LC

https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/frances-marine-le-pen-found-guilty-of-embezzlement-b8c42dac This is how a real country deals with corrupt politicians.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wisconsin-supreme-court-rejects-effort-block-musks-1m/story?id=120319945 Teflon (f)elon!

Never let facts get in the way of a good rallying call. I should save reading these posts for the evening, when I've had a glass of wine and can enjoy a good laugh.

Instead of letting China win the "no human rights, all cheap labor" game, it seems this US administration would rather torpedo the wealth and quality of life of its own citizens, to gain level footing. All to compete over who can make the best $3 bbq tongs. Sorry - $3.50 bbq "trump tongs"

It goes beyond that. Bad people cloud themselves in "policies" and "issues". The catholic church tried it about homosexuality: "its the sin, not the sinner". And they fool people. And before you know it, it's too late. Reminds me of this bar story:

Saw this headline yesterday and tried to research anything about it. Found nothing at all. My guess, given Elon is untrustworthy - is that his claim is a very generous stretching of the truth. If not outright nonsense. Just plausible enough to deflect under oath. "Well it's actually a 10M/year expense but if we assume they renew it for 100 years..." That kind of crap. So then I went down the rabbit hole a bit and looked at the DOGE website where they "show the receipts" and its pretty much just them cancelling various government contracts - nothing showing waste/fraud. https://doge.gov/savings A ton of USAID being cancelled, a ton of "grants" to the 50 states for things like health services. Don't get sick in Texas, people! Here is their biggest 'saving', of 1.9B for this: https://www.fpds.gov/ezsearch/jsp/viewLinkController.jsp?agencyID=2050&PIID=2032H524A00020&modNumber=P00001&idvAgencyID=&idvPIID=47QRAA18D00C6&contractType=IDV Which looks like a contract extending thru 2031 to provide services to the IRS. All the info says is: ENTERPRISE PROGRAM, PROJECT, INTEGRATION SERVICES (EPPIS) My guess is some IT integration service contract, probably to maintain the systems which the IRS uses to automate tax processing and auditing. No idea what the "waste" here is. Maybe Elon and Trump don't like the CEO/senior mgmt? https://www.centennialtechnologies.com/about-who-we-are/

@DooDiligence Thanks you for moving the discussion. Have you thought about exchanging some berkshire to fairfax? Otherwise I commend your portfolio. I find it difficult to ignore the siren's call for a lot of cheap-looking stuff, so I wind up with a portfolio with 5-10 core names + 30 tiny positions of stuff that "looks interesting" Fairfax and Aecon making up 50-60% for me.

@DooDiligence What are those 6 companies if you don't mind sharing? Obviously NVO is one...

That does make sense. I think it is relatively fair. For the option leg, if I exercise and the stock has gone down, I will be sitting on an unrealized loss. Similar on the upside. Only "loss" would be the 60 or so days holding the option vs. the 12 month LT period. I think it's a fair price to pay for maintaining the original position exposure at a cheaper price, vs. paying the full amount to buy a 2nd block of shares. Thanks @lnofeisone

I will say I am totally biased: Grew up in NYC and hated Trump ever since the 90s. Dude was goofball #1 Elon I think has zero math/sci chops - or at least compared to how he presents himself. Dude is another goofball. Put simply, if I was going to pick leaders - these would be two of the last people I would pick.

These last 2 months have totally exposed Stumpy et al. It's like a bad Mastercard commercial: Tariffs? Fail DOGE? Fail Russia Ukraine? Fail Golfing while tens of thousands lose their jobs? Priceless.

Thanks all - appreciate your input. I think what @Red Lion described above should work. And then just to be safe, when (if) converting the option back to shares - I would wait 30 days past the date of the tax loss sale. The option should in theory be a minimum of 60 (or 62)+ days to expiry, just to be safe.

To clarify, I am not trying to circumvent the 30 day wash sale rule, just trying to reduce the capital committed: So like: Day 1: Buy 100 shares of XYZ Day 49: Shares fall 50% Day: 50: Buy 1 deep ITM call option on XYZ Day 81: Sell 100 shares of XYZ and capture tax loss Then either Day 82: Convert option back to 100 shares or would you need to wait another 30 days, so like: Day 112: Convert option back to 100 shares?

Does anyone use options to maintain exposure while waiting out the 30-day clock on wash sales? For instance, let's say you own 100 shares of JOE with a cost basis of $50. You're sitting on a loss today, and let's say your goal is to capture that tax loss. But because you still want to maintain your exposure, I would double down and buy a 2nd lot of 100 shares today. Then wait 31 days and sell the initial 100 shares to capture that loss. What about: Instead of buying that second lot, what about buying an ITM call option? This would maintain the exposure, but reduce the amount of capital you are committing (buying an option vs buying a 2nd lot of 100 shares). Curious if anyone does this, and if so what their experience has been?

Just to make the point clearly: Gov't spending as a %of GDP has remained relatively stable for the past 80 years, in fact at a low point as of 2022-2024: I wonder, what could the true raison d'etre of DOGE be?

That is very freaking cool. Congrats on the restoration, it looks great!

I also think their inability to absorb upstart competitors is a big failing. Google/mega could buy small soon-to-be competitors. When Adobe tried a similar maneuver with Figma, it didn’t pan out.

I think you need to have some insight into large corporate creative expenditure to bet on Adobe. If threats of AI in their business are overblown, you could do very well. You could also get hit hard if you are wrong. It needs an informed view of that market - long term business prospects are not clear at the moment.

It’s not for Americans - it’s for Trump to show his contemporaries in Russia and China that he too can play land grab.

4% is piggish? Seems like a reasonable dividend yield for normal growth company….10% total return- 60/40 reinvestment split.

46 months to go under this administration. Get in all those BS deductions and ridiculous interpretations of tax law while you can, people!

Crap, I laughed You know the ME is the one region I haven't traveled. I had an old friend who vacations in Dubai but I never saw the appeal. Ride a camel in the scorching desert? No thanks, rather a horse in a place where water flows naturally.

It's an economic warzone out there: Married couples had $393,000 in median wealth in 2022, according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve, while unmarried people, including those who were partnered but not married, had $80,000 Men who are educated, have decent jobs, and don't have 1950s attitudes towards gender roles - they do great. The remaining stay poor, single and wind up voting for Trump I mean, have you seen single dudes out there these days? I wouldn't want my daughters marrying "Proud Boys" (And speaking of the gay friend - can you think of a more fabulous name than the 'Proud Boys!') Jokes aside - look I was in my 30s, divorced, had a decent job, decent prospects, halfway in-shape, semi-progressive values...I was beating them back with a stick. And trust me, I am no Brad Pitt - not by a long shot. I think if a lot of men just made even half an effort to temper and modernize some of their values, they would do a lot better.

Some more news from Goofy Elon and His Dumb Decisions (a working title): DOGE bro cutting 20% of IRS workers (~18,000 jobs) -Very obviously meant to reduce enforcement of complex audit cases (i.e. the 1%) -Projected $500B in lost revenue: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/irs-doge-cuts-tax-filing-b2719911.html#:~:text=The IRS is bracing for,layoffs%2C according to a report -IRS investment has a great ROI: "CBO estimates that portions of the Administration’s proposal to increase funding for the IRS by $80 billion over the 2022–2031 period would increase revenues by approximately $200 billion over those 10 years" https://www.cbo.gov/publication/57444 How does the board feel about this? Negative ROI, negative enforcement? I wonder who here will breathe a little easier when they fudge their returns? Here's another funny one from Goofy Elon and His Ketamine Konclusions (another working title): Pentagon announces leak investigation that will include polygraphs The Defense Department is the latest government arm to announce it will use polygraph tests on employees. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said earlier this month her department will continue the practice after reports she directed polygraphs in the department to include a question about leaks to the media www.cnn.com/2025/03/22/politics/defense-department-polygraph-tests-leaks/index.html My guess? Elon was up late with some Special K running thru those big-brain-veins of his, and stumbled on some Maury best-of repeats:

Oh poor Trump, woe is him. Let's get him a bottle of milk - we can burn the Constitution to warm it up for him.