More stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- GameStop makes $5.5 billion takeover offer for eBay. What does Reddit say about the bid?
- The world's most important science advisory committee.
- Why Golden Tempo's Kentucky Derby win could be worth $25 million.
Interesting look at what happened when the crypto-crowd-sourced bid to but a copy of the US Constitution failed. Obviously Web3 and DAO's still have a lot of wrinkles that need to be worked out.
In other unrelated news Gamestop stock was at $247.55 at last night's market close.
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Wonder what Division 1 AA football college teams (I refuse the call it FCS) will advertise that they will schedule games against Power 5 teams just for the big paydays of a million dollars plus but that they would split the payday with the players on the roster the day of the game. That would certainly help with recruiting for that team, "Sure we may get humiliated by Alabama but you walk away with $17K in your pocket." You know that day is shortly coming... Another example of why I'm such a big fan of Justice Clarence Thomas... Tom Brady is about to enter his 21st pro season. I wonder if Larry Bird, who played 13 seasons, was able to stretch things to 21 seasons (like Vince Carter) if he too would have changed teams?... Good for GameStop... Was thinking about this act of kindness and class the other day. In 1982 Red Auerbach used the Boston Celtics 10th round selection to pick Indiana's Landon Turner who was paralyzed shortly after Indiana won the NCAA title in 1981. Auerbach made the pick both as a favor to his friend Bobby Knight but also because it was a nice thing to do for a player who was sure to have been a first round selection before tragedy struck...
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- My new favorite custom jersey (and yes I have the sense of humor of a 12-year old boy)
- Matt Taibbi: Let the Apes have Wall Street
- Heh Heh
- Borepatch: Why Voting No Longer Matters. A pretty dark perspective (but not without merit)
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Found myself worrying about the "Don't trust China! China is asshole!" guy. With the crackdown in Hong Kong I wouldn't be surprised if he was taken into custody a long time ago. I hope he's OK... The Great Certainty would be a good name for a blog (or social media app)... If lab grown meat technology is perfected - will that allow McDonald's to offer the McRib year-round?... True story - before picking Dan Quayle to be his VP - George H.W. Bush briefly considered picking Clint Eastwood to be his running mate. One of the great "What if's" of history... You learn something new every day: the power symbol on your device, laptop, PC, etc. - that circle and line it's actually a binary 1 and a 0 with 1 being "on" and 0 being "off"... So when does Nintendo get cancelled for having a GameBoy and not a non-binary game console?... Predicting right now that no matter who is in the NBA Finals it will get the lowest TV ratings in history... Apropos of nothing - checked GameStop stock yesterday and it was at $313.75 per share! Yowza!... Bumper sticker suggestion: "Trump 2024 - Burdened with Glorious Purpose" (a little Loki humor)...
It would be cool if book lovers supported the stock of Barnes & Noble the way Reddit and Wall Street Bets supported GameStop.
The support of GameStop was both a money making opportunity but also a way to stick it to Wall Street short-selling hedge funds who had targeted the favorite store from many a gamers childhood.
Likewise support of Barnes & Noble could be looked at as a defense against censorious Amazon and Jeff Bezos who somehow got it in his head that he is solely responsible for deciding which books are OK to read.
Yes used bookstores are among my favorite places but this country needs more than one major outlet for new books. We can't let Amazon become a monopoly for new books otherwise we may also be giving up our freedom to read what we want. Support Barnes & Noble.
This post was inspired by this article: Last chance to end the tech tyranny.
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
It can't be said often enough - the overwhelming evidence indicates that the worldwide pandemic originated in a lab in Wuhan and that the Chinese have covered that up. Don't trust China - China is asshole!... I'd watch a "news" network where clearly mentally disturbed people rant about their take on the news, politics, and general life beliefs. If people went too far off the rails the producers could start playing the Benny Hill theme music and cut to commercial. I'd call it the Crazy News Network (CNN)... There's now multiple generations/age groups who have been scarred by the fear mongering and mask wearing to the point they now believe that life's too short to care about sports or to risk one's health going to an arena. This is one of the major unexplored reasons for the drop in all sports TV ratings. Ain't going away either... Interesting - GameStop is still selling for over $189 per share... Bless me Father for I have sinned - I was supposed to give up betting on the Boston Celtics for Lent. I've failed miserable. And am paying a price for my lack of willpower (just wish it was only saying some Our Fathers and Hail Marys)...
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Disappointed its taking so long for season two of The Witcher to come out on Netflix... I'm fascinated by the coming storm between Apple and Facebook. The plot of this tale has all the makings of a story told by Machiavelli... A very underrated movie is 1973's The Three Musketeers. Great cast and excellent dialogue and comedic hijinks. I was surprised to learn the screenplay was by George McDonald Fraser who is probably best known as the author of the Flashman series of books... This year for Lent I'll be giving up Stigmata. I hope to be Stigmata free for the next 40-days (starting Friday)... The Gina Carano firing remains in the news. Still don't know who pulled the trigger. "Lucasfilm executives" is pretty vague. If this was a 100% defensible move shouldn't someone be proud to take credit? Am I the only one curious to know who's in the Disney Social Media Star Chamber?... Gamestop stock was at $49.51 this morning. Wonder if the short-sellers are still feeling the squeeze?...
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- VDH: The world goes on while America sleeps.
It really does feel as though CNBC is a participant in market manipulation for the rich. These hedge fund guys go on air and it's like they're trying to spook the herd in the direction of their trades. They tell everyone to get out when they're short, and once all the meat is off the bone, they go long, just in time for the recovery. They get to call the top and the bottom of the market. It's totally fucked.
The bailout and the pandemic just exposed how there are different sets of rules, not just for different types of investors,but for different types of businesses. Your favorite sandwich shop? Closed. If you've got 200 of those sandwich shops? Open.
The sentiment behind the GameStop situation is not going away. And GameStop stock as I type this is at $63.77 a share. Seems like many are still holding the line.
Matt Taibi has a follow-up article to the above and it is also well worth your time.
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Back in November I was paying $2.09 for a gallon of gas. Today I paid $2.59 a gallon. Elections have consequences... Well you can't argue with this logic... They say the Reddit/GameStop situation is fueled in large part by people using their last stimulus checks to buy the stock. I can't help but wonder if this is true - how crazy would things be if the stimulus check was $2,000 instead of $600?... Pesticide Executives would be a good name for a band... It still blows my mind that the Patriots led Super Bowl LI vs the Falcons for ZERO minutes and still won... Obesity in the US may in fact be traced back to the phrase "Go big or go home"...
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Jeff Bezos to step down as Amazon CEO. Andy Jassy from AWS to take over. I found it interesting that AWS seems to be the big dog in the company now.
- Nice summary of the GameStop situation as of last Friday
- Businessman plans first all-civilian SpaceX flight to benefit Saint Jude's. Looking forward to seeing the commercial about the mission on Super Bowl Sunday.
- Speaking of Amazon - The relentless Jeff Bezos. A good look at how Amazon got to this point.
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- I've long been fascinated by Joe Bonaparte of New Jersey
- The Navy just filed patents for new unbelievable weapons. Brings to mind the Arthur C. Clarke quote, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Or in this case UFO science-fiction.
- Interesting - Janet Yellen's ethics agreement specifically mentions Citadel as a potential conflict of interest. The GameStop story won't be going away anytime soon.
- Death of a City: The Portland Story? Another factor to consider - are the retirement funds for public workers funded or unfunded? Unfunded mandates like pensions could be the quickest way for any city to commit suicide.
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Draft nugget from ESPN's Mike Reiss. "The Patriots have selected 15th once in their history - quarterback Tony Eason (1983). Since then only one quarterback has been selected 15th - Dwayne Haskins." That alone has me now hoping New England doesn't take a QB in the first round (unless they trade up)... Who could have guessed that Timothy Leary's mantra of the 60's, "Turn on, tune in, drop out" could also become this generations mantra for getting off social media and living a more authentic real life... If you're wondering what to get me for Christmas or my birthday - a Jyroball would do nicely. And currently pre-orders are less than $500... As an aside the villain from Casino Royale was a stock short-seller whose plans were ruined by the heroics of James Bond. But that was 2006 and villainous short-sellers now seem A-OK with MI6, the CIA and other big government entities... Yesterday I said that Ulf Samuelson is easily the number one sports villain in my life as a Boston sports fan I should clarify that what Jack Tatum did to Darryl Stingley was slightly before my time...
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Amusing that an athlete as wholesome and "aww shucks" as Tom Brady has a motto of "let's fucking go!"... A cute way to describe the GameStop situation... I guess that the Rams REALLY wanted to get rid of Jared Goff and his contract. They traded Goff and two first round picks along with a third round pick to the Lions for Matthew Stafford. This was a salary dump as much as anything... What is up the the Japanese?... Spherical Bastards would be a good name for a band (bastards no matter what angle you look at them)... My biggest disappointment of the Trump Administration is that he never follow through on the purchase of Greenland...
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
I wonder if the answer to the Patriots QB issue would be a simple one-for-one trade of Stephon Gilmore for Jimmy Garappolo? Gilmore is one year removed from being the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year but also one year away from being a free agent looking for a big contract that New England won't be willing to give him. Jimmy G has long been a Belichick favorite and San Fran may be looking to get out of the big contract they signed him to... Funny but also true... Is there anything more sexy or feminine than a woman who uses scrunchies on her underarm hair? (Now that I've put that image into your head)... Funny but also true... Would be cool to see a GameStop version of It's a Wonderful Life with Citadel/Melvin Capital playing the role of Mr. Potter and the Reddit/WallStreetBets folks playing George Bailey... And speaking of GameStop - Mets owner Steve Cohen deletes his Twitter account due to GameStop backlash. This is so Mets...
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Prediction - the Biden Presidency will be haunted by the Reddit GameStop investors like John Cusak by the paperboy in Better Off Dead. "I want my two dollars!"... Yesterday was the 35th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. I feel bad that I did not mention it earlier... Twitter did Donald Trump a big favor by banning him. Now he gets to silently sit on the sidelines while the Biden Administration gets to deal with the fallout from the Robinhood/GameStop mess. This is a no-win situation for the Administration because so, so many people now "want their two dollars!"... Matt Taibbi has a great take on the GameStop situation. My favorite bit was, "The entire tale, in a nutshell, goes like this: One group of gamblers announced,'Fuck you!' Another announced back: 'No, fuck YOU!'" Read the whole thing... So when does the stampede of politicians returning campaign contributions from Citadel's Ken Griffin begin? Yeah - wouldn't hold my breath... I bet if someone on Nancy Pelosi's staff had given her the stock tip about GameStop two months ago that she'd be all up in arms about the ceasing of trading yesterday. Just sayin'...
This story just keeps getting more and more crazy.
The above is not actually Robinhood's statement on the situation. This was their actual release. In the release they announce they are restricting trading on certain stocks such as GameStop. That "clacking" sound you hear is from all of the keyboards closing their Robinhood accounts. If Robinhood was a public company I think Melvin Capital would be shorting the stock about now.
The small investors aren't taking this sitting down - they have already filed a Class Action Lawsuit against Robinhood.
Discord the hosting service for WallStreetBets shut down their server for "hate speech, glorifying violence, and spreading misinformation." They wanted to be clear they "did not ban this server due to financial fraud related to GameStop or other stock." Yeah right. The timing here is merely coincidental.
Morgan Housel has a post upon the situation titled, Why It's Usually Crazier Than You'd Expect. This paragraph struck me:
The reddit campaign to push its stock up started two months ago. At first shares rose a little. That caught people's attention, those people bought, which pushed prices up more, which caught more people's attention - and on and on - until this week when virtually every investor in America is paying attention to GameStop because it's risen so high, and it's rising high because every investor in America is paying attention to it.
Hmmm - what else happened two months ago? I know Morgan's post was titled "Why it's crazier than you'd expect" but I won't go there or speculate.
Well one thing that also happened about two months ago was Janet Yellen was made Treasury Secretary for the Biden Administration. The same Janet Yellen who made millions giving speeches to Wall Street firms. Including Citadel which is at the center of this controversy. Found this bit interesting:
Citadel is founded by Ken Griffin, a major Republican donor who has funded the presidential campaigns of establishment candidates including Mitt Romney and John McCain.
Is it me or is there one name conspicuously absent there?
Of all the things I read on the situation today - this resonated the most with me: An Open Letter to Melvin Capital, CNBC, Boomers and WSB. This was the key line, "We're not enemies, we're on the same side."
Amen brother! Amen! I hope all who view this situation with an open mind take away that message and in many ways take back the country from the elites who don't think rules apply to them.
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Interesting take on the GameStop situation. Full disclosure I don't own any stock in the company. (HT Steve Layman)
- 6 life lessons from David Goggins
- GameStop, Barstool Sports, and the Mets. Can't wait for GameStop: The Movie! to come out. That could be this generations version of Airplane!
- Naval Ravikant - How to get rich without being lucky. One of those things you just need to read from time to time. Such great wisdom especially during this crazy time..
- WHO advisor (and Biden supporter): Covid-19 pandemic likely started via lab leak. Gives me hope that some on the fringes of the Biden Administration are willing to tell the truth about China.
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
My big fear regarding the Reddit / GameStop situation is that it just could give China and Russia ideas on how to fuck with us...Just a reminder that the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) said up to 14 million Americans could go without heath insurance if the Individual Mandate was removed from Obamacare. It was removed and the actual number of uninsured Americans was closer to 2.5 million with the majority of that number young people who did not want to pay for health insurance... President Biden to sign Executive Order forcing professional sports leagues to cease using something called the "Disabled List" and instead change to something called the "Differently Abled List"... I have to wonder how many of those 2.5 million uninsured were young people who used the money they would have paid for health insurance plans and instead bought Bitcoin or GameStop stock?... Evidence of society getting lazier: in the 1950's it was called "pornographic movies," in the 70's it was shortened to "porno's" and today simply "porn." In 20 years it will just be "P".... Meaty Appendages would be a good name for fake meat chicken wings (or a gay gym)...
