SECURITY: Don’t just take your power from any source?

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/04/ios-and-android-juice-jacking-defenses-have-been-trivial-to-bypass-for-years/

SON OF JUICE JACKING ARISES

  • iOS and Android juice jacking defenses have been trivial to bypass for years
  • New ChoiceJacking attack allows malicious chargers to steal data from phones.

Dan Goodin – Apr 28, 2025 7:00 AM 

*** begin quote ***

Word that juice-jacking-style attacks are once again possible on some Android devices and out-of-date iPhones is likely to breathe new life into the constant warnings from federal authorities, tech pundits, news outlets, and local and state government agencies that phone users should steer clear of public charging stations.

As I reported in 2023, these warnings are mostly scaremongering, and the advent of ChoiceJacking does little to change that, given that there are no documented cases of such attacks in the wild. That said, people using Android devices that don’t support Google’s new authentication requirement may want to refrain from public charging.

*** end quote ***

This reinforces my personal preference for having an external battery for recharge.  All my cars and my EDC pack have an ANKER power block, my own power plug, and 3 short USB-A cables.  My SOP is to not use “public ports” unless I have no other choice.  Suggest that anyone who values their security should do the same.

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MONEY: A surveillance masquerading as currency?

Tuesday, April 29, 2025

https://www.theadvocates.org/beware-the-ecb-digital-currency-is-coming/https://www.theadvocates.org/beware-the-ecb-digital-currency-is-coming/

Beware: The ECB Digital Currency Is Coming
By Daniel Lacalle
Published in Economics – 5 mins – Apr 25

*** begin quote ***

The digital euro, which Lagarde described in 2022 as “a digital banknote with a little less anonymity than the paper banknote because it is issued and guaranteed by the central bank,” is an unnecessary and dangerous tool.

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) have been gaining attention as the technology of the future for monetary systems, but beneath their promise of efficiency and innovation lies a more pessimistic reality: they can serve as tools for surveillance, eroding personal privacy and financial freedom.

In the European Union, where limits to freedom of expression and the cancellation of elections are already a concern, a CBDC can be seen as surveillance masquerading as currency.

*** end quote ***

From the people who made the stereotype Nazi “Vere Is UR Pa-pers!”, they want to know and control the every actions of the people under their thumb.

Even the movies made a issue of it.

https://www.artofmanliness.com/odds-ends/odds-ends-april-25-2025/

*** begin quote ***

… … movies from our teenage years: Swing Kids. Set in pre-WWII Hamburg, it follows a group of German youth who rebel against Nazi conformity through their passion for forbidden American swing music.

*** end quote ***

Coming soon to a country near you?

Argh!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Fraud is baked into voting/

Monday, April 28, 2025

Florida election lawsuit exposes loophole in federal voter registration law | Just The News

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/florida-election-lawsuit-exposes-loophole-federal-voter-registration-law

Argh. It’s like they deliberately write in loop holes?

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HARDWARE: Remembering a hardware failure; not so fondly

Sunday, April 27, 2025

https://www.makeuseof.com/thread/what-was-your-worst-data-loss-disaster/?utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=MUO-202504240800&utm_source=MUO-NL&user=cmVpbmtlZmpAZ21haWwuY29t&lctg=7e6c3cd411d6a815afa18582d54bd455914c43c5f69df1448b8ec20ee4959f71

What Was Your Worst Data Loss Disaster?

Ben Stegner

1 day ago

<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2025-04-24>>

# – # – # – # – # 

MY REPSONSE

Back in the Wild West days of corporate computing, II used to have my own back up solution. Brought and paid for myself. It was a zip drive. Remeber good old Iomega devices. It was 10 megs that I controlled. Had my own program that I wrote in COBOL (shows you how long ago that was). Worked fine thru several IBM Thinkpad hard disk failures. Sigh!

Anyway some genious decided that there should be no foreign devices on the corporate network, All USB ports would be locked, All computers in the Window NT domain would be backed up by the domain admin team. Even floppy disks were prohibited and locked.  

Having no choice, I did a lot of printing of stuff fo take home and emailing copies of working documents to a coworker and visa verse.

For about six months everything was fine. Then predictably my “workstation” that Thinkpad disk drive failed. Support dutifully replaced it and reinstalled the Operating System and started a restore from “Headquarters”.

Guess they never met Murphy.

Of course, I was idled for the better part of two days with about 50 meg of data “sped” down the undersized corporate network. Due dates be dammed. My status reports were on sentence. “Computer failed; Restore in progress; ETTR unknown.”

So it finally finished up after three DAYS, And NIGHTS! I sit down an logon. Guess what happens next? “File not found”, “File corrupt”. Another two days of “techincal magic” and everything now appears to work.

Go to open my latest — now behind schedule — “urgent” report. “File not found”.

I do a quick look and the back up data is SIX MONTHS old.

Apparent after great “STURM UND DRANG” we find out that the corporate backup system had never worked.  

I do a not so quick inventory of my paper files that I had at home. And there is SOME stuff but not everything. (I was a very inefficient clerk. Especially when I am very annoyed.)

Leadership told me to “Stop Bitching” and “deal with it”. 

Apparently, the various executives were going thru

# – # – # – # – # 

Webform has — I guess  —  a size limit 

# – # – # – # – # 

Apparently, the various executives were going thru a similar “experience”.  

I presume that they were not diligent about the corporate diktat that there was to be no “personal” data kept on “corporate computers”.

Never found out the full impact of the disaster.

But soon after IT leadership left for “other opportunities” and who bunch of “IT diktats” changed.

Laugh!

I too left soon after for a better opportunity and more money. Laugh!

About a year later the company was acquired and their IT was “absorbed” with a huge layoff.

I don’t know if the two are related.

Never looked back.

# – # – # – # – # 

Thought this was a interesting memory.

Argh! Argh! Sigh!

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SECURITY: may verify “authentic” accounts

Friday, April 25, 2025

https://bsky.social/about/blog/04-21-2025-verification

A New Form of Verification on Bluesky
April 21, 2025 by The Bluesky Team

*** begin quote ***

In 2023, we launched our first layer of verification: letting individuals and organizations set their domain as their username. Since then, over 270,000 accounts have linked their Bluesky username to their website. Domain handles continue to be an important part of verification on Bluesky. At the same time, we’ve heard from users that a larger visual signal would be useful in knowing which accounts are authentic.

*** and ***

During this initial phase, Bluesky is not accepting direct applications for verification. As this feature stabilizes, we’ll launch a request form for notable and authentic accounts interested in becoming verified or becoming trusted verifiers.

*** end quote ***

Interesting that they MAY verify real people. 

With or without a “subscription”?

Often thought that ISPs if they wanted could tie a User’s identity to the credit card they pay with.  Also, they COULD, but don’t allow such an identity to create sub accounts for children and young adults.  

Wouldn’t this cut down on the number and kind of bots that spam the inet with trash?

Seems so simple to me.

Argh!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Politics trumps justice?

Thursday, April 24, 2025

https://nypost.com/2025/04/22/us-news/tim-walz-employee-who-allegedly-caused-over-20k-in-damages-to-teslas-let-off-by-woke-minnesota-da/?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news_alert&utm_content=20250422?&utm_source=sailthru&lctg=6080ba40747925275a09dcd3&utm_term=NYP%20-%20News%20Alerts

Minnesota state employee who allegedly caused over $20K in damages to Teslas is let off by woke DA — as cops slam deal
By Patrick Reilly

*** begin quote ***

A progressive district attorney has declined to charge a Tim Walz state employee allegedly caught causing $20,000 damage by vandalizing half a dozen Teslas — a decision ripped by the “frustrated” local police chief.

The suspected vandal, 33-year-old Minnesota government employee Dylan Bryan Adams, was allegedly spotted keying the vehicles and stripping their paint off while out walking his dog around the city.

Despite what police believe to be evidence of Adams committing felonies, Hennepin County District Attorney Mary Moriarty will seek diversion rather than criminal charges.

*** begin quote ***

Sorry, but this is an example of selective justice.

Hopefully, a civil suit will find for punitive damages.

Maybe “We, The Sheeple” in Minnesota may have something to say about this travesty.

The DA should be fired and possibly disbarred for this miscarriage.  And, as a State employee, the citizens have a right to expect better conduct from their “employee”. 

Argh!

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HEROIC: Philly cop saves child from a potentially deadly fall while he’s acrophobic

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/philadelphia-police-officer-sets-aside-fear-of-heights-to-rescue-child-from-a-roof/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_medium=weekly_mailout&utm_source=20-04-2025

Philadelphia Police Officer Sets Aside Fear of Heights to Rescue Child from a Roof
By Andy Corbley – Apr 16, 2025

*** begin quote ***

It takes bravery to be a police officer, but for someone with a fear of heights, it’s probably safe to assume most of the work will be done with feet on solid ground.

For one acrophobic Philadelphia officer however, preventing disaster meant going above and beyond the call of duty, literally.

Officer Eric Robbins was on patrol December 10th, among the two-storey houses on N. 64th Street, when he got a call from neighbors saying someone’s child was out and walking on the pitched-roof of a nearby house.

*** end quote ***

That takes courage.  Any adult can quickly realize what a fall from such a height can mean.  For someone already afraid of heights to push thru and save a baby is imho heroic.

I know how quickly babies can get into trouble even when you’re sitting watching them.  Never mind doing a chore or cooking at your phone.  The baby was probably down for a nap, woke up, and silently decide to explore out an open window with no child guard.

Well all’s well that ends well.

Thanks to a fast cop with no fear.  

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GUNS: Defend yourself and others and get evicted — just wrong

Tuesday, April 22, 2025

https://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2025/04/18/florida-woman-evicted-from-apartment-after-shooting-would-be-intruder-n1228364

Florida Woman Evicted From Apartment After Shooting Would-Be Intruder

By Cam Edwards | 4:01 PM | April 18, 2025

*** begin quote ***

Even if Diego had no ill intent when he tried to enter the apartment, the women inside had no idea what his intentions were. As far as they’re concerned, a stranger (who turned out to be armed himself) was trying to break into their home. Under Florida’s Castle Doctrine, there’s a strong case to be made that the armed citizen acted in lawful defense of herself and her roommates, and the fact that police haven’t filed any charges more than a week after the incident at least suggests that law enforcement is leading to that conclusion. 

The management of the complex, however, isn’t waiting for police to officially determine whether any charges should be filed. It sounds like as far as they’re concerned, the tenants are already guilty of violating the terms of their lease. 

*** and ***

So if you discharge a gun, even in self-defense, you’re violating the terms of your lease? What about telling a would-be intruder “leave or I’ll shoot you”? Would that be considered threatening violence by the apartment complex’s management?

I’d love to see these tenants fight the eviction notice, but Lurie says his daughter and her friends plan on leaving the Carlton Apartments in the next few days. Still, he’s speaking out about the letter they received because he’s “shocked” at the policy and the disregard for the particular circumstances involved here, telling Fox 4. “If the intruder had gotten in and harmed the occupants, including my daughter, then they’d be allowed to stay? It just doesn’t make any sense to me.

*** end quote ***

Sorry, but I think “Carlton Apartments” is guilty of making the victims defenseless against a criminal.  As such, isn’t that some type of “unreasonable restriction”?

I hope the various “Justice” organizations take this to court.

If I was a judge, (I’m not!) then I’d declare that the lease is defective and unenforceable as a against public policy!

Argh!

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MEME: Happy with are;; happy with have

Monday, April 21, 2025

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SURVIVAL: Swift rescue due to precise location id

Monday, April 21, 2025

https://www.mytexasdaily.com/upper-gulf-coast/drone-technology-aids-in-swift-rescue-of-lost-hikers-in-sugar-land/article_6be1e49b-2992-524e-9181-d94f07a57e81.html?utm_campaign=6757289-USA%20B2C%20Newsletter%202025&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–6-0YPXZUeNVJWZmcGw3rUEhWwhuy5QKiNQmApKyaxgCwkgbTBKjPkNKeQo19VymN2krxjzFTAao8tEBeKpKhaQFn7kw&_hsmi=356333343&utm_content=356333343&utm_source=hs_automation#google_vignette

Drone technology aids in swift rescue of lost hikers in Sugar Land
Mathew Richards Feb 2, 2025 

*** begin quote ***

SUGAR LAND, Texas — Three hikers lost in Cullinan Park were swiftly located and rescued thanks to the quick response and advanced technology of the Sugar Land Police Department.

The hikers, who called 911 after becoming disoriented, were found within 15 minutes of the department deploying a drone.

The incident began just after 6:30 p.m. when a distressed female, accompanied by two others, contacted the police after they were unable to find their way back to the park entrance in the dark. Dispatchers used the What3Words application to pinpoint the hikers’ exact location, according to a press release from the Sugar Land Police Department.

*** end quote ***

I’ve cited what3words here in this blog many many times.  For all the junk that people put on their phones, this one should coexist with the rest of the bloatware that phone makers and networks provide “free”.

Now getting lost on a hike is inexcusable; some would say unavoidable.  Not being able to communicate your precise location can be fatal.

The use of the drone was very cost effective rather than rounding up a posse and searching even a small area.

So put the app on your phone and, if you never use it, you can say “told ya so”.  

Minimize confusion, promote efficiency, and possibly save a life.  

Talk to your family, friends, and enemies. 

The life you save may be your own or a loved one.

Argh!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: The Taxpayer shouldn’t fund stadiums PERIOD

Sunday, April 20, 2025

https://sharylattkisson.com/2025/04/watch-sports-stadiums/

Sports Stadiums
By Sharyl Attkisson | April 16, 2025

*** begin quote ***

Taxpayers are funding more than half the cost ($1.26 billion) of the Tennessee Titans’ new $2.1 billion stadiumthe biggest public contribution toward a stadium in US history. It’s supposed to be finished in 2027. But not without controversy over whether public money should be paying to lure rich sports teams to town. Lisa Fletcher investigates big costs and questionable returns.

*** end quote ***

Whatelse needs to be said?  The NFL can afford to pay for its own infrastructure.  We can’t!

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RANT: When do “We, The Sheeple” wake up to the world around us?

Saturday, April 19, 2025

https://www.commanderzero.com/?p=12029

“The price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle anywhere, any time and with utter recklessness.” ― Robert A. Heinlein

—30—

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GUNS: Does the Bill of Rights apply to the States?

Saturday, April 19, 2025

https://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2025/04/11/2a-advocates-notch-a-win-in-fight-against-maines-waiting-period-for-gun-sales-n1228286

2A Advocates Notch a Win in Fight Against Maine’s Waiting Period for Gun Sales
By Cam Edwards | 1:01 PM | April 11, 2025

*** begin quote ***

The attorney general also cited the Supreme Court’s language in Heller that “imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms” are “presumptively lawful regulatory measures,” but there’s a big difference between presuming something is lawful and actually looking at the historical record (or lack thereof) when it comes to delaying the lawful transfer of a firearm just because the state believes buyers need a cooling off period. There is nothing in the text of the Second Amendment or the national tradition of gun ownership that suggests arbitrary waiting periods preventing people from exercising their right to possess a firearm were the norm or even the exception in 1791 or 1868. Waiting periods are a modern invention, and a fair hearing under the Bruen test should lead the federal courts to establish that these artificial delays are a violation of our fundamental right to keep and bear arms. 

*** end quote ***

All this “Sturm und Drang” relies on “incorporation” that the Bill OF Rights (BoR) applies to the States as well as the Federal Gooferment.

In the modern age of Linconialism, after the “War of Northern Aggression” aka the “the (un) Civil War, everything became “national”.  

In the world of originalism, before the Fourteenth Amendment, the States created the Federal union; not the other way around.  The Dead Old White Guys would have never approved the Constitution  —  and some historians call it a coop  —  if the States were subservient to the Federal Gooferment.

The proper question is the RKBA enshrined in the various State Constitutions?  And, if not, why not?

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TECHNOLOGY: Uncrewed aircraft delivery seems to be working

Friday, April 18, 2025

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/04/dont-call-it-a-drone-ziplines-uncrewed-aircraft-wants-to-reinvent-retail/

Don’t call it a drone: Zipline’s uncrewed aircraft wants to reinvent retail

  • Ars visits a zipline delivery service that’s deploying in more locations soon.

Tim Stevens – Apr 8, 2025 9:00 AM

*** begin quote ***

The inner portion of the Zipline P2 is lowered to the ground on a tether, facing into the wind, with a small propeller at the back. Doors on the bottom open when it touches the ground, depositing the cargo. Credit: Tim Stevens

The skies around Dallas are about to get a lot more interesting. No, DFW airport isn’t planning any more expansions, nor does American Airlines have any more retro liveries to debut. This will be something different, something liable to make all the excitement around the supposed New Jersey drones look a bit quaint.

Zipline is launching its airborne delivery service for real, rolling it out in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Mesquite ahead of a gradual spread that, if all goes according to plan, will also see its craft landing in Seattle before the end of the year. These automated drones can be loaded in seconds, carry small packages for miles, and deposit them with pinpoint accuracy at the end of a retractable tether.

It looks and sounds like the future, but this launch has been a decade in the making. Zipline has already flown more than 1.4 million deliveries and covered over 100 million miles, yet it feels like things are just getting started.

*** end quote ***

I was especially interest in their description of delivering blood in remote places in Africa.  That could be used to deliver organs with less risk and fewer delays.  A lot can be improved if their service is as promised.  I imagine that some day, I would be able to ship stuff from my doorstep.  Instacart, DoorDash, and UberEats may be in trouble.

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TECHNOLOGY: eSims introduce a single point of failure

Thursday, April 17, 2025

https://www.androidauthority.com/esim-vs-physical-sim-experience-3539851/

I was ready to ditch physical SIMs forever — then my toddler threw my phone off a balcony

  • I was ready to declare physical SIM cards obsolete until disaster struck!

By Adamya Sharma

April 5, 2025

*** begin quote ***

Just before writing that wholly different article, my iPhone 15 Pro, on which my primary number was registered as an eSIM, met a dramatic end. While on holiday, my toddler decided my phone would look cool skydiving from a ninth-floor balcony. Spoiler Alert: It didn’t stick the landing. Not only did the iPhone’s screen shatter to pieces from one corner, but the grade 5 titanium frame literally tore from the antenna band. Not to mention the internal damage to other crucial components.

After mourning the loss and explaining to my child that phones aren’t actually meant to fly, I faced a new problem. I needed a new phone. And fast. Apple told me the phone can’t be fixed and will need to be replaced. Shedding tears of desperation, I swallowed the bitter pill and coughed up to buy the iPhone 16 Pro.

But here’s the catch. You can’t just pop into a store, grab a phone, and swap out the SIM anymore when you’re only using an eSIM. Sure, transferring an eSIM is usually as easy as scanning a QR code, but what happens when your old phone’s display is completely dead?

*** end quote ***

Never thought about this.  Clearly, there needs to be a backup solution for an eSim.

I’m waiting.

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RANT: Let’s record everything

Wednesday, April 16, 2025

FROM TWITTER.

https://x.com/amuse/status/1906860386508230897?s=46&t=fNifJ9M-EU2FgGneNcz51w

*** begin quote ***

DOGE: Once the DOGE team breached the fortress of taxpayer-funded tranquility known as the U.S. Institute of Peace, the accounting firm overseeing its books promptly deleted over a terabyte of financial data—an act as subtle as a burglar torching the crime scene. Fortunately, Big Balls intervened, recovering the lost data and exposing a veritable orgy of fraud, waste, and abuse, including the agency’s peculiar addiction to private jet travel, all in the noble name of “peace.”

*** end quote ***

Why aren’t ALL Gooferment financial records, messages, and memos recorded to a blockchain? What are the bureaucrats afraid of?

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DISCOURAGING: The US defaulted on these bonds thanks to Roosevelt

Tuesday, April 15, 2025

https://www.theburningplatform.com/2024/12/26/when-the-us-government-defaulted-on-its-bonds/

When the US Government Defaulted on its Bonds
Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2024-12-26>>

*** begin quote ***

The US Treasury called in this Fourth Liberty Bond on April 15, 1934, for redemption. However, the US defaulted on this term by refusing to redeem the bond in gold. They also ignored the dollar devaluation imposed by Roosevelt, which changed the dollar’s gold value from $20.67 to $35. The entire purpose of the gold clauses prior to Roosevelt was to protect against a currency devaluation. The 21 million bondholders lost 139 million troy ounces of gold, which caused the loss in international value terms to be approximately 70% of the bond’s principal.

*** end quote ***

70% loss.

End the end of “sound (hard) money” meant that the Federal Gooferment was no longer held to any standard of “money”.  It became a tyrant.

The plague of “paper money” was now visited upon the USA.

And, things would never be the same again,

Prices now always go up and the value of savings in dollars shrinks.

Any one wonder why bitcoin, gold, and silver are going up?  Can’t print more of them.

Where does this runaway freight train of deficits, debt, and “inflation” end?

We’ll become like the Roman, Spanish, French, and English Empires!  Weimar Republic, Zimbabwe, Argentina, … … 

Argh!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Sounds like this is a BIG mistake

Monday, April 14, 2025

https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/ice-immigration-agents-reported-duson-lafayette-louisiana/article_62c60d8a-2be6-5ab7-857e-d36fe24294d0.html?utm_id=120219929805840177

 ICE agents arrest 73-year-old grandfather in Louisiana who has lived in US for 45 years
  BY CLAIRE TAYLOR | Staff writer Apr 3, 2025 Updated Apr 4, 2025 

*** begin quote ***

Forty-five years ago, Jose Francisco Garcia Rodriguez fled Cuba on a ship provided by the United States for people seeking refuge from the Cuban government.

*** and ***

Rodriguez arrived in the United States with just the clothes on his back, Riggs said, with no education and not speaking English. He struggled and made mistakes, paid for them, and for the next 43 years lived a good life, raising a family and working hard labor for 40-60 hours a week, paying taxes and paying into Social Security, which he never used.

*** and ***

But starting with a 73-year-old grandfather who has a heart condition and who is the primary caretaker of his wife with dementia is not the solution, she said.

“It is a problem that has to be fixed with a surgeon’s blade. Not a machete.”

Riggs asked the public to contact their elected officials to ask for their help in freeing Rodriguez. And she asked for prayers.

*** end quote ***

Who knows what he was told 45 years ago?  Maybe some Gooferment bureaucrats assured him all was Okey Dokey.

And why hasn’t he gotten his Social Security?  Seems like all the con artists are getting it.

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RANT: End “Unemployment Insurance” — it’s a scam

Sunday, April 13, 2025

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/whoa-doge-makes-three-major-findings-regarding-unemployment/

WHOA! DOGE Makes Three Major Findings Regarding Unemployment Benefits Fraud, Including One Discovery That Left Elon Musk Shocked: “So Crazy I Had to Read It Several Times”

by Cullen Linebarger Apr. 10, 2025 9:30 am

*** begin quote ***

An initial survey of Unemployment Insurance claims since 2020 revealed the following:

– 24.5k people over 115 years old claimed $59M in benefits

– 28k people between 1 and 5 years old claimed $254M in benefits

– 9.7k people with birth dates over 15 years in the future claimed $69M in benefits

In one case, someone with a birthday in 2154 claimed $41k.

*** end quote ***

Time to end that program.

Or at least reduce eligibility.  Why should “everyone” be eligible?  Maybe a “poor” person with a low paying job should get some “help”.  But that’s NOT what’s happening.

If someone filed a tax return in the past year, then they should be planning on their own.

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INNOVATION: Might cure road rage?

Saturday, April 12, 2025

https://www.boredpanda.com/city-gadgets-convenient-traffic-urban-equipment-msn/

#26 This Hourglass Shaped Traffic Light

Traffic light gadget with hourglass timer in urban setting.

# – # – # – # – # 

I like this.  Why can’t we have them here in the USA.  Might cure road rage?

—30—

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MONEY: Nagging everyone about “three silver dimes” again and agian

Friday, April 11, 2025

https://www.theburningplatform.com/2025/04/05/gold-price-forecasts-inching-toward-4000/

Gold Price Forecasts Inching Toward $4,000
Guest Post by Peter Reagan

*** begin quote ***

Already off to a breathtaking start this year, gold’s price continues to climb. Amid fears of a trade war and the global dedollarization drive, here’s how much higher analysts think it will go…

  •     $4,000 gold hints from big institutions are here
  •     Why faith in the U.S. dollar is going on all sides
  •     Gold vs the greenback: who will win?
  •     Bosnia’s central bank now owns the most gold it has since year of establishment

Gold’s unpredictable trend toward $4,000

Axel Merk, CEO of Merk Investments, said a lot in a recent (brief) segment on the relationship between the price of gold and the U.S. dollar.

Merk says we are now seeing perhaps the biggest shift since the end of World War II, one where the U.S. will no longer be the world’s police force. (The turning point was the invasion of Ukraine, when the greatest weapon in our economic arsenal, weaponizing the dollar against Russia, failed spectacularly.)

*** end quote ***

​A silver quarter is worth $6!!! (That’s 24 times face value.)

So my three silver dimes for a 70’s gallon of gas is ~$7.20 today or ~2½ gallons of much “better” gas.

Minimum wage was 5 quarters in the 70’s so that means it’s 30$ in today’s “valueless” money.

When do “We, The Sheeple” wake up?

I’ve been on this since 2009!

Just to refresh your memory:

https://reinkefaceslife.com/2014/07/07/money-those-same-three-silver-dimes/

*** and ***

https://reinkefaceslife.com/2023/02/17/goldbug-when-priced-in-gold-beer-was-3-a-litre-in-301ad/

*** and ***

https://reinkefaceslife.com/2009/10/20/money-dont-save-your-wealth-in-fiat-money/

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POLICY: How about a GOFUNDME style of foreign aid?

Thursday, April 10, 2025

https://www.newsmax.com/murdock/usaid-atlas-network-doge/2025/04/03/id/1205534/

USAID Flops, But There May Be Alternatives
By Deroy Murdock Thursday, 03 April 2025 12:07 PM EDT

*** begin quote ***

Elon Musk is helping President Donald J. Trump rein in profligate, reckless, and corrupt federal spending via the new Department of Government Efficiency.

Democrats are not amused.

Left-wing domestic terrorists have responded by firing bullets into the windshields of electric vehicles at Musk’s Tesla dealerships. They have torched Tesla charging stations, set Teslas ablaze in parking lots, and used Molotov cocktails to ignite multiple Teslas beside a Las Vegas showroom.

Devolving into the party of arson is unwise for Democrats, especially after last month’s Harvard-Harris survey found that 76% of U.S. voters support chopping waste and fraud from federal expenditures.

One need not be Milton Friedman to be enraged by what DOGE uncovered in Haiti: Since 2010, USAID has made some $2 billion in grants tied to that star-crossed Caribbean nation. Only 2% of these funds actually reached Haitian companies and organizations.

Inefficiency is one thing. When Haitians see a mere $40 million of a $2 billion outlay, this smacks of money laundering.

*** end quote ***

I remember CARE packages.  After WWII, Americans sent care package to Europe.  It was used to provide political cover for the Marshall Plan and all sorts of other “foreign aid”.

I have a “new” idea for “foreign aid”.   Let the USA Gooferment identify places that need real help.  Then let the “We, The Sheeple”, aka Taxpayers, decide who and how much.  Americans are very charitable even though the Gooferment “elbows” their way into “charity” and seizes larger and larger portions of the wealth and earnings of ordinary people.  Then, folks can pick and choose what and how much they can afford to donate. 

Last time I looked there is no Constitution justification for the Gooferment to spend on such.

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VETERANS: Wish we could identify and recover all our POWs

Wednesday, April 9, 2025

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/new-book-reveals-untold-story-gen-wainwright-highest-ranking-american-pow-world-war-ii

World War Two

National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day is observed on anniversary of largest US surrender in history

  • New book reveals untold story of Gen. Wainwright, highest-ranking American POW of World War II

By Dana Perino Fox News

Published April 9, 2025 6:00am EDT 

# – # – # – # – # 

Wish we could identify and recover all our POWs.

Dona Nobis Pacem

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RANT: It’s only fair that “women’s sports” is for women

Wednesday, April 9, 2025

https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2025/04/04/usa-fencing-defends-punishing-female-athlete-for-refusing-to-face-trans-opponent/

USA Fencing Defends Punishing Female Athlete for Refusing to Face Trans Opponent

Warner Todd Huston  —  4 Apr 2025

*** begin quote ***

USA Fencing is deending itself over its policy of including transgender fencers in the women’s category and for punishing a female athlete for refusing to face a trans opponent.

The fencing organization is defending itself after fencer Stephanie Turner took a knee and refused to compete during a match with transgender opponent Redmond Sullivan last weekend.

USA Fencing immediately disqualified Turner, who had kicked her out of the tournament.

*** end quote ***

I wonder who funds USA funding?  If it gets any from my taxes, then I hope it gets “DOGE-ed”.

It seems like the woke LGBTQ mafia has infiltrated all sorts of organizations.

Argh! Sigh!

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POLITICAL: The First Amendment prohibits the Gooferment … …

Tuesday, April 8, 2025

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/04/james-bovard/first-they-came-for-the-op-ed-writers/

First They Came for the Op-Ed Writers – LewRockwell

By James Bovard

<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2025-04-02>>

*** begin quote ***

Few Americans would object to deporting foreign students who destroy property or physically assault other people. But Ozturk was merely guilty of using words that are detested by the current administration. Are Trump’s policymakers using the same “guilt by association” standard the Biden administration used to persecute anyone near the Capitol on January 6, 2021? Biden’s Justice Department acted like anyone who merely “paraded without a permit” near the Capitol that day was guilty of insurrection and deserved a harsh prison sentence. Is any criticism of Israeli policy now the legal and moral equivalent of insurrection?

*** end quote ***

As I read it, it doesn’t say anything about limits on who gets “free speech”.

In this case, I think that DJT47’s team is wrong in this specific case.  And, he should reign in the leash apologizing for the error.

I hope that SCOTUS will take this and the matter of “dreamers” (i.e., children brought into the USA by their illegal immigrant parents and thru no fault of their own are in a catch-22).

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JOBSEARCH: You should have an active “networking program”

Monday, April 7, 2025

“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” — Ralph Kramden aka Jackie Gleason in the “The Honeymooners”

# – # – # – # – # 

Wish I’d have paid more attention to the lessons on TV.  It wasn’t until later in life that I realized the value of a personal connections network.  It was when a sales guy I was nice too even though I could not buy his product, became a hiring manager in  Wall Street firm and extends due a job offer that I took.  

Now never let it be said that I was the dimmest bulb on the block.  I immediately began “collecting contacts”.  I’d read about a “Farley File” in Heinlein’s book “Double Star” so I too began my own Farley File.  I didn’t discard it until I retired sometime later. (We can debate the stupidity of doing that.)

With cloud computing, it’s so much easier than using paper like in the “Job Changing at 100K+” workbook.

When I was in my own consulting business, I had my “Sunday Morning Imaginary Board of Directors” meeting with: myself the CEO, myself the CFO, myself the CMO, myself as the CTO, myself as the Sasles Manager, myself as the Product Manager, and myself as theThe Product itself.  You might say I was full of myself.  I should have had a Chief Relationship Manager too.

Anyway, now I am a fat old white guy retired injineer who’s a poor old senior citizen on a fixed income. I have lots of time to Monday Marning Quarterback all the Shoulda, Coulda, and Woulda things that I’d do differently.  

“Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.” — Seneca, Letters From a Stoic

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