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I think if the U.S. made a joint DL/Citizenship Card it would force a lot of people to find their passports or birth certificates. I'm not against it, I just think it's a way to make it harder for people to vote. Nothing to do with legitimate or not. In Canada, we are required to provide our voter card (just a piece of paper sent to your home address telling you where to vote), be on the voter registry that matches the card, and provide a piece of photo id. No birth certificate, no passport. And there has been zero outcry over unfair elections. We also have mail in ballots that are date-stamped when mailed, and counted after election day, but they have to all be in by election day...that is the cut-off. Cheers!

Nothing against the US, or the incredible achievements of the US people .... just not so much the administration. We just call it as we see it, and invest accordingly. The dysfunctional administration is rapidly getting worse, Trump has now become a material hazard to the world, and there is diminishing confidence in a drama free transition .... should Trump lose the midterms. Wide range of ways it could go. If I have done my job well, we do well no matter what. I just find it very unlikely that pending a state removal, an incapacitated Trump voluntarily gives way to his Vice. Sadly, we think it far more likely there it is accomplished via another game changing Kennedy moment. Sh1te kickers are not a bad thing, but once their day is over ... Same thing with Orange Boy. SD

This depends on how much the companies hedge, correct? Some hedged quite aggressively (hint: OBE) so Q2 may not be that good for them.

FWIW - LC, Spek Your hatred of MAGA is noted. LOL Have a nice weekend boys!

Nice! So PCC's an Easter egg? Probably a few more hidden away somewhere.

Pretty damn cool GFP. Wife's family favorite spot in Epinal is the American Cemetery WWII. Your buddy LeClerc from Epinal was born the year I met Evelyne (French women are the best). I think I met Josey .. Explains a lot about you and your crazy motorcycle trips. Cheers.

Where are you getting your information LC? Florida Birth Certificate costs $9 Here is what is required: signature, birthdate, and photo ID - pick one (Driver's license, Passport, Military ID, State ID). Texas Birth Certificate costs $22 Here is what's required: -State ID or Driver's License (any state) -Date of Birth -Full Name -SS# -Current address All done online. Simple, very simple.

HaHa! , @gfp, It's an awesome post! It also sheds some light on you personally!

LOL, in Florida a legal representative can be anyone (literally). Nice try. You missed the point, as usual.

Usually I would preface this with an apology for posting in this thread about something so off-topic but I don't give a shit about the politics thread so... I still have a bunch of prints and stuff from the Imagerie d'Epinal - maybe she would remember that place https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagerie_d'Épinal I remember this badass climbing wall right near the city center called Carrière Collot - totally badass climbing setup for the middle of town https://www.thecrag.com/en/climbing/france/ambrail-epinal I lived in a suburb of Paris the year before called La Varenne in Saint-Maur-de-Fosses and that family was also super rich - they let me try to drive a Ferrari 328 when the only clutch experience I had was on a farm tractor or tiny motorbikes - a gated manual shifter! I didn't do great. Both years in France everyone in my program was paired with working class families - truck drivers, little stone houses, etc. Both years I got paired with the richest family in the community with multiple household staff and Range Rovers and beautiful people. My theory is that because my Father was a chain smoker we were the only family that filled out the form saying "smokers OK" and so I got paired with the rich families that smoked cigarettes. Or maybe it was just luck - but I decided back at 11 and 12 years old that that life suited me just fine! The kid I got paired with in Epinal was supposed to grow up to be a tennis star but that little fucker ended up becoming a race car driver... Unbelievable.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Leclerc His sister josephine was my first kiss, so there

You're absolutely right! Except in most states. The amount of misinformation that is confidently spewed by MAGA is mind numbing. No wonder Trump appeals to you guys. Florida: Texas: I'm not going to bother researching the rest for you. Poll taxes are illegal, elections are run by the States...if u don't like it, get over it or continue greasing up the loser in chief to MAGA the law.

As Buffett pointed out back in the day, PCC's purchase accounting adjustments were understating its owner earnings in the GAAP reports by almost $400m annually. He called it "a gift to my successors" because the D&A of acquired intangibles would be mostly gone by the 19 year mark and PCC would magically appear more profitable inside Berkshire after that. On the other side of the coin, he always calls out the annual capex at BNSF costing far more than the depreciation charge in our inflationary world. Replacing tracks from 1980 or even 2010 costs a shit ton more today. So at BNSF there is no "purchase accounting" bonus - if anything you need to add more to the depreciation charge to get owner earnings. He took the cash out anyway, because he was able to increase leverage safely. Pilot looked worse than it was and will work out fine but they sure learned a lesson and that lesson may pay for itself going forward. Lots of stuff made Pilot look like it shit the bed right after they bought it but most of that was inventory being written up at acquisition, shutting down the energy trading division that made it look like revenues crater-ed, the push-down accounting that pissed off the Haslams in the first place, and of course the fact that Berkshire overpaid for the large 2nd tranche because Haslam gamed the 10x EBIT contract by juicing EBIT that year.

Continue to build up my gold position with GLDM and exposure to short-duratoin TIPS via a few ETFs.

Yes, escalation of war is a terrible thing with its loss of life. You certainly are consistent... Continuing to predict the 'Fall of Donald Trump' once again. Good luck with that SD - the US will continue to deliver the gulf oil to the world via the SOH. You can count on the Orange Boy and the USA, but no one else...

This is all nothing new. Same as when one team loses in soccer or basketball and blames the refs. Theres definitely fraud as it’s statistically almost impossible for there to be none; fraud is everywhere, but it is what it is and it’s always the loser complaining about it which is also part of the issue. That said if you can’t present ID or come up with the same documentation you need to collect welfare, buy alcohol, cigarettes, go to nightclubs…notice most of those things are very dominant habits of certain demographics….go fuck yourself you shouldn’t be able to vote.

That's a great high level view of the PCC valuation, much appreciated as I can see the BNSF comparison. I wondered about the impairment damage and some of the other missteps. Thanks for all the detail.

@xboojum, -Please also read here [H/T @scorpioncapital ] and onwards about float financing!

I had no idea you could do that. Almost as easy as an illegal immigrant can vote in a US election.

Haha -- not bagging elephants, but... lions, then!

I'm confused. I've always thought Mr. Buffett always has been 'fishing', but - mind you -, I have always thought he was 'fishing elephants', not whales or tuna! [j/k]

Another timely and entertaining one by Patrick Boyle. He's a former fund manager who worked for Niederhoffer and now teaches finance and makes videos about finance with a very dry Irish wit.

Well the past is the past but from here going forward, there is a whole lot more upside from PCC than downside. I do think they need to do some thing about management. I thought the left or were replaced afterthought purchase and I am surprised to hear that the same folks are still in charge.

Can one order the long-form birth certificate? Asking for my pal Barack:)

this is a really great point actually ... 'One great thing about the PCC deal is that Berkshire actually succeeded in buying it. Companies like that are very hard to buy for Berkshire because Berkshire doesn't like to pay up.'

I've always thought PCP had its issues - but yea, I agree ... it's worth a lot more then Berkshire paid for it. Also dont forget the CEO Mark Donegan fits perfectly into the Berkshire culture. I think he reports directly to Greg.