See the earlier post about the presidential candidates.
When did posting to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like become equated to a social consciousness? We have another tragedy involving terrorism and I see people changing their icons or profile photo to show support for the offended. But honestly, what does it really do? For most people that do this, the icon changing is all they do. It lets them feel like they are off the hook because they changed it to say they did something, when in reality, you likely did nothing. It gives you a moral self-license to say you do something and makes you feel better.
So those that choose not to change their icons or profile pictures, does it mean they are not offended or fail to show support for the cause d'jour? Most likely not. Perhaps those individuals have contributed to an aid fund without making the fanfare about it. Perhaps they are helping people in the community affected. Who knows? If you are basing your opinion on whether someone has superficially expressed an opinion on a social media platform, then perhaps you might be spending way too much time on those platforms.
Now, for the crisis at hand. How many people realized that Paris was not the city where terrorists attacks occurred. Beirut had a terrorist attack attributed to ISIS, as a state allied with Iran, which is fighting ISIS in Iraq. Turkey, a NATO ally and the base of Syrian anti-ISIS actions, thwarted supposedly an attack on the same day as the Paris attacks. Remember the possible terrorist bombing of the Russian airline 2 weeks ago? Another Syrian ally fighting ISIS in Syria...Where is the outrage and the support for those victims? Why are we more aware and supportive for the Paris victims than for the other terrorist attacks? (Rhetorical question).
How many people were aware of migrant crisis in Europe before the attacks? The civil war in Syria has flooded emigrants to other countries. Not only is ther about 1.5 million refugees over the past 2 years in Europe, another 2 million have emigrated to Turkey, 1 million to Lebanon, 650 thousand to Jordan, and another 150 thousand to Egypt. Syria is a complete mess and ISIS (Da'esh) has taken advantage of this vacuum of power in this 3 way civil war. The world has a mortal enemy now, and ISIS (Da'esh) needs to be taken care soon as a world, no matte what race, creed, or citizenship.
Either I am clinically insane or am a glutton for punishment, but I am working on a thought project where I have registered an email address with each of the "major" party remaining campaigns as a supporter. Now I am ready for the messages from Hillary, Bernie, Jeb!, the Donald, Marco, and the host of other characters that will be thanking me for my support and how I can help each of their campaigns achieve their goal of being leader of your "Fine Federal Government"....or at least until I am fed up with the whole project and delete the bs mailbox. :)
I also am hoping to track how the various campaigns sell "my" information throughout the campaign and what other political ads I receive. I fully expect by the end, the box will be inundated with Republican and Democratic propaganda on why I should support the ultimate candidate.
Update 10.24/15 with latest dropouts and choices
Update 1/26/16 with current candidates
Update 2/1 with Iowa fallout
Update 2/4 with additional GOP drops
Update 2/10 with New Hampshire fallout
Update 2/12 with the Gilmore dropout
With a little more than a year to go to the general elections, maybe it is time to correct political nicknames or slogans?
Democrats
Confirmed
- Bernie Sanders - "Feel the Money Bern"
- Hilary Clinton - "I did what to my mail server? "
Maybes
Maybe Nots
- Elizabeth Warren - "I'd rather be the puppet master"
- Joe Biden - "3rd Time is a Charm"
See You Later
- Jim Webb - "Thank me for my service, but I know I have no chance at the nomination"
- Lincoln Chafee - " What party am I today?"
- Lawrence Lessig - "The Referendum President?"
- Martin O'Malley - "Can I get a debate please @DWStweets?" "Mr. 0.6%" - Dropped 2/1
Republicans
Confirmed
- Donald Trump - "My tongue is sponsored by Dr. Scholl's"
- Jeb Bush - "Need a Bush in the White House about every 8 years, right?"
- Marco Rubio - "You have heard my immigrant's son story, right?"
- John Kaisch - "Republicans can't win without Ohio. I am from Ohio, pick me."
- Ted Cruz - "Tea Party is still relevant, right?"
- Ben Carson - "Proof that intelligences does not equal common sense"
See You Later
- Rick Perry - "Adios, MoFos"
- Scott Walker - "Come on Iowa, you know I am governor right next door. Wisconsin isn't that bad, is it?"
- Bobby Jindal - "Why do I sound like Kermit the Frog when I debate?" - Dropped Dec 2015
- Lindsay Graham - "Bomb them, Bomb them, and Bomb them again" - Dropped Dec 2015
- George Pataki - "Still making Rudy Giuliani look like a more viable candidate from New York" - Dropped Dec 2015
- Mike Huckabee - "I too was born in Hope, Arkansas. Worked once" - Dropped 2/1/16
- Rand Paul - "Why do libertarians like my daddy more than me?" -Dropped 2/3/16
- Rick Santorum - "I haven't changed positions since 2008...worked for me then, right?" - Dropped 2/3/16
- Carly Fiorina - "Who wouldn't love this face, now sponsored by the Military Industrial Complex" - Dropped 2/10/16
- Chris Christie - "I would have to think if Congress outlawed Krispy Kremes if I would enforce that law with troops" - Dropped 2/10/16
- Jim Gilmore - "Must be in the witness protection program for Presidential candidates" - Dropped 2/12/16
Libertarians
Confirmed
- Gary Johnson - "Can you take me higher?"
- John McAfee - "I wrote antivirus program and I am crazy...might make me qualified."
- Austin Peterson
- 9 others that have no chance
Green
Confirmed
- Jill Stein
You know, Bernie Sanders supporters in the Democrat Party and the Donald Trump supporters in the Republican Party, it is very cute that you get excited about their rise in the polls. There is almost zero chance that either one of them will be the nominee in their respective parties. The powers at be in both of the parties will see that the establishment candidates of Clinton and likely Bush will be the candidates. The Donald may run as an independent candidate a la Ross Perot in 92, but the oligarchy of having a Bush or Clinton in the senior levels of government since 1980 with the exception of the last 2+ years will probably lend to another Bush-Clinton election cycle.
Just sit back and grab the popcorn and see how much laying to waste the darlings will do before the party leaders will step in and tell them where they stand.
So, it has been nearly a week since this pizza place (Memories Pizza) in Walkerton, IN that raised all sorts of stink about saying they would not cater a gay wedding if someone wanted them to. Just some points:
- There was very little chance of them every catering a gay wedding in Walkerton. There is not a large gay population in Walkerton (if any).
- No self respecting gay couple would cater their wedding with pizza.
- The ultra nut jobs from the left and right have predictable gone off the deep end with their threats, diatribes, and support of the crazies on their side.
If you are old enough to harken back to the 1970's, President Nixon brought to us the "War on Drugs", supposedly to curb the influx of narcotics into our the country and to reduce the violence associated with illegal drugs. For the most part, the war on drugs has been a failure, with the general result of burgeoning jail sentences for low level drug users.
Fast forward to the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the United States back in 2001. This brought another war on an abstract concept, "The War on Terror." Given the current situation in the Middle East and across the world, I don't think anyone can say that the published spending of $1.6 trillion as of the end of 2014 on just military operations. This doesn't include the ridiculous spending and distribution of arms in the increased militarization of our police force.
In the wake of the large data breaches on 2013 and 2014 (Target, Home Depot, Sony, etc), along with the "terrorist" attacks in Paris in early January 2015, there are renewed calls for "Security on the Internet" to protect us from hackers and terrorists. What are governments looking to curtail freedoms online?
- Encryption - Since Phil Zimmermann introduced PGP in 1991, there has been concerns by the government about encryption tools. This included 3 years of investigation by the Federal Government into Zimmermann before it dropped the investigation. Now, world leaders like David Cameron want to ban encryption as a tool against terror, saying "...legislation that does not allow terrorists safe space to communicate with each other." This same tool can be used by dissidents, privacy conscious individuals, and the general population to keep others from spying on their communication.
- Hacking and Racketeering? - The President may have some interesting comments about hacking in the State of the Union on Tuesday, according to Rob Graham. Obviously, new laws won't change those that are already breaking the law, but it will stifle security research, security testing, and security discussions over the internet (podcasts like Security Weekly.)