Chapter 14 Episode 1 Part 1:

We start with Oscar as he introduce himself and address the “audience” along with a masked Nyarl. He goes over a short version of the Jack the Ripper story. Saying no one enjoys reading a mystery novel if they know the ending and wondering who the killer is. So “knowing everything” means losing all pleasures. We transitioned to Christine’s backstory.

She lost her family at a young age and was all alone for most of her life left with only the dream of theater. The one who made her dream come true was Mr. Mononobe. He gave her many "roles" and stages. He gave her hope to live. After a performance, he always gave her a bouquet of roses. When she embrace it, she forget about her loneliness and is filled with joy. But she didn't understand why he was so kind to her. She asked him about the rose. He said that he was "just a substitute" for “that person”. However, that Mononobe is always watching the stage alone from afar. Someday, she wants him to see the play. She want him to tell me that he enjoyed himself. If only he could see her play and enjoy it. And if she could console his loneliness with her play. And before she knew it, she was called a great actress, and she wanted to be famous. Now she can play any "role". All her dreams came true, except for one. She is Christine. The apostle of King Solomon. She have acted only just for him. The only person who has watched her stage for a long time. She wants to show him a stage never seen before. Will the city burn? Will the island sink? Will the world fall apart? Will the stars shatter? She wants to dedicate a performance that goes beyond even the future. That’s the only hope and joy she has left.

We cut Ose who is being held prisoner in the basement of the opera house. But he’s not the only there. Loki is there with him. Ose becomes angry telling Loki he’s been looking for him. Loki remembers Ose and that he was given a fragment of Odin’s memory and is Odin’s substitute. Loki knows his profile thanks to using the app while being on the management side. Loki ask Ose why he’s looking for him. Ose tells him he’s looking for him because of his crime of enclosing the entire world of Yggdrasil in a wall. Yggdrasil was suppose to experience ragnarok but because of Loki putting the walls up that never happen. Just like he did to Tokyo, he turned Yggdrasil into a enclosed space. The future of the human in Yggdrasil have disappeared now that Yggdrasil is stuck in a loop just like Tokyo. He stole their futures. Only Loki is capable of doing something like that. Loki uses him tongue to break through Ose’s sacred artifact. His tongue breaks through all deceit, vanity, and disguise. That's why he’d too dangerous here in Tokyo and a prisoner of war. Loki ask why Ose doing all this. Simple, because there’s nothing else to do, you can’t find anywhere to go. Odin used to be the same when he received the ability of being all knowing. This is a dead end. Loki tells Ose he’s just a soldier who can't find anything else to do but accomplish the goals he's been given.

We cut to the Rulemakers drones hunting down Wanderers members. The mob catmen intercept them. One ask them are they trying to capture and brainwash them. The drone tells them some propaganda about how they are just leading people down the same terminal. This terminal reads your individual circumstances and guides you in making decisions more efficiently than you yourself. They believe they will know that you will live happier if you follow the same thing together. This terminal is a artificial intelligence made by Curren. It understands the characteristics of the individual and immediately returns an answer that is better than that individual. It doesn't have to be a perfect solution. It's enough if you can give "an answer that is better than what you give yourself". This is "Plan C". It is the answer to lead mankind to the next evolution. This plan is different from that of Isaac and that of Bertro.

Back to Loki and Ose. Loki tells Ose that’s his limit is that you can't "understand". It’s a "dead end". Because you can answer anything with that power, you can't feel any pleasure in doing what you want to do. While drowning in wisdom, you lose sight of where you want to go. Individuals that should be revitalized in this way will eventually lose their vitality. And just like Odins, drowning in the omniscience given to you, you are bound by our own ropes. Loki says Odin should be grateful rather than standing still, it's better to run around and still feel like you've done something. To keep it simple, his motive for putting the walls up, is entertainment. Back to Oscar, that’s why the Entertainers and Rule Makers are working together. To fill in the holes in Curran’s Plan C.

We cut back to where the prologue left off. King Solomon stands before them. But presence is empty, there’s nothing in there. A new exception introduce themselves as Overlord, the Zero exception. The embodiment of “dead end”. Overlord says there is no future ahead of us. There is no future for our evolution. It does something to MC and MC disappeared leaving only Lil’Sal behind. Lil’Sal freaks out about MC disappearing but notice King Solomon standing in front of him. He’s confuse about why who is that.

Back to MC, who is falling somewhere, it felt like they been falling forever. They open their eyes to see the horrific place in front of them. They bump into the cat girl, Quantum. She tells them this is the place where those who may be alive or dead end up.

The (Near) Future of Internet Privacy

Some news on the internet security/personal privacy front that you may find useful:

FTC Announces Plans to Begin Important Privacy Rulemaking (Source: Commondreams.org, 11Aug, 2022)

On Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission opened its long-anticipated rulemaking on measures to stop corporations and other commercial actors from abusing people’s personal data. In June, the agency announced that it was considering this rulemaking to safeguard privacy and create protections against algorithmic decision-making that results in unlawful discrimination. Today it released an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“ANPR”) on the topic. This is the first step in building a formal agency record for potential regulations that would be based on public comments about “commercial surveillance and data security practices that harm consumers.”

INVISV Launches PGPP (Pretty Good Phone Privacy) to Provide a New Level of Privacy for Mobile Communications (Source: Associated Press, 8 Aug 2022)

  In a nutshell, when you use Relay to visit a website or use an app, your phone will send an encrypted signal to INVISV, which will then pass that request along to a second relay point which is operated by the Fastly, a content delivery network. This has the effect of separating your IP address from your data traffic, with neither INVISV nor Fastly having all the information required to know which data was sent to which phone. 

[[NOTE: I’m not advocating for this new carrier, I’m just making a note that it exists and will be watching to see how it preforms as it is released]]

Watchdogs Say FTC Must Foster Internet 'Free from Unwanted Surveillance' (Source: Commondreams.org, 12Aug, 2022)

"The need for protections against companies' over-collection and retention of sensitive data has also come into stark relief as state prosecutors subpoena tech companies for private information about people seeking reproductive healthcare information and services.”

The importance of protecting privacy in a post-Roe world (Source: techxplore.com, 12 Aug, 2022)

  "Big Tech has shown again and again that they will choose monetizing user data over protecting individual privacy, and the federal government has been reluctant to offer serious regulation," she says. "So if people want to keep their information private, especially when it comes to reproductive care, the time to learn the basics of online privacy is now. Some of my favorite resources are the Our Data Bodies project, the Tech Learning Collective, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation."

[[NOTE: Worth looking at the links in that last paragraph, particularly Our Data Bodies project]]

One last thing re: Graeber/mediation. It really bothers when communists point to some part of communism that they'll take for granted as smoothly functioning and then appeal to it as a regimented and cemented reality instead of starting out at its origins as a process. To be like "sorry, kids, but in communism there will processes that override your personal desires. Toughen up." Yes but that's not at all the important part for us now in the present. What matters is HOW those processes are established, which won't be behind everybody's backs.

We have no idea how society will be mediated. But everybody now is quite used to processes overriding their personal desires, that's life under capitalism for most people. "Get used to not getting your own way" is a familiar sentiment. They hear it from their bosses! These kinds of comments are choosing some arbitrary point in communism and depicting it as a form of social domination. But the whole point of communism is that these processes will be formed within a conscious mediation. That is what we do in fact know about communism, that it would have to start with its social relations made transparent. We don't know enough to arbitrarily snapshot some distant point of those processes and describe how dominating they are to the people in that society.

However, the processes will HAVE to work in the background in a way that won't be at cross-purposes with general social welfare the way capitalism does. So the supposedly too-naive David Graebers of the world are actually starting with the correct social foundation. The social foundation is not "toughen up, things you can't control will dominate you." It's "our society will be rationally planned and we work out fairness consciously and you will be a part of any rulemaking process yourself."

No, individuals will not get their own way all the time, but it's a stretch to pull such a sentiment from someone saying "naturally we are probably able to cooperate without too much drama." That is in fact what we're banking on. Yes, things are more complicated when you scale it up, but if such a sentiment is inapplicable then we are going to need things like the state, classes, money, wage-labor, etc, to keep everyone in line.

What will provide our scalable sentiment is revolution itself. That will be the proof in the pudding. It's a process we will go through that will establish our foundational truths within which mediation will be scaled up.

Another way to put it: if you start discussion of communism further in its realization and attempt to revolve the matter around what we must submit to, you have disavowed the origin point as well the necessary logic that had to be worked through to ever begin communist forms of mediation at all, and are unavoidably then speaking within the ideology of capitalism. What is special about communism and distinct from anything people have experienced in capitalism has then been obscured.

Communism moves forward from a logic that can not be taken as a given under present conditions. The self-conscious deliberation of a society based on universal guarantees of basic sustenance implies a specific logic in all mediations, and one that is closer to Graeber's position than the position of people calling him naive. The after-effect of a consciously chosen mediation is not what we should be centering as step one. We have no idea what that will look like. We want the world to understand that the self-conscious mediation itself is possible first.

This is a very basic overview of the 1980 KidVid scandal, an important part of advertising regulation history and a good illustration of just how much power ad lobbyists hold. I recommend this or this (both PDFs, the second is from the FTC) to get a more in depth look at what went wrong.

In the late 70s and into 1980, there was a push from the Federal Trade Commission to amp up the regulations around what foods could be advertised on children's television, with a special emphasis on sugary foods. They were also concerned about ads that portrayed vitamins as candy-like that could encourage children to eat far more than they should.

The FTC requested a total ban on ads "for any product which is directed to, or seen by, audiences composed of a significant proportion of children who are too young to understand the selling purpose of or otherwise comprehend or evaluate the advertising [in this case, eight, though the limit was later lowered to six]" targeting "sugared food products directed to, or seen by, audiences composed of a significant proportion of older children".

This may seem harsh, but as you read, keep in mind it's still a far cry from the older, firmer regulations prohibiting any advertisement at all. Additionally, while eight may seem old, there were studies done that clearly showed that children could not reliably differentiate normal programming from ad segments.

Another piece of the most damning evidence used in the case came straight from the horse's mouth: Among other things, an advertising executive was caught on tape saying, "When you sell a woman on a product and she goes into the store and finds your brand isn’t in stock she’ll probably forget about it. But when you sell a kid on your product, if he can’t get it he will throw himself on the floor, stamp his feet, and cry. You can’t get a reaction like that out of an adult."

But this was during the leadup to Reagan's term and so, of course, it ended in misery. Advertisers, emboldened by Reagan's support of deregulating their industry and aggravated the the FTC's recent aggressive rulemaking, wrote scathing op-eds in national newspapers. They branded the FTC a "nanny" and put forth the argument that because parents were the ones making the final purchasing decision, there was no deception of consumers going on, and therefore it was an overreach of the FTC's rulemaking power. They even postured parents supporting the new regulations as a sign of weakness and inability to control their children.

Of course, these arguments fall apart under the slightest bit of pressure, but that didn't matter to advertisers or to newspapers. To them, every new rule on advertising was another chunk of money taken out of their lucrative ad placements. Even the Washington Post wrote against it.

There's a lot more to why this failed, including it happening at the same time as other FTC rulings that angered politically powerful businesses like funerary services, large used-car dealerships, and the tobacco industry, but that would take up a whole history book. Instead, it's important to know that the FTC had many, many enemies in very powerful positions, and this lead to the Federal Trade Commission Improvement Act of 1980.

The 1980 act cut the FTC off at the knees. It now required stringent congressional oversight, public announcements of proposed rules, and explicitly prohibited the FTC from any rulemaking involving children's advertising.

The FTC was burned so badly that on May 1, 1980, after the landmark Civiletti Opinion, they shut their doors. Luckily, funding was reappropriated relatively quickly thanks to President Carter's novel interpretation of the 1884 Antideficiency Act (the same one used by Attorney General Civiletti to shut it down in the first place) and the shutdown only lasted a day, but the wounds were there.

Even today, the FTC is loathe to touch children's television, instead focusing on advertising in apps and websites. The KidVid scandal is part of what enabled Reagan to enact such strict deregulation, and is a major contributing factor to the state of advertising as it is currently.

It's as fascinating as it is horrific, and it's something that's essential to know. Both the degree to which lobbyists were able to influence public opinion and public policy and the extent of the aftershocks of the KidVid scandal are very important to understanding today's advertising regulations and the FTC's position in them.

I tried to simplify this as much as I could, but there was a lot to cover, and this is only a fraction of everything that happened during the scandal. The two PDFs I linked in the first paragraph (this and this) are great resources for understanding more about what happened, and if you're interested, I'd highly recommend you read them.

If there's any questions, I'll do my best to answer them, but please bear in mind I'm neither a historian nor a lawyer, just a guy with a special interest.

"The Waters of Mars" thoughts

hey y'all it's been a minute. i'm going to knuckle through the last few eps of the davies era before i leave the country. anyway this one was good

this feels like the clearest throughline so far from s4. the doctor is experiencing the same emotions as many a greek protagonist– he has been touched by fate and destiny so profoundly, so inarguably, that he lashes out powerlessly. some of this is a reaction to being alone, deeply alone, having lost all the friends he has made since the time war ended, but some of it is about HOW he lost them. he was destined to meet donna, travel with her, he was actually a pawn in HER destiny, her journey. "journey's end" that was HER journey, he was HER companion in a sense. for someone so accustomed to having the upper hand, especially someone like ten, i can imagine how bad that shook him

cause like, this is ten, you know? i remember nine's last story, i remember "a coward, any day." i remember how he chose suicide, not because it would destroy the daleks but bc it meant he didn't have to live to see them kill everyone. coward, absolutely. the time lord victorious is the polar opposite. time lord victorious is glorious, violent arrogance. what was the change? what happened in the meantime? a lot, but primarily, rose tyler. rose-badwolf forced the regeneration, ten absorbed some of her into him, and time lord victorious is PURE rose tyler. her audacity, her confidence, her arrogance, all wrapped up with a fragile doctor who has lost all and has suddenly realized there are no rules, no rulemakers

the doctor has always been the "teenage rebel" but that implies youth, obedience, an authority figure to defy. it implies a kind of harmless messiness. but that authority figure is gone, before the war he was a father and a grandfather and now he is neither, he is an orphan, he is a widower, he is the very last of the time lords and he is completely lost as a rebel in a universe that suddenly has given him nothing to rebel against

i'm not going to recap the episode. go watch it if you don't remember it, it's really good. a few points: "name, rank, and intention" "the doctor, doctor, and... fun" that's a good one. adelaide was born in 1999 which makes sense for this being 2059 but hello??? adelaide brooke is gen z?? it's 2024 is she on tik tok rn?? girl. so the doctor notes that they have the first flower to bloom on mars in 10,000 years, not sure if that's referencing anything. we get several ice warriors mentions tho, respect

this whole episode has kind of a "the thing" vibe, i like it. viral life form in the glacier, can't tell who's infected. wish this episode had a fucked up dog. uniquely this episode has ten trying to leave, repeatedly. it was pretty common in classic who for the doctor to land somewhere randomly and then go "hm. i don't care much for this. goodbye" and be thwarted, cause he was messy back then. nowadays tho he's not like that, this is unique, this is notable. he finally admits it's a fixed point, a thing i think means nothing except whatever any particular episode writer wants it to mean. which is fine, this is doctor who after all. he takes it back at the end, decides he's above the law bc there are no lawmakers anymore, but forgets that other people have agency. adelaide killing herself got a gasp from my bf

a bit of the "bad wolf" theme plays during the time lord victorious speech which proves my point imo. this is rose, this is rose's influence. she did this, she made him this way, and i don't think that's even a bad thing! in so many ways she made him better. but she also took this fragile war-torn survivor of genocide and made him angry, hard, fanatically right about everything. we also got a bit of "vale decem" at the end around adelaide's suicide cause like yeah this is very distinctly leading to his death

i know this has been extremely rambly but i truly think this episode (which is mostly "the impossible planet" meets "the thing" until the last 15 minutes) is deeply rich thematically and ties into threads i've been picking up on since "the parting of the ways" like ten's era has SO MUCH going on in it!! it's a commentary on nine, on rose, on the time war, on destiny, on classic who, on new who's forward direction. and it'll lead so elegantly into eleven's era, who lives in extreme opposition to having once been ten (as is pointed out directly in "day of the doctor") i think we lose the plot a bit after that. but that's quite a ways away in my recapping. anyway this story is really good and this era is so rich

also this episode was in memory of barry letts. pour one out

Info copied from linked page :)

WHAT’S GOING ON?

In Fall 2021, the US Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) amidst significant backlash from the public. The package contained some deeply misguided provisions addressing cryptocurrency that threatened software developers trying to create alternatives to Big Banks and Big Tech. We led much of the opposition through our viral campaign at dontkillcrypto.com and now we’re ready to fight its implementation. Almost two years later on August 29, the US Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published their proposed regulations on the sale and exchange of digital assets by brokers as part of their implementation of the IIJA. This rulemaking will define a “digital asset” and who qualifies as a “broker” under the tax code. We have until November 14 to submit comments so we created this page so that individuals can make their voices heard.

What exactly is the new rule being proposed?

The Treasury and IRS want to make a new rule that makes anyone “responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets on behalf of another person” a broker. This move would require anyone deemed a broker to collect, keep and report personally-identifiable information from their users (including names, addresses and other financial information via tax forms to the IRS). This makes a lot of sense in the traditional financial (TradFi) world but gets very difficult to implement with decentralized finance (DeFi). It would force DeFi developers who don’t need or want to collect information on their users to do so, thus facilitating government financial surveillance and threatening privacy and anonymity online. Compliance with this rule and its reporting requirements would be impossible. It would essentially be forcing a central point of control where none exists. This could have catastrophic consequences for the decentralized use of digital assets by forcing centralization, creating intermediaries and rendering decentralized technology virtually impossible to access or develop in the U.S.

What are the concerns for the everyday user?

Financial data reveals some of our most sensitive personal information, including our personal interests, the causes we support, and our plans for the future. The agencies’ total failure to consider our privacy rights is outrageous given that this rule would dramatically expand the financial surveillance dragnet.

There is no reason for any of us to believe that these agencies can securely store such a massive collection of sensitive information on millions of people. In 2022, the IRS mistakenly made private information about 120,000 taxpayers publicly available and the Treasury has been hacked in the recent past. Collecting unnecessary information serves no other purpose than to put users at further risk that neither agency can protect them from.

In addition, the Fourth Amendment makes it unconstitutional for the government to force individuals or businesses to collect and report the personal information of others if they (a) don’t already collect that information as part of their business, (b) have no reason to collect that information apart from the government demand, and (c) if the information is not already voluntarily provided. The IRS and Treasury should at the very least, take this opportunity to do the right thing—interpret the statute narrowly and revise this policy accordingly by taking out the requirement for developers to stalk and surveil users of their technologies.

Will this new rule stop tax evasion, money laundering and other serious crimes?

In short, no. People who are operating illegal schemes can continue to use other means. This will not be a miracle fix for problems that exist within traditional finance. Instead, it will cause more issues than it attempts to solve. Similar rules at traditional financial institutions have backfired, allowing these crimes to flourish at some of the world’s biggest, most heavily-regulated banks. If it hasn’t worked before, why would it work now? This rule will effectively impose financial surveillance on people who are participating in the crypto-economy for legitimate purposes, while having little-to-no impact on bad actors.

So, how do I send my comments to the IRS and Treasury?

Commenters are strongly encouraged to submit public comments electronically. We built this tool to make it easy for everyone to send a comment on this rulemaking. You can use the form above to let the IRS and Treasury know what you think of this new policy. It is very important to add personal stories and insights to really make an impact. You can also submit electronic submissions directly via the Federal eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov, indicate IRS and REG–122793–19 and follow the online instructions for submitting comments. The Treasury Department and the IRS will publish any comments submitted electronically or on paper to the public docket. Once submitted, comments are public and cannot be edited or withdrawn. If necessary, you can also follow the instructions on the page for how to send paper submissions. Written or electronic comments must be received by November 14, 2023.

Mike Thompson, USA Today

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

May 25, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAY 26, 2023

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta today sentenced the leader of the right-wing Oath Keepers organization, Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, to 18 years in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release. In November a jury found Rhodes guilty of seditious conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, and tampering with documents and proceedings, for his role in organizing people to go to Washington in January 2021 and try to stop the counting of the electoral votes that would make Joe Biden president. Rhodes told the court that his only crime was standing against those who are “destroying our country.” He says he believes he is a “political prisoner” and that he hopes Trump will win the presidency in 2024. “You are not a political prisoner, Mr. Rhodes,” Judge Mehta said. “You, sir, present an ongoing threat and a peril to this country and to the republic and to the very fabric of this democracy.” And yet, former president Trump has said he would not only pardon the January 6 offenders, but would apologize to them for their treatment by the government. Today, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who yesterday announced he is running for president, said he, too, would consider pardoning them, promising to be “aggressive in issuing pardons.” Rhodes struck at our elections. Today in the Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency decision, the Supreme Court struck at the government regulations that underpin modern America. Michael and Chantell Sackett bought land near Priest Lake, Idaho, and backfilled the wetlands on the property to build a home. The EPA found they had violated the Clean Water Act, which prohibits putting pollutants into “the waters of the United States.” Officials told them to restore the site or face penalties of more than $40,000 a day. By a vote of 5–4, the Supreme Court found that “waters” refers only to “‘streams, oceans, rivers, and lakes’ and to adjacent wetlands that are ‘indistinguishable’ from those bodies of water due to a continuous surface connection.” This decision will remove federal protection from half of the currently protected wetlands in the U.S, an area larger than California. Homeowners, farmers, and developers will have far greater latitude to intrude on wetlands than they did previously, and that intrusion has already wrought damage as wetlands act like a sponge to absorb huge amounts of water during hurricanes. From 1992 to 2010, Houston, for example, lost more than 70% of its wetlands to development, leaving it especially vulnerable to Hurricane Harvey, a category 4 hurricane that in 2017 left 107 people dead and caused $125 billion in damage. The decision said that the EPA had overreached in its protection of wetlands as part of the Clean Water Act, and that Congress must “enact exceedingly clear language” on any rules that affect private property. This court seems eager to gut federal regulation, suggesting that Congress cannot delegate regulatory rulemaking to the executive branch. As investigative journalist Dave Troy put it, “If [the] EPA can’t enforce its rules, what federal agency can?” Justice Elena Kagan warned that by destroying the authority of the EPA, both now and in the West Virginia v. EPA decision last June that restricted the agency's ability to regulate emissions from power plants, the court had appointed itself “as the national decision maker on environmental policy.” The Clean Water Act passed by an overwhelming bipartisan vote in 1972, during the administration of Republican president Richard M. Nixon. Nixon backed the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 after a massive oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, over ten days in January–February 1969 poured between 80,000 and 100,000 barrels of oil into the Pacific, fouling 35 miles of California beaches and killing seabirds, dolphins, sea lions, and elephant seals, and then, four months later, in June 1969, the chemical contaminants that had been dumped into Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River caught fire. In February 1970, Nixon told Congress “[W]e…have too casually and too long abused our natural environment. The time has come when we can wait no longer to repair the damage already done, and to establish new criteria to guide us in the future.” Nixon called for a 37-point program with 23 legislative proposals and 14 new administrative measures to control water and air pollution, manage solid waste, protect parklands and public recreation, and organize for action. At Nixon’s urging, Congress created the EPA in 1970, and two years later, Congress passed the Clean Water Act, establishing protections for water quality and regulating pollutant discharges into waters of the United States. House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) tweeted that “[t]oday’s Supreme Court ruling is a win for farmers, businesses, and Americans across the nation by rejecting, yet again, the Biden administration’s costly and burdensome regulatory overreach.” But it sure looks like the story is not about Biden, but rather is about an extremist SCOTUS overturning 50 years of law that gave us clean water because it is determined to slash federal authority to regulate business. McCarthy is trying to manage his conference while members of the far-right Freedom Caucus strike at our economy. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated today that defaulting on the national debt is not an option. “The President has said that, the Speaker has said that, and we want the American people to understand that as well…. What is up for debate, though, is the budget,” she said. “And that’s what these discussions are about: two very different fiscal visions for our country and our economy.” Biden’s proposed budget invests in ordinary Americans and over 10 years is projected to reduce the deficit by nearly $3 trillion by “asking the wealthy and corporations to pay their fair share and by slashing wasteful spending on special interests.” In contrast, “House Republicans…want to slash programs millions of hardworking Americans count on, while also protecting tax breaks skewed to the wealthy and corporations that will add $3.5 trillion to the debt. That’s where these negotiations began,” she said. Finally, there is news today about the man that Rhodes is going to prison for, concerning his strike at our national security. Devlin Barrett, Josh Dawsey, Spencer S. Hsu, and Perry Stein of the Washington Post reported that on June 2, 2022, the day one of Trump’s lawyers contacted the Justice Department to say that officials were welcome to come to Mar-a-Lago to retrieve the classified documents the department had subpoenaed, two of Trump’s employees moved boxes of papers. The next day, when FBI agents arrived, Trump’s lawyers gave them 38 documents, said they had conducted a “diligent search,” and claimed that all the relevant documents had been turned over. Yet, when FBI agents conducted a search two months later, they found more than 100 additional classified documents. The timing of the moved boxes suggests that Trump was deliberately hiding certain documents. The Washington Post article also says that more than one witness has told prosecutors that Trump sometimes kept classified documents out in the open and showed them to people. Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement: “This is nothing more than a targeted, politically motivated witch hunt against President Trump that is concocted to meddle in an election and prevent the American people from returning him to the White House.”

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

..."Facing a divided Congress unlikely to pass major legislation, President Joe Biden’s administration is now cajoling or working with private companies to advance an otherwise stymied policy agenda on everything from prescription drug costs to expanding child care options.

On Wednesday, Biden celebrated pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly’s announcement that it would slash and cap the cost of insulin. Earlier in the week, the Commerce Department announced it would require chipmakers to offer plans for affordable child care to qualify for more than $50 billion in subsidies. And three major airlines responded to Biden’s call in the State of the Union to eliminate fees for parents and children to sit together by doing just that.

All three announcements advance the administration’s long-standing policy goals — to lower prescription drug costs, to expand affordable child care options and to eliminate so-called “junk fees” — in ways Congress has so far been unable to. It shows how the administration is turning to public pressure and regulations to enact its agenda.

“The president’s bully pulpit is a really important tool that he’s using to reduce costs for families in a number of ways,” Bharat Ramamurti, the deputy director of the White House’s National Economic Council, told HuffPost in a phone interview. “It’s not meant to substitute for getting things through Congress, or for getting something done in rulemaking.”

Key to the efforts is the underlying popularity of the ideas: Lowering prescription drug costs has long been one of the public’s biggest priorities, and public surveys show Biden’s push against junk fees is broadly popular.

“We pick these issues where there is something fundamentally unfair and unreasonable that is happening, and you shine the presidential spotlight on it,” Ramamurti continued. “The president must have talked about lowering the price of insulin 100 times over the last year and a half as he’s been pushing for this, and this week you saw a pharmaceutical company respond to his call to act.”

The tactic is not a new one for the White House. Shortly after Biden unveiled his antitrust agenda with a sweeping executive order in 2021 including a push for “right to repair,” Apple announced it would sell repair kits to the public for the first time."

Scrying Mirror Inspired Character: Meskhenet

I made a Genshin OC ‘cuz I’m bored and wanted to 

Warning: Death mention (also less important but the list is very long and might take too long to scroll by on mobile, so only open if you’re interested in reading) 

Short adult female model (‘cuz scrying mirrors are typically rather small)

Hails from Sumeru (in the real world, she’d be Egyptian) but has very much taken on Fontaine’s styles (still has hints of her home throughout, of course)

Wears a hat like Mona Megistus does and like Alice is rumoured to (NEEDS to have three candles [small one purple, medium ones brown and orange respectively] on top with wax leaking off the sides instead of the suggested two used in scrying)

Since she wears a witch’s hat and she’s supposed to be in Genshin I guess she’s a catalyst (Ningguang now has competition in the rock-throwing challenges, oH NO—)

definitely lives in Fontaine,

obviously has a Geo Vision (as scrying mirrors were originally made of stone),

a member of the Hexenzirkel who gave up on the Academia to join (she was top of a decent few of her classes in Sumeru and was told by those around her that she’s destined for the Academia, but as soon as she was out of public school she hurried for Fontaine and ended up being taken in as an apprentice of one of the Hexenzirkel members who saw great potential within her),

obsessed with learning the future but only seems capable in literally any other form of magic,

BACKSTORY (death mention is only in this point): She lost her triplet sisters in a freak accident that left her an only child. She believes that if she only had properly honed her minor foresight capabilities her siblings would still be alive today

Gives off a definite air of mystery and knowledge (really just shy—is very knowledgable in both book-smarts and street-smarts, though)

Minorly receptive to the spirit world and thus, has visions (as in flashes of knowledge) when one day, she got a Vision (as in an acknowledgment from the gods)

Extremely good at focusing but only on one thing at a time, so she tends to become hyperfocused on given tasks

Stone of specific focus (because Geo) is obsidian

Has a scar over the bridge of her nose (right between her eyes) that she refers to as her “Third Eye” (“This scar? Ah, it is… my Third Eye. Unfortunately, as you can see, it is closed at this moment in time.”)

A stickler for the rules but she is not the rulemaker

Never quite meets peoples’ eyes

Always rather messy and tends to leave a (sometimes literal) paper trail in her wake

Purple, oranges, and browns are part of her colour palette (BURNT ORANGE IS YOUR NEW BEST FRIEND)

Has a hard time asking for help

Hates wood because of how easily she gets splinters

Muscles are always tense so she has a hard time physically relaxing

Basically all her naturally-given tendencies contradict what is needed to properly use a scrying mirror

Would probably become an older sister-type character to the Traveller and support them throughout the (possible) court trial where the Traveller and Paimon are inevitably labelled as criminals once again, but since she knows almost nothing about the justice system she can only be there emotionally

Has a habit of overcompensating which usually takes on the form and is depicted as a pattern of her needing to bring two things but arriving with three (wears three rings with the extra on top of one of the main two, has three candles on her hat when scrying mirror sessions [her whole thing] require only two, would most likely be sent off to get two materials for a fetch-quest in the Fontaine chapter but come back with an extra third, her parents expecting twins but then her arriving after her sisters, etc.)

Digifinex Labs: Coinbase Challenges US Treasury’s Proposed Crypto Mixing Rules, Citing Inefficiency and Resource Concerns

The exchange expressed concern over the proposed mandate for crypto platforms to report all crypto mixing activities, regardless of their legitimacy, considering it an inefficient use of resources. Additionally, Coinbase objected to the lack of a monetary threshold for recordkeeping and reporting. Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, highlighted that the absence of a threshold could result in bulk reporting of non-suspicious transactions, which contradicts Congress’s stance on such data dumps being a waste of time and resources.

This response from Coinbase comes in reaction to FinCEN’s October proposed rulemaking, which aims to enhance transparency in the realm of crypto mixing activities.

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Chapter 14 Prologue Part 6

We start with Barong torturing(?) the captured investigator. Telling him to expose everything about him to the open. The brainwashed police officer said he will offer his body to the Entertainers. Barong says welcome to the Entertainers. We see how they use the police officer as bait to lure away Beowulf. We cut to Beowulf and Christine fight. Beowulf exclaims thats how the Entertainers are using brainwashed people. Christine said it’s not brainwashing, we’re just giving them joy (it’s still brainwashing). Brainwashed companion will let go of everything and become actors on the stage. Some will even sacrifice themselves and die. Beowulf throws away his broken sword for a new one. For him he doesn’t care as long as he keeps fighting. He will continue to fight the Dragon (MC). Christine said that’s how the Game Masters work, to keep the game going forever. Beowulf ask Christine what is her true goal. We see Barguest quietly relaying the information he learn to the other Wanderers.

We cut to the Wanderers and Arc. Arc thanks Kursha for helping them. We also see Hermes. Kursha ask him if he heard anything from Barguest yet. Hermes said they got some good info about the Ripper Incident that he could use to make a deal with the cops that has been chasing him. Arc ask if this place (the slums) is their base. Kursha said they have no base, they are rootless and move from place to place. That’s how they have been surviving against the Rule Makers for so long. The rulemakers seem to have a device that lets them know everything. Kursha said he knows about what happen to the Genociders. Flashback to CH8 where the Genocider sacrifice themselves to let Arc escape. Arc was planning on storming to the Rule Makers base. But someone get chased by drone fighters. Kursha also brought up Avarga who is also heading towards the Rule Makers base. Kursha said him and the Wanderers are working on a anti-occupation measure. The Wanderers ideology don’t get along with The Rule Makers who believe a almighty being will put them on the right path, while the Wanderers believe in deciding for yourself.

Back to the Kirito fight. Bigfoot proclaims he’ll protect MC. He rises WR Wakan’s powers (since he’s a substitute WR). Bigfoot said he loves MC. Kirito sees this and said that’s unforgivable. Mononobe has taught him things he doesn’t want to know. There’s no such thing as family in this world where you can rely on unconditional love. It would have been better not to know. In this world where I'd rather be killed, I don't need a place to belong. I just didn't want to be anywhere. I will take you out of this world with my own hands and I'm finally leaving this fucking Tokyo!

We cut to narration about a boy who ask I was supposed to be born in a world like this but he wasn’t. He’s human and they are beastmen. A beastmen mind in a human body, why was he born like that. He’s ashamed to be human. So he tried to suppress the beast inside of him in a cage. We cut back to the Angels fighting the beast. The beast is the Beast Tamer guildmaster, Yuma. There no reason for his actions, he’s just rampaging. The beast ran outside of Ueno on all fours.

Back to Christine. She starts to explains why the Rule Makers joined forces with the Entertainers. Simple, they want the same thing. They want King Solomon to exist in this world. But certain conditions need to be met. Back to Bigfoot, he uses his ability to exist everywhere, now no one can injure him. Kirito was waiting for this moment. Kirito stab Bigfoot with is his Sacred Artifact knife. Cut to Christine who said normally the scene where Kirito stabs MC will play out but this this time it will be different. A new script is made. Kirito tells MC goodbye as he disappears into the fog. MC went to touch Bigfoot with their ring hand and something triggered. The area became distorted as colors are reverse. The unsettling music from before begins to play. Christine said she couldn’t afford to miss this loop. Only in this loop Bigfoot is a substitute WR. The ring that belongs to King Solomon and a urban legend. The two conditions are now fulfilled. King Solomon begins to invade MC’s mind. Christine tells MC thank you for their hard work. And welcomes the great one, King Solomon. We cut to Curren, everything is going exactly as planned. Operation Zero Exception Handling begins.

To be continued…..

Digifinex Labs: Spot Bitcoin ETF Issuers Poised for Trading Pending SEC Approval

To facilitate the launch, Grayscale Investments is actively working on filing an amended form 19b-4 over the next three business days. This step is crucial as the original paperwork was submitted several months ago and requires an update. The amended form is expected to be visible in the rulemaking section of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) website once filed.

Additionally, the issuers aiming to introduce spot Bitcoin ETFs will finalize S-1 forms. These documents will outline the fees associated with the ETFs, specify authorized participants, and eliminate any bracketed items, ensuring clarity in the offering.

For the spot Bitcoin ETFs to officially commence trading, the SEC must approve the outstanding 19b-4 forms for each fund, a development that would initially be reflected on the SEC’s website. Simultaneously, the S-1 forms must become effective. It’s noted that approvals for these separate forms may not necessarily align in timing.

The anticipation of spot Bitcoin ETFs is high, as their approval could mark a significant milestone in the integration of cryptocurrencies into traditional financial markets.

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Digifinex Labs: Coinbase Accuses SEC of Delay Tactics in Crypto Rulemaking Petition

Coinbase’s lawyer, Eugene Scalia, argued that only a court order would prompt the SEC to take action, emphasizing that the SEC’s recent update provided “no additional information about its progress.” Scalia asserted that the SEC’s offer of another status report by December 15, coupled with continued hesitation, confirms that only a mandamus will compel the SEC to fully acknowledge that Coinbase’s rulemaking petition was effectively pocket-vetoed long ago.

Coinbase initiated legal action against the SEC in April after a petition last year urging the regulator to draft new rules for digital assets. The SEC, in a letter dated November 21, stated that its consideration of the staff’s recommendation on Coinbase’s rulemaking petition is proceeding according to the Commission’s Rules of Practice.

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Digifinex Labs: Coinbase Urges SEC Action on Crypto Rulemaking, Citing Kraken Enforcement

In a filing dated November 22 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, legal representatives for Coinbase responded to the SEC’s letter from November 21. In that letter, the SEC stated its intention to provide a status report on the crypto rulemaking petition by December 15.

Coinbase had originally filed the petition in July 2022, urging the SEC to “propose and adopt rules to govern the regulation of securities that are offered and traded via digitally native methods.” However, subsequent responses from the SEC hinted at delays.

The response from Coinbase suggested a level of frustration with what it perceives as ongoing delays and asserted that only a court order would compel the SEC to fully address the petition. The letter stated, “Although the agency’s fear of a court ruling spurred it to do something, its proffer of another ‘report’ — as it continues to hedge and delay — confirms that only mandamus will impel the Commission to fully, finally acknowledge that Coinbase’s petition for rulemaking was pocket-vetoed long ago.”

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Crypto asset manager CoinShares has launched a new hedge fund division to court American investors. The business will cater to accredited investors and complement the company’s portfolio of exchange-traded products (ETPs). According to CoinShares’ Chief Executive Officer, Jean-Marie Mognetti said that high interest rates provide interesting opportunities to outperform markets.  “The market, the macro environment is very fertile for this because of monetary policy, lots of volatility, macro uncertainty,” he said. CoinShares’ Filing Follows SEC Rulemaking Blitz While it has not revealed details about the new division, CoinShares filed paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the summer to launch two feeder funds focused on Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).  The company has not publicized the new hedge fund’s investment approach.  In August, the SEC voted to compel the $27 trillion private fund industry, including private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds, to release quarterly performance and expense reports. The move was designed to protect investors from potentially unfair and harmful practices by fund managers. According to Elizabeth Shea Fries, a partner specializing in investment funds at law firm Sidley Austin LLP, the move would significantly increase fund costs. The SEC later pegged annual compliance costs for its new rules at around $961 million. Accredited Investors Struggle to Invest in Crypto Funds Wall Street’s attempt to package crypto in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for American investors has not yet borne fruit. The SEC has demanded spot ETF applicants improve market surveillance to combat manipulation but subsequently delayed ruling on revised filings. Moreover, K33 senior analyst Vetle Lunde said major crypto funds tracking futures and other crypto derivatives experienced their fifth week of outflows. Lunde says the correlation between crypto assets and equities has fallen from their bear market highs.  Learn more about the banking crisis that shook the US in March here. Correlation between crypto and equities has declined | Source: K33 Research As a result, it is unlikely that future Fed decisions and other macro events will significantly impact crypto markets as they did in 2022, Lunde notes.  “What we have seen throughout the year is that correlations between Bitcoin, the Dollar Strength Index, and US equities have fallen. So correlations are now effectively nearly zero. We are about to reach an area similar to where we were before COVID-19,” he said. Understand the differences between crypto and stocks here. Higher Federal Reserve rates appear to be pushing American investors away from crypto toward lower-risk investments like long-term government treasuries. The move has sparked concerns the US government’s monthly rate of debt accrual has spiraled out of control. Do you have something to say about CoinShares launching a new crypto fund in this macro climate or anything else? Please write to us or join the discussion on our Telegram channel. You can also catch us on TikTok, Facebook, or X (Twitter). Source

Big news! NOW is the time to make your voice heard re: policy around AI in art

https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/29/23851126/us-copyright-office-ai-public-comments

If you aren’t sure what to say, scroll down in the Federal Register announcement, found here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/08/30/2023-18624/artificial-intelligence-and-copyright You can also submit your comment through this link!

If you feel like your voice won’t be heard, know this about the rulemaking process:

-Agencies are required to have public comment periods, and they’re required to read every single response they get. **SOMEONE will see what you wrote.**

-**There is no limit on how much you can say**. People submit PAGES of info to calls for public opinion. GO WILD.

-This is the first step in creating rules/regulations, **what you say in your comment will help determine what the rule/regulation IS** (if it’s made), so it’s REALLY important to make your voice heard now!!