When it comes to presidential candidates, it’s worth remembering: The Kentucky Derby is won by horses, but it’s the owners who get the prize money.

In my opinion, Larry Ellison (Oracle) is the most strategic billionaire influencer, a long-term thinker, in the modern era.  Larry Ellison is about to take control of TikTok, while his son David Ellison gains CBS and will likely move Bari Weiss into content control. Next up, CNN.  Funnily enough, while Elon was the shiny thing, Larry smiled. Keep watching.

The framework of the U.S. TikTok deal is becoming clear. The New York Times has the best write up.

(NEW YORK TIMES) – The software giant Oracle will oversee the security of Americans’ data and monitor changes and updates to TikTok’s powerful recommendation technology under a new deal to avert a ban of the service, according to a senior White House official.

A copy of the algorithm, the recommendation engine that powers the app’s addictive feed of short videos, will be licensed from China to an American investor group that will oversee the app in the United States, the official said.

Oracle will also invest in the new American TikTok, as will the private equity firm Silver Lake, another senior official said.

It will be “secured” in the United States outside the control of TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, one of the officials said. The U.S.-run TikTok will work to retrain the copy on users’ data in the United States, and China will not have access to the data, the officials added.

The deal is an effort to meet the requirements of a law that would have banned TikTok in the United States unless ByteDance relinquished control of the app. It was intended to address national security concerns that the app’s ownership could give Beijing a channel to spread propaganda or to collect sensitive data about Americans.

[…] Under the terms of the deal, American companies will own around 80 percent of the American version of the app. ByteDance and other Chinese investors will own less than 20 percent.

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U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer has filed a motion with the Supreme Court [SEE HERE] requesting intervention in a lower court ruling that blocks President Trump from firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.

As noted in the filing, “As her removal notice observed, before taking office, Cook had made contradictory representations in two mortgage agreements a short time apart, claiming that both a property in Michigan and a property in Georgia would simultaneously serve as her principal residence. Each mortgage agreement described the representation as material to the lender, reflecting the reality that lenders usually offer lower interest rates for principal-residence mortgages because they view such mortgages as less risky. When her apparent misconduct came to light, the President determined that Cook’s “deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter” renders her unfit to continue serving on the Federal Reserve Board, and at a minimum demonstrates “the sort of gross negligence in financial transactions that calls into question[her] competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator.” App., infra, 29a. To this day, Cook has never attempted to reconcile these representations.” (READ MORE)

“The Federal Reserve Act’s broad ‘for cause’ provision rules out removal for no reason at all, or for policy disagreement,” Sauer wrote. “But so long as the President identifies a cause, the determination … is within the President’s unreviewable discretion.”

“The President may reasonably determine that interest rates paid by the American people should not be set by a Governor who appears to have lied about facts material to the interest rates she secured for herself — and refuses to explain the apparent misrepresentations,” Sauer wrote.

Cook maintains she dindunuffin.

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I had not been paying close attention to the overarching issues of President Trump removing Fed Governor Lisa Cook for cause – fraudulent filings on her three mortgage applications. However, the appearance of Norm Eisen as her lawyer certainly highlights the political nature of the defense effort.

Norm Eisen is a well-known Lawfare operative, second only to Mary McCord in his high visibility and connections to all of the anti-Trump efforts. Eisen, like McCord, is at the center of the leftist effort to stop the Trump agenda through the manipulation of the courts, ie. ‘Lawfare.’

Norm Eisen left, Abbe Lowell right. Both lawyers for Lisa Cook

WASHINGTON – A federal judge likely will not rule until next week on whether Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve board, can remain in her job despite President Donald Trump’s attempt to fire her.

At the first hearing on Cook’s lawsuit against Trump, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb grappled with the legal issues raised by Trump’s unprecedented move against Cook but offered few hints about how she might rule. The judge, an appointee of Joe Biden, acknowledged the limits of the courts’ power to question the president’s motives, while expressing concerns about the lack of due process afforded to Cook. (more)

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Moldova was always important for the goals of the EU elites against the influence of Russia. However, after Georgia rejected the EU manipulation, Moldova became even more important; very, very important.

Moldova is now the frontline battle of the EU Central Bank against pesky Russian ideological intransigence.  All your democracies are belong to us, comrade.  In the background the EU economies are beginning to quiver, led by Germany.

Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is worried that if Moldova gains EU membership before Ukraine, his battleground position could be compromised. ‘Hey, wait a minute, we’re no more corrupt than they are.’ Ukraine wants simultaneous attention, priority and ascension.

Moldovan President Saia Sandu squeaked a win in her election with the use of overseas ballots. The highly divided Moldovans living in Moldova didn’t support Sandu, but the mysterious Moldovans who do not live in Moldova supported her. The EU leadership doesn’t want too many people to notice that.

BRUSSELS ― The leaders of France, Germany and Poland are converging Wednesday on tiny Moldova to urge voters to keep turning away from Russia and support their country’s pro-EU government.

The Moldovan president, Maia Sandu, and her governing Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) face a critical Sept. 28 parliamentary election amid warnings that the Kremlin is working to influence the result and derail the country’s efforts to join the EU.

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India is now facing a 50% import tariff against the majority of their goods (electronics and pharmaceuticals exempted). However, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed not to yield to the pressure. Modi said the world was witnessing a “politics of economic selfishness.”

For approximately a decade many western countries including the U.S. have heaped effusive praise on India as corporations viewed the massive Indian population, the world’s largest democracy, as both workers and consumers.  However, after the western sanctions against Russia were delivered, India -a BRICS nation- began pulling back from western alignment and influence.

Western sanctions map against Russia (yellow = agree with USA).

What we are witnessing now is one of the ramifications of the U.S. forcefully putting an “us or them” aspect into the strategic economic relationship, where “them” is Russia.  Currently, India is not flinching.

One could make the argument that undeveloped regions in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) contain the majority of the valuable rare earth minerals and magnets the ‘western’ nations need for manufacturing.  BRICS has a pressure point to apply leverage, but no global trade currency, if the trade conflict escalates.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears on Fox Business to discuss some very important current issues in the world of finance, banking and trade.

Bessent begins by answering questions about the U.S. government taking equity interests in companies that come to the U.S. for support.  Bessent then notes the potential for the Trump administration to construct a taxpayer stake in Fannie and Freddie, before the Treasury Secretary moves on to talk about the trade issues with India.  WATCH:

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Against the example of the U.S. Government taking a 10% stake in Intel, a private technology company who manufactures microchips, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick outlines the parameters where the Trump administration would consider taking a stake in private sector companies.

Secretary Lutnick notes that when a company comes to the U.S. government for assistance or benefit, the government -ultimately the taxpayer- should gain an equity stake in that company.  WATCH:

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Ms. Lisa Cook has vowed to fight the removal effort of President Trump through her attorneys. “President Trump purported to fire me ‘for cause’ when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so. I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022,” Cook said in a statement to POLITICO.

On a Truth Social Post, President Trump announced his decision to remove Lisa Cook from her position on the FED board of governors, due to the criminal referral which alleges she falsified information on a mortgage application.

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Considering that Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been called a “puppet” for various western interests, the reports of Zelenskyy bringing EU leaders along for his meeting with President Trump strikes as a little ironic.

Apparently, the EU is worried that Zelenskyy could screw things up for their Ukraine interests, so handlers or minders are being dispatched along with him just in case. Finnish President Alexander Stubb and NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte are among the names being discussed as chaperones for the Ukraine President.

Additionally, French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer are planning a teleconference Sunday as the “coalition of the willing” brainstorms the best way to avoid a Zelenskyy capitulation to the terms and conditions outlined by President Vladimir Putin.

With BlackRock and J.P.Morgan prepositioned to control the Ukraine Recovery and Reinvestment Bank {LINK}, the coalition of the willing want U.S. troops to backstop the terms of a potential peace agreement.  The banks and financial beneficiaries need the insurance provided by the U.S military.

Ultimately, banking interests are the stakeholders in the future, and the U.K, France and German political officials represent the strategists in place to protect the interests of the banks.  Not coincidentally, this is classic -albeit inverted- fascism.

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President Donald Trump called in to CNBC for a discussion of current events and factors impacting the economy.

It is a lengthy interview and there’s a very interesting part at 23:07 when Andrew Ross Sorkin asks President Trump to justify his claim that banks discriminate against conservatives, because Sorkin is meeting with the head of Bank of America later today.  What happens next in the interview leaves Sorkin speechless.

President Trump outlines his personal experience where JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America debanked Donald Trump.  Sorkin quietly disappears and the conversation quickly switches topics.  WATCH (prompted):

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