I've noticed that we Democrats are following the five stages of grief after the Great Tragedy - which is how I'll refer to the election of 2016. We're progressing very quickly though as it's only been a week and we're already in Anger. We were only in Denial for a brief amount of time and I'll note that it came with a a heavy dose of Depression.
We are all looking for a single thing to blame for what happened last week and as I pointed out in my previous post, I think there's a LOT going on here. There is no one answer to this problem, Like the Democrat party itself, it's a mixed bag.
Here's what worries me right now that just like Republicans in 2008 and 2012 who were working on being introspective and fixing things for themselves, that we Democrats are sitting in our ivory towers and deciding what we need to do without actually listening or talking to the folks who we want to vote for us.
I think a key to a strong resurgence of a party who looks out for EVERYONE, is listening and talking to folks. That has to start at the local level. I think it's a good time for each city, county, and state to turn inward and figure out what we need to do for our local folks. We need to win local elections and state offices in two years. That's grass roots.
If we know what's happening in our own states I think the next time out our national candidate is going to pay attention. At least, that's what I'm hoping if we don't fall victim to Ivory Tower thinking.
Pay attention too when at long last the press is finally asking Trump supporters why they voted the way they did and their expectations. They don't expect Trump to keep all his promises, and they're okay with a flawed candidate, clearly. We, Democrats don't need to worry about being perfect. That is the best news ever as we go forward.
Does this sound like Bargaining? It did to me too.
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Thoughts On A Gloomy Week
I have voted for the Democrat in every Presidential election since I could vote. I am a liberal - don't tune out, try to hang here and understand. I want to know that when I turn on the tap clean water comes out. Since the tragedies in West Virginia and Flint, Michigan I fear a water crisis in my own location - not only that it will happen, but that if it does, no one will fix it. I understand that significantly more people die each year from lung cancer caused by pollution than were killed in the World Trade Center on 9/11. Clean air and clean water are vital to our future but I don't see anyone taking that seriously. Definitely not Republicans and I'm sorry to say, not so much Democrats. We're fracking at an alarming rate and one of the smartest countries in the world refuses to innovate for clean energy at the same pace. We're the country that put a man on the moon and created the Atom bomb and we can't seem to get off our asses to solve the problems presented to us by how we live our lives and the threats to our environment.
I'm talking about this because it's one of the reasons we've just ushered in one of the most terrifying people to occupy the White House in my lifetime. As some of my friends are talking about White Lash I actually think things are much more complex this time. I'll talk about the non-Obama voters in a minute, but first I think we should acknowledge that we, that's Democrats, forgot our purpose. We are supposed to be on the side of the average man/woman - no matter their race or where they live or even their point of view. That used to be the guts of our support. We call ourselves Progressive, but we're not doing the things that progressives would do.
Bernie Sanders was in Michigan. He got it. Hilary didn't. She has the power of the Clinton Foundation at her fingertips and could have made a point of visiting Flint and bringing resources, but she didn't. If your kids have lead poisoning - a lifelong challenge they've been granted through no other effort than drinking the water in their house - and the Republicans are responsible for poisoning it and the Democrats don't show up to fix it, why would you bother to turn out to vote? They were failed by Democratic institutions that we profess to love like the EPA. Any time Republicans try to tinker or bastardize the EPA we scream and shout about how awful it is, but at the end of the day we didn't fix it. Us, the people who pride themselves on looking out for the little guy. Michael Moore pointed out yesterday on Morning Joe that 90,000 voters in Michigan completed every single line on their ballots except for President. They opted out of a system that's failed them.
Then, there's the economy. In hindsight, I'm kind of shocked Hilary didn't get this. Her husband ran on "Its the Economy Stupid". Again, I'll point at the Clinton Foundation. Bill Clinton is trying to change the world and good for him. I think that's tremendous. Guess what? Here in the United States there are parts of our country that are in a lot worse condition than some of these undeveloped countries around the world. Sometimes you should take care of your own house. We are seeing high rates of addiction, high rates of infant mortality, and depression and suicide. I shared an article about that on my Facebook page and no one felt empathy for these people at all. It was a wake up call though. These folks voted for Trump.
When something new comes along there are always early adopters or what politicians would call their 'base'. These are the people who are in it and they're going to stick with you, Then, there's the group that can be convinced to come along and says "Okay, I might be dubious, but I'll give this a chance." That second group are the folks we just lost. They gave Obama a chance and it didn't work out, so now they're going to try this other guy.
I want to talk about personal responsibility too and how the majority of the American people act just like most businesses - they have a model they follow and if it ain't broke they won't fix it. We the people are and have been contributors to our own demise, and willingly. We've allowed ourselves to be sucked into voting against our best interests with social issues that the Government should keep its giant snoot out of. The gay couple down the street is not keeping you from getting clean drinking water or from getting a job but many people have been convinced that this is something they should vote on.
In the 1980s we hated drugs and we hated unions so we started incarcerating a ton of people who can't contribute to the bottom line from prison and we don't have any unions around who might have been able to keep jobs from heading out of the country. We also hated regulations and started tearing down those protections because we were told they were 'job killing' even though there was no evidence. Then we started eating a heck of a lot more food than we needed and industry gave us what we wanted - more, more, more. There's a connection here between good union jobs with health benefits and no job and a bunch of sick, fat people. We voted for that.
In the 1990s we continued our love of deregulation and started tearing down more of the New Deal that had kept the economy in decent shape since the Depression. That New Deal was now no deal and we continued locking up anyone who looked at us funny and we wanted to kill people with the death penalty even faster - despite the fact that a lot of people on death row turned out to be innocent. And, we reformed Welfare. No more lifetime welfare recipients. And guess who uses welfare more than any other demographic? Poor white folks in rural areas who if they turned out to vote on Tuesday, voted for Trump. What did it matter to us though? The economy was great. Because like everyone, even those early adopters, we don't act if things aren't broke.
We also started making Wal-Mart our best friend. A store where nearly everything on their shelves is made in a country other than the United States. We're really mad that all those good union jobs are overseas, and then we shop at Wal-Mart because we want a bargain. We work against ourselves on almost a daily basis. We gave up on the Mom and Pop shops - those small, family owned businesses we profess to love. My sister lived in northern Idaho for a few years and while visiting I took my nephews out and about and we walked into a little store that had art supplies. A woman in the same store looked at the stuff I was buying and said "They have that at Wal-Mart for a lot less". Knife in the heart to that small business owner. We the people abandoned those folks. That's us. When you're bemoaning the loss of these businesses, think about where you shop.
Are you tired yet? I still have a bit more to say and if you've hung in this long try to stick it out to the end. Remember the Bush election of 2000? He ushered in tax cuts, and a war we fought but didn't want to pay for. Remember Al Franken bringing bullet proof vests to soldiers in Iraq because we weren't providing them to the military? All those folks who think the Republicans are pro-military let me lay out a fact for you. The military makes up less than 1% of our population. You're useful as an election prop and that's about it. The VA is a mess and that right there shows you how much either party is doing. Once more, opportunity for Democrats but we didn't fix that either. Still, we the people keep hitting our heads against that same brick wall and expecting a different result.
In 2008 we gave up on Bush and put Obama in office. Where the first thing he worked on was Healthcare. His plan relies on all those young people who voted for him to now buy into the insurance plans, and they didn't. People who really need healthcare bought in and they're seeing premiums that are bigger than their mortgage and deductibles that they can't pay. We're also a lot sicker than we used to be. Remember our need to eat, eat and eat again and the bigger the portion the better? We drive places we can walk, we sit at home glued to television and we wonder why we're not healthy. We wonder why health insurance rates have sky rocketed. You can blame doctors and hospitals and drug companies, and I do, but we are part of the problem Remember how upset everyone got when Michelle Obama suggested we shouldn't drink soda? Drink up fatty fatty 2x4 can't get through the kitchen door (and I say this as someone who needs to lose weight). We still smoke. Despite all the evidence out there around cigarette smoking, we are still smoking.
We have been gluttons. We are consuming things and food and never once stopping to wonder if what we're doing might not be the best thing for us, our kids and our future. We are buying houses and cars we don't need and then wondering why we have no savings. We don't know where our jobs went. We don't know why our kids have lead poisoning. Well, you do know. It's us. We did all of this to ourselves. Some people tried to tell us and we scoffed at them for their political correctness and for being hippies. We don't have a safety net to keep us on our feet - remember welfare reform? - while we look for a new job and try to make it in this world. We keep hoping old jobs are coming back. That way of life is gone. Time to wake up and build something new.
Let me end on a high note here. I have always said that we should never bet against America. We're not perfect, as I have so plainly pointed out, but we can make America great. I'm not going to say again because way too many people have been used and abused for what we had before. This is a wake up call though. We should protest what happened in this election. We should organize and reach out and figure out how to make these politicians understand that they're not doing what we want. The new president is being surrounded by excited Republicans hoping to get a piece of his magic and convince him that he should do things their way. That is not good for us at all. Let's really pay attention this time and we will be the change and stop relying on politicians to bring it to our door.
I'm talking about this because it's one of the reasons we've just ushered in one of the most terrifying people to occupy the White House in my lifetime. As some of my friends are talking about White Lash I actually think things are much more complex this time. I'll talk about the non-Obama voters in a minute, but first I think we should acknowledge that we, that's Democrats, forgot our purpose. We are supposed to be on the side of the average man/woman - no matter their race or where they live or even their point of view. That used to be the guts of our support. We call ourselves Progressive, but we're not doing the things that progressives would do.
Bernie Sanders was in Michigan. He got it. Hilary didn't. She has the power of the Clinton Foundation at her fingertips and could have made a point of visiting Flint and bringing resources, but she didn't. If your kids have lead poisoning - a lifelong challenge they've been granted through no other effort than drinking the water in their house - and the Republicans are responsible for poisoning it and the Democrats don't show up to fix it, why would you bother to turn out to vote? They were failed by Democratic institutions that we profess to love like the EPA. Any time Republicans try to tinker or bastardize the EPA we scream and shout about how awful it is, but at the end of the day we didn't fix it. Us, the people who pride themselves on looking out for the little guy. Michael Moore pointed out yesterday on Morning Joe that 90,000 voters in Michigan completed every single line on their ballots except for President. They opted out of a system that's failed them.
Then, there's the economy. In hindsight, I'm kind of shocked Hilary didn't get this. Her husband ran on "Its the Economy Stupid". Again, I'll point at the Clinton Foundation. Bill Clinton is trying to change the world and good for him. I think that's tremendous. Guess what? Here in the United States there are parts of our country that are in a lot worse condition than some of these undeveloped countries around the world. Sometimes you should take care of your own house. We are seeing high rates of addiction, high rates of infant mortality, and depression and suicide. I shared an article about that on my Facebook page and no one felt empathy for these people at all. It was a wake up call though. These folks voted for Trump.
When something new comes along there are always early adopters or what politicians would call their 'base'. These are the people who are in it and they're going to stick with you, Then, there's the group that can be convinced to come along and says "Okay, I might be dubious, but I'll give this a chance." That second group are the folks we just lost. They gave Obama a chance and it didn't work out, so now they're going to try this other guy.
I want to talk about personal responsibility too and how the majority of the American people act just like most businesses - they have a model they follow and if it ain't broke they won't fix it. We the people are and have been contributors to our own demise, and willingly. We've allowed ourselves to be sucked into voting against our best interests with social issues that the Government should keep its giant snoot out of. The gay couple down the street is not keeping you from getting clean drinking water or from getting a job but many people have been convinced that this is something they should vote on.
In the 1980s we hated drugs and we hated unions so we started incarcerating a ton of people who can't contribute to the bottom line from prison and we don't have any unions around who might have been able to keep jobs from heading out of the country. We also hated regulations and started tearing down those protections because we were told they were 'job killing' even though there was no evidence. Then we started eating a heck of a lot more food than we needed and industry gave us what we wanted - more, more, more. There's a connection here between good union jobs with health benefits and no job and a bunch of sick, fat people. We voted for that.
In the 1990s we continued our love of deregulation and started tearing down more of the New Deal that had kept the economy in decent shape since the Depression. That New Deal was now no deal and we continued locking up anyone who looked at us funny and we wanted to kill people with the death penalty even faster - despite the fact that a lot of people on death row turned out to be innocent. And, we reformed Welfare. No more lifetime welfare recipients. And guess who uses welfare more than any other demographic? Poor white folks in rural areas who if they turned out to vote on Tuesday, voted for Trump. What did it matter to us though? The economy was great. Because like everyone, even those early adopters, we don't act if things aren't broke.
We also started making Wal-Mart our best friend. A store where nearly everything on their shelves is made in a country other than the United States. We're really mad that all those good union jobs are overseas, and then we shop at Wal-Mart because we want a bargain. We work against ourselves on almost a daily basis. We gave up on the Mom and Pop shops - those small, family owned businesses we profess to love. My sister lived in northern Idaho for a few years and while visiting I took my nephews out and about and we walked into a little store that had art supplies. A woman in the same store looked at the stuff I was buying and said "They have that at Wal-Mart for a lot less". Knife in the heart to that small business owner. We the people abandoned those folks. That's us. When you're bemoaning the loss of these businesses, think about where you shop.
Are you tired yet? I still have a bit more to say and if you've hung in this long try to stick it out to the end. Remember the Bush election of 2000? He ushered in tax cuts, and a war we fought but didn't want to pay for. Remember Al Franken bringing bullet proof vests to soldiers in Iraq because we weren't providing them to the military? All those folks who think the Republicans are pro-military let me lay out a fact for you. The military makes up less than 1% of our population. You're useful as an election prop and that's about it. The VA is a mess and that right there shows you how much either party is doing. Once more, opportunity for Democrats but we didn't fix that either. Still, we the people keep hitting our heads against that same brick wall and expecting a different result.
In 2008 we gave up on Bush and put Obama in office. Where the first thing he worked on was Healthcare. His plan relies on all those young people who voted for him to now buy into the insurance plans, and they didn't. People who really need healthcare bought in and they're seeing premiums that are bigger than their mortgage and deductibles that they can't pay. We're also a lot sicker than we used to be. Remember our need to eat, eat and eat again and the bigger the portion the better? We drive places we can walk, we sit at home glued to television and we wonder why we're not healthy. We wonder why health insurance rates have sky rocketed. You can blame doctors and hospitals and drug companies, and I do, but we are part of the problem Remember how upset everyone got when Michelle Obama suggested we shouldn't drink soda? Drink up fatty fatty 2x4 can't get through the kitchen door (and I say this as someone who needs to lose weight). We still smoke. Despite all the evidence out there around cigarette smoking, we are still smoking.
We have been gluttons. We are consuming things and food and never once stopping to wonder if what we're doing might not be the best thing for us, our kids and our future. We are buying houses and cars we don't need and then wondering why we have no savings. We don't know where our jobs went. We don't know why our kids have lead poisoning. Well, you do know. It's us. We did all of this to ourselves. Some people tried to tell us and we scoffed at them for their political correctness and for being hippies. We don't have a safety net to keep us on our feet - remember welfare reform? - while we look for a new job and try to make it in this world. We keep hoping old jobs are coming back. That way of life is gone. Time to wake up and build something new.
Let me end on a high note here. I have always said that we should never bet against America. We're not perfect, as I have so plainly pointed out, but we can make America great. I'm not going to say again because way too many people have been used and abused for what we had before. This is a wake up call though. We should protest what happened in this election. We should organize and reach out and figure out how to make these politicians understand that they're not doing what we want. The new president is being surrounded by excited Republicans hoping to get a piece of his magic and convince him that he should do things their way. That is not good for us at all. Let's really pay attention this time and we will be the change and stop relying on politicians to bring it to our door.
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
It's The End of the World....
Okay, I know it's not the end of the world, but it certainly feels like it. Yes, I wanted Hilary to win, was pretty convinced she had it in the bag only to find out there are vast numbers of pissed off white people in rural areas who feel left behind by the economy. Now I find myself in the position of being pissed off at them for what they've done.
This morning I had a great sense of humor that went along with my despair. Like, when I got up this morning at 3:30 am because I couldn't sleep through the end of the world, my Dog seemed exuberant. Then it occurred to me that he just might be a Trump supporter because he does try to hump me sometimes without asking.
Then as I was out walking I thought I should probably give up on physical fitness. I don't want to get fit and really attractive so that I end up getting my pussy grabbed. That would be awful. So I ate some candy at work and had a big lunch to ward that off.
My sister had a great line this morning asking what the hell happened because we thought the election was rigged in Hilary's favor. Apparently not.
Now it's the end of day one in this new, cock eyed world where a bunch of people have voted for someone they think is going to fix all their problems and I have some really bad news for them. It ain't happening folks. I know because I voted for Obama twice - the first time thinking he'd fix the mess and the second knowing that he'd be a lot less messy than Romney. I voted for Hilary because I know that other guy (I can't say his name, I just can't) is a snake oil salesman you can see coming from a mile away - well, some of us could.
Worry has begun to set in for a lot of my friends and their families. I saw the posts from the white supremacists - thank you Southern Poverty Law Center. I think if you voted against Hilary and for the other guy, then you should own this one. Attached to your vote is a lot of misogynistic, racist talk and I'm afraid action. Don't try to tell the rest of us you're not like this because that's who you've aligned yourself with. In their post they refer to the newly elected President as "Our Glorious Leader has ascended to God Emperor". Doesn't that make your blood run cold? It did mine. They claim credit for his win. He couldn't have done it without them. So, yeah, you own this one.
I donated to Hilary's campaign. I felt it was important. Now I will be sending that money regularly to the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Planned Parenthood. I'll keep reminding myself that this is not what the majority of the people wanted. Hilary won the popular vote by nearly 2 hundred thousand votes. It means that we didn't want that other guy. Now we need to get rid of the electoral college. It's screwed us twice and we can't afford for that to happen again.
I think we've missed out on a big opportunity to have one of the best presidents this country has ever seen. She was smart, hard working and more prepared than anyone who came before her. I guess we're not good enough for that kind of awesomeness. Instead we're stuck with that other guy.
This morning I had a great sense of humor that went along with my despair. Like, when I got up this morning at 3:30 am because I couldn't sleep through the end of the world, my Dog seemed exuberant. Then it occurred to me that he just might be a Trump supporter because he does try to hump me sometimes without asking.
Then as I was out walking I thought I should probably give up on physical fitness. I don't want to get fit and really attractive so that I end up getting my pussy grabbed. That would be awful. So I ate some candy at work and had a big lunch to ward that off.
My sister had a great line this morning asking what the hell happened because we thought the election was rigged in Hilary's favor. Apparently not.
Now it's the end of day one in this new, cock eyed world where a bunch of people have voted for someone they think is going to fix all their problems and I have some really bad news for them. It ain't happening folks. I know because I voted for Obama twice - the first time thinking he'd fix the mess and the second knowing that he'd be a lot less messy than Romney. I voted for Hilary because I know that other guy (I can't say his name, I just can't) is a snake oil salesman you can see coming from a mile away - well, some of us could.
Worry has begun to set in for a lot of my friends and their families. I saw the posts from the white supremacists - thank you Southern Poverty Law Center. I think if you voted against Hilary and for the other guy, then you should own this one. Attached to your vote is a lot of misogynistic, racist talk and I'm afraid action. Don't try to tell the rest of us you're not like this because that's who you've aligned yourself with. In their post they refer to the newly elected President as "Our Glorious Leader has ascended to God Emperor". Doesn't that make your blood run cold? It did mine. They claim credit for his win. He couldn't have done it without them. So, yeah, you own this one.
I donated to Hilary's campaign. I felt it was important. Now I will be sending that money regularly to the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Planned Parenthood. I'll keep reminding myself that this is not what the majority of the people wanted. Hilary won the popular vote by nearly 2 hundred thousand votes. It means that we didn't want that other guy. Now we need to get rid of the electoral college. It's screwed us twice and we can't afford for that to happen again.
I think we've missed out on a big opportunity to have one of the best presidents this country has ever seen. She was smart, hard working and more prepared than anyone who came before her. I guess we're not good enough for that kind of awesomeness. Instead we're stuck with that other guy.
Sunday, November 6, 2016
"You're Not A Feminist?" I asked with surprise....
With all the stuff going on in the current Presidential election I’ve been reading a lot about how millennial women are not feminists. Then today, a 30 year old woman I work with told me she’s not a feminist. To give this some context, she was asking me if I wanted to take golf lessons in the spring with her and explaining that at the charity golf outing she attended last week there weren’t any women playing. She said, “I’m not a feminist, but I thought more women might want to play.” She was not making a statement that the golf outing had been sexist and excluded women, she just assumed that women didn’t know about it or just needed to take some lessons. I’m 51 years old and my immediate response was, “How can you not be a feminist?”
Her response was she thought that feminists had a bad name and were very angry. She didn’t feel as if there was any glass ceiling she was up against. All of the things I know about being a woman in the United States and the world at large came rushing in on me. “Do you think I’m an angry feminist?” She said she thought I was. Okay, food for thought – at work I don’t go on rants about men but there are things I notice about the work place that I’ll point out in general conversation. I’ve never said though “Let’s get a march together!! Let’s protest!!” I work with a man in his forties who repeats what women have just said in meetings as if they were his original thoughts. He never does this to the men. I do complain about this. I will also admit to a sense of frustration that’s built up over the years from the time I was a teenager until the last few years in dealing with some men and even some women. I don’t feel unsuccessful in the workplace, in fact I feel like I’ve done very well for someone who started this working life without a college degree. However, there are daily reminders that come out of people’s mouths that I find frustrating. Like the man who would see me coming out of his boss’ office and say “I should have realized that he was meeting with such a beautiful woman like yourself….” Blah blah blah.
This wasn’t just a conversation about work though. Sure, my young coworker doesn’t feel like there’s a glass ceiling in the office and when I look at her experience, she’s right. She’s gotten her MBA and since coming to work at our company she’s had mostly female bosses and she recently got a really good promotion. I also think that there’s more fairness in workplace hiring and salary because we’re sitting in the Federal Government’s backyard and they’re our customer. We have a lot of VPs who are women and even some Senior and Executive VPs who are women. All of this happened just before she started at our company though under our current CEO. Up until probably six years ago, the majority of Executives were men. It’s so recent that we have such a large number of women in very senior positions that I personally feel like this is just the start, but maybe she sees it as finished.
Still, there’s so much more to being a feminist than just busting through a glass ceiling in your career. We live in the liberal state of Maryland where we have free access to reproductive health services up to and including unfettered access to an abortion should we need one. No one in Maryland has signed a law telling our doctors to lie to us about our condition. That’s not true in all states. Reproductive and general health services for women are being cut back left and right across the country in an effort to cut off access to abortion. That feels like a much more serious glass ceiling to me that needs to be overcome.
Then there’s the courtroom phenomenon that let’s off rapists with light sentences because no matter what damage they’ve done to the woman, he has a future to think about. What about her future? To be sure, there’s an added level of brutality here, Black men are not given a pass for rape. In fact, they are convicted sometimes on scant evidence and punished whether they deserve it or not.
As we close in on an election where we are very likely about to elect the first woman President of the United States I am reading more and more studies about how men, particularly white men, behave when women step out of traditional roles. When men feel challenged they tend to act out aggressively which probably explains the chants of "lock her up" from the opposing bench along with outright cries to kill her. Additionally, not just men, but women as well tend to judge women much more harshly for mistakes than they judge men for the very same mistakes.
Can I feel angry about all of this? I think if feminists are angry, they are totally justified in their anger. When my co-worker told me she thought I was an angry feminist my feelings got hurt, and then, I got angry. Here she was using one of the more popular criticisms used against women who are asking for a place at the table, for their voices to be heard, to influence the way we want to lead our lives. It's an effective dismissal of everything women are trying to achieve. Women are not allowed to be angry. I had forgotten that. Angry women make others uncomfortable.
My being a Feminist is not just about what is happening here in the United States either. I want all girls to go to school, I want an end to female genital mutilation and honor killings. I want women to be free to marry or not to marry whomever they choose. I want all women to have unfettered access to health care including reproductive freedom so they can pursue their dreams.
When women do well EVERYONE does well. This is well documented and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has an article about how empowering women is smart economically. It is in everyone's best interest to be a Feminist.
Sunday, August 21, 2016
The Man Knows Too Much
I love Facebook, and I sporadically love Twitter, and I love posting my pictures on Instagram. I take Facebook quizzes - not as much as I used to, but I want to be in that tiny percentage of people that are soooo smart! Then I share that I found that c in the field of o's in record time - which by the way, I think pretty much everyone does.
So, you're probably asking yourself "Why do I care?" Well, I'm trying to make a larger point here - the fact is I've willingly, if not knowingly, shared literally everything about my life online, as have all of you who use these sites. Not only that, but all of my data has been gathered up to paint a picture of me that can be sold to marketers who want to 'target' me for sales and quite possibly tailoring what I see to be more or less expensive than what you see.
I hear you saying it now, "Blah blah blah, tell me something I don't know." Did you know your cell phone or your laptop can be used to spy on you at any time and you might not even know it? I'll share something - I take my iPad to the bathroom sometimes. I'm addicted to the game Bejeweled and while some of you might take in an old fashioned newspaper, I take my iPad in with me and play games. Some people lay in the tub and read books on their iPad while they bathe. Or just their cell phones. Guess what both of these devices have? That's right, a camera that can be turned on and directed at you at any time. Your laptop, your iPad, your cell phone - all can be turned on by someone you don't know at any time and take pictures of you or listen in on your conversations.
Google reads your email. Pretty much all email services read your email. Cookies follow you everywhere even if you sign on to a different computer. Your patterns are quickly recognized. Ever been at work and checked out the web? Amazing how quickly the web figures out who you are based on where you go and what you look up. Go to Amazon and look something up on your lunch hour - I bet Amazon realizes almost immediately that it's you.
The point is you are leaving a digital footprint that means at any point in time anyone with access to that data knows exactly where you are and probably what you're doing and who you're with (you checked in on Facebook or even just have location services engaged on your cell phone).
A year ago I downloaded a book on to my Kindle titled "Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance" by Julia Agwin. This past week on my beach vacation I finally started reading it. By the way, the NSA knows I downloaded this book, and they probably know when I started reading it as well. In the book Agwin talks about all the ways our data is collected and sold, to the point that there is more data on each and every one of us, including all of our associations with each other than the East German Stasi could ever have dreamed of collecting. Agwin has a Sasi expert weigh in on what we're doing who makes the comment "The Stasi would have loved this!" Yay for us. As the book goes along Agwin works on detangling herself from all of the tracking that goes on.
I'm at that point right now - I'm in the realization that my data is being bought and sold, from the government to marketers and advertisers and then back to the government again. I don't think the government should ever have this much data on its citizens without first getting a warrant and while we've willingly hopped on to the digital network and freely provided our data maybe it's time to wake up and figure out how to stem the tide a bit. Abuse is possible at any time and I'd prefer not to fall victim to that. I've never won the lottery despite wishing really hard, and maybe I'll never be wrapped up in a digital dragnet, but you never know.
It's incredibly difficult to give up on the world of digital connection. I get together once a month with a group of women I've known since Kindergarten and we wouldn't be connected if not for Facebook. I am involved as a volunteer with animal rescue and social networking and email make saving lives a lot more effective. There is almost nothing I don't do online, and it's all being tracked and collected. From shopping, to banking to reading the news, engaging with friends, searching job sites and other activities, I'm online. That includes this blog.
I have started using DuckDuckGo to search online. No tracking and storing of my search data there. I'm searching for an email provider who won't read my emails and I want to use a browser that doesn't track and store data either. It's just a start, but it's better than nothing. The man knows too much even if he doesn't know what he knows.
So, you're probably asking yourself "Why do I care?" Well, I'm trying to make a larger point here - the fact is I've willingly, if not knowingly, shared literally everything about my life online, as have all of you who use these sites. Not only that, but all of my data has been gathered up to paint a picture of me that can be sold to marketers who want to 'target' me for sales and quite possibly tailoring what I see to be more or less expensive than what you see.
I hear you saying it now, "Blah blah blah, tell me something I don't know." Did you know your cell phone or your laptop can be used to spy on you at any time and you might not even know it? I'll share something - I take my iPad to the bathroom sometimes. I'm addicted to the game Bejeweled and while some of you might take in an old fashioned newspaper, I take my iPad in with me and play games. Some people lay in the tub and read books on their iPad while they bathe. Or just their cell phones. Guess what both of these devices have? That's right, a camera that can be turned on and directed at you at any time. Your laptop, your iPad, your cell phone - all can be turned on by someone you don't know at any time and take pictures of you or listen in on your conversations.
Google reads your email. Pretty much all email services read your email. Cookies follow you everywhere even if you sign on to a different computer. Your patterns are quickly recognized. Ever been at work and checked out the web? Amazing how quickly the web figures out who you are based on where you go and what you look up. Go to Amazon and look something up on your lunch hour - I bet Amazon realizes almost immediately that it's you.
The point is you are leaving a digital footprint that means at any point in time anyone with access to that data knows exactly where you are and probably what you're doing and who you're with (you checked in on Facebook or even just have location services engaged on your cell phone).
A year ago I downloaded a book on to my Kindle titled "Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance" by Julia Agwin. This past week on my beach vacation I finally started reading it. By the way, the NSA knows I downloaded this book, and they probably know when I started reading it as well. In the book Agwin talks about all the ways our data is collected and sold, to the point that there is more data on each and every one of us, including all of our associations with each other than the East German Stasi could ever have dreamed of collecting. Agwin has a Sasi expert weigh in on what we're doing who makes the comment "The Stasi would have loved this!" Yay for us. As the book goes along Agwin works on detangling herself from all of the tracking that goes on.
I'm at that point right now - I'm in the realization that my data is being bought and sold, from the government to marketers and advertisers and then back to the government again. I don't think the government should ever have this much data on its citizens without first getting a warrant and while we've willingly hopped on to the digital network and freely provided our data maybe it's time to wake up and figure out how to stem the tide a bit. Abuse is possible at any time and I'd prefer not to fall victim to that. I've never won the lottery despite wishing really hard, and maybe I'll never be wrapped up in a digital dragnet, but you never know.
It's incredibly difficult to give up on the world of digital connection. I get together once a month with a group of women I've known since Kindergarten and we wouldn't be connected if not for Facebook. I am involved as a volunteer with animal rescue and social networking and email make saving lives a lot more effective. There is almost nothing I don't do online, and it's all being tracked and collected. From shopping, to banking to reading the news, engaging with friends, searching job sites and other activities, I'm online. That includes this blog.
I have started using DuckDuckGo to search online. No tracking and storing of my search data there. I'm searching for an email provider who won't read my emails and I want to use a browser that doesn't track and store data either. It's just a start, but it's better than nothing. The man knows too much even if he doesn't know what he knows.
Sunday, July 10, 2016
The Week to End All Weeks
This has been a tough week to say the least. We should have seen it coming when the thunder storms descended on us for the July 4th holiday followed by a heat wave and high humidity. Here in Howard County we spent our days trapped inside our offices and houses trying to stay cool, while around the country we continued the onslaught of death and destruction that seems to have become way too common. The problems we face as a nation are much more serious and deeply rooted than we realized.
Facebook, which has been trying to provide a way for people to communicate with one another in times of upheaval also just showed a lot of people that what they've been denying is happening is actually true. Many of us have a love/hate relationship with Facebook - especially those of us of a certain age who don't like how often the app changes when we once again have to find our friends updates and wonder why we get some updates and not others. This week though there was no turning away from Diamond Reynolds as she used the Facebook Live app to stream her boyfriend Philando Castile just after he'd been shot by police and was bleeding out in his car. The shaking voice of a panicked and terrified cop can be heard in the background yelling at Diamond to keep her hands where he can see them. On a side note I'm pretty sure this woman would make an excellent war correspondent or journalist in general. She doesn't break down herself until she's on the ground and handcuffed but still keeps telling us what's going on.
Like mass shootings that occur again and again, every time another black person gets shot and killed by the police I find myself tuning out a lot because I just can't take it. How can we possibly have just shot and killed another person like this? What the hell is going on? The day before we'd just learned about the shooting in Baton Rouge. Unfairly or not I thought, well, that's the deep south for you, only to wake up the following day to what happened in Minnesota. That's when hopelessness starts to set in when you realize that Minnesota, which in 2014 was rated the 2nd most liberal state in the nation (article can be found here) has a deep seated race issue. If that's the case, then our problems are way worse than I could ever have imagined.
When the protestors peacefully gathered in Dallas, watched over by a police department known for it's shift towards better policing and policies in the community, no one expected to see five officers gunned down by a lone shooter. Thanks to the heat and humidity I had woken up around 3:30 am on Friday morning and unable to fall back asleep had turned on the television only to see the "Breaking News" banner across the screen. I wished I'd not woken up. Like the Black Men who had been shot earlier in the week, these five officers were not doing anything that should have ended in their deaths.
Having grown up in an integrated community - both financially and racially - events like this are always a shock to the system. My tiny little townhouse community is incredibly integrated and according to the Howard County Police department very safe. The kids run around the neighborhood and play in the playground right behind my house. The majority of the boys in my neighborhood are black and they ride around on their bikes, or head off to the pool or up to the basketball courts when they're not in school or off at camp. I think they're leading pretty good lives, but that's all surface. I don't really know what's happening in their lives and it's not my business. I desperately want them to be happy though and I want them to all grow up and lead great lives and make great contributions to our society. In order to do that they'll need to be able to leave our little enclave and be safe wherever they decide to go and I don't think that's possible right now.
By the same token, I don't want our Police Officers feeling targeted and afraid. I'm a white woman and when things go wrong my first instinct is always to call the police. I never hesitate. Many of the police officers in Howard County grew up here and I went to school with some of them. They're good folks. Several years ago I received a spam email death threat. I ignored it but when I got a second one I called the police. The officer was super nice and I let him in my house without a care. That's how it should be for every person when they're working with the police. I want to know that the police protect and serve all of us regardless of race, gender or even financial well being and I don't want to see them gunned down ever.
There's a deep seated exhaustion that's settling in over all of us right now I think. We can only take so much unnecessary death before we become unable to process and function. There were numerous posts on Facebook this week asking "What can I do?" or "I don't want to stand by while my friends die." There's a demonstration this afternoon on Governor Warfield Parkway in Columbia lead by the Black Lives Matter movement. Hopefully there will be a lot of people there of all races to show that here in this community we believe that Black Lives Matter.
I also believe that Police Lives Matter. I don't think Police Lives Matter over and above the law however. I worry that good officers are unable to speak up when they witness something wrong within their departments and that just like in any work situation its easier, and possibly even safer, to go along to get along which perpetuates a deadly problem. I read "Serpico" when I was in middle school and like any kid was dumbfounded that his fellow officers tried to kill him because he was honest. Still, I think that when you're given a badge and a gun you have an even greater responsibility to protecting the populace and that includes speaking up when others are in the wrong. I understand that in nearly every situation a police officer could be killed. Like Black people, police officers can be easily identified for what they are - they wear a uniform that lets us know immediately we're looking at, talking to, a cop. This makes them easy targets for someone who is out to get them and like Black people, they have real life experience with that exact situation.
Like any place in the world, the people in our nation are the treasure that makes the future possible. We've been killing our treasure off bit by bit - through war, mass shootings, the killing of black people by the police and the killing of our police officers. We are not doing a good job preparing ourselves for anything but more of the same right now. Maybe just maybe though, the Facebook Live videos of Diamond Reynolds and the shooting of the Dallas Police Officers have provided us with a chance. What we witnessed was eye opening. We have a war on our hands inside our country and its not brought to us by terrorists - it's us. We are doing this to ourselves. Now is the time to stop, take deep breaths, and to listen and learn and figure out a way to get all of us through this alive. I don't think we can do this through the politicians until we the people, the ones on the ground, grapple with our hate, our privilege and our every day actions that contribute to the worsening of events. Let's stop fighting with one another.
Yesterday I posted on Facebook that I just felt like going out and hugging everyone and I'm not a hugger by nature. We all seek out a hug though in crisis - we want to bond with each other and feel a human connection. If you're reading this, consider yourself hugged - and when I do get up the nerve to give a hug let me tell you it's a doozy. I hold on tight and squeeze so you know that I mean it. Hug your loved ones tight and know that there are people out there who love you and care what happens. Everybody stay safe.
Facebook, which has been trying to provide a way for people to communicate with one another in times of upheaval also just showed a lot of people that what they've been denying is happening is actually true. Many of us have a love/hate relationship with Facebook - especially those of us of a certain age who don't like how often the app changes when we once again have to find our friends updates and wonder why we get some updates and not others. This week though there was no turning away from Diamond Reynolds as she used the Facebook Live app to stream her boyfriend Philando Castile just after he'd been shot by police and was bleeding out in his car. The shaking voice of a panicked and terrified cop can be heard in the background yelling at Diamond to keep her hands where he can see them. On a side note I'm pretty sure this woman would make an excellent war correspondent or journalist in general. She doesn't break down herself until she's on the ground and handcuffed but still keeps telling us what's going on.
Like mass shootings that occur again and again, every time another black person gets shot and killed by the police I find myself tuning out a lot because I just can't take it. How can we possibly have just shot and killed another person like this? What the hell is going on? The day before we'd just learned about the shooting in Baton Rouge. Unfairly or not I thought, well, that's the deep south for you, only to wake up the following day to what happened in Minnesota. That's when hopelessness starts to set in when you realize that Minnesota, which in 2014 was rated the 2nd most liberal state in the nation (article can be found here) has a deep seated race issue. If that's the case, then our problems are way worse than I could ever have imagined.
When the protestors peacefully gathered in Dallas, watched over by a police department known for it's shift towards better policing and policies in the community, no one expected to see five officers gunned down by a lone shooter. Thanks to the heat and humidity I had woken up around 3:30 am on Friday morning and unable to fall back asleep had turned on the television only to see the "Breaking News" banner across the screen. I wished I'd not woken up. Like the Black Men who had been shot earlier in the week, these five officers were not doing anything that should have ended in their deaths.
Having grown up in an integrated community - both financially and racially - events like this are always a shock to the system. My tiny little townhouse community is incredibly integrated and according to the Howard County Police department very safe. The kids run around the neighborhood and play in the playground right behind my house. The majority of the boys in my neighborhood are black and they ride around on their bikes, or head off to the pool or up to the basketball courts when they're not in school or off at camp. I think they're leading pretty good lives, but that's all surface. I don't really know what's happening in their lives and it's not my business. I desperately want them to be happy though and I want them to all grow up and lead great lives and make great contributions to our society. In order to do that they'll need to be able to leave our little enclave and be safe wherever they decide to go and I don't think that's possible right now.
By the same token, I don't want our Police Officers feeling targeted and afraid. I'm a white woman and when things go wrong my first instinct is always to call the police. I never hesitate. Many of the police officers in Howard County grew up here and I went to school with some of them. They're good folks. Several years ago I received a spam email death threat. I ignored it but when I got a second one I called the police. The officer was super nice and I let him in my house without a care. That's how it should be for every person when they're working with the police. I want to know that the police protect and serve all of us regardless of race, gender or even financial well being and I don't want to see them gunned down ever.
There's a deep seated exhaustion that's settling in over all of us right now I think. We can only take so much unnecessary death before we become unable to process and function. There were numerous posts on Facebook this week asking "What can I do?" or "I don't want to stand by while my friends die." There's a demonstration this afternoon on Governor Warfield Parkway in Columbia lead by the Black Lives Matter movement. Hopefully there will be a lot of people there of all races to show that here in this community we believe that Black Lives Matter.
I also believe that Police Lives Matter. I don't think Police Lives Matter over and above the law however. I worry that good officers are unable to speak up when they witness something wrong within their departments and that just like in any work situation its easier, and possibly even safer, to go along to get along which perpetuates a deadly problem. I read "Serpico" when I was in middle school and like any kid was dumbfounded that his fellow officers tried to kill him because he was honest. Still, I think that when you're given a badge and a gun you have an even greater responsibility to protecting the populace and that includes speaking up when others are in the wrong. I understand that in nearly every situation a police officer could be killed. Like Black people, police officers can be easily identified for what they are - they wear a uniform that lets us know immediately we're looking at, talking to, a cop. This makes them easy targets for someone who is out to get them and like Black people, they have real life experience with that exact situation.
Like any place in the world, the people in our nation are the treasure that makes the future possible. We've been killing our treasure off bit by bit - through war, mass shootings, the killing of black people by the police and the killing of our police officers. We are not doing a good job preparing ourselves for anything but more of the same right now. Maybe just maybe though, the Facebook Live videos of Diamond Reynolds and the shooting of the Dallas Police Officers have provided us with a chance. What we witnessed was eye opening. We have a war on our hands inside our country and its not brought to us by terrorists - it's us. We are doing this to ourselves. Now is the time to stop, take deep breaths, and to listen and learn and figure out a way to get all of us through this alive. I don't think we can do this through the politicians until we the people, the ones on the ground, grapple with our hate, our privilege and our every day actions that contribute to the worsening of events. Let's stop fighting with one another.
Yesterday I posted on Facebook that I just felt like going out and hugging everyone and I'm not a hugger by nature. We all seek out a hug though in crisis - we want to bond with each other and feel a human connection. If you're reading this, consider yourself hugged - and when I do get up the nerve to give a hug let me tell you it's a doozy. I hold on tight and squeeze so you know that I mean it. Hug your loved ones tight and know that there are people out there who love you and care what happens. Everybody stay safe.
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
I Cranked Out 5 Push-Ups - What Did You Do?
Like a lot of people I could stand to lose a few pounds. Nearly every day I walk with my dog, and I've been unsuccessfully trying to change my diet (turns out I like cookies and ice cream a lot and it's hard to give up). Still, it's not enough. So, I thought, what if I started sharing my fitness and nutritional goals in my blog? I can go public with my progress and maybe encourage some others to join in and do what I'm doing. I'm not going to tell anyone how tall I am or how much I currently weigh - some of you know me and you can just guess. My goal isn't to lose weight anyway, my goal is to be fitter and healthier and weight loss should just be a byproduct of that activity.
I've decided to start turning my morning walk with Alby into a run. He and I are attending a "Leash Skills" class on Wednesday nights so he's less of a puller and hopefully by this time next week he and I, and even the current foster Boulder, will begin running. I'm going to charge up my Fitbit to keep track of my 'steps' if anyone wants to participate. If you're interested, I use the ResQWalk app on my mobile phone to keep track of distance and it works with both walking and running. Feel free to connect with me on that too. Unfortunately Fitbit and ResQWalk don't currently work together.
When I get back from my walk I've started hopping on my Bosu ball for squats. Right now I'm trying to hold a one minute sit squat while standing on the Bosu ball. After I can comfortably do that for a while, and I don't fall off, I may try to do more on that, but I don't know yet. Once I'm done with my squats, I'm cranking out push-ups! I can do 5 regular push-ups, not 'girly' ones. They're not the best but hey, I'm just starting out here and am really glad that my arms are still working after doing this two days in a row! When I can crank out 5 really decent push-ups I'll see if I can add 5 more and so on.
I don't have anything to share today regarding my changing diet (I'll work on that as I update the fitness goals each week). Suffice it to say I ate a few cookies to get enough energy to write this blog and I need to do that less.
There you have it - daily walk of 3-4 miles slowly turning into a run, followed up with squats and push-ups. Let's see how this goes!
I've decided to start turning my morning walk with Alby into a run. He and I are attending a "Leash Skills" class on Wednesday nights so he's less of a puller and hopefully by this time next week he and I, and even the current foster Boulder, will begin running. I'm going to charge up my Fitbit to keep track of my 'steps' if anyone wants to participate. If you're interested, I use the ResQWalk app on my mobile phone to keep track of distance and it works with both walking and running. Feel free to connect with me on that too. Unfortunately Fitbit and ResQWalk don't currently work together.
When I get back from my walk I've started hopping on my Bosu ball for squats. Right now I'm trying to hold a one minute sit squat while standing on the Bosu ball. After I can comfortably do that for a while, and I don't fall off, I may try to do more on that, but I don't know yet. Once I'm done with my squats, I'm cranking out push-ups! I can do 5 regular push-ups, not 'girly' ones. They're not the best but hey, I'm just starting out here and am really glad that my arms are still working after doing this two days in a row! When I can crank out 5 really decent push-ups I'll see if I can add 5 more and so on.
I don't have anything to share today regarding my changing diet (I'll work on that as I update the fitness goals each week). Suffice it to say I ate a few cookies to get enough energy to write this blog and I need to do that less.
There you have it - daily walk of 3-4 miles slowly turning into a run, followed up with squats and push-ups. Let's see how this goes!
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