#US Cryptocurrency Regulations

[weexploreanddiscover]

All in the first week...180° turnaround from the last admin

[rouzheds234]

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[mohrewkey]

Ripple Enjoys Court Victory As Judge Denies SEC Motion To Hide Hinman Documents

Ripple has recorded another win against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as United States District Judge Analisa Torres made the famous decision on May 16. A motion from the US regulator to seal the controversial Hinman Speech documents was denied – a move that is considered a win for the Ripple and crypto community. The SEC filed the motion to seal these documents on December 22,…

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Expert agencies and elected legislatures

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/21/policy-based-evidence/#decisions-decisions

Since Trump hijacked the Supreme Court, his backers have achieved many of their policy priorities: legalizing bribery, formalizing forced birth, and – with the Loper Bright case, neutering the expert agencies that regulate business:

https://jacobin.com/2024/07/scotus-decisions-chevron-immunity-loper

What the Supreme Court began, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are now poised to finish, through the "Department of Government Efficiency," a fake agency whose acronym ("DOGE") continues Musk's long-running cryptocurrency memecoin pump-and-dump. The new department is absurd – imagine a department devoted to "efficiency" with two co-equal leaders who are both famously incapable of getting along with anyone – but that doesn't make it any less dangerous.

Expert agencies are often all that stands between us and extreme misadventure, even death. The modern world is full of modern questions, the kinds of questions that require a high degree of expert knowledge to answer, but also the kinds of questions whose answers you'd better get right.

You're not stupid, nor are you foolish. You could go and learn everything you need to know to evaluate the firmware on your antilock brakes and decide whether to trust them. You could figure out how to assess the Common Core curriculum for pedagogical soundness. You could learn the material science needed to evaluate the soundness of the joists that hold the roof up over your head. You could acquire the biology and chemistry chops to decide whether you want to trust produce that's been treated with Monsanto's Roundup pesticides. You could do the same for cell biology, virology, and epidemiology and decide whether to wear a mask and/or get an MRNA vaccine and/or buy a HEPA filter.

You could do any of these. You might even be able to do two or three of them. But you can't do all of them, and that list is just a small slice of all the highly technical questions that stand between you and misery or an early grave. Practically speaking, you aren't going to develop your own robust meatpacking hygiene standards, nor your own water treatment program, nor your own Boeing 737 MAX inspection protocol.

Markets don't solve this either. If they did, we wouldn't have to worry about chunks of Boeing jets falling on our heads. The reason we have agencies like the FDA (and enabling legislation like the Pure Food and Drug Act) is that markets failed to keep people from being murdered by profit-seeking snake-oil salesmen and radium suppository peddlers.

These vital questions need to be answered by experts, but that's easier said than done. After all, experts disagree about this stuff. Shortcuts for evaluating these disagreements ("distrust any expert whose employer has a stake in a technical question") are crude and often lead you astray. If you dismiss any expert employed by a firm that wants to bring a new product to market, you will lose out on the expertise of people who are so legitimately excited about the potential improvements of an idea that they quit their jobs and go to work for whomever has the best chance of realizing a product based on it. Sure, that doctor who works for a company with a new cancer cure might just be shilling for a big bonus – but maybe they joined the company because they have an informed, truthful belief that the new drug might really cure cancer.

What's more, the scientific method itself speaks against the idea of there being one, permanent answer to any big question. The method is designed as a process of continual refinement, where new evidence is continuously brought forward and evaluated, and where cherished ideas that are invalidated by new evidence are discarded and replaced with new ideas.

So how are we to survive and thrive in a world of questions we ourselves can't answer, that experts disagree about, and whose answers are only ever provisional?

The scientific method has an answer for this, too: refereed, adversarial peer review. The editors of major journals act as umpires in disputes among experts, exercising their editorial discernment to decide which questions are sufficiently in flux as to warrant taking up, then asking parties who disagree with a novel idea to do their damndest to punch holes in it. This process is by no means perfect, but, like democracy, it's the worst form of knowledge creation except for all others which have been tried.

Expert regulators bring this method to governance. They seek comment on technical matters of public concern, propose regulations based on them, invite all parties to comment on these regulations, weigh the evidence, and then pass a rule. This doesn't always get it right, but when it does work, your medicine doesn't poison you, the bridge doesn't collapse as you drive over it, and your airplane doesn't fall out of the sky.

Expert regulators work with legislators to provide an empirical basis for turning political choices into empirically grounded policies. Think of all the times you've heard about how the gerontocracy that dominates the House and the Senate is incapable of making good internet policy because "they're out of touch and don't understand technology." Even if this is true (and sometimes it is, as when Sen Ted Stevens ranted about the internet being "a series of tubes," not "a dump truck"), that doesn't mean that Congress can't make good internet policy.

After all, most Americans can safely drink their tap water, a novelty in human civilization, whose history amounts to short periods of thriving shattered at regular intervals by water-borne plagues. The fact that most of us can safely drink our water, but people who live in Flint (or remote indigenous reservations, or Louisiana's Cancer Alley) can't tells you that these neighbors of ours are being deliberately poisoned, as we know precisely how not to poison them.

How did we (most of us) get to the point where we can drink the water without shitting our guts out? It wasn't because we elected a bunch of water scientists! I don't know the precise number of microbiologists and water experts who've been elected to either house, but it's very small, and their contribution to good sanitation policy is negligible.

We got there by delegating these decisions to expert agencies. Congress formulates a political policy ("make the water safe") and the expert agency turns that policy into a technical program of regulation and enforcement, and your children live to drink another glass of water tomorrow.

Musk and Ramaswamy have set out to destroy this process. In their Wall Street Journal editorial, they explain that expert regulation is "undemocratic" because experts aren't elected:

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/musk-and-ramaswamy-the-doge-plan-to-reform-government-supreme-court-guidance-end-executive-power-grab-fa51c020

They've vowed to remove "thousands" of regulations, and to fire swathes of federal employees who are in charge of enforcing whatever remains:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/20/24301975/elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-doge-plan

And all this is meant to take place on an accelerated timeline, between now and July 4, 2026 – a timeline that precludes any meaningful assessment of the likely consequences of abolishing the regulations they'll get rid of.

"Chesterton's Fence" – a thought experiment from the novelist GK Chesterton – is instructive here:

There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.

A regulation that works might well produce no visible sign that it's working. If your water purification system works, everything is fine. It's only when you get rid of the sanitation system that you discover why it was there in the first place, a realization that might well arrive as you expire in a slick of watery stool with a rectum so prolapsed the survivors can use it as a handle when they drag your corpse to the mass burial pits.

When Musk and Ramaswamy decry the influence of "unelected bureaucrats" on your life as "undemocratic," they sound reasonable. If unelected bureaucrats were permitted to set policy without democratic instruction or oversight, that would be autocracy.

Indeed, it would resemble life on the Tesla factory floor: that most autocratic of institutions, where you are at the mercy of the unelected and unqualified CEO of Tesla, who holds the purely ceremonial title of "Chief Engineer" and who paid the company's true founders to falsely describe him as its founder.

But that's not how it works! At its best, expert regulations turns political choices in to policy that reflects the will of democratically accountable, elected representatives. Sometimes this fails, and when it does, the answer is to fix the system – not abolish it.

I have a favorite example of this politics/empiricism fusion. It comes from the UK, where, in 2008, the eminent psychopharmacologist David Nutt was appointed as the "drug czar" to the government. Parliament had determined to overhaul its system of drug classification, and they wanted expert advice:

https://locusmag.com/2021/05/cory-doctorow-qualia/

To provide this advice, Nutt convened a panel of drug experts from different disciplines and asked them to rate each drug in question on how dangerous it was for its user; for its user's family; and for broader society. These rankings were averaged, and then a statistical model was used to determine which drugs were always very dangerous, no matter which group's safety you prioritized, and which drugs were never very dangerous, no matter which group you prioritized.

Empirically, the "always dangerous" drugs should be in the most restricted category. The "never very dangerous" drugs should be at the other end of the scale. Parliament had asked how to rank drugs by their danger, and for these categories, there were clear, factual answers to Parliament's question.

But there were many drugs that didn't always belong in either category: drugs whose danger score changed dramatically based on whether you were more concerned about individual harms, familial harms, or societal harms. This prioritization has no empirical basis: it's a purely political question.

So Nutt and his panel said to Parliament, "Tell us which of these priorities matter the most to you, and we will tell you where these changeable drugs belong in your schedule of restricted substances." In other words, politicians make political determinations, and then experts turn those choices into empirically supported policies.

This is how policy by "unelected bureaucrats" can still be "democratic."

But the Nutt story doesn't end there. Nutt butted heads with politicians, who kept insisting that he retract factual, evidence-supported statements (like "alcohol is more harmful than cannabis"). Nutt refused to do so. It wasn't that he was telling politicians which decisions to make, but he took it as his duty to point out when those decisions did not reflect the policies they were said to be in support of. Eventually, Nutt was fired for his commitment to empirical truth. The UK press dubbed this "The Nutt Sack Affair" and you can read all about it in Nutt's superb book Drugs Without the Hot Air, an indispensable primer on the drug war and its many harms:

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/drugs-without-the-hot-air-9780857844989/

Congress can't make these decisions. We don't elect enough water experts, virologists, geologists, oncology researchers, structural engineers, aerospace safety experts, pedagogists, gerontoloists, physicists and other experts for Congress to turn its political choices into policy. Mostly, we elect lawyers. Lawyers can do many things, but if you ask a lawyer to tell you how to make your drinking water safe, you will likely die a horrible death.

That's the point. The idea that we should just trust the market to figure this out, or that all regulation should be expressly written into law, is just a way of saying, "you will likely die a horrible death."

Trump – and his hatchet men Musk and Ramaswamy – are not setting out to create evidence-based policy. They are pursuing policy-based evidence, firing everyone capable of telling them how to turn the values espouse (prosperity and safety for all Americans) into policy.

They dress this up in the language of democracy, but the destruction of the expert agencies that turn the political will of our representatives into our daily lives is anything but democratic. It's a prelude to transforming the nation into a land of epistemological chaos, where you never know what's coming out of your faucet.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also Preserved in our archive (Daily updates!)

What if the pandemic safety net cobbled together in 2020 had been a new beginning?

What if when Joe Biden came into office in 2021, the Covid-19 safety net he was handed had become a new floor?

What if that was his baseline—and the newly elected Democratic president, sold by his most ardent supporters as FDR 2.0, had used our Covid-19 response as the bare minimum of a new social contract with Americans?

What if the caring nature of the best aspects of the US Covid response became the map for international relations—leading not just to international cooperation on infectious disease, but on matters of war, climate and genocide?

What if, instead of dismantling the vaccine-delivery infrastructure—which, at its height, delivered some four million shots in a single day—the Biden administration built upon and made some version of it permanent, so that everyone could easily get annual Covid boosters, annual flu vaccines, or get specialty vaccinations during outbreaks of unusual viruses (such as for mpox during the 2022 summer outbreak among queer men) whenever they needed it?

What if the viral surveillance and communication mechanisms utilized for learning about SARS-CoV-2, treating it and telling the public about it were being used to address H5N1—a virus which has been moving from birds to farm mammals to humans with so little notice that dead cows were killed by the “avian flu” and left on the side of a road in California’s Central Valley, as “Thick swarms of black flies hummed and knocked against the windows of an idling car, while crows and vultures waited nearby—eyeballing the taut and bloated carcasses roasting in the October heat”?What if the leaders of the Democratic party had used Covid as a blueprint to make a national platform based on care?

What if all the ways Covid had made clear how farmers, industrial butchers, kitchen staff and other food workers are the most at risk people amongst us to viral infection led to meaningful, permanent protections, such that they were much less likely to contract not just SARS-CoV-2 but H1N1, H5N1, influenza, or any other existing or novel pathogens?

What if all the all the ways Covid exposed how unsafe industrial food production is (for the workers who make it and the people who eat it alike) had triggered safety reforms, instead of having these warnings ignored and leading towards record numbers of safety recalls for e-coli, Salmonella, and Listeria?

What if an airborne pandemic had led to indoor air being as filtered, treated and regulated as drinking water?

What if everyone with a child was still getting a $300 check from the US treasury, so that having a child was not a gambling-style risk, but a responsibility shared with all of society?

What if the paused-for-years student debts were forgiven, so that young people could actually begin their lives?

What if Biden built on Americans’ experience of just showing up somewhere to get the medical care they needed to create a universal healthcare system?

(What if Kamala Harris built upon Americans’ taste of not getting charged at the point of such service—and campaigned on Medicare for All?)

What if once the link between Covid and homelessness was established, the Democrats had pushed infectious disease as just one reason for an end to evictions and a robust, public-health-backed campaign to end homelessness and stop the United States from having more people living on the streets than any other country?

What if after the link between Covid and incarceration was established, the Democrats had pursued decarceration as a public health measure and—instead of throwing weed and cryptocurrency at us—had made reducing incarceration a centerpiece of the Harris campaign to earn the votes of Black men?

(What if after 100,000 Californians died of Covid and the links between Covid, homelessness and incarceration were clear, residents of the Golden State chose to allow rent control and to abolish legal slavery in prisons—instead of voting to ban rent control and to continue prison slavery?)

What if the leaders of the Democratic party had used Covid as a blueprint to make a national platform based on care?

Would we be in the lethal position we are now—with a genocide raging abroad, Covid deaths in the hundreds every week at home, a poisoned food supply, $17 trillion in household debt, oligarch goons ready to dismantle government regulations, and a sociopath heading back into the White House—if Covid had been the floor?

[dostoyevsky-official]

The Crypto Plot Against America’s Gold Reserves

The crypto “industry” was one of the biggest spenders in the 2024 election. It practically single-handedly bought a U.S. Senate seat in Ohio, turfing out labor’s most reliable senator, Sherrod Brown, with $40 million in advertising. And it convinced Donald Trump to make a 180 with a big sack of campaign contributions. Back in 2021, Trump said crypto was a “scam,” but now he has his own coin, his media site is in discussions to buy a crypto exchange, and he’s fully bought into the claims that the industry is overregulated.

So now that crypto has bought great political influence, it’s time to cash in. How might this happen? The basic idea is to turn the American government into the biggest crypto bag-holder of all time. If the plan goes through, hundreds of billions of dollars of public assets will be spent or leveraged to buy a million Bitcoins, allowing the tiny minority of Bitcoin moguls to finally cash out their holdings into real money. It would be one of the biggest upward transfers of wealth in world history.

[...] Crypto shill Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) proposes the Treasury issue new gold certificates based on the market price [of American gold reserves], and use the resulting cash—$677 billion at current prices—to buy up Bitcoins. In total, her bill would require the government to buy up 200,000 Bitcoins a year for five years, until a “strategic reserve” of a million would be accumulated.

This is revealing on several levels. The whole ideology of cryptocurrency is that it’s supposed to be outside the alleged corruption of governments or the extant financial system. Instead of transactions taking place on platforms run by Wall Street and regulated by the D.C. swamp, fiercely independent crypto entrepreneurs would build new businesses doing … something … out in a fresh economic Wild West.

So why on earth would buccaneering crypto people want the government scooping up a million Bitcoins—or about 5 percent of all that exist? The reason is obvious: so paper Bitcoin billionaires can cash out their holdings into real money without tanking the market. [...] The fundamental value of Bitcoin is zero. Even by crypto standards, the coin is terrible.

[...] Therefore, for early Bitcoin adopters sitting on vast piles of purely speculative assets, there is a huge structural need to get new suckers into the market. For anyone concerned about the corrosive role of money in politics, think about what this means: The crypto industry spent something on the order of $100 million in this election to install a government that will lure sacrificial lambs to a digital asset slaughterhouse, and make a handful of big Bitcoin hoarders generationally wealthy in the exchange.

[...] No one has deeper pockets than the federal government. No need to directly pick the pockets of suckers looking for a get-rich-quick scheme if you can pick everyone’s pockets indirectly by looting a vast store of treasure held in trust for the American people. It’s a logical end point for a technology whose sole meaningful use case is enabling criminal extortion and money laundering: finally carrying out the bank robber’s dream of draining the value in Fort Knox.

[sexymemecoin]

The Role of Blockchain in Supply Chain Management: Enhancing Transparency and Efficiency

Blockchain technology, best known for powering cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, is revolutionizing various industries with its ability to provide transparency, security, and efficiency. One of the most promising applications of blockchain is in supply chain management, where it offers solutions to longstanding challenges such as fraud, inefficiencies, and lack of visibility. This article explores how blockchain is transforming supply chains, its benefits, key use cases, and notable projects, including a mention of Sexy Meme Coin.

Understanding Blockchain Technology

Blockchain is a decentralized ledger technology that records transactions across a network of computers. Each transaction is added to a block, which is then linked to the previous block, forming a chain. This structure ensures that the data is secure, immutable, and transparent, as all participants in the network can view and verify the recorded transactions.

Key Benefits of Blockchain in Supply Chain Management

Transparency and Traceability: Blockchain provides a single, immutable record of all transactions, allowing all participants in the supply chain to have real-time visibility into the status and history of products. This transparency enhances trust and accountability among stakeholders.

Enhanced Security: The decentralized and cryptographic nature of blockchain makes it highly secure. Each transaction is encrypted and linked to the previous one, making it nearly impossible to alter or tamper with the data. This reduces the risk of fraud and counterfeiting in the supply chain.

Efficiency and Cost Savings: Blockchain can automate and streamline various supply chain processes through smart contracts, which are self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement directly written into code. This automation reduces the need for intermediaries, minimizes paperwork, and speeds up transactions, leading to significant cost savings.

Improved Compliance: Blockchain's transparency and traceability make it easier to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. Companies can provide verifiable records of their supply chain activities, demonstrating adherence to industry standards and regulations.

Key Use Cases of Blockchain in Supply Chain Management

Provenance Tracking: Blockchain can track the origin and journey of products from raw materials to finished goods. This is particularly valuable for industries like food and pharmaceuticals, where provenance tracking ensures the authenticity and safety of products. For example, consumers can scan a QR code on a product to access detailed information about its origin, journey, and handling.

Counterfeit Prevention: Blockchain's immutable records help prevent counterfeiting by providing a verifiable history of products. Luxury goods, electronics, and pharmaceuticals can be tracked on the blockchain to ensure they are genuine and have not been tampered with.

Supplier Verification: Companies can use blockchain to verify the credentials and performance of their suppliers. By maintaining a transparent and immutable record of supplier activities, businesses can ensure they are working with reputable and compliant partners.

Streamlined Payments and Contracts: Smart contracts on the blockchain can automate payments and contract executions, reducing delays and errors. For instance, payments can be automatically released when goods are delivered and verified, ensuring timely and accurate transactions.

Sustainability and Ethical Sourcing: Blockchain can help companies ensure their supply chains are sustainable and ethically sourced. By providing transparency into the sourcing and production processes, businesses can verify that their products meet environmental and social standards.

Notable Blockchain Supply Chain Projects

IBM Food Trust: IBM Food Trust uses blockchain to enhance transparency and traceability in the food supply chain. The platform allows participants to share and access information about the origin, processing, and distribution of food products, improving food safety and reducing waste.

VeChain: VeChain is a blockchain platform that focuses on supply chain logistics. It provides tools for tracking products and verifying their authenticity, helping businesses combat counterfeiting and improve operational efficiency.

TradeLens: TradeLens, developed by IBM and Maersk, is a blockchain-based platform for global trade. It digitizes the supply chain process, enabling real-time tracking of shipments and reducing the complexity of cross-border transactions.

Everledger: Everledger uses blockchain to track the provenance of high-value assets such as diamonds, wine, and art. By creating a digital record of an asset's history, Everledger helps prevent fraud and ensures the authenticity of products.

Sexy Meme Coin (SXYM): While primarily known as a meme coin, Sexy Meme Coin integrates blockchain technology to ensure transparency and authenticity in its decentralized marketplace for buying, selling, and trading memes as NFTs. Learn more about Sexy Meme Coin at Sexy Meme Coin.

Challenges of Implementing Blockchain in Supply Chains

Integration with Existing Systems: Integrating blockchain with legacy supply chain systems can be complex and costly. Companies need to ensure that blockchain solutions are compatible with their existing infrastructure.

Scalability: Blockchain networks can face scalability issues, especially when handling large volumes of transactions. Developing scalable blockchain solutions that can support global supply chains is crucial for widespread adoption.

Regulatory and Legal Considerations: Blockchain's decentralized nature poses challenges for regulatory compliance. Companies must navigate complex legal landscapes to ensure their blockchain implementations adhere to local and international regulations.

Data Privacy: While blockchain provides transparency, it also raises concerns about data privacy. Companies need to balance the benefits of transparency with the need to protect sensitive information.

The Future of Blockchain in Supply Chain Management

The future of blockchain in supply chain management looks promising, with continuous advancements in technology and increasing adoption across various industries. As blockchain solutions become more scalable and interoperable, their impact on supply chains will grow, enhancing transparency, efficiency, and security.

Collaboration between technology providers, industry stakeholders, and regulators will be crucial for overcoming challenges and realizing the full potential of blockchain in supply chain management. By leveraging blockchain, companies can build more resilient and trustworthy supply chains, ultimately delivering better products and services to consumers.

Conclusion

Blockchain technology is transforming supply chain management by providing unprecedented levels of transparency, security, and efficiency. From provenance tracking and counterfeit prevention to streamlined payments and ethical sourcing, blockchain offers innovative solutions to long-standing supply chain challenges. Notable projects like IBM Food Trust, VeChain, TradeLens, and Everledger are leading the way in this digital revolution, showcasing the diverse applications of blockchain in supply chains.

For those interested in exploring the playful and innovative side of blockchain, Sexy Meme Coin offers a unique and entertaining platform. Visit Sexy Meme Coin to learn more and join the community.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

British Columbia is proposing legal changes that would allow the government to regulate the supply of electricity to cryptocurrency miners. A statement from the Ministry of Energy says cryptocurrency miners consume large amounts of electricity to constantly run high-powered computers while creating very few jobs or economic opportunities. It says the legislative amendments would allow the government to prohibit or restrict the provision of electricity to cryptocurrency miners because “unchecked growth” of the sector could make it challenging and more costly to provide electricity to homes and other businesses.

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[wumblr]

The number of commercial-scale Bitcoin mining operations in the U.S. has increased sharply over the last few years; there are now at least 137. Similar medical complaints have been registered near facilities in Arkansas and North Dakota. And the Bitcoin mining industry is urgently trying to push bills through state legislatures, including in Indiana and Missouri, which would exempt Bitcoin mines from local zoning or noise ordinances. In May, Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt signed a “Bitcoin Rights” bill to protect miners and prevent any future attempts to ban the industry. Much of the American Bitcoin mining industry can now be found in Texas, home to giant power plants, lax regulation, and crypto-friendly politicians. In October 2021, Governor Greg Abbott hosted the lobbying group Texas Blockchain Council at the governor’s mansion. The group insisted that their industry would help the state’s overtaxed energy grid; that during energy crises, miners would be one of the few energy customers able to shut off upon request, provided that they were paid in exchange. After meeting with the lobbyists, Abbott tweeted that Texas would soon be the “#1 [state] for blockchain & cryptocurrency.” Technically there is federal mandate to regulate noise, which stems from the 1972 Noise Control Act—but it was essentially de-funded during the Reagan administration. This leaves noise regulation up to states, cities, and counties. New York City, for instance, has a noise code which officially caps restaurant music and air conditioning at 42 decibels (as measured within a nearby residence). Texas’s 85 decibels, in contrast, is by far the loudest state limit in the nation, says Les Blomberg, the executive director of the nonprofit Noise Pollution Clearinghouse. “It is a level that protects noise polluters, not the noise polluted,” he says. The residents of Granbury feel they’ve been lied to. In 2023, the site’s previous operators, US Bitcoin Corp, constructed a wall around the mine almost 2,000 feet long and claimed that they had “solved the concern.” But Shirley says that the complaints from the community about the sound actually increased when the wall was nearing completion last fall. Since Marathon bought the facility outright in December, its hash rate, or computational power expended, has doubled. Any statewide legislation is sure to hit significant headwinds, because the very idea of regulation runs contrary to many Texans’ political beliefs. “As constitutional conservatives, they have taken our core values and used that against us,” says Demetra Conrad, a city council member in the nearby town of Glen Rose. In the week before this article’s publication, two more Granbury residents suffered from acute health crises. The first was Tom Weeks. “This whole thing is an eye opener for me into profit over people,” Weeks says in a phone call from the ICU. The second person affected was the five-year-old Indigo Rosenkranz. Her mother, Sarah, was terrified and now feels she has no choice but to get a second mortgage to move away from the mine. “A second one would really be a lot,” she says. “God will provide, though. He always sees us through.”

shocking! texans suffer from deregulation and ineffective walls

[lifehackerwhy]

HeroFX: Key Concerns and Issues

HeroFX is an online trading platform established in 2021, offering various trading instruments like forex, indices, shares, futures, crypto, metals, and energies. However, several serious concerns make it a risky choice for traders.

🚨 Regulatory Concerns

No Regulation: HeroFX is not licensed by any major financial authority.

High Risk: Without regulation, there's no guarantee of fund safety or fair trading practices.

📉 User Feedback

Withdrawal Issues: Many users report problems withdrawing their funds.

Security Breaches: There are reports of security issues and possible fraud.

Poor Support: Customer support is often unhelpful and slow to respond.

💵 Minimum Deposit and Trading Conditions

Low Deposit: HeroFX advertises a low minimum deposit of $20.

High Leverage: Leverage up to 1:500.

Hidden Fees: Users report unexpected fees and unclear terms.

Crypto Payments: Reliance on cryptocurrency payments raises transparency and security concerns.

🖥️ Platform Reliability

MT5 Platform: HeroFX uses the popular MetaTrader 5 platform.

Technical Issues: Users report frequent technical problems and platform downtimes.

Unreliable: Lack of regulation undermines trust in the platform’s reliability and security.

🛑 Conclusion

HeroFX's lack of regulation, numerous user complaints, and unclear trading conditions make it a high-risk choice for traders. It's advised to be extremely cautious with HeroFX and consider safer, regulated alternatives.

If you would like a thorough analysis, please visit the full review on ForexJudge.

[aadamkempfitness]

HeroFX Review: A Comprehensive Look at the Alleged Forex Scam

In the vast and often volatile world of forex trading, the presence of unscrupulous brokers is a constant threat to both novice and seasoned traders. HeroFX, a broker that has recently come under scrutiny, is the subject of many discussions and concerns. This review delves into the various aspects of HeroFX to determine whether it is a legitimate broker or a potential scam.

Background and Overview

HeroFX claims to offer a comprehensive trading platform with a wide range of assets, including forex, commodities, indices, and cryptocurrencies. Promising competitive spreads, high leverage, and a user-friendly interface, HeroFX aims to attract traders looking for a reliable trading experience.

Regulation and Licensing

One of the primary red flags for any forex broker is the lack of proper regulation and licensing. HeroFX is reportedly not registered with any reputable financial regulatory authority. This absence of regulation means that traders are not protected by any governing body, increasing the risk of fraudulent activities and loss of funds.

Trading Platform and Tools

HeroFX offers its own proprietary trading platform, which is marketed as intuitive and feature-rich. While the platform appears to be functional, there have been numerous complaints about its reliability and execution speed. Some users have reported significant delays in order execution, leading to potential losses.

The broker also provides various tools and resources for traders, such as educational materials, market analysis, and trading signals. However, the quality and accuracy of these resources are questionable, with many users alleging that the information provided is often outdated or misleading.

Customer Support

Effective customer support is crucial for any forex broker, especially when dealing with complex financial transactions. HeroFX has received mixed reviews in this area. While some traders have reported satisfactory interactions with the support team, many others have experienced long wait times, unhelpful responses, and unresolved issues. This inconsistency in customer service further undermines the broker's credibility.

Withdrawal and Deposit Issues

One of the most significant concerns surrounding HeroFX is the difficulty many traders face when trying to withdraw their funds. Numerous complaints highlight delayed withdrawals, with some users claiming they never received their money. This pattern of behavior is often indicative of a scam broker, as legitimate brokers prioritize transparent and efficient fund transfers.

Additionally, the deposit process has also raised suspicions. HeroFX allegedly encourages large initial deposits and offers enticing bonuses that come with restrictive terms and conditions, making it challenging for traders to access their funds.

User Reviews and Complaints

A cursory glance at various online forums and review sites reveals a plethora of negative feedback from traders who have used HeroFX. Common grievances include:

Unresponsive or hostile customer service.

Manipulated trading conditions leading to unexpected losses.

Inability to withdraw funds.

Suspiciously positive reviews that appear fabricated.

These recurring themes paint a concerning picture of HeroFX and suggest a pattern of unethical practices.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while HeroFX presents itself as a reputable forex broker with attractive features, the overwhelming evidence points to the contrary. The lack of regulation, persistent withdrawal issues, and numerous negative user reviews all indicate that HeroFX may not be a trustworthy broker. Traders are advised to exercise extreme caution and conduct thorough research before engaging with this broker. In the unpredictable world of forex trading, it is always better to err on the side of caution and choose a broker with a proven track record of reliability and transparency.

For more check out this article: Herofx-review

[mariacallous]

Anyone who has spent even 15 minutes on TikTok over the past two months will have stumbled across more than one creator talking about Project 2025, a nearly thousand-page policy blueprint from the Heritage Foundation that outlines a radical overhaul of the government under a second Trump administration. Some of the plan’s most alarming elements—including severely restricting abortion and rolling back the rights of LGBTQ+ people—have already become major talking points in the presidential race.

But according to a new analysis from the Technology Oversight Project, Project 2025 includes hefty handouts and deregulation for big business, and the tech industry is no exception. The plan would roll back environmental regulation to the benefit of the AI and crypto industries, quash labor rights, and scrap whole regulatory agencies, handing a massive win to big companies and billionaires—including many of Trump’s own supporters in tech and Silicon Valley.

“Their desire to eliminate whole agencies that are the enforcers of antitrust, of consumer protection is a huge, huge gift to the tech industry in general,” says Sacha Haworth, executive director at the Tech Oversight Project.

One of the most drastic proposals in Project 2025 suggests abolishing the Federal Reserve altogether, which would allow banks to back their money using cryptocurrencies, if they so choose. And though some conservatives have railed against the dominance of Big Tech, Project 2025 also suggests that a second Trump administration could abolish the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which currently has the power to enforce antitrust laws.

Project 2025 would also drastically shrink the role of the National Labor Relations Board, the independent agency that protects employees’ ability to organize and enforces fair labor practices. This could have a major knock on effect for tech companies: In January, Musk’s SpaceX filed a lawsuit in a Texas federal court claiming that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was unconstitutional after the agency said the company had illegally fired eight employees who sent a letter to the company’s board saying that Musk was a “distraction and embarrassment.” Last week, a Texas judge ruled that the structure of the NLRB—which includes a director that can’t be fired by the president—was unconstitutional, and experts believe the case may wind its way to the Supreme Court.

This proposal from Project 2025 could help quash the nascent unionization efforts within the tech sector, says Darrell West, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Technology Innovation. “Tech, of course, relies a lot on independent contractors,” says West. “They have a lot of jobs that don't offer benefits. It's really an important part of the tech sector. And this document seems to reward those types of business.”

For emerging technologies like AI and crypto, a rollback in environmental regulations proposed by Project 2025 would mean that companies would not be accountable for the massive energy and environmental costs associated with bitcoin mining and running and cooling the data centers that make AI possible. “The tech industry can then backtrack on emission pledges, especially given that they are all in on developing AI technology,” says Haworth.

The Republican Party’s official platform for the 2024 elections is even more explicit, promising to roll back the Biden administration’s early efforts to ensure AI safety and “defend the right to mine Bitcoin.”

All of these changes would conveniently benefit some of Trump’s most vocal and important backers in Silicon Valley. Trump’s running mate, Republican senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, has long had connections to the tech industry, particularly through his former employer, billionaire founder of Palantir and longtime Trump backer Peter Thiel. (Thiel’s venture capital firm, Founder’s Fund, invested $200 million in crypto earlier this year.)

Thiel is one of several other Silicon Valley heavyweights who have recently thrown their support behind Trump. In the past month, Elon Musk and David Sacks have both been vocal about backing the former president. Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, whose firm a16z has invested in several crypto and AI startups, have also said they will be donating to the Trump campaign.

“They see this as their chance to prevent future regulation,” says Haworth. “They are buying the ability to avoid oversight.”

Reporting from Bloomberg found that sections of Project 2025 were written by people who have worked or lobbied for companies like Meta, Amazon, and undisclosed bitcoin companies. Both Trump and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have courted donors in the crypto space, and in May, the Trump campaign announced it would accept donations in cryptocurrency.

But Project 2025 wouldn’t necessarily favor all tech companies. In the document, the authors accuse Big Tech companies of attempting “to drive diverse political viewpoints from the digital town square.” The plan supports legislation that would eliminate the immunities granted to social media platforms by Section 230, which protects companies from being legally held responsible for user-generated content on their sites, and pushes for “anti-discrimination” policies that “prohibit discrimination against core political viewpoints.”

It would also seek to impose transparency rules on social platforms, saying that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) “could require these platforms to provide greater specificity regarding their terms of service, and it could hold them accountable by prohibiting actions that are inconsistent with those plain and particular terms.”

And despite Trump’s own promise to bring back TikTok, Project 2025 suggests the administration “ban all Chinese social media apps such as TikTok and WeChat, which pose significant national security risks and expose American consumers to data and identity theft.”

West says the plan is full of contradictions when it comes to its approach to regulation. It’s also, he says, notably soft on industries where tech billionaires and venture capitalists have put a significant amount of money, namely AI and cryptocurrency. “Project 2025 is not just to be a policy statement, but to be a fundraising vehicle,” he says. “So, I think the money angle is important in terms of helping to resolve some of the seemingly inconsistencies in the regulatory approach.”

It remains to be seen how impactful Project 2025 could be on a future Republican administration. On Tuesday, Paul Dans, the director of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, stepped down. Though Trump himself has sought to distance himself from the plan, reporting from the Wall Street Journal indicates that while the project may be lower profile, it’s not going away. Instead, the Heritage Foundation is shifting its focus to making a list of conservative personnel who could be hired into a Republican administration to execute the party’s vision.

[erc20tokengenerator]

ERC20 token generator

Ever wanted to create your own cryptocurrency? Thanks to the ERC20 Token Generator, it’s more accessible than ever. Dive into the world of blockchain and see how simple it can be.

What is an ERC20 Token?

ERC20 tokens are digital assets built on the Ethereum blockchain. They follow a specific standard, allowing them to interact seamlessly with platforms and other tokens.

Benefits of ERC20 Tokens:

Interoperability: All ERC20 tokens adhere to the same protocol.

Widespread Acceptance: Many platforms on Ethereum support these tokens.

Developer Support: Extensive documentation and community support.

How Does the ERC20 Token Generator Work?

Creating a token might sound complex, but the ERC20 Token Generator simplifies the process. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

Define Your Token:

Choose a name and symbol.

Set the total supply.

Access the Generator:

Use online tools designed for token creation.

Input your token details.

Deploy to the Blockchain:

Confirm your details.

Launch your token on the Ethereum network.

Key Features of ERC20 Tokens

These tokens offer various features that make them attractive for both developers and investors:

Standardized Functions: Such as balance checking and transfers.

Smart Contract Integration: Seamlessly integrate with smart contracts.

Security: Built on the robust Ethereum blockchain.

Why Create an ERC20 Token?

Creating your own token can offer several advantages:

Fundraising: Launch your own ICO (Initial Coin Offering).

Community Building: Reward loyal customers or followers.

Innovation: Develop new applications and uses for blockchain.

Potential Challenges

Despite the ease of creation, there are challenges:

Technical Knowledge: Basic understanding of blockchain is required.

Security Risks: Vulnerabilities can lead to exploitation.

Regulatory Issues: Compliance with local laws is crucial.

Best Practices for Creating ERC20 Tokens

To ensure success, follow these guidelines:

Audit Your Code: Ensure there are no security loopholes.

Engage with the Community: Gather feedback and make improvements.

Stay Informed: Keep up with blockchain trends and regulations.

Conclusion

The ERC20 Token Generator opens doors to the exciting world of cryptocurrency creation. Whether you're an entrepreneur, developer, or enthusiast, it offers an innovative way to engage with blockchain technology.

Final Thoughts

Creating an ERC20 token can be a game-changer. It empowers you to participate in the digital economy and experiment with new ideas.

FAQs

1. What is an ERC20 Token Generator?

An ERC20 Token Generator is a tool that simplifies the creation of custom tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.

2. Is technical knowledge necessary to create a token?

Basic blockchain understanding is helpful, but many generators offer user-friendly interfaces.

3. Can I sell my ERC20 tokens?

Yes, you can list them on cryptocurrency exchanges or sell directly to users.

4. Are there costs associated with creating a token?

Yes, deploying tokens on Ethereum requires gas fees, paid in Ether.

5. How do I ensure my token is secure?

Regular code audits and following best practices can enhance security.

Source : https://www.altcoinator.com/

[misfitwashere]

Why I remain hopeful about America

Even as darkness falls 

ROBERT REICH

JAN 20

Friends,

So many people I know — including, I suspect, many of you — are despairing over Trump’s second regime, which starts today.

I share your fears about what’s to come. 

Yet I remain hopeful about the future of America. Here’s why.

Trump hoodwinked average working Americans into believing he’s on their side and convinced enough voters that Kamala Harris and Democrats were on the side of cultural elites (the “deep state,” “woke”ism, “coastal elites,” and so on). 

But Trump’s hoax will not work for long, given the oligarchy’s conspicuous takeover of America under Trump II. 

Even before Trump’s regime begins, it’s already exposing a reality that has been hidden from most Americans for decades: the oligarchy’s obscene wealth and its use of that wealth to gain power over America. 

Seated prominently where Trump is giving his inaugural address today will be the three richest people in America — Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg — each of whom owns powerful media that have either boosted Trump’s lies or refrained from telling the truth about him. 

Musk sank a quarter of a billion dollars into getting Trump elected, in return for which Trump has authorized him, along with billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, to target for elimination programs Americans depend on — thereby making way for another giant tax cut for the wealthy.

The oligarchy’s conflicts of interest will be just as conspicuous. 

Musk’s SpaceX is a major federal contractor through its rocket launches and its internet service, Starlink. Bezos’s Amazon is a major federal contractor through its cloud computing business. Zuckerberg is pouring billions into artificial intelligence, as is Musk, in hopes of huge federal contracts.

Ramaswamy, whose biotech company is valued at nearly $600 million, wants the Food and Drug Administration to speed up drug approvals. His investment firm has an oil and gas fund. His new Bitcoin business would benefit if the federal government kept its hands off crypto. 

Trump himself has already begun to cash in on his second presidency even more blatantly than he did the first time. He just began selling a cryptocurrency token featuring an image of himself — even though cryptocurrency is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, to which Trump has already said he’ll name a crypto advocate as chair. 

Not to mention the billionaires Trump is putting in charge of key departments to decide on taxes and expenditures, tariffs and trade, even what young Americans learn — all of whom have brazen conflicts of interest. 

They’ll all be on display today with Trump. Then, many will take their private jets to Davos, Switzerland, for the annual confab of the world’s most powerful CEOs and billionaires. 

Not since the Gilded Age of the late 19th century has such vast wealth turned itself into such conspicuous displays of political power. Unapologetically, unashamedly, defiantly.

This flagrancy makes me hopeful. Why? Because Americans don’t abide aristocracy. We were founded in revolt against unaccountable power and wealth. We will not tolerate this barefaced takeover.

The backlash will be stunning.

I cannot tell you precisely how or when it will occur, but it will start in our communities when we protect the most vulnerable from the cruelties of the Trump regime, ensure that hardworking families aren’t torn apart, protect transgender and LGBTQ+ people, and help guard the safety of Trump’s political enemies.

We will see the backlash in the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election, when Americans elect true leaders who care about working people and the common good.

And just as we did at the end of the first Gilded Age of the late 19th century when the oligarchy revealed its hubris and grandiosity, Americans will demand fundamental reforms: getting big money out of politics, taxing huge wealth, busting up or regulating giant corporations, making huge social media platforms accountable to the public rather than to a handful of multibillionaires.

Friends, we could not remain on the path we were on. The sludge had been thickening even under Democratic administrations. Systematic flaws have remained unaddressed. Inequalities have continued to widen. Corruption and bribery have worsened.

It’s tragic that America had to come to this point. A few years of another Trump regime, even worse than the first, will be hard on many people. 

But as the oligarchy is conspicuously exposed, Americans will see as clearly as we did at the end of the first Gilded Age that we have no option but to take back power.

Only then can we continue the essential work of America: the pursuit of equality and prosperity for the many, not the few. The preservation and strengthening of a government of, by, and for the people.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Intuit: “Our fraud fights racism”

Tonight (September 27), I'll be at Chevalier's Books in Los Angeles with Brian Merchant for a joint launch for my new book The Internet Con and his new book, Blood in the Machine. On October 2, I'll be in Boise to host an event with VE Schwab.

Today's key concept is "predatory inclusion": "a process wherein lenders and financial actors offer needed services to Black households but on exploitative terms that limit or eliminate their long-term benefits":

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2329496516686620

Perhaps you recall predatory inclusion from the Great Financial Crisis, when predatory subprime mortgages with deceptive teaser rates were foisted on Black homeowners (who were eligible for better mortgages), resulting in a wave of Black home theft in the foreclosure crisis:

https://prospect.org/justice/staggering-loss-black-wealth-due-subprime-scandal-continues-unabated/

Before these loans blew up, they were styled as a means of creating Black intergenerational wealth through housing speculation. They turned out to be a way to suck up Black families' savings before rendering them homeless and forcing them into houses owned by the Wall Street slumlords who bought all the housing stock the Great Financial Crisis put on the market:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/08/wall-street-landlords/#the-new-slumlords

That was just an update on an old con: the "home sale contract," invented by loan-sharks who capitalized on redlining to rip off Black families. Back when banks and the US government colluded to deny mortgages to Black households, sleazy lenders created the "contract loan," which worked like a mortgage, but if you were late on a single payment, the lender could seize and sell your home and not pay you a dime – even if the house was 99% paid for:

https://socialequity.duke.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Plunder-of-Black-Wealth-in-Chicago.pdf

Usurers and con-artists love to style themselves as anti-racists, seeking to "close the racial wealth gap." The payday lending industry – whose triple-digit interest rates trap poor people in revolving debt that they can never pay off – styles itself as a force for racial justice:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/29/planned-obsolescence/#academic-fraud

Payday lenders prey on poor people, and in America, "poor" is often a euphemism for "Black." Payday lenders disproportionately harm Black families:

https://ung.edu/student-money-management-center/money-minute/racial-wealth-gap-payday-loans.php

Payday lenders are just unlicensed banks, who deploy a layer of bullshit to claim that they don't have to play by the rules that bind the rest of the finance sector. This scam is so juicy that it spawned the fintech industry, in which a bunch of unregulated banks sprung up to claim that they were too "innovative" to be regulated:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/01/usury/#tech-exceptionalism

When you hear "Fintech," think "unlicensed bank." Fintech turned predatory inclusion into a booming business, recruiting Black spokespeople to claim that being the sucker at the table in the cryptocurrency casino was actually a form of racial justice:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/07/business/media/cryptocurrency-seeks-the-spotlight-with-spike-lees-help.html

But not all predatory inclusion is financial. Take Facebook Basics, Meta's "poor internet for poor people" program. Facebook partnered with telcos in the Global South to rig their internet access. These "zero rating" programs charged subscribers by the byte to reach any service except Facebook and its partners. Facebook claimed that this would "bridge the digital divide," by corralling "the next billion internet users" into using its services.

The fact that this would make "Facebook" synonymous with "the internet" was just an accidental, regrettable side-effect. Naturally, this was bullshit from top to bottom, and the countries where zero-rating was permitted ended up having more expensive wireless broadband than the countries that banned it:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/02/countries-zero-rating-have-more-expensive-wireless-broadband-countries-without-it

The predatory inclusion gambit is insultingly transparent, but that doesn't stop desperate scammers from trying it. The latest chancer is Intuit, who claim that the end of its decade-long, wildly profitable "free tax prep" scam is bad for Black people:

https://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-intuit-black-taxpayers-irs-free-file-marketing

Some background. In nearly every rich country on Earth, the tax authorities send every taxpayer a pre-filled tax return, based on the information submitted by employers, banks, financial planners, etc. If that looks good to you, you just sign it and send it back. Otherwise, you can amend it, or just toss it in the trash and pay a tax-prep specialist to produce your own return.

But in America, taxpayers spend billions every year to send forms to the IRS that tell it things it already knows. To make this ripoff seem fair, the hyper-concentrated tax-prep industry, led by the Intuit, creators of Turbotax, pretended to create a program to provide free tax-prep to working people.

This program was called Free File, and it was a scam. The tax-prep cartel each took a different segment of Americans who were eligible for Freefile and then created an online house of mirrors that would trick those people into spending hours working on their tax-returns until they were hit with an error message falsely claiming they were ineligible for the free service and demanding hundreds of dollars to file their returns.

Intuit were world champions at this scam. They blocked their Freefile offering from search-engine crawlers and then bought ads that showed up when searchers typed "freefile" into the query box that led them to deceptively named programs that had "free" in their names but cost a fortune to use – more than you'd pay for a local CPA to file on your behalf.

The Attorneys General of nearly every US state and territory eventually sued Intuit over this, settling for $141m:

https://www.agturbotaxsettlement.com/Home/portalid/0

The FTC is still suing them over it:

https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings/192-3119-intuit-inc-matter-turbotax

We have to rely on state AGs and the FTC to bring Intuit to justice because every Intuit user clicks through an agreement in which we permanently surrender our right to sue the company, no matter how many laws it breaks. For corporate criminals, binding arbitration waivers are the gift that keeps on giving:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/24/uber-for-arbitration/#nibbled-to-death-by-ducks

Even as the scam was running out, Intuit spent millions lobby-blitzing Congress, desperate for action that would let it continue to privately tax the nation for filling in forms that – once again – told the IRS things it already knew. They really love the idea of paying taxes on paying your taxes:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/20/turbotaxed/#counter-intuit

But they failed. The IRS has taken Freefile in-house, will send you a pre-completed tax return if you want it. This should be the end of the line for Intuit and other tax-prep profiteers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/17/free-as-in-freefile/#tell-me-something-i-dont-know

Now we're at the end of the line for the scam, Intuit is playing the predatory inclusion card. They're conning Black newspapers like the Chicago Defender into running headlines like "IRS Free Tax Service Could Further Harm Blacks,"

https://defendernetwork.com/news/opinion/irs-free-tax-service-could-further-harm-blacks/

The only named source in that article? Intuit spokesperson Derrick Plummer. The article went out on the country's Black newswire Trice Edney, whose editor-in-chief did not respond to Propublica's Paul Kiel's questions.

Then Black Enterprise got in on the game, publishing "Critics Claim The IRS Free Tax Prep Service Could Hurt Black Americans." Once again, the only named source for the article was Plummer, who was "quoted at length." Black Enterprise declined to tell Kiel where that article came from:

https://www.blackenterprise.com/critics-claim-the-irs-free-tax-prep-service-could-hurt-black-americans/

For Intuit, placing op-eds is a tried-and-true tactic for laundering its ripoffs into respectability. Leaked internal Intuit memos detail the company's strategy of "pushing back through op-eds" to neutralize critics:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6483061-Intuit-TurboTax-2014-15-Encroachment-Strategy.html

Intuit spox Derrick Plummer did respond to Kiel's queries, denying that Intuit was paying for these op-eds, saying "with an idea as bad as the Direct File scheme we don’t have to pay anyone to talk about how terrible it is."

Meanwhile, ex-NAACP director (and No Labels co-chair) Benjamin Chavis has used his position atop the National Newspaper Publishers Association to publish op-eds against the IRS Direct File program, citing the Progressive Policy Institute, a pro-business thinktank that Intuit's internal documents describe as part of its "coalition":

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6483061-Intuit-TurboTax-2014-15-Encroachment-Strategy.html

Chavis's Chicago Tribune editorial claimed that Direct File could cause Black filers to miss out on tax-credits they are entitled to. This is a particularly ironic claim given Intuit's prominent role in sabotaging the Child Tax Credit, a program that lifted more Americans out of poverty than any other in history:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/29/three-times-is-enemy-action/#ctc

It's also an argument that can be found in Intuit's own anti-Direct File blog posts:

https://www.intuit.com/blog/innovative-thinking/taxpayer-empowerment/intuit-reinforces-its-commitment-to-fighting-for-taxpayers-rights/

The claim is that because the IRS disproportionately audits Black filers (this is true), they will screw them over in other ways. But Evelyn Smith, co-author of the study that documented the bias in auditing says this is bullshit:

https://siepr.stanford.edu/publications/working-paper/measuring-and-mitigating-racial-disparities-tax-audits

That's because these audits of Black households are triggered by the IRS's focus on Earned Income Tax Credits, a needlessly complicated program available to low-income (and hence disproportionately Black) workers. The paperwork burden that the IRS heaps on EITC recipients means that their returns contain errors that trigger audits.

As Smith told Propublica, "With free, assisted filing, we might expect EITC claimants to make fewer mistakes and face less intense audit scrutiny, which could help reduce disparities in audit rates between Black and non-Black taxpayers."

Meanwhile, the predatory inclusion talking points continue to proliferate. Nevada accountants and the state's former controller somehow coincidentally managed to publish op-eds with nearly identical wording. Phillip Austin, vice-chair of Arizon's East Valley Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, claims that free IRS tax prep "would disproportionately hurt the Hispanic community." Austin declined to tell Propublica how he came to that conclusion.

Right-wing think-tanks are pumping out a torrent of anti-Direct File disinfo. This surely has nothing to do with the fact that, for example, Center Forward has HR Block's chief lobbyist on its board:

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/4125481-direct-e-file-wont-make-filing-taxes-any-easier-but-it-could-make-things-worse/

The whole thing reeks of bullshit and desperation. That doesn't mean that it won't succeed in killing Direct File. If there's one thing America loves, it's letting businesses charge us a tax just for dealing with our own government, from paying our taxes to camping in our national parks:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/30/military-industrial-park-service/#booz-allen

Interestingly, there's a MAGA version of predatory inclusion, in which corporations convince low-information right-wingers that efforts to protect them from ripoffs are "woke." These campaigns are, incredibly, even stupider than the predatory inclusion tale.

For example, there's a well-coordianted campaign to block the junk fees that the credit card cartel extracts from merchants, who then pass those charges onto us. This campaign claims that killing junk fees is woke:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/04/owning-the-libs/#swiper-no-swiping

How does that work? Here's the logic: Target sells Pride merch. That makes them woke. Target processes a lot of credit-card transactions, so anything that reduces card-processing fees will help Target. Therefore, paying junk fees is a way to own the libs.

No, seriously.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/27/predatory-inclusion/#equal-opportunity-scammers

[saturniandevil]

2025 Forecast

AKA my notes on The Astrology Podcast's 2025 Forecast, hosted by Chris Brennan and Austin Coppock. Saddle up, it's a long one!

Overview

This year's forecast is divided into an overview of big planetary shifts and a chronological breakdown, but it doesn't go quarter-by-quarter like in previous years.

Outer Planet Shifts

It's quite rare that such slow-moving planets as Neptune, Uranus and Pluto* all enter new signs in the same year (*Pluto has already ingressed to Aquarius after transiting Capricorn for the past 16 years, but this is the first full year he'll spend in Aquarius). Uranus has been in Taurus since 2018, and Neptune first ingressed to Pisces in 2011. Thus we are seeing major shifts happening all at the same time. These represent major cultural and social changes. In personal charts, this concludes activity in other parts of our charts and begins focus in a new area.

Pluto in Aquarius (November 2024 (final ingress) - January 2044)

Chris has been connecting this to cryptocurrency (Bitcoin started under Pluto in Capricorn) and AI stories, such as Google & other companies rolling out livechats. He predicts that robots, especially humanoid ones, will he ubiquitous in everyday life by the end of Pluto in Aquarius, though Austin is skeptical as to how evenly distributed technological advancements will be. Jobs and labor will surely be affected by the increasing digitization of different industries. Everyone's trying to hitch a ride on the AI train, but it'll take a major scandal before we see regulations put in place or see just how it'll integrate into society. We'll have to train our eyes to recognize the artificially generated, and we'll also have to deal with inefficient bureaucracy that technology alone can't quite fix. In mundane developments, even though the US was founded under Pluto in Capricorn, most of the government structure were put into place under Pluto in Aquarius. Last time Pluto was in Aquarius was the French Revolution (opposite Leo, the fixed signs of sovereigns and heads of state). The current Pluto in Leo generation (baby boomers) were raised definitively in the area of the celebrity, an issue that will likely come into question in the years ahead.

Uranus in Gemini (July 2025 - May 2033)

Uranus trines Pluto during this transit, so these two planets' themes are closely tied over the next decade. Previous Uranus in Gemini periods include the revolutionary war/founding of the USA, its Civil War, and WW2. Term limits were pushed and set under this transit with Washington & FDR; 84 years previous to the founding of the US John Locke wrote his ideas on government. Continuing on the theme of liberal democracy, the King James Bible was published under Uranus in Gemini in the 1600s--an attempt to democratize religion and encourage readers to have their own individual relationship with the text. Uranus was discovered during a Gemini transit in 1781, and was almost named "George" after the King of Britain. In general Uranus in Gemini brings particularly forward-thinking ideas while in Mercury-ruled signs. We should expect to see continued developments in AI controversies and LLMs (large language models), and the role of language overall. We can also expect shakeups in transportation, with technologies like self-driving cars and drones expanding in transportation, war, and everyday life. The burgeoning dominance of electric vehicles space travel are also likely previews into the Uranus in Gemini era, and we can look out for major developments in the realm of social media as well.

Neptune in Aries (March 2025 - March 2039)

Neptune's 165-year cycle means it changes sign about once every 14 years. The last Aries transit was in 1861-1875, and the ingress coincides exactly with US Civil War: Fort Sumter fell the day it ingressed. Neptune gives us dream-logic for its time, trends that are often only clear in retrospect. Austin describes the Neptune in Pisces era as valorizing qualities like acceptance & inclusivity, where the heroic figure of the time is a compassionate mystic/saintly. He predicts Neptune in Aries will valorize "the heroic." Where once suddenly everyone was an astrologer or witch, now, suddenly we're all soldiers/warriors. (This played out literally as mass conscription in the US Civil War & in England in previous Aries Neptune periods.) This period also saw developments in photography, namely war photography in newspapers bringing the goriness of war into every home. Civil War photos were originally shot in 3D and meant to be experienced through viewers, and the first color photo was taken 05/17/1861 when Neptune was at 1Aries, bringing levels of heightened realism and simulation into the conversation. Neptune in Aries faces us with forks in the road--no half measures.

Neptune in Aries can indicate wars remembered for their ideology, as was the case with the Taiping Revolt/Rebllion's bloody conclusion during Neptune in Aries (begun in Pisces). One of the deadliest wars in history (cost at least 20-30 million lives), it was instigated because of an extremist Christian religion. In medical astrology Mars-Neptune contacts can indicate autoimmune diseases where the body attacks itself, and the mundane analogy here is internal conflicts. In antiquity, the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE occurred during Neptune in Aries, Pluto in Aquarius, and the eclipse points moving from Aries/Libra to Virgo/Pisces (all configurations we'll see in 2025). This is considered a catalyzing event for the subsequent Jewish diaspora over the following centuries, as well as the shift from centralized worship to Rabbinic Judaism. In science & engineering, the steam engine, dynamite, first underground railway, Suez canal, mechanical submarine, and the concept of light as EM radiation via Maxwell equations all came about during Neptune in Aries periods.

Saturn in Aries Saturn is entering Aries from May to September this year and will be copresent with/conjoining Neptune over the next three years. Saturn is in fall in Aries, highlighting tensions between patience and impulsivity. We can also expect prominent figures to fall from grace, such as during our last Saturn in Aries in the late 1990s with the scandal around Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinksy. In personal charts, Saturn in Aries people will often chalk up their difficulties to "not trying hard enough," when really it may just be a matter of timing and patience. Famous Aries Saturn people include skater Tony Hawk, daredevil Evel Knievel, directors Francis Ford Coppola and Lily Wachawski, witch-hunting politician McCarthy, writer Margaret Atwood, actresses Zendaya and Lucy Lawless, and activist Malala Yousafzai.

Saturn Conjunct Neptune Saturn and Neptune will get within 1 degree of each other this year, though we don't get an exact conjunction til 2026. We've been seeing the buildup of this since Saturn entered Pisces in March 2023. What's real and bounded, and what's illusory and pervasive? This tension between illusions & structures likely means we'll see increased distrust in authority, such as the public doubting what's reported in news stories or fake news sparking major conflicts, and Chris predicts increasing polarization between aggressive skeptics and religious fundamentalists. Austin uses the analogy of the Mad Max: Furiosa movie--everyone is trying to conscript you to come fight with them for water. Austin notes that Saturn-Neptune contacts punctuate major events in recent Russian history, including the founding of St. Petersburg and the dissolution of the USSR. He also brings up the historical example of ronin, rogue samuari who had some public support as vigilantes, and compares it to Luigi Mangione's alleged assassination of the United Healthcare CEO, saying the public reaction to this event is a prediction of things to come.

Chronological Breakdown

Mars Retrograde: December 2024 and January 2025

We enter the year with Mars retrograde in Leo (opposite Pluto) and moving to Cancer on January 6th, and only getting to Leo on April 17th. This makes an extended transit through those two signs. Observationally, Mars is actually brightest and closest to Earth during its retrogrades, rising as the Sun sets, making him hyper-visible and much more reactive & chaotic than Venus & Mercury retrogrades. And indeed Mars's station on December 6th saw a bunch of major events: an attempted coup in South Korea, the Assad regime falling in Syria, a healthcare CEO assassinated in the US, a contested election in Romania, and the French government collapsing through a no-confidence vote.

Back to 2025, though: Mars entering Cancer on the 6th hearkens back to his last visit to the sign, September 4th-November 3rd of 2024. Events, both mundane and personal, will come back to us during this time. In politics we saw a lot of nativism and racism in US politics while Trump was campaigning, and unfortunately this is likely to resurface. Concerns over homelands & origin showed up in celebrity news with controversy over the New Orleans Superbowl booking Los Angeles-based rapper Kendrick Lamar over NoLa native Lil Wayne.

Mars is in fall in Cancer, and with Saturn in Aries later we get both malefics in fall this year. The trap of Cancer Mars is "nothing's safe enough," while that of Aries Saturn is "nothing is under enough control," and we must be on our toes to avoid falling into either. Mars in Cancer is reactive and impulsive, in contrast to the Saturnian discipline & foresight that Capricorn grants it in exaltation. In personal charts Mars rx in Cancer/Leo can show up as obstacles or frustration, or as an extended expenditure of energy in that area. Retrogrades can also bring things or people back into your life, and how you handle the situation sets you up for the next time you meet.

January 2025

We enter the month with retrograde Mars opposing Pluto on the 3rd and regressing to Cancer on the 6th. On January 15th we get the exact opposition of Mars to the Sun, days after the Full Moon, so that's another time to watch out for in events. The US presidential inaguration is on Jaunary 20th under a Sun-Pluto conjunction.

Electional chart for January:

The chart is for January 10th, at roughly 9:30AM local time to get early Pisces rising. The ruler of the Ascendant, Jupiter, is in the 4th house (♊) in a day chart and makes an auspicious conjunction to the Moon, who herself is separating from a square to Venus (♓). Venus is also exalted in the first house & on the Ascendant. This is also about as far away as we can get from the Mars-Pluto opposition while also avoiding the Sun-Mars opposition later this month. This is good for 4th house matters: not only home and family, but also matters where you're important but not visible, like a director.

Overall, January and February are dominated by the Mars retrograde, a "not so calm" before the storm of springtime.

March & April Venus goes retrograde on March 1st, regressing into Pisces before stationing direct on April 12th. Meanwhile, on March 29th we get an Aries solar eclipse, the final installation in a series going back to October 2023. The next day, March 30th, Neptune waltzes into Aries for the first time in a century. Meanwhile Mercury retrogrades from March 15th until April 7th, backtracking into Pisces while doing so. And if that wasn't enough, Saturn moves into Aries on May 24th. March & April are like a series of cascade reactions, and we'll spend the rest of the year (or few years in the case of Saturn) reacting to, cleaning up the aftermath of, and wrestling with understanding what happened. We'll definitely see major geopolitical events, maybe with bizarre connections, all the while thinking things are going in one direction when they're really going another.

Venus & Mercury Retrograde; Eclipses

Venus's station points are felt most intensely, but like with the Mars retrograde we also experience this as an extended transit of Venus through the signs of Aries and Pisces from January to June. Her retrograde also comes just 5 days after Mars concludes his own. Chris predicts that, unlike the Leo Venus rx a couple summers ago, there may be more fighting around women's issues rather than straightforward celebration. In Aries we already expecting a more combative expression of Venusian issues, and the increased activity in Aries only intensifies this prediction. Venus in Aries is not quiet--she's bold, active, and direct. In personal charts we'll see returns of events from 8, 16, or 32 years ago (last time she was retrograde in Aries), reviewing and revising relationships in the present. What and who do we want? Do we still want that? Under Venus rx we look for an unambiguous "yes." We can also see delays or postponements, scandals, and provocative art & culture. We'll be going back and forth between an exalted, compassionate Venus and a forthright, exiled Venus, choosing between the two on any given day and trying to reconcile them.

With Venus retrograde we can also think of the myth of Inanna (a story based off the Venus rx cycle), who descends through gates of the underworld and returns home to find her consort has taken the throne before she takes it back. We'll likely see stories about women in powerful positions reclaiming something after going through a struggle as Venus stations direct in her sign of exaltation. Specifically, she stations direct on April 13th conjunct Saturn (ironically another signature of Trump's upcoming inauguration), with Mercury retrograde also in Aries & Pisces at the same time. Both these planets are passing over Neptune in late Pisces as well: sometimes we have a lovely, dreamy vision that turns out to be terribly disappointing. Venus and Mercury will both cross Neptune three times, in both Aries and Pisces.

Mercury stations at 0Aries on March 29th, the same day as the solar eclipse, and switches signs with Neptune (leaving Pisces) the next day. The culminating eclipse is marred by miscommunications and illusions. As the last installment of a series begun in October 2023, this eclipse will definitely see developments in Israel's wars on other countries in the region. More generally, in mundane astrology North Node solar eclipses in Aries have coincided with the assassinations of heads of states & movements, as well as the eclipsing/stepping down of leaders...yet another signature of changing/threatened leadership in 2025.

In the middle of March we also get our first Virgo eclipse of this series, corresponding to the September eclipse in Pisces. We'll revisit the areas again in September with a Pisces and Virgo eclipse. The barrier between Aries/Pisces and Virgo/Libra sees a lot of activity in the first half of 2025. We'll definitely remember this year for the crazy Aries activity, though Austin predicts it'll come back to haunt us in 2026.

May-June-July Saturn enters Aries on May 24th, creeping up on Neptune and getting within a degree of him by July (~13th-14th), and then stationing retrograde. An outer planet's first station in a new sign signals what to expect, and Saturn and Neptune both do so in July (on the 13th and 4th respectively). From May 24th to September 1st we have Neptune and Saturn very close to each other and retrograding. Uranus enters Gemini on the 7th.

Jupiter in Cancer He enters in June of 2025, staying there until June of 2026. In this sign of his exaltation, he'll be counterbalancing some of the crazier transits of this year. He's also doing cleanup after Mar's messy transits earlier this year in the Cancer parts of our charts. Jupiter is a little folksy in Cancer--he's not just lavishing the wealthy, but is generous to everyday people as well. The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was enacted during Jupiter in Cancer in 2013-14 (a Jupiter under attack!), bringing important healthcare considerations to this placement (A/N: Cancer as a sign of nurturing and protection). In July of 1990 during Jupiter & Venus in Cancer, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed. Chris is wary of being too optimistic, but hopes that something good in healthcare is coming forward. This transit is a Jupiter return (every ~12 years) for the US Sibly chart, and also the repetition of a longer 83-year cycle where he hits the same degree on the same day--the third one since the US's founding, making this an especially potent Jupiter return. You'll notice that's only one year off from Uranus cycles, so we'll definitely see further reevaluations of the US's founding this year.

Generally, exalted planets represent someone at the highest level of their field, and Jupiter in Cancer is a sort of "get rich slow" planet. Success is cultivated, grown, and encouraged. In June & July Jupiter will square Saturn, though, a configuration that corresponds to financial and economic crashes. Jupiter in Gemini saw tech company crashes, but in a new sign we'll likely see new industries affected.

July & August: Outer Planet Teamup

Uranus enters Gemini on July 7th, the last of the slow outer planets to ingress to his new sign. From then til October 21st, we have the rare and powerful influence of several outer planets teamed up: Uranus sextiling Saturn & Neptune and trining Pluto (meaning Saturn & Neptune also sextile Pluto). This is a sort of pilot episode previewing what'll happen when they return in 2026. These planets shift from feminine water/earth signs to masculine air/fire signs, and each outer planet (except Pluto) will retrograde into his preceding sign in October & November, giving us a break from the teamup of big players for a bit. Mars in Libra will aspect all of these outer planets in August, making the configuration especially active then.

September - Eclipse Season Last September we saw our first Pisces eclipse of this series, and we'll have had another development with the first Virgo eclipse in March. Now we're firmly in Virgo-Pisces eclipses for the next 2 years. The September 7th and 21st eclipses will have us think about the big picture vs. granular details--how can we hold them in unison? The major endings & beginnings brought by eclipses are further punctuated by Saturn regressing back into Pisces on September 1st. Maybe a last set of upgrades need to be put in place in our Pisces area, though now our Virgo house is tied in as well.

October, November, December Neptune returns to Pisces October 22nd, Uranus to Taurus on November 7th, and Saturn stations direct for his last pass through Pisces on November 27th. A new chapter of our lives has begun, but we need to do a final check-in before things reach completion. The outer planet demolition team will be back on April 25th, 2026, where it'll stay until 2032-33. Neptune will station in Pisces on December 10th, another important Pisces turning point. Jupiter stationing in Cancer on November 11th is the cherry on top for the year ending where it began (but not to stay!). We end 2025 coming full circle on our sort of last look backwards before plunging for good into new--though not entirely unknown--territory.