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Venezuelas socialist government stripped its congress of power late Thursday in what opposition leaders are calling a coup.

Venezuelas Supreme Court ruled that all powers vested under the legislative body will be transferred to the countrys highest court. Venezuelas opposition legislators are calling this a coup, as the ruling effectively cedes total control of the country to the SocialistParty, and opposition leaders are now officially calling Venezuelaa dictatorship.

Nicols Maduro has staged a coup dtat, Julio Borges, leader of Venezuelas National Assembly and a major opposition figure, said Thursday. What this ruling means is that, for the first time, Nicols Maduro has all the power to enact laws, assign contracts, incur foreign debt and persecute fellow Venezuelans.

The Peruvian government broke off diplomatic relations with Venezuela over theruling, calling it an arbitrary measure that disrupts the rule of law and constitutes a breakup of the constitutional and democratic order.

Since the socialist government seized power, 75 percent of Venezuelas citizens have lost at least 19 pounds each amid serious food shortages last year, according to new research.This is largely because the poor economic policies of the socialist government have left Venezuela cash-strapped and unable topay for food importsafter years of mismanagement, heavy spending on poorly-run government programs, and lack of investment on its oil fields.

The countrys inflation rate is expected to top 1,640 percent in 2017, according to the International Monetary Fund. Inflation is leading to the countrys currency getting replaced by new cryptocurrency backed by memes of Pepe the Frog. Using these memes as moneygrants anonymity,making itharder for the government to control the tech industry. Others have noticed and started using digital money in place of paper money.

Venezuelans are living with the consequences of decades of socialist economic policies. Price controls, for example, forced businesses to sell food at low prices, encouraging farmers to sell on the black market or outside the country.

Venezuela has some of the worlds largest petroleum reserves, but the collapse in crude oil prices is cutting into state coffers. The country cant afford to pump oil at current prices, and as recently as February was forced to accept shipments of U.S. crude oil. The country suffers from rolling blackouts that can last for days.

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Venezuela Dissolves Only Non-Socialist Part Of Its Government - Daily Caller

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The idea of images of the popular green frog being rare started off as a joke on 4chan, where users would claim that their images of Pepe were rarer and more valuable than everyone elses. It escalated into people selling their collections of Pepe on eBay, with bids reaching up to almost $100,000 before eBay took it down.

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There were never any serious transactions however, with everyone involved enjoying the ironic humour of the situation. More recently, a group of redditors have been trading memes of any shape and size on /r/MemeEconomy, attempting to create a stock market in meme popularity. But, it turns out that rare Pepe collecting online is now a serious business.

Sometime last year, an unknown individual began issuing official rare Pepe trading cards using the Counterparty platform to link them to bitcoin, in an attempt to poke fun at another online trading game called Spells of Genesis. Today, these cards can be exchanged for the equivalent of thousands of US dollars on Counterpartys decentralised exchange.

This is due to a creation of artificial scarcity in the cards (as one would expect trading cards to have). Anyone canissue their own rare Pepes, but these are then verified by the official Rare Pepe Foundation, and linked to a certain piece of the bitcoin chain via a practice known as coin colouring. Whomsoever owns that particular bitcoin key address owns the Pepe associated with it. All verified rare Pepes can be viewed in a complete directory of them.

This is in particular use in Venezuela. Developers of a game called Rare Pepe Party that would utilise some of these cards have claimed that they are needed to keep their company afloat. Were based in Venezuela, and our business has been saved by bitcoin many times, the developer, who wished to remain anonymous, told Crypto Insider.

According to them, around 80% of offices in the vicinity of theirs have been closed down in the past year, with even the biggest businesses still around losing up to 90% of their employees. In that timeframe, thanks to bitcoin related business, weve grown our employee base from just 5 to 10 (were still a small company), said the developer. Weve air-conditioned our office. Year-over-year weve been improving, so were banking big on bitcoin and now over Counterparty assets.

However, bitcoin is not completely safe in the South American nation. Venezuelas equivalent of secret police, SEBIN, have been targeting people usingbitcoin and bringing them up on or extortion and bribes, especially bitcoin miners, according to the developer. Anything bitcoin related is a big no-no here at the moment this week I got wind of at least two mining operators getting knocks on their doors.

Jack Hadfield is a student at the University of Warwick and a regular contributor to Breitbart Tech. You can like his page on Facebook and follow him on Twitter @ToryBastard_ or on Gab @JH.

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Venezuelans Using 'Rare Pepes' and Bitcoin As Currency - Breitbart - Breitbart News

After the site published a post about the "Jewess" and her candidacy, a reader posted Schrode's contact information in the comments section. Over the past 10 months, her email and social media accounts have been polluted with a torrent of slurs and disturbing images.

Her tormentors are faceless. They hide behind screen names, in the shadows.

Andrew Auernheimer ( http://apne.ws/2nwjwFA ) says he is not one of them, but he applauds their vitriolic spirit.

A notorious computer hacker and internet troll associated with The Daily Stormer, Auernheimer scoffs at the notion that anyone can be harmed by "mean words on the internet." For him, anonymous trolling is a modern form of a generations-old, "distinctly American" political tactic.

"Being offensive is a political act," he said. "If something pushes up against polite civilization, it's for a purpose."

Auernheimer, whose anti-Semitic rhetoric matches the swastika tattooed on his chest, chuckled at the mention of Schrode's name.

"Why should I have any empathy? What's she ever done for me?" he asked. "I don't feel any empathy for any Jew anywhere."

Trolling is a calling card of the "alt-right" an amorphous fringe movement that uses internet memes, message boards and social media to spread a hodgepodge of racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny and xenophobia.

Troll tactics edged into the mainstream with the 2014 birth of GamerGate, an online campaign against feminists in the video game industry. GamerGate arguably provided a blueprint for some white nationalists and other extremists who rallied around Donald Trump's presidential campaign, flooding the internet with "Pepe The Frog" cartoons and other hate symbols.

The Daily Stormer's founder, Andrew Anglin, published a primer in August that attempted to define the "alt-right" and explain its origins. At the core of the movement is a "trolling culture" bred on the 4chan.org website, he wrote.

Anglin's initial June 3 post on Schrode the first of at least six about her linked to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency report on her bid to become the youngest women ever elected to Congress. A commenter posted Schrode's cellphone number, email addresses and links to her social media accounts.

The initial post called her a "hissing weasel." Today, a photograph of Schrode is the first image returned by a Google search for that term.

The attacks weren't limited to emails or tweets. She said somebody hacked her campaign website on election day, changing her name throughout to Adolf Hitler. She also said she received a voicemail from someone making a hissing noise.

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'Unreal when it targets you': Faceless trolls attack online - Salt Lake Tribune

Conveying intent is a constant issue when communicating because language evolves over time and meanings can change based on context. Context can be the difference between saving or ruining a reputation. Unfortunately, there have been some egregious instances of selective truth and disregard for context in recent months.

Selective truth can be as destructive as a complete lie, especially when the removal of context could harm someones reputation. The Wall Street Journal used selective truth when it published an article Feb. 14 about Felix Kjellberg, also known as PewDiePie, a Swedish gamer and comedian who hosts the most subscribed channel on YouTube. The authors of the article approached Kjellbergs sponsors about alleged anti-Semitic jokes and Nazi imagery in some of his videos. Following this attempt for comment, Kjellberg was dropped by Maker Studios and lost Google Preferred advertising and his YouTube Red series Scare PewDiePie.

The main video receiving criticism, which Kjellberg has since deleted and apologized for, admitting that the joke went too far, shows him making requests on Fivver, a website where people can advertise services they are willing to provide for approximately $5. Kjellberg submitted several extreme orders to see if users were actually willing to do anything for $5. One of the services Kjellberg paid for was to have two men in a jungle hold up a sign reading Death to all Jews and say Subcribe to Keemstar, who has an infamous YouTube drama channel and a history of making racist statements.

It is not unreasonable for companies to cut ties with Kjellberg for the sake of brand image following a joke made in poor taste. The greater issue is the misrepresentation and selective truth in the article by The Wall Street Journal. Had the article focused solely on the Fivver video, which understandably crossed the line for many people, there would not be an issue with the piece. Instead the article includes other supposed evidence, most of which has been taken out of context.

One clip shows an image of Adolf Hitler used as a transition in a video, which was from a parody of drama channels, such as the one operated by the aforementioned Keemstar. Another clip shows Kjellberg viewing swastikas in fan submissions from his mobile game PewDiePies Tuber Simulator, which is behavior he condemned in the full video. Another clip shows Kjellberg wearing a Nazi uniform as a Hitler speech plays, which he did to satirize the potential fascist-like censorship that could result from the YouTube Heroes programs mass flagging ability.

Technically The Wall Street Journal is not incorrect. The article states that Kjellbergs videos contain anti-Semitic and Nazi imagery, and those images of swastikas and Hitler were used in PewDiePie videos. However, the mere presence of a symbol does not necessarily equal an endorsement of the ideas and beliefs it represents. By removing the video clips from their original context of criticism or satire, the article changes the intended message and impact, leaving only the historical implications of the images. This misrepresentation of Kjellberg presents him as a proponent of ideas he does not actually support instead of the satirist he actually is.

Context is sometimes even ignored when people are explicitly told that it shouldnt be. This disregard was seen when the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) added the Pepe the Frog meme to its hate symbol database. The database entry clearly states that the majority of the memes uses are non-bigoted and context should always be used when determining whether a particular version of the meme is racist. Despite the entrys clarification that the meme is not inherently racist, headlines and articles quickly started calling it an anti-Semitic meme and the racist frog.

Fast-food chain Wendys felt the impact of this false labeling Jan. 4 when it tweeted a Pepe meme that looked like its mascot. By the ADLs standard of evaluating within context, the meme is obviously innocuous. However, Wendys received upset replies and news articles, causing the chain to remove the tweet and apologize for the misunderstanding.

From a public relations perspective, the best course of action was for Wendys to remove the tweet and appease the people who were upset. However, since the meme was non-bigoted in context, deleting the tweet reinforced the misconception that Pepe is offensive in all circumstances. There is a campaign, #SavePepe, started by the ADL and the memes creator, Matt Furie, to reclaim it from the groups making racist variations. However, it is difficult to restore the reputation of the meme if people are attacked for using it in any context, even non-bigoted ones.

In regards to Kjellberg and Pepe the Frog, some journalists and bloggers argue that intentions and context do not matter if the outcome is negative. It is true that some racist groups praised Kjellberg and Wendys for their actions, but that praise was for the promotion of ideas that neither Kjellberg nor Wendys intended to promote. If too much reliance is placed on intention then there is no longer accountability for the consequences of actions, but if intent is disregarded entirely then self-censorship occurs out of the fear that words or actions will be misinterpreted. There must always be balance, and context will always be a necessary part of this balance if judgments of character are to be fair.

Krista enjoys long walks to the fridge and correcting grammar. She specializes in writing, video editing, and graphic design. Her greatest goal is to create interesting content for interesting people.

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Context is crucial - The Signal

Shia LaBeoufCreditIllustration by Tom Bachtell

A few years ago, after he starred in Transformers, the actor Shia LaBeouf seemed poised to become the next Johnny Depp; instead, he started behaving more like the next James Franco. In 2014, he showed up at the Berlin Film Festival wearing a tuxedo, with a brown paper bag over his head. This was a piece of performance art called I AM NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE, which he had created with the artists Nastja Sde Rnkk and Luke Turner. The trio went on to produce a skywriting project, a hitchhiking project, and, most recently, HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US, a piece of anti-Trump protest art, launched on Inauguration Day. The work, according to a statement, consisted of a camera mounted on a wall outside the Museum of the Moving Image, in Queens. Members of the public were invited to recite, into the camera, the titular mantra. The statement continued, The participatory performance will be live-streamed at http://www.hewillnotdivide.us continuously for four years, or the duration of the presidency.

The project caught the attention of the hordes on 4chan, an online message board where people post anonymously. One of the most notorious parts of 4chan is called /pol/, which stands for politically incorrect, and where the ideologies range from anarchism to fascism and ironic anarcho-fascism. It was the denizens of /pol/ who, last year, turned Pepe the Frog, once a benign cartoon, into a neo-Nazi icon. Many frequent posters there could be called trollsyoung, understimulated men whose main goal is to be the chaos they wish to see in the world.

Within hours, 4chan trolls had decided to protest the protest. Or, as one poster put it, Shia Leboof and a bunch of libtards making an ass of themselves for 4 years live because Trump won. /pol/ fucks with them. At MOMI, a few trolls infiltrated the crowd, shouting about conspiracy theories and white supremacy. Six days after the live stream began, LaBeouf, who was in the crowd, confronted one of the trolls and got arrested, on camera. On February 10th, the museum cancelled the project, citing public-safety concerns.

A week later, the live stream recommenced, from a location in Albuquerque, New Mexico, across the street from a tire store. You tried to shut us down in New Yorkwere still out here, LaBeouf shouted into the camera. How is it cool to be a Nazi now? Shut the fuck up. The trolls appeared, and vandalized it with spray paint. Within five days, the Albuquerque live stream went dark.

On March 8th, the artists updated their site. The project moved to an unknown location, they wrote. A flag emblazoned with the words HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US will be flown for the duration. The live stream was back up, showing a white flag with black letters against an open sky.

Five minutes later, someone started a thread on /pol/: Can we find where the flag is?

Does the sun come into view? someone else posted. We can find angle from the sun path to the ground if we assume the pole is vertical.

We might be able to do trigonometry with shadows on the flag, another person wrote. One of the trolls quickly found a clue: a photo of LaBeouf, taken days earlier, at a diner in Greeneville, Tennessee. Another troll checked the weather in Greeneville; it matched the video. Anyone else hear the frogs croaking? someone wrote, referring to the live streams audio. This prompted a discussion, including color-coded maps, about local species of cricket frogs.

At 1:56 P.M., a plane flew by on the live stream. AIRPLANE GUYS AIRPLANE AIRPLANE! someone wrote. A troll suggested checking Flightradar24.com, a site that tracks flight paths. IF its in greeneville, well see new planes come in from the east and the north, someone posted. Seven seconds later, another plane flew by, heading south.

GREENEVILLE CONFIRMED. WE DID IT LADS.

When they had a good idea of the flags cordinates, a /pol/ poster who lives in the Greeneville area drove around and honked, hoping that the noise would be audible on the live stream. It was. Night fell, and the trolls used astronomy to further pinpoint the flag: The faint star visible next to the flag is Polarisit has to be since the other star is rotating around it in a perfect circle.

In the middle of the night, a group of trolls gathered at the exact location, a farmhouse with an open field behind it. Anyone who was watching the live stream at that time saw the white flag come down. A minute later, something was hoisted in its place: a Pepe the Frog T-shirt, and a Make America Great Again hat. On March 22nd, the artists reopened the live stream, this time from Liverpool. British trolls got to the flag the next morning. Once again, the live stream went dark.

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Trolls Protest Shia LaBeouf's Anti-Trump Protest Art - The New Yorker