Author: A.T.

“Here’s The Pathway”

You’ve doubtless seen Fuentes’s case for white Christian dictatorship (under 3 minutes).

And maybe this one, too (30 seconds), where he says:

Here’s the pathway.  We have one more election when white people can make the decision.  It’s time to shut up, elect Trump one more time, and then stop having elections.

This is the guy Trump had over to dinner.  Might the topic have come up?

On a relate note . . .

Here’s the difference between Tucker Carlson and the KKK (under 2 minutes).

(Trump’s dad was arrested at a KKK rally and Trump kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside.  Of those torch-carriers chanting “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville, he said there were “very fine people on both sides.”)

It is the season of Leopoldstadt on Broadway . . .

. . . Camp Siegfried off Broadway.

(There really was such a summer camp on Long Island from 1936-1941.)

One searches one’s bookshelf for Philip Roth’s, The Plot Against America.  I know it’s there somewhere.

But no need to search for a novel — there was a plot against America for real.  The facts are jaw-dropping, as you know from listening to the Ultra podcast . . . and they eerily foreshadow the current plot 80 years later.

On another related note:

Putin is acting so much like Hitler.  My friend Amed Khan files this report from Ukraine.

BONUS

Trump confesses — in writing.

TAX-LOSS SCAVENGING

At this time of year, I look for stocks beaten down by sellers who don’t really care whether they get $2 or $1 or 12 cents if they paid $40 — they just want the tax loss.

Sometimes those losers bounce back after the first of the year once tax-selling pressure lifts.  Sometimes they keep falling.

Hence a strategy to consider only for money you can truly afford to lose.

Two ideas:

> PRKR, of course.  Down to 23 cents from 38 cents a month ago (and $40 once upon a time) . . . you know the saga.  Most recently here and here and here.

> APE, which is the clone of AMC, with all the same rights (but preferential treatment in a bankruptcy).  Details here.  It closed down 9 cents yesterday at $1.05, 90% off its $10.50 high.  You might think the two would trade in lockstep, but AMC closed up a dime at $7.43 (AMC was a meme stock that, like GME, once sold at prices completely detached from value).

If two largely identical securities are selling at different prices, the normal Wall Street response is to buy the cheaper one and short the other.  In this case, if you did that and AMC went bust, you’d lose a buck on your APE but make six bucks on your AMC short.  Or if the company started gushing profits and one day merited a $10 price (say), you’d make $9 or so on each APE share while losing just $3 on your short.

That’s how it should work, as at some point the prices of the two should more or less converge.  But what if, along the way, a short squeeze sends AMC to the moon (triggering a margin call that forces you to take the loss and ruins your life) even as APE just plods along around $1?  Totally irrational; but if meme’ stocks have proved anything, it’s that speculators can occasionally go nuts.  There’s no law against irrationality.

It’s scary, risky, difficult, and expensive to short AMC.  I bought some APE this week and shorted a tiny number of AMC shares (at Fidelity; Ameritrade wouldn’t let me), just to see if I could.

We live in interesting times.

 

Three Thoughts On The Future

Is Donald Trump Constitutionally Ineligible To Be President?

He is — but should we enforce that?  You decide.

Henry Kissinger on artificial intelligence.

He’s 99 but urging us to think ahead.

And speaking of thinking ahead, I told you last year Why RCN’s Customer Service May Determine America’s Future.  I feel moved to to report that — though they’ve changed their name to “Astound Broadband” — they still require a human to suspend or resume service.  Why not just a simple website menu option: Suspend/Resume Service?  After 17 minutes of discussion, confirming twice when I wanted service suspended and resumed (the human I reached is an expert at suspending and resuming service), she announced that service cannot be suspended in advance; I’d have to call back on suspension day.  I say again: her talent could be so much more productively deployed.  (Even Lenin recognized that productivity is the key to economic success.)

 

God Blessed America

My most recent plug for Rachel Maddow’s ULTRA elicited this me-mail from a prominent liberal Democrat:

“You couldn’t pay me money to listen to a Rachel Maddow podcast. She’s smug, alarmist — a polemic who is past her sell by date.”

Ouch.

That’s way too harsh, in my view, but what we think of Rachel Maddow or her style is not the point.

“The history she recounts,” I responded, “is history that you, of all people, you should know, and this may be the most efficient way for you to learn it.  Give it a try?”

He said he would.  Which is good, because the parallels between Hitler’s attempts to overturn American democracy without firing a shot and Putin’s attempts to do the same will blow you away.

Listen.

Eighty years ago, millions of Americans were Nazi sympathizers, some of them plotting a violent coup.

Today, some Republicans think we should cut back on aid to Ukraine.  Some were fine with trusting Putin over the FBI.  None protested removing support for Ukraine from the Republican platform.  Most in Congress voted against impeachment for — or investigation of — the events of January 6.

What’s so great about democracy, anyway?

This wonderful piece about Casablanca — “God Blessed America” — answers that question beautifully.

Have a great week!

 

We Are ALL In The Top 0.1%

SO much to be thankful for.

As I’ve mentioned before . . . we have hot water!  As much as we want!  Any time we want it!

For the first 99.9% of human existence that — let alone flight, sanitation, safety, cinema, supermarkets, antibiotics, or smartphones — if imaginable at all, was an impossible dream. 

There were no zippers 150 years ago. 

And yet it’s all so fragile — one world war away from extinction.  (Third time’s a charm?)  

Have you listened to Rachel Maddow Ultra? 

Whatever your politics, it is not to be missed.  

As I’ve also mentioned before, I feel like the luckiest man on the planet — not least for your readership.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Seeing Clearly

There’s nothing even remotely sexy about cataracts so I told friends I was going in for “old guy LASIK.”

I was nervous — well, it’s eye surgery! — but going back for the second eye Wednesday having learned the ropes (“now let’s walk over to the laser room”), I found myself almost wishing I had more than two.  I was getting so good at it!  And it’s such a piece of cake.

A miracle, really.

Turns out, I had been seeing the world more or less like this.

The week between eyes, my bathroom tile was yellowish if I shut my right eye; bright white if I shut my left.

Three days after eye #2, this former myope saw three Broadway shows glasses-free, which I pause here briefly to review:

SOME LIKE IT HOT — Huge fun!!!

A BEAUTIFUL NOISE — Fantastic!!!

KIMBERLY AKIMBO — Quirky, winning, funny, and totally different.

(The week before, between right eye and left, I saw 1776, squinting in the front row.  I loved the original and was going to skip this super-woke update — Ben Franklin played by a black woman? Jefferson, by a woman eight months pregnant? hadn’t Hamilton already claimed that space? — but a friend said it was really good so I took a chance — and it was.  Not Hamilton good, but really good.  On the writing of the Declaration.)

So . . . cataracts.

I’ll never forget one of my dad’s clients coming to New York for this 60 years ago.  Back then, they used saws and a hammer.  Einar Buhl, a Danish executive with Patek Phillippe, stayed in a room at the New York Athletic Club bandaged blind for what I remember as three months, though it couldn’t have been that long (could it?), before he was allowed to go home.

One more reason to remember that the good old days weren’t that good . . . and something else to give thanks for this week.

Which brings me, finally, to this TED talk — one of the best ever — wherein eye surgeon Jeffrey Levenson describes his own cataract surgery, and how he came to join hundreds of other doctors in performing them, free, throughout the Third World.  Through groups like SEE International you can restore sight to the blind for around $35 a pop.

BONUS:

Promoting awful Republican opponents worked.

Speaking of whom:

Two powerful 30-second spots from American Bridge.

Three more a friend made.

Feel free to share!

And this, too:

 

 

Episode 7

Eighty-odd years ago there was a corrupt North Dakota governor who lost re-election but refused to concede, refused to leave office, declared martial law, incited an insurrection . . . finally did leave . . . but was then endorsed by his party and elected to the United States Senate, which issued a 4,200-page report recommending he not be seated but ultimately seated him  anyway.

He collaborated with a whole lot of Nazi sympathizers, many of them fellow “America First” senators and representatives — this was during World War II — whom the Justice Department had to decide whether to indict for sedition (it did) . . . and, well, there’s only one episode of ULTRA left, so by the time you’ve caught up with the first six — and now this seventh — the final episode will have dropped, where we get to find out what happened.

There’s so much more to this . . . and so stunning are the parallels to Putin’s effort to do what Hitler tried to do in dividing us and overturning our democracy and weakening our alliances with Europe . . . that you owe it to yourself to overcome whatever acquired resistance you may have to Rachel Maddow and listen from the beginning.  (In that first episode, a different U.S. senator mixed up in all this is murdered.)

I find Rachel to be unfair and/or shrill some of the time; wordy or grating some of the time; but terrific much of the time . . . and this podcast is definitely one of those times.

BONUS — 37 SECONDS

Find the pig.

 

Joy

I’m no Buddhist.

Already blessed with the happy gene — and being way too inflexible to sit cross-legged — it’s not a good fit.

But you, dear reader!

I thought you might enjoy this free (for the next 20 hours) screening of Mission: JOY . . . Finding Happiness In Troubled Times.

It precedes the (also free) four-day Global JOY Summit.

And, yes, these are troubled times.  But a lot less troubled than a week ago, before we learned that election deniers could be defeated — and even graciously concede.

Until the guy who lost by 7 million votes but claimed he won by a landslide, plotted a coup, and incited a violent insurrection, that’s how our democracy always worked.

Even when you were more qualified and got more votes than your opponent.  (Here is Al Gore’s concession speech.)

Indeed, even when you were vastly more qualified and got millions more votes.  (Hillary’s.)

You know who make me so proud to be a Democrat?

Winning candidates like FDR, Truman, JFK, LBJ, Carter, Bill, Barack, and Joe.

And those not given the chance to serve, like Al and Hillary.

And, for that matter, Adlai Stevenson, Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, and John Kerry.

Magnificently talented, caring people, one and all.

Have a great week.

Things are looking up.

 

Age Is Just A Number

One thing sure: we owe our Vets thanks, support, and respect.

Less sure: control of Congress. (You can help with that.)

And the future of Twitter.

And  2024.

Will it be DeSantis or Youngkin (now that Rupert Murdoch has abandoned Trump)?

Biden or youngker?

“One thing to keep in mind if Joe runs again [I concluded yesterday] is that — yes — he’s old.  But with him comes his team of more than a thousand appointees who have restored competence to the government and helped America regain the respect of the free world.  That — and the infrastructure bill, the CHIPs bill, the bill to lower prescription drug prices and confront climate, and much more — would be a lot to throw away to take a chance on someone new.”

Now comes Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld (68) with this ode to old:  Age is just a number — run, Joe, run!

Perpetually unsure: our stocks:

PRKR — Several of you have asked why it has tripled off its low.  Three press releases in the past two weeks may explain, with the latest coming just today.  Will the company eventually net a few bucks per share in judgments or settlements and be able to resume operations?  Will justice, as the company sees it, finally prevail?  The only thingnI know for sure is that the defendants could afford to pay up without missing a beat.

RECAF — Down three-fourths from its high, at $1.50, it got as low as 35 cents Wednesday.  (I wish I had noticed that and scooped some up.)  What gives?  My guru:

It’s ugly.  They released the results of their 3rd well. They found numerous shows of hydrocarbons (positive) but no commercial accumulations (negative), apparently due to lack of structural seals.  Obviously the market severely punished this news.

Some geologists I know aren’t discouraged by this. The well further confirms that there are hydrocarbons to be found. In a prospective area of this size there will be failures. There are examples in history of multiple exploration failures in a basin before huge success.

However the company has been slow to proceed with its drilling program. It appears this has been due to government permitting delays. Whatever the reason it is concerning that things are progressing slower than expected. And many are now questioning management’s competence in managing the process.

Personally I’m still a believer in the basic premise that there is a large basin of oil under contract. I am however very concerned by the slow pace of progress. The money is running out and the promised 4-well program is now looking like a 2.5 well reality.

I am somewhat encouraged by the rebound in the stock price, but I can’t deny the past two days have been very painful.  I plan to sell a few thousand shares to harvest some tax loss. But I’m holding on to the majority of my position.

Sigh. Nothing is easy.

BONUS

Mayor Eric Adams on policing and crime.  New York on the mend.  Sensible bail-reform reform, among other things.  (Good intentions went too far.  Time to recalibrate.)

BONUS BONUS

Bill B:  “I never thought or heard much about Broadway’s “The Lion King,” but this scene from it on late night television is spectacular.

Have a great weekend.