Propaganda is Obvious

Because it is excellent, I've cut and pasted from a fascinating- and chilling -article by Berit Anderson and Brett Horvath from scout.ai  If you wanted reasons to spend less time on line, well here you go.  The full article is at https://scout.ai/story/the-rise-of-the-weaponized-ai-propaganda-machine  This is a must read.  Thanks Tom Civiletti for your post.
The upshot:  political, social and economic propagandizers now have the capacity to customize their message to every single individual with an online presence.  They can build a total experience for you, complete with a large group of fake friends, that is emotionally addicting and intellectually manipulative.  They can construct a complete world just for you, solely for the purpose of contolling your decisions.  Which doesn't feel like control at all.
This is why I believe people who run face-to-face businesses like I do will never become extinct.  In fact, now is our time.  We must counteract this powerful, pervasive and unConstitutional manipulation of one another.

At Scout, we’ve been speaking with political strategists, technologists, and machine learning experts about how AI propaganda will spread through society in the near future. We want to work with you, the Scout community, to scenario plan what happens next. Here are some implications to get the conversation started.

IMPLICATION #1:

Public Sentiment Turns Into High-Frequency Trading

Thanks to stock-trading algorithms, large portions of public stock and commodity markets no longer resemble a human system and, some would argue, no longer serve their purpose as a signal of value. Instead they’re a battleground for high-frequency trading algorithms attempting to influence price or find nano-leverage in price position.

In the near future, we may see a similar process unfold in our public debates. Instead of battling press conferences and opinion articles, public opinion about companies and politicians may turn into multi-billion dollar battles between competing algorithms, each deployed to sway public sentiment. Stock trading algorithms already exist that analyze millions of Tweets and online posts in real-time and make trades in a matter of milliseconds based on changes in public sentiment. Algorithmic trading and ‘algorithmic public opinion’ are already connected. It’s likely they will continue to converge.

IMPLICATION #2: 

Personalized, Automated Propaganda That Adapts to Your Weaknesses

What if President Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign didn’t just have the best political messaging, but 250 million algorithmic versions of their political message all updating in real-time, personalized to precisely fit the worldview and attack the insecurities of their targets? Instead of having to deal with misleading politicians, we may soon witness a cambrian explosion of pathologically-lying political and corporate bots that constantly improve at manipulating us.

IMPLICATION #3: 

Not Just a Bubble, But Trapped in Your Own Ideological Matrix

Imagine that in 2020 you found out that your favorite politics page or group on Facebook didn’t actually have any other human members, but was filled with dozens or hundreds of bots that made you feel at home and your opinions validated? Is it possible that you might never find out?

Your Constructive Comments are Welcome!

IRS Makes It Easy to Pay Your Federal Student Tax On The Phone

Well, that's a myth.  There is no such thing as a "Federal Student Tax " (other than the larcenous interest rates they charge students)  But here are some recent things scammers do that IRS definitely will NOT do:

• Demanding immediate tax payment for taxes owed on an iTunes gift card.
• Soliciting W-2 information from payroll and human resources professionals (IR-2016-34) 
• “Verifying” tax return information over the phone (IR-2016-40) 
• Pretending to be from the tax preparation industry (IR-2016-28) 

IRS Warns of Latest Scam Variation Involving Bogus “Federal Student Tax”

IR-2016-81, May 27, 2016                                                                                   

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today issued a warning to taxpayers about bogus phone calls from IRS impersonators demanding payment for a non-existent tax, the “Federal Student Tax.”

Even though the tax deadline has come and gone, scammers continue to use varied strategies to trick people, in this case students. In this newest twist, they try to convince people to wire money immediately to the scammer. If the victim does not fall quickly enough for this fake “federal student tax”, the scammer threatens to report the student to the police.

“These scams and schemes continue to evolve nationwide, and now they’re trying to trick students,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. “Taxpayers should remain vigilant and not fall prey to these aggressive calls demanding immediate payment of a tax supposedly owed.”

Scam artists frequently masquerade as being from the IRS, a tax company and sometimes even a state revenue department. Many scammers use threats to intimidate and bully people into paying a tax bill. They may even threaten to arrest, deport or revoke the driver’s license of their victim if they don’t get the money.

The IRS urges taxpayers to stay vigilant against these calls and to know the telltale signs of a scam demanding payment.

The IRS Will Never:

• Call to demand immediate payment over the phone, nor will the agency call about taxes owed without first having mailed you a bill.
• Threaten to immediately bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.
• Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe.
• Require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card.
• Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.

If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS and asking for money and you don’t owe taxes, here’s what you should do:

• Do not give out any information. Hang up immediately.
• Contact TIGTA to report the call. Use their IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting web page or call 800-366-4484.
• Report it to the Federal Trade Commission by visiting FTC.gov and clicking on “File a Consumer Complaint.” Please add “IRS Telephone Scam” in the notes.
• If you think you might owe taxes, call the IRS directly at 1-800-829-1040.

More information on how to report phishing or phone scams is available on IRS.gov.

Your Constructive Comments are Welcome!

Self Regulatory Organizations Always Police Their Industries Well

Well of course that's not true.  None of them do, from the FCC to the SEC.  But some do a better job than others.
FINRA (the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) seems to do a fair job considering their financial and political constrictions, as you can see below.  But out of 637,000+ brokers, they only examined 4500.  Or about 7/10 of one percent.  More instructional is the cases of theft and deception committed by specific brokers.  They're instructional because they all could have been prevented by more aware investors.
I invite you to explore their website at finra.org



Your Constructive Comments are Welcome!

HEALING OR STEALING

I've always been a fan of Paul Hawken due to his gentle but indefatigable spirit, in addition to his brilliant creativity.  You may know him from Smith & Hawken yard and garden products.  Or the Rocky Mountain Institute.  Or his fact-filled encouraging environmental thesis, "Natural Capitalism"  He spoke years ago at my alma mater, Willamette University, about the thousands of organizations working around the globe for healing purposes and how they would eventually triumph over the "stealers".
So when I found his commencement address to U of P's class of 2009, I was excited and wanted to share it with you.  My favorite quote from the address:

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse.

It is not only possible to invest in and conduct business in ways that heal one another and our surroundings, it is the only truly profitable way.

Your Constructive Comments are Welcome!