Right on schedule

This is what you get if you try to access Parler today.

For those who don’t know about the why… Let me summarize.

Twitter, Facebook, and Google, have been blocking people that they deem undesirable. They’ve been doing this for years if they decided that what you said was controversial or to borrow Orwell’s term “Wrongthink”.

I myself have been in Twitter and Facebook Jail for asking questions or stating my opinion about events in politics such as, my opposition to the Russian uranium deal, or speaking out against Sharia law in America, and once for questioning why we were having all the discussion about bathrooms, I was also lamenting the loss of urinals.

This according to Twitter & Facebook is “Hate Speech“. Though I said nothing hateful in my posts. I used no derogatory language, or foul language. I simply posted my opinion and as we all know opinions are like assholes, we all have one. (Although I’m sure Twitter would ban even that statement as it might be offensive to those who are literally asshole challenged.)

Twitter and Facebook consistently banned conservative voices, they banned any voices that questioned the dominant politically correct narrative or liberal Democratic policies and these companies were blatant about it.

An Islamic American could say that a raped woman deserved what she got and should be stoned to death, An Average American could not say that those who thought the woman should be stoned had missed the point of being in America and perhaps they’d be happier in their countries of origin.

Eventually Twitter and Facebook started banning a ever increasing number of conservative politicians, then they started banning politicians who were running for office. That got the attention of Congress and the various companies executives were called to the Capitol to answer questions.

In those hearings, Twitter and Facebook told Congress that anyone could create a competitive service. Everyone shook hands and across the country several entrepreneurs did exactly that. Parler and Gab being among the two most prominent.

Gab was never allowed on the Apple App store. They existed as a web site only because Apple found fault with the basics of the Gab philosophy. Parler on the other hand was able to get Apple approval and has existed on the Apple and Google Play store until Saturday 1/9/2021. When Apple announced that they were removing Parler. Google Play beat Apple to the punch removing Parler from their app store about 24 hours ahead of Apple.

There are many articles about the reasons for Apple’s move. I’ve randomly linked one of them here. The articles all read pretty much the same. One consistent phrase seen in almost every article is “Popular with Trump Supporters”.

A.K.A. Conservatives.

I was on Parler, I guess technically I still am on Parler while the site reconfigures. There are a lot of good people there. They have values similar to my own, they are generally patriotic and at least once a day if someone’s rage about the election boiled over there were numerous kind and supportive people who would say things like, “I know you’re angry, but this is why we have the courts.”

In all cases I witnessed, having someone kindly listen and remind the angry individual about the rule of law and that conservatives peacefully protest, that our Constitution provided protections etc. would calm the angry person back to reason.

I’ve followed several threads wherein Veterans cut off from counseling services for PTSD (due to COVID lockdowns) found solace because someone would engage with them not with hateful rhetoric but with kindness. Sometimes it was Vets helping other Vets and in many cases Professional therapists freely gave of their time using direct messaging to help a Vet or anybody get through a rough patch.

This was a markedly different experience than what I witnessed on Twitter. Twitter in the last few years has become a place of pretty vile vitriol being spewed at anyone who was different. Don’t be a conservative leaning Gay person on Twitter. You’ll be canceled and labeled a pariah. Think of it as walking into the DNC and declaring you’re a Republican.

Parler provides a place of free thought, free expression, and since freedom of speech is the rule, a healthy adult outlet where people can legitimately question almost anything and generally speaking get healthy feedback, not hate filled condemnation.

The last thing someone who’s suicidal needs to hear is, “Sack up pussy!” which happens all too often on Twitter, with absolutely no pushback from anyone.

But Parler has been painted by the media as a place of hateful insurrectionists. Funny, I’ve seen calls for protests, I’ve seen Proud Boys delineating rules for attending protests. “No weapons, no aggression, no hate, no yelling at protestors counter to your views.” The adult an unspoken understanding, which is accepted in all cultures is, “defend yourself if you must.” Apparently this is what now passes for hate.

Pulling Parler off the app stores wasn’t enough for the rabid mob. Amazon Web Services which if I recall correctly is a service companies PAY for decided that Parler had to go.

So they denied their contracted services as of Midnight Sunday 1/10/2021. Effectively booting Parler from the internet. They provided Parler zero time to move the operation to alternate hosting providers.

This is nothing less than Draconian censorship and flies in the face of the Big Technology companies saying “If you don’t like our way of doing things build your own service.

Well Parler did build a very popular alternative service which was growing rapidly, and the big tech companies Apple, Google, and Amazon colluded to take the alternative away. Surely this would be prosecuted under the rico act if we had a fair and impartial court system.

Gab is still up, but due to the shear volume of now disenfranchised users (750% uptick in new users last I read) they’re struggling mightily to bring new servers online to handle the volume. Kudos to them!

I suspect that it’s only a matter of time before they’re under siege from the technology companies.

Google will be the first I suspect to attempt to make Gab unfindable on the web. Other internet service providers will follow suit because Google will intimidate them by threatening to make them unfindable as well.

If you can’t be found on the web, you’ll have a tough time signing up new customers. So Google will be directly impacting the web hosting sites income.

The common theme here is that conservatives, and supporters of President Trump, or the Constitutional right to free speech, are in fact being targeted.

As I’ve said before in this blog, I didn’t particularly like Donald Trump when he was elected. But even then I respected the Man, and the Office of the President. As time progressed I actually came to like Trump because he was exactly what he appeared to be, for good or bad, he was consistent.

Contrary to the media, he was not a dictator. (As an aside, Dictators don’t get Censored.) He garnered support from millions of average Americans because he was straight talking and more like them, than the other politicians in Washington D.C. That’s his appeal.

He’s not asking you to like him, he didn’t overly pander to anyone and was a businessman running the largest corporation on the planet, The United States Government. Sure he made some questionable decisions, who hasn’t? We all make questionable decisions from time to time. I’d submit that even his obvious mistakes endeared him to 70 million average “work a day” Americans.

Americans who by the way would have accepted Trumps defeat in the election if their concerns about that election had been treated with seriousness instead of dismissed out of hand, like the concerns of an unruly child.

The FBI is arresting with breathtaking speed the folks who breached the Capitol. But where are the arrests of the perpetrators in Portland, Seattle, or Minneapolis? Where are the prosecutions for incitement of violence? Why have Twitter and Facebook remained beyond censorship when groups freely use their services to coordinate the violence seen in these cities?

What happened to Hunter Biden’s laptop, have we seen an investigation there? For four solid years, we heard nothing but Russia collusion over a single phone call, and a false dossier. It was Joe Biden who bragged on camera about withholding aid to the Ukraine resulting in the termination of a prosecutor looking into illegalities with Burisma.

These things are not conspiracy theories. They are facts, supported by video evidence, and congressional testimony and witnesses.

In this light, can you see how average Americans might feel that the scales of justice aren’t level anymore?

We are indeed in a dark Winter, as Joe Biden said. But that Winter is not the Fault of Trump, his followers, or conservatives.

That dark Winter is arguably the result of socialism, cancel culture, censorship, and our Constitutional rights being assaulted not from an outside force but from within.

“When all government …in little as in great things… shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power; it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.”

Thomas Jefferson

I’m considering…

Back on Dec 14th I was pretty angry. If only I’d know that Jan 6th would bring white hot rage, I’d have waited.

Given the way Jan 7th has gone with Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and many others silencing the Sitting President of the United States I don’t believe I can be true to myself or my core beliefs by silencing this blog…

I’m going to chew on it for a few more days and depending on how much risk I’m willing to take, I may restore all the previous posts. I’m considering opening the blog to other vetted authors as well. I’ll see about that in due time.


The other half is playing a prayer service to ask for peace and healing, tonight.

That got me thinking. The congregation is Jewish and while I applaud the basic tenet of praying for peace and healing the decidedly liberal bent of the congregation made the following questions pop to mind.

These questions I think can rightfully be asked of many congregations, regardless of their faith, holding similar prayer services tonight.

Where were you when for four solid years conservatives were canceled, harassed, called names, treated as some disease?

Where were your prayers as unthinkable hate was directed at The President and anyone associated with him?

How can you in good conscience be praying for healing and peace while you sat idly by, silently watching as people on the so called “Left” engaged in hurtful rhetoric that caused anyone not firmly with the left to duck and self censor out of fear of losing their jobs, or their homes, or sadly, in some cases their lives.

The time to have spoken out was when you saw this vile hatred spewed at people who had dissenting opinions. Your speaking out then wouldn’t have been in favor of opinions that you disagreed with, your voices would have been raised against the fundamental wrong of allowing people to be hated, hounded, and continuously wounded, because they dared question any established narrative.

The time for you to have raised your voices was when you saw rioting and looting in the name of justice and equality. Many of you did speak out to the protesters saying that the violence must stop. But few of you addressed those on the “Left” whose reporting and rhetoric continued to fan the flames of unrest.

You didn’t speak out about the suppression of free speech until your churches, synagogs, temples and mosques were closed. Even then you only spoke about how this affected your worship, you failed to look at the bigger picture.

In the case of the Jewish community, the lack of response is particularly troubling. Some of the reports I’ve seen today should be sending you to pray. Politicians & Pundits calling for trials and in some cases executions of Trump supporters.

Your elders have seen this before. Perhaps you should heed the bitter lessons they have to teach.

Look at the vengeance Nancy Pelosi is attempting to mete out. If she can’t get Trump removed via the 25th amendment, she’s going to impeach him… In the last 14 days of his presidency? What is that, except petty vengeance?

America watched as citizens entered the capital building. The news media and congress is aghast that such a thing could happen. But let me point out some very interesting points.

The building was only minimally damaged. It wasn’t burnt to the ground, or even set on fire. Pelosi’s office was a photo opportunity but again no real damage.

The left has engendered and fed the kind of anger displayed in average law-abiding Americans who just want answers to legitimate questions, of our courts, and our representatives. (It’s entirely reasonable to ask if voter fraud occurred.)

This is the first time Mail in voting has been used in our country on such a massive scale. It’s legitimate to at least question any irregularities.

Due to the dismissive attitude and childish name calling, shown to people who had legitimate concerns, I’d have expected for Pelosi’s office to have all the furniture thrown out the window, and the office itself burned. Yet that didn’t happen.

Contrast Washington D.C. yesterday with Portland, Seattle, and Minneapolis over the Summer. State houses, Police Precincts, and Federal Buildings, were breached and firebombed. Oh and just to drive the point home, acts of violence in those cities were committed by the liberal left.

Then we have the young woman who was shot and died in the building and the 3 others who died during the protest. After almost a solid year of the police standing down and standing by while much worse transgressions were being committed, why would an unarmed protestor think they’d suddenly be met with deadly force?

The FBI is requesting any photos or video footage of the protestors so that they can be brought to swift and severe justice. Really? Now the FBI is going to prosecute? After literally doing nothing to protestors in Oregon who permanently blinded officers defending the Federal Building, this is a fair and just response?

One can only hope that those officers kissed their children as they slept and can remember those innocent faces in the darkness they’ll live in for the rest of their days.

Kyle Rittenhouse, Joe Biggs, several members of Proud Boys, other faith based groups, and many other “Average Citizens” face charges because they defended their lives, but the people that they defended themselves against, face no charges. How is it that all 3 of the men that Rittenhouse shot had criminal records? Doesn’t that speak to a disparity in the system? If the innocent cannot defend themselves without being arrested then there is no justice system.

That’s what so much of this is about. Justice is supposed to be blind, yet we’re seeing that it is not. Justice exists for the rich, the powerful, the criminal, But for average people, for victims, for those who just go about their daily lives… Not so much.

Churches, Synagogs, Mosques, and Temples, you go ahead and pray for peace and healing. But remember many of you have inflicted the hurt and pain, you’ve ignored the obvious until it arrived at your door.

I submit that you’re as culpable, as you believe Donald Trump, who you hate so much, is for the violence and rage.

It’s going to take a very long time for healing. It’s probably time we won’t have.

Just FYI, I didn’t vote for Trump OR Clinton in 2016. But I came to respect Trump because he is exactly what’s written on the tin. I’d much rather have a politician who is the same in office as they are on the campaign trail.

Can you say the same of Biden/Harris, Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, AOC, Omar, Talib, or any of our so called leaders?

Sometimes I ask Questions I’m not supposed to…

ADT security and I parted ways yesterday. Another divorce and another reduction in mothly expenses. They’ve been replaced by a Simplisafe system and thus far I’m far more impressed with the Simplisafe than I ever was with ADT.

The sensors are smaller, the control pad is smaller, the installation or removal of sensors is a snap, and doesn’t require arcane incantations like the ADT did. The price for monitoring is about 1/2 what ADT was charging.

There’s the rub.

When I called ADT to tell them, “You’re outta here,” suddenly they were interested in me. In the 10 years we’ve been ADT’s customer, we’ve had 4 service calls. 1 Installation, and 3 repair calls. The bill has been paid on time, and for many years they took the cash directly from the account and all was well.

Then I noticed the price going up. I didn’t think much of it. I figured inflation, and cost of doing business. Then the monthly price went up sharply and around the same time due to various human errors on our part we had a couple of false alarms. Both of which we canceled with the appropriate codes and countersigns. But the police still showed up 3 -4 hours later, after we’d been assured by ADT dispatch that they’d cancel the police call.

The police told us that ADT almost never contacted them to cancel a call and that they (the police) hated ADT for that and other reasons.

While speaking to the ADT Customer Service person I mentioned the rise in fees and falsehoods that ADT dispatch had engaged in. I also mentioned that the system was exactly as it was when it had been installed and that didn’t make sense to me.

You’d have thought that when the last technician was out here to replace the cellular communication module he’d have mentioned that there were newer improved systems that we could upgrade to. Those systems being more capable, efficient and lower cost to maintain and work with.

Suddenly, the Customer Service person said we could reduce your monthly fee to about 1/2 of what they’d been charging me. I told the person, “thank you.” but it’s too late. Then she got a bit miffed.

Whatever! Within an hour of that phone call I’d disabled the system, and removed all the sensors. Now, I’m patching the holes in the wall from the 10 x 8 control pad.

While I was scraping off all the leftover glue from the entry sensors, it occurred to me that if ADT could offer me 1/2 price reduction, that the price they were charging could always have been at the lower rate.

Then I remembered that Cox Cable had played the same game. They raised the rate per month gradually until I called them and told ’em I wanted to cancel service. Suddenly the price could be magically reduced by a substantial amount.

This indicates that these companies at least are charging much more for their services than they are actually worth.

Which leads me to the question:

Why not charge a fair price for your service in the first place?

I know that it’s a money making process to increase the rates yearly, regardless of actual need. I wonder if corporations would find it more profitable in the long run to just be honest.

If they’re going to raise rates, explain to their customers that costs have increased by X and that rates will be increased by Y to facilitate continued good service and provide for expansion to increase service levels. Most customers, myself included would understand that.

But customers like me tend to get very annoyed when we reach our breaking point, and during our cancellation call, suddenly find that, for who knows how many years, we’ve been ripped off.

The ADT Divorce is final. I save 1/2 on the monthly security bill with Simplisafe and have a smarter more adaptable system too.

I’m just working on simplifying my world and reducing the costs too. If you’ve had services in place for a long time. Maybe it’s time to call ’em up and see if they’re ripping you off.

I’ll grant you, you shouldn’t have to do it, but rattle their cages and see if discounts fall out.

Have a great day.