I hope everyone is having a Super Tuesday!

super tuesday - i voted

I got out to vote a little later than i hoped and encountered a longer line than i have ever before (at least from voting).  Only 55 minutes, nothing like some lines i have heard about. I got to play with the new electronic voting system.  “It’s not connected to the internet” was the response that i received when inquiring into the device security.  I have high confidence of the paper trail on these units, but I imagine that these machines do some sort of tabulation.  Unless we actually count the paper ballets, it is those tabulations that we are expected to trust.  These tabulation are trivial to manipulate if the devices are tampered with.  “Don’t worry, it’s offline” dissuades none of these fears.  Here are some pictures i took.  Not pictured are the 2 broken units that were taped off at my precinct. Also, i was told that they should not have allowed me to take these pictures.  i don’t know if that is true, but they did not seem to mind at the time.  (i wasn’t wearing that shirt at the time)

super tuesday - electronic votingsuper tuesday - paper ballotsuper tuesday - electronic voting - bernie

Ken Calvert’s Town Hall, he phoned it in…

I tried to participate in Ken Calvert’s telephone town hall tonight, even recorded some of it.  Unfortunately, they never took my question or even my promised recorded voicemail.

Many of my comments were addressed by others and most were deflected by Representative Calvert.  I am certainly no expert on this stuff, but here are the points i would have brought up.

  • CRA bill – Representative Calvert seems to have missed the distinction between internet service providers that offer services like Google, Facebook, or Snapchat and telecommunications providers that provide the very lines on witch those services depend.   This is a critical distinction.  Unlike service providers, it is not so easy to just find a telecommunications provider who’s policy you agree with.  In most of America, they are practically monopolies.
  • Russians!! – Lifting sanctions preventing Russian intelligence agency from purchasing surveillance technology?  Why now?  Representative Calvert talked about apposing foreign manipulation of our elections, but what about foreign money buying influence?  Citizens united says money is speech, but what about foreign money?
  • Obamacare Vs Trumpcare – Preexisting conditions? Failing program? It is certainly not perfect (don’t get me started), but my family would be destitute if it weren’t for the Affordable Care Act.  The current offering as a replacement looks terrible and doesn’t include amendments for preexisting conditions.  What will next year bring?

Just participated in my first podcast for Hart Attack!

It was fun, we talked about technology, hacking, and corporate oppression.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t time for hope.  I’ll have to come back on to explain that it’s not all doom and gloom.   Episode 117 airs on Saturday evening.  Downloads available sometime after here.  Here is a link to more shows:

Hart Attack Home

Hart and I have worked together for some time.  He is a mogul of all things horrific.  Now he takes on the horror of the modern day with a political/news podcast.

My first domain is mine again! muhahaha!

Bill The Cat campaignBack in 1997, I registered my first domain benforpresident.org.  It was a silly site that I would do almost nothing with.  I had grand plans for a genuine run for 2016.  With technology on my side, how could I fail?  Well, I missed a registration payment and it was snatched from me.  Oddly, the content remained the same in the hands of it’s new owner.  Nothing was added, nothing was changed. (apart from some tracking javascript).  Yesterday on a whim, I checked it’s availability and reacquired it.  I don’t know exactly what I am going to do with it, but for now, I have set the clock back to 1997.  typos and all.  got ideas?