Hi,
My cousin’s sponsoring another Rock 4 Vets July 7 at Stage Karma this year on the Southside. More info on their Face book page and they will update is as details get more firm, save the date.
Something concerning about our Commander in Tweet, two of his top cabinet heads & his office manager are retired military. With replacing Rex Tillerson with Bob Pompeo a retired military man, and I forget the second cabinet chief and retired military John Kelly is his chief of staff . Do we see a coop coming up? I can see DJT dissolving congress, a move reminiscent of other dictators grabs for power if a Russian election interference investigation gets too close. I don’t want to raise the paranoia of my nervous followers. I think our military is by nature dedicated to our constitution, although I find Pompeo to be a real sheep following whatever DJT tells him to do.
Yes, I am one of those paranoid people. And I think I handle it well. Several years ago, my dentist sent me to an oral surgeon Bumgardner (or something like that) and of course I had to fill out the form describing who I am. One of the questions on the form was my social security number. When I didn’t put it in and the receptionist questioned why, I told her I didn’t see a need for them to have that. She said I had to complete the form and I told her I would leave. She left to talk to the doctor and he agreed to “waive” that requirement. Greedy SOB, didn’t want to loose the $.
This leads to what I wanted to talk about, last year the controversy of face book and the skewed fake news paid for and promoted by the Russians that face book initially denied. Now face book had a company mining our personal information creating algorithms on us personally, this was done by Cambridge Analytics. It was a “personality test” and they asked personal questions such as “Are you religious?” and then select one out of ten to describe how religious you are. And things like “Are you paranoid?” and then how paranoid are you out of one to ten. Face book then intended to take that information and sell it to say a bible company with an 80% chance your might buy a new bible. And then sold the paranoid people to the NRA and gun dealers. That outside company then took that information and used it to sent fake news directed to individual people. Cambridge Analytics then deliberately singled out religious people and told them that Clinton was in truth a Satanist, or Clinton planned on revoking the 2nd amendment. This was coordinated by Ted Cruz and the DJT campaign camp, the proof on this allegation is not in yet, but that’s what some are saying. I think this is going to be huge. This misuse of mined information is not necessarily a bad thing, I look at it as a learning curve. The internet is still very new, and we are learning how to use it safely. And because there’s so much money that can be made either through legitimate businesses or the trolls in third world countries (and ours) using our information for their benefit. Information is extremely valuable and within reason we need to deny giving any more than is reasonable. As I recently posted, I didn’t announce that I was going to Florida before hand so some nutcase didn’t terrorize Claire while she was dog sitting. With all the massive breaches lately, you are seeing less and less. Companies are realizing they need to up the game and protect information. If someone from Turkestan breaks into the evil empire Wells Fargo and steals millions of dollars from them, there’s no recourse for Wells Fargo to get their money back. (Speaking of Wells Fargo, after all the scandal about their employees creating fake credit cards to meet their sales goals, I occasionally get solicitations from Wells Fargo to switch to let them process my credit card payments. I asked one of the telemarketers how could I trust them after the scandal, he said that was another division. Oh that makes it OK, I guess. Immoral companies use immoral tactics across the board).
On the bright side, I bitch a lot. My current battle is with Directv, whom I will talk about in a minute. I do shop some big box stores for convenience at times. The one I am not ashamed of patronizing is Costco. They have the longest retention of employees of any of the big box stores, they treat their employees well. Da gerl put on weight and I started her on a green bean diet. Costco sells a box of 12 cans for about sixty cents a can and I’ve been buying them for over a year. There was an occasional dented can and then there was more and more dented cans in the box. I went to the info desk in the Costco I shop at usually and complained. (My concern was the possibility of Botulism, one of the most deadly viruses that live in anaerobic environment, ie sealed cans. NEVER open a can that is bloated-these dents weren’t indicative of bloating, so I felt fairly safe using them, but for how long?) The lady said to bring the cans back and they would refund the money. I said I wasn’t looking for a refund, but wanted to keep buying the green beans and was looking to get the problem fixed. So she took my info and the NEXT day I got phone call from a lady that said she was with Delmonte who makes the Kirkland brand green beans. She first asked where the dents were (ie where they all on the same side, like a lift jack crushed the case) & I said no, they were spread all around on different cans. She asked if I could take a picture of the dents and send to her. Which I did and she thanked me and told me Delmonte would send me a check for $30 for my inconvenience, I told her I wasn’t looking for that but wanted to keep buying their product. I got a check for $30 about a week later. The next couple of cases had dented cans, but I haven’t seen a dented can in months.
My current battle with Directv, is over the Reggae music station. I’ve been listening to it for over ten years and a month ago, they changed the format. It went from classic Reggae like Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Johnny Osborne, Desmond Decker newer classic styled Reggae artists like Etana (one of my favorites) and replaced it with what we refer to as House Music, they are calling it Urban Music. Not my style, nor is country music, I’m not saying it’s not good, it’s just not what I listen to. I also prefer butter pecan ice cream over vanilla, not saying anything’s wrong with vanilla. I don’t usually buy vanilla and don’t intend to listen to house music. I’ve been listening to the radio in the kitchen and not even turning on the music system. They have over 20 rock stations, 4 jazz, 3 religious, 8 Latino, 8 country 6 hip hop and R & B and close to 20 various specialized stations like Broadway, big band, sounds of the seasons, etc. I just sent my third complaint to them, I must give them credit because they are now playing more classic Reggae than initially. I do put the Reggae station on now and then for a short time and get fed up and turn it off and listen to the radio. My last complaint I sent them I told them I would cancel the Music Choice option at $37 a month.
While I’m on a roll, one more thing and then I’m done. I’m a bit of a news junkie. I’m more interested in local news on TV. I occasionally watch national and international news on the TV. Since the national news companies have bought up the local stations, I’m seeing less and less local news while more and more national news is on during what’s supposed to be local news. It’s really irritating, they start talking about a news event I find interesting and they cut it short and say more details on their website. If I wanted to go to their website, I wouldn’t be putting up with their annoying constant stream of commercials.
That’s it for today, sorry for my tirades, life is good and things are getting better, the world isn’t ending. Smile and be happy,
ed
