Introducing...

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Duque Hebbert
Nicaragua’s national sport is not soccer, but baseball. At FunLimon, the community development center my family established in Nicaragua, our baseball field is always in use. And the level of the games played there is very high. Much higher than you’d expect to see with rural baseball games in the US.

Still, when AS asked me if I knew who Duque Hebbert was, I had to admit I didn’t.

It turns out he’s a Nicaraguan baseball player that just signed a contract with the Detroit Tigers. Apparently, he was invited to join the team after striking out a trio of MLB stars.

I asked a few of my friends in Nicaragua if they had heard the news. Oddly enough, it seems that nobody there even knew about Hebbert before the story broke nationally.

“Yes,” one of them told me. “This made it to the news yesterday in Nicaragua. He is originally from the Northern Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast. Puerto Cabezas is the name of his hometown. He is just 21, so everyone is expecting this to be the beginning of a professional career at the highest level possible.”

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Friday, March 17, 2023, Delray Beach, Florida


Notes From My Journal

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True Story 

This happened Tuesday morning…

K: “Did you ever find the check for C and M?”

(C is our nephew. M is his new wife. I was supposed to give the check to them at their wedding, which was held at Paradise Palms. I wrote about the wedding in the Jan. 31 issue. Remember the above photo?)

Me: “No. I looked everywhere I could think of. I can’t find it.”

K: “Are you sure you didn’t give it to them?”

Me: “No, I’m not sure. I can’t remember anything anymore.”

K: “Did you check your pocket?”

Me: “What pocket?”

K: “The pocket of the suit jacket you wore that night.”

Me: “What suit was it?”

(K goes upstairs to look in my closet. A few minutes later, she comes down with check in hand.)

Me: “So, you found it!”

K: “No.”

Me: “No?”

(She shows me the check. It was for SB’s wedding, which took place in 2013!)

Me: “Oh, boy!”

K: “Exactly!”

Me (sheepishly grinning): “Gee.”

K: “No wonder we never got a thank you note!”

Me: “I guess I’ll have to write another check.”

K: “With interest!”

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News & Views

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The Sam Brinton Story Just Got Weirder

Do you remember Sam Brintin? The MIT graduate/ non-binary person that the Biden administration hired as a Deputy Assistant to the nuclear waste bureau of the Department of Energy?

If you don’t remember, here’s a report on Brintin filmed after his appointment was announced.

I have been a fan of Brinton ever since he/she made his/her first appearance in the press. I was disappointed, therefore, to discover that, not long after taking office, he/she was caught on camera stealing luggage from the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.

According to police reports, that was not his/her first arrest. Still the Biden administration and the mainstream media tried to stay loyal to him/her. But the reports kept popping up. More disturbing, his/her kleptomania had a particular focus: women’s clothing. Still, the story would have probably gone away, except that several weeks ago, a fashion designer for women, a Tanzanian, no less, came across a photo of Brinton wearing one of her custom-designed dresses. It was the very dress that was in a travel bag of hers that had been “lost” by an airline in 2018.

Check it out here.

 

“Should we automate the CEO?” 

From The Hustle:

Last August, NetDragon Websoft – a Hong Kong-based online gaming firm with $2.1B in annual revenue – appointed a CEO to helm its flagship subsidiary.

The new chief, Tang Yu, was responsible for the typical duties of a company figurehead: reviewing high-level analytics, making leadership decisions, assessing risks, and fostering an efficient workplace.

Even better: She worked 24/7, didn’t sleep, and was compensated $0 per year.

But there was a catch: Yu wasn’t a human. She was a virtual robot powered by artificial intelligence.

So far, having an AI CEO hasn’t had any catastrophic consequences for NetDragon Websoft. In fact, since Yu’s appointment, the company has outperformed Hong Kong’s stock market.

For more on this story, click here.

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The Economy & Investing

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The Cost of Retiring Comfortably

If you have less than a million in your retirement account, but still dream of retiring without having to worry about running out of money, you might want to begin your planning by figuring out where you want to live. Click here for a survey of the most affordable places to retire in the States and worldwide.

 Why Are US Banks Collapsing? 

I was going to write something this week about Silicon Valley Bank and the subsequent bank failures. But then I came across this amusing explanation by my colleague and partner Sean MacIntyre. Click here to see what he says.

Were You in the Right Investments Last Year? 

In general, 2022 was not kind to investors. But some hard assets and collectible investments did well. Museum-quality art, for example, rose in price by an average of 29% over the course of 2022 – well above the stock market ROI and the US inflation rate (6.5%) added together! Click here to see all the categories that did well.

When the Truth Finally Comes Out 

This is amazing. Listen to what this woman is saying. She believes, actually believes, that the $1.7 billion written into the “Inflation Reduction Act” was deficit reduction, rather than tax increases! Click here.

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Worth Considering

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The COVID Response. What We Got Wrong.

Walking It Back… Walking It Back… Walking It Back

DF sent in this article from The Atlantic, titled “Why Are We Still Arguing About Masks?”

It fits neatly with what I’ve been calling the “walking-back” strategy – a tactic now being used by all those that took part in promoting the misinformation about COVID that was so damaging to our culture, our economy, and our democracy.

As more and more facts are brought to light, they don’t want to be blamed for any of it. They want us to forgive and forget. But we shouldn’t, because what they did was unforgiveable.

They used the conceit of SCIENCE to abrogate our basic rights. To pass laws that inhibited freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, and freedom of speech. To put free-thinking doctors in jail, silence true investigative reporters, and to shut down our entire economy, putting thousands of small businesses out of business and causing what I believe will amount to about a trillion dollars of economic damage. Not to mention the untold number of deaths caused by “politically correct” health procedures: the use of respirators, the limitations on ameliorative drugs, and the widespread insistence on the vaccines.

Click here to read a Meryl Nass essay about a particularly offensive walking-back tactic used by Richard Baron, head of the American Board of Internal Medicine.

And for a welcome change of pace, click here. This is a doctor that has been publishing comments on COVID-19 since the beginning. For a long time, he promoted the use of masks. Now, quite admirably, he is admitting he was wrong.

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Worth Watching

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The Worst Best Picture Winners of the 21st Century 

The Oscars are silly, as movie critic Adam Chitwood wrote. Hollywood awarding itself. But they are also “kind of great.” A night to celebrate an art form that is in some ways uniquely American. And a chance for ordinary people around the world to see Hollywood celebrities dressing up and behaving badly.

One thing the Oscars are not: awards for movies that really are the best of the year. (This is obvious to anyone that wants more from the movies they watch than just a mindless way to pass the time.) So it’s not surprising that some of the Oscar winners over the past 22 years have not been all that good.

Here’s my personal list of Oscar winners since 2000, ranked from worst to best. How does it compare to yours?

* Crash (2005) – the absolute worst!

* Parasite (2019)

* The Shape of Water (2017)

* Birdman (2014)

* Million Dollar Baby (2004)

* Chicago (2002)

* Gladiator (2000)

* Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

* Green Book (2018)

* The Hurt Locker (2009)

* The Lord of the Rings (2003)

* Nomadland (2020)

* 12 Years a Slave (2013)

* No Country for Old Men (2007)

* The King’s Speech (2010)

* The Artist (2011)

* Coda (2021)

* Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

* Moonlight 2016)

* The Departed (2006)

* Argo (2012)

* Spotlight (2015)

* A Beautiful Mind (2001) – the best!

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Arts & Letters

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In a letter dated Mar. 5, 1839, 23-year-old Charlotte Brontë declines a marriage proposal with her own version of “It’s not you, it’s me.” 

In the letter to the Reverend Henry Nussey, which is very polite but very clear, she tells him that she has “no personal repugnance to the idea of a union” with him (how charitable). But then she writes:

“I feel convinced that mine is not the sort of disposition calculated to form the happiness of a man like you. It has always been my habit to study the character of those amongst whom I chance to be thrown, and I think I know yours and can imagine what description of woman would suit you for a wife. Her character should not be too marked, ardent and original – her temper should be mild, her piety undoubted, her spirits even and cheerful, and her ‘personal attractions’ sufficient to please your eye and gratify your just pride.

“As for me, you do not know me, I am not this serious, grave, cool-headed individual you suppose – you would think me romantic and [eccentric – you would] say I was satirical and [severe]. [However, I scorn] deceit and will never for the sake of attaining the distinction of matrimony and escaping the stigma of an old maid take a worthy man whom I am conscious I cannot render happy.” (Source: LitHub)

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