Archives for June 2026

Wednesday, June 24, 2026

I have just come back from a trip to the Mayan area in Mexico. I got sick the week before when I went to see the grandkids so I wasn’t in the best shape for the trip. I made it back and was in a very nasty mood. I was tired of being sick. All of a sudden early this morning I think a cloud lifted and the cold has retreated. I’m not sure, but I’m hopeful because I have not been myself, which is frustrating and weird. I seem to almost ask myself “who is this person that is inhabiting my body?”

Being sick like this makes me reflective. I’ve been watching the World Cup (that’s soccer or Football depending on where you grew up.) It is so wonderful to see the teams compete from around the world. There is joy and hope. And heartbreak. I was in Mexico at an open air restaurant when Mexico played Korea. (Interestingly, they didn’t say “South Korea,” just Korea.) I got there a few minutes before Mexico scored the only goal of the game. Wow. 

When the Korean goalie leaped in the air, grabbed the ball and hit the ground with his body extended the ball came loose and one of the Mexican players nudged it in. It wasn’t a blast. More like a soft pass, but it was a goal. The restaurant, the street outside, everywhere exploded in joy and noise. A guy came out from the back wearing a big floppy sombrero. He was jumping up and down. The hat was flapping. People were shouting and cheering. Horns were honking. It was crazy fun.

On the flight into Mexico City there were a lot of people wearing Columbian jerseys. They had come from New York to see Columbia play Uzbekistan. When else are you going to see Uzbekistan people and Columbian people together? The flight attendants made a comment as we were about to land about Columbia and the plane erupted in cheers.

On the way home I watched a bit of a documentary about The Women’s World Cup 1971. I had not realized that women were forbidden to play soccer in many countries. It was thought to be too dangerous. An Englishman got the liquor manufacturer Martini & Rossi to sponsor the tournament. 

FIFA which is governed by men, all men, tried everything they could to stop it. They threatened clubs with fines and expulsion if they let women use their fields. In Mexico they banned them from using any of the club fields. The only stadiums they could use were the two largest, which they filled. But still to this day the prejudice exists. Megan Rapinoe wrote about how her women’s team would qualify when the men’s team didn’t. Yet, the women were given little money while the men flew in chartered jets, and the women were making the ticket sales! Not the men.

Yet in the world you see the joy and camaraderie that a sport brings. It’s huge. What I really like is that at the end of the game the players from either team congratulate each other. No fighting. Hugs.

When I arrived home I had run out of my medicine and was still sick and started to go downhill again. It was depressing, annoying, frustrating, and tiring. It did make for good lump sitting and watching the games.

I also got filled in on the latest outrages and opposition to our President. I read that there are cheers in stadiums denouncing Trump and linking him to Epstein. His staff is trying to find a “safe” game where he won’t be booed. So far, no luck.

I watched a clip of him trying to put a medal around a soldier’s neck. He couldn’t clip it and had to tie it on with a granny knot. It reminded me of what many believe was the fall of Egypt’s Old Kingdom when Pepy II got so old that he couldn’t pull the bowstring to shot the ceremonial arrow.

But that’s only the tip of the shitberg, there’s the disaster of the Reflecting Pool with its peeling liner and algae problem. People touching it are arrested and denounced as “radical left lunatics”, including an Olympic cyclist. Others come and cheer for the algae.

It’s been reported the Trump has taken to gluing gold stuff to the walls in the White House. The Ballroom has been stopped by court order. The Rose Garden has been paved over to look like a patio at a poolside cheap resort. The 250 foot monstrosity monument has been halted (I think). The Kennedy Center has its name restored, but they won’t take down the curtain hiding the fact the Trump’s name is off it. The Oval beyond the White House looks like a decimated lawn. ICE is giving up on six of its super detention centers. The effort by the administration to haul up the deep sea monitoring equipment and junk it has been halted. (Why on Earth did they want to stop that? And spend millions to do it?)

But the we get to Tulsi Gabbard. Why did she resign as head of our national security? Turns out she was taking direct orders from her cult leader. She is and was in a cult and she does exactly what this guy says. I mean the guy makes people eat his toe nail clippings? That’s weird.. And she was in charge of our national security. And it’s not like people didn’t know. But the Washington Post (that leftist rag owned by multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos “his worst investment”) published stuff showing memos sent to Gabbard telling her exactly what to say and she said it word for word. Not just what to say but as a legislator what to enact. She was shown what they were about topublish and resigned. I think she is vacationing with Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem, learning new skills like puppy shooting.

This is crazy. You can’t make this up. It would never make it as a Hollywood script because it’s too off the wall.

Then we get to a piece by Paul Krugman. You know that hack Nobel winning economist. He pointed out that Timothy Snyder (that hack professor who wrote a thin book called “On Tyranny”) said of Hegseth and Trump that, I quote:

“The attack on Iran began with a longing — a subjective sense that violence is pleasurable and can bring a utopia in which desires become reality. In the statements of President Trump and Defense Secretary Hegseth, such a utopia of violence is palpable.”

And Krugman goes on to point out how Hegseth has  stalled or ruined the careers of women and people of color. The integration in our military of women and black people had been a source of pride and now this has been degrades as has our military preparedness. 

Trump’s war of whim with Iran has now been lost and he has to pay. So instead of having an agreement with Iran like we did under Obama we have a stronger more dangerous Iran. 

This list of incompetence is long. But it’s not just incompetence. It’s dishonesty. it’s deceit. It’s crime – done openly. I mean Martha Stewart went to jail for one insider trading tip. Trump? How many has he had? Well, they weren’t tip were they? He created them. I mean he invests in a company a day or so before he announces the Federal Government is buying a lot of that company’s stuff? I have to wonder how does he have time to do anything governmental? You know, like running the government? I mean if you are trading as many times as is alleged that means he’s trading all day every day.

Then there’s the nutty health care stuff. How about the breakout of disease at some, was it?, air force base? Because now vaccinations are up to the whim of the individual??? Yeah, raise your hand if you want to be cheek and jowl with someone in a foxhole that could have plague. (or mumps, or COVID, or measles, or any of the other diseases we have preventatives for). And don’t forget it you get bitten by a rodent or dog and want to find out if you have rabies they ain’t got people to do those tests anymore. Flu? Yeah. It won’t be as up to snuff as it used to be. I mean you gotta have people to do that work and who know what they are doing, but they’re gone. How about “the best and the brightest”? They aren’t coming here to study anymore.They are going to those shithole countries like Denmark. Oh sorry, you’re white. I mean you’re okay.

It’s sad. It’s dishonest. It’s criminal. It’s stupid. But that is where we are right now.

This is not the country I grew up in. When I was growing up a Republican was President. He played golf once in a while. He strengthened Social Security. He built The Interstate Highway System. He believed in science and he was wary of “the military industrial complex.” Those days are long gone. 

Day 532a – Reflecting Pool update

June 24, 2026

An addendum to the day:

If you were doing something and it was going to be a crucial piece to your legacy, agenda, whatever wouldn’t you want to get advice from the best people you could? I mean, the most knowledgeable?

That approach wound be called what? Common sense? 

The Park Service has reported on the damage to the Reflecting Pool. Seems there are two very long “cuts” along the edge of the pool. We’re talking about 177 feet for each or thereabouts. When I read that I immediately thought that’s a heck of a long cut. If someone was trying to do that with a knife that would be hard and take a lot of time and effort. Well, it could be “radical left lunatics,” but wouldn’t someone have seen a person crawling along the edge of the Reflecting Pool on their knees for 177 feet? Twice?

The newspaper I was reading (That disreputable rag The New York Times) did something really weird. They called up a person who knows something about pool liners and pool lining. His opinion? Well, he wouldn’t rule out a knife but more likely he thought it could be that not enough material was put down. That the application was too thin, and done too hastily. Now does that make sense to you? I mean if ya got sumptin’ and it’s real thin and it needs to contract, or expand, well gosh there just ain’t too much to work with and yeah it might just create a big long separation – oftentimes referred to as “a cut.”

Now this here expert didn’t say nuthin’ ‘bout the boys doin’ the job, but he did say that there are people in this bizness that know what they are doing.

Maybe giving a no bid contract to a buddy wasn’t such a good idea?

Put it another way: which is more like Trump? Hasty, thin, and cheap; or thoughtful, well researched, and knowledgeable?

If it has to be redone can we get some sparkles? You know like fireworks. Bombs bursting in air and all that? I hear the President has some glue left over from his tacky tack job in The White House.

I wonder if the guy got paid? I mean it is so Trump like to not pay.

Monday, June 15, 2026

According to a reporter (you know those people who dig up those things called facts) who looked at the public comments on Trump’s ballroom. There have been 35,000 comments. 97% were negative, 1% positive, and 2% couldn’t tell if they were for or against it. Pretty impressive.

Now to the cage match. Who fought? Usually, when there’s a fight the names of the fighters are prominent. Not this time. Also, the lights from the stage were such that pilots making their approach to National Airport were distracted and thrown off.

In other tangential news the Park Service funds from collection of fees is being diverted by the Trump administration. Not sure where to, maybe the ballroom? Staff was already cut by 25% so expect things to be not as good as before. Besides the budget has been underfunded for years. No worries.

SpaceX is up to almost $180.00 Gad zooks. Well, there ya go. Elon is a … not sure what to say.

Jimmy Kimmel pointed out that Elon could buy all the hockey, football, baseball, and basketball teams and still have $265 billion left over.

Prediction: The War in Iran will be over in two weeks or ten days. This has had to be updated about every two weeks since it started in February. So how many times is that? 2,4,6,8,10 times? At twice a month.

ICE is now threatening NYC. It will be interesting to see “how tough they are,” whoever they is.

Sunday, June 14, 2026

Why I never tell people what stocks to buy. (Well, hardly never*)

*Sorry G&S**

**Gilbert and Sullivan

The problem is Now.

Now as in the Present.

If you are talking past, present, and future you are not talking about the actual moment. In that context the present is viewing the very recent past. I learned this when I was supposed to “come in on time” in a song. If you stop  to think “Is that now?” You’ve missed the moment; the moment you were supposed to come in and sing. Coming in on time is a leap of faith and can only be realized in retrospect.

What does this have to do with Spacex? Well, good question. Or someone might ask, “Should I buy Spacex?” Well, it opened at the IPO price of $135 and stood there for a while. It closed at $173. So the time to have bought it was when it was 135, not 173. Well, that was easy. Of course it was. Because that is not NOW, that was THEN. The price is 173, do you want it? And that, boys and girls is all you need to know about buying stocks.

Forget whatever you think about Elon Musk. The stock is 173. That’s the now. Yes, you could have bought it at 135 but that’s not where it’s at. It at 173. I know you are asking yourself, “Does that make sense? Should I buy it?” The wise stock advisor says to you, “Well, that depends….” The smart investor screams at you, “Shit! NO!” (Just to be clear.)

Okay. Wait. Hold on. Why do I say that? Well, to put it in the words of Nobel winning economist Paul Krugman, “Do you really think Spacex is worth more than Microsoft?”

Hum, well, when you put it like that…

Yeah. That’s called reality. Well, is it? Is Spacex worth more than Microsoft?

Well, if you look at the total value of Microsoft based on stock price and the total value of Spacex … Forget that. Think about this. What has each company done? To refer back to Krugman, SpaceX has been “a moderately successful rocket launch company”. Okay. and that is pretty spectacular, but a trillion dollars spectacular? No. Maybe, in the future? Yeah. That’s the bet.

Well, when it comes to betting on the future … with Elon … how’s that worked out?

Once again, it depends. He’s a good functional engineer. He can figure out how to make something work, how to streamline it. He did that with PayPal and he sold it for millions. He bought into Tesla and was on the brink of going under and bought into solar shingles and a company that could bore holes in the Earth. None of that really worked out but he folded it all into Tesla bought Twitter and halved its value and folded that and his clunky AI into SpaceX. He’s made predictions about going to Mars the way Trump makes predictions about ending the war he started or about anything he doesn’t know anything about (“two weeks”, “ten days”). Except, Elon uses years or decades. It gives him a bit more wiggle room.

There are three ways to buy stocks that work:

!. Buy stuff when it’s cheap (Warren Buffett),

2. Buy stuff that has great leadership (Motley Fool),

3. Buy the Dow or some Index (Vanguard).

The trick is to buy say ten and hope three work out, because no one, and I mean no one, can figure out what the future will bring. But you can hedge your bets by paying attention, buy a bunch of stuff and hope you hit a few. 

What Musk has done is convinced a lot of the fund index managers to bend their rules and include SpaceX. This guarantees that someone is buying it. Usually, Index funds would wait a year before including it. So even if you hate Elon he’s wormed his way into your 401K. Brilliant!

Egads.

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Same with money. When the two combine it merely accelerates the process.

I read “Lost to the West,” the story of the history of Constantinople. Constantinople, now Istanbul, is where Asia and Europe meet. It is literally where East meets West. It s history is the story of the rich and powerful rising up and taking over. Every time they did they decreased taxes on themselves and therefore the bulk fell to the middle class. Every time that happened the middle class left. They literally “took to the hills.” The city fell apart. The tide shifted and the middle class took control and things improved. Until the next time.

Historians, when viewing democracies, give them 250 years. Often referred to as times of chaos. Before order is restored is the term used. That means before someone comes in and beats everyone into submission. Or another way to look at it is, it takes 250 years to figure out how to jerry rig the system to your advantage so others can’t fight back.

Well? What will happen? 

No one knows. You should have bought at 135. Do you sell ate 173, before everyone figures out it’s a con?

Or do you wait? Maybe it will go to 193? Or 200?

Constantinople fell when a new technology came along that shredded their defenses. They had big walls. One of their own came up with a new thing. A big long tube that fired a huge stone ball. It was so big and heavy and got so hot it could only fire six or eight times a day. They laughed at him; They turned him down. He sold the idea to the Ottomans, who used ti to pound the indestructible walls.

It’s impossible until it’s not.

No one comes back from being 29 points down at the half. Except the Knicks whose man figured out the now with 1.2 seconds left and leapt at just the right moment to grab the ball and put it through the rim. In the Now.

Friday, June 12, 2026

I had been learning a lot about IPOs and Spacex recently.

I tend to stay away from IPOs because more often than not they go down after coming on the market.

I was planning on buying a goodly chunk of Spacex and then I started doing some research.

Part of that research was understanding how I could even buy into an IPO via Fidelity.

In the old days, you had to have a broker or a person at the bank (a major bank), who could put in for you.

Typically, I never got any of the IPO shares, unless it was garbage.

But I learned Fidelity had an IPO Calendar web page where they told you what stocks they were offering.

It turned out to be a two step process: Step 1) Indicate interest in a company.

Step 2) The night before the stock comes out Fidelity will ask via that webpage if you want to “confirm” your choice. 

I learned if you didn’t confirm it was the same as not having done anything.

I tried two test cases: Quantinuum and Sunshine Silver (say that quickly!!!)

I didn’t realize about the confirm bit until the morning the shares were supposed to start trading. It was after 8A.M. and it turned out on one of them I had to confirm before eight so I wasn’t even in the game.

The other, Quantinuum I confirmed and when the shares opened on the market at 9:30 I didn’t get any.

I bought both companies on the open market a bit below their IPO price and they have done spectacularly nothing.

With Spacex I had said I wanted to participate in several different accounts. I sold some stuff so I’d have money to buy. Turned out the next day the stock market went down so my selling looked like a bloody genius move.

Last night the “confirm” option came. By then I had done some (sober?) reflection and I cut way back on my orders. I signaled I wanted ten shares in each of two accounts, about $2600 total commitment. I only got ten shares in one account. They said it was over subscribed – so be it.

In my research I discovered that the offering stock price was about one hundred times earnings. That means it would take one hundred years for you to make your investment back based on current earnings. Yikes.

But…but…the case is that Spacex will do lots of great things in the near future.

However, if you look at Elon’s track record on doing great things it ain’t so great. 

Paul Krugman, award winning economist, calls Elon “A Human Ponzi Scheme.” Why? His company to bore holes – hasn’t. His buying of Twitter resulted in his personal decimation of the company and it is now worth 50% of what it was when he bought it. Make that 40%. His Tesla stuff. He was ahead of the curve on the EV part. The self driving? Not so much. Only a few cars in one city and the technology he’s employing ain’t working. And he, like Donald Trump, is given to pronouncements that don’t come true. In Elon’s case it seems he says things like we’ll go to Mars and he throws out a date or a number of years hence as if he’s thought about it for maybe ten seconds. Many of those pronouncements were made seven or ten years ago and this is the year they are supposed to happen. Donald Trump uses the phrases: “In two weeks” or “In ten days” when he has no idea. This is typically followed by “you’ll be surprised what we found.” or some version of that. The exception is the Trump War with Iran which is going to be settled every week.

One hour until the market opens – it should be interesting. If “the smart money” is right SpaceX should fall to around $63 a share from its open at $135.00.

But will it be like Gamestop? Will it be propped up by idiot retail investors?

Or has Elon ponzied all of them into the fold already?

Thursday, June 11, 2026

You know what I want? I want a coach or a player on the Knicks to say, “No, that was our plan all along. Let the Spurs get 29 points ahead in the first half and then come back and win by a point with 1.2 seconds left.”

Speaking of crazy sh*t. Elon Musk, SpaceX IPO. What’s going to happen? Well, I can tell you what should happen. The stock should open and crash. Or will it be another GameStop? I’ll try to get a few shares at the pre-trade IPO price, but the stock is priced at 100 times earnings and the consensus is the stock is worth $63 not the $135 being said to being priced at.

Let’s remember Elon, like Trump, says a lot that doesn’t come true or isn’t true. He’s going to Mars in Idunno 2 years, 3 years, ten years, do I hear 20?

He boasts his Teslas are driverless, while ignoring the fact that they aren’t and that he refuses to use technology that could help make them so.

Is The Strait of Hormuz open yet? No. Next week? Okay. When have i heard that before? Oh, right, every week since Trump started this war.

Interesting piece in that rag The New York Times. It outlined in great detail the attempts by Trump’s FBI and Justice Department to go after people. For some reason some of the lawyers were saying there was no evidence and no case. Can you imagine that? Suggesting to the alternate facts crowd that reality played a part? Stunning. Most were fired. Correction. All were fired. 

Imagine if Donald Trump were a basketball coach. “We need more player on the court.” “You are only allowed five.” “That’s just a rule. Put out seven.” Whistle. Penalty. Stoppage of play.

Play resumes, but this time with nine players for one team.

“Why won’t they just let them play? It’s so unfair. These refs are a disgrace.”