exactly started the beef is debatable, but at the time many attributed it to rumors of Drake pursuing Ye’s ex Amber Rose. Unfortunately the timeline isn’t 100 percent clear, and if I included every detail this would be at least 200+ pages so I’ll stick with the important stuff. The ultimate outcome of the Pusha T battle in 2018 was the revelation of Drake’s son Adidon that he had previously been hiding from the world along with getting Ye directly involved in the beef.

Here are some more examples of Drake antagonizing Ye and of him trying to use women as pawns to get material for his diss tracks. The Drake line, “Yeah, I probably go link to Yeezy, I need me some Jesus, but as soon as I start confessin' my sins, he wouldn't believe us," could be a reference to sleeping with Kim Kardashian, trying to double down on his threats to harm him or his family, or it could be a double entendre. Another example is using the name Kiki in another song, which was apparently one of Kim’s nicknames. Some other possible examples include the theories he may have tried the same thing with Kendrick’s wife Whitney around 2020-2021 in an attempt to use as ammo against Kendrick, which I’ll go into later. I don’t listen to much of either artist's music, but there are probably many of other examples in Drake’s catalogue that I’m leaving out. There is also his song Omerta released in 2019, which I'll go into below.

“Your baby mother call me when she lonely My tailor see me twice a week, he like my homie Forever grateful, forever thankful Diamond necklace, but she wears it on her ankle”

(Probably referring to Kim Kardashian since she had a few pictures with her wearing diamond ankle bracelets and was trying to make it into a trend.

“I plan to buy your most personal belongings when they up for auction”

(There were various rumors floating around for a while that Drake was blackmailing Ye with something and he was fighting to keep it from the public. I thought about it and this line might be referencing a sex tape with Kim or her little sister who me was very touch before she turned 18. In 2022 there was a whole storyline on Kim’s show where Ye flies to LA to prevent her second sex tape from being released.)

West Hollywood, know my presence is menacing
Cosa Nostra, shady dealings
Racketeering, the syndicate got they hand in plenty things The things that we've done to protect the name are unsettling But no regrets, though, the name'll echo Years later, none greater
Death to a coward and a traitor, that's just in my nature, yeah
(Drake and Ye both frequented the Delilah Nightclub located in West Hollywood and lived closeby on the same street for a while.)
"I don't carry cash 'cause the money is digital
It's the American Expresser, the debt collector"

(Sounds a lot more like it could be crypto to launder or send large amounts of ill gotten gains. It started becoming mainstream around them)

"Last year, niggas really feel like they rode on me
Last year, niggas got hot 'cause they told on me
I'm 'bout to call the bluff of anybody the fold on me"

These lines stood out because they could be referring to Ye telling the public about Drake's alleged threats a couple months before the songs release. This happened not long after the release of Sicko mode which was towards the end of 2018 as well. Ye was discussing the incident on Twitter and reached out to Drake and Travis to talk to him in private. In the next set of tweets Kanye publicly accused Drake of threatening him and his family in a major way. Surprisingly Ye seemed genuinely scared and amongst his, “crazy rants,” some of the stuff he said makes a ton of sense in hindsight. This also the beginning of his second serious public struggles with Bipolar disorder after being committed in 2016 shortly after an on stage rant where he calls out Jay Z for selling out and says he's afraid he might kill him.. As someone who shares the same diagnosis, I have a pretty good understanding of mania and psychosis and firmly believe that it's important not to write people off right away due to their mental illness. Some of my most thoughtful, creative, and productive periods were inspired by mania. Industry bigwigs have also been using mental illness to discredit influential black celebrities and visionaries going back decades, but it really picked up in the 80’s.

Dave Chappelle has gone into this a lot in the past and claims he experienced something similar before he quit show business and dipped to Africa. Their stories have a lot of interesting parallels if you’re familiar or curious. I remember he actually visited Ye at his house in Wyoming after he was reported to have had a, "mental breakdown," during his presidential run in 2020 thus marking his third breakown in six years.. The reason I put it in quotes is because it happened right after he publicly accused Kim of cheating and delivered his legendary speech on abortion. Dave went as far as going on live tv and telling the public he wasn’t crazy, he was just really struggling because he was the only one at the time fighting against the narrative, which can often be a suicide mission or a ticket to obscurity. These are three examples of someone speaking up and being deemed crazy, two years later came the nazi stuff and I'm sure we'll have plenty in store for 2024.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the very common pattern of artists dying or having their careers destroyed either after they try to leave their label or threaten to reveal industry secrets. A few more interesting industry connections I made in my research include the connections between:

T.U.G. records and J Cole's independent label Dreamville are both managed by Interscope Records, whose parent company is Universal Music Group.

Universal Music Group also hac Drake's label OvO label as well as Ye and Kendrick's old labels on their roster before they left to form their own independent labels in 2022 (around the same time the disses between Kendrick and Drake started escalating). Finally Bad Boy Records, which is owned by Diddy, and Motown Records who own Diddy's other R&B label Love Records, are also both owned by Universal. This means every label I mention is currently or was previously owned by Universal Music Group.

Ye tried for years to get out of his contract with Defjam, which happens to be ran by Jay Z who is known to be a close associate of Diddy. Jay would always used his money and power to fight against it. Ye even spoke out publicly on a few occasions, including when he said Jay Z was trying to kill him during one of his concerts. My theory is after years of getting nowhere and having his reputation skewered, in 2022 Ye finally said, "Fuck it," and dropped all the anti- Semetic stuff intentionally in a successful attempt to force his label to into using their morality clause, which requires labels to drop an artist if they're accused of any major controversy that could hurt the label’s profits. For the fourth time in four years the media reported he was having a breakdown. Even though they tried to punish him by cutting off all of his sources of income and freezing his accounts he still managed to bounce back pretty quickly. It was often reported how much he was losing, but it rarely discussed how he still was filthy rich in spite of the retrictions. His label wanted to discourage other artists from trying the same thing. My theory is he might have bought Kim or Kylie's alleged sex tape and used it for his own leverage. For Kendrick, his transition to his independent label ApLang went a lot smoother, but he had to split ownership of his new label with the previous manager owner Dave Free. Sadly it's still difficult for new or more niche artists to establish themselves without the some help.

He may be a lot of things but Ye isn’t dumb just because he has a mood disorder and the guys at the top know this, which is why I think he has really played up his diagnosis when it benefitted him. He’s still one of the most talented musicians in the game and I really think he sees his bipolar like a superpower as he says. It’s like his own invisibility cloak. He can go off his meds for a little, make an album after staying up for 72 hours, go on a “psychotic” twitter rant dropping facts throughout, then start up again once he makes enough news headlines. I think it’s worth noting the first divorce rumors in 2020 coincided with Ye’s abortion speech during his presidential run and the cheating accusations. that led to him dropping out and moving to Wyoming, and a couple months ago in February 2024 he was committed again.

The point I’m making is bipolar is complex, but pretty manageable especially if you have a ton of money to find meds that work for you and a good doctor and can keep substance abuse and stress at a manageable level. I think Ye is smart enough to know this, but it’s just safer for him to really play up the mental issues in the media. He’s proven he can literally say whatever he wants after getting cancelled and the average person is just going to write it off as psycho babble. While bias in health care is a sad fact of society, if you can use it to your advantage I say go for it. It might’ve just kept the microscope off of him long enough to plan his attack.

Ye v. Drake: Quotes of 2018
(Start of the beef, drake threats, and suspicion towards Kardashian family. )

“ It’s not about rap. It’s about family. We have to be close as a family and never let these people infiltrate just for radio spins”

“We need to show the world that people can talk without people ending up dead or in jail.”

”This is a man speaking to a man that has been placed in the program to fuck with Kanye West head and set me up“

”See when you care about your family you don’t let no man push you to do nothing that could risk your freedom“

These first four tweets by Ye were all in reference to perceived threats made by Drake after their beef escalated circa 2018. He began speaking on the industry and talking more about his psych hospital commitment two years prior and how he thought they were going to kill him. It's pretty obvious how the whole thing was planned by the sketchy doctor who called it in and his physical trainer who has a ton of connections to weird shit involving his celebrity clients.

I found interesting that Ye might not have been the first major league rapper whose life Drake threatened. During a similar period of mental illness the up and coming rapper XXXtentacion accused Drake of stealing his flow and dissed him a few times. Not long after he made a post online saying if he dies, it was Drake who did it. There are tons of conspiracies online, but none of the evidence is strong enough to draw a definitive connection. Also while it maybe be coincidental, Kendrick’s latest album Mr Morale also painted the picture that Kendrick was dealing with some serious personal issues. Some lines throughout the album may have been used to bait Drake into escalating, but it wasn’t until The Weekend, Future, and Metro Booming dropped, “We Don’t Trust You,” then Drake and J. Cole dropped, “First Person Shooter,” which was followed a couple days later with, “Like That,” where Kendrick started the chain of events that has led us to today.

Kanye vs. Drake: Quotes of 2020

Summary: Ye runs for president and gets suppressed for saying what very well could be the truth and was immediately deemed insane by the media. Kim did a couple interviews and everything he said was immediatly false. There is almost guarenteed to be some sketchy shit going down revolving her and her family. Ye was absolutely terrified of her keeping the kids away from him and it seems like there are still efforts being made to this day to paint a certain image of him for ulterior motives.

Below are six more quotes from a fan taking a deep dive into his 2020 tweets courtesy of u/ thehatstore42069 on Yeezy
”NORTHY I AM GOING TO WAR AND PUTTING MY LIFE ON THE LINE AND IF I AM MURDERED DON’T EVER LET WHITE MEDIA TELL YOU I WASNT A GOOD MAN,” West, 43, wrote in the tweet, adding, “WHEN PEOPLE THREATEN TO TAKE YOU OUT OF MY LIFE JUST KNOW I LOVE YOU”

"I need a public apology from J Cole and Drake to start with immediately... I'm Nat Turner... I'm fighting for us."

"the utmost respect for all brothers" and said "we need to link and respect each other... no more dissing each other on labels we don't own"

"Ye is constantly trying to tell people that his family does not have his or his kids best interests at heart. He goes on to list others, linking them together with the thinking emoji. These people include rap artist Drake and Larsa Pippen, wife of Scottie Pippe. Kim K is goddaughter to Pippen's daughter, showing how close the families actually are. All of these families that associate with Ye through Kardashian connections, as well as Drake, have been accused of the same thing Kris has. EVERY SINGLE ONE of these people have mixed race children that are groomed from a young age to fuck around with celebrities so the parents can remain famous. Drake on numerous occasions has been accused of grooming girls and then getting handsy on their 18th birthday.”

“These labels want their artists to make them money and they dont care about anything else. When Kanye says things like this in an attempt to expose him, the first thing they wanna do is drug him up and put him back in the studio.”
“Righteous indignation is typically a reactive emotion of anger over mistreatment, insult, or malice of another. It is akin to what is called the sense of injustice. This is how they keep the black man down. Keep people outraged about trivial things and distract them from the real issues in the world. The real problems in the industry. If you tell people enough times that they are unequal or discriminated against they start to believe it. Drug them when they step out of line and toss them aside when the checks run out. Ye is realizing he is pawn in a bigger game, and now that he has all these roots in the game such as Yeezy or the Gap or his music, too many people cant risk (Afford) a Ye who speaks his mind.”
(End of quotes)

Amongst the twitter rant, Ye warned about the predatory nature of record deals and discussed trying to get out of his own deal, and said again how his life may be in danger if it wasn’t already and was doing anything he could to protect his kids. The most fascinating part to me though is the public call to arms he made to Drake, J Cole, and Kendrick on twitter. After inviting them to all link up, he said, “It’s time to get free, we will not argue amongst each other while some guy we don’t know in Europe is getting paid and putting that money in a hedge fund.” I believe if Ye was able to pull off this meeting, there is an ever so slight chance that all four artists might be working together to take down a greater enemy. Weirdly there have been times throughout the last couple years where these supposed enemies were photographed together being friendly or praise each other in interviews, then out of no where the disses would start flying again.

To wrap things up I want to share my a few of my theories about the Drake/Kanye beef

A. Everything is exactly as it seems and the beef is over. Ye let his mental illness ruin his life and career so Drake simply picked another target after Ye stopped putting out disses. All of these connections are just a coincidence and all of this was choreographed to boost Drake and Kendrick’s music sales and possibly distract people from the Diddy trial and possibly the complicated geopolitical issues currently facing the U.S.

C. There is also the possibility that all four rappers are in cahoots and Drake’s dirt isn’t as extreme as people are theorizing, at least in comparison to the rest of the business. This could explain why everything has played out like a movie and how they were able to predict each other’s moves so well. This could either mean they’re all just trying to boost their sales or they’re all trying to take down the “slave masters,” as Ye calls them, and change the dynamic of the music industry in favor of the artist.

D. They may be trying to help their friends in the industry who are being abused or in shitty contracts. I know a lot of famous rappers have done a lot of collaborations with Jhene Aiko and Anderson Paak, who were both signed to T.U.G. records which I mentioned above in the connections to Universal Music Group. Considering they are both frequent collaborators with all of the artists involved on both sides, it’s not unlikely they may have played some part in influencing the takedown.

T.U.G was started by Chris Stokes with his partner Ketrina Askew. Back in the early to mid 90’s were gaining popularity attracting lots of young up and coming talent. They often collaborated with Diddy and his associates. In the 2000’s Raz B from the boy band B2K claimed he was molested by Stokes and his friend Marques Houston, then quickly retracted his claims. Years later he came forward again and said we was bribed into silence and that the rest of the victims were bribed with hush money and had another singer corroborate his story and they came forward together to level the accusations. After some of his former B2K members made fun of him for his claims and accused it of being a shakedown, Raz B revealed Stokes and Houston had preyed a lot of the children associated with the label including at least one of the former bandmates and paid them off.

I thought it was worth noting that the second whistleblower named Quindon Tarver died young in a car crash after mentioning his abuse again a few years prior. He seems to have left the industry not long after the incidents occurred and has few credits to his name. To this day Raz B is still trying to get his justice, while Stokes and his partner Askew, who was also involved in the abuse are still running the label to this day. Askew also has a ton of lawsuits, accusing her of using shady tactics to try to foreclose on houses. (Don’t quote me if a lawyer wants to take a look just google her full name), and has been tied to a ton of LLCs, similar to Drake. This is a good example of a shitty record deal, but I'm sure they have countless other friends in the industry who have even worse. While they were never convicted even Chris Stokes' wife confirmed it to be true.

E. The theory I personally think fits the narrative best and is the most realistic conspiracy is that Kendrick and possibly J. Cole went to the meeting, but not Drake due to his close relationship with Lucian Grange, the president of Drake’s label. Silence often speaks louder than words and this could explain why Kendrick was so ruthless and put so much effort into finding dirt on Drake. Ye, Cole, and Kendrick co-writing would be like the rap allstar team and if J. Cole wasn’t involved, it would also answer the question of whether or not he baited Drake into the battle by asking him to feature. I don’t think Drake is really their primary target though, which would explain letting him off easy. Compared to his bosses and their bosses he’s a small fish. If you take the big guys down you stand a better chance of landing a bigger blow on their operation.

Another really interesting connection is Kendrick and Ye were both signed under Universal Music Group and they both got out of their deals around couple months apart in 2022. As we speak U.M.G’s CEO Lucian Grange, who is often acccused of giving Drake special treatment, is facing charges related to sex trafficking by no other than P Diddy. This could very well explain the timing of it all. The craziest timeline would be Diddy masterminding all of this and using his connections to get it done and all the allegations are bullshit. The guy does seem pretty confident all things considered and constantly posts himself in his Batman costume which could mean he’s a vigilante.

It seems like there's a slight religious angle as well. (Ye and Diddy are both very vocal advocates of Christianity and Drake and Lucian Grange are both Jewish.) Obviously this is a reach, but they’ve been saying rap music was specifically promoted by mostly white label owners in the 80’s to help in the ongoing effort to expedite the systematic oppression of those living in black neighborhoods and the destruction of their family systems. Apparently it was an intentional decision to heavily promote rappers that promoted the very things that were destroying their neighborhoods. (So people know I'm and atheist and have zero agenda, I just thought it was interesting, please stay away from anything antisemitic. War is wrong on both sides.)

*** If my favorite theory is true, there is a possibility the Kendrick and Ye are going after Drake due to their mutual disdain for him and because he’s got a ton of power to dominate the charts and hog the radio airtime like Meek Mill and OG Maco claimed years ago. Even him dropping a record the same day as you could really fuck your album sales up. I’m also sure some of the many rumors throughout the years have had a least some truth and he will most likely snitch to avoid cell block one. I think that Drake could have been instructed to instigate this whole mess in order to draw attention away from the UMG charges brought about by Diddy. Or on the other hand it could be that Kendrick, Ye, and possibly Cole, may have had intel that Drake was going to be involved in the Diddy trial and are just gonna let the receipts show themselves. It might not have been the original plan, but they’ve already accomplished their mission of humiliating him, assuring he couldn’t use his influence to slide through the cracks, and taking over the throne.

Please take everything I say with a grain of salt I have no connection to this world or lifestyle. Regardless I believe all of the knowledge above does a pretty solid job at painting a picture of what may have let up to this and what may have been the source.
——————————-
More details found the last couple days…

Drake and Diddy Connections+Coincidences

Drake- In the P Diddy wig video from 2016 he talks about going to party with Drake, Cash, and The Weeknd in Toronto. Drake is also one of Birdman’s protégées who is known for being a predator and is rumored to have used label artists to lure young women.

Travis Scott- Interview where he comes out and says Diddy tried to lure him. Still has a long history of associating with him, video of him running from Diddy, his connection to Ruby Rose while underage.

Tim Westwood- Diddy had connections with sex offender Tim Westwood who also inspired the Drake song, “Westwood”. They also both were victims of drive by shootings along with The Weekend and they were all facing some type of allegations.

T.I.- Also has been associate with Diddy through the years, in 2021 his kid died and 11 women can forward at the same time to accuse him and his wife of drugging and assaulting them. Clearly someone wanted to fuck his life up. Possibly due to him getting arrested so many times for wild shit and people wondering how he continued to get away with it shining a light on how powerful industry lawyers are. He also had recently talked about having a gynecologist check to see if his daughter is still a Virgin, which sounds like it could have been an industrty secret. Could have been because he worried about someone trying to take advantage of her to get to him? Regardless that shit is fucking insane.

50 Cent- Has been saying pretty much the same thing as Travis Scott and has trolled Diddy for most of his career. It came out that his wife was a sex worker who was possibly recruited Diddy to help ruin his career. It sort of worked, which raises the question if 50 Cent is the only victim.

Ray J- Him and his sister worked with T.U.G. records when they were very young. Chris Stokes in the nineties who had connections with Diddy. He has been involved in a lot of sex scandals and allegedly may have played a part in Whitney Houston's death. (Which is also allegedly connected to Michael Jackson's death and both were deemed suspicious and happened during their final tours when their masters (song rights), became more valuable than their lives. Sony Records and Tommy Motolla, who also abused Mariah Carey when she was trying to start her career. These are just a few of the alleged examples of labels taking out musicians when they were worth more dead, another is the signing of high risk artists and requiring them to get life insurance so they can profit beyond releasing all their posthumous records. Also the ever so common story of the rising star artist that die at 21 after their first album or two.

He also partied with Diddy in Vegas with along Floyd Mayweather and a bunch of other famous industry people and athletes.

Tory Lanez- Tons of blackmail, also was signed by Interscope under UMG. got sent to prison for ten years after trying to leave his label. Also history of SA and and other allegations of violence towards women.

French Montana- On Diddy's label, close with Rick and Khaled, tons of drug and sexual assault allegations, also dated a Kardashian. Generally grimy.

DJ Khaled- Diddy said he could get anything in Miami, either referring to drugs or women, could explain his connections and lack of any notable talent. (New update, he was one of the first to promote Chris Alvarez’s instagram not long after he turned 18).

Rick Ross- Diddy said some weird shit about him and licked his lips and kissed him at a show. Ross is also signed to Bad Boy under Diddy. He ended up getting involved in the current feud and spamming social media nonstop dissing and threatening Drake.

A lot of the back and forth was both of them threatening to release dirt on each other. One strange coincidence I found was Drake recently trolled Ross about the 20 million dollar renovation to his home on Star island, where Diddy is currently residing. It’s rumored back in the day that P Diddy was caught in a room full of rich guys on ecstasy possibly at the beginning stages of a gay orgy. Drake also mentioned in the same tweets about Rick Ross that Birdman owned a house on the island and asked Rick Ross why he didn’t help him out.

Considering Ross is so sketchy and Drake claims the house isn’t that big, that’s a ridiculous amount of money. He may be covering up evidence, or creating tunnels in his house to escape if shit pops off and Drake might know what’s good. Interestingly enough Ross is very close with French Montana and also signed to Bad. He said his beef was related to something involving French, and Drake’s tweet popped up the same day the info came out concerning the Chris Alvarez stuff.

The famous line from U.O.E.N.O.

Meek Mill- “OG Maco called himself defending his friend Quentin Miller by substantiating the ghostwriting claims and agreeing with Meek. He hit up Twitter saying, "Some of us been knew. Meek just put it in the air. Sucks to have to compete with 6 n****s and get compared to”

Meek mill also had a short beef with Drake, some disses included lines referring to TI’s homie pissing on Drake at the movie theater, which is also interesting considering the current case against him. He also dropped a line saying Diddy almost got a domestic charge when he smacked Drake, which could either be saying that Drake is like a woman, or saying he was Drake’s boyfriend/sugar daddy.
( If you made it to the end comment with the number 8)
I thought it was interesting how the beef just kind of disappeared and even Meek said it didn’t seem genuine. Considering the allegations against Meek in the Diddy trial, and his rumored affair with Kim contributing to ending Kanye’s marriage, Meek Mill definitely did some dirt on him.

“Niggas frauds I told the truth, don't ask me shit
All this industry fake enemy and rap shit”

“Money make a sucker that told look trill again”

One of the many chapters in Drake's history in which he is seen paying his way out of trouble and starting beefs randomly.
“Now when that shit went down with Chris, you wrote a check”
This line is referring to Chris brown beef, another beef that was lost to time. All I can remember off the top was someone throwing a champagne bottle at the other’s entourage.

Ty Dolla $ign- Huge feature artist, close with Ye. Grew up in the industry and talks about growing up on the road and being in the studio with his dad and Rick James who was should have already been in prison for life for dragging, torturing, and S assaulting multiple women and children throughout his career and was himself a victim of the industry. May be part of Ye's motivation, considering their recent close working relationship.
The end.
Courtesy of,
The Randomest Moniker

Buckle up, buttercups.
TL;DR: I believe that thanK you aImee is written from the perspective of Taylor thanking Calvin Harris for allowing her to feel like she can come out.
I've been revisiting the back catalogue with new ears recently. Tonight, the album of choice was Lover (How did I miss I Think He Knows, the bearding anthem to end bearding anthems). It opens with one of my favorite tracks on the album, I Forgot That You Existed. It's catchy and fun, and who doesn't love moving on.
It's been my thought since 2019 that it was directed to Calvin Harris, because of her not thanking him at the Grammys. I didn't have a thought as to why 2019 when they had been broken up since 2016, but I just accepted that I'd never understand Blondie and her ways.
While listening to IFTYE, I had the thought that maybe Calvin is Aimee. Who would think of the man she forgot existed, right?
I believe that the plaque she references in TYA are the Beardgate tweets from 2018 (why she forgot that he existed).
The second chorus of TYA feels like a reference back to IFTYE:
TYA:

All that time you were throwin' punches, I was buildin' somethin' And I can't forgive the way you made me feel Screamed, "Fuck you, Aimee" to the night sky as the blood was gushin' But I can't forget the way you made me heal

IFTGYE:

How many days did I spend Thinkin' 'bout how you did me wrong, wrong, wrong? Lived in the shade you were throwin' 'Til all of my sunshine was gone, gone, gone And I couldn't get away from ya In my feelings more than Drake, so yeah Your name on my lips, tongue tied Free rent, livin' in my mind

I believe that Aimee stomping across her grave is her referencing the grave she dug for herself in the LWYMD video. He also notoriously tweeted about her post break up (made headlines). Of course, these behaviors would make any mother want to him to die.
As I'm a person who believes that Taylor will eventually come out, I believe that the final bit is her thanking him for pushing her to come out. Was Beardgate the push she needed to feel like coming out is possible, so we got ME! Out Now!, folklore and evermore, and the Eras tour as a result?
I've also been under the belief that High Infidelity is about Calcium Hydroxide. The interview on April 29th, the records reference, dancing around the truth. I saw some speculation that he may not have known she was gay even though he knew they were in a contractual relationship. It's possible to me that the slur spoken was him finding out she's queer and literally calling her a slur or possibly the tweets feeling like a slur.
I'm of the opinion currently that Midnights was written after TTPD. She alleged that she started working on it after turning Midnights in, but the easter egg timeline down's work for that. I don't believe for a second that she was wearing color coded dresses and dropping twos for TTPD in 2021 without having begun working on it.
It feels like High Infidelity is her acknowledging that CH was not alone in the relationship not working out. While she may not intentionally lied to him, she was definitely not telling him the full truth. Both of them broke the lock, the agreement and trust they had in their bearding contract.

If this has already been put out there I’ll honestly delete it, this is a lightening strike thought that hit me just now listening to it and I searched the sub a bit but honestly there’s just SO MUCH HERE (in a good way lol) and I can’t find if anybody’s brought this up or not. Also sorry for formatting, doing my best on my phone!
While I’m compelled to think Chloe & Co is about either a former lover and/or Taylor the brand…..WHAT IF its her imagining/addressing/grappling with what the fall out will be of her coming out. I’m going to break the lyrics down by line but in hearing it as her pondering what the future relationship of her fans/fame will be AFTER SHE COMES OUT, it’s interesting:
Your hologram stumbled into my apartment Hands in the hair of somebody in darkness named Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus And I just watched it happen

• Watchings fans move on to the next big name (re: Clara Bow)….doesn’t matter who it is, the names/genders are irrelevant, it’s her grappling with the fact that there will one day be a new “Taylor Swift” that fans will latch on to and she’ll be left to watch from the sidelines

As the decade would play us for fools And you saw my bones out with somebody new Who seemed like he would've bullied you in school And you just watched it happen

• Taylor telling her fans “you guys saw me go through relationship after relationship, the talk of all the paparazzi, my battles/downfalls with fame/kanye/scandals etc and you all just watched and consumed

If you want to break my cold, cold heart Just say, 'I loved you the way that you were' If you want to tear my world apart Just say you've always wondered

• This is her wondering to herself, if I HAD come out in 2019 (or earlier), what if they would have just accepted me? Bc if that was the case….would all of what she’s been doing and put herself through from then and till now be a waste? Could she instead have been truly been living as her authentic self for the past 5 years? That’s heartbreaking

You said some things that I can't unabsorb You turned me into an idea of sorts You needed me but you needed drugs more And I couldn't watch it happen

• Headline news, gossip rags, internet gossip etc all raking her through the coals at every step (which is STILL happening now and I think she knows and planned on it being that way). The fans have put her on a pedestal and forgot that she is a real person. They SAY they love her and care about her, but really at the end of the day all they want is more songs, more things to consume (the “narcotics she sprinkles into all of her songs” from WAOLOM)

I changed into goddesses, villains and fools Changed plans and lovers and outfits and rules All to outrun my desertion of you And you just watched it

• Goes with the lines above. She has changed herself LITERALLY with every era to try to be the person/idea that everyone wants, even though it was killing her deep down and everybody just watched it (“while the crowd was screaming more”)

If the glint in my eye traced the depths of your sigh Down that passage in time Back to the moment I crashed into you Like so many wrecks do Too impaired by my youth To know what to do

• This is the regret she carries for not just coming out back then and for choosing to stay silent on those who were effectively blackmailing her into the closet. She was young, she didn’t know what to do, she thought she was making the right decision but now she’s left with the “what ifs” and wondering if she would have come out sooner, maybe everybody would have accepted that too?

So if I sell my apartment And you have some kids with an internet starlet Will that make your memory fade from this scarlet maroon like it never happened

• If she “moves out” of stardom, if she stops performing (whether by choice or public reception after coming out), people will inevitably move on — they will find a new star to “marry/have kids with/make their world revolve around” just like they have with her. There will be a new Taylor Swift and maybe one day even Maroon (which she is obv SO strongly tied to with how many times she’s made it a surprise song) will be one of those “oh yeah, who sings that again?” songs in passing.

Could it be enough to just float in your orbit Can we watch our phantoms like watching wild horses Cooler in theory but not if you force it To be, it just didn't happen

• COULD she live on the sidelines knowing what she WAS and knowing that her fans have moved on…not by CHOICE of a planned retirement, but because her coming out was SO BIG that it forced fans away, caused them to hate her, etc….all these feelings of anxiety and dread that I’m sure she’s feeling about ‘revealing’ her true self and what the aftermath of that will look like.

So if you want to break my cold, cold heart Say you loved me And if you want to tear my world apart Say you'll always wonder Cause I wonder Will I always Will I always wonder?

• again….it’s somewhat of a double edge sword too because WHAT IF everyone is cool with it and the fandom doesn’t crumble…but meanwhile she’s worked tirelessly the past 5 years burning ENTIRE thing to the ground. Would she be okay with the outcome too? Because then what, where does she go from there?

Edit: If you are going to comment on the length of this post, please don't. This is not a simple snark but rather an actual critical think piece about feminism and Taylor Swift.

Introduction

Pertaining to Taylor Swift, "Female Rage" has deviated from its intended meaning after Swift debuted a new performance of The Tortured Poets Department during the Eras Tour. Now, according to Swift's use of the phrase, female rage is interpreted as public backlash against Swift's dating choices rather than as a response to the broader injustices against women and women's rights. This post examines Taylor Swift's flawed feminism, philanthropy, branding, and the controversial trademark petition for the phrase "Female Rage: The Musical". Swift's background as an entertainer, indeterminate politics, and alignment with capitalism over feminism pervades her legacy, again threatening her public tolerance as not just an individual but as a brand.

Once Upon a Female Rage...

If you were cognizant in the early 2010's, you've heard countless jabs at Taylor Swift in the media. Magazines, radio, or online. Music critics did not take her seriously as a songwriter; parents put a woman on an unrealistic pedestal as the ideal role model for their children; she dated too much and used men as lyrical fodder. No matter the story, it inevitably spread, conjoined with everyone's respective opinions, and you'd be left to wonder, "Why does everyone hate this girl so much?"
Taylor's target demographic has always been young or adolescent girls, more so when Swift herself was one. She made music that spoke to the awkward misfit, cultivating a para-social relationship with fans on MySpace, then later twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, where Taylor posted relatable vlogs showcasing the life of a homegrown American girl. Taylor had a delayed public "growing up" and, compared to her female pop contemporaries, Swift never "gratuitously sexualized her image and seems pathologically averse to controversy" (and, apparently, never even had a sip of alcohol until she turned 21). She was more than happy to spin this narrative to allude to an inherent moral superiority above other women in the industry (Better Than Revenge, heard of it?), engaging in the very slut-shaming that she herself endured (the Madonna and Whore archetypes). The victim complex arose with the need to prove Taylor as a different type of pop girl. Based upon her holy and clean image, Swift had been dubbed "a feminist's nightmare", and that "[To Swift] other girls are obstacles; undeserving enemies who steal Taylor’s soulmates with their bewitching good looks and sexual availability." Feminism and Tennessee-Christian country values don't exactly mix, it seems.
Years later, Swift befriended Lena Dunham and thus experienced white feminism osmosis, where Dunham taught Swift that real feminists defend rapists, makes insensitive jokes about rape and abortion, and prioritize all-white casts. Swift then declared herself a feminist in 2014, saying,

"Becoming friends with Lena – without her preaching to me, but just seeing why she believes what she believes, why she says what she says, why she stands for what she stands for – has made me realize that I’ve been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so."

I suppose the male-centric songwriting subject that permeates Swift's discography contained covert feminism and that we just didn't see that. Perhaps, the "Bad Blood" song and music video were written only in jest and not about poor Katy Perry, for Swift, as a feminist, would "never make it a girl fight" or tear other women down (though all Katy did was date your terrible ex-boyfriend and allegedly steal three backup dancers from your tour). In 2013, Swift said, in response to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's joke towards her serial dating, "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."
There was that time in 2015 Taylor said that Nicki Minaj was "invited to any stage [she is] on" (as if Taylor expects to have access to every stage, award, and platform that Nicki might not otherwise have as a black female artist...yikes!) in response to Nicki's criticism of the white + thin VMA nominations. Later, Nicki responded with confusion, as Swift continued, "It’s unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot..". Of course, this 'beef' was 'squashed' when Nicki performed with Taylor at the VMAs, with Nicki quite literally only having 38 seconds of stage time without Taylor. Maybe all that parading around with a legion of famous white women - similar to the way Taylor might've done with her numerous 1989-era handbags - was in fact a stance against gender inequality, and that this display of "girl power" should be enough to constitute Swift as a feminist icon.
Even while Swift says that Dunham informed her feminist outlook, she dances around the exact contents of those beliefs: "what she believes, what she says, what she stands for" is not exactly insightful towards what beliefs Swift might have inherited. Taylor never broaches women's rights topics such femicide, FGM, forced pregnancy & marriage, sex trafficking, women in slavery, women's financial and political oppression, women's educational rights, women's health, or women's autonomy, so we can assume she only gives a fuck about "girls supporting girls" (whatever that fucking means).
Despite some questionable (and sometimes vindictive) behavior, Taylor as a young woman did not deserve every media lashing that she received. We cannot deny that most headlines and criticisms perpetuated a misogynistic rhetoric which has plagued Swift for a majority of her career. Acknowledging events such as the development of her ED, her sexual assault trial, "Famous" lyric and MV depiction of Taylor, and the explicit Twitter deepfakes, for example, as both disgusting and unfortunate things that happened to a young woman in Hollywood does not negate the fact that Taylor is mostly a performative feminist.

Get Your Fucking Ass Up and Be a Philanthropist, It Seems Like Nobody Wants to Be a Philanthropist These Days

In 2013, Taylor Swift cut the ribbon at the grand opening of the Taylor Swift Education Center at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. The donation amount - $4 million - was the largest individual artist gift ever donated to the Country Music Hall of Fame, which is, of course, mentioned on Swift's website. The two-story facility features three classrooms, an instrument room, and an interactive children's exhibit gallery. Swift also performed at "All for the Hall" charity shows and has donated numerous artifacts from her career (such as notable guitars, tour costumes, etc) to the museum.
This was over 11 years ago, and it is still the only notable philanthropic contribution Taylor Swift has made.
For a woman of her net worth and stature, and a woman who recognizes the difficulties for women in film and music, you would think that Taylor Swift might establish a scholarship program for women to study the arts or something. Perhaps Swift might even consider becoming a member of organizations that support female artists, or one that supports LGBTQ+ causes (since she is now proudly an ally), yet she remains superficial with her graces. Broader philanthropy, such as donating relief aid to Palestinian women or women impacted by violence and discrimination will probably never receive any financial support from Miss Swift because then she'd be using her money towards philanthropies involving anyone but white entertainers.
She even says herself in Miss Americana, "My entire moral code as a kid and now is a need to be thought of as 'good'." Well, she's certainly thought of as good, though her actions say otherwise. She's more than happy to do a vaguely altruistic song and dance for a clip-worthy interview quote and mass appeasement, then fuck off to one of her mansions on a 20 minute private jet flight, rather than actually contribute to anything pertaining to the causes she has endorsed. Yet, far too many people continue to give a woman such as her their money, time, and energy, and she hoards these resources to herself.

I Like Some of the Taylor's Songs, But What the Fuck Does She Know About Feminism?

Swift continued with her self-proclaimed feminist campaign, positioning herself as a political activist and LGBTQ+ ally in the Miss Americana documentary. The primary focus of the documentary consists of the sexual assault trial, Andrea Swift's cancer diagnosis, Taylor's ED and body dysmorphia, media scrutiny, and, largely, finally speaking up about her politics publicly, mostly her opposition to the 2018 Tennessee Republican senate candidate, Marsha Blackburn, and Blackburn's beliefs. Swift says, following a scene discussing her experience during the trial,

"I just couldn't really stop thinking about it. And I just thought to myself, next time there is any opportunity to change anything, you had better know what you stand for and what you want to say."

We must ask ourselves, though: when has Swift ever spoken up to change anything? Okay, pulling her entire catalogue from Spotify because they didn't pay their artists enough and similarly pulling her catalogue from Apple Music are changes that she leveraged due to her revenue potential and power, but they are not pertinent to the average woman's rights. Moreover, these are issues that directly impacted Taylor's income, which was enough reason for her to protest in the first place. Swift has sold the most units for a female artist in first week sales, is the first female artist with 100k monthly Spotify listeners, is the first female artist to win the Album of the Year Grammy 4 times, and is the first female artist to do X, Y, and Z, all while being inoffensive and family-friendly to boot. The actual Taylor Swift seems unwilling to compromise the brand of Taylor Swift by contributing in meaningful ways to feminist causes, especially if it is for women outside of America and Hollywood.
The reason political anthems such as "The Man" and "Only the Young" of the Lover era feel disingenuous and corporate is because, well, it is. Taylor has taken every opportunity to advance her career or public image at the expense of other women. What is truly genuine to Taylor's outlook on other women is vying for male attention, taking down female competition, and vocalizing feminist injustices only if they directly impact her and her money. Some will argue that it's satisfactory for a woman with such a huge platform to even TALK about feminism, but that just isn't enough. It's even less impressive when you candidly look at the scope of her feminist lens: "If I was the man, then I'd be THE MAN", or "I really resent the ‘Be careful, buddy, she’s going to write a song about you’ angle, because it trivialises what I do", and, of course, "We all got crowns". Feminism, but only when it happens to me. It gets worse when you look at Taylor's track record of copying other famous women and removing other female artists as potential threats to her pop prowess.
It's good for PR to align yourself with certain blanket feminist and political beliefs, therefore good for branding, therefore good for ticketing and merchandise sales, therefore good for business. And Taylor Swift is a business.
She's not a feminist. Taylor Swift is a capitalist.

I Can't Pay Those Sweatshop Workers a Livable Wage or Benefits! How Else Would I Make My Billions?

Recently, Taylor's team filed to trademark the phrase "Female Rage: The Musical" after Taylor said during Paris N1 of the Eras Tour,

"So you were the first ones to see The Tortured Poets at the Eras Tour...or as I like to call it, 'Female Rage: The Musical'."

This trademark petition was filed last week on Saturday, and news comes about just as numerous unofficial fan-made merch designs have cropped up with this phrase plastered on Fruit of the Loom basics. I'm of the opinion Swift's team motioned for a trademark so that they can send out cease & desists to all those that make knockoff merch, which disrupts potential sales for Bravado, UMG's choice merchandising company; however, since it was filed earlier, perhaps Swift has bigger plans with the bizarre use of the gendered phrase. One Swiftie referred to the phrase "female rage" as "a funny Eras Tour joke". Could it be a possible fourth version of the Eras Tour Movie? Whatever the reason, the motion to capitalize off of such a concept is disgusting, but not unsurprising, for a woman that profits on her vain feminism.
Swift, through her company, TAS Rights Managements, has also trademarked over 200 phrases, including "1989", where she owns the property rights to this calendar year on keychains, phone cases, sunglasses, stationary, bags, beverage ware, clothing, entertainment services, your subconscious, and, of course, Christmas ornaments.
The vapid consumerism in Swiftie culture is, frankly, disgusting. Bravado's sustainability statement is non-existent, the quality control is abysmal, and the materials they use are horrible. The materials, such as acrylic and polyester, are made from petrochemicals. This means they are non-renewable, shed microplastics, and are quite toxic in production. The manufacturing process to make all of those lazy-rushed Eras Tour logo graphic tees is a huge blow to environmental well-being. Apparently, though, Swifties don't give a fuck. They sell out products in seconds and either have to face the manufactured scarcity or buy from a scalper that resells for 200% of the already ridiculous retail price. This doesn't include the environmental impact of vinyl records, CD, and cassette production, of which Taylor produces many variants that sell unsustainable amounts.
If we're talking about women's rights violations, why is no one acknowledging the women that work in the inhumane sweatshop conditions that have to pump out fugly t-shirts and hats? The millions of plastic microfiber dander they are inhaling, or the toxic dyes that touch their bare skin? Are they being compensated fairly for their skilled labour and are they in safe working environments? Do these women have minimal bargaining power, and do they have authority over their worker's rights? Is Taylor Swift female raging at their injustices? Does Taylor Swift ever feels bad that her wealth was built on the backs of women of color, disadvantaged by the demands of the global economy and garment industry? Do you think she ever says a little white feminist prayer for them before she goes to sleep at night?
What's even crazier is not that Taylor herself doesn't care, it's that Swifties don't care. There CANNOT BE ethical billionaires. You only make a billion dollars if you are exploiting other human beings for capital gain. Based on public perception of the possible "Female Rage: The Musical" trademark, it seems like Swifties are already asking for merch with this phrase. "If Taylor made it, I'd buy it." Oh, cool. So not only do you champion Miss Swift's avarice and billionaire status, but you also are unashamed to admit to your blind consumption of her music and merchandise, no matter where they might originate in production or sincerity. Just as Swift takes and takes and takes, Swifties' consumerism of Taylor Swift cannot be quelled.
The tortured artist's most vulnerable and sincere poetry...available now in 21 different versions!

I Am Tortured Poet, Hear Me Whinge

Look - even if Taylor's intention is to characterize TTPD as more "tortured" and "angry", the main thread of the album is "I was ghosted by my decade-long situationship with a controversial indie boy and my fucking stupid fans wrote a 'Speak Up Now' open letter prompting me to drop him" anger, which is adequately expressed in the lyrics and performances. The extent of Taylor's "female rage" on TTPD is on tracks such as "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?", which contends with relentless media scrutiny; "But Daddy I Love Him", where Swift firmly states she'll date whoever she likes no matter how "Sarahs and Hannahs" may react; and "The Albatross", a track mythologizing her reputation and the consequences of dating her. Of course, these coincide with deep psychological wounds that formed during Swift's early years in the media, and so, from her feminist perspective, these subjects tackle the misogyny and double standards that she faced.
Yet Taylor Swift still has no grounds to be claiming that TTPD best exemplifies female rage and therefore she, in the context of this album, is female rage incarnate. As the daughter of a stock broker and mutual fund marketing executive, Taylor was born into wealth and allowed privileges like trips and subsequent relocation to Nashville all so that she might get a record deal. Her father even invested at least $120,000 into the then-fledgling label, Big Machine Records, which ensured Taylor's place with Borchetta after leaving her dead-end development deal with Sony. The fact that her parents were able to buy her a fucking brand new guitar for Christmas and pay for music lessons says so much about the financial security and safety of her childhood.
Money is privilege and protection, and despite Swift's experiences with misogyny and loser boyfriends, she does not know what female rage is.
Her rage is derived from her frustrations with her obsessive fans pulling the moral superiority card on Taylor in response to her rebound with Matty Healy. That's literally it. She's just pissed that the monster she created is no longer obediant, it's become a feral, sovereign entity that depletes the world of its natural resources and thinks it is more intelligent than it actually is because it's mommy has started to talk to it with big words. Apparently, 'illicit', 'elegy', 'nonchalant', and 'precocious' are considerably big words for the oafish monster, and I find it strange that this level of literacy is present in a group of fans that allegedly have GPAs of 3.5 or higher, but I digress.
Taylor Swift has never been one paycheck away from destitution. Taylor Swift has never experienced racial discrimination. She may have instances of gender discrimination, but she possesses the ideal white, blonde American beauty standard and therefore reaps the benefits of being a conventionally attractive woman. Taylor Swift has sufficient social capital. Taylor Swift is a billionaire woman prolonging her victimhood though she, as a woman, has mostly had control over her image and music (unlike her contemporaries). Taylor Swift is NOT entitled to be championed for her "female rage", nor should she be. Taylor Swift has never even been the struggling artist, for fuck's sake. I don't give a fuck if she's trying to fill the empty lunch tables of her past. Taylor Swift purporting herself, her unpolished album, and her lukewarm feminism as a musical bleeding with female rage is asinine.

Sigh Try and Come For My Job, Poors

Out there in the world right now is a 23-year-old woman, a recent college grad, who works as a barista. She has to wake up and get ready to go into a minimum wage job because she cannot get a job in her field. She doesn't have healthcare benefits or sick time, so she has to go into work no matter how she's feeling. All day long she is berated by vicious customers and creepy men, and, exhausted from being on her feet, she knows she has to go home to her shitty roommate that never does the dishes and her roommate's shitty dog. To comfort herself, she considers getting a treat, but thinks against it when she remembers that matcha lattes cost $15 and they taste like milky dirt. She knows that she needs to buy groceries this week, and so the woman resolves to go home, but notices that her gas tank is low. She goes to put gas in the car, but the pump stops at $27.86 because that's all that she has in her checking account. The woman, bereft and reeling, sinks into the driver's seat. "Well," she thinks, her head in her hands, "at least I don't have Taylor Swift's job. I just couldn't imagine."
Fame is somewhat of a choice. If at any moment Taylor feels that she is misunderstood, misconstrued, or overwhelmed by public opinion, she can LEAVE the public eye - Lord knows she has the retirement fund and residuals to do so. In "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart", the TTPD song about meeting the demands of your career-zenith mega-tour while in the relationship trenches, Taylor ends the song by rambling,

"You know you're good when you can even do it with a broken heart...you know you're good...and I'm good, cause I'm miserable, and no one even knows!...try and come for my job."

Yeah, obviously we wouldn't know, you recently passed the billionaire threshold and are the most famous and in-demand performer in the world right now. Taylor Swift makes an estimated $10 to $13 million dollars A NIGHT on the Eras Tour. Furthermore, the Eras Tour movie grossed $261.6 million globally, (which, as the producer, Taylor takes home 57% of the ticket sales) not counting the streaming revenue from Amazon Prime Video and the estimated $75 million deal that Disney paid to have it on Disney+. We're not even considering the income from cheap plastic popcorn buckets and drink cups plastered with colored squares in her Era-specific likeness.
It's funny. Taylor Swift often said that being famous wasn't hard, that she "isn't complaining". I'm sure it is difficult to always have to present in a good mood, else you'll end up misrepresented in the media, and I'm sure it's invasive to virtually have no privacy or semblance of anonymity. Still, Taylor Swift shows up each night of tour and performs. For a majority of her career, she has penned her sad songs while on the road. Most of "Red", her breakup album, was written in the thick of the Speak Now World tour. Now, some Swifties say they almost "feel bad" for attending the Eras Tour with Swift's revelations in this song, that they have had a 'dimmed experience' upon hearing Taylor's misery whilst performing. Despite the fact that Taylor said that "this was the happiest she's ever been" at Gilette Stadium in May, the lyrics "boohoo, woe is me, smile for the cameras and make the fans happy!!!" are jarring for Eras attendees.
While Taylor Swift was making double-digit millions a night in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and feeling miserable, Ana Clara Benevides Machado passed away due to heat exposure. The concert promoters, Time For Fun, are now the subject of a criminal investigation due to their lack of adequate hydration and safety. Taylor Swift cancelled the Sunday show that was to follow and offered VIP tent tickets to Benevides Marchado's family, which was a kind gesture, but perhaps incongruous to the incident of which they were offered as consolation. Everyone grieves differently, of course, but I'm not sure attending the very show at the very same venue that my daughter or sister passed away in two days prior, where the singer CONTINUED the show despite her death, would be healthy for closure.
There was no female rage at the show as Swift never saw Benevides Machado pass out. There was no female rage towards the disregard for fans as humans while Swift elected to proceed with her Brazil tour dates despite the country being in historic heatwaves (at risk of overheatting herself). If Taylor Swift was so shaken by touring with a broken heart or a fan's passing, she wouldn't have added an additional North American leg of Eras just two months after the Matty breakup. She's brokenhearted but willing to mend the cracks with your money and move onward with her worldwide female rage induced pillaging.
No matter what happens, even if you die at a Taylor Swift concert, Taylor collects a big fat check and flies away. She doesn't know you as anything other than a conversion rate or earning potential despite what her nearly 20-year long parasocial relationship with fans might otherwise indicate. She knows that, while some Swifties are without disposable income, they feel obligated to spend on a "48 Hours Only!" exclusive vinyl variant instead of necessities because they are so entrenched in Taylor Swift's intoxicating celebrity, they'll prioritize materialistic fandom before their needs. This is good enough for her because this means she can expand her real estate portfolio and finance her cat's lavish lifestyles. They're worth an estimated $100 million dollars. Her three cats could pool their net worth and solve world hunger.
While you and I might be denied bereavement leave and barely surviving the current political and economic climate, Taylor Swift has to, instead of gets to, perform for stadiums at full attendance for three nights in a row across the globe. You and I might be replaced by AI at our longtime jobs, but Taylor Swift is threatened with losing more and more money each time you listen to a "Stolen Version" of her songs. If we don't buy every variant of all of her albums, then who is going to pay for the fucking cats?
It is tone deaf to spend as she spends and lives as she lives in this economy, but this is her reality. She was able to donate $100,000 to all of her tour truck drivers, and that's wonderful, but it leads me to wonder about the ethos of the 2020s where one woman can hoard such life-changing amounts of money. Remember in 2014 when she gave a fan $90 ($120 in today's money) to get Chipotle because she had no fucking clue how much it cost? This is a 34-year-old woman who is increasingly out of touch with the reality for working class people and women in general. Normal everyday adults must wake up and go to their thankless jobs, and yet Taylor Swift, despite all her riches, incessantly references the lows of her life and career as a public figure and entertainer to farm sympathy and drive sales. And still, the corporate women have latched onto "I cry a lot, but I am so productive! It's an art!" as their cubicle battle cry.
Do you think that, from up in her private jet, Taylor Swift gazes at the world through her poetic, tortured eyes, and thinks, "All the little people, in their cars, walking, going about their lives...all those girls that don't support girls...do they know that I've made an album about female rage?"

Conclusion/TLDR

Thank you for reading. I would love to hear your critical insights towards this entire ordeal: TTPD, the trademark, the implications of it all.
TLDR: Taylor Swift is a bad feminist and is delusional to think that the TTPD eras set exemplifies female rage at women's injustice.

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furthermore, future, gain, galaxy, gallery, game, gang, gap, garage, garden, garlic, gas, gate, gather, gay, gaze, gear, gender, gene, general, generally, generate, generation, genetic, gentleman, gently, German, gesture, get, ghost, giant, gift, gifted, girl, girlfriend, give, given, glad, glance, glass, global, glove, go, goal, God, gold, golden, golf, good, govern, government, governor, grab, grace, grade, gradually, graduate, grain, grand, grandmother, grant, grass, grave, gray, great, green, grocery, ground, group, grow, growing, growth, guarantee, guard, guess, guest, guide, guideline, guilty, gun, guy, habit, habitat, hair, half, hall, hand, handful, handle, hang, happen, happy, harbor, hard, hardly, hat, hate, have, he, head, headline, headquarters, health, healthy, hear, hearing, heart, heat, heaven, heavily, heavy, heel, height, helicopter, hell, hello, help, helpful, hence, her, herb, here, heritage, hero, herself, hey, hi, hide, high, highlight, highly, highway, hill, him, himself, hip, hire, his, historic, historical, history, hit, hold, hole, holiday, holy, home, homeless, honest, honey, honor, hope, horizon, horror, horse, hospital, host, hot, hotel, hour, house, household, housing, how, however, huge, human, humor, hundred, hungry, hunter, hunting, hurt, husband, hypothesis, ice, idea, ideal, identification, identify, identity, ignore, ill, illegal, illness, illustrate, image, imagination, imagine, immediate, immediately, immigrant, immigration, impact, implement, implication, imply, importance, important, impose, impossible, impress, impression, impressive, improve, improvement, incentive, incident, include, including, income, incorporate, increase, increased, increasingly, incredible, indeed, independence, independent, index, indicate, indication, individual, industrial, industry, infant, infection, inflation, influence, inform, information, ingredient, initial, initially, initiative, injury, inner, innocent, inquiry, inside, insight, insist, inspire, install, instance, instead, institute, institution, institutional, instruction, instructor, instrument, insurance, intellectual, intelligence, intend, intense, intensity, intention, interaction, interest, interested, interesting, internal, international, Internet, interpret, interpretation, intervention, interview, introduce, introduction, invasion, invest, investigation, investigator, investment, investor, invite, involve, involved, involvement, Iraqi, Irish, iron, Islamic, island, Israeli, issue, it, Italian, item, its, itself, jacket, jail, Japanese, jet, Jew, Jewish, job, join, joint, joke, journal, journalist, journey, joy, judge, judgment, juice, jump, junior, jury, just, justice, justify, keep, key, kick, kid, kill, killer, killing, kind, king, kiss, kitchen, knee, knife, knock, know, knowledge, lab, label, labor, laboratory, lack, lady, lake, land, landscape, language, lap, large, largely, last, late, later, Latin, latter, laugh, launch, law, lawsuit, lawyer, lay, layer, lead, leader, leadership, leading, leaf, league, lean, learn, learning, least, leather, leave, left, leg, legacy, legal, legend, legislation, legislative, legislator, legitimate, lemon, length, less, lesson, let, letter, level, liberal, library, license, lie, life, lifestyle, lifetime, lift, light, like, likely, limit, limitation, limited, line, link, lip, list, listen, literary, literature, little, live, living, load, loan, local, locate, location, lock, long, long-term, look, loose, lose, loss, lost, lot, lots, loud, love, lovely, lover, low, lower, luck, lucky, lunch, luxury, machine, mad, magazine, mail, main, mainly, maintain, maintenance, major, majority, make, maker, makeup, male, mall, man, manage, management, manager, manner, manufacturer, manufacturing, many, map, margin, mark, market, marketing, marriage, married, marry, mask, mass, massive, master, match, material, math, matter, may, maybe, mayor, me, meal, mean, meaning, meanwhile, measure, measurement, meat, mechanism, media, medical, medication, medicine, medium, meet, meeting, member, membership, memory, mental, mention, menu, mere, merely, mess, message, metal, meter, method, Mexican, middle, might, military, milk, million, mind, mine, minister, minor, minority, minute, miracle, mirror, miss, missile, mission, mistake, mix, mixture, mm-hmm, mode, model, moderate, modern, modest, mom, moment, money, monitor, month, mood, moon, moral, more, moreover, morning, mortgage, most, mostly, mother, motion, motivation, motor, mountain, mouse, mouth, move, movement, movie, Mr, Mrs, Ms, much, multiple, murder, muscle, museum, music, musical, musician, Muslim, must, mutual, my, myself, mystery, myth, naked, name, narrative, narrow, nation, national, native, natural, naturally, nature, near, nearby, nearly, necessarily, necessary, neck, need, negative, negotiate, negotiation, neighbor, neighborhood, neither, nerve, nervous, net, network, never, nevertheless, new, newly, news, newspaper, next, nice, night, nine, no, nobody, nod, noise, nomination, nominee, none, nonetheless, nor, normal, normally, north, northern, nose, not, note, nothing, notice, notion, novel, now, nowhere, nuclear, number, numerous, nurse, nut, object, objective, obligation, observation, observe, observer, obtain, obvious, obviously, occasion, occasionally, occupation, occupy, occur, ocean, odd, odds, of, off, offense, offensive, offer, office, officer, official, often, oh, oil, okay, old, Olympic, on, once, one, ongoing, onion, online, only, onto, open, opening, operate, operating, operation, operator, opinion, opponent, opportunity, oppose, opposed, opposite, opposition, option, or, orange, order, ordinary, organic, organization, organize, orientation, origin, original, originally, other, others, otherwise, ought, our, ours, ourselves, out, outcome, outside, oven, over, overall, overcome, overlook, owe, own, owner, pace, pack, package, page, pain, painful, paint, painter, painting, pair, pale, Palestinian, palm, pan, panel, panic, pant, paper, paragraph, parent, park, parking, part, participant, participate, participation, particle, particular, particularly, partly, partner, partnership, party, pass, passage, passenger, passion, past, patch, path, patient, pattern, pause, pay, payment, PC, peace, peak, peer, pen, penalty, people, pepper, per, perceive, percentage, perception, perfect, perfectly, perform, performance, perhaps, period, permanent, permission, permit, person, personal, personality, personally, personnel, perspective, persuade, pet, phase, phenomenon, philosophy, phone, photo, photographer, phrase, physical, physically, physician, piano, pick, picture, pie, piece, pile, pilot, pine, pink, pipe, pitch, place, plan, plane, planet, planning, plant, plastic, plate, platform, play, player, please, pleasure, plenty, plot, plus, PM, pocket, poem, poet, poetry, point, police, policy, political, politically, politician, politics, poll, pollution, pool, poor, pop, popular, population, porch, port, portion, portrait, portray, pose, position, positive, possess, possession, possibility, possible, possibly, post, pot, potato, potential, potentially, pound, pour, poverty, powder, power, powerful, practical, practice, prayer, preach, precisely, predict, prediction, prefer, preference, pregnancy, pregnant, preparation, prepare, prescription, presence, present, presentation, preserve, president, presidential, press, pressure, pretend, pretty, prevent, previous, previously, price, pride, priest, primarily, primary, prime, principal, principle, print, prior, priority, prison, prisoner, privacy, private, probably, problem, procedure, proceed, process, processing, processor, proclaim, produce, producer, product, production, profession, professional, professor, profile, profit, program, progress, progressive, project, prominent, promise, promote, prompt, proof, proper, properly, property, proportion, proposal, propose, prosecutor, prospect, protect, protection, protein, protest, proud, prove, provide, provider, province, provision, psychological, psychology, public, publication, publicity, publish, publisher, pull, punishment, purchase, pure, purpose, pursue, push, put, qualify, quality, quarter, quarterback, quarterly, queen, quest, question, quick, quickly, quiet, quietly, quit, quite, quote, race, racial, radiation, radical, radio, rail, rain, raise, range, rank, rapid, rapidly, rare, rarely, rate, rather, rating, ratio, raw, reach, react, reaction, reader, reading, ready, real, reality, realize, really, reason, reasonable, recall, receive, recent, recently, reception, recipe, recipient, recognition, recognize, recommend, recommendation, record, recording, recover, recovery, recruit, red, reduce, reduction, refer, reference, reflect, reflection, reform, refugee, refuse, regard, regarding, regardless, regime, region, regional, register, regular, regularly, regulate, regulation, regulator, reinforce, reject, relate, relation, relationship, relative, relatively, relax, release, relevant, relief, religion, religious, rely, remain, remaining, remarkable, remember, remind, remote, remove, repeat, repeatedly, replace, replacement, reply, report, reporter, represent, representation, representative, Republican, reputation, request, require, requirement, research, researcher, resemble, reservation, resident, residential, resign, resist, resistance, resolution, resolve, resort, resource, respect, respond, response, responsibility, responsible, rest, restaurant, restore, restriction, result, retain, retire, retirement, return, reveal, revenue, review, revolution, rhythm, rice, rich, rid, ride, rifle, right, ring, rise, risk, river, road, rock, role, roll, romantic, roof, room, root, rope, rose, rough, roughly, round, route, routine, row, rub, rubber, rude, ruin, rule, run, running, rural, rush, Russian, sacred, sad, safe, safety, sake, salad, salary, sale, sales, salt, same, sample, sanction, sand, satellite, satisfaction, satisfied, satisfy, sauce, save, saving, say, scale, scandal, scare, scatter, scenario, scene, schedule, scheme, scholar, scholarship, school, science, scientific, scientist, scope, score, scream, screen, script, sea, search, season, seat, second, secondary, secret, secretary, section, sector, secure, security, see, seed, seek, seem, segment, seize, select, selection, self, sell, Senate, senator, send, senior, sense, sensitive, sentence, separate, sequence, series, serious, seriously, servant, serve, service, session, set, setting, settle, settlement, seven, several, severe, sex, sexual, shade, shadow, shake, shall, shallow, shape, share, sharp, she, sheet, shelf, shell, shelter, shift, shine, ship, shirt, shock, shoe, shoot, shooting, shop, shopping, short, shortly, shot, should, shoulder, shout, show, shower, shrug, shut, shy, sibling, sick, side, sigh, sight, sign, signal, significant, significantly, silence, silent, silver, similar, similarly, simple, simply, sin, since, sing, singer, single, sink, sir, sister, sit, site, situation, six, size, ski, skill, skin, skirt, sky, slave, sleep, slice, slide, slight, slightly, slip, slow, slowly, small, smart, smell, smile, smoke, smooth, snap, snow, so, so-called, soccer, social, society, soft, software, soil, solar, soldier, sole, solid, solution, solve, some, somebody, somehow, someone, something, sometimes, somewhat, somewhere, son, song, soon, sophisticated, sorry, sort, soul, sound, soup, source, south, southern, Soviet, space, Spanish, speak, speaker, special, specialist, species, specific, specifically, specify, speech, speed, spend, spending, spin, spirit, spiritual, split, spoil, sponsor, sport, spot, spray, spread, spring, square, squeeze, stability, stable, staff, stage, stain, stair, stake, stand, standard, standing, star, stare, start, state, statement, station, statistical, status, stay, steady, steal, steel, steep, stem, step, stick, still, stimulate, stimulus, stir, stock, stomach, stone, stop, storage, store, storm, story, straight, strange, stranger, strategic, strategy, stream, street, strength, strengthen, stress, stretch, strike, string, strip, stroke, strong, strongly, structural, structure, struggle, student, studio, study, stuff, stupid, style, subject, submit, subsequent, substance, substantial, substitute, succeed, success, successful, successfully, such, sudden, suddenly, sue, suffer, sufficient, sugar, suggest, suggestion, suicide, suit, summer, summit, sun, super, supply, support, supporter, suppose, supposed, Supreme, sure, surely, surface, surgery, surprise, surprised, surprising, surprisingly, surround, survey, survival, survive, survivor, suspect, sustain, swear, sweep, sweet, swim, swing, switch, symbol, symptom, system, table, tactic, tail, take, tale, talent, talk, tall, tank, tap, tape, target, task, taste, tax, taxi, tea, teach, teacher, teaching, team, tear, technical, technique, technology, teen, teenager, telephone, telescope, television, tell, temperature, temporary, ten, tend, tendency, tennis, tension, tent, term, terms, terrible, territory, terror, terrorist, test, testimony, testing, text, than, thank, thanks, that, the, theater, their, them, theme, themselves, then, theory, therapy, there, therefore, these, they, thick, thin, thing, think, thinking, third, thirty, this, those, though, thought, thousand, threat, threaten, three, throat, through, throughout, throw, thus, ticket, tie, tight, time, tiny, tip, tire, tissue, title, to, tobacco, today, toe, together, toilet, token, tolerate, tomato, tomorrow, tone, tongue, tonight, too, tool, tooth, top, topic, toss, total, totally, touch, tough, tour, tourist, tournament, toward, towards, tower, town, toy, trace, track, trade, tradition, traditional, traffic, tragedy, trail, train, training, transfer, transform, transformation, transition, translate, translation, transmission, transmit, transport, transportation, travel, treat, treatment, treaty, tree, tremendous, trend, trial, tribe, trick, trip, troop, trouble, truck, true, truly, trust, truth, try, tube, tunnel, turn, TV, twelve, twenty, twice, twin, two, type, typical, typically, ugly, ultimate, ultimately, unable, uncle, undergo, understand, understanding, unfortunately, uniform, union, unique, unit, United, universal, universe, university, unknown, unless, unlike, until, unusual, up, upon, upper, urban, urge, us, use, used, useful, user, usual, usually, utility, utilize, vacation, valley, valuable, value, variable, variation, variety, various, vary, vast, vegetable, vehicle, venture, version, versus, very, vessel, veteran, via, victim, victory, video, view, viewer, village, violate, violation, violence, violent, virtually, virtue, virus, visibility, visible, vision, visit, visitor, visual, vital, voice, volume, voluntary, volunteer, vote, voter, voting, wage, wait, wake, walk, wall, wander, want, war, warm, warn, warning, wash, waste, watch, water, wave, way, we, weak, weakness, wealth, wealthy, weapon, wear, weather, web, website, wedding, week, weekend, weekly, weigh, weight, welcome, welfare, well, west, western, wet, what, whatever, wheel, when, whenever, where, whereas, whether, which, while, whisper, white, who, whole, whom, whose, why, wide, widely, widespread, wife, wild, wildlife, will, willing, win, wind, window, wine, wing, winner, winter, wipe, wire, wisdom, wise, wish, with, withdraw, within, without, witness, woman, wonder, wonderful, wood, wooden, word, work, worker, working, workout, workplace, works, workshop, world, worried, worry, worth, would, wound, wrap, write, writer, writing, wrong, yard, yeah, year, yell, yellow, yes, yesterday, yet, yield, you, young, your, yours, yourself, youth, zone.

https://www.halowaypoint.com/news/spotlight-may-2024
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The Halo Spotlight is here, which means it's time once again to dive into the amazing creations made by the community. Feast your eyes!

CRÈME DE LA CRÈME

TackelsHolocron headlines this issue with an Unggoy who is about to unleash perhaps the most devastating fuel rod blast in the galaxy, drawing power from the concentrated tragedy of all their species has suffered...
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AB_RinART has a truly wonderful project going on right now, where she is adding suggested characters to a Where's Waldo -inspired mash-up of different species, characters, fan-made OCs, and more. Track the group photo project here.
(Personally, I think the Didact would have fun chilling among this lovely crowd!)
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GoatsOfHell has jumped feet-first into making this absolutely rad ODST model. Hopefully that purple comes off in the wash!
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Iklungs has a very particular style that we can't get enough of, bringing Halo Infinite 's multiplayer Spartans to life as if they came straight out of a Metal Gear game or a '90s anime.
Art by Iklungs
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BANISHED SPARTANS

Last week, we released our latest Waypoint Chronicle in support of Operation: Banished Honor. Halo: The Third Life tells the story of the rogue Spartan Ilsa Zane following the events of Hunt the Truth and how she came to join the Banished.
Since then, we've seen some incredible fan recreations of Ilsa Zane and other ideas for what Banished Spartans might look like—here's a selection for you to have a gander at!
Silent_SFM is flying an unmistakable flag...
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DaGlassMan4797 was forged in the fiery crucible of Atriox's teachings.
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lllScorchlll is sparring with superheated plasma!
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Misfein has assembled a rather intimidating fireteam.
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ONNNNNEJAM is back-to-back with their Banished brother.
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PalpyTheFrog is about to bring the hammer down with the authority and might of a Jiralhanae chieftain!
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HARUSPINE HANDICRAFTS

Spartan_052's photoshoot in his Mjolnir Mark IV armor conveys the sheer powerhouse nature of this iconic set and shows off just how stunningly detailed it is.
In his own words: "This project was an absolute beast, with so many moving pieces, and it turned out better than I could have ever dreamed! It featured an accurate undersuit, TPU gaskets for the armor plating, a resin printed helmet and visor, AND a crazy chest rig with isolating pec plates and backpack! This is without a doubt the most gorgeous suit I’ve had the pleasure of putting together, and I couldn’t have done it without a TON of help!"
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Bombarisu made a girl a promise and kept it, creating this wonderful model of their girlfriend's Spartan armor from Halo Infinite for her birthday. We hope she loved it as much as we do!
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Busters2005 has a soft spot for some of the GEN2 armor greats, like the Soldier armor depicted below!
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Cyanosaurus_Rex4 has assembled Noble Team, and if you follow the link you'll get a bonus look at Red Team as well.
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When I first glanced at what DonJacobyCreate posted, I thought it was just a screenshot snip of the Sunray 1-1 art from Halo Wars 2. Turns out, this is actually a custom model of Major Vaughan, and so let us regard it with due awe.
Art by DonJacobyCreate
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Evolution2411 has taken the Master Chief down to a deep, dark place within the substructures of a Halo ring...
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theforgerunner has found Jun-A266 keepin' cosy while on a mission.
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TheGcustoms returns once more with figures of the holy trinity of the Banished—Escharum, Jega 'Rdomnai, and Atriox.
Art by TheGcustoms
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VALIANT VIDEOS

Somehow, Halo: Custom Edition turned twenty years old earlier this month. Un-flipyappin-believable!
In many ways, Halo: Custom Edition was the foundation of Halo modding, opening up the beloved original game to an infinite horizon of possibilities. I still vividly remember watching ancient videos of driving Scarabs around, piloting the Prophets' gravity thrones, playing as different species...
In celebration of this milestone, The Vengeful 'Vadam has made a tribute video that beautifully conveys the vibe and energy of the mid-'00s Halo modding scene.
Speaking of the mid-'00s era of Halo, NotPipi has delivered a jaw-dropping fan animation titled "Battle for Mombasa," set during the events of Halo 2 when the Covenant invade Earth. Lend NotPipi just eight short minutes of your life and prepare to be amazed!
Red vs. Blue may have come to a final, poignant end, but the machinima spirit lives on in the hearts of the Halo community, using the medium to ask questions about ( checks notes ) why almost all alien species' biology conforms to inferior bipedal models.
It would appear that even the Unggoy have taken to celebrating a particular date in May...

A GATHERING OF GREATNESS

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That's all, folks! We hope you enjoyed this round-up of the community's love and passion for Halo put into artistic expression. We'll be back next month to do it all over again.
All of you who had something featured in this installment should be sure to fill out the submission form so we can grant you your Unicorn of Fire rewards!
This post was made by a script written and maintained by the Halo mod team to automatically post blogs from Halo Waypoint. If you notice any issues with the text output or think this was posted by mistake, please message the mods.

https://nymag.com/intelligencearticle/jamaal-bowman-george-latimer-primary-israel.html
The Most Endangered Democrat in America Jamaal Bowman might lose his job over Israel.
By Ross Barkan
Jamaal Bowman, the two-term congressman from Westchester County and the would-be future of the progressive left, is tired of the questions about George Latimer. "Yeah, I mean, I think it says something about his character, his integrity, and his actual leadership for the district. But enough of him. When are we going to talk about me?"
We're at Salsa Picante, a Mexican restaurant in Port Chester, the heavily Latino village on the eastern reaches of the 16th congressional district. It's late April, and Bowman, munching on chicken empanadas, is in a cheery mood, despite my prodding on Latimer. The night before, Summer Lee, a fellow progressive in Congress, had survived a furious primary challenge, and Bowman senses a pattern. "Salut!" he calls out. "I'm excited, hopefully, for the whole progressive movement to zero in on NY-16. Let's get to work."
The work is daunting. Bowman, less than two months from the June 25 primary, is one of the most endangered Democratic incumbents in America. This is in spite of — or because of — his charisma and budding celebrity, his ability to slash through the noise of 435 House members and command attention on a scale only one or two levels removed from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. A former public-school principal and self-described hip-hop head, Bowman marries her online savvy with a deft working-class touch. Burly and boisterous, with a knack for whipping up crowds, it is not hard to imagine him as a future presidential candidate, storming through South Carolina with a pack of reporters hanging on his every word.
But first he needs to win. And Latimer, the sitting Westchester County executive, has outraised him in the primary, thanks in part to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — the conservative, ardently pro-Israel political powerhouse that is seeking to crush the pro-Palestinian movement and the left itself. "They do not want any critique, they do not want any accountability, and so what it looks like to people in my district and around the country is that Israel can do whatever it wants even though, to people on the outside looking in, it looks completely wrong and horrible," Bowman says of AIPAC. "One, it doesn't represent all the Jews. It doesn't represent all the Jews in Israel!"
"If Israel represents all the Jews," Bowman continues, revving up now, "and if Israel is doing bad things without accountability, some idiot in the street just makes the connection that, Oh, Jews must be bad because Israel is bad. That's fucking — excuse my language — that's effing scary, man, and dangerous. And as we fight antisemitism, that has to include accountability for Israel."
There was a time, not very long ago, when no member of Congress would speak this way. The Israeli government's response that has starved out Gaza and killed thousands of civilians has catalyzed a new era though. Mass protests have flooded the streets and rocked college campuses, including two, Columbia and City College, that are only a short drive from Westchester. Bowman has been an AIPAC target for his support of conditioning military aid to Israel and his willingness to label the military campaign in Gaza a "genocide," among other criticism lodged at the Jewish state. "AIPAC is one of the most powerful lobbies in America. Well you know what we have got to say to AIPAC? Bring it on," he said at his campaign kickoff earlier this year. "AIPAC, bring it on. We are not scared of none of that. I'm from the streets of New York."
In this deeply polarized moment, with Israel hawks reasserting themselves and the pro-Palestinian movement booming, few primaries in America offer a starker contrast between two candidates.
In one corner is Bowman, 48, the first Black congressman from Westchester who, just four years ago, unseated one of the staunchest Israel defenders in Congress, Eliot Engel. He immediately joined Ocaso-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib as one of the nation's leading progressives. Latimer, meanwhile, is a 70-year-old county executive, ex-state senator, ex-assemblyman, and ex-Rye councilman. (He also had a career, as he likes to remind voters, in marketing and sales.) After October 7, AIPAC asked Latimer to run against Bowman. "I was a reluctant bride," he told me in May, less than 24 hours after the NYPD had raided Columbia's campus to arrest the protesters who had occupied Hamilton Hall.
I met Latimer at the Mount Vernon Metro North station, where he dutifully passed out palm cards ("Good morning, I'm George Latimer, I'm on the ballot") to the few dreary commuters who ambled through. A couple lit up when they recognized him and one man, who was white, seemed to lament "identity politics" while promising his vote to Latimer. And it's easy to make this race, as much as it's become about Israel, about race: Latimer is the white ethnic, Irish and Italian, trying to depose a congressman who told me racism is the number-one issue facing the district and that he views himself, as the first Black man to hold this congressional seat, as a role model to Black youth throughout the area.
The district, which also ropes in a sliver of the northern Bronx including the sprawling and Bowman-friendly Co-op City, is both diverse and plenty segregated, with towns of immense wealth like Scarsdale lying within half-hour drives from working-class Yonkers. It's about 40 percent white, 29 percent Hispanic, and 21 percent Black. Bowman's trouble is that the white, well-heeled vote has soured on him, and Jews are expected to flock to Latimer. Jerry Skurnik, a Democratic consultant and data analyst, estimates that as much as 15 percent of the Democratic electorate who turn out in the primary might be Jewish. A conservative group, Westchester Unites, undertook an effort to register Jewish Republicans as Democrats to impact the primary, in an implicit effort to boost Latimer and undercut Bowman.
Both campaigns agree that Israel alone is not what motivates voters in Westchester and the Bronx, who are mostly consumed with the cost of living. Bowman, as a national figure, may be vulnerable to the very attacks that he once leveled against Engel: He's too high-flown to care adequately about quotidian Westchester concerns. "He has a different brand of politics which appeals more so to getting clicks and likes and retweets and making headlines versus someone who has delivered," said Tyrae Woodson-Samuels, the majority leader of the Westchester County Board of Legislators and a Latimer supporter.
Latimer is the rare insurgent who also profiles as an incumbent and can theoretically neutralize some of the attacks he's taking from the left. If, on Israel, Latimer has held to the rightward fringe of his own party — he refused, in his conversation with me, to support Chuck Schumer's call for Netanyahu to step aside — he is, on almost every other issue, a conventional, center-left Democrat. Until challenging Bowman, he regularly took the Working Families Party ballot line and earned plaudits from progressives for ousting Rob Astorino, his right-wing Republican predecessor as county executive.
"There are lots of people who really like both candidates," says Evan Roth Smith, a Democratic pollster. "For many voters, the most loyal Democratic voters who do turn out in these kinds of primaries, it's sort of like picking between mom and dad."
Latimer, in that sense, was the dream recruit for AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel, another influential PAC that is spending heavily in Democratic primaries to bludgeon progressives. His knowledge of the district is encyclopedic and he shows up at every town board meeting, chicken dinner, and parade imaginable; he tells me he's at train stations five days a week and bagel shops on weekends. He has the ability to cut into Bowman's Black support, with endorsements from the Democratic committees in Yonkers and Mount Vernon. Bowman has won the backing of the influential health-care workers' union 1199 SEIU, but Latimer has racked up his own support from civil-service, transit, and firefighters' unions. In his Facebook musings on classic rock and the Knicks, he comes off as earnest and homespun, a Mr. Fix-It paterfamilias.
The cash, though, is anything but homespun. Latimer, never a prolific fundraiser before, banked $3 million at the end of March, double Bowman's haul, and there are top donors who are either AIPAC-affiliated or cut checks to Donald Trump, including Alex Campos, Alex Dubitsky, and Stephen and Carolyn Lauro, who once hosted a Long Island fundraiser for Trump. Another donor is Daniel Loeb, the hedge-fund billionaire who accused Latimer's old ally, the Black State Senate majority leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, of doing "more damage to people of color than anyone who has ever donned a hood" because she wasn't a supporter of charter schools, is another donor.
"You're the reason why these guys are donating to me — because of what you said and done," Latimer says of Bowman at the New Rochelle Diner after finishing at the Mount Vernon train stop. "I'm not even soliciting them. I have an event, they send checks. It's not going to change what I do in Congress, Ross, I'm going to be a very progressive congressman on most policy issues."
"It's deeply disturbing that the Latimer campaign is being financed by many of the same people trying to elect Trump," says Jasmine Gripper, the co-director of the Working Families Party's New York chapter. "He's accepting financing from people actively working against the Democratic Party."
The real threat for Bowman is the super-PAC spending. AIPAC and DMFI together can blow past $20 million, if they choose, in attack ads and mail. (AIPAC did not respond to a request for comment.) And he offers them enough fodder, like a House censure for pulling a false fire alarm when Democrats were trying to stall a vote, which Bowman told me was an accident and Latimer believes was intentional. Blog posts Bowman wrote more than a decade ago appeared to give credence to 9/11 conspiracy theories and last week his YouTube page following conspiracy accounts became news. More recently, he was forced to apologize after lavishing praise on Norman Finkelstein, the acerbic anti-Israel scholar, at a panel discussion.
"Bowman has been one of the most anti-Israel members of the entire United States Congress," charges Mark Mellman, the president of DMFI. "If he is defeated, it will send a strong message to the rest of the country." Justice Democrats, the group that helped launch politicians like Bowman into orbit and is fighting desperately now to save him, would not disagree with that last part. "It's absolutely a threat to the progressive movement and I think we have to be clear-eyed about what's at stake here," Usamah Andrabi, the group's communications director, tells me. "The same people spending millions to try to elect Donald Trump and prevent Hakeem Jeffries from being speaker of the House are also spending millions to try to send George Latimer to Congress."
Latimer, who once falsely accused Bowman of taking money "from Hamas," argues the AIPAC cash has only arrived because he was already, long before the primary, genuinely pro-Israel. He also believes Bowman invited their wrath. "If Mike Tyson was in the room and I decided to go over to Mike Tyson and say, 'Hey Mike Tyson, bring it on, yo,' what do I think Mike Tyson might do to me? Whatever I used to be, I wouldn't be the same person after he finished with me."
Latimer has a fondness for analogies. He's sitting with me and his campaign spokeswoman, and there are three paunchy, middle-aged men at a table near us, sipping coffee. "You shouldn't return hostages as part of a negotiation. You should just return them. If someone came into this room, for the sake of argument — terrible analogy, I'm about to make — somebody came into this room and killed those three guys and me, wounded you, and kidnapped her, what right do they have to hold onto her? What right? This is not, 'Let's negotiate now.' Four dead bodies, you're wounded, and she's kidnapped, and God only knows what they did to the people they kidnapped. Now let's ceasefire and have a negotiation? That's ridiculous."
Latimer refuses to critique the Israeli military strategy in Gaza or declare he would, as a congressman, ask the U.S. government to condition military aid to Israel, as Biden has done in opposition to a potential Israel attack on Rafah. Unlike Bowman, he's supportive of the police crackdowns on pro-Palestinian college protests and gladly associates himself with Israel hawks Ritchie Torres, John Fetterman, and Hakeem Jeffries, the AIPAC ally and House Democratic leader who has tempered his own outward pugilism since ascending to the top of his party. Jeffries has endorsed Bowman, a courtesy to an incumbent, but he has not tried to restrain AIPAC.
One irony of the primary is that Bowman, in 2021, broke with the Democratic Socialists of America over his support for funding the Iron Dome, an Israeli missile-defense system, and visiting Israel with J Street, the liberal (and much smaller) counter to AIPAC. J Street, still proudly Zionist, rescinded their endorsement earlier this year after Bowman began, like many activists, to speak of the Gaza death toll in terms of genocide.
Bowman tells me he is for, like almost every American politician, a two-state solution: a nation for the Jews and a nation for the Palestinians. Many of the most prominent activist groups in the nation today, like Within Our Lifetime and Jewish Voice for Peace, call for a single, multinational democratic state that wouldn't necessarily guarantee a Jewish numerical majority — something that even most leftists in elected office shy away from.
I ask Bowman if Israel should always have a Jewish majority. Strikingly, unlike a vast majority of American politicians, he doesn't answer immediately in the affirmative. "It might have been the day after or definitely the weekend after we won against Congressman Engel — who's my guy, Peter Beinart, wrote a one-state piece that I thought was brilliant, I thought it was phenomenal," he says. "Some of this stuff is, like, I'm not Jewish, man, you know? So I don't want to be talking out of turn about Jewish issues. I'm also not Palestinian, right? It's the same kind of deal but because my values are rooted in human rights and I know my district well, I have to comment on these things. And I do."
"I want Palestinians to be free from occupation and apartheid and I want Jews to be safe — and Palestinians to be safe, of course. How do we do that?" he adds. "Jews should have a safe place to exist. What that looks like, the details of that, let's figure that out. That is not Jews are safe, Palestinians are under occupation — those two things can't co-exist anymore."
It would be an exaggeration to say that the future of the progressive movement hinges on the outcome of this one primary. With or without Bowman, the Squad will be larger than it was four years ago, and the activists in the streets won't be deterred if Latimer is sworn into Congress. Unconditional support for Israel is no longer a guarantee within the Democratic Party — look no further than Schumer applying the sort of pressure on the Netanyahu government that AIPAC loathes.
But a Bowman defeat would deprive the left of one of its most prominent voices at a moment when Establishment forces have regrouped from some of their losses over the last decade. The prospect of this not only makes AIPAC giddy but thrills moderate Democrats who are weary of the media attention and influence the Squad perpetually commands. The fear, for progressives, is that this primary could offer an obvious roadmap for the future: hunt out popular — or possibly venal — local politicians who are willing to target leftists and promise them a bounty of campaign cash and super-PAC spending if they take the plunge. Some more just might.

ANALYSIS

• What can we say about the market scenario right now, going into a very important CPI week?
• Liquidity is high in the market, and is showing very little signs of stress right now. Traders remain long the market, and are short on volatility. This is ensuring that pullbacks get bought as liquidity is high.
• Right now, we see very little cause for much concern. I had the question recently about some speculation from some X users saying they are seeing put gamma building in the option chain to suggest there are signs of a downturn coming. This is not the correct interpretation of the put gamma we see. This whole rally up, since November, and especially around the time of Israel Iran scenario, we have seen put gamma remain on the option chain because traders have been trying to call an eventual pullback. Trying to get ahead of it, thinking that the market is overextended. To be honest, yes, the market has had a crazy run. But these people trying to get ahead of the pullback, has just caused more squeeze higher as data and market moves haven’t followed. E.g. If CPI comes soft this week, all of this put gamma will have to be closed or will expire worthless, which means that it will fuel a more extreme push higher. This will probably move us to ATH soon. This is the type of scenario that has got us to near 5300 on SPX. So the put gamma is nothing o be looked into in terms of bearish signal.
• Skew for MAG7 stocks remains at ATH. Default Swaps remain very low. Right now we are not seeing positioning for a market ready for a sustained pullback, but in fact are showing signs of a market ready for new ATH.
• If we see a pullback from CPI coming hot, it likely will not last unless it is extremely hot. This is because Powell has already mentioned that there is basically no chance of another hike. Traders remain very short vol. If CPI comes hot, its probable we see a short term spike in VIX, and a jump in dollar, but then the VIX spike will get faded as traders sell into the volatility, which will trigger a buy the dip.
• Right now traders are hedging, but are not positioned for a sustained pullback. Skew is elevated but pointing downwards. This means traders are overall bullish but are seeing short term risks Skew on short term is pointing lower but on 3m points to new highs. Traders may see potential a short term dip from CPI, but for it to not disrupt the bullishness of the market beyond the ver immediate term as they suspect any dip will be bought.
• This hedging is particularly on IWM as it is more interest rate sensitive as we see skew point lower. Traders are lowering call options but this is normal ahead of key data. It is just hedging it is not sign of a change in positioning.
• 200 will probably be the supportive wall on IWM on pullback.
• Here we see the positioning for delta
• https://imgur.com/a/zXV6eL6
• We see a lot of put delta at 200 which will make it supportive, then again at 196 which will probs mark max low incase of v hot print.
• Traders are still v bullish in this market, as are institutions. They just hedge.
• A hot CPI will probably lead to a short term pullback, and I will suspect many people will overestimate the magnitude of this and will turn bearish. They will then get fucked again in the buy the dip just like last time. I will update you nearer the time, but this seems the scenario.
• If CPI comes in line, or soft, we probably rip to ATH, as this will fuel more rate cut sentiment.
• We will then have CPI soft, as well as jobs numbers softening.
• I think that the CPI numbers are actually less important right now. We are still yet to see the inflation trend necessary to give the Fed the confidence required to get to cuts. This will likely take many months to get to that point. SO a hot print doesnt change too much in that way, and a soft print still needs a lot more to follow to increase confidence beyond that.
• However, Powell also laid out the other path to rate cuts, which is that the job market will weaken.
• Right now, we are seeing many signs of a weaker job market, although it is not weak enough to be at recessionary levels. This is actually right now then in a. Sweet spot. May be weakening enough to push the Fed to still consider cuts, but not weak enough to be recessionary.
• If we look at the indeed wage growth numbers, Indeed being a private job listing site, we see wage growth over 2023 and into 2024 has continued to move lower. JOLTS is showing a direct Correlation with this. The Indeed data is leading JOLTS lower, so we should expect to see further weakening in the labour market.
• A look at NVDA positioning: just below the key level of 900.
• We are seeing positive gex across the board really, not much put gex. Gamma is building on 1000 again. Traders probably look for more upside here.
• Reaction to PPI probably be limited as traders await CPI. IF good, can see short term jump before faded intraday into CPI.
• Headline CPI and PPI should get benefit from the fact that oil prices are lower into May from start of April. Used cars should come light on CPI, and we still hope for the shelter prices to reflect real time rents that we see from Zillow data. I think its possible CPI can beat expectations.

DATA LEDE:

• China Inflation rate: comes 0.3% YOY vs expectations of 0.1%. Previous reading was 0.1%
• As such, China inflation rate was higher than expected. This is bullish for Chinese market as represents another step away from disinflation. 3rd month in a row, out of disinflation.
• MOM was 0.1% vs estimate of -0.1%
• Fed’s Jefferson speaks as well as Fed’s Mester
• Tomorrow is PPI, WEed

MARKETS:

• SPX - Trading at 5234. Is up 0.34% today, Closed friday at 5220. Looks like recovery of ATH at 5272 is on the horizon soon, if CPI can support.
• nasdaq: Trading at 18,222, up 0.5% in premarket. Strong resistance at around 18,340. That is more or less where ATH is. So again, will be targeting ATH.
• Dow: ATH is just shy of 40k. Right now, Dow is trading at 39,580. So ATH is target again. 9th green day in a row now.
• GER40: Flat around 18,750. Lack of any real negative catalyst nor fear in the market. Target still looks like 19k.
• UK100: Trading totally flat at 8430. Has squeezed significantly higher. Up 9% in the last month.
• HKG50: is higher by 1%, back above 19,135, due to the China CPI coming in ahead of expectations, confirming move away from Deflation, and also the fact that China will be embarking on more stimulus.
• CHINA50: Flat really, around 12,700.
• OIL - slightly higher as China might intensify efforts to stimulate economic growth with launch of ultra long sovereign bonds. Will be trying to target the 80 level For WTI if CPI can support.
• GOLD - Trading at 2350. Again will be targeting 2400 this week with CPI.

FX:

• BOJ reduces bond buying in latest operation, causing yen to increase earlier in session, but since pared the gains.
• Dollar flat/moving slightly lower this morning ahead of PPI tomorrow. Trading at 105.1
• GBP moves higher. Positioning is bullish, as does EURO.
• EURUSD is trading just below 1.08. Is up 0.21% this morning.
• GBPUSD at 1.2547. Will be trying to get close to 100d MA this week, above 1.26
• USDJPy continues weakness, trading at 156 level now again.

MAG 7:

• AAPL - Jeffries believes Apple may launch aggressive iPhone promotional discounts during the 618 online shopping festival in China. Currently Pindudoduo is offering 21% discounts on iPhone, most on any platform. JD second with 16% discounts
• AAPL - Finanlising deal with openAI to use chatgpt AI features on iPhone!!!
• So they will be overhauling Siri and integrating advanced generative AI to enhance user experience
• TSLA - Shanghai Megapack plant has received a construction permit and construction will start in may. Will reach mass production in Q1 of next year.
• TSLA - launches a below market financing rate for Model Y EV purchases. Brought the rate down to 0.99% annual percentage. Quoted rate a week ago was 6.5%. They are trying to stimulate more sales of Model Y to clear inventory
• NVDA - Jefferies raises Nvda PT to 1,200 from 780. Said NVDA is their favourite in the AI basket.
• NVDA - HSBC raises price target to 1350 from 1050.
• NVDA - says they are embarking on a new era of supercomputing, as it announces that 9 new supercomputers globally are using NVDA Grace Hopper super chips, and that the company is accelerating quantum computing efforts
• GOOGL - Sam Altman says that openAI is not working on a search engine. Good for Googel.
• Nonetheless, Google is down in premarket on the Apple partnership with OpenAI. That makes android phones less attractive.
• MSFT - OpEnAI will announce ChatGPT product improvements today

OTHER COMPANIES:

• With BTC trading higher, Crypto stocks are seeing volume today, all higher. CSLK most up after strong earnings on Friday.
• Chinese stocks generally higher on China market higher on better than expected CPI and stimulus measures.
• ARM - developing its own AI chips with the first prototype expected by Spring 2025. Company plans to establish. Dedicated AI chip division, aiming for mass production in Fall 2025.
• INTC - Apollo is in exclusive talks to invest $11B+ in intel chip factory in Ireland.
• MCD - Friday news that they are seeking approval from franchisees to introduce a new $5 meal deal aimed at attracting more customers.
• SQSP - Squarespace going private at $44/shares cash
• GME - up 37% in response to meme posted on twitter by Roaring Kitty
• BABA - earnings tomorrow morning.
• PFE - Pfizer and Astra Zeneca commit nearly $1B to French expansion.
• Ford - Reduces battery orders, amid soaring EV losses, rethinking strategy.
• PENN - Bank of A securities downgrades to neutral from buy, Price target 17.50, due to EPSN bet losses.
• JNJ will exit Kenvue in debt-for-equity deal, a year after spin off.
• UBER, LYFT - Massachusetts takes Uber and Lyft to trial over status of gig workers
• TME up on earnings
• Solar stocks higher after US tariffs on China solar producers
• LAC earnings today

OTHER NEWS:

• BTC trading at 62,733. So is up 2.6% this morning.
• France secures major investments from US companies at Choose France summit. E.g. MSFT said to invest $4B in AI and datacenter, AMZN to invest $1.2B in AI capabilities and delivery services etc
• China will launch ultra long sovereign bonds to boost economy. Will issue first batch of ultra long special central bonds on Friday. Will sell trillions of yuan in bonds to stimulate economic growth amid challenges like housing crisis and weak consumer confidence.
• US administration will quadruple tariffs on China EVs and offer solar exclusions.
• US say that their technology protection policies are not up for negotiation in AI talks with China.
• US and China set up a meeting in Geneva to discuss perils of AI.
• Stifel argues that the next 500 points for the S&P will likely be down. They argue that core PCE remaining higher means interest rates will be pushed back.
• Meme stock is gaining popularity again, with GME rallying over 70%. Now Roaring kitty made first social media post in 3 years.
• South Korea announces a $7B support for Chip industry to boost global competitiveness
• FXPro trader, Alex Kuptsikevich says that Bitcoin could see a panic sell off if it closes under 60k level in the coming days.
• Sirens sound in Israel’s North region.
• US say there is still no credible plan to protect civilians inRafah
• BOJ reduces bond buying in latest operation, causing yen to increase. Purchases fewer bonds in this operation compared to previous one.
• UK PM Rishi Sunak warns that Britain faces its most dangerous years in history.
• Softbank’s Vision Fund posts its first annual gain in over 3 years, up $4.6B.

ANALYSIS
Will be posting more positioning analysis charts for various instruments on my subreddit Tradingedge during the day. Please check back, as it will give you more indication on how markets are positioned.

• What can we say about the market scenario right now, going into a very important CPI week?
• Liquidity is high in the market, and is showing very little signs of stress right now. Traders remain long the market, and are short on volatility. This is ensuring that pullbacks get bought as liquidity is high.
• Right now, we see very little cause for much concern. I had the question recently about some speculation from some X users saying they are seeing put gamma building in the option chain to suggest there are signs of a downturn coming. This is not the correct interpretation of the put gamma we see. This whole rally up, since November, and especially around the time of Israel Iran scenario, we have seen put gamma remain on the option chain because traders have been trying to call an eventual pullback. Trying to get ahead of it, thinking that the market is overextended. To be honest, yes, the market has had a crazy run. But these people trying to get ahead of the pullback, has just caused more squeeze higher as data and market moves haven’t followed. E.g. If CPI comes soft this week, all of this put gamma will have to be closed or will expire worthless, which means that it will fuel a more extreme push higher. This will probably move us to ATH soon. This is the type of scenario that has got us to near 5300 on SPX. So the put gamma is nothing o be looked into in terms of bearish signal.
• Skew for MAG7 stocks remains at ATH. Default Swaps remain very low. Right now we are not seeing positioning for a market ready for a sustained pullback, but in fact are showing signs of a market ready for new ATH.
• If we see a pullback from CPI coming hot, it likely will not last unless it is extremely hot. This is because Powell has already mentioned that there is basically no chance of another hike. Traders remain very short vol. If CPI comes hot, its probable we see a short term spike in VIX, and a jump in dollar, but then the VIX spike will get faded as traders sell into the volatility, which will trigger a buy the dip.
• Right now traders are hedging, but are not positioned for a sustained pullback. Skew is elevated but pointing downwards. This means traders are overall bullish but are seeing short term risks Skew on short term is pointing lower but on 3m points to new highs. Traders may see potential a short term dip from CPI, but for it to not disrupt the bullishness of the market beyond the ver immediate term as they suspect any dip will be bought.
• This hedging is particularly on IWM as it is more interest rate sensitive as we see skew point lower. Traders are lowering call options but this is normal ahead of key data. It is just hedging it is not sign of a change in positioning.
• 200 will probably be the supportive wall on IWM on pullback.
• Here we see the positioning for delta
• https://imgur.com/a/zXV6eL6
• We see a lot of put delta at 200 which will make it supportive, then again at 196 which will probs mark max low incase of v hot print.
• Traders are still v bullish in this market, as are institutions. They just hedge.
• A hot CPI will probably lead to a short term pullback, and I will suspect many people will overestimate the magnitude of this and will turn bearish. They will then get fucked again in the buy the dip just like last time. I will update you nearer the time, but this seems the scenario.
• If CPI comes in line, or soft, we probably rip to ATH, as this will fuel more rate cut sentiment.
• We will then have CPI soft, as well as jobs numbers softening.
• I think that the CPI numbers are actually less important right now. We are still yet to see the inflation trend necessary to give the Fed the confidence required to get to cuts. This will likely take many months to get to that point. SO a hot print doesnt change too much in that way, and a soft print still needs a lot more to follow to increase confidence beyond that.
• However, Powell also laid out the other path to rate cuts, which is that the job market will weaken.
• Right now, we are seeing many signs of a weaker job market, although it is not weak enough to be at recessionary levels. This is actually right now then in a. Sweet spot. May be weakening enough to push the Fed to still consider cuts, but not weak enough to be recessionary.
• If we look at the indeed wage growth numbers, Indeed being a private job listing site, we see wage growth over 2023 and into 2024 has continued to move lower. JOLTS is showing a direct Correlation with this. The Indeed data is leading JOLTS lower, so we should expect to see further weakening in the labour market.
• A look at NVDA positioning: just below the key level of 900.
• We are seeing positive gex across the board really, not much put gex. Gamma is building on 1000 again. Traders probably look for more upside here.
• Reaction to PPI probably be limited as traders await CPI. IF good, can see short term jump before faded intraday into CPI.
• Headline CPI and PPI should get benefit from the fact that oil prices are lower into May from start of April. Used cars should come light on CPI, and we still hope for the shelter prices to reflect real time rents that we see from Zillow data. I think its possible CPI can beat expectations.

DATA LEDE:

• China Inflation rate: comes 0.3% YOY vs expectations of 0.1%. Previous reading was 0.1%
• As such, China inflation rate was higher than expected. This is bullish for Chinese market as represents another step away from disinflation. 3rd month in a row, out of disinflation.
• MOM was 0.1% vs estimate of -0.1%
• Fed’s Jefferson speaks as well as Fed’s Mester
• Tomorrow is PPI, WEed

MARKETS:

• SPX - Trading at 5234. Is up 0.34% today, Closed friday at 5220. Looks like recovery of ATH at 5272 is on the horizon soon, if CPI can support.
• nasdaq: Trading at 18,222, up 0.5% in premarket. Strong resistance at around 18,340. That is more or less where ATH is. So again, will be targeting ATH.
• Dow: ATH is just shy of 40k. Right now, Dow is trading at 39,580. So ATH is target again. 9th green day in a row now.
• GER40: Flat around 18,750. Lack of any real negative catalyst nor fear in the market. Target still looks like 19k.
• UK100: Trading totally flat at 8430. Has squeezed significantly higher. Up 9% in the last month.
• HKG50: is higher by 1%, back above 19,135, due to the China CPI coming in ahead of expectations, confirming move away from Deflation, and also the fact that China will be embarking on more stimulus.
• CHINA50: Flat really, around 12,700.
• OIL - slightly higher as China might intensify efforts to stimulate economic growth with launch of ultra long sovereign bonds. Will be trying to target the 80 level For WTI if CPI can support.
• GOLD - Trading at 2350. Again will be targeting 2400 this week with CPI.

FX:

• BOJ reduces bond buying in latest operation, causing yen to increase earlier in session, but since pared the gains.
• Dollar flat/moving slightly lower this morning ahead of PPI tomorrow. Trading at 105.1
• GBP moves higher. Positioning is bullish, as does EURO.
• EURUSD is trading just below 1.08. Is up 0.21% this morning.
• GBPUSD at 1.2547. Will be trying to get close to 100d MA this week, above 1.26
• USDJPy continues weakness, trading at 156 level now again.

MAG 7:

• AAPL - Jeffries believes Apple may launch aggressive iPhone promotional discounts during the 618 online shopping festival in China. Currently Pindudoduo is offering 21% discounts on iPhone, most on any platform. JD second with 16% discounts
• AAPL - Finanlising deal with openAI to use chatgpt AI features on iPhone!!!
• So they will be overhauling Siri and integrating advanced generative AI to enhance user experience
• TSLA - Shanghai Megapack plant has received a construction permit and construction will start in may. Will reach mass production in Q1 of next year.
• TSLA - launches a below market financing rate for Model Y EV purchases. Brought the rate down to 0.99% annual percentage. Quoted rate a week ago was 6.5%. They are trying to stimulate more sales of Model Y to clear inventory
• NVDA - Jefferies raises Nvda PT to 1,200 from 780. Said NVDA is their favourite in the AI basket.
• NVDA - HSBC raises price target to 1350 from 1050.
• NVDA - says they are embarking on a new era of supercomputing, as it announces that 9 new supercomputers globally are using NVDA Grace Hopper super chips, and that the company is accelerating quantum computing efforts
• GOOGL - Sam Altman says that openAI is not working on a search engine. Good for Googel.
• Nonetheless, Google is down in premarket on the Apple partnership with OpenAI. That makes android phones less attractive.
• MSFT - OpEnAI will announce ChatGPT product improvements today

OTHER COMPANIES:

• With BTC trading higher, Crypto stocks are seeing volume today, all higher. CSLK most up after strong earnings on Friday.
• Chinese stocks generally higher on China market higher on better than expected CPI and stimulus measures.
• ARM - developing its own AI chips with the first prototype expected by Spring 2025. Company plans to establish. Dedicated AI chip division, aiming for mass production in Fall 2025.
• INTC - Apollo is in exclusive talks to invest $11B+ in intel chip factory in Ireland.
• MCD - Friday news that they are seeking approval from franchisees to introduce a new $5 meal deal aimed at attracting more customers.
• SQSP - Squarespace going private at $44/shares cash
• GME - up 37% in response to meme posted on twitter by Roaring Kitty
• BABA - earnings tomorrow morning.
• PFE - Pfizer and Astra Zeneca commit nearly $1B to French expansion.
• Ford - Reduces battery orders, amid soaring EV losses, rethinking strategy.
• PENN - Bank of A securities downgrades to neutral from buy, Price target 17.50, due to EPSN bet losses.
• JNJ will exit Kenvue in debt-for-equity deal, a year after spin off.
• UBER, LYFT - Massachusetts takes Uber and Lyft to trial over status of gig workers
• TME up on earnings
• Solar stocks higher after US tariffs on China solar producers
• LAC earnings today

OTHER NEWS:

• BTC trading at 62,733. So is up 2.6% this morning.
• France secures major investments from US companies at Choose France summit. E.g. MSFT said to invest $4B in AI and datacenter, AMZN to invest $1.2B in AI capabilities and delivery services etc
• China will launch ultra long sovereign bonds to boost economy. Will issue first batch of ultra long special central bonds on Friday. Will sell trillions of yuan in bonds to stimulate economic growth amid challenges like housing crisis and weak consumer confidence.
• US administration will quadruple tariffs on China EVs and offer solar exclusions.
• US say that their technology protection policies are not up for negotiation in AI talks with China.
• US and China set up a meeting in Geneva to discuss perils of AI.
• Stifel argues that the next 500 points for the S&P will likely be down. They argue that core PCE remaining higher means interest rates will be pushed back.
• Meme stock is gaining popularity again, with GME rallying over 70%. Now Roaring kitty made first social media post in 3 years.
• South Korea announces a $7B support for Chip industry to boost global competitiveness
• FXPro trader, Alex Kuptsikevich says that Bitcoin could see a panic sell off if it closes under 60k level in the coming days.
• Sirens sound in Israel’s North region.
• US say there is still no credible plan to protect civilians inRafah
• BOJ reduces bond buying in latest operation, causing yen to increase. Purchases fewer bonds in this operation compared to previous one.
• UK PM Rishi Sunak warns that Britain faces its most dangerous years in history.
• Softbank’s Vision Fund posts its first annual gain in over 3 years, up $4.6B.

For more of my daily updates and reports, please join Tradingedge

• ANALYSIS
• With QQQ above 440 and SPX above 5200, vol structure is supportive.
• These are now key levels of support
• We probably see some choppiness, likely with upward pressure as positioning supportive. The choppiness will come from amrket makers tryingt o hedge their volatility surpression.
• Vix is at 13.37, likely to remain between 13 and 14.
• We see basically bullihs positioning on indices.
• However, skew on SPX and QQQ, whilst elevated (indicating bulishness) is pointing lower as traders start to hedge. Meanwhile, skew on VIX is supressed, pointing to lack of fear in market, but points higher. This is due to traders hedging for CPI and PPI.
• As such, traders hedge a bit,due to the data, but positioning overall bullish.
• Top options being bought are 5400 and QQQ 450. both are v much OTM but it shows traders positioning is bullish. Just with hedging for possible short term vol.

Will be posting more positioning analysis charts for various instruments on my subreddit Tradingedge during the day. Please check back, as it will give you more indication on how markets are positioned.

• What can we say about the market scenario right now, going into a very important CPI week?
• Liquidity is high in the market, and is showing very little signs of stress right now. Traders remain long the market, and are short on volatility. This is ensuring that pullbacks get bought as liquidity is high.
• Right now, we see very little cause for much concern. I had the question recently about some speculation from some X users saying they are seeing put gamma building in the option chain to suggest there are signs of a downturn coming. This is not the correct interpretation of the put gamma we see. This whole rally up, since November, and especially around the time of Israel Iran scenario, we have seen put gamma remain on the option chain because traders have been trying to call an eventual pullback. Trying to get ahead of it, thinking that the market is overextended. To be honest, yes, the market has had a crazy run. But these people trying to get ahead of the pullback, has just caused more squeeze higher as data and market moves haven’t followed. E.g. If CPI comes soft this week, all of this put gamma will have to be closed or will expire worthless, which means that it will fuel a more extreme push higher. This will probably move us to ATH soon. This is the type of scenario that has got us to near 5300 on SPX. So the put gamma is nothing o be looked into in terms of bearish signal.
• Skew for MAG7 stocks remains at ATH. Default Swaps remain very low. Right now we are not seeing positioning for a market ready for a sustained pullback, but in fact are showing signs of a market ready for new ATH.
• If we see a pullback from CPI coming hot, it likely will not last unless it is extremely hot. This is because Powell has already mentioned that there is basically no chance of another hike. Traders remain very short vol. If CPI comes hot, its probable we see a short term spike in VIX, and a jump in dollar, but then the VIX spike will get faded as traders sell into the volatility, which will trigger a buy the dip.
• Right now traders are hedging, but are not positioned for a sustained pullback. Skew is elevated but pointing downwards. This means traders are overall bullish but are seeing short term risks Skew on short term is pointing lower but on 3m points to new highs. Traders may see potential a short term dip from CPI, but for it to not disrupt the bullishness of the market beyond the ver immediate term as they suspect any dip will be bought.
• This hedging is particularly on IWM as it is more interest rate sensitive as we see skew point lower. Traders are lowering call options but this is normal ahead of key data. It is just hedging it is not sign of a change in positioning.
• 200 will probably be the supportive wall on IWM on pullback.
• Here we see the positioning for delta
• https://imgur.com/a/zXV6eL6
• We see a lot of put delta at 200 which will make it supportive, then again at 196 which will probs mark max low incase of v hot print.
• Traders are still v bullish in this market, as are institutions. They just hedge.
• A hot CPI will probably lead to a short term pullback, and I will suspect many people will overestimate the magnitude of this and will turn bearish. They will then get fucked again in the buy the dip just like last time. I will update you nearer the time, but this seems the scenario.
• If CPI comes in line, or soft, we probably rip to ATH, as this will fuel more rate cut sentiment.
• We will then have CPI soft, as well as jobs numbers softening.
• I think that the CPI numbers are actually less important right now. We are still yet to see the inflation trend necessary to give the Fed the confidence required to get to cuts. This will likely take many months to get to that point. SO a hot print doesnt change too much in that way, and a soft print still needs a lot more to follow to increase confidence beyond that.
• However, Powell also laid out the other path to rate cuts, which is that the job market will weaken.
• Right now, we are seeing many signs of a weaker job market, although it is not weak enough to be at recessionary levels. This is actually right now then in a. Sweet spot. May be weakening enough to push the Fed to still consider cuts, but not weak enough to be recessionary.
• If we look at the indeed wage growth numbers, Indeed being a private job listing site, we see wage growth over 2023 and into 2024 has continued to move lower. JOLTS is showing a direct Correlation with this. The Indeed data is leading JOLTS lower, so we should expect to see further weakening in the labour market.
• A look at NVDA positioning: just below the key level of 900.
• We are seeing positive gex across the board really, not much put gex. Gamma is building on 1000 again. Traders probably look for more upside here.
• Reaction to PPI probably be limited as traders await CPI. IF good, can see short term jump before faded intraday into CPI.
• Headline CPI and PPI should get benefit from the fact that oil prices are lower into May from start of April. Used cars should come light on CPI, and we still hope for the shelter prices to reflect real time rents that we see from Zillow data. I think its possible CPI can beat expectations.

DATA LEDE:

• China Inflation rate: comes 0.3% YOY vs expectations of 0.1%. Previous reading was 0.1%
• As such, China inflation rate was higher than expected. This is bullish for Chinese market as represents another step away from disinflation. 3rd month in a row, out of disinflation.
• MOM was 0.1% vs estimate of -0.1%
• Fed’s Jefferson speaks as well as Fed’s Mester
• Tomorrow is PPI, WEed

MARKETS:

• SPX - Trading at 5234. Is up 0.34% today, Closed friday at 5220. Looks like recovery of ATH at 5272 is on the horizon soon, if CPI can support.
• nasdaq: Trading at 18,222, up 0.5% in premarket. Strong resistance at around 18,340. That is more or less where ATH is. So again, will be targeting ATH.
• Dow: ATH is just shy of 40k. Right now, Dow is trading at 39,580. So ATH is target again. 9th green day in a row now.
• GER40: Flat around 18,750. Lack of any real negative catalyst nor fear in the market. Target still looks like 19k.
• UK100: Trading totally flat at 8430. Has squeezed significantly higher. Up 9% in the last month.
• HKG50: is higher by 1%, back above 19,135, due to the China CPI coming in ahead of expectations, confirming move away from Deflation, and also the fact that China will be embarking on more stimulus.
• CHINA50: Flat really, around 12,700.
• OIL - slightly higher as China might intensify efforts to stimulate economic growth with launch of ultra long sovereign bonds. Will be trying to target the 80 level For WTI if CPI can support.
• GOLD - Trading at 2350. Again will be targeting 2400 this week with CPI.

FX:

• BOJ reduces bond buying in latest operation, causing yen to increase earlier in session, but since pared the gains.
• Dollar flat/moving slightly lower this morning ahead of PPI tomorrow. Trading at 105.1
• GBP moves higher. Positioning is bullish, as does EURO.
• EURUSD is trading just below 1.08. Is up 0.21% this morning.
• GBPUSD at 1.2547. Will be trying to get close to 100d MA this week, above 1.26
• USDJPy continues weakness, trading at 156 level now again.

MAG 7:

• AAPL - Jeffries believes Apple may launch aggressive iPhone promotional discounts during the 618 online shopping festival in China. Currently Pindudoduo is offering 21% discounts on iPhone, most on any platform. JD second with 16% discounts
• AAPL - Finanlising deal with openAI to use chatgpt AI features on iPhone!!!
• So they will be overhauling Siri and integrating advanced generative AI to enhance user experience
• TSLA - Shanghai Megapack plant has received a construction permit and construction will start in may. Will reach mass production in Q1 of next year.
• TSLA - launches a below market financing rate for Model Y EV purchases. Brought the rate down to 0.99% annual percentage. Quoted rate a week ago was 6.5%. They are trying to stimulate more sales of Model Y to clear inventory
• NVDA - Jefferies raises Nvda PT to 1,200 from 780. Said NVDA is their favourite in the AI basket.
• NVDA - HSBC raises price target to 1350 from 1050.
• NVDA - says they are embarking on a new era of supercomputing, as it announces that 9 new supercomputers globally are using NVDA Grace Hopper super chips, and that the company is accelerating quantum computing efforts
• GOOGL - Sam Altman says that openAI is not working on a search engine. Good for Googel.
• Nonetheless, Google is down in premarket on the Apple partnership with OpenAI. That makes android phones less attractive.
• MSFT - OpEnAI will announce ChatGPT product improvements today

OTHER COMPANIES:

• With BTC trading higher, Crypto stocks are seeing volume today, all higher. CSLK most up after strong earnings on Friday.
• Chinese stocks generally higher on China market higher on better than expected CPI and stimulus measures.
• ARM - developing its own AI chips with the first prototype expected by Spring 2025. Company plans to establish. Dedicated AI chip division, aiming for mass production in Fall 2025.
• INTC - Apollo is in exclusive talks to invest $11B+ in intel chip factory in Ireland.
• MCD - Friday news that they are seeking approval from franchisees to introduce a new $5 meal deal aimed at attracting more customers.
• SQSP - Squarespace going private at $44/shares cash
• GME - up 37% in response to meme posted on twitter by Roaring Kitty
• BABA - earnings tomorrow morning.
• PFE - Pfizer and Astra Zeneca commit nearly $1B to French expansion.
• Ford - Reduces battery orders, amid soaring EV losses, rethinking strategy.
• PENN - Bank of A securities downgrades to neutral from buy, Price target 17.50, due to EPSN bet losses.
• JNJ will exit Kenvue in debt-for-equity deal, a year after spin off.
• UBER, LYFT - Massachusetts takes Uber and Lyft to trial over status of gig workers
• TME up on earnings
• Solar stocks higher after US tariffs on China solar producers
• LAC earnings today

OTHER NEWS:

• BTC trading at 62,733. So is up 2.6% this morning.
• France secures major investments from US companies at Choose France summit. E.g. MSFT said to invest $4B in AI and datacenter, AMZN to invest $1.2B in AI capabilities and delivery services etc
• China will launch ultra long sovereign bonds to boost economy. Will issue first batch of ultra long special central bonds on Friday. Will sell trillions of yuan in bonds to stimulate economic growth amid challenges like housing crisis and weak consumer confidence.
• US administration will quadruple tariffs on China EVs and offer solar exclusions.
• US say that their technology protection policies are not up for negotiation in AI talks with China.
• US and China set up a meeting in Geneva to discuss perils of AI.
• Stifel argues that the next 500 points for the S&P will likely be down. They argue that core PCE remaining higher means interest rates will be pushed back.
• Meme stock is gaining popularity again, with GME rallying over 70%. Now Roaring kitty made first social media post in 3 years.
• South Korea announces a $7B support for Chip industry to boost global competitiveness
• FXPro trader, Alex Kuptsikevich says that Bitcoin could see a panic sell off if it closes under 60k level in the coming days.
• Sirens sound in Israel’s North region.
• US say there is still no credible plan to protect civilians inRafah
• BOJ reduces bond buying in latest operation, causing yen to increase. Purchases fewer bonds in this operation compared to previous one.
• UK PM Rishi Sunak warns that Britain faces its most dangerous years in history.
• Softbank’s Vision Fund posts its first annual gain in over 3 years, up $4.6B.

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