TJ Sotomayor has it exactly right. Sotomayor also knows what Steve Bannon also knows.
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Rambling On A Thursday Night
There is nothing in the following rambling that would be of interest to anyone. I highly recommend no one read further. Move on. There is nothing about the Bakken in the following rambling notes. If you came here for the Bakken, scroll down or scroll to the sidebar at the right.
First: I am "in love" with my Dr Dre headphones -- these are the originals. My daughter found this pair at a pawn shop -- $49. They are incredible. Playing ABBA as loud as I can take it.
My favorite company: Amazon. I love this article. Folks just don't get it, do they?
My second favorite company: Apple. I used to like it a whole lot better when Steve Jobs had a more earthly involvement, but Steve seems to be as active as ever. Certainly, Tim Cook could not have produced the numbers in this last quarter without Steve's help. It's all about the daemons.
I subscribe to New York Review of Books and London Review of Books. The latter is much, much more difficult to read. I consider myself lucky to find one essay in any issue of London Review of Books that I can enjoy. I hit a gold mine in the LRB this week. Three essays I found interesting, but the best by far was the essay by Peter Pomerantsev on the Russian writer Teffi, a writer who lived through the Russian revolution / Bolshevik revolution. Teffi puts everything about Putin/Russia into perspective.
Memo to self: watch Dr Zhivago or at least parts of it this weekend. I try to watch Dr Zhivago at least once or twice every year; it's difficult; it's a hard movie to watch. Oh, that's right, The Super Bowl this weekend. Without the Dallas Cowboys in the Super Bowl, hardly matters. By the way, speaking of televised extravaganzas, I won't be watching the Oscars this year. Wanna bet ratings are way down by the end of the show?
Oh, I lied. I am going to mention the Bakken. It's a long, long story, but several decades ago I bought shares in a company mentioned in a Forbes magazine. The company was not Conoco, but it was an oil company and that company was selling shares for an incredibly ridiculously low price, so I bought a few shares. That company was bought by Conoco and over the years, through dividend reinvestment, the investment grew and grew and grew. And splits, and spin-offs, and upgrades and downgrades. But I just left it in the oven and let it bake. The investment will never affect my lifestyle; it will be passed to the daughters and hopefully the granddaughters. I never really followed Conoco, and never really knew where it was drilling for oil. But I always considered it a "big company" drilling in important places. And now, all those important places include the Permian, the Bakken, and the Eagle Ford. Who wudda thought?
I see COP raised its dividend, not by much, but for an oil company to raise its dividend in this environment speaks volumes. ExxonMobil is in deep doo-doo.
It's been said that some foreign crisis always tests new US presidents in their first 100 days. President Trump will go down as the first US president to test 100 countries in his first 100 days. China ("yes, let me take that phone call from Taiwan"); Canada (NAFTA); Mexico (send US troops across the border); Iran ("on notice"); Australia ("what the hell was Obama thinking?"); Germany (playing the currency game against the US); the unfortunate seven (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia); the UN (Haley: "we're taking names"); Iran (again; nothing off the table in US response to Iran's recent missile launch [which was a failure, by the way]); Israel (quit announcing new settlements, and oh, by the way, Trump supports John Kerry's two-state solution).
On again, off again. Will she or won't she? Move into the White House? First reports: nope. Then, within hours: she will. If she does, her move to the White House will be incredibly well choreographed; it will rival any reality show. Kardashian on Steroids.
The US Senate progs refuse to meet with Supreme Court justice nominee Neil Gorsuch. Reports are that the progs would need someone to translate if he were to visit. Something tells me half of those progs would be falling all over themselves to meet Mr Gorsuch, with or without a translator, if the woman pictured above accompanied the nominee. Just saying. She can eat crackers ...
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