MacGyver

The SEC has released a statement that they’re “monitoring the situation.”

There’s no way they can actually monetize this spike and profit from the volatility in any real way. You’re not going to get a line of credit on that - at least not at terms that aren’t more predatory than the ones they’ve already got. Plus, no management team wants to be in the position of having to explain what’s happening as opposed to the story they want to tell. The team from chewy.com just took a big position in the company and three board seats to go with it. I guarantee you this wasn’t the press they were looking for. When short positions are at 140% you’ve already got the deck stacked against you - mind you by a bunch of hedge funds that want to profit off your failure. This doesn’t change any of their fundamentals in any way that’s meaningful. You have a distressed company with a record of being awful to its employees being pumped up for lulz. I won’t lose any sleep about billionaires getting screwed by other billionaires. And watching hedge funds get beat at their own game is funny. But, GME probably still winds up at zero. If the team from chewy actually thought, “hey we’ve got an ecommerce background - that’s what this company ought to be - we’ve got a team that can do that” - then that job just got a lot harder.

I'd sure hate to be in management at GameStop or AMC right now.

The SEC could always take an interest - although they don't seem to have a lot in the way of teeth over the last few years. This isn't like a typical pump-and-dump scheme - in that it seems far more distributed. Were I investigating this, I'd be interested in some of the bigger 'influencers' in r/WSB. To the extent that anyone is playing with institutional money - that would be problematic. Anytime a company is shorted over 100% bears some investigation. But, whether the SEC will do it - who knows? But, this stock and the market at large are being artificially manipulated. Sure, here it's at a micro level - but it certainly could have larger implications at a macro level.

It's like 4chan got a Bloomberg terminal. The Reddit r/WallStreetBets is actually quite interesting reading. The fact that they've basically bankrupted a couple of major hedge funds is insane - and kind of serves them right. They're currently moving on AMC too. This won't end well, but it's fascinating to watch.

I spent a bunch of time on that thread a few years back. I love seeing what a dedicated hobbyist can do.

Of course I should add that there are lots of good quality billet receivers available on the open market. Tactical Innovations, Kidd, FJ Feddersen, and Volquartsen all come to mind. Heck, Razor (whose quality I can speak highly of) even sells a solid brass receiver.

I built a race dragon 10/22 from an 80% billet receiver. It’s by far my favorite of several 10/22s I’ve had. Quality of a billet receiver is better than the cast halves of the typical cast 10/22. I’ve got a mill and a lathe, but I’ve built one of these with a friend on just a drill press. That doesn’t mean you should build one. If you’re just looking for a 10/22 to bang around with - go with one off the shelf. They’ve got enough factory variants to fit about anyone’s desires. But, if you already know you’re going to change the stock, drop in a Kidd trigger and/or bolt, run a custom barrel, or some combination of those - now you could reasonably talk about doing an 80% build.

Zion is spectacular. We did Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, and the Grand Canyon two years ago with the kids. Along with a host of state parks and monuments. If you were to poll my kids, they’d tell you Goblen Valley was their favorite. From my perspective, Capitol Reef National Park was totally underrated- and I’d love to have spent some more time there.

I grew up in Atlanta and had the occasion to meet Aaron several times. You couldn’t find a person who was more worthy of a kid’s admiration. I can remember a bunch of times in the old Atlanta-Fulton County stadium days after he’d retired, where he and Dale Murphy would practically be the last ones in the stadium. He’d stay until he had signed every ball and talked to every kid who wanted to meet him.

A word on the QAnon folks right now - specifically with what we've learned about getting folks out of cults: If you know anyone who has gone down this rabbit hole - their world is falling apart right now. Yes, it makes zero sense. It's based in emotion more than reality. But it's real to them right now - and their world is upside down. If you know someone who's into this - they've probably alienated themselves a lot over the last year. You probably don't want to deal with them. But, if there are people you care about - this afternoon, today, and tomorrow represent critical opportunities to help them get out. And, it's through relationships that they once cared about that will offer a path out. It's worth reaching out to them. Be kind. Lead with emotional connection. It sounds weird, but facts have nothing to do with cults. They're looking for what to do next right now - and you can open the door to what's next. Not everyone will take it - but there are people we deeply care about who are hurting - and some of them might.

Old Jeeps with the doors off are lots of fun. I get it. $9500 sounds a bit rich too me. I’d prefer the inline 6 in any Jeep.

That’s hilarious. After all these years.

This thread is going to last about another 10 minutes...

I don’t expect NY AG Letita James is going to just let them skip off down to Texas. Of course we’re have a robust bankruptcy code in the US, and I’ve no doubt that there is a restructuring firm making bank off this. But, the litigation will have to be dealt with.

I’ll dig around.

Note, “the group says there will be no changes to its operations.”

I’ve read a lot of restructuring statements in my day. The “we’re filing bankruptcy” sure was buried in a lot of fluff. They’ve continued to take in tons of donations via fundraising. It’ll be awfully interesting to see what plans the judge will approve.

I'm locking this topic for three reasons: 1. TGO David just locked the general politics forum 2. A political article by a person with one post is likely designed to spread the reach of the article as opposed to contributing to the community. 3. Politics is a participatory sport. You cannot expect that things will stay the way they've always been - you have to get involved to help create the community you want.

Me either. But, by the same token literally billions of people have been brought out of extreme poverty in the last 2 generations - in your and my lifetime. Some of the post WWII structures that are so popular to hate on right now have largely kept the continent of Europe largely peaceful for the last 75 years. Parts of it had basically been at war for the 500 years previous to that. So many diseases are treatable that would have been deadly or terribly debilitating only 75 years ago. Many of us have traveled farther in a day than our forefathers did in their entire lives. I could go on - but there’s reason for hope, too. The world and the people in it really are quite amazing.

In 50 years, our grandchildren will look at our use of social media and it’s balkanizing effects in the same way we look at our grandparents who smoked 18 hours a day - sort of a “how could you not have known that stuff was terrible for you?” Hopefully its not preceded by “back before the war.”

There are diseases that have been eradicated in our lifetimes that killed millions of people because of vaccines. It’s late, so I won’t try to rank them - but if you were to make a list of scientific achievements that have most improved the human condition in the last 500 years - vaccines are in the top 5.

In which case you can expand that rule past Bitcoin to all sorts of projects that’ll immediately begin to accrue technical debt.

I’m reserving my time. I’ve got a few more I can bring out when needed.