A disturbing and worthwhile examination of privilege, alleged sexual predation and the long road to accountability.
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Kesha’s 16-Year-Old ‘Backstabber’ Video Shows The Value Sitting In Pop’s Vaults
An unreleased clip from the Animal era became a new release moment, and a case study in how catalog gets marketed in 2026.
Walmart’s $184 lab-grown diamond earrings with 18-karat white gold are 43% off
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Why we love this deal
One of my favorite things to look for at estate sales and antique stores is jewelry. You never know what you’re going to find, and when a sparkle catches your eye, it’s like finding hidden treasure. The only thing is, vintage jewelry can be hard to find, and when pieces are available, they will likely be snatched up quickly. Not to mention, they can also be very expensive. If you want the look of vintage jewelry without the hefty price tag, Walmart has a selection with a high-end vibe and affordable prices, some of which have that vintage appeal you might be looking for.
The JeenMata Lab-Grown Diamond Halo Earrings have a vintage-inspired look, and they’re on sale for $104. During a limited-time Flash deal, you can get them for 43% off. If you’re a Walmart member, you get a $5 coupon, saving you more with an even lower sale price of $99. However, these discounts don’t last long, so you’re going to want to grab them while you can.
JeenMata Lab-Grown Diamond Halo Earrings, $104 (was $184) at Walmart
Courtesy of Walmart
Shop at Walmart
Why do shoppers love it?
A luxurious look doesn’t always have to come with a high price tag. These earrings feature a stunning halo design, featuring a 1-carat round-cut lab-grown diamond surrounded by smaller moissanite stones. Each small stone is set with four prongs, adding dimension and shine to an already sparkling pair of earrings. “I love how the single halo gives them a vintage feel with a modern twist,” one shopper said.
The earrings have an equally stunning finish, with 18-karat white gold plated over brass. Not only does the plating cut down on the cost, but it also allows for durability, making them great for everyday wear. If you’re not buying these for yourself, they make a great gift for your loved ones. With the holidays right around the corner, it’s the perfect time to buy them!
Related: Walmart is selling a cozy 2-piece lounge set for $23 in 12 colors
Details to know
Material: Lab-grown diamond, moissanite, and 18-karat white gold over brass.
Shape: Round.
Carats: 1.
According to shoppers, these earrings are “absolutely beautiful.” One reviewer loved them so much, they said, “These earrings have a permanent spot in my jewelry rotation.”
While they may not be natural diamonds, lab-grown diamonds can be virtually identical, minus where they came from. They look so similar, one customer said, “I never thought lab-created diamonds could look this real, but here we are.”
Shop more deals
JeenMata Lab-Grown Diamond Stud Earrings, $89 (was $119) at Walmart
JeenMata Lab-Grown Diamond Drop Earrings, $149 (was $319) at Walmart
JeenMata Lab-Grown Diamond Hoop Earrings, $89 (was $119) at Walmart
The JeenMata Lab-Grown Diamond Halo Earrings have a vintage-style look with an affordable price. On sale for only $104, it’s a limited-time Flash deal you don’t want to miss, whether it’s a gift to yourself or to others.
Investors Are Nervous About the Midterm Elections. Stock Market History Shows You Shouldn’t Be
With tightly contested campaigns leading into November’s midterm elections, it’s no wonder Americans are worried about how the results could impact their portfolios.
According to a Nationwide Retirement Institute study, 75% of investors agree that the outcome of the midterm elections could have a meaningful impact on their long-term financial plans. Additionally, 76% say they believe that if the party they support doesn’t win or maintain control of Congress, it could have significant impacts on the economy.
Historically, however, stocks have performed well in the year following a midterm election cycle.
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“As the big takeaway, [investors] are best off not formulating their investment strategy on political outcomes,” says Gina Martin Adams, chief market strategist at HB Wealth.
Taking a closer look at the current state of the stock market in the lead-up to Election Day can provide a more holistic picture of how the midterms could impact investors’ futures.
Typical stock performance after midterm elections
After hitting a record high on Oct. 6, the S&P 500 experienced an AI-fueled selloff in the middle of the month, slipping by more than 2%. The index has since recovered and is trading less than 1% below its all-time high.
But concerns about a bubble persist. Outside of the mega-cap companies that dominate the index, nearly 40% of the stocks in the S&P 500 are down 20% or more, placing them firmly in bear markets. Yet the odds of the index finishing 2026 in positive territory are currently 89%, according to prediction market platform Kalshi.
Data from Deutsche Bank shows that, in the short term, the stock market has risen in 21 of the last 23 midterm election cycles (from one month before the election to two months after). And in the year following each of the last six midterm elections, the benchmark index has posted a gain:
Nov. 5, 2002, to Nov. 5, 2003: 14.9%
Nov. 7, 2006, to Nov. 7, 2007: 6.7%
Nov. 2, 2010, to Nov. 2, 2011: 3.7%
Nov. 4, 2014, to Nov. 4, 2015: 4.5%
Nov. 6, 2018, to Nov. 6, 2019: 11.7%
Nov. 8, 2022, to Nov. 8, 2023: 14.5%
In half of those instances, the S&P 500’s one-year performance exceeded its long-run average return of 10% dating back to the index’s inception in 1957.
But there are circumstances beyond elections to consider for those years’ underperformances.
In 2006, the midterms were held in the wake of the housing bubble bursting and in the lead-up to the global financial crisis that persisted through 2008. In May 2011, six months after the 2010 election, the S&P 500 declined 19% through October, bottoming just shy of the threshold for a bear market. And in August 2015, nine months after the 2014 election, the index suffered a single-day flash crash of more than 5% in response to slumping Chinese markets and concerns about global economic fallout.
Outliers aside, the index still finished up in those years, which fits a historical pattern.
“Year two, which is the year we’re in during the current presidential cycle, tends to be the weakest [for stocks],” Adams says. “Year three, which follows the midterms, tends to be the strongest.”
Moreover, federal elections land in the fourth quarter, which has seen historically strong performances over the past 13 years. Going back to 2013, the S&P 500 has only finished down in the last quarter of the year once, according to data from Carson Investment Research.
Over that span, the index has had a median return of 6.5%.
How investors should approach the midterms
Nationwide’s study also found that 40% of investors say they made changes to their retirement savings or portfolio in anticipation of the 2026 midterms. That includes 15% of respondents who have moved money into more conservative or lower-risk investments and 13% who diversified into different asset classes or sectors.
But 88% of respondents did not consult a financial advisor about potential election-related risks. Of advisors who were consulted, nearly 1 in 4 warn strongly against making portfolio changes based on election-related anxiety.
“There’s no historical evidence that a meaningful shift in Congress will have a materially stronger impact on markets,” Adams says.
That shift has become commonplace. Since 1894, the party of the president has lost seats in the House of Representatives in all but three midterm elections. In the Senate, that has occurred in two-thirds of midterm elections.
But according to research conducted by HB Wealth in September, that change in the balance of power has been followed by fruitful results for investors.
“In all of the election years in which we’ve had a midterm shift that resulted in a Republican president with a divided government, the next year’s return averaged 17%,” says Adams.
Market-timing typically results in missed gains
On the other hand, investors who altered their strategies in the lead-up to previous elections and attempted to time the market were the most likely to miss out on the S&P 500’s ensuing gains.
Financial services firm Charles Schwab analyzed 80 separate 20-year periods involving five different investing styles. In every scenario, it found that investors who leave money in cash or cash alternatives in the hopes of timing the bottom of a pullback or correction, yet who fail to deploy those funds, perform the worst.
Adams says that this election cycle is unlikely to deviate dramatically from historical precedent. But that doesn’t stop investors from being nervous about the potential impact of midterm elections on their portfolios.
“I think they tend to be over-captivated with policymaking out of Washington as a major market driver,” she says. “It wouldn’t surprise me if investors are letting their political perspective seep into their investment plans.”
More than 6 in 10 advisors who responded to the Nationwide study said that in an election year, the best course of action is not adjusting their or their clients’ investment strategies. That marks an 11-percentage point increase from the 52% of advisors who said the same during the 2024 election cycle.
“[Stocks’ performances] are very persistently positive in the year after a midterm,” Adams says. “In the end, profitability and interest rates are the only two things that really and have extraordinary meaning over time.”
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Stop Overthinking AI: How to Use AI in Business to Scale
Why You Have AI Entirely Wrong
There is a massive misconception paralyzing business owners right now: the belief that implementing AI means you must fundamentally transform into a “tech company.”
This is a dangerous illusion. Think about the internet. Almost every single business on earth uses the internet today, but very few of them are actually “internet companies.” The internet is merely a delivery mechanism for the underlying product. AI is the exact same thing. It is a tool used to make your core business faster, cheaper, better, and less risky.
You do not need to pivot your business model. You just need to understand how to leverage the technology to optimize the operations you are already executing. If you want to survive the next 18 months, you have to acquire what I call “Cloud to Dirt” knowledge, and you have to start automating your workflows today.
The “Cloud to Dirt” Advantage
Many founders assume they can just hire a tech nerd to integrate AI for them. This is a massive mistake.
To achieve disproportionate returns, you need vertical integration of knowledge… understanding everything from the high-level strategy (the cloud) all the way down to how an API connects to your CRM (the dirt).
If you just hire a developer and ask them what is possible, they will answer within their limited context of technology. They don’t know your business. They don’t understand your sales cycle, your margin structure, or your customer psychology. True operational alpha comes when you overlay your deep business acumen on top of technical capability. You are the only person who can see how connecting different tools will generate actual cash flow.
You don’t have to be a coder. Go to YouTube, find a tutorial on how to automate a specific task, drop the transcript into an AI, and ask it to guide you step-by-step. When you get stuck, take a screenshot, upload it, and ask the AI what to do next. Do this repeatedly until the automation works.
Stop Blaming the Machine (The Apples-to-Apples Rule)
When business owners finally try to install AI… let’s say, an AI sales setter.. they often plug a half-built prompt into their system, watch it fail, and immediately declare that AI doesn’t work.
This is intellectual laziness. You are comparing a brand-new, untrained AI system against a human sales process that you have spent six years optimizing and refining with SOPs and daily training. That is not an apples-to-apples comparison.
If you hired a brand-new human sales rep off the street and threw them on the phones with zero training, they would be terrible too. AI will make the things you are doing easier and faster, but it does not mean you can ignore the fundamental rules of business. You still have to train the model, you still have to understand human psychology, and you still have to possess a functional sales process.
Real-World AI Implementation: Department by Department
AI is not magic; it is simply elite pattern recognition. Stop romanticizing your “gut instinct” and start mapping the actual behaviors you take to get an outcome. Here is how you can deploy AI across your entire organization today:
1. The Marketing Engine (The Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone)
AI can manage your entire content pipeline. You can use it to identify trending formats and hooks, cross-reference those trends against your brand identity, and generate highly targeted video scripts.
But true leverage comes from automation loops. You can build a system where every time a customer posts a “win” in your private community, an AI immediately extracts that text, runs it through six high-converting visual templates, and instantly launches it as a new Facebook ad campaign. Your product delivery automatically funds your marketing.
2. The Sales Autobot
Speed to lead is everything. You can deploy AI agents to instantly enrich inbound leads, cross-reference their company data, and send highly personalized text messages or voice notes the second they opt in. If your human team goes to sleep at 7:00 PM, your AI setter can dynamically schedule high-ticket meetings at 3:00 AM, completely eliminating availability constraints.
3. Operational Risk Mitigation (Legal & Finance)
AI is incredible at reducing risk. Massive corporations like PayPal have saved hundreds of millions by using AI to recognize fraud patterns faster than human analysts. In your business, your general counsel or legal team doesn’t need an army of paralegals. They can use AI agents to instantly draft first responses, generate cease-and-desist letters, and review vendor contracts for specific liabilities in seconds.
The 18-Month Window
We are in a very rare, 18-month window where massive wealth will be created by founders who simply apply these tools faster than their competitors.
You do not need to advertise that you use AI. Nobody cares what CRM you use, and nobody cares if an AI wrote the email. They only care that the product is better, the service is faster, and the price is right. Dedicate one block of time every single week to entirely automate one specific workflow in your day. Do not wait for a developer to do it for you. Build your army of agents, automate the dirt, and scale the cloud.
If you want to survive the next 18 months, you have to acquire the “Cloud to Dirt” knowledge I talked about before and you have to start automating your workflows today.
Most operators stop at the first layer of automation and wonder why the returns stay small. The real leverage shows up when you connect systems so that one action triggers the next without anyone touching it.
The post Stop Overthinking AI: How to Use AI in Business to Scale appeared first on Addicted 2 Success.
Musk predicts ‘guppy-level death’ as SpaceX closes $40B GPU deal
If you own CoreWeave Inc. (CRWV) or Nebius Group N.V. (NBIS), Elon Musk’s X feed has become required reading. His posts have jolted both stocks more than once this month.
On Sunday, Oct. 25, he posted again, and this time he had a SpaceX deal to show off.
Musk wrote on X that Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SPCX) has closed $40 billion in debt to buy GPUs, the chips that run AI models. Then he turned to neoclouds, the smaller companies that rent those chips out.
“That means the 200+ neoclouds are going to see guppy-level death and consolidation. Some will make it through, but not many,” he wrote.
His reasoning had nothing to do with demand. “As of the past few weeks, debt markets have almost entirely shut off access to money for any company that doesn’t have substantial revenue independent of AI data centers,” Musk wrote.
SpaceX got its money, he added, because it is investment grade and earns revenue from Starlink and rocket launches.
Also read: Bank of America sends SpaceX stock investors strong signal
SpaceX passes a lending test most rivals now fail
SpaceX’s Super Intelligence unit, its AI business, brought in $7.6 billion in third-quarter revenue, according to the company’s results. The AI unit made up more than half of SpaceX’s sales.
So lenders didn’t back SpaceX for avoiding AI. They backed it because AI isn’t all it has.
That is why I read Musk’s warning as a verdict on concentration, not demand. Starlink ended the third quarter with 13.6 million consumer subscribers, SpaceX reported. Most neoclouds have no comparable business to lean on if a major customer walks away.
Even with that cushion and its IPO cash, SpaceX chose to borrow. The company spent $19.6 billion on capital expenditures in the third quarter alone, according to its results. Musk said most of the new debt is callable, meaning SpaceX can pay it off before it matures.
SpaceX’s AI unit brought in $7.6 billion in third-quarter revenue, more than half its sales, as Elon Musk warns that neoclouds face a credit squeeze.Walter Cicchetti / Getty Images
SpaceX competes with the neoclouds Musk sees failing
On SpaceX’s Oct. 20 earnings call, Musk answered a question from Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan. He said SpaceX aims to use roughly half its computing power internally and rent the other half to outside customers.
That makes SpaceX a direct rival to the companies he expects to fail.
He also said he couldn’t find spare GPUs at other cloud providers and didn’t expect a demand problem. “We could rent out our compute several times over,” Musk said. Alongside the Oct. 25 post, the message holds together: Customers want more chips, but only some sellers can still pay for them.
On the same call, SpaceX told J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth that it was in talks with several pools of debt capital. Five days later, Musk said the $40 billion deal had closed.
Musk also says he isn’t shopping. He replied to a thread that suggested he was talking down the stocks to buy them cheaply. “SpaceX is not buying any neoclouds. Pointless,” he wrote, according to Business Insider.
I believe him, and that worries me more for the smaller players. A rival with spare capacity doesn’t need to buy a struggling neocloud when it can win its customers.
Wall Street calls the sell-off sentiment, not fundamentals
Neocloud stocks slipped again on Monday, Oct. 26, after Musk’s post, extending weeks of pressure, CNBC noted.
The Oct. 26 premarket losses were modest, with CoreWeave down 2.7% and Nebius down 3.5%, according to Yahoo Finance.
Bond markets cracked first, as yields on CoreWeave’s unsecured debt neared 15% and Nebius stock fell 10% on Oct. 14.
Forecasts point the same way, with Gartner expecting more than 80% of neocloud providers to stop operating independently by 2030.
Not everyone buys the panic. Bank of America analyst Tal Liani called the CoreWeave selling sentiment driven and kept his $140 price target on the stock, Yahoo Finance reported. “This is not about fundamentals,” he said.
Seeking Alpha noted that the credit freeze Musk described has not been independently confirmed. Still, bond yields near 15% on the sector’s best-known name are hard to dismiss as mood alone.
SpaceX shares edged higher in premarket trading on Oct. 26. The stock remains well below its 52-week high of $225.64. For holders, the test comes next year, when these chips arrive.
More SpaceX:
Goldman Sachs revamps SpaceX stock estimates before crucial earnings test
Musk called Anthropic ‘evil’; SpaceX’s deal with it nearly doubled
Morgan Stanley doubles down on SpaceX stock verdict for investors
Credit, not chips, now decides who survives
For most of this boom, the scarce input was chips. Musk’s posts suggest it is now credit, which flows to companies with a second business to lean on.
In a June 2002 update on the telecom bust, the FDIC flagged mounting bankruptcies and defaults. It blamed a slowing economy, falling stock prices, and a sudden pullback in financing. Consolidation, it said, had to run its course before profits recovered.
Musk is describing that same credit squeeze, with one difference. He says customers still want what the neoclouds sell.
The survivors this time won’t necessarily have the best chips. They will have a second business that lenders trust, and that list is short.
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Dollar General accused of overcharging shoppers, settles for $1.9 million
Discount chains such as Dollar General have built their business around offering everyday essentials at prices shoppers can afford.
But what happens when the advertised price isn’t what customers actually pay at checkout?
A New York investigation found that Dollar General repeatedly charged customers more than advertised, sometimes by as much as 39% on individual items.
Now, the retailer has agreed to a $1.875 million settlement and major changes to its pricing practices. The discount retailer has denied any wrongdoing.
However, those who were overcharged will not receive direct refunds under the new agreement.
Also read: Coffee Price Check: Starbucks, Dunkin’, 7 Brew, Wawa, and McDonald’s
Dollar General agrees to settle for $1.875 million for overcharging
On Oct. 15, New York Attorney General Letitia James confirmed the settlement following an investigation into complaints that Dollar General customers were charged higher prices at the register than those displayed on shelves and in advertisements.
According to the original settlement agreement, investigators reviewed 913 government price-accuracy inspections involving 287 Dollar General stores between fiscal 2021 and 2023.
They found that 43% of those inspections failed to meet the state’s requirement that stores should price at least 98% of inspected items accurately.
They also conducted an undercover investigation during which officials purchased 114 items at 11 Western New York stores. They were overcharged on 16 items, or approximately 14% of those purchases.
The four largest overcharges were 39%, 38%, 26%, and 22% above the lowest advertised prices.
The investigation also found inconsistent pricing across shelf tags, digital coupons, and weekly advertisements.
Receipts created another problem. Some displayed original prices without clearly identifying the discounts customers received, making it difficult to verify what they had actually paid.
“When New Yorkers see a sale price advertised on the shelf, they should be able to trust that they’ll be charged that same price at the register,” James said in her Oct. 15 announcement.
Dollar General neither admitted nor denied the investigation’s findings.
New York found that Dollar General was overcharging customers.jetcityimage / Getty Images
What will Dollar General change for shoppers?
Under the settlement, Dollar General must honor the lowest price displayed on an item’s shelf label, advertised promotion, price tag, or checkout register across its New York stores.
The retailer also agreed to:
Provide employees with price-accuracy training.
Display notices informing customers about its lowest-price policy.
Redesign receipts to show discounts and savings more clearly.
Conduct independent pricing audits twice annually at every New York store.
Correct discrepancies identified through inspections and audits within 24 hours.
The company has 18 months to complete the receipt changes.
The settlement amount is not in cash and will not be used to refund overcharged customers.
Instead, the state has asked Dollar General to donate $1.875 million worth of food and personal care products to Foodlink, a nonprofit serving New York communities.
Dollar General previously faced a $15 million pricing lawsuit settlement
The recent settlement is not the first of its kind for Dollar General. This New York agreement follows a separate nationwide legal dispute over similar checkout-price discrepancies.
Earlier this year in February, a New Jersey court approved a class-action settlement valued at $15 million in Braun v. Dolgencorp LLC.
That agreement included an $8.5 million cash settlement fund and additional relief valued at $6.5 million.
Unlike the latest New York agreement, the nationwide class-action settlement offered qualifying customers compensation for documented overcharges and a $3 in-store discount benefit.
The deadline for submitting claims or registering for benefits was April 13, 2026.
Dollar General denied wrongdoing in that case.
The settlement comes as Dollar General continues to emphasize low prices to attract customers feeling the pressure of household expenses.
In its second-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings report, the retailer reported sales rising 5.2% to $11.3 billion and comparable-store sales increasing 3.5%.
The company has also promoted thousands of products priced at $1 or less as part of its strategy to attract value-conscious shoppers.
But the settlement highlights why accurate pricing matters just as much as advertised discounts. Next time you are in a store, make sure to look at the advertised prices against your receipt.
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