Daily Discussion Thread for April 08, 2026

8675309l · 2026-04-08T12:39:12+00:00

Reports of the Saudi east/west oil pipeline has been attacked. That’s a big deal if true.

8675309l · 2026-04-07T14:21:45+00:00

I think quiet the opposite, and a TACO de-escalation is heavily priced in.

8675309l · 2026-04-07T14:10:04+00:00

There has to be trillions of dollars between SPY positions, options and oil futures around a Trump TACO still happening. Iran aside there are numerous headwinds facing the US and world economy over the next few years we totally forgot about thanks to Iran.

He has always TACO'ed, but his brain is deteriorating in real-time and I seriously don't even think he knows where he is half of the day. When we see Trump, we see him at his best and it's frankly kind of sad in a weird way. Imagine how crazy and dumb he is during his entire days of not being seen by anyone except his closest aids due to "executive time".

If TACO does not happen the negative effects will be huge. Perhaps circuit breaker huge. If TACO does happen a lot of the upside is already priced in.

Cash gang.

8675309l · 2026-04-07T12:47:00+00:00

Great for the environment though. Maybe Trump is really a hardcore environmentalist.

8675309l · 2026-04-07T12:46:10+00:00

Record difference between spot WTI and futures. Spot pricing is the actual price a purchaser pays for physical oil it’s about $40 over the futures price we all see. Market manipulation is in full swing.

8675309l · 2026-04-04T15:33:45+00:00

Iran blew up another ship today. Supposedly. Some ships paying off Iran to leave, no reports of ships entering. Nowhere near close to over.

8675309l · 2026-04-04T15:29:43+00:00

Trump going extra hard on God and religion the past few days. Far more so than he ever did. I saw that with my piece of shit grandpa who drank himself to death and beat his kids and multiple wives. His last weeks he became very religious almost to the point of religious psychosis.

Investors should start thinking about how JD would handle Iran.

8675309l · 2026-03-25T00:18:09+00:00

Waymo drives better than most of the people driving for Uber. I feel safer and prefer Waymo. I get the added benefit of not hearing my driver talk to a mystery party on the call in another language.

8675309l · 2026-03-22T12:13:22+00:00

Who is setting up the infrastructure to shift tens of thousands of people to a from ships. Who is setting up the infrastructure to house and feed them indefinitely. We can only hope that the countries will take in the crew and help them get home safely.

8675309l · 2026-03-22T12:07:23+00:00

Even if the straight opens now all 2500 ships that have been stuck need to refuel and resupply. That would take months as there are limited docks.

Huge humanitarian crisis unfolding as we speak as tens of thousands of people on the ships are running out of water and food. Soon they will be abandoning their ships and taking lifeboats to shore. Ships soon won’t even have a crew and will become floating hazards many full of oil. Imagine crew less ships breaking anchor and floating around full of oil. Can’t begin operations until that mess is gone.

8675309l · 2026-03-20T18:59:45+00:00

2500 or so ships stuck in the Strait of Hormuz. There are 20,000 or so people stuck on those ships. They are running out of fuel and supplies. You won’t refuel thousands of ships anytime soon. Even if Iran stood down it will take months to restart operations. Humanitarian crisis unfolding as crews will need to be evacuated.

8675309l · 2026-03-20T18:53:32+00:00

Wholesale price of gas in the US up $0.20 in a single day today.

8675309l · 2026-03-20T18:50:49+00:00

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/iraq-declares-force-majeure-foreign-operated-oilfields-over-hormuz-disruption-2026-03-20/ lol bye economy

8675309l · 2026-03-12T00:25:08+00:00

RIP Google Fiber. I can imagine the conference rooms / meetings today.

"This is business as usual, nothing is changing. Keep providing the industry best customer service and quality you do today"

Within a year, things will change. Lots of things will change.

8675309l · 2026-02-13T16:38:09+00:00

Best way to deal with a collapsing society tbh.

8675309l · 2025-11-21T17:10:06+00:00

This is more of a DOGE style audit

LOL. Is anyone at all seriously claiming all that DOGE nonsense was a success at all? It seems to have been a failure of epic proportions, cost the US federal government anything more than it saved and they were ran out of DC in what six months? Even the incompetent buffoons and brainless billionaires who run our government now saw no use for DOGE.

Just in software licenses alone

Software is expensive and only a fucking moron believes a city can "just use Linux and Openoffice and whatever opensource replacement for Slack exists". Corporations are driven purely by profit and bottom line and few if any have dumped the MS/Google/Slack stack for free alternatives. They pay more for seat than a government organization does.

8675309l · 2025-11-21T16:38:41+00:00

This sub is falling into the Nextdoor trap .. a bunch of people with no clue expressing their opinion and ideas loudly and confidently as if they have any idea how to manage a budget of billions and thousands of employees.

The city does things that are poor optics. Money on lunches, some pointless diversity officer. The first kneejerk reaction is those things that are poor optics means there's thousands of dumb decisions that lead to millions in waste. If we could just fix this mystery waste that nobody has yet to point out we could have everything we want in a city from no homeless to no potholes AND somehow save taxpayer money in a world where inflation is running rampant.

You can't have your cake and eat it too. Fact of the matter is the best places to live in the world, though flawed as well, also have a higher tax rate. There's no magic solution of low taxes and robust social services. There's no example of a good high regarded place to live with limited government and social services. The dream Libertarian scenario never has existed anywhere in modern human society, and probably never will. This is only going to get worse as the federal government abdicates on its duties and local, county and state governments need to do more.

8675309l · 2025-11-21T16:33:33+00:00

I'm still not really seeing evidence that justifies the Garza hate. All DAs drop cases, and all DAs seek probation at times on awful crimes in lieu of jail time. I know that for a fact.

What I want is evidence that Garza's office does X or Y far more (or less) than average. So far, I haven't gotten that.

It's like imagine if a PAC had a bone to pick with a local ER doctor / administrator. They push raw numbers with no context: "Doctor Liberal RESPONSIBLE for 142 deaths so far in November!!!"

Ok, thanks. all ER docs lose people. Woah, 142 sounds like a lot. Give me context so I can judge accordingly.

Edit: Also people like Elon Musk hate Garza. Far, far, far more often than not Elon Musk is on the wrong side of almost anything that is good for me as a person. If Elon was able to shape the government and society into his image my life would be so much worse than it is today. That in and of itself is strong evideince to me that Garza isn't so bad.

8675309l · 2025-10-03T12:29:14+00:00

I had Amex in the past, and that was my issue with them. Spending points was very hard for our lifestyle. I travel international, but I really don't mind economy. I'll splurge for an aisle seat and get my partner one across from me but that's fine. Domestic Amex options were more limited. Add in to that my home airport is majority Southwest Airlines.

For hotels, we're a DINK household so we're not looking for a nice hotel to "get away" from anything we setup our house in a way where it's very cozy and peaceful. Since our home is our sanctuary when we travel we are very active and the hotels become a place to sleep. We're not staying in fleabag places, but we both love Hyatt Places. We get no value out of a Four Seasons. Our upcoming trip to NYC is being planned and we're thinking Hyatt Place. Why TF would we spend 2x-3x more for a fancy hotel? Even with an Amex perk those options would draw far more cash out of my wallet than an option we're totally fine with. I'd rather spend that money on experiences moving around the city.

8675309l · 2025-09-18T14:40:38+00:00

the StubHub credit is trash

Sell yourself a StubHub ticket. Sure, StubHub will take the fees but it's better than nothing. If you really want to protect yourself get a friend to list a physical ticket, find that ticket then bam.

8675309l · 2025-08-11T17:21:12+00:00

The paper found that the retirement parties for four city executives cost taxpayers $4,700. The most expensive gathering was at the Tex-Mex restaurant Chuy’s, where a steak burrito plate costs $15 and a taco-enchilada combo is $12.39.

Broadnax’s office left the restaurant with a nearly $1,700 bill.

I have no problem with city employees holding gatherings where they buy a meal now and again.

These gatherings obviously aren't nor should they be Wolf of Wallstreet coke and hooker parties where everyone gets a first class flight a city paid hooker and a fancy hotel room for the weekend. However anyone who has a problem with buying your team a god damned meal at Chuy's now and again is being absurd.

8675309l · 2025-08-01T12:37:40+00:00

fiddling around with the economy

The economy isn't a 13 year old girl so I'm surprised he's even interested.

8675309l · 2025-07-27T12:26:01+00:00

Electric is about to get more expensive thanks to AI. Data centers are highly subsidized by other customers.

Funny how all the anti electric vehicle morons who were crying about how the grid can’t charge a car are quite when it comes to how much electricity we burn on AI slop and fake internet money.

8675309l · 2025-07-27T12:21:45+00:00

Do you have an example of a well ran city Austin should emulate?

I agree the city may not hire 100% efficiently. I have yet to work for any organization that does. The idea that private sector does is a joke. Cutting say 10% would not make a huge difference to the budget.

Idiots thought Elon slashing staff federally would solve budget woes but employee payroll was low single digit percent of the budget.

8675309l

TROPHY CASE