Jon Collins

🥩 Paleovore, Health and Fitness, Finance. Student of nutrition, markets, and business.

[Jon Collins @RealJonCollins]

@adamtaggart Here, this will offset his hate: you’re the man, @adamtaggart. Don’t let this fool represent your audience.

[The Real Mike Rowe @mikeroweworks]

I want to apologize for not responding to any of the 22 thousand comments my last post inspired. I’ve been filming all week and just noticed my observations about Jimmy Kimmel and a former plumber named Markwayne Mullin have gone viral. I've also noticed that many of the comments are from people who genuinely seem to believe that Jimmy wasn’t belittling plumbers at all, but was instead, simply trying to point out that Mullin is not qualified to lead the DHS. Here's a small smattering...

Roger Bicknell...
Mikey stop. Kimmel wasn't making fun of plumbers he was making fun of Mullin.

Rebecca Piatt Gonzalez...
Dearest Mike, it's not anything to do with his being a plumber. It's him NOT being skilled in Homeland Security.

Patrick Wise...
Being a plumber qualifies you to be a plumber. Period. The issue Jimmy and the rest of us at the adult table recognize is that jobs require certain training and experience and being a plumber does not qualify you to be Sec of DHS.

Had Roger, Rebecca, Patrick and all the others who rushed to Jimmy’s Kimmel’s defense actually read what I had written, they would see that I did not suggest - even remotely - that a plumber was inherently qualified to hold a cabinet position. What I said was that being a plumber should not disqualify a person from holding such a position. Big difference. Doctors, lawyers, veterinarians, fireman, and university professors are no more or less qualified to run the DHS than plumbers, electricians, or carpenters – but should they all be dismissed as “unqualified” simply because they made a living in some other vocation?

As I wrote in my original post, credentials and diplomas are great ways to bolster a person’s credibility, especially if we’re talking about mastering a specific skill. I think we can all agree that plumbers, accountants, mechanics, and surgeons should all have to prove themselves competent before hanging out a shingle. But what do their credentials and diplomas have to do with their actual competency? Are we not already surrounded by a legion of perfectly qualified experts who don't know what the hell they're doing? Moreover, what do credentials and experience have to do with wisdom, honesty, common sense, integrity, courage, the ability to lead, or any other virtue we’d like to have in our elected officials?

There are plenty of legitimate reasons to question Mullin’s suitability for this role. But there’s no legitimate reason to disqualify him simply because he used to be a plumber. Just as there was no legitimate reason to dismiss AOC because she used to tend bar. As for the joke itself, here’s an honest question. If Senator Mullin was a retired doctor instead of a retired plumber, do you believe he would have would made the same joke?

Roger, Rebecca, Patrick...be honest. Do you really think Jimmy would have said to his audience, "So, now we have a DOCTOR in charge of protecting us from terrorism? Hey – it worked for Dr. Suess – maybe it’ll work for Markwayne!"

Personally, I don't. Not in a million years. Why? Because no one would have found it funny, that’s why. Even though doctors are no more “qualified” to protect us from terrorists than plumbers are, Jimmy knows that doctors are widely respected in society, and that plumbers are not. He knows that medical degrees and doctorates are aspirational credentials, whereas plumbing certificates are not. The entire premise of his joke was based on a personal bias that he knew his audience shared – a bias that presupposes plumbers are uneducated, one-dimensional workers who never made it to college, and are therefore "unqualified" to do anything but plumb.

Jimmy is entitled to his opinion, along with anyone else who believes that Mullin is unqualified to lead the DHS. The Constitution, however, says otherwise, and so does the Senate. Likewise, reasonable people can disagree as to what is funny and what isn’t. Frankly, I couldn’t care less. What I do care about, is the extraordinary shortage of plumbers and electricians our country is facing, and the longstanding stigmas and stereotypes that continue to discourage people from considering a lucrative career in the skilled trades. Jimmy’s joke – and his audience’s reaction to it – is proof positive that those stigmas and stereotypes are alive and well.

PS. We have a lot of money set aside to help train the next generation of plumbers. Apply for a scholarship at https://t.co/vidLSYXCf6 Who knows? Could be the first step on your road to President..

[Jon Collins @RealJonCollins]

About sums it up.

[Sassafrass84 @Sassafrass_84]

I can't breathe. 🤣🤣🤣

[Jon Collins @RealJonCollins]

Thank you @paulsaladinomd

[Paul Saladino, MD @paulsaladinomd]

do NOT drink egg whites RAW in your quest for protein supremacy.

they contain a protein called avidin which can cause a biotin (essential for hair, skin, nails) deficiency (PMIDs: 5642891, 376309006).

you're welcome, whoever you are.

[Rick Rule @RealRickRule]

help if you can, please repost

[Benjamin Bikman @BenBikmanPhD]

I wonder how much of medicine is driven by drugs. For example, why did they decide that LDL cholesterol is the main marker for heart disease, rather than triglycerides or insulin? After all, triglycerides and insulin are better markers of heart disease risk.

The reason? Probably because LDL cholesterol is "targetable"--there's a drug (statins) that will lower it. So it matters less that LDL is a good marker, and more that it's a number we can change with a drug. And of course, make money in the process. If there were a drug that lowered triglycerides really well, I suspect mainstream medicine would focus more on triglycerides.

(Incidentally, the best way to lower triglycerides and insulin is to control consumption of refined carbohydrates.)

[Kevin Sorbo @ksorbs]

These people don't live in reality:

WOMAN: “You’re saying that it is inherently unhealthy to live in a fat body.”

MICHAELS: “Yes.”

WOMAN: “Where did you get that evidence?”

[Santa Carota Beef @SantaCarotaBeef]

This is one of the hardest things we have ever had to share. We are not the kind of people who like to ask for help. We have always believed in putting our heads down, working hard, trusting God, and doing everything we can to carry the weight ourselves. But there comes a point where the truth is bigger than pride, and our customers, followers, supporters, and everyone deserves to know what is really happening.

Right now, we are in a legal battle with a major meat processor. And while this fight has our name on it, it is much bigger than our family alone. Small producers, family ranchers, and farmers spend generations building something they are proud of, only to come up against an industry that too often protects power over people, profit over principle, and control over transparency. The effects do not stop with the people raising the food. They reach every person purchasing meat because corruption and lack of transparency in the beef industry affect the food system as a whole and the trust families place in what they buy and feed their loved ones.

This fight has cost us deeply. Between personal health struggles and the weight of this battle, we have had to make sacrifices we never wanted to make. We have had to cut back on our restaurants and e-commerce. We have sold cattle to help pay attorney fees. We have carried stress, heartbreak, and pressure that, at times, have felt impossible to explain.

But we are still here, and we are still fighting. We are fighting for our family, for our ranch, for the values we were raised on, and for every small rancher and farmer who has ever felt crushed under a system that was never built to protect them.

So today, we are asking for help. If you believe in family ranches, quality food, hard work, and a more transparent, healthy, and clean food system, please stand with us. One of the best ways you can support us right now is by purchasing our beef at https://t.co/Suyrin9ECS.

We started a GoFundMe for those who want to be part of something bigger than our family alone. If you want to help us keep fighting, please consider donating and helping us fight for farmers, ranchers: https://t.co/Tw3VTcsLBI

[Jeffrey Gundlach @TruthGundlach]

Bloomberg: “Blackrock Inc. slashed the value of a private loan to zero just three months after assessing it at 100 cents on the dollar, marking the second sudden wipeout to recently hit its private-credit division.”

Maybe it’s a trend.

[Jon Collins @RealJonCollins]

@CoachDanGo Make sure to get organic, I’ve read it’s a product prone to nasty pesticides.

[George Noble @gnoble79]

Remember this scene in The Big Short?

Jamie Shipley and Charlie Geller have bet everything against the housing market.

They've been bleeding for months, wondering if they're wrong.

Then they flip on CNN and see it: New Century Financial - the second-largest subprime lender in America - has filed for bankruptcy.

"It's starting."

That was April 2, 2007. New Century wasn't the crisis. It was 1% of the problem. But it was the first domino.

4 months later, BNP Paribas froze 3 funds citing "complete evaporation of liquidity." 18 months after that, Lehman was dead.

I'd encourage you to watch that scene today. Because we JUST got our New Century moment in private credit:

Blue Owl Capital - $307 billion in assets under management - just permanently halted investor redemptions at its retail private credit fund, OBDC II.

Investors will NEVER AGAIN redeem shares from this fund.

On January 25th, I wrote that private credit was showing cracks at the exact moment Wall Street wanted to open it up to your 401(k).

3 weeks later, here we are.

The timeline follows a pattern anyone who's been around markets long enough recognizes:

Through the first 9 months of 2025, OBDC II investors withdrew $150 million - up 20% year over year.

Meanwhile, Blue Owl execs publicly assured investors there was "no meaningful pressure" on their asset base.

But there was. And they're now facing a federal class-action lawsuit for saying otherwise.

In November, they attempted a merger that would have forced OBDC II investors into a publicly traded fund trading at a 20% discount to NAV. Effectively confiscating a fifth of their capital.

Blue Owl's own CFO conceded investors "could take a potential haircut." The stock dropped 11% in 8 days. They killed the deal.

Now they've abandoned the pretense entirely. PERMANENT halt. Fire-selling $1.4 billion in loans across three funds.

Investors get roughly 30% of NAV back through quarterly distributions - on Blue Owl's schedule, not theirs.

One delightful detail:

Blue Owl's co-CEOs have pledged $1.9 billion of their OWN company shares as collateral for personal loans - proceeds used, in part, to acquire the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The stock is down 33% this year. That collateral has literally shed $260 million since January.

Founders leveraging company stock for hockey teams while retail investors queue up for their own money. Wall Street's version of noblesse oblige.

But here's what matters:

This isn't about Blue Owl.

Blue Owl is a symptom.

The disease is a $3.4 TRILLION private credit industry built on opacity, conflicts of interest, and the polite fiction that illiquid assets can offer liquid redemptions.

Morningstar DBRS reports the trailing default rate has risen to 4%, up from 2.8% a year ago.

Downgrades outpacing upgrades. Outlook negative. UBS warns defaults could reach 13% if AI disrupts the software companies making up 17% of BDC loan portfolios.

Payment-in-kind loans (where borrowers can't pay cash interest and simply pile it onto the debt) have surged past 11% of BDC income.

When your borrowers are paying you with IOUs, the word "income" deserves quotation marks.

And the government's response?

Open YOUR 401(k) to private credit.

Trump's executive order directed regulators to do exactly that.

They want to "democratize" an asset class whose flagship retail product just permanently locked investors out.

The KKRs. The Blackstones. The Apollos. Everyone loaded up on private credit is exposed.

When the tide goes out, you find out who's swimming naked.

In April 2007, New Century went bankrupt.

Most of the financial world shrugged. 17 months later, Lehman made the point impossible to ignore.

And Blue Owl permanently halted redemptions TODAY.

AVOID PRIVATE CREDIT

AVOID PRIVATE EQUITY

Because it's starting...

[Thomas Massie @RepThomasMassie]

@HasanKhxnx I am not suicidal. I eat healthy food. The brakes on my car and truck are in good shape. I practice good trigger discipline and never point a gun at anyone, including myself. There are no deep pools of water on my farm and I’m a pretty good swimmer.

[Tracy Shuchart (𝒞𝒽𝒾 ) @chigrl]

you guys, if you want to support your local ranchers https://t.co/3kAtYN7FeI is an invaluable resource

[Karl K. Wuckert @KarlWuckert]

Massie 2028.

[Jon Collins @RealJonCollins]

Thank you @DavidMcAlvany and @icagold

[David McAlvany @DavidMcAlvany]

MWM Weekly Hard Assets Insights - https://t.co/npda3JyRqD

[End Tribalism in Politics @EndTribalism]

“Today our government declares war on added sugar.”

RFK Jr. just announced new dietary guidelines prioritizing protein, healthy fats, and whole foods.

“The hard truth is that our government has been lying to us to protect corporate profit-taking.”

“Today the lies stop.”

“The new guidelines recognize that whole nutrient-dense food is the most effective path to better health.”

“Protein and healthy fats are essential, and we’re ending the war on saturated fats.”

“Added sugars, especially sugar-sweetened beverages, drive metabolic disease.”

“As Secretary of Health and Human Services, my message is clear: eat real food.”

[Jon Collins @RealJonCollins]

This renews my faith in the future. Thank you @RobertKennedyJr

[Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh]

🚨 WOW! Secretary Bobby Kennedy just STUNNED the Left by creating the "EAT REAL FOOD" pyramid, he followed through 100% on the promise of MAHA

At the top: steak, chicken, vegetables and fruits

NOWHERE to be seen:
- Foods with added sugar
- Ultra-processed snacks and candy

🇺🇸🇺🇸

[Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump]

The Fed's reckless policies of low interest and flooding the market with dollars needs to be stopped or we will face record inflation.

[Don Keith @RealDonKeith]

Imagine having to work a grocery store job at 88 years of age because your company took your pension away just as you were getting ready to retire. This is sad.

[Minnesota Staff Fraud Reporting Commentary @Minnesota_DHS]

Tim Walz is 100% responsible for massive fraud in Minnesota. We let Tim Walz know of fraud early on, hoping for a partnership in stopping fraud but no, we got the opposite response. Tim Walz systematically retaliated against whistleblowers using monitoring, threats, repression, and did his best to discredit fraud reports. Instead of partnership, we got the full weight of retaliation by Tim Walz, certain DFL members and an indifferent mainstream media. It’s scary, isolating and left us wondering who we can turn to.

In addition to retaliating against whistleblower, Tim Walz disempowered the Office of the Legislative Auditor, allowing agencies to disregard their audit findings and guidance. Media and politicians supporting Tim Walz or the DFL-agenda attacked whistleblowers who were trying to raise red flags on fraudulent activities.

This is a cascade of systemic failures leading up to Tim Walz. Agency leaders appointed by Tim Walz willfully disregarded rules and laws to keep fraud reports quiet - even to the extent of threatening families of whistleblowers. These same leaders are not qualified for their jobs, instead getting leadership jobs via Tim Walz’s friendship so state government were left floundering. DFL lawmakers refused to acknowledge fraud and deflected any serious conversation to stop fraud. Biased mainstream media such as WCCO and MPR showed absolutely no interest in covering fraud happening in our own state. Programs, especially in behavioral health and disability services were built without any guardrails against fraud, all in an attempt to extract more funding from legislature and the federal government.

As staff, we firsthand witnessed and observed fraud happening yet we were shutdown, reassigned and told to keep quiet. Sometimes more. Leadership did not want to appear to discriminate against certain communities and were unwilling to take action, such as stopping fraud, that would have an adverse impact on their image. To date, no single agency leader has been held responsible for their role in fraud whether it’s Shireen Gandhi, Jess Geil, Jodi Harpstead, Natasha Merz, Eric Grumdahl or others.

It is a structure created and maintained by Tim Walz who has created an environment of inter-related agencies and institutions including the media - that help foster fraud through retaliation and turning a blind eye in exchange for political gain in the form of high power agency leadership jobs or other perks.

Fundamentally, Tim Walz is dishonest, lacks ethics and integrity, has poor leadership abilities, and has never taken any accountability for his role in fraud. Instead, Tim Walz deflects by blaming national politics for his own failings and distracts the public with inveterate lying. These lies include his reference of a budget surplus under his tenure. Fact is, Minnesota never had a surplus, we had been given federal ARPA funds that were conflated as surplus money otherwise, we’d be in a deficit. And those ARPA funds, which were meant to be temporary funds were used to create more leadership positions for Tim Walz “buddies.”

As such, we can’t fight fraud in Minnesota alone hence why we’re appealing to the federal levels of government. We need all the help we can get as Tim Walz’s agency leaders have upped their brazen approach in covering up their knowledge of fraud.

We are grateful to numerous solid politicians (esp the Fraud Committee) and media outlets who are trying to halt fraud. We are also grateful to other whistleblowers who are bravely stepping up.

Thank You NY Times for bringing the plight of Minnesota to the national stage.

@nytimes