Your Tax Dollars at Work

Remember all that braying about how corporations would use offshore profit to add more workers if/when they brought it back? You do remember? Did you believe it? You shouldn't.

16:17 CW Curtiss-Wright to utilize $50 million in repatriated foreign cash to expand 2018 share repurchase program (133.92 +2.03)

Board of Directors has authorized an additional $50 million for share repurchases in 2018, to begin immediately via a 10b5-1 program, by using cash that the Company has begun repatriating from its foreign subsidiaries.

Earlier this month, the Company repurchased more than $12 million in shares opportunistically through a supplemental share repurchase program and has ~$36 million remaining under the current share repurchase authorization. Since early 2014, the Company has repurchased more than 7 million shares for an aggregate purchase price of nearly $550 million

Mask of The Red Death

Have you noticed that the "unmasking" meme has fallen away from the Orange Julius Caesar cabal's whining? Why might that be? Reporting that the FBI had an informant talking to Page, Papadopoulos, and Clovis very early in the investigation has created the spy meme. Hmmm. May be they were warned that such talk will only speed up the inevitable end.

Last night's MSNBC nightly feed included Maddow's refreshing of the Nixon Enemies List, in the context of Orange Julius Caesar's secret attempt to coerce the PO into doubling(!) Amazon's delivery charge. That shouldn't be surprising. What I noted was Maddow's use of video and audio from the Watergate investigation. The tapes proved that Nixon, et al, really did subvert the law. The outing of the Amazon/PO corruption was offered as today's version. But I disagree.

From the moment that Comey told us that the FBI had an open investigation into Trump/Russia, I inferred the jig was up. Maddow came this close to closing the circle. Have I mentioned in the course of these missives that I spent some time working for Jack Anderson? Well, yes. And you can find the articles I worked on if you look hard enough. This was after Anderson was co-opted by Reagan, but he had long since quit doing much reporting or writing, leaving that to the staff. I got to meet some spooks. That was fun.

My time in DC convinces me that the intelligence community, the NSA in particular, has the Trump Tapes. It's perfectly legal for NSA/CIA/FBI to sweep up Americans who engage with foreigners in treasonous activities. Doesn't matter where their feet are at the time. The cabal knows what it did, and was counting on not winning to keep their activities from public view. Thus the FISA nonsense. They just wanted the money. Just as Jared extorted from Qatar. In due time, the community will release the tapes. Whether Orange Julius Caesar spends time in prison is the only question.

The Book I Didn't Get Around to Writing

On more than one occasion, I've bemoaned the silliness of Big Data. So have some others, every now and again. This morning's email brought a spiel from Amazon, with some books I might like. There is one: "Big Data, Big Dope".

While others have written about the dangers of Big Data, Stephen Few reveals the deceit that belies its illusory nature. If "data is the new oil," Big Data is the new snake oil. It isn't real. It's a marketing campaign that has distracted us for years from the real and important work of deriving value from data.

Exactly. OTOH, I worry that BLS/Census survey efforts have been corrupted by Orange Julius Caesar's minions in the agencies. Remember, it was the political appointees who made the case for WMD, not the grunts doing the work. When something is too good to be true, it likely is. One doesn't need all the population to make appropriate data-driven decisions. But it is easier to put a thumb on the scales when sampling is involved. It was bad stratification that led Crooked Hillary to believe she had it in the bag.

You Must Read This

Finally, a more famous than I data nerd tells the truth.

Instead of learning, I was spending 2-3 hours a day mindlessly scrolling through Facebook looking at cat videos and political hate speech. I was also posting family pictures of our adventures and eagerly awaiting the dopamine reward of getting likes from friends and family. My attention span was getting shorter and shorter by the day.

Now, lo those many decades ago, one of my graduate profs noted that you'll know you're working a profession when you spend 80% of your time thinking. And the greatest asset you acquire while a grad student is your library. Not so much these days.