Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

Mr. Jaggers: We’ll start setting his stocks short and keep selling it short until we break him.

Aide: But Mr. Jaggers his company has a solid reputation

Mr. Jaggers: Then start spreading rumors. Use that ugly word “mismanagement”… be inventive now, see to it.

Maverick: The Golden Fleecing 1961

So let me get this straight.

If well connected multi billion dollar hedge funds conspire to sell a stock short thus make a huge profit at the expense of the shareholders in a move that might damage or destroy the prospects of a company, why that’s is simply the free market at work with some people winning and some losing and anyone who objects is a communist!

BUT

If ordinary citizens seeing this move conspire to boost the value of a stock that been shorted strengthening the value of the company & the stock and making a huge profit at the expense of the hedge fund managers who were conspiring to destroy them, well that not only an example of online hate but it’s a travesty of justice that has to be stopped by new regulation and the shutting down of any recourse that makes it possible.

Now me, I don’t like either game. I’m for the the old fashioned concept of the value of a company & its stock being based on the quality of the product or service it creates and the demand or lack thereof said product or service generates, rather than on manipulation or tax breaks to shore it up.

Perhaps if traders worked on that principle rather than playing games they would not be in a dead panic now and remember, if this can happen with Gamestop or AMC it can happen with any publicly traded company.

Telosian Magistrate: Wrong thinking is punishable. Right thinking will be as quickly rewarded. You will find it an effective combination

Star Trek The Menagerie Part 2 1066

Ghost of Christmas Past: Truth Lives!

A Christmas Carol 1984

Yesterday on Twitter I found myself being accused of “ageism” because I pointed out that Joe Biden was not Compos mentis. The person who made this accusation is a person I’ve known for decades, whose house I’ve visited and who citied the fact that his father at 86 was teaching Calculus.

The real world cultural implications of this argument is one of the saddest things I’ve seen in my 57 years.

This fellow is an intelligent person, a bit of a rebel is certain ways that I won’t repeat as I don’t want to cause him trouble, but most of all he is familiar with actual truth and actual evidence the difference between reality and propaganda.

This person is also a deep and I mean DEEP leftist. Oddly enough before the election he had very little to say to me on twitter, in fact I can’t recall a single tweet from the man to over the last several years even though he’s been on twitter since 2008.

So why would he suddenly decide my statements the statements of a fellow with only a few thousand followers require a reply?

The answer and it’s implications are serious.

If I wanted to feed my ego I’d presume that it’s the task of him (and perhaps millions like him) to go after smaller guys like me is part of the general censorship of conservative thought to be kept out of the public square as a danger to the new order. To some degree that’s true but I suspect it’s not true enough to make someone like me worth targeting, at least not yet anyways.

I suspect the real answer is more akin to the character Vina from the original Star Trek Pilot later made into the two part episode The Menagerie.

Mike knows what the reality is, but to acknowledge that reality in public is dangerous because it can result in the othering of him, a risk to his job, his livelihood and to his position and social standing.

But I think it’s deeper and more painful than that.

To have to live a lie, to pretend a reality that one knows is not true can not be easy, even if it is for the cause. To have to do it in the face of others unwilling to go along with the game, to pretend not to see reality that in right in front of their face for the sake of the cause must be unbearable for someone who has been by nature a free spirit.

Every day that we resist having our thoughts caged and refuse to acknowledge their false reality is a reminder that they are in fact in the cage, even if they as true believers are considered favored members of their menagerie they are still in a cage.

As the telosian Magistrate put it:

The customs and history of your race show a unique hatred of captivity. Even when it’s pleasant and benevolent,

There are plenty of ignorant leftists who were taught poorly and have no understanding of the reality in front of them. Our enemies invested a lot of time, money and effort to be sure of this.

But to someone who is old enough, smart enough and educated enough to know reality and have to both in public and in private life contrary to it has to be hell.

I know that the next four years will be rough and I won’t be surprised if I run into problems, both legal and financial, for my unwillingness to play along, but I’d not trade places with such a person for all the comfort in the universe.

As I’ve noted I’m not a football fan, I’m a Tom Brady fan but yesterday I’ve been hearing the conventional wisdom concerning the end of the Packers vs Tampa Bay game and I find it interesting that they can’t see that LeFleur not only made the right call but made a call that gave his team the best chance to win.

Consider the situation:

4th quarter: We are down to just over two minutes to go Green Bay is down by 8. Let’s say you go for it on 4th down after failing for 3 downs. Here is what the possibilites are:

IF you fail to score:

THEN: Tom Brady gets the ball back with an 8 point lead and needs 2 1st downs to win the game.

IF you score the TD and fail to make the 2 point conversion:

THEN: Tom Brady gets the ball back with a 2 pt lead and needs 2 1st downs to win the game

IF you score the TD /AND Make the 2 point play

THEN: Tom Brady gets the ball back with 2 minutes left and 3 time outs needed a FG to win the game.

In all of these cases you need your defense to stop Tom Brady and the Best case scenario from any of these choices is:

A Tie game and overtime and we’ve all seen Brady in Overtime, Atlanta has seen it, Kansas City has seen it. If you’re Green Bay you don’t want to see it.

But NOW consider the alternatives with the FG and a five point game.

It’s true you still need to stop Brady from getting those two 1st downs and if you fail you lose (which you did thanks to that blatant hold) BUT what happens if you do manage to stop him and they have to punt?

Now because of those three point you didn’t have before you give Aaron Rogers a guaranteed chance to WIN with a TD rather than, if Rogers failed to score, a change to tie.

I submit and suggest that while your defense managed to hold Brady to 3 point vs 3 interceptions in his four previous possessions, the odds them doing it a 5th time in a row with a trip to the superbowl on the line was small at best so given those odds you might as well do it with a shot of winning in regulation rather than hoping that Brady doesn’t get the ball in overtime and beat you like he did Ryan and the Falcons or Mahomes and the Chiefs.

You can argue that LeFleur made the wrong call but I submit and suggest he made the only call that guaranteed him a chance to win that game in regulation.

Now it wasn’t a great chance but no matter what decision he made any chance he had to win was dependent on his defense stopping the greatest and most clutch quarterback in the history of the game from completing a drive either for a FG or for two 1st downs.

That would have been my call, but then again I would have gone for one earlier instead of two and then that field goal would have put them within 3 and been even more defensible.

Bottom line if you have to stop Brady anyways it might as well be with a CHANCE TO WIN.

Of course given the effect of the new woke NFL I’m not sure anyone cares, after all if Budweiser thinks the Superbowl is a bad risk even with Brady vs Mahomes who outside of Tampa will bother to watch.

I’ll be back to work by gametime so I won’t be watching or listening anyways.