A Cashless Society?

Once upon a time, there was this stuff called money. It was made of something called rag paper and was very nice to handle when fresh. It also came in round metal discs called coins made of silver, copper and later, zinc. Sometimes the metals were layered like sandwiches. This made the coinscheaper to produce, so it cost the government less to produce the coins than their face value. If you could make a quarter for nine cents that was good.

Bank notes, or bills were even cheaper to produce. Special paper and dyes were required, and high speed printing presses. Many notes could be printed at once, each bearing a different serial number. At first, the ink was made from the powdered wings of a South American butterfly. This made it waterproof and smear proof when dry. Even today, with modern inks, you can't wet a bill and smear the ink. If you can, it's counterfeit!

Long after money came along, companies and banks started issuing credit cards. Credit had been around since before the country began, let alone our money. But it hadn't been so organized before. Now, if you had a job, you could get a credit card. The card would let you buy things and pay for them later. Sometimes you would make multiple payments on one item, but usually, credit cards were used for everyday items, and each month you would pay some of the balance off, trying to get the debt down to a level you could manage.

Some people were very good at this. Many were not. They ran up huge debts at department stores, or restaurants or during the Christmas season. And they struggled to pay off these extravagances. Checks, which came along before the credit cards, would go into the mail box and off to the company or bank owed. Check were tied directly to money you had placed in the bank, and you had to know how much money you had avoid “bouncing” a check.

Then came ATM, check, and debit cards. ATM were tied to your accounts and allowed you to draw money out of the bank twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. You could draw as little as five dollars from the first machines, but that soon changed and now most machines dispense only multiples of 20. Studies of consumers found that most people used 20 dollar bills for transactions.

Check cards were used to guarantee a vendor that if you wrote a check to him, it would be paid by the bank, even if you didn't have quite enough in the bank at the moment. This also prevented “kiting” a check, which was writing a check, and anticipating a deposit before it came due. There were heavy fees to pay the bank if you overdrew your account, but you weren't put on a list of bad check writers.

Debit cards were the successor to ATM and check cards. They allowed you to draw money from your account, but also worked at vendors. You ran the card through a scanner, and seconds later your purchase was approved or declined. If approved, the money was drawn from your account immediately, but if declined, no money moved, and you didn't owe a fee, but you had to pay in cash if you had it.

All this convenience, everything connected, buying at the supermarket or buying stuff online, paying bills, parking meters, parking tickets, airline tickets, your dry cleaning and car payment and mortgage.

It seemed as if the cashless society was only moments away.

Then the cyber-criminal was born. Scam artists, con men and computer hackers started to multiply exponentially in cyber space. Soon after all the Nigerian finance ministers were fired, a new threat emerged. There were programs called malware, and computer viruses, and bot-nets and zombie machines. All these attacked machines and networks that had inadequate security or were fooled by the attack. Sometimes unwary users downloaded something that seemed okay at the time, but later found their system compromised or corrupted.

The first big wave of virus and malware attacks were directed at corporations and organizations that has sensitive data or deep secrets to keep. But there was little money to be had in selling that, so banks were next to get hit. Money transfers into secret accounts, a slow trickle designed not to be noticed right away could take those fractions of a cent in interest, siphon them off from every account in the banking network, and that amounted to some serious cash. And now they're hitting vendors from fast-food places to supermarkets to department stores. It seems our cashless society is not such a Utopia after all.

I have often thought of how our lives have come to depend on little things; keys, electricity, gasoline, and money. And how interconnected we are through phones, tablets, and computers. The world wide web is real, and technology is advancing at an alarming rate. They don't offer instruction manuals with most high-tech devices because no one has time to read them, and most of the users already know how to manipulate them. It's learn by doing, and if you screw up, it isn't serious and you can start over; reboot, turn off and back on, back out of a website, do a system restore or reset.

If the internet was once a safe place to play, now we need a cyber cop on every corner, watchdogs that guard our systems and companies dedicated to finding and defeating threats. It's up to us to keep our eyes open, trust but verify, and never, ever, open an email from someone you don't know or a company you haven't done business with. I get notices, supposedly from UPS or FedEx, about a delivery of something I didn't order, I still get ads about Viagra, and loan offers and classes online and software of questionable provenance and usability.

Companies that keep information about us and hold credit card information, social security numbers, dates of birth and such need to do a better job of safeguarding the information. It's impossible to buy from Amazon without opening an account. Same with most online vendors. Some places though, don't store any information other than a username and password for your account, no credit card records, no bank info, nothing that can tie to your money. Sure, one-click shopping is fast, but it's not as secure as entering your credit or debit card number manually every time.

The most secure thing is still cash at a physical store. It's not as convenient and maybe it's more time-consuming, but it is safer. Some cyber-criminal can't grab the info from the chip-enabled credit card in your wallet if you don't carry it everywhere. And cash is welcome almost everywhere. It used to be the case that you would check to see if they took your credit card before buying. Now they're surprised by cash, and delighted at the same time.

Once upon a time we used to have something called money. Now it's all ones and zeroes in a computer somewhere. But you can still get cash, if you really want or need it. That isn't going away any time soon.

The Nuclear Club

The Nuclear Club

In 1945, with the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan, the United States was the first and only member of the Nuclear Club. Russia followed and China came along, too. Over the years, more nations have applied for membership in the club but few were admitted.

The main reason is that reluctance to use nuclear weapons to settle a conflict is a prerequisite, not simply the possession of them. Nuclear weapons are supposed to be a deterrent against attacks or invasions. In addition, the members have to be, if not friendly, at least not hostile to other members.

Ourselves and our allies all have nuclear weapon access. Maybe the weapons aren't within their borders. Maybe they are counting on bigger countries to stockpile the weapons and to release them on an aggressor. But the fact remains that this small club wants to decide who can join and who can't, and it's really not up to them. And why should it be?

By denying entry to the club, they are cutting off potential allies, who may agree not to test, deploy or use those weapons except in extraordinary circumstances. If they aren't part of the club, they don't have to follow any of the rules.

If India wants to turn Pakistan into a parking lot, who's going to stop them? They aren't allowed at the table, so they'll do their own thing. If Pakistan decides that India is a belligerent, rogue state that threatens Pakistan's existence, screw the Golden Rule - “Nuke 'em before they can nuke us!” And the club may protest and tear its hair out, but they'll have only themselves to blame.

This is where the United Nations comes in. As flawed as this organization may be, it's the best hope most of the world has to avoid annihilation of the entire human race. Nuclear non-proliferation is one of their goals. Lots of speakers before the UN have preached on this topic, but the non-nuclear club members are having none of it.

The aim of our age should not be to open the club to more members, but to accept the fact that there are countries out there that will never be admitted, but have these horrific weapons, and will threaten others with them. We should be working to rein them in, while respecting their right to a national defense.

Militaristic states may feel they have a lot to gain by a show of force. Saber-rattling may work for a while, and it allows them to save face and stand their forces down when the offending party offers to suspend military operations or exercises in their area of influence. But they can't be made to lose face by refusing to accede to some token request. Push them hard enough, and the next push will be of a button that lets the missiles fly.

It's like why dogs bite mailmen. From the dog's point of view, every day this guy comes into his yard and fiddles around near the door. The dog barks, and the guy goes away. He returns the next day. The dog barks more, and he goes away. But he keeps coming back. Finally, the dog thinks, “This guy's not getting the message, so I'll have to take it up a notch.”

By acknowledging that the weapons exist, and trying to negotiate a lasting peace, tensions may ease, misunderstandings and slights, real or imagined, might be resolved.

India, Pakistan, and North Korea all have nuclear weapon capability. Delivery is the next hurdle, but not an insurmountable one. North Korea has claimed it can hit anywhere in Asia, and maybe even the West Coast of the United States.

Iran may be the next country to develop such weapons. They have a nuclear program. The Iranians say it is for peaceful use; power generation. But the West and the other nation states in the Middle East are suspicious, and with good reason. Iran has been a country closed to outsiders since the mid 1970's. No independent, verified, assessment of their state of advancement has been offered.

If they get the bomb, Israel had better walk softly. They are the most aggressive opponents of Iran gaining this capability. They have threatened to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities. But Iran doesn't have to play nice. It won't turn the other cheek if Israel hits them.

Then it may be game over for everyone.

UPDATE:
Recently, overtures have been made to Syria and Iran over the use of chemical and nuclear weapons.  Syria was actually convinced to destroy it's chemical weapons.  Iran is making noises about co-operating with the West to prove its peaceful intent for nuclear power. 

These developments are encouraging signs of peace, even if the Teabaggers in the congress want us to blow something up.                                      

An Interesting Few Months

 

Last November, the GOPTeabaggers had a few victories and took over the House of Representatives, as well as several Governorships and State legislatures. Most of these corporatists began their terms in January. And they began their systematic dismantling of representative government.

The governors of several Midwestern states; Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan and a few in the South; Texas, Georgia, and Florida, have begun to dramatically cut social services, attack unions and, in Arizona, actually let people die.

The GOPT reps in the House are passing mean-spirited bills, ridiculous bills, and downright Un-American bills.

How did this happen? How could these people get elected? It's simple. They lied.

The GOPT people ran on jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs. With unemployment at the highest levels since The Great Depression (thanks to NAFTA, CAFTA and GATT), foreclosures skyrocketing (thanks to a housing bubble and Big Banking pulling a fast one on consumers), and a general disappointment with the Democrats and President Obama among Democrats for not passing progressive legislation over the objections of the Rethuglicans (thanks to letting the Rethugs water down Health Insurance Reform and Wall Street Reform and filibuster everything else), jobs was a winning proposition and Democrats stayed home, some, perhaps, believing the jobs line and others to “send a message” of disappointment.

Well, the message was “Elections have consequences,” and the Rethugs took the House and State legislatures. So, what about the jobs? There were plenty, if you were a Rethug politician or lobbyist or campaign donor. Oh sure, they got jobs, but not the voter on Main Street.

And the State and Federal legislatures decided to repeal the Health Care law the last Congress had passed, write new laws either outlawing abortions or making them so hard to get it was the same thing, and proposing budgets that cut deficits without raising taxes on the rich.

Collective Bargaining, teachers, and unions were under attack in the States. Stalinist appointed “Emergency Managers” who could take over cities and disband elected town councils were introduced in Michigan, anti-abortion, anti-immigration, anti-gay, and anti-same sex marriage laws were being submitted, passed and signed by Governors. Public utilities were going to be sold to private corporations in no-bid deals, creationism, not evolution, was to be taught in schools, homosexuality was not to be talked about in elementary or middle schools. The radical Rethugs were up and running and passing every corporatist and Christer and birther wet-dream, fueled by hate, fear, intolerance, racism and ignorance.

But no jobs bills were introduced. Nothing about that even came up. Why should it? The Rethugs were in power, that's all that counted.

Democrats and progressives have protested these affronts to common decency. There has even been some progress on their side. But, we have only the facts and truth on our side. Those are poor challenges to the wholesale slash-and-burn policies on the Right. Democrats want debates and dialog and reasonable solutions. The Right shouts and lies and distorts everything to fit their world-view.

We have to realize something. This isn't chess. It isn't boxing. It isn't a track meet.

This is a street fight. A knock-down, drag-out, broken bottle, brass knuckle street fight. And until we wake up and realize the other side doesn't play by any rules, and adopt the same take-no-prisoners attitude, we are going to make little if any progress, and slowly.

Both Sides

Both Sides Do It - Not

In the wake of the Tucson, Arizona shootings, before the gun smoke had cleared, the right-wing hate machine was wound up and claiming the shooter was a liberal, that he was a pot-smoker, and he was a paranoid-schizophrenic.

Two out of three ain't bad. The last two.

The left-wing activists were shouting that he was a right-wing hate media fan, a pot-smoker and a paranoid-schizophrenic.

Two out of three ain't bad. The last two.

The simple fact of the matter is, at the time, no one knew the political orientation of the killer, no one seemed to know if he listened to radio, or only the voices in his head. No one knew if he watched television, or only the hallucinations from his fevered imagination. No one knew, yet everyone had someone else to blame.

It has come out since that he was a registered Repugnantcan, and he had read Mein Kampf. Not exactly a liberal tome.

All the media hand-wringers were talking about toning it down and backing off the hate and anger.

Faux came out with a statement that Roger Ailes had told his anchors to lower the rhetoric from boil to simmer, but nothing has changed. They are still telling horrendous lies and using violent rhetoric to whip up the brain-dead base. Rush Lintball is still out for blood, liberal blood, and false equivalencies fly hither and yon.

There are some angry left wing talkers, true. But the market is such that the right-wing out shouts the left by about 10 to one. The higher powered talk-radio stations are generally right-wing, and you can find three or more in any metropolitan area. If there is a liberal station in your area, try way down on the left side of the AM dial. They are stuffed into the 90's and low 100's.

Besides the difficulty in finding a liberal voice, the angry ones are few and far between. There are a few syndicated and carried by most of the stations that claim liberal views. But they are for the most part calm and informative: Thom Hartmann, Alan Colmes, Randi Rhodes; comedic, Stephanie Miller,

unapologetic anti-republican Mike Malloy. With the abrupt exit of Keith Olbemann from the television airwaves, there is yet another shutting out of the liberal voice.

The left has said, “Okay, we'll tone it down, we'll be civil.” But that won't work. Not the way they intend. Because the right has no intention of toning it down or being civil. They won't play along because they perceive it as weakness.

The few angry talkers on the left have to stay angry. There is plenty to be angry about. But these few reach only the audience they've built over the years and catch no new ears.

The right, however, is everywhere. It is not just a few off-hand comments, uttered in an unguarded moment, no. It is a constant drumbeat of hate and lies and fear mongering. It has served them well, and they will not abandon it.

The constant drumbeat of “Shoot them in the head!', “They are destroying America,” Liberals are the problem,” and on and on, demonizing half the population so a few crazies can get their guns out and assassinate Congress people and Judges and nine-year old girls.

The constant drumbeat of a right-wing “Take Back America” bumper-sticker mentality,

a Republican party allying itself with a Tea Party, birther, tenther, bircher, far right will lead to armed conflict. There may be a revolution coming. The right says the left is planning one. But we're not.

The right wants one. They want blood in the streets, insurrection, riots, dead Americans. That is their ultimate goal. If we're fighting each other, we won't have time to turn on them.

And the sickest part of all is, they do it for sport. It's all just a game for them. And if they lose a few pawns, that's okay, they're planning a killer endgame.

If you have heard or seen the Youtube video of the sad teabaggers singing the Battle Hymn of Sarah Palin, you know what's coming. I don't think those folks are ready for The Grand Ole Opry. But songs that are changed and put forth a political agenda, no matter how insane, demand a response. Here is mine, feel free to hum along.

She came out of Alaska

To run as McCain's VP

They tried hard to get elected

But it wasn't meant to be

But instead disappearing

She's embraced mendacity

She just won't go away.

Chorus:

Sarah Palin is a moron,

Sarah Palin is a moron,

Sarah Palin is a moron,

Why won't she go away?

She quit her job as Governor

Just half-way through the run.

Left Alaska and its people and

The Summer's Midnight Sun.

So she could make more money

And play politics for fun.

She just won't go away.

Chorus:

She's a polarizing influence

She sure knows how to sell

Her dumb teabag party rhetoric

and you can clearly tell

That she in it for herself and

All the rest can go to Hell,

She just won't go away.

Spoken:

Congress finally passed several bills

That the Republicans blocked for two years.

These will benefit everybody, not just the rich

The Baggers can't name a single freedom lost

And even with new government programs starting,

Ninety-five percent of us got a tax cut.

Sarah Blows

I wish she would just march home.

An explanation

In a previous post on election fraud I used the term "unwed mother" to describe a dance contestant.  This is because I refuse to use her name.  A couple of readers have pointed out what they think is some kind of attack on motherhood.  While I have no animous against unwed mothers in general, this one is a spokesperson for abstinance, which makes her a hypocrite and willfully ignorant of reality.  It's simply a case of IOIYAR.  It's okay if you're a Republican. 

1-800-Its-Fraud

     I've been vicariously following a TV competition show. One of those where the in-studio audience and the one at home can call in to vote for their favorite performer. I don't watch these kinds of shows, because I don't care about a bunch of wannabes or has-beens.

     One show in particular has had several scandals involving the voting process. It is always interesting when one of the worst performers keeps getting enough votes each week to survive while the much better performers get bumped off the stage. In one case a mop-headed goof stayed on for a few weeks longer than he deserved, and in another, a group got together and gamed the system in favor of a dull, if talented, guy who went nowhere. The “loser” was a better showman and really put a lot of energy into his performances. In other words, he was an entertainer. The other guy, not so much.

     Now another show is suffering a voting scandal. This one involves dancers. This show has strained the definition of “star” to ridiculous extremes. Since when is an unwed mother whose own mother is a famous quitter a star? Well, it seems the show's producers were asking for it. The unwed mother went on through the show's entire run until she finally finished in 3rd place. It seems that Sarah Palin supporters discovered a “glitch” in DWTS' voting system and exploited it to telephonically “stuff the ballot box”. It was, in effect, election fraud.

     The Reich wing will claim voter fraud whenever they are on the losing side. While there has been evidence produced indicating false registration, ie: Mickey Mouse, those “fraudulent voters” don't show up to vote because they don't exist. One famous Reich wing hack was being investigated herself because she was registered in one state and voted in another. Means she was registered in two states at the same time. Can't do that.

     What is far more dangerous and is happening far more frequently is election fraud. Diebold voting machines, those produced by ESS and others, are notorious for losing or switching votes. They have touch-screens. Seems easy, right? Just put your finger on the screen to indicate your choices. The problem comes when you select the Democratic Candidate. The machine may indicate you voted for the Republican. If you try to correct it, which supposedly is possible on these machines, you might succeed, or you might not. But it doesn't matter anyway. These machines are not owned by the state. They are leased for the election.

     These machines run on proprietary software which can be programmed to switch a certain number of votes internally without the user's knowledge. They can also be hacked by outside sources which may then change the voting numbers. And here's the kicker...there is no paper record to confirm your choices. There is no paper trail to follow.

     The explanation from Diebold rings the most hollow of all: there is no way to print out the voter's record. Excuse me? No way? This is from Diebold who also makes ATM machines. ATM machines can print a variety of reports linked to your balance. You can get a record of the last 10 to the last 30 transactions, just by putting your card in the slot and using your PIN. But they can't make one that prints poll results?

     Further, the CEO of Diebold vowed to deliver the state of Ohio to G.W. Bush in 2004. I was in Ohio in 2004. I took a friend to vote that evening before the polls closed. It was dark and cold and rainy. I sat in the car, waiting for him to finish. The polls that night were so screwed up that they had to stay open for an extra two or three hours. That was because there were too few machines in the minority dominant neighborhoods while the more affluent ones had plenty.

     This was the plot of the criminal Secretary of State who was a Republican. Now normally, a Republican SoS is not a problem, but this one was also the state Chairman of the Republican Party in Ohio. There should be a solid wall between being an elected official and being the Chairman of the Party in one's state. You should be able to be one or the other, not both.

     Bush took Ohio by deception. People did not stand for hours in the dark and rain to vote for George Bush. I am convinced that Bush was never legitimately elected President. There are lots of others convinced of that, too.

     Any illusions you may harbor concerning Democracy in America are inoperable. Election fraud gives us terrible leaders in undeserved offices and an unwed mother an undeserved 3rd place in a dance contest.