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Lesson learned.

Found another box of data CD’s and DVD’s.

I’ve gone through the entire box. 

I always knew I was a data packrat. But this experience has taught me a lesson. 

That lesson boils down to, “What’s the point?”

To be fair, I did recover a few more “important” documents and photos. Those will be sorted into the long term archive on a portable drive hard drive. Nothing made by Western Digital by the way. Their reliability has gone straight into the crapper. 

The rest… Completely useless. Either the disc wouldn’t mount, or it would only mount using Windows but if I got it to mount the data wasn’t worth preserving and probably never was.

Why on earth I stored copies of software that I’d downloaded I’ll never know. That’s not entirely true either. I know why I stored those files. At the time downloads were painfully slow, so if I needed to reinstall something at least I didn’t have to re-download it.

But, where I failed was in purging the obsolete stuff. Also my data storage methods leave a lot to be desired. It would have been one thing if I’d stored all the downloads on a disc helpfully labeled “Downloaded Software” and put a date on it.

Then just by looking at the date, I’d have been able to toss the disc without fear of something being unrecoverable. As fast as software is updated (even then) most of these programs were obsolete by the time I burned them to a disc in the first place.

Then there were the original discs that I purchased off the shelf. Those too appear to have been damaged by time and perhaps the heat from the house fire. I was able to recover some fonts but honestly it wasn’t worth the effort.

So, next to my chair here, I’ve got a stack of discs and their cases all destined for the trash.

When I say stack, what I really mean is a trash bag full.

I get why Apple stopped building CD/DVD burners into their computers. The world has moved on. I also found a bunch of floppy discs. 

For just a moment, I wondered if I could get a cheap floppy drive just to see what’s on those. I could, but then I thought, “Why?” It’s not like any of that data is launch codes or access codes to a vault or anything. I’m not working in the government or at the FAA after all.

I’ve got a ton of memory sticks and portable hard drives that are also in various states of decay. I’ve even got some network storage drives laying around that are shot for no apparent reason. Those that worked, I’ve transferred to the big network drive and that unit is happily searching for, and deleting duplicates.

As I’ve been working my way through all of this It occurred to me that I should go through the archive folder on the big drive and purge any software that I’m not currently using. That’s a project for later… Much Later!

Another dumb thing I did back in the day was zipped files or used other types of compression when I burned stuff to CDs.

At the time it made sense because I was trying to save space. From a long term storage point of view it was dumb because so many of those early compression techniques have been rendered obsolete. 

So for the future, I’m not compressing shit when I archive it. Turns out encrypting “important stuff” was also a mistake. Why? Because the encryption formats I used are no longer available even though I know the passwords or pass phrases.

To access some of this data, I’d have to have a computer from the period, and dig up a copy of the software I used to compress or encrypt it.

All of which is to say, nothing is permanent and unless you stay on top of changing standards decrypting and re-encrypting as time goes on, your data is going to be lost.

In other words it’s a maintenance nightmare.

I suppose, one could write a script or something that kicked off periodically to perform the maintenance but then you lose all time context since you’d be essentially recreating the files with every maintenance pass. I guess that problem could be worked around by updating some kind of text index preserving the original creation date and subsequent maintenance cycle date with each pass.

The point is, why? Do any of us have data that’s really all that important?

Which leads me to a larger lesson. If something isn’t being used, and it’s just stuck away in a closet or basement occupying space. You’re probably better off just tossing it in the trash.

At least then when you move, you don’t have to agonize over what to keep and what to toss.

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So I’ve had the Digital Driver’s License for about a year…

Thus far I’ve not been anywhere that had the facilities for me to use my mobile driver’s license.

I’d kind of forgotten it was even on my phone. It’s there in the Apple Wallet, and I’ve gone “familiarity blind to it,” I see it, but don’t see it. Maybe that’s a guy thing?

Anyhoo, I recently got the DL license renewal form. (2 pages) which encouraged me to  use the DMV renewal web portal.

I didn’t. 

I’ve got a little problem with the DMV charging me an extra (and in my opinion excessive,) “convenience fee”. Convenient for who? Me, or California?

I don’t mind writing a check. I know that my choosing to handle stuff like this via paper, and checks is more difficult, and labor intensive a.k.a. inconvenient for California. As an aside, I deal with the Feds, the same way.

It is no more or less convenient for me to write a check and put a stamp on an envelope. 

Maybe they should discount renewals and the like on the DMV website to encourage folks like me to give them our debit card numbers and allow California to collect their cash instantly.

I’m not overly concerned about using technology but I’ll be damned if they’re going to hit me with another fee for making their job easier.

I digress. 

I woke up this morning to the usual notifications from my bank about transactions that had cleared. However this morning, there was an additional notification. This one was from the digital / mobile driver’s license. 

The notification said my license had been updated. “That’s new,” I thought. I tapped on the notification and was informed that the expiration date had changed and my license had a new expiration date.

I logged into the DMV website and confirmed that yes, my license has been renewed and all I’m waiting for now is the hard copy.

Hmmm. That’s kind of neat. 

From what I understand, you’ll get similar notices when you’ve used the digital license at the TSA or other venues for identification. I’m curious to understand more about the digital IDs, much of what I’ve read seems a lot like vapor ware. The use cases and specifications sound a little “over the top”.

As I’ve stated elsewhere, I think digital ID’s have great potential. I also think they have a really dark potential downside.

The upside is that they could be used in places like Doctor’s offices. It would be nice to only transmit the necessary information instead of everything. We’ve all had the office administrator photocopy our license for insurance purposes, then attach it to our file. Going digital would make things a tad more secure, especially since we’ve all received notices or seen on the news that hardcopies of our medical files have been found in dumpsters. 

That’s scary since those files contain our ID, Social Security Number, address, date of birth, and a ton of other personal information.

If the data was only in computers and those computers had a field like “ID verified Yes/No” then in theory, it would close off a pathway for identity theft. As the records stand right now, with either the hard copy or the digital copies, medical records are valuable to criminals because they have everything someone would need to commit ID theft.

I could see using digital IDs for voting. Wave your phone at a reader and get your ballot. That would help cut down on fraudulent votes, and also raise a red flag if someone had used a stolen ID to vote in your place. It probably wouldn’t help in that election, but it would allow you to report the problem to authorities.

The biometric aspect of digital IDs means that in theory only you can use your ID, so there’s better security built in. At least that’s the theory.

If all stores that sold items like liquor, and cigarettes, used digital ID, then you could have a lot of convenience making those purchases. The register could ping the ID for age verification as part of the transaction process and not allow the sale to complete if someone were underage.

Even with in-person banking transactions or at an ATM it’s theoretically possible to do away with the physical debit card, and just use the phone to access the account and verify ID so PIN numbers could be a thing of the past.

I personally prefer using my phone at gas pumps and convenience stores. Why? Because those places are notorious for having card skimmers and the phone option with biometrics cuts that shit right off. At least for the time being. 

If every sales transaction was linked to biometric ID verification on a personal device then theft and fraud could be a thing of the past.

All of this is of course, predicated on a government that can be trusted, and highly secure data.

Unfortunately, neither is true.

Data breaches happen every day all day. Trusting the government? Uh, NOPE!

The dark side of all of this would be the government being able to turn off your digital ID. They wouldn’t have to touch bank accounts, they’d be able to simply not verify your ID. The bank and ATM would then cease to function. As would every other transaction that verified your ID.

In a cashless society that means you have no access to money, food, fuel, or anything else. If the government wanted you they’d know exactly where you are and they’d know you probably weren’t going to get very far away from the last transaction terminal you accessed.

Purchasing guns or ammunition for example suddenly becomes a matter of record and the government could, at a whim make it impossible. PayPal and other Credit processors have already implemented blocks on sales of firearms, firearm accessories, gambling and some items of a sexual nature. It’s written into the agreements.

The government turning off a Digital ID makes verbiage in the credit agreements redundant.

Talk about the ultimate gun control and passive gun registration. An overbearing government could in theory, disarm the entire populace in very short order.

Even if members of the populace had guns, the government could stop sales of ammunition, then all that’s left is stopping the sales of precursor materials.

Think about not being able to buy lead, brass, primers, or gunpowder. (No more reloading.) Then since people are creative and clever, the government could stop sales of materials like carbon, sulfur, potassium, and nitrate materials. Meaning people couldn’t even begin to make gunpowder.

Large quantities of fertilizer are already monitored in the US, after the Oklahoma City bombing.

In the aftermath of January 6 2020 The Bank of America released transaction records to the United States Government on suspects. The FBI knew exactly what those people had for breakfast.

So it’s not much of a stretch.

A bad government could, by turning off an individual’s digital ID prevent them from voting, buying or selling cars, homes, or renting an apartment. That same bad government could turn off access to public assistance and retirement funds. A bad government could control literally anything they didn’t want people to have.

Down that path lies dystopian nightmares.

It’s already happening in China, and honestly the UK isn’t far behind.

Last week, Apple announced that they were going to allow addition of passports to Apple Wallet. 

Hmmm. That might be really cool, especially if the passport in Apple Wallet acts like the Passport card. The Passport Card now allows travel between Canada, Mexico, and some of the Caribbean islands. Imagine the possibilities. Breezing through TSA and later Customs just by waving your phone at a reader.

Sounds neat, or does it?

I’m not sure that I’m comfortable with an all digital ID or cashless future. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love the convenience.

That being said, I’m increasingly concerned about the potential misuse. Especially after COVID, the vaccine passports, COVID digital contact tracing, seeing how quickly people complied, and worse how quickly those in power began to abuse their power.

In an idealized perfect world, I’d love digital IDs and a cashless society.

We don’t live in that world.

My California mobile ID will continue to live in my Apple Wallet. I’ll probably not notice it by next week. Knowing me, If I’m asked for my ID I’ll hand over my new drivers license even if the party asking for ID can read the digital version.

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She Swings, and misses, but opens a whole other train of thought in my mind.

Karen Bass mask Getty 640x480.LA Mayor Karen Bass drew a parallel between the economic damage caused by ICE raids in Los Angeles and the economic damage COVID lockdowns caused.

The article is here

Wow! 

This lady just doesn’t seem to get it. 

She’s right that the COVID lockdowns, especially in California damaged the local economy. She’s also right that ICE raids are affecting the Los Angeles economy.

Where she misses the point entirely is in understanding the root cause of the issue.

Perhaps Los Angeles’s economy shouldn’t rely that much on illegal immigrants in the first place.

Further, Democrat policies have led to Los Angeles having one of the highest percentages of Illegal immigrants in the country.

Regardless of where you stood, or stand, on the COVID-19 response, the most draconian state and city lockdowns of the populace were primarily enforced in Democrat jurisdictions.

They closed parks, and skate parks. They literally created a situation where people couldn’t go anywhere, except for liquor stores, pot dispensaries, Walmart, Target, grocery, and fast food stores.

Recall that in Los Angeles County, their response was to send the police to arrest a lone surfer out in the sun, surfing, by himself, 1000 yards off-shore.

In the process, they exposed 5 or 6 officers to the boogie man of COVID to make an example of a surfer who was literally no threat either to himself or others.

The surfer’s arrest wasn’t about public safety, it was about nothing more than control. The people in power couldn’t have anyone openly defying them and it didn’t matter if they were wrong, what mattered was that everyone under their control never questioned them.

(The same is always true of people in positions of power, it doesn’t matter if they’re Democrat, Republican, Dictators, or Emperors. In this particular case, it was Democrat policies, rules, and regulations.)

As it turns out, sun, fresh air, and physical activity, were some of the best things one could do to combat not only COVID, but also the depression associated with doom and gloom news, and essentially waiting to die in your home.

At the time I wrote a piece about the big fusion reactor in the sky and how it had been known for centuries sunlight could improve health. Even before our technology reached a point of understanding “the why”, our ancestors knew of a relationship between fresh air, sunlight, and our health.

How many people purchased UV sterilizers for their homes? How many people suddenly started taking vitamin D? How many people purchased high end air filtration machines? They could have saved themselves a lot of money just by being allowed to go outside.

At the same time, Democrat policies allowed people to congregate in the streets protesting.

Mayor Bass completely misses the root cause of the problems. I’ll name it for her, Democrat policies.

Not all Democrats or all their policies certainly, but Democrats that walk lockstep with each other, who lack the courage to be introspective, or ability to ask questions.

Los Angeles would not be experiencing an economic downturn due to ICE raids if the policies hadn’t been instituted that made Los Angeles and indeed California a sanctuary.

As someone who’s been trying to get a job for over five years, why is it that I have to answer questions about my national origin, and right to work, and prove my identity.

Yet apparently none of that is necessary if I happen to be someone who crossed the Rio Grande in the dead of night?

I’m certainly not alone. Teenagers, and young adults, have been saying for years that they’re having trouble finding work. Perhaps it’s because they’re trying to find work with the odds stacked against them if they were born in this country.

One need only look at the meat packing plant in Nebraska that was raided by ICE. Within days, their lobby was full of able bodied Americans filling out job applications for the vacant positions. It will be interesting to see how this event changes the local unemployment rate.

Ask yourself why do the taxes and fees in California keep going up, but the quality of life remains the same or goes down? California is definitely not as nice as it once was. $45 to renew a driver’s license? Really? To someone living in poverty working a part time job, that $45 is a weeks worth of lunches if they make them at home.

It’s not because of immigrants, it’s because of the sheer number of illegal immigrants that, if you really think about it have become a slave class.

Yes, it’s slavery. 

The only difference is that instead of the slaves living in slave quarters on a plantation, these slaves accept jobs with no health care, poor wages, and instead of being paid with room and board, they’re being paid with money that is devalued for them, like all the rest of us.

The policy that countenances illegal immigration places these people at a distinct disadvantage and keeps them there.

It’s slavery with extra steps (To borrow a line from Rick & Morty). Except that it’s worse.

These folks can’t afford housing without assistance, they can’t afford doctors because the cost of health care is obscene and they don’t have health insurance. Without health insurance their only choice is to clog urgent cares, and emergency rooms, where they’ll be seen and then the taxpayers pick up the bill.

In desperation, some turn to crime because it pays better than slave wages. All of these factors together increases the burden on law enforcement and subsequently on the tax payer.

How is this system much different from slaves living on a plantation? I’d suggest that sanctuary states and cities are even more cruel. Because they give illegal immigrants the illusion of freedom while entrapping them in an endless cycle of poverty and desperation.

If you expand your view beyond the small details, it becomes obvious that all of the taxpayers are, without their consent, being forced indirectly into being slave holders.

The wealthier taxpayers are akin to the house slaves, they’re treated better and they too derive benefit from the lower rungs of the slave classes. They have housekeepers, gardeners, field workers putting food on their tables, and a cheap labor force available at home improvement centers to paint and maintain their homes.

In the old plantations, the owner held the land, provided housing, reaped the benefits of cheap labor, provided a portion of the crops to the slaves for food, provided health care such as it was, and enforced the peace by punishing those who got out of line.

The difference is that now the owners are the politicians. It’s better for them today because unlike the plantation owner of old, today’s politicians bear no risk whatsoever. If they need more money, they raise taxes. In the plantation days the only way to increase income was to plant larger crops and hope the crops paid off.

The sad irony is that Democrats like Karen Bass don’t see what they’re doing. They are literally incapable of seeing the larger picture. If you view Los Angeles as a plantation, then ICE can be viewed as the Union Army freeing the slaves.

In that view, Los Angeles having an economic downturn is nothing more than being unable to plant or harvest the back forty.

Oh, and don’t misconstrue this to mean Trump is comparable to Lincoln. I don’t think he sees anything more than a balance sheet. At this point in our history, that may not be a bad thing.

What is, and always has been a concern, is that illegal immigration places strain on the society at large, think health, education, and welfare. 

We’ve been told for decades that to say such a thing was racist and that the illegals are only looking for a better life. Tell me, how is being a slave on the lowest rungs of society, with little hope to improve your station, a better life?

Legal Immigrants are seeking a better future and they have opportunities to achieve it. Illegal immigrants not so much. It must also be said, illegal immigrants, actually damage opportunities for legal immigrants, because no-one can be sure of the difference between the two. This uncertainty reduces the number of available positions for legal immigrants.

Aside from the violence and chaos it would cause, perhaps a counter protest should be organized targeting the ICE protests.

Signs saying “Don’t be an unwitting slave owner… Support ICE!“

Then supply plenty of brochures explaining how the system works.

Trouble with that, is the barely restrained violence of the anti ICE people. Los Angeles would be burned to the ground in seconds.

Once again, this is how my very weird brain processes things.

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This might be inconvenient

News report this morning says that Rite Aid is closing a ton more stores.

Looks like the local one to me is finally on the list. I’d been suspecting it was doomed for a while now. I feel sorry for the employees, they’ve been working so hard to keep the store viable.

I suppose that CVS or Walgreens might purchase the building. Both appear to be involved in some kind of negotiations regarding the liquidation of Rite Aid’s holdings.

The building itself is new, and they have a drive through pharmacy. That might make the facility and location appealing to one or the other. I’d hope for Walgreens over CVS. I don’t much like CVS and can’t really say why that is, other than their stores always seem dirty.

The Rite Aid location hasn’t had looting issues, it’s in an out of the way community that was mostly immune to the ravages of the “Summer of Love”. But they have been dealing with increased shoplifting over the past few years. This is evidenced by certain items being locked up behind plexiglass. Axe products for example seem to require security. Why, I’m not sure other than the target demographic for the Axe brand is teens and younger adults.

I’ll take a wait and see approach and hope the place isn’t closed entirely. That would mean the closest pharmacy would be 18 – 20 miles away.

Not a super big deal, but it would mean that I’d be picking up prescriptions and shopping for groceries elsewhere. I rarely make a trip for a single item.

For example, I’ll get a haircut while the dog is being groomed. If, God forbid I need something from Walmart, I’ll walk across the lot from the groomer to that store. I really hate Walmarts. If I recall correctly, there’s a Walgreens a few miles from the groomer and there’s also a Stater Brothers or Ralphs in the same plaza. 

It probably won’t inconvenience me much but I’m likely to put off picking up pharmacy items so that one trip serves all my needs instead of driving all over hells half acre to pick up one item at a time.

It also means that shopping lists will become more important than they are now. There are a lot of elderly folks in the local area that depend on the Rite Aid and they’re not that mobile. 

For that matter, I don’t want to have to deal with them being on the road (swerving on & off the pavement, is more likely,) while I’m trying to get from point a to b.

The town the groomer is located in, reportedly already has the worst drivers in California, adding elderly people to that mix will result in a greater number of accidents. I suspect at least part of the issue is that you can get a contact high sitting at a traffic light.

(Yes, I know. People aren’t supposed to be smoking pot while driving. Guess what? They do. We have open container laws in California but smoking dope is a-okay.)

I haven’t been in a Walgreens in ages, so I don’t know what their stores are like these days. I’ve considered them several times over the past 4 years. Because shopping there with an Apple Card used to get you 3% cash back. Trouble was, that the 3% ended up being 0% by the time I added the distance to and from the Walgreens. 

Now it looks like health insurance will have me paying nothing for my one prescription. So I wouldn’t get the 3% when I need the next refill in any case.

Story of my life! 

Come to think of it, I wonder if this new fangled medical insurance covers massage? I’ll have to check, I’m not holding my breath. But it might be on the list of things they cover once a month.

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After a week of rioting in LA

There was a nationwide “No Kings” protest.

Apparently, the turn out was substantial in many cities. Surprisingly, at first glance it appears the violence was kept to a minimum.

I didn’t tune in to any of the news coverage. I just don’t give a shit anymore.

Here’s what an AI had to say about it.

“The “No Kings” protests aimed to highlight opposition to President Trump’s policies and advocate for democracy and individual rights, but their immediate impact on policy changes remains unclear. However, they did mobilize significant public engagement and awareness around issues such as immigration and government accountability.“

No Kings In America Graphics 101307578 1 3634830133.The AI noted that it might be inaccurate, so as usual take everything an AI says with a grain of salt or an entire salt lick.

It was very quiet up here, I think most of the locals stayed home. Who can blame them? A lot of the folks up here commute to LA daily.

They must have been exhausted with the protests after a week of slugging through traffic that was wadded up by multiple road closures.

I spent part of the day looking for a job. I was also looking for places to live where the demographics were more favorable to people like me than California.

I think I want to live someplace inexpensive, probably rural, where the values I have, are shared by most of the people surrounding me. Not everyone has to think the same way I do, but I want to be around people that understand having differences of opinion is not tantamount to emotional violence. A place where discussion of those differences doesn’t result in physical violence.

In other words, I’m ready to check out. I’m tired of the insanity. Try as I might to avoid the news, the politics, the incessant wailing and gnashing of teeth, it’s getting more difficult all the time.

I just don’t care. Deport people, don’t deport people, love The President, hate The President, believe Congress is doing their jobs, or don’t. Reparations for black people (again) or not, looting isn’t a crime, or looting is a crime, have police, don’t have police, It’s all the same and has been for decades.

I just don’t want to hear about it anymore. 

I’m sick and tired of failure. No matter how we vote, we are not in control of the institutions that subjugate us. The powers that be, are not, and probably haven’t acted in the interests of anyone but themselves for decades, possibly even for my entire life.

For years in my 20’s – 30s I had no interest in politics. I was just trying to survive. My whole life has been about trying to get a leg up, trying to be a responsible individual, and being a good upstanding citizen. You know being a good guy…

My work history is a testament to not being in control, I served only at the leisure of people and corporations that viewed me as nothing but a cog in their machinations and who thought nothing of discarding me and 100s of other people just like me, at the drop of a hat.

What has it gotten me? A lifetime of holding on by my fingernails and for what?

I begin to understand one of my Grandfathers once saying, “There may come a time when you envy the dead.” At the time I thought he was just being old, cross, and cynical. 

Now I’m starting to see what he might have been talking about. He was looking at years of unrest, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Hippies, Yippys, the Cold War, mutually assured destruction, protests, violence, increasing taxation & regulation, government scandals, corrupt politicians, breakneck technological innovations, and social engineering, that ultimately seemed to make things worse and more complex, rather than better.

For him there were a constant stream of golden dreams, that always turned out to be lead painted with cheap gold paint.

I think my father felt it too. It might have been why for a time, he lived on a farm and only re-entered the rush of the world because of a family disaster. For my Dad, that re-entry cost him everything, and he still had the strength to pull it together and stand tall and proud right up until the end. I don’t know if I’m anywhere near as strong as he was.

Both of my Grandfathers, and my Dad, used to say the system was rigged. Generally speaking, they tried not to contaminate our childish dreams of better lives. They’d send us kids out of the room, or the house, to go play in the sun and enjoy the security they provided for us, when they were talking about “adult” things.

I recall my Dad being in favor of rebooting the government every 20 years or so. His theory was to strike all the laws, and restart from ground zero with The Constitution, Bill of Rights, and commonly accepted laws about thieving and killing. He was in favor of putting every politician, judge, and bureaucrat on trial.

He thought those trials should be held by the people and that the people should be the ultimate authority. He was in favor of marching the guilty straight to the gallows or firing squads as an example to other politicians and those with political ambitions.

He eventually mellowed, but maybe he had a point. He was about consequences, and in my lifetime I’ve seen where “no consequences” has led us. We have hundreds of thousands of laws, but they’re selectively applied or perverted to allow the “desired” outcome. Is that law?

I’d love to have a conversation with my Dad & Grandfathers about that philosophical question.

I wonder if my Dad & Grandfathers would be laughing their asses off at the “No Kings” protestors. Not because the protestors are saying no kings, but because the protestors are so clueless. If you think about it they and all the rest of us are serving, and have been for most of their lives, a diaphanous imperial model.

The people pulling the strings, are the same powers that have always been behind the thrones.

My Dad once said offhandedly, “The King isn’t the guy to watch, he’s the distraction. It’s the advisers and members of the court that are the real threat.”

Well Dad, it’s taken me 40 years to figure out what you meant. I guess I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

To my Grandpa’s on both sides of the family, and to my Dad. Happy Father’s Day. You’re missed, loved, and thought of often. I wish I could talk to you.

This just crossed my mind and I know you’d all laugh, “Do the Amish take in converts?”