It should be clear now to any clear-thinking American that the real enemy of the United States, the enemy that poses the most grave threat at this moment is China, not Russia. The problem with the view of the mainstream media is assuming that it is made up of clear-thinking Americans.
One clear thinking American who took the mainstream media to task, however is Senate Homeland Security Committee member Josh Hawley, R-Mo. Speaking on Fox News he said that Democrats who attack President Trump’s criticisms of China over that government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic should “come back to planet Earth.”
“China is the single greatest national security threat to this country in the 21st Century,” Hawley told host Martha MacCallum. “More than that, they are the single greatest economic threat.” Hawley explained that since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, America’s leaders have turned a blind eye to the fact the U.S. has been hemorrhaging jobs to China for decades.
“They said [joining the WTO] will liberalize China and it will be good for the United States. Well, guess what, that was 3 million jobs ago — 3 million jobs lost to China,” Hawley said. Hawley added that while the U.S. and China will never be able to “fully decouple” their economies, the focus must be on “building new partnerships, new alliances with free nations to say, ‘We are going to build a better economic system internationally that will protect our workers, protect our jobs and resist Chinese imperialism.’
If we don’t adjust this relationship now, we will become entangled on a level with China where it’s no longer possible to detangle it and survive as an economy. And that will be our kids problem not ours. We won’t be here, but they likely will not be happy with what we left them.
Do you think Russia is a bigger enemy to the United States or China? Respond to this email and let us know?
Removing Bias in AI
An American tech company has released a new tool it says will help to flag discriminatory behaviour by artificial intelligence services and algorithms before they go out to customers.
Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ: PEGA) has unveiled its Ethical Bias Check, which it says will help businesses better practise the responsible use of artificial intelligence in selling products to customers by warning of any potentially discriminatory behaviour before reaching the public.
While AI is sometimes touted as a great equaliser – taking human biases out of the decision-making process – it has been shown time and time again to merely reflect these biases, with numerous examples of discriminatory behaviour made by algorithms. The Ethical Bias Check works by flagging potentially discriminatory offers and messages.
The tool allows a company to set its testing threshold, then sends alerts when the bias reaches the unacceptable level that has been set, such as when a customer is offered something that skews too far towards or away from specific demographics.
This then allows the company to determine what element of the algorithm contributed to this discriminatory behaviour and adjust it to provide a fairer offering to the customers, Pegasystems said.
If you think bias can’t happen with AI, it can, as experts say the bias is learned from original inputs. It’s happened before with the algorithm used by the Apple credit card to determine the credit-worthiness of applicants. According to several complaints, it offered a worse rating to women than men – despite the same information being provided. The use of artificial intelligence and tools like facial recognition to assist with law enforcement has also led to accusations of discrimination.
An algorithm used in America to determine sentencing for offenders based on their likelihood of reoffending faced accusations of racial bias, with the system predicting that black defendants posed a higher risk of recidivism than they actually did. Facial recognition has also regularly been found to be more effective in identifying white men than other people, leading to the potential for false charges and evidence. Three forms of the technology used for law enforcement facial recognition were found to correctly identify the gender of a person from a photo 99 percent of the time but only when these were white men.
This technology, if proven effective, could be a huge boost for PEGA Stock
Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) and the Election
Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) has a very positive technical pattern in its chart. If the breakout continues, it could move uo anywhere from 10%-12% based on the price action. Fundamentally, with the election coming it, it’s likely to go much higher.
Presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden, has finally unveiled his nickname for 2020 rival President Trump, saying he calls his general election opponent “President Tweety.” If anyone thinks that’s a bad thing for TWTR, they are wrong.
Twitter’s relevence, if not importance becomes much more clear in election seasons. Laurie Rice, associate professor of political science at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville commented in 2016 about Twitter’s real-time nature and emphasis on brevity, and how that makes it especially well-suited for politicians and advisors who are skilled at crafting soundbites. She added, “Twitter is also a useful form of two-way communication between candidates and campaigns and voters. Candidates and campaigns can gauge reactions to their messages in real time, voters can easily share their views, and campaigns can track and respond to voters’ evolving views over the course of the campaign.”
This plays to a Trump strenght and to hear Biden refer to him with a nickname that basically drives people to the platform means the stock could be poised for a run.
Twitter has been particularly important to young adults, a group that now represents an equal share of the electorate as the baby boomer generation, according to a late 2016 report by the Pew Research Center. “Certainly they’re on Facebook, and people are talking about the election on Facebook, but Twitter has really taken center stage and kind of pushed Facebook off to the side, especially with younger voters,” says Laura Weir, executive director of international education at Florida SouthWestern State College. The stock is breaking out now, but it may be one to stay in until just before November.
Gold Pause Could be an Opportunity
Gold edged lower through the early European session last night and was last seen trading near the lower end of its daily trading range, in the lower-half of the $1,700’s.
Despite being up 16 of the last 20 months, gold has come under some fresh selling pressure on Thursday.
Minutes of the FOMC meeting held on April 29, released on Wednesday, reflected a grim outlook and hinted at more stimulus measures for economic recovery. The US dollar gained some traction on Thursday because. while the Fed has embraced easy money, the rest of the world has more work to do than the US does.
Meanwhile, growing market fears about the second wave of the coronavirus infections and concerns over worsening US-China relations didn’t really add any flight-to-safety buying, and it probably should have. It will now be interesting to see if the commodity is able to attract any dip-buying at lower levels or if the current pullback confirms a near-term top.
If it is a near term top, you should still be looking to add to gold when it bases at lower prices. The Federal Reserve of the United States is nowhere near stopping the expansion of its balance sheet and the rest of the world is following the same path. If that is going on, gold has a tailwind in the long to medium term.
Jason Derulo vs. Corn and Drill
Jason Derulo posted a video on TikTok of him eating corn on the cobb off of a drill. The musician starts the video off by asking if viewers have ever seen anyone eat corn this way before. He shared that he has always wanted to try the “life hack.” He starts out slow, spinning the drill as he bites down across the length of the corn. When he makes it go faster, you just know something bad is about to happen. He keeps biting it for a few more seconds, then cries out in pain before showing his aggressively chipped teeth to the camera.
Now, taking into consideration the magic of editing and the existence of dental veneers (custom-made shells that cover teeth to make them look better), this is probably not real. People pointed that out in the comments of his post and made a ton of jokes calling him “Jathon Derulo.” One person asked if he ate the corn or if the corn ate him. Others told him to replace his teeth with ramen noodles. Many chimed in to remind him of that girl who tried the “hack” on Vine and ended up shaving a patch of her hair. You live and you learn, right?
He also posted a follow-up video in which he angrily inquired how much it will cost to fix the tooth. He was spotted in a car with his full set of teeth later in the day, reports the Daily Mail.