Financial topics

[aeden]

The Censorship Dam Is Breaking! More Doctors Speak Out
https://banned.video/watch?id=5f246b5e68370e02f2a8094d
They are killing you.

The reality is all governments have been NWO globalist hell holes.
No you are not even smart enough to understand a ocr code either.
https://www.barcode-uk.com/information- ... ntry-codes

You are not a Country, just a corp origin code and that's simply it.

[aeden]

Former Black Panther gets it. Larry served His time and understands the facts in reality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbW62IkPBFE

[aeden]

In a move that we're sure is going to have absolutely no consequences, the bank is starting to impose negative interest rates on cash held in pensions, according to The Irish Examiner. The bank is applying a rate of 0.65% on pension pots, which means customers will now pay the bank $65 on every $10,000 held.

EU Guy says in two month his 2.0 percent CD expires and will ask for cash to see the bank idiots panic. Cool story nontheless.

[Higgenbotham]

There was a massive collapse in the birth rate in Q3 2019. I've been anticipating this collapse because it's my belief that the US went from recession to depression 3 quarters prior to Q3 2019 in terms of what the common person of prime reproductive age in the US is actually experiencing.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/nata ... hboard.htm

The 12 month-ending birth rate(s) increased when comparing 2018 Q3 with 2019 Q3 for the following age group(s):

40-44 years (11.8 to 11.9).


The 12 month-ending birth rate(s) decreased when comparing 2018 Q3 with 2019 Q3 for the following age group(s):

15-19 years (17.7 to 16.7).
20-24 years (68.8 to 66.2).
25-29 years (95.9 to 93.1).
30-34 years (100.0 to 97.8).
35-39 years (52.6 to 52.3).

The collapse in the birth rate continued in Q4 2019, though it does appear to be slowing. The collapse should pick up speed again when the post coronavirus numbers come in in a couple quarters.

The 12 month-ending birth rate(s) increased when comparing 2018 Q4 with 2019 Q4 for the following age group(s):

40-44 years (11.8 to 12.0).


The 12 month-ending birth rate(s) decreased when comparing 2018 Q4 with 2019 Q4 for the following age group(s):

15-19 years (17.4 to 16.6).
20-24 years (68.0 to 66.6).
25-29 years (95.3 to 93.7).
30-34 years (99.7 to 98.3).


No significant change was seen in the 12 month-ending birth rate(s) when comparing 2018 Q4 with 2019 Q4 for the following age group(s):

35-39 years (52.6 to 52.7).
45+ years (0.9 to 0.9).

[aeden]

Eviction Diversion Program
https://www.michigan.gov/mshda/0,4641,7 ... --,00.html
50 mil Michigan doesn't even have, but Whitmer is a good little communist.

[John]

** 02-Aug-2020 World View: Idiots

> Speaking of competence, I watched the testimony of the CEOs of
> Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook yesterday.

> These guys are idiots, especially the one from Google. But what
> especially surprised me was that Bezos couldn't put together a
> better opening statement.

I actually disagree with this point of view. It's the politicians who
were idiots because they barely know how to turn on a computer and
have no idea what's going on. The CEOs were well prepared, and played
on the politicians' ignorance and stupidity.

[Higgenbotham]

** 02-Aug-2020 World View: Idiots

> Speaking of competence, I watched the testimony of the CEOs of
> Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook yesterday.

> These guys are idiots, especially the one from Google. But what
> especially surprised me was that Bezos couldn't put together a
> better opening statement.

I actually disagree with this point of view. It's the politicians who
were idiots because they barely know how to turn on a computer and
have no idea what's going on. The CEOs were well prepared, and played
on the politicians' ignorance and stupidity.

Could you be more specific? What did the CEOs say that was brilliant? Because I saw not a glimmer.

As far as being well prepared, all I remember any of them saying is I don't know. Although I would admit that much of what they said I don't know to I would not have necessarily expected them to know. But something beyond I don't know would be expected, such as how they go about those things in general. I do remember Zuckerberg essentially saying that, yes, it is Facebook's general practice to copy competitors.

[Higgenbotham]

Greg Steube: (01:57:46)
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Pichai, I’d like to start with you, and I’m just going to illustrate my question with a factual incident that actually occurred to me. Several months ago, my wife called and said, “Hey, there’s a good article on The Gateway Pundit that you should read.” So I was up here in Washington, out of curiosity I Googled Gateway Pundit. And it didn’t show up on the first page, didn’t show up on the second page. There was a bunch of different blogging sites about how there were disagreements with what was on The Gateway Pundit, but I actually had to type in gatewaypundit.com to get to it. Interestingly, Google didn’t allow me to get to the actual website. That was a couple of months ago, before this hearing was set to be heard, before this hearing was noticed, before you knew that you would be appearing before us today, and that this is an issue that obviously conservatives and Republicans have had.

Greg Steube: (01:58:41)
Last week after this was noticed, this hearing was noticed, I did the exact same thing here in the Capitol. And wouldn’t you know it, I Googled Gateway Pundit, and that was the very first website that came up. Now, this isn’t from a constituent in my district. This isn’t from somebody telling me, this isn’t a news report. I actually physically did this on my laptop here in the Capitol several months ago, and then today. So clearly something had happened between not being notified that you were going to be appearing before our committee. And then last week, knowing that you would be appearing before our committee. And suddenly conservative websites are now at the top of the bar when you search for them.

Greg Steube: (01:59:18)
So was there anything done at Google between a couple of months ago and last week or the week, before you appearing today, that has changed your approach to silencing conservative websites?

Mr. Pichai: (01:59:32)
Congressman, we approach our work with a deep sense of responsibility, in a nonpartisan way. We want to serve all our users, no matter where they are. In fact, it’s in our longterm business incentive to do so. And I believe on our platforms, including YouTube, there are more conservative voices than ever before. And we believe in freedom of expression. On the specific issue, I will have to look into it. I obviously wasn’t aware of it. It could be a number of reasons. We constantly get reports from both sides of the aisle-

Greg Steube: (02:00:08)
So if you’re going to look into it for me, can I expect a response from you say in the next two weeks as to why that occurred?

Mr. Pichai: (02:00:16)
Congressman, we’ll do our best to follow up and I’ll engage with your office to [crosstalk 00:21:22].

Greg Steube: (02:00:22)
We’ll follow up on that. I’ve got a similar question. So I’ve been in elected politics for almost 10 years. And when I was in the Florida Senate, in the state Senate, I never had a problem with my campaign emails being marked as spam, or going to junk folders, or anything along those lines. And we had 30, 40, 50,000 people on our email lists. And suddenly, I get elected to Congress, and I’m now up here in Washington, DC, and my parents, who have a Gmail account, aren’t getting my campaign emails. My supporters, just last week one of my supporters called me and said, “Hey, I just want you to know this, that my Gmail account suddenly is taking your campaign emails that I’ve received for almost 10 years, and suddenly they’re going to spam and junk folders.”

Greg Steube: (02:01:06)
This appears to only be happening to conservative Republicans. I don’t see anything in the news, or anything in the press, or other members on the other side of the aisle talking about their campaign emails getting thrown into junk folders in Gmail. So my question is, why is this only happening to Republicans? And it’s a fact it’s happening, because I can have my supporters testify that they’ve received my emails for eight years, eight, nine years, and suddenly this last year, my campaign emails in their Gmail are going to their spam folder. So if you could give me some clarification on that, I would appreciate it.

Mr. Pichai: (02:01:42)
In Gmail, we are focused on what users want. And users have indicated they want us to organize their personal emails, emails they receive from friends and family separately. And so all we have done is we have a tabbed organization, and the primary tab has emails from friends and family, and the secondary tab has other notifications and so on. These things are-

Greg Steube: (02:02:04)
Well, it was my father who was not receiving now my campaign emails, so clearly that familial thing that you’re talking about didn’t apply to my emails.

Mr. Pichai: (02:02:19)
Our systems probably are not able to understand that it’s your father. Obviously, we don’t have that context there. We just apply it neutrally across all organizations and [crosstalk 02:02:35].


Rep. Jordan: (02:08:41)
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Pichai, is Google going to tailor its features to help Joe Biden in the 2020 election?

Mr. Pichai: (02:08:50)
Congressman, we approach our work… We support both campaigns today. We think political ads is an important part of free speech in democratic societies. And we engage with campaigns, according to law and we approach our work in a nonpartisan way.

Rep. Jordan: (02:09:05)
It was a yes or no question. Can you assure Americans today you won’t tailor your features to help Joe Biden in the upcoming election?

Mr. Pichai: (02:09:17)
We support work that campaigns do. I just want to make sure I am [crosstalk 02:09:22].

Rep. Jordan: (02:09:21)
I understand that. We all do all kinds of online social media, all kinds of that outreach, that communication. This is a simple question. Can you today assure Americans you will not tailor your features in any way to help, specifically help, one candidate over other? And what I’m concerned about is you helping Joe Biden over President Trump.

Mr. Pichai: (02:09:42)
We won’t do any work to politically tilt anything one way or the other. It’s against our core values.

Rep. Jordan: (02:09:49)
But you did it in 2016. There’s an email in 2016, that was widely circulated amongst the executives at your company that got public where Ms. Eliana Murillo, head of your multicultural marketing, talks about the silent donation Google made to the Clinton campaign. And you applauded her work, she points that out in the email. I’m just curious if you did it in ’16. I want to make… And in spite of the fact he did it in ’16, President Trump won. I just want to make sure you’re not going to do it again in 2020.

Mr. Pichai: (02:10:24)
Congressman, I recall our conversation at that time, and I appreciate your concern. We didn’t find any evidence of such activity. And I took the opportunity after our conversation to reinforce to the company, we realized even an appearance could be improper. So we have clearly communicated to our employees, any personal political activity while that’s their right, needs to happen on their own time and resources, and should avoid any use of company-

Rep. Jordan: (02:10:51)
Well, of course. Everyone’s got their First Amendment rights to campaign for who they want. What they can’t do is configure your features to help one candidate over the other. So you might have not have found any evidence, but here’s what she wrote to the email, to a number of key executives in your company. Quote, “We pushed to get out the Latino vote with our features.” Second quote, “We pushed to get out the Latino vote with our features in key states.” Seems to me those last three words are the real qualifier here. That’s electioneering. When you’re trying to increase the Latino vote in key states. And she had already communicated that she was supporting Clinton, that she wanted Clinton to win. So when she talks about increasing the Latino vote, which she assumed was going to help Candidate Clinton, and she’s doing that in key states.

Rep. Jordan: (02:11:36)
It’s one thing if you’re going to increase the Latino vote around the country. If you’re just a good corporate citizen, you’re urging people to vote. It’s quite another when you’re focusing on in key states. And you know what those key states were? Nevada and Florida, the swing states. So again, I want to make sure this isn’t going to happen in 2020.

Mr. Pichai: (02:11:54)
I can assure you that we complied with laws in 2016 as a company. Any work we do around elections is nonpartisan. Our users do-

Mr. Pichai: (02:12:03)
… we do around elections is nonpartisan. Our users do come to us for understanding where polling places are. Which is the date toward what the voting hours are. We are committed to providing that information, and I can assure you that we will approach [crosstalk 02:12:15]-

Rep. Jordan: (02:12:15)
Mr. Pichai, here’s the question I think is on so many American’s minds. They saw the list that we read here earlier on in our opening statements. All the things Google has done. Google is siding with the World Health Organization over anyone who disagrees with them, even though the World Health Organization obviously lied to America, obviously shills for China. Google is siding with them, YouTube is siding with them. We have the history of all the things Google has done. And the history of what happened in 2016 in the election, where they obviously, according to one of your multicultural marketing executive, tried to help Clinton. And here we are 97 days before the election, and we want to make sure it’s not going to happen again. Can you give us two assurances. One, you’re not going to try to tailor your features, configure your platform in a way to help Joe Biden. And second, that you’re not going to use your search engine to silence conservatives. Can you give us those two assurances today?

Mr. Pichai: (02:13:07)
Congressmen, on our search engine conservatives have more access to information than ever before [crosstalk 00:01:11]-

Rep. Jordan: (02:13:11)
And we appreciate that. That wasn’t the question.

[Higgenbotham]

Ms. Scanlon: (04:03:23)
Okay. Let’s go content that’s designed for children. So if there’s an organization like Sesame Street that wants to provide child-centered content, but they don’t want that content to be sullied, shall we say, with junk food ads or something, my understanding is that you say that the content creators can do that, but we’ve got a recent report from the Wall Street Journal that says YouTube hasn’t been honoring those requests, and it’s been making it difficult for independent auditing companies like Open Slate to independently audit that, and then report back to those content creators about whether or not YouTube is honoring those. Is that correct?

Mr. Pichai: (04:04:03)
I’m not familiar with the particular report, but I’m happy to understand that better and have my office follow up with your staff, Congresswoman.


Mr. Gates: (04:22:17)
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Pachai, in 2016, there was an internal Google meeting. You attended that meeting along with Sergey Brin. A video of that meeting was leaked to Breitbart. And at the meeting, top Google executives, including Kent Walker, lamented Trump’s victory, they compared Trump voters to extremists, and it was discussed that there was an intent to make the Trump win a blip in the populous movement in American history. Now, I know you’ve testified today in response to my questions and Mr. Jordan’s questions that you don’t intend this time to engage in electioneering on behalf of the former vice president. But given the video evidence of senior members of your team in your presence saying that they had the intent to make the Trump victory a blip, why should we believe that testimony today?

Mr. Pichai: (04:23:18)
Congressman, we do not have a view on… We respect the democratic process. We are deeply committed to it. As a company, we take pride in the information we provide to help people participate in free elections. And we are deeply committed to it, as I said to Congressman Jordan as well.

Mr. Gates: (04:23:40)
Do you remember that meeting in 2016 that you attended?

Mr. Pichai: (04:23:43)
Congressman, yes, I do. It was in the context of through the election across both sides, there was a lot of opinions. And as you know, elections are kind of a polarizing moment generally in the country. And there was a lot of rhetoric about certain issues which were affecting our employees and-

Mr. Gates: (04:24:01)
I understand rhetoric. I guess the question is…

Mr. Pichai: (04:24:03)
Certain issues, which were…

Mr. Gates: (04:24:03)
Oh, I understand rhetoric…

Mr. Pichai: (04:24:03)
Affecting our employees…

Mr. Gates: (04:24:03)
I guess the question is, when the senior members of your team in your presence said that they did have the intent to change the outcome in a subsequent election. And then since that moment in time where we’ve seen all of these conservative websites and conservative viewpoints censored, you can understand why people would be concerned. So after your employees and top executive said in your presence that they intended to make the Trump victory a blip, what action did you take as the CEO to protect and preserve the neutrality of your platform?

Mr. Pichai: (04:24:37)
Congressman, no one had a view on ever interfering with elections or so on. But what I can tell you is we’ve made it very clear, about two years ago we announced new community guidelines for within Google clearly making it clear that employees obviously are free to have their political views, but they shouldn’t bring that as they work on any of our products and if we found any evidence that people are using a political agenda to manipulate any of our content platforms we would take strong enforcement action.

Mr. Gates: (04:25:15)
But unfortunately, we have sort of a string of events here. We have the 2016 meeting where people demonstrated their intent to make changes to hurt the president, then we have your testimony today that’s a little different than your testimony from December where you say people can manipulate blacklists, and then you have the outcome where sites like Breitbart and Gateway Pundit and others see that disparate treatment. So it really doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes here to connect the dots and see what Google’s doing.


Greg Steube: (04:34:11)
Mr. Pichai, do you believe that the Chinese government steals technology from United States companies?

Mr. Pichai: (04:34:18)
Congressman, I have no firsthand knowledge of any information stolen from Google.

[Higgenbotham]

In reading through the transcript, I think that if the CEOs correctly recognize the political environment they are in and have correctly sized up that the capability of their opponents is low, then they performed adequately in the hearing; if their assumptions are correct, they gave the minimum responses required to continue with business as usual.

In other words, if they were capable of moving the bar higher, but felt no need to do so, then a strategy of keeping the bar low may be the best strategy. And that may result in them appearing inept in certain instances and in certain lines of questioning when in fact they are not.