A LITTLE TROUBLE WITH YOUR PC?

Are you getting that? Are you having some unexplained slowness and jamming when you try to do even the simplest things on the internet? Are things loading more slowly? Perhaps not at all?


About a month ago, my perfectly functioning laptop system began to function like 'rush hour' in metropolitan NYC, regardless of day or time. Shortly thereafter, I began getting pop-up after pop-up offering me the perfect solution to PC slowness. This happens no matter which browser I am using.


Hmmm, paranoid I may be, but I do detect clear signs of a plot here.
"They" whoever "They" are, obviously have more control over what we see and do on our PC's than we have cared to suspect. It is calling to mind an old episode of Twilight Zone. "Do not attempt to adjust your screen," is the direct quote that comes to  mind ...  followed by some sort of invasion.


I suspect in this case it is a media and advertising scam creating the problem only "They" can solve.
So far, I've been able to limp along by repeatedly cleaning out cookies and deleting browsing history.
If you have better homegrown solutions that do not involve buying the services "They" are trying to sell, please comment here and let me know.


Thanks, and keep reading and keep active!
Blessed Be
Victoria

ANOTHER REASON TO CUT ALL FOREIGN AID NOW

This is the most shocking report I have yet seen. A true afront to the American People, Our Constitution, the Military, those who died on 9/11 and at every terrorist attack since the Crusades.

REVAMPING THE ECONOMY: A FEW IDEAS...

Admittedly, I know nothing about economics as is taught in economics classes. I have never taken “econ.” I was a science and journalism major. I always thought that money would take care of itself. My naiveté has come home to roost. I am essentially on my own for the first time in my life. I have been learning many lessons and continue to do so.

Even though my assumption that money would just happen as needed proved to be a bit of a fantasy, a more profound gut feeling about the way national and world economy functions has proven to be correct.

The economic system does not work. It appeared to work for decades, centuries even. Now we see it collapsing from its own dead weight, even though the pundits keep trying to prop it up and baffle our public consciousness with bovine excrement.

A growth economy is the fundamental foundation of how this is all set up. It is a crumbling foundation. Envision a huge pile of sand assaulted by the strong and unrelenting winds of change.

I am also no architect, but I think we can all call to mind what would happen if a tall building were built on top of a pile of sand.

Too much confidence has been placed in this economic house of cards. Literally tons of books have been written about this form of economy.

To paraphrase Wikipedia, labor, resources, production, exchange and distribution of goods and services comprise an economic system.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy.

There are places in life where balance is our best possible goal. Economy is one of those places.

Worldwide population growth is out of balance and has been since, well, forever. But that does not mean that the world economy has to outflank it. Achieving a balance in economy would look different than what we see today. Not only would it mean equal pay for equal work in the USA, but it would mean that no where in the world would women and children be enslaved for pennies a day. It would mean that compassion, fairness and wise stewardship would be the foundation upon which stability and balance would be achieved. Gross profits and Wall Street mania would be a thing of the past. Most necessary goods would be produced locally. Employment contracts would be written individually and agreed to by both parties and performance measured in both directions.

            It seems as though some things in life should be free. Indeed, some are, but they are the intangibles. If other things were free, how would the providers thereof be able to provide for themselves? Education, it seems, should be free, but if it were, then how would the teachers live? Parks should be free, but if they were, how would the people who care for them buy groceries and clothe their families?

Government has assumed the task of paying for many things for people. Oops! Where does the government get that money? Well, from the people. The government has become this gigantic and inefficient middle man doling out this and that while paying bureaucrats and staff large amounts of tax money to pass along some of it in the form of welfare, that people would not need if the government wasn’t sucking up so much money and accruing so much debt. Debt? Debt you ask? Well, yes, the government spends more than the tax revenues, no matter how great that figure.  And the United States Government has been borrowing money in one form or another for decades.

When I was a little kid, I saw on TV how we sent massive amounts of aid to China. So how does it turn out that we are now indebted to China for trillions of dollars? And of course many other countries hold paper against the USA for varying sums all totaling more zeros than my calculator can handle.

And some want to raise the debt ceiling and spend even more.

These are things the various levels of government should provide for:

Unified roads and bridges

The infrastructure for other forms of transportation, utilities and communication. This includes airport runways, cell towers, power lines, water and sewer systems and so forth.

Military

Border and port of entry monitoring

Police

Fire Departments and EMT services

When I say various levels of government, I am assuring you that not all of these things are to come from the federal government, but some must come from state and local levels. And some, especially infrastructure and  EMT and Fire department services could be privatized through renewable leases, which would not be a drain, but a possible source of income.

Here is how the governments can save money:

Cease and desist the so-called “war on drugs.”

Stop paying welfare to the able-bodied idle.

Cut off annual retirement payments to retired congressmen/women.

Freeze salaries of politicos currently in office at all federal levels.

Require that all persons serving in government fly or travel commercially and not in government craft or in private planes, unless those are paid for strictly by the individual. No expense accounts for elected officials. Only enforcement agencies will have access to government craft as need for assignments.

No government money to fund election campaigns.

Set a low cap on how much can be spent on any political campaign.

Eliminate lobbiest organizations.

Eliminate discretionary spending categories.

Confine entitlement programs to verified citizens and their legal dependents, providing none have any criminal records.

Tighten the eligibility criteria for aid programs

Turn away all illegals at the border. Explain to them the proper procedure for applying for legal entry.

Realize Border Patrol is not doing the job. Use the military and military dogs to do the border patrolling work.

Stop sending arms to Mexico and South America.

Eliminate all foreign aid immediately.

 Chart: Discretionary_Spending by Department

The above chart is from Wikipedia. This is the discretionary spending of our tax money.

Starting at the top, I suggest we do the following:

>Itemize Health and Human services. We need to know line by line, what this huge amount is for. Then we need to cut it, line by line as appropriate.

>Veterans Affairs: Increase to 60 billion to account for exceptional advances in  treatment of amputees and for PTSD.

>Department of Education: Cut to 30 billion, line by line

>Housing and Urban Development: lets do a line by line cut back to 30 billion.

>Homeland Security and TSA: Cut back to zero. We have a very fine, well-trained military and a wonderful contingent of beautifully trained dogs. Let them do their work.

>Department of State:  Minimize fluffy luxury expenses. Cut back to 20 billion.

>Department of  Justice: This department needs to review the Constitution and become more accountable to the original principles of that fine document. If they can do their job properly, leave it alone, if not, cut it at any area that is misbehaving.

>Department of Agriculture was originally designed to protect the interests of our nation’s farmers against foreign and domestic incursions. They have failed. Now our nation’s agriculture is dominated by two or three major corporate enterprises which are patenting chemically and biologically altered seed and prohibiting independent farmers from using their own harvested seed. They are killing our farmers and feeding us chemically altered crap prettily packaged as though it were actually food. Cut them back to 2 billion and rescind the seed patents issued to agribusiness corporations, whose names I will not mention here.

>Department of Energy. Hmmm. What have they done lately? Pushed pencils and wasted paper mostly. Eliminate the whole thing. Zero Zilch.

>International Assistance, also known as foreign aid. Bring it home! Cut this down to 2 billion dollars and that is still generous.

>Department of Transportation. Line item. Make them simplify. Eliminate excessive paperwork. Cut their budget to 15 billion and hold them accountable for their expenditures. If bridges and roads need repair, then acceptable proposals can be handled as special appropriations.

>NASA: well, as of today they seem to have eliminated this all together. Apparently the space industry is being turned over to the Russians and other European countries and to private industry. Too bad. It was the best research and development organization in the world.

>Department of Labor seems mostly like a lame duck. If it were fully functional, labor unions could be put to rest. OSHA should make periodic inspections of business and not wait to be called. Working conditions would be better monitored and  less jobs would be out-sourced. Make them accountable and more efficient. Perhaps President Johnson was correct when he suggested combining it with the ….

>Department of Commerce: they once were combined. It might prove more effective again. Dept. of Commerce needs to be watch-dogged a bit more rigorously. Especially in the area of patent-issuing. Consideration needs to be given to the long-term affects of certain patents that could eventually prove to be not in the public interest, but harmful to overall fiscal and physical health.

>The Treasury Department has conspired with the Federal Reserve and the White House and Capitol Hill to ruin our economy. And of course, it harbors the IRS, a debatably controversial and unpopular agency. Hopefully the good it serves at least balances out the bad. As budgets go, it appears to be comparatively small for the complexity of the agency. We need more public oversight into this.

>Department of Interior Has not done an exemplary job in protecting our American Indians nor our American forest lands. It oversees the parks and really doesn’t accomplish much. It should be combined with …

>Department of Environmental Protection which has proven to be a whole lot of useless paper-pushing for the most part.  I suggest combing the EPA with the Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture. Giving them a list of things to do, and hold them accountable. If they actually do it all, then it could be appropriate to combine their budgets and rounding down to a flat 25 billion. For good measure, let’s throw in whatever functions the Department of Energy was designed to perform. It all could easily be accommodated in this more efficient combination.

Here is how the governments can make money:

Legalize all currently illegal drugs or controlled substances, regulate and tax them. The ATF needs something useful to do.

Put prisoners to work. Make them earn their keep.

All welfare recipients must pass random pee tests. Even though controlled substances will be legalized, they must prove they are not wasting money on non-essentials.

Tighten scrutiny at the store level, so that people cannot buy junk food and luxury items with food stamps. And if they have money to buy these things, why are their ordinary items paid for by food stamps?

Force all able-bodied welfare recipients to work in some of the following areas:

Cleaning roadsides of trash and litter, sorting and recycling it.

Pulling noxious weeds from public areas

Sweeping streets and shoveling snow in public areas

Cooking and distributing food to the homeless or indigent

Collecting cast-off food products for the homeless

Collecting and sorting food waste for composting, making compost and mulch for sale to individuals and business.

Teaching ESL and other basic skills to those who lack them… ie: to each other.

Sand bagging for flood zones

Bucket brigades for wild fires

Reading to the blind or infirm, or to children in after-school programs.

People need to take pride in themselves for some accomplishments.

Make the welfare recipient work force available on contract to private citizens willing to pay a small amount for basic help, such as carrying things, cleaning or yard work.

(Determine which of these suggestions , if enacted, would not deprive someone not on welfare, of any employment opportunities)

I think we remember a few years back when the government accounting office uncovered  some very expensive hammers that were sold to the US government. Another look should be taken at the costs of private contractors. The government claims it is cheaper to hire contractors than to use military personnel. And yet the many contractors I speak with in my work tell me how delighted they are that they got out of the military to do contract work for the military because they make so much more money and do what they want. So how can that actually be cheaper?

I am tired of wastefulness in my own life and I am tired of wastefulness in our government. Let’s make government accountable to us. It is designed to serve us. We are not servants of government. Liberate America from the chokehold of our big fat Jabba the Hut government.

Maybe you disagree. Fully? Or line by line? I would like to know. Maybe I need a different perspective, but that’s how I see it.

Victoria

The Economy: It Sucks, So This Is a Long One...

Admittedly, I know nothing about economics that is taught in economics classes. I have never taken “econ.” I was a science and journalism major. I always thought that money would take care of itself. My naiveté has come home to roost. I am essentially on my own for the first time in my life. I have been learning many lessons and continue to do so.

Even though my assumption that money would just happen as needed proved to be a bit of a fantasy, a more profound gut feeling about the way national and world economy functions has proven to be correct. The economic system does not work. It appeared to work for decades, centuries even. Now we see it collapsing from its own dead weight, even though the pundits keep trying to prop it up and baffle our public consciousness with bovine excrement.

A growth economy is the fundamental foundation of how this is all set up. It is a crumbling foundation. Envision a huge pile of sand assaulted by the strong and unrelenting winds of change.

I am also no architect, but I think we can all call to mind what would happen if a tall building were built on top of a pile of sand.

Too much confidence has been placed in this economic house of cards. Literally tons of books have been written about this form of economy.

To paraphrase Wikipedia, labor, resources, production, exchange and distribution of goods and services comprise an economic system.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy.

There are places in life where balance is our best possible goal. Economy is one of those places.

Worldwide population growth is out of balance and has been since, well, forever. But that does not mean that the world economy has to outflank it. Achieving a balance in economy would look different than what we see today. Not only would it mean equal pay for equal work in the USA, but it would mean that no where in the world would women and children be enslaved for pennies a day. It would mean that compassion, fairness and wise stewardship would be the foundation upon which stability and balance would be achieved. Gross profits and Wall Street mania would be a thing of the past. Most necessary goods would be produced locally. Employment contracts would be written individually and agreed to by both parties and performance measured in both directions.

            It seems as though some things in life should be free. Indeed, some are, but they are the intangibles. If other things were free, how would the providers thereof be able to provide for themselves? Education, it seems, should be free, but if it were, then how would the teachers live? Parks should be free, but if they were, how would the people who care for them buy groceries and clothe their families?

Government has assumed the task of paying for many things for people. Oops! Where does the government get that money? Well, from the people. The government has become this gigantic and inefficient middle man doling out this and that while paying bureaucrats and staff large amounts of tax money to pass along some of it in the form of welfare, that people would not need if the government wasn’t sucking up so much money and accruing so much debt.

These are things the various levels of government should provide for:

Unified roads and bridges

The infrastructure for other forms of transportation, utilities and communication. This includes airport runways, cell towers, power lines, water and sewer systems and so forth.

Military

Border and port of entry monitoring

Police

Fire Departments and EMT services

When I say various levels of government, I am assuring you that not all of these things are to come from the federal government, but some must come from state and local levels.

Here is how the governments can save money:

Cease and desist the so-called “war on drugs.”

Stop paying welfare to the able-bodied idle.

Cut off annual retirement payments to retired congressmen/women

Freeze salaries of politicos currently in office at all federal levels.

Require that all persons serving in government fly or travel commercially and not in government craft or in private planes, unless those are paid for strictly by the individual. No expense accounts for elected officials. Only enforcement agencies will have access to government craft as need for assignments.

No government money to fund election campaigns.

Set a low cap on how much can be spent on any political campaign.

Eliminate lobbiest organizations.

Eliminate discretionary spending categories.

Confine entitlement programs to verified citizens and their legal dependents, providing none have any criminal records.

Tighten the eligibility criteria for aid programs

Turn away all illegals at the border. Explain to them the proper procedure for applying for legal entry.

Realize Border Patrol is not doing the job. Use the military and military dogs to do the border patrolling work.

Stop sending arms to Mexico and South America.

Eliminate all foreign aid immediately.

The above chart is from Wikipedia. This is the discretionary spending of our tax money.

Starting at the top, I suggest we do the following:

>Itemize Health and Human services. We need to know line by line, what this huge amount is for. Then we need to cut it, line by line as appropriate.

>Veterans Affairs: Increase to 60 billion to account for exceptional advances in  treatment of amputees and for PTSD.

>Department of Education: Cut to 30 billion, line by line

>Housing and Urban Development: lets do a line by line cut back to 30 billion.

>Homeland Security and TSA: Cut back to zero. We have a very fine, well-trained military and a wonderful contingent of beautifully trained dogs. Let them do their work.

>Department of State:  Minimize fluffy luxury expenses. Cut back to 20 billion.

>Department of  Justice: This department needs to review the Constitution and become more accountable to the original principles of that fine document. If they can do their job properly, leave it alone, if not, cut it at any area that is misbehaving.

>Department of Agriculture was originally designed to  protect the interests of our nation’s farmers against foreign and domestic incursions. They have failed. Now our nation’s agriculture is dominated by two or three major corporate enterprises which are patenting chemically and biologically altered seed and prohibiting independent farmers from using their own harvested seed. They are killing our farmers and feeding us chemically altered crap prettily packaged as though it were actually food. Cut them back to 2 billion and rescind the seed patents issued to agribusiness corporations, whose names I will not mention here.

>Department of Energy. Hmmm. What have they done lately? Pushed pencils and wasted paper mostly. Eliminate the whole thing. Zero Zilch.

>International Assistance, also known as foreign aid. Bring it home! Cut this down to 2 billion dollars and that is still generous.

>Department of Transportation. Line item. Make them simplify. Eliminate excessive paperwork. Cut their budget to 15 billion and hold them accountable for their expenditures. If bridges and roads need repair, then acceptable proposals can be handled as special appropriations.

>NASA: well, as of today they seem to have eliminated this all together. Apparently the space industry is being turned over to the Russians and other European countries and to private industry. Too bad. It was the best research and development organization in the world.

>Department of Labor seems mostly like a lame duck. If it were fully functional, labor unions could be put to rest. OSHA should make periodic inspections of business and not wait to be called. Working conditions would be better monitored and  less jobs would be out-sourced. Make them accountable and more efficient. Perhaps President Johnson was correct when he suggested combining it with the ….

>Department of Commerce: they once were combined. It might prove more effective again. Dept. of Commerce needs to be watch-dogged a bit more rigorously. Especially in the area of patent-issuing. Consideration needs to be given to the long-term affects of certain patents that could eventually prove to be not in the public interest, but harmful to overall fiscal and physical health.

>The Treasury Department has conspired with the Federal Reserve and the White House and Capitol Hill to ruin our economy. And of course, it harbors the IRS, a debatably controversial and unpopular agency. Hopefully the good it serves at least balances out the bad. As budgets go, it appears to be comparatively small for the complexity of the agency. We need more public oversight into this.

>Department of Interior Has not done an exemplary job in protecting our American Indians nor our American forest lands. It oversees the parks and really doesn’t accomplish much. It should be combined with …

>Department of Environmental Protection which has proven to be a whole lot of useless paper-pushing for the most part.  I suggest combing the EPA with the Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture. Giving them a list of things to do, and hold them accountable. If they actually do it all, then it could be appropriate to combine their budgets and rounding down to a flat 25 billion. For good measure, let’s throw in whatever functions the Department of Energy was designed to perform. It all could easily be accommodated in this more efficient combination.

Here is how the governments can make money:

Legalize all currently illegal drugs or controlled substances, regulate and tax them. The ATF needs something useful to do.

Put prisoners to work. Make them earn their keep.

All welfare recipients must pass random pee tests. Even though controlled substances will be legalized, they must prove they are not wasting money on non-essentials.

Tighten scrutiny at the store level, so that people cannot buy junk food and luxury items with food stamps.

Force all able-bodied welfare recipients to work in some of the following areas:

Cleaning roadsides of trash and litter, sorting and recycling it.

Pulling noxious weeds from public areas

Sweeping streets and shoveling snow in public areas

Cooking and distributing food to the homeless or indigent

Collecting cast-off food products for the homeless

Collecting and sorting food waste for composting, making compost and mulch for sale to individuals and business.

Teaching ESL and other basic skills to those who lack them… ie: to each other.

Sand bagging for flood zones

Bucket brigades for wild fires

Reading to the blind or infirm, or to children in after-school programs.

People need to take pride in themselves for some accomplishments.

Make the welfare recipient work force available on contract to private citizens willing to pay a small amount for basic help, such as carrying things, cleaning or yard work.

(Determine which of these suggestions , if enacted, would not deprive someone not on welfare, of any employment opportunities)

I think we remember a few years back when the government accounting office uncovered  some very expensive hammers that were sold to the US government. Another look should be taken at the costs of private contractors. The government claims it is cheaper to hire contractors than to use military personnel. And yet the many contractors I speak with in my work tell me how delighted they are that they got out of the military to do contract work for the military because they make so much more money and do what they want. So how can that actually be cheaper?

I am tired of wastefulness in my own life and I am tired of wastefulness in our government. Let’s make government accountable to us. It is designed to serve us. We are not servants of government. Liberate America from the chokehold of our big fat Jabba the Hut government.

That’s how I see it.

Victoria

OBSERVATION AT THE GROCERY STORE

Today's observation begins in the grocery store.
There are 128 ounces in a gallon. 64 ounces are in a half gallon.
Juice has historically been sold by the half gallon. (64 ounces)
Now, the same apparent cartons contain only 59 ounces. This switch was done with no announcement whatsoever, but was accompanied by a price increase.
Now we pay more for less.
This also happens with the jams and jellies, assorted canned goods such as green beans, peas, soups and fruits.
Try to buy a one pound package of coffee. If you succeed, please let me know the details. Packages of coffee that once contained 16 ounces (one pound) are now home to 12, 13 or even just 11 ounces.
As prices rise, it becomes clear that Americans need to learn to purchase locally produced foods, to cut back on paying exhorbitant prices based upon transportation costs and in many cases importation costs. Packaging and over-packaging is also another big contributor to inflated food prices.
Had I not expected to be relocated by mid Summer, I would have planted a garden this year. Regardless of my location next year, I will raise as much of my own food as possible.
Groceries that are prepared foods, or junk foods, or not even food at all are being pared from my list. I would encourage each of you to re-think your purchases and exercise your power with wise stewardship of your grocery dollars.
Any ideas or input will be appreciated.
Best Wishes,
Victoria

Talking To Myself

You may recall, back in January, at the inception of this particular blog, I stipulated that this should be a dialogue. Well, so far, I've been talking to myself. It's been a pretty one-sided conversation.
I have a lot of ideas, but I bet you have some too.
Maybe you disagree with me. That's fine. I would love to hear your views.
Maybe you agree but feel helpless and hopeless. Let's talk about that too.
What can we do? We can dialogue until solutions present themselves, and then we can act upon them.
As we speak (as I speak) factions in D.C. want to raise the debt ceiling.
To that I say, HOLY CRAPOLA! At this time, my personal finances are in a similar situation as the nation's. Raising the debt ceiling is not an option for me (except for shoes for work and auto repairs) In my uncomfortable debt to credit ratio situation, the last thing I want to do is use more credit.
As I oh-so-slowly nibble away at the debt I have incurred trying to survive since the big D, I am (also) slowly converting myself into a cash-basis personal economy. With such a pittance as my hourly wage, it is indeed slow-going. And yet, I know that it is a very worthwhile endeavor.
"Neither a borrower nor a lender be,"  I thought was in the Bible, but I cannot find it. Is it perhaps, Shakespeare? Whence ever it cometh, it's exceptionally fine advice.
The Bible does prohibit usury though. And usury is defined as undue interest exacted on a loan, or in the case of dire necessity, it prohibts ANY interest being assessed. If you notice, our economy has become based upon usury.
These are things that upset me most about our economy:
High interest rates
Advertising that 'creates' desires that did not heretofore exist
Consumerism as an acceptable way of life
The concept of a 'growth economy'
I will not be called a consumer. I am a citizen. I am a citizen who leaves a very small footprint. I compost, I recycle, I help wildlife when I can. All my pets are rescued animals. I am not a mall rat. I have changed my shopping habits. I buy only what I NEED. Food, socks and underwear only as the old ones wear out, dog food, replacement parts for stuff, medical necessities, and reference materials as needed. I am attempting to downsize so that I can live in a smaller place. Okay, I'm patting myself on the back for my diligent insistence on reducing, reuseing, repairing and recycling. Well, I did have a BIG SPLURGE this year already. I confess, I spent $4.50 on a bottle of nail polish. But did you know, that if you run out of shampoo, you can substitute bar soap or dish soap (not the dishwasher kind... the other stuff)?
Well, sorry. I do feel that these are important personal footsteps to take toward fixing things.
"If everyone lit just one little candle, what a bright world this would be," is a favorite quote from a TV show when I was very young. If everyone planted a tree, recycled, composted and grew a few garden items, and maybe stopped watering their lawn, we would see a significant impact. People would also see reductions in utility and other expenses. Stuff is expensive. That makes me angry. Inflation is accepted as a matter of course. People laugh at old fogies who are shocked that gum is $2.18 when it used to be a dime.  Well hell yeah, it's shocking! Who needs gum anyway? Now that I have turned this into a rant after the example of the old fogies themselves, I shall sign off for tonight.
May Great Spirit Bless the Entire World!
Love and Light
Victoria