Big News . . .

. . . is often dumped on a Friday night — or in this case, July 4th Eve — on the expectation relatively few people will see it.  So first, in case you missed it, listen to the July 3 audio of Rachel Maddow (44 minutes – no commercials!).   The Republican senators in Russia stuff (no Democrats allowed).  (You can watch that piece of it here.)  The bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee findings that, yes, the intelligence community’s findings were sound: Putin really did interfere with our elections.  No effort is being made by the Republicans to get that to stop.  (Oh — and the Malaysia stuff?  Corruption on a massive and truly colorful scale, which the deputy finance chair of the Republican National Committee apparently believed he could get the U.S. Justice Department to drop if he were paid $75 million.)

And then there is this WheelTug news that may encourage those of you who, like me, have been holding shares of Borealis even longer than I was holding the pint of egg whites in my freezer (“exp April 10, 2007” — but delicious when I finally defrosted last week).

Two pieces of news, actually.

The main one: WheelTug has earned the public endorsement of Ratan Tata, one of the world’s most highly respected industrialists (remarkable bio here) — who I now see graduated from my rival high school and then Cornell and Harvard Business School. Only a decade and a billion dollars separate us.  That he is a pilot whose Tata group has interests in two airlines suggests he knows a bit about the field.  It’s good to see yet another smart person cheering us on.

Also, the Czech arm of Deloitte has issued this analysis of the savings WheelTug will offer airlines: ranging from a low of $441 per flight to a “medium case” of $1,157 per flight to a best case of $3,356 per flight.  Times maybe 1700 flights per plane per year = anywhere from $750,000 to $5.7 million.  Times 14,000 737s and A320s in service, virtually all of which could benefit form the ability to maneuver around the gate without a tug, and you have (at least theoretically) anywhere from $10 billion to $80 billion in annual savings . . . of which the WheelTug business model is to lease the systems for half the savings.

So with WheelTug grandparent Borealis trading at $5 a share — a market cap of $25 million — there would seem to be considerable upside.

(Speculative!  To be bought only with money you can afford to lose!  And with “limit” orders because it is VERY thinly traded!)

Have a great a continuation of this crazy 9-day weekend.

Putin is winning — big time.  But that’s no reason to be miserable all the time.  Have beer on me.  Or a nice egg white omelet.