Bizarro World Podcast,
with Nick and Gerardo
Nov. 22, 2021
In episode 144 of Bizarro World... Nick and Gerardo discuss the rising dollar and what that means for cryptos, gold, and commodities.
The good and bad in the multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure bill and Build Back Better plan.
The Kyle Rittenhouse verdict, response to it, and the state of policing and justice in America.
Britney is finally free!
What new cannabis legislation means for cannabis stocks.
And what to watch this week in the markets.
Table of Contents
2:30 Rising Dollar: Gold, Crypto, Commodities
12:40 Infrastructure Bill & Build Back Better Plan
26:50 Rittenhouse Verdict & State of Justice in America
42:10 Britney's Free!
43:26 New Cannabis Legislation
47:18 Market Week Ahead
Gerardo Del Real: Britney's free. I won't curse this early in the podcast, but Britney is free. Kyle Rittenhouse is also free. We'll talk about the gun-wielding 17-year-old, not guilty on all charges. We'll talk Biden's infrastructure bill, we'll talk the pullback in the crypto space, we'll talk the dollar flirting and kissing that 96 level, we'll talk gold, we'll talk Malcolm X's killers being exonerated. A whole lot to get to. And man am I glad to have Mr. Nick Hodge back. I am Gerardo Del Real along with Mr. Nick Hodge. This is episode 144 of Bizarro World. Mr. Hodge, how goes you sir? Good to have you back.
Nick Hodge: I'm glad to be back, though a bit disappointed I did not get to touch on ELONBALLS.
Gerardo Del Real: Well you're a bit older than the dates that he typically likes to host, so it's usually in the 19 to 23 age range, so I don't know that you should be feeling like you've missed out. I think you may not have been in the running in the first place, Nick. Just a suspicion.
Nick Hodge: Ah, the crypto crowd leans younger too I think, Gerardo.
Gerardo Del Real: How was your week away, sir?
Nick Hodge: It was pretty good, Gerardo. I had some high expectations going into it. I thought it was going to be I suppose like Jurassic Park for elk, and it turned out to be quite tough hunting. We were able to scratch out one elk between my dad and I, so that was a good experience. Obviously good to be with him for the week, and to put my first elk in the books, though we had a shot at a bigger one and my dad happened to miss. But Bozeman is beautiful. We got to see... in fact, from the ranch we were hunting, you could see active gold mines, like Barrick's Golden Sunlight mine, and the rancher who was hosting us knew what that was. And then a bunch of mines along the way, including one that I financed this week, Lannister Mining it's called, that has a asset outside of Philipsburg which is just off I-90, which you drive along to get to Bozeman. And so beautiful scenery, elk in the freezer, time with my dad. Reflecting on it, it was pretty good, so thanks for asking.
Rising Dollar: Gold, Crypto, Commodities
Gerardo Del Real: I'm glad to hear that you got time with your dad. Always great to be able to unwind a bit. I'm sorry that the hunting aspect of your trip didn't meet the high expectations. I thought the segue from Elon high expectations was pretty well and tastefully done, so congrats on that, sir. Good to have you back as I said. Let's talk about what you missed, Nick. Gold is right at that $1,850 level, closed at $1,847, despite a dollar that while you were gone has now surged above the 96 level. I know that is a theme that I have been, for the longest, trying to wrap my head around why that capital flight hadn't gone to the major US indices and cryptos and gold and the dollar, and the two laggards had been gold and the dollar, and so it is interesting to me that while we're not there yet, we have overhead resistance in the gold space, it's holding up really well and surged the past week and a half despite a dollar that also again is perking up at a pretty rapid pace, right?
Nick Hodge: I haven't entirely figured it out. For the past whatever, six months or a year, it was really 94 on that DXY that the dollar was bumping up against. And like you say, I go away for a week and we breakthrough that and it's up. I think it's given a bit of pause to crypto. You mentioned a crypto pullback in the intro. Tough for crypto to go up alongside the dollar. I'm not sure what happens actually next, and so I'm curious like you. But if I had to reach out there, I think that we get another couple of months of solid stock performance during a rotation into a stronger gold bull market.
And what was the other thing I was going to mention here? You also had a bit of a pullback in commodities, right? Commensurate with a bit of strength in the dollar, like oil ticking down to $77 from the mid-$80s, copper ticking down from $4.70-something to $4.30-something. I don't think you're done with the commodity price rises yet, specifically for the two I just mentioned, but others as well. And so I'm interested as you are, and I'm sure as many are, to see if those continued rising commodity prices come alongside continued strength in the dollar, and as I always say, that's above my pay grade.
Gerardo Del Real: Above your pay grade, but you seem to do pretty damn well with it. You mentioned oil fell to a six-week low. The narrative there is that nationwide lockdowns in Austria, this is somewhat going to temper demand, and again I think it's a bullshit narrative. I think it's not that. I think it's just everything pulls back. Things don't go straight up, right?
Nick Hodge: Yeah, you can make up a million reasons for it. A stronger dollar, return of lockdowns, tick up in cases for COVID, which is actually a real thing. And so are those the real reasons? Is it one of them, is it all of them? Again, I don't know, but I'm sort of with you. Trees don't grow to the sky, and the pullbacks are necessary for next legs higher. And well, I put my money where my mouth is, so I recommended an oil stock yesterday, recommended a Bitcoin fund yesterday, and I think you get a resumption in the bullish trends for both those things.
Gerardo Del Real: I was excited to have Mr. Chris Curl, who bravely came on the podcast despite listening to it in the past, and he kind of gave me a brief primer on the crypto space and why he feels we're on the verge of seeing the mania phase in one sector of the crypto space. And I am by no means a crypto expert, haven't dabbled. Look forward to dabbling with his guidance. But it was great to have him on. He'll be launching his service here soon, obviously under the Digest Publishing banner. You and I are ponying up $50,000 into a fund that he will manage, putting our money where our mouth is as we typically do. And I am excited to see what he's able to do with that in light of the most recent pullback that you alluded to. Bitcoin at $57,000. We can go down the list, but everything's kind of pulled back just a tad bit. Any thoughts there?
Nick Hodge: A couple. I'm itching to get that started, right? We're going to be using a couple of exchanges to buy those coins. We're opening corporate accounts to do so, and I want to get those funded sooner than later, especially given the pullback. I was talking to Chris this week. He said that altcoins have recovered quite well already, or are starting to, which is a good sign. And so I don't want to miss this window. I think that Chris is relatively modest, and understands the markets and the psychology of some of these cryptos quite well. He was talking to you about looking at sort of the meme potential and the social media potential of some of these coins, which is very important, right? As funny as ELONBALLS and whatever, CumRockets are, I was looking at some of those charts, and those had like 8-900% weeks, right? And so those coins had like four, five, six, seven zeros in front of the first numeral on them. And so when you get... those are like Australian stocks for people familiar.
When those tick up a tenth, a hundredth, a thousandth, a millionth of a penny, right? You can multiply your wealth quite fast. Risky for sure, but that's why we're going to be allocating, right? And so we've already selected the coins we're... how much of the $50,000 we wanted to allocate, and we'll be buying in traunches just like we do with stocks, and selling rips if they happen to occur, and all that stuff. And so yeah, that market is developing fast, and it's becoming part of the financial markets, which is a big theme. I won't belabor it, but... and they're working together in some respects, and there's animosity in other respects, certainly among... and Chris alluded to this in a recent editorial. The gold bugs... just think about how much Peter Schiff hates Bitcoin for example, right? It's been the inflation darling, or what had just happened this week that I saw. Some crypto folks were trying to buy a first edition copy of the US Constitution, right?
Gerardo Del Real: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Nick Hodge: And the CEO of... oh, it's slipping my mind right now. Ken Griffin, CEO of a big financial firm, stepped in at the last minute and outbid them for 40-some million dollars.
Gerardo Del Real: Citadel's CEO, you got it.
Nick Hodge: There you go. And so that's symbolic, right? It's sort of like the old guard, or the entrenched institutions saying, "Not yet, young bucks. You're not coming in here with this nouveau riche money and buying this US Constitution." And so anyway, you asked me for my thoughts, I guess those are my thoughts. But I think big opportunities still in crypto, and excited to get those accounts funded and launch this new service.
Gerardo Del Real: So crypto, commodities, which we consider, I believe you consider it like I consider Bitcoin a commodity. Am I wrong in that?
Nick Hodge: Commodity, sure. Nope, commodity.
Gerardo Del Real: Absolutely. So copper, oil, uranium. Tiny little pullback. You think that's an opportunity, as I do?
Nick Hodge: I cannot wait for what's next in uranium. I'm glad you mentioned it. It's consolidated quite nicely. I mean, specifically to the letters, decided not to sell any Azarga Uranium (TSX: AZZ)(OTC: AZZUF), will become an Encore Energy (TSX-V: EU)(OTC: ENCUF) shareholder. Have been buying Denison Mines (TSX: DML)(NYSE: DNN) in the open market. Have, as you know, written a check into a new private deal, and shaking the bush for additional private deals in the uranium space. And no, I think that it's got a long way to go, has consolidated nicely. And importantly, the news cycle continues to facilitate it, right? You've got Bill Gates building a small reactor in Wyoming that's been in the news in the past week, and another fusion breakthrough in China, and more talk about the US needing domestic supplies to meet their clean energy goals. And so everything is aligning there. Uranium's really exciting, for sure.
Gerardo Del Real: Very, very exciting. You and I both write several checks on a private deal that we are excited to see go public. I think 2022 is going to be a whole hell of a lot of fun for those of us that have been positioned well. And yeah, looking forward to seeing how the year closes out, and I'm really looking forward to 2022. An excellent time for those of you that have been sitting on the sidelines to come in and learn a little bit about the commodities space, the crypto space, uranium, lithium, all these mega-trends that are going to continue to outperform for years on end. Not days, not weeks, not months. Years. If you can pick halfway okay, you're going to do extremely well, and I'm so excited for it.
Nick Hodge: And tin.
Gerardo Del Real: And tin. You guys will find out about that one in January. I'm not telling them that one for free.
Nick Hodge: That's it.
Infrastructure Bill & Build Back Better Plan
Gerardo Del Real: Let's talk about sleepy Joe, Uncle Joe, call him what you want to call him. He just passed a $2 trillion bill that he says is revenue neutral, the CBO says not quite. There's about a $360 billion deficit. Let's not argue about the paper, because the paper is going to be printed whether or not we buy real things with it. Can we agree on that Nick?
Nick Hodge: I would've said the same thing, yep.
Gerardo Del Real: Yeah, they're going to find a way to print paper, so let's at least get something out of it. I actually, have you had a chance to go through the bill at all?
Nick Hodge: I have not, just at the headline level. I know where some of the money is allocated to, but would love to hear it from you.
Gerardo Del Real: No look, I actually think there's a lot in this bill that I like. Again, let me qualify that statement, under the assumption that whether it's sleepy or Uncle Joe, right? Or the Trumpster, whoever the hell you want to put in office, whoever's there is going to print money. The only question is, how are we going to allocate that counterfeited money? And so if we're going to allocate it towards the elderly, and healthcare, and education, and immigration rework which we haven't really had since Reagan in '87, when my parents became residents, I am all for that aspect of the bill.
There was some bullshit in this bill. There are some things that they're doing with ANWAR, and for those not familiar with the ANWAR, that's a large area in Alaska that's fertile for oil deposits. And given inflation and what the Fed is doing with inflation, enabling it and lighting the fire and making it bigger, it's a little concerning to me to see the scaling back of land that Alaska has managed really responsibly as a state and developed responsibly as a state, that was granted under 2017 for exploration under Trump. And to see that get rolled back or proposed to get rolled back, that concerns me a bit. I think he's way off on that.
But let me tell you what I do like. $270 billion towards childcare. I like that. $200 billion will go towards expanding the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit for lower income families. And so of course, that is going to help provide for childcare, which we've talked on this podcast before, it's almost as expensive if not more to put your two or three-year old in childcare while you work than it is to send an 18 year old to college, right?
Nick Hodge: That's right.
Gerardo Del Real: And it's absolutely crazy to me that we have a system... and some of this is again Central Bank policy... but that we have a system that enables for that to be the case. I like the paid family leave aspect of it. It's $200 billion dollars to provide four weeks of paid family and medical leave starting in 2024. That seems basic to me if it's allocated correctly. That would apply to full-time and to part-time workers, and so I like that. There's a reconciliation bill that would create, "The largest mass legalization program for undocumented immigrants in US history." Now, for my right wing friends here in the US that are anti-immigrant or immediately look at that and say, "We're going to be overwhelmed with criminals,"... a pathway towards legalization does exactly what every American citizen should want for the immigrants that are coming into this country. It provides a transparent way for non-criminals with clean backgrounds, with skilled labor or low wage labor that can contribute to this country's economy, it provides a way for them to work within the system and come out of the shadows.
The current system is broken. However you feel about it, neither administration has done anything on this since Ronald Reagan, since the Republicans did way back in '87. And so this isn't a path towards US citizenship, but it is a path for undocumented immigrants to pay into the tax system under their own tax ID number, to be vetted and have background checks on them, and to be able to be more transparent with who's in this country. Because again, in the famous words of the great poet Tupac Shakur, I don't want to live next to the rapist anymore than you do. I don't want to live next to the murderer any more than you do. But if we don't provide a way to be able to vet people, then all we're going to do is guess, and the guessing isn't going to happen by the people that are the noblest amongst us, right? It's going to be based on income class and ethnicity, and everything that goes along with not having a system in place that is transparent to see if you qualify or don't qualify.
And so I'm all for that aspect of it, as somebody that comes from a family of immigrants that came to this country looking for that upward mobility that American once provided so well. I'm encouraged by that. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that part of it.
Nick Hodge: A lot of common sense there. I'll try to start at the beginning. Like you, I'd rather money conjured up go toward something than mailing everybody checks or buying assets that exacerbate wealth inequality. So if we're going to fix programs, if we're going to fix infrastructure, then I'm more for that than the other. The childcare, the thing is important. You mentioned it costs as much as in state tuition for an 18 year old to send your kid to daycare, and that's right. And the people at daycare aren't making that much either. I think daycare's one of the worst businesses to own as far as margins and profitability are concerned.
And so to alleviate some of the strain there is not only good for that industry, but good I think also for other things that we're facing right now like labor shortages. Because you've got to assume that one of the reasons folks aren't going back to work is because they've got to choose between childcare or how much they're making at their day job, right? And if it's that expensive, why would you go to work when you could just stay home and take care of your kids? So hopefully, it has effects beyond just the childcare system.
Obviously, time for an immigration overhaul, and similar to you though not exactly the same, my grandfather came in during the Kennedy administration in a call for skilled labor. And so I understand the necessity for that, and the need for the system to be improved, as your right-wing friends should understand as well right? It's not anti-immigration. Well, maybe it is for them, but it's more wanting to get it done right. And like you say, if you don't know who's coming into the country and there's not at least a path created, then where do you even start? And so both sides will say what they want to say, we're at one of the most divisive points in recent, not just memory, but before I was alive. And so if you look at Pew polls... sorry I'm rambling a little bit, but not only do people not agree on the way forward with the policy, but they don't even agree on basic facts, right? And so hopefully this-
Gerardo Del Real: That's P-E-W everybody, not pupils. P-E-W polls.
Nick Hodge: Yeah. So, no, no, no. And so hopefully we can agree that, yeah, in order to fix a system, you've got to start somewhere. What was the quote for our meeting this week? Nothing can be changed until you at least face it, right? So all this stuff seems like fairly common sense stuff in the right direction.
Gerardo Del Real: I like it. I like universal, free pre-K for three and four-year-olds. Again, that's going to provide an opportunity for early education for a lot of kids that otherwise couldn't afford it, but it's also going to free those parents up to be productive, and to work, and to educate themselves. My sister's working towards her master's right now, and luckily she's got the flexibility financially to be able to have... or she had the flexibility financially to have my youngest niece who's now in school home for the past four years while she's worked towards that. But in a different situation, she may have not been able to pursue that had it not been for the financial flexibility that she was able to have. And so I like universal free pre-K.
Let me tell you what I don't like. I start cringing a little bit when we start giving $555 billion in "ways to address climate change." And then I look at who's going to benefit, and of course, it's going to be the companies that are installing solar panels and that sell electric vehicles. And again, I'm a real capitalist at heart. True capitalism, right? Let the market decide. I don't know if a $12,500 credit to a middle-class family subsidized by the US taxpayer is where I want my tax dollars to go if I realize that the person buying that electric vehicle likely is in a position to not need that tax credit. I think there's better ways to spend that portion of that budget. There's also financial incentives for making wind turbines and clean energy equipment domestically, and in union-organized factories. I'd like to see more details on that. So yeah, $325 billion in climate-related tax breaks, I'm curious to see how that's allocated. Very curious to see how that's allocated.
I like the expanded Medicare investment. I like the expanded Medicaid investment for low-income people. I like a plan to try to lower prescription drug costs for seniors. I think all of those are good, common sense ways and reasons to counterfeit money for. I'm all for that. There's some exceptions obviously, I think I highlighted a couple of those, and hopefully some of that made sense. Any more thoughts on that, Nick?
Nick Hodge: It's well known that those electric vehicle tax credits are for doctors' and lawyers' wives to get their electric car. That's typically how the Wall Street Journal and financial papers write about them, because like you say, those people are only buying those cars because they're in a financial position to do so and they can get the tax benefit. I guess I would say recognize what that means investment wise, right? If you're not whatever, able to benefit from that tax credit, at least be able to use it for what it means, higher likely prices for the inputs for those electric vehicles, and for the companies that make them. And so if your government is going to give relatively well off people money to buy electric cars, why not own shares in the companies that are going to benefit from that for your own bottom line? That's just sort of how I think about things I guess.
Gerardo Del Real: I like it. The last one that I really like, and I know this is going to sound counterintuitive, is a 15% corporate minimum tax on large corporations. We've talked before about Biden and the left gets up there and talks about the rich not paying their fair share, and it's really the ultra rich that aren't paying their fair share, right? So I like the fact that this 15% corporate minimum tax is focusing on large corporations, not on... and again, this will not win me any favor from my friends on the left, but million dollar corporations like the one that you and I have, we don't have billion dollar companies. We have million dollar companies. And so do I feel we should be targeted? No. We pay our fair amount of taxes, trust me. We just sent some checks, and I have another one that I have to write here soon, but I like that, and I like the tax that targets companies performing stock buybacks, because that can be manipulated if you have the right accounting team. Did you have a comment on the stock buyback tax?
Nick Hodge: I'm for all that, Gerardo, and so I've long said that the corporations need to pay their fair share, going back to even the Supreme Court decision, Citizens United. I don't think corporations are people. So yes, they often pay zero taxes, and we've talked about that a lot. And no, buybacks I don't have a specific opinion on, no.
Gerardo Del Real: And $1.2 trillion for the largest investment in building and fixing the bridges since construction of our interstate highway system in the '50s. Again, that seems like a great cause to counterfeit money for. I travel across the country every year, I love driving it. I drive to Chicago from Austin, from Round Rock, and I like the history of it. I've enjoyed the time with my boys and my wife pointing out different bridges in different places, and the historical significance. And I've got to tell you, my lord does the country need some infrastructure upgrades across the country. I don't think there's a state that's exempt. And so I like that as well. Again, I'll put a link up to everything that's included, how the Build Back Better Act as they're calling it is broken down, and curious to see what everybody thinks about that.
Nick Hodge: There you go.
Rittenhouse Verdict & State of Justice in America
Gerardo Del Real: All right. You said something that kind of stuck. You said we're living through one of the most divisive times in American history. I agree with you 100%, and I think that the Kyle Rittenhouse acquittal news that just came in, of course we record on Friday and publish on Monday, I think it is very... it's a great example of where we are, at least on Twitter, at least in the media, on where we are as a country and how polarized we are as a country. Have you had a chance to look over the acquittal for Mr. Rittenhouse, Nick?
Nick Hodge: I've looked, yeah. We sort of... well you definitely, but if I had to bet I would've bet it went this way as well. And so yeah, where do you want to start?
Gerardo Del Real: Let's start on, for my Canadian and Australian and English friends, and people from across everywhere that write in and always send nice comments for the most part, let's start with what this is. Kyle Rittenhouse is a 17-year --old, that during the Black Lives Matter protests, where mostly peaceful protests but definitely some agitators from both sides, were burning shit down and breaking through windows. And this 17-year-old kid decided that it was up to him to go grab an assault rifle illegally because in this country you can't have an assault rifle at 17. I should point that out. He decided that he would go out there to "protect" another city. He's not even from where this happened in Wisconsin, he drove there. And so he ran around the streets with an assault rifle, and it ended up in the death of one gentleman and the shooting of... or two gentlemen were killed and a third was shot.
So let's start, and I'm going to be really brief on the charges because I want to get to the verdict, but the charges were first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and on those three charges I actually agree with the jury. I'm not a lawyer, I'm not a defense lawyer, I'm not a prosecutor. I've seen how prosecutors and defense lawyers work. I think the defense fucked this up. But-
Nick Hodge: Wrong charges you mean?
Gerardo Del Real: Absolutely.
Nick Hodge: Yeah.
Gerardo Del Real: Absolutely. The prosecution, I'm sorry. The prosecution fucked this up. Completely wrong charges. So he would have... if I'm running around the middle of the street, in the middle of mostly peaceful protests but definitely some rioters, and it's getting later, and there's fires, and I have an assault rifle and I'm looking around, I should have a reasonable doubt about my safety. And if somebody points a gun at me, they are getting lit up. Believe you me, if y'all approach me and you ever see me with a weapon, the weapon will be used if I believe I'm in danger. So I do believe that he had the right to defend himself, despite the fact that it was an illegal weapon, that he should not have had it, and despite the fact that he drove from a completely different community to "protect the community." So on those charges, I'll go right through them, I agree with the jury completely.
Where I don't agree is, how can you find this young man not guilty of recklessly endangering the safety of others, and recklessly endangering the safety of others in the second degree? The bar for those two charges seems pretty low to me, and the fact that at one point during the trial he admitted that he fired on a person that he knew was unarmed and he knew was not lunging towards him, he just fired in the direction because after shooting and killing the first person that did have a weapon, he, of course, had a heightened state, and so he shot off. I don't know how a jury was able to acquit him of those charges. And again, for those of you listening from different places, in the United States those were minor charges anyway. There wasn't a lot of time or consequence if he got found guilty for those, but it was interesting to me that it was not guilty across the board.
I'd love to hear your thoughts Nick, and then we can get into how the right and the left are reacting, like this is the worst thing or the best thing since sliced bread, because that's where we are in this country right now.
Nick Hodge: Yeah. The response is a whole separate thing. I think you laid it out pretty well, and I come down actually pretty close to you, right? If someone points a gun at you, you have in this country a right to defend yourself. And again, if I had to bet, would've said that the verdict would've come out this way. Do I think he went to another state looking for trouble?
Gerardo Del Real: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Nick Hodge: Yep. Do I think that he maybe got off on it a little bit, or enjoyed it? I do, and that's maybe a part of the later discussion. But the way the law is, totally get the first three charges, because first degree is premeditated murder. Going there looking for trouble is not going there looking to kill someone, certainly not someone specifically. And so I get that, but like you, he, at least for me, I think he went there looking for trouble. And shooting off random shots is certainly reckless endangerment. And so, yeah, I'm not sure what the jury was... deliberations were like. I didn't get a chance to tune into the entire trial, but definitely divisive.
And one more thing I guess before we get into the responses. You can even see a backlash to the Black Lives Matter protests and the Defund the Police in the recent elections, right? Because some mayoral candidates were running against defunding the police, and there was a strong voter response to that, to not defunding the police. And so that's in the face of I guess increased crime rates of late, which are still historically diminished. But there's not a lot of room for nuance right now. So yeah, everything is now a meme, and like I said, a Pew poll showed that we can't even agree on facts. So I-
Gerardo Del Real: Say that again.
Nick Hodge: I honestly don't even want to-
Gerardo Del Real: Can't even agree on facts..
Nick Hodge: I don't even want to wade into what's going on in social media right now between the two sides. But look, there's a reason that these protests took place that was valid. I think the actions of a few individuals on both sides aren't reflective of the larger position or what many in that group would do. And so it's unfortunate that we're going to focus on this one young man as a caricature of the entire thing because it's much more important than him, and the two people who unfortunately lost their lives. But yeah, this'll control the narrative for a couple days, but I don't think the problems with the policing and the policing institution in this country have been dealt with yet, and certainly, this case didn't do anything to deal with them.
Gerardo Del Real: The institutions themselves that allow for something like this to happen is what I take bigger issue with, right? Anyone out there that believes that during those protests a person of color would have been able to run down the street with an assault rifle after killing a man, walk right past cops, and then go be handed water and ushered to safety, you either don't live here or just aren't aware of the way the institution is set up. And I'm not making it about race, I'm making it about class.
Nick Hodge: Well, we know that the police themselves were hunting the protestors, right? We talked about this on the podcast. There was the Rolling Stone article that had the quotes about all that.
Gerardo Del Real: Exactly, and that's my bigger problem with all of this. It's the institution that encourages this type of behavior. And so the precedent that was just set we're going to be talking two years from now, when everybody thinks, everybody thinks that they can go out there with an assault rifle and just pop off, and more people die in the streets. And it's going to be another one of those turnings that we talk about, moments in a turning, that is going to lead to bloodshed y'all. I don't know how else to put that. I keep telling everybody in my own way to be careful and be safe-
Nick Hodge: And has in multiple events already, yeah.
Gerardo Del Real: And I think it's going to escalate. And when we talk about the institutions, I'm not just talking about police departments. I'm talking about the FBI. It was really interesting to me that this verdict comes a day after two of Malcolm X's convicted killers were exonerated after decades of being in prison. There's an 83-year-old man who has been in prison since 1965 and was just exonerated. And when you dig into that, as I dig into the history of it and I look at all the facts, one of the gentlemen, the 83-year-old gentleman who's spent the last how many decades? Six, seven decades in prison, the FBI knew and had evidence, and the police did as well that this gentleman was home with a leg injury. There were also undercover police agents in the Ballroom in Harlem was Malcolm X was killed.
There's now records that have been unsealed that late FBI director J Edgar Hoover ordered FBI agents to tell witnesses not to reveal that they were informants when talking with police and prosecutors. So again, my biggest problem is with the institutions that allow for zero accountability because of the immunity laws for anyone involved with putting a man in prison for seven decades. Seven decades, when they had evidence that he couldn't have possibly have done it. That he was innocent. That deserves the death penalty to me, Nick. You took this man's life away. You stripped from his family, and you knew he was not guilty, and you had FBI informants testifying against this man, being leaned on by the FBI, being leaned on by the police, because rats will say anything to save their own skin.
And again, everybody knows I have issues with informants. There's no accountability in this country. We don't know how much they're paid. We don't know the budget. We don't know what crimes they're allowed to commit. I just saw the Proud Boy guy, what's his name? The Tarrio guy, Enrique Tarrio He's complaining that life in prison isn't all he thought it was going to be, and he wants to get out now because he got sentenced to four years, but we now know that he was an informant for years. For years, and so how many crimes was that guy allowed to commit before they said, "Okay, enough is enough. You're out here on Instagram committing the crimes, we can't cover this up for you." That should be criminal, and that's a system that should be done away with. And again, it speaks to the larger problem with the justice system and our institutions that are supposed to enforce that justice in this country. They're corrupt. They're broken. I don't know what other example I can give you.
Forget the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict, which I actually agree with most of it. And forget how people are celebrating it on one side and acting like this is the worst thing since the last apocalypse. Let's look at the bigger problem, and that's justice reform and the institutions that enable this type of stuff, the institutions that allow two men to be in prison for six or seven decades knowing that the institutions that put him there know they were innocent and hid the evidence and didn't give it to the defense. I feel like somebody should die for that, I'm sorry. If you believe in the death penalty, and for those that don't, I feel somebody should be in prison for life.
Nick Hodge: It comes down to accountability. And really, the problem with the current state of our government and financial system, and the utter lack of it, right? Well documented that the FBI was trying to kill black leaders like Martin Luther King.
Gerardo Del Real: Oh, they did.
Nick Hodge: Well exactly, right. And then with no accountability and no direction from the populace, right? So you just wonder at whose direction they're acting. And the same goes for on down the line, which is why you say it's sort of the heart of the problem, right? Whether it's the institutionalized robbing of citizens by cops that went on in Baltimore, and the planting of fake drugs and guns to arrest people that were innocent, or the ongoing theft of people's property from civil forfeiture. That's all tentacles of the same nasty squid. And so like I said, it's not dealt with yet. We haven't gotten anywhere to solving it with the Kyle Rittenhouse thing.
So you mentioned the Fourth Turning. I mean, that's one part of it right? And the resolution let's say to all the stuff that's going on depends on the response of the country. And so we just had two discussions about two different issues, and one felt sort of really positive right? And one didn't feel so positive. And so you can sort of see how these responses are playing out to the issues of our time.
Britney's Free!
Gerardo Del Real: Agreed, agreed. On a lighter note, Britney's free, bitches. Britney won.
Nick Hodge: She sure is.
Gerardo Del Real: I'm so happy for Britney.
Nick Hodge: Yeah, it's really good.
Gerardo Del Real: Yeah, you want to give everybody the news, Nick? I'd like to think that the Bizarro World podcast played a small part in making this happen, and you're welcome Britney.
Nick Hodge: I mean I'm not going to give you too many details. I don't have an article open in front of me. But basically her life had been ruled by this conservatorship, and her dad, who sounds like colluded with a lot of folks to make her seem crazy, and effectively steal by my math $50, $60 million dollars of her proceeds from the mega-smash tours she had. And so she's got $60-some million bucks left, and it's hers to spend now, so go you girl.
Gerardo Del Real: Get it Britney. I'm happy for her, good for her. 13 years of someone manipulating every aspect of your life, deciding what you could spend, deciding if you could have a baby, deciding if you could get married... man, I hope her dad gets whatever the universe feels he deserves, as I say all the time. All I wish for everyone, including myself, is reciprocity right? Whatever I have coming, come on with it. I'm ready for it. I wish the same for everybody.
New Cannabis Legislation
Last but not least, a Republican, Ms. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, has introduced legislation to federally decriminalize marijuana. And she says it's a measure that would give states freer rein to pass their own laws and regulations without fear of federal reprisals. I am so for that, all the way around. I'm pretty sure I know how you feel about this, Nick. Do you think this is something that'll stick given Biden and Harris's disdain for the cannabis enjoyers?
Nick Hodge: No, but I think that it will continue to foster the conversation. So the Democrats aren't going to let the Republican be the one that has the bill that does it, that decriminalizes weed, but it will hopefully, not force, but encourage them to come up with better ideas on their own. Because this bill was actually pretty good. It had a little bit of things for everybody. And so we're starting to get back in the right direction. The cannabis stocks have not been great. They started out the year looking pretty good and I had higher hopes for them this year, but they sort of fizzled once what you just said, the market sort of sussed out that Biden wasn't going to do anything about it.
And so there's been a couple of wins, a couple of buyouts, like Trulieve (CSE: TRUL)(OTC: TCNNF) just finished its buyout of Harvest Health, which is something we would've been talking about earlier in the year as we doubled our money on. But it's been sort of tough since then, and so... what was I going to say? The earnings have just come out, and they're a bit depressed, because markets have been slow to open up. But I don't think the consolidation is over yet, and so I think cannabis stocks are a big tax loss selling candidate, especially if you had a really good year in other commodities, which you should have. So take your tax loss was my advice, if you're down significantly on some of your cannabis holdings, and then look to get positioned heading out of this year and into early next year. There's some good companies, multi-state operators that are going to get bought out, like 4Front Ventures (CSE: FFNT)(OTC: FFNTF) is one of them. You get your money's worth on this week's podcast.
And so is it going to be at a multiple of two or three? I don't know. Can you make 40, 50% of your money holding it for six or 10 months? Yeah, and that's pretty good right? So I don't know if that answered your question or not. I don't think this bill is the one that does it, but I think you start to get a better environment for cannabis in years ahead, but not at the end of this year.
Gerardo Del Real: To my Christian friends... can you talk to your Christian friends? Because the Palmetto Family, Dave Wilson, the president of the Palmetto Family who's a conservative Christian lobbying organization, came out and said, "Marijuana is the number one gateway drug to the exploding opioid crisis that is ravaging our state. This will make the crisis exponentially worse." These are the same organizations that came out and raised defense money for Kyle Rittenhouse before knowing if he was guilty or not guilty, because nobody knew until the case was presented right? And so just again, to my Christian friends, talk to your Christian friends. And come on, man. Come on. I'll leave it there.
Market Week Ahead
What are you watching this week, Nick?
Nick Hodge: What am I watching? We already mentioned uranium. I think that it's due for a breakout watching that dollar to see if it continues to have strength or not. We already talked about it all. I'm looking for a ounce in Bitcoin, crypto in general, and oil, and I'm going away again. So I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving with my family. And how about you?
Gerard Del Real: Patriot Battery Metals (CSE: PMET)(OTC: RGDCF), I've mentioned it the past couple of weeks. It ticked up pretty good this last week on some really good volume they're due for results any day. I actually thought we might see them this week. We did not. This being Friday of course, I believe we have to see them next week. And I hope it's early in the week. And if they hit anything of significance on either their 10-kilometer copper-gold trend or their 25-kilometer, which is actually even more interesting to me right now, lithium trend. Quebec and you know, Critical Elements, right? Not a bad place to have a new lithium discovery or a new copper discovery. So that I'm looking for that because I think, a discovery there is going to take that much, much higher.
I'm biased. We help finance it at 16 cents. We've made good money. It hit as high as C$0.78, C$0.80. It's pulled back pretty significantly after stock came free trading and everybody flipped it to hold that warrant. I'm holding shares. I'm holding warrants. I've added, I know several friends and people close to me that have as well, and fingers crossed on that front. So I'll be watching for that. It's a great time for a lithium discovery if you can have one.
Nick Hodge: I don't think Critical Elements (TSX-V: CRE)(OTC: CRECF) is done yet. Hard rock ithium prices continue to tick higher. And so I like that space for sure. Have to tell you that Playboy (NASDAQ: PLBY) hit $40. I think we were talking about in the low $20s. And so you continue to get your dividends paid by Bizarro World.
Gerard Del Real: It's that sticky ecosystem, everybody. I am Gerard Del Real along with my co-host Mr. Nick Hodge. It's great having you back, Nick. This was our weekly therapy session we call Bizarro World. Number 144. You all have a great Thanksgiving here and have yourself a great holiday wherever you are. Say something nice to the people Nick.
Nick Hodge: Gobble. Gobble.
Gerard Del Real: Gobble, Gobble.
This transcript is unedited. Please excuse grammatical errors and run-on sentences.