Enough Is Enough

The headline in WaPo, (Washington Post), Google announces privacy changes across products; users can’t opt out, http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-tracks-consumers-across-products-users-cant-opt-out/2012/01/24/gIQArgJHOQ_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboNE_b, I’ve had enough.

Google’s decision to begin combining data across ALL of its websites “to stitch together a fuller portrait of users”, who “won’t be able to opt out of the changes”, is the final straw.

So, I’ve moved goldfingerchronicles to WordPress. As soon as possible, I’ll be finding an alternative for YouTube/GeneKernan, as well as replacing my “Android” phone (though my number will remain the same).

After February 28, 2012, you'll have to find this blog at http://goldfingerchronicles.wordpress.com

Boycott Hollywood?

Kudos to Karl Denninger and Market Ticker:

MPAA Publicly Threatens Politicians

Perhaps it's time for Americans to boycott the movies....

Reinforcing the fact that Chris Dodd (recall that Chris Dodd got a sweet, below-market mortgage rate for supporting the banksters that stole the economy - Blogmaster) really does not get what's happening, and showing just how disgustingly corrupt the MPAA relationship is with politicians, Chris Dodd went on Fox News to explicitly threaten politicians who accept MPAA campaign donations that they'd better pass Hollywood's favorite legislation... or else:

Chris Dodd wrote..

"Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake,"

This certainly follows what many people assumed was happening, and fits with the anonymous comments from studio execs that they will stop contributing to Obama, but to be so blatant about this kind of corruption and money-for-laws politics in the face of an extremely angry public is a really, really, really tone deaf response from Dodd.

Well I have a solution to that: Americans need to boycott the MPAA.

That, my friends, means no more movies.

Look, I own a lot of DVDs. Like over 300 of them. I bought them all. I like movies in the theater too.

But I do not like this sort of threat, especially when what is being demanded is ineffective and does nothing to address the real issues when it comes to intellectual property and piracy.

The real problems are resolvable through trade sanctions -- and short of military action, only through that path. You cannot force another nation to adopt your laws, but you can prevent them from having free and unfettered access to your markets if they are going to behave, and allow their citizens to behave, in ways that you find offensive.

The corruption between "business" and Washington DC has always been present but this particular display is especially brazen, coming from a lobbyist and spokesperson who's last gig was screwing the American public when the banks ripped everyone off and then went and begged DC for a bailout.

To Doddering Dodd and the MPAA: That sound you hear is my wallet snapping shut.

Does "Gordon Gekko" Own Ass. Press?

In a "news" story called "Republicans stand together to oppose piracy law", an unidentified ASSOCIATED PRESS "journalist" (if you can't figure out why he's unidentified, I can't explain) writes:

"Standing in near unison, the four remaining contenders seeking the Republican presidential nomination are condemning a proposed anti-online piracy law that its critics say is overly aggressive."

OK so far. The next paragraph begins "Mitt Romney says".

Paragraph 3 starts with "Newt Gingrich says...".

The fourth paragraph opens "Rick Santorum says..." (and we all know what "santorum" means).

But the last paragraph...WAIT!...That WAS the last paragraph.


Can YOU figure it out?

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GOP_DEBATE_INTERNET?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-01-19-21-28-15

Speaking of Criminals...

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

"Chase"d Out Of Court

"Robo-signing, or the high-volume production of signed legal documents, has been a key element of the governmental and media foreclosure reviews. Chase's current pullback raises at least the possibility that at least some banks may have documentation problems in other business lines."

Full article at http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/177_7/jpmorgan-chase-consumer-debt-collection-1045606-1.html?zkPrintable=1&nopagination=1

About That Last Post...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLWnB9FGmWE&feature=player_embedded

The REAL Gordon Gekko?

It was 1987. The height of the "me generation". Hippies and Yippies had become "Yuppies". Young. Upwardly mobile. Professional. The epitome was featured in the very popular movie, Wall Street. His name was Gordon Gekko.

Portrayed by actor Michael Douglas, Gekko was a "corporate raider". He would buy struggling companies, strip off and sell the assets, and then dump what little was left. Including employees.

In a tasty bit of irony, Douglas (one of my favorite actors) later portrayed "President Andrew Shepherd" in "The American President".

And in a perfect example of life imitating art, a real-life Gordon Gekko is running for Andrew Shepherd's real-life job, under the name Mitt Romney.

Gekko and Shepherd are fictional characters. The son of the late George Romney, Mexico-born former adversary of Barry Goldwater (and himself a candidate in 1968), Mitt Romney is all too real. And so is his corporate raider company, Bain Capital.

His single largest source of contributions (like that of the current occupier of 1600 Pennsy' Avenue) is Goldman Sachs. You might remember them. A former CEO of Goldman Sachs was Secretary of Treasury in 1998 when mortgage qualifications were "eased". Another former Gold Sachs CEO held that Office 10 years later when the inevitable, predictable, and predicted result of that "easing" came to roost upon all of us, in the form of a $700,000,000.00 "bailout".

Any bets on what happens if Gordon Gekko gets Andrew Shepherd's job?