Xerxes

saw this on Twitter. I didn’t realize Tesla is off the list. For a while now, it seems. However, its gas guzzling nemesis, Aramco is there.

Monkey Man or rather I should say John Wick of Hindustan

my comment was a general comment. I realize now that @changegonnacome was replying to you. I have no opinion of apartheid, genocide and if Israel is one . I think there is definition for both from legal matter, and either Israel (and for that matter any other middle eastern nation) meet that or don’t. I have NOT looked into it. But i do know that it has nothing to do with being democracy or not.

I find it odd that that we live in day and age that folks need to keep reinstating that. Almost as if the society is “programmed” to shoot you down if one strays too far … it is a discussion folks, ….. you are not antisemitic for raising a point. Nor you are anti Arab for raising a counter point..

I bought those two books in 2011. never got around to them. it is went too much in the details in the first third of the first book. Maybe I ll make them a 2025 project.

Thanks John Luke did confirm to me as well vis PM. Good to have him back. Though I hope his account is not taken over by some foreign entity masquerading as our Luca.

Ufffff 700 page on Joseph Stalin

you have a lot of patience. when it comes to “ancient books”, the most ancient i have read is the Edward Gibbons’ Decline and Fall of Roman Empire and that was 15 years ago. I ll do that again anytime over any holy books.

@dinar aren’t local Jewish people not of the same root as Arabs. I.e Semitic folks.

@Luke are you @luca there was a gentleman with that handle who disappeared. With a Master Yoda avatar.

The podcast TIPS had a good 10 minutes comparison between Canadian Dollarama and Dollar General in this discussion https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/we-study-billionaires-the-investors-podcast-network/id928933489?i=1000664082589

Anyone body seen Babylon Berlin season 4? I have seen season 1 through 3 it is a pity. With good shows you have to chase to figure out where to watch them. With the net being full of contradictory facts on distribution.

Is there a tax advantage/implication between say Allied or Odessey using its own surplus to buy back the minorities vs. dividend to the mothership, and it writing a check for the minority ? or is that not relevant because these are corporate tax

Churchill did cut a deal with an absolute tyrant in the 1940s, his name was Joseph Stalin. The Nazi were just lesser of two evils, and much closer threat. Churchill was pragmatic in that sense.

Pretty good. Sam B. is always a good listen. https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/russian-roulette/id1112258664?i=1000666396079

John I don’t have anything intelligent as answer on your question other than pointing out that there is also a significant ethnic Russian population in Crimea and that they are also not “livestock”. The question has to go to both ethnic side of former and current Ukrainian citizens in the occupied territories.

There has been a certain element of the Western security establishment that have always been eager to collapse’ Russian territorial integrity, at any cost. It is a personal accomplishment for them, if they could pull it off. Goes back to the days Disraeli, maybe Gladstone, the Great Game, the Crimean War etc. Only the rise of Prussia, put those Western aspirations on hold …. For a while

I think the right way to answer this comment is to refer back to the Bloomstran comment about Berkshire vs Swiss RE and Munich RE where he states the latter two “never known a business for which they didnt want to write insurance for it” said differently, the traditional players chose to maximize their revenue for today (risking mispricing) by writing as much business as they can. Whereas, the “quasi-families” that run Berk, FFH and Markel, have no problem in hitting the brakes, which leaves more surplus, to invest in common equity and more recently in FFH case to return capital to owners. So the secret sauce (which is not so secret), as Viking pointed out requires a “long term” approach, that is hard to replicate with EPS driven companies at the mercy of Wall Street on a quarterly basis.

And to a much lesser degree, Manulife, the Canadian life insurance giant, and its investment in timberland.

Wow so that hedge/deflation/short optionality in the 2010s was worth 0.2-0.3 book. seems there were a lot of supporters

If over the long term Ukraine was going to drift westward anyways, politically and economically (NATO or not), it doesn’t seem illogical for the Kremlin to roll the dice. It was just a matter of time. This war (despite its enormous cost), at least potentially created another “frozen conflict” to last ages, once there is an armistice in effect. And we are not even there yet. The alternative would have been dwindling into economic insignificance as Ukraine gained momentum over the next 10-15 years.

agreed. I was ok with it as well.

not even close. the last few seasons of GoT (not just the very last season) were in fact not even written yet. At some point though, they just didnt know where Martin was going. i have read all the published books. It diverged long before the last season. Also reality is that both the directors and actors had a life to get on with.

I am largely clueless on the topic. I don’t know what would help. A tragedy, that all I can say. Also it is not fair for me, living in North America, to comment on the pain of others (Palestinian and Israeli), not knowing all the nuisances. There is always more to any story.

Looks like we both understand the Mongols. That said (again) to re-emphasis that this is from historical and intellectual point of view. I wouldn’t want to be in those cities at that time where even the dogs were killed by the Mongols. But also perhaps I wouldn’t mind being a trader working my way in the Silk Roads to trade goods at the court of the great khan, once the bill was paid, and the empire built, of course. One could have re-created Goldman Sachs of that time trading silks and other goods, with tentacles stretching from Beijing to Baghdad.