Screwball

Me too. He taught me. Honest as the day is long - he looked exactly like Ben Hogan. He even wore his hat. Might have hit more golf balls too. He was even on the front page of the local paper when they took a picture of him hitting balls at the local park - which he did every day before he went to the golf course. It was titled "Mr. Chips." That was off the charts cool. He not only taught me how to play golf, and he was a student, he taught me about life. I was a lucky guy. We only got to do one Father/Son tourney. We didn't win, but we were right there. I played in scrambles with my boys, and a league with one. But thanks the gramps, golf was passed down to through the generations. A truly great game. Very humbling, difficult, and cerebral.

That's sweet. I remember watching Player, Nicklaus, Trevino, Palmer, etc. Great stuff back in the day. Bobby Jones was the best ever. I can't prove it of course. I read he had a club head speed of 135. That would have been with a hickory shaft.

As a dad, a golfer, and 3 boys who golf, this is as good as it gets. Bravo!

They lost to a reality show circus clown - twice. Maybe it's time they look in the mirror instead of blaming everyone but themselves.

Elon didn't get Trump elected, the democrats did.

I'm not so sure. The blowing up of the Nord Stream pipeline didn't help. Who was it, Vicky "warmonger" Nuland who said **** the EU. I'm sure they will find the dinghy who blew it up someday. 🙂

I hate giving that stuff to anymore places than I have to, but at this point they know more about us than we do. Nothing is secret or safe anymore. Big Brother won. The stupid part of this, and I now wonder how long this has hosed me because I obviously didn't pay close enough attention, is why the bank won't let me pay this bill when I want to. I can only pay it after it was due. Even though this is archaic enough they still send a check (wonder why that is?), if I pay enough ahead it should still get there. It isn't like I just bought a 50 grand worth of Exxon Mobile and seconds matter. It only goes a state over. Last I looked we got away from horse and buggy years ago. Just for ****s and giggles I decided to ask my bank why this is going on. I only spent 15 or 20 minutes and failed to contact a person. For my blood pressure and a buck and a half - it ain't worth it - so I went and drank beer.

I got an email today from the Water company from the ticket I submitted that I should give them my banking information so it will be a direct withdrawal and there would be no fee. This is exactly what I figure would happen, and exactly why I didn't want to do that to begin with. I don't like giving these company's my bank information and automatic pays. It's not like I don't have the money, but I want to see the bill before I pay it, and pay it when I want. This would all be moot if I could change the pay date on the banks bill pay website, but I can't. I suppose I could ask the bank what is going on, but I'm sure that would raise my blood pressure to unsatisfactory levels, and they might have me on ignore anyway since the last dust up we had last year. Which they never addressed, I might add. I would like to ask them why they work so hard to suck so bad.

This is funny. Speaking of banks, I just jumped over to my bank website to pay a few bills. I know it is easier to just take it out of your account, but I like to push the go button. Anyway, most of my utility bills come early in the month, with the exception being my water bill. Not sure why. I tend to forget and get whacked with a late charge cause I forgot. That's on me, no issue. That happened again for this bill I just got. But... When I went to pay it, I noticed my bank will not issue the check until a day after it is due. This is goofy too, because some bills are paid electronically, and some are still paper checks and the mail (like this one). It is due December 26th, and the pay date the bank picks is December 27. I can't change it unless it is later. So I will once again get whacked with a late fee. That's not my fault, and maybe what has happened before. I know I can setup auto payments but I don't like that. That's just me. I have also been told by my house and car insurance people payments got there late due to the mail, and not me. Great... And it gets better. I decide to create an account with my water company so I can pay them directly. I have this with other utilities because I commodity shop. So I create the account and go to pay my bill, which I could see online. It doesn't match the one I have in my hand because of timing. I owe them $2.16 online, buy my paper bill is $68.26 - containing a $1.48 late fee. Again, that's on me (maybe). So when I get to paying the bill part, the last screen shows me the transaction and I see a $1.95 convenience fee. Apparently for doing so online. I quit. Found the support hotline, sent them a little note that I might as well pay it late. Saves me $.47. WTF?

I don't know what's going to happen, but I think things are pretty ****ed up. What really pisses me off is these pricks lowering interest rates. I have been piled into short term safe stuff for quite some time, and happy with my returns. I'm old, so too late for much risk. Easy safe money. But I can see how these cuts have hurt. Spit! There are some killers out there if you want to take some risk. Corporate bonds can make you some great yield, but some risk involved. I almost pulled the trigger on some. Banks no less... I hate banks, so it's a moral victory to make money of the slimy pricks.

Kinda funny. The only green on that heatmap is UNH and the healthcare stocks. I have no idea what to think of that, but kinda wild given the recent UNH stuff.

More Fedspeak, as usual, and since forever. People got fleeced today given the move. Not Wall Street. As long as they keep printing money - read debt - this prick ain't going down.

I'm not worried about how the market reacts. This rate cut is insanity given the numbers. Inflation is out of control and hurting many people. Those who deny that are liars or have their head firmly stuffed up their ass.

Happy Fed rate cut we don't need day. 85% chance of a 25bps cut according to what I read.

A 15 year old girl as I understand it. WTF? I wonder what she was dealing with? I have a daughter who was once 15 for the record. Awful stuff.

The problem I have with all this congressional trading is the inside information they know. They buy in way early because they know what's coming down. That is documented, and it matters. It is also illegal. If you have a true market - price discovery - everyone gets the same information at the same time. They should not be allowed to trade at all. At the same time, this is why all these ****wads are there - they get rich - because they are ass kissing ****wads. They are laughing at us while they fleece us.

Wouldn't it be wild if we found out the ****wads in congress were trading stocks and making a killing while having all that inside information? Oh, wait...

OK, some more tin foil hat stuff. RE: the United Healthcare thing. I posted above the day the guy got shot and how goofy the stock price was the overnight before. That obviously didn't go anywhere, so I guess only screwballs like me find interest in it. 🙂 A new twist on the same subject. I happen to see a thing today about the stock price of United Healthcare being down quite a bit lately. I hadn't checked so let's do... As it turns out, and I have no idea what to think about this, but it has taken quite a beating recently. Hummm...So I did some homework to compare, and this industry of stocks have been getting beat up even before this happened. The common ETF, IHF had been beat up too, which started around Sept this year. But this one still looks a little funny. I don't know what happened back in July, just before earnings I might add (see icons at the bottom) but it was a rocket ship right around that time. I wonder what caused that. And now this. I'd be pulling the ripcord on these positions in my portfolio.

Adding: Way up thread Enron and Jeff Skilling were mentioned. This crypto stuff kind of reminds me of that. IMO, Skilling was ahead of his time when it came to "financial innovation" which is why he is on my Mt. Rushmore of financial criminals. It's about creating something out of nothing. Of course, in this case, it seems the mining uses a whole bunch of energy, so there is that. At the same time, who does it benefit? Not society in general, at least not yet, if you want to look at that angle. As an alternative means of exchange to be clear. All crazy stuff. I don't know what to think. My money right now is in KISS mode - keep it simple stupid.

I probably should have said move "some" of their money. I don't know the math, but there is a bunch of money sloshing around out there (especially given leverage - and in who knows what - like crypto). I don't think the government could buy crypto directly, unless they passed a law I guess. Not gonna happen. Spending still comes from the house, then monetized via the Fed. The crypto stuff isn't going to replace that. As said way above, if it was ever a threat, it will be shut down. Wall Street makes money no matter what happens. They own the place, and when they **** it all up they get bailed out.

Here's a WTFOT (way the **** out there); The big money people need somewhere to put their money before the everything bubble pops. 🙂

The US media does what they do because that's what they are paid to do. Look at Bubblevision. How TF is Jim Cramer still on TV? Funny to see so many old CNBC anchors now doing political stuff. Experienced and trained liars. Cha-ching. The CPI/PPI numbers provide a huge amount of data, which allows it to be narrated in certain ways. They can take this vast amount of data and make it sound however they want. And they do - it is an industry - both for the business TV news and the insiders on Wall Street. Billions of dollars change hands when reports come out - BREAKING NEWS!!! At the end of the day, inflation is measured in many ways, and it depends on who is affected. Rule #1; inflation punishes the people who can't afford it the most. They tell us the 2.7% CPI print is good, but it's not to many many people. I mentioned the electric bills above, but another example, locally. Cornhole, a few years ago spent I don't know how much money to do a sewer study, then put on a dog and pony show for city council telling them how the only thing they can do is raise rates - due to inflation. They told them to raise the rates 5% annually forever and ever. To thunderous applause. Passed unanimously. Thank you very much. Nowhere, in this who knows how many thousands of dollar study did they talk about how to cut costs. But whatever... Now we know our sewer bill will double in 14 1/2 years. Seems like a long time, but not really. And everything else does too. Things we need. House and car insurance, land taxes (don't get me started on that), utilities. Edward Deming had a thing he called the quadrants of efficiency. Quad 1 was when everything was going good, no scrap and waste. Quad 2 showed some issues, so get right on that. Quad 3 was an oil leak, and it better not it get any worse. Quad 4 was called "state of chaos." That's where we are economically, monetarily, and fiscally. This place is a ****ing mess.

Those who shop for electric rates are in for a rude awakening as well. I have been shopping and going forward our electric bills are going nowhere but up. I don't know how it scales, but my electric usage runs about 27% of my bill. What a friken ripoff. But it's going higher. I'm paying .0582 per KwH right now. Best I can find is .07 something. So for ever 400 Kw the bill will go up $8 bucks, which is only the electric.

Speaking of debt, this isn't pretty; Monthly Treasury Statement - from the Treasury Dept. 40 page PDF. The first chart is quite interesting. If dig deeper, the rate of increase is not good. For the warmongers, we are spending more on interest on our debt than we are national defense. Exponents are a bitch.