dealraker

Or is immigration an easily planned and solved problem deliberately not solved, instead used for politics and votes?

Without a doubt the most worthless lying comment I have ever read.

Can you imagine, if you are a "let's go back to the 50's of MAGA dreams" --- and you've got all these family cultures built upon attaining disability as it is truly a culture or subculture now in the US, living fearless and knowing nothing but sit down and draw and bitch- bitch- bitch about brown skinners....who work. Verses all these hard working people living in fear who work hard every day who are being chased around by masked men. I thought MAGA wouldn't dare wear a mask much less showing up on work sites to arrest people...while sending a huge part of their paycheck to couch potatoes. My nephew who runs the builders supply just told me, "The thing that our contractors are all saying is that their workers are now both asking for more pay and gyrating around from one employer to another based on who is desperate enough to to pay the most."

Occasionally I check the stats for the country where I live, now a thriving place one of the fastest growing areas of NC. While working age men have a well up in double digit disability rate; Hispanics are almost zero; Blacks very low single digits. Ever seen a 150 lb Hispanic guy carry two bundles of roofing? Happens all the time. This isn't A/C gymboy guys with full length mirrors, this is brutal hot/cold hard damn work. Could it be that subbing some disability investigators into the legal/medical/judicial near 100% success ratio for disability claims might be a better use of taxpayer funds rather than running off productive people. I went out to our Lexington, NC Depot district yesterday and one of our customers, a commercial contractor said tongue-and-cheek, "Well of course I'm all for getting rid of undocumented immigrants...but rumors came through here yesterday that ICE was coming and I lost 4 of my 11 crew today." How many times in the past have I been told that given I'm a veteran all my health issues which began with testicle cancer in my 20's...that I could have filed and sat my ass down like so many and gone into blame minorities grievance mode...the most popular theme of the stupid. Really? Trump...making our country great again. What worthless bullshit.

Perfect.

John the "steadfast" nature of BN's "distributable earnings" put Bernie Madoff's record to shame!

Greg we desperately need you to do something constructive in lieu of political posts. Can I suggest a deep dive into "distributable earnings" (don't think "distributable" is actually a word...how ironic!?) for BN! I'd love to see you and spekulatius spend about a month figuring out what the hell this shit actually is! Long BN or Brascan..with a small interruption...since 1986! I still have an original stock certificate! It, the entire situation there, literally drives me crazy.

Until his death Trump owns this country. "To the degree" that these bizarre behaviors take down others they instead strengthen his support. It is what it is. It is best for Trump to continually up his extremes in order to keep his support. He simply won't live long enough for this to change. Deal with it. We use toilet paper with Trump's puckered up face image on it. That works for us.

Yea...that's it too!

Oh my "trading" is at most about 2% of the portfolio. I do it to keep - as Angela says - from living in the past. I'm more never-sell than ever because of the things I've bought that I do not plan to sell.

I'm being goofy and silly Greg. Although I did buy more DG a few days ago. Pray for me LOL...I think I have lost my mind! DG?????!!!

I enjoyed so much the series Succession where Logan Roy went through life with wild-ass mood swings literally kicking all supporters and family in the groin to see how far they'd fall in pain before every one came kowtowing back into submission. It is my view that Trump has learned or may experienced enough through nearly 60 years of this that he understands that he can do whatever he wants when he wants and the power never wanes. I'm of course in the dislike group of Trump but anyone thinking I or most others like me believe he will lose power is just making it up for their make believe stories. Trump is fearless. Unless something significant changes he'll be in charge of our country as long as he lives. I think he was pretty much in charge even during Biden's nap. He's also simply not good at much else other than fan worship. He's an attention getter, he dominates those with no psycho-tennis skills, and he's going to make life on earth as painful as possible for a huge number of Americans, most who probably wear the red cap. Trump should pardon the bitch. Why? Because he can watch those that it angers come straggling back on their knees for the proper worship position! Greg and Cubs can be the overseers of just what position we/they should take! Buy Dollar General? I have!

Listening to the Gallagher conference call Patrick G was saying, "Well I think you heard me say a few years ago we'd be lucky to get a 1% overall rate increase so I'm not going to sit here and complain about 5 or 6."

Yes currently that's the case. You have to ask how long that's to be and consider valuation. If BRO earns $5 or so in 2027? That's 15 times today's price. It's just a guess for me but BRO has the record and the same management team.that's repeatedly made it work far better than anyone would have hoped.

The brokers probably aren't yet as cheap as they look given that growth is surely slowing. The years of faster growth are likely ended and we're probably going down about half what it was. Life is great if you can stand it. Brown and Brown has some clean accounting compared to all others and in my view may be the best investment available presently.

If you watch old footage of Mussolini you'll see much of the same animated facial expressions and threatening condemning verbiage that Trump employs. Not that Trump gives a flip about history enough to watch something like this, it is just revealing how this low level cartoon-ish delivery snags so much fanfare from some. And when it didn't turn out as endlessly promised they all hung upside down.

I bailed out of BWIN today at about a break-even. I've done this twice. Somebody help me make sure I don't do this again LOL!

In effect then because you lust and love Donnie J this means your words too are worthless.

Cubs it isn't who voted for whom, it is simply that Trump violates every single trait-moral-value-principle that you personally have and yet you give him a free pass.

Being the enablers we are we told him that if we had the slightest inclination he would do this again that we'd call the Highway Patrol and offer to pay out of pocket for them to stop him after any evening outing we deemed where he'd drink. He was obsessed when in his teens to be a sophisticated grown up (being on the spectrum this is normal and honestly hilarious in its failure) and our "offer" made him mad as a hornet. He's aged wonderfully, his acceptance of his personality type has made him even able to laugh at his youthful "adulting." He still has to work through, at times literally will himself, into behaviors that are acceptable. But it works and he is a delight these days. He's even attuned to my multiple serious health problems, he monitors me like a hawk which I find a very nice part of my life.

Greg let me bring you down to a slightly more accurate earthy existence. Our "son" was out and about in our all-white all-Trump world here (I say that with humor but we are what's been termed as THE number one hot spot of Trump) just a few years ago (he's a full fledged architect now and doesn't drink at all and actually barely ever did) --- and he had to much to drink and was driving home. He got stopped and apprehended by local deputies (not Highway Patrol) for his odd driving. What happened? They found out who he was, and yes he and I are from the "right" (that's not politics but economic) family and he's part of this extended family. So one deputy drove him home here while the other deputy drove his car here. No charges. THAT's a privileged life would you say? Tough realities for us types. He was thoroughly embarrassed however, he's slightly on the autism spectrum and stuff such as this does send him spiraling in a very intense way. But it is what it is.

Our daughter, who at 28 will be managing editor of Pharmacy Times as of January, and her husband were here in NC (they live in NJ) when a young man in a lifted pickup pulled out in front of them and in the resulting crash they of course lost use of their car. Angela's mother has an extra very expensive auto (her husband recently died) so they of course got that vehicle to drive all around here in Lexington, NC and High Point, NC (where Angela's mom lives). They have been stopped twice here in Davidson County on the roads leading out to our lake house from the small city, both times by the Sheriff's deputies who refer to our daughter's husband as "boy" while using (what our daughter and husband refer to as) 'black talk' when checking the registrations and licenses. No driving infraction, just getting stopped by deputies sitting in public parking areas watching the roads for what they determine as potentially illegal activity. The second stop was a 2 hour ordeal of multiple investigations as to the car ownership. I've driven these roads, as has Angela, for 55 years and not once has a Sheriff deputy found the need to stop us. Same with our son. (Note: I have no biological children but I did raise two relatives from elementary school age, both refer to me as "dad"). Upon asking not one of my extensive family or their children has ever been stopped by a deputy. Our daughter is fair skinned to the point of opaque while her husband is from Kenya and he makes most Americans of all race combinations look white he's so dark skinned. Even in NJ he enjoys telling us of the shock-and-awe he sees in his patients when they come to grips that their surgeon is a 5' 9" 125 lbs midnight black man with a crisp British sounding accent. We badly want them to move to NC so we can be a bigger part of our soon-to-come grandchildren's lives. You can be sure as hell that won't be rural or small town NC, our community just doesn't grasp situations such as theirs. I know here on this thread there are those who surely think of this 'protection' as logical law enforcement behavior, behavior that is our local's best interest. I know precisely what it is, it is simply letting some people know that they are different and not necessarily welcome.

When'sthepaintdry? I am quite fond of the FND business idea and model short of knowing the negatives you mention above. I became aware of it while listening to a financial podcast. I have done no investigation into anything financial yet about FND but it would be welcomed if we had some start that process. If it turns out to be a somewhat cheezy low quality thing then that's just that.

Yep.

I had worked and been 'around' (that's the best word I can come up with) the insurance business long enough that when I invested in Fairfax (over 30 years ago) I was going with people. At some point along the way I became overwhelmed with the complexities of insurance particularly plugging in all the variables as to most likely investment outcome. I do of course consider the stats mentioned by all decently aware investors but in the end it is my belief that the only thing that's going to make Fairfax or anyone else successful in both underwriting and brokerage is management skill level. Yes I do believe that with a logical starting point you can do very well if you know that one thing- who is better than who else. That's as deep as I go with insurance investing which is (if you count Berkshire as 'insurance') 85% of my stuff. I don't go for Parsad's returns, I'm delighted to get above the Treasury bond rate investing in equities which has led to a much-much higher long term 14% return. Lordy I don't know how to describe how much accumulates over time at 14%...it is simply an outrageous outcome. Long-long ago I got out of investments in the banking business except one, that was Bank of North Carolina. I (we) stayed with this bank because family was both management and on the board. While it was a small investment for me relative to other things, we did experience turmoil that was literally off-the-charts bizarre through the years with this investment. But in the end we merged with Pinnacle Financial and we've gotten a whopping (whopping for the bank business) 12% 30 year return! THAT is incredible for this business of land mines. The only thing that differentiated Bank of North Carolina was management. This management team had some very unique models to get there, the most different one was in each town opening one, just one, office. From there they paid up dearly hiring the very best banking professionals in the area. It was a very costly model, our efficiency ratio was never low at all. But in the end the style this skilled management team used worked incredibly well. Management-management-management. In my view that's all that counts in these insurance investments.