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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro looked to the world of digital currency to circumvent U.S.-led financial sanctions, announcing on Sunday the launch of the “petro” backed by oil reserves to shore up a collapsed economy.

The leftist leader offered few specifics about the currency launch or how the struggling OPEC member would pull off such a feat, but he declared to cheers that “the 21st century has arrived!”

“Venezuela will create a cryptocurrency,” backed by oil, gas, gold and diamond reserves, Maduro said in his regular Sunday televised broadcast, a five-hour showcase of Christmas songs and dancing.

Didn't Venezuela used to have a fiat currency backed by oil? Why would anyone believe that this new fiat currency, despite having cryptocurrency cooties, will fare any better? I bet that the public nature of the block chain is a significant part of the reason they went with this scheme. You know to prevent the people of Venezuela from buying the things they need on the black market. Like anyone would use the "petro" for that anyway.

And we may also have a sign that the bubble of cryptocurrencies is reaching an unsustainable high, if we have deadbeat dictators grasping at this particular bit of straw.

The "wisdom" I've learned, is that ethanol has 90% of the stored energy that gasoline has. That is, a gallon of pure ethanol contains 10% less energy than a gallon of gasoline.

Since most of our ethanol is blended, 10%eth/90%gas, then a gallon of fuel at the pump has 1% less efficiency.

Now, I've always kept track of my fuel mileage, since about 1976. Back then, I kept a notebook in the car - now I use fuelly.com to record all my purchases. Recently, I bought another vehicle - a 2002 Chevy Trailblazer. I started out putting ethanol free into it, because the previous owner told me that it gets better fuel mileage with ethanol free. I guess I put about six tanks of gas into it, before making purchases at random stations, whenever I needed fuel. (It is a minor inconvenience timing my fillup when I'll be close to the ethanol free stuff.)

Anyway, this vehicle is charted on fuelly.com as ranging from 10 to 33 mpg, with the bulk of them between 16 and 18 mpg. I was happy as could be to find that my ride was routinely getting about 21 mpg, and as high as 22 mpg. But then - ethanol. After a series of about 6 ethanol fillups, my mileage had dropped off to about 17 mpg. Hmmmmm . . . that's a much greater decrease than the advertised 1%!

A guy at work told me not to worry about it - the gas companies had switched to winter blend gasoline, and fuel mileage always dropped with that. I couldn't argue with him - yeah, it IS time for winter blend.

All the same, I went out of my way to fill with ethanol free. And, BANG!! I'm right back up to ~21 mpg again.

Something ain't right here. I'm sure there are some minor inaccuracies in my fillups. One time, I may squeeze the last drop into the tank possible, and maybe the next time a get a cup and a half less in the tank. That is almost certainly what happened with the one tank that shows 21.98 mpg - I just didn't get it filled exactly like always.

I'm wondering how much further my fuel mileage might have fallen, if I didn't switch BACK to ethanol free? And, where do all those lost miles per gallon go?

http://www.fuelly.com/car/chevrolet/trailblazer/2002/runaway1956/645719

DISGUSTING PERVERT Charlie Rose fired from CBS & PBS, PERVERT Matt Lauer fired from NBC. Now cancel Fake News Phil Griffin. And fire FAILING Joe Scarborough based on the “unsolved mystery” that took place in Florida years ago. Investigate! And we should boycott Fake News CNN. Dealing with them is a total waste of time!

Luis Gutiérrez resigned, going to Puerto Rico, good riddance! He won't be clogging and seriously downgrading Fifth Avenue outside Trump Tower any more. Why hasn't PERVERT John Conyers resigned? Resign or get impeached, John! #ImpeachHim #MeToo

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I'm beginning to believe it. -- Clarence Darrow 🤓

As long as you're going to be thinking anyway, THINK BIG. -- Donald J. Trump 🧠

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Growing up, check cashing policy was always one of the following. Cash it at your bank, cash it at the bank it was drawn on, or pay someone to cash it for you. This arrangement worked well enough for me for several decades.

Fast forward to my move a few years ago to TN. Now you'd expect that banks are banks and they're really not going to change all that much, yeah? Turns out banks in TN (at least some of them) will charge you to cash a check drawn on an account with them. You heard that right; they literally refuse to honor checks written by their account holders for the full amount.

Now me, I don't do the whole banking thing, so I can't go up and chew them a new ass as an account holder. I think I'm instead going to have The Roomie write me a check for twenty bucks and call the police when they refuse to honor it in full then take them to small claims court when the police ask me to leave. Repeating that once a week sound about right?

Richard Cordray announced that Friday would be his last day leading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and named one of his lieutenants to immediately take over as acting director, setting up a potential standoff with the Trump administration over the controversial agency’s leadership.

In a memo to the consumer watchdog’s employees, Cordray said his current chief of staff, Leandra English, would become deputy director and automatically rise to acting director when he leaves. English has held several leadership roles under Cordray, a Barack Obama appointee who was the CFPB’s first-ever director.

English’s surprise promotion could complicate President Donald Trump’s plans to start remaking the CFPB, an agency that Republican lawmakers say has burdened banks with unnecessary rules that have hurt lending. Cordray announced last week that he would step down at the end of November, prompting administration officials to consider temporarily installing White House budget director Mick Mulvaney atop the agency, people familiar with the discussions have said.

This is related to the huge reason the CFPB should be ended, namely, that it is a regulatory agency which isn't under the control of the president of the US or funded by Congress (it's funded by the Federal Reserve). "Consumer protection" is not a good excuse for bad law.

And let consider why Trump isn't pushing harder to reign this agency in. One possible reason is that he can play the same game at the end of his term(s) by having his future appointee throw roadblocks in the way of any future administration for years (since the position is for five years, that means two years through to 2022, if Trump serves only one term or three years through to 2027, if Trump gets reelected in 2020 through some brazen display of incompetence or worst on the part of his Democrat foe).

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Folks, my administration has weathered some terrible storms. Harvey, Irma, and Maria have been the worst. And North Dakota had the absolute opposite, a very serious drought. We’re working hard on it, and it will disappear, it will all go away. It's a fine November day in Washington: crisp, breezy, partly cloudy, with zero percent chance of impeachment. In the West it's nice and warm, they're having their Indian summer, I guess they call it Native American now (I think I might have more Indian blood than a lot of the so-called Indians that are trying to open up the reservations). Arizona and California are having some great beach weather. And in my home town they're looking forward to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which is always tremendous. Folks, you've had Thanksgiving before. It's always fantastic, right? In China, they have National Day, that's their biggest holiday. Great idea, they celebrate being a country. We have a better country, we don't celebrate that enough. So I said, let's celebrate it more. Let's take the holidays we already have and make them into national days. In addition to what they already were. Get ready for #NationalDayofThanksgiving! But it won't happen unless President #TrumpProclaims it.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 23, 2017, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage all Americans to gather, in homes and places of worship, to offer a prayer of thanks to God for our many amazing blessings. 45.wh.gov/HwPuBv

Yesterday, I issued pardons to a couple of real turkeys. pic.twitter.com/fsS8B8f5UR 🍗🍗-- I mean 🦃🦃 -- who stayed in a nice hotel the night before. At the .@WillardHotel in Washington. pic.twitter.com/Zz20w6si6k pic.twitter.com/EOvxDcjiQl It's nice, it's not the nicest, it's not the Trump International Hotel. But, Emoluments Clause! Let me tell you, we need to repeal that. It's killing our economy. #MAGA 🇺🇸

Update: ate some delicious ham. 🐷 They told me it was ham. I hope Al Frankenstien is OK (not really). 🍖 Watch my video! pic.twitter.com/nQhi7XopMW

The shocking truth is coming out about Dem Senator Al Franken from SNL and from Minnesota. It's not so shocking. I look forward to a thorough investigation. It will confirm what we already know -- he is a fat pig, slob, dog and disgusting animal who has ZERO respect for women. 🐷 Who forcibly kisses them, filling their mouths with his foul slime. 🐽 Who treats them like SHIT. 💩

He apologized. He says he respects women. Tell that to Israel, Al! Tell that to Israel. 🔯

Low I.Q. Al Frankenstein came to the Senate cafeteria, and insisted on joining me. He was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no! Up close and personal, he could only be described as attractive if you like a man with a bad complexion who is built like a linebacker. Not exactly one of the great beauties of the world, according to anybody. I have a picture of Fat Al when he was a huge, huge WHALE. 🐋 He lost weight, he's still a fat slob! I just took that picture out of the drawer where I keep it. I just took it out. Not for long, believe me. The picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. DISGUSTING!

Al Franken is disgusting, both inside and out. If you take a look at him, he's a slob. How does he even get on television? If I were running the Senate I'd fire Al. I'd look him right in that fat, ugly face of his and say, "Al, you're fired." We're all a little chubby but Al's just worse than most of us. But it's not the chubbiness -- Al is a very unattractive person, both inside and out. Beauty and elegance, whether in a man, a building, or a work of art, is not just superficial or something pretty to see. I really understand beauty. And I will tell you, he's not. #MeToo #ImpeachHim