Off Vacation: Quick Hits For a Few Days

There are still questions about who really “hacked” Sony.

Programming is a “Black Art” (I am a former programmer, Systems Analyst and computer science professor), and in the Ether anyone can be anyone else.

Tracking back, deconstructing and analyzing a hack is a long and time consuming process. False leads cover other false leads. This is a job for a new Bletchley Park, but it is just possible that NSA alerted the FBI that it had intercepts, and the FBI was covering for NSA  rather than doing the hard work of deconstructing the code.

The question is if it was a disgruntled “inside job” — but no one really knows…yet! I suspect the FBI and NSA are right, but like the shooter on the grassy knoll…

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The Brits are scrambling to contain a flood of Bulgarians and Romanians who come for the huge benefits available — paid by Britain even to those family members who remain in Bulgaria and Romania!

Too late, regrettably — the Brits wanted to demonstrate “Diversity,” and they certainly have done so. Britain has slashed its wrists, and it is only a matter of time…there are camps in Calais, France, just waiting for transportation to Britain!

Britain committed national suicide, and they will willingly die, rather than be thought of as “racist.”

RIP, Britain.

 

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The Left, in this case Bernie Sanders, continue to single out the Koch brothers as the bogie-man of political spending, but he is very selective.

According to POLITICO, Liberal Steyer was the largest donor, and liberal Bloomberg was #2. The Koch brothers have donated more obey to charity than Bernie will ever see in his, and his family’s lifetimes!

 

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Everything you need to know about Christmas and technology is that more than half the devices activated by new users during Christmas Week was an Apple product! That is domination.

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At 1400 hours on December 31, I received my authorization to get my home underway on SOLAR power — right in the midst of snow flurries. The panels have been up, and connected for several days in bright sunlight, but I was not permitted to throw the switch and parallel the electric power of San Diego Gas and Electric.

It is now operable. My interest was not clean power, but that I could cut my enormous electric bill in half

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I support Israel, but their claim that they are an “independent” nation is belied by the fact that we have sent them money for so long they just include it in advance in their budget!

I love Israel, and I love my children, but I cut my kids off when they were 21 years old. I wish we could do that with Israel!

 

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First, almost all men marry above them — it is in the nature of things because men are rotten. Some are more rotten than others.

My wife and I have been married for 57 years, and an unkind word has never passed between us.

The secret is simple: never say “no” to your spouse!

 

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I am astounded that a Court has ordered the chemotherapy of a 17 year old girl, overriding the wishes of both the family and the girl.

Outrageous! Yes, she is technically a minor but Courts start listening to “children” as to which parent in a divorce the “child” wishes to live at 13.

At 17 a “child” is old enough to be listened to about her medical issues? I believe her decision is stupid, but stupid is a permissible offense in America!

 

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The US is planning to close some European bases.

Good! In actuality, GREAT! The Europeans have relied on our charity for decades…the EU nations have between 25% and 50% annual military budgets that we do. They rely on us, while they have about the same GDP as the U.S.!

They have been welfare recipients for long enough!

The Lord helps those who help themselves! The Europeans have NEVER helped themselves, and the U.S. has had to pull their irons out of the fire since WW1.

As a result, we have worn out our ships, tanks and men on a war footing for decades. My submarines were six months at home and six deployed for my entire career, and the six at home were getting repaired. Ships and submarines are not designed for that — and neither are the men.

I had one Skipper who had 21 deployments in 18 years. (obviously, he was divorced.)

Those who favor such activity are seldom those who must perform them.

 

Quick Hits

Government grows under Democrats and Republicans…it even grew under Ronald Reagan!

All each politician wants is power, and power is gained by increasing size, then distributing the increased size benefits (contracts or political plums) to friends or fellow politicians. Only when government has fewer benefits to distribute will things improve, but I don’t know any politicians willing to do that!

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Sweden has reached an agreement with four right-of center political parties (Alliance) to put off a “Snap” election until 2022. — to avoid an election that will rally the current left-of-center government around the center, but it thwarts the Right. The agreement gives the Alliance the budget, but the agreement does not address the elephant in the room.

Immigration.

European governments are under pressure to accept Muslim cultural practices, such as providing multiple subsidized dwelling units to the multiple wives and children of Muslim men — under the guise of “Diversity.”

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A cave in France found 20 years ago has disclosed some of the oldest art — art that makes the pyramids seem as if completed this morning.

The French cave has produced 442 paintings of animals seldom seen by modern man (and only by very early “man”), and were likely done by a species of humans that also do not any longer exist, but inhabited France about 40,000 years ago, Neanderthals, possibly, and their blood lines are still within us as shown by DNA. It is difficult to say, because 40,000 years ago is a time when Neanderthal and modern man overlapped. Carved figurines from a German cave of about the same period demonstrate the wide-spread ability of artistic development.

Of course, if one describes “art” in geometric terms rather than in recognizable animal or human form, beads have been found that are 100,000 years old, and the first human “art” was found etched on seashells dated to 460,000 to 540,000 years ago, but that may or not be “art” to your mind. At any rate, human-kind has a very long history.

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It should come as no surprise that I am an “info-maniac” — I crave knowledge. My search days consist of perusing a number of apps, Drudge report and it’s newer challengers AP, Smart News and FOX; CNet; and my favorites, POLITICO, and Flipboard.

Flipboard is an oldie but goodie, and it is far and away the most complete news source because the others concentrate on daily news or technology, while Flipboard can be personalized to cover all subjects from Archeology to Zoology.

In Flipboard I am constantly thinking,”I didn’t know that!”
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The Feds are going to “Rate” colleges, no doubt spending taxpayer money to employ more academics.

U. S. News and World Reports does it annually for FREE. We don’t need government for this — it is just “make work” for Ph.Ds,

As we have seen from the case of Jonathan Gruber, the MIT professor who thinks voters are stupid (true, but impolitic), who has gathered more than $5 million in various government pay, this administration is rife with academics, and anxious to employ more!

Could Liberals and Conservatives Agree on JUST THIS?

The discussion thus far has been about the president’s abuse/misuse of power, but I bet I can think of an Executive Order that the president could have made, and that you, I, and just about everyone INCLUDING many illegal aliens would agree to: Order the U.S. Justice Department to enforce the Federal Felony law on return.

It is only a misdemeanor, an infraction, to cross the border, but it is a Federal Felony to recross the border once you are deported. Could we just get the LAW enforced — the FEDERAL law? The Sacramento Sheriff recently killed by an illegal alien, one who had been deported FOUR times! The CHP officer killed in Oceanside was killed by an illegal alien who had been deported EIGHT times.

Although there is no record of an particular Escondido, California, illegal committing a serious crime, the “record” in Escondido is 18 RETURNS! That means that there have been at LEAST 17 incidents with the police.

Could we at least agree on enforcing the Federal Felony law?

Immigration Solution No One Will Listen To

Illegal immigration is a classic Cost/Benefit situation.

The Benefit is cheap labor for jobs Americans are simply too lazy to do. All advanced nations import their manual labor, because the world has plenty of it, and it’s cheaper than automation for those kinds of jobs.

The cost is in Gangs, use of schools and Emergency Rooms, and general crime — almost none of which is done by the workers themselves but by their families. When I was the Mexican Connection in my community for 20 years, and twice the head of the HOA, not ONE criminal act or use of ANY support system was reported in our community.

The laborers went back to Mexico twice a year to visit their families, plant and harvest crops, then returned to work. They all came to our community from the same tiny town that had one telephone.

Then the government decided to close the border — sort of. Napoleon said, “if you start to take Vienna, take Vienna,” and the half-way measures of sealing the border meant that our workers could no longer go home and return twice a year — they are uneducated but they are not stupid, so they brought their families north. Even if it took several tries, it was cheaper than going and returning several times.

It is the families who join gangs, and utilize services. We should offer the workers a deal: Send your family’s home in exchange for a fire-year Green Card, renewable four times. The alternative is deportation of the worker and his family if caught.

Carrot and stick. It would be a reasonable solution — one that no one will listen to because their feet are all in cement.

Seeking Solutions

I am so tired of hearing that the reason for California students ranking 47th in the nation is that we have so many English Learners who not only score poorly on tests, but hold back the English speakers.

For 14 years, and 6,000 classroom hours I taught Computer Science at a local university, everything from Beginner through Artificial Intelligence, Undergraduate and Graduate, and more than half my students, particularly graduate students, were foreign. Some Indonesian, Thai, Korean and Chinese. Even a Brit or two.

Not once did I slow my delivery because one of them looked puzzled, nor did I have to stop and explain a word — and the reason is simple: They had to pass a State Department proctored exam to demonstrate English proficiency, just for entry on a college Visa.

Yes, I know many of the ESL group in high school do not arrive on a Visa, but the system should remain the same: No one should enter a classroom who does not understand the language. It harms both the person with the language difficulty, and those whose study is compromised while explanations take place.

Immigration, legal and illegal (so the Feds tell me), is a federal matter. Education is a State matter. The federal government should run language classes until such time as the ESL student can be mainstreamed into State public education.

Public education has accepted many non-academic roles to increase its managerial power: Transportation, food services, physical exercise, and now ESL classes.

I don’t care where the ESL students came from, who they are, or how they get here, I t is a federal problem, and the Feds must solve it!

Asking public educational professionals to reduce their non-academic footprint is asking the Sun to rise in the West!

Executives get paid depending upon the size of their domains, and that is why Superintendents and Principals happily accepted non-academic activities — bigger employment rolls and larger budget equal better management salaries.

Every bureaucrat quickly learns that there are two easy paths to higher salary — move to a larger district/city, but that entails moving the family and leaving your Country Club — or growing your domain. Often growing your domain is easier.

The only way to get ESL into the Feds is to appeal to some related federal agency to grow THEIR ranks and budget, and the Feds could then take over their rightful responsibility. The Feds will have to seize it, the public schools will not easily give it up.

We may have to await a Cosmic Event — the schools in Louisiana were really terrible, at least around New Orleans, until Hurricane Katrina struck and destroyed the schools and scattered the students. Governor Jindal seized control of the schools and reconstituted them as Charter Schools. A similar, if less violent event happened in the 1990s, when Massachusetts instituted a pop literacy exam (based on 10th grade literacy) to their incoming teachers — and more than 50% FAILED. The outcry of parents was so great it even overcame the teacher unions, and reform took place.

California must pick its time and place.

Step Up!

For many years, immigration has required a Sponsor, who would vouch the immigrant has employment, live with the Sponsor or in Sponsor paid housing, and be fed by the Sponsor if employment was not sufficient. It was required that the Sponsor pay for any required insurance if the immigrant could not (or would not) do so.

For the current influx of illegal immigrants, this could work just as well, if those who support them would just open THEIR homes!

Don’t just “like” on Facebook when illegal immigration stories show up — offer to adopt a family!

Step up!

Clicking “like” on Facebook is empty!

Of course not all immigration stories correctly describe the situation. In the U-T pages is a Commentary about the children “immigrating.’

The children are not “immigrating” — they are crashing the gate and jumping to the head of the line!

A 2009 Pew Center determined that 1/3 of all families in Mexico would like to live in the US, and I suspect the numbers may be higher in Central, and possibly South America.

I would support doubling or tripling the LEGAL quotas. STOP CRASHING THE GATES!

Those who support the illegal immigrants need to step up and adopt a family — then I’ll take them more seriously.

How Many Are TOO Many

My question to those who support the current Children’s Army, must be asked “How many are you willing to take in for “sanctuary?”

Is it a hundred thousand, as are expected this year. Another 150,000 expected next year? How about a million? How about 50 million?

Is there ANY number at which you say, “Enough?”

The Spring 2009 Pew Global Attitudes Survey, showed that 33% of ALL Mexicans would like to live in the United States, and that 18% would move here without authorization. Mind you, we are ONLY talking about Mexico (because Pew didn’t survey other nations), not Central and South America. Mexico has a population of about 100 million, and that means that 33 million MEXICANS Would like to live here and 18 million would do so illegally!

That 33 million, and 18 million would be in addition to the “estimated” 11 million already here! And that doesn’t count Central and South America.

The mind boggles

The Incredible Shrinking President

The Democrats have exactly the same problem that the Republicans had in the last presidential election — deciding where to draw the line, in this case on immigration, as to how many of the usual supporters will sit on their hands.

It is a political nightmare — no question. The president has been slapped down HARD by the US Supreme Court, 9-0, so he is at least alert that his Legacy as a “Constitutional Lawyer,” is seriously in jeopardy.

The Latino Caucus is DEMANDING action because they have done their job, twice! Does the president want Latinos sitting on their hands in November?

Then, there are the angry masses. No they can’t hurt Obama, he is a Lame Duck and only needs to be concerned about the Obama Library…oh, and whether the Democrats will win ANY elections for the next few cycles.

Did I mention the VA, Benghazi, the IRS, Keystone project, Fast and Furious? As much as Obama would love to mail it in while vacationing in Hawaii or playing golf, circumstances just won’t leave him alone — circumstances like Iraq, Palestinian rockets, ISIS, Afghanistan, Ukraine, the Children’s Army on our Border…

Either the problems are too large, or the president is too small. Quite possibly, all of the above.

I suspect that is why Mitt Romney is well ahead of Obama in support — because problems require management and Obama is a rock star, not a manager. Romney is a proven MANAGER!

Thoughts on The Border Crises

I don’t know the answer for the flood of Central American illegal immigrants, but as I have noted earlier, I was the Mexican Connection in Poway, California for two decades, and never took a dime. I arranged their work schedule, fed them when it rained, washed their clothes and collected their debts from those who stiffed them.

I have done more for illegal immigrants than any of the pro amnesty activists, even took two workers through the 1986 Reagan Amnesty line for La Migra in Escondido. The promise was a sealed border, but nothing happened.

The current crises is an amalgam of previous mistakes, policies, and culture — and, despite everyone looking for a solution, there isn’t one. There simply isn’t, because people in poverty will always try to save themselves from poverty and more importantly, gangs and death. Many people want something someone else has — they can buy it, barter for it, beg for it — or steal it.

Poor people cannot buy or barter for access to the most economically powerful place on earth — California alone could join the G-8, and has an economy larger than Russia and Italy! The begging line takes 10 years — so it is easier to steal their way into the country. You would too if you lived in the chaos that is Central America.

Everyone is perfectly willing to describe the problem — conservatives say it is a failure to secure the border, liberals say it is poverty, disease and gangs.

They are both right, but describing the problem does not solve it. Everyone’s solution is part of THE solution — we need to SIMULTANEOUSLY secure the Border; process the illegal immigrants from Central America; aid the Terrible Three nations supplying us with children (have you noticed that there are no children from Costa Rica?); do something with US gang members who are illegal instead of returning them to their native states where they CAUSE the chaos; get technology assets into Central American government hands — or get the results of those assets (use NSA which can find out everything our government wishes it to find out) if we don’t trust the governments; and understand that Mexico and Central American governments have no incentive to stop the flow, and every incentive to rid themselves of their poor.

We must admit that we can’t solve the world’s problems, but we should at least try to concentrate closer to home. The Middle East is an unsolvable mess, as is Africa, and we don’t do a very good job in Chicago and Detroit, but we have our priorities reversed — we are into the Middle East and Africa, but not active in Chicago, Detroit or Central America.

If you are looking for a goat, it is the “Decision Maker” — the president. He sets both diplomatic and military policy. I know that “fixing” the Middle East is a seductive idea for the President of the United States, and like everyone with an ego they believe they can do what other presidents could not do…but they can’t.

No Good Options…

The illegal immigration of children is monumentally more difficult a problem than the usually difficult problem of just illegal immigration.

And then add to the illegal immigration of children, the additional legal problem of Central America because those laws are different from illegal immigration from Canada and Mexico.

Illegal immigrants from Canada and Mexico can be immediately deported — but those from Central and South America must be processed and interviewed, and then, although they may then be deported they must first be given Court dates.

Needless to say, most never appear for their Court dates.

Wrap all of this in a humanitarian cloak, and you have a larger mess.

Here in San Diego we get a double whammy because of our already large Latino population — although I live in the County my mailing address is Escondido, and Escondido has a 50% Latino population.

San Diego got a black eye when the plane taking the bus load of children to Murrieta, California, which CBS News described as a “suburb of San Diego” — which it is not. Murrieta is in another County — Riverside County.

People across the nation usually have no concept of geographic size. What California calls Counties, the East Coast calls states and Europe calls countries.

Murrieta is as much a suburb of Los Angeles as it is of San Diego.

The city of Murrieta, despite their depiction as a bunch of Yahoos, has a legitimate complaint — the plan is to bring three bus loads (140-150 people) of Central American illegal immigrants to that small community every 72 hours for an indefinite period and escort them, eventually only as far as the bus station!

Now, you can blame whomever you please — Bush and Congress passed a bill that differentiates between Mexican and Central American illegal aliens, or Obama whose comments about not sending back children here before 2008 was mis- interpreted (mistakenly or purposely) by Central American media. Cartels in Mexico, who charge $8,000 a person had a financial motive in drumming up business, as well.

It’s a mess, and it’s not going to get better. There are no good options.