The independent platform part 3

 

Good afternoon all, just thought I would throw that in since I am in a weird place at the moment. Yet, we need to be productive on occasion so I thought I would try such behavior at the moment.

This next topic I do not have solutions. When I originally started this blog I put in the introduction or description that I wanted to not complain, but offer solutions, but here we are. I do not think this is just complaining though. There is this problem/issue that needs to be addressed so I am going to address it and then work forward on trying to obtain ideas on how best to deal with the topic.

I think I have brought this up throughout the years, but I now think we should take this head on to hopefully come up with some ideas.

And I am not the only one that is all up in arms about this topic either. I think my libertarian side is coming through, but most Americans do not have to be so inclined to want some solutions. We are losing way too much of our lives to corporations and the government. They demand so much from us and give so little back. Have you tried to enroll in Social Security, sign up at IRS. Gov? If so you have probably run across something called IDME. If you can avoid it, do.

And this is just a tip of the iceberg of the problem. Today in the news AT&T was down and so what happens when some corporation is down. Were they hacked? Some news reports say no, but this was today. More info will be needed. And if hacked we all know we are at the mercy of the hackers. And it is not just data breaches that drive this issue. It is across the board. We give up inordinate amounts of our information and privacy so the government and large corporations/tech giants can “make our lives more convenient”. They have no control of anything, but they have all the information.

Today I read a story about the size of the Chinese hacking operations and it stated many vulnerabilities were in systems designed by IBM and Google. Yet it is our lives that are affected and in quite numerous ways. First to repair any damages to the actual corporation has costs and as we know all businesses pass on costs, no matter what they say. Then we are directly vulnerable to anywhere from outright theft of our assets to untold amounts of propaganda being sent our way. We must presume that at any given moment someone knows more about us than ourselves as individuals.

Is convenience worth it? Sometimes it is easy to say yes. Most of the time many of us have no idea our data has been compromised. And possibly because so much data has been compromised that the so called evil doers haven’t had time to sort through it all. Yet this should not mitigate our outrage.

Maybe we don’t need too many bells and whistles in our lives right now. Maybe we don’t need social media coming at us at 100 miles per hour each minute. Maybe we need time to go to the store and the people in the store try to earn our business. Why are apps the required method of doing business right now. The little bit in discounts I may earn do nothing to the amount of marketing, cost saving, preferred choices, products that the corporations steer me to for their benefit. Apps are for the corporation, do not let yourself be fooled. They can work less to earn your business, employ less people to help you whether in store or worse in a call center, spend less, but in no way shape or form are they lowering product costs to match their savings and are constantly reporting their profits to the kings of Wall Street to satisfy the .01 of one percent who rake in all our hard earned money to buy off the government so they can exploit us even more. And yet this post is about privacy.

And that is the problem, we keep giving up more and more yet are less protected from corporate greed, corporate malfeasance, government intrusions, corporate intrusion and there are no safeguards. If all hades breaks lose we are the cannon fodder of the disaster. Our government was established to be for the people, yet the people have become a very small group of individuals who have more to say about our lives that is imaginable. 

I know I am complaining and I promised I wouldn’t. Yet, the solutions we have in front of us are pretty demanding and a hard fight. The first policy is to reduce the impact lobbyists have on Congress. And by reduce probably need to remove. The second is to have two Supreme Court cases either reviewed under new light for change of law or create laws that change their effect. The first is the older ruling that corporations are people. The second is the Citizen United’s decision that pretty much says money trumps free speech, individual rights and disenfranchises votes.

This means new blood in Congress. I always say we need new parties and this is one of those situations where the Democrats and Republicans are the root cause of the problem. The fact that we are held hostage by such a microscopic minority of uber wealthy individuals shows our representative form of government has been hijacked. The form of government is not the problem. The problem was ourselves for letting what has happened. So it is up to us to take it back. The good news is we still have a functional ballot box, Trump be damned, so we must use it.

The current political party leadership though needs to go. They have become to beholden to this uber group to effect any change at all for the general population on any issue.

So after two pages of complaining, one paragraph of potential action, we come down to the platform starting with supporting major changes to how people become elected or essentially make it just as easy for an independent or third party candidate to be on the ballot as the major parties. Drastic changes to funding political campaigns and serious campaign finance reform which includes limiting all contributions to the candidate, no PACs, no groups, and all must be identified so no hidden money. And to get this we need to get in office. A catch 22? Not necessarily, but one uphill battle. Also we need to include legislation that changes the two Supreme Court cases mentioned above. Also legislation that shuts down or severely impacts lobbying. I once encountered an argument that some lobbying is needed and previously have thought maybe lobbying based on information provided to Congress by request from industry groups could be beneficial, yet even that would need serious vetting when writing that legislation.

All in all, until we make serious changes to how our Congress is held accountable to us, the people, our information, our rights, our privacy will be at the mercy of those who want to exploit our data for their gain, yet cannot guarantee it’s safety. Maybe we should add serious consequences for data breaches and some might think how much data do they really need. I am definitely a believer in businesses need to earn my business and trust and Government should act in a way that keeps my trust not my information.

Cheers

And on a complete side note that just proves to me the elitist left is clueless and pretentious I saw a headline from the LA Times written by Jackie Calmes that says” I watched a Trump rally so you don’t have to, but you need to know what he is saying.” Are you friggin’ kidding me? I am so opposed to Trump, but for one person to think their political lens is more important than mine for me to dictate my own opinion is the absolute epitome of elitism. Their view point matters more than mine. I know not. This is why we need new blood in Congress and in the national conversation.