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Al Smithson

@alsmithson.bsky.social
416 followers 103 following 2.7K posts
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 8h
He’s right, she’s wrong. He spent an hour searching the store, and found an item that is cheaper than it was a year ago.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 8h
Yes. Surveys aren’t always accurate, and people have different ways of viewing interactions. But I’m not trying to minimize the problem - it is serious, and something to be concerned about.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 8h
Actually, it’s not. Some parents and kids have good relationships, believe it or not.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 8h
I’m glad we got to see the “so what do I do now?” part.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 8h
Thanks for the positive outlook.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 9h
This looks very interesting. But AI has ruined every video like this.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 9h
I had two daughters go to college. I don’t necessarily believe these stats (based on what?), but it is a concern. No indication of any problem like this for them.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 10h
Yes, Republicans are that stupid. That’s the basic problem.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 10h
A small price to pay for what benefit? I thought the idea was to prevent nuclear war, not to say that we will accept the consequences.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Then you must think this is a good short-selling opportunity. Lots of other people think that as well.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Don’t really know what you’re talking about. Tesla has been very successful at selling cars.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Apple produced the Newton. It failed. Apple stayed in business anyway, and succeeded at other things. Same with Tesla. Not successful at everything, but successful at enough that its shareholders are very happy.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The “Newton” was a failed PDA made by Apple. It didn’t survive at all.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Not every business idea works, even in the best companies. Failure to try something because it might fail is not the sign of a good business plan. Remember the “Newton”, for example?
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Tesla has over 130,000 employees. It is the most valuable car company in the world. It was on the verge of bankruptcy before Musk took over. I don’t like Musk and find his opinions abhorrent, but he has had great success running companies.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
It’s going to be the Donald Trump Effect when the dust settles.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
So you say.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
And, BTW, you ought to find a way to express your opinion without violating trademark laws.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The speech or debate clause is part of the Constitution, and allows Congress the freedom to say anything. Without this protection, Trump would have the entire Democratic Party in jail by now for telling what he considers to be lies.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
You obviously have no experience managing people, or a large organization. Probably not a small organization, either. People who are good at things make their job look easy.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
But he can run a car company, which is an example of competence. In many ways, managing hundreds or thousands of people, all possessing different skills and motivations, is more difficult than engineering.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Musk turned Tesla from a virtually bankrupt company into one of the most valuable companies in the world, so he is competent. And eccentricity is one of the characteristics that Rand admired.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The subtitle of Atlas Shrugged ought to be “10,000 Ways to Beat a Dead Horse”.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Yeah, but she thought guys like Elon Musk were the heroes.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Speaking as a Shell shareholder for many years, Shell has been an OK investment at best. If you find some evidence that Shell convinced Trump to start a war with Iran, then I’d agree that Shell deserves some blame for this mess.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
In addition, neither Clinton nor Obama ever tweeted with a picture of themselves in military uniform. Trump cheating to get a deferment is one thing; Trump pretending to have served is even worse.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
My dog scratches the back door to go out. She figured out how to do it on her own. You’re right though - she also knows it is a surefire way to get our attention.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Reminder: winning Congress does not give Democrats power to prosecute anybody. That is an Executive Branch function.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
He doesn’t understand insurance. What he’s describing is a pay-as-you-go system. People who are lucky enough to not to get sick would save a lot of money. People who did get sick couldn’t afford the treatment.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Driving drunk can kill people. Dumping Romo was the right thing to do.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
When somebody explained to him why this wouldn’t work, he cried “deep state conspiracy”.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
People are going to continue to buy high mileage cars. The only question is where those cars will be made.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The tapes of Nixon’s crimes have been released to the public.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
There are tapes of the crimes being committed.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
That’s far more than the population of DC. How does everyone get to DC, and where do they sleep at night? Solve these problems, and maybe people will listen to you.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Why is a stock buyback worse than a dividend payment? In both cases, shareholders get the same amount of money. Except, in the case of a buyback, the tax consequences are favorable to the shareholders, which means the directors of the corporation are doing their job.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The best outcome would be for the current chaos to drive colleges out of the professional sports business. Yes, athletes who draw eyeballs should be paid. But they should be paid as participants in a professional sports league.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
It’s possible to agree with this and also not to care how many billionaires there are.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This would tend to make people avoid human cashiers, which would not be a good result. It would almost be better to add a surcharge to self-checkout, with the proceeds to be distributed to the hourly employees of the store.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I anticipate all sorts of unintended consequences to this. The most likely outcome is no human cashiers at all, and marked prices 10% higher.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Just to be clear, there is no way the Dems will “take control” in 2027. The Republicans will still have control of the Executive branch, which includes the Justice Department and the FBI. Trump will still have veto power over any legislation that gets passed.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Depending on your definition of “affordable”, there aren’t many places in NYC that can simultaneously be profitable for owners and affordable. Particularly in the parts of NYC that people want to live.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
NYC tried “public housing” in the 1950s. It didn’t work out so well. I hope Mamdani has plans for avoiding the problems.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Very unreasonable expectation. You need 67 Senators to do that.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
They should be making EVs even without a mandate. They’re going to get blown away, just like they did when they failed to sell small cars in the ‘70s.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Unlike the frauds that our President commits, there is no way to make money by paying insurance premiums and never filing a claim.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
There are two types of members: 1) trolls who think it’s fun to come up with explanations of how a flat earth is consistent with observations, and 2) idiots who believe the trolls are serious.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
It’s hopeless trying to deal with things like this with logic.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I don’t like sports betting, but I wouldn’t call the betters morally degenerate. It’s the people who are preying on them who lack morals.
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Al Smithson @alsmithson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It’s been abused frequently even before Trump.
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