ASTOUNDED

Two experiences happened today that absolutely astounded me:

1.         Saw the movie “Dream/Killer” that details the 10-year saga of a 19-year old in Columbia, Missouri who is wrongly convicted of murder. The corruption of the police and the prosecutor were just infuriating. His conviction was overturned after 10 years, but his life was truly ruined.

2.         Was investigating the primary in my precinct in Texas and discovered that one of the Democratic candidates for Congress is not a resident of our area, is in fact a resident of California, and he is running for Congress in California at the same time as here. His father is also running in California, as a Republican. How can this happen?

      UPDATE: Post primary election: "Ricky" the guy from California, won the Democratic party nod to represent the Party against the Republican in November. Wow, a carpet-bagger for sure.

     
 I

PARDONS

Big current news involves President Trump’s pardons. One, Michael Milken, has evidently rehabilitated and the story is inspiring. But he is still banned for life from the financial marketplace.

Some are going to be controversial, like the former police chief of New York who was convicted of taking bribes. Former Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich had his sentence commuted, and when you look at his crime, trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by Obama, you wonder if that deserves the sentence of 14 years. He has served 8 years.

In the articles I read, no one mentions pardons by former Presidents. I stood in my front yard in Virginia Beach visiting with a neighbor about various subjects when the subject came up about Obama’s pardons. He pardoned One Thousand Nine Hundred Twenty-Seven (1,927) criminals and my neighbor saw the list. His comment to me: “Boy, there are some really bad guys on that list.”

My neighbor is an FBI agent and he noted that it is common practice to “plead down” to save money, time and effort when the prosecution doesn’t have enough hard evidence to convict on a more serious crime. You see this on TV all the time. The names on Obama’s list had been convicted on drug charges, typically, and were serving long sentences. That was, according to my FBI neighbor, because the murder, rape or similar charges just didn’t have enough hard evidence.

Did anybody see this in the news? Back then? Now?

TESLA, AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN

I know, you are tired of me talking about the company that makes what I think are fancy golf carts. But it is an interesting story.

Back story: I last wrote about TSLA April 2, 2018, and before that in 2014. The theme has been the same, it is grossly overpriced and just because Elon Musk is an expert at getting government subsidies, it is still not a good value.

WRONG! I may be right about the over value thing, but completely wrong about the way the stock would move. Today, 1:00 EST, February 4, 2020, the stock is up 16.6% to $909. Yesterday, it was up 19.9%. Since October it is up 200%+.

Market cap today is about $140 Billion. Compare that to General Motors, a measly $48 Billion.

As I’ve said before, the markets are not necessarily rational, especially when governed by emotion. I have brought up tulip bulbs before. Here’s another one: Amazon increased in value in after-market trading the other day by $100 Billion (yes, that much in after-hours trading) to top $1 Trillion in market cap. For perspective, United Parcel Service has a total market cap of $87 Billion.

There ya go. That’s what makes a horse race, I guess.

CHIEFS

Well, aren't we all glad that the Chiefs won? Honestly, the way San Francisco is going, it would have been too dangerous (or dirty) to hold a victory parade.

Someone will be complaining about the name, "Chiefs." It isn't as simple as they think.

From CNN (of all places to find a fact!): "It all started with, of all things, the Boy Scouts. The Tribe of Mic-O-Say is part of the Boy Scouts of America program in Missouri and was created by Harold Roe Bartle in 1925. ...Bartle went by the name of "Chief Lone Bear" in his Mic-O-Say organization..." although he was not Native American.

"Almost 40 years after the founding of Mic-O-Say, Bartle became the mayor of Kansas City...colloquially known as "Chief." Bartle helped convince Lamar Hunt... to bring the Dallas Texans to Kansas City."

There was a name competition and "Chiefs" won, apparently in connection with Bartle. I was unaware of this history, but one of the identifiable components of the Kansas City skyline is the building with the "hair curlers," Bartle Hall Convention Center.

Now you have it.