Liberty

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/in-the-early-days-of-the-pandemic-the-us-government-turned-down-an-offer-to-manufacture-millions-of-n95-masks-in-america/2020/05/09/f76a821e-908a-11ea-a9c0-73b93422d691_story.html In the early days of the pandemic, the U.S. government turned down an offer to manufacture millions of N95 masks in America

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3083627/coronavirus-hong-kong-records-no-new-cases-covid While these are success stories now, I'm afraid once they open up the borders/businesses again... Boom. Boom? They'll keep screening people at the border and international travel will be pretty low until there's a vaccine or at least better therapies. Any time they gain now by crushing the curve and containing it is fewer deaths before a vaccine.

I have no worry about that. A bunch of their defense/electronics/space/industrial revenues will keep coming, they have lots of borrowing capacity, and the market knows that this is temporary (even if it can be rough while it lasts). Their survival isn't in question at all, IMO.

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3083627/coronavirus-hong-kong-records-no-new-cases-covid

‘Finally, a virus got me.’ Scientist who fought Ebola and HIV reflects on facing death from COVID-19 https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/finally-virus-got-me-scientist-who-fought-ebola-and-hiv-reflects-facing-death-covid-19

https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2019/02/19/the-greatest-investor-youve-never-heard-of-an-optometrist-who-beat-the-odds-to-become-a-billionaire/#2bcc3b4122e8

https://apnews.com/9c4d5284ba4769d3b98aa05232201f88 “ AP Exclusive: Top White House officials buried CDC report”

“ Trump: Katie, she tested very good for a long period of time and then all of the sudden today she tested positive... This is why the whole concept of tests aren’t necessarily great” ???

Agreed.

http://yetanothervalueblog.com/2020/05/comcast-buy-the-cable-business-get-everything-else-for-almost-free-cmcsa.html

We may very well find looking at the time line in NYC that staying at home and significantly increasing time in the household was the gas on the fire that put things out of control in NYC. Most peoples' guard is down at home, no mask, no washing hands, close contact. Not to mention huddling millions in a small square footage. Staying at home and not leaving the house in retrospect maybe found to be the worst thing to have done. What do NYC, Italy, Spain, and people of color have in common? Lots of multigenerational families. Bringing thousands/millions of asymptomatic or sick people in the house likely infected those most at risk in the household. If found to be the case hopefully its not employed as a measure this fall/winter https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/world/europe/italy-coronavirus-home-isolation.html It's worse vs quarantining in a hotel. But saying that things would've been better without a lockdown IMO doesn't make sense because of the other factor of much much higher R0 if everybody keeps going to public transit, offices, restaurants, events, etc.

Median age of population being higher is a big factor.

FCF up 24%, tiny impairment of 5m (guessing some businesses they recently bought in the most impacted verticals (hotels, restaurants, travel?). Looks like it's chugging along... The online AGM will be tomorrow morning (8 AM EST), for those who want to take part: https://www.csisoftware.com/category/press-releases/2020/03/26/constellation-software-inc-announces-change-to-annual-general-meeting-format Update: Meeting has started.

What a leader. "Sporadic for you, maybe, but I've heard otherwise.. they tell me..." Meanwhile, the blatant corruption continues:

You're totally missing the point of what that word means in context, which is totally on brand for you. The dogma I'm referring to isn't that Buffett is or isn't great, the dogma you seem to have is that founders and inventors are the only ones contributing to the world. But you must also know exactly what I meant and just decided to waste time by being a pedant about it. You couldn't get through any conversation if you stopped every time someone used a word to not mean exactly what you think it should mean even if it's clear in context (or maybe you are that annoying in regular life too). Buffett started with a paper route and will end up saving countless lives (millions and millions directly, and all their descendants, so there's huge leverage) and improving countless others through donating tens (maybe hundreds when all is said and done) of billions to medical research (especially into diseases that aren't being invested in otherwise because they mostly affect the poor), education, and protecting the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world (with fighting infectious diseases, malnutrition, medical supplies, agricultural development, supporting instituions, etc), etc. That's very likely close to the very very top of humanity when it comes to having a global positive impact. So as I explained before, there's more than one way to have an impact and contribute. You can do it by founding a company or inventing something, but you can also do it by being a good leader, businessman, teacher and philanthropist.

You're a blind follower of the dogma that only inventors and creators are worthile, so you're projecting that others are blind followers too, and can't conceive that I may have good reasons to believe what I believe and to bring nuance into your black & white view of the world. Dogma: A principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true. I am not sure which authority is laying down the dogma that you say I follow. If anything I think the opinions I express are of a heretic, considering the name of the message board above. If a person said these things 200 years ago about a famous person they might have tied them to a stake. :) You think being overly literal and pedantic makes you seem smart, but it’s the opposite. Also, cherry picking one of many definitions is weak: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dogma

Good thread by Andy Slavitt:

The great depression lead to communists and fascists and dictators taking over a large part of the world, leading to hundreds of millions of deaths and untold suffering. But yeah, it built character ???

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/06/ny-gov-cuomo-says-its-shocking-most-new-coronavirus-hospitalizations-are-people-staying-home.html Viral load seems to matter a lot for severity of symptoms. It's why places like Hong Kong quarantine infected people in hotels and away from family.

I love how some people have been convinced that "crashing the system" will be good for them, or will somehow lead to what they want to see happen, rather than just the opposite (a society with an even bigger, more corrupt, more incompetent government and fewer freedoms is the most likely outcome of a big crash, not a small, efficient, honest government and more liberty). They're the people who con artists and charlatans just love.

There should be so much more emphasis on learning and copying what successful places have done. Germany: https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-germany-kept-its-factories-open-during-the-pandemic-11588774844 Also: https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-casts-deep-chill-over-u-s-china-relations-11588781420

Always be selling: Trump on the Coronavirus task for: Wait, he's keeping it around because it's popular? Still thinking like a TV personality, all about ratings, which he mentions all the time...

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/496241-joint-chiefs-of-staff-chairman-says-evidence-suggests-coronavirus-was-not "Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman says evidence suggests coronavirus was not man-made or released from lab"

That may be part of it. The family certainly wants to keep power to protect itself with pardon power (everybody that used to be around them is already in jail or in trouble, and they know they'd be too without presidential power). The main reason is the same reason why organized crime is mostly centered on family and tribal ties. If you're doing shady stuff, what matters most is loyalty. Anything else, like competence, is secondary. There's very few people you can be sure won't turn on you (and anyone who does must be so severely punished that it'll dissuade others, so that explains all the talk about treason-death-penalty for whistleblowers or whatever he always blows up about when someone reveals what has been doing on, and unrelenting attacks for months for any public figure who attacks him (how many months did he attack Megyn Kelly because she asked him some tough questions?)). So Trump is surrounded by family, old business associates that probably have secrets buried too, and those who have gone so deep defending him that they'd be hurt if he was hurt. That's why all those that didn't defend him after the access hollywood tape and allegations were out. It turned out to be a real-world test of loyalty, and many failed it by not blindly jumping to his defense. The first thing he asked Comey was for his loyalty, and you can be sure that's what he asked of everyone else at the time, they just didn't talk about it (yet), but the books on this will be interesting. If anyone wants to better understand how the White House works, the Bob Woodward book is informative.

https://news.yahoo.com/live-let-die-blasts-president-013638094.html