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FX paramilitary
Foreign 'Visible Hand' of Market Exposed, Barred in Venezuela

A parallel and illegal exchange rate 'market' has been represented by a website identified as Dolar Today established in Florida that is overtly anti-Venezuelan government. The site has been publishing subjective rates drastically devaluing the real market value of the Venezuelan currency. What makes this market illegal is that it is totally unregulated and it is driven by websites and social media, not to mention by its political intent.

6-year siege

The centerpiece of the economic plan, however, has been the implementation of drastic monetary reform in order to stop the rampant inflation that was facilitated by a financial system dependent on the U.S. dollar as a reference currency. The reform slashed five zeros off the old currency and linked the new BsS to the crypto currency Petro [oppo PR], [diversified basket] in turn anchored to one of the largest of Venezuela's natural resources: oil.

demand creation

Venezuela is the second Latin American country to sign up for the project, bringing with it the world's largest oil reserves, following Uruguay earlier this year. A China-Venezuela economic partnership builds confidence in the Maduro administration's recent reforms.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Oct 10th, 2018 at 05:37:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]

under the radar (none / 0)

"General Motors appointed a former deputy director of intelligence at the Central Intelligence Agency, Jami Miscik, to its board on Wednesday." Another economic hit man, no? Not an Ivy League grad is likely a cover story.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Tue Oct 16th, 2018 at 11:25:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Economy &amp; Finance (none / 0)

Venezuela is one of the top 5 oil suppliers to the US. Too much independence will result in the US bringing them democracy.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Thu Oct 18th, 2018 at 04:41:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]

30-day expiry vs S&P rebound

U.S. Stocks Plunge Most Since February: Markets Wrap
-832 points, but "it's contained". EU and UK FX indices up, while Italian "bond gap" over-played. (Cue Krugman) Bloomberger "explainers" are going with inverse yield curve panic --implying the Fed's hike instead or 2020 POTUS candidates or Kavanaugh "catastrophe" broke the bull. market.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Oct 10th, 2018 at 08:36:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Economy &amp; Finance (none / 0)

[US, Asian, EU Indices, OIL] Sink in Turbulent Trading, [US] Treasuries [GBP, EUR, GOLD] Gain
"normal run-of-the-mill correction", asset re-allocation "accelerated rate of decline", pre-set HFT algo + "better than expected" Fed bond auction, rate hike, "no shortage of culprits to choose from". Martin McFly PhD, Fin 101: "when bonds go up, stocks go down."

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Thu Oct 11th, 2018 at 09:06:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Economy &amp;amp; Finance (none / 1)

DJIA -545, S&P -57, NASDAQ -92

US Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC)

Bitcoin Investment Trust hits a 52-week low for the first time since inception, now down 82% from its peak. $GBTC pic.twitter.com/DgOFGWhTut
— Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) October 11, 2018

illustrated

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Thu Oct 11th, 2018 at 09:29:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Damn. That was quick. (none / 0)

30-day expiry vs. S&P OFF THE LOW!

U.S. Stocks Leap as Global Relief Rally Kicks In

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 at 03:31:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]

European bank share returns (none / 0)

year to date

European bank returns in 2018...
RBS: -14%
Barclays: -17%
UBS: -19%
Santander: -23%
Credit Suisse: -23%
BBVA: -26%
ING: -29%
Deutsche Bank: -41% pic.twitter.com/SFKKBm2fgP
— Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) October 11, 2018

cause for celebration, right?

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Thu Oct 11th, 2018 at 09:21:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]

"trade war" bulletin
China trade surplus with US widens to record $34.1B
September 2018
U.S. Producer Prices Rebound, Wholesale Inventories Rise
September 2018

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 at 06:36:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

90% of major European banks already sanctioned for money laundering
That's encouraging!

archived Happy Vanuatu Day!
Tuesday, 5 December, the EU Council released a raft of documents

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Tue Oct 16th, 2018 at 12:37:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Economy & Finance (none / 1)

I regret nothing pic.twitter.com/OCo4NiOxho
— Unlearning Economics (@UnlearningEcon) October 3, 2018

by generic on Fri Oct 19th, 2018 at 02:18:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Trump (none / 0)

TRUMP

by Bjinse on Mon Oct 8th, 2018 at 07:39:16 PM EST

US politics (4.00 / 2)

Electoral-vote.com

We may be in the middle of a historic shift in the two-party system. Instead of a liberal party and a conservative party, we may soon have a women's party and a men's party. Politico has a long article on how a trend that has been in evidence for decades is accelerating: Women are leaving the GOP in droves. Donald Trump's habit of bragging about grabbing women by the pu**y started the more rapid movement, and the GOP's treatment of Christine Blasey Ford continued it. The big question Politico looked at is how permanent this shift might be.
[...]
Politico's conversations with Republican pollsters, strategists, and operatives, confirm that there is a significant problem here. In 1994, 42% of women identified as Republican. Now only 25% fully identify as Republican. Shifts like this matter. In 2014, white college-educated women supported Democrats for Congress by 2 points. Now they support Democrats by 22 points. If they are fired up and vote in 4 weeks, it could affect many races. Working-class women are still largely with Trump, though.

by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Tue Oct 9th, 2018 at 11:22:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]

I think both that article and the Politico article it is based on does some very selective reading.

Here is the Pew trends: http://www.people-press.org/2018/03/20/1-trends-in-party-affiliation-among-demographic-groups/2_2-14 /

Identifies fully as Republican:
1994, men 35%, women 31%
2017, men 28%, women 25%

Identifies or leans towards Republican:
1994, men 52%, women 42%
2017, men 48%, women 37%

So, the Republicans has lost support compared to 1994, among both men and women.

What has also happened is that the Democrats has gained support among women voters who used to lean neither way.

Also, both parties (but more R) has lost male voters from the "identifies fully" category to the "leans to" category. 34% of men identified as independent in 1994, and 42% now.

by fjallstrom on Tue Oct 9th, 2018 at 12:14:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Ultimately GOP support will die off. Literally. The only age group the GOP 'owns' is 65+.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 at 12:11:52 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: US politics (4.00 / 2)

The same words and thoughts of mine in 1960 when JFK got the majority of the youth voters. It didn't quite work out in that fashion.

Recently came across a film by Noam Chomsky from the 1960s - "Manufacturing Consent". Still as actual today than let's say 80 years ago. Not a level playing field with official propaganda pushing the masses continually into policy of war and upheaval. Sit out the ride and protect yourself and your loved ones.

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 at 02:20:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: US politics (4.00 / 4)

I've seen this being promised for decades, but it has yet to happen.

It's even worse in the UK. Some of the Tory Party's biggest contributors are actually dead, making donations in their wills from beyond the grave.

But generally, when there's a state apparatus of propaganda and misdirection, people vote how they're told to. In most "developed" countries that means anything resembling economic populism is strictly off the menu.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 at 08:23:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: US politics (4.00 / 2)

As Oui and TBG point out, the demographic argument is no clincher. The 65+ cohort do die out, but are replaced by new over 65s with the same set of prejudices. Young people want to change the world, old people have stuff to hang on to, and scare easy.

We may have been right back in the day: don't trust anyone over thirty.

I used to be afew. I'm still not many.

by john_evans (john(dot)evans(dot)et(at)gmail(dot)com) on Sat Oct 13th, 2018 at 08:05:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Will that be true in the future? The way things are going old people may not have so much stuff beyond their student debt.

by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Sat Oct 13th, 2018 at 10:45:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: US politics (4.00 / 2)

By that time democracy™ will belong to the past.

I used to be afew. I'm still not many.

by john_evans (john(dot)evans(dot)et(at)gmail(dot)com) on Sun Oct 14th, 2018 at 03:59:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I'm happy to lose Democracy™.

A bit of a shame about real democracy though.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sun Oct 14th, 2018 at 08:26:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]

At least you can't lose what you haven't got.

I used to be afew. I'm still not many.

by john_evans (john(dot)evans(dot)et(at)gmail(dot)com) on Mon Oct 15th, 2018 at 11:42:30 AM EST
[ Parent ]

With one twist: the new over 65s do include more and more Latinos, Asian and other minorities compared to the present wave of old geezers.

To maintain a white minority rule, more techniques must be used: partisan gerrymandering and massive voters disenfranchisement, preferably ethnic minorities.

by Bernard (bernard) on Sun Oct 14th, 2018 at 05:18:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]

The underlying dynamic of US elections is the percentage of white people who vote and the 25 and under crowd who don't. As the predominately white 65+ crowd croaks those votes are lost to the GOP and they aren't being replaced.

This is more-or-less what happened to the Dems when the New Deal generation died off.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Mon Oct 15th, 2018 at 10:32:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Soooo, it's the economy?

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Tue Oct 16th, 2018 at 12:39:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]

42% I, 29% D, 27% R.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Oct 10th, 2018 at 05:43:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Entire US fleet of F-35s grounded for engine inspections - News - Stripes

Which is why the increase in GOP voting enthusiasm is pretty much meaningless. The balance of power lies with the Independents.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Mon Oct 15th, 2018 at 10:34:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 0)

"We will keep screaming."

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Thu Oct 11th, 2018 at 11:13:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]

o. dear. (none / 0)

Hollywood Reporter rousted Paglia from her crypt in a huge, dark basement with enormous sofas and yards, and lots and lots of beer to wag a finger at the FIFTH WAVE.
The Rise of "Strangely Unsexy" Instagram Exhibitionism -- And Why It Hurts Women
"weaponizing a paternalistic Human Resources bureaucracy," child

archived
u R doin it rong

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 at 03:13:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: o. dear. (none / 0)

Dems struggle to mobilize Latino voters for midterms
"females ...and Latinos", "hoping to harness the outrage in the Hispanic community over Trump's immigration policies". Really?

archived
"women and minorities
outside Sen. Schumer's home in Brooklyn
Schumer arrived with a verbal "DACA fix"
Schumer had the "Gang of 8"
DREAMers Shout Down Nancy Pelosi

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 at 04:19:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: o. dear. (4.00 / 2)

Ocasio-Cortez seems to have figured out how to do it. Have they thought of asking her?

by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 at 04:45:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: o. dear. (none / 0)

Democrats main policy planks still ignore precariat workers generally.

It's all very well talking about growing the middle classes, but if most of your potential voters are in the precariat, then middle class policies don't mean shit. Women, coloured and latinos are more likely to be in the precariat than any other group, so it's no surprise they're not breaking through.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 at 05:07:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: o. dear. (none / 0)

Here is the scheme, and this is an artifact of median HH wealth and income.

"The problem with the 'women and minorities' statement or the 'ampersand problem'", or "females and Latinos," is that these attributes of any one voter are not mutually exclusive. But such false dichotomies present in partisan rhetoric, DNC rhetoric in particular, imply they are, that voters should ally themselves with the dominant grouping in their demographic venn-gram, ie white women opposed to white men, as if elites', "corporatist," political interests and priorities were identical to my own.

Missing is the notion that these 2 categories could intersect, as they do in the lives of racial/ethnic minority women.
Further compounding the issue is that the word minority is multidefinitional. Although it typically modifies race/ethnicity in the United States, minority also can reference populations such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people; people with physical and mental disabilities; or, depending on geographic context, White people. Thus, in addition to being vague, the term minority in conjunction with women obscures the existence of multiple intersecting categories as exemplified by, for instance, a low-income Latina lesbian with a physical disability.

But look here.

Nothing in the US Constitution requires me to choose between such attributes in order to demand and exercise civil rights. Any honest "textualist" will admit.

But as a practical matter, as a US citizen, if I have to choose, I'm going to prioritize the political interests and priorities of my whole group. That is the lesson of the 20th century movement toward reparation, restitution, and reconciliation. That is the lesson of daily perception: at 50 yds one sees "race"; at 15 yds one sees sex; but to know my "gender" or "sexual preference" and label on my collar, you are going to have to take me home.

That's a truism I learned back in the day by interviewing Gloria Naylor for a Yale feminist review, Aurora.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sat Oct 13th, 2018 at 12:11:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: o. dear. (none / 0)

"It is clear that Warren was viewed as a white woman by the hiring committees at every institution that employed her."

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Mon Oct 15th, 2018 at 03:14:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 1)

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military has grounded its fleet of F-35s following a recent crash in South Carolina to inspect the fighter jets' engine fuel tubes, the Pentagon announced Thursday.

by generic on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 at 11:36:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 0)

A trill ... toys for the military!

○ Is the F-35 a Trillion-Dollar Mistake? | Bloomberg |

U.S. Military outspending the rest of the world easily!

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 at 12:25:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 0)

An aircraft that costs $100 million is too expensive to risk anywhre it might be shot down.

Which kinda limits the operational effectivienesss of a military plane.

Even more than the UK's silly aircraft carriers (of which our politicians are so stupidly proud), the aircraft tsupposed to fly from them represent the absolutely best exmple of a modern white elephant it is possible to imagine

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 at 05:03:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (4.00 / 2)

Israel has used them in combat, but of course they're not paying for them. Anyway, it looks like there's a much higher risk of them crashing by themselves before anybody even has an opportunity to shoot at them.

by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 at 05:08:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 0)

And to think we had four of them circling the town for an air show last month.

by rifek on Tue Oct 23rd, 2018 at 11:34:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 0)

alrighty then.

Breitbart's "exclusive" access to an internal memo/monograph (watermarked, 4C, illustrated, 85pp) about Google censorship policy and cooperation with government has "entered the building" (4-day lag).

Seems to be the future of news. The new Breitbart google leak shows what they believe to be a need to censor people for their own good.
— Jeremy Lieberman (@LiebermanJeremy) October 12, 2018

backed by The Intercept cryptic reporting on "censorship planning" (Dragonfly) and distribution
Google CEO Tells Senators That Censored Chinese Search Engine Could Provide "Broad Benefits" that happens to coincide with another Faceboook accounts, pages purge, said to be co-ordinated with Twitter operations.

but China.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 at 11:08:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 0)

Leaked presentation shows Google's struggle to balance free speech, censorship, "The Good Censor"

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sat Oct 13th, 2018 at 10:31:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 0)

Hmm. LA Times still not ready to comply with EU data Policy. Links to them of limited use to us here.
I'll take a look from my VPN at home.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue
- Queen Elizabeth II}

by eurogreen on Mon Oct 15th, 2018 at 03:23:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 0)

None of the links I posted are to LA Times. I also don't post Chicago Trib links. And I don't read the Bal'more Sun anyhow. I warned eurotrib readers a while ago about tronc titles.

archived
shut out in NATO Total War Project (May, 2018)

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Mon Oct 15th, 2018 at 03:39:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 0)

Indeed you didn't. It was embedded in the tweet.

I was hoping to get a relatively honest "mainstream media" take on the question from them.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue
- Queen Elizabeth II}

by eurogreen on Mon Oct 15th, 2018 at 03:40:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (4.00 / 2)

China pioneered industrial-scale internet censorship. The "west" is playing catch-up.

The whole "fake news" beat-up can be seen from a number of angles; depending on the stakeholder :

"mainstream" media's attempt to stay relevant : shut down alternatives
governments afraid of being destabilised by the Russians / Breitbart / whoever, but even more afraid of setting up a censorship apparatus, would prefer to farm it out
Facebook/Twitter/Google would love to penetrate the Chinese market, but would have to show a track record of efficiency in censorship.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue
- Queen Elizabeth II}

by eurogreen on Mon Oct 15th, 2018 at 03:54:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 0)

just, no. How do you eliminate paywalls from "industrial-scale" internet censorship, not to mention mutually unintelligible languages?

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Mon Oct 15th, 2018 at 04:24:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 0)

I'm not talking about censorship as in eliminating information from the internets. I'm talking about the social media giants, who don't own the internet, but increasingly are the gatekeepers for most people's access to news. Like the TV networks used to be. But without the transparency : we don't get the same "new". Everyone's FB feed is tailored to optimise the company's revenue stream, which comes mostly from organisations which want to buy clicks or mind share.

Censorship of "fake news" is an alibi to distract from, and implicitly legitimate, that business model.

People will still be able to get information, from paywalled sites in particular (because information is not free) but they are a minority.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue
- Queen Elizabeth II}

by eurogreen on Mon Oct 22nd, 2018 at 03:55:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 0)

Facebook/Twitter/Google won't penetrate China since each of those is basically running there, just with the license numbers filed off and a direct line to the Chinese censor. And network effects are everything. Now, there probably are a lot of Chinese on Twitter and Facebook since every Chinese I ever met was using a VPN, but once you have enough cencorship to make the Chinese gov happy there is no reason to use those anymore. Doesn't mean that there isn't some suit with overly animated power points that detail their conquest of China...

by generic on Wed Oct 17th, 2018 at 07:00:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 0)

The situation here is pretty psychotic.
Yesterday Kanye West speaking tongues. Today Andrew Brunson.

American pastor Andrew Brunson, recently freed after nearly two years of detention in Turkey, has asked God for "supernatural wisdom" for President Donald Trump.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sat Oct 13th, 2018 at 08:45:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 1)

God's chosen ...

The White House later confirmed his arrival on U.S. soil.
Perkins says "they are thankful to be safely home in the USA."

Feel "safe" on U.S. soil is natural selection ...

A close friend just spend 14 days on holiday in New York City. The conversion with locals quite often was based on:

A: "Where are you from?"
F: "The Netherlands"
A: "Can't you take us with you?"

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Sun Oct 14th, 2018 at 04:32:06 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 1)

Descendants of Peter Stuyvesant?
That would be a reverse Mayflower (the Puritans reportedly left Amsterdam because they thought the Amsterdamers too tolerant).

by Bernard (bernard) on Sun Oct 14th, 2018 at 05:49:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

"too tolerant" (none / 1)

Well, that's saying something I'm uncertain whether complimentary or not about "New World" values.

Slavery in the North | New York
Caribbean | The Control and Treatment of Slaves
best practices by the five powers, 1655-1833

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Tue Oct 16th, 2018 at 12:55:28 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 1)

If the Lord, in his infinite wisdom, did choose to grant this prayer, and bestow upon the President a heaping of true wisdom ... I fear he would quickly lose his base.

by Zwackus on Tue Oct 16th, 2018 at 04:23:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 0)

He would not have to display that wisdom to them that obviously

by das monde on Tue Oct 16th, 2018 at 12:41:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 0)

ahhh yeah
Georgia County Sued Over Rejection of Absentee Ballots
1 of 159 counties, cockroach alert

archived
4. Nse Ufot must be new here.
rejected ballots
Stamps

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Oct 17th, 2018 at 08:00:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Trump (none / 0)

US announces intent to withdraw from international postal rate system
because US post and courier rates went up again Jan 2018?

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Oct 17th, 2018 at 08:26:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]

World (none / 0)

WORLD

by Bjinse on Mon Oct 8th, 2018 at 07:39:19 PM EST

Re: World (none / 0)

spare prose journals by Venezuelans
Fleeing home in time of peace
Luis Robayo tracks refugees, autumn of '18
Marco Teruggi and Julián Aguirre
4-day road trip into the frontier, summer of '18

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Oct 10th, 2018 at 04:59:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: World (none / 0)

Guatemalan Ex-VP Gets 15 Prison Years Over 'Magic Water' Case

According to [magistrate] Xitumul, Baldetti used her position as vice president to place convenient collaborators in budget planning and eventually hire the Israeli M. Tarcic Engineering LTD to clean the lake under a US$17.96 million contract.
"These were grotesque, expensive and unnecessary acts aimed to deceive the state of Guatemala," he said.
During a hearing in July, Baldetti accused Xitumul of being a misogynist.
"Because you hate, despite and underestimate me for being a woman. That means you have misogyny in the blood and I won't allow you to make me look like I am a person who wants to alter things," she said.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Oct 10th, 2018 at 05:51:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]

public property (none / 0)

Pope Francis compares abortion to hiring a hitman, 10 Oct
priest and bishops can absolve women of the sin of abortion if they repent. no news on sin of the sperm donor.
International Safe Abortion Day, 28 Sept
photo portfolio of agitation for legal abortion and sex education across South America

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Oct 10th, 2018 at 09:13:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]

WEF | Latin America is the world's most dangerous region. But there are signs it is turning a corner, 2016

Gender Equality Observatory, "femicide" or "feminicide" as distinct from homicide (2016). One of three headline datasets produced by the UN division ECLAC.

Rate (f:100K) appears to be the only metric by which to impute m:100K and compare ratios to total in order to evaluate "equality"[?!] of murder by sex or infer any differential motives for murder. Latin American "homicide" reporting by country is irregular to say the least.

Igarape Institute Homicide Monitor, infographics, datasets by nation, by vic gender (2015-2017) --"key source", UNDOC.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 at 12:30:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Here is an exceptional blotter item given that, roughly, 90% of perps committing violent crimes against "women" are well-known to the vic. In this case acquaintance of the victim and perpetrator was arranged by AI. Liability of Match.com turns on prior "knowledge" of the perp's criminal conduct. Plaintiff has been unable to instantiate that claim without discovery of proprietary data, and defense argues "no 'special relationship'" between Match.com and plaintiff --I'll call this the Dolly Levy standard of consideration.

Ninth Circuit Takes New Look at Duty to Warn in Match Gone Bad (appellate court).
Plaintiff argues:

"Match is in control of the information. Match is in a superior position to help other people make good conscious decisions and they are choosing to not do that."

If plaintiff were to prevail, the 9th would carve out Sec. 230 (not mentioned) and, say, FOSTA/SESTA application to Match.com ahh services (not mentioned) for a remedy that substantially alters Match.com business model, eg. UID-legal name verification by offender registries. Not that I have a problem with that; the need or demand for "dating sites" is a sad first-world solution.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 at 08:55:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: public property (none / 1)

Not that I have a problem with that; the need or demand for "dating sites" is a sad first-world solution.

Should have stuck with matchmakers or being married off to your cousin?

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 at 10:06:28 AM EST
[ Parent ]

robots are the future, man

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 at 10:17:58 AM EST
[ Parent ]

It is possible to design a dating site that is strictly superior to all forms of traditional dating, since you can have a much larger pool to go through for good matches, and people are comfortable telling computers levels of details about their actual preferences no matchmaker is ever going to get.

Problem is, the financial incentives point in shitty, shitty directions. The more effective a dating site is at getting people into high-functioning relationships, the less repeat custom it gets. So most of them are deliberately designed to suck.

In theory, the financial incentives align right for.. eh.. the government... People in good relationships, generally being better citizens. But while it might be good policy, any politicians suggesting that the state should run a dating service is going to die from pure embarrassment.

by Thomas on Tue Oct 16th, 2018 at 08:45:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]

"the state should run a dating service" like this. Very thorough. The kids will love it.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Tue Oct 16th, 2018 at 11:20:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

A dating site that actually worked - and acquired a reputation for actually working - would be a gold mine, and would be able to charge more or less what it wanted. There are plenty of people who would pay four or five figures for good odds of meeting a compatible and interested partner.

The usual milk-em-and-blik-em model of dating is for chump change. A lot of people means a lot of chump change, but it's still debatable if it's more profitable than providing a successful service.

It's interesting that the idea of government and the idea of this kind of service - which might be considered welfare, at a push - is automatically seen as distant.

It says a lot that our ideas and experiences of government automatically assume that it's not something a government would be good at.

In fact it probably implies that we assume governments are intrinsically intrusive, hostile, untrustworthy, and abusive - which is an interesting observation in itself.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Wed Oct 17th, 2018 at 01:15:15 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Dude, She's (Exactly 25 Percent) Out of Your League

The gap between declared interests and revealed preferences is such that any dating site soon turns into an exhibition of human delusions or vices.

- Almost no one messages users less desirable than they are.

Seeking Arangement could be most perfect available.

by das monde on Wed Oct 17th, 2018 at 08:25:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Meh, a linear ranking of desirability seems about as pseudo sciency as revealed preferences themselves.

by generic on Thu Oct 18th, 2018 at 08:37:15 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Measuring revealed preference is not science? Then differential reproduction is not for scientists.

by das monde on Thu Oct 18th, 2018 at 05:03:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]

White people prefer white people on dating apps - but that could be changed, study says

Bleh, I'd say the concept of revealed preferences is the pretense that what people do is also the answer to why people do it(The actually hard question here).

by generic on Fri Oct 19th, 2018 at 12:52:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]

new dating world (none / 1)

Dating applications can allow users to fall into their own racial biases while searching for a partner, a new study says.
But in their study, researchers from schools like Cornell University say the "sexual racism" that plagues apps like Grindr, Tinder and Bumble can be stamped out with a few simple changes. The end goal, the study says, is to promote more diverse pairings on the dating sites.
[...] white people are ten times more likely to receive a message from a black person on a dating app than they are to message the black user themselves. That suggests a hierarchy of attention on racial lines.

Seeking only white people by a non-white person --- is that a racial bias?

by das monde on Fri Oct 19th, 2018 at 10:31:55 AM EST
[ Parent ]

nature trap (none / 0)

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Mon Oct 22nd, 2018 at 10:27:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Concern as domestic violence deaths on the rise in diaspora

This incident and many others that seem to have escalated in the recent past involving the Kenyan Diaspora have left many wondering what exactly is going on within the community that is usually reluctant to discuss issues of domestic violence openly.
[...]
"Apart from the normal stresses of raising a family in a place like the US where laws tend to favour women, children and animals at the expense of men, money is always an issue, especially if the couple does not sit down and establish some ground rules," Dr Nepe Kwretu of Philadelphia said.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sun Oct 14th, 2018 at 03:47:46 AM EST
[ Parent ]

ebola marketing UPDATE (none / 0)

["]Battles["] over safe Ebola burials complicate work in Congo
"one of 95 deaths among 170 confirmed cases so far", hint of vaccinations delivered

archive
probable, confirmed case mortality in the field, Sep 2018

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sat Oct 13th, 2018 at 08:33:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Liberty Medal (4.00 / 3)

Liberty Medal

The National Constitution Center announced it will award the annual Liberty Medal to President George W. Bush and former first lady Mrs. Laura Bush for their commitment to veterans.

I had assumed that it was for commitment to helping, not creating, veterans. I guess I was naive. Biden will be presenting the medal. I wonder if he understands this.

by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Tue Oct 16th, 2018 at 07:51:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Liberty Medal (none / 0)

Can't help veterans if there aren't any.

by generic on Tue Oct 16th, 2018 at 11:41:14 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: World (none / 1)

To get their independence, France forced these 14 African into a treaty where they must put: 65% of their foreign currency reserves into the French Treasury and another 20% to "repay" France debts. pic.twitter.com/W0vZ9nfXJd
— Historic.ly (@historic_ly) 4. Juli 2018

by generic on Wed Oct 17th, 2018 at 02:44:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Living Off the Planet (none / 0)

LIVING OFF THE PLANET
Environment, Energy, Agriculture, Food

by Bjinse on Mon Oct 8th, 2018 at 07:40:00 PM EST

Re: Living Off the Planet (none / 0)

natural disasters of biblical proportions

Health fears turn from injury to disease as Indonesia quake deaths rises above 2,000
70K homeless, mass graves, diarrhea, flu, skin disease following earthquake and tsunami 28 Sept
Pestilence Arrives in North Carolina
"giant" mosquitoes, Psorophora ciliata ("gallinippers"), breeding in flooding by Hurricane Florence since 14 Sept swarm live stock, pets, wild life
Storm Callum Rushing to 13 Counties
"the tail-end of Hurricane Leslie" bringing 130km/hr gusts, surges and unseasonably warm weather expected
Hurricane Michael falls short of a Category 5
historic land fall, brutal, 155 mph wind, surges 15-20 ft heading cross country to VA
Haiti says 17 killed in 5.9 quake, more than 2,280 homes damaged
168 destroyed, 333 injured, after shocks, and prison riot

Steve Pinker silently mulls violence datasets

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Oct 10th, 2018 at 09:55:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living Off the Planet (none / 0)

Flash Floods Kill at Least 13 People in Southwest France
"Worst hit was the town of Trebes, east of the medieval walled city of Carcassonne."
Deadly floods hit southwest France
"Local authorities in the Aude department said 11 people were killed, a second reduction in the official toll which had earlier stood at 13, a figure given by the interior ministry", map
Several dead as flash floods hit southwest France
President Emmanuel Macron's office said he would visit the affected areas "as soon as possible"

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Mon Oct 15th, 2018 at 11:31:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Living On the Planet (none / 0)

LIVING ON THE PLANET
Society, Culture, History, Information

by Bjinse on Mon Oct 8th, 2018 at 07:40:02 PM EST

'Bioethics,' Bio-Statisticians Link 60% of US Americans to Crimes
"The researchers started with the 1.28 million participants on the MyHeritage site at the time they did the work. Most had a northern European genetic background."

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Thu Oct 11th, 2018 at 08:28:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]

The situation here is pretty psychotic.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sat Oct 13th, 2018 at 12:34:52 AM EST
[ Parent ]

`Facebook Purge': List of Some Deleted Accounts on Left & Right
"co-ordinated inauthentic behavior" ie. never question Facebook's or Twitter's business model

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sat Oct 13th, 2018 at 05:34:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

First kids' TV show about sexual harassment being made: Italian broadcaster

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sat Oct 13th, 2018 at 08:54:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Ultimate happiness in top sport ...

Na afloop van de prachtige 3-2 zege van de @volleybaldames op de Verenigde Staten geeft bondscoach Jamie Morrison zijn reactie aan @ZiggoSport (_link)
— Volleybal (@volleybalnl) October 15, 2018

Big congrats and big respect to @Volleybaldames ! What a team! what a fighting spirit always ! And what a match @lonsloet !!! Congrats to @J_Morrison000 and all staff and all team !!!
— Giovanni Guidetti (@Gio1315) October 15, 2018

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Mon Oct 15th, 2018 at 07:43:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Sen. Warren: DNA test shows I have Native American heritage

If Warren's ancestor were six generations removed, she would be 1/64th Native American. But if her ancestor had been as much as 10 generations removed, that would make the individual a great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparent and render Warren only 1/1,024th Native American, according to Blaine Bettinger, a genealogist and author who specializes in DNA evidence.

yeah. no.
Cherokee Nation responds to Senator Warren's DNA test
What have you done for us lately?

archived
MeToo: A DNA test said a man was 4% black.
Bette Midler apologizes for controversial 'women, are the niggers of the world' tweet
at least 425 prominent people across industries have been publicly accused
'Bioethics,' Bio-Statisticians Link 60% of US Americans to Crimes

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Mon Oct 15th, 2018 at 11:45:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living On the Planet (none / 1)

As I remember, Warren never really made a thing of her heritage except that she mentioned she had a native ancestor.

It was Trump's racism that made it a thing. She's ignored all his childish jibes until he offered her $1 million to prove it, which she duly has done.

Now, as always, Trump will renege on the deal.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Tue Oct 16th, 2018 at 01:13:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

elizabeth warren: i have released a dna test proving my native american heritage

guy who believes in pizzagate: ah sorry, we were wrong
— raandy (@randygdub) 15. Oktober 2018

by generic on Tue Oct 16th, 2018 at 02:07:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living On the Planet (none / 1)

Though on reflection that is still a pretty dumb move by Warren. You can't prove membership of a minority group by DNA test in any sense that matters. Don't double down on dumb positions.

by generic on Tue Oct 16th, 2018 at 07:44:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]

In 2012, Scott Brown, the former GOP senator Warren unseated and current ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, used Warren's self-proclaimed Native American heritage to question her integrity.

um no. Her timing was conspicuously self-serving. 2012 campaign for senate was the first time I heard about it. It was memorable, because she obviously wanted publicity to bounce Brown. Her election was not certain.

Tell you what. If she'd spent any time leading an Occupy rally, burnishing her mad champion skillz, she wouldn't be on the back foot today.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Oct 17th, 2018 at 03:34:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]

moar DNC primary shennigans
"I will stand my ground." Srsly? Stand my ground? In 2012?!
That is some tin ear.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Oct 17th, 2018 at 03:43:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Rain In Doha, Qatar

Solving an unusual problem, how to get to the car keeping feet dry?

The barefoot, unclothed bedouins at it again.#أمطار_قطر pic.twitter.com/aHSB067QVq
— Leem | (@leemlimetree) October 21, 2018

○ A year's Rainfall In one Day

Total precipitation Doha, Qatar for average calendar year: 75mm

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Sun Oct 21st, 2018 at 08:04:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Ryanair's punishment for racist passenger who called an elderly black woman a `stupid, ugly cow': more legroom

On a flight set to take off for London from Barcelona, an older white guy was filmed by a nearby passenger ranting against an elderly black woman, calling her a "stupid, ugly cow" and an "ugly black bastard."
He demanded she leave his row or he would physically remove her, and he also told her not to speak to him in a foreign language, even though she wasn't.
[...]
What did Ryanair ultimately do? Nothing. Except move the lady to another seat and allow the codger to fly to his destination and luxuriate in row all to himself. This, even as other passengers urged the crew to remove him from the flight.
One passenger said that, "after the black woman was verbally assaulted, dehumanized, moved... the flight attendant took it a step further and went back to console the abuser." His response was basically: I'm fine now that she's gone.

by Bernard (bernard) on Mon Oct 22nd, 2018 at 04:16:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

In defence of the cabin crew, RyanAir are not exactly the most progressive and empowering of employers.
In the absence of an actual stated policy on the subject, they were probably in fear of their employment if they showed any initiative in doing anything to the racist passenger

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Mon Oct 22nd, 2018 at 08:02:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Ryanair to charge extra to not sit next to a racist

Sadly, you're probably right.

by Bernard (bernard) on Mon Oct 22nd, 2018 at 09:54:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living On the Planet (4.00 / 2)

Budget airline Ryanair has announced an exciting new option for passengers who don't want to sit next to an angry racist for the duration of their journey.
For just £25 Ryanair will ensure you are sat next to someone who has been certified `non-bigot', and almost guaranteed not to abuse you for the colour of your skin for the entire flight.

by das monde on Fri Oct 26th, 2018 at 09:19:11 AM EST
[ Parent ]

On This Date (none / 0)

ON THIS DATE

by Bjinse on Mon Oct 8th, 2018 at 07:40:05 PM EST

I saw the future of "the internet".

Comcast (sole ISP for Baltimore city) has an "service outage." Zero transmission to residential customers, AFAIK, for one hour. This also eliminated mobile WiFi.

Partial service restored at time stamp.
IE. connections to some URLs resolved
HOWEVER, restoration of URLs' dependencies to third-party CDNs ("component" script or "web app" page builds) is incomplete. Browsers cannot source code to "compile" client-side display.

WASS.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Thu Oct 18th, 2018 at 05:35:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]

24 hours later this innerboob surfer is back up to speed. --- Three calls of CRM inquiry to the ISP let slip a physical network repair problem (opposed to "throttling" scheme) was with "a (IXP) node". Not a last-mile issue.

Potential US "national security" LIST, y'all.

Sumbuddies need to re-think distributed ops with emphasis on real redundancy at PoS ... because trying to download today's modern "web apps" at 56kb is just not cool.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Oct 19th, 2018 at 05:59:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

○ Clinton Is No Democrat - Dallas Morning News
○ Google planned to help Syrian rebels bring down Assad regime, leaked Hillary Clinton emails claim

All of which leaves me to wonder more how color revolutionaries in the middle east managed, under fire, to regularly upload posts to US "social media."

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Oct 19th, 2018 at 06:03:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

C'mon Cat ... (none / 1)

The regime change offerings by the US Government with Pentagon leadership had full support of the California BIG tech companies. We're fighting TERROR ever since the 9/11 attacks ... don't you know??

Well known are the AT&T taps by the US Government plus the consortium of Five Eyes on global intelligence without borders. Five Eyes has expanded to Nine Eyes and more ... Israel's Unit 8200 and Mossad are fully equipped with raw data from the NSA and GCHQ. Furthermore there has been an active cyber warfare as part of US and NATO intelligence gathering.

I checked the blog archives here at ET and across the pond at BT ... nothing shows in a search for Google's "defection tracker" except my one diary in July 2016. I've written more diaries about colour revolutions and digital information warfare at the start of the so-called Arab Uprising. The Gulf States have weaponized social media to suppress dissent with support from US tech companies.

This is just a small part ...

Internet stayed available for the rebels in Syria thanks to tech support from Western nations and companies.

Recent "discovery" in The Netherlands for similar "non-lethal" support to murderous jihadist factions in Syria.

○ Dutch government faces legal trouble after aiding terrorists

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Fri Oct 19th, 2018 at 08:05:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]