Screwball

3 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

Does anybody still shop there (BB&B). The last time I was drug into the store it was full of crap. That's what happens when beancounters take over.

To the bold - I couldn't agree more - and it doesn't matter the industry.

I could write a book. Many have - nobody reads them - or listens to what they say even if they did.

And it all starts with Wall Street - the swine fucking banksters - who demand the quarterly earnings report beats expectations.

Penny smart - dollar stupid.

The GDP number wasn't as good as the headline numbers say it is, neither is jobless claims, but only the lazy/hacks report it that way.

BBBY (Bed, Bath & Beyond) is about to go bankrupt.  They got a default notice from the criminal bank JP Morgan.  Stock was halted a bit ago, not sure now.

Hawley introduces Pelosi Act banning lawmakers from trading stocks - The Hill

Quote

Hawley on Tuesday introduced the Pelosi Act — or the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments Act — renewing a legislative push to curtail stock trading by lawmakers that has failed over the last few years.

Too funny, but probably won't go anywhere. 

I didn't know the Fittipaldi kid was doing that. I'm a big fan of Emerson, and I always thought he had a name that screamed race car driver.  Emerson and Little Al at Indy was a classics of classics, whatever year that was.

10 hours ago, Cruzer1 said:

IVV is a passively managed ETF, as is SPY. They basically have the same holdings, except IVV is cheaper.

Management Fees		Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees		Other Expenses1		Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses
0.03%		None		0.00%		0.03%

---

1	The amount rounded to 0.00%.

Example. This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:

1 Year		3 Years		5 Years		10 Years
$3		$10		$17		$39       The net expense ratio for SPY is .0945, big difference to me.

.03 vs. .0945. Thanks, I didn't look up the number for SPY.  They are ETFs, which are now in the thousands, but they are not all the same, and some down right dangerous.  For example, leveraged ETFs, which most people should stay away from if you like to keep your money.

I see these "expense ratios" the same as fees, or decay.  Brokers might charge a trade fee, and some ETFs have higher decay than others vs the index it tracks.  For Example USO and crude oil, or SPY and the S&P 500.  At the end of the day, which ETF you chose depends on what you are trying to do - long term, short term, swing trade, day trade.  There will always be some type of fee's or decay involved.  Example; never use a leveraged ETF for a long term trade - the decay will eat you up.

EFTs give you built in diversification, but you can always buy the underlying stocks instead and eliminate the expense ratios, especially if your broker doesn't charge trading fees.  I like commodities but I have to use ETFs to do so - and they have noticeable decay - but doing your homework and getting the timing right will far outweigh the loses to to other circumstances.

I never heard it called expense ratio, but I never really paid much attention to it. I'm too old to hold stuff for lengthy periods of time, which is why I'm doing short term bonds right now.  With anything, it's all about the timing.

10 hours ago, Cruzer1 said:

IVV for the win with the 0.03% expense ratio.

A couple of questions;

Are you saying IVV is a buy right now, we should have already been in it, and if so, why?

I haven't really followed the expense ratio thing too much, where does .03% compare to other ETF's. I always called it "decay" and some were worse than others as far as how they tracked the underlying.

IVV looks to follow the S&P fairly well, but I don't know enough about it to know if they advertise tracking that index. Their top holdings are around 15 percent large Silly Con valley corps, not that I'm saying that's a bad thing - that's just how they chose to set up the fund.

2 year monthly comparison between IVV and the S&P - IVV in yellow

RE: Earnings calls

If you have never listened to one of them, you should. Once you get past the boring numbers at the beginning and the questions start, they are very informative, and sometimes quite entertaining. Depending on the size of the company, there will be X amount of Wall Street analysis on the call - asking questions.

They are public and you can listen to the WS guys make our companies big wigs look like complete idiots. They knew more about the company (industry/sector) than the people putting on the call - the big swinging dicks who we work for.  Which is why they work on WS to begin with. And make a lot more money.

Thumbs up to Queen's Gambit.

20 hours ago, mtutiger said:

Very cool... I grew up in the same kind of place and wouldn't trade the experience for the world. I'd even move back, frankly, if a world existed where I could have my job in that kinda place.

I just think, specific to the discussion about Elko, it can be a little more nuanced than characterizing the reality of the situation as "sneering at rednecks" or some ****. 

I have no idea what this Elko stuff is all about, and I don't care.

To the first part - people need to get into people. We really need to find a way to get along. We might even find out we have much more in common than hating each other.

For the record; I love Pink Floyd, Jim Morrison, and the Doors. Might be an age thing. Or songs connected to memories.

7 hours ago, ewsieg said:

Point taken, red counties only have dumb hillbilly hicks in them.  Probably want women in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant, amirite?

7 hours ago, mtutiger said:

Not sure why you feel that way about red counties... kinda arrogant and elitist if you ask me.

To the above; ewsieg is spot on.

I don't know how mtutiger can come to that conclusion after reading the board since born here or the old site. Many have spent countless posts making fun of the dumb hillbilly hicks from places like Cornhole, where I come from. We just giggle - just so you know.

I go to a shithole town bar where the guy across from me is wearing a "Let's go Brandon" hat, sitting beside his black girlfriend - who is sitting beside a pink haired gay girl who is sitting beside a couple of prominent local business owners - sitting beside the owner of the bar.  Going the other way from the hat guy, there is a big black guy who works in a local factory and has a DJ service at night, then a couple gay guys in their late 60s who always bring in some kind of food treat, then a few retired guys, a couple of Latino's who work construction, students from around the world that go to our two local colleges, and some who just got off at the local factory that live paycheck to paycheck. A truly melting pot of Americana.

We all get along and have a ball. How the fuck does that happen?

This world has went completely insane.  Don't be one of them.

Here is how I make money in the Lottery.  I live in Ohio and have the Ohio Lottery app installed on our phones.  A local watering hole I frequent has a couple lottery machines.  People play a lot of Keno and/or progressive jackpot games.  They can check their tickets for winners by scanning the code at the machine (before they buy more because they lost).  They throw the non-winning tickets in the trash can beside the machine.

I go in around 4pm. The machines are on the way to the bathroom so as I walk by, I grab a handful (or more) of tickets out of the trash, put them in my pocket, then proceed to the bathroom where I wash my hands.

Later, when I get home, I scan the ticket into the Ohio Lottery app.  They tell me they are losers but are worth 5 points (for Keno - some are more depending on the game).  You can scan up to 1200 points each month, so I use two phones.  Once I get to 10,000 I cash them in for rewards.  I get a $100 dollar gas card, which for each phone gets me 2 $100 gas cards, which takes about 8 months, and doesn't cost anything.

I've even found winners that someone threw away, so there can be a bonus.

On the downside, I was scanning tickets at the bar one day and some guy beside me asked how I was doing.  I explained I was just scanning the codes for reward points. His wife got pissed and said - you took "someone" else's ticket out of the trash to scan their points?  Yep.  That's pathetic she yelled at me.  I just laughed. Best I can tell, if they threw them away, they didn't want them, so fair game.

Speaking of McLaren and Indy - from the Indy Star; Kyle Larson to run 2024 Indy 500 with Arrow McLaren, will be 5th driver to attempt The Double

I have a love/hate relationship with Indy, but I'm so happy to see this.  A guy who gets a shot at Indy who can wheel instead someone who can't drive but looks good in sportswear.

He is also getting Hendrick money (and technology). This is good for racing.

4 hours ago, oblong said:

with regard to "woke"..... it just means people are pissed off they can't use the N word or make fun of gays anymore and the bitch about "woke" as a placeholder.

 

 

I assume this is directed at me.  I have no desire to call people the N word, so you can go fuck yourself.

Kick me off this gawd awful site, I don't really care.  I'm only here for the entertainment anyway.

13 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

Did the school put it there or did some kid put it there as a joke?  I have met people who were non-binary and transgender and all those different types of identities.  I work in a very liberal environment where we are encouraged to be sensitive to all these different identies.  Half of my colleagues use pronouns (I don't because I think everyone can figure out that I'm a he).  I have never met anyone who identified as a cat nor been told to be inclusive of cat identifiers.  Maybe somewhere there is someone who thinks they are a cat, but I don't believe that it's a common thing we are supposed to embrace.  It sounds like urban legend to me.     

I will have to ask the person who told me. I'm not sure if it was the school or the person. I'm not sure how this would have went down if it was a public school. There might have been some push back, but this one is private.

I had a kid last year who identified as a fish.  His e-mails, and I don't know how he did it, said after his name (a sarcastic fish).  The kid was a mess.  If you didn't stand right behind him, he wouldn't do anything. I was nothing more than a babysitter.  He couldn't follow simple instructions like put his name and date on an assignment he turned in.  He couldn't spell (sent me an e-mail once that started "I know I've been a bare), and sure wasn't very good with math, but yet, somehow, he was a junior in high school.  How does that happen?

I could write a book on the 3 horrible years I spent with high school kids and the daily shit show it is.  I honestly don't know how the teachers put up with it.

*****

I'm glad all you up-to-date-on-the-issues people can sit here and tell me what is true and what isn't true about what happened in my very own town, told to me by someone I've known for years who works at the very place it happened.  Congrats.

15 minutes ago, smr-nj said:

Screwball, I was actually agreeing with the first part of your response, as I was asked to update personal data online for an upcoming doctor visit, and the question popped up to ask how I identified..  I admit to kinda laughing as I answered, but, yeah, folks are being asked to let them know how they want to be addressed. I just kind of find that to be a bit over the top, because if I were a person that wanted to be “identified” differently, I think I’d have prefer to talk to my doctor face to face.  But, whatever.

However, you disappoint me a bit by just repeating the “cat box at a local school” story, which is very much a crock of shit. 😂 “Everyone” is “saying” they know someone who knows someone where this happened in their school.  Sorry, but that’s nonsense.

I'm disappointed you say that. It is absolutely true. I'm sorry I don't have pictures as my word doesn't seem good enough.

18 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

don't look up. 

There is a movie called that.  So you are telling me I missed it?

Giggle, that's been my whole life - a day late and a dollar short.

On 1/7/2023 at 7:27 AM, chasfh said:

I am frankly amazed at how much of a bogeyman “woke” has become.

Disclaimer; I'm only using this post to wonder about a few things. I have no idea what you are talking about, and I don't mean that in a bad way.

I really don't understand the "woke" definition, or what it is all about.  Seems media driven, IMO.

But I have noticed some things have changed. It seems we are more into pronouns than we used to be.  As I have disclosed, I teach college STEM classes.  In the last couple of years I have noticed e-mail signatures have changed by adding pronouns after their name. (he/him) kind of things.

OK, fine, I can work with that, but I'm also afraid of screwing up, you might say.  For example, one of my classes are all guys, and one of them uses 4 pronouns.  Guy isn't on the list.  I'm in front of the class giving a lecture, and say, OK guys, let's do this.  Will I get in trouble?  Perhaps.

If that is the case, I'm done. I can't teach people while walking on eggshells.

And I'm probably lucky.

I live in Cornhole, Ohio, out in the sticks, an hour from any fairly large city. Trumper country you might say. Even here, some really strange things happen. Local school had to put a cat litter box in the gender inclusive bathroom because a girl identified as a cat.  That's the truth.

I wonder where it all ends?

Call me lazy, but I've been busy today. I'm sure there will be more news about this, but the short question is; when and where?

Wow, sad news. As an old guy who wanted to be a rock and roll star playing the strings - but couldn't because I have the musical talent equivalent of a brick - made me appreciate guys like him even more.  So cool what he gave us.  Thank you!

RIP to one of the best.

35 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

Bunch of twats.

Also rumors a new rule is coming that wont allow "rebadging" which Cadillac plans to do.  But they are only doing it until their engine program is up and running.

 

A couple of quotes from that article caught my eye;

Quote

And in the context of the long-running F1/Andretti stand-off, it’s pertinent to consider if the bid for a General Motors-blessed Cadillac F1 project would have received a warmer response if it did not carry the apparent baggage of an Andretti association.

So it sounds like they (not sure who "they" are) have a hard on for the Andretti's.  Mario must have pissed someone off.  I can see that.  LOL!
 

Quote

 

Over the past couple of years, ‘dilution’ has been at the centre of any discussion about new entries. Liberty Media and the existing 10 teams have advocated a franchise model that strengthens the existing competitors and maximises everyone’s share of an increasingly bigger pot as F1 continues to grow.

To protect against this, the most recent Concorde Agreement including a $200million anti-dilution fund that effectively acts as an entry fee a new team would need to pay, to be shared with all existing entries. This would be a one-off payment that would give some short-term cover for how much the current teams would lose by another team taking a share of the revenue.

However, it appears that the consensus among most of the existing teams is now that this figure is too low in hindsight. They feel that F1’s growth means they will lose more than that.

The likely argument is that this raises the bar of entry for a new team even further, with full involvement from an automotive manufacturer a priority – which is clearly something several stakeholders doubt would actually be the case with Andretti Cadillac.

 

All these articles have used the word "dilution" but this is the first one that I read that kind of makes sense to me (clueless of F1), but this sounds like a way the other teams can reject someone they don't want by pricing them out.

The paragraph after that one sums up what I think is the correct take from this;
 

Quote

 

Whether this is a specific grudge to bear against Andretti or a case of F1 closing ranks against any threat of dilution may only become apparent as other bids enter the frame.

But for now, there is clear and strong opposition to this specific proposal, which may have got caught up in an ongoing F1/FIA power struggle as well.

 

I bring this up, and some of the comments in that article are along the same lines; this kind of squabbling, protection, call it what you want - can be the eventual downfall of of a sanctioning body.  If memory serves, the USAC/CART wars of years past as an example - which in the end - didn't benefit racing or the fans.

I hope they can work something out.

And I will reserve the the right be be completely wrong since I don't follow F1 that close (I am a fan of the Andretti's, GM, and open wheel racing in general).

It might depend on the car maker; from Bubblevision

Rolls-Royce sees record sales 2022, no slowdown in spending by the wealthy

Imagine that!

That's only the bottom, too tall to post the entire thing.

I can't find it, but I read something not long ago that the 8 year loans were drying up. There is a chip problem too. I was at my dealer twice in the last couple of months - a ghost town - and not many cars on the lot. Not that that matters, this is Cornhole.

From Finviz (1 year performance);