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Things that make me go hmmm...

From Jesse Felder, The Felder Report:

"Just three stocks, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft, make up more than 16% of the S&P 500 Index and over a third of the Nasdaq 100 Index. Together they are now valued at nearly $5 trillion. That’s larger than the entire economy of Germany and roughly the size of the Japanese economy."

Comments

  • Was or should I say is there a law against monopolies ?

    Derf
  • There are still lots of "things" that make me go hmmm... even at 81. :)
  • insane numbers, there. And when the music stops, well you don't want to be there. Which reminds me:
  • edited July 2020
    List of Businesses Amazon is in ..... (Pardon my dangling preposition.)

    1. Retail goods

    2. Amazon Prime

    3. Consumer electronics

    4. Digital content

    4.1 Amazon Studios

    4.2 Amazon Games Studios

    5. Amazon Video

    5.1 Video Direct

    6. Delivery

    6.1 Groceries

    7. Amazon Business

    8. Amazon Drive

    9. Private labels and exclusive marketing arrangements

    10. Amazon Web Services

    11. Amazon Publishing

    12. AmazonSmile

    13. Amazon Local

    14. Retail stores

    15. Amazon Home Services

    16. Amazon Cash/Top Up

    hmmm... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Amazon_products_and_services

    In rural / northern Michigan I just acquired internet service adequate for streaming movies. Quickly learned that Amazon Prime Video ain’t so “prime”. For most of the good stuff they hit you up for charges ranging from $2 to $4 for a maximum 48-hour rental. By contrast Netflix and others let you watch as much as you want for one flat fee ($9 a month in the case of Netflix)

  • edited July 2020
    On another note, I’ve been hmmming a lot over the events in Seattle, Portland and other American cities.

    I’m thinking there must be a graphic buried away somewhere (maybe in a political science department’s vault) that visually delineates the gradual progression from “protest” to “insurrection” to “revolution“. And I’m humming over whether this idea of unidentified (presumably) federal police dressed in military style fatigues showing up and “helping” to police cities that don’t want the help gains traction and becomes a permanent fixture of the American scene. More specifically, I’m wondering whether they’ll be hanging out on Michigan streets come November.

    In case you’ve been living in a cave -
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/07/25/seattle-
  • That's a good thing @OJ. I aim for a handful or so of the same each day. One has to keep those circuits firing.

    @hank - the reckless use of unidentified, allegedly federal police, angers me to no end. That they can indiscriminately use force when unprovoked against people exercising their constitutionally granted rights to peaceful protest should make all of our blood boil. For the first time in my life I like the use of leaf blowers which are being used to disperse the tear gas.
  • Hearings before the House's antitrust subcommittee of the Judiciary committee this coming week. Dinky linky.

    Microsoft didn't even get an invite. Four other guys did. The link provides a rundown of the issues that are liable to be explored. No paywall.
  • edited July 2020
    Federal police...it's just political to gin up support....remember all the bazillions of caravans heading to USA way back when... can't use that to scare people anymore so had to come up with something new.... RIOTERS, ANARCHIST replaced caravans. Are you scared? I am... police won't respond for 5 days and 911 is going away according to the scare commercials I've seen... SMH ... and people buy it, THAT'S what's scary....

  • From @hank: "On another note, I’ve been hmmming a lot over the events in Seattle, Portland and other American cities.

    I’m thinking there must be a graphic buried away somewhere (maybe in a political science department’s vault) that visually delineates the gradual progression from “protest” to “insurrection” to “revolution“. And I’m humming over whether this idea of unidentified (presumably) federal police dressed in military style fatigues showing up and “helping” to police cities that don’t want the help gains traction and becomes a permanent fixture of the American scene. More specifically, I’m wondering whether they’ll be hanging out on Michigan streets come November."
    ***********************************


    The Lincoln Project are exiled Republicans who still own a soul and a conscience. I would still disagree with them about a lotta stuff, but they are not at all like any sort of MAGA drones.
  • Trump's Secret Police will only succeed in increasing the tension and potential violence of the protesters. I'm not at all sure that he realized that going in- he might have just been trying for a major show of force to prove what a great leader he is.

    But now that things are escalating and spreading he's going to see that this is a great way to jerk around the Democratic administrations of cities and states. He will now deliberately send his Gestapo anywhere that he can, and of course that will only amplify the protests even more.

    That bastard will do everything that he can to escalate the protests until no one will even remember how the whole thing started. He's banking on that, you can bet. He will deliberately provoke the situation until he can "justify" calling in the National Guard or other military force.
  • If you can try to avoid these areas. The journalists are being targeted and hurt even when they wearing vest clearly label "PRESS".
  • Sven said:

    If you can try to avoid these areas. The journalists are being targeted and hurt even when they wearing vest clearly label "PRESS".

    truth.
  • Why is it that every spoken political ad I have seen and heard for the last 30 years whose content I more or less agree with is spoken in a smarmy repulsive voice? This one is the latest. Talk about self-defeating shooting oneself in the foot! Why would anyone believe anything spoken in such a self-satisfied tone? I hear no alarm, no urgency in the voice of this speaker. I hear self-righteousness.
  • Now that is a really great question!
  • edited July 2020
    +1. Yes. Agreed. There's Marketers even in politics. Maybe the "smarminess" is connected to the spin. Ah, yes, the Spin Doctors. Because facts don't matter anymore, not as much as the spin-factor, anyhow. And THAT may serve as an indication about just how smart the great mass of voters are in the USA. Sad to say. So easily swayed, because they are so ill-informed. And ALWAYS being presented with false choices. Clean air and water? Or a thriving economy? Bullshit. We can have both.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_Doctors

    As for Greta's intensity: she MEANS EVERY WORD. Because she's smart, alert and angry at what her generation will have to deal with. The Boomers' environmental legacy. Here's Little Steven and The Disciples of Soul.
  • Thanks, Crash!
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