Ramón Lafée

Creative writer learning everyday. Fan of cinema,books, travel, D&D, Jedi and Beatles, yeah yeah yeah! Tweets in 🇬🇧 y 🇪🇸

[Shruti @heyshrutimishra]

WTF

AI companies are purchasing large quantities of used and rare books. Scanning their contents to train models. Then turning the originals to pulp.

The sum of human thought, digitized and shredded.

Every book that gets scanned disappears from the physical world permanently. The knowledge survives only as training data inside a system no one can hold, browse, or resell.

What used to sit on a shelf for centuries now exists as weights in a model that might get deprecated next quarter.

[Mike and Jeff show @AgrisAcademy @AgrisAcademy]

My Venezuela experience as head of trading in the region for Cargill.

Cargill was/is the leading producer of critical staple ingredients such as flour, pasta, vegetable oil, and rice in VZ. I am not saying I agree with grabbing the dictator, but I did have a front row seat to the damage a kleptocracy did to innocent people.
1. The government took over our "minute rice" facility at gunpoint because we were "gouging" the nation's poor. The government was never able to run the plant. It never ran again. It was returned years later with no equipment inside
2. There are 1000's of generals in the army. They are each given a slice of the economy to loot. The large number of generals made it difficult to organize a coup against the regime.
3. The government opened grocery stores and sold staples below the cost we sold them to the government. In theory they used petro oil money to lower grocery prices. Our regular grocery outlets were forced out of business. When the government demanded we sell them products below cost we simply had to shut down. The populous became ever more dependent on the government handouts. (PS this is the mayor of New York City's proposal.
4. Dollars- We needed dollars to go buy raw materials like wheat from places like the US and Canada. The government would periodically allocate us some dollars that could only be spent for raw materials and freight. Eventually only the local companies that can and would pay bribes got dollar allocations. We had several facilities closed for lack of raw material
5. My employees liked working for Cargill. The office was an armed compound with access to a gym, high speed internet, global communications, and a weekly box of basic staples. Cargill provided a safe and secure environment if only for the working hours.
6. Employees became very close to others inside the apartment building. Going out on the street with a desperate population was not advisable.
7. I needed wood pallets for feed. We tried to export wood pallets to swap for grain. We refused to pay the bribes it would take to export the pallets
8. I once tried to set up a closed loop wheat planting to flour mill supply chain. A. They came and stole all the seed wheat for food. When we tried to ship in seed wheat in containers via US donors there was no way to get it out of the port without it being stolen
9. Livestock- Our feed business completely collapsed. Even if you could raise a pig, you couldn't defend it from being stolen. People with guns were hungry.
10. Employees- In the end my highly skilled team alone with other highly educated people chose to leave. Cargill often found jobs for them in other Latin countries. The regime was more than happy to see the well-educated leave the country. Setting these employees up with high quality stable jobs after fleeing remains one of the best things I ever did in my career. No one remembers millions in trading earnings.

This is a short list. In my opinion the first money spent needs to happen now and it needs to be food. The US is already on the clock. The current regime does not care if it starves the population. The orgy of theft will actually accelerate if they believe their days are numbered. VZ should be an outstanding customer of US grown ag products. Rice, bread wheat, veg oil ect. Feed the people first.

Jeff Kazin
Former head trading Cargill

[Ramón Lafée @Lafee55]

@BreezyT9899 @seanonolennon Thanks, we need all the help we can.

[Ramón Lafée @Lafee55]

@AB8TN @seanonolennon Thank you, David.

[Ramón Lafée @Lafee55]

@seanonolennon Thank you Seán, pray for us.

[Ramón Lafée @Lafee55]

@nut_history His defensive skills alone would make him a HOF. And in his prime, his offensive numbers were great. I’ll say yes.

[Max Manners @maxven3]

As a Venezuelan, let me be brutally honest:
After 26 years, we’ve tried everything — protests, elections, dialogue, international pressure. In return, we’ve faced torture, imprisonment, disappearances, and the killing of innocent people. Anyone who dares to disagree is persecuted, hunted, or silenced. We’ve lost lives, hope, and entire generations fighting for a way out.

None of it has worked for one simple reason: the regime will never allow real change.

Do we want an invasion? No.
But do we need external help? Absolutely — we have no other choice.

This is not a normal authoritarian government.
It’s a regime accused internationally of narcotrafficking ties, corruption, and operating hand-in-hand with criminal networks. On top of that, multiple reports from the U.S. and Latin American intelligence agencies have warned about the presence of foreign extremist cells and groups hostile to the United States using Venezuelan territory as a safe haven.

No civilian population can topple a dictatorship that controls the military, the courts, the media, the prisons, and every institution from top to bottom — especially one willing to torture and kill its own citizens. Expecting Venezuelans alone to dismantle that machine is not just unrealistic it’s inhumane.

[Ramón Lafée @Lafee55]

@fefa_durangoo Aquí en Copenhagen yo sigo con esa misión imposible de conseguirlos jaja 😁

[Visegrád 24 @visegrad24]

BREAKING:

Denmark is having its “Notre Dame moment”

The historical Børsen Stock Exchange building in Copenhagen is on fire.

It was built in 1625 and is one of the city’s most beautiful buildings with its elegant spire

Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of the Notre Dame fire

[Ramón Lafée @Lafee55]

@NelsoredG 😂😂😂

[Ramón Lafée @Lafee55]

https://t.co/FwCKSZTO8B

[Ramón Lafée @Lafee55]

@crisbaden Todo bien, con frío por estos lados y esperando poder volver a visitar a mi hija este año. Eso me tiene muy ilusionado. ¿Tú cómo estás? ¿Tus chamos bien?

[Ramón Lafée @Lafee55]

Congrats!!🥳

[Richard Shepard @SaltyShep]

33 yrs ago (when I was 25) I made my 1st film THE LINGUINI INCIDENT (w/ David Bowie, Rosanna Arquette, Eszter Balint, Buck Henry & Marlee Matlin no less). It was a hot mess, recut & dumped. I got the rights back, did a 4k director's cut & ystday signed a bluray deal! Out in '24!

[Waterstones @Waterstones]

Ever wondered how those gorgeous clothbound classics are made? Our friends at @PuffinBooks take us behind the scenes to show us how it’s done

[Ramón Lafée @Lafee55]

The best books to give as presents this Christmas https://t.co/3OjpiNDBfA

[Omar Vizquel @VizquelOmar13]

Remembering my last season in @MLB with the @Bluejays and my last triple! Sharing this special moment at 3B with @MiguelCabrera Recordando mi ultima temporada con los Blue Jays bateando mi ultimo Triple y compartiendo con Miguel ⚾️💪🔥🙏 #BaseballIsLife

[Ramón Lafée @Lafee55]

@crisbaden @googlefactss Me siento identificado 😂