Category Archives: Government

Stuff you may or may not know about your local, state, and federal government

Pet Peeve. One Of Many…

Telemarketers, bah humbug.

I have both my home and cell phones on the “National Do Not Call Registry” which was set up by the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission in 2003.

AFTER 14 YEARS, does it work? NOPE, not as far as I can tell. I still get several calls per day from telemarketers, phishers, and scammers.

Has anyone gone to prison for breaking the law? Again, NOPE, not as far as I can find out. There have been some fines levied but that’s about the extent of any punishment.

Okay, here’s where my “PET PEEVE” comes in. The PHONE COMPANIES can stop all of this, but THEY WON”T!

They could easily monitor any number they have and observe if the registered user is generating an unusual number of outgoing calls. They can also coordinate with the FTC and FCC to make sure a “business” is not calling people on the Do Not Call Registry.  Right now IT’S THE RESPONSIBILITY of the SCAMMER to comply with the law.  I may be a bit of a simpleton, but a law that requires a lawbreaker to self-police seems awfully stupid.  That is about as effective as a convenience store owner hanging a “No guns allowed” sign to prevent armed robberies.  “Crap, I was going to rob the place but they won’t allow me to bring  my gun into the store”.

The other thing that the phone companies are allowing on their systems is giving the SCAMMERS the ability to SPOOF CALLER ID with fake numbers and names. This makes it IMPOSSIBLE TO REPORT a violation to the authorities.  They again have control over the signalling that generates the Caller ID messages. Once more it would be easy for the phone companies to check that the Caller ID originating from the SCAMMER is their registered number which would allow us poor slobs to file a complaint. They can easily prevent ANY caller from spoofing Caller ID.

BUT THEY DON”T! The phone companies are more than happy to let this go on because they are MAKING MONEY.

The phone companies get money from the SCAMMERS, for every phone line, every phone number, and every call made, which gives the phone companies little incentive to shut the SCAMMERS down.

MONEY TALKS and BOVINE EXCREMENT (you and me) WALKS.

The Other F’ing Idiot Senator From The PRK!

Oh man! I saw some of the confirmation hearing for Representative Mike Pompeo for Director of the CIA. Baby Senator Kamala “I have no F’ing clue why I’m on this commitee” Harris spent her time attempting to sound intelligent by grilling Rep. Pompeo on LGBT treatment, discrimination against mothers, and finally NASA’s conclusions on global warming.

The first two have some relevance, as Mr. Pompeo will need to manage employee policies of the CIA. It’s the last line of questioning about global warming which she kept harping about and spent the most time on, that was absolutely asinine.

Komrade Harris kept hounding Mr. Pompeo, if he believed NASA’s conclusions about global warming (renamed to climate science because they can’t prove global warming) was debatable. Mr. Pompeo said he did not want to get into the debate about the validity of climate science as he said he had not read the NASA report and that the focus of the CIA will be to help fight the wars that is being waged against our country, and NOT on the debate about the validity of climate science.  Komrade Harris wouldn’t give up on her line of questioning until Mr. Pompeo agreed to discuss this topic with her at a later time.  Her performance proves that she is clueless and quite the F’ing idiot!

Komrade Harris apparently believes that if NASA does something, it is akin to a “work of god” and cannot be questioned.  She seems to believe there is no debate on “climate science”  because NASA issued a “holy” report.  The blind belief in climate science apparently is a litmus test for her as to the suitability of an individual to direct the CIA.  Huh? WTF?  Anyone have the odds on her endorsing to CONFIRM Rep. Pompeo?  A million to one?

Someone needs to remind Komrade Harris about the “Mars Climate Orbiter“. Golly, it even has the word “Climate” in it.  The gods of NASA managed to lose control of their (really “our” as taxpayers) $125,000,000.00 Orbiter because they used metric units (meters, newton-meters) for some data and English units (feet, pounds) for others in their flight calculations. The probe was so off course when it reached Mars that it crashed into the surface in a “FLAMING BALL OF WRECKAGE” without making a single orbit or sending back any useful data.  The gods of NASA were perplexed when they couldn’t locate the probe as it neared the Red Planet.  It took some time before they figured out that they had commanded the probe to smash into Mars.  No DATA from the orbiter.  Pretty good return on $125 million, 1999 dollars.  That’s close to $200 million in today’s dollars, folks.  Oopsie.

The error in units, by the gods of NASA, is something that a high school student might make, but an infallible god?  On top of that, they had 9 months after launch to figure out they had a problem.  However, not until well after the Orbiter augured into the dirt, did the gods notice that the telemetry calculation numbers made no sense.

Pretty good work for infallible gods!  But who am I to question the work of gods?

Getting back to Komrade Harris, perhaps she believes that global warming is an area for the CIA Director to focus on because, like “Soon to be gone” Secretary of State Kerry, she believes ISIS can be defeated by giving them solar panels!  You can read my commentary on that topic HERE.

Kalifornia Senator Feinstein Blows A What?!

During the confirmation hearing for Sen. Jeff Sessions as our next Attorney General, Sen. Dianne “Give away all the good American jobsFeinstein, of The People’s Republik of Kalifornia made allegations that Sen. Sessions is a racist  and bigot.

She brought up that in the 1985, then US Atty. Sessions, prosecuted three African-Americans accused of voter fraud in Alabama.  Many people say this prosecution by Session was an attempt to suppress black voters.  Of course she didn’t bring up the FACT that the folks bringing up the complaint of voter fraud were African-American and that he was fighting for justice for those whose votes were stolen!  She also didn’t bring up the FACT that, Albert Turner Jr.  the son of two of the people prosecuted STATED, just before the hearing began that,

I have known Senator Sessions for many years, beginning with the voter fraud case in Perry County in which my parents were defendants. My differences in policy and ideology with him do not translate to personal malice. He is not a racist. As I have said before, at no time then or now has Jeff Sessions said anything derogatory about my family.

After her smear attempt and the full story came out, Komrade Feinstein must have blown a gasket. She immediately flew back to The PRK to have a pacemaker installed. You can read the story HERE. Not FAKE NEWS!

Just as a “For Your Information”, my nickname for her of “Give away all the good American jobs“, is because the good Komrade Feinstein is THE LEADING ADVOCATE for massive increases in the number of H1B visas which would allow foreign workers to take over the most skilled job positions in our country, displacing Americans and lowering top earner’s wages.  What sorts of jobs does the good Komrade want to see taken over by foreign workers?  Oh just those undesirable high paying jobs in biotechnology, chemistry, architecture, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences, information technology, and the like.  You know those jobs which pay in the six figures that obviously no American would ever want to have.

There is a DANGER in allowing H1B workers to take these technology jobs.  When foreign workers learn the inner workings of our high-tech industries, our country loses INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY and we also increase the possibility of CYBER ATTACKS when the foreign workers return to their home countries.

Here in the PRK, I will be labeled a “Xenophobe” for not entrusting our country’s intellectual property to citizens of another country, who may in turn, give it away to foreign companies and governments.  How deplorable of me.