This is the most reasonable, factual, & respectful take I’ve heard regarding the Alex Pretti Border Patrol shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Take a few minutes & give it a listen.
My Venezuela experience as head of trading in the region for Cargill.
Cargill was/is the leading producer of critical staple ingredients such as flour, pasta, vegetable oil, and rice in VZ. I am not saying I agree with grabbing the dictator, but I did have a front row seat to the damage a kleptocracy did to innocent people.
1. The government took over our "minute rice" facility at gunpoint because we were "gouging" the nation's poor. The government was never able to run the plant. It never ran again. It was returned years later with no equipment inside
2. There are 1000's of generals in the army. They are each given a slice of the economy to loot. The large number of generals made it difficult to organize a coup against the regime.
3. The government opened grocery stores and sold staples below the cost we sold them to the government. In theory they used petro oil money to lower grocery prices. Our regular grocery outlets were forced out of business. When the government demanded we sell them products below cost we simply had to shut down. The populous became ever more dependent on the government handouts. (PS this is the mayor of New York City's proposal.
4. Dollars- We needed dollars to go buy raw materials like wheat from places like the US and Canada. The government would periodically allocate us some dollars that could only be spent for raw materials and freight. Eventually only the local companies that can and would pay bribes got dollar allocations. We had several facilities closed for lack of raw material
5. My employees liked working for Cargill. The office was an armed compound with access to a gym, high speed internet, global communications, and a weekly box of basic staples. Cargill provided a safe and secure environment if only for the working hours.
6. Employees became very close to others inside the apartment building. Going out on the street with a desperate population was not advisable.
7. I needed wood pallets for feed. We tried to export wood pallets to swap for grain. We refused to pay the bribes it would take to export the pallets
8. I once tried to set up a closed loop wheat planting to flour mill supply chain. A. They came and stole all the seed wheat for food. When we tried to ship in seed wheat in containers via US donors there was no way to get it out of the port without it being stolen
9. Livestock- Our feed business completely collapsed. Even if you could raise a pig, you couldn't defend it from being stolen. People with guns were hungry.
10. Employees- In the end my highly skilled team alone with other highly educated people chose to leave. Cargill often found jobs for them in other Latin countries. The regime was more than happy to see the well-educated leave the country. Setting these employees up with high quality stable jobs after fleeing remains one of the best things I ever did in my career. No one remembers millions in trading earnings.
This is a short list. In my opinion the first money spent needs to happen now and it needs to be food. The US is already on the clock. The current regime does not care if it starves the population. The orgy of theft will actually accelerate if they believe their days are numbered. VZ should be an outstanding customer of US grown ag products. Rice, bread wheat, veg oil ect. Feed the people first.
Jeff Kazin
Former head trading Cargill
What’s the difference between a $10m, $100m, and $1b lifestyle?
Asked this question in Hampton's Slack community since we have people worth $10m - $2b.
A few takeaways from the 50+ replies:
$50k – $100k liquid
• The first “I feel rich” for many in 20s.
• Bills stop hurting. You breathe.
• $1M net worth rarely changes anything. In high-cost cities, it’s just “comfortable professional.” Still very income-dependent.
$10M liquid - This is the first real unlock.
• Safety net feels permanent
• You stop looking at the right side of the menu
• Business-class by default, 5 hotels when you want
• You can cover friends’ flights to make trips happen
• Life doesn’t run you anymore.
$20M–$25M liquid:
• “I can spend $50k/mo forever and still compound.”
• Nicer primary home (or rent ultra-nice; fewer ownership headaches)
• Staff for convenience (nanny, cleaners)
• Family support start to be normal, not “splurge”
$50M liquid
• Cash flow is thick and hard to fully redeploy.
• 2nd homes, extended travel
• Serious privacy planning begins
• You’re learning trusts, tax vehicles, and who to not trust
$100M:
• Life becomes frictionless.
• Fly private often (some buy; many rent because ownership is work)
• Full household team + exec assistants + specialists
• Family office(s), capital allocation becomes a job
• You choose projects; problems get solved without you
Past $100M
• personal lifestyle doesn’t change much—scale and privacy do.
• Land for privacy buffers
• Private gyms/courts/spas at home
• You’ll never fly commercial unless you want to
$1 billion
• Money becomes institutional.
• You never see a bill
• Global properties, fully private travel
• Governments, universities, and CEOs court you
• It’s legacy season: foundations, endowments, monuments
A few real anecdotes from the thread:
• A billionaire bought a pro sports team mid-flight on his jet. His right-hand guy became COO.
• A friend group dropped $200k–$300k on a yacht week just to get everyone together.
• Multiple members set up dual family offices (JPM + independent) to manage life + investments.
The biggest trap everyone warned about:
• “Coming into money without accomplishing anything is a curse.”
• Lottery-winner energy breaks people. Purpose > purchases.
Cash flow > net worth (psychologically).
• Even people with $50M–$100M feel “poor” during low-cashflow years. Meaning, even if you have a high net worth -- if your business income goes away even if you don't need it, it feels horrible. Mentally brutal.
What actually brings joy at scale:
• Buying back time (coaches, chefs, pilots, concierge)
• Funding memories (fly the whole crew, pick up every tab)
• Being present (one member took a year as a stay-at-home dad - “wouldn’t trade it for anything”)
What gets old fast:
• More “stuff” to manage
• Identity tied to net worth
• Chasing bigger dopamine (toys) instead of deeper meaning (health, family, service, community)
--
Ok, that's it - that's my ChatGPT summary of all the replies!
Way too often patients are told the only way they can lower & manage their A1c is through medications.
This is completely false.
I have countless patients who have done otherwise.
THREAD
This is why Charlie Kirk still won
“Charlie Kirk's death made me pick up a Bible for the first time in my life”
“I never ever opened a Bible before. In fact, I know nothing about Christianity or Jesus.
But yesterday, after witnessing the assassination of Charlie Kirk on the internet, and it just being so normal to people, like watching this man get shot in the neck and everybody being so desensitized and just going on with life like it was normal. Something was calling me to my husband's Bible.”
“I don't know how I feel. But for the very first time yesterday, I grabbed the Bible. I don't know what I'm looking for in the Bible. I don't know why I felt like I needed to grab the Bible.
But I grabbed my husband's Bible, and the page that I opened up to was the verse John 8:32. And it said, Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
And I feel like that changed me so much because up until yesterday, I leaned both ways politically.”
“I am convinced that the Democratic Party is ran by the devil himself — But I feel like Charlie's death, Charlie Kirk's death, woke me up spiritually and now, I can't unsee the truth.”
Steven Bartlett just had the world’s top critical care physician on his podcast.
Dr. Roger Seheult.
He revealed mind-blowing secrets about sunlight, Vitamin D & health issues that 99% of people wouldn’t believe…
Here are my top 8 takeaways:
🚨Statement Release from Austin Firefighters Association. ARE YOU ANGRY YET? 🚨
It brings the Austin Firefighters no pleasure to report to the community that the Austin Fire Chief DENIED the deployment of Austin firefighters to Kerrville until very late into the event (so today!), with the exception of only 3 AFD rescue swimmers who helped staff helo teams (which still were NOT deployed until the afternoon of the 4th).
The Austin Firefighter Special Operations teams are specially trained for Hill Country swift water rescue and are some of the best, if not the best, swift water boat teams in the State of Texas.
It is absolutely outrageous that the Austin Fire Chief, Joel G. Baker, would not allow highly trained firefighters from Austin to respond to Kerrville. Because of this egregious dereliction of duty, LIVES WERE VERY LIKELY LOST BECAUSE OF CHIEF BAKER’S DECISION!
Deployment orders came down from the State of Texas on July 2. We would've been pre-deployed before the waters even began to rise!
It is unforgivable that a fire chief would NOT allow his firefighters to answer the call to save lives.
Why would Fire Chief Joel G. Baker do this, you may ask? It was a misguided attempt to save money. I say “misguided” because the fire department is fully reimbursed by the state to deploy. I explained the reimbursement process to Chief Baker last week, and he failed to understand this very simple concept.
We are disgusted with our fire chief. He needs to be held accountable and fired for his disgraceful dereliction of duty.
The Austin Firefighters are starting a vote of no confidence on Tuesday on the fire chief.
As disgusted as we are at our Austin Fire Department leadership, the Austin Firefighters Association made a decision to not air our dirty laundry while victims and bodies were still being recovered. But it's now July 7, and it's time that we hold accountable our disgraced fire chief, AND anybody else in his leadership circle who are responsible for this horrendous act.
The Austin Firefighters commit to being transparent to the community about this process to remove our fire chief and hold all of those accountable who were part of this atrocity.
The firefighters hope we have your support, because it's going to get ugly.
I can't possibly express to you how outraged and sickened the firefighters are that we were not allowed to do the job—the job that we have trained so hard and long to do—during the historic floods that just occurred in Kerrville. We could've made a difference, and we were forced to stand down and lives were lost.
The community deserves a fire chief who cares about the community as much as our firefighters, and that is simply not the case. Joel G. Baker must go!
Please support your Austin Firefighters by sharing this post.
I bet if there were an analysis on farm equipment that included all the service calls, the burned boxes and jugs, the burned up equipment, the special trips to town, the extra freight hauling the def, etc. there wouldn’t be any environmental benefit to def in farm equipment whatsoever.