Castanza
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Posts posted by Castanza
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9 minutes ago, Xerxes said:
Thanks Ulti,that is very helpful
For me it is more like an acid test, if folks in North America cannot even acknowledge some of the unsavoury character in the Israeli cabinet (w/o making excuses), they are just repeating talking points.
Israel is not perfect in any way shape or form. Follow their 6000 year history and they have done their share of unsavory things. -
17 minutes ago, Xerxes said:
I don’t follow (nor care) about campuses that much. It should be a place of learning as far as I am concerned.
That said, i rather be a Jewish person in North America* dealing with antisemitic morons than be a Palestinian in Gaza/WestBank with no prospect and to be shot dead depending on the mood of the IDF soldier firing the bullet and/or indirectly by Hamas thugs.
The dead don’t care about politics.
*Being a minority in North America, that I am use to it.
As far as your example of 1930s, maybe you should look into extreme right factions in (elected) Israeli government. Somehow it has become ok to kill “vermins” and to de-humanize a whole population.
Fine, it war. It is ugly. Hamas, Gaza, Nagasaki, Hiroshima. Blah blah blah. Go all in. Make a splash. A “few” bad apples shoot unarmed women walking down the street. Ok. Makes sense that is not systematic.
So solve me this riddle ?
why is the killing in West Bank have gone up. So is it really Hamas, or much more than that. How deep is that expansionary right wing ideology has seeped itself into IDF and their society.
What exactly do you define as “right wing? Because compared to Arab nations, Israel is about as progressive as they come.
Women, Children, humanitarian zones, aid uniforms and other disguises have been utilized by many Arab “nations” to wreak havoc on opposing forces.
Would you rather be a Jew in Gaza or a Palestinian in Israel?
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I remember in HS a teacher prompted us with the introspective question of If you were a 16+ year old German before WWII who would you have supported. Everyone said they would have gone against the grain and supported the Jewish people.
We are watching real time, the failure of peoples personal optimism when contemplating this question. College campuses across the globe sadly don't look much different than this.
Regarding the conflict: Civilian deaths suck...we all agree...welcome to the reality of war that we have been fortunate enough to avoid here in the States for a long time.
Regarding the sentiment: The amount of support for antisemitism right now is baffling. If you find yourself supporting or partaking in similar actions as the photo above....you're rooting for the wrong team.
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29 minutes ago, SharperDingaan said:
If it also results in fewer deaths, and more people retaining their limbs, so much the better. Field treatment and prosthetics have come a long way, but its better never to require one.
SD
Wounds outlive the physical in the mind and manifest themselves throughout future generations. This conflict was not the start of this war and certainly will not be the end.
“It makes no difference what men think of war, said the judge. War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. That is the way it was and will be. That way and not some other way.”
― Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (The Judge) -
3 minutes ago, jfan said:
Don't do illicit things on the blockchain.
Instead do them at a too big to fail bank
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SBF sentenced to 25 years oof
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SCHD
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1 minute ago, Ross812 said:
Well, that didn't last long. More HQI this morning. $11.50-$11.70
I almost pulled the trigger on some more, but don't really want to size this any larger unless it gets ungodly cheap. Wouldn't mind seeing some more insider buying like last year as well.
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17 hours ago, Parsad said:
Going to miss that show when it ends after this season! Cheers!
RIP Richard Lewis
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52 minutes ago, ValueArb said:
I fully believe alien life exists in the universe and most likely in our galaxy. But all available physics and evidence strongly infers that UAPs and UFOs have nothing to do with aliens.
First, traveling any faster than a small fraction of the speed of light is incredibly difficult and requires massive amounts of energy. Traveling anywhere near the speed of light is basically impossible, it would require so much energy you'd need an entire star to power a tiny space-craft. And even if you could do that, travel still takes thousands of years to reach earth from 90% of our own galaxy, let alone from even farther away in the rest of the universe. Lastly, if you are patient enough to do all of that, the enormous energy output required to slow your alien craft would be easily detectable from earth.
Lastly, going faster than the speed of light would break casuality in the universe and we've never ever seen anything that indicates that can happen.
And if somehow aliens can beat all of that and get here undetected, they went to all this effort to play hide and seek with a species that is no more powerful than an ant to them?
Whenever I talk about actual physics with a UFO nut, they always pivot to "well the aliens have advanced technologies based on advanced physics that allows them to do things we haven't yet discovered". Well if we are making up magic technologies and physics then in that case UFOs are just as likely to be angels sent by a god. Why assume aliens when your assumption is supernatural magic exists?
There are thousands of legitimate scientists scanning the skies every day for light and radio transmissions that would indicate whether alien civilizations exist anywhere. We have so far come up empty, doesn't mean they don't exist somewhere (unless the Great Filter is real) but it makes it even harder to believe they are flying around on Earth.
The problem with your argument is that it’s completely human centric. If the universe is billions of years old who says that timeline of “advanced beings” started with us? Idk about magic or angels or advanced alien space crafts and their source of energy. All I know is that if you took an iPad in a Time Machine and showed it to someone 250 years ago they would probably hang you for witchcraft. It doesn’t take that much to make something seem like “magic.”
I really don’t care nor do I have a dog in the fight. But I think taking a hardline stance based on what we know, have and understand regarding physics as the litmus test/basis for every other potential is a bit biased.
And I agree with @rkbabang which is really my only point. Regardless of what’s “true” or “possible” the pathological lying government isn’t going to be my basis for fact and opinion.
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58 minutes ago, ValueArb said:
There is no path to truth if we only accept claims that support what we believe and always disbelieve claims that don't support what we believe.
I'm on the fence as to whether they exist or not. I spend next to no time thinking about it. Statistically it makes sense...after all we are here.
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Incentives matter... If you want to hang your hat on the government as your personal standard of truth, by all means...go for it. History past and present would vehemently disagree with your assessment.
"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."
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People who constantly worry about this shit are either too leveraged, carry too much personal debt, or have a job/skill that's not really that valuable and could be replaced with the snap of a finger. Manage those three things and you'll enjoy life a lot more. Tomorrow is never a guarantee. I'll be damned if I find ways to create more "worry" in my life.
The only difference between the guys on Wall St. constantly spouting end of the world black swan events and the guy standing on the corner of NYC yelling at tourists is a fancy suit and choice of drug (coke vs meth)....
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1 hour ago, ValueArb said:
Uh, turns out they aren't here.
https://www.npr.org/2024/03/08/1237100622/pentagon-ufo-report-no-evidence-alien-technology
Who knew it was as simple as asking for a Pentagon report and then coverage by NPR
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No dog in the fight but an interesting podcast. Bass is a bit sensationalist, but there is some good info scattered throughout.
Hong Kong markets down 50% since Chinese takeover.
China grew GDP by 500% over the last 15 years yet if you invested in the Shanghai Schenzen 300 index you would have lost 1/3rd of your money.
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14 minutes ago, RedLion said:
$10 happy mealsI rarely eat at MCD's but the wife and I were road tripping and stopped for a "quick and cheap meal."
Small fry - $3.69
Large fry - $4.95
Quarter Pounder meal - $13.69
McChicken - $3.99
McDouble - $3.19
4-Piece Nugget - $3.69
We kept driving...absurd prices for borderline garbage food. Can go to a local sit down burger joint for those prices.
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13 hours ago, Spekulatius said:
My guess is as good as anyone’s, but I think the margins might end up higher than pre COVID-19.
The situation with the vehicle shortage during COVID-19 is unprecedented and the fat dealer margins during that time will mostly reverse to more normal levels.
37k inflation adjusted
Those margins can come down anytime!
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3 hours ago, Vish_ram said:
Please welcome ODP to this club
1 billion repurchase program and ticked away about half of that since Nov 22
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Lots of red tape around AI implementation in "knowledge" industries.
Example: ASTM currently prohibits all use of AI in any capacity. So anyone who creates reports, or utilizes these standards also cannot utilize AI. I imagine other industry standards are similar (accounting, law, medicine, etc.) but not sure.
Artificial Intelligence Policy: ASTM International prohibits the entry of ASTM standards and related ASTM intellectual property (“ASTM IP”) into any form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT. Additionally, creating derivatives of ASTM IP using AI is also prohibited without express written permission from ASTM’s President. In the case of such use, ASTM will suspend a licensee’s access to ASTM IP, and further legal action will be considered.
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NNI, MAA, AIRC, JOE
@Lance What do you like about UMH? 96% FFO already utilized for payout with not much room for growth.
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2 minutes ago, gfp said:
what is "max allocation"? Is that a treasury direct thing or what?
Looking at Treasury Direct it says actually says "Max Purchase"...so maybe that's actually just per transaction. If that's the case then Ol'Roaring Kitty could be sitting pretty with ~1.6m coming from t-bills....not a bad way to make a living. Although I think there are a few on this board with deep pockets likely not sitting in t-bills or fixed income. To each their own I guess.
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9 minutes ago, ValueArb said:
Not quite what the next Buffett would do. Though I once knew a very astute value guy who would buy half million dollar sports cars, keep them a year, then flip them for a profit. Ultimately did not work out for him.
LOL who needs to or wants to be the next Buffett? Dude make billions so he can eat at Dairy Queen and Mcdonald's. No question he is the GOAT when it comes to investing. But his lifestyle choices are no different than someone making 100k a year living in the Mid-West (maybe minus the jet).
No clue on how much of a hole that money is burning in Roaring Kitty's pocket...7.8m house and a bunch of cars? Seems to be a little....But he did seem pretty squared away when it came to finances. I don't picture him blowing it all. Obviously we can't be sure what he made or how much he has left, but rolling short term T-Bills at max allocation (10m) every 3 months at 5.38% currently netting you ~500k isn't a bad way to live haha....I'd take half that and call it a day.
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2 minutes ago, ValueArb said:
Has Keith Gill ever disclosed how much he ended up making on Gamestop? I know he claimed he was holding for quite a while after the peak, and I believe the value of his holdings peaked at $50M or so, so I'm guessing he go out a lot lower?
I don't think he ever disclosed it, but he did say it was "life changing money" for his family. Some sleuths out there found that he bought a 7.8m house in Mass and has 6 luxury/sports cars (Aston, Porsche etc.) registered in his name.
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Just now, Blugolds11 said:
You wont get an argument from me on that...but I've also never heard of cartels rolling over and allowing another cartel to take over control without a fight...especially when it would be easy for them to stop/prevent it.
Prohibition of any kind has never once worked in all of recorded human history. At most it creates short-term headwinds for those products and created black markets (self hosting nodes in this case).....this is why if you choose to own it, you should size accordingly. A "short term headwind" of 10-20 years would be no small issue to deal with if you had a large portion of assets you need now tied up. the U.S. Treasury owns 5b of BTC. I know for a fact the NSA utilized BTC for specific situations. So does the FBI...it's useful.
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On 2/23/2024 at 9:42 AM, Blugolds11 said:
I watched a Youtube video regarding major drug dealers who had been caught, they said a significant portion of their transactions were in BTC. Imagine hypothetically that a cartel has a large amount of BTC, that then balloons to $1M+ each...that is a tremendous amount of power, for drugs, for gangs, for weapons, to say nothing of terrorists who evidently dabble themselves. What is the general consensus on how/when the gov steps in. For every "benefit" I hear of an unregulated currency I always think about the dangers involved and I dont hear much about the threats/potential problems it would cause.
I almost think of it as allowed for now, but could/would/should be addressed before it is allowed to cause serious consequences. At what point does that become an issue/concern? Does anyone consider this? What can be done to address it.
Governments are the largest cartels
Iran - Israel - Gaza Conflict
in General Discussion
Posted
What bias do I have? I’ve supported many of your views on US vs Arab nation engagement in this forum for a long time. I think in general most cultures should keep to themselves because mixing of some simply doesn’t work. The Middle East has its problems, but I understand their reasonings or origins of hatred of the west etc.
I just think with this current conflict there isn’t much to stand on for Palestine. I don’t think Israel is an occupier or committing genocide. I think it’s a shitty situation with some bad feelings on both sides that will never be easily resolved.
I try hard to understand both sides of the coin (hence my view on Russia/Ukraine I share with you)