November 2024

Get Secure.

With the Trump Regime looming on the horizon, it’s time to get your digital habits locked down as much as practical. We all know how quickly corporations will bow to government requests. Don’t rely on the big corporations to do the right thing when it comes to your digital rights.

Step away from using WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger as your primary means of communication. Zuck and friends will be deep into the pockets of the Trump Regime, and nothing you do on any Meta owned property is private. NOTHING. I encourage folks to get familiar with Signal Messenger.

Microsoft Windows is probably the least secure of your desktop/laptop OS options. MacOS is more secure, and Apple’s marketing machine really focuses on the security of Apple’s products, but there are gaps, and again, you’re handing over control to a large corporation. For those not technically minded, I recommend getting off Windows and onto a Mac if you can. Luckily, you no longer have to sell a complete kidney to get a Mac, the MacBook Air is quite affordable and capable for 92% of what most folks need. Of course, if you want to go full blown geek there’s Linux. When it comes to Chromebooks and the like, that’s up to you, but you’re relying on Google for everything and Google is scanning your data for ad revenue opportunities. So, it’s not really that private.

And lastly (for now), make sure you’re giving location permissions only to applications that actually need it. Solitaire on your phone does not need your location. Mail does not need your location. Your book reader does not need your location. While you might not worry about sharing your location with these apps, if you’re attending a protest or something and it makes the Trump Regime cranky, which it probably will, you don’t need your coupon clipper application tattling on you. And if you’re using the dating apps, be extremely careful; bad actors have and will continue to use those apps for bad purposes, especially since the American people consider cheap gas more important than those that aren’t 100% heterosexual (wink, wink) and trying to perpetuate the “American dream” from the 1950s.

Picket fence optional.

7 November 2024 by Ponderings and Musings 1

The Day After.

I hear Kamala’s concession speech was remarkable. I couldn’t watch it. I probably will someday.

I have distanced myself from MAGA family and friends and will continue to do so. I will not be part of their warped view. They will realize they have made a mistake in about six months. I give it six months, tops. In the meanwhile, I avoid them, if I work with them I just remain professional, and if I’m in public I give them a glare that was described by a USAir ticket agent as “a menacing gaze”. I will not be intimidated.

I honestly don’t know what the future brings other than it will be bleak. The 21st century has been awful since SCOTUS called the 2000 election for “W” and it’s all gone down hill from there.

Use your smarts, avoid the riff raff, and don’t give up hope. The pendulum always swings the other way.

6 November 2024 by Ponderings and Musings 1

We Have Work To Do.

The American people have spoken. Instead of going to Costco for gas, they’ve elected a fascist with absolutely no respect for The Constitution as the next president of the United States.

You have two months to get your stuff together.

My blog entries for the next few days are going to politically oriented as I work through this in my head. I really thought the American people were better than this, but hey, at least they can keep being racists out loud.

My first recommendation: To my LGBT+ brothers and sisters, make sure your union is legally documented OUTSIDE of a standard marriage certificate. Get all the legal power you can with power of attorney, right of survivorship, inheritances, wills, everything.

The American people are going to screw us hard to save 30 cents on a gallon of gas. We need to have our legal ducks in a row.

6 November 2024 by This Ain't No CNN. 3

Too Close.

I drove up and enjoyed Mount Lemmon for a while this evening. After seeing the number of family and friends gleefully saying things like “I voted Red!” and the like on social media, I decided that I needed to get as far away from people as possible. I sure as heck don’t want to be following election coverage. It’s too depressing.

I’m not going to try to be sweet and hopeful if Trump wins this election, saying “it’s only four years”, “we can turn it around”, “yada yada yada”. I learned my lesson 2016 to 2020. 2020 gave me false hope in America moving forward. It never will. America is a racist, selfish country and hopefully I’ll die before we make the planet uninhabitable. I just feel bad for the non-humans on this planet. They just want to live their life in peace, but the American cancer sucking up this world is very powerful. Humans are horrible.

If I didn’t have to work tomorrow I’d probably go up a mountain and stay up there a few days.

5 November 2024 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Unplug.

Reposted from Cal Newport’s Blog (original link):

I’m writing this post about eighteen hours before the first polls open on Election Day, and it feels tense out there. The New York Times, for example, just posted an article headlined: “How Americans Feel About the Election: Anxious and Scared.”

Based on extensive interviews conducted over this past weekend, the Times concludes:

“Americans across the political spectrum reported heading to the polls in battleground states with a sense that their nation was coming undone. While some expressed relief that the long election season was finally nearing an end, it was hard to escape the undercurrent of uneasiness about Election Day.”
These results probably come as no surprise.

The question then becomes what to do with this anxiety. The first step, of course, is to vote — and not just vote, but to approach your decision honestly and dispassionately. By the time you read this, you’ve likely already completed this step.

But then what?

Here I have a suggestion that I think could be healing for all points of the political spectrum: use the stress of this election to be the final push needed to step away from the exhausting digital chatter that’s been dominating your brain. Take a break from social media. Stop listening to news podcasts. Unsubscribe, at least for a while, from those political newsletters clogging your inbox with their hot takes and tired in-fighting.

I suggest you switch to a slower pace of media consumption. Don’t laugh at this suggestion, because I’m actually serious: consider picking up the occasional old-fashioned printed newspaper (free from algorithmic optimization and click-bait curation) at your local coffee shop or library to check in, all at once, on anything major going on in the world. I think I might setup a Sunday-only paper subscription as my main source of news this winter.

Equally important is how you redirect your newly liberated attention. Consider aiming it toward real community, with real people who actually live near you, to retrain your brain to stop thinking of the world as hopelessly fractured into vicious tribes. (If right now you’re scouring this post to seek evidence as to whether I’m friend or foe, then you’re already severely suffering from this malady. )

Consider reading books again. There’s a pleasure in the conquest of deep ideas that’s been lost as we thrashed in a digital sea of churning distraction. Spend more time in nature to discover that despite the apocalyptic tenor of the online world, its analog counterpart persists, and is beautiful.

The Republic will still stand without our constant digital vigilance. But it’s unclear if our mental health can survive the status quo.

Voted outside 640px.

4 November 2024 by Inspiration and Motivation. 0

Harris/Walz 2024.

 

Tomorrow is Election Day in the United States. I see one sane choice for the White House. She’s not perfect. There will never be a perfect candidate, but she won’t do things like put Robert F Kennedy, Jr in charge of health care; instead she’ll working on expanding Medicare to help our elderly in their golden years.

She won’t deport _legal_ immigrants in massive deportation exercises. She’ll once again work on the largest border security bill ever proposed, one that was shot down _by the GOP_ after it was successfully negotiated across party lines earlier this year.

She’ll give women the ability to make their own choices over their own body, preventing American women from dying after being denied critical health care, such as what happened to a teenager in Texas (again) just last week. I know too many women that have made that choice in the past, whether it was around the safety of their own body or a matter of circumstance. I will never understand why women who made that unfortunate choice in the past would willfully deny future generations of women to have the same control over their body. 

She respects the men and women serving our country in the military. The men and women that fight for this country are not losers, and anyone that calls them that does not deserve to be president. I feel very strongly about this. How can anyone support someone that denigrates any member of the military? Dozens and dozens of the highest ranking officials in our military support Harris/Walz. Why wouldn’t we listen to them?

Tariffs on Chinese goods? If you think your pocketbook is hurting today, wait until prices go up to cover the costs of new tariffs on Chinese goods.

And if you’ve read Project 2025, embraced by Trump, you know that a vote in his direction will likely embroil our marriage in a legal battle to prevent it from being dissolved. 

Look, I get that everyone has their own reasons for casting their vote. Your vote is your voice. Your voice speaks to your character, to your moral foundation, with that vote. 

Please, let’s bring an end to this seemingly endless cycle of chaos. Let’s move on one of the biggest charlatans from New York in the history of this country. Vote Harris/Walz 2024.

4 November 2024 by Equality 0

Ummmm….

I gotta say, I didn’t have “GOP Presidential Candidate simulates oral sex on a microphone at a campaign rally” on my bingo card.

I’m curious, if so many folks are simply aghast at explaining the whole gay thing to their children, how in the world will they explain Trump simulating a blow job on a microphone on national television?

3 November 2024 by This Ain't No CNN. 0

Caturday.

Truman has been pretty relaxed lately. Actually, he’s relaxed most of the time, except when he feels treats are to be dispensed.

Here he’s decided to pick a spot in the middle of the floor, so he can keep an eye on everyone and everything.

2 November 2024 by He's A Feline. 0

Information.

I thoroughly enjoy Phil Edwards’ YouTube channel. His videos feature interesting looks at a myriad of topics. His presentational style inspires me to learn more. 

Here he takes a look at The Blue Ridge Tunnel. When completed in 1858, it was the longest tunnel in the United States at 4,237 feet.

1 November 2024 by Geek 1

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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