sell! sell! sell!

[tiznow]

Looking pretty good these days as far as it finally reaching an end to the latest fed fueled bubble.. the everything bubble... stock market machinations like watching paint dry compared to crypto market eek lmao..

they have their perfect fall guy trump and his tariffs lol

as the one party system elites concentrate more power distract the Facebook/mass media loving morons into divide and conquer scheme.. and the once strong american middle class gets eradicated..

mexico north here we come!

most people will be too blind to see it till it’s too late

 

[eek.]

Donald Trump, hero of the anti-establishment Ron Paul movement

 

[tiznow]

Donald Trump, hero of the anti-establishment Ron Paul movement

Lol yeah it’s pretty sad what happened in the end

ron started it and ultimately it got co opted by trump.. who is the complete opposite of Ron on pretty much every important issue such as finances and foreign policy..

now we are left with a complete nonsense circus and ron’s son as the only one with any sense in congress

rand currently sifting through the 2200 page budget monstrosity.. tweetimg comments along the way.. that “conservatives” will pass.. he’s the only one that will bother to say anything.. as the slow motion fiscal train wreck continues

in the end probably not much can be done

just human nature and eventually empires get to big and rot from within..

historians will look back and conclude 9/11 was the event where things changed and we completely lost our minds.. from than on it’s been complete fiscal insanity.. and wasting sooo much money and resources on stupid stuff abroad..

 

[tiznow]

Donald Trump, hero of the anti-establishment Ron Paul movement

Also on a personal level they are polar opposites

veteran Christian conservative family man

vs

Draft dodging billionaire playboy adulter .. stormy Daniels interview comes Sunday..

just shows u how far gone the “conservative” party is..

and why we as a nation are screwed.. one party system of liberalism run uninhibited...

 

[tiznow]

.@RandPaul on omnibus bill: "This is why people are so upset with politics, because when the Republicans are out of power, when they're in the minority, they are the conservative party. But then when they get in the majority, there is no conservative party."

 

[tiznow]

Everything bubble slowly losing its mojo.. crypto top was the signal of the end eekster..

facebook recent news about user data privacy that was a blatant problem for a while.. hopefully blockchain fixes this/disrupts the google/Facebook monopoly during the next boom phase..

tesla starting to crater

as ive been saying bubbles obvious the tough part is the timing..

 

[tiznow]

Gold/silver finally starting to move opposite markets..

at these turning points takes a while for the trends to change.. gold/silver cyclical bear last 4-5 years should end here soon.. as it continues on with the secular bull that began in 2000 when the western economies decided to lose their minds and go towards fiscal insanity with no signs of stopping currently..

 

[tiznow]

[h=1]Facebook and the Awakening of Our Private Selves[/h] I wrote about Facebook in a blog in January, pointing to ominous clouds on the horizon. (And, one looking at the future of Facebook and the world in 2011.)

For an update. Those clouds now are overhead. With the ever-growing realization that Facebook has been a channel for manipulating our life-as-we-know-it (literally so), there is the drumbeat of #deletefacebook (which I joined last week). And with this are articles showing how difficult it actually can be, which bring to the fore just how deeply Facebook has plunged itself into our being.

There are how-to guides to find alternative to Facebook. There is the recounting of the times Zuckerberg has skirted over the line on privacy, each followed by the ritualistic apology. And there is Colbert's acerbic humor on "Suckerberg", which includes screen shots showing the mind-blowing amount of information Facebook holds on various staff members of his show -- including call's made from one staffer's cellphone, the family tree of another, and the data for the face-recognition of a third.

Many people will leave Facebook and use alternatives. Some will discover they can leave without using social network alternatives at all. People who stay with Facebook will opt out of everything they can think of, especially related to sharing their personal information with advertisers and apps. (As part of the mea culpa this time around, Facebook is centralizing the privacy settings so you don't have to navigate through twenty different places to do the job.) People will log into apps using their email addresses rather than Facebook, thwarting the insidious tunneling by Facebook beyond its own borders.

Whether people leave or decide to stay with tighter privacy controls, the targeted advertising and third-party sharing that is the life blood of Facebook will be eroded.

Beyond these short-term, but possibly devastating reactions that are focused on Facebook, it is becoming all the more likely that we are at the beginning of a broad sea change in how we view social networking and in our willingness to give up privacy for a song. Jaron Lanier pointed out the faustian bargain we have made with Facebook, Google (which at least gives us something of value in the search engine) and the like, and proposed a path for us to be enfranchised for the personal data we toss into the world.

There is an alternative to the business model of mining personal data, which is having Facebook and others move to a subscription model. But this will not sustain the valuations Facebook currently enjoys. People are not likely to pay out of pocket anywhere near the value that is implied by giving the world all of their personal data. Which suggests just how much we all are giving away.

 

[tiznow]

[h=1]The real threat to Facebook is the Kool-Aid turning sour[/h]3 days ago

These kinds of leaks didn’t happen when I started reporting on Facebook eight years ago. It was a tight-knit cult convinced of its mission to connect everyone, but with the discipline of a military unit where everyone knew loose lips sink ships. Motivational posters with bold corporate slogans dotted its offices, rallying the troops. Employees were happy to be evangelists.
But then came the fake news, News Feed addiction, violence on Facebook Live, cyberbullying, abusive ad targeting, election interference and, most recently, the Cambridge Analytica app data privacy scandals. All the while, Facebook either willfully believed the worst case scenarios could never come true, was naive to their existence or calculated the benefits and growth outweighed the risks. And when finally confronted, Facebook often dragged its feet before admitting the extent of the issues.
Inside the social network’s offices, the bonds began to fray. An ethics problem metastisized into a morale problem. Slogans took on sinister second meanings. The Kool-Aid tasted different.

Some hoped they could right the ship but couldn’t. Some craved the influence and intellectual thrill of running one of humanity’s most popular inventions, but now question if that influence and their work is positive. Others surely just wanted to collect salaries, stock and resumé highlights, but lost the stomach for it.
Now the convergence of scandals has come to a head in the form of constant leaks.
[h=2]The trouble tipping point[/h]The more benign leaks merely cost Facebook a bit of competitive advantage. We’ve learned it’s building a smart speaker, a standalone VR headset and a Houseparty split-screen video chat clone.
Yet policy-focused leaks have exacerbated the backlash against Facebook, putting more pressure on the conscience of employees. As blame fell to Facebook for Trump’s election, word ofFacebook prototyping a censorship toolfor operating in China escaped, triggering questions about its respect for human rights and free speech. Facebook’s content rulebook got out alongside disturbing tales of the filth the company’s contracted moderators have to sift through. Its ad targeting was revealed to be able to pinpoint emotionally vulnerable teens.
In recent weeks, the leaks have accelerated to a maddening pace in the wake of Facebook’s soggy apologies regarding the Cambridge Analytica debacle. Its weak policy enforcement left the door open to exploitation of data users gave third-party apps, deepening the perception that Facebook doesn’t care about privacy.

Image courtesy of Buzzfeed

And it all culminated with BuzzFeed publishing a leaked “growth at all costs” internal post from Facebook VP Andrew “Boz” Bosworth that substantiated people’s worst fears about the company’s disregard for user safety in pursuit of world domination. Even the ensuing internal discussion about the damage caused by leaks and how to prevent them…leaked.
But the leaks are not the disease, just the symptom. Sunken morale is the cause, and it’s dragging down the company. Former Facebook employee and Wired writer Antonio Garcia Martinez sums it up, saying this kind of vindictive, intentionally destructive leak fills Facebook’s leadership with “horror”:

And that sentiment was confirmed by Facebook’s VP of News Feed Adam Mosseri, who tweeted that leaks “create strong incentives to be less transparent internally and they certainly slow us down,” and will make it tougher to deal with the big problems.

Those thoughts weigh heavy on Facebook’s team. A source close to several Facebook executives tells us they feel “embarrassed to work there” and are increasingly open to other job opportunities. One current employee told us to assume anything certain execs tell the media is “100% false.”
If Facebook can’t internally discuss the problems it faces without being exposed, how can it solve them?
[h=2]Implosion[/h]The consequences of Facebook’s failures are typically pegged as external hazards.
You might assume the government will finally step in and regulate Facebook. But the Honest Ads Act and other rules about ads transparency and data privacy could end up protecting Facebook by being simply a paperwork speed bump for it while making it tough for competitors to build a rival database of personal info. In our corporation-loving society, it seems unlikely that the administration would go so far as to split up Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — one of the few feasible ways to limit the company’s power.

Users have watched Facebook make misstep after misstep over the years, but can’t help but stay glued to its feed. Even those who don’t scroll rely on it as a fundamental utility for messaging and login on other sites. Privacy and transparency are too abstract for most people to care about. Hence, first-time Facebook downloads held steady and its App Store rank actually rose in the week after the Cambridge Analytica fiasco broke. In regards to the #DeleteFacebook movement, Mark Zuckerberg himself said “I don’t think we’ve seen a meaningful number of people act on that.” And as long as they’re browsing, advertisers will keep paying Facebook to reach them.
That’s why the greatest threat of the scandal convergence comes from inside. The leaks are the canary in the noxious blue coal mine.
[h=2]Can Facebook survive slowing down?[/h]If employees wake up each day unsure whether Facebook’s mission is actually harming the world, they won’t stay. Facebook doesn’t have the same internal work culture problems as some giants like Uber. But there are plenty of other tech companies with less questionable impacts. Some are still private and offer the chance to win big on an IPO or acquisition. At the very least, those in the Bay could find somewhere to work without a spending hours a day on the traffic-snarled 101 freeway.
If they do stay, they won’t work as hard. It’s tough to build if you think you’re building a weapon. Especially if you thought you were going to be making helpful tools. The melancholy and malaise set in. People go into rest-and-vest mode, living out their days at Facebook as a sentence not an opportunity. The next killer product Facebook needs a year or two from now might never coalesce.
And if they do work hard, a culture of anxiety and paralysis will work against them. No one wants to code with their hands tied, and some would prefer a less scrutinized environment. Every decision will require endless philosophizing and risk-reduction. Product changes will be reduced to the lowest common denominator, designed not to offend or appear too tyrannical.
Source: Volkan Furuncu/Anadolu Agency + David Ramos/Getty Images

In fact, that’s partly how Facebook got into this whole mess. A leak by an anonymous former contractor led Gizmodo to report Facebook wassuppressing conservative news in its Trending section. Terrified of appearing liberally biased, Facebook reportedly hesitated to take decisive action against fake news. That hands-off approach led to the post-election criticism that degraded morale and pushed the growing snowball of leaks down the mountain.
It’s still rolling.
How to stop morale’s downward momentum will be one of Facebook’s greatest tests of leadership. This isn’t a bug to be squashed. It can’t just roll back a feature update. And an apology won’t suffice. It will have to expel or reeducate the leakers and those disloyal without instilling a witch hunt’s sense of dread. Compensation may have to jump upwards to keep talent aboard like Twitter didwhen it was floundering. Its top brass will need to show candor and accountability without fueling more indiscretion. And it may need to make a shocking, landmark act of contrition to convince employees its capable of change.
When asked how Facebook could address the morale problem, Mosseri told me “it starts with owning our mistakes and being very clear about what we’re doing now” and noted that “it took a while to get into this place and I think it’ll take a while to work our way out . . . Trust is lost quickly, and takes a long time to rebuild.”

This isn’t about whether Facebook will disappear tomorrow, but whether it will remain unconquerable for the forseeable future.
Growth has been the driving mantra for Facebook since its inception. No matter how employees are evaluated, it’s still the underlying ethos. Facebook has poised itself as a mission-driven company. The implication was always that connecting people is good so connecting more people is better. The only question was how to grow faster.
Now Zuckerberg will have to figure out how to get Facebook to cautiously foresee the consequences of what it says and does while remaining an appealing place to work. “Move slow and think things through” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
If you’re a Facebook employee or anyone else that has information to share with TechCrunch, you can contact us at Tips@techcrunch.com or this article’s author Josh Constine’s DMs are open on Twitter. Here are some of our feature stories on Facebook’s recent issues:

 

[PatsFan1283]

Everything bubble slowly losing its mojo.. crypto top was the signal of the end eekster..

facebook recent news about user data privacy that was a blatant problem for a while.. hopefully blockchain fixes this/disrupts the google/Facebook monopoly during the next boom phase..

tesla starting to crater

as ive been saying bubbles obvious the tough part is the timing..

Are you watching Silicon Valley last season/this season? Richard trying to build the decentralized internet and Hooli (Google spoof) trying to stop it.

Very timely.

 

[tiznow]

Are you watching Silicon Valley last season/this season? Richard trying to build the decentralized internet and Hooli (Google spoof) trying to stop it.

Very timely.

yeah mike judge is great and a very sharp guy..

beavis and butthead
king of the hill
office space
idiocracy

——————-

china punches back in tariffs.. as history has shown trade wars good for pretty much nobody

futures down over 2%

 

[tiznow]

Are you watching Silicon Valley last season/this season? Richard trying to build the decentralized internet and Hooli (Google spoof) trying to stop it.

Very timely.

The sunshine and unicorns bubble days for crypto/blockchain have passed

now they need to figure out how to build something of true value.. while many of the shitcoins with no future become worthless..


[h=1]Vitalik: Ethereum App Builders Are Being 'Screwed' By Scaling Limits[/h]Wolfie Zhao
4 hours ago

It wasn't the talk he was supposed to give.
At the Deconomy conference in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday, ethereumcreator Vitalik Buterin scrapped a plan to discuss his 12-month vision for the world's second-largest blockchain, opting for a more general discussion on blockchain and its potential.
That said, the discussion with fellow ethereum research scientists nonetheless gave a window into how the 24-year-old founder believes the platform needs to change in order to accommodate the growing levels of interest from developers.
Most notable were Buterin's frank words about ethereum and the low number of transactions it can process currently, a barrier that has been made apparent by the creation last year of the platform's first widely popular applications.
As profiled by CoinDesk, the ethereum network has been increasingly bumping up against its network capacity limit in the aftermath. As such, Buterin told attendees that anyone seeking to build a "decentralized Uber" or similar application today would likely be frustrated.

​

While the ridesharing giant sees 12 rides a second, ethereum processes just 15 transactions per second, according to his estimates.
Buterin remarked:

"If you want to build a decentralized Uber and Lyft on top of an unscalable ethereum, you are screwed. Full stop."
​

That said, Buterin's talk also focused on possible scaling solutions, including sharding, a proposal that would split up ethereum's blockchain, recording parts of its data store separately.
Still, while he didn't disclose a possible timeline for rolling out the solution, Buterin said he sees the barriers as more social and cultural, owing to the complexities of blockchains today.

​

"You try to read any Wikipedia article about any math topic, it's just bunch of incomprehensible formula of mumble jumble," Buterin said.
Echoing that, ethereum research scientist Karl Floresch called for a wider community participation as the best solution to scaling challenges, concluding:

"One of the greatest barriers to this space's growth in a more productive way is the dissemination of the information that will allow people to evaluate and validate these protocols themselves."
​

Buterin image via CoinDesk archives

 

[eek.]

You're not going to predict the future here amigo, all you can do is predict a trend

Blockchains are unique in human history, this is the only post you will see that says this

If you are a manager at Ford, and they suck in your opinion, you can leave and.... make your own car company... uuh

With blockchains you can generate a Hard Fork

With a hard fork you get all the previous assets, and you go off in a different direction
The blockchain is public and the wallet is open source

So you take the ENTIRE COMPANY in a different direction

This is the first time in human history that this has been possible

The possibilities are quite simply, and literally, unimaginable

 

[eek.]

I am actually pretty fucking disappointed that this hasn't really been made clear by our MSM

 

[eek.]

And as far as stock market armageddon is concerned...

"sell in May and go away"

The rich are off on holiday until August

 

[tiznow]

You're not going to predict the future here amigo, all you can do is predict a trend

Blockchains are unique in human history, this is the only post you will see that says this

If you are a manager at Ford, and they suck in your opinion, you can leave and.... make your own car company... uuh

With blockchains you can generate a Hard Fork

With a hard fork you get all the previous assets, and you go off in a different direction
The blockchain is public and the wallet is open source

So you take the ENTIRE COMPANY in a different direction

This is the first time in human history that this has been possible

The possibilities are quite simply, and literally, unimaginable

most of the forks just money grabs..

in the end what matters is the devs behind the project..

most people working on ethereum by far currently so they the front runners to be the big winner looking out 10+ years.. plus their “leader” isn’t a money grabber/bubble hyper like many in his space .. he’s in it for the long haul and wants to find a way to end the centralization of data many are waking up today about with stuff coming out at Facebook...

———-

as for the monetary aspect.. I like litecoin the most looking out 10+ years currently.. Charlie it’s “leader” seems like a really good guy as well and not in it for the money (sold all his litecoin).. but rather more interested in seeing his “baby” succeed and is passionate about making the idea of decentralized uncensorable money succeed..

————-

it will be interesting to see blockchain evolve over the coming decades.. but the bubble days look to be behind us.. now these projects got their seed money... time to see which ones actually create something of value.. vs just bubble stories and hype..

 

[tiznow]

Good day for BTG patsfan.. great report their new big mine is exceeding expectations.. continues to consolidate in its multi year triangle.. maybe ready to break out soon.. same for gold continues to coil up on the long term chart..still awaiting that next big push up.. after consolidation from the 1900 high after running from 200s in early 2000 when we started down the path of fiscal insanity... don’t see how gold wont eventually starting breaking higher strongly as global fiscal insanity still reigns supreme.. and once again with the latest bubble lots of debt out there that is simply unsustainable

 

[tiznow]

Well so much for that should know better by now every time gold looks poised to breakout last 5 years it gets smacked back lol..

crypto perking up a bit eekster.. don’t see much vol though.. trading volumes now are nothing compared to what it was during the big run up..

 

[eek.]

An interesting one just been updated a week or so ago VOTe coin

Are the kiddies using it to further democracy and freedom and bettering humanity?

Na, their first use was as a gambling wallet, you can set yourself up as a bookie apparently

Might be the birth of one of the first open anonymous digital contracts systems here

 

[eek.]

A billionaire venture capitalist's bid to split California into three separate states has earned a spot on the ballot in November's mid-term elections.
If Tim Draper's Cal-3 initiative gets a majority vote, it would trigger a long process to split California into northern, southern and central states.
Mr Draper had campaigned unsuccessfully for six years, initially with a plan to divide the state into six new regions.
It is the first time in 150 years that this choice is on the state's ballot.
Should the proposal become a reality, it would be the first division of a state since West Virginia split off from Virginia in 1863.
According to a memo filed on Tuesday by California's Secretary of State, Mr Draper collected more than 402,468 signatures across the state's counties for the proposal.
Cal-3 aims to break California into three new states: Northern California, Southern California and California.

• 'Russian trolls' promoted California independence
• A man with a plan for six Californias

The new California state would centre around Los Angeles up to Monterey County.
Northern California would include the Bay Area and Sacramento.
Southern California would stretch from San Diego to Fresno.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-44471277