In what they are calling a mini-super Tuesday, Joe Biden won Michigan’s Democratic primary, which just about spells the end for Bernie Sanders. Bernie might still win Idaho, North Dakota or Washington State, but Biden is also going to grab Missouri and Mississippi which means, Biden is winning with working class voters who are supposed to be supporting Sanders. These are the same voters who did support Sanders over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
But while Joe Biden looks like a shoo-in to win the Democratic nomination, he also seems to be losing his mind. It seems like every city he goes to, he gets into a verbal scuffle with a voter. This time it was Michigan, where he told a voter questioning him about the 2nd amendment that he was “ full of sh__!” The voter said, “you work for me”, and Biden disagreed. The videos of the exchange appear to show Biden telling the man he would “slap” him and calling him a “wuss bag.” “I don’t work for you and if we go outside I’ll slap you”.
Last month, Biden called one female voter a “lying, dog-faced pony soldier” (this was reportedly supposed to be a joke, but the voter didn’t take it that way). In Iowa, he challenged a voter to a push up competition.
Joe Biden is 77 years old. He may not be all there anymore. Voters and the media were very concern about age when John McCain ran for President in 2008 and he would’ve only been 72 when he took office. There were constant jokes about Ronald Reagan’s mental capacity when he was in office. He was the same age as Joe Biden when he LEFT office after eight years. Dementia is no joke, Joe.
Healthcare Stocks
Teledoc is getting a gift from the COVID-19 outbreak
Teladoc Health Inc (NYSE: TDOC) Is a company that is pioneering doctor visits over the web, either through your computer or an app that works through your smart phone or even your smart TV. The stock is up 74% this year and has not really been hurt by the broader market sell off.
On Tuesday, Vice President Mike Pence announced that health insurance will pay for telemedicine services during the COVID-19 outbreak. This is a huge win for the stock, as many people who try digital doctor visits, see no need to go back to a physical doctor for the simple things like a skin condition or a common cold. Doctors will tell you that the “simple things” are 90% of their patient visits.
The company is by far the largest player in the space, accumulating 4.1 million tele-health visits last year and claiming over 36 million US members, and over 19 million fee-only users in 175 countries. This stock could be very undervalued.
AI Could Take over Complex Human Jobs
In the past it was always thought that while artificial intelligence would take over certain jobs from humans, complex job situations such as jobs that require a deep level of interaction like medical careers seem to be safe.
Researchers didn’t believe that robots could adjust to things like changing light, weather, or other changes in environment in jobs like construction. Thanks to firms like Covariant AI however, there are now robots that are trained in simulations like this in order to complete intricate tasks.
There are now robotic arms that have been able to bridge those gaps and their managers are singing their praises saying things like “the robot doesn’t smoke, is always in good health comma and isn’t chatting with its neighbors or taking toilet breaks “. Those comments are right out of the playbook for what concerns workers about robots.
iHeartmedia, a radio broadcasting company earlier this year announced it would layoff hundreds of employees in order to “take advantage of AI”. The robots are getting closer and closer, and we should really look to invest in these companies so that if our jobs are taken away, at least we can benefit from the stock moves.
San Francisco allowing Uber self -riving car tests again
Self-driving cars are both terrifying, and comforting. The idea of undertaking the most common and most dangerous thing that most humans do every day, which is getting in a car, but getting in one that no one is driving seems completely nuts. Yet most sane people would not take much convincing to understand, that most car accidents are caused by human error and even though there would be accidents with self-driving cars, if all the cars on the road were self-driving they would drop dramatically.
Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER) has been testing self-driving cars since the early days, but two years ago there was a fatal crash involving one of their test vehicles that killed a pedestrian. To the company’s credit, they immediately stopped all testing on public roads, but now San Francisco is allowing them to restart testing if it’s limited to a few weeks with only two vehicles. Testing on public roads started this week and will only be going on during daylight hours.
if you can suspend your initial fear, you should be looking to invest in any company that takes the lead and self-driving cars, but especially Uber. If they master this, they will lose the cost of their drivers and will finally be profitable which will give their stock a clear advantage over LYFT Inc (NASDAQ: LYFT).
Alex Jones Arrested For DWI
Whether or not you believe some of the things that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones spreads, one thing has never been in question; he believes the theories that he spreads. So, you can almost understand how he was arrested on a DWI charge just after midnight in Austin, TX.
The novel coronavirus must be driving him crazy…or crazier. Jones and some of his surrogates have been saying that the coronavirus is much worse than expected by a factor of thousands in China and has also talked about this being a deliberate biological weapon created by the Chinese. He was banned last year from Facebook and the Apple store and was permanently banned from Twitter, mostly for spreading the theory that the 26 children killed in the Sandyhook shooting was a hoax.
It’s very easy to imagine him sitting in a bar somewhere drinking like crazy and thinking, I knew I was right about China. Nobody was hurt according to reports, but this sure does fit with his image.