#Credit Information Bureau

[meatheadmutt]

credit bureau hasnt taken my debt off of my credit report after i paid it FOUR months ago and just realized I can report them to the government. i'm having fun

[needtricks-blog]

Step-by-step Guide to Fixing Errors on Credit Reports

Your credit report is a comprehensive record of your credit history, including your borrowing and repayment activities. It is maintained by credit reporting agencies (often referred to as credit bureaus), such as Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Credit reports are used by lenders, creditors, landlords, and employers to assess your creditworthiness and make important decisions (Fixing Errors on…

[brightmoneyco]

How long after paying off a debt does my credit improve?

How long after paying off a debt does my credit improve? It can take up to two billing cycles or one or two months for your credit score to improve.

How long does it take for my credit score to improve? Most lenders and card issuers report to credit agencies at the end of each billing cycle, and to see a change on your credit report typically takes up to two billing cycles.

What do credit bureaus do? Your activity on your credit cards and loans is reported to the three major credit bureaus: Experian, TransUnion and Equif

Here are the primary types of information credit bureaus collect:

Personal information (your name, address and employment history) Public records (to check for bankruptcy) Hard inquiries (to see how often you’re applying for more credit) Tradelines (record of loans)

How Bright can improve your credit score Bright can help boost your credit in a few different ways, automatically building a positive payment history and improving your utilization ratio. Learn more:

[mostlysignssomeportents]

At long last, a meaningful step to protect Americans' privacy

This Saturday (19 Aug), I'm appearing at the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books. I'm on a 2:30PM panel called "Return From Retirement," followed by a signing:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks

Privacy raises some thorny, subtle and complex issues. It also raises some stupid-simple ones. The American surveillance industry's shell-game is founded on the deliberate confusion of the two, so that the most modest and sensible actions are posed as reductive, simplistic and unworkable.

Two pillars of the American surveillance industry are credit reporting bureaux and data brokers. Both are unbelievably sleazy, reckless and dangerous, and neither faces any real accountability, let alone regulation.

Remember Equifax, the company that doxed every adult in America and was given a mere wrist-slap, and now continues to assemble nonconsensual dossiers on every one of us, without any material oversight improvements?

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/07/20/equifax-settles-with-ftc-cfpb-states-and-consumer-class-actions-for-700m/

Equifax's competitors are no better. Experian doxed the nation again, in 2021:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/30/dox-the-world/#experian

It's hard to overstate how fucking scummy the credit reporting world is. Equifax invented the business in 1899, when, as the Retail Credit Company, it used private spies to track queers, political dissidents and "race mixers" so that banks and merchants could discriminate against them:

https://jacobin.com/2017/09/equifax-retail-credit-company-discrimination-loans

As awful as credit reporting is, the data broker industry makes it look like a paragon of virtue. If you want to target an ad to "Rural and Barely Making It" consumers, the brokers have you covered:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/13/public-interest-pharma/#axciom

More than 650,000 of these categories exist, allowing advertisers to target substance abusers, depressed teens, and people on the brink of bankruptcy:

https://themarkup.org/privacy/2023/06/08/from-heavy-purchasers-of-pregnancy-tests-to-the-depression-prone-we-found-650000-ways-advertisers-label-you

These companies follow you everywhere, including to abortion clinics, and sell the data to just about anyone:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/07/safegraph-spies-and-lies/#theres-no-i-in-uterus

There are zillions of these data brokers, operating in an unregulated wild west industry. Many of them have been rolled up into tech giants (Oracle owns more than 80 brokers), while others merely do business with ad-tech giants like Google and Meta, who are some of their best customers.

As bad as these two sectors are, they're even worse in combination – the harms data brokers (sloppy, invasive) inflict on us when they supply credit bureaux (consequential, secretive, intransigent) are far worse than the sum of the harms of each.

And now for some good news. The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, under the leadership of Rohit Chopra, has declared war on this alliance:

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/08/16/cfpb-looks-to-restrict-the-sleazy-link-between-credit-reporting-agencies-and-data-brokers/

They've proposed new rules limiting the trade between brokers and bureaux, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, putting strict restrictions on the transfer of information between the two:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/15/tech/privacy-rules-data-brokers/index.html

As Karl Bode writes for Techdirt, this is long overdue and meaningful. Remember all the handwringing and chest-thumping about Tiktok stealing Americans' data to the Chinese military? China doesn't need Tiktok to get that data – it can buy it from data-brokers. For peanuts.

The CFPB action is part of a muscular style of governance that is characteristic of the best Biden appointees, who are some of the most principled and competent in living memory. These regulators have scoured the legislation that gives them the power to act on behalf of the American people and discovered an arsenal of action they can take:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

Alas, not all the Biden appointees have the will or the skill to pull this trick off. The corporate Dems' darlings are mired in #LearnedHelplessness, convinced that they can't – or shouldn't – use their prodigious powers to step in to curb corporate power:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

And it's true that privacy regulation faces stiff headwinds. Surveillance is a public-private partnership from hell. Cops and spies love to raid the surveillance industries' dossiers, treating them as an off-the-books, warrantless source of unconstitutional personal data on their targets:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/16/ring-ring-lapd-calling/#ring

These powerful state actors reliably intervene to hamstring attempts at privacy law, defending the massive profits raked in by data brokers and credit bureaux. These profits, meanwhile, can be mobilized as lobbying dollars that work lawmakers and regulators from the private sector side. Caught in the squeeze between powerful government actors (the true "Deep State") and a cartel of filthy rich private spies, lawmakers and regulators are frozen in place.

Or, at least, they were. The CFPB's discovery that it had the power all along to curb commercial surveillance follows on from the FTC's similar realization last summer:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/12/regulatory-uncapture/#conscious-uncoupling

I don't want to pretend that all privacy questions can be resolved with simple, bright-line rules. It's not clear who "owns" many classes of private data – does your mother own the fact that she gave birth to you, or do you? What if you disagree about such a disclosure – say, if you want to identify your mother as an abusive parent and she objects?

But there are so many stupid-simple privacy questions. Credit bureaux and data-brokers don't inhabit any kind of grey area. They simply should not exist. Getting rid of them is a project of years, but it starts with hacking away at their sources of profits, stripping them of defenses so we can finally annihilate them.

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

[enigmaticxbee]

X-Files Solve Rate

Although I tend to think of X-Files episodes and cases as open-ended - the Flukeman surviving somehow in the sewer, perhaps to return one day… - perhaps Mulder and Scully solved more cases than I give them credit for. In Tooms Scully tells Skinner that their case solution rate of 75% is above the bureau standard - and according to my calculations their solve rate really was 75% at that point in season 1! Of course it didn’t stay that high, and the more mytharc cases the worse their rate becomes since those episodes often end with an empty warehouse, no alien fetus, and their informant dead on a bridge. Of course it depends on how you’re counting a “solve” - I usually went based on whether they could write a report to Skinner that wasn’t just a giant shrug emoji - but I do wonder how often they actually got any kind of conviction…

Season 1: 71% - off to a great start! Of course they shut down the X-Files anyways…

Season 2: 64% - not as good, but there were a lot more mytharc episodes, including a major unresolved abduction arc.

Season 3: 54% - not great, but there were several two-part mytharc episodes which mostly go unsolved, as well as several MOTW cases like Jose Chung’s ‘From Outer Space’ which are classically unresolved.

Season 4: 58% - I assume Skinner’s reaction at the end of El Mundo Gira applies to all their post case meetings, whether solved or not

Season 5: 45% - even worse! Of course I’m unfairly including the two episodes set pre-X-Files in Mulder and Scully’s solve rate. But uhh, there’s not much argument against shutting down the X-Files in this data (sorry 🙈)

Season 6: 68% - actually if you look at the second half of the season when they get the X-Files back they’re at 80%!

Season 7: 73% - their best season solve rate since season 1 - think they’re working extra hard to prove that getting romantically involved won’t affect their work? Happy agents make successful agents!

Season 8: 62% - Scully and Doggett actually do pretty well with the MOTW cases in the first half of the season, but the mytharc-heavy second half brings down their average.

Season 9: 84% - with Scully’s help Doggett and Reyes do surprisingly well. Although I miss the classic who knows what really happened endings of the early seasons.

Seasons 10 and 11: 67 and 75% - even more starkly continuing the trend of resolved MOTW cases and unsatisfying conclusions to the mytharc episodes.

[copperbadge]

Hey Sam, do you remember how long it took for your student loan discharge to show up on your credit report? It's been eight months and my loans are still on my credit report and I can't get Mohela to answer me about when they'll report it. I submitted a complaint to the DoE a few weeks ago, but who knows when I'll hear back. I guess I was just wondering if this type of delay is out of the ordinary.

Oh, man, it never even crossed my mind to look. My credit score was hovering around 800 when I began the loan discharge process and is now in the 810 range, so I never bothered to check. I had to go log into CreditKarma just now to see.

I think this must be backdated, but according to TransUnion, my loans were closed in September 2020. The reason this must be backdated is that my forgiveness wasn't finalized and approved until April of 2021. Like my balance didn't zero out until 2021, but the paperwork went into the system in September 2020, so presumably the closure was retroactive to that. I don't think any closed loan falls off for several years, but I don't know how they handle an open loan that you have actually discharged. I don't know what kind of delay is normal (I may have even had one myself and just not noticed).

As far as I know carrying a student loan balance doesn't have a huge impact on your credit score as long as they're not reporting you in arrears/late, so hopefully it's not killing your credit somehow. You might consider sending a registered letter to the bureaus, disputing the error; they may be able to shake that information loose from the loan administrators. In any case, good luck with it!

Readers, if you have advice please do share! Remember to comment or reblog, as I don't post asks sent in response to other asks.

[hellyeahscarleteen]

"Proposed legislation could help clear significant credit reporting hurdles for transgender and nonbinary people. Democratic Sens. John Fetterman and Tina Smith will introduce a bill Thursday requiring credit reporting agencies to use only a person’s current name in their credit reports, Fetterman’s office shared with The 19th exclusively.

The Name Accuracy in Credit Reporting Act would amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which regulates the way credit reporting agencies can collect, access and share consumer data. Credit reports for people who have changed their names often will either include their deadname or be created as a separate report under their changed name, which can lead to inaccuracies and trouble accessing credit.

...

“Updating a person’s name on their credit report should be simple, and credit bureaus have already been doing this for decades to accommodate married or divorced consumers,” Stephanie Landry, strategic lead for digital finance at Consumer Reports, said in a statement after the introduction of Pressley’s bill. “Credit Bureaus are choosing to fail transgender and nonbinary consumers by creating careless and unnecessary hurdles to accessing accurate and complete credit information—which can lead to unfair denial of credit, housing, or employment.”

Advocates said transgender and nonbinary people often face numerous issues following a name change: Some report their credit reports being fragmented into unconnected files, effectively erasing their credit history. Some said their name changes and the actions following them did not reflect on their credit reports at all. Others reported their credit scores dropping by hundreds of points. Changing a first name instead of a last name can create the problem, as credit reporting agencies often use the first name to match up information."

[dystopicjumpsuit]

DJ's Follower Celebration!!!

Hi friends! I recently hit a follower milestone that absolutely blew my mind; I never really expected anyone to be particularly interested in my work, let alone this many of you. I am constantly blown away by your talent, insight, and creativity. I'm so grateful for every single one of you, and I want to celebrate YOU!

With that in mind, I'm going to be opening requests to create Datafiles like the one I made for Cerra for your Star Wars OCs. I've created three different versions: a Grand Army of the Republic Personnel Datafile, a Jedi Archive Member Record Datafile, and an ISB Suspect Datafile. Here are some examples of what they look like:

Transcripts in alt text.

Here's what you need to do to participate:

Submit an Ask with your OC's name and the artwork you'd like me to use. The artwork should have either a plain or a transparent background, and the filesize needs to be smaller than 25MB.

Fill out this form to tell me what information you'd like included in your OC's datafile.

Reblog this post to spread the word so other folks can participate, too.

That's it! Detailed rules are below the cut:

Rules:

Since this is intended to celebrate my followers, this event is only open to folks who follow me. I will be checking.

Each blog can submit a maximum of two requests.

Once I've created the Datafile, I'll answer your Ask with the PNG and the transcript. Feel free to share and repost them elsewhere, but it would be lovely if you could give me credit; I worked hard on these!

Requests will be filled in the order in which they are received; please be patient as it takes time to create the Datafiles.

I will not begin working on a request until I receive BOTH the Tumblr Ask AND the info form response.

By submitting your OC info, you agree to allow me to edit the text if necessary to fit in the template without consulting you ahead of time.

If you use a Picrew or similar to create your OC artwork, please include the link in your ask to credit the creator. By submitting artwork, you affirm that you have a right to share and transform/edit the artwork, and that you are giving me permission to share/edit the artwork as well.

Don't submit inappropriate images, please. I'm a delicate kriffing flower.

Do not submit hateful content.

I reserve the right to ignore a request for any reason.

Tips for success:

Keep it succinct; it's fine to use truncated, abrupt sentences. Sometimes they make it sound more official, and remember, I have limited space in the templates. I'll do my best to accommodate what you submit, but I might need to edit the text to fit (see Rule 6).

Think about whether the organization creating the Datafile would know/care to include the information. Examples of things to include: injuries sustained in battle (particularly if they were severe/debilitating); special/unusual Force abilities; an explanation of why a Jedi padawan switched masters; outstanding warrants. Examples of things that might be less relevant: petty crimes that the ISB wouldn't necessarily investigate (keeping in mind that they're more like the FBI/CIA/NSA than the local PD); minor injuries sustained outside of combat (like a black eye from a barfight at 79's); favorite snack when they were a youngling in the Jedi temple creche (unless they're STILL a youngling in the Jedi temple creche).

Remember that the ISB stands for Imperial Security Bureau, so they wouldn't have a file during the Clone Wars. Similarly, the Jedi Archive and GAR records wouldn't reference the ISB Datafile (though ISB certainly could have access to Jedi and GAR records).

Think about the perspective of the person creating the record; if it's ISB, they might accuse your OC of a serious crime that they didn't commit (or exaggerate a minor crime to look more severe than it actually was) for the sake of propaganda.

Have fun with it! "Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking" is a fantastic trope for a reason!

Thank you all so very much for being such a lovely, welcoming group! I can't wait to celebrate with you!

I used these picrews to create the OC artwork for the examples: GAR; ISB; Jedi Archive.

Ragu list:

@secondaryrealm @sev-on-kamino spicy-clones @wings-and-beskar @523rdrebel @merkitty49 @anxiouspineapple99 @sinfulsalutations @arcsimper5 @starrylothcat @clio3kantarella @cloneloverrrrr @goblininawig @ladytano420 @arctrooper69 @wolffegirlsunite @sunshinesdaydream @mandos-mind-trick @littlemissmanga @stunkbiggu @starqueensthings @clonemedickix @marierg @idontgetanysleep @moonlightwarriorqueen @dudewhynotthis @sleepycreativewriter @tcwmatchmakingau @littlemissbshine @multi-fan-dom-madness @heavenseed76 @wizardofrozz @bobaprint @sweetcream-coldfoam @banksys-rat @skellymom @pickleprickle @trixie2023 @mythical-illustrator @dickarchivist @cw80831 @kimiheartblade @meredithroseg @flyiingsly

[fallintosanity]

calling all US-based renters

I just spotted a VERY interesting request for public comments from the FTC: 

The Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau invite interested individuals to submit comments about background screening issues affecting individuals who seek rental housing in the United States. Tenants, prospective tenants, tenants’ rights and housing advocacy groups, industry participants (including property managers, commercial landlords, individual landlords, and consumer reporting agencies that develop credit and tenant screening reports used by landlords and property managers to screen prospective tenants), other members of the public, and government agencies are encouraged to provide comments and information about the use of credit reports, credit scores, and criminal and civil (including eviction) public records in tenant screening; the use of algorithms in making tenant screening decisions; the use of tenant screening recommendation products developed, marketed, or sold by consumer reporting agencies; and other tenant screening issues.

The full document (pdf) also includes a series of questions about “unique impacts on historically underserved populations, such as Black,  Indigenous, and people of color; the LGBTQI+ community (especially trans and gender nonconforming individuals); military service members; immigrants; public housing voucher recipients; renters with disabilities; or others”

If you have Opinions on this, drop a comment by May 30th, 2023: 

https://www.regulations.gov/document/FTC-2023-0024-0002

[helly-watermelonsmellinfellon]

Housed For Now!

[New]

AS OF DECEMBER 20TH, 2023, WE HAVE BEEN INFORMED THAT OUR NEW LANDLADY WANTS US OUT WHEN OUR LEASE ENDS IN FENBRUARY. EDIT Dec 27th 2023: We just learned that she's adding an electric garage door to the garage. Her ex-husband is working on it with an electrician friend of his and I overheard them. She doesn't intend to move in, she wants to add the small ass garage onto the lease and thinks it's worth adding another $1K+ dollars to the rent.

[Old]

Dave just doesn't get how finances work. Because he's so unhelpful and doesn't fucking listen when people speak, he's whining about how after getting paid, mom has nothing left for the month. "But we don't have to spend $230 on the storage unit anymore!" "That went into other bills, Dave!" He thinks that cuz we don't have that one issue holding us down, we're going to be able to handle everything else easily and have money left over for whatever he wants to waste it on. Because mom has had to pay one bill and let another slide as a result every month. It's how she's had to handle our financial problems this entire time. And people all over have to do things like this, it isn't a new tactic.

Mom finally paid off the bank after Dave bounced her account several times last year. She's been paying $100+ a month for ages to get that handled. That should make things a little easier now.

The car insurance has increased by several dozen dollars so it's over $150 a month now. (EDIT: Dec, 2023: It was increased again.)

Her phone and Bethy's phone have to be kept on because of her schooling and we need a functioning phone number or else we'll be in big trouble in many ways. $100+ just for 2 phones. Dave is in charge of his own damn phone.

She has to handle her Discover and Capital One cards since she's had to use them to save our asses a few times. She NEEDS to pay them off so her credit score doesn't tank, and many places won't give you a chance if your credit is low. She's got monthly payments for those around $100+ in total.

The P.O. Box price has increased. Almost $50 now. (EDIT: Dec, 2023: We had canceled it since we finally got a place to live, and now we'll need to get a new one. I'm so tired.)

Dish Network has been on pause or almost 2 years cuz she can't cancel it before the full year she paid is used up or the fee is astronomical. They keep suspiciously unpausing it and trying to lob thousands in fees at us. (EDIT: Aug, 2023: Mom finally got it taken care of by going to the Better Business Bureau with dozens of emails of proof for her case and they came down hard on Dish Network. So we're fine on that front now.)

Then we have gas for a minivan, that Dave should be paying for, but isn't. A mostly full tank is around $80 every 4-5 days. Gas is average rn. So over $400 monthly in gas. (EDIT Dec, 2023: $20 gets 4 1/2 Gallons right now. It is hell.)

We need the part for the van which is $800+. The van is just so old that finding parts for something considered an antique now is damn near impossible, and not having the money up front makes it worse. (EDIT: Dec, 2023: The van is dead and despite how the alternator was replaced and the battery and starter are fine, there's no vehicle.)

She has to pay for her medication cuz we have shit medical. She's already going without many of them but some health problems, like Asthma, can't be ignored so the inhalers are prioritized. (EDIT Aug, 2023: Our medical changed out of nowhere at the beginning of the year and all of our doctors no longer take it. No doctors take it, in fact, so our attempts to get better help have to start all over again.)

Bethy needs school supplies regularly.

But Dave just thinks that she should have all this extra money left over at the end of paying everything off. Many of these things come out instantly on the 1st of each month btw. She has to then work through what is left for the bills that aren't instantly paid off. He thinks if he works with his friend for 3 weeks, he'll have enough money for an apartment, completely ignoring that he'd only have about $1800 for a full month of work with no breaks. The cheapest 2-bedroom in Delaware requires almost all of that, which is why we're waiting on housing which charges based on your monthly income. Even if he handled the monthly rent of $1400-$1700 for a 2-bedroom, mom still has all this stuff to worry about... and then gas, water, electric, sewage, etc... Dave doesn't listen. In public housing, those things are included. Outside it, they are separate expenses.

Other Posts About Life:

[1] [2][3] [4] [5]

~.O.~

[Ko-Fi] [GoFundMe] [Venmo] [CashApp: $Flame818] [Amazon Wishlist(food list tbh)] [Meal Train] [Patreon]

[NEW Dec, 2023]

I was right to keep on my toes about this. Dave does not read or pay attention and he just rushes into things without thinking. He's made every excuse possible to defend this lady saying she'll see how clean the house is a let us stay, but when she made a point to say she's thinking of moving in here, she isn't looking for a ruined house. She already has the reason for why she wants us out and she put it in writing, and it's because she claims to want to live here now. She doesn't need any other reason; she owns the property and that is good enough.

So, we have to be out by mid-February, which means more moving. And we just have no money and nowhere to go.

[NEWER Mar, 2024]

We need food, heat, hot water, etc... and Dave's getting scammed by a blackmailer that he's now given over $3K to... His dumbass was cheating, as he always does, and within a few conversations felt safe enough to tell this bitch all his personal business, as well as everything about his kids and grandkids. And now, cuz he offended her, she did a search on him and found his family and is how holding them over his head to Apple gift cards.

Yet he stomps in the house every day demanding to know if anyone 'gave us money'. And then got mad when mom finally snapped at him with, "No, actually Helen has gotten any commissions this month, so there's nothing in the PayPal." All cuz Dave doesn't want to admit that I've brought $16K in just through commissions alone.

[swords-of-a-soilder]

GUYS OMG I HAVE A CRAZY THEORY

Ok so remember when the Federation first took the eggs away and they came back crack and everyone including the audience was like "yo Wtf they hurt my eggs" and we all started not trusting the Federation, what is we completely misunderstood?

What if the reason the eggs had cracks in them was because they started hatching?

Think about it, when the eggs return we were told they were older and didn't need to be taken care of as much, maybe the Federation knew they were coming close to hatching and put them in a incubator when they spent a lot of time asleep (which would explain why they don't remember anything) to keep any eye on them and make sure everything is good, like a pregnant person having a check up!

That would mean they are in fact maturing and don't need to be taken care of as much! And now look At the eggs (sorry for the thumbnail picture it was the best one I could get )

(Image credit: Anger Thomas yt)

They even more cracked than before, so much they hats and accessories don't fit, they look dirty right?

What do you think an egg looks like before it hatches? Don't worry I'll tell you.

Huh a dark area, A DARK AREA. Huh you know that "mud" could just easily be a dark area, looks guys they're even more cracked than before, when they took a shower it didn't change a thing (even in the meta sense of the game I'm sure the admins would have had no problem reloging to fix the skin If it was something you could wash off, it's not mud at all!

Which leads me to this conclusion,

We Were Wrong About The Federation

They didn't hurt the eggs, I mean be realistic for a second if they actually damage the eggs so badly they they crack I don't think they would have survived; not to mention how dull the cracks originally looked for something that we perceived as outsider damage.

No they knew the eggs were gonna hatch and wanted to keep an eye on them, that probably also why they went missing the second time before coming back in that state they were in incubation.

But us, viewers and parents alike so something different with the eggs and immediately went into a panic, Tubbo was right their hatching, they've been hatching this entire time!

Also the last streams from the QSMP information channel shows that the federation care about the residents and the eggs, in fact they last streams have shown a lot more human side to the census bureau than we even thought exist because we were too busy thinking of ourselves, wanting answers to questions They probably don't know the answer to, but they can't tell you they don't know because they're the people you except to know!

Like maybe classified isn't always, I'm not allowed to say and more often "I don't know".

Anyways that's my theory, we misunderstood the federation, they genuinely did mean well but had a terrible execution. the Equivalent of a bad parent trying to take care of a rebellious teen.

[odinsblog]

According to my estimates of U.S. Census data and information revealed in a recent Stanford study, 24.76 million Black and Latino people are missing or listed with incorrect information in the voter databases sold by vendors, making them unreachable. While 40 percent of Black and Latino people are essentially invisible, only 18 percent of white people are missing or mislisted, according to the study.”

Finding these millions of missing Black and Latino voters could determine the outcome of the 2024 elections. In 2020, Joe Biden won battleground states like Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin by only 10,457, 11,779 and 20,682 votes.

Vendors supplement government voter registration lists with demographic data and consumer information, such as from credit bureaus. For voters, being missed perpetuates a cycle of exclusion from civic engagement; if they aren’t in the voter database, they won’t get contacted about an upcoming election. Incorrect data also distorts the algorithms that assign vote propensity scores. Traditional campaigns will not generally contact voters whom technology has categorized — correctly or incorrectly — as unlikely to vote.

These applications are, in part, manmade — which means human biases seep in. For example, in 2022, one machine learning company announced that it could predict the race or ethnicity of an individual using only their name and address. Can something as complex as race be predicted by two factors alone? In general, companies building and selling voter databases do not provide enough transparency to allow users to assess the racial or other biases that may have distorted their products.

(continue reading)

[beehunni62]

The Advisors Alliance Translation Post 2: “Husband, don’t cross the river. Husband, nonetheless, crossed the river.”

The Advisors Alliance 大军师司���懿之军师��盟 is a 2017 two-part Chinese TV series depicting the life of Sima Yi, a government official and military strategist who lived during the late Eastern Han Dynasty 东汉 (25 CE - 220 CE) and the Three Kingdoms Period 三国時代 (220 CE - 280 CE). [Wikipedia of the show’s first season]

The second part is titled Growling Tiger Hidden Dragon 虎啸龙吟 and keeps following Sima Yi’s life as he matures and becomes wiser [Link to the show’s second season’s MyDramaList page].

The Weibo account [Link] of the show made a series of posts in the style of small encyclopedias explaining different historical and cultural facts that where included in the series. The user @moononmyfloor compiled the 50 posts and asked me to translate them. This will be an ongoing series where I will do just that.

The posts are not in order of the episodes but I will provide the episode and season number to avoid confusion. If there are any mistakes in translation, do let me know in the comments or privately message me and I will do my best to fix them. Although I tried to stay as close as possible to the original text, I had to take some liberties in some posts to get the meaning across better. On the side, I have included extra information from personal research that explains certain things better.

If it is difficult to read the letters, tap or click on the image to expand it. Without more preamble, here you go.

Extra information:

Yuefu (乐府), literally Music Bureau, are a genre of ancient Chinese folk songs that, either imitate the style of, or are from the Imperial Music Bureau. The latter was an institution in charge of collecting and writing lyrics to folk songs. Yuefu are known for having strict syllabic rules that change from dynasty to dynasty.

《公无渡河》 is also known as Kong Hou Yin (箜篌引). Konghou is an ancient Chinese stringed instrument similar to a harp. A Yin (引), in this context, is another type of ancient music poetry that has a freer syllabic structure and is characterized by long syllables that go well with the melody of the konghou. Below is a picture of the instrument:

Vertical konghou 箜篌 in exhibit at the Gansu Provincial Museum, Lanzhou, China. Taken on May 10, 2013 by Gary Todd [image source].

Allow me to clarify something. The folk song 《公无渡河》 was recorded by Cui Bao in "Notes on Ancient and Modern Times" to be of Gojoseon origin. As such, Koreans consider it to be their oldest surviving folk song.

The Chinese consider it a Chinese Han Dynasty song on account of the tale being set and song created in the Lelang Commandery [108 B.C.E. - 313 C.E.] which is one of the four regions Gojoseon was split into while under Han rule. Koreans consider the residents of Lelang, and the other commandaries, to be Gojosen Koreans who retained a separate culture to the Han Chinese. If you wish to conduct further research into the song, don’t get surprised if you read different names for the characters that appear in the story.

Koreans call the song "Gongmudohaga (공무도하가)” and the ferryman Gwaklijago (곽리자고). The Korean folk tale differs from the Chinese retelling in that the Korean name of Gwaklijago wife, who is credited with creating the actual song, according to certain Chinese and Korean retellings, is Yeo-ok (여옥) rather than Li Yu (丽玉). In Cao Yong and Cui Bao’s retellings, the wife of the drowned drunk man created the song while, in the Korean version, it was the wife of the ferryman who, upon learning about what had transpired from her husband once he came home, created the song on her harp, called in Korean gonghu (공후).

Many Chinese poets have retold the story in their own ways and added, omitted, or reinterpreted content. Some of said poets are Li Bai and Chen Shou of Shu Han. On top is Li Bai's version which lacks strict syllabic structure, a signature of his style and, on the bottom, Chen Shou's more structured one:

This expression 《公无渡河, 公竟渡河》 is often used as an allegory to satirize someone who is heading into clear danger but is too stubborn or obsessed to listen. If this person doesn't listen, then they are sure to run into trouble.

Catalogue (find the rest of the posts):

[mostlysignssomeportents]

An interoperability rule for your money

This is the final weekend to back the Kickstarter campaign for the audiobook of my next novel, The Lost Cause. These kickstarters are how I pay my bills, which lets me publish my free essays nearly every day. If you enjoy my work, please consider backing!

"If you don't like it, why don't you take your business elsewhere?" It's the motto of the corporate apologist, someone so Hayek-pilled that they see every purchase as a ballot cast in the only election that matters – the one where you vote with your wallet.

Voting with your wallet is a pretty undignified way to go through life. For one thing, the people with the thickest wallets get the most votes, and for another, no matter who you vote for in that election, the Monopoly Party always wins, because that's the part of the thick-wallet set.

Contrary to the just-so fantasies of Milton-Friedman-poisoned bootlickers, there are plenty of reasons that one might stick with a business that one dislikes – even one that actively harms you.

The biggest reason for staying with a bad company is if they've figured out a way to punish you for leaving. Businesses are keenly attuned to ways to impose switching costs on disloyal customers. "Switching costs" are all the things you have to give up when you take your business elsewhere.

Businesses love high switching costs – think of your gym forcing you to pay to cancel your subscription or Apple turning off your groupchat checkmark when you switch to Android. The more it costs you to move to a rival vendor, the worse your existing vendor can treat you without worrying about losing your business.

Capitalists genuinely hate capitalism. As the FBI informant Peter Thiel says, "competition is for losers." The ideal 21st century "market" is something like Amazon, a platform that gets 45-51 cents out of every dollar earned by its sellers. Sure, those sellers all compete with one another, but no matter who wins, Amazon gets a cut:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/28/cloudalists/#cloud-capital

Think of how Facebook keeps users glued to its platform by making the price of leaving cutting of contact with your friends, family, communities and customers. Facebook tells its customers – advertisers – that people who hate the platform stick around because Facebook is so good at manipulating its users (this is a good sales pitch for a company that sells ads!). But there's a far simpler explanation for peoples' continued willingness to let Mark Zuckerberg spy on them: they hate Zuck, but they love their friends, so they stay:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/facebooks-secret-war-switching-costs

One of the most important ways that regulators can help the public is by reducing switching costs. The easier it is for you to leave a company, the more likely it is they'll treat you well, and if they don't, you can walk away from them. That's just what the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau wants to do with its new Personal Financial Data Rights rule:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-proposes-rule-to-jumpstart-competition-and-accelerate-shift-to-open-banking/

The new rule is aimed at banks, some of the rottenest businesses around. Remember when Wells Fargo ripped off millions of its customers by ordering its tellers to open fake accounts in their name, firing and blacklisting tellers who refused to break the law?

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/10/07/497084491/episode-728-the-wells-fargo-hustle

While there are alternatives to banks – local credit unions are great – a lot of us end up with a bank by default and then struggle to switch, even though the banks give us progressively worse service, collectively rip us off for billions in junk fees, and even defraud us. But because the banks keep our data locked up, it can be hard to shop for better alternatives. And if we do go elsewhere, we're stuck with hours of tedious clerical work to replicate all our account data, payees, digital wallets, etc.

That's where the new CFPB order comes in: the Bureau will force banks to "share data at the person’s direction with other companies offering better products." So if you tell your bank to give your data to a competitor – or a comparison shopping site – it will have to do so…or else.

Banks often claim that they block account migration and comparison shopping sites because they want to protect their customers from ripoff artists. There are certainly plenty of ripoff artists (notwithstanding that some of them run banks). But banks have an irreconcilable conflict of interest here: they might want to stop (other) con-artists from robbing you, but they also want to make leaving as painful as possible.

Instead of letting shareholder-accountable bank execs in back rooms decide what the people you share your financial data are allowed to do with it, the CFPB is shouldering that responsibility, shifting those deliberations to the public activities of a democratically accountable agency. Under the new rule, the businesses you connect to your account data will be "prohibited from misusing or wrongfully monetizing the sensitive personal financial data."

This is an approach that my EFF colleague Bennett Cyphers and I first laid our in our 2021 paper, "Privacy Without Monopoly," where we describe how and why we should shift determinations about who is and isn't allowed to get your data from giant, monopolistic tech companies to democratic institutions, based on privacy law, not corporate whim:

https://www.eff.org/wp/interoperability-and-privacy

The new CFPB rule is aimed squarely at reducing switching costs. As CFPB Director Rohit Chopra says, "Today, we are proposing a rule to give consumers the power to walk away from bad service and choose the financial institutions that offer the best products and prices."

The rule bans banks from charging their customers junk fees to access their data, and bans businesses you give that data to from "collecting, using, or retaining data to advance their own commercial interests through actions like targeted or behavioral advertising." It also guarantees you the unrestricted right to revoke access to your data.

The rule is intended to replace the current state-of-the-art for data sharing, which is giving your banking password to third parties who go and scrape that data on your behalf. This is a tactic that comparison sites and financial dashboards have used since 2006, when Mint pioneered it:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/12/mint-late-stage-adversarial-interoperability-demonstrates-what-we-had-and-what-we

A lot's happened since 2006. It's past time for American bank customers to have the right to access and share their data, so they can leave rotten banks and go to better ones.

The new rule is made possible by Section 1033 of the Consumer Financial Protection Act, which was passed in 2010. Chopra is one of the many Biden administrative appointees who have acquainted themselves with all the powers they already have, and then used those powers to help the American people:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

It's pretty wild that the first digital interoperability mandate is going to come from the CFPB, but it's also really cool. As Tim Wu demonstrated in 2021 when he wrote Biden's Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy, the administrative agencies have sweeping, grossly underutilized powers that can make a huge difference to everyday Americans' lives:

https://www.eff.org/de/deeplinks/2021/08/party-its-1979-og-antitrust-back-baby

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/let-my-dollars-go/#personal-financial-data-rights

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

Image: Steve Morgan (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._National_Bank_Building_-_Portland,_Oregon.jpg

Stefan Kühn (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abrissbirne.jpg

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

 - 

Rhys A. (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/rhysasplundh/5201859761/in/photostream/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[codename-mom]

A dust in the eye

Summary: Derek is looking at his newborn son and he has something to say to his boss. But it's not an easy task.

Characters: Derek Morgan and Aaron Hotchner

Contents: this text is part of a self-challenge on the theme "It's cute but...". So, it's supposed to be funny and/or cute with a slice of bitterswitness. Hope you'll enjoy it!

TW: it's sad! (but we were so robbed on that scene that I have to do something! >_<)

PS : English is not my mother language so they are necessarily mistakes. Sorry about that.

___

Leaning over the incubator housing his son, Hank Spencer Morgan, Derek felt his throat constrict as his brain reminded him that he had something to say to the man in front of him. An announcement he'd been mulling over for several weeks - perhaps even months - and had already turned over in his head a million times, without yet having found the right formulation. His mind was made up, but pronouncing the few words that would give concrete form to his thoughts was difficult to the point of absurdity.

He didn't yet know where his next steps would take him, for his vision was limited for the moment to the well-being of the little creature dozing in this waterless aquarium, but he was perfectly aware of what he was leaving behind. Eleven years. That was how long he had spent at the BAU. Eleven years spent with wonderful men and women, who had filled his memory with a cloud of memories he would cherish for as long as he could. Colleagues - friends - who didn't suspect anything yet, and who he'd miss terribly when it was time for him to go back to work.

And there was him.

This tall guy in a suit and tie, whose dark gaze was fixed on the sleeping baby for the time being. A rock-hard giant at first sight, against whom he had often bumped or clung, depending on the situation, but whom he had seen crumble, collapse and then climb back up the slope again and again, without him ever complaining. Derek still remembered the day of his first interview with him. The man had been so stoic that he'd felt like getting up from his chair to shake him into a somewhat human reaction. He'd clearly given her the creeps that time - and so many other times afterwards - but the new head of the department had glossed over all the blemishes on his CV to focus only on what interested him. And he'd chosen him over one of the other two hundred perfect candidates for the job.

Because he'd discovered, much later, that behind that fridge-like expressiveness was someone surprisingly accommodating. If the titan was insanely intransigent when it came to details, he became almost blind as soon as one of his team flouted the Bureau's strict rules. As long as no one got hurt and the job got done, he couldn’t care less about Derek and his peers kicking down doors, blowing up vehicles in the middle of a park or decorating the meeting room with cotillions. And, as he would learn even later, he took all the reprimands from the bigwigs above him without flinching and, above all, without passing on the information to the main players. To preserve them.

Indeed, even if he found it hard to admit, his line manager had a mother-hen side that woke up at the half-second when one of them needed help. It had always been a great source of amusement for him and the troupe, until the day they get in trouble and they were relieved to see him appear at their side. In fact, he'd enjoyed it just a few weeks earlier and, despite all the dirt he'd thrown at him and the scathing reflections he'd sent his way, the colossus hadn't failed to live up to his reputation. Tidying up their differences in a small, locked box, he dropped everything to come to her rescue and, in the end, gave all the credit to the other team members. As usual.

Derek was realizing little by little what he was about to turn his back on, and that he'd been incredibly lucky to be surrounded by all these people for the past eleven years. He gradually got that his next colleagues wouldn't be as nice - or as crazy - as those he'd had so far, and that his future boss certainly wouldn't be as lax about his misbehavior. He also comprehended that, after all, he didn't have that much time to express everything that was on his mind, and that this was perhaps the only opportunity he would have to do so. So, he decided to take the plunge with a heavy heart.

“Hotch, speaking of…”

“I know.”

He interrupted him without even looking up from the bassinet. Taken aback, Derek croaked:

“What?”

“I know what you're going to say because it's the most logical reaction," he said, turning his brown irises in his direction.

The ex-policeman - and soon, ex-FBI agent - noted that, as was often the case, his interlocutor had anticipated his movements without taking advantage of them to thwart his actions or try to take the wind out of his sails. He had let things happen, putting aside his own desires.

“… I'm sorry," apologized the recent father, pained.

“Don’t be. Not for that. You have the best reason to leave this job, he reminded him, pointing to Hank with his chin. Then don’t apologize.”

“But I know that doing interviews bores you…”

“It’s part of the job. You don’t have to care about that.”

Years earlier, when Aaron was suffering the after-effects of a bomb attack, the director had advised him not to make the same mistakes he had made: namely, sacrificing his family for his work. At the time, he dismissed this instruction out of hand, thinking he could reconcile the two without paying the costs, as his superior had done. But now that he was responsible for a whole new life, he realized just how wrong he'd been. He also knew what this meant for his supervisor, and this dilemma crushed his insides.

“You’ll have to pick up the pieces again.”

“Shovel and sweeper are already in place.”

Derek felt like strangling him. He was doing his stone-cold, insensitive act, even though he knew very well that the situation was painful for him. And this defensive reaction hurt him even more. Averting his gaze, he felt his heart split in two.

“Morgan, it’s the right solution,” replied Hotch, with a softer tone.

“So, why...?" he began, before pausing to swallow a sob.

“Eleven years of work are not easily turned around. Eleven years of living with the same faces.”

The giant stared at him without blinking, unaware or oblivious to the fact that this often made people uncomfortable, and continued:

“Derek, our relationship has always been complicated - stormy at times - ...”

“About earlier, I…”

“Let me finish, please, he cut him again. I've probably spent more time hanging on to you than sharing good times, but you're a brilliant, strong, sunny person. Replacing you will probably be impossible, but... I just wanted to say what an honor it's been to work alongside you.”

Savannah's partner saw the quiver at the corner of the manager's lips and noticed how his eyes were too bright. He was the first agent he recruited after the departure of Gideon and Rossi, the two founders of the BAU. This conversation wasn’t easier for him than for Derek. As usual, he tried to contain all his emotions and push them back behind high walls, but obviously there were a few cracks. Taking a deep breath, Morgan retorted:

“… The honor was all mine, Hotch. You… you’ve taught me so much. I…”

His throat constricted by sadness; he was unable to finish his sentence. With tears in his eyes, he turned his head to escape the two brown marbles pointed at him. Their owner, who didn't know any better, gave a sad smile and commented:

“Dusty place.”

Derek burst out laughing despite the anvil that had just fallen to the bottom of his stomach. He shook his head with a smile and lifted his nose without even taking the time to brush away the pearls rolling down his cheeks.

“Yeah.”

“Do you know what JJ would say if she saw us?”

“Boys…” he said, raising his eyes to the sky.

“Exactly,” Aaron confirmed, smiling.

This brief moment of lightness had the merit of singularly lightening the atmosphere. Derek still felt like he had an arrow in his chest, but the feeling of betraying the man who had trusted him so much was gone.

“If you need anything, you know what to do,” Hotch affirmed, sincere.

“Thank you,” he answered, with the same honesty.

“So, for models this small, I wouldn't be of any help to you, Jack's father pointed out. However, as soon as he's old enough to ride his bike around the living room, say "Why?" a billion times in a single day and declare, "Dad, that's not how you cook pasta. Ask Uncle Dave"; I could help you there.”

Derek laughed harder, bringing a calmer smile to Aaron's face.

“Okay. Get it.”

With his heart definitively lighter, Morgan walked around the incubator and fell into the director's arms. Despite his aversion to hugs, Hotch welcomed him without hesitation. In eleven years of working together, this was the first time they'd been this close to each other, and Derek suddenly felt extremely privileged.

“Thank you. Thanks for everything," said the giant, giving him a friendly pat on the back.

“Thank you for trusting me for so long.”

Then they parted, still holding each other at arm's length for a few moments, before turning back to the cradle, side by side this time.

“Take care of you and Jack.”

“Look after him, Savannah and yourself.”

“That’s the plan,” Derek smiled, reassured.

Yes, he made the right choice.

[helly-watermelonsmellinfellon]

Tiny bit of good news.

When we officially became homeless on January 1st 2022, mom put our Dish Network shit on pause. She could not afford to cancel anything because doing so before the contractual time was up, would have been hundreds of dollars that we needed immediately, so she put it on pause.

Sometime in July of 2022, she received a massive bill from Dish, informing her that she was over a thousand in debt because the bitch she spoke to never actually put anything on pause. Mom, being mom, takes screenshots of everything, and keeps all emails in regard to bills and money. She sent everything she kept from that conversation to the newest person she was speaking to, and HE said he would pause it. Months later she got another bill claiming thousands in debt cuz HE DIDN'T PAUSE IT EITHER!

This happened two more times, all of them with difference workers, and mom kept all the details. Finally, she informed the last person that she was filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and had over 50 screenshots and a dozen emails to forward in her complaint. They panicked and begged her to not do that. Claimed they'd give her account credit or something(not even sure if that's a thing they can even do). Mom went ahead with the plan. She explained what has happened in our lives since becoming homeless, and how she's tired of being jerked around by peopel too lazy to be decent and do their damn jobs. She requested to be released from her contract and for all that debt to be forgiven.

She just got notice that the BBB did in fact contact Dish Network about the status of her account and effectively forced them to to cancel her contract and stop the debt bullshit. There might also be some trouble for those 4 people she spoke to, cuz she obviously had their names as well as the times of day they were working, and which locations they were working from.

This is something we can put behind us now, and know that when we finally get a new place to live, we don't have to deal with their BS anymore.