cubsfan

Big week for Israel. Not so much for Iran. Hamas decapitated fully, Israel now waiting for next leader to raise his head to be eliminated. The Hamas hit list is long, and the they are all Dead Men Walking. USA hits Houtis hard. Clear message to Iran: we can take out your fortified underground sites if you push this war. Bashar Assad, take note as well. Is Hezbollah now on their own?? I don't know, but new leadership must be a little nervous. Going to be a long ugly invasion that will cost many Israeli lives as well. Too bad it's come to this. It all could have been avoided if Biden/Harris had not funded Iran & all it's proxies. US foreign policy disaster.

This was a good one @Spekulatius . I never heard of these guys, but talk about boring - french fry company, world's largest. Yawn... Wish I had bought more of it. Thanks and nice work here.

I've been a big fan of Dakshana, the Foundation run by Monish Pabrai. Personally, I think he's done great work, regardless of what you think of him as an investor: https://www.dakshana.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/AR23.pdf

^^^ I guess even Ted Bundy had a fan club..

@John Hjorth No problem John. I just think this is how it's going to end. Crimea is full of Russian speakers and provides a seaport for Putin. Somehow, Ukraine needs to rip all that away from Russia, which I don't believe is possible. Do both countries have the appetite to see another 1M in casualties?? I think that is going to be the key question both combatants need to ask each other. I will be very happy to be wrong.

I think Putin is going to have to go back to Russians and tell them this was about stopping NATO. He's holding most of the cards now. He will get to keep Crimea & Donbas, and no NATO membership for Ukraine. That will be a big win for him to get out of this mess sacrificing so many Russians. Meanwhile, Zelensky will get to say he valiantly and bravely saved Ukraine. And get armed to the teeth by the West to reinforce his DMZ. The Russians can outlast everyone unfortunately.

^^^ I pretty sure that's how it's going to go. Ukraine can't win, unless full western involvement, so most of the deaths going forward are wasted lives. I wish that was not the case.

It turns out that Hezbollah and Iran are so beloved in Lebanon that their own spies have turned on them and allowed Israel to wipe out Hezbollah's entire leadership structure in a span of 10 days. Meanwhile, Iran beats the drum continuing to threaten Israel, while wondering who is next on the hit list.

Trimming? All the Hezbollah leadership has been killed in 10 days. Only the "grunts" that did not warrant a "free pager" from Nasarallah are left. The wounds to Hezbollah are very big. On to the ground invasion. I think the "killed leader" score is now 50-0, Israel ahead. The hole is deep.

@Xerxes The list of idiots & dummies in D.C. is long and growing. As for the Israel thread...well... looks like Hezballoh is close to done... so not much more to say.

Few of us want Russia to win this war, certainly not me. The question now, is how many lives are to be lost in what clearly looks like a stalemate - and a war that Ukraine can not win. And whose lives will be lost - more Ukrainians? Europeans? American? When you fast forward to that question - I come to the conclusion that you settle with Russia. This whole thing could have been avoided if the Europeans and the US had deterred Russia back in 2013. Obama essentially gave Putin the green light for playing nice and not causing him re-election trouble in 2012. Barrack kept his promise to Putin - eased back on missile defense in progress. The Europeans were asleep at the wheel - and Putin took his opportunity. Now the US and Europe are tryin to clean up a mess that could have been easily avoided.

^^^ Well put. "Good things happen to Cheap Stocks" .. Steve Romick, FPA

No doubt about it,, Israel has always said once Hamas is defeated, Hezbollah is next. You're seeing the plan in action. #1 knock out all communications (cause chaos) #2 kill the leaders (most of the Hezbollah top leadership, now dead, more chaos) #3 unleash Shock & Awe (800 airstrikes today) Israel has complete air superiority and countless spies betraying Hezbollah. It's a deep hole. The only thing that saves Hezbollah now is Iran intervention. And Iran is stalling big time due to their own leaders being killed, along with their terrorist Ambassador to Lebonan being injured.

Hezbollah communications taken out. Now Shock & Awe starts.

This administration has been anti-Israel from the beginning. Arming and funding Iran (and proxies) is of course the most obvious. Billions of dollars to terrorists, they thought they could somehow contain. Biden/Harris created a huge mess in the Middle East for Israel. Now they have their lunatic wing to contend with - The Squad and Michigan voters that they can not afford to lose control of - just makes their problem worse. If this administration had not interfered with Israel so much since Oct 7th, the war in Gaza would have ended much earlier.

I agree about the nuclear threat. I don't care about Western public opinion with all it's anti-semitism. Israel will do what it has to do. If Trump is elected, the US will supply Israel with whatever it needs - now that Biden has been supply Iran with billions for terrorism. The risk as I see it - Kamala wins - and then the anti-Israel administration stands behind the proHamas wing of the democrats. Not good for Israel. Going to be interesting.

Amazing: Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis - the gang that can't shoot straight.

I can't argue with your criticism. The Terminex acqusition has been a rough one - employee retention has been a real problem. So yeah, it may end up with new management if they can't fix it. Fundamentally, RTO is a dominate business (along with Orkin) that should be earning higher returns once back office systems and duplicate systems are consolidated. It's all about route density and scale. The disparity between Orkin valuation & RTO is much too great. No much excited about the residentail business, but the commercial business is much larger and very lucrative. The non-US business ought to grow in the 5+% range with developing markets. RTO has been a rollup machine and good with acquisitions - this one was big and difficult. There's been some discussion of RTO here as well: https://thecobf.com/forum/topic/20901-your-largest-equity-buy-in-the-last-three-months-islong-term-buys-mostly/page/6/#comment-579309

This really is a great business with high returns. Need to have the stomach for roll ups, as much of the growth is acquisitions. Reminds me of Waste Management in the 80's & 90's. RTO is a scale business, so if they can integrate these acquisitions, it works well. Terminix was big and once digested, we likely get back to historic returns. After all this is the largest pest control business in the world - with demand growing steadily. Because of scale/route density/advertising/technology, etc - it's very difficult for small players to compete. The real gem is in the institutional business, where the service is much less price sensitive and much more quality is demanded, as public health is involved with associated liability and business reputation risk at stake. Like the garbage business - kind of a nasty boring business that is vitally important and very profitable.

More RTO

^^^ Damn right @james22 Never give up.

No doubt, well put @John Hjorth

^^ Only suckers trust Hamas. There are larger numbers of Israeli's protesting to continue. Everyone knows that Hamas major condition is to have Israel evacuate the Philadelphia corridor to enable Hamas to rearm themselves. The Israelis have stopped the flow of arms to Hamas via the smuggling tunnels which Egypt has failed or is unable to control. Without those arms, they are dead. So yeah, Israel is going to agree to that - I doubt it!

There is absolutely no reason to end the war. The hostages have not been recovered/freed. Hamas is essentially defeated: the leadership has lost complete control of their underlings. Hamas is in chaos. This makes negotiations very uncertain and unpredictable with the leadership wiped out. All Israel has to do is exactly what they have done - destroy Hamas as an effective force and dictate terms. To do anything else would be incredibly stupid. Hezbollah now knows what they are in for...

The antisemitic United Nations Secretary General shows his true colors today. Extends sympathy to the families of murdered hostages without any mention or condemnation of Hamas. How convenient! He can't afford to piss off his Islamic radicals.