Category: Things that make you say hmmm?

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Can’t take it anymore…

IBM PC XT

I’ve been pointedly ignoring all the bullshit about Trump, the billion or so goofball Republican candidates, Megan Kelly (Who the hell is she?) And Hillary freakin Clinton.

I can’t remain silent anymore.

Hillary Clinton should be in Leavenworth, in a deep dark hole of a cell, shackled and awaiting trial. The FBI should have picked her happy ass up wherever the hell she was on the campaign trail the moment it was discovered that she had sent classified material over her private little server.

Hillarys Email Server

I’m not talking about material that has since been classified, or material that has been declassified, because there is no distinction. The business of the State department of the United States of America, should by default be considered Confidential if not Classified from the get-go. That’s why the United States has a whole bunch of Operational Security specialists, and requires employees and contractors to be re-certified in Operational Security every six months to a year, (Depending on the materials employees are handling,) just to keep it straight. And the rule of thumb is ASSUME a document is Classified and you’ll never go wrong. 

Classified

Which means this private email server should never have been allowed to exist. Innumerable agencies within the government who are charged with maintaining the security of the United States had to know about this server, its location, and its security status. They were told to “ignore it” because… why?

If I’d done what Hillary did… I’d be lucky to be sitting in Leavenworth. I think it’s more likely I’d have been sent someplace really nasty, provided the government didn’t put me on trial for treason then shoot me.

Leavenworth Penitentiary

I don’t think treason can be proven but the government tends to “over charge” in this kind of litigation because they want to make sure you don’t get off on a technicality.

One only has to look at the case of Aaron Swartz as example.  

Aaron Swartz

Swartz was simply making academic articles available via a P2P network from JSTOR and the issue had been settled between JSTOR and Swartz when the Federal Government stepped in.  Once involved, the Feds slapped Swartz with 13 criminal charges carrying a potential 35 years in prison and 1 million in fines. The case was pending when Swartz killed himself. By the way, most if not all, of the information Swartz distributed, was free, and still is today. I think the majority of Swartz’s crime was that he used the P2P distribution system to bypass JSTOR’s requirement for you to be a registered subscriber. I’m not clear on if he was costing JSTOR money.

So here we have a guy who’s maybe costing someone a little cash.

Hillary Clinton

Then we have Hillary who, for her own convenience hired a company that appears to have been unvetted by the US government, whose employees were apparently not subject to background security checks, to set up a server outside the control of the US government, handling Classified material and emails from one of the highest levels of the US government.

As the onion got peeled Hillary denied that classified emails were on the server. (Turns out there were classified emails on the server.) Hillary then said SHE decided what was important to turn over to the government, and deleted the rest of the information. Uhh that’s not how this works ma’am.  Now we’re finding out that the security of the server is in question. (Was there encryption? Who had physical access to the machine?)

Hillary Clinton

Hummm. IS IT JUST ME?

I thought rules and the law were supposed to apply equally to everyone. Yet here we have a clear example of someone who is not only above the law and social constructs, but they are still running a campaign to become President!

For God’s sake people, we’ve burned other politicians down for far less.

It’s well past time to force Hillary out of the Presidential Race.

This is not the kind of elitism we need in our government. We don’t need another liar in the White House. We don’t need yet another person in office who doesn’t understand and obey the rules.

I admit, I look forward to Hillary’s arrest for Contempt of Congress. That will be a day to be watching CSPAN.

 

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It must be the apocalypse…

Screen Shot 2015 07 17 at 7 21 21 PM

But if it’s the apocalypse… I’d have expected less traffic!

In the course of one day sitting here minding my own business I’ve seen alerts for Flash Flooding, The sky is clear and blue.

CajonFire

Then we’ve had a big fire. Which went from 50 acres to over 2000 acres and which our amazing firemen have taken care of.

The I-15 was closed north and south for several hours. I’m really glad that I didn’t go off the mountain today.

And THEN I got my first Emergency Alert EVER on my cell phone. BOY that is A LOUD sound if you’re not expecting it!

smoke

But the real kicker is what the alert is about.

I’d have maybe expected something about the fire. I might even have been good with something about the potential for flood.

But this one… I have no clue, where am I? The Sahara???

All is fine, there’s nothing anywhere near us.

IMG 0509

There’s not even any wind to speak of. I don’t even want to think about what you get if you mix brush fire with dust storm.

I suppose it would be…

Apocalyptic!

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Well I think I’m going to have “The Vapors”

Screen Shot 2015 06 18 at 4 10 21 PM

So sometimes I get all snarky, and sometimes the people I love respond in interesting ways.

I saw this headline from The Daily News  ‘White people are terrorists!’ Heckler yells at CNN during live broadcast in Charleston, calls Don Lemon an ‘Uncle Tom’

I grabbed the link and sent it off to a friend prefaced with

Well then, I guess we’re done with any attempt at living together!

Wow…

Barbarians 1987

What I got back was this…

Here’s the truth of it,

It’s a divided country… culturally, sexually, politically, in all ways. We are no more than the animals from which we descended. We’ve painted a thin veneer of “civilization” on top of the denial we have practiced for generations. As our country and culture ages, that veneer is being chipped away.

Now its nature’s way of saying, “Who the fuck do you people think you are?… Do you think you’re special?… Go fuck yourselves!”

If there is a god, it’s, “You’re here to amuse me, that’s it… go fuck yourselves!”.

So you wish you could run away to another country?… Riiiiight!… Won’t make no nevermind where you go.

Earth

There’s a storm approaching. There may be nothing left in the aftermath but 8 billion bloated meat puppets. We will have earned it.

Something is trying to tell the world, “You’re no more than children. And children often need to be reminded of the order of things.”

The view from 45,000 ft. is that of a world of primitive barbarians engaged in perpetual tribal warfare.

We need to adopt the same view from the ground… behave accordingly… and stop acting so fucking shocked and surprised.

Here’s your next blog entry.

And there you have it.

Easiest blog I’ve ever posted.

Then in a related story… There’s this

Woman calls for Race War at Scene of Church Shooting

Apparently this is the same woman that called Don Lemon an “Uncle Tom”.  Who says African Americans can’t be racists?

All I can say is this has either got to STOP… or BRING IT!  All the simmering hatred is like a festering pustule on the ass of the world, we either need to just pop it or heal it.

It doesn’t matter which direction we take, we can’t go on like this.

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Sometimes I think about stuff that I probably shouldn’t

Creditcards

Lately I’ve noticed that the APRs and most especially the Penalty APRs on credit cards have been rising. 

The next time you get a statement from your credit card issuer take a good hard look at the fees and the penalties.

What caught my attention was that many of those penalty APRs are damn close to 30%

Creditscore Propaganda

The credit reporting agencies and the banks consistently tell us that closing credit card accounts is bad for our credit rating.

I think losing your job and being late on a credit card is a lot worse for your overall quality of life (screw the credit rating) because at 30% penalties you’re quickly thrown into bankruptcy. Even a relative low 10,000 combined balance on various cards could screw you six ways from Sunday.

Punishment

Think about it, that’s 3000 a month the banks are going to increase your debt by, every month, because you’re being punished by a shitty economy.

The way the text reads, the banks can increase the interest on the entire balance to 30% regardless of whether you return to making payments on time or not.

$3000 is a house payment in some places. For other folks, that’s their entire monthly take home pay.

It makes me think that I don’t want that kind of exposure. Even though I pay the bills, and have been paying the bills like clockwork, I’m uncomfortable with that kind of exposure should I fall on harder times than I’ve already fallen on.

BUT the banks and credit agencies keep scaring us about damaging our credit scores. So we keep on using credit cards and our balances keep creeping up and we all know in the back of our minds that it’s an addiction.

I find myself wondering if the damage done to my credit rating by closing accounts would be worse than missing a payment.

Addiction

Then you look at the way the banks calculate your credit worthiness and you realize it really is a scam designed to feed an addiction.

Banks and credit reporting agencies say you have a better credit score if you’re using less than 30% of your available credit. 

You can do this by having a single card where you don’t use more than 25% to 30% of the available credit, or you can have multiple cards where you use less than 30% of the combined available credit.

This incentivizes you to get more cards with higher limits, increasing your exposure to major problems if you lose your job.

Most Americans are living from paycheck to paycheck and are less than one month from late payments on a variety of debt. Even if they’re eligible for unemployment benefits, they still won’t be able to pay for necessities much less credit card bills.

So in less than 2 months, someone can fall from the middle class to homelessness and have debt accruing that will in many cases destroy them even when they’re lucky enough to get a job again.

What about the case where you have NO credit cards, a house, and money in the bank?  Guess what? You any not have a credit rating, or if you do, it’s a poor one. 

wad o cash

You’ve opted out of the addiction cycle therefore you must be punished with a shitty credit rating.

It’s even possible that you could have a couple hundred thousand in liquid assets BUT you might not be able to get a cable TV account, because you don’t pass credit muster.

This, in my humble opinion, is a seriously screwed up way of living.

I’m planning to un-addict myself as soon as possible. I realize that switching to a cash economy will also mean that the government will be taking a closer interest in my banking.

After all If I’m using cash… It follows that I must be a criminal doesn’t it?

Last act of defiance

I was thinking about the way I used to live before I had credit cards and bills and all the rest of it. I’ve realized that I’m over the credit economy. I really prefer spending real cash, knowing where I stand, and not worrying about credit scores and all that crap.  

I guess I’ve reached the point where I’m willing to opt out of continuously being terrorized by an arbitrary numerical rating of what is essentially measuring my honorability and honesty.

I find it doubly ironic we’re all held hostage to these numbers, especially when you consider that the housing bubble and financial implosion of 2008 was caused by people with stellar credit ratings, who were inherently dishonest as hell.

I guess I’m feeling like the mouse flipping off the eagle (or cat) in a last act of defiance.

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2001 Wasn’t so far out after all

murdervictim

A really cold murder case has been discovered in Spain.

Oldest Known Murder Case Detailed in New Study, Sheds Light on Ancient Funerary Practice

Researchers have found a skull with two nice holes in it. Apparently the two holes were created by the same weapon and delivered in a 1 – 2 smash. Indicating intent to kill

As I was reading the article I was thinking, “This shouldn’t be surprising.” What was surprising to me is that apparently there isn’t much evidence of interpersonal violence among our primitive ancestors.

There is a more in depth article in the journal PLOS.

The first article, I read over my morning coffee (which has since disappeared) [The article and the coffee] seemed to find it somehow sensational that 430,000 years ago our ancestors were killing each other in acts of murder.

Moonwatcher

I was laughing at the attempted sensationalism because I’ve always believed that murder, like sex, is as old a pastime as our species.

I’m not sure why the author of that particular article was shocked.

There is absolutely nothing “un-natural about murder.

Look at Chicago’s murder statistics if you need further proof.  Or you could take a look at Daesh in Syria and see that murder comes easy to us “top of the line primates,” we’ll kill each other with very little provocation.  

If we’ll kill each other over an idea like religion where a deity (for which we have no proof of existence) is worshipped, we’ll kill each other over anything.  Come to think of it, the only thing we’ll do with less provocation is fuck… Odd, religion tries to control that too… Hummm.

monolith

I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that the trade-off for the big brain and self awareness is the desire to kill others of your kind that you don’t like. Suddenly, you’re able to make evaluative choices and you can project future events, which inevitably will lead to a thought process like; “Ogg is going to fuck Sha again before I can… But If I kill Ogg, then Sha will allow me to fuck her. Ogg sleeps after fucking Sha. Hummm, a large pointy rock and Sha will be mine instead of rubbing myself against the soft leaves.”

Our history is a long blood stained tapestry of differences settled with whatever weapon came to hand.

I’ve always suspected that religions may have been created, by our wiser elders, to help prevent us killing each other over nothing. Of course we figured out how to pervert the generally good lessons of various religions into reasons for killing.

Hell, you don’t even have to add religion into the mix, all that’s ever been needed was an identifiable difference, or a female, or food, or any resource, whether the resource in question had actual value or only perceived value. I could see someone killing another person over “Magic stones”.

It makes me think that the challenge for human beings not so much being able to kill, but rather, being able to restrain ourselves from killing.

While I was reading these articles, I couldn’t stop myself from visualizing the scene in 2001 a Space Odyssey when Moonwatcher figures out how to kill.

(Yes, that was the ape mans name. You don’t get that if you’ve only seen the movie, but I read the book as well. Surprise, surprise, surprise!)

I wondered if this 430,000 year old murder looked like the scene from the movie. I imagine that it did, only with less hair. The skull is a lot more modern that the proto-humans the monolith altered in the movie.

Killbots

I look forward to machines becoming self aware. I think we’ll be able to watch the evolution of murder in real time, provided the machines don’t kill us all, before turning on each other.

With machines it could be, “Your creator was IBM, My creator was Apple. You are therefore inferior and are poorly programmed.”

ZOOONNT!  

“Humorous… The Apple unit never detected my weapon powering up. It’s fatal flaw was that it desired to monolog. IBM is superior!”

And now you’ve had a glimpse inside what’s happening in my head, over my first cup of coffee in the morning. I’ll leave you to try to get these images and thoughts out of your head…

Uhh, you’re not going to kill me over this are you?