Adestella Investment Management

Long-short equity investment fund. Per ardua ad stella!

[Nick shirley @nickshirleyy]

🚨 Here is the full 42 minutes of my crew and I exposing Minnesota fraud, this might be my most important work yet. We uncovered over $110,000,000 in ONE day. Like it and share it around like wildfire! Its time to hold these corrupt politicians and fraudsters accountable

We ALL work way too hard and pay too much in taxes for this to be happening, the fraud must be stopped.

[John Podhoretz @jpodhoretz]

All of you who thought Luigi Mangione was a hero--you have an evil share in this.

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

The events of the last few days have made it incredibly clear that we need to change our tolerance for violent offenders.

One strike and you are out.

[Sarah Hubbard, Regent, University of Michigan @RegentHubbard]

❌DEI
❌Diversity Statements
❌ Bureaucratic overspending

✅Expanding Financial Aid
✅Supporting Diversity of Thought
✅Academic Excellence

[Adestella Investment Management @AdestellaInvest]

@ChrisJBakke Mango. Duolingo is usually too simplistic to be truly effective beyond basic vocab

[Armand Domalewski @ArmandDoma]

I need every Democratic elected official in America to read this paragraph by @ezraklein

[Ashley St. Clair @stclairashley]

The problem is not that we aren’t taxed enough— it’s that our government lights cash on fire

Here is some absurd garbage your US taxes paid for:

•$1.5 Million studying the effects of yoga on goats

•$1.7 billion maintaining empty buildings

•$5 million on a campaign to promote an alternative music scene to get hipsters to stop smoking

•$2 million to create an internship program that resulted in the hiring of one full-time employee at the Department of Agriculture

•In 2021 alone, the government managed to misplace $281 billion in payments

•$1 million studying the effects of music on dairy cows

•$1.7 million to study the effects of alcohol on fish

[Ian Miller @ianmSC]

I don’t know, maybe installing one of the most unpopular primary candidates from five years ago without a single vote, having her flip flop on every major issue and avoid interviews after lying and gaslighting about Joe Biden’s mental health for 3+ years was a bad plan?

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

Why do the moderators only fact check @realDonaldTrump and not @KamalaHarris?

[Greg Price @greg_price11]

It turns out the bakery that Sen. Tina Smith and Tim Walz are at in this photo, Daube's Cakes, closed its doors for good after over 30 years in June 2020 due to Walz' covid lockdowns

[Adestella Investment Management @AdestellaInvest]

@luanalopeslara Verdade :/

[David Marcus @davidmarcus]

I am crossing the Rubicon and backing the Republican Party and President Trump.

Many — including a former version of myself — get trapped in a mental framework that becomes their identity and prevents them from radically evolving their thinking with new facts and information. I finally broke free from it.

My journey has been a gradual political 180 from where I stood in every previous election. It has been an eye-opening process of disenchantment, zero-basing lifelong beliefs, and rebuilding from there.

In 2017, a good friend enlisted me to pitch the DNC to raise $100M from Silicon Valley founders and executives. The aim was to use these funds and know-how to build a CRM and tech platform to prevent a repeat of Hillary Clinton’s inadequate, outdated 2016 campaign. We met with DNC leadership, who told us we could raise that money, but it would have to go to the general fund; a single-digit percentage would then be allocated to tech. In the wake of one of their most shocking failures, they didn’t want the help.

The next series of realizations began in 2019 while I was at Meta, right after we announced the Libra white paper. I testified before the Senate and the House and subsequently spent significant time in DC, engaging with lawmakers, cabinet members, regulators, and two White House administrations. At the time, I still believed the mainstream idea that Democrats were all about serving the People. However, I was shocked to learn that, for the most part, Republicans cared more deeply about their constituents, while Democrats, in my experience, cared more about government power and control. This is my observation on balance, with many stories to back it up. I also found that more Republicans wanted to understand our project’s goals and took the time to learn about the risks of censoring payments and controlling the network. I found myself remarkably aligned with them.

Then COVID came, revealing more. While I don’t subscribe to the most malicious vaccine conspiracy theories, I do take offense at the censorship machine put in place to hide the origin of the virus from the NIH-funded Wuhan lab and all dissenting voices on vaccinations and lockdowns. At that time, I fully appreciated why Republicans value freedom of speech and preventing censorship.

This trend of spinning and manufacturing a parallel reality to serve the Dem agenda, solidified by complicit mainstream media, hit home with the Hunter Biden laptop story, the coordinated vilification of President Trump and his followers, and President Biden’s cognitive decline — depriving voters of a voice in a proper primary. These examples displayed the hubris of the current Dem leadership. You must think the American people are fools to believe the spin on these issues. I despise this elite vs. general population ideology viscerally.

This version of the Democratic Party is sidelining moderates and centrists and has adopted an increasingly leftist ideology. This drift to the left has dictated policies from which I’ve found myself estranged.

On the domestic front, there has been a total departure from the core American value system of meritocracy, an extreme and weaponized DEI agenda, an open door to massive illegal immigration, and a once-fringe narrative, now mainstream within the party, of vilifying success. This shift is also causing us to fall behind due to an anti-innovation regulatory climate, notably on crypto and soon AI — two non-linear technological breakthroughs that will likely determine tomorrow’s leading countries.

On foreign policy, the administration is exacerbating tensions with Russia through an aggressive NATO expansion narrative focused on Ukraine and prolonging an unwinnable war. This is costing American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, the world hundreds of thousands of lives, depleting the U.S. military arsenal and risking World War III. On Iran, this administration is continuing a misguided Obama-era plan to bring Iran closer to the West by unfreezing Trump-era sanctions, thus giving the Mollahs’ regime the ability to fund terrorism and pursue its anti-America, anti-Israel, and anti-Jewish agenda. The withdrawal from Afghanistan was also handled disastrously. We’re leaving a door open for China to invade Taiwan by coming across as weak. Most importantly to me, concerning Israel, the administration is enabling Iran to fund Hamas and Hezbollah, restraining Israel in its fight against its enemies, thus prolonging another conflict, which is costing more lives on both sides and allowing unprecedented levels of antisemitism to rise at home.

I believe we need a President who is unequivocally pro: America, the Constitution, business, Bitcoin/crypto, innovation, Israel, small government, legal immigration, free speech, meritocracy, and common sense — and anti: regulatory proliferation, illegal immigration, unjust wars, Iran’s current regime, and domestic groups that oppose American values. These issues are central to President Trump’s platform.

Naturally, I disagree with President Trump and the GOP on some issues, particularly women’s reproductive rights. While I’ve come to learn that extreme views exist in both parties, I firmly believe that women should have the unalienable right to make their own decisions on this polarizing topic. President Trump confirmed he was against a national abortion ban and supported the Supreme Court’s decision on maintaining access to mifepristone, which was reassuring and a sign that the party was moving closer to the center.

It’s impossible to close this post without mentioning President Trump’s recent assassination attempt. The courage and resolve he displayed seconds after being hit by a bullet was awe-inspiring for his followers and detractors alike. This was a man, however imperfect, who, at that moment, incarnated the American spirit in the most vivid way, starting to bring a split nation together.

Some claim that reelecting President Trump will bring our democracy to its knees. However, the alternative — having unelected individuals with this much power and no accountability run our government coupled with four more years of bad policies at home and abroad — might present a more significant threat. Neither will likely change in a Harris administration and could potentially worsen.

In this pivotal moment, confronted with the choices we have, I am endorsing and supporting a return to a Republican administration in 2025.

[Daniel Di Martino @DanielDiMartino]

1950s: 4th richest country in the world

1976: Oil nationalization

1980s: Stagnation

1989: Looking instigated by socialists

1992: Failed coup attempts by Chavez.
1990s: Economic reforms to restart the economy.

1998: Chavez elected.

1999: Supreme court is packed and constitution rewritten.

2000: Enabling act allows Chavez to govern by executive order. Nationalizations of land begin, followed by major companies.

2002: National strike and failed coup and insurrection against Chavez.

2003: Centralization and purging of institutions. Firing of dissidents from government. Price and currency controls, and massive increases in government spending begin.

2004: Recall referendum against Chavez rigged. Signatories barred from employment and welfare.

2006: Chavez re-elected. Nationalizations accelerate.

2009: Chavez illegally amends constitution to end term limits.

2012: Chavez re-elected with state support for campaign, media, and irregularities.

2013: Chavez dies, and Maduro elected in a rigged election. Gun ownership prohibited. Country enters deep recession.

2014: Massive protests repressed

2015: Opposition wins national assembly and it's stripped of all powers. Enabling act passed before swearing in of new assembly.

2016: Refugee crisis reaches one million.

2017: Massive street protests repressed. Refugees number 2 million. Economy has shrunk by 25%.

2018: Maduro rigs another election. National assembly vows to impeach. Refugees reach 3.5 million.

2019: Economic crisis deepens. GDP has shrunk by two thirds and the refugee crisis reaches 4.6 million. National Assembly declares Guaido President recognized by most western nations but Maduro remains in power and cracks down on protesters.

2021: The economy is now 75% smaller than when recession began. 90% of Venezuelans live in poverty. Refugee crisis reaches over 6 million.

2023: Refugee crisis reaches 8 million

2024: Maduro rigs the election once again.

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

It would have been a noble act if @POTUS Biden had stepped aside six months or a year ago. Today, it was a desperate act of a desperate party that abused the democratic process in destroying competition in the primary, misleading the American people about the fitness of the president, and executing a coup when the polls turned against the president.

[Chris Bakke @ChrisJBakke]

The next time you have imposter syndrome at work, just remember:

[Sheel Mohnot @pitdesi]

A 2015 McKinsey study was used by investors, lobbyists and regulators to push for more diversity on boards, and to justify investing in companies that appointed them.

There are obvious benefits to diverse leadership, but the McKinsey study was fundamentally flawed- a number of folks have tried to replicate the study and haven’t been able to do so.

As someone who worked in consulting in my 20s, I can say that a lot of times the partner “knew” what the answer should be and we had to find data to make the case.

I assume that’s the case here. McKinsey released their methodology but not the companies used in their study. They did acknowledge an obvious flaw in their methodology- giving credit for past profits when a board became diverse at the end of the period… meaning more profitable companies add diversity to their boards rather than the other way around. This is such a glaring error that it’s hard to imagine a McKinsey consultant making it unintentionally.

FWIW- in replications, others have found that diversity is neither good nor bad for profits. McKinsey suggested that diverse teams had a ~40% higher likelihood higher than average profit margins.

Article is worth a read. Btw the takeaway should not be that diversity is bad- what McKinsey gives as reasons in its paper sound reasonable: “more diverse companies are better able to win top talent, and improve their customer orientation, employee satisfaction, and decision-making, leading to a virtuous cycle of increasing returns”

My takeaway is more - how can you take any consulting study seriously? Those of us who worked in consulting don’t, because we remember working on these studies!

My wife - once a 21-year old liberal arts major who worked at McKinsey says “you should always be skeptical of any complicated model that might’ve been made by a 21 year old liberal arts major!”

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

As much as last night was an indictment of the Democratic Party for misleading party members and the country about the mental acuity and health of the president, the media deserve far more derision and scorn.

I and others were repeatedly criticized by the media for questioning the competency of the president. Among other false accusations, I was accused of spreading misleading videos which clearly showed Biden’s deterioration.

Do you remember the heavily excerpted and edited @POTUS Biden @60Minutes interview where the interviewer covered for the president by saying he was ‘very tired?’

@60Minutes knew.

The @nytimes knew.

@CNN knew.

@MSNBC knew.

Left wing media have had total and complete access to the president, his staff, and his administration.

They all knew, but they told you otherwise. They outright lied to you.

When Robert Hur, the special counsel who deposed the president, said that the president was not fit to stand trial and therefore chose not to bring charges, the media described him as a tool of the Republican Party and character assassinated him.

When the @WSJ recently published a several-thousand-word, carefully researched, front page piece on the president’s mental and physical health, it was described by left wing media as outright propaganda.

Now consider who has been feeding you propaganda.

A favored technique of some of the most evil leaders in history was to mislead the people by constantly repeating the Big Lie.

The Big Lie is so audacious that people accept it as truth because it is repeated so often that how can it be that something so important and material could be an outright falsehood?

In this case the Big Lie was our president’s fitness for office, let alone a second term.

A media organization is not supposed to be a branch of the Democratic Party.

The media have a profound obligation to tell the truth to the American people, particularly about something as critical for the country as the president’s mental and physical health.

People very close to me, my closest family and friends, trusted the media on Biden until the @CNN commentators finally owned up to the truth about Biden last night.

For months I have been accused by many friends and family of being misled by an @X-based ‘right wing echo chamber.’

The sad reality is that one of our most important institutions, the so-called ‘Fourth Estate,’ fourth only after the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners, has destroyed any remaining credibility it has.

Consider how your perception of @POTUS Biden and @realDonaldTrump has been manipulated.

The media can no longer save itself.

A suggestion. Rely on empirical data as much as possible. Listen to what someone actually said, rather than a headline summary or article about what someone said.

Get your news from people who have a track record of telling the truth, people who do so at significant personal cost like whistleblowers.

I follow broad constituencies on @X on multiple issues. That has led me closer to the truth. Citizen journalism has been a much more accurate representation of reality.

Thank you @elonmusk for saving this platform. It gives us a fighting chance to save our democracy.

[Palmer Luckey @PalmerLuckey]

"Forgiving" the debt of college graduates is one of the most regressive tax schemes imaginable.

As a group, college graduates tend to be healthier, wealthier, happier, and more racially homogenous. To use the language of the left, they are privileged. Our country cannot provide unlimited welfare - there are limits to economic surplus, and printing money is another regressive scheme that most devalues the assets of those who can bear it least.

Given those limits, who can seriously argue that of all the struggling people in the United States, those who successfully completed a college degree are the most deserving of trillions in welfare?

It is a handout for the elite, robbery of veterans and tradesmen and our most vulnerable to buy votes, bald justification to continue predatory federal lending programs that will ensure they can do this over and over again in the future.

[Dan Toomey @dhtoomey]

What do investment bankers actually do?

Full episode up now @goodworkmb:
https://t.co/CcpmaoyM1F