Let’s remember we are more alike than we are different. Last weekend President Trump went on a rant at an Alabama rally and attacked any “SOB” that did not stand for the National Anthem. Steve Schmidt, my new favorite guy, said it simply, “The flag is for the protester and the soldier.”
Join the Resistance
Darlene
The massive hacker attack on Equifax has unnerved many of us. According to reports, half of the American adult population was compromised by the attack. I was one of those who had their information stolen. If you haven’t frozen your accounts, or registered with Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, you should do that immediately. If you want to deal first with Equifax their website for this event is: Equifaxsecurity2017.com, or you can call, 1-866-447-7559 . Experts are advising that you freeze your credit at all three credit bureaus.
Equifax is a huge company that has failed to protect our most sensitive information. We can’t do anything about that, accept call or write Congress, but it highlights our need to take whatever steps we can to protect ourselves and our crucial information. The bulk of that security, must naturally, be directed at our personal computers, the storehouse of all our life information. In January 13, 2013 MoneyTalksNews published an article on ways to block computer viruses. The Sept/Oct 2017 AARP magazine supported those suggestions with its article, “7 Ways To Block Computer Viruses”.
Don’t forget the WannaCry virus that in the spring of 2017 wrested control of over 200,000 computers across 150 countries in one of the most vicious international cyber attacks in history. The saddest part of the WannaCry episode is that Microsoft had, previous to the attack, issued a routine update to the Windows operating system that would have blocked the virus. Anyone that had downloaded the Microsoft update was spared the misery of the massive hack. This incident was a reminder that we must be vigilant and follow some common sense rules to protect our PC from outside attacks.
The FBI recently issued a warning to the public about a computer scam that starts with a phone call. This scam involved the scammers calling people, claiming their company worked with a major software company. The caller would tell the mark that his computer was sending error messages to them over the web and through that communication had identified a virus. “No problem” the scammer tells his target, “Just pay a small fee, and we will fix the problem remotely by installing our anti-virus software.”
Once the telephone scammer has your fee, your credit card number, and computer access, they don’t stop viruses they install them. It seems hard to imagine that something like this would work, but apparently in the case of thousands of people, it sounded good. There is a list below that gives you 10 time-tested means to protect yourself. However, the most important thing we can all do to protect ourselves, is use some common sense. Shred all sensitive documents. Don’t give information to unknown callers and:
Hope this cobbled together list helps you protect your information. We cannot protect ourselves from the hackers going after the huge depositories of personal information held at such giant companies as Equifax, but we can take these simple common sense steps that should help us sleep better at night.
Calamity Politics is a news magazine with an outspoken voice for the progressive agenda and we show that mission with pride. Join, me mostly daily, for news, comment and opinion on the state of the Union.
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Dar
In part V we saw how Donald Trump’s poor judgment and lack of “give a shit” attitude, his branding and monetization of everything he touches is a direct cause of most problems besetting his administration. Scandal, ethics reviews, Senate inquiry and counter-intelligence investigations have plagued this recently installed White House. Most of the problems are Trump’s fault. Donald cares little about who he associates with, as long as they kiss the ring, rub his ego and equate everything to money.
Roger Stone, a disgusting creep, who is a self-described lobbyist, political consultant and “Republican operative” got together with Trump and they decided that Paul Manafort would make a great campaign chairman. OMG. This is the same guy who was making millions of dollars working against American interests in Crimea and the Ukraine. And between these two guys the only name they could come up with was Paul Manafort to chair the Trump campaign? That limiting of potential candidates for the job is mind bending, unless that already known relationship between Manafort and the Kremlin was considered a positive and defining qualification.
Once installed at Trump’s right arm, Manafort just two weeks before Trump was nominated as the Republican nominee for the president of the United States, he offered to “provide briefings” on the presidential race, through a European intermediary, to Russian oligarch and billionaire Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska is a known confidant of Vladimir Putin and because of his connections to organized crime has not been allowed to travel in the United States.
On July 7, 2016 Manafort wrote to his intermediary, “If he (Deripaska) needs private briefings we can accommodate.”
The resurrection of the GOP attack on Health Care, Trump’s UN speech, and a nasty Twitter exchange with a rabid Trump supporter, or maybe, a Russian troll, has caused me to sit down and pout for a few minutes, kick my feet and wonder if the fight is worth it. I, like many of you, get so tired. Some days it seems like Trump, in 10 short months is on the precipice of destroying the backbone of this country, our laws and our media. In the midst of my pout, I remember what President John F. Kennedy said about his core values and I perked up and finished calling my list of potentially five persuadable Republican Senators; in an effort to stop the GOP effort to repeal the ACA. 
The JFK quote has been seen a million times, but it is worth another view. If you are a liberal and are taking a breath, forget it. The GOP and all their ‘effing money are out to screw us all. So get up, dust yourself off, drag the sign out of the basement, and hit the streets. Or, the phone. You can have a big impact if you make those Senate office phones ring.
So, my sweet liberal friends, gather courage from the words of one of our greatest presidents, “If by a ‘liberal’ they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reaction, someone who cares about the welfare of the people–their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties–someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what it means to be a ‘liberal’ then I’m proud to say, I’m a liberal.”
Keep up the fight, the road will be hard and the results slow in coming, but a determined heart will protect health care and the social contract our government has with its citizens.
Join the Resistance
Dar
At the end of Part IV: Behind The Curtain, David Cay Johnston told the reading audience that he had never seen evidence that Donald Trump was now a billionaire, or ever has been a billionaire. I have no idea, and actually I really could care less if Trump is a billionaire or just a multimillionaire. That shit’s all in his head, not mine. Kinda like the guy who buys the biggest most gaudy truck he can find, to make up for some secret deficiency.
What I do care about is the obvious, and quite serious conflict of interest issues. Trump has provided no tax returns, he has not established a blind trust, or divested himself of his businesses. There are many questions about his deals with Russian oligarchs and his ongoing effort during the 2016 campaign to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, working behind the scenes with his long time attorney, Michael Cohen.
One of the character flaws noted by personal friends of Trump and discussed earlier in this series, is Trump’s poor judgment when choosing partners and associates. I can’t help adding my opinion on this matter. I think, in addition to poor judgment, Trump just does not give a damn, that’s right, I don’t think he cares. The president’s choice of Jared Kushner to be his Senior Advisor is a perfect example.
I posted a reminder yesterday that September is National Suicide Prevention Month and then today I posted a Remembrance of 9/11/01. I decided I needed to think of “Reasons To Smile.” Here we go with a new list of things that should bring a smile to your face.
1.)Theme parties 2.) Your daily horoscope 3.) An Amish buggy on a Pennsylvania country road 4.)Levi 501 button fly jeans 5.) A day hike 6.) Pumpkin soup 7.) Filmy, gauzy dresses blowing around tanned legs 8.) Sunglasses after dark 9.) Having to replay a voicemail more than twice to get the phone number right 10.) A B & B week-end 11.) An herb garden 12.) Holiday beer gardens 13.) A shady porch on a hot day 14.) A nice driver’s license photo 15.) Small airports 16.) A mailbox filled with donation requests 17.) The sound of a Texas fiddle 18.) Doves cooing 19.) Realizing you have just said something of merit or maybe, something truly brilliant 20.) Polished brass 21.) Having my own private office with lots of windows 22.) Staying focused 23.) Smiling so big your shoulders quake 24.) Souvenir t-shirts 25.) The little deli at the “Cove” 26.) Beach side living 27.) Air dried sheets 28.) Finding a friendly adversary on Twitter 29.) Cleaning out that junk drawer 30.) The crashing sound of the ocean 
31.) Having that secret place to escape to 32.) “More isn’t always better” 33.) Drawing Smile Faces in the sand 34.) Trains 35.) Habitat For Humanity 36.) Homemade fudge with walnuts 37.) Plaid flannel shirts 38.) Frosted Margarita glasses their rims dusted with salt 39.) XXX’s OOO’s on a letter from Mom 40.) The seventh inning stretch 41.) Changing my hair color 42.) Brew pubs 43.) Bright, cold, autumn days 44.) That first cup of coffee 45.) The sound of a zipper going up or down 46.) Mornings on the boat 47.) Jumping over puddles and not getting your feet wet 48.) Park benches 49.) Candlelight 50.) Finger painting 51.) Sisters, OR 52.) Reading glasses slid to the end of my nose 53.) Cypress trees 54.) My quirky, oddball friends 55.) VIP seats 56.) “I love you” 57.) Having time to check my options 58.) Saturday Night Live with Alec Baldwin doing President Trump 59.) Australia’s Great Barrier Reef 60.) The Statue of Liberty 61.) After dinner walks 62.) Google Maps 63.) No one in the express lane 64.) Yesterday’s meatloaf in today’s sandwich 65.) Amazon 66.) Hugging Teddy after a really bad day 67.) Automatic garage door openers 68.) Hot air balloons over a New Mexico landscape. 69.) The sound of church bells 70.) Planting an avocado seed and watching it grow into a tree 71.) Losing ten pounds 72.) Quiet time 73.) Caramel apples 74.) Biking the prom 75.) Watching a Bumblebee kiss every flower in the garden 76.) Fall leaves gathered in large piles 77.) A thank you note written in calligraphy 78.) “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles 79.) A really funny dirty joke
Well, I feel better now. Hope you do too. Keep smiling.
Calamity Politics intends to present relevant and topical information on the current U.S. political scene. We’ll be back with more from the swamp, join us for the remaining installments of “Trump:Behind The Curtain”.
Join the Resistance
Dar
Thousands of victim relatives, survivors, rescuers and others gathered at the World Trade Center Memorial to commemorate the 16th anniversary of the terror attacks masterminded by Al Ouida and Osama Bin Laden that took the lives of 2,977 people and will be remembered as the worst terror attack on the U.S. homeland in history. Terrorists high jacked 4 commercial airliners, two of the planes crashed into the Twin Towers of The World Trade Center, New York City, N.Y., a third was directed at the Pentagon and the fourth was crashed into a rural field in Pennsylvania when passengers and crew fought the terrorists for control of the plane leading to it crashing before reaching its intended target, savings many lives.
If you are between 15-35, suicide is the second leading cause of death for your age group. For all age groups, suicide is responsible for more deaths than murder and natural disasters, combined. Men take their own lives four times as often as women. Many men sadly would rather be dead than seem ‘weak.’
As you can see, suicide is not a rare, or isolated event. It is very real and definitely permanent, and it leaves those who are left behind, in utter despair. For them the suicide event is plagued by stigma, guilt and self-recrimination. The most common question from those left behind is, “what could I have done differently?”
Suicide is like the tentacles of an octopus wrapping itself around all of us, casting doubt on hope, and future. It tears at our social fabric and brings into question society’s compact with the individual. Whether spoken or unspoken, we as people, are part of a greater society. As a society, we have agreed to a collective future, a means to provide for our children, to continue our culture, to sustain our existence at all cost. Jennifer Michael Hecht wrote, Stay: A History of Suicide and the Arguments Against it. And in her words, “Either the universe is a cold dead place with solitary sentient beings, or we are all alive together, committed to persevere.”
As we have already seen, Russians have floated in the Trump swamp for decades. The President’s first contacts with Russians came in the late 1980’s when Trump was wooed by the Russian government to look at the prospect of building hotels in Moscow and Kiev.
Trump has had many Russian tenants in the Trump Tower. One very memorable Russian tenant was alleged Russian mob boss Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov. An apartment at Trump Tower rented to Tokhtakhounov was the subject of a raid in April 2013 by federal agents as part of an investigation in to two separate gambling rings. Interestingly, Ali Tokhakhounov was, despite being under indictment in the United States for various gambling and corruption charges, made an appearance at Trump’s Miss Universe Pageant held in Moscow that same year.
In addition to Russian tenants, Trump has had several Russian partners, most notably the boys from Bayrock. The Trump Organization has sold an endless stream of condo’s and private residences to Russians. His children have traveled extensively throughout Russia. In fact, according to recent news stories the Trump Organization was actively negotiating with Russian officials to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 Presidential election.
In January of 2017 Trump tweeted, “I have nothing to do with Russia–NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING.” We now know that was a blatant lie. In separate interviews about that same time Trump said in weird rambling denials that neither he or his campaign had any connection to Russians. Trump’s praise of Putin, and his refusal to ever criticize the Russian strong man has brought those assertions into serious question, causing many to speculate that Trump has been compromised.
Going back to that 2013 Miss Universe Pageant, prior to the event Trump issued a very strange tweet, “Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow–if so, will he be become my new best friend?”
The answer to that very strange Twitter inquiry is unknown. Putin did not go to the event, but he did send an expensive lacquered Russian box to Trump. The event venue was the Crocus City Mall. The Crocus City Mall is owned by Aras Agalarov a Russian oligarch with known ties to Vladimir Putin. It is common knowledge that Agalarov and Trump discussed the construction of twin adjacent Trump towers in downtown Moscow during that 2013 visit.
Trump bizarrely equating business deals with diplomacy; answered as follows when a FoxNews commentator confronted him on his lack of foreign policy experience. “I know Russia well. I had a major event in Russia two or three years ago, which was a big, big incredible event,” referring to the Miss Universe Pageant.
Really? Please explain to me, and the 70% of Americans who do not equate running a beauty pageant with running a country, how that answer and that experience would in any way qualify him as knowledgeable of foreign policy. Trump, I believe, is slowly beginning to realize what many of us already knew, that the two are in no way similar, or interchangeable. In fact, many of the tactics used in business are inappropriate as national political strategy or policy.
I live on the North Oregon coast, that’s about 60 miles west of Portland, Oregon. The sun for the last couple of days has appeared as a bizarre red neon ball through the smoke that is now plaguing most of the state. The source of the smoke is a raging 32,000 acre blaze destroying one of Oregon’s most scenic areas, the Columbia Gorge.
The gorge was chiseled through rock by the Columbia River over a span of nearly 20 million years as it cut its way to the Pacific Ocean. I am heart-broken watching the pictures come in. I don’t know if I can truly express the loss I am feeling. There is a beautiful piece in The Oregonian, written by Jaimie Hale. (*Please go to the left side bar of this blog site and scroll down until you see the picture of a burning forest fire and click on her article. It is well worth reading.)
When I lived in Lake Oswego, Oregon, a suburb of Portland, I would ski at Mt Hood, party with friends in Hood River and always stop at Multnomah Falls to enjoy its iconic beauty. The Columbia River Gorge is a national treasure and the loss is monumental.
Join the Resistance
Dar
I will be back with Part IV:Behind The Curtain tomorrow. Please join us as we slice and dice the current administration.
"If puppies and kittens don't make you smile, you might consider therapy." D. S. Mitchell 2015.
I Barely Have Time To Walk The Dog
Self-isolating has forced us to turn even more to telecommunication and social media.
The Major Cause Of Sex Trafficking Is Poverty
Many great charities, here are a couple that I support: Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund, ACLU, and Planned Parenthood.
