Maher, Barr, and Bernie February 22, 2020February 22, 2020 Bill Maher rhymes with Bill Barr. But that’s about all. Seven X-rated minutes if you missed them last May. Bernie is doing great at around 30% of Democrats . . . and Democrats are around 40% of the electorate . . . so (30% of 40%) Bernie has a strong core of 12% — terrific people who passionately support his goals. I share those goals; I just worry he might not beat Trump. Or that, if he did, he might not be best-suited to work with the Senate to move the ball down the field toward those goals. I shared many of Ralph Nader’s goals, too . . . and admired George McGovern . . . but at the end of the day, it’s not enough to be passionate and idealistic, even when 12% of the country is strongly behind you. It’s not clear how much of the worst on-line Bernie behavior is legit and how much from Russia, but here’s a post from a thoughtful woman who doesn’t like it one bit. (But who, like all of us, I hope, will support Bernie if he’s the nominee!) And here’s an Elizabeth Warren supporter with a unique take on Mike Bloomberg. (He ran against him to be Mayor of New York.) I bought some CNXM Friday with money I can truly afford to lose. Eventually, renewables will, let us hope, put the natural gas pipelines out of business but that could be a while. In the meantime, at $13.35, the stock yields 12% and hopes to grow those annual pay-outs at 15% a year through 2023. My goal here: collect a few dividends until such time as — wishful thinking? — the stock gets back into the high teens. If that happened in a year, I’d have earned in the neighborhood of 50% (tax-deferred in my IRA), nicely beating the 2% I could get from something entirely safe.