Security Fun.

I recently locked down several things in my home network, including ntp.  Requests for time are all redirected to my security device for the official household time.  The security device obtains time from internet devices I trust, and only those.

But, as always, there are devices that don't want to co-operate.  Take, for example, the nvidia shield.  I found that after making the change if I needed to hard-boot that device it would come back up showing the wrong time in automatic time mode.  Strange, since it's ntp requests should be getting handled by the security device.

Sometimes you have to take things a step further and figure out why it's not co-operating.  I did some packet sniffing and found that the device wanted ntp from time.android.com and when the response didn't come from that IP it was ignored. 

The solution?  Intercept the DNS request, tell the device the the IP for time.android.com is my security device and let it think all is well:

I fixed it using dnsmasq and telling it the IP address to time.android.com is my router.

Now when I unplug my device and plug it back in it has no problem getting time from my router. I got really tired of having to remember to manually enter time and date after every hard reboot of the system and then wondering why some applications wouldn't work right or why the device was slow... correct time is very important for secure communications. ;) If you have Merlin RT on your router you can do this with dnsmasq over-rides: https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng/wiki/Custom-domains-with-dnsmasq Basic steps: Go to Administration -> System Enable: Enable JFFS custom scripts and configs config option Enable: Enable SSH config option Create configuration file for dnsmasq: touch /jffs/configs/dnsmasq.conf.add Edit configuration file: vi /jffs/configs/dnsmasq.conf.add. - for typing press I, to quit typing press ESC, to delete line press ESC and then write dd and press ENTER Add configuration for resolving domain names into dnsmasq.conf.add (Replace 192.168.1.1 with your router's LAN IP) ---- address=/time.google.com/192.168.1.1 # Force nvidia ntp to router (just in case update points it to google.com again) address=/time.android.com/192.168.1.1 # Force nvidia ntp to router dhcp-option=lan,42,192.168.1.1 # ntpMerlin --- Restart dnsmasq service (or just reboot router): service restart_dnsmasq Now your shield will happily accept time from your router.

The Vaccine will Save us ALL!

I sincerely doubt it.

Vaccines take 10 to 15 years to develop, test, refine, correct, test, and put through public trials.  Bill has had horrible failures pushing vaccines in other countries and somehow we think that will go better around the entire world with a vaccine developed in less than a year?  He claimed in a 2010 Ted Talk that he would use vaccines, reproductive health, and healthcare to reduce world population by at least 10%.  

I'm betting this vaccine will have many side effects and make all the previous SARS vaccines damages look pale in comparison.

One of the people on Biden's COVID task force, Ezekiel Emanuel, thinks people over 75 shouldn't be alive, including himself.  The people involved in all these "ideas" of how to save the world from a virus with a 99.98% (or higher) survival rate are huge into depopulation, climate change, CO2 emmission concerns, and otherwise creating problems where there aren't any.  It's no shock that Bill and Fauci stand to make millions or more off the "free" vaccines that we will be paid for with our tax dollars and he and all the companies producing the drug will be protected from any lawsuits again by our tax dollars.

To be clear, there is no such disease as COVID-19.  COVID-19 is a label applied to people who pop positive for the protein that is present when any of the following are true:

1) Have a coronavirus, eg: the common cold.
2) Have sars-cov-2
3) Have the flu
4) Recently vaccinated for the flu
5) Have pneumonia

Isn't it the least bit interesting that this is labeled by an acronym and a year?  Sounds like a programmer who would make something like Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-vacc; but don't you find it a bit suspect that the very people who want to reduce the world population are working so hard to save "everyone"?  I find it highly suspect and question why fear is being used as the mechanism to push "love".

Yep, let's go ahead and live in fear over a cause of death that pales in comparison to the real killers that are the result of our poor life decisions and/or access to healthy food.  Let's give away all our rights, liberties, and humanity to anyone who will save us from it. 

"COVID-19" deaths around the world in facts:
Reminder: As of 2017 158,000 people die, on average, every day around the world.  This was before sars-cov-2.

Thus approximately 49,928,000 have died this year (likely more because there are more living people).
1,292,259 died with "COVID-19:  2.59% of all deaths.

Let's put the CDC 6% of all deaths are "COVID" only labeled.
That translates to 77,535: 0.16% of all deaths this year.
Of course, that doesn't mean these folks all died of "COVID" but rather that this was all a medical professional determined they might have had - often with no test of any kind and post-mortem.

But yes, we should destroy our way of life over it!  

Right?!

Wake up people!

 Please wake up so we don't all have to go down the path of proving we are "healthy" in order not to die of starvation.  Stop listening to the mainstream propaganda - they work for the people who stand to gain off your suffering.

Masks: Where is the scientific PROOF?

Masks are a lie to create division.  Health theater to make people feel better while making many people feel worse.

Considering masks were used in 1918 for another flu-like virus and the conclusions from that time period was that the masks made no difference, it's amazing that we are back using ancient technology with no further scientific conclusions on the matter.  Yet, many localities are deciding to force people to wear masks on pain of punishment up to and including death...in order to "save lives."

I'm open to any scientific studies that prove any of the following:

1. Sars-COV-2 is transmitted in sufficient quantity via water vapor from one person to another while casually walking by each other and talking normally.  This must include confirmed cases of people catching it from another while they spent less than 5 minutes near each other.
2. The percent chance that the virus can be contracted in the manner described in part 1.  As an example, a study might conclude that there is a 15% chance a person exposed to the water vapor of another person will contract the virus.
3. The reduction in the percent chance to contract the virus by others wearing a mask for you.

I have seen nothing but conjecture, consensus of ideas, and possibilities; that's not science, that's faith in guessing.

I am pretty sure, however, that a masked person who breaks social distancing to confront a non-mask wearing person might help spread sars-COV-2.  Typically when they start to shout they instinctively pull down their mask and spray their victim with probably harmless water vapor and spittle, but for all they know they are an "asymptomatic carrier."  At least, that's what people keep getting told is the reason for why we must all wear masks.  People who wear masks and don't waste effort publicly confronting other people are fine and should be respectfully left alone.  Those who break two rules to attempt to enforce a rule are mask-holes and should be completely ignored.

If you have already had and recovered from sars-COV-2/covid-19 you are medically exempt from wearing a mask as you can no longer transmit the disease.  Yet since the real focus is on virtue signalling everyone is expected to wear a mask or they are obviously against all of humanity.  Oh, really?

Stop letting the machine make you afraid - fear gives them power over you and makes you a sitting duck waiting for them to "save" you with what-ever they choose to use.  Many millions of people were "saved" in the last 100 years with a bullet to the head by their own government.

Let's undo the fear!

The coronavirus did not turn the world upside down - the fear response did.  While those who lost someone with the coronavirus had their world turned upside down, the media and governments of most of the world turned everyone's world upside down.  I say "with coronavirus" as that was true in over 99.999% of all cases that if there was no other issue the person would have survived.

If you run a business, please do not help the establishment with their narrative that the devastation to millions was brought on by a virus with a 99.9% survival rate.  It was not.

Fighting against community immunity is not working to protect the health and safety of our communities.

Suicide attempts at all  time highs, depression, and people dying from treatable issues due to hospitals closing and the fear of a pitiful virus did not help our communities.

Imprisoning people for breaking unlawful orders did not help our communities.

Please look at the whole picture and stop ignoring things that don't fit the picture that compassion was the motivator - it wasn't.  Fear and hatred were the motivations that lead people through this pandemic and only reason and scientific study will remove the fear and lies that have been accepted as truth.

Ask yourself why we need to "social distance" and wear masks at this point?  The hotbeds remain our senior citizen housing and prisons.  Why is that?  Why are they intentionally continuing the fear of something that we would not have even noticed if not for the media daily focus on it?  It's all about C02 and forced vaccinations.  Be a good little lab rat and ensure they have millions of people to push their vaccine on and then see how that helps the C02 "issue".

C02 is not an issue - grow plants.  C02 is converted by plants to 02.  Too much C02 then plants grow faster and convert more C02 to 02.  But of course, we can try Bill Gate's method and reduce population through health care, vaccines, and reproductive healthcare [Watch the Ted Talk here or google it for yourself and witness the many times he has called for population reduction].  Forget about science which has observed that our world works just fine with little viruses like this being rendered useless in less than a year with no artificial solutions required.

Wake up folks, this isn't about a virus - it's about control, population reduction, and C02 which is a mythical boogie man that has a very simple solution.

To the governor of Florida in regards to re-opening.

Hello,

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.  Wise words from not too long ago.

I am appalled at the blatant disregard for life through the label of "non-essential".  No elected body in the US has ever been granted the power to determine what is and what is not essential no matter how many lawyers may jump in to argue otherwise.

I am not surprised at the split-brain government reaction to protect "health" by destroying it.  People are not just laboratory specimens that are to be protected from every new strain of illness by separating them through the use of "social distancing" or "laws" to wear masks or take "medicine/vaccine" to thwart off annual mutations.  We are thinking, feeling,  loving, and emotional beings that need the freedom to interact without being constrained by the fears of others.  We can not have brave people if everyone is being told they have to live in the same fear as others.

I am horrified that people claim compassion while simply swinging negative results from one side of the human equation to the other side and verbally abusing their friends who disagree with the current non-scientific path that we are on.  This is the execution of an "experiment" regarding an untested singular hypothesis where any finding that goes against the narrative is being thrown out by the "scientists" and politicians regardless of the p-value.  Again, that is not science.  If science was being used then both the null and alternative hypothesis would have already been thrown out as incorrect.  But instead the original course of action is being stuck to as propaganda is greater than science.  What reason can their be to stick to this over-reaction other than to grow fear, division, and the power of government and "medicine"?

Consensus is not a part of the scientific method.  Observing and extrapolating is not science it is conjecture.  "Close enough" is not a scientific term.  Validation and rejection are parts of the process.  History has shown us repeatedly that "we have to do something" and "I was just following orders" are not acceptable excuses.

People who have been clinging to hope that Florida will re-open by the end of April are now experiencing sadness and anger at this government's inability to overcome fear, not succumb to lobbyists, and not cause more harm to the very people they think they are trying to keep safe.

Why are you allowing fear to paralyze us?  I'm not afraid and I'm tired of being told I need to be.  A virus with a demonstrated 0.12% - 0.20% infection to death rate (which is probably actually lower considering all those who have not been tested) is not something to shutdown over.  Control states and countries who did not shut-down are showing the world that we over-reacted.  Basing policy on the miserable way that Italy handled their medical rationing is not rational.  Protect our at-risk population?  Yes!  Give them quarantine options?  Yes!  Wreck our ability to sustain our population?  No!  Force people who are not at-risk to stop living?  No!

Why are we medical rationing here?  Why are people being denied life-saving "elective" procedures?

I do not condone nor submit to the decisions of a task force as they do not represent me.  End this state of emergency and let the people work out how we need to deal with this health issue without the force of government involved.  I know we would do well as we all want to survive and government is not essential for that.

Enough with the fear mongering and conjecture that there may never be a cure for this virus - we are here to live and no amount of money thrown into pharmaceutical or new hospitals is going to give us a 100% survival rate of life.  Government's proper role is not to keep us safe from disease which they cannot control but rather from our rights being trampled on.

Marc

The response?

No surprise there!  Government is the solution?  No, government is a bottle-neck that has outlived it's usefulness.  Quit using force as a way of life, people!

We are not afraid!

If you are afraid of Covid-19... Why are you?


I'd rather get Covid-19 and die than put up with your tyrannical fear mongering.  Facts not Fear! Reopen the country.  Live free or die.  All jobs are essential!

Enough is enough!  Why would you trust the creator of the most coercive operating system?  Common core was a failure.  Do you think required vaccines and shutdowns for every new virus is the way to live?

I am not afraid of the world! I am aware of the control freaks in the world and they need to stop treading on me and all who want to be free!  It takes people abusing their authority to create long lasting compounding problems.  Let go; let God!  Natural events occur. Without government interference the people always rise to the occasion and win.

End the FDA, end the CDC, end the Fed, let freedom reign!

#re-openfl

Occam's razor

Which is the simpler explanation?

That the world has produced a new super disease which threatens to kill many of us and we need to shut-down life as we know it and suspend our constitutional rights in order to save ourselves from it?
-or-
That people lie to achieve their political goals?

Never waste a good crisis; especially an invisible "possible" crisis that can create enough fear for folks to accept whatever change the powers that be want to make.  Keep in mind, it's only Pence and the irresponsible propaganda machine (mass media) telling us we are going to kill the disease or stop it.  Our other "leaders" are more honestly conveying these unreasonable efforts are only meant to slow the spread.

Who are you going to believe?

People on the government payroll who have nothing to lose by the stories they are telling to keep you afraid?
-or-
The people who work in these fields that are risking their careers to speak out against what the government is doing?

Why would anyone be more willing to believe politicians and bureaucrats over those actually working in the fields?

Fear

There is nothing to fear in the disease!  Take precautions?  Sure.  Isolate those most vulnerable to any disease right now?  Yes.  Lock down the country because of fear-mongering? No.

There is everything to fear in giving the government more power.  Give up our essential liberties in order to achieve a better tomorrow?  Can you not hear the paradox?

Force

Remember what you learned in Kindergarten?  Hitting and killing are bad.  Force is supposed to be the last resort for defense and should never be used to push an agenda nor an idea, no matter how correct people may think it is.

Science

Before I go for today I want to list the scientific method.  Please note that nowhere in the method are the terms "extrapolate" or "statistics".  Science is black and white; either it can be proven and it is fact or it can be substantiated (but not proven) and it becomes theory.  At no point is a hypothesis considered fact nor theory.

1. Make an observation.
2. Ask a question.
3. Form a hypothesis, or testable explanation.
4. Make a prediction based on the hypothesis.
5. Test the prediction.
6. Iterate: use the results to make new hypotheses or predictions.

Definition "Iterate" - perform repeatedly.

There is no science in prediction, but predictions can be tested to get science.

This is a good reference to understand that even in science you have to accept "factual" results as possibly being true because further testing might prove a fact to have been lacking or even false tomorrow.

Science uses specialized terms that have different meanings than everyday usage. These definitions correspond to the way scientists typically use these terms in the context of their work. Note, especially, that the meaning of “theory” in science is different than the meaning of “theory” in everyday conversation.

• Fact: In science, an observation that has been repeatedly confirmed and for all practical purposes is accepted as “true.” Truth in science, however, is never final and what is accepted as a fact today may be modified or even discarded tomorrow.
• Hypothesis: A tentative statement about the natural world leading to deductions that can be tested. If the deductions are verified, the hypothesis is provisionally corroborated. If the deductions are incorrect, the original hypothesis is proved false and must be abandoned or modified. Hypotheses can be used to build more complex inferences and explanations.
• Law: A descriptive generalization about how some aspect of the natural world behaves under stated circumstances.
• Theory: In science, a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses.

Sources:
The scientific method, Khan Academy
Definitions of Fact, Theory, and Law in Scientific Work, National Center for Science Education.
The Role of Theory in Advancing 21st Century Biology, National Academy of Sciences

You gotta fight for your right to party!

Come on America - we don't need definite destruction to our emotional, physical, and financial selves in order to possibly save lives.

We cannot save lives by not living ours.  We are dying.

This is not "the" killer disease of the movies.

More than 100,000 people die in the world EVERYDAY from "age related causes".  That's data from 2018.  So we should shutdown MILLIONS of jobs to MAYBE save 100,000 lives over the course of the next 4 months?

Stop listening to the hype and the fear-mongering.  Your freedoms were bought by many hundreds of thousand of lives fighting to ensure you kept them and now its the acceptable thing for almost everyone to give up on their rights so a few thousand might live a bit longer?

Working together and free is what made this country strong and exactly what is needed to face any challenge.  Including the challenge of a new virus.  A virus with a 1% mortality rate.  Giving people room to innovate is what we need, not forcing dis-interested parties to build things they have no expertise in building.

If we weren't all locked away sobbing in our houses we could be setting up temporary hospitals in schools, hotels, and churches.

The only time this country EVER has shortages is when the governments make it so.  That's it - we have NEVER had a shortage our fellow citizens (them) didn't rise to the occasion to fix.

When you label them "non-essential."  Tell them they need to go and quietly sit for a one-time government check.  A check that isn't even one of their normal pay checks.  Not even a return of the money they paid into the system.  How can you expect them to suffer for possibility when their suffering is real?

Enough is enough.  We need to stand up and tell them - "We get it, this could be bad.  However, without us continuing to do our jobs, contribute to society, and be given the chance to find a way to help we will be much worse off than if we obey and just stay at home waiting for the 'experts' to figure it out."

How much longer do we have to see the shelves in our stores barely stocked?  This isn't the land of plenty!  Why is that?  It's due to our fear-mongering mass propaganda machine.  Who made the runs on toilet paper and why?  That's not an apocalyptic necessity!

Since when did parents expect their kids to suffer the loss of their lives, fortunes, and honor so that they might live a little longer?  If this is the final act of the "Baby Boomer" legacy then I say, "Farewell, and don't let the door hit your ass on the way out."   Those from the "Greatest Generation" who served or died in the 40's to preserve our Liberty will not recognize you when you arrive.

However, this isn't truly a contest of who is going to live and who is going to die, rather it's a vocal minority controlling the powers that be at the expense of everyone.... making it seem like we need to save Grandma at the expense of Junior's education and millions of people's need to congregate.  This isn't the case.  The reality is we would have survived this if no one had done anything.  What makes it better is to be educated about it, voluntarily take on new best practices to protect those most vulnerable by giving them social distancing and equipment to protect themselves.  Equipment that millions of unemployed American's could have been working on.

Still looking through the Constitution and cannot find the clause where the bill of rights can be suspended for an emergency of ANY kind.  Only Habeus Corpus can be AND ONLY during a rebellion or invasion - both of those require military action and the removal of Habeus Corpus is EXTREMELY dangerous and should never be done.  Rebellion does not cover demanding that the government adhere to the Constitution that all its servants have sworn to uphold.  The duty of the federal government, right now, is to move the state and local governments away from infringing on the rights of our people, not endorse it.

We owe it to our children to give them a land that is more free than when we came to live in it.  Is there anyone among us who would say we have more liberty than 10 years ago?  Than 20 years ago?  Dare I say any increased freedoms since 1976?  I assure you the only factual answer is absolutely not.  How much safer and how much better off are we for all those freedoms we've sacrificed?

Government is repression and loss of freedom.   Government does not innovate for it has no reason to do better than it did yesterday - it only needs to convince you that your life would not be possible without it and so many Americans believe that to be true.  Government leads to failures like the FDA that has cost millions of people their lives in it's short existence.  It stands in the way of innovation daily by providing hurdles and road-blocks in the name of "safety."  They have been in the news several times during this "emergency" because they are a huge part of the problem.  We don't need them to survive - the market would do their job without them just fine.  If the FDA operated like United Laboratories we would know we could trust them like we do UL because they would have a reputation to protect, instead they just have force and more force which is not the tool set of someone you should ever trust.  Centralization has improved nothing in the country and never will. Think of all the wars on things and notice how there is no improvement on those things, but definitely trillions of dollars spent.  Poverty, drugs, illiteracy, crime, corruption, viruses?  Really?  Give it up.

 I sure don't want innovation centralized - we need everyone who wants to try available to try.  Only free people, hungry to help, focused on a solution, and trying to be successful Innovate!  Innovation is the answer to preserving our right to party and living a better, safer, and more secure life.

Happy New Decade 2020!

There is nothing quite like philosophical debates over subjective constructs.  Man's measurement of time is not agreed upon across, and often not even within, cultures.  There were no actual gregorian years "1" as the calendar didn't exist at the times that are now labeled 1 AD and 1 BC.

What "brilliant" group of people would come up with a new calendar and then decide to count down to 1 and then start with 1 instead of zero to begin with?  More pointedly when was the actual moment of the beginning of time so that we might construct empirical decades and factual milleniums?  Oh, that's right - no one knows!

Thus, we as a people, have to settle for error and compound it?  Yeah no matter how we split it we are in error (wrong), so might as well make it easier; after all isn't that what we do: make order out of chaos?   I find it cleaner to pick n0 as the start of a decade and n000 as the start of a millenium, because after all a decade is a period of 10 years and a millenium is a period of 1000 years - not a specific multiple of ten years or specific multiple of one thousand years from a constructed point in time.  A point in time that does not actually line up with the specific moment or even the actual year of the birth of Jesus.  That was the goal of what AD was supposed to be all about!

With that in mind the first decade of the gregorian calendar is arguably 1/1/1BC through 12/31/09AD.  Then that makes everything nice and tidy and we can start all other centuries and decades on zero. :)  Order out of chaos?

However, if you don't agree, it's a subjective construct and you are welcome to run with your reasoned interpretation as it is just as valid as another.

TLDR: With any subjective construct each of us is open to hold our own opinion as there is no empirical evidence involved.

The FDA (LT)

(LT = letter to the federal government)

Doctors and patients should be free to use whatever medicines they prefer. And if pharmaceutical companies value the FDA`s endorsement they can voluntarily pay for FDA evaluation. They should not be coerced to do so. 

A similar approach has already been tested. FDA rules were relaxed to permit the drugs that now prevent HIV from being a death sentence. We could gain the same benefit for other diseases. Stated simply, the FDA should serve us, not rule us.

The FDA should be like UL (United Laboratories).  Unfortunately since it has dictatorial powers it is susceptible to corruption and costs peoples lives.  If the FDA was more like UL then people would have the option to buy FDA approved drugs or foods while others could "risk" obtaining what they wanted whether it be approved by another body or not approved at all.  Without the power of government behind the FDA it would strive to ensure it backed only things that were healthy and proven better for the public in order to continue to exist.  If people following FDA guidelines using FDA approved products found they lived longer, healthier lives the FDA would be something companies wanted to be approved by and they would tailor their business practices to earn the approval by providing high-quality healthy products. 

This is why I select UL listed electrical and electronic devices because I know the companies with that symbol were approved by that VOLUNTARY regulatory body and I trust it.  If UL started endorsing electrical products that were faulty my trust in them would falter and I'd look for a new regulatory body that provided reliable electric seals of approval.

The FDA has no checks or balances.  It is rife with corruption and will gladly approve any unproven or untried garbage on Americans as long as the price is right while simultaneously denying people the ability to rightfully try what they want in an attempt to improve or save their own lives..  I have no faith or trust in them what-so-ever.  They are an unconstitutional body with no actual power except for that granted to them by a lawless government.  Do the FDA and America a favor and make them a voluntary, non-tax funded, regulatory body that people can have a chance to trust by providing the only proven check which is competition.

How can this be the land of the free if we aren't even free to decide for ourselves?  We will only be the land of the free when we also have the right to be left alone - one which is non-existent in the world today.

Freedom:Tragedy = "Initiated Force":Good

As soon as there is a tragedy there are instantly politicians claiming that their party's stances on {name your issue} would have prevented or lessened the tragedy.

Those politicians prey on fear and use it to remove your liberty.  They do it to convince you that we need them or we would live in utter chaos like the animals in the wild: kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, fight or die.

As if there was no order in the world before "government" came to be.  It is indeed amazing, how ordered and beautiful the world is now that we have governments is it not?  There is no tragedy, no chaos, no violence, right?  We do not fight secret wars and kill innocent people anywhere on the planet thanks to the people who assume they are in charge of our lives, our livelihood, and our future.

These benevolent people do not use force against peaceful people.   Not ever.  They do not risk brave lives to enforce meaningless "laws".  They never use "laws" to remove adversaries, competition, or boat rockers.  Correct?  Any of this ringing true?

Not to me either.  Why is that?  Don't people run for office to make a difference and help people?  Sure I believe most of them think they are doing just that.  The problem is they are going about solving the problem the wrong way.  You cannot bring justice into the world by threat of force.  To do so is to be just as guilty as any thug that attacks peaceful people.

True laws have to do with pursuing justice for a person or their property that was damaged or misused by another person.  Most of the laws on the books today have nothing to do with crimes that have an actual victim.

What prompted this quick message was an email I received from just one of thousands of politician's that are using a tragedy that happened just a couple days ago as a means to a political end and it is disgusting.

Tim Canova, 

Politicizing a tragedy is disrespectful and minimizes the loss of human life as if government somehow could have stopped it with more laws (lies) or more control over everyone. 

Send out an apology and re-think this awful stance.  Freedom is not what leads to tragedy.  There is evil in this world and it cannot be stopped by using force against peaceful people to somehow miraculously stop violent people. 

Marc

Politician's aren't the only people guilty - the "mass media" propaganda machine no doubt has been spewing forth their expert opinions on what could prevent the next major tragedy all while turning a blind eye to the true tragedies that "governments" create every day: mass murder on a global scale.

We all want to feel safe - but there is nothing less safe than give the State all the power it wants to keep us "safe", especially from ourselves.  Defend the borders?  Sure!   Keep us and the world safe - absolutely not!

Pokemon Go...something not so Liberty focused for a few minutes

Niantic released a new update today chock full of "why did you do that?", especially just days before a major event...yet again answering absolutely no popular requests for the game!

Below is what I put in my "bug" report to the feedback shy company:

Sent a bug report and the following attachment:

1) Why don't you like feedback?

2) Why can I not see the stats of my pokemon that is on a gym?  Was it too little to make the "on a gym" indicator clickable?

3) Your Gym update was all about making gyms easier for low level players - so now people can heal them remotely?  This is NOT Ingress.

Niantic,

7/20/2017

I have been a customer of yours since Ingress came to Android.  I know at first you were a Google company and Google seems to want to avoid feedback like the plague.  However, avoiding feedback denies you the luxury of building community around your game and permitting people to provide non-focus-group feedback.  Wouldn't you rather hear directly from the players in the field than just a few people who've likely never played the game?  Please open a forum where fellow trainers and agents can come together and discuss all aspects of your games.

Ingress

Did you know that many people have left Ingress because of the open chat?  The sometimes ugly outbursts in that rather competitive game drove my wife and I away from it and we have thousands of hours logged there.  Additionally we found that the people on your own team were typically the larger barrier to accomplishing goals than the members of the opposing faction.  Big field ops and people throwing random links could ruin several hours of play spent prepping a local field.

Pokemon Go  

We enjoy this game greatly, but find several things to be frustrating:

1) The rarest pokemon love to spawn in gated communities (eg:Mareep).  Sure our nearby feature isn't perfect but it's obvious where the rare spawn is based on movement and sure enough it's typically inside a gated community slightly out of reach of standard range.  There should be a way to report a spawn as inside a restricted community or deep on private property so that it can be randomly relocated elsewhere.  One pokestop near our house is off limits at night because our county thinks parking lots near a preserve are unsafe after dark.  Typically the most interesting pokemon listed on the nearby for that pokestop are just out of reach behind the pokestop while the pidgey and the spinarak spawn no problem….the pikachu though?  Nope!  You want that you better be ready to talk with the Sheriff!

2) It's very interesting how the most avid players we've met don't have spawns on or near their property but down the street where noone plays pokemon there are several spawn points.

3) The newest version 0.69.0 has to be the worst update in some time.  Do not get me wrong - it has a feature I was just saying I wish was in the game, but the rest are completely awful.

• The major revamp to the gyms was all about making it easier for lower level players (of which I am not one) more likely to be able to take down a gym.  Personally I do not understand how having to fight 18 individual battles to remove 6 pokemon is easier than it was before the update, yet it is still a fun way to spend 20-30 minutes making other people wonder why you are standing there.
• Granting people the ability to heal remotely goes against the entire concept of easier to take down.
• It is obvious the idea behind fewer pokemon (resonators) that lose motivation (decay over time) needing berries (power cubes) to replenish is a nod to Ingress.  Of course the pokemon won't leave the gym because they have no motivation unlike a resonator poofing because it's out of energy.  Not sure why that would be?
• How can a group of people possibly take off a pokemon while remote players can heal them?  Did you try playing that scenario?  While you exit the battle and try to re-fight the other team can easily heal the pokemon back to full leaving you starting the three battles against the one pokemon all over again.  How is that easier?
• Why give us the ability to feed berries to full pokemon?  It seriously isn't that difficult to obtain the 1,000 berry badge.  I'm already more than halfway there and I only play an hour or two a week night and several hours on the weekend.  Did we really need an accidental berry sink so we can accidentally feed full pokemon?
• Various bug fixes?  Why not specific bug fixes like:
• Removing the awful memory leak caused by viewing gyms?  Side effects are random crashes and lock ups of the client?  Resolved only by restart the client.
• Correcting the "Gym is under attack" message for players who helped take down a gym but then experienced an error like "Network Error".  Resolved only by leaving the area for five minutes and coming back to get them placed on the gym.
• The ongoing bug of "No Internet" or "Network Error" when there is strong signal or wi-fi provided to the phone.
• And my personal favorite - This is the only game I have ever played where after a while the client loses its session and the only way to resume playing is to exit and restart the game.  The built in "Retry login" does nothing.  Ingress doesn't have this issue - why does Pokemon Go?
• What's improved about the searching?  Can we find text in beginning (yes as long as two or more characters), middle (nope) or end (nope) of a renamed pokemon?  Wildcards work? Nope!  How about the ability to search on a candy type and find all the pokemon in that family? Nope!
• Icon about how a pokemon was caught?  Just why?  Why would that data be getting recorded to begin with?  How does knowing I caught 8 Pikachus with blue balls and one with an ultra and two with a red ball helpful to anyone?  What about all the pokemon I got rid of?  Just why?  Why not make a catch log about everything I used to try to get it?  Because it's dumb!  That's why!
• Now for the one I actually thought would be nice.  How cool would it be to be able to click on the "On a gym" indicator and go to the gym instead of using the not so wonderfully placed gym mess on my badge/profile screen?  It would be great unless Niantic took away all the other functionality from my pokemon's information screen.
  
  Couldn't just make the icon clickable?
  
  
  
  Is Now:
  You have to be kidding!
•  I mean why should I be able to see anything about the pokemon when it is on a gym?
• CP?  nah - you have the collection screen for that!
• Motivation?  Naw have to go to the gym icon for that!  
• Its name?  Sure - you are permitted that, but you cannot change it!
• Height and Weight?  Nope - but then those are goofy stats anyway!
• How much candy you have?  Hah!   Nope - go catch another common Ampharos cause they are readily available!
• Power up/Evolve?  Was disabled before anyway but because someone couldn't understand that it's better just to remove it off the screen.
• Their moveset?  Nope!  That's a secret until it comes home!
• This makes me not want to be on a gym.

It's obvious how much testing went into the new update:

Federal & Medical - the two should never have met

This is my latest letter to Senator Marco Rubio.  I know, why bother?  For some strange reason I just feel compelled to speak out from time to time.

First Marco's response to my contact asking him to consider repealing the ACA instead of replacing it with more lawless nonsense.

On Mon, Jun 19, 2017 at 9:28 PM, Senator Marco Rubio wrote:

 

Dear Mr. Bessent,

Thank you for taking the time to express your thoughts regarding health care reform in America. Understanding your views helps me better represent Florida in the United States Senate, and I appreciate the opportunity to respond.

Our nation’s health care system is vast and complex, and decisions made by the federal government regarding the system affect all Americans. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often called ObamaCare, was passed by Democrats in Congress and signed into law by President Obama in 2010. Instead of the wonderful results they promised, ObamaCare caused millions of people to lose their health insurance, premiums to skyrocket, and now many Americans are stuck with fewer choices and less access to care. 

Since ObamaCare’s launch, average monthly premiums have skyrocketed 105 percent nationwide and insurers continue to leave the market each year, resulting in some counties without a single insurer in the individual market for 2018. It’s clear that ObamaCare simply isn’t working. That’s why I am working to replace ObamaCare with a better system that puts patients first and does not rely on a taxpayer bailout of private insurance companies. In 2015, I detailed my ideas about what a better health care system should look like: provide families with refundable tax credits to help them purchase health insurance plans; empower consumers to choose plans based on their unique needs from anywhere in the country; and enable patients access the hospitals and doctors they want without government interference. We should create a patient-centered health care system that ensures those with pre-existing conditions can get affordable coverage.

In May 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1628, the American Health Care Act, which would repeal and replace ObamaCare and reform Medicaid to give States more flexibility. The Senate will work on its own bill, and I believe it must be better than the disaster that we have now with ObamaCare while still protecting the most vulnerable Americans. As the Senate deliberates this legislation, my priorities will be ensuring that Florida is treated fairly, that we incentivize innovation to improve health outcomes, and States are equipped with the necessary tools to encourage more healthy people to purchase a health insurance plan that fits their needs and budget. We must find commonsense solutions that better serve all Americans. 

It is an honor and a privilege to serve you as your United States Senator. I will keep your thoughts in mind as I consider these issues and continue working to ensure America remains a safe and prosperous nation.

Sincerely,

Marco Rubio 

United States Senator 

Below is my response. I attempted to email it to him, but apparently character count (2000) is more important than sharing a full thought (5433 ).

Marco,

The only bill that will be better is the one that completely removes the federal government from interfering with the medical profession what-so-ever.  The states or the local municipalities should decide what is required to "practice medicine."  Then we can have at least 50 and possibly thousands of "political labs" where the best and most cost effective solutions can be fostered, grown, and shared.  There should be absolutely NO DECISIONS made by the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT regarding "the medical profession."   Technically doctors and hospitals operating within a State are not subject to the misuse of the Section 8 "Interstate commerce clause."  But, I get it - the federal government "has to do something"; who cares about Liberty?  I mean we are the land of the free so government regulation is necessary to keep us safe, right?  Without the most "intelligent" people in the nation making rules and keeping the rest of us safe in virtual and physical cages how could we possibly survive?  After all consensus science has only promoted the health and welfare of the people, correct? 

But freedom aside, what should really be done to "fix" the medical system?

1) REMOVE THE REASON LAWYERS LOVE MALPRACTICE: Doctors should be contracting privately with their clients without state coercion and the court system should dismiss lawsuits where gross negligence is not proven and eliminate punitive awards.  Really don't appreciate my money going to award people millions for mistakes or more appropriately the doctor's inability to actually be God.

2) DEREGULATE RECORDS: The farce of privacy that is known as HIPAA should be actually called hypocritical.  Oh, sure it sounds great on the surface, but it has more to do with providing government an excuse to access our digital records than it prevents unnecessary access.  Of course that lovely code comes from a federal department that shouldn't even exist.

3) REMOVE REQUIRED INSURANCE: Insurance is a complete sham.  Required insurance is slavery, especially insurance to cover the fact that one is alive.  Insurance should never have been about covering day to day medical expenses.  Auto insurance doesn't cover oil and tire changes, volunteer repaints, or engine rebuilds... and yet there is a very small percentage of American's who do not drive a car.  Who doesn't own a computer and why are they so cheap?  We have phone insurance that is a tiny amount per month covering $400+ dollar phones that are dropped regularly but what it doesn't cover is why it is so inexpensive...well that and it doesn't have an empire of force behind it requiring everyone to get it.

4) DEREGULATE THE ENTIRE MEDICAL SYSTEM: In reality the only thing that has ever forced medical expenses to rise is government interference.  The "we must do something" mentality has brought us to utter devastation of what was once the world's greatest example of a medical system.  Most people pay more in copay than they used to pay for the entire office visit while paying nearly $20K a year between their employer and direct premium for insurance.  This isn't reasonable and it is 100% due to government interference.   Government interference started the war on affordable medicine and ever since then it has never become more affordable.  Insurance destroyed the required relationship between the doctor and patient to decide the fee together and as a result the price fixing behind the scenes is damaging.  Deregulation is how you give people incentives.  Throwing money with strings at researchers isn't how you figure out better solutions; it is how you control outcomes.

5) GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS USE THE SAME SYSTEM: While we are near the subject I would only be impressed if congress voted to permanently eliminate their own unconstitutional "compensation" which includes all benefits that are unlike anything the average citizen would receive especially the nonsense of retirement.  The position of elected leadership in government was never to be considered a job.  It is supposed to be a temporary position with compensation for expenses incurred, not a living.  Your only sworn duty is to ensure the rights and safety of the people are enforced.  Everything else being legislated is unconstitutional and has nothing to do with the role of government.

News flash: if the current US government simply closed up shop and never re-opened the people and the land would continue on and I see no reason to believe it would not be much better off.  Please work on removing it from our daily lives - it was never intended to be this oppressive or this involved with individuals.  Government does not help and was never intended to. It was intended to raise a military from our existing militias when an imminent threat existed, provide LIMITED copyrights, maintain a Navy, regulate and borrow (oh and pay back) money , ensure people can communicate (post office), and open or restrict commerce between (not within) the states and between the US and foreign nations (but I'm being redundant).  The problem with the commerce clause as originally penned is regulating capitalism leads to corruption.  Capitalism should be left unchecked until the rights of an individual have been infringed upon and then defensive force should be brought only upon the infringing party and not upon a field as a whole.

I could go on, but I'm sure you aren't reading this anyway.

Respectfully,

Marc Bessent

Kratom - the ever expanding ever failing war on plants

The DEA is entertaining comments about placing "Kratom" on Schedule I (temporarily) - much like Nixon placed Cannabis "temporarily".  I sent in my thoughts.  I get that people know drugs can be bad and some can kill us on overdose - like alcohol.  We do not need a government helping us, at the end of a barrel, protecting us from ourselves - it is not a solution it is just another problem that grows unchecked due to the tragedy of providing a group with a monopoly on violence duties it was never meant to have.

Today is the last day to get in a comment regarding your concerns on this new DEA rule.  Keep in mind that Trump's pick for Attorney General is a pro-drug war zealot - the last thing he needs is another Schedule I drug to give him "reason" to go after peaceful people.  Vices are not violence!

Based on the criteria Schedule I does not apply to "Kratom".  Any attempt to place Mitragynine and 7-Hydroxymitagynine into such a schedule only meets political or emotional goals and does not have any basis in scientific findings.  Doctors have demonstrated that this compound helps with withdrawal symptoms from opioids (drugs derived from opium) - that provides evidence against "The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States." 

The People of the United States no longer favor support for the war on drugs.  The war on plants ("drugs") has produced no scientific evidence that it has resulted in the reduction of availability of schedule 1 drugs.  The war on the free market (war on drugs) has produced no scientific evidence that it has resulted in the reduction of overdose.  The war on drugs has resulted only in large costs for innocent bystanders, buyers, sellers, producers, and law-enforcement in dollars, loss of life, loss of liberty, and loss of opportunity.  Scientific study of the prohibition of alcohol proved that prohibition is not a solution.  Our federal government, knowing better than science and reason, passed riders on unrelated bills and created the war on drugs, a power not granted to it by our Constitution nor by any Constitutional amendment. 

Please get out of the business of caging and killing peaceful people and instead focus on assisting the States with defending against violent criminals.

Dear Pro-NSA, Pro-USA PATRIOT ACt, Anti-American Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio,

No to the NSA, no to the "PATRIOT/[Give Government everything it wants to rule outside of law] ACT".

You just do not get it.  You represent people from the State of FL, not the Federal Government.  You are bound by law to keep that Federal Government working within the bounds of the Constitution.

For some creepy reason you and several hundred other "law makers" are confused and befuddled as soon as your heart is appealed to.  Suddenly all logic goes out the window and you believe that if the government can do something it must do it.  Can is defined here as "able to but not necessarily legally permitted."  That it makes you and the federal government operate outside the Supreme Law of the land is apparently of no concern to you.  

You are at the helm of a rogue entity and not a republican government.  Rule of law applies to everyone in a republic, not just the citizens.  More so the rule of law applies to those serving in government.  How can you purport to uphold and defend the Constitution when your vote is attached to many a bill that flies directly in the face of that document and strips the people of their rights and liberties?

Apparently the wisdom of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and others who know the fact that government is the use of force and not eloquence is lost on you.

You are upholding tyranny.  Is there any other way to view it?  How can we fight terrorism when our government is spreading tyranny?  How can we tell the difference?

You and your cronies in Washington sicken me and more than half of this nation.  Why else do you think 51% of the people no longer vote?  Because they have already decided they want nothing to do with the rogue entity of the state.  They want their liberty back.  They want their nation back.  They want their government to return to the chains of the Constitution.

The NSA and the "Patriot Act" (better labeled the "Pro-Government Act") have done nothing good for this nation.  They have helped a lawless government become a tyrant.  I wish you would perform your duty and begin dismantling the unlawful entity that has risen up from the ashes of our republic.

Wasn't there some idiot that said something dumb about trading liberty for security?  Guess you never heard of the dumb guy either.  What did he know?  He lived before 9/11.  I mean after all there were no wars or terrorist acts way back in the 1700's.  Life on this planet has totally changed and a government of the people, for the people, by the people couldn't possibly work anymore, right?  We need complete subjugation to 545 tyrants in DC to make life better with police officers shooting people who don't obey their demands and teams of people searching mass surveillance for whatever keywords matter that month to ensure that the Democrats and Republicans (parties of the minority) remain in power.  Keep working those unconstitutional laws while the nation's currency and international relations continue to crumble - heaven forbid you not get your bigger piece of the ever shrinking pie!

It must be the citizens who are getting worse, not the government, right?  If the people are getting worse then that destroys the argument that law makers are so much better than they were in 1787 and thus know better than those small men who lived so long ago.  Last I checked government was just made up of people - fallible, terrible people.  People who have no right to exert their will on other people just because some other people voted for them.  The only rights a government has is to uphold the Supreme Law and ensure the rights of the people are upheld while providing a path for justice following an infringement.  Defense sir, defense - not offense under any label including pre-emptive strike.

Didn't you learn in kindergarten that violence is not the solution?  Force is violence and the government is nothing but force.

Marc

Marijuana - not the evil that Dupont said it was?

It saddens me that people still buy into the government lies that this plant is a schedule 1 narcotic.  It is absolutely laughable to think that this plant provides *no* medical use.  Only a buffoon locked away in an isolation pit still believes this.  It has never been proven that Marijuana has any physical dependence properties.  At least nothing to the extent of caffeine or nicotine.

Lesser of two evils?

The true evil in this drug war is that people are killing people and animals in a feudal attempt to stop the growing and sale of plants.  It is evil squared when good intentions are enforced at gun point.  Morality belongs to the individual and not society as a whole.  Argue that as you will, however the reality is that morals do not belong to a fictional group as long as any individual in the group does not accept the moral as legitimate.

Life Greater than morals

I argue that human life is greater than protecting people from their vices.

The valedictorian and president of my high school class was high regularly.  Obviously a terrible drug.  The arguments against recreational marijuana use are being proven as nonsense everyday.  Will long term high utilization cause issues?  Well what being smoked would not?  How about vaporized use?  No one knows yet as this is too new of a utilization method.  I guess the American Indians were fools for using the substance to relax and focus - clearly the congresses of the 1930's and beyond are smarter than any people who ever existed before.

Nothing to excess

Me?  I believe in a simple principle - nothing to excess.  Nearly everything on this earth has a benefit for us and too much use of it will have a negative effect on us, however studies of the marijuana drug are proving that you cannot kill yourself with it from overdose and the long term effects are not what Dupont and their buddies sold to congress in the 1930's.

Lies

To see where the real problem lies it makes more sense to follow the motives of the people who fought it and not the droves of people who climb on board.  Dupont wanted to push their synthetic ropes and make oil based plastics the winner.  To do that they had to 'prove' that there were too many things to fear from the most abundant and fastest growing plant on earth so they could push their inferior products on the public which produce more pollution, have killed more people, and ruined more lives than cannabis abuse ever has.

Lethal force - the only power government has

I can never agree that LETHAL FORCE is acceptable to possibly prevent a few people from using a substance I think is bad.  Anyone who thinks that way needs to reconsider priorities.  Human life is greater than protecting people from their vices.

Emotions

If you feel that it should be illegal to keep people from using it, then I propose you consider that it is your emotions that make you feel this way.  Then realize that feelings are over-riding your logic.  Educate and warn?  Yes.  Illegalize and kill to "prevent"?  Is it working?  The evidence shows the war is lost and innocents are paying for it by loss of life, family, and money.  How is this preventing the problems that you have experienced?   It is merely shifting the evil from abuser and abuser's family suffering to government inflicted suffering.  No net gain there.

Corruption

Let's all not forget about the myriad of law enforcement officials that abuse their authority to plant drugs on people solely to meet quotas or to punish people they want taken down.  Why give the government such an evil tool?  The "land of the free" imprisons more people per capita than any other nation on earth... all over a war on plants.

Property confiscation without a trial - just another right trampled by the war on drugs.  Another right taken away without congress ever voting on a bill about it.  Instead confiscation and seizure laws passed as riders on "If you don't vote for this bill you hate puppies" legislation.

Planes are confiscated without ever finding drugs just because the DEA thinks it might have smuggled something once.  What a racket.

Biblical Interpretation

Furthermore, I think of this verse when it is argued we should use prohibition:

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and  commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereupon thou hast attained. (Paul: 1 Timothy 4:1-6)"

Also:
"Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; that which cometh out of the mouth defileth a man." (Mat. 15:11) and similar in Mark 7:15.

For these alone I cannot understand why a Christian would ever be pro-prohibition.  Enforcement of morality is not following Christ.  Morality is achieved out of a voluntary relationship with God and can never be forced by men on men.  Even God Himself refused to enforce morality on us.  Who are we to stand up in righteous indignation and propose we know better than the Almighty?

Isn't it more important to keep that person alive and together with their family to give them time to come to the Lord than to push them away and use the force of man to punish or kill them for their vice?  Morality at gun point is evil and this is attested to by God repeatedly in the bible.  What did He say about casting stones at a woman for "adultery" or for not providing aid on the Sabbath?

If you do not oppose the sword being used to enforce morality then you are condoning it.  You may as well pick up the gun yourself and go join the fight for you are just as guilty as the aggressors you are permitting to do the deeds for you that you argue you support because you agree that drugs are "bad."

Conclusion

We humans are horrible at administering justice and we should limit it only to the times that a persons life, property, or liberty are being infringed on by another and stop with preemptive meddling.