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The BIG portfolio. There is some logic. How to get vaccinated, part 2.

We have a huge portfolio. Far too big. The “experts” say five to ten stocks. Then you can learn the intricacies of each one.

But you can’t learn the intricacies of tech stocks. You can learn what they do, and guess that their businesses will explode (especially if they met all the criteria we’ve written about). But you can’t predict all the crazy stuff that happens occasionally. PTON got downgraded by UBS today to a sell. I don’t know if this will affect PTON long term. FVRR got hit today.  I don’t know why. I like both companies. I’ll read more on them. But it looks like PTON is way overpriced. There’s plenty of new competition. And I’m way up. Time to take my profits?

With a huge portfolio, taking profits and cutting losses is easier. I’m less married to the stocks.  Today there are plenty of other handsome gainers — e.g. SPWR, FCEL, GNRC, ROKU, PLUG, etc.

Vaccines for the people

The drive-up window that’s popular. Don’t worry about the language. You’ll get the gist of this new service, which you’ll really want to sign up for. The actresses are wonderful.

If you can’t see the wonderful image above, click on the link you can see above. Or read this blog in your browser.

Yesterday’s blog on the vaccine overwhelmed me with readers who had “stories”:

+ “I was on the Weill Cornell Connect portal this morning at 7:30 and found a slot for a vaccine at 12:45 today. However I had to upload my insurance info and by the time I did that….. it was gone! Mean! Looking but nothing for the next month!”

+ Susan and I can get the vaccine in Plattsburgh, only a four hour drive from where we are now. We’ll probably get covid at the gas station on the way up.

+ Skip and his wife got vaccinated because he lent his covered tennis court to the powers-that-be to set up a temporary vaccination center on his court.

+ All my ultra-rich friends got their vaccine by joining a pricey concierge service at their local hospital — at one-time charge of only $250,000.

+ Susan and I, who aren’t that rich, have appointments on Friday at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, but the hospital has emailed me that they may, or may not have the vaccine and I ought to try elsewhere. Mount Sinai wrote “We are disappointed that supply fluctuations have made the vaccination process so uncertain….” Ya di ya!

Meantime, if you enjoy shitshows, this vaccination one will certainly amuse.

Tomorrow is his last full day

We have may have dodged that bullet. He was a class-act snake oil salesman……The words are prophetic. They describe a whole segment of our society. Perhaps they describe what our society has become?.

The Snake Oil Salesman Society? I watch left and right TV. It’s all financed by snake oil — Prevagen, Qunol, etc.

Everyone defines their own reality. It’s impossible to change their minds, because there is so much media you can always find a source agreeing with you.  For four years, Trump had batted away every inconvenient fact with the phrase “fake news,” and his base believed him when he attributed his decisive defeat in both the Electoral College and the popular vote to “rigged” machines and “massive voter fraud.”

I look at Russia. Alexei Navalny, the Biden of Russia, is locked up for 30 days. Maybe forever. Why did he return to Russia? What reality is he living in.

Trump leaves in envy of how Putin keeps his power.

Maybe one last trick.

It won’t be Biden arrested on Trumped up charges and locked up for more than 30 days. Maybe, thinks Trump, there’s still a way.

We all are playing our own chess game. Trump, too. In the episode of The Queens Gambit I just watched, Harmon just got whipped…She is furious with herself by being caught in his web, unable to control the outcome. Her first major loss. Trump is Harmon. Or so he must think.

He’s got 24 hours. It’s got to  be something dramatic. The key winning strategy is closed off – the military. Or maybe not? Is that why he just put people into the Pentagon and the NSA who will follow his final commands, a futile gesture that might finish in a Thelma and Louse moment – off the cliff.

Another alternate reality

In 1967 I’m  boarding a Garuda Indonesia DC3 plane. As I approached the stairs, I noticed that the crew was coming down the stairs.

I asked “Why?”

The kind lady at the bottom of the stairs answered “They refuse to fly the plane because it hasn’t been serviced.”

I asked so what are we going to do?

The kind lady answered, “We’re changing crews.”

They did. And the plane made it to Jakarta, with me on board.

Things I just learned

+ My Subaru Outback has an X-Mode, which is really good in snow.

+ My Honeywell thermostat has a “circulate” mode, which is useful in winter.

+ If I have food on my desk, I’ll eat it and get fat.

Stuff to watch

+ Chris Rock is playing standup on Netflix. He’s endlessly funny, even when offering how to keep your marriage together — which he couldn’t.

+ Fran Lebowitz  talks about New York. She’s interesting if you’ve lived in New York City.

+ The Queens Gambit on Netflix is wonderful. Make sure you struggle through the first episode. It gets better.

Userful advice

Yes, they walk among us.

Tomorrow is Inauguration Day. I’m tearing up as I wrote “Inauguration Day.” Maybe Biden’s team will organize a better way of getting my family vaccinated? They could hardly do worse than the present gang that can’t shoot straight.

By the way, do NOT buy a pillow from The Pillow Guy. His pillows are awful. I tried one. He says he’ll refund your money if you don’t like the pillow. But he won’t refund the shipping to you. And he won’t pay for the shipping back to him. He’s an a*shole.

— Harry Newton