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Oh, hi, it's li'l OLD me. Yes, I was fired from my job at the age of 70, last year. I am so glad I waited to until I could get the maximum amount i would ever be eligible for to retire. Well, it was not voluntary that I got fired, but I did wait. My unemployment just ran out, and I have not gotten hired, but I do have a craft that may be able to bring in some money. With the Social Security I will be getting, I may be ok if I live frugally. If they "privatize it" God help me and take me away soon. (Plus... I hope people remember that we PAY for Medicare.) With "privatizing" Social Security (as with continuing with "privatized" health care,) I simply don't understand the reasoning behind our needy citizens, such as myself, getting a better deal from a for-profit company than from the government, which does not run for-profit companies. I must be missing something. And I am getting seriously worried.
I like what you said today, Thom, "if you don't like the way your government is run, become part of it."
WHAT?
I'm sorry! You must be alergic to Salmon.
I am watching all.
DAnneMarc - I was just playing with words. I will look up your recipe. Hopefully it doesn't contain sugar or too many carbs. I am diabetic! I have a feeling it is not a recipe that contains food, but a recipe that is good for the mind, body and soul! Have a good night. Or if it is food maybe I can eat it! Whatever your plan consists of, from reading your comments I am sure it is well thought out and beneficial to all.
It is time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their fellow citizens and throw off the chains of suppression and band together in the streets, halls and chambers in a state of Revolution of the mind and body....Freedom or death should be shouted from the citizens of our great Nation. And I choose FREEDOM! Down with those who would suppress us physically, monetarily and morally!
Hi Ken, Thanks for the response! I strongly suggest you try my recipe in comment #26.
As far as your response. You are right to a degree. I feel that corruption stems first and foremost from a feeling that the general overall norm is that of corruption. I feel that my plan changes all that. It changes the state of the nation to one that is not corrupt. If you can remember the state of the nation in the more simpler times, corruption was less the "way of life" that it is today.
In my beloved home town we have an unspoken crisis that manifests itself as "getting over on someone." This horrible social norm is characterized by people taking advantage of other people as a badge of accomplishment. It is reprehensible! It must be erased. However, I cannot blame my fellow citizens here for this problem. It is a manifestation of the general state of affairs in this country.
I've offered a plan to restore self-esteem that leads to this thinking beginning in comment #15 of this blog. I wish I could elaborate on my idea. it isn't perfect, but I have been working on it for 45 years now. It's the best I can do. I'd like to ask for the help of anyone who could improve my idea. I do honestly believe it is the solution we have all been looking for.
In the meantime, I strongly suggest you try my recipe! It has not only the benefit of tasting like candy but makes your house smell delicious as well while cooking. The health benefits from this recipe I'm sure you will recognize when you see the ingredients. Bon Apetitie! I'm sure you and your family will enjoy it.
May God Bless Us All!
DAnneMarc
DAnneMarc - If power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, what would prevent the corruption of the masses? After all I know many people who believe all Republicans are brainwashed or corrupt. And an equal amount of people believe that all Democrats are brainwashed or corrupt, especially during the election cycle. Having 7, 7,000 or 7,000,000 does not insure a state of mind where corruption through the promise of more of the pie would not corrupt the multitude. People in the millions are still humans with the same propensity for the same corruption that one person could be bought for more of the pie, thus corruption could logically be universal in its ability to corrupt all. Is this thought not so or do you know a human that does not have this inherent problem of wanting more. The communist thought they had found the answer to Western corruption and it was the same people who were corrupted by the power they vested to the people, but in reality they retained the power and were corrupted. Corruption is universal in its capacity to corrupt anyone with any measure of power to gain more of the pie through ones power and what this power could enable one to have more of the pie. Or is this a brain tease to see how corrupted one could be over the power to obtain more of the pie by the power of one being corrupted. I agree this sounds like giperish at best! Must be a night for sarcasm! Have a good night or day or whenever you may or may not read this....
Thanks for the laugh David, I sure can use it!
I know! I know! "The Edison Factor" I wish Thom would market something called "The Tesla Factor".
I digress! Here's a little something for our weary Senior population. Its a delicious recipe you can make at home that has nutritional benefits for the heart as well as the brain. Best of all it's free!! It is available on this blog:
http://teryakisalmonrecipe.weebly.com/
Happy Eats!
DAnneMarc
I am sorry my buddy Ken W and I seemed to change the topic here. Interesting, Canada just raised the age of pension. I was born in 1961 an am the first age group to see the change I will get it at age 66 and My wife who was born in 1962 will get it at 67. I applaud my government for seeing that we had a imbalance in funding and doing something about it and giving my wife and I time to adjust.
Indeed it all is, "NOTHING SHORT OF THEFT!"
"A drastic decline in pensions starting in 1981," There sure the hell was where I worked, it was a large printing company. It was my first year, and the company simply ended the pension plan without explanation. They gave lump sums to employees that had been there for decades. Some paid off their mortgages with this money. I remember one older co-worker soon after his so called retirement had to get a job at the local P&C grocery store. This guy had worked his ass off for decades on a sheet fed press and I could tell he was really tired and broken. I felt so bad for him and remember getting really angry inside about this obvious social injustice. I vowed never to forget moments like this in my life, and there have been many. I recall the owners of this large company seemed to always be on European vacations or fighting DWI charges. They never came to work, others ran the company. I also remember another older guy who worked next to me in pre press, he had throat cancer real bad, but had to keep working just to keep his freaking health insurance. It seemed sometimes like a nightmare, we often worked mandatory 70 hour weeks/13 days in a row, one day off, nonunion of course. I'm sure many can relate, having experienced what I'm talking about, most likely the majority of us.
A while after the pension plan ended the company started a 401K plan, around 1982, great for Wall Street, not so great for us. I'm sure that most of the 80% currently without pensions are not getting paid enough to stash hundreds of thousands for retirement. For this reason I believe we need to upgrade Social Security to a living retirement amount much like the living wage concept. RAISE THE DAMN CAP! We the 99% have damn well earned it, spending our lives making the 1% rich.
ABSOLUTELY NOT!
First, thinking that a guard with a pistol (after many weeks of boring duty) can resist an armed attacker with an attack-plan and assault weapons is a grossly over-simplified "good-guys" vs "bad-guys" fantasy.
The problem is that the gun-crowd (there are way-many in the US) - like the T-baggers of 2012, actually believe their dilusional fantasies. It doesn't pass the most basic critique.
In a news release early this morning, the American Psychiatric Institute indicated that it has added a category to its list of mental illnesses: Rebublicanism.
According to American Psychiatric Institute director Humbert Loonie MD, PhD, republicanism actually spans a number of other mental disorders. Asked to specify which disorders republicanism spans, he smiled and said, "Go to this website- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mental_disorders - and take your pick."
When the reporter insisted on more specifics, Dr, Loonie said, "You want specifics in psychiatry? Ok, I'll diagnose you: your a dreamer, it's not going to happen!"
Then he winked and said, "Sorry, that's a little joke we pass around the office when we don't have anything else to do. Ok, I'll show you how we found out which mental disorders are common to republicans, and you can do your own test to verify our results: put a map from the above-named website of psychiatric disorders over a weegee board, say any republican politician's name out loud, offer to sacrifice a Hostess Twinkie in trade for information, and then grab hold of that weegee board pointer, 'cause it's gonna go crazy. So to speak. Now, I understand that the more squeemish among you might feel that it's not right to use this kind of witchcraft to diagnose republicans' mental disorders, but I assure you, the Hostess Twinkie does not feel a thing when you sacrifice it. Honest. I wouldn't kid you about something this important."
Your point is well taken. Maintaining security of the code will provide a noble and profitable job for hackers who now have nothing better to do but sabotage the current paradigm. I'm sure that insuring a true Democracy for a handsome paycheck with benefits will attract the most gifted to this cause than would be attracted to diminishing its effectiveness.
As you have foreseen I have anticipated this problem and called for electorate review of the results of voting as a last security precaution. Triple validation of the code will also help eliminate any 'mischief' as any discrepancy will shut down the entire system. It is a fool proof idea in my opinion.
DAnneMarc: A good concept as far as it goes. The problem lies in the higher layers of the protocol, e.g. the transport layer. Even with 128 bit encryption the data passed is vulnerable. Encryption protected sites are routinely hacked as a person with your obvious technical credentials must be aware. The devil is in the details, and if someone were ever to come up with a failsafe way of getting your vote across the "cloud", they (and the back door) could likely be had for a price....
Oh and BTW, thank you for that letter to Obama. I write to him occasionally myself. One of these days he's going to have to start listening to ONE OF US!
I seriously doubt that volunteers would have the level of training that police & the military are known for. I think it's a bad idea.
Ken Ware: Thank you for your endorsement. And congratulations on your upcoming "grandpersonhood" It's my sincere wish that your grandkids and mine will end up just fine because our kids will force a good outcome.
A current course of action I might suggest Ken is writting President Obama a letter with your concerns. It certainly couldn't hurt. I wrote him this letter myself this morning when I woke up:
Dear President Obama,
I am writing because I am concerned that you may consider cuts in Social Security and Medicare. Personally I know people--and professionally I see people all the time in my job--that are dependent on these programs. Unfortunately, they do not have enough benefits already to adequately survive in their marginal meager existence. I see senior, the handicapped, veterans, jobless family's, old sick and dying hospital patients, routinely on the street begging for anything to help subsidize any benefits they are receiving. This is an appalling affront to human dignity. I hope you are aware of these people and agree with me that this is a national tragedy. I feel that cutting these benefits in any way would be a national disaster.
I urge you to used your Executive Power that We The People have entrusted you with to send a message to those who would dare try to terrorize our country by using our most cherished and weakest members of our population as hostages. Please raise the dept limit yourself and demand that the only change you will approve to Social Security or Medicare is an increase in benefits.
Sincerely,
Thank you Mr. PresidentAnd may God Bless!
HOW TO SECURE THE CODE?
Diebold machines security is so secure and complicated only the employees of diebold have access to it. By localizing the security personnel you create another small group that can be manipulated in order to effect the code controlling the voting. It is this security approach that makes their machines so unreliable. JFK once said, "The very work secrecy is repugnant in a free and open society." He was spot on. Therefore, I dedicate this idea to him.
In my proposal, secrecy will be banned. The very code sequence that controls the Governments Main Server will be written on ROM mounted in the Server's main mother boards. All home computers will be mounted with ROM containing the same code as the Government Server. All citizens who are legally registered to vote will be assigned a voter registration card when they register. On the card will be written in RFID the same code of the Main Government Server, their own computer, as well as their own voter register information.
A simplified version of the connection of a voter to the Main Government Server will involve a digital Handshake that compares and validates the integrity of the code that controls the entire system. It will begin by placing your voter registration card on top of your home computer. This as well as you password enables you to log into the Government software. The information then reaches out to the Government Main Server and does an identicle Handshake that identifies you as you and gives you access to the DOV Democracy Online Voting service.
It is my intent to preserve the integrity of my voting code by distributing master copies of it--Keys if you will--to all American Citizens, permanently burned into their voting cards. It's integrity will be verified automatically whenever anyone logs on to the service. The final step I would envision would be the publishing of the results of all voting. Voting will take place in districts to simplify review by citizens. All will be able to verify their vote as well as see the other votes in their district as well as other districts across the country. We will truly have an free and open society. There will be no encryption, no volatile memory, no secret codes used at all. The security of this system will sit in the hands of all voters and not a select few. Their will be no representatives to bribe and no elected officials to assassinate to gain advantage or favor. Corruption as we know it will cease to exist.
Thank you for considering my proposal
Sincerely,
DAnneMarc
A BRIEF COURSE IN DIGITAL ELECTRONICSCODE a program or LIST OF COMMANDS that tell an electrical device how to work.Example: A Mechanical Arm - used to pick up a ball. The "List of Commands" might look like this:1. Start2. Open fingers.3. Lower Hand over ball.4. Close fingers around ball.5. Apply X amount of pressure to circumferance of ball (where X = lbs/square inch--here X = 2).6. Raise hand.7. End
This is an elementary example of a very simple code used to execute a task. It's an excellent example in simplicity because the code used in a voting service is equally simple. As you can imagine, even the slightest alteration of the code sequence would drastically affect the result of the task. For instance if I were to simply erase line #4, the hand would pat the ball but fail to grab it. In addition, if I were to change the value of X in line #5 to say infinity, the ball would explode. If I were to change the value of X to 0, the ball would be dropped. How then do we insure the integrity of this idea so that we don't "drop the ball" Pardon my pun!
ADDITIONAL TERMS TO BE FAMILIAR WITH:RAM vs ROM memory (Random Access Memory) (Read Only Memory) These are the media that code can be written to.
RAM memory includes Hard Drives, Magnetic Tape, USB Jigs and any media that can be erased, rewritten or in any way altered without being destroyed.
ROM memory includes CD's, DVD's, and even vinyl LP's from yesteryear. Once written on this type of media the information cannot be changed, erased or altered in anyway without destroying the media. You might remember how a scratch in your old records altered the recording and ruined the integrity of the music.
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) This is a code written to a media that has a magnetic field that can be received an read wirelessly. It has been touted to be the future mark of the beast if and when implanted into people. I assure you that any mark of the beast has already been distributed to us all in the way of Social Security numbers. Any chip implants aren't going to do any more harm. We already carry with us positive identification markers in our retina, finger prints, teeth and DNA An implant is not part of my plan and I am firmly against any such efforts. It would be an affront to human dignity and dehumanizing. However, the technology is ideal for marking pets, live stock, and for researching animal behavior in the wild. The first legislation I might propose is a permanent ban on ever using this technology on free, law abiding human beings.
HANDSHAKE Like when people meet social protocol calls for a handshake, "How do you do," "My name is Bob," "I'm pleased to meet you.;" to take place before any communication can occur. The same term applies to when two digital devices attempt to connect and establish communication.
WAIT A MINUTE!
Marches on Washington? Violent Riots? Sounds like the US all right. Before we do anything rash I suggest you take a few deep breaths and listen to my plan. Just because Civil Unrest has proven to be historically effective doesn't mean its the only solution. There are more than one way to scare the 'cooperation' out of a Senator
DOV! Democracy Online Voting is my idea! After hearing it I'm sure you will Love DOV. DOV involves the creation of a Federal website that enables citizens to purpose, formulate, petition and enact law on their own; in effect, completely circumnavigating both houses of congress and the Executive branches of government. It can also be used to immediately halt any military aggression, remove any civil servant from office, Amend the Constitution, or seek redress for any official action including those of the Judiciary by a simple majority vote of the online constituency.
It is said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Therefore, by dividing the power of the Federal Government into the hands of its citizens we take a situation where the FEW easily coerced or bribed members of our government are easily manipulated and spread that number out to several hundred million citizens making coercion and bribery still possible but quite impractical. This augmentation of our political structure in my view would completely eliminate corruption in our Government.
HOW DOES IT WORKThe main problem as many of know with the diebold voting machines is the integrity of the code that controles the machine. The same problem exists in my plan. However, my plan takes on open approach to maintaining the integrity of the code. To explain this I need to educate many of our readers.
Old Blue - Well said, I couldn't agree more with your comments. I hope my daughter’s garage won't be my new home when that time comes! I can already hear the right wing conservatives grinding their teeth and ready to take a stance on how we just cannot afford this type of charity to the retired generation and those that are too ill to work. Also, people who have lost their husband or wives and children who have lost a parent(s) also benefit from this self-sustainable program called Social Security!!! Yes, I am sure I hear their hearts beating and minds churning to decry the end of all social programs because it will cost our Grand Children a good quality of life. Try cutting the trillions wasted on Defense Contractors and the un-needed programs that get shoved down our throats every year and that will be a good start at preserving the quality of life for future generations. And yes I do have a personal stake in the game, I will be a new grandfather for the first time and I am concerned about what kind of country he will grow up in. One that takes care of its people or one that takes care of the Industrial Defense Contractors and its shareholders that are bleeding this country dry and is a prime cause of national debt!
Nixon would be selling used cars! Remember his famous quote; well this president is no crook! And I remember seeing posters everywhere that asked the question," Would you buy a used car from this man"?, with his picture on it. I was in the U.S. Air Force at the time, and besides a pay increase he gave to the military personnel (I guess he saw it as a bonus for fighting his War), no on liked or trusted this guy! That is one thing I remember very clearly...