Wednesday Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Just saying but there's probably nobody happier in America today than the guy who wrote in "The Easter Bunny" on his ballot for President in 2020. This past weekend  he lived to see his wish come true... Lost in the news about Elon Musk's offer to buy Twitter was the news that Tesla launched an insurance product for Tesla vehicles in Oregon, Virginia, and Colorado. That brings the total number of states where Tesla offers vehicle insurance to eight. This will be a HUGE revenue stream for Tesla (probably worth more than even what Elon may spend on acquiring Twitter)... Anytime you read something from corporate media (or any media for that matter) you should mentally replace the words "assessment," "analysis," "projection," and "forecast" with the word "guess." It helps change how comfortable you feel with the conclusions the author would like you to reach... Speaking of (kinda) self-driving vehicles - the first all self-driving vehicle may actually come from a surprising source; John Deere tractors. The all self-driving tractors are supposed to go into production this fall... Disney does not allow gambling on their cruise lines but they certainly seem to be willing to gamble with their own reputation as a family-friendly company. And they ain't doing well with that bet at the moment... When RJR-Nabisco was going through its leveraged buy-out (LBO) the major Wall Street LBO firms were circling like sharks with blood in the water. This was portrayed wonderfully in the book Barbarians at the Gate. Wonder if behind the scenes major Wall Street firms are also jockeying to assist Elon Musk (or other potential lurking buyers) with a take-over of Twitter? The whole situation will make a wonderful behind the scenes book some day... Wouldn't be surprised if, as a joke, someone pitched a re-make of Paint Your Wagon but with an all-black cast and that there would there be some dumb woke producer in Hollywood that funded the production. Also wouldn't be surprised if such a re-make turned out so bad it's good... Think most people's reading habits and mental health could be greatly improved if any time you read the phrase "anonymous sources" - you immediately stopped reading the article. Would seriously give you back many hours of your life which previously were wasted reading anonymously sourced articles that turned out to be crap... As always if this column has made you smile or think - don't be afraid to hit the like button. Also please subscribe (it's FREE) and share with your friends. Thanks in advance...