So, I shared a post that I found provocative and thought it appropriate for my point of view. In my opinion it seemed accurate. Today, I got a “Fact Check” no no from Facebook. I decided to do my own research. The photo shot the I shared showed a alleged image of the Keystone XL pipeline vs a photo of an open pit lithium mine. The intent of the OP was to draw attention to the environmental damage that each produces when constructed. Facebook basically said remove the post or dispute their actions. I am here to tell you the Facebook and The Associated Press fact checkers are incorrect. If you want proof, do a quick look at Google images for Keystone XL Pipeline, then look at images of open-pit lithium mines. Decide for yourself. This is proof that Facebook is indeed biased.

Today’s Thoughts: 11/10/2020; In the aftermath of the most contested political process in the last 100 years!

I’m sure I am not the only one to recognize that the current process of managing the process of elections is in need of some real changes. Over the last few weeks I have been a participant and observer of the worst managed process of sorting out who will lead this country that has existed in my entire lifetime. It is my opinion that we the people of this United States must demand a change. There is sufficient technology available right now to allow for a digital process that is backed up by a handwritten proxy system that would allow for the nearly instant tabulation of all voters cast by eligible voters and within that process the methods for registering and validating the process for veracity.

I put forth a list of those possibilities below and since this is an open forum please feel free to add thoughts for the process that I might miss. Also PLEASE share this with anyone that you wish. Just click on one of the social media links on the page to share.

  1. Federal elections MUST be separated from State elections and held on a day that is set aside for them.
  2. All states, counties, and localities must allow, by law, a day off work, school, etc. so that every voter can be assured the right to be a participant. This day to vote does not have to be on a certain day, but must be allowed within the period for which elections are called. That day must be allowed at the voter’s discretion. It may be any day within the voting time frame allowed including any weekday or weekend day. This will allow the voter to participate on a day when they are not required to work or attend other required activities.
  3. Registration for federal elections must be set up within a blockchain digital system whereby each applicant will be assigned a blockchain wallet with a verified identification number. The ONLY person with access to that wallet, after it is verified, is the registered voter. By law, that wallet will be destroyed by the blockchain system if the registrant does not keep it updated with current verified geophysical information. If the wallet is destroyed due to the registrant being delinquent in keeping it updated or due to some issues of health or other matters, then the registrant must re-apply and be assigned a new different wallet and ID number. This process will eliminate any fraud of using voter ID and will eliminate the use of deceased voters ID as well. Filing a death certificate by county, state, or localities and the validation of such would also activate a self-destruction order of the blockchain wallet by the blockchain system. Proof of such an event could be contested by and via a reapplication by the voter.
  4. Registration of voters and the requirements for validation of the blockchain ID will be the responsibility of an agency of the federal government and would be aligned with the Census Bureau only and with other agencies such as the Social Security Administration et. al. serving as part of the validation process. All information collected for that purpose and placed within the blockchain wallet is to be classified as private and as such not subject to any scrutiny by any other federal agency including law enforcement or national security agencies. This has nothing to do with the activities of any other agency and poses no threat to any of them or their duties. Allowing the intrusion of other agencies would destroy the good faith required for the system to be operated properly and trusted by voters.
  5. Registration for all federal elections must have a defined date that establishes a deadline for valid registration. Keeping in mind that any blockchain wallet update by the registered voter may be done regardless of the registration deadline as long as there is only one vote allowed for the registrant’s voter ID during any federal election.
  6. Blockchain votes when cast will be assigned to the registered “Electors” for the geophysical location in which the voter resides. It is my opinion that the wise decision of our founders to disallow a popular vote and rather to use an electoral system is a good plan that levels the playing field for all people. The founders recognized the probability that high concentrations of voters in some geographical areas might unduly influence the outcome of elections in a manner that would be highly divisive if the geographical situations are not taken into consideration. For those of you that are not aware; “In the Electoral College system, each state gets a certain number of electors based on its total number of representatives in Congress. Each elector casts one electoral vote following the general election; there are a total of 538 electoral votes. The candidate that gets more than half (270) wins the election.” a further explanation is that: “House of Representatives apportioned to each state is determined after each decennial census by a mathematical formula set by federal law. Unless a state’s constitution provides otherwise, each legislature has the authority to draw its state’s congressional district boundaries.”
  7. The census process also should be implemented in a manner so that noncitizens are represented as such and are required by law to be registered in the census, that representative apportionment does not include them in the voting process. It is my opinion that any noncitizen who has legally applied for citizenship should be granted provisional voter rights as the outcome does affect them and basic human rights dictate this be allowed.
  8. Since the decennial census is involved in the process, we must analyze if the timing is best suited for our spot in history. 10 years apart might have been effective 250 years ago, but with the speed at which change occurs now the process needs to be updated. I would propose that the census be also included in the same blockchain wallet system with a constant update in process based on constant geophysical updates of all citizens and registered citizenship applicants. Based on these criteria I suggest that all electors be appointed for their geographical areas and allotted to the representative’s areas in a time frame that is ended with the allowed date of ending voter registration.
  9. As I am aware there are citizens that are not well versed in the English language but nonetheless are valid voters. There are also elderly, or disenfranchised people who are also entitled to be registered as voters. I propose that those individuals be identified and allowed special conditions for participating in all federal elections by allowing for multiple languages including sign language and braille for those that require it. These individuals must be assisted by the federal government if needed in order for them to participate.
  10. Under no circumstances are political parties allowed to have access to individual voters contact info unless the voter requests it of the parties, never by supply from any federal agency. All registrations and individual votes are to remain anonymous after being cast thru the blockchain system.
  11. To engage this system I propose developing internet and phone applications that enable the use of the blockchain wallet system and that for those individuals who are unable to use either of these systems for any reason a mandated voter system with blockchain registration and polling places available to any who are registered, or wish to register and that those persons be provided with assistance for that purpose. Those activities to be completed prior to the registration for voter ID deadline.

Anyone with thoughts to assist in cleaning up this mess within our current system please send them to me at pop@www.askpop.net or add them as comments. You will be required to register for a membership in order to post comments but it is free.

Convention of States Action

MY CONCERNS!

I wish to express my displeasure and loss of interest in the current direction taken by the COS Action. I am a libertarian by politics, a personal conservative by nature, and have no religious convictions. I have supported the COS for several years now and would continue to do so if it had not become apparent that the “movement” has become subverted to a purely politically biased position that strongly resembles a plain old current Republican Party stance. I could even tolerate that except for the seeming loss of direction by COS leadership. I have noticed that the COS has adopted some very slick marketing of itself and now is selling merchandise to ostensibly support itself. I have “donated” to COS in the past and would continue to do so, were it not for these changes. As political movements get larger they are always infiltrated by people looking to take or make a monetary advantage for themselves or to inflate their political presence. That is what we are experiencing in Washington currently. The original NATIONAL policy that is touted by the COS is why I joined. I do not support any localized TEXAS only policies as I think we do a good job of managing our own business here. We need to leave our concerns with Washington and deal with that issue by itself, we are not yet there and ALL our focus needs to be in rendering the US Constitution to fit our NEEDS. After that is accomplished, anything COS wants to do as far as the state is up to those left in the organization.  If you are interested in these opinions, feel free to copy and paste to your social media. I appreciate the interest.

Families First Act

This is a link to the complete text etc. of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/6201
I have spent about an hour so far and it looks as confusing as any usual government document. It seems this is likely a “trickle-down” process as the fed is leaving it up to the states to figure out how to administer the processes of relief. I can see vast loopholes in the bill as there seems to be very little oversight by law and that is delegated to various federal and state agencies. Granted it is a big bill and will likely require revisiting by lawmakers over the next few months. In fact, I observed that the benefits are preparing for up to 2 years for them to all be in effect as provided with no other amendments I know I was hoping for a far easier set of provisions that will allow “any” regular citizen to get questions answered and to apply for benefits as proposed by this bill. For now, it seems the regular states benefit regulations are in effect and in my opinion they need to be brought up to reflect the intent of the federal bill. That is not being addressed NOW! Our state legislators, governor and Texas WorkForce are not up this task with the regulations currently in place. To that end, the state requires any applicant for unemployment, SNAP benefits, and Medicaid: to be completely destitute: ie less than $2000 to their name in a bank and self-employed folks that work as contractors or as sole proprietors of a small business that doesn’t pay into the states unemployment insurance program are not eligible for benefits even though they are closed and can not work due to state and federal guidelines. I personally have family members that are in this situation. Here in Texas, we need our state government to at least temporarily alter these regulations in order to protect the families and jobs of these citizens. The state regulations MUST reflect the content and intent of the federal regulations and provisions of this bill, in order for that to occur. The state government needs to act NOW!

New Opportunities

Since the onset of the current SARS COVID-19 pandemic, I have seen a huge uptick in people trying to get situated with upgrades to an existing web site or to establishing a new website with merchandising or retail capabilities. Just to keep anyone seeking this type of expertise I am listing some of our capabilities that can assist those endeavors.

Linux System Administration; Remote

WordPress installation and Management: Remote

Mediawiki and Mediawiki Enterprise Installation and Management: Remote

Full Process Accounting Systems: Remote

Online Retail and P.O.S. Systems: remote

Complete Website Installation, Setup, and Management: Remote

So far we only handle English language products and work with Windows 10 to a limited extent. Our base is Linux and we work with Debian, Ubuntu, their derivative distros, and are capable of managing Redhat products. Some others are available offsite such as CentOS, Elementary, and Peppermint OS. No custom programming is available. We work with existing and current OpenSoftware products as well as some commercial Linux products. This does include database installations and integration. If you need help contact us via e-mail here at pop@askpop.net we will respond promptly to any query.

Thanks!

POP

Todays Thoughts: 03/23/2020

Today’s Thoughts: 03/23/2020

Well, it seems that I like many others are now locked down to wait out the SARS Covid-19 virus spread. I expect this to last a while based on my observations of what has happened in China and Russia where the governments contained, via force, the spread of the disease. I live in the DFW area and it looks like the local governments are taking the most prudent and in my opinion the correct actions to slow down the disease. I am by no means recommending a similar approach here beyond using common sense to keep safe. I do think our government has been far less than adequate in the approach taken to contain this disease. The people in Washington are currently using this pandemic as a political tool and most of you realize it. All one needs is to see the fiasco playing out between the very partisan programs that both sides are trying to push on the American people.

The administration needs to quit waiting to actually use the existing War Powers Act and get those very basic medical needs met. If we end up producing too much of any product, then we sell it or donate it to other areas that are severely hit. It is in my opinion time for the entire population of Earth to realize that we are at the most basic level one species and begin to work as such to keep us all well and healthy. The political goals of those in all governments need to be examined to see if those goals are really for the benefit of all of us.

As for the trillion-dollar bill before our congress, I say why? No problem “must” ever be solved with one single approach. It seems to me that this issue can be broken up into 3 parts:

1. Get done those that affect people’s health first.

2. Get done with those that affect people’s livelihood and our ability to provide for our families basic needs food, shelter, safety.

3. Economic stability should be broken into a stated process that includes every business that pays taxes with incorporated entities getting only what they actually need to keep afloat by providing for active workers wages and only in the form of federal loans that must be repaid. Not given to the owners, stockholders, or managers. The exceptions to this would be those corporations that are required to perform under the War Powers Act. Unincorporated or small LLC or S corps that pay taxes, with less than 500 employees should be also afforded loans and or grants based on employees’ needs to provide income and should be made available to employees via federal distribution to individual employees as taxpayers, not given to the owners. All other currently unemployed citizens should be temporarily put into a category of federal or state employees and be paid a living wage, along with issuing a government-sponsored, either state or federal or both, food provision card. These programs in the longer term would be ONLY for US citizens who can prove that they are US citizens. For now, every person in the country should have access to needed basic items, food, shelter, safety. This measure would assist in keeping the spread of the disease down by allowing everyone to stay at home for a specified time. The economy will rebound as soon as the pandemic clears and folks can resume their jobs and at that time when we see payroll taxes returning to refill the government’s coffers, the need can be reduced, over a specified time, from for all these support measures. All this could be done via reversal of current withholdings and direct issuance to all wage earners that pay taxes and to all citizens file tax returns.

Today’s Thoughts: 02/10/2020

I started this site thinking some folks might have interest or input. Perhaps just wanting to get away from the endless repostings of FaceBook etc. I have been very surprised that the only folks that have shown any interest are a crapload of spammers trying to get the site set up as a spam forwarding site. So I intend to begin actively soliciting folks that I am acquainted with to join the site. Please feel free to recommend the site to your friends. Be aware that I vet all subscriptions for real people. I am not trying to be a room monitor, just keeping it free of junk. Please have fun!

POP

Today’s Thoughts: 10/14/2019

Well, it seems the powers that be, i.e. the giants of the internet are declaring that we all need to focus on privacy and security measures. Since this is somewhat of a public forum that I manage, I decide what shape that takes. So I will be establishing some secure link protocols here over the next few days. Be forwarned that I may screw up things a bit so please bear with me while I get it done.

Today’s Thoughts: 07/10/2019

So I have been reading a few articles regarding the use of foreign technology devices in our governments offices and even military locations. Today was specifically regarding cameras with “suspect” capabilities that are made by Chinese companies. I have realized that as a nation the USA should have legal requirements in place that prohibit the use or procurement of any defense dept. or government office or agency from using technology or any other product that is required for the operation of our systems of government or any defence agency. To be precise, if it is any matter of State or Federal security, we need to make and be totally responsible for the materials and devices. It is also my opinion that these measures should be assigned with similar oversight to any nationally required grid system such as fuels, electric, communications, and transportation. We have allowed corporate greed and plain human greed to supplant common sense when it comes to these matters. In short, let’s keep the fox out of the henhouse!