Tonight I went to a chain Italian restaurant for a seminar about tax-smart investing presented by Fidelity Investments. I looked up the Weight Watchers "smart points" on the menu prior to attending. The offerings featured more points than those scored by the Golden State Warriors basketball team in a routine contest. I chose to eat after the meeting. The speaker was pretty good. I knew a lot of what he discussed already, which makes sense, since I have the advantage of specialized training. But I learned a lot new.
I did not like two things--1. the lecture started with an alarmist, distorted chart that suggested that 2015 taxes spiked up for everyone, which is inaccurate. The chart took a worst-case applicable to nearly nobody and presented it as an example for everyone's situation. Why must every securities sales person imply that routine taxation is a clandestine conspiracy?; and 2. the speaker referred to a female colleague as "the lovely blonde up front",which he would never have done for a colleague who was, hypothetically, a blonde male former quarterback with modeling experience. I'd describe the relative merits of his female colleague, but that would be feeding the dragon I hope to kill.
Tonight the news pointed out that Senator Cruz won the Wisconsin Republican primary, but failed to point out in sufficient detail that this only increases the chance of a contested or brokered convention, as Senator Cruz is unlikely to assemble a majority prior to the convention . Then news pointed out that Senator Sanders won the Democratic primary, but that as of 10 p.m. or so, the margin was below the necessary pace if he is to remain competitive [edit: 11:30 p.m., he did a bit better than it looked at 10 p.m., closer to pace]. Still, it's good to see an election cycle in which every state's primary voters can have an impact. I am puzzled by the current state of the Republican Party (or lack thereof).
It's a mad, mad, mad world.