What To Do About Trump’s Lies

DON’T BUY TOO MUCH SPRT. Suggested here and here a year ago at $2.37 and $2.16 — and closing Friday at $2.79, which sounds good but actually trails the Dow — the company now seems to trade at about the value of its cash . . . giving us whatever the company’s business may be worth, if anything, “for free.”

But please don’t buy more than 935,000 shares, says the company — 5% — because that could jeopardize the value of its $140 million in accumulated tax losses (NOLs).

. . . “Our improvement in year-over-year profitability through the third quarter of 2017 has generated increased shareholder interest. Since our earnings release for that period, two shareholders have acquired more than 4.99% of our common stock and, as a result, have put us closer to an ownership change for purposes of Section 382. We determined that both acquisitions were inadvertent under our tax benefits preservation plan and have exempted such acquisitions from the plan, but there can be no assurance that any future acquisitions of more than 4.99% of our common shares by any investor or group will be determined to be inadvertent, thereby triggering our plan and significantly diluting the ownership interest of that investor or group. As a courtesy to our shareholders, we wanted to remind everyone of these limitations” said Rick Bloom, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of the company. . . .

My hope is to see my shares — bought only with money I can truly afford to lose — at $4 before I even consider selling any of them. And who knows? Seven would be nice.

HOW TALL IS HE, REALLY? Joseph R. Prochaska: “In that photo you referenced, take a close look at Trump’s shoes—the angle of the vamp is SOOOOO much steeper than President Obama’s; this means either that Trump has really fat feet (a possibility) or that he is wearing elevator shoes (which is supported by the thickness of the heels in the picture). Truth in all things (large and small) is about respect, first and foremost, for the people receiving the statement. If someone is lying to us about something this trivial, it shows a lack of respect for the American people, and a lack of respect for the integrity that the office of the President demands. De Gaulle: ‘The word of the American president is good enough for me.’ The value of that integrity and that respect for America has a price beyond measure. That we have lost it will cost us more than we can calculate.”

WHAT TO DO ABOUT TRUMP’S LIES Paul: “Trump’s Lies Versus Your Brain is required reading of everyone in Dem politics. As you will see, it suggests no particular solution. But I thought of one that is consistent with the article’s explanation of human psychology: Every time Trump says or tweets something, everyone in Dem politics should say, both at the beginning and end of each response, ‘Trump lies about everything.’ With enough repetition, it will make headway.”

All presidents lie. . . . It is, in some ways, an inherent part of the profession of politicking.

But Donald Trump is in a different category. The sheer frequency, spontaneity and seeming irrelevance of his lies have no precedent. . . . Trump seems to lie for the pure joy of it. A whopping 70 percent of Trump’s statements that PolitiFact checked during the campaign were false, while only 4 percent were completely true, and 11 percent mostly true. (Compare that to the politician Trump dubbed “crooked,” Hillary Clinton: Just 26 percent of her statements were deemed false.)

. . . Lies are exhausting to fight, pernicious in their effects and, perhaps worst of all, almost impossible to correct if their content resonates strongly enough with people’s sense of themselves, which Trump’s clearly do. . . .

Have you seen Jimmy Kimmel on the President’s 2,000+ lies? Share it widely.

Have a great week.

[UPDATE – My JET delivery arrived undamaged and on time. Fourth time was a charm!]