Screwball

Yes it is. If nothing else, this guy is a hoot. He might lose his ass being one as well.

Carried interest is only a small part of the problem, which is why they talk about it. Money magician shit, with a dose of propaganda via the usual subjects.

Hold on here. What are you saying? You seem to be quoting me, since I said exactly that. Do you think I really want to see that? Come on. People wished other people dead for not getting the shots, like the lock downs, etc. It was said right here on this board. Pardon me if I'm not quite ready to be good with people who wished me dead, which was the thesis of the Atlantic article. The real travesty is so many people who died unnecessarily. This country has went insane.

Private equity is like piranha. I live in a small town in rural Ohio. Back in the late 90s, I think it was, our largest employer was taken over by a private equity firm (Bain Capital). They employed hundreds of people, who made a good living, and had for years. I know many that worked there, and these people helped support so many other places in town. Things were good for them, and the places they spent money. Once Bain took over, it all changed (this was also a union plant). One good friend of mine walked into work one day, expecting to go to his normal 20+ dollar an hour job (good money back then for general labor) but was told you now work on the shipping dock. Oh, and you now only make $9/hr. Thanks! This happened to many that worked there. Then they got screwed out of pension money, and some even lost it altogether. Bain got them deeper in debt, broke the company into pieces they could sell off, then moved what manufacturing that was left and the jobs to Mexico. Within two years it was all gone, now sitting as blight on the edge of town. Our population has decreased by maybe 10 percent since then. Some of the businesses that relied on the spending of these workers have closed as well. And of course the city itself has lost tons in tax revenue. But Bain made a shitload of money, the shareholders of this company made money. The workers got fucked, as well as the city and many small businesses. This is NOT a single example - this happens all over the country, has been, and will continue. Funny, when Mitt Romney ran for President, he was in the area campaigning, but avoided our town. Good thing - they would have strung his ass up - I have no doubt. These people were pissed, bitter, and wanted revenge. I can't say I blame them - even with their union - they were treated like shit.

It took me a while to find it, but I made this image a few days after I was retired (along with 113 other people in 2016). I worked at the Findlay facility. Until you have worked at one of the behemoths, deal with the budgetary demands, it's hard to imagine how bottom line focused they are.

Good for you, but publicly traded companies don't think that way. It's all about the bottom line. Period. It's just the way it is.

I watched the entire video - he is spot on. There are plenty of tragedies about the pandemic. At the top of the list is the hundreds and thousands of people who died unnecessarily when a cheap, safe, and widely available repurposed drug was available. The second is, all the people involved in this will never be punished for what they did (or in this case, didn't do). As far as amnesty. Hardly. I will never forget, nor will I forgive.

Strange ain't it? I can't count the times a company laid off a bunch of people and their stock price shot up on the announcement. People cheering and getting wealthy on the misfortunes of others. Sick fucking world we live in.

It has collapsed everywhere. You should get out more. I drove from the Cornhole area (about an hour on a good day) to Bennett Rd. in Toledo starting in 1987. Had to deal with the 280 bridge - what fun - Mad Max stuff. I worked at a Spicer transmission plant on Bennett Rd. At one time, 5000 people worked there, but even by 1987, when I started, they had been moving the jobs elsewhere (union jobs). Arkansas and Mexico to start. NAFTA was passed in 94/95ish, and what was left of our facility disappeared within a few years. It is now a warehouse, but a big one. Looks mostly empty last time I went by. It was once a mini-city. Clarence Spicer patented the automotive u-joint in 1903; one of the greatest inventions of our time, IMO. Spicer, later became a division of Dana Corp, which got the name from a politician named as such (and funding). At one time they were a fortune 100 company. Not sure where they rank now. When I was there, we were the largest OEM automotive supplier in the world, and the industry leader in gear making, but they made all kinds of other stuff as well. Starting back then, and until I retired (not from there - they were gone), I watched the transition from making shit here (US) to sending every fucking thing possible to some third world shithole because of slave labor and environmental benefits for one thing - the bottom line. I was a part of that, and I'm not proud of it. I had to eat, and feed 5 other people. It doesn't matter if it is gears, u-joints, toasters, tires, tables, clothes, or even our food. The "bottom line" is all that matters in today's world. Wall Street's next quarterly report. Until it don't. Shit's getting real around the world. Start with supply chains... I spent countless hours in corporate obedience training classes to figure out how to squeeze another 2 seconds from a process that produces one of our daily pleasures. Some corporate buzzwords called it "process mapping." Some worker is expected to perform a task every 15 seconds as the product goes down the assembly line. 15 seconds isn't good enough, do it in 13. Eliminate 3 screws, that's a process we don't need. One worker (one screw) a shift, 3 shifts, 3 people can be eliminated (or moved - ha ha). Training class; 25 people in a room, with 3 instructors, spent 4 hours playing "Mousetrap" (the game) for 4 hours - then another 4 in the afternoon analyzing it. Deming would be proud. All about eliminating cost - and the easiest way to do so is jobs. Your job becomes eliminating jobs, which might be people in your own family, your neighbor, a friend, or a friends friend. We are living in a house of cards, both materially, and financially. Within the next year or two, millions of Americans will experience a life changing event they will have no clue how to deal with. It won't be pretty. Plan accordingly. How's that for your Debbie Downer post of the night? LOL!

Refineries are nasty dirty awful places. Not far from there, close to Tony Packos is the shipyards. The big boats come from the lake up the river, dock in one of the "docks" for lack of a better word. They close some doors, pump the water out (fish, bunches of fish), then weld new sides and bottoms to the ship. Incredible operation. They have huge bundles of railroad ties to plane the bottom of the ship once the water goes out. They have cranes on both sides of the dock and lower 10 X 40 plates of 1 inch thick steel down in this huge hole. Once lowered, the workers use block and tackle to put them in place. 24/7/365. I knew a guy who worked there. He got me in a gave me a tour. In the winter they used oxy/acetylene torches to heat a small place inside the boat to keep warm. It looks like 1850. But it needs to happen, or they don't run. At the other end of town is what used to be The Andersons. Not sure what they are now, but was a huge port for a place like Toledo.

Disclosure; I know nothing of these people. The book Mein Kampf should be required reading before graduating from high school. There is much to be learned from that book.

Until the next time they fuck something up while making record profits.

The refinery thing was in Oregon, Ohio. A BP facility. Ugly. That was in September. Cornhole gas went from $3.49 a few days ago to $3.89 today. Watch diesel. The canary in the coal mine.

Update on Treasury Direct. I bought some 1 month T-bills today with no issues. This is hooked to my bank account, which pays .01 - thank you very fucking much. I hate banks. I also got a deposit for the first one I bough a month ago. Random numbers, let's say 10 grand, makes you 25 bucks in a month. X4, spaced weekly, give you 100 a month for pushing a button. You can trip a toggle when buying, to roll it over, but I prefer to push the button. And to be clear, this is not investment advise. Just what works for me at the current time.

FWIW, you can create a Treasury Direct account (United States Treasury) and fund it different ways. I buy bonds thru my bank account and my broker, but pull the trigger myself. Last week I was buying some bonds and the site timed out on several occasions. I spent 15-20 minutes doing what would normally take less than 5. I wasn't sure if it was me, or something else. Later in the day I read other people had the same problem. Sounded like the site was overwhelmed. Who wouldn't like a low risk "higher" yield opportunity? The swine fucking banks are giving us .01 on savings. I will also admit, some of us old pukes are happy to see that "saving" once again pays a bit of a premium. At the end of the day, what you do still depends on timing. And your tolerance for risk/reward.

I believe in hearing all free speech, as bad as it can be.

You should put yourself on ignore. You have nothing good to say. Nobody can have an adult conversation with you.

Not just in this case, but in many other "headline events," the way they are covered feed into this. These articles suck, but I give them a little bit of a break because in the early stages of who really knows? How many times have the initial reports been wrong? Many. In this case, the pressers have been quite underwhelming (and for the record, I agree with chas above - I don't necessary believe the cops all the time either (I've had my run in's, and been to jail). With all the questions, the media is free to make shit up as they see fit - and they do. You see this time and time again. Nothing new. It feeds turning everything into shit. It doesn't take long to figure out the agenda when reading any article. Then you know what will come next. Much of it filler and clever dog whistles. I didn't read much about the security cameras. That would have been something I would want to know more about. After all, this is the husband of the 3rd highest office in the land. They should have a kick ass setup, and approved, if not designed, by the FBI or whoever. I did see a picture with 2 cameras pointing down each side of the house. They were both hard wired so they are active all the time (as should be in this case). I have a cheap set of 4 around my property. They are on battery or solar, and only trigger if they detect movement. Then stores the video to either the cloud or SIM card, and I get an alert on my phone. You would think in their setup, once triggered, it would set off an alarm to the house, and a remote observation facility somewhere. We know nothing about this, but they should have anticipated this question (if they took any) and had an answer of some kind. This would sure help with the crazy shit. When reading, this is one of the most common questions. Furthermore, and more importantly; when some goofball can get past a high dollar, professionally designed security system and whack someone in the head - the people who designed the system should be held accountable and fired. That ain't suppose to happen. But then again, a couple of years ago, a cop was banging on my front door at 2:30 in the morning and I didn't hear a thing. The cat woke me up. The living security system. He was looking for someone I never heard of, so it was all good. At least I have it all on video. Two cameras, video and sound. I wonder what he thought? Smile, you're on Candid Camera. 🙂

At one time the Lolita Express was considered a conspiracy theory. Well, maybe it was. They only got one woman.

This is a feature, not a bug. Read up on Edward Berney's. <tin foil hat off>

I ran across the link for The Santa Monica Observer, but you couldn't hit the website. Too busy it seemed. I did find the article taken as pictures on some Twitter posting. It was as poorly written as the one from the LA Times. I concluded they were both nothing but propaganda bullshit.

I don't think it has to do with insider trading either. But I don't know what the most likely scenario is, and neither do you. The rest is just partisan bullshit. But I have come to expect that from you.

All I know is PP got whacked with a hammer and ended up in the hospital. I have read all I can read from all angles - and IMO - it is all speculation and bullshit (especially the way some, if not all, the articles are written), and what facts we seem to have are still changing. As far as what I believe? I believe the guy is a complete nutjob, and maybe nothing more than that. I also believe the media is a complete piece of shit who constantly lies (and that includes all MSM), and most of the other crap you find on the interwebs. In this case, there are many holes that need filled. As far as a political angle - I could give a fuck less which tribe wins this - I have no use for any of these corrupt fucking creeps who inhabit DC and fuck us over each and every day for as long as I can remember.

Thanks, but I'll wait on the SFPD.

For the record, Sherlock, I never said jack shit about a "highly speculative and conspiracy ridden article that pushes a rather convenient narrative for its POV."