Screwball

Since corporate ineptness was a topic. I must share this story. Circa 2007, multi-national. The brain trust decided a new way to motivate everyone (since the posters on the wall didn't seem to work) was to give us salary people two paths to prosperity. Management or technical. Chose a path and the yellow brick road is soon to follow. Every year they would chose two of the management path people to attend a "elite" corporate obedience training class - a suckfest if you will. There would be around 20 people with 3 or 4 teachers in an exclusive location, like a retreat, for 16 hours a day over the course of a week. When you graduate, the final sacrifice is walking on hot coals. True story. It gets better. One of the guys we sent, when hailing the greatness of this experience at the next staff meeting told them he just signed up his kid, and paid for it himself. These space cadets are why we have fuel pumps in gas tanks.

People falling down drunk on red BS will believe it. People falling down drunk on blue BS won't believe it. The rest think it doesn't matter, and they are probably right.

On the automotive front. The issues I have been dealing with is like a blast from the past. Back around 2014 I was at a corporate obedience training class at the mothership. Part of the torture to keep our job. The problem I have with my vehicle is a design problem. They don't know how to fix it. Well, they do... Back to school. We spent a day and a half collecting and analyzing data and proved the problem was a design problem. And they were exactly right. Any questions? Yes, matter of fact, I do. From engineering, I agree with you 100 percent. It's going to cost a few million dollars to fix it, maybe more. Problem is, you ain't gonna get it - not in the budget - or the next 8k. Now what are you going to do? Crickets. Send them to customer service where it all goes to die.

Crude oil is under $60 bucks a barrel. Time to fill up the SPR. Moving on, customer service. Maybe this doesn't count as customer service but to the entire ineptitude of corporate America. Converted to fiber optic from the old coax last Saturday. Took my old cable modem back to their store on Tuesday. They open at 10:03. I stood in line. How can I help you? Terminate service. I also want proof of returning the modem. Only took a minute or so. Later that day I get a text telling me to return my modem to the nearest office. I also get an email. Then another email the next day which was a survey on how my service was, to the email account that should no longer work. And of course another, would you like to pay your bill? I think I was a couple of days late turning it in to the billing cycle, so I'm probably gonna get charged for another month.

Nothing like a White Castle just as the sun is starting to come up after a night traveling an hour to a night at the horse races, then a strip club, and about 5 bars in between. Hookers in front of the White Castle. Early 70s. Toledo, Ohio.

Customer service. Nice phrase. Too bad in most cases it doesn't exist. I'm old and spent 35+ years in Office Space - and here we are - I'm not surprised. In the last two months I've dealt with bank problems, car problems, and internet problems. Nazi's all. Piss poor design problems that become unfixable in the auto realm, then the digital world swindlers, then you have the financial wizards of the world who rape us in every way possible. I've just spent 1400 bucks on a problem with my auto, and it's not fixed. According to two different dealers and a service bulletin, my condition is deemed normal per engineering at this time. Exact words given and I have a copy. My engine is overheating, according to the gauge. It never gets into the red or sets off an engine light. But it still gets hot, then goes back down. Not good. They had it for 3 days, send scanner data to the mothership. When they gave it back they told me - this is normal - just don't let it get into the red. WHAT? I then went the OEM route and the comedy was immediate and off the charts dicked up. It's called - you are ****ed. What a world.

Cramer's Mad Money was 2005, but after looking again, I found another creature. Cramer had a show with Larry Kudlow from 2002-2005. Cramer was also frequent guest commentator on CNBC in the late 1990s. So yea, the dickwad has been around longer. Kudlow is another. I used to mute the TV when he came on. He isn't even a good BSer. Truly awful. He was the green shoots guy after the crash of 2008 that made you want to puke.

Jim Cramer.... I had to look it up to see how long he has been in front of a camera and billed as an expert. His Mad Money show started on CNBC in 2005 (Bubblevision). If you were a CNBC junkie, his show came on around 5 or 6 after the markets closed. He had a keypad type thing about the size of a small organ. Maybe a dozen buttons. He would rant and rave slobber then smack the button that said "buy, buy, buy." They even had a link so you could push the buttons from home and play along. I tried to find a link but couldn't find one. Funny ****. So this huckster has been in front of a financial camera for 20 years? And he still is! You can't make this **** up.

In no particular order; Blues Brothers Up in Smoke American Pie Just about anything from Abbot and Costello.

Found this interesting while looking at data from the Port of LA. Goes back quite a ways and I notice the trend upward around the mid-ninety's.

This is a known problem for this model as shown by the date on top. Highlighted in yellow is; Condition - temperature gauge fluctuates at idle or driving. Cause - condition deemed normal by engineering at this time. Normal my ass. They don't know how to fix it and it's been to two different dealerships.

A little search will tell us the Thrilla in Manila in 1975 was an HBO first television network to broadcast a continuous signal via satellite. I remember that fight.

I think so. I remember going to a bowling alley (had to look it up) in 1990 to watch George Foreman and Gerry Cooney. They some somehow got the feed. They were packed.

I'm old, but back when I grew up boxing was quite the sport. I remember sitting in the living room on Saturday night watching a black and white TV using an antenna to watch "fights of the century" with my dad who was a gold glove boxer. Example; Greatest Fights of the Century - "Louis vs. Marciano, October 1951" (1953)

Those guys don't have a punch like a Jack Dempsey or Ali, but they will smack the snot out of you before you even knew what hit you. I have a funny boxing story. Back in 1977 I was working in a local factory in the welding department. They hired a new guy. He was a small black guy, who looked to be in his 30s or 40s. Looked very muscular and fit, but not very big, maybe 150 lbs. He lived in his van in the parking lot. On the spare tire cover on the back of his van it said "there goes so-and-so" from some town in PA, can't remember which one. He was quiet, did his job, didn't bother anyone, and seemed like a drifter going through town. They picked on this guy mercifully, day after day. It wasn't pretty, but he never said anything and went about his business. One day we were alone on the break room and I said "hey, man, these guys are really dicking with you, why don't you haul off and cold cock one of them. That would probably put a stop to it." He just smiled and said, don't worry, I'll be fine. OK, I said. A few days later I was in there again with him alone. He said, "hey, look at this." I walked over and he pulls some pictures out of his lunchbox and shows me a half dozen pictures of him in a boxing ring fighting various people. I said, "wow, what's that all about?" As it turned out, 10 or so years before, he was a professional boxer, or wanted to be. At one time he was the 6th ranked welterweight in the country. He told me he got to spar with the champion and found out he could never beat him, so he chose to do something else, and left the sport. Impressive, nonetheless. The rest of the story; not long after, one of our local company badasses started in on him again. This time it got uglier then normal. Finally the badass took a swipe at him. Of course he missed, and got his nose bloodied after being hit about 4 times before he knew what happened. That was the end of that - he wanted no more - and for good reason. This dude could have kicked the snot out of anyone there - no matter how big. Nobody screwed with the guy after that, and he just went about his business. Quit after 6 months or so and went on to somewhere else. Always wondered what happened to the guy. Probably dead now. But that little incident was funny as hell - and the badass wasn't as bad.

Our automobiles are a design nightmare for various reasons. What idiot decided it was a good idea to put a fuel pump inside a gas tank? Or a starter underneath an intake manifold? And then when they don't know how to fix their poorly designed POS they give you this bunch of hot BS like this;

I should have added; I have Treasury Direct account hooked to my bank account. I buy whatever I want through TD and it just shows debits and credits to my bank. They have nothing to do with it. TD is a really neat deal.

I did my taxes today. Always do them late so I don't give the city my money any earlier than possible. I always owe them because I don't work in town and pay the difference because we pay higher taxes than the other town because we suck more. As far as investments. Had an interest 1099 (doesn't count toward city) to turn in. Made almost 5% doing nothing more than playing short term bond ladders all year. This was money from my bank account that pays .01% if I let it sit in the bank and do nothing. I can't imagine why my personal banker didn't tell me about that? Especially since they tell me they want to insure I get the most out of my banking experience, while never telling me how, or fix any problems they have ****ed up. What a world...

It doesn't matter who the Fed chair will be.

Never gonna happen. We ain't in the big club. This is why they hate Trump. He is too stupid to STFU and puts the swindle on full display. The quiet part out loud as they say. Sweet talking con-men are much better, and America eats it up.

Don't know. Looks funny to me. Who knows what the pigmen are up to. I find it more interesting to see that huge candle yesterday that closed the gap. No more worry about gaps, you are free to fall. Just what it did today. Yet, it looked kind of ugly until around 12:30, then recovered a bit. Volatility is off the charts. Expect bank trading profits to be good next earnings report. Giggle. Probably not a popular statement, but this **** has went on since forever. Leaks, frontrunning, and whatever other crooked **** these pricks come up with. We get fleeced. Blue Horseshoe loves Anacott Steel"

Nikkei down around 4 1/2. S&P futures down less than a percent. Might be a good time to buy crude for the SPR. Weekly U.S. Ending Stocks of Crude Oil in SPR

Fun stuff. The surge they talked about wasn't 1%, a little less (to nit pick), but close, but the rip later was quite impressive. S&P chart porn daily by the minute. The index went from 5013.84 at 1:19 to 5381.55 at 1:35. That's a 7+ percent rip in about 15-17 minutes. Quite impressive. I'm guessing some shorts got their face ripped off. Looking at the bigger picture, what does this do to the longer term market? Going back to the start of the year daily chart. All the gaps are now filled. Interesting... The above chart porn Del posted didn't have volume, which matters. Looking at the e-mini during the day gives us some clues. Big volume at 1:02. Somebody knew. Somebody always knows. Then the rip. But what's up with the huge spike in volume at close?

I documented this a few days ago. As usual, the pigmen win again. We are the chumps. You didn't even get kissed. How's it feel?

Today was fun to watch. Incoming chart porn; The chart above showed the 4953.56 level to look for in the S&P chart for today. It opened at 4953.79 which made for a huge gap down (which was filled by 11 minutes after 10 or 41 minutes into the trading day). Chart from December going back far enough to see the S/R levels. Also notice in the above chart the range of that candle. High of 5246.57 (around 10:15) and a low of 4835.04, which was at 9:44. That's a spread of 411.53 points on the S&P - in about a half hour. And the gap is also closed. Once it recovered early it got above the 4953 area and stayed above that for the rest of the day while producing some wild volatility, especially in the morning, then banged off some resistance around 2:00 a couple of times. Fun to watch. As I type this the S&P futures are up slightly.