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Under CISPA, Internet corporations are authorized to hand over the private information of American citizens to federal agents, as long as they can justify the violation of your privacy in the name of protecting "cyber security." Among the items that may be shared are your e-mails, browsing history, and online transactions.
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So why do the corporations have this recorded and available to begin with? I'm not concerned with them sharing the personal and financial records of my online behavior with the government because government is too big an clumsy to care or effectively infringe on my privacy----I mean REALLY intrude on me with THIS information.
It's really the media, advertising, insurance, banking, retail, entertainment, utility industries that feel the need to collect all this data so that they can exploit whatever economic opportunities can arise from SELLING this information------basically to each other.
My point here is in order to do.......ANYTHING, anywhere at any time in our economy we sign away these "rights to privacy" for our convenience and the corporations efficiency. They send us "PRIVACY STATEMENTS" that are bassackwards ways of telling us that they OWN EVERYTHING about us......and then some transparent BS about how they are restricted and respect our specific rights. You know, the rights they allowed your Democrats and Republicans to pretend to protect in the bogus, backward legislation that gave away all our rights in exchange for a privacy statement.
So I really don't worry about what the State of California, Uncle Sam the FBI, CIA and NSA will do with information that is ALREADY EVERYWHERE available to ALL the corporations and essentially ANY private interests they want to sell that information to. .............n'est pa?
Of course I may be wrong about all this. Those of you who read through each and every document in total before signing, or click---I AGREE--- to all the pop-up windows you have to deal with please correct me if I missed something by casually skipping over that.
"There is an old adage, you check your brain at the door, and just follow the script that has been given to you for that day. Wal-Mart will wake up, but it dosen't matter, when a company only focuses on profit, it forgets what it was in business for in the first place."
Americans are voting with their wallets zab and THEY are the driving force behind the cut throat culture at Walmart and any other corporation that lives and breathes only because customers continue to patronize their establishment. I say Walmart is not the driving force to lower prices and therefore lower wages and working conditions in America. They are the obvious and necessary response to the consumers demand for..........something for next to nothing.
70% off
buy one get one free
free installation
no extra charge
Who drives the bottom line?
We can degrade the culture of Walmart but they're PROOF to me that the customer is always right..........and they get what they deserve.
here's a common one:
SPY wants to go higher here
the chart is screaming at me
OT
Yeah, sorry I should have flagged that video message for foul language. Sometimes I forget that not everyone went to grade school and lived in the inner city housing projects then worked 35 years in the construction industry. You build up sort of an immunity.
I sort of thought that video had gone "viral" and everyone has already seen it and been exposed.
My bad.
It apppears yesterday was the top.
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No way they reject the $SPX here til it tickles the all time high.
I think you'd need some kind of 9/11 to break this momentum.
"I wish they would die but they have to have all those commissions."
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That can't happen anytime soon without turning our system upside down and inside out.
"Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke would have you believe deflation is a bad thing. Common sense says otherwise. So clearly Bernanke is devoid of common sense."
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/11/whats-really-behind-gross-inequalities.html
Sometimes three short sentences can say it all.
There's a lot more to the story at the link provided.
Imagine Google or Facebook reporting directly to the National Security Agency about the online activity of US citizens. Imagine US government resources being wasted on a grand scale to "assist" private companies in the global market. All of this would become reality under CISPA.
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Pretty sure they're already all deeply embedded in the Matrix. I simply don't believe you get to be Microsoft, Cisco. AT&T, Apple, IBM, Google or Facebook without help from "US government resources" along the way.
So investing and trading has to be done with the recognition of how US government resources come into play in the energy sector, finance, technology, health care, transportation, manufacturing, mining, agriculture............
The bigger THEY get the lesser WE are. Unless of course they are we.
That was F'n cool dan.
thanks
careful, that could be perceived as racist
you can say that again!
"QE3" (if it can be labeled as such) is $40B per month of MBS (mortage backed securities) purchases by the Fed which Bernanke announced as a plan without an end point. "As long as it takes" or some such words.
I don't have much of a feel for the actual effect, so I'm trying to select options of stocks that seem to have their own row to hoe.
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I don't think anyone knows what the actual effects will be. It's more a case where the banksters do know pretty well however what happens if the QE3 doesn't proceed according to plan.
Very interesting article in the context of the contentiousness of the recent drop in the national rate to 7.8
Maybe (probably?) New York has significantly lower percentage of self-employed/consultants relative to other state's work force thus increasing those eligible to claim the benefit. This is the flip side of the coin that everyone discusses when the distortions of the unemployment rate become so evident.
Within this measure illegal aliens working for CASH would also drastically skew this data on a state by state comparison between states where it's less prevalent than others. Notice it's not so much the rate or percentage of illegal alien labor but the rate/percentage not paying into the insurance fund. I believe this differs greatly across industries and regions based on multiple factors; culture, economics/ law enforcement/ tax incentives/ unions and so on.
NFLX --------the redheaded stepchild?
In California there are a few rackets that are NEAR 80-90% illegal alien labor in isolated markets (regions) but certainly not statewide and certainly not anything resembling a SKILLED construction trade. I think you are picking from a very unrepresentative sample of tradesmen and projecting your personal experience well beyond the narrow scope from which your data is drawn.
Here in Mexifornia esidential landscaping, roofing those trades have the highest percentage of illegals-------has to be VERY small contractors though as the paperwork to shield the parent firms requires some sophistication. So they just can't be safe for long competing on larger jobs unless they have "protection" from some corrupt politicians or union bosses.
Outside construction there's small manufacturing like cabinetry, upholstery shops, car washes, transient agricultural labor (picking cotton) domestic help (The Nanny and the cleaning lady)------pretty much saturated and overwhelmed with illegal aliens but I seriously doubt we're talking 80-90% statewide.
All of these jobs still have many, MANY Americans beat down by the low wages, lack of respect, lack of benefits and TOTAL lack of bargaining power in their labor market due to the COUNTLESS MILLIONS of invaders from Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and whatevers left from there. But the harsh reality is they don't have the aptitude, education, initiative or resources to up and move away to better ground or move up the ladder economically to more competitive job opportunities. America ABANDONS these folks legally and culturally when we tell them------MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of them that they are doing work that American's wont do. Honestly pantmaker this horse shit rhetoric boils my blood.
None of the principles of fair, honest, quality competition apply when the referee is blind, crippled and crazy------meaning he's a political appointee.
Yank-I would say 80-90% of all trades were illegals. Lots went back to Mexico..the rest went to New Mexico and Texas.
pants
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Hi pants.
I seriously suspect that you believed that. I also am virtually certain that you are WAY, WAY off in that estimation.
I am a tradesman in California which is at least as over run by illegal and legal immigrant labor as your state.
****NEWS FLASH****
Everyone with brown skin who speaks limited English isn't here illegally.
That's the whole darn problem right there in a nutshell.
It was thoughtful of God to color code humans so we would know who to hate, discriminate against and exploit for cheap labor. Then a bunch of idiots went and created all kinds of complications with legal rights, amnesty bills, Guest Worker Programs, green cards and such.
90% of tradesmen???????
WOW, it's not just amazing that you really think that. It's also a surprise that you would share that guess with us.
Anyone care to see some facts? Yeah, it's hard when dealing with CRIMINAL behavior to collect data from the CRIMINAL employers and illegal alien labor. But for Christ sake we put a man on the moon GENERATIONS ago. You really think economists, lawyers, police, national security advisers, the FBI, CIA, major global corporate chief intelligence officers don't have REAL data?
You'll just never see it on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNBC, CNN, FOX.............
I'm shocked, shocked! that people are misconstruing and misrepresenting the situation with illegal alien labor.
To put this post in a little sports context-----------I'm a baseball fan my whole life , 52 years next week give or take. Anyway THIS economy is analogous to the baseball SUPERSTARS who can no longer exploit performance enhancing drugs.
So players........the NORM.......as it was for well over a CENTURY are going to have NORMAL batting averages, NORMAL home run, RBI, strike out, ERA, W-L % that are in line with the historical performances absent Human Growth Hormones, Steroids and God Knows What Else.
EARLY in their 30's player are going to see DRASTIC but very NORMAL declines in their statistics. It's called getting old. I love it. Now I can enjoy a game played by HUMAN BEINGS and not chemistry freaks of nature. No one should be hitting 75 home runs when they're pushing 40 years old just like no one should be buying a $675,000 home and a $50,000 SUV when they only make $60-75K a year. I like reality a whole lot more than unhealthy and unsustainable absurdity.
The U.S.A. minus the steroids of absurd and unpayable debt.
It's a good thing.
Most are part time temp jobs, no benefits, low pay. Not a good way to live your life.
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I'm having a real hard time seeing any way around this trend of automation/robotics, outsourcing/subcontracting and global wage competition/RACE TO THE BOTTOM on lower skilled, blue collar jobs. And it's not just blue collar work. Anything and everything that can be done cheaper HAS TO and will be done at the absolute cheapest so long as you, I and the horse we rode in on shop at Walmart, the 99Cents Only Store or online for the cheapest price on the face of the earth.
Of course there are "conspiracies"------ scumbag politicians and scumbag corporate whores, raiders and pirates to accentuate and accelerate these horror stories for middle class American families. But in the larger scheme of things all the bad guys are capable of doing is seeing the global wage arbitrage opportunity FIRST and being quicker than the next scumbag politician or corporate raider. There's just no sense thinking that "easy" work is going to pay big bucks in the modern economy.
99% of us ought to get accustomed to enjoying life WITH A WHOLE LOT LESS cash money flowing through the fingers.
Things could be a lot worse. God forbid we have to cancel cable TV, the internet, cell phones and WALK or BIKE around town.
Can you even imagine?
Pretty fugly ass candlestick on the $SPX daily
http://stockcharts.com/c-sc/sc?s=$SPX&p=M&b=3&g=0&i=p69997052541&r=206
yeah, you do have to pay for TWO annual subscriptions. I think we pay $149 a year for three of us. The eldest at age 22 can no longer ride on our dime but the 19 year old is still covered. We pay extra for him and for the "premium" 100 mile one way "free" coverage.
Over the years that's the way to go.
I lucked out the one time my wife's Subaru broke down about 60 miles from home on the way back from Mexico to Los Angeles. We were close enough to the dealer in Garden Grove and the warranty covered the failure, whatever it was. At that time we only had the standard coverage to be towed just a few miles if they couldn't jump start or gas you up and send you on your way. It was at that time already something like $8 a mile for the tow truck operator past the coverage zone. So it was a VERY lucky break to have difficulties nearby a dealership and still be under warranty.
I work in construction and the jobs don't come to me so I drive on average 75 miles roundtrip a day. Eventually you need a tow home or to a LOCAL mechanic so just that 1-2 times in a decade will pay for the Auto Club membership.
I don't see another rational option for folks who spend any amount of time traveling in their vehicles.
Women Not in Labor Force
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/LNS15000002?cid=32448
Men Not in Labor Force
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/LNS15000001?cid=32448
From these charts it appears the degradation in economic opportunity for men has been relatively constant since I entered the work force ('78). In stark contrast women not in the labor force remained within a tight range for roughly 25 years. Given population growth this means the market was absorbing as many women as entered the job market. Since the massive collapse of the U.S economic fraud/bubbles that revolved around internet technology, energy trading, financial gimmickry and real estate conditions for women appear to be dramatically more difficult.
I would guess at all levels whatever advantages enjoyed by women over those 25 years are no longer in force.
I'd be surprised given all the shady, off budget accounting if we were comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges. Looking back how much credence would we give to the quarterly reports from Arthur Anderson on Enron's books? Those accountants didn't retire when that shop was forced to go belly up. They just changed seats.
Primarily, as I guessed the missing statistical component that distorts these measures is not showing the spending as a percentage of GDP.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CBO_Revenues_Outlays_Percentage_GDP.svg
According to this chart it looks like Reagan's effect on outlays and revenues was to hold them flat over his term as a percentage of GDP.
Neither chart adjusts properly for inflation
Retail testing resistence. Predicting a strong Christmas sales/rally or rounding off the top of a distribution pattern? Pretty typical sector chart with the recent strength pushing at the top end of a bearish "megaphone"
http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SC.web?c=rth,uu[d,a]waclyyay[df][pb7!b25][vc60][iub14!ua12,26,9]