Scott Masten

still learning, waiting to vote again, planning to go fishing, watching my kids do amazing things - views my own

[Muthukrishnan Dhandapani @dmuthuk]

During his campaign for first term, Donald Trump was asked how he showed $916 million net operating losses in 1995 and setting it off for next 18 years without paying any federal taxes.

Not knowing what to answer, Trump said:

​"I absolutely used it, and so did Warren Buffett. Warren Buffett took a massive deduction."

We've to learn from Buffett as to how to deal with facts and data without being emotional or vindictive.

The very next day Buffett shared his income tax returns and said:

​"I have paid federal income tax every year since 1944, when I was 13. Though, being a slow starter, I owed only $7 in tax that year. I have copies of all 72 of my returns and none uses a carryforward."

He further noted that while he made $2.85 billion in charitable contributions in 2015, tax laws properly limited his deductions, meaning more than $2.85 billion of his donations were not taken as deductions and never would be.

He asked Trump to share his tax returns in public. Not knowing what to do, Trump said he is under IRS audit and cannot publicly share his returns.

For which Buffett responsded:

"I have been audited by the IRS multiple times and am currently being audited. I have no problem in releasing my tax information while under audit. Neither would Mr. Trump -at least he would have no legal problem."

Buffett then invited Trump to any place, any time before the election so they could both bring their tax returns, sit down, and let the public ask them questions.

Trump never accepted the invitation.

From then on Trump never once even uttered the name Warren Buffett.

Looks like Trump no longer even eat buffets.

[Cestrian Capital Research, Inc @CestrianInc]

The 1990s redux continues

Then - Wintel

Now - Wintel

Also now - WiNVDARM

[Scott Masten @ScottMasten]

Fk this mfer and everyone who supports him and his loaded diaper

[Hillary Clinton @HillaryClinton]

This is what Trump's done to the people's house:

A third of it is rubble.

Another third is a cage match.

What a metaphor.

[Daniel Goldman @danielsgoldman]

Donald Trump ran for office for three reasons:

1) stay out of jail
2) exact revenge on his enemies
3) line his pockets

Everything else he says is bullshit.

[PaulleyTicks @PaulleyTicks]

BREAKING: surveillance camera view captures what Donald Trump saw when he sneak-peeked at Chinese President Xi Jinping's personal notebook, after he left the table to use the restroom.

[Wayne Liang @wliang]

While we watch Neocloud continue to run, I'll be deep diving into humanoids/robotics again to find the latest asymmetric trades.

$NVDA has really catalyzed some solid momentum across the entire sector.

Companies in the spotlight:

$HYMTF (Hyundai)
$TSLA Optimus
Figure AI (private)
Agility Robotics (private)
UBTECH (HKEX: https://t.co/WexWaw8qnR)

But like every other AI sector, the most asymmetric opportunities sit in the layers underneath (like $OUST and $VPG before it took off).

Will share theses, research, and new findings to https://t.co/r8G8UwTZYy members soon. I'll highlight some solid entries on here using our indicators. 🤖

[NoelCaslerComedy @caslernoel]

“Trump confidently boasts of ‘acing’ his three cognitive tests every chance he gets like a man who is the last to know old age has robbed him of both lucidity and vigor. (Truth be told he was never anything approaching healthy, and would ask for a golf cart to bring him from his SUV into the Museum of Natural History where we taped the last few ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ finales. A distance of about a hundred feet was more than he cared to travel on his own; part of this is sheer laziness and part of it was failing health even then).

POTUS has clearly not been told by his doctors the cognitive tests are given to detect dementia in elderly patients. DJT instead uses it as an opportunity to brag that he is the only president to take them, how difficult they are, and that Barack Obama, the former President of Harvard Law Review, U.S. Senator and first Black President of the United States would not do as well as the man who once lost a fight to an umbrella, and still uses his finger to read.

Is there any universe in which anyone thinks those two men are approaching anything close to equal in terms of intellect or physical stamina? I have watched Jared and Ivanka make fun of the fact that Donald does not read and has no interest in it. Trump is famous for driving his golf cart all the way on to the putting green, both to cheat by arriving ahead of his opponents, and to avoid even the slightest physical exertion.

POTUS thinks the term ‘asylum seekers’ means that migrants were released from a mental health facility, not fleeing political prosecution; a distinction he has failed to make now over the course of two presidencies. It says a lot about the caliber of the staff around him that nobody has sought to correct him of this false notion. Instead they prefer to let him stumble along in his stupidity. Donald is not merely slipping, he is lost, and his disinhibition and demented nature are making an already aberrant and violent personality all the more dangerous.

The press should call this out and not simply dance around the issue.

We are not talking here of some harmless geriatric slipping into mumbled remembrances of times gone by, but a violent man who sees himself on par with Julius Caesar, Abraham Lincoln and Napoleon Bonaparte - and wants to reshape the world around him into some sort of empire of idiocy.” https://t.co/NbxPp4Yd2m

[NoelCaslerComedy @caslernoel]

“DJT knows there is a lot of money in talking about his own antics endlessly, without actually saying anything instructive or illuminating; reacting over reporting.

His mindless posts are designed to feed the outrage machine, where influencers have passed themselves off as pundits without any real experience or motivation, other than self-enrichment and amassing large followings.

By retweeting his content and clips and passing it off as ‘resistance’, influencers unintentionally allow Donald Trump to control the narrative.

We would be better served metaphorically cutting off the oxygen supply to his tortured narcissistic brain. He craves attention, so why grant him his wish? (It’s one of the reasons I have never used his picture in my ‘Noel’s Notes’ articles and never would). His mottled visage is poison to the soul, and its constant use feeds his disease.

Anyone who thinks social media is the answer to the Democrats political future, or a panacea for saving our dying democracy, is in for yet another rude awakening. We need to continue to take to the streets in numbers so large they cannot be ignored.

Boots on the ground are better than endless bots and digital banter. We need general strikes and boycotts, more protests and less podcasts. If the current online media environment was effective we wouldn’t be so deep in this mess. They’ve made a cottage industry of online ‘resistance’ - and it only feeds the beast.

You must not put all your eggs in one basket when that basket has a giant hole in the bottom of it that was put there intentionally by the oligarchs who truly wish you harm. The algorithms are firmly in the hands of the tech bro billionaires who platform Christofascist right wing trolls and manosphere sex-traffickers in the interest of amassing wealth, at the expense of our well being and safety.

The key to Trump’s hustle; the reason he has gotten away with so much, for so long, is there is a lot of money to made amongst the chaos he creates. The illusion of resistance has become big business - and nobody knows this better than him.” https://t.co/9wzfHGf5ma

[Kevin Kelly @kevin2kelly]

How can we be sure our robots and AIs do the right thing when the world is always new? I wrote up a 2-page Catechism for Robots that might help guide them morally. It's a first draft. You might want to create your own version. Mine is here: https://t.co/rE7ZMMvIkE

[Scott Masten @ScottMasten]

Yes

[Morgan J. Freeman @mjfree]

It’s been 20 months since attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Butler, PA, a state he desperately needed to win to stay out of prison. Many are now saying it misled voters & it helped him win.

Corey Comperatore was killed by the bullet apparently intended for Trump. His sister is demanding answers from Trump, but he's ignoring her, refusing to discuss it, AND HE PERSONALLY SHUT DOWN THE INVESTIGATION!!! Why?

Why wouldn't he play this up? Play the victim? Blame the deranged left? Blame Biden? Obama?

That's his classic move, no?

And Secret Service are not trained to allow a president under attack to stand and expose himself to a kill shot. Yet, these agents did just that, and were promoted - one was made the head of the entire agency!

So, look again. Do you think it was staged? Y or N?

[Jake Wujastyk @Jake__Wujastyk]

A rip on $VIX back to 20-21 in the next couple days would be ultimate setup for next bull case scenario going into end of April/early May.

[Anthony Scaramucci @Scaramucci]

Let me give the Democrats the only advice they actually need right now. 👇🏼

Stop the anti-Trump rhetoric. It doesn't work. It has never worked.

Move on!!!

Campaign on renewal.

Reconnect the bottom half of this country back to the social contract.

Talk about:

-jobs training
-better schools
-more food in schools

40 to 50% of kids are showing up hungry and you cannot learn on an empty stomach.

Go back to your roots.

Mario Cuomo got these voters. Lyndon Johnson got these voters. JFK got these voters.

Go back to them and say, we're sorry.

We disconnected from you.

Trump gave you an avatar for your anger.

We're here to give you actual solutions.

Do what Newt Gingrich did in 1994.

Put together a contract with the American Worker.

List every single thing you're going to do for the people who feel most left out.

Make it concrete. Make it a promise. Make them hold you to it.

But if you spend the next two years attacking Trump and waving the Epstein files around, he owns the Department of Justice.

It's his personal law firm now. You will get nowhere.

Focus on the future.

The people who feel left out don't need more outrage.

They need a plan. Give them one.

[Tammy Duckworth @SenDuckworth]

Before Donald Trump launched this unnecessary and costly war, the Strait of Hormuz was open, gas was $1 less and 13 more American servicemembers were alive.

Only someone as deeply incompetent, delusional and unfit as Trump would see this as “winning.”

While our nation watches to see if this ceasefire deal holds in the wake of his deranged rhetoric, including a threat to destroy an entire civilization, this chaos cannot be excused.

Congress must return to Washington immediately, vote on a War Powers Resolution to rein this dictatorial President in and be the coequal branch of government our founders intended us to be.

[Anthony Scaramucci @Scaramucci]

Actual quotes from President Trump:

Trump’s “victory timeline” claims.

Mar 3: "We won the war."
Mar 7: "We defeated Iran."
Mar 9: "We must attack Iran."
Mar 9: "The war is ending almost completely, and very beautifully.
March 10: practically nothing left to target
Mar 11: “You never like to say too ⁠early you won. We won. In ​the first hour it was over.” Mar 12: "We did win, but we haven't won completely yet."
Mar 13: "We won the war."
Mar 14: "Please help us."
Mar 15: "If you don't help us, I will certainly remember it."
Mar 16: "Actually, we don't need any help at all."
Mar 16: "I was just testing to see who's listening to me."
Mar 16: "If NATO doesn't help, they will suffer something very bad."
Mar 17: "We neither need nor want NATO's help."
Mar 17: "I don't need Congressional approval to withdraw from NATO."
Mar 18: "Our allies must cooperate in reopening the Strait of Hormuz."
Mar 19: "US allies need to get a grip - step up and help open the Strait of Hormuz."
Mar 20: "NATO are cowards."
Mar 21: "The Strait of Hormuz must be protected by the countries that use it. We don't use it, we don't need to open it."
Mar 22: "This is the last time. I will give Iran 48 hours. Open the strait"
Mar 22: "Iran is Dead"

Mar 23: "We had very good and productive talks with Iran."
Mar 24: "We’re making progress."
Mar 25: “They gave us a present and the present arrived today. And it was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money. I’m not going to tell you what that present is, but it was a very significant prize.” Mar 26: "Make a deal, or we’ll just keep blowing them away."
Mar 27: "We don’t have to be there for NATO."
Mar 28: No major quote
Mar 29: Claimed talks were progressing
Mar 30: "Open the Strait of Hormuz immediately, or face devastating consequences."
Mar 31: Claimed a deal was "very close" and that Iran would "do the right thing"
Apr 1: "We’ll see what happens very soon."
Apr 2: Repeated that a deal was likely, while warning of continued strikes if not
Apr 3: "Something big is going to happen."
Apr 4: Said Iran must comply "immediately" or face further consequences.

Apr 5: "Open the fuckin' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah."
April 6 :a whole civilization will die
April 7: total and complete victory
April8: objectives were met

A true disaster

[Kamala Harris @KamalaHarris]

The President of the United States is threatening to commit war crimes and wipe out a "whole civilization" — all because he started a disastrous war of his own making and had no plan and no strategy for how to end it.

This is abhorrent, and the American people do not support this.

Trump's recklessness is needlessly putting our brave service members in harm's way, destroying America's global standing, and making life even more unaffordable for the American people.

We must all stand against this and oppose funding this illegal war of choice.

[Rep. Mike Levin @RepMikeLevin]

Think about what Washington Republicans are actually asking you to believe: that there are noncitizens so committed to voting illegally that they’d risk deportation, prosecution, and everything we’ve seen ICE do, just to cast a ballot in our elections.  

There is no documented crisis of noncitizens voting. It is already a federal crime, and it always has been.   

Republicans invented a crisis that doesn’t exist so they could sell a “solution” that makes it harder for YOU to vote.  

Call it what it is: the SAVE REPUBLICANS Act.

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

Good afternoon. Speaker Johnson was sent a bill to fund TSA, the Coast Guard and FEMA that passed the Senate 100-0. If he had simply called it for a vote it would passed easily.

But he chose chaos. Because that’s what Trump wants. Only Johnson can clean up this mess.

[Anders Åslund @anders_aslund]

It is difficult to imagine any US leader who could cause more harm to US foreign policy than Trump:
1. Since he lies all the time, he has wasted all US credibility.
2. Since he pursues trade wars against all purported allies, he is in war with all allies.
3. Since he has started a madcap war against Iran without asking anybody but Israel, he has caused many allies to be attacked for no cause of their own.
Conclusions:
1. The US is unable to be an ally of anybody as long as Trump remains US president.
2. Thus, all US "alliances" have lost content.
3. All countries with US bases need to reconsider:
Aren't these bases a reason for attack on us, while offering no defense or even consultation.
4. Trump has destroyed the whole US security architecture of the last 80 years out of either stupidity or treason. The cost to the US will be horrendous.

[Democrats @TheDemocrats]

Democrats introduced bills to end the TSA shutdown on:

March 5
March 11
March 12
March 18
March 19 (x2)
March 21
March 23

Republicans blocked TSA funding every single time.