Hi everyone! I am working non-stop provide the best research and analysis regarding DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG). I originally posted my overall investment thesis on the company a few weeks back and now I am breaking down and analyzing the latest news and developments regarding DKNG! And no, it is not the ticker symbol for Donkey Kong.
DraftKings in my opinion, is the best pure play investment if you want some exposure to the sports betting, iGaming, and daily fantasy sports space. They're founder led (3 founders to be exact) and they're invested into the company themselves right alongside all of us shareholders or potential shareholders.
Within the last week, there has been some exciting developments regarding DraftKings. I will share them below:
DK Gift Cards Are Live! You can buy a DK gift card as a stocking stuffer for Christmas if you want.
I’m really excited to hear this news. It’s only going to increase the brand awareness of DK and that’s what we want. According to the press release on DK’s investor relations website, they’ve partnered with InComm Payments to facilitate the launching of the gift cards. InComm payments is a global leading payments technology company that has a network of retailers that DK will be able to leverage through this partnership. Convenience stores like 7-Eleven, Speedway and Dollar General are just some of the many convenience stores in Incomm Payments’ network that DK will be able to leverage. For now, the gift cards will be offered in $50 and $25 denominations.
The great thing about this to me is that they’ve beat their competitors to this. That shows managements initiative and ability to get things done which I complimented when I first picked this company. As of right now, you’re not going to be seeing any “FanDuel” (boo FanDuel *thumbs down emoji*) gift cards in the stores. Tim Richardson, the Senior Vice President at InComm Payments was quoted as saying “DraftKings will benefit from having its brand present in tens of thousands of Incomm Payments’ retail partner locations across the US”. Overall, good news for DK.
New York State – Getting desperate? Do they need some online sports gambling revenue?
I want to make this clear before I write about this topic – sports betting is already legal in New York state. The problem is, it’s only legal in brick and mortar (retail) locations. Just under a dozen upstate casinos can operate brick and mortar sports books at the moment. In typical DK fashion, they’re already active in a casino in New York State. DK offers in person brick and mortar sports betting through the Del Lago Resort Casino in Waterloo, NY. My news update I’m sharing is that it appears New York state might be considering expanding to online sports betting too due to a budget shortfall they’re experiencing (they need more tax revenue).
This news came out on Wednesday, 12/16/20 during the day time. Governor Cuomo had a press conference during the day. The press conference was primarily focused on giving an update on the COVID-19 pandemic in New York state. During the presser, the topic of New York state’s budget shortfalls came up. As a possible financial solution, Cuomo said “Are there other ways to get revenue? How about marijuana? How about sports betting?” He’s referring to the possible tax revenue that could be collected if sports betting offerings were expanded beyond just the brick and mortar offerings. What if every New Yorker could place a sports wager from the comfort of their own home on their cell phone?
The battle for legalizing online sports gambling in New York has been going on for years. Governor Cuomo has always been opposed to it. One of the reasons Gov. Cuomo has cited in the past is that he thinks a constitutional amendment would need to be made to New York state law to allow for mobile sports betting in the state. However, one state representative from New York that has been pushing hard for online sports gambling begs to differ. In response to Cuomo’s comments in the presser earlier that day, State Senator Joseph Addabbo said that there would be no constitutional problem with mobile sports betting because the servers could be placed on site of grandfathered in physical casinos. Addabo said that New York state’s need for revenue is “real and immediate”
This is a situation to keep a close eye on. The impacts of legalizing mobile sports betting in NY would be substantial for DK as it would open the population of 20 million people in NY state the opportunity to place wagers on the DK Sportsbook app through the comfort of their home. I imagine it wouldn’t be too difficult for DK to mobilize once they get the green light for mobile betting as they already have the standing relationship with Del Lago Resort Casino for in person betting.
The Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) granted DK a provisional license to conduct online gaming and sports betting in the state of Michigan
For this update I also want to be clear – retail (brick and mortar) and mobile sports betting are already legal in the state of Michigan. It’s just that there’s a lot of yellow tape for Sportsbooks like DK to navigate within a state even after sports betting has become legalized. This provisional license provided by the MGCB was provided to DK and 14 other sportsbooks (including rival FanDuel) on Thursday, December 10th last week.
Now there are just a few more regulatory requirements that DK has to meet in the state of Michigan before they can go live. According to http://www.michigan.gov, “Before launch happens, the platform providers must complete additional regulatory requirements including independent testing of platforms and games and MGCB approval of their internal controls, which ensure gaming integrity. The firms also must secure occupational licenses for certain employees.” You can read the full article on Michigan’s government website here.
Knowing that DK has a knack for being quick to mobilize once they’re given opportunities in respective states, I fully expect them to pass these last few tests with flying colors. The DK Sportsbook app has already been available in the state of Michigan for “free to enter” games. Once they pass the last few requirements, actual wagers will be allowed to be placed. And money will be allowed to be made!
Another promising sign coming out of the state of Michigan, is that on November 30th, 2020, DK became an official sports betting partner of the Detroit Pistons, the NBA basketball team in Michigan. DK Chief Business Officer, Ezra Kucharz, was on the record after the deal closed saying “As our first professional team activation in the state of Michigan, we are thrilled to join forces with the Detroit Pistons ahead of our pending market introduction”. In my opinion, I anticipate we’ll be seeing DK online sports betting in Michigan some time in early 2021.
This concludes my update and analysis on DraftKings.
TL:DR

• Draftkings now offers gift cards and you can buy them in convenience stores (first sports betting company to do so)
• DraftKings received a provisional license to conduct sports gambling in Michigan
• Governor Cuomo of NY said he would consider legalizing "mobile sports betting" to raise additional tax revenue
• If you would like to read my original deep dive and analysis on DKNG, you can check it out here:
  • DraftKings Deep Dive and Analysis - Investment Thesis

tl;dr potential holy grail for US folk in certain states: Advekit is a website that matches you+therapists by specialty area (e.g. ADHD!) + insurance/therapy style. Also shows upfront costs - what you'd actually pay after insurance.
Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with it in any way other than hope + curiosity. I am not a therapist or credentialed mental health provider. Cross-posting to a few mental health subs.
Has anyone used it and would be able to share their experiences?
Anyone now inspired to use it who can report back to the sub with your thoughts?
----
I keep seeing ads for Advekit. It looks like a rad tool if you're in the US (currently only 7 states) and trying to find a therapist that checks all the boxes (ADHD, in-network or affordable, therapy style, particular gender, in-person or online-only, etc etc).
Finding a care team (therapist, psychiatrist, other) who truly understands ADHD SHOULD NOT BE A CRAPSHOOT. It should not be so freaking convoluted, demoralizing and painful. I wonder if Advekit is the holy grail, or at least the mental health equivalent of a power tool when your toolbox used to be one shitty too-small Philips-head screwdriver.
I noodled around with it since I'm trying to help a coaching client in distress whose current therapist can't help in a particular specialty area.
Stop here if you don't need/want to nerd out further.
​
===== OVERVIEW OF THE MATCHING QUESTIONS =====
They don't have a detailed summary of the questions they ask unless you fill out the questionnaire, so I did it for you. (I can't stand having to surrender my personal info and fill out pages of questions only to find out they're not asking the right questions and wondering if it's useful at all).
I was really interested to see this question on what's your ideal therapist's role during the session. I've seen this make or break a therapy relationship AND make/break a person's views on therapy - if you need more tactical skills, you don't want the therapist to just sit back and let you talk, and if you're in need of validation you really really don't want a therapist with a firm hand.

• I do most of the talking & the therapist's role is to be an active/nonjudgmental listener
• While I share, the therapist jumps in & challenges me when appropriate
• The therapist's role is to teach me tools/skills to problem-solve
• The therapist acts more as a coach/motivator
• Therapist uses art/movement in sessions
• I'm not sure

The full questionnaire if you pick INDIVIDUAL at first. Idk what would change for couples/child/etc.

• Kind of therapy: individual, couples, child, adolescent, family
• How you prefer to receive treatment: in-person +/- phone/video
• Zip code (imo if you select remote therapy this should not limit you to providers near you)
• What's your #1 priority in finding the right therapist: cost // therapist specialization // personal fit // location
• [quick switch to getting insurance info + email - imo this disrupts the flow]
• Do you currently have insurance: yes // no // I'm not sure
• What type of insurance do you have: PPO // HMO // Other // I'm not sure
• [optional: enter insurance info]
• Enter email
• What's most concerning you? Select up to three: ADHD // Adoption // Alcohol concerns // Anger management // Anxiety // Autism // Behavioral issues // Bipolar disorder // Borderline personality // Career change // Chronic pain // Cross-cultural identity // Dating // Depression // Disability // Divorce // Eating // Family/relationship // Foster care // Gambling // Gender identity // Grief/loss // Illness // Infertility // Learning disabilities // Life transition/aging // Life transitions // Motor or tic disorders // Narcissism // Neurofeedback // Obsessive-compulsive (OCD) // Parenting // Peer conflict // Phobia // Pregnancy, prenatal, postpartum // Psychological testing // PTSD // Schizophrenia // Self-esteem // Self-harming // Sex addiction // Sex/love addiction // Sexual abuse // Sexual intimacy // Sexual orientation // Sleep concerns // Stress // Struggle with eating // Substance abuse // Suicidal thoughts // Trauma // Weight concerns // Work stress
• Gender preference for your ideal therapist: Female // Male // Non-binary // No preference
• What's your ideal therapists's role during the session? [see above]
• Preference for time of day: daytime hours // before 9am // after 5pm // weekends
• What's your gender: female // male // non-binary // prefer not to say
• What's your age: Under 18 // 18-24 // 25-34 // 35-50 // 50+

===== further thoughts from a product manager perspective =====
My experience with "find a provider by specialty" tools (e.g. PsychologyToday or health insurance) as a patient and client advocate is that providers self-report their specialty areas and there's no way to verify whether they're a generalist who pays lip service to ("I've learned about ADHD so I can treat patients with it, no problem") or has deep experience and specific expertise in recognizing + treating the many ways it presents. Therapists are humans, and therefore both fallible AND biased. Evidence: so many heartbreaking tales of "you obviously don't have ADHD because you don't fit the stereotype" directly stated by mental health providers.
I also don't know whether Advekit's therapist specialty area questions are more nuanced (rate your expertise in this area from 1-5) or simply binary yes/no. More granularity would help offset the inaccuracy+bias of self-reporting.
Most of the time, patient/client feedback on providers is limited, for many valid reasons (confidentiality, stigma, trustworthiness of review hosting sites (Yelp has a reputation for not removing flagged reviews unless businesses pay for that service), inherent polarization of reviews). So there's not often a way to verify the level of expertise a provider claims to have regarding specialty areas.
The advantage of a tool like Advekit is that there's a way to ground-truth a therapist's self-reported specialty: since billing is done through Advekit there's continued contact with the patient/client (i.e. not only at the therapist-matching stage) . I have no idea whether they do this or not. If I were PM, that's what I'd be thinking about as a way to not only improve the algorithm but also make happier experiences for the humans involved! (better matches mean longer relationships i.e. less churn, more consistent income stream for therapist, higher therapeutic effectiveness, HEALTHIER HAPPIER CLIENTS, the list goes on).
I'm curious whether therapist-selected client gender preferences might lead to false negative matches e.g. "prefer not to say" is incompatible with "female + male". It's worth noting that the matching algorithm may exclude matches that are otherwise appropriate.
Selecting remote-only therapy seems to prioritize Zip code proximity, which doesn't necessarily equate to the best match within your State (providers need to be licensed in the same State as their patients reside).
Currently in 7 states (CA, CT, IL, NJ, NY, PA, WA) but there's no waitlist or "keep me posted when you expand to a new state" button. That would be a nice improvement.

DM me if you have suggestions for other things you'd like to see reviews of from a similar perspective.

tl;dr potential holy grail for US folk in certain states: Advekit is a website that matches you+therapists by specialty area (e.g. ADHD!) + insurance/therapy style. Also shows upfront costs - what you'd actually pay after insurance.
Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with it in any way other than hope + curiosity. I am not a therapist or credentialed mental health provider. Cross-posting to a few mental health subs.
Has anyone used it and would be able to share their experiences?
Anyone now inspired to use it who can report back to the sub with your thoughts?
----
I keep seeing ads for Advekit. It looks like a rad tool if you're in the US (currently only 7 states) and trying to find a therapist that checks all the boxes (ADHD, in-network or affordable, therapy style, particular gender, in-person or online-only, etc etc).
Finding a care team (therapist, psychiatrist, other) who truly understands ADHD SHOULD NOT BE A CRAPSHOOT. It should not be so freaking convoluted, demoralizing and painful. I wonder if Advekit is the holy grail, or at least the mental health equivalent of a power tool when your toolbox used to be one shitty too-small Philips-head screwdriver.
I noodled around with it since I'm trying to help a coaching client in distress whose current therapist can't help in a particular specialty area.
Stop here if you don't need/want to nerd out further.
​
===== OVERVIEW OF THE MATCHING QUESTIONS =====
They don't have a detailed summary of the questions they ask unless you fill out the questionnaire, so I did it for you. (I can't stand having to surrender my personal info and fill out pages of questions only to find out they're not asking the right questions and wondering if it's useful at all).
I was really interested to see this question on what's your ideal therapist's role during the session. I've seen this make or break a therapy relationship AND make/break a person's views on therapy - if you need more tactical skills, you don't want the therapist to just sit back and let you talk, and if you're in need of validation you really really don't want a therapist with a firm hand.

• I do most of the talking & the therapist's role is to be an active/nonjudgmental listener
• While I share, the therapist jumps in & challenges me when appropriate
• The therapist's role is to teach me tools/skills to problem-solve
• The therapist acts more as a coach/motivator
• Therapist uses art/movement in sessions
• I'm not sure

The full questionnaire if you pick INDIVIDUAL at first. Idk what would change for couples/child/etc.

• Kind of therapy: individual, couples, child, adolescent, family
• How you prefer to receive treatment: in-person +/- phone/video
• Zip code (imo if you select remote therapy this should not limit you to providers near you)
• What's your #1 priority in finding the right therapist: cost // therapist specialization // personal fit // location
• [quick switch to getting insurance info + email - imo this disrupts the flow]
• Do you currently have insurance: yes // no // I'm not sure
• What type of insurance do you have: PPO // HMO // Other // I'm not sure
• [optional: enter insurance info]
• Enter email
• What's most concerning you? Select up to three: ADHD // Adoption // Alcohol concerns // Anger management // Anxiety // Autism // Behavioral issues // Bipolar disorder // Borderline personality // Career change // Chronic pain // Cross-cultural identity // Dating // Depression // Disability // Divorce // Eating // Family/relationship // Foster care // Gambling // Gender identity // Grief/loss // Illness // Infertility // Learning disabilities // Life transition/aging // Life transitions // Motor or tic disorders // Narcissism // Neurofeedback // Obsessive-compulsive (OCD) // Parenting // Peer conflict // Phobia // Pregnancy, prenatal, postpartum // Psychological testing // PTSD // Schizophrenia // Self-esteem // Self-harming // Sex addiction // Sex/love addiction // Sexual abuse // Sexual intimacy // Sexual orientation // Sleep concerns // Stress // Struggle with eating // Substance abuse // Suicidal thoughts // Trauma // Weight concerns // Work stress
• Gender preference for your ideal therapist: Female // Male // Non-binary // No preference
• What's your ideal therapists's role during the session? [see above]
• Preference for time of day: daytime hours // before 9am // after 5pm // weekends
• What's your gender: female // male // non-binary // prefer not to say
• What's your age: Under 18 // 18-24 // 25-34 // 35-50 // 50+

===== further thoughts from a product manager perspective =====
My experience with "find a provider by specialty" tools (e.g. PsychologyToday or health insurance) as a patient and client advocate is that providers self-report their specialty areas and there's no way to verify whether they're a generalist who pays lip service to ("I've learned about ADHD so I can treat patients with it, no problem") or has deep experience and specific expertise in recognizing + treating the many ways it presents. Therapists are humans, and therefore both fallible AND biased. Evidence: so many heartbreaking tales of "you obviously don't have ADHD because you don't fit the stereotype" directly stated by mental health providers.
I also don't know whether Advekit's therapist specialty area questions are more nuanced (rate your expertise in this area from 1-5) or simply binary yes/no. More granularity would help offset the inaccuracy+bias of self-reporting.
Most of the time, patient/client feedback on providers is limited, for many valid reasons (confidentiality, stigma, trustworthiness of review hosting sites (Yelp has a reputation for not removing flagged reviews unless businesses pay for that service), inherent polarization of reviews). So there's not often a way to verify the level of expertise a provider claims to have regarding specialty areas.
The advantage of a tool like Advekit is that there's a way to ground-truth a therapist's self-reported specialty: since billing is done through Advekit there's continued contact with the patient/client (i.e. not only at the therapist-matching stage) . I have no idea whether they do this or not. If I were PM, that's what I'd be thinking about as a way to not only improve the algorithm but also make happier experiences for the humans involved! (better matches mean longer relationships i.e. less churn, more consistent income stream for therapist, higher therapeutic effectiveness, HEALTHIER HAPPIER CLIENTS, the list goes on).
I'm curious whether therapist-selected client gender preferences might lead to false negative matches e.g. "prefer not to say" is incompatible with "female + male". It's worth noting that the matching algorithm may exclude matches that are otherwise appropriate.
Selecting remote-only therapy seems to prioritize Zip code proximity, which doesn't necessarily equate to the best match within your State (providers need to be licensed in the same State as their patients reside).
Currently in 7 states (CA, CT, IL, NJ, NY, PA, WA) but there's no waitlist or "keep me posted when you expand to a new state" button. That would be a nice improvement.

DM me if you have suggestions for other things you'd like to see reviews of from a similar perspective.

Given the recently situation with COVID and not wanting to spend much time in stores, my glasses-wearing family decided to do a little experiment with ordering glasses and lens replacements online. We needed a few new pairs of glasses and lenses replaced in 2 other pairs. I decided to try out several different online/mail order options. Figured I’d share our experience since this seems to be a frequent question on this sub.
Zenni Optical (order #1): Ordered July 11th and received July 18th (7 days). This first order came super fast, although I did pay for express shipping.
Zenni Optical (order #2): Ordered July 18th, received August 1 (14 days). This was regular shipping speed.
Zenni Optical (order #3): Ordered July 20th, received Aug 4 (15 days). Even though we paid for express shipping on this one, it took the longest to arrive. Go figure.
Overall impression of Zenni: Good, reliable, low-cost option, but you get what you pay for. The prescriptions seemed accurate but the quality of frames isn’t great, and some frames are better than others. It’s hard to tell just looking at the website which frames are going to have better quality (although the reviews help). Two pairs were decent enough that my kids will use them as back-up pairs. But one pair was really cheesy and will probably never get used (or will be kept for dire emergencies). But it was also only like $25-$30/pair, so worth the gamble. Zenni has a ton of options for kids and the home try-on tool works nicely. Zenni glasses are manufactured in China, then shipped to California, and then shipped out to the customer. There seems to be a lot of variation in how long orders take to arrive, regardless of shipping method selected. And once they arrive in California, they don’t always get shipped out right away. I found this kind of frustrating. However, I will say that their customer service reps are incredibly responsive. Don’t order these expecting them to arrive quickly. Also, shipping method doesn’t seem to really make much difference so don’t pay extra for “express” shipping!
LensDirect: We used this company to replace the lenses in a pair of glasses we had. We placed our order on July 20th and mailed in our frames on July 21 via USPS (using the provided shipping label). LensDirect turned around the order and shipped back out to us on July 29th and we received the glasses on August 1. It probably helps that we’re only located about 250 miles from their lab in NY. Quality of returned glasses was excellent. Prescription seemed accurate and quality was what I’d expect from any optical store. No complaints!
Overnight Glasses: This was another company that we sent a pair of frames to so that we could get new lenses. While the company was responsive to an inquiry I had (there’s a number you can call and you get a live person!) their turnaround was a bit slower. We placed our order on July 21 and mailed the glasses in that day via USPS. The glasses arrived to them on July 26th. I got an email on July 29th stating that the order had entered the “coating and cutting stage.” We received our glasses on Aug 5. This lab is located in California so that explains part of the longer time. No concerns with the quality and they did a great job packaging the glasses to ship back. Even included a nice cloth and some cleaning stuff. I would be willing to use them again, just being aware that they will take a bit longer because they are located across the country from us.
Tip regarding mail-order lens replacement: Pick the place that is closest to your home if you need your glasses back fast, as that definitely seems to affect the return time (because obviously your frames have to travel there and then back again). But in terms of quality, I’d use either place again. LensDirect was just as fast as any local optical store for replacing lenses. Look online for coupon codes; I found one for both places.
JonasPaul: My daughter wanted a pair of “cool” glasses so we got a try-on box from this company. I wish they offered an online trial tool or the option of including different glasses in the try-on box, but the trial box arrived within 4 days of ordering it and had a decent selection. The box comes with 7 frames (and most frames can be ordered in different colors). The customer support staff were really responsive when I messaged them asking about which frame size was best for my daughter. We picked out a pair and placed the order on July 25th (a Saturday). The order was “confirmed” on Monday July 27th. We received the glasses on Aug 8 (today). The quality of these glasses is definitely superior to Zenni or other mail-order sites we’ve used. The frames have spring hinges and are sturdy, and I love the silicone on the ear pieces. The turn-around time was a bit slower than I expected but not horrible. I would use this company again because the quality and style of the frames is excellent, as is the customer service. The company is geared towards kids but the large kids frames would probably work for some small adults. They also have a few frames for teens that would work for adults. My daughter loves the glasses and said they are more comfortable than several of her other pairs. No complaints!
Warby Parker: I placed an order for a new pair on May 26th (after using their home try-on box) and received the glasses on June 5th. I’ve ordered several pairs of glasses from Warby Parker in the past and have always been really happy with them. The time to ship for this was order was a day or two longer than previous orders, but still came well within the expected delivery time. I really like their home try-on tool (that I use with my iPhone); I found it to be very accurate in terms of what the glasses will look like. I have a very narrow face and it’s nice that Warby Parker is increasing the number of narrow and extra-narrow frames available for home try-on. They continue to be one of my favorite options for ordering glasses online. I have several pairs and they have all held up very well. My only complaint is that not all of their glasses are available for home try-on. Warby Parker, please change this!
For all companies other than Warby Parker, I was able to find coupon codes online to take a few dollars off each order. So look for those before ordering.
Overall, I would use any of these companies again, but with the knowledge that Zenni is going to be slow and cheap, LensDirect the fastest (for us), and Warby Parker and JonasPaul the best for overall quality and style when picking frames.

Imagine if there was one desk that all stories could cross so that, at 4am, a media plan could be decided upon and disseminated where all news outlets coordinated to set the goalposts of debate and hyper focused on specific issues to drive a narrative to control how you vote and how you spend money; where Internet shills were given marching orders in tandem to what was shown on television, printed in newspapers and spread throughout articles on the World Wide Web.
https://i.imgur.com/Elnci0M.png
In the past, we had Operation Mockingbird, where the program was supremely confident that it could control stories around the world, even in instructions to cover up any story about a possible “Yeti” sighting, should it turn out they were real.
https://i.imgur.com/121LXqy.png
If, in 1959, the government was confident in its ability to control a story about a Yeti, then what is their level of confidence in controlling stories, today?
https://i.imgur.com/jQFVYew.png
https://i.imgur.com/ZKMYGJj.png
In fact, we have a recent example of a situation similar to the Yeti. When Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch met on the TARMAC to spike the Hillary email investigation, the FBI was so confident it wasn’t them, that their entire focus was finding the leaker, starting with searching within the local PD. We have documentation that demonstrates the state of mind of the confidence the upper levels of the FBI have when dealing with the media.
https://i.imgur.com/IbjDOkI.png
https://i.imgur.com/NH86ozU.png
The marriage between mainstream media and government is a literal one and this arrangement is perfectly legal.
https://i.imgur.com/OAd4vpf.png
But, this problem extends far beyond politics; the private sector, the scientific community, even advice forums are shilled heavily. People are paid to cause anxiety, recommend people break up and otherwise sow depression and nervousness. This is due to a correlating force that employs “systems psychodynamics”, focusing on “tension centered” strategies to create “organizational paradoxes” by targeting people’s basic assumptions about the world around them to create division and provide distraction.
https://i.imgur.com/6OEWYFN.png
https://i.imgur.com/iG4sdD4.png
https://i.imgur.com/e89Rx6B.png
https://i.imgur.com/uotm9Cg.png
https://i.imgur.com/74wt9tD.png
In this day and age, it is even easier to manage these concepts and push a controlled narrative from a central figure than it has ever been. Allen & Co is a “boutique investment firm” that managed the merger between Disney and Fox and operates as an overseeing force for nearly all media and Internet shill armies, while having it’s fingers in sports, social media, video games, health insurance, etc.
https://i.imgur.com/zlpBh3c.png
https://i.imgur.com/e5ZvFFJ.png
Former director of the CIA and Paul Brennan’s former superior George Tenet, holds the reigns of Allen & Co. The cast of characters involves a lot of the usual suspects.
https://i.imgur.com/3OlrX7G.png

In 1973, Allen & Company bought a stake in Columbia Pictures. When the business was sold in 1982 to Coca-Cola, it netted a significant profit. Since then, Herbert Allen, Jr. has had a place on Coca-Cola's board of directors.
Since its founding in 1982, the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference has regularly drawn high-profile attendees such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Rupert Murdoch, Barry Diller, Michael Eisner, Oprah Winfrey, Robert Johnson, Andy Grove, Richard Parsons, and Donald Keough.
Allen & Co. was one of ten underwriters for the Google initial public offering in 2004. In 2007, Allen was sole advisor to Activision in its $18 billion merger with Vivendi Games. In 2011, the New York Mets hired Allen & Co. to sell a minority stake of the team. That deal later fell apart. In November 2013, Allen & Co. was one of seven underwriters on the initial public offering of Twitter. Allen & Co. was the adviser of Facebook in its $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp in February 2014.
In 2015, Allen & Co. was the advisor to Time Warner in its $80 billion 2015 merger with Charter Communications, AOL in its acquisition by Verizon, Centene Corporation in its $6.8 billion acquisition of Health Net, and eBay in its separation from PayPal.
In 2016, Allen & Co was the lead advisor to Time Warner in its $108 billion acquisition by AT&T, LinkedIn for its merger talks with Microsoft, Walmart in its $3.3 billion purchase of Jet.com, and Verizon in its $4.8 billion acquisition of Yahoo!. In 2017, Allen & Co. was the advisor to Chewy.com in PetSmart’s $3.35 billion purchase of the online retailer.

Allen & Co throws the Sun Valley Conference every year where you get a glimpse of who sows up. Harvey Weinstein, though a past visitor, was not invited last year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_%26_Company_Sun_Valley_Conference

Previous conference guests have included Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren and Susan Buffett, Tony Blair, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Allen alumnus and former Philippine Senator Mar Roxas, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, Quicken Loans Founder & Chairman Dan Gilbert, Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang, financier George Soros, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch, eBay CEO Meg Whitman, BET founder Robert Johnson, Time Warner Chairman Richard Parsons, Nike founder and chairman Phil Knight, Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell, NBA player LeBron James, Professor and Entrepreneur Sebastian Thrun, Governor Chris Christie, entertainer Dan Chandler, Katharine Graham of The Washington Post, Diane Sawyer, InterActiveCorp Chairman Barry Diller, Linkedin co-founder Reid Hoffman, entrepreneur Wences Casares, EXOR and FCA Chairman John Elkann, Sandro Salsano from Salsano Group, and Washington Post CEO Donald E. Graham, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, and Oprah Winfrey.

https://i.imgur.com/VZ0OtFa.png
George Tenet, with the reigns of Allen & Co in his hands, is able to single-handedly steer the entire Mockingbird apparatus from cable television to video games to Internet shills from a singular location determining the spectrum of allowable debate. Not only are they able to target people’s conscious psychology, they can target people’s endocrine systems with food and pornography; where people are unaware, on a conscious level, of how their moods and behavior are being manipulated.
https://i.imgur.com/mA3MzTB.png

"The problem with George Tenet is that he doesn't seem to care to get his facts straight. He is not meticulous. He is willing to make up stories that suit his purposes and to suppress information that does not."
"Sadly but fittingly, 'At the Center of the Storm' is likely to remind us that sometimes what lies at the center of a storm is a deafening silence."

https://i.imgur.com/YHMJnnP.png
Tenet joined President-elect Bill Clinton's national security transition team in November 1992. Clinton appointed Tenet Senior Director for Intelligence Programs at the National Security Council, where he served from 1993 to 1995. Tenet was appointed Deputy Director of Central Intelligence in July 1995. Tenet held the position as the DCI from July 1997 to July 2004. Citing "personal reasons," Tenet submitted his resignation to President Bush on June 3, 2004. Tenet said his resignation "was a personal decision and had only one basis—in fact, the well-being of my wonderful family—nothing more and nothing less. In February 2008, he became a managing director at investment bank Allen & Company.
https://i.imgur.com/JnGHqOS.png
We have the documentation that demonstrates what these people could possibly be doing with all of these tools of manipulation at their fingertips.
The term for it is “covert political action” for which all media put before your eyes is used to serve as a veneer… a reality TV show facade of a darker modus operandum.
https://i.imgur.com/vZC4D29.png
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol36no3/html/v36i3a05p_0001.htm

It is now clear that we are facing an implacable enemy whose avowed objective is world domination by whatever means and at whatever costs. There are no rules in such a game. Hitherto acceptable norms of human conduct do not apply. If the US is to survive, longstanding American concepts of "fair play" must be reconsidered. We must develop effective espionage and counterespionage services and must learn to subvert, sabotage and destroy our enemies by more clever, more sophisticated means than those used against us. It may become necessary that the American people be made acquainted with, understand and support this fundamentally repugnant philosophy.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3340677/t/cia-operatives-shadowy-war-force/

Intelligence historian Jeffrey T. Richelson says the S.A. has covered a variety of missions. The group, which recently was reorganized, has had about 200 officers, divided among several groups: the Special Operations Group; the Foreign Training Group, which trains foreign police and intelligence officers; the Propaganda and Political Action Group, which handles disinformation; the Computer Operations Group, which handles information warfare; and the Proprietary Management Staff, which manages whatever companies the CIA sets up as covers for the S.A.

Scientology as a CIA Political Action Group – “It is a continuing arrangement…”: https://mikemcclaughry.wordpress.com/2015/08/25/scientology-as-a-cia-political-action-group-it-is-a-continuing-arrangement/

…Those operations we inaugurated in the years 1955-7 are still secret, but, for present purposes, I can say all that’s worth saying about them in a few sentences – after, that is, I offer these few words of wisdom. The ‘perfect’ political action operation is, by definition, uneventful. Nothing ‘happens’ in it. It is a continuing arrangement, neither a process nor a series of actions proceeding at a starting point and ending with a conclusion.

CIA FBI NSA Personnel Active in Scientology: https://i.imgur.com/acu2Eti.png
When you consider the number of forces that can be contained within a single “political action group” in the form on a “boutique investment firm,” where all sides of political arguments are predetermined by a selected group of actors who have been planted, compromised or leveraged in some way in order to control the way they spin their message.
https://i.imgur.com/tU4MD4S.png
The evidence of this coordinated effort is overwhelming and the “consensus” that you see on TV, in sports, in Hollywood, in the news and on the Internet is fabricated.

Under the guise of a fake account a posting is made which looks legitimate and is towards the truth is made - but the critical point is that it has a VERY WEAK PREMISE without substantive proof to back the posting. Once this is done then under alternative fake accounts a very strong position in your favour is slowly introduced over the life of the posting. It is IMPERATIVE that both sides are initially presented, so the uninformed reader cannot determine which side is the truth. As postings and replies are made the stronger 'evidence' or disinformation in your favour is slowly 'seeded in.'
Thus the uninformed reader will most likely develop the same position as you, and if their position is against you their opposition to your posting will be most likely dropped. However in some cases where the forum members are highly educated and can counter your disinformation with real facts and linked postings, you can then 'abort' the consensus cracking by initiating a 'forum slide.'

When you find yourself feeling like common sense and common courtesy aren’t as common as they ought to be, it is because there is a massive psychological operation controlled from the top down to ensure that as many people as possible are caught in a “tension based” mental loop that is inflicted on them by people acting with purpose to achieve goals that are not in the interest of the general population, but a method of operating in secret and corrupt manner without consequences.
Notice that Jeffrey Katzenberg, of Disney, who is intertwined with Allen & Co funds the Young Turks. He is the perfect example of the relationship between media and politics.

Katzenberg has also been involved in politics. With his active support of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, he was called "one of Hollywood's premier political kingmakers and one of the Democratic Party's top national fundraisers."

With cash from Jeffrey Katzenberg, The Young Turks looks to grow paid subscribers:
https://digiday.com/media/with-cash-from-katzenberg-the-young-turks-look-to-grow-paid-subscribers/

Last week, former DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg’s new mobile entertainment company WndrCo was part of a $20 million funding round in TYT Network, which oversees 30 news and commentary shows covering politics, pop culture, sports and more. This includes the flagship “The Young Turks” program that streams live on YouTube every day. Other investors in the round included venture capital firms Greycroft Partners, E.ventures and 3L Capital, which led the round. This brings total funding for Young Turks to $24 million.

How Hollywood's Political Donors Are Changing Strategies for the Trump Era:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/hollywood-political-donors-are-changing-strategy-post-trump-1150545

Hollywood activism long has been depicted as a club controlled by a handful of powerful white men: Katzenberg, Spielberg, Lear, David Geffen, Haim Saban and Bob Iger are the names most often mentioned. But a new generation of power brokers is ascendant, including J.J. Abrams and his wife, Katie McGrath, cited for their personal donations and bundling skills; Shonda Rhimes, who held a get-out-the-vote rally at USC's Galen Center on Sept. 28 that drew 10,000 people; CAA's Darnell Strom, who has hosted events for Nevada congresswoman Jacky Rosen and Arizona congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema; and former Spotify executive Troy Carter, who held three fundraisers for Maryland gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous (Carter also was a fundraiser for President Obama).

Soros Group Buys Viacom's DreamWorks Film Library:
https://www.forbes.com/2006/03/17/soros-viacom-dreamworks-cx_gl_0317autofacescan11.html#541a895f1f22

Viacom, after splitting off from Les Moonves Les Moonves ' CBS , still holds Paramount Pictures, and that movie studio in December agreed to acquire DreamWorks SKG, the creative shop founded by the Hollywood triumvirate of Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg (a former exec at The Walt Disney Co.). DreamWorks Animation had been spun off into a separate company.
Now it's time for Freston to make back some money--and who better to do a little business with than George Soros? The billionaire financier leads a consortium of Soros Strategic Partners LP and Dune Entertainment II LLC, which together are buying the DreamWorks library--a collection of 59 flicks, including Saving Private Ryan, Gladiator, and American Beauty.

The money you spend on media and junk food and in taxes goes to these groups who then decide how best to market at you so that they decide how you vote by creating a fake consensus to trick into thinking that you want something other than what is best for you; but will inevitably result in more money being funneled to the top, creating further separation between the super rich and the average person. The goal will be to assert creeping authoritarianism by generating outrage against policies and issues they hate. Part of manipulating your basic assumptions is also to use schadenfreude (think canned laughter on TV) against characters who support the cause that might actually do you the most good (which reaffirms and strengthens your confirmation biased along predetermined political lines).
https://i.imgur.com/PW1cRtj.png
We have a population being taught to hate socialism and love capitalism when the truth is no country is practicing either. These terms are merely disguises for political oligarchies where the collection of wealth is less about getting themselves rich and more about keeping everyone else poor.
What can you guess about the world around you if it turned out that every consensus that was forced on you was fake?
How much money would it take to make it look like 51% of the Internet believed in completely idiotic ideas? Combine shill operations with automation and AI’s, and the cost becomes a good investment relative to the return when measured in political power.
Even the people who are well intentioned and very vocal do not have to consciously be aware that they are working for a political action group. A covert political group will always prefer an unwitting tool to help push their agenda, so that they can remain in the shadows.
FDA Admonishes Drug Maker Over Kim Kardashian Instagram Endorsement https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkroll/2015/08/11/fda-spanks-drug-maker-over-kim-kardashian-instagram-endorsement/#25174a29587b
The OSS files offer details about other agents than famous chef, Julia Child; including Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, major league catcher Moe Berg, historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., and actor Sterling Hayden. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26186498/ns/us_news-security/t/julia-child-cooked-double-life-spy/
USA Today: Businesses and organizations may refer to it as a tool for competitive advantage and marketing; but make no mistake http://archive.is/37tK3
Shareblue accounts caught in /politics posting links to Shareblue without disclosing their affiliation http://archive.is/7HAkr
Psy Group developed elaborate information operations for commercial clients and political candidates around the world http://archive.is/BBblQ
Top mod of /Mechanical_Gifs tries to sell subreddit on ebay for 999.00 dollars. http://archive.is/kU1Ly
Shill posts picture of a dog in a hammock with the brand clearly visible without indicating that it's an ad in the title of the post http://archive.is/Mfdk9
Arstechnica: GCHQs menu of tools spreads disinformation across Internet- “Effects capabilities” allow analysts to twist truth subtly or spam relentlessly. http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/07/ghcqs-chinese-menu-of-tools-spread-disinformation-across-internet/
Samsung Electronics Fined for Fake Online Comments http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/samsung-electronics-fined-for-fake-online-comments/?_r=0
Discover Magazine: Researchers Uncover Twitter Bot Army That’s 350 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2017/01/20/twitter-bot-army/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20DiscoverTechnology%20%28Discover%20Technology%29#.WIMl-oiLTnA
Times of Israel - The internet: Israel’s new PR battlefield http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-rise-of-digital-diplomacy-could-be-changing-israels-media-image/
Time: Social Media Manipulation? When “Indie” Bloggers and Businesses Get Cozy http://business.time.com/2013/04/22/social-media-manipulation-when-indie-bloggers-and-businesses-get-cozy/
Content-Driven Detection of Campaigns in Social Media [PDF] http://faculty.cs.tamu.edu/caverlee/pubs/lee11cikm.pdf
the law preventing them from using this in America was repealed http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/07/14/u-s-repeals-propaganda-ban-spreads-government-made-news-to-americans/
Redditor who works for a potato mailing company admits to being a shill. He shows off his 27 thousand dollars he made in /pics
http://i.imgur.com/CcTHwdS.png
Screenshot of post since it was removed. http://i.imgur.com/k9g0WF8.png
Just thought I'd contribute to this thread http://imgur.com/OpSos4u
CNN: A PR firm has revealed that it is behind two blogs that previously appeared to be created by independent supporters of Wal-Mart. The blogs Working Families for Wal-mart and subsidiary site Paid Critics are written by 3 employees of PR firm Edelman http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/20/news/companies/walmart_blogs/index.htm
Vice: Your Government Wants to Militarize Social Media to Influence Your Beliefs http://motherboard.vice.com/read/your-government-wants-to-militarize-social-media-to-influence-your-beliefs
BBC News: China's Internet spin doctors http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7783640.stm
BBC News: US plans to 'fight the net' revealed http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4655196.stm
Wall Street Journal: Turkey's Government Forms 6 http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323527004579079151479634742?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424127887323527004579079151479634742.html
Fake product reviews may be pervasive http://phys.org/news/2013-07-fake-product-pervasive.html#nRlv
USA Today: The co-owner of a major Pentagon propaganda contractor publicly admitted that he was behind a series of websites used in an attempt to discredit two USA TODAY journalists who had reported on the contractor. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-05-24/Leonie-usa-today-propaganda-pentagon/55190450/1
ADWEEK: Marketing on Reddit Is Scary http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/marketing-reddit-scary-these-success-stories-show-big-potential-168278
BBC- How online chatbots are already tricking you- Intelligent machines that can pass for humans have long been dreamed of http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140609-how-online-bots-are-tricking-you
BBC news: Amazon targets 1 http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34565631
BBC: More than four times as many tweets were made by automated accounts in favour of Donald Trump around the first US presidential debate as by those backing Hillary Clinton http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37684418
Fake five-star reviews being bought and sold online - Fake online reviews are being openly traded on the internet
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43907695
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-20982985
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-20982985
Bloomberg: How to Hack an Election [and influence voters with fake social media accounts] http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-how-to-hack-an-election/
"Internet Reputation Management http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2008-04-30/do-reputation-management-services-work-businessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice
Buzzfeed: Documents Show How Russia’s Troll Army Hit America http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/documents-show-how-russias-troll-army-hit-america#.ki8Mz97ly
The Rise of Social Bots http://www.cacm.acm.org/magazines/2016/7/204021-the-rise-of-social-bots/fulltext
CBC News- Canadian government monitors online forums http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/bureaucrats-monitor-online-forums-1.906351
Chicago Tribune: Nutrition for sale: How Kellogg worked with 'independent experts' to tout cereal http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-kellogg-independent-experts-cereal-20161121-story.html
DailyKos: HBGary: Automated social media management http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/16/945768/-UPDATED-The-HB-Gary-Email-That-Should-Concern-Us-All
Meme Warfare Center http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tfulltext/u2/a507172.pdf
Shilling on Reddit is openly admitted to in this Forbes article http://www.forbes.com/sites/julesschroede2016/03/10/the-magic-formula-behind-going-viral-on-reddit/#1d2485b05271
Forbes: From Tinder Bots To 'Cuban Twitter' http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/04/17/from-tinder-bots-to-covert-social-networks-welcome-to-cognitive-hacking/#4b78e2d92a7d
Hivemind http://www.hivemind.cc/rank/shills
Huffington Post- Exposing Cyber Shills and Social Media's Underworld http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-fiorella/cyber-shills_b_2803801.html
The Independent: Massive British PR firm caught on video: "We've got all sorts of dark arts...The ambition is to drown that negative content and make sure that you have positive content online." They discuss techniques for managing reputations online and creating/maintaining 3rd-party blogs that seem independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/caught-on-camera-top-lobbyists-boasting-how-they-influence-the-pm-6272760.html
New York Times: Lifestyle Lift http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/technology/internet/15lift.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
New York Times: Give Yourself 5 Stars? Online http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/23/technology/give-yourself-4-stars-online-it-might-cost-you.html?src=me&ref=general
NY Times- From a nondescript office building in St. Petersburg http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/the-agency.html?_r=1
NY Times: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/31/world/europe/russia-finland-nato-trolls.html?_r=1
PBS Frontline Documentary - Generation Like http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/generation-like/
Gamers promote gaming-gambling site on youtube by pretending to hit jackpot without disclosing that they own the site. They tried to retroactively write a disclosure covering their tracks http://www.pcgamer.com/csgo-lotto-investigation-uncovers-colossal-conflict-of-interest/
Raw Story: CENTCOM engages bloggers http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Raw_obtains_CENTCOM_email_to_bloggers_1016.html
Raw Story: Air Force ordered software to manage army of fake virtual people http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/18/revealed-air-force-ordered-software-to-manage-army-of-fake-virtual-people/
Redective http://www.redective.com/?r=e&a=search&s=subreddit&t=redective&q=shills
Salon: Why Reddit moderators are censoring Glenn Greenwald’s latest news story on shills http://www.salon.com/2014/02/28/why_reddit_moderators_are_censoring_glenn_greenwalds_latest_bombshell_partne
The Atlantic: Kim Kardashian was paid to post a selfie on Instagram and Twitter advertising a pharmaceutical product. Sent to 42 million followers on Instagram and 32 million on Twitter http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/09/fda-drug-promotion-social-media/404563/
WAR.COM: THE INTERNET AND PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS http://www.theblackvault.com/documents/ADA389269.pdf
The Guardian: Internet Astroturfing http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/libertycentral/2010/dec/13/astroturf-libertarians-internet-democracy
The Guardian: Israel ups the stakes in the propaganda war http://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/nov/20/mondaymediasection.israel
Operation Earnest Voice http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/ma17/us-spy-operation-social-networks
The Guardian: British army creates team of Facebook warriors http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/31/british-army-facebook-warriors-77th-brigade
The Guardian: US military studied how to influence Twitter [and Reddit] users in Darpa-funded research [2014] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/08/darpa-social-networks-research-twitter-influence-studies
The Guardian: Chinese officials flood the Chinese internet with positive social media posts to distract their population http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/20/chinese-officials-create-488m-social-media-posts-a-year-study-finds
Times of Israel: Israeli government paying bilingual students to spread propaganda online primarily to international communities without having to identify themselves as working for the government. "The [student] union will operate computer rooms for the project...it was decided to establish a permanent structure of activity on the Internet through the students at academic institutions in the country." http://www.timesofisrael.com/pmo-stealthily-recruiting-students-for-online-advocacy/
USA Today: Lord & Taylor settles FTC charges over paid Instagram posts http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/03/15/lord--taylor-settles-ftc-charges-over-paid-instagram-posts/81801972/
Researcher's algorithm weeds out people using multiple online accounts to spread propaganda - Based on word choice http://www.utsa.edu/today/2016/10/astroturfing.html
http://www.webinknow.com/2008/12/the-us-air-force-armed-with-social-media.html
Wired: Powered by rapid advances in artificial intelligence http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2015/06/wired-world-2015/robot-propaganda
Wired: Clinton Staff and Volunteers Busted for Astroturfing [in 2007] http://www.wired.com/2007/12/clinton-staff-a/
Wired: Pro-Government Twitter Bots Try to Hush Mexican Activists http://www.wired.com/2015/08/pro-government-twitter-bots-try-hush-mexican-activists/
Wired: Microsoft http://www.wired.com/2015/09/ftc-machinima-microsoft-youtube/
Wired: Military Report: Secretly ‘Recruit or Hire Bloggers’ http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/03/report-recruit/
Wired: Air Force Releases ‘Counter-Blog’ Marching Orders http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/01/usaf-blog-respo/
Reddit Secrets https://archive.fo/NAwBx
Reddit Secrets https://archive.fo/SCWN7
Boostupvotes.com https://archive.fo/WdbYQ
"Once we isolate key people https://archive.is/PoUMo
GCHQ has their own internet shilling program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Threat_Research_Intelligence_Group
Russia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-sponsored_Internet_sockpuppetry
US also operates in conjunction with the UK to collect and share intelligence data https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UKUSA_Agreement
Glenn Greenwald: How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/
Glenn Greenwald: Hacking Online Polls and Other Ways British Spies Seek to Control the Internet https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/07/14/manipulating-online-polls-ways-british-spies-seek-control-internet/
Here is a direct link to your image for the benefit of mobile users https://imgur.com/OpSos4u.jpg
Reddit for iPhone https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reddit-the-official-app/id1064216828?mt=8
Why Satoshi Nakamoto Has Gone https://medium.com/@ducktatosatoshi-nakamoto-has-gone-4cef923d7acd
What I learned selling my Reddit accounts https://medium.com/@Rob79/what-i-learned-selling-my-reddit-accounts-c5e9f6348005#.u5zt0mti3
Artificial intelligence chatbots will overwhelm human speech online; the rise of MADCOMs https://medium.com/artificial-intelligence-policy-laws-and-ethics/artificial-intelligence-chatbots-will-overwhelm-human-speech-online-the-rise-of-madcoms-e007818f31a1
How Reddit Got Huge: Tons of Fake Accounts - According to Reddit cofounder Steve Huffman https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/how-reddit-got-huge-tons-of-fake-accounts--2
Whistleblower and subsequent investigation: Paid trolls on /Bitcoin https://np.reddit.com/Bitcoin/comments/34m7yn/professional_bitcoin_trolls_exist/cqwjdlw
Confession of Hillary Shill from /SandersForPresident https://np.reddit.com/conspiracy/comments/3rncq9/confession_of_hillary_shill_from/
Why do I exist? https://np.reddit.com/DirectImageLinkerBot/wiki/index
Already a direct link? https://np.reddit.com/DirectImageLinkerBot/wiki/res_links
Here's the thread. https://np.reddit.com/HailCorporate/comments/3gl8zi/that_potato_mailing_company_is_at_it_again/
/netsec talks about gaming reddit via sockpuppets and how online discourse is (easily) manipulated. https://np.reddit.com/netsec/comments/38wl43/we_used_sock_puppets_in_rnetsec_last_year_and_are
Redditor comes clean about being paid to chat on Reddit. They work to promote a politician https://np.reddit.com/offmychest/comments/3gk56y/i_get_paid_to_chat_on_reddit/
Shill whistleblower https://np.reddit.com/politics/comments/rtr6b/a_very_interesting_insight_into_how_certain/
Russian bots were active on Reddit last year https://np.reddit.com/RussiaLago/comments/76cq4d/exclusive_we_can_now_definitively_state_that/?st=j8s7535j&sh=36805d5d
The Bush and Gore campaigns of 2000 used methods similar to the Chinese government for conducting “guided discussions” in chatrooms designed to influence citizens https://np.reddit.com/shills/comments/3xhoq8/til_the_advent_of_social_media_offers_new_routes/?st=j0o5xr9c&sh=3662f0dc
source paper. https://np.reddit.com/shills/comments/4d3l3s/government_agents_and_their_allies_might_ente
or Click Here. https://np.reddit.com/shills/comments/4kdq7n/astroturfing_information_megathread_revision_8/?st=iwlbcoon&sh=9e44591e Alleged paid shill leaks details of organization and actions.
https://np.reddit.com/shills/comments/4wl19alleged_paid_shill_leaks_details_of_organization/?st=irktcssh&sh=8713f4be
Shill Confessions and Additional Information https://np.reddit.com/shills/comments/5pzcnx/shill_confessions_and_additional_information/?st=izz0ga8r&sh=43621acd
Corporate and governmental manipulation of Wikipedia articles https://np.reddit.com/shills/comments/5sb7pi/new_york_times_corporate_editing_of_wikipedia/?st=iyteny9b&sh=b488263f
Ex -MMA fighter and ex-police officer exposes corrupt police practices https://np.reddit.com/shills/comments/6jn27s/ex_mma_fighter_and_expolice_officer_exposes/
User pushes InfoWars links on Reddit https://np.reddit.com/shills/comments/6uau99/chemicals_in_reddit_are_turning_memes_gay_take/?st=j6r0g2om&sh=96f3dbf4
Some websites use shill accounts to spam their competitor's articles https://np.reddit.com/TheoryOfReddit/comments/1ja4nf/lets_talk_about_those_playing_reddit_with/?st=iunay35w&sh=d841095d
User posts video using GoPro https://np.reddit.com/videos/comments/2ejpbb/yes_it_is_true_i_boiled_my_gopro_to_get_you_this/ck0btnb/?context=3&st=j0qt0xnf&sh=ef13ba81
Fracking shill whistleblower spills the beans on Fracking Internet PR https://np.reddit.com/worldnews/comments/31wo57/the_chevron_tapes_video_shows_oil_giant_allegedly/cq5uhse?context=3
https://i.imgur.com/Q3gjFg9.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/q2uFIV0.jpg
TOP SECRET SPECIAL HANDLING NOFORN
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Directorate of Operations
October 16, 1964
MEMORANDUM FOR THE DIRECTOR OF THE CIA
Subject: After action report of
Operation CUCKOO (TS)
INTRODUCTION
​
1) Operation CUCKOO was part of the overall operation CLEANSWEEP, aimed at eliminating domestic opposition to activities undertaken by the Central Intelligence Agency's special activities division, in main regard to operation GUILLOTINE.
​
2) Operation CUCKOO was approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Department of Defense and the office of The President of the United States as a covert domestic action to be under taken within the limits of Washington D.C as outlined by Secret Executive Order 37.
​
3) Following the publishing of the Warren Commission, former special agent Mary Pinchot Meyer (Operation MOCKINGBIRD, Operation SIREN) also was married to Cord Meyer (Operation MOCKINGBIRD, Operation GUILLOTINE) threatened to disclose the details of several Special Activities Divisions' operations, including but not limited to, Operation SIREN and GUILLOTENE.
​1
TOP SECRET SPECIAL HANDLING NOFORN
4) It was deemed necessary by senior Directorate of Operations members to initiate Operation CUCKOO as an extension of Operation CLEANSWEEP on November 30th. After Mary Pinchot Meyer threatened to report her knowledge of Operation GUILLOTENE and the details of her work in Operation SIREN from her affair with the former President.
​
5) Special Activities Division was given the green light after briefing president Johnson on the situation. The situation report was forwarded to the Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of staff, who both approved of the parameters of the operation, as outlined under article C of secret executive order 37 (see attached copy of article).
​PLANNING STAGES
6) 8 members of the special activities division handpicked by operation lead William King Harvey began planning for the operation on October 3rd, with planned execution before October 16th.
​
7) The (?) of the operation was set as the neighborhood of Georgetown along the Potomac river, where the operators would observe, take note on routines, and eventually carry the operation.
​
8) After nothing Meyer's routines, Edward "Eddy" Reid was picked as the operation point man who would intersect Meyer on her walk on October 12th, with lead William King Harvey providing long range support if necessary from across the Chesapeake and Ohio canal (see illustration A for detailed map).
​
9) Edward Reid was planned to be dressed in the manner of a homeless black man, due to his resemblances to local trash collector (later found out to be Raymond Crump) who inhabits the AO and the path that Reid was planned to intersect Meyer.
2
TOP SECRET SPECIAL HANDLING NOFORN

Welcome to this special additional weekly post on the missing people of Connecticut! (I feel like a broadcaster!)
When I started this project, I chose to use The Charley Project list (here: http://www.charleyproject.org/geo/eastern.html) to guide what cases I wrote about. I had been interested in missing people for years and I preferred that website to learn about them. I assumed it was official in some capacity.
As I began researching these cases, I learned I was wrong! The Charley Project is in no way associated with law enforcement or private investigators. According to the website, it “serves as a publicity vehicle and clearinghouse of information for missing persons.” It “attempts to catalog as much information as possible into a database as a publicity/investigative aid for the public and law enforcement to help find cases.” It lists approximately 9,500 missing people, and at the time of this writing, 62 of those are from Connecticut. (So I am about a third of my way through with this series!)
Few people know that the Charley Project is only run by one person: Meaghan Good! Writing this series of Missing in CT posts has been a huge undertaking for me. I can’t imagine what running the Charley Project on my own would be like! She deserves a lot of props. Especially because she does such a good job.
Keeping track of missing people is so hard because the majority of missing people who are reported missing are found quickly. So, it can be difficult for websites like the Charley Project to determine who to invest time in profiling. Especially since there are so many people who go missing! It can also be difficult because resources like NaMus can take years to upload information about a missing person. Lastly, it can also be difficult because not many people may remember or bring up older cases anymore. Older cases may only be documented in newspapers versus online resources. (While researching these cases I have found that I get information that isn’t available through online articles by looking at newspapers.) So, it’s understandable that the Charley Project list I utilize is missing a few CT cases.
A reddit user who wishes to remain anonymous contacted me with two cases and accompanying newspaper articles about missing people from Connecticut that were not listed on the Charley Project. So, welcome to this additional, special addition of Missing in Ct. Look out for my other post on Antonio Gomez today. There will be another special edition of Missing in CT next week, along with a regular post, too.
Andrew A. Economou grew up in the North End of Hartford. His father owned a small restaurant. The Irish and Jewish kids in his neighborhood nicknamed him “The Greek.”
James Gates grew up with him, and eventually became a Hartford police detective. Of Andrew, he said, “loved to get into fights, and in ball games, they usually happened 9 out of 10 times. Andy was the catcher, and if somebody charged the plate while Andy was behind it, Andy would come up swinging. He was the enforcer.”
His high school football couch, Charlie Horvath, remembered him as “a tough kid with good hands.”
Andrew graduated high school in 1953. He missed the Korean war and spent most of his two-year tour in Massachusetts, where he served with a guided missile unit. Andy met his best friend Charlie Germano when they served in the Army. They knew each other for 30 years at the point Andy went missing. They hunted and fished together. He also met his future bride, Josephine Cenelli, during that time. He marred her in 1955 in a Greek cathedral.
He joined the Hartford Police Department in 1956 and would patrol the neighborhood he grew up in. The neighborhood was changing as African-Americans were moving up from the South. His reputation kept his beat quiet; he was not afraid to use his nightstick. Donald R. Harris was on the force with Andrew, and said, “He was absolutely fearless. Whether he was facing one guy or six, it made no difference.”
One night he found an unlocked door on the second floor off of a fire escape to a Displayland store on Hudson Street. When he went to check the cash register, two employees asked what he was doing. A fight broke out. Andy claimed one of the men hit him in the eye and he had to fight back to subdue the assailant. The assailant appeared in court with a blood-stained shirt and a four-inch cut on his hand. The other employee tried to interfere and either fell or was pushed into a broken glass showcase, getting a cut on his leg.
In another incident, Andy was trying to break up several people who were hanging outside of a bar at about 1:15 in the morning. The two men ignored him at first, but they started to move toward a car eventually. As they got into the car they made an unidentified, offensive remark about Andy. In response to this, Andy arrested the man and began pulling him out of the car when the other man lunged at Andy. Andy subdued the other man by hitting him on the head with his nightstick, sending the man to the hospital. The man who was being arrested went on to get into fights with officers at the jail. He had to be subdued there. Andy’s uniform was severely ripped in the original altercation.
Andy sometimes did good off the clock. One night when he was off duty and driving home from work, he found a 69-year old man lying on a sidewalk at the intersection of Vine and Mather Streets. He called for help and tried to resuscitate the man while waiting for the ambulance.
Andrew liked working his beat, but he disliked taking orders and office politics. He disliked only making $87.50 a week, which would be $772.24 in today’s money. He resigned in late 1962.
In 1963 he went into business with a childhood friend. They bought a restaurant on Homestead Avenue in Hartford that they liked to hang out at. The restaurant did well. His wife said he “was practically in that place 24 hours a day. He was a go-getter, very ambitious.”
Andrew eventually moved away to Rocky Hill and he purchased another restaurant in 1967. The restaurant attracted veterans from the nearby State Veterans home and hospital. Andrew became close with this population, sometimes inviting them home for dinner, and always making sure they came home safe.
In the decade after he left the police department, he became very successful: he would buy three restaurants, at least eight houses, and several empty lots.
His wife commented further: “He was a shrewd businessman. He bought and sold. This is how Andy made his money.”
Most of his deals were successful, others were not. He went into business with his childhood friend Charlie Germano. Charlie moved from New York to Connecticut for the business. Charlie’s family moved in with Andy’s at that point. They purchased a restaurant near a proposed site for a highway. But the highway was never built and the restaurant failed.
During this time period, Andy purchased a home on a hill in Rocky Hill, CT. His wife said he styled it to his “Greeky” taste, painting the Acropolis on one wall and decorating the home with Greek artifacts. He had a daughter and two sons, who he sent to a Greek school in the best clothes. His children said he was not a consistent father: he was loving at times, distant at others.
His son Angelo said his father was “all business,” and that he expected his sons to be businessmen. When Angelo was 14 he was learning bookkeeping and how to order beer at his father’s restaurants. Angelo described his sister Andrea, who was an honor student, student council president, and a cheerleader, “was perfect … the apple of his eye.”
As he settled into the suburbs, Andrew sold most of his properties in Hartford.
Andrew was doing well but by the late 1970s, he began to take risks. He purchased a club in the late 1970s and turned it into a disco. But the competition was fierce and he entered the game right before it became unpopular. When disco was no longer popular, he brought exotic dancers into the establishment. He became more involved with the club circuit, networking with other club owners to discuss state regulations on exotic dancing. He would continue to invest in various strip clubs with men he met while networking. He was not present during day to day operations and primarily operated his businesses from afar.
The strip clubs would also lead to trouble. First, the owners faced charges of criminal obscenity associated with acts performed in the exotic clubs that were outside the contracts. At one point, charges of permitting prostitution, second-degree promoting prostitution, and permitting an obscene performance, were filed against Andy’s partner, Roberto DiPersio, at one of the strip clubs. Another permittee, Sharon A. VanTassell, was charged with permitting prostitution. The exotic dancer, Margarita E. Michaud, was charged with prostitution. George M. Judd was charged with patronizing her. The owners, including Andy, said that “a girl took a dollar bill from somebody in the audience and gave the guy a kiss. People see the word ‘prostitution’ and think it’s a cathouse I’ve got here. Now how’s that different from what you can get at a church bazaar?” The Assistant State’s Attorney stated, “I’m not going to comment on what the owners say.” After the incident, the strip club/restaurant began receiving calls from men about potential sexual favors. The manager, Robert Ruddy, commented: “We’re not in that business. We’re not a massage parlor. We have couples coming in here. We have a ladies’ night every week where we have male exotic dancers. We have disco dancing once a week with a disc jokey. I don’t understand where the problem is.” Andy and the other owner, Roberto, had already received a civil injunction prohibiting exotic dancers at their establishment from performing seven acts judged obscene. The owners had their dancers, who they got from an outside agency, sign contracts that stated they would not perform the acts. The dancers were allowed to share their bare breasts, but not other parts of their bodies.
In 1980, the police began an anti-obscenity campaign that resulted in several arrests at one of Andy’s strip clubs. He began exiting this business and returned to running regular restaurants.
At this point Andrew no longer lived at home in Rocky Hill. He primarily stayed at a beach house in Old Lyme, CT. He was dating a woman in her mid-20s.
Those who knew Andrew as an adult- or Andy, as those close to him called him - said he was a tough, traditionally masculine man. Others described him as charming, and even arrogant. He was prone to exaggerate things. Some went so far as saying he was two-faced: he could be generous and funny, but he could also be cheap and somber. He was known as a hustler, he networked a lot for his business, and was secretive about his business deals.
Andy went about his routine like normal the week before he disappeared. He saw friends and business associates. He stayed at the cottage in Old Lyme. He never mentioned any potential trouble to family, his girlfriend, or friends. That Thursday he returned to the Rocky Hill home for his son Peter’s 18th birthday. His wife remembers that “he had cake, he had coffee. He gave Peter $100, I think.”
On Friday, August 7, Andy’s wife got a call from Charlie’s wife. Charlie’s wife left a message about a “deal in New York.” Andy’s daughter delivered the message to her father at their home in Old Lyme.
On Friday August 14, Andy called Charlie. Charlie was in New York, where he worked for an electrical firm during the week. Andy asked him to stop by on his way home before Charlie went to his weekend house in Southington, CT. Charlie stated he would and came to Andy’s house in the late afternoon that day.
Andy Economou needed money for a deal. He drove with Charlie to a bank on Maple Avenue in Hartford. “When I come out of the bank, don’t let nobody come near me,” Andy told Charlie, who was waiting in the car. He told his friend “I got a gun right there under the seat” if there should be any trouble. Andy walked out of the bank with at least $50,000 in a paper bag. He had taken out a five-day laon against a $50,000 certificate of deposit he had on hand. He may have also taken additional cash from a safety deposit box. The two then drove back to Andy’s restaurant in Rocky Hill, CT.
Charlie said he left for Southington that night at about 7:30 or 7:45 and never saw Andy again.
Over the following weekend Andy told a few people he had $100,000 in cash and that he was trying to get a deal in New York. In 2016 money, he had $265,514.85. He may have even showed the money to a few people.
“Too many people saw the money,” Charlie said.
On Saturday, Andy went to his home in Rocky Hill and ate chili and hot dogs with his family. He often left behind a couple of hundred bucks in an envelope in the basement office for the family when he visited. He let his daughter know he had done this. Later that night Andy spent the night with the woman he was seeing on the side. They went to the movies. She remembers that he kept the car locked throughout the day, stating that he had money in it he would need to go to New York with. She was not sure if he was carrying all of the money at the time, and his friends said it would be out of character for him to do so. He drove her back to her car in his pickup truck, a blue International, outside of Valle’s Steak House in Hartford on Sunday morning of August 16. He told her he was late for a meeting. He did not wait for her to start her car, he just drove off.
When he dropped her off he was wearing a gold necklace with a Greek symbol. He had two gold rings on, one with a large diamond, and the other with a Greek design.
Neither Andy nor his truck have been seen since. It is unknown if he made it into the city, or if he began his trip at all.
Andy often left town for a couple of days without telling anyone, so no one noticed him missing at first.
His family became alarmed when they didn’t hear from him for a week.
Andy’s daughter went to get the envelope with money in the basement office. She found a note that was allegedly written by her father. When she found the note, they reported him missing and turned the paper into the police. It was found on the Friday after he originally went missing. The envelope said “Open in the event I am missing or killed.” The note was dated August 15th. It said, “On Sunday, August 16, 1981, I am going to New York City … I am taking (100,000) One hundred thousand dollars of my personal money with me.” He wrote he was going to loan the money to a friend of Charles Germano. He wrote that he was supposed to make $15,000 in interest on the loan. He wrote that if he did not return, “you will know that I am dead.” The note also stated that if he died, his estate should be divided amongst his wife, daughter, and two sons. The note was signed, “I love all of you and may you all forgive my sins. Love, Andy.”
Charlie claims that he had nothing to do with the money or the loan Andy talked about in the note. He says, “There’s no way … no way … it’s crazy.” He has claimed that the note is a hoax.
The police put out a missing persons bulletin from Andy up and down the east coast.
A week later, a second note emerged. It is unclear who found this note. In the note Andy told his friends to take $10,000 from his estate and use it to hire someone from Providence, RI, to have Charlie killed.
The Chief State Attorney’s office, state police, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms joined the case.
The FBI verified that the notes were written by Andy. One investigator commented on the notes by saying, “I’ve never seen anything like it.” Andy’s friend Benny saw the note and stated he thought it was a forgery. He thought Andy’s handwriting would be easy to fake. He points out that the note names Andy’s longtime lawyer, who he had known for 20 years. The note misspelled his last name. There were also two other unidentified misspellings in the note that his friend feels Andy would not have made.
His family said they received several anonymous calls late at night after Andy went missing. The caller allegedly said “his bones are in a plastic bag and his body’s in the East River” or “his head is in a bag and his hands are cut off.” Other calls including threats. One told them they were going to throw a bomb into the Rocky Hill house. The family left for the night but nothing happened.
Both local and federal police became involved with the investigation. They checked records, interviewed people from Connecticut to New York, and searched for his truck. They subpoenaed his bank records at two different banks. A federal law enforcement official said, “We have subpoenaed the records to determine if there could have been foul play involved. [Investigators] are looking to see if he did have withdrawals in certain amounts. It could be any amount.” Sightings were reported in Florida, California, and on a boat - but none were Andy. The investigation became complicated when different investigating branches weren’t communicating.
The Hartford Courant compared Andy’s photo to over 300 pictures of unidentified bodies that were found in New York in the year after Andy’s death. None appeared to be Andy. No unidentified male bodies in Connecticut were discovered during their search.
Law enforcement stated that Andy gambled on sports, but he had the finances to support it and they did not think this could have been a problem. He claimed to win thousands of dollars. He told his wife he won enough to acquire property and remodel his house. She said, “Most of the house was built on football winnings — our carpet, that came from football. Andy loved football, and he did bet football, which was illegal, but hundreds of people do.” Yet, the friends he gambled with claimed he did not do very well. Benny said, “He’d win, he’d lose. He never wanted you to know he lost. He’d use four or five different bookkeepers.” Although law enforcement doesn’t think so, was the money he got from the bank for gambling?
Andy had loaned money to several friends and customers throughout his life but law enforcement did not feel his disappearance was associated with this.
Andy’s family searched for the man from New Haven to Cape Cod. They focused on shore spots in Connecticut and Cape Cod. Relatives from Virginia came up to help with the search. They found nothing.
At one point a private investigator the family hired found a large plastic bag of white powder on Andy’s red powerboat at a marina in Old Saybrook. Many used this to support their theory that Andy was involved with drugs. But the white powder turned out to be baking soda, not cocaine. When the family checked the boat in September, they found it had been ransacked. The seats were overturned; an oil can had been emptied; and the starter and battery were removed. Andy supposedly hated drugs and there is no record he was ever involved in them. His friend Benny said, “There are a lot of things you can say about Andy, but he drew the line at drugs.” Law enforcement believes drug rumors could be due to the association of exotic dancers with substance abuse.
Andy’s sisters utilized psychics to find him. One told them he was alive but needed to be found immediately to be saved. The other said he had been shot in the head and the chest.
Charles Germano said, “I keep seeing a blank wall” when he tries to figure out what happened to Andy.
Another friend, Benny Matassa said, “Every time I dream about him, he is always laughing, like he put something over on everybody.”
Word quickly spread in the Greek clubs and bars Andy spent time in. People could not believe it. Many stated that his time as a cop made him too wary to be victimized. Others noted that there was a change in him before he went missing, though. The young woman he was dating said he “had so much on his mind he couldn’t see straight” at the time. She said he seemed confused. Benny said he was “on edge, depressed.” His friend said he was worried about getting older, feeling nostalgic about the time he spent in Hartford, and unsure what to do about his family. He was not concerned about his finances, because he was doing well. Nothing indicated he was doing poorly financially, and he had plans to open another restaurant.
Rumors spread about what happened to Andy. They included loans, gambling, drugs, guns, and the mob.
Law enforcement, family, and friends believe Andy was probably murdered for the money. More specifically, law enforcement believes that Andy was killed during a deal. He was supposed to buy stolen guns in Connecticut and resell them in New York, according to law enforcement. On February 23 of 1981, at least 121 guns were stolen from a sports store in Hartford. On July 22, in 1981, four of the weapons were located in a large batch of guns undercover law enforcement bought in Queens, NY. A suspect associated with the stolen guns was linked to Andy’s friend Charlie as law enforcement tracked calls about the guns. Law enforcement believed that Andy was supposed to buy the remaining stolen guns from the robbers directly, or finance the purchase, and sell them in New York. Witnesses state they saw Andy with a gun of the same type that was stolen from the sports store over the summer before he went missing.
Law enforcement admit it is just a theory, and that the value of the guns would not have been between $50,000 and $100,000 Andy was believed to be carrying in cash. Yet, no one knew how much money he was actually carrying. Also, guns recovered from the heist were eventually been found from Hartford to North Carolina, which may suggest they were not sold in bulk after all.
William Schimansky had a long criminal history and worked at the sports store for three days before the theft. He left a crate of guns near a door and then broke into the building at night by smashing a door panel with a pipe. The burglar alarm was not activated at the time. He hung out at one of Andy’s night clubs, but no other connection between the two has been established. William pled guilty to stealing the guns. Six men were arrested in total in association with the original theft of the guns. Three of the men were actually charged with the theft of $21,252 worth in handguns, and $210 in knives. William was one of them. Police would not discuss whether these arrests led to more information about Andy’s disappearance.
Charlie says he does not know the man in New York law enforcement connected him to.He claims he knew someone with the same last name, and maybe law enforcement got confused by that. He says he knows nothing about the stolen guns. “I got nothing to do with that. I know nothing about it. I had nothing to do with nothing on that,” he says.
Andy’s loved ones think law enforcement’s theory is ridiculous. Andy had a loving family, a a successful business, a home in the suburbs and a cottage on the beach, and two cars. Why would he need to be involved with stolen guns?
His family continued running his businesses after his disappearance. His wife lost a considerable amount of weight after he went missing. Josephine says of her late husband: “A lot of people will say, ‘He was Mafia. He lived that way. He should die that way. I’ve been married for 28 years to that man — I’m hoping he was going to help a friend [that day].” She and her children still cried long into the night a year after his death.
Almost ten years after Andrew disappeared, his family attempted to settle his estate in probate court. They began by starting proceedings to declare him dead. Their lawyer said, “There has been zero contact sine [Andy’s girlfriend saw him.] We just think the family has to get on with their lives.” It was estimated it would take six to nine months to settle the estate. As far as he knew, there was no legally recognized will - the notes that dictated his estate were not legally recognized. The family’s lawyer remarked on the size of the estate: “It’s your normal, average, middle-class estate.”
There you have it: a Connecticut missing person lost in time. What do you think happened to Andy? Did someone in the Hartford community get revenge on Charlie after a brutal beating with a nightstick? Did he get involved with a bad gambling ring? Did he make a bad loan? Did he get involved with drugs at one of his clubs? Or did he get involved in a bad deal on stolen guns? What happened to Andy?
Andy doesn’t have a post on Charley Project. He can be found here: https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/3286/21
EDIT: tea-and-smoothies writes: "The Unfound podcast did a fantastic interview with Meaghan Good a while back. Goes into the history of the Charley project, how she became interested in missing persons, how certain of her unique characteristics help her stay on track with this monumental work. Listen here: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/unfoundpodcast/episodes/2016-10-25T13_56_24-07_00"
prosa123 writes: "Being a Connecticut native I've heard of his story. As I recall, the most common belief was that his disappearance was related to the gun-selling operation."
MerricatBlackwood01 writes: "Having lived in Connecticut and Rhode Island in the 80's, I also had heard of this before. Also having lived there, I can tell you that at that time and place, the real Mafia (not the TV ones but the real 'feed people into a meat grinder' types) were very prevalent. Reading this, I noticed that NONE of the names of people involved are from the known Mafia families or associates. I'm wondering if Andrew Economou didn't accidentally step on someone's toes and got taken out for it. Because he MUST have had at least a nodding acquaintance with Mafiosi people, from being in the strip club business. They RAN the 'tiddy bars' as they were called then. So I wonder if he decided to try his hand at illegal gun running and someone thought he might be pushing into their corner of the action. Again, just a thought, I don't know anything besides what I read, and honestly, having been there, I don't WANT to know. The Mafia influence is very strong in that part of the country."
and
"Thank you! Yeah, if he was just a little guy trying to shave off a bit of money for himself most of the Mafia families around that area would have ended THAT idea very very quickly."

Good morning traders of the stocks sub! Welcome to Tuesday and the first trading day of May! Here are your pre-market stock movers & news this morning-

Frontrunning: May 1st

• President Donald Trump postponed the deadline on steel and aluminum tariffs for some allies, including the European Union, for 30 days to allow further discussions. The tariffs are already in effect against China, Japan, Russia and others. (CNBC)
• Trump pushes back tariff exemptions but Europe is still not happy(CNBC)
• The New York Times obtained a list of questions special counsel Robert Mueller has for Trump as part of his ongoing investigation into the 2016 presidential election. * The series of open-ended questions include the president's firing of former FBI director James Comey.
• Comey: Trump should submit to Mueller interview (Axios)
• GOP Senator Marco Rubio told the Economist magazine there is "no evidence whatsoever" the new tax law significantly helped U.S. workers. Rubio, who voted for the proposal, said instead corporations bought back shares and gave out bonuses.
• South Korean President Moon Jae-in asked the United Nations to help verify North Korea's planned shutdown of its nuclear test site. The North, several days before the historic summit between Moon and Kim Jong Un, had promised to dismantle its site. (Reuters)
• Mnuchin: 'No question' Trump sanctions brought North Korea to negotiating table (CNBC)
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed a cache of files he claimed were obtained from Iran and proved the country ran a secret program to build nuclear weapons. Trump must decide in two weeks whether to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.
• Porn star Stormy Daniels filed a new lawsuit against Trump, accusing him of defaming her in a tweet that said she was pulling a "con job" on the news media. Daniels already was suing Trump seeking to void a nondisclosure agreement she signed. (CNBC)
• Actress Ashley Judd sued disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, alleging he tried to destroy her acting career after she refused his sexual advances. The lawsuit said Weinstein's actions prevented her from working in an Oscar-winning film franchise. (USA Today)
• The co-founder of WhatsApp, the messaging service Facebook (FB) bought for $19 billion in 2014, is leaving the company at a time when Facebook reels from revelations of Russian election manipulation, fake news, and data leaks. (CNBC)
• Facebook privacy changes leave developers steaming ahead of today's conference (NY Times) T* witter (TWTR) will bring original shows from Comcast's (CMCSA) NBCUniversal, Disney (DIS) and Viacom (VIA), among others, to its platform. The company also announced it's launching a division to help online influencers make scripted series. (CNBC)
• Medicare chief Seema Verma exclusively told CNBC it's time that health care catches up with other industries when it comes to providing consumers greater transparency about prices. The agency proposed earlier this week that hospitals post their prices online.
• Sanofi (SNY) and Regeneron (REGN) have agreed to lower the price of their cholesterol medicine in exchange for easier access for patients covered by pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts (ESRX), the first of a number of deals the drugmakers hope to strike to increase use of their drug. (CNBC)
• Boeing (BA) will buy aircraft parts maker KLX (KLX) for about $3.2 billion in cash or $63 per share. KLX had said it would review strategic options in December. KLX shares were losing about 10 percent in the premarket, though still trading above the offer price. (Reuters)

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THIS MORNING'S MOST ACTIVE TRENDING DISCUSSIONS:

• SHOP
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• PFE
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• EMES
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THIS MORNING'S STOCK NEWS MOVERS:

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Merck – The drugmaker beat estimates by 5 cents a share, with adjusted first-quarter profit of $1.05 per share. Revenue was very slightly below forecasts. Merck's results were powered by strong growth in sales of its cancer drug Keytruda, an it also raised its earnings forecast for the year.

STOCK SYMBOL: MRK

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Pfizer – Pfizer reported adjusted quarterly profit of 77 cents per share, beating estimates by 3 cents a share. Revenue was slightly below forecasts, but Pfizer's bottom line benefited from stronger sales of breast cancer drug Ibrance.

STOCK SYMBOL: PFE

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Apple – DA Davidson initiated coverage on Apple with a "buy" rating, saying although the company faces challenges, its huge free cash flow allows it both to return increasing amounts of money to shareholders and make strategic acquisitions.

STOCK SYMBOL: AAPL

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Under Armour – The athletic apparel maker reported a break-even quarter on an adjusted basis, compared to analyst forecasts of a 5 cents per share loss. Revenue beat forecasts, helped by stronger international sales.

STOCK SYMBOL: UAA

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Archer-Daniels Midland – The grain processor beat estimates by 18 cents a share, with adjusted quarterly profit of 68 cents per share. Revenue also topped forecasts. The company said market conditions have improved for many of its businesses, and that it is even more confident about 2018 full year performance.

STOCK SYMBOL: ADM

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Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi – The drug companies announced they would cut the price of the cholesterol drug Praluent for Express Scripts customers, in exchange for greater patient access.

STOCK SYMBOL: REGN

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STOCK SYMBOL: SNY

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Facebook – Wedbush added Facebook to its "Best Ideas" list, saying the company would weather the controversy surrounding the Cambridge Analytica data breach.

STOCK SYMBOL: FB

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WellCare Health Plans – The health insurer reported adjusted quarterly earnings of $2.47 per share, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 a share. Revenue was essentially in line. WellCare raised its full-year forecast, based on strong performance across all its business lines.

STOCK SYMBOL: WCG

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Akamai Technologies – Akamai reported adjusted quarterly profit of 79 cents per share, 9 cents a share above estimates. Revenue also beat forecasts. The provider of internet content delivery technology saw its results boosted by its push into cloud security.

STOCK SYMBOL: AKAM

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Texas Roadhouse – Texas Roadhouse matched forecasts with quarterly profit of 76 cents per share, with its revenue slightly above estimates. Comparable-restaurant sales were higher by 4.9 percent at company-owned restaurants and 3.9 percent at franchised locations.

STOCK SYMBOL: TXRH

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Cognex – Cognex came in 4 cents a share above Street forecasts, with adjusted quarterly profit of 24 cents per share. The maker of machine vision technology saw revenue miss forecasts and it also gave weaker-than-expected full-year guidance.

STOCK SYMBOL: CGNX

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Tenet Healthcare – Tenet reported an unexpected quarterly profit, with revenue also beating forecasts. The hospital operator also issued strong full-year guidance as it benefited from lower costs and a jump in patient visits.

STOCK SYMBOL: THC

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BP – BP reported its highest quarterly profit in almost four years, helped by a rebound in oil and gas prices and increasing production.

STOCK SYMBOL: BP

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KLX – Boeing will buy the aircraft parts maker for about $3.2 billion in cash, or $63 per share. KLX had said it would review strategic options in December, and The Wall Street Journal had reported last week that a deal was near.

STOCK SYMBOL: KLXI

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Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts – The casino operators are on watch as gambling revenue in the Chinese territory of Macau rose a better-than-expected 28 percent in April. Gaming revenue in Macau has now risen for 21 consecutive months.

STOCK SYMBOL: LVS

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STOCK SYMBOL: WYNN

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Intel – The chipmaker will receive $380 million from the Israeli government to expand its manufacturing operations in that country, according to Israeli financial newspaper Calcalist.

STOCK SYMBOL: INTC

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Citrix Systems – Citrix was added to the "Conviction Buy" list at Goldman Sachs, which notes stronger pricing in the software company's CSS support services offering.

STOCK SYMBOL: CTXS

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US Foods – US Foods was downgraded to "sector perform" from "outperform" at RBC Capital, which points to overall food distribution industry stagnation.

STOCK SYMBOL: USFD

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NutriSystem – NutriSystem earned 9 cents per share for its latest quarter, beating forecasts by 3 cents a share. The diet plan provider also saw revenue come in above estimates. NutriSystem also raised its full-year forecast.

STOCK SYMBOL: NTRI

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Roku – KeyBanc rates the maker of streaming video devices a "buy" in new coverage, saying it provides a unique platform in the growing streaming video market.

STOCK SYMBOL: ROKU

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DISCUSS!

What is on everyone's radar for today's trading day ahead here at stocks?

I hope you all have an excellent trading day ahead today on this Tuesday, May 1st, 2018! :)

• 🏆Digital Fantasy Sports (DFS) 🏆 •
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Link to ANN: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2223626.0
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DIGITAL FANTASY SPORTS (DFS) is a PREMIUM BLOCKCHAIN ESPORTS ARCADE & Innovative fantasy sports gaming token based on blockchain technology. DFS is used as an in game currency creating a transparent network built on smart contracts. Digital Fantasy Sports offers games in three categories – FANTASY SPORTS - CASINO – & ESPORTS.
Digital Fantasy Sports gaming platform's core aim is to become a global standard cryptocurrency for every kind of ESPORTS. Its native token "DFS" is to develop a digital currency that will bring value to the world of ESPORTS. The DFS token will be used for various activities on the platform; such as cryptocurrency payouts to game players, as an entry payment into tournaments, for trading other cryptocurrencies in most exchanges and most importantly, DFS token will be used for the growth and facilitation of the Digital Fantasy Sports platform. DFS has revolutionized to empower gamers through a series of eSports games, fantasy sports and lots more on the platform.
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Digital Fantasy Sports platform is a one-stop platform for engaged sports fans and an enormous portion of that engagement orbits around fantasy sports and eSports. From weekly NFL predictions, to playing at the poker table, to eSports video game predictions to the frenzied competition of Daily Fantasy Sports, enthusiasts of the sport globally revel in the ever-growing game of skill that fantasy sports have become. The platform has simplified the user experience to enable games entertaining for players of every caliber. It uses DFS tokens that allow users to play, win, and exchange their tokens for another cryptocurrency or fiat money.
In addition, Digital Fantasy Sports offers a turnkey solution for companies looking to develop new games for the $7 Billion Fantasy Sports.
Official site: www.DigitalFantasySports.com
Ethereum ERC20: https://etherscan.io/token/0x45eD02e374Aef2e4b34c04e86AD9D45891d10751
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Unique features
DFS is a global premium platform that features a collection of fantasy games across a wide variety of international professional ESPORTS. DFS aim is to create a generally accepted online Fantasy Gaming token globally. DFS feature its own gallery of games on the Digital Fantasy Sports Network. DFS token is unmatched in the fantasy gaming world thereby creating fun, exclusive competitions consenting for every player to exchange their winnings for other cryptocurrencies. Digital Fantasy Sports MLB game has been featured in The New Yorker for it’s unique vision & take o on the industry. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/13/dream-teams
DFS allows users to compete in Fantasy Sports competitions on a day-to-day basis allowing for individuals to win using DFS token. With a goal to create a worldwide premium Fantasy Sports platform.
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Media Coverage / Awards
· APRIL, 2015 – THE NEW YORKER Digital Fantasy Sport’s Co-Founder was featured in the New Yorker in 2015. The article featured a spotlight on the then pre-released Batting Order Baseball. Author Ben McGrath interviews Jeremy Munter on his vision of the game, the current industry, and future of fantasy sports. - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/13/dream-teams
· AUG, 2017 – NBC – LA 1stPlace NBC: THE CHOICE. The results are in & the 4 month competition has ended Defeating 1000s - Jeremy will bring his DFS knowledge to the table as a panelist on the national televised NBA show Going Roggin. Jeremy Munter was the Winner of NBC the Choice. Jeremy Munter is now a sports news broadcaster on the weekly segment. – https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/sports/The-Choice-439265273.html
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· MARCH, 2018 - RotoWire DFS was featured nationally on newsstands in ROTOWIRE magazine.
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· DECEMBER, 2018 – ‪COINDEAL.com‬ (DFS) emerge a winner in the 11th voting on the Coindeal platform. Coindeal exchange announced the Digital Fantasy Sports native token "DFS" as the winning cryptocurrency and will be trading on the Coindeal exchange. Every Digital Fantasy Sports and Coindeal's platform users will be able to trade on the vote of confidence –DFSToken.Coindeal exchange is an ground-breaking Cyprus-based cryptocurrency trading platform developed by Verified Trading Solution Limited that provides secure, fast and convenient cryptocurrency exchange services with unique features such as round the clock customer support team, real-time auditing, hundred percent uptime, personal (with a daily withdrawal limit of 100 BTC) and corporate account (unlimited withdrawal limit) opening, offers market and stop-loss order, fast deposit and withdrawals with credit card – supports Visa and Mastercard. – https://coindeal.com/news/vote-results-11
Exchanges
COINDEAL- https://frontend.coindeal.com/market/DFS-BTC/
IDEX- https://idex.market/eth/dfs
WandX- https://exchange.wandx.co/order-book/DFS
NEXT.EXCHANGE- https://next.exchange/orderbook/DFS/BTC
RADAR RELAY- https://app.radarrelay.com/DFS/WETH
TOKENDEX- https://tokendex.github.io/#!/trade/DFS-ETH
ETHEN- https://ethen.market/DFS
TokenjarL- https://tokenjar.io/DFS
BITCratic- https://www.bitcratic.com/#!/trade/DFS-ETH
TOKENMOM- https://www.tokenmom.com/exchange/DFS-WETH
NDEX- https://ndex.market/#!/trade/DFS-ETH
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Community Engagement
14.2K - Twitter: https://twitter.com/dfstoken
1.5K – Twitter: https://twitter.com/dfsgemcity
1.4K – Twitter: https://twitter.com/CRYPTOESL
4K - Reddit: https://old.reddit.com/dfstoken/
5K - Telegram: t.me/digitalfantasysportsdfs
4.7K - Discord: https://discord.gg/EQVZXZU
2K Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcbdnJhZF9zx9x1SKNIw8DA
7.9K - Instagram: https://instagram.com/dfstoken
Adoption/partnerships/MVPs/Apps
DIGITAL FANTASY SPORTS PLATFORM FEATURES The platform features different fun fantasy games such as:
📷
Daily Fantasy Sports:
* Soccer * Golf * Tennis * Boxing * Mixer Martial Art (MMA) * National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) * National football league (NFL) * National basketball (NBA) * National hockey league (NHL) * MLB: users pick up their players, set up the order and watch the game live while earning DFS token. – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psL5cQ0JF6M
DraftDuel:
* This is the latest DFS arcade game where players can have access to board of options they can play, it features seasons long plays like the Total Fantasy Points for the season, oveunder, and various mini-games that combines diverse players and stats with the payout reflecting the existing status of the player.
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Batting Order Baseball:
* For the first time in Fantasy Baseball. Your batting order determines your score. You pick a player at each position including a DH, with ZERO salary cap restraints. No Pitcher. Nothing worst than having all the right hitters, and a pitcher who lets you down. Batting Order Baseball is all about hitting.After you pick a player at each position, you then set your Batting Order. Here is where Batting Order Baseball takes Fantasy Baseball to the next level. The strategies and possibilities are endless. Make sure you make the right calls and set your lineup that will optimize each player to the Max. 3 Outs and the Bases Clear, you keep hitting until your team runs out of Outs or At-Bats. Even more exciting, every at bat counts. In real life your batter might come up to bat with 2 Outs and no runners on. No big deal if he gets out. B.O.B is different, he might come up to bat with 2 outs and no runners on base, but according to your B.O.B lineup, that player has the Bases Loaded!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0hMbDOT264
Crypto ESPORTS League (CESL):
* You can set up and host your own personal tournaments globally using DFS peer-to-peer (P2P) prediction platform. Every league has its own custom page that is committed to your teams and predictions. This platform feature games such as FORTNITE, MADDEN, COD, NBA2k, Rocket League, FIFA, CS-GO (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive), PUBG and many more. Players can use their DFS token to predict their preferred exports Leagues with multiple fantasy options. For better experiences and more leagues with new players, DFS will update the platform monthly.You can partner with the CESL and DFS via the diverse programs with DFS streamers, influencers and various players in the esports industry. You can play any game in this platform using the same login details used in DFS Arcade. –
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eqFp_1OomE
GEMCITY Casino:
* GemCity is an online gambling ecosystem where users can use DFS to directly play online casino games through blockchain technology that is power-driven by Ethereum Smart contract which increases the platform’s trust, security and transparency. DFSGemCity is an eSports, casino and fantasy sports platform developed on the Ethereum blockchain, aim to decentralize tournament structure and winnings allocation. The platform facilitates players in using their skills to play games, predict/bet on games using their choice of currencies, without the issues of intermediaries and regional restrictions. DFSGemCity is a blockchain revolution in the fantasy sports and casino. -
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_7iYeZeXSU
Licences
eGaming license (gambling license) from the Curaçao Government in partnership with CLICKGEM - https://twitter.com/dfsgemcity/status/1091126378190254080 For more information please read our white paper here: https://dfstoken.com/DFSwhitepaper.pdf
2018 - Testimonials
"As a longtime fantasy baseball player, my first season of playing GOAT - Batting Order Baseball introduced me to an amazing combination of the best of both worlds. The GM-like aspects of managing a line up was what called me to B.O.B. While I was able to enjoy the everyday drama that makes fantasy baseball compelling. Add to that the ability to set lineups for actual simulated real time games against fellow DFS community members & you'll feel like a champion!" - G.J., New Jersey
"I used to play every type of fantasy sports game, all year long for every sport -- even sports I didn't follow. Now I only play on GOAT. Nothing better out there, they offer great challenging games that you can't find on the traditional daily fantasy site." - J.P., Los Angeles
"This was my first year playing Daily Fantasy in general, and I can't begin to describe how much more enjoyable it is than the more common Fantasy options available out there. These people actually care about the gameplay & user experience. Thanks for a great product." - R.J., London
The Daily Fantasy Sports industry is booming year after year. Just alone in December 2018 the Fantasy Sports industry generated About $220 Million In Entry Fees.
Be apart of the evolution today!
New to the fantasy sports industry? You can read more articles on the top financially here:
https://www.reuters.com/brandfeatures/venture-capital/article?id=78816
https://www.legalsportsreport.com/21627/ny-dfs/
https://fsta.org/press-release-fantasy-sports-now-a-7-billion-industry/

I never actually knew my mother. From what my father told me, when I was 4 my mom left us for a richer man and a better lifestyle.
She didn’t like the quiet calm suburbs of CT and longed for a care free life without a toddler and middle class working husband. I was raised by my father and grandmother in a modest but happy household. My mother’s absence from my life wasn’t seen as a tragedy in our family. Dad often said she was a beautiful woman consumed by herself, mostly interested in appearences. My grandma didnt like to talk about her, as she came from an age when women kept a household together and took their role as mother seriously.
Anyway, I didn’t hate her for leaving, it was just weird to know that someone who was pregnant with me for 9 months, gave birth and watched me grow for 4 years would just pack up and leave, not contact me for so many years, not wondering what became of her daughter.
When I was 15 or so, curiosity got the better of me and I started looking for her. Some old photos I found in my dads room gave me more info to go on, so I went online, like in every junior detective movie, and typed her name, school she graduated and so on. I found her profile very easily since she used her maiden name, but it was private so I decided to add her as a friend .
I don’t use my full name on my profile and don’t post a lot of photos of myself, mostly snaps of biking and hicks, so I didn’t think she could recognize me since she last saw me when I was 4 and her profile had 3000+ friends from all around the world.
The photos on her profile showed me an aging woman who tried her best to look young. She didn’t look anything like the photos I found at home. She had white-greysh-yellowish-bleached hair, bad extensions and long,pointy acrylic nails. She had her nose, eyes,lips and chin done. What I think were too many salon tans left her face leathery and orange. Other than that, my mom seemed to live life to the fullest. Martinis at 11:00, manis and pedis by noon, facials at the spa and nights out at the finest NY spots. Selfies with her friends at the beach, parties on yachs, casually at the side of, what I assume was, a rich man.
I never wrote to her, liked her pictures or statuses and she never contacted me. As my curiosity faded over the years, I checked her profile from time to time, only to see she was either engaded or single or in a relationship, nothing else besides the endles selfies and pictures of parties and friends.
Years went by and I was preparing for college when dad told me the news: mom died. She commited suicide by poison in her rented share flat in Brooklyn. One of her roomates found her on the bed, neatly dressed, makeup done hands on her chest, everything. Like she preapared herself for dying, making sure she looked good for her own funeral.
We went to the funeral out of respect, but no one seemed to ackowledge our presence there. He mother, the only member of her family, was too heart broken and tipsy to recognize my father, nevermind me, and we didn’t know half the people present. A lot of D-listed wannabe acctresses, a few older men in suits looking rather unconfortable and a couple of people that were just around for the food and drinks. From gossip I overheard, mom commited suicide because he on again off again boyfriend/fiancee didn’t want to finance her lastest string of plastic surgery anymore, leaving her in debt and poverty. At 39, she was considered withered and since she didn’t marry or had a child with anyone who came from money, she thought it was best to end it herself.
A couple of weeks after her death i received a package. It was from my mother. She requested to be given to me 2 weeks after her death. Needless to say I was dumbfolded, I wasn’t expecting this. The box contained an envelope and a smaller jewllery box. I will reproduce the content of the letter:
„My dearest Victoria, If you receive this letter, it’s safe to say I am no longer in this world and this saddens me so.
Eventhough I wasn’t present in your life phissically, I always thought of you. You see, when I became pregnant with you, I was very young and married life didn’t appeal to me that much. I was, honestly, a very selfish person, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t love you. As I am sure you’ve seen, families fall apart after years of struggling and I didn’t want to go through that. Or put you and your dad through something so horrible.
You two were a beautifull memory to me untill you added me to your friend list. I didn’t know it was because of a mistake( did we have a friend in common? Was your dad behind this?) or you just wanted to get to know me. I recognized you instantly. Eventhough you don’t look like your dad and me you resemble your grandparents perfectly.
When you didn’t contact me, I respected your choice, after all, I didn’t want to force your hand. I enjoyed your pictures, I got a glimpse of your life. Young , fresh so many opportunities.My life all over again. I saw you didn’t dye your hair and you keep in shape by hicking. That is good for a girl, Victoria, to take care of herself.
I wish now I would have been more close to you, but there is no point in dwelling over the mistakes from the past.
As something from me to you, in this first and hopefully not last hour toghether, please accept the lovely necklace in the box. It was the second thing I trully loved in this life after you.
Love, mom Cristina
The necklace is still in the box, but I will wear it when I start college in a few weeks. I want my mom can see this way the life I chose for myself, one in which I can be proud of myself and my own achievements and not rely on a string of failed relationships as a mean of sustaing myself.
I found this journal a couple of days ago, while searching randomly on my daughter’s computer. I decided to post it because this site is anonymous as far as I can tell and also, my daughter was a member here. I owe it to her at least. Maybe others will learn from our story.
All I can say is that I am gratefull to her, for giving me another chance at life. You see, the woman I became was not something that I was particullary proud of. It takes a lot of money and time to live the so called „high life”everyone talks about. You see it on the news, tv, internet, it’s everywhere. Perfect skin, waist and legs, beautiful hair and smile. I’ts hard. I tried to achieve all of that but started to fail in my 30’s. Men didn’t desire me as they did when I was younger and it became harder for me to keep up with the kompetition.
When one of my boyfriends took me on a safari trip in Africa I learned about a certain type of crystal that can contain the human soul after it’s earthly death. The lady talking about this was kind enough to give me the little white iridescent stone I gave to my daughter as necklace for her to remember me by. I just had to get rid of my used body and hope my daughter would wear the necklace. It was a big gamble but it clearly payed up.
Needless to say, I feel great. Life at 20 is a blessing in a body that never smoked, drank or partied for days. College is kinda hard and
I don’t know if I am going to stick around here too long. So many oportunities and places to go.

I have a range of brushes going from cheap <$1 Aliexpress brushes to Hakuhodo brushes, and thought I should review them. I’m a big believer that make up brushes are like wine –there’s a huge difference between a $2 box wine and the more expensive variety, but by the time you hit a certain price range, there’s very little difference. Sure, sometimes you may want to buy a $300 bottle for a specific reason, but a $20 bottle will often do the job.
This is how I would rank them, and I’ll explain my reasoning starting from the worst to the best:
Absolute Crap
Morphe
Hi welcome to my channel! I’m going to leave you guys with my referral code: JUSTKIDDINGTHESESUCK.
In my instagram profile, I write that I unfollow anyone raving about Morphe brushes and occasionally, that upsets some people. One of the arguments I’ve gotten in defense of Morphe is that it’s a great “starter brush” for people getting into make up. Yeah, they’re super cheap. They go as low as $1.99 and the most expensive I found on the site cost only $22.99. The thing about Morphe is, out of the brushes I bought, less that 30% are useable. They shed like crazy, and this is what happens when you try washing the brand new brushes. The pic from my friend, I gave him a brush set, he noticed a weird smell even though they were new, washed them and yes, that’s not a weird lighting trick (there’s the toilet bowl for colour correction), his hand got stained blue.
You know what’s a better “starter brush”? Aliexpress brushes. I’ll get to them soon.
Bare Mineral brushes
I got them as part of the set, and most were so scratchy. I threw out most of them except for the concealer brush and this angled brush here…but I find that concealer brushes are hard to screw up, and the angled brush isn’t the best, but not totally crap. And right after I did my video review, I realized I haven’t used that angle brush for ages and tossed it. The only reason they’re ranked higher than Morphe is just because they don’t stain my hands blue.
Ok
Lit Cosmetics
They’re not known for their brushes, but in case you’re wondering if you should buy one of your brushes since you’re already getting glitter, I don’t think their brushes are worth it. I got 2 in the set I bought, and one one of them lost it’s shape after the 2nd use, and I eventually threw it out. I do like the 2nd brush a lot, and it still hasn’t lost its shape even after many uses over about 7-8 months. I swear, freebie brushes that come in a set suck! My favourite glitter brushes are still nail art brushes I got as part of a $6 (including shipping) 20-tools nail art set I got off Aliexpress though.
Sephora brushes
I bought these about a year from when I first got into make up, about a decade ago. Used to have 4, but now I’m down to none because they’re pretty crap. I actually wanted to rank Sephora under Absolute Crap along with Morphe and Bare Minerals, but I got my brushes in mid 2000s, and I’ve been told the newer brushes are better. I can only do a feel test in store, but they do seem about the same standard as Masami Shouko now (ie. a couple of good gems tossed among a bunch of less than stellar brushes).
Still, even the better quality brushes are the same quality as my mediocre Aliexpress brushes…just way more expensive. The pros of Sephora brushes is that I can feel and see them in-store, so it’s less of a gamble than Aliexpress brushes. If you’re looking for very specific brushes, don’t bother with Aliexpress…you’ll just end up with a LOT of heartache as you get so many brushes that look nothing like the pictures.
Masami Shouko Brushes
I’m ranking this higher than Sephora even though they’re the same quality, just because these brushes are waaay cheaper than Sephora, and you can feel them physically in-store too. Masami Shouko brushes range from about $7-25 (rough conversion from the rupiah prices, which are IDR 78,900-248,900), while Sephora brushes range from around $10 to $38. Now that I’m back in Indonesia and have quick access to Masami Shouko, I waaaay prefer shopping for brushes from them because of the cheaper price range.
Again, I noticed they have some scratchy brushes in store, and the shapes aren’t as firm as I like, but they’re not bad for the price.
Unlabelled Aliexpress brushes
These were my starter brush kit when I first got really into make up 3 years ago thanks to MUA. I got 32 brushes for $13. Including shipping. Sure, I tossed out about a third of them, but averaged out, each brush cost about 70¢ only so that’s still way cheaper than Morphe. For anyone getting started into make up, this is what I recommend.
It’s a great way to figure out what brushes you never use, and what brushes you use frequently and are worth investing in higher quality ones. It’s also a cheaper way of testing out a new brush trend like oval brushes. You’ll also start figuring out gaps in your collection and that’s when you can buy specific brushes from more expensive brands. And you know what’s amazing? Some of the Aliexpress brushes are so good, that I never bothered buying more expensive replacements even though I use them daily. Oh, and my favourite eyeliner and eye art brushes ever? Got 4 of them from that Aliexpress $6 20-tools nail art set that I mentioned before.
The thing about Aliexpress brushes is that they range from Morphe level of crappiness, to Sigma level of awesomeness, and it’s all a gamble. I would honestly rank them much, much higher if the crappy brushes I got from them weren’t so crappy. If I’m ignoring the crappy brushes I got and only reviewing the great ones out of the lot, I’d actually put them in between Reinedolls and Sigma. To show you how much I love Aliexpress, here’s a pic of my entire brush collection with the Aliexpress ones circled. Yeah, I have a LOT of them.
Going back to the wine analogy, yes, sometimes, a $2 box wine can be an award winning wine and you shouldn’t dismiss them completely, but you can’t get too upset when they turn out crap. And if they do turn out crap, you can still get drunk if that’s your objective, but it’s just a less pleasant experience.
If you’re going to shop in Aliexpress, I suggest carefully reading all the reviews. I’ve noticed that the site sometimes automatically leave a 5-star review for me if I don’t submit a review in time (with a generic comment like “Excellent” or “Good”). That’s why I ignore all the 5 star review and focus on the negative reviews. If you see a single negative review, I suggest finding a different store. You’ll find so many stores selling identical items anyway.
Pretty Good
When I first got into make up at around 16, Body Shop and Make Up Store brushes are the first brushes I bought. Well, I’m 27 now, and I’m still using some of those brushes, so yeah. Some of them really last.
Make Up Store.
Full disclosure: One of my mom’s cousins was part of the team who opened the Singapore & Indonesia franchises. I got my first introduction to make up when I was asked to be the practice subject for their make up artists before they opened. That’s how I ended up buying most of my brushes from them. I don’t think I got a discount then (I was 16, my mom paid), haven’t really kept in touch with my mom’s cousin, and have never gotten any special perks from MUS.
Even though my foundation brush is from them and I’ve had it since I’m 16, I’m still kinda meh about this. First of all, I consider them expensive for their quality. At about $20-50, they’re more expensive than some brands that I consider higher quality. Also, I got an eyeliner brush from them recently, and it lost its shape in less than a year. So I’m not that impressed. I also remember I didn’t like their eyeshadow brush as much as Body Shop’s eyeshadow brushes when I was 16, and I eventually lost them while moving around in college.
Oh, and another gripe…the prices are kinda impossible to find online. I had to walk to the physical store to figure out the price range…oh, and they don’t have the prices displayed either, so the poor sales lady had to look them up individually for me. I didn’t buy anything so I’m pretty sure I ruined her day…^{I’m so sorry .__.}
If the foundation brush didn’t last me 12 years, I probably would put them under the “Ok” category.
My Make Up Brush Set
Full disclosure: I got these for free. But before you yell, “Corporate SHILLLL!!!”, let me explain my stance on these brushes. Yes, I like how soft and dense they are, and they feel amazing on my face. They’re not in the “Amazing” category, just because I do notice [some] [bristles] [sticking out]. I gave them a good tug and they didn’t come off, so it looks like they’re not loose and glued on.
I definitely still need to figure out what I can use all of them for though. Personally, I think oval brushes are a bit gimmicky. I mean, I did look up what you can use each brush for, but I personally like my current liner brush just fine. I do like them for buffing and blending my face though! Anyway, if you really want oval brushes, you may want these. The catch is that you can’t buy the brushes individually –you have to buy a set of 10.
Now, a set of 10 will cost you $25-40, depending on how fancy you want the handle to be. Well, supposedly they’re on sale from $300+, but they seem to be on perpetual sale. At an average of $2.50/brush, it’s definitely a good deal. BUT, I got a $1.99 brush from Aliexpress, and it’s better. Here’s a pic of the Aliexpress brush next to a matching brush from the MMUB set. As you can see, the Aliexpress brush is way more dense, and I find the bristles softer too. The oval brush I got from Aliexpress is actually one of the brushes I consider Sigma level, but the MMUB brushes are pretty good too. If you don’t want to pick your way through the land mine that is Aliexpress, then by all means buy from this brand instead and look at the slightly higher price as a finder’s fee.
Oh, one more thing about this brand that I know may upset some people. They state a NY address in their site, but I received my package from Hong Kong.
Body Shop brushes
What I like about them is that they’re so soft and smooth, and their kabuki brush has my favourite texture ever. All their brushes don’t start losing their shape until at least 2 years, and some brushes, like the kabuki brush, haven’t even lost their shape after over 4 years! Yeah, I’m definitely impressed. And even if they do lose their shape, I generally still can use them for less precise work. I still have a couple of brushes that have been with me since I was 16. Oh, and I only found out about brush care when I discovered MUA 3 years ago, so I’ve been REALLY rough with them.
Now, what I don’t like about them is that there’s a limited range of brushes, and most of the brushes tend to be too large for my smaller Asian eyes. Also, they’re really dense, which can be good and bad. Their density is why I love their kabuki brush so much, but their blush brush ends up lifting off too much product off my face and applying way too much blush on.
As for the prices, they vary from country to country, but generally, they seem to be about USD 15-40. The price isn’t too bad, but I personally find them kinda pricey for the quality, so I would only repurchase their kabuki brushes.
Awesome
Reinedoll
Full disclosure: I discovered this brand through meeting owner’s sister when she was promoting the brushes at a make up related event (she does cosplay!). I got to chatting with her and thought she’s sooooo cool. They ended up giving me a personal friend discount of I think 10-15%? Definitely not more than 20%. However, I’m not sponsored, paid, or obliged to review these brushes at all.
They’re a local Indonesian brand, and their prices range from IDR 85,000-155,000, or about $8-15. They’re definitely cheap. The quality is great too –they’re dense, yet soft and feels amazing on your skin. I’ve only been using them for about a month now (daily use), so I’m still waiting on how long they’ll keep their shape, but as for now, they look like they’re keeping their shape really well. I love them.
Now the downside. First of all, their range is so freaking limited. I’m talking about only 8 brushes. Actually, their concealer, pencil and crease brush look like different sizes of the same brush, so I’d say their range feels even more limited. That brings me to another thing I don’t like about these brushes –the naming is kind of out of whack. Their pencil brush is not a pencil brush at all and is just a slightly smaller version of their crease brush. It’s way too wide and fluffy to be called a pencil brush. The concealer brush is too fluffy for concealer, and I actually like it better for eyeshadow application. If you’re into nose contouring, you may like this too.
The girl behind this brand just graduated college, so I’m hoping she’ll focus on this business and expand her brush line.
Sigma
These brushes range from $14-36 (though there’s 2 that are supposedly over $50 but discounted to $36-38?), and I think they’re great value for the quality. I think the E45 is life and I can’t make up without it. I LOOOOVEE that brush. It’s fluffy yet so finely tapered, they’re one of the brushes I consider essential for monolids. I also love their pencil brush…they’re the only 2 Sigma brushes I got since they were the only ones missing in my collection, but I’m definitely in love with them. I’ve only had them for about a year, but there’s no sign of them losing their shape anytime soon. These brushes come with a 2 year warranty, but I don’t think I’ll need them. I think these brushes and I, are going to grow old together. I love the E45 so much, I wanted to buy 5 back ups before I calmed down and stepped away from the computer. I tried buying a cheaper dupe from Masami Shouko, but it’s just not as precise or as soft as Sigma. So yeah, I love Sigma. Amazing range, great quality, good value for money. It was my favourite until….
Hakuhodo
I know, I’m sorry! Every time I see reviews of expensive products, I’m always going, “PLEASE tell me they suck, so I can be all gleeful about not wasting my money…"
And these brushes are definitely a splurge! I bought them in Singapore, and the prices range from $25 to above $200.
But yeah, these brushes are worth the hype. I’m hesitant to rave too much about these since I only bought them a few weeks ago, but you definitely feel and see the difference in quality. Still, I wouldn’t rave about a brush just because they’re 5-10% softemore precise, because that really doesn’t matter that much past a certain quality. It’s like sunscreen. Once you’re above SPF 60, a 5-10% increase isn’t going to make that much of a difference.
What really makes them stand out is how precise and sharp they can be, while still being so soft. Even though I got super tiny brushes (pic of brushes with my eye for scale), they don’t scratch or tug at my eyes at all, and that blew my mind. I bought these brushes simply because they do fill gaps in my collection. I’ve never seen brushes these tiny and precise, and I heard the Hallelujah chorus play in my mind when when I used them. They’re just sooo perfect for my smaller eyes.
Ok, with that in mind, do you really need these brushes? No. Yes, I have monolids, and that means I need to be really precise with blending because my eye's a flat plane and can end up looking really 2D if my blending isn’t impeccable. At the same time, if I’m not photographing my make up daily with a macro lens that makes every flaw is visible, would I invest in these Hakuhodo brushes? Probably not. If I’m just doing daily make up or more conventional looks, and not going for more complicated, “weird” looks that requires very precise lines, I probably wouldn’t get these brushes either.
And the highlighter brush? While I LOOOOVE the feel of it in my face...seriously, it feels like you’re "frolicking in the back hair of an angel" (high 5 if you know the reference!)…anyway, while I LOVE the feel of this brush, honestly? I’ve been using Aliexpress brushes for highlighting, and I get the same result. This just feels waaay nicer, but the results are pretty much the same. Do you want to spend over $100 for something that just feels great on your skin? That’s totally your call.
I honestly got on fine using my non-Hakuhodo brushes. I only got them a few weeks ago! In fact, I started getting really into make up at 24, and even then, I stuck with my Aliexpress brushes for at least 2 more years. So yes, you can get by fine, and even come up with really great looks with just cheap brushes.
TL;DR: Here’s what I recommend for people starting on their make up journey. Buy a super cheap large set of brushes from Aliexpress to figure out what brushes you need or don’t need. Fill in the gaps in your collection with brushes from Reinedoll or Sigma. And when you’re at that stage where you’re doing lots of crazy precise, editorial looks, instagraming way too much, or just want to splurge, go for Hakuhodo.