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I started a new position in (NYSE:NET) Cloudflare - I'll see how that goes
Nvidia protects their moat, bringing action against AMD, Intel, and other GPU makers in China for freeloading on CUDA with "translation stacks" which are prohibited by the Nvidia license.
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/nvidia-bans-using-translation-layers-for-cuda-software-to-run-on-other-chips-new-restriction-apparently-targets-zluda-and-some-chinese-gpu-makers
"You may not reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble any portion of the output generated using SDK elements for the purpose of translating such output artifacts to target a non-NVIDIA platform."
For much of the last decade, almonds have been such a lucrative crop that growers and investment firms have poured money into planting new orchards across vast stretches of California farmland.
California produces about 80% of the world’s supply of almonds. And according to federal data, the state’s harvested almond orchards skyrocketed from 760,000 acres in 2011 to more than 1.3 million acres in 2022.
Almond prices have dropped from nearly $4 a pound ten years ago to just $2 a pound or less currently, despite all of this inflation talk we read about. The state’s total almond acreage has started to decrease as growers have begun to tear out orchards and plant other crops.
One large almond-growing conglomerate has already declared bankruptcy under Chapter 11 - Trinitas Advantaged Agriculture Partners IV, LP, an investment fund that was formed and managed by Redwood City-based Trinitas Partners, a private equity investment company. It also includes the investment fund’s subsidiary Trinitas Farming, based in Oakdale, and 17 other subsidiaries.
The group of companies said in a court document filed Feb. 19 that they own 7,856 acres of almond orchards in five counties, including Solano, Contra Costa, San Joaquin, Fresno and Tulare. As part of the bankruptcy proceedings, these orchards are expected to be put up for sale.
“When the price is low, now we start seeing the results of it. And said Jake Wenger, general manager of the Salida Hulling Association, which runs an almond-hulling plant in Modesto said, “The fear is that Trinitas is just the tip of the iceberg. Those that are being hit especially hard are the many investor groups that bought land when prices were high and now have large debts.”
“The question becomes, do some of these banks call on some of these loans? And that’s really going to be a concern for a lot of people in the industry,” Wenger said. “Nobody got more indebted to the banks than a lot of these investor groups.”
The group’s lawyers claim in court documents that the investment funds are ”well-positioned to become profitable ventures” but that they were ultimately “unable to raise necessary capital” through investments or from potential sales of assets. The entities’ reported debts total approximately $180 million.
Wenger says he believes almond prices will eventually rebound, but currently an oversupply of almonds weighs on the market after years of rapid growth.
Over the last decade, the almond boom coincided with growing concerns about water in California. When growers and investment companies bought land and drilled wells to pump groundwater in the Central Valley, the expanding nut orchards locked in long-term water demands and added to the strains on the state’s declining aquifers.
Wenger said he thinks it’s possible that if some of these orchards come out of production, groundwater levels could be restored in places. “It depends on what cropping patterns come in, and what happens next,” he said. “But it does have a potential that we could see benefits to groundwater.”
The environmental group Food and Water Watch has also urged the state to limit the expansion of almond orchards and other water-intensive crops such as alfalfa. Chirag Bhakta, the group’s California director, said the expansion of almonds has “locked us into a situation where we’re growing way too many of these thirsty tree nuts in parts of California,” adding to the problems of overpumping of groundwater.
Bhakta said it’s hard to know if the bankruptcy case points to more trouble ahead in the industry. But he said it represents an “opportunity for us to shift what’s been grown on that land to actually reflect what’s best for California” and the state’s water needs.
Representatives of the almond industry have defended the crop’s water use, pointing to agricultural statistics showing almonds use less water than pasture grown for cow and other animals.
[ol][li]Pasture (clover, rye, bermuda and other grasses), 4.92 acre feet per acre[/li][li]Almonds and pistachios, 4.49 acre feet per acre[/li][li]Alfalfa, 4.48 acre feet per acre[/li][li]Citrus and subtropical fruits (grapefruit, lemons, oranges, avocados, olives), 4.23 acre feet per acre[/li][li]Sugar beets, 3.89 acre feet per acre[/li][li]Deciduous fruits (apples, apricots, walnuts, cherries, peaches, nectarines, 3.7 acre feet per acre[/li][li]Cotton, 3.67 acre feet per acre[/li][li]Onions and garlic, 2.96 acre feet per acre[/li][li]Potatoes, 2.9 acre feet per acre[/li][li]Vineyards (table, raisin and wine grapes), 2.85 acre feet per acre[/li][/ol] In the coming years, California’s agriculture industry will face water limits under the requirements of the state’s 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. The law requires local agencies in many areas to develop plans to curb over-pumping by 2040.
Researchers with the Public Policy Institute of California have estimated that addressing the groundwater deficit in the San Joaquin Valley will probably require taking at least half a million acres of farmland out of production, and they’ve called for expanding efforts to help convert farmland to other uses, such as solar development or habitat areas.
“Orchards last about 25 years, then growers replant, if they decide to. It’s possible that financing has been harder to get and it is surely more expensive right now,” Kushman said in an email. “Shipments have been strong in recent months, but we are a long way from seeing if that will affect planting decisions.”
There are roughly 7,600 almond farms in the state, and about 70% of the state’s orchards are under 100 acres, according to the Almond Board of California.
Wenger said those who are better suited to weather this sort of downturn are family-run businesses that own their land debt-free.
Almond growers aren’t the only ones in agriculture who have been dealing with tough economic conditions. “Walnut prices are terrible. Grape prices are terrible,” Wenger said. “Pistachios are not doing great. So we have all these crops that are starting to suffer.”
The fall of the Trinitas almond business follows the recent news that the large fruit grower Prima Wawona also filed for bankruptcy. Some growers in the San Joaquin Valley have chosen to replace almond trees with pistachio orchards. Still, most of California’s almond orchards remain, and almond trees have been blooming with white and pink flowers in the Central Valley.
“Agriculture in general is seeing some very difficult times,” said Bill Lyons, a farmer in Stanislaus County who once served as state agriculture secretary under Gov. Gray Davis.
On his family’s century-old ranch, they have a cattle operation and grow a wide variety of crops. “We’ve been in the almond business for over 25 years, and we’re seeing unprecedented low prices for multiple years, and very high expenses,” Lyons said. “And when you combine the two, it’s extremely difficult for any almond farmer to make a profitable living.”
He said where some landowners have abandoned their trees, it’s a problem for neighboring growers because the untended orchards can harbor pests — such as navel orangeworm — that can spread to nearby orchards. Lyons said his family plans to keep growing almonds.
“Hopefully, the almond price will gain momentum,” Lyons said. “I have confidence in the almond industry, but it’s definitely going to be a serious bump in the road as we travel through to next year or so.”
Is Intel getting caught up in the AI euphoria, or will they actually be selling competitive products?
Donald Trump will make Trump Bucks the only legal currency once he is elected, as part of his new Trump Rebate Banking System say insiders at Patriots Dynasty.
https://www.nj.com/news/2024/03/beware-trump-supporters-getting-conned-with-worthless-currency.html
This presents a huge opportunity for Trump patriots as they can currently purchase $12 million face value of Trump Bucks for only $1,000 in ordinary American currency.
Some proud patriots have converted their entire 401-k savings into Trump Bucks, knowing they'll not only become billionaires next year, but are also helping to assure Trump's dramatic victory.
The Covered Bridge Potato Chips factory in Hartland, New Brunswick, just east of Maine has burnt to a crisp.
RCMP Cpl. Rick Sharpe said, "20 to 30 employees were already safely evacuated when the call came in.
"But it's a potato chip plant — there's nothing in there but grease and packed greasy potato chips," Sharpe said.
"That's what left burning right now is probably all of the product and all of the grease that was there. It smells like burnt grease. It's really raunchy."
Sharpe said, "There are countless people in the area watching the flames, despite the RCMP's advice to steer clear. Get a life, eh."
The factory located just off the Trans-Canada Highway
Byju Raveendran was the founder and CEO of Byju, India's most valuable startup. Now his firm has lost 95% of its value—and shareholders just voted him out
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/billionaire-founder-india-most-valuable-063000579.html
Raveendran has argued shareholders don’t have enough voting rights to enact a leadership change, and the matter is headed to court.
But investors’ formal renunciation of Raveendran marks a stunning fall for the founder of the online tutoring startup once valued at $22 billion who became a sort of savior to Indians during the country’s darkest days.
When the pandemic shut India’s 1.5 million schools in March 2020, Raveendran made his online learning app free for tens of millions of school-aged kids. The gesture won goodwill among parents and teachers and gave Byju’s—by then backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Tencent, and Tiger Global—a jolt into the mainstream. By April that year, it reported a 150% increase in new users. By June, it became the only Indian app among the world’s 10 most-downloaded education apps on Google Play.
But Byju’s shares started plummeting back down to earth as Its auditor quit last summer, as did three board members representing Byju’s investors and audited financials cast doubt on its past claims of supersonic growth. Byju’s first-ever CFO, who was supposed to steer the startup through financial tumult, resigned in October after six months on the job.
In September 2023, lenders claimed Byju Raveendran had hid half a billion dollars in a hedge fund that was once registered at a small IHOP restaurant in Miami, Florida serving curry crepes.
Make $400,000 or More and You're One of the 125,000 people Who Have Never Filed Your Taxes?
The IRS Will Soon Be in Touch . . . . if They've Not Already Contacted You
https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/taxes/irs-targets-high-earners-who-dont-file-tax-returns-3a984c1b
The IRS is sending out more than 125,000 notices to individuals who made $400,000 or more and failed to file returns between 2017 and 2021. Even without a tax return, the IRS has a pretty good idea about their income from forms like W-2s and 1099s.
“The IRS is taking this step to address this most basic form of noncompliance, which includes many who are engaged in tax evasion,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. “If someone hasn’t filed a tax return, this is the time to make it right.”
Taxpayers are responsible for declaring their income, calculating their tax bill correctly and filing a return on time. The most common reasons people fail to do so are procrastination, financial woes, tax evasion or protest, tax advisers said.
The consequences can be costly once the IRS catches up with you. There are penalties and interest for failing to file and make payments. Nonfilers can also face criminal prosecution in extreme cases.
One thing non-filers haven’t had to fear, until recently, was hearing about their shortcomings from the IRS. The agency generally knows who should be filing a return but hasn’t had the staff to handle correspondence with these taxpayers, so it greatly cut back sending out notices until Congress recently increased IRS funding , Werfel said.
The first batch of more than 25,000 letters will go out to taxpayers with more than $1 million in income, followed by more than 100,000 letters to people with incomes between $400,000 and $1 million. The notice says to file your return immediately or to explain either why you are late or don’t have to file.
The IRS expects the enforcement to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid taxes. The agency doesn’t know precisely how much money these taxpayers owe because it doesn’t have complete information on what credits and deductions they can claim.
Those who earn less than $400,000 and haven’t filed aren’t off the hook. Taxpayers are responsible for declaring all of their income, calculating their tax liability correctly and filing a tax return on time. By not filing, some lower-income taxpayers miss out on refunds.
The IRS focused again on high-income taxpayers as part of efforts to demonstrate to the public and Congress how it is using the tens of billions of dollars in new funding the agency received in 2022. Werfel has emphasized that the funds will help improve taxpayer service for all while tightening enforcement on some at the top.
The renewed enforcement and service changes haven’t enraged GOP lawmakers who are trying to claw back IRS funding, and the agency is likely to lose $20 billion of the $80 billion it received.
"Tax enforcement by the IRS is an unwarranted intrusion into the lives of freedom-loving Americans," Congressman Jim Jordan told reporters, "This must end."
On Thursday, the Senate confirmed Marjorie Rollinson to be the IRS’s top lawyer, and just six of the 49 Republicans voted for her.
The IRS program to pursue nonfilers has only run sporadically since 2016, due to budget cuts and the pandemic that required the agency to focus on backlogs, Werfel said.
“You’ve got to get taxpayers back into the system,” said Jim Buttonow, a certified public accountant in Summerfield, N.C. “Don’t wait for the notice. If you haven’t filed, get back into compliance.”
Dell certainly surprised with a big move into AI servers, which was rewarded with a 30% increases in stock price and Dell will likely clean SMCI's clock, while Hewlett Packard which should also be selling a lot of AI servers - but isn't - looks on as the victim that can never get out of their own way.
Dell's good fortune even gave some lift to AMD, a perennial also-ran, as many of the AI servers they're selling contain AMD's MI300X AI set. AMD has never given a moment's thought to backward compatibility in their chips, which lets their newest chip run fast while potential customers give them a miss.
Having bought NVDA at $133, I'm confident we'll be able to recognize some value from that investment over the next five years of sales.
Dell is cementing itself as a major player in artificial intelligence in the computer-server and storage market
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/look-out-super-micro-dell-is-cementing-itself-as-an-ai-play-too-716d1677
“Demand for the computational components to do AI exceeds the supply picture,” COO Jeff Clarke told analysts. “And quite frankly, it’s refreshing to see, we have a high-growth category here. That growth is happening certainly in the public cloud, but increasingly more so in enterprises…I think it’s a big opportunity for us.”
In the fiscal fourth quarter, Dell said it shipped $800 million of AI-optimized servers, which Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi pointed out is still less than 5% of the company’s total revenue.
CFO Yvonne McGill also cited inflationary costs for components, and a tougher competitive environment, due to product transitions in the quarter, such as adopting the new Nvidia Corp. NVDA, H200 and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s new MI300X.
Among Dell’s competitors is Super Micro Computer Inc. SMCI, which has gained share in the server market in the past year as it has focused on the needs of data-center and hyperscaler customers for AI, and SMCI has offered product differentiations in a low-margin business such as liquid cooling, a feature once only used in high-performance supercomputers, to cool down servers running compute-intensive graphics chips from Nvdia and others.
Dell, for its part, said that liquid cooling will not yet be needed until customers start using Nvidia’s H200 chips, but that the power-management issue is a opportunity for Dell to “showcase its engineering and how fast we can move,” to make liquid cooling perform at a large scale. Dell also said AI will bring opportunity to its services business, as it helps customers deploy AI, and down the road to its storage business.
Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, in contrast, saw a sharp decline in its networking business, which dragged down its stock 4% in after-hours trading Thursday. HPE also said it did not get enough supply of GPU chips for AI servers, which weighed on its results. It has a backlog of $3 billion in GPU orders, and its pipeline is well above that.
I think Donald Trump is really pressing his luck in appealing a decision saying the President of the United States can't have Seal Team One liquidate one of his political rivals without being criminally prosecuted.
This is the sort of thing that could get some people thinking, especially if they were at all like Trump.
Former Congressman Jim McDermott left a comfortable retirement in the United States for a stone cottage in rural France for safety from members of the vengeful Trump Brigade who had increasingly threatened he and his family.
Jim's move is suddenly timely for friends and former colleagues in D.C. who are facing the possibility that a vengeful Donald Trump could win the presidential election.
Jim McDermott never intended to become an expatriate. But from his first day in this tiny village near Bordeaux, he felt strangely at home. “I relaxed for the first time in years. My shoulders weren’t all bunched up to my ears.” Exile outside the United States could be the safest option for Republicans who have opposed Donald Trump, or who failed to support him loudly enough.
Jim McDermott in Civrac-en-Médoc
In private conversations with McDermott, they wonder how to gauge the seriousness of Trump’s increasingly dire threats to the country’s democratic underpinnings and, potentially, to them and their families. “I get calls from my friends now who say they are scared to do what I did but are scared to stay.”
He tells them: “If you can afford it, buy a second home in France, or Spain, or Portugal, wherever … a second home that could become a safe house,” he said.
McDermott is an unlikely figure to give voice to this dilemma. The 87-year-old psychiatrist turned lawmaker loved his 28 years in Congress and the 14 years he served in the Washington state legislature before that. His home on Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill has a view of Elliott Bay and the Cascade Mountains. Now he lives in a town of 661 people in the middle of the utterly flat Médoc peninsula.
He disagrees that his move could be considered unpatriotic. He served in the Navy as a psychiatrist during the Vietnam War and wears a veteran’s jacket on our walk to the village’s one restaurant — the excellent L’Auberge du Clocher. He mulls the threat to American democracy, but mostly he talks about the lessons he has learned in this village about the cruelty of the United States’ growing inequality.
Historically, France has been a haven for desperate exiles and expatriates. McDermott isn’t one of those. He can come and go as he pleases and has the luxury of keeping his Seattle home for annual visits; he is still American.
His motivations for moving here are political: Universal health care. Respect for women’s reproductive rights, including abortion, the issue on which McDermott won his first election in 1970. Serious gun control.
These were his passions during his years in Congress. He didn’t realize how deeply he felt about a nation’s responsibility for the health of its people until he came to this village, where, under the French system, health care is taken for granted, like clean water and a working sewer system.
“It was like I walked through an invisible door. Now I saw and felt what it’s like to live in a community where everyone can go to the doctor. Where children aren’t massacred by gun violence. It changes everything.”
None of this was on McDermott’s mind when, in 2017, he took a vacation in southwest France inspired by Martin Walker’s novel “Bruno, Chief of Police.” Once here, McDermott did something completely out of character. This man who always plotted his life in five-year increments bought a classic cottage his second day in town, saying it would be his vacation home. Then he bought one hectare of a vineyard in a wine cooperative.
He still considered Seattle his primary home until he was stuck here at the height of the pandemic. A neighbor had to leave the village to help her family and asked the distinguished American lawmaker and doctor to care for her three nanny goats: bring a pail of water every day to the enclosure where they fed on grass and weeds. Nursing those goats endeared him to the village. “From that moment, I belonged.”
That is how a slow-motion move to a saner and more humane life became a potential refuge from a second Trump presidency.
So far, McDermott is willing to pay the high price of his move. He miscalculated how difficult it would be to reinvent himself in a community where his past stature and accomplishments in Congress are close to meaningless. As a twice-divorced bachelor living on his own, he has bouts of loneliness. He misses his children and grandchildren. His French is lousy.
Daily conversations with friends and politicians in the United States are his bridge, the contacts who allow him to remain on top of the issues. From his comfortable ground-floor study, he writes emails and sends money to campaigns with a single goal: “Trump can’t win.” He is a member of Democrats Abroad, pours money into Democratic campaigns and is eager to vote for President Biden in November.
Snails on a fence at McDermott's garden. (Louise Desnos/Agence VU/For The Washington Post)
The overgrown house next to McDermott’s. He hopes to buy this one as well one day. (Louise Desnos/Agence VU/For The Washington Post)
McDermott’s experience raises serious questions for Americans, especially those in positions of power. Is the United States facing a situation so dangerous that you would be foolish if you didn’t have a backup plan? Or is it hyperbole to imagine the country sliding into authoritarian rule that would unleash violence, retribution and repression?
In his first term, Trump encouraged chaos and shows of violence, as well as undermined basic rights and pillars of American democracy. Now, he has doubled down, openly calling for a presidency with unfettered power. He has said he wants to end long-standing U.S. alliances, use the military to crush protests and ignore election results that don’t go his way.
In the face of this, McDermott certainly has the right to live out his remaining years as he pleases. But I hope people with his principles and talents stay in the United States and defend against these threats to democracy.
I’m not the only former war correspondent who watched the violence inspired by Trump in his first term and worried he would push our country toward armed confrontation.
On Jan. 6, 2021, police made a barricade in front of my Capitol Hill home to block a potential breakout of the rampaging mob. I watched a robot move down the sidewalk in search of a pipe bomb planted around the corner. What country was I in?
Trump said those violent insurrectionists were patriots and promised to free them if he becomes president.
I take nothing for granted.
The last shipment of McDermott’s belongings arrived in France this month. He now has the paintings, music and books he can’t live without. If his worst fears are realized, he has a refuge.
For uncertain reasons China's electric car maker BYD introduces their $234,000 low-rider they call the Yangwang U9
BYD officially launched its pure electric flagship sports car, the YANGWANG U9, today.
— Yan Chang (@cyfoxcat) February 25, 2024
Its air suspension system offers a wide range of dance modes, while the adoption of four electric motors allows it to spin in place. pic.twitter.com/IHhhTKDCSW
Up 16% since Thursday is pretty nice, but since this new lot of PANW is in a taxable account, I can't "enjoy it" for another 362 days.
Stocks do go on sale periodically.
As you know CSP Inc is an independent "value-added reseller" of computer security products produced by other companies.
Although they haven't created any of their own security products, their stock trades at an astounding 65 times earnings, which is quite costly in comparison to the 48 times earnings that Palo Alto Networks sells for - and they have created a complete line-up of their own security products.
If I owned any I'd sell CSPI to free up cash to purchase PANW.
If you subtract their recent extra-ordinary losses, their 16 p/e is similar to other electronics retailers like (NYSE:BBY) Best Buy stores. If you want to buy the stock of a computer equipment retailer, I'd wait until CSPI declines back to the $20 to $22 range.
"We want to own either all or a portion of businesses that enjoy good economics that are fundamental and enduring."
"Within capitalism, some businesses will flourish for a very long time while others will prove to be sinkholes," he explained. "It’s harder than you would think to predict which will be the winners and losers. And those who tell you they know the answer are usually either self-delusional or snake-oil salesmen."
"We favor enterprises that can also deploy additional capital at high returns in the future. Owning only one of these companies—and simply sitting tight—can deliver wealth almost beyond measure."
Warren Buffett, Feb 2024
I bought new PANW position at 266.18
That's 0.18 per share more than the price I paid for the first shares I bought on November 27 2023
Labor Force participation rates for people aged 55 and older still lag badly since 2020
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-u-s-economy-needs-older-workers-congress-can-help-cab75027
This is particularly disappointing following the strong multi-decade rise in labor participation among retirement age Americans since 1995.
Many economists fear strong investment returns may be discouraging older Americans from participating in the labor force.
This malaise of unemployment is especially shocking since the percentage of employed “prime working age” Americans (25 to 54) has recovered to pre-pandemic levels — and in the case of women, now exceeds those levels.
https://beta.bls.gov/dataViewer/view/timeseries/LNS12324230
At the same time, job vacancies in the U.S. economy still outnumber the count of people actively seeking work. Certain sectors have particularly high levels of vacancies, like healthcare, social services, child care and long-term care facilities.
Thankfully, Congress already has a way to help connect older workers who are on the sidelines of the labor market with available opportunities. The Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) is the only federal employment and training program geared specifically toward people 55 and older who face barriers to securing employment. Puzzlingly, House Republicans are proposing to pull the plug on this program at the worst possible time, just when older workers and the economy at large need it most. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/seniors/national-employ-older-workers-week
Over the next decade, individuals 55 and older are predicted to drive 42% of U.S. labor-force growth, with women leading the way. In other words, future economic growth will hinge on older workers’ participation in the workforce. While the ranks of older workers have been growing for decades, many need a boost to help them find good jobs. Even people with steady work histories may need to upgrade their skills late in their careers to take advantage of new and developing job opportunities. People with breaks in their employment history may need even more help.
Photo showing cheerful 82 year old enjoying his employment in a local warehouse
When older workers get laid off from a long-term job, data shows they’re substantially less likely to find new work than people under 55 and are at greater risk of withdrawing from the labor market entirely. Similarly, people who take time away from the workforce to attend to their own health needs or to care for a loved one often find jumping back into it no easy feat. Caregiving can weigh especially heavy on older women — in fact, it’s five times more likely to impact their employment than their same-age male peers.
This is where SCSEP comes in. The program serves people 55 and older who face specific barriers to employment. It provides on-the-job training and placement in jobs in community-service settings for unemployed people with incomes under 125% of the poverty line. The program subsidizes the wages paid to program participants, so that the community service providers benefit from the program as well. Subsidized employment in SCSEP is designed as a temporary stepping stone to help people facing the steepest employment barriers transition from unemployment to regular employment and enjoy the economic security that comes along with it.
Wages earned by these older workers cycle back into local economies.
For years, annual funding for SCSEP has only been able to serve a fraction of those eligible — less than 1%. Sadly, funding has failed to keep pace with increasing wages and an increasing older population. Enrollment for program year 2023 is estimated at 42,281 individuals. Priority is given to veterans, people with disabilities, people 65 and older, people living in rural areas, people with limited English proficiency or low-literacy skills, and people with other barriers to employment. About two-thirds of all participants are women, a similar proportion are members of a racial or ethnic minority, and more than one in four have at least one disability. Beyond the employment-related benefits of the program, a recent study found that it also promotes better financial, physical, mental and social well-being among participants.
Communities across the country stand to benefit from SCSEP, as program participants train and work in schools, daycares, hospitals, senior centers and similar settings experiencing high job-vacancy rates. These public and non-profit workplaces benefited from more than 21 million hours of work from SCSEP participants in 2019. What’s more, the wages earned by these older workers cycle back into local economies as they’re spent on necessities like food, rent, healthcare and transportation.
Zeroing out funding for SCSEP — as proposed in the House budget — would mean shutting down one of the few pipelines to employment available for tens of thousands of older, low-income individuals who both want and need to work. It would also stomp out the profound economic benefits SCSEP provides to local non-profit and public entities and the communities they serve. With the job market on a tear, our economy needs programs like this now more than ever in order to ensure the benefits of our robust job growth are felt equally, regardless of age.
Beth Almeida is a senior fellow with the Women’s Initiative and Veronica Goodman is the senior director for workforce development policy for the Education Department at the Center for American Progress.
Conservative Christian couple Arend and his wife Anneesa Feenstra relocated their family of ten from Canada to Russia to escape perceived liberal ideology encroachment
However, their hopes of starting anew quickly turned into a nightmare upon arrival in Russia as their bank accounts, filled with the proceeds from selling their rural Canadian farm, were unexpectedly frozen due to "suspicious" activity, leaving them stranded and helpless in a country where they couldn't speak the language.
Anneesa's frustration boiled over, leading to a regrettable outburst against their new home, which only worsened their situation when Kremlin officials took offense. In a since-deleted YouTube video, the mom of eight said she was "very disappointed in this country at this point. I'm ready to jump on a plane and get out of here. We've hit the first snag where you have to engage logic in this country, and it's very, very frustrating."
Arend Feenstra has since posted a new YouTube video apologizing for his earlier video and has clarified their commitment to Russia and thanked both Vladimir Putin and the Russian people. Out funds had been unfrozen by the Russian authorities, and despite the challenges, we remain committed to building a new life in Russia for the long haul.
"We know many hundreds of thousands of conservative Canadians will also soon be emigrating to Russia. Many Americans too, following Tucker Carlson's eye-opening broadcasts from Russia showing conservative Americans that Russia is a true paradise where their families can live free," Arend said in his YouTube video.
The former beet farmer told YouTube viewers that economic prospects for farming also played a role in their decision as Russia has "better farming opportunities." Arend also highlighted the former Soviet Union's perceived "strength" to "stand up against Western pressures" and its ability to shield their family from ideologies they found objectionable. "I just want to farm," he said. "I just want to farm and raise my kids in what I believe is a free country."
"There will always be a demand for beets in Mother Russia, so our future here is secure," Arend told viewers.
I saw a camper truck with Tennessee license plates today in Los Angeles driving next to the Beverly Center.
Among other signs I notice a metal plaque under their license plate reading "Refuse to Lose".
That's their mind-set. They're wholly mentally ill.
Warren Buffett explores 'Where Did Donald Trump Go Wrong?
“The big problem with Donald Trump was he never went right,” Buffett said, adding that Trump’s strategy of heavily borrowing money to finance acquisitions was flawed from the start.
According to Buffett, Trump managed to secure loans for properties at prices well above their value, creating a significant disparity between his assets’ actual worth and the debt incurred to acquire them.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/warren-buffett-exposed-reason-trumps-174241835.html
“Donald Trump was terrific at borrowing money.
If you look at his assets and what he paid for them and what he borrowed to get them, there was never any real equity there,” Buffett said.
In reviewing Donald's antics as the self-proclaimed 'Stable Genius', Buffett’s pointed out intelligence alone does not guarantee success; rather, it is the ability to use capabilities effectively and avoid critical mistakes.
“I've seen all sorts of people with terrific IQs that end up flopping because they beat themselves,” he said.
This commentary underscores Buffett’s belief in the importance of self-awareness and the avoidance of over-leveraging, which he identifies as a key factor in business failures.
The wisdom Buffett imparted to his audience also included caution against the allure of leverage, a principle he adhered to throughout his illustrious career.
“You really don't need leverage in this world much. If you're smart, you're going to make a lot of money without borrowing,” Buffett said, advocating for a conservative approach to finance that prioritizes sustainability over rapid expansion at the cost of increased debt.
While Buffett’s critique of Trump’s business strategies applies today, Trump had already encountered several significant business challenges by the time the speech was given.
His ventures into the casino and hotel industries, notably in Atlantic City, New Jersey, were marked by financial strain and eventual bankruptcies. The Trump Taj Mahal Casino, one of his most ambitious projects, filed for bankruptcy in 1991, following a pattern of over-leveraging and financial mismanagement that Buffett had warned against.
This was not an isolated incident; the Trump Plaza Hotel also filed for bankruptcy around the same time, a recurring theme of financial over-extension in Trump’s businesses.
“We’re beginning to notice customers are facing spending fatigue in cybersecurity,” Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora said on the company’s conference call. “This is new, as adding incremental point products is not necessarily driving a better security outcome for them. This is driving a greater focus on ROI and total cost of ownership amongst most customers.” - https://www.barrons.com/articles/palo-alto-networks-risky-bet-cd762e15?mod=read_next
“Cyber Security demand continues to be very strong but customers are demanding to get more for the amount of money they have allocated to cybersecurity.”
Palo Alto Network's response is to drive out “best of breed” point players—to expand the company’s share of the CIO’s security software spending wallet. But the company also said that to do that, PANW will allow customers to switch over from competitive products without charging them for the period covered by existing contracts. It would be like switching apartments, and having your new landlord charge no rent until your old lease was completed.
The theory is that multi-product customers tend to be stickier—so the company is willing to take an upfront hit in exchange for potential long-term gain. “We want to march faster to our aspiration to become the Salesforce, to become the ServiceNow or the Workday of cybersecurity,” Arora said. But there will be short-term financial consequences, and potential for increasing price competition.
PANW said there would be a negative impact to revenue over the next 12 to 18 months, with an eventual return to mid-to-high double digit revenue growth.
Citi analyst Fatima Boolani kept her Buy rating on the stock, but cautions that the “platformization” push will “wreak havoc on reported billings,” and will keep “investor heat and skepticism high.”
Some analysts talk about PANW "betting the ranch" but PANW is only betting "missed revenue" for a period of time that revenue almost certainly would not have belonged to them anyway.
PANW offering some free work now without immediate payment, for which they're guestimating some slightly slower income growth than otherwise would have hypothetical. I don't think they're placing much on the table in return for big rewards.
Another good bet. AMD will be unwilling to take a risk to move into a gold leadership AI position, but will continue to accept silver or bronze just as they did for decades with Intel
Value stocks: NVDA p/e 66; INTC p/e 107; AMD p/e 335
Florida surgeon general defies science amid measles outbreak
As a Florida elementary school tries to contain a growing measles outbreak, the state’s top health official is giving advice that runs counter to science and may leave unvaccinated children at risk of contracting one of the most contagious pathogens on Earth, clinicians and public health experts said.
Instead of following what he acknowledged was the “normal” recommendation that parents keep unvaccinated children home for up to 21 days — the incubation period for measles — Ladapo said the state health department “is deferring to parents or guardians to make theological-based decisions about school attendance.”
The controversial move by Ladapo follows a pattern of bucking public health norms, particularly when it comes to vaccines. Last month, he called for halting the use of mRNA coronavirus vaccines, in a move decried by the public health community.
“The reason why there is a measles outbreak in Florida schools is because too many parents have not had their children protected by the safe and effective measles vaccine,” said John P. Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College. “And why is that? It’s because anti-vaccine sentiment in Florida comes from the top of the public health food-chain: Joseph Ladapo.”
Because measles virus particles can linger in the air and on surfaces for up to two hours after an infected person leaves the area, up to 90 percent of people without immunity will contract measles if exposed. People who have been infected or received the full two doses of the MMR vaccine are 98 percent protected and very unlikely to contract the disease. That is why public health officials typically advocate for vaccination amid outbreaks.
When asked to comment, the Florida health department responded with a link to Ladapo’s letter.
Ladapo’s unwillingness to use public health tools echoes the movement by conservative and libertarian forces to defang public health’s ability to contain diseases like the highly infectious measles. In a measles outbreak in Ohio that began in late 2022, most of the 85 children infected were old enough to get the shots, but their parents chose not to do so, officials said. The state legislature in 2021 had stripped health officials’ abilities to order someone suspected of having an infectious disease to quarantine.
A drop below 95 percent vaccination coverage for measles can compromise herd immunity and allow a virus to spread more quickly. Florida’s state vaccination coverage is 90.6 percent, but statewide vaccination coverage does not identify pockets where there may be lower coverage.
The outbreak will explode exponentially, becoming a much bigger community threat, if unvaccinated people exposed to the virus don’t follow public health recommendations and stay home from school during the potentially contagious period, said Patsy Stinchfield, president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and a nurse practitioner in Minneapolis. She has been involved in controlling three measles outbreaks, including the 2017 outbreak in Minnesota that affected 75 people, most of them unvaccinated, and most of them children.
About 1 in 5 unvaccinated people in the United States who contract measles is hospitalized, according to the CDC. As many as 1 out of 20 children develop pneumonia, the most common cause of death from measles in young children. About 1 child out of every 1,000 with measles will develop swelling of the brain that can lead to convulsions and leave the child deaf or with an intellectual disability. For unvaccinated babies who contract measles, 1 in 600 can develop a fatal neurological complication that can lie dormant for years.
Manatee Bay Elementary School, about 20 miles west of Fort Lauderdale, has six confirmed measles cases, school officials said this week. Of the school’s 1,067 students, 33 have not received the MMR vaccine, Broward County Schools Superintendent Peter B. Licata said Wednesday during a school board meeting. A school district official said the district has held “four vaccination opportunities,” including two at the school and two at other locations in the community.
The first case was reported Friday in a third-grade child who had no history of travel abroad, Florida health officials said.
School officials referred questions to Broward County school district, which said it is following guidance from the state health department.
When the gloss comes off the Magnificent 12, the shorts press their luck because the economy is always a super-bubble about to implode.
But those damn earnings spoil the scary story.
Trump unveils a new line of luxury white surrender flags
"Accelerated computing and generative AI have hit the tipping point," CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement.
"Demand is surging worldwide across companies, industries and nations."
https://www.axios.com/2024/02/21/nvidia-nvda-earnings-q4-stock-price
Russia is desperate enough for military equipment that it is requisitioning weapons sold to other countries, and asking for previously delivered equipment to be returned.
Kremlin officials have visited Cairo asking Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to return more than 100 engines from Russian helicopters it had already exported.
The Indian Air Force has complained that Russia is completely unable to honor its arms delivery commitments.
Coincidentally, Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia's Security Council, has warned that Russia's neighbors in the Caucasus could soon face "total chaos."
Putin desperately needs Trump in the White House and will pay any price to achieve that.
The tech sector imploded as Nvidia Corp crushed expectations with its latest results and outlook Wednesday. Nvidia posted fiscal fourth-quarter net income of $12.3 billion, or $4.93 a share, compared with $1.4 billion, or 57 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. On an adjusted basis, the company earned $5.16 a share, while analysts were projecting $4.59 a share.
CEO Huang acknowledged Nvidia had faced supply constraints in recent quarter, leading to a long-lasting shortage even as other parts of the semiconductor industry has waded through a downturn in electronics and electric-vehicle markets.
The major bottleneck for Nvidia has been the complex packaging that goes around chips after they are manufactured.
Huang said these constraints are easing and he apologized for reporting such surprisingly strong sales and profits saying he expects “demand will continue to be stronger” than Nvidia’s supply provides throughout the balance of this year.
CEO Jensen Huang said “fundamentally, the conditions are excellent for continued growth” over the next two calendar years “and beyond.”
Nvidia has developed crippled versions of its chips for the Chinese market which fall below the performance thresholds that would require a U.S. export license and demand in China for these "special export chips" is picking up.
Revenue came in at $22.1 billion, up from $6.05 billion a year before, while analysts had been modeling $20.4 billion. Data-center revenue at Nvidia NVDA quadrupled from a year before hitting $18.4 billion, while the FactSet consensus was for $17.06 billion.
Nvidia forecasts continued strong growth for the ongoing quarter, well above expectations. The company is calling for $24.0 billion in revenue, up from $7.2 billion a year prior, while analysts were modeling $22.2 billion. Meanwhile, data-center revenue is expected to grow sequentially.
The company saw a 56% year-over-year rise gaming revenue for the latest quarter, with that total coming in at $2.9 billion. Nvidia generated $463 million in professional visualization revenue, up 105%, along with $281 million in automotive revenue, down 4%. Analysts were looking for $422 million and $275 million, respectively.
Lisa Su, CEO of Nvidia competitor Advanced Micro Devices, recently said her company was hoping for as much as $3.5 billion of sales of their own AI chips this year.
The sell-off in Palo Alto Networks has nothing to do with the earnings and revenue estimates PANW provided, but the reason why.
PANW has decided it's in their best long-term interests to support a less diverse line-up of customer-owned equipment.
Many analysts and funds were offended that PANW has decided to facilitate this change by offering customers free new equipment to replace units they no longer prefer to support. They're even more offended they weren't told of this policy change previously.
This will impose a modest cost this year offset by annual cost savings in coming quarters.
It took years for PANW to recover from its prior 24.2% crash on March 1, 2017
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/palo-alto-networks-stock-sinks-toward-worst-day-on-record-upon-abrupt-pivot-ba459b02
Palo Alto Networks Inc. shares are headed for their worst day on record as Wall Street fretted about a strategic pivot that’s expected to hit results in the near term.
The stock was off 26.5% in morning trading Wednesday after the company missed expectations with its outlook in light of a change in strategy meant to get more customers to adopt a broader suite of its offerings — a move that prompted several analysts to abandon their bullish views on Palo Alto Networks shares PANW.
If the Wednesday morning action carried through to the close, it would mark the worst one-day percentage drop for Palo Alto Networks in its history. The current record is a 24.2% plunge, which took place on March 1, 2017.
“Palo Alto Network’s shift towards platformization, consolidating point products onto one of their three platforms, raises concerns about the
potential for a slower path to achieving the company’s goals,” wrote Rosenblatt Securities analyst Catharine Trebnick. “This strategic move could have several near-term and mid-term impacts on stakeholders.”
Trebnick, who downgraded the stock to neutral from buy Wednesday, noted that the move could make channel partners frustrated “by having to sell more products within the same budget constraints.” Additionally, it could take time to train the sales teams on the new messaging.
Meanwhile, Palo Alto Networks is also trying to position itself more as an artificial-intelligence leader but the “platform’s reliance on AI may necessitate higher investments, potentially impacting margins,” Trebnick continued, as she cut her price target to $265 from $290.
Piper Sandler’s Rob Owens also downgraded the stock, writing that Palo Alto Networks was “creating a large degree of investor consternation” for the third consecutive quarter.
The company “is the largest platform player in the segment and, in hopes to accelerate that positioning, will take an aggressive approach in offering free product with the promise of longer-term, platform contracts,” Owens explained. “This should negatively impact the business for 12-18 months — eliminating $600M from billings estimates in the back half of this year.”
While he continues to see long-term opportunity for the company, Owens said “the steps taken this quarter undoubtedly raise uncertainty in the narrative as execution risk is elevated under current plans.”
He moved to a neutral rating on the stock from his prior overweight stance, while cutting his target price to $300 from $350.
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Guggenheim’s John DiFucci said that 12 to 18 months is a long time for investors to wait, and he argued that the term “platformization,” when described, “sounds like what they’ve been doing all along,” with the exception being that Palo Alto Networks will now offer customers a “bridge” as they add additional products and transition away from legacy ones.
“We don’t blame PANW for doing whatever they believe is the right thing for the company over the long term,” DiFucci wrote, but he has questions about why “other companies embark on similar paths of consolidation without having to give away product for a time” and why Palo Alto Networks delivered this “major change on a quarterly conference call when results are weak,” rather than six months back when the company hosted a Friday evening earnings call.
DiFucci rates the stock at neutral.
Raymond James analyst Adam Tindle said he will “need evidence that this abrupt pivot is poised to yield acceleration,” in a note to clients titled: “Yellow Flags Become Red.”
“While the stock is poised to be punished, and we are not dogmatic in our views, we struggle with the near/intermediate term investment case from here,” he wrote. “Consider, Palo is abruptly pushing a strategy whereby customers will receive free products for a commitment to consolidate on the platform, yet our downgrade cited general skepticism in the channel, and we doubt these partners will push a further consolidation with a vendor where they generally struggle with trust.”
At the same time, he acknowledged that “a commitment to hold/improve profitability over this time may provide some downside support to the stock,” though he stuck with his market-perform rating.
Evercore ISI’s Peter Levine, meanwhile, said the stock’s negative reaction was “unsurprising,” though he was staying bullish on the name.
Levine’s recent channel checks turned up “sufficient evidence to suggest that there is no demand problem, no underlying shift in the fundamentals, and no new emerging competitive concerns,” he wrote. “With no apparent demand deficit, we believe [management] has enough credibility to instill some confidence in their choice to sacrifice short-term rev to pursue a strategic shift aimed at positioning the company for [long-term] growth.”
He has an outperform rating and a $405 target price on the shares.
Similarly, William Blair’s Jonathan Ho could see why investors would be worried but said the company’s pivot could create a “tectonic shift” in the cybersecurity market down the road.
“As Palo Alto gains scale, it will also have the ability to out-invest its competitors and have access to datasets across the security landscape that can serve as a sustainable competitive advantage,” he wrote.
Further, the move “could drive a potential consolidation wave in the space and place point solution vendors in a more precarious situation,” said Ho, who rates the stock at outperform.
Walmart may want to become my nanny, but they're out of luck.
No thank you.
What do I have to do to receive a free Russian-made 'Aurus Senat luxury car' ?
Republicans’ main witness in their efforts to impeach Joe Biden has already been charged with lying to the FBI. Now, he has also admitted to having ties to Russian intelligence officers. https://t.co/f1IcybLUg5
— The New Republic (@newrepublic) February 20, 2024
Russian President Vladimir Putin has presented a Russian-made Aurus Senat automobile Kim Jong Un, state media said Tuesday, in another sign of warming ties between the two countries.
Kim’s sister – and senior Pyongyang official – Kim Yo Jong thanked Putin on her brother’s behalf and said, “the gift serves as a clear demonstration of the special personal relations between the leaders of North Korea and Russia.”
Donald Trump has requested that his Aurus be embellished in a light gold color rather than Korean Bronze.
Do consumers really buy discount appliances so they can receive advertising on their new appliance?
Walmart's purchase of budget-TV manufacturer Vizio for $2.3 billion will give the "Walmart Connect" advertising division new ways to reach customers through in-home media and additional avenues to grow profits.
Purchasers of Walmart TVs will probably will see more “active” forms of advertising on Vizio, such as ads that include a QR code, bar code or “buy now” button — all tied to products on Walmart’s shelves, said Laura Martin, senior media analyst at Needham & Co.
Amazon bought MGM studios and makes their own content, since January 1 including ads on some of their original shows, with a $2.99 a month ad-free version.
Walmart says they had to buy this TV manufacturer to serve up ads on "to keep up with Amazon", but Walmart neither owns nor creates shows. Is Walmart going to buy Paramount from Sherri Redstone? What about advertising on your new Walmart refrigerator?
Buying Vizio gives Walmart an ad product in which the company owns customers viewing and shopping data as well as the operating systems and hardware used to deliver the ads, analysts said.
“It keeps all of their investments within their ecosystem, so they aren’t sharing the economics or the benefit with any other third party,” said Michael Morris, senior managing director at Guggenheim Securities, adding that Google and Amazon have similar integrations for their advertising businesses.
This reminds me of the Republican push to introduce mandatory annual butt hole inspections of all Americans to check for any signs of government over-reach.
I've heard rumors that NVDIA offworld sales to Mars and Pluto will come in light.
It's good to have Jon Stewart back
Everyone is equal in the Stupidverse, but some are more equal than others. Some like Sen. Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump wisely receive employer-provided healthcare, so don't need to rely on receiving welfare from Medicare.
Voters get to choose the level of stupid they most prefer, anything from prosperity, to a punch in their face or a bullet in their head.