Fighting Back

I am embracing my Socialist side! Join me in my awakening!

It is time we "Spread the Wealth Around!" It is high time we demand our football players spread the millions of dollars they make every season to those who don't have enough.

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

It is important to see these greedy people shore with the humanity they represent. Football players make too much money. It's time we demand they "Spread the Wealth Around!"

The NFL Takes A Knee

I have to admit, the NFL initially pissed me off pretty bad. I have one love on TV that has kept me from cutting the cord and dropping cable entirely and that is sports. My life is pretty bland and boring, so the evening baseball game in the Summer, or football game in the Fall/Winter makes life pretty enjoyable.

I admit, the stretch between the Super Bowl and Opening Day for Baseball is pretty bleak.

This year the geniuses who play football got into a pee-pee measuring contest with Donald Trump. Folks, none of these people can put aside their ego long enough to go, "This is stupid, I'm not wasting my time responding."

I'm pissed; very pissed. The one bit of joy I have on Monday, Sunday and Thursday is gone. I'm not watching the idiots this season, it's ruined for me. I have scanned by long enough to see a few plays and then I move on. They make me sick and they are not getting my money.

I'm not going to burn my gear, I've already paid for that. It will just sit in my closet until I either resell it for profit, or the football players are hurt bad enough that I decide I'm done being vengeful.

I admit I am taking glee every time I see a football game where the stands are half-full. I'm not posting the photos because I'm not going to argue with the Comic Book Guys who make up the Internet telling me "That was at halftime you idiot."

I'm going to put a second post with a second way we can attack the football players. It's time to use the tactics of the Left against themselves.

Your Momma's So Fat

Stilton's Place had a nice commentary on how Kellyanne keeps sticking her foot in her mouth.

Sadly, I had to agree. Here's my comment on the post:

You summed it up well.

Both sides are pretending what happened was some "Great Scheme" instead of, as you described, a phishing campaign that got a hacker, or group of hackers, into some servers.

The left is relying on ignorance and fear to give the impression that this was a highly coordinated, sophisticated, state-sponsored attack which could only come from Russia against freedom and democracy.

In actuality, it was an email that likely included a hyperlink like "Click here to see what you won!" with the target URL being a script kiddie file with a keylogger.

Even if the program was written with a cryllic keyboard, we now KNOW the NSA does that to hide the source of our own programs. I'm sure the Russians use similar tactics. It could have been China, Iran, North Korea, Vietnam, or, for Pete's sake a kid in Indonesia who downloaded the file from a 4Chan group.

We don't know anything except the idiots in charge have no idea how any of this works and are not only over their heads on the technological aspect of this, they are over their head in how to handle it.

I feel bad, but Kellyanne is getting her butt handed to her on these things. I get what she was trying to do, but she got suckered with a kid's game.

Doesn't the Trump admin sit and think these scenarios out?

Minion 1: Hey, this report says Obama KNEW about the hacking and did nothing!
Minion 2: Idea! We emphasize that to show how Obama was negligent!
Minion 3: Um... Wouldn't that give the Democrat party ammunition to say, 'See! See! The Russians really DID hack the election!'
Ghost of James Carville: Dadgummit! Hornswaggled again! I'm madder than a tick on a June bug!

*I know James Carville isn't dead, he's just omnipresent*

Both sides should just resort to a televised Cut-Down contest, or a Your Momma joke-off to end this once and for all.

Your momma's soooo fat...

Number Of Days Until Obama Leaves

The country has a new president of the United States. May we all pray that he leads wisely, lawfully and within the constraints of the Constitution.

The Debate Of My Life

I wish I had come up with this one

Obamacare AKA The Giant Sucking Sound From Washington

Interesting read regarding Walker's insurance plan at the LA Times.

I'm not jumping on a real bandwagon for anyone yet.  It's far too early and I am very, very amused watching Trump make everyone's heads explode.  What caught my attention on this article is how we can solve the monstrous thing known as Obamacare without:

1. Screwing over the people that have benefited from it
2. Driving us to bankruptcy

I have several friends who have finally gotten health insurance. They have either been self employed or had a pre-existing condition which kept them from getting insurance.

I DO NOT WANT PEOPLE WHO NEED INSURANCE TO NOT HAVE IT!!!

I have opposed Obamacare from far before Nancy Pelosi said "We have to pass the bill to find out what's in it."  I do not trust government.  If a bill is well over a thousand pages, passes on a strictly partisan basis and bypasses the limitations imposed on the federal government in the Constitution there is something wrong.  I also severely doubt any figures used either for or against Obamacare's cost.

Cost is a big problem... That's another rant though.

It makes a great soundbite to say you will "End Obamacare on day one!" but in actuality this is a hugely complex law affecting almost every single American in one way or another PLUS it has had six years to worm its way in.  It can't simply be thrown out or the vacuum left behind will be worse than what the politicians are trying to fix.

Solutions... I don't have one yet.  Allowing access across state lines is a great start.  Eliminating restrictions on pre-existing conditions is another.  Of course the flip side to the pre-existing condition is insurance companies are businesses which employ people and we can't crush them with a flood of people they can't pay for.

The important thing is to follow a very important rule regarding Obamacare: "First, do no harm."

Hypothetical Question

Claudia over at iotwReport.com had a post about the Commies (ie: the Left) choosing our candidates for us in the elections. Specifically they are telling us how Sarah Palin is not electable.

I (and several other readers) completely disagree with that notion. One thing that did come to my mind is, what if the Democrats succeed in eliminating Palin from the elections? What is she "Went Rogue"(tm) and decided to run as an Independent?

I would vote for her. Would you? I wondered how many might:

Viola!

Who would you vote for in 2016?

Republican: Jeb Bush

Democrat: Hillary Clinton

Independent: Sarah Palin

Poll Maker

I'm curious. Feedback on if I'm throwing my vote away!

Is The Audience Listening?

I started to write a blog post refuting NASA's latest claims that Global Warming is on temporary hiatus, but rest assured it is just around the corner waiting to steal your lunch money and have unprotected sex with you when you least expect it.

Kind of like The Spanish Inquisition. No one expects The Spanish Inquisition!

I didn't write about it. Despite articles pointing to no increase in global temperatures for 15+ years.  Despite articles explaining the Arctic Ice sheet is at its highest summer level in years. Despite even the coolest Summer on record in years.

Did I not write about this because I am afraid? Because I am a flat-Earther or a Luddite or because I cannot bear to understand the intricacies in my tiny brain?

No, I didn't write about it because everyone has already made their minds up.  Writing about it will only be ignored on the Left, and sounding into an echo chamber on the Right.  Everyone thinks their opinion is the only one that is right.  The key there is "Opinion".

Most of us are not educated scientists. I'm a tech support geek.  I dropped out of college.  I will most likely never run a fortune 500 company or be a millionaire.   When I die, my family and some friends will care, but the majority of the world won't.  In short, I'm nobody.  My opinion doesn't matter.  I am to pay my taxes and complain about politics like a good minion.  My opinion means  nothing.

What my life and my career has taught me above all else is "Trust but verify."  Remember that phrase from the 80's?  Talking about our nuclear arsenal and our disarmament methods with the Soviet Union.  I always begin by giving the other side the benefit of the doubt.  Their intentions may be pure. I then verify the facts.  Very often (but not always) we find something they insisted they had "Already checked" which they missed.  I then graciously agree that it was weird that the setting changed itself on its own and wow, I'll be on the lookout for problems like that in the future.

I truly believe the customer was 100% confident and sincere in their statements, however it's my job to figure out why their phones don't work.

Global Warming folks (aka Climate Scientists) are continuing to rail into the night skies that the end is near, man will destroy the world.  Only their short-term predictions haven't come through.

BUT YOU GUYS BETTER BELIEVE THEIR LONG TERM PREDICTIONS WILL COME THROUGH BECAUSE... SCIENCE!!!

I'm reminded of several years back when the local meteorologists predicted a Winter storm that was going to dump several inches of snow on Dallas.  They told us when it was going to start and the local news had reporters at major intersections to record the chaos.  Those reporters stood in the cold describing how ominous the skies looked,  how it could break loose at any second and how despite no Winter precipitation the roads were going to be treacherous.

It never came.  The snow completely missed us.  We watched through the night as the snowfall estimates were adjusted lower, and lower, and lower, until they were forced to admit we "Dodged a bullet."

The meteorologists did just what the Climate Scientists are doing.  Changing the facts, to fit their prediction.

Weird, I wrote about Climate Change after all.

Six Years Of Crap

...and more to come. God bless Bill Whittle.

The UN Gets Into IT

So with some time to let the whole ICANN thing stew in my brain a bit, I'm going to go out on a limb and say I don't like the idea of the UN running the internet.

Yeah, I know. Shocker, right?

Seeing as how my career has been tied to the internet for the last ten years or so I can't imagine why anyone would thing I do approve of this load of crap.

There are some good countries in the UN.  Countries like the UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Israel, etc...  There are also some crap countries. Countries like Iran, Syria, North Korea, Pakistan (pronounced Pock-EE- Stahn), Saudi Arabia, etc...

Why would the US, who is the last hope for freedom int he world give up control of the backbone of society today? Can you imagine when the UN gets involved and starts putting restrictions on what can and can't be said?

"Oh, but Tots," you say, "it's only the naming convention.  So they will just be in control of who gets web URLS.  It's not like they will be putting firewalls on the web."

Yeah, and I'm saving $2,500 on my insurance this year... NOT

With the new tax accounting system counting my insurance as income, even with four kids and tons of donations I'm lucky to break even.

Put down the Kool Aid and wake up people!

Day By Day Nails It

The third party won't happen in time for 2016.  I pray to God we have a chance for 2020.

We're From The NSA And We're Here To Help

Found an interesting article everyone should read at Zero Hedge. The NSA's book of bugging goodness made it out and to cut to the chase, we're screwed.

The latest revelation from the biggest wholesale spying scandal since Nixon, exposed by Germany's Spiegel which continues the strategy of revealing Snowden leaks on a staggered, delayed basis, involves a back door access-focused NSA division called ANT, (which supposedly stands for Access Network Technology), described by Spiegel as "master carpenters" for the NSA's TAO (Tailored Access Operations, read more about TAO here). The ANT people have "burrowed into nearly all the security architecture made by the major players in the industry -- including American global market leader Cisco and its Chinese competitor Huawei, but also producers of mass-market goods, such as US computer-maker Dell.

What caught my eye more than anything was this:

The ANT division doesn't just manufacture surveillance hardware. It also develops software for special tasks. The ANT developers have a clear preference for planting their malicious code in so-called BIOS, software located on a computer's motherboard that is the first thing to load when a computer is turned on.

This has a number of valuable advantages: an infected PC or server appears to be functioning normally, so the infection remains invisible to virus protection and other security programs. And even if the hard drive of an infected computer has been completely erased and a new operating system is installed, the ANT malware can continue to function and ensures that new spyware can once again be loaded onto what is presumed to be a clean computer. The ANT developers call this "Persistence" and believe this approach has provided them with the possibility of permanent access.

Another program attacks the firmware in hard drives manufactured by Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor and Samsung, all of which, with the exception of latter, are American companies. Here, too, it appears the US intelligence agency is compromising the technology and products of American companies.

Other ANT programs target Internet routers meant for professional use or hardware firewalls intended to protect company networks from online attacks. Many digital attack weapons are "remotely installable" -- in other words, over the Internet. Others require a direct attack on an end-user device -- an "interdiction," as it is known in NSA jargon -- in order to install malware or bugging equipment.

If you're an IT guy you know what this means. Everything you do to clean your PC, reload it, replace the hard drive, encrypt it, it doesn't matter. as soon as you connect to the internet they can read you. Even if you miraculously clean everything on your machine they've got you moving through the internet's routers.

Yeah, yeah I know. If you don't have anything to hide you have nothing to worry about. Of course it depends on who's judging you.

Source article: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-29/nsas-50-page-catalog-back-door-penetration-techniques-revealed

Why I Don't Like The Budget Deal

I am hearing talking heads on TV saying the budget deal is great because we don't have to face a government shutdown.  Here's why that is bullcrap.

1. The President is supposed to propose a budget as he is obligated to do in the Constitution.
2. The Congress then irons out a deal for the budget and pass one.
3. The President either signs it or Vetoes it and back to step to or the budget is approved.
4. We then follow the budget for the year.

The President has sent budgets to Congress which have been so bad not a single one has pasted.
The Congress (either through failures of the House and Senate, or just the Senate) have failed to pass any budget since 2009.

We don't need to celebrate this crap deal, we need to tell Congress and the President to FOLLOW THE CONSTITUTION AND PASS A BUDGET.  This needs to be done every year.

Just pretending to get along doesn't do squat.  No more spending "Deals" or "Continuing Resolutions", pass a budget.  It is your job!

Another World Gone Mad Moment

Zimmerman is on trial with people threatening to riot if he is found innocent.

Ed Snowden reveals we are being spied on by our own government and people are claiming he is a traitor.

Yet a terrorist who set off bombs and killed American citizens in the US has supporters chanting "Free Jahar!"

God have mercy on our souls.

True Words

“If you let them do this to me and get away with it, then you’re giving them the eternal right to do the same damn thing to any one of you!”

More On The Zimmermn Trial

I'm going to rant for another post about the Zimmerman trial. I am sick of hearing, "If Zimmermann had stayed in his truck none of this would have happened."

Wikipedia claims the apartment complex had over 400 calls to the police in the year before the shooting (7 of which were from Zimmerman).

From January 1, 2011 through February 26, 2012, police were called to The Retreat at Twin Lakes 402 times.  During the 18 months preceding the February 26 shooting, Zimmerman called the non-emergency police line seven times.

Imagine you live in a neighborhood (maybe you do) where the cops get called out over four hundred times in just over a year's time.

I don't blame Zimmerman for trying to see where Martin went. If that info is correct the apartment complex had MAJOR problems with crime and the only way to stop a place that is overrun with crime is to stand up to the crooks.

Martin was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, but for all the talk about if Zimmerman had stayed in his truck, if Martin had gone home instead of hanging around, he would still be alive.

Both sides made mistakes. Martin was the one that decided not to run when he had several opportunities to do so.

The Zimmerman Trial

I'm expanding on a comment I left over at iOwnTheWord.com.

BigFurHat wrote a post demonstrating the absolute stupidity of Michael Savage. If you'd like to read it I highly recommend you visit the site and do so. I also highly recommend you make the site a regular read.

So the gist of Savage's argument (beyond the nonsensical rant about Zimmerman being a racist) is Zimmerman was negligent because he had his firearm in a ready to fire configuration (one in the chamber with a full magazine). Had Zimmerman made the weapon not ready to fire, if Trayvon had to make the weapon ready to fire, Zimmerman could then have beat the snot out of Travon and everyone would be alive and well.

First off, you don't carry a weapon in a configuration to make it difficult to use, you carry it so when you FEEL you are at risk of GREAT IMMENINET BODILY HARM OR DEATH it is there for you to defend yourself.

You do not ever let someone take your firearm and use it on you.

Beyond the mindless, ignorant babble from Savage's lips, Zimmerman was getting hi butt handed to him in a fight. Why would any reasonable person think Trayvon would suddenly become a punching bag when faced with the intricacies of a modern firearm? (Hint, they wouldn't. Zimmerman would have continued to get his butt handed to him and possibly wind up eating 9mm of lead from his own weapon.)

Anyone who is getting CCL should take the time to learn the after effects of a shooting, the charges which are brought against people who defend themselves with deadly force and the litigation they have to endure. Carrying a weapon is not to be taken lightly and this trial is one more example of what can go wrong.

As for Savage, he made the mistake of speaking on a subject he knows nothing about. The pistol Zimmerman was using is similar to a Glock style pistol, so the safety mechanism is NOT PUTTING YOUR FINGER ON THE TRIGGER! There is no mechanical safety. Savage's whole argument that Zimmerman was walking around with the safety off is a straw man since the pistol does not have a mechanical safety as was testified.

Zimmerman's testimony is he was being beaten up, he tried to escape, he called for help and when he believed Travon went for the weapon, he drew and fired in self defense. The state has not proven his testimony is not true and correct and it is my opinion Zimmerman should be acquitted.

I would have hoped someone who had his own national radio show would take the time to actually listen to the testimony and know the facts before commenting on them and further inflaming a dangerously unstable situation.

The Second Amendment Is A Right

Attorney General Holder says, “WE HAVE NO RIGHT TO POSSESS GUNS”

TAKES 10 SECONDS … DO IT AND PASS IT ON.

Guess they were not happy with the poll results the first time, so USA today is running another one…Vote now… Attorney General Eric Holder, has already said this is one of his major issues. He does not believe the 2nd Amendment gives individuals the right to bear arms. This takes literally 2 clicks to complete. Please vote on this gun issue question with USA Today. Then pass the link on to all the pro-gun folks you know. Hopefully the results will be published later this month.

Here’s what you need to do: First – vote.
Second – Send it to other folks,
then we will see if the results get published.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/quickquestion/2007/november/popup5895.htm

A Little Torn

I posted the Willie Wonka "Have a Twinkie" picture on Facebook yesterday and I had a good giggle.  I figured it was worth a chuckle and some dark humor, so whatever.

The interesting thing was a friend of mine tore me a new one pointing out how the union was just trying to protect the workers from having their salaries cut and listed the huge bonuses the executives were still getting.

I felt kind of bad.  Mainly because the friend who posted that is unemployed because the company he worked for went out of business.  Pretty sure it was a union shop.

For the record, when I worked for NEC, at one point we had an across the board 5% pay cut (this after a few rounds of layoffs).  I was angry, but I still had my job.  We coped with things by using dark humor, usually talking about how we came to work every day to give our full 95% to the company.

America's Choice

America has made it's choice. A man with no real history of doing anything was elected in 2008, failed, and was reelected.