by John Walters

Deadliest Hoax

If you visit Twitter, you’ll find nurses from South Dakota to El Paso sharing personal stories of patients who refuse, up to the point of being intubated, to believe that they have COVID-19. Anything but, including lung cancer, is acceptable in their minds.

Thousands of Americans dying while, with their final gasps, still refusing to accept that the coronavirus is more than a Donald Trump punchline. Of course, it’s not the reality of the virus that they’re actually refusing to accept. It’s the reality that Trump was a con all along, that their paradigm of American-ism was never quite in keeping with the values of liberty and justice for all.

So they’d rather just fool themselves into believing they died of a hoax.

Look What’s Up: Bitcoin*

*Hate to tell you, Susie B., but it’s true

Lots of stocks have had banner 2020 years: Peloton, Moderna, Tesla and Zoom to name just a few, are all up more than 100% since February (Why didn’t someone tell us?!?). But then there’s Bitcoin, or as we trade it, GBTC.

On March 16 GBTC was at a year-low of $5.01. This morning it’s at $19.59. I don’t understand it, either. But it’s like they always say, “The first rule of investing is ‘buy low, sell high.’ The second rule of investing? Never listen to me.

If you’re curious, the actual price of a Bitcoin from then to now is about 1,000 times what the price of a share of GBTC is.

By the way, my good friend A.J., armed with a high school education and a ton of moxie, phoned in early July and recommended we buy The Gap (GPS). It was at less than $12 a share then. Today it is above $24. Thanks, A.J.

Plant A Tree

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeMcVT5RTCY

This is an original tune crafted by our old friend, Sorp. We’re hoping he sees this and files suit for unauthorized usage, as he has gone Howard Hughes on those of us who care about him. If you want to help, please click on it and give him some YouTube views and maybe even write a comment such as, “Is that the same bass line Led Zeppelin used in ‘Whole Lotta Love?’

There is a valuable message in this tune, by the way. Hope you listen.

The First Thanksgiving

So I was thinking about Thanksgiving and its origins. And, sure, you can visit the Wikipedia page and talk about Canadia in the 16th century or the Jamestown settlers in 1619 and I won’t fight you on that. The larger principle to remember is that the settlers were THANKFUL and to be thankful requires, I dunno, a little humility and grace perhaps?

Anyway, I don’t see a lot of that in the good ol’ USA anymore. What’s more, isn’t it funny how the Native Americans welcomed these uninvited settlers to their land and actually helped them to survive? And here were are, 400 years later, separating families from one another who are simply attempting to do the same thing? Interesting.

Higher Ground

I love Van Morrison. You’ll never encounter a more curmudgeonly, cranky live performer, and yet he writes songs such as this. That’s Cliff Richard, who just turned 80, sharing vocals with Van the Man.

Richard may be the most under-appreciated of all British artists on this side of the pond. Only two artists sold more singles in the history of the UK: the Beatles and Elvis Presley.