Random General Headlines

[M1ke]

Do yourselves a favour though and don't go read the reddit threads...they're just idiots trying to screw over a hedge fund without realizing that losses at this size aren't that uncommon for hedge funds, and they're also going to screw themselves over too.

It's just stupid really.

[allegro]

yes. they are different.

2) if the "economy" was doing so good in Trump's eyes, then why was there a devastatingly high number of bankruptcies in 2020?

Like we said, stocks and the economy aren’t related; Trump’s Federal Reserve was buying corporate bonds of big companies that didn’t need help.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/29/the-...-over-why.html

The “economy” is the GDP:

Last year’s shrunk by 3.5%, the worst since 1946.

[Jinsai]

yes, of course they're different things, but they're all dominos that will hit each other when the system falls apart. The worldwide impact of the stock market truly collapsing is unimaginable. I'm pretty much on the verge of taking out all my stock investments, and I can't be the only one.

[allegro]

I don’t know why you feel that way.

What happened with GameStop is no indication of the health of the stock market. It’s an indication of the health of the typical brick-and-mortar retail market, which is dying. Hell, most retail right now is suffering due to the pandemic.

If your portfolio is diverse, you should have zero worries. Don’t invest in retail.

My portfolio is up from last year.

Panic selling is the newbiest thing you can do. Stock portfolios are meant to be long-term investments.

This is NOT like the securities-backed real estate crash. NOT.

[versusreality]

Like we said, stocks and the economy aren’t related; Trump’s Federal Reserve was buying corporate bonds of big companies that didn’t need help.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/29/the-...-over-why.html

The “economy” is the GDP:

Last year’s shrunk by 3.5%, the worst since 1946.

Yes, and even the GDP is a facade. From the book Enough (currently reading) by Vanguard Founder and inventor of the index fund, Jack Bogle:
"Government: Making Sure the Numbers Fit
It turns out that our GDP includes so-called imputed income, such as the assumed value of income from living in our homes, the benefits of free checking accounts, and the value of employer-paid insurance premiums. Such phantom income accounts for fully $1.8 trillion of our $14 trillion GDP"

In other words, things are even WORSE than they seem with the economy.

[allegro]

What worries me more are the personal debt levels, but experts seem to think they’re okay because interest rates are low. I think experts are just full of shit.

[Jinsai]

I don't call panic selling a "noob" thing, and I wouldn't call myself a complete noob here. But when you're up, you cash in. None of that money is real until you do that. It's all just hypothetical cash.

I also don't really "bet" with the stock market. I diversify and lean towards stocks that give some kind of dividend, and I get how this works. What I'm saying is, almost nobody knows where this is going. And to your larger point, yes, you're going to see a lot of noob buying and selling, and noob panic selling... and the noobs panic selling gamestop are the patsies at the table.

[versusreality]

What worries me more are the personal debt levels, but experts seem to think they’re okay because interest rates are low. I think experts are just full of shit.

as someone over 120K in student loan debt, yes, they are full of shit.

[allegro]

I don't call panic selling a "noob" thing, and I wouldn't call myself a complete noob here. But when you're up, you cash in. None of that money is real until you do that. It's all just hypothetical cash.

I also don't really "bet" with the stock market. I diversify and lean towards stocks that give some kind of dividend, and I get how this works. What I'm saying is, almost nobody knows where this is going. And to your larger point, yes, you're going to see a lot of noob buying and selling, and noob panic selling... and the noobs panic selling gamestop are the patsies at the table.

I don’t even have stocks, my IRA is in this.

Warren Buffet taught me to put my money in something with medium risk (or blue chip stocks) and forget about it until retirement and I trust Warren Buffet so that’s what I did. *edit: FWIW, Buffet also recommends index funds.

I also have real estate.

I’m more worried about minimizing debt and increasing cash reserves at this point in my life.

This day-trading that these guys are doing is gambling, plain and simple. It’s no different than video poker. Except now the volume is fucking with all trading.


Lemme tell ya a little story about panic selling:

Back in the olden days, when mutual funds started and ordinary people who didn’t have stockbrokers could buy into mutual funds, many many people did just that.

Then Oct 19, 1987, happened, also known as Black Tuesday.

And many many people panic-sold. And lost everything.

But ... many people didn’t. They let it ride. And THOSE people, today, are very very rich.

The end.

G works with guys who got out of their retirement funds a few years ago (paid a penalty) and put it all in GOLD, because the financial apocalypse was coming and money would be worthless and only gold would be worth something. Like, we are gonna be using gold bars at the grocery store? They won’t even take my silver dollars. G told them, if the apocalypse happens, what you’re gonna need is guns, not gold; ‘cause we all gonna be in deep shit.

[allegate]

G works with guys who got out of their retirement funds a few years ago (paid a penalty) and put it all in GOLD, because the financial apocalypse was coming and money would be worthless and only gold would be worth something. Like, we are gonna be using gold bars at the grocery store? They won’t even take my silver dollars. G told them, if the apocalypse happens, what you’re gonna need is guns, not gold; ‘cause we all gonna be in deep shit.

[GulDukat]

Anyone else tired of hearing about Marjorie Taylor Greene?

Expel her and move on.

[allegate]

Anyone else tired of hearing about Marjorie Taylor Greene?

Expel her and move on.

Good news everyone!

In Gamestop news:

Anyone read the book "Adjustment Day" from Chuck Palahniuk?

Synopsis

In a near-future United States, a corrupt Senator plans to reinstate the draft to send young men to die in a planned nuclear attack of mutually agreed-upon destruction in the Middle East to prevent an uprising of those same young men. Meanwhile, mysterious actor Talbott Reynolds circulates a small blue and black book throughout the country full of his own manifesto and wisdom on how life should be lived, and a Web site called "The List" allows users to submit and vote on public figures they think deserve to be killed. Before the vote can be made to reinstate the draft, readers of Reynolds's manifesto rise up, kill the targets on The List, and use severed ears taken from those killings to prove their power and become the new leaders of a new United States, split into the regions of Blacktopia, Gaysia, and Caucasia.

wtf. I know we joked about "1984" not being an instruction manual but maybe we should include other books now.

[allegate]

huh.

[ickyvicky]

I wonder what pay raise he'll give himself for this

[Magnetic]

Oh man,this sucks.
Two FBI agents from crimes against children unit killed and three agents wounded in South Florida shootout

[allegro]

Oh man,this sucks.
Two FBI agents from crimes against children unit killed and three agents wounded in South Florida shootout

Yeah, really bad.

[allegro]

This NFL thing is so infuriating; I just watched a Nightline special on this, and I’m so fucking pissed. I hope these players win a HUGE settlement; I wish players would BOYCOTT.

https://abc7.com/nfl-concussion-sett...enry/10277915/

So, the NFL experts look at the black players’ injury-related dementia medical claim but then add “race” data that basically boils down to: “You black folk are already stupid so we don’t see how you are any more mentally fucked-up than you already were.”

Like, wtf?!

[versusreality]

This NFL thing is so infuriating; I just watched a Nightline special on this, and I’m so fucking pissed. I hope these players win a HUGE settlement; I wish players would BOYCOTT.

https://abc7.com/nfl-concussion-sett...enry/10277915/

So, the NFL experts look at the black players’ injury-related dementia medical claim but then add “race” data that basically boils down to: “You black folk are already stupid so we don’t see how you are any more mentally fucked-up than you already were.”

Like, wtf?!

Racial bias (or flat out racism) is in so many facets of society, perhaps even all facets. With progress made, we still have a long, long way to go.

[allegate]

Is it ok to speak ill of the dead when they're this stupid? Asking for a friend.

[bobbie solo]

Is it ok to speak ill of the dead when they're this stupid? Asking for a friend.

[ickyvicky]

"Charges dropped against white woman who called police on black birdwatcher" This is fucking crazy

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...-bird-n1257987

[allegro]

"Charges dropped against white woman who called police on black birdwatcher" This is fucking crazy

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...-bird-n1257987

She completed five "psychoeducation and therapy" sessions that helped her "appreciate that racial identities shape our lives" and that "we cannot use them to harm ourselves or others," Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi said.

This was likely a deal made in advance, to keep it off her record. The punitive system is intended to be rehabilitative as well as punitive; the victim seemed to be happy with this type of outcome.

This is also per new prison and jail reform guidelines that keep jails open to more hardened criminals and repeat offenders, etc., hence the release of many criminals for non-violent offenses, especially during Covid.

[ickyvicky]

At least a fine or something for the guy!

[allegro]

At least a fine or something for the guy!

She went to five sessions of race-focused counseling; that’s actually more valuable to society than a fine. They probably made her pay money for it, too.

I’ve been at the courthouse and saw people who’ve been sentenced to their sixth or seventh DUI in the lot who drove themselves to the courthouse with suspended licenses.

Moral? These people should be sentenced to mandatory rehab. Fines and jail are often outdated and aren’t always valuable to society.

[elevenism]

She went to five sessions of race-focused counseling; that’s actually more valuable to society than a fine.

I’ve been at the courthouse and saw people who’ve been sentenced to their sixth or seventh DUI in the lot who drove themselves to the courthouse with suspended licenses.

Moral? These people should be sentenced to mandatory rehab. Fines and jail are often outdated and aren’t always valuable to society.

Definitely. Treatment and rehabilitation are much more useful than punitive measures.

Shit, one of my cousins went to.prison for dwi 3. Last time I saw him, he was driving on a suspended license, with a case of beer in the floorboard- like, LITERALLY drinking and driving at the same time, while ON PAROLE.
A year of mandatory inpatient rehab and counseling would have helped him a lot more than a year of prison, where he just learned about, you know, prison.

[allegro]

@elevenism - Bingo.

And fining that woman, above, or sending her to jail would have just ramped up her racism, or denial of it. Sending her to counseling (which she pays for, or at least contributes toward the payment of) helps to educate her about how racism hurts people, teaches her empathy, teaches her that her actions were dangerous to vulnerable members of society, etc.

[botley]

Racism SHOULD be punished though. I think the widespread shaming on media outlets for what she did had to have been fairly unpleasant, but I would argue that a fine commensurate with her status and privilege AND self-funded counseling/rehabilitation should have been part of the sentence, otherwise it just looks like white supremacy in the justice system being lenient towards other white supremacy.

[allegro]

Racism SHOULD be punished though. I think the widespread shaming on media outlets for what she did had to have been fairly unpleasant, but I would argue that a fine commensurate with her status and privilege AND self-funded counseling/rehabilitation should have been part of the sentence, otherwise it looks like white supremacy in the system being lenient towards other white supremacy.

There was no sentence, technically. But under “normal” white privilege, she would have gone to court, received a minimal fine under the sentencing guidelines (if any) and waltzed away. Being forced to five sessions of counseling is not a small thing. Courts are doing this with domestic violence offenders. Counseling is far more effective than a fine. Sure, a fine “looks” punitive, but it does shit. It’s pretty useless to privileged people. They just write a check.

This from the above-linked article:

”The simple principle is that one cannot use the police to threaten another and, in this case, in a racially offensive and charged manner. Given the issues at hand and Ms. Cooper's lack of criminal background, we offered her, consistent with our position on many misdemeanor cases involving a first arrest, an alternative, restorative justice resolution, designed not just to punish but to educate and promote community healing."

Later Tuesday, Christian Cooper posted a statement on Facebook, again declining to discuss the case but this time mentioning Amy Cooper in arguing for Washington, D.C., statehood.

"I am far more outraged by the US Congress, which continues to deny the mostly Black and brown people of the District of Columbia statehood and the representation every American deserves, than by anything Amy Cooper did," according to his statement.

[botley]

There was no sentence, technically. But under “normal” white privilege, she would have gone to court, received a minimal fine under the sentencing guidelines (if any) and waltzed away. Being forced to five sessions of counseling is not a small thing. Courts are doing this with domestic violence offenders. Counseling is far more effective than a fine. Sure, a fine “looks” punitive, but it does shit. It’s pretty useless to privileged people. They just write a check.

That's what I meant about there needing to be a fine commensurate to her status. Restorative justice is a wonderful thing but privileged people have to write the check so EVERYONE can have it.

[allegro]

That's what I meant about there needing to be a fine commensurate to her status. Restorative justice is a wonderful thing but privileged people have to write the check so EVERYONE can have it.

Well, but her “status” according to the justice system (see above) includes lack of any criminal background or prior arrests. There are legal sentencing guidelines in place.

She likely didn’t even realize she was racist. She abused her own dog, while being freaked out over a black dude birdwatching in a park. This is a far bigger issue than her; she was raised among that issue plus sprinkle in women being fear of men in parks in general and we have a whooooooooooole lotta fixing to do.

Here’s the bad news if you are one of those people asking, “Am I racist?”

“If you have to ask if you are a racist, you are,” says Angela Bell, an assistant professor of psychology at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. “And if you are not asking if you are a racist, you are.”