Parsad

Sorry folks, I was in meetings all yesterday and the day before, and didn't know what was going on. That gremlin is gone now, as are most of his posts. Cheers!

A game for the ages! I'm sure a lot of people turned it off after the 1st half...what a mistake. Cheers!

You're kidding me, right? His tax return would show non-public partnerships/investments, offshore investments, income from undisclosed businesses, etc that could indicate enormous conflicts of interest. That's why you provide disclosure and transparency. It's why a President should have all assets and businesses in a blind trust. If you worry about conflicts of interest and expect disclosure from CEO's, shouldn't the occupant of the highest office in the land with the most influence be fully vetted? This is just common sense! You check the credit history of loan applicants, criminal checks for teachers, etc...why would the President be exempt from equivalent scrutiny? And if Trump supporters believe this is irrelevant, then why do they concern themselves with what the Clinton Foundation was doing, or other examples of conflicts of interest, unethical conduct, fraud, embezzlement, etc. Cheers!

You can also see that iPad sales are slowing or decreasing. Now is that because competitors have better products, people have left the fad of tablets or is the larger iPhone screen cannibalizing some of the market share? Maybe a combination of all three? Nonetheless, this beast keeps throwing off cash! Cheers!

I have no problem with these threads...people want to talk about it, and as long as most people are civil, I think they serve a purpose. At some point though, I do lock them and we are nearly at that point. Have at it till midnight! Cheers!

Been there, done that! Ended up with Buddha kicking Jesus in the nuts, while Allah sat on a bean bag chair and laughed his ass off. The Pope was busy on the internet looking up "Dakota Fanning", Krishana was cooking a steak, and five rabbis were kvetching in the kitchen about how they didn't have any good mustard for their corn beef and rye sandwiches! Cheers!

Agreed! I think everyone has vented enough for whatever it's worth. Feel free to vent until midnight PST. I will lock it thereafter. Cheers!

Assume you are correct on all points...even though hundreds of thousands of protesters disagree with you, including a number of Republican party members, supporters and well-known Conservatives. You are telling me that this President's conduct so far, his compulsive tweeting, choice of words when characterising those that disagree with him, and the ridiculously inane and incompetent way he has executed this travel ban, doesn't worry you in the slightest? Top brass at the borders, Department of Homeland Security, foreign embassies, travel bureaus, you name it...had no idea what this ban meant and how to enforce it. Citizens, green card holders, children, etc were held at borders or denied entry. This was a major f**k up. Sears executes their retail business with more competency! Cheers! George Bush, Obama and Hillary's State Department bomb and kill thousands of Muslims with unprecedented drone strikes, destroy entire countries, slaughter people in Iraq, create starvation in Yemen, and create this entire refugee crisis to begin with, and yet I don't recall any mass protests about that . . . But now your main worry is about how a travel ban was implemented. Do you not see that perhaps your moral compass is a little askew? There were mass protests against the Iraq war. Secondly, how do you know Parsad wasn't bothered by all those wars and bombs? Correct! I was one of the few people who disagreed with going into Iraq...feel free to go back and look at old posts on the Motley Fool BRK Board. Almost no one wanted to say anything about it then. I had no problem with Afghanistan after 9/11, but I said going to Iraq was going to be a mistake. I've had alot of issues with U.S. policy in the Middle East over the last 15 years, and Trump isn't about to make it better...it's just that he's also finally making it worse at home as well! Cheers!

Not necessarily true. I can't speak for what is happening at Sitestar, as I don't know the facts fully, and I'm not there watching operations daily. But speaking for myself: - I'm in the office from 10am to 7-8pm most days, unless I have meetings downtown...about 70% of that time is PDH and 30% is CMC. - I'm also up around 8am to check emails and quick calls before I head to the office. - When I get home usually around 7:30-8:30pm, I have dinner, put on hockey while I read 10-Q's & 10-K's, run screens, look for ideas, etc for CMC, answer emails till 1-2am. - Then I'm also usually in the office one day on the weekend for at least 6-8 hours (usually Saturdays) and then I'm working for 3-4 hours on Sunday from my home office on CMC stuff while football is on. - I go into the office on holiday Mondays, even when the building is closed to staff. - I don't really take vacations...usually I add one day here or there on business trips. - I generally eat a late breakfast at 11am and a late lunch at around 3pm...all on my desk, unless someone wants a lunch meeting...but I prefer coffee meetings so I don't waste much time. Now that I actually think about what I do, I work pretty f**king hard! And at times it feels like it. But most of the time, I feel very fortunate doing what I'm doing and I love it. That being said, if anyone begrudges me taking a fixed $99,000 salary because I'm CEO, even though I control a lot of the stock, they can bugger off. I get some 60-70 emails a day...sit on 4 corporate boards...2 charitable boards...usually 4-8 calls a day...7 full-time staff and another 14 staff through associate investments we are involved with...4 public earnings filings a year, a public company audit, two fund audits, numerous press releases, filings, statements...payroll and payable twice a month...8 corporate tax returns, two fund tax returns, two general partner tax returns, CMC's tax return...contracts, agreements, settlements, other legal documents...audit committee meetings, corporate governance meetings...networking events, annual PDH FFH dinner, company events, Pabrai Funds meeting...meetings with potential investments, business consultants bringing a potential acquisition, meetings with young managers, business people, CoBF readers, etc...the list can go on and on. Wow! Cheers!

Assume you are correct on all points...even though hundreds of thousands of protesters disagree with you, including a number of Republican party members, supporters and well-known Conservatives. You are telling me that this President's conduct so far, his compulsive tweeting, choice of words when characterising those that disagree with him, and the ridiculously inane and incompetent way he has executed this travel ban, doesn't worry you in the slightest? Top brass at the borders, Department of Homeland Security, foreign embassies, travel bureaus, you name it...had no idea what this ban meant and how to enforce it. Citizens, green card holders, children, etc were held at borders or denied entry. This was a major f**k up. Sears executes their retail business with more competency! Cheers!

One thing I will say. It's fair to comment on issues when they don't look quite right, but it's also not particularly fair on this type of forum to become accusatory. The reason being is we are dealing with a public company, and the CEO is somewhat restricted from what he can say, so we may not have all of the facts and circumstances. He can't just go on Twitter and say whatever the hell he wants...only the President gets to do that! :P Cheers!

@No_free_lunch Finally some interesting news, Trump fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yate @ DOJ. Cheers! Because she wouldn't defend the travel ban. Cheers!

No one is saying that the U.S. is bad. People are saying that some of the governing President's actions and behaviors are bad, and they don't represent all of the qualities and values that make people want to clamour and fight to live in the U.S. Cheers!

What are the chances of being killed by an AR-15? I don't know, but 49 people were killed by an AR-15 in one night last year at Pulse nightclub. That's a lot more than were killed by refugees all year. Cheers!

The company has one operating business- the ISP. The employee in charge of the ISP makes around $35,000, if I recall correctly. The vast majority of the firm's capital is now tied up in various investment partnerships- HVAC, Alluvial, and now Huckleberry. For all practical purposes, this is a Fund of Funds. His salary as CEO is primarily tied to his capital allocation. I think it would also be relevant to disclose that you were one of the select few who was allowed to participate in the second below market private placement, purchasing 10,000,000 shares at $.05 when trades on the open market were crossing well above $.08 Yes, it has one business now, but he's getting paid to grow and add businesses, correct? When I took over PDH, it only had one operating business (China) and the Burnaby clinic was shut down. Now China (I will discuss in the letter, but obvious) is the more troubled business, the Burnaby clinic is operating great and growing, and we have two other businesses...Sequant Re, GOeVisit.com, an investment portfolio (Russell Breweries and other holdings) and real estate development (Kingswood). And there were probably discussions with four other businesses we didn't close, but were in negotiations with. So all of that takes a considerable amount of work. If all Kiel is going to do is manage the one existing ISP, then you might be able to make a case. If he is being paid to grow and add businesses, then he has to receive some sort of compensation. I do think you have a real case with the share discount though. Doesn't matter if intrinsic value was lower. If there were bids at around $0.08, you can't issue a nearly 40% discount...it's just not right...even if volume is thin. Cheers!

Hi Inelegant, Didn't realize you wrote that post...thought it was written by someone else and posted to your site. In terms of your comments: Also, though it is modest, he is being doubly compensated as funds that he manages own the majority of the company's equity. This isn't quite correct. Owning a significant amount of a company in the funds is a double-edged sword. He will benefit greatly if things work out well. If things go sideways, he receives no compensation from either the fund or Sitestar. If things work out poorly even though he worked hard and diligently, he will not only have worked for free at Sitestar, but will not receive any compensation from his fund until he reaches his high watermark. Again, this is based him operating a fund like mine with only an incentive fee and no management fee. If he has a management fee, then this doesn't apply. Also, if there was an agreement with shareholders before the AGM that he would work for free, and then suddenly added a compensation package after the AGM, that isn't ethical either. Is that what happened? When Mr. Kiel, et. al. were selling themselves shares at $.048, the market bid and ask were each above $.08. If this is correct also, then I agree that this is completely unethical! Cheers!

At the very least there seems to be a misunderstanding of how Dodd-Frank-mandated shareholder advisory votes on compensation work. They are backwards looking, so last year's annual meeting had to do with 2015's compensation, not 2016's or 2017's. I'm also not sure why anyone would expect the CEO to work for free. Yes, he controls a lot of stock, but being the CEO of a public company is a lot more work than being a passive shareholder, regardless of how big the company it is. I don't think a relatively small salary is egregious. The salary is possibly not egregious. The stock deals at 20-30% market price discounts to buddies is another question. 20-30% discounts? That isn't ethical. If they are issuing such huge discounts, then the placement should be open to all shareholders. Cheers!

At the very least there seems to be a misunderstanding of how Dodd-Frank-mandated shareholder advisory votes on compensation work. They are backwards looking, so last year's annual meeting had to do with 2015's compensation, not 2016's or 2017's. I'm also not sure why anyone would expect the CEO to work for free. Yes, he controls a lot of stock, but being the CEO of a public company is a lot more work than being a passive shareholder, regardless of how big the company it is. I don't think a relatively small salary is egregious. That article is somewhat off the mark. Not sure how much of a discount the shares were being bought for against market price, so I can't comment there. In terms of salary, the number doesn't look egregious at all and his bonus is performance-based. Yes, he may be running his investment fund, but that doesn't mean that he isn't working hard at Sitestar. I run Corner Market Capital, but I personally put in a lot of hours at PDH, at the expense of my evenings, leisure time, holidays and weekends. You combine my time on CMC stuff and PDH stuff and I'm closing in on 90 hours per week! To tell you the truth...running PDH is far, far more difficult and time-consuming than running an investment fund...simply due to all of the operations, components, employees, day to day stuff, etc. Cheers!

Chances of being killed by a refugee: http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/30/politics/immigration-stats-by-the-numbers-trnd/index.html Cheers!

The way I distinguish between the two is that a "terrorist" attack is a broad attack against a country's entire population and ideology...not a specific group. A "hate" crime is a narrow attack against a very specific subsection/group of a country's population. Cheers!

More inclined to entrust him into the gentle care of the men in red serge. People are dead, & one of the gunmen turned him/her self in right after the shooting; implying that he/she was coerced. Perhaps a conversation that needs to happen. SD This wasn't a terrorist attack, but a hate crime. The shooter is French-Canadian and killed six innocent Muslim mosque parishioners. But of course, Spicer jumped on this before this came to light and used it to support Trump's policies. Cheers!

I respect Trump for this change today. He's not a thoughtful guy, so everyone should expect many mistakes from him in one of the most complicated jobs in the world. But in this case, he could have remained rigid and let the courts fight about it for months. Instead, he recognized the mistake and wasn't to proud to correct it. That's much more than I expected from him. Well done, Trump. Just a few hours earlier, Spicer was not apologetic about this at all on "Meet the Press". Whether it's a Liberal leader like Obama or a right-wing conservative like Trump...such ineptitude in how they planned and executed this whole thing simply was stupid! When you are blind because of your ideology (Liberal or Conservative) you are going to make stupid decisions. This was simply just an idiotic, xenophobic idea, supported by very poor execution. Not some grand observance that they mistakenly included "green card holders". The original intent was obviously to include them. Early on, I viewed this administration as something akin to the "Abbott & Costello" of politics and governance. Funny, very disrespectful, but harmless to the U.S. and world at large. Might even create some positive changes in business. I was wrong! When you get this type of blind faith in a world view, combined with executive choices with unintended consequences, you have a very dangerous man. The leash gets shorter and shorter every day! Cheers!

The headline should be: "Buffett attacks his self-created strawman." I've never met a serious person who is against legal immigration. Well, the new executive order on travel restrictions also includes green card holders for now. So those that have already gone through the legal immigration vetting process are now being held at gates and borders. Cheers! "...for now." A temporary measure until vetting system is put in place. Unfair you say? Remember, Obama did the same with Iraq refugees in 2011. Media outrage at the time = zero. http://thefederalist.com/2015/11/18/the-obama-administration-stopped-processing-iraq-refugee-requests-for-6-months-in-2011/ Obama didn't ban green card holders, so your point is irrelevant. Too bad this guy didn't have a green card. From 2011: "One Iraqi who had aided American troops was assassinated before his refugee application could be processed, because of the immigration delays, two U.S. officials said." Media outrage then, zero. Media today, hair-on-fire. And Trump's policies would have sped this up? Cheers!

it would allow trump to say that mexico is paying for it. which, i think, is all that he cares about. I think you will see some serious inflation either over the next four years, or in the ensuing years as a result of some of the policies that are going to be implemented. Alot of cash is going to flow into assets over the next few years from reduced taxes, repatriation, etc. Combine this with tariffs on imported goods, increasing national debt due to a lack of tax revenue and increased infrastructure expenditure, and you could see hyper-inflation at some point. Cheers! How does it result in inflation? How are Trumps policies different from Japan's. If inflation can be controlled through fiscal policy then why is the global economy stuck in the current funk. Trumps policies will strengthen the USD but I fail to see how inflation occurs. Thoughts? If corporate tax rates drop from 35% to 15% as he plans, where do you think that money is going to go? There is nearly $2T of offshore money...if he provides the one-time tax penalty of 10% and even half of that is repatriated back, where is it going to go? Currently, you have Ford, GM, Softbank and Carrier guaranteeing keeping jobs, adding jobs or investing capital into the U.S. under nominal pressure...where is it going to go? You are going to have enormous amounts of new capital chasing the same assets, including institutions, pension funds, private equity firms, hedge funds and family offices that are already reaching for yield. Combine that with increased debt from infrastructure spending and a reduction in corporate tax revenues...there is a reasonable chance you will see U.S. debt/GDP continue to increase. Massive amounts of capital chasing the same assets or businesses, combined with the U.S. supporting the dollar with higher rates as debt increases, means you could see substantial inflation long-term if tax revenues don't increase. Cheers!

You're correct. O'Leary is nothing like Trump...he even made that distinction almost immediately. Even he wanted to make clear...uh no, I'm not that guy! Cheers!