dealraker

Thanks Ralf, I'd not seen that before and it added some more info..

Total disagreement about Trump is just that, nothing more.

Cubs read the book (that the series was based on) Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose. It will give you a different view. My cousin, his daughter, co-published Five-O-Sink (506th) a newsletter following the men until a few years ago and we (the Sink family) met all of the men who lived long, a few occasions for get togethers at Camp Taccoa( and they were the ones who named the newsletter above. They basically were quite fond of him primarily (despite the river scene crossing where Winters disobeyed his orders) because he apparently valued soldiers lives more than most commanders. Called by most behind the scenes "Burbon Bob" for good reason....he had to retire in his early 60's due to health. He was a 3 star General, I was only 10 when he died so I remember some things...but most through the stuff we have saved and shared in the family about his life. In the 1970's I inherited all of Hitler's "Eagles Nest" utensils (in a large bank safe) with the swastika's on them, there's a truck bed size load of the stuff, that I have willed to his great-great grandchildren. They'll have to figure out what that stuff as all the cousins (a few of us still live) and I haven't figured that out yet. Angela and I will do a couple trips to Austria/Germany/Italy this year and next spring and we'll go to Eagles Nest. Never been there yet but had planned to get there at some point as we've tried to visit all the other places he was in Europe.

I agree with more than I'd like to admit and do believe that his tenure will enable more thoughtful governance in the long run because it has opened the door for meaningful change. I still think he is a worthless piece of f***ing chit, that his main thrust is survival and that is investment/business record is surely the lamest of anyone "ever in history" (as he endlessly phrases things) who has somehow survived. I believe he fucks up all things he's associated with, that he's a meandering goofball overwhelmed by his endless envy of those who run circles around him. He does though give the common man someone to look down on, thus his popularity.

Ahh...whiskybravo you know I have a soft spot for connections, as my wife says, "you live for connections." I walk out of the house today daily to 80% Trumpers where we pretty much see eye-to-eye on things...'cept Trump! The old Yahoo Berk board. I seemed old way back then in the 90's because I'd mention I'd owned Berkshire for over 20 years. Got called fake and phony more times than I can remember. Amazingly no matter what the Berk/Buffett investing site - they nearly all become short term in thought and speculative in choices. Have a good day, nice story. I like stories...you know the older you get... I'm just 71 but I inherited Berk in a trust Jan 10, 1975. Was worth what a Jeep cost back then when the trust began. How do I know? Because I wanted a Jeep and often thought "If I could get my hands on that trust I'd sell that damn nobody-knows-a-thing-about Berkshire stock and get me one." In the late 70's I even went to work for a man who widely followed Berk/Buffett and STILL - I was a real brainiac for sure back then - was clueless for another few years.

Colonel/General Sink spent a good bit of time in his brief post military life calling attention to non-white male participation in WWII which of course made him about as popular as it would today with MAGA. His attempts to get recognition for the accurate and hard hitting 333rd Field Artillery Battalion after the war were met with rage from the public. The 333rd were in the center of the Battle of the Bulge where the Germans over-ran the Allied forces, thus pretty this much wiped out this division, with 11 eventually chased down and tortured/massacred at Wereth. Bob wanted a memorial and recognition stating they saved his men's lives....but of course that was denied. It took the locals from Wereth to come up with something to honor the massacred 11 from the 333rd. Tom Hanks pursued making a movie about the 333rd and he requested and evidently used the writings and speeches that Uncle Bob made in his attempts to sell this to investor groups, but for whatever reason it never came about. Sink also profiled the lives of those from the 333rd returning from the war stating in one writing, "What do you do with well-disciplined and accomplished negro men when everyone is threatened by them?" I don't think Uncle Bob would be a Trumper and to be honest with you Cubs given your extreme sensitivity to those not in the power and money grab club I'm surprised that you are.

My comments are conversation, not as harsh as they may read. Tongue-in-cheek may describe them. That said, with Cubs' voting - and it must have been an equal obsession with all of them - record? Hell, I'm just wondering who, that's what type candidate, he'll be voting for in the future?

Cubs you are as naive as your handle suggests. To me there are some easy predictions as to when, not if, business and stocks don't go the way most- both lovers and haters- of Trump expect.

Yes and Trump is a populist who will change as circumstances favor him to do so. Crypto, Tiktok, etc.... no one will correctly predict where he goes but you can be certain he and his in-the-moment support will revolve around his personal gain, political and financial. He reads his followers incredibly well, they'll go with him wherever he treads. Just be careful before ever thinking anything he's doing is going to be good for you...and your business.

More than once my dad told me that "Your uncle Bob (Robert F. Sink, commander of the Band of Brothers in WWII) was the most popular man in Lexington, NC..." But then he'd always LOL while adding "...until he began talking about others (countries) participation in winning the war." Dad would finish with, "At that point he would become the most unpopular man in Lexington." Many of us here, our dominant posters, don't get too far from our John Wayne fascinations. The COBF political thread is predictably dominated by the ole John types. Has been in the well over a decade of my reading, they just hammer it to death. Trump is that lone wolf trying to save the world from the rest of us too stupid to understand...they say.

Actually Viking and Parsad have introduced calm logic into the discussion...as has been the norm for more than a decade as per my reading.

Oh, it was direct. Just like your crybaby, colonizer, and all the rest LOL.

I've decided that it is a financial factitious disorder whereby someone thinks others are conceptually sick and desperately need their help. There's repeated reference to what's assumed that others think and state...when in actuality only the writer himself has stated those things. Then comes the mandated "Me right; You wrong" that's repeated often for years on the exact same topic...that no one else mentions or evidently even cares about. The combination of the things assumed added to the who's right/wrong seems to get stuck in motion, it goes circular, literally repeating within the same isolated mind - on the same irrelevant/meaningless topic.

We all dive into the political waters from time to time. Cubs though chains 350 Chevy engine blocks to his ankles when he goes In.

Thanks.

As Trump ironically used his macho gravely voice this morning to once again recite how unfair others - a couple of banks this time- have been to him...I stepped back and decided to come up with my own list. I also thought about his 5,000 plus lawsuits to others of course who have done him wrong - while coming up with my list of who has done me so wrong I need to use my gravely macho voice to cry about it on TV. My list or number as to those "doing me wrong" is: 0 Because locally, in a small way, I was born into a privileged setting...much like Trump's multiple times bigger privileged upbringing and setting... ...I do have a list of how I got special treatment that others don't get in my small community. And...DAMN that list if provided might bring down the entire storage capacity of the web!

Trump has -0- support...but got elected? I guess it is in an attorney's training to be skilled at rationalizing something obviously irrational? We've got a fan club on here that I must admit is awesome, some headed towards 17,000 posts of Trump mania.

Seems possible. With Markel I've not been at all disappointed in Gainor's stock picking. The Ventures thing to me has a low chance of being the ticket to paradise and may have distracted management focus on expenses and underwriting.

Seems a lot of whining - that so popular crybaby word comes to mind - about Trump being picked on unfairly. What political figure isn't picked on massively? The only thing I'm interested in is whether Trump is economics/economically illiterate. I think he is. Survivalist supreme? Oh yeah, but that's his "trick-um, cheat-um, force-um" position and skill. What's good for him...is it good for his cubs? By the end of the year we will be in the Trump economy and time will tell of this man's genius or not.

Price to book is still 5% or so above the 20 year average.

Agree. And especially that the investment universe will broaden.

Yes. I bought one time a couple of years ago in the $36 range. But the builders supply recently bought a bunch (it was not my decision - but I was the one who enlightened my family who made the decision - but that was a couple years ago) at around $41. Interestingly when Joe was bought my cousin related this buy to his decision to buy Loews at $50 not too long ago. He expressed his liking of the out-of-sight out-of-mind uniqueness and well-run nature of both.

So the conversations here on the deck at the lake yesterday - actually Saturday - were quite interesting. As mentioned on the Pinterest thread we had 13 young men and women from the graduate program at UNCC down to the lake house - and also two university professors (part time professors - full time architects). All are now graduate school "graduated" and either employed or looking. Luckily our young man (family but not my son) that we raised was quickly employed by a firm dealing with commercial in Salisbury, NC, not far away. But most are not employed and the two architecture professors chant that this was by far the worst hiring season that the program has witnessed since the mid 70's (oil shortage recession) and/or early 80's (20% interest rates). Tariff fear (not necessarily the actual outcome of tariffs) was the stated reason all the firms are giving the school, professors, and students. Along with the discussion of job issues was a discussion of the literally thriving housing and commercial building going on from Charlotte all the way along the "I-85" corridor to Raleigh/The Triangle (Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh). I can vouch for this in my area of Lexington, NC (next door to the Salisbury mentioned above and halfway between Charlotte and Raleigh/Triangle) as we are bursting out the seams of growth-growth-growth in all areas. Interestingly a $65 mil sport complex just got announced and the land bought from a member of my investment club...a short distance from my home and the nearly 450 acres my nephew and I bought. So housing...interest rates...etc. What's the story here people? Are lower rates going to "out-shine" tariff effects and tariff fear or what? My lord we are booming here.

The second and third paragraphs make me chuckle. There nothing that can stop some of us's deep belief that Trump is instantly solving all problems with macho male gusto while others of us think of him is most likely (everything with me is probability based) nothing but a guy with out-of-control anxiety and panic who feels threatened at all times about all things. He's the man of our times for sure. Actually somewhat funny written New Yorker piece: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/11/the-politics-of-fear

Looks like Buffett has gone fully crybaby too. Damn! “The pace of changes in these events, including tensions from developing international trade policies and tariffs, accelerated through the first six months of 2025,” Berkshire said in its earnings report. “Considerable uncertainty remains as to the ultimate outcome of these events.” “It is reasonably possible there could be adverse consequences on most, if not all, of our operating businesses, as well as on our investments in equity securities, which could significantly affect our future results,” it said.