5 Thoughts for July 26, 2017

1. Autonomous Driving: If an unoccupied vehicle can drive itself to an assigned address at a designated time, most households would only need, at most, one vehicle. Realistically, most people could ditch personal vehicles and join a cooperative. In this scenario, you'd simply plug your reservation into a calendar and a fleet vehicle would arrive just prior to your desired time. You wouldn't park, either. You'd drop yourself off at the front entrance then the vehicle would drive itself to the next appointment.
2. Pokemon Go Festival Aftermath: From what I've read, the Pokemon Go Festival in Chicago had huge problems with access to the game as a result of -- shock -- connectivity and server issues. One result has been that Niantic decided to extend, the worldwide celebration, twice, to Thursday. During this time, players have been able to earn 2X XP, stardust, and candies; eggs are hatching at an accelerated rate as are earning candies from walking; Pokemon are sprouting up everywhere at somewhere between 2x and 3x the frequency. Just about everyone I see in gyms have jumped a level as a result. I'm doing well, but I'm not going crazy.
3. NK: It seems like we, Americans, are constantly worried about North Korean missiles reaching the US. It's kind of a moot issue. Even as NK has caused trouble and mayhem over the decades since the cease fire, they haven't launched even so much as a small-scale attack. Our fears are what drives military confrontations and accidental wars. Having a Dummy in Chief makes it all the more disconcerting that we're about to go to war with NK will casualties in the millions.
4. Donald, Tweeter: There's been a huge shift in the White House that has gone unnoticed. Since last  Friday, Donald's been averaging over 9 tweets a day; he's never done this before. They're no longer limited to early morning hours, either; he's now tweeting at all times of the day. Does he actually do any work between his tweeting and golfing?
5. Donald the Idiot Investor: Back on August 2, 2016, Donald claimed to have sold all of his stocks in June -- a weird coincidence (or evidence of complicity) with Don Jr.'s meeting with the Russians, don't you think? At the time, he claimed that it was good timing. It wasn't. Between the end of June and August 2, the DJI had gained an additional 2%. Had he held his stocks until inauguration day, he would have gained 13.9%. Had he handed over his stocks to a blind trust, he would have gained 24.7% up to today's closing price.