The first all mechanical voting machines were introduced in the 1930's. At that time it was thought that the machines would reduce scams like ballot box stuffing. And the machines counted up the votes and displayed the sums on the back of the machine, so vote tallies were available as soon as the polls closed, and the poll workers didn't have to know how to add, subtract or count. Lotta places bought them, and they lasted for decades. I never heard of anyone trying to hack one. Tools were needed just to get the covers off, and under the covers the maze of little whirring moving parts defied all but the most skilled and trained mechanics.
After decades of service, the mechanical machines started to wear out, and the manufacturers had gone the way of the buggy whip makers. As cities and towns looked around for replacements, because after voting on machines, going back to paper ballots seemed primative, and a horde of eager beaver vendors (Diebold!) were offering electronic voting machines. These gadgets are basically low end desktop computers. A program displays the candidates names to voters and records the touches they use to vote. Groovy. But these voting machines have all the weaknesses of Windows computers. Anyone with access to the machines, before or after the election, can change the programming to help his party. And this scam is undetectable. They is no paper trail. The machine's program is unreadable. With the old fashioned paper ballot, the ballots were saved, and could be recounted in case of challenge.
We ought to go back to paper ballots. Up here in NH, we still use them. Works fine. If counting all the ballots in a big city is too much work, buy ballot reading machines. They work like the test scoring machines used in school and if the machine score is challenged, the paper ballots are still available to be hand counted.
Monday, October 24, 2016
Sunday, October 23, 2016
Who should I vote for? Hillary or The Donald?
Barring a massive miracle, one or the other will be president in a couple of months. Voting for anyone else isn't going to accomplish anything. Whereas the race between them is so close that your vote just might tip the election your way.
Lets not look at the candidate's pasts. They both have lotta problems. But the past is past, what's done is done. Constructive thinking is thinking about what each of them might do to America (for America?) if elected. You ought to vote for the candidate that might provide the best future for the country.
President Trump would cut federal taxes. He would sign an Obamacare repeal bill. He would oppose monopoly mergers, like the recent InBev merger. He would support Congressional term limits, he might not be able to get the votes to do it, but he has promised to try. He has promised a federal hiring freeze. President Trump would appoint real judges to the Supreme Court, judges who believe in enforcing the law as written and not writing new law from the bench. Trump believes in the second amendment.
President Hillary would hike your taxes. She would veto Obamacare reform. If you like your Obamacare, you can keep your Obamacare. She would play nice with Wall St, signing bills to give 'em tax loopholes and reduce regulation. She would continue to set the Middle East on fire, al la Libya, Syria, Iraq, Boko Haram, Turkey, and ISIS. You gotta figure that as president she would keep on doing the same stuff she did as Secretary of State. President Hillary won't freeze federal hiring, she thinks more government jobs are good for the Democratic party. President Hillary would appoint Supreme Court judges who believe in "a living Constitution" a liberal idea that allows judges to make up law out of thin air. Hillary believes in global warming and will sign legislation restricting citizen's rights to heat their houses, fuel their cars, and giving handouts to greenie scams like solar electricity and wind energy. Hillary is a gun control freak.
If you call yourself an American citizen, you need to vote for one or the other. Real Americans look toward the future, not back to the past.
Lets not look at the candidate's pasts. They both have lotta problems. But the past is past, what's done is done. Constructive thinking is thinking about what each of them might do to America (for America?) if elected. You ought to vote for the candidate that might provide the best future for the country.
President Trump would cut federal taxes. He would sign an Obamacare repeal bill. He would oppose monopoly mergers, like the recent InBev merger. He would support Congressional term limits, he might not be able to get the votes to do it, but he has promised to try. He has promised a federal hiring freeze. President Trump would appoint real judges to the Supreme Court, judges who believe in enforcing the law as written and not writing new law from the bench. Trump believes in the second amendment.
President Hillary would hike your taxes. She would veto Obamacare reform. If you like your Obamacare, you can keep your Obamacare. She would play nice with Wall St, signing bills to give 'em tax loopholes and reduce regulation. She would continue to set the Middle East on fire, al la Libya, Syria, Iraq, Boko Haram, Turkey, and ISIS. You gotta figure that as president she would keep on doing the same stuff she did as Secretary of State. President Hillary won't freeze federal hiring, she thinks more government jobs are good for the Democratic party. President Hillary would appoint Supreme Court judges who believe in "a living Constitution" a liberal idea that allows judges to make up law out of thin air. Hillary believes in global warming and will sign legislation restricting citizen's rights to heat their houses, fuel their cars, and giving handouts to greenie scams like solar electricity and wind energy. Hillary is a gun control freak.
If you call yourself an American citizen, you need to vote for one or the other. Real Americans look toward the future, not back to the past.
It's a Winta Wundaland
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Win10 Spy Disabler V 1.4, Making it work
Win 10 is very snoopy, and in factory trim reports everything about you and your browsing habits it can back to Microsoft. Youngest son recommended Win 10 Spy Disabler freeware to tighten things up. Nice little program, gives you all kinds of options on what you can kill. Only problem, it never seemed to DO anything, no matter what options I selected.
I finally got the thing to work this morning. The program window is too big for my screen (I'm a laptop) and the "APPLY" button was off the bottom of the screen and out of reach. You cannot click on buttons that are off the screen.
Fix: move the task bar out of the way. My task bar is on the bottom of the screen where it belongs. But in "Settings" there is an option to move it to the right hand or left hand side. Which gives just enough more screen to show the "APPLY" button.
Win10 Spy Disabler ran to completion and offered to reboot. Which I did. And the laptop survived the experience. Whether the program actually did anything is hard to tell.
I finally got the thing to work this morning. The program window is too big for my screen (I'm a laptop) and the "APPLY" button was off the bottom of the screen and out of reach. You cannot click on buttons that are off the screen.
Fix: move the task bar out of the way. My task bar is on the bottom of the screen where it belongs. But in "Settings" there is an option to move it to the right hand or left hand side. Which gives just enough more screen to show the "APPLY" button.
Win10 Spy Disabler ran to completion and offered to reboot. Which I did. And the laptop survived the experience. Whether the program actually did anything is hard to tell.
Friday, October 21, 2016
American Rifleman magazine rates candidates.
American Rifleman is the NRA magazine, widely read and trusted by NRA members, a numerous group of voters. The October issue arrived, and it lists every candidate for public office in NH. And it rates them, A thru F on their position on fire arms issues (gun control mostly).
As a rule Republican candidates receive a A rating and Democrats Ds and Fs. If you are wondering who all is on the ballot in your district, check out American Rifleman. Candidates who neglected to return the NRA questionnaire receive a question mark rating.
Office Candidate Party Rating
US Senate Kelly Ayotte R A
Maggie Hassan D F
Governor Chris Sununu R B
Colin Van Ostern D ?
US Rep Frank Guinta R A
Carol Shea-PorterD F
Jim Lawrence R A
Anne Kuster D F
As a rule Republican candidates receive a A rating and Democrats Ds and Fs. If you are wondering who all is on the ballot in your district, check out American Rifleman. Candidates who neglected to return the NRA questionnaire receive a question mark rating.
Office Candidate Party Rating
US Senate Kelly Ayotte R A
Maggie Hassan D F
Governor Chris Sununu R B
Colin Van Ostern D ?
US Rep Frank Guinta R A
Carol Shea-PorterD F
Jim Lawrence R A
Anne Kuster D F
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Third Presidential Debate
So I jotted down some of the things they said while they were saying them to help me memory along. Hillary was coming out strong against the "Gunshow Loophole". Which sounds good, but there is no gun show loophole. I bought a gun at a gun show some time ago, (Nice Marlin 30-30 lever action) and they did instant background checks on all of us purchasers.
The Donald said that his supreme court picks might well repeal Roe vs Wade. I wouldn't have said that. It offends about half the voters. Roe vs Wade has been the law for nigh on 50 years now, and overturning it would cause as much commotion and bad feeling as imposing it did. Then he got off on a riff condemning partial birth abortions.
They got onto building border walls. Hillary suggested that we wait for improved technology. Improved technology for walls? They had wall technology down pretty good in Troy, and it hasn't changed much in the 3000 years since Achilles slew Hector. If she is talking about electronic widgets, forget it. We tried that in Viet Nam. Didn't work. Put your trust in a plain old chain link fence.
Hillary was selling the idea that Putin is trying to help Trump with his leaks to Wikileaks. Why would Putin do that? Hillary is a known quantity, she isn't very effective, she isn't very smart, she isn't very polite, her mandate from the voters will be weak. As the dictator of a Russia competing with the USA, Putin would be much better off with Hillary. As ex head of KGB Putin knows this. It's been suggested that the reason they only leak Democratic dirty laundry is that the Replublicans have tighter security and the hackers were not able to break in. If true, that's a good reason to vote Republican.
Hillary claimed that Obama cut the national debt. That's a flat out lie, the national debt doubled under Obama.
Hillary derided all tax cuts as "tax cuts for the rich". Well, since half the population pays NO federal income tax, tax cuts only benefit the taxpaying half of the population. If paying income tax makes you rich, then I suppose so. But cutting taxes is good. It's good for the economy, it worked for both Kennedy and Reagan, its good for taxpayers. And a mere 5% of the taxpayers pay most of the taxes.
The Donald failed to nail Hillary on what she has accomplished on all her years on the public teat. The real answer is she accomplished nothing. No bills, no laws, no treaties, no peace talks, nada.
And finally Hillary wants to forbid anyone on the no-fly list from buying guns. The no-fly list is maintained by bureaucrats somewhere and is completely arbitrary. Citizens get stuck on it and there is no way off. I don't want to give faceless federal bureaucrats the power to take away citizen's second amendment rights on a whim.
The Donald came on pretty strong. He'd be better if he could stick to the subject, and not go rambling off about pet peeves that the voters either don't care about or don't like. He did get in a fair number of solid slams on Hillary. Hillary wasn't quite as good. I'd give this one to The Donald, but just barely, a squeaker.
The Donald said that his supreme court picks might well repeal Roe vs Wade. I wouldn't have said that. It offends about half the voters. Roe vs Wade has been the law for nigh on 50 years now, and overturning it would cause as much commotion and bad feeling as imposing it did. Then he got off on a riff condemning partial birth abortions.
They got onto building border walls. Hillary suggested that we wait for improved technology. Improved technology for walls? They had wall technology down pretty good in Troy, and it hasn't changed much in the 3000 years since Achilles slew Hector. If she is talking about electronic widgets, forget it. We tried that in Viet Nam. Didn't work. Put your trust in a plain old chain link fence.
Hillary was selling the idea that Putin is trying to help Trump with his leaks to Wikileaks. Why would Putin do that? Hillary is a known quantity, she isn't very effective, she isn't very smart, she isn't very polite, her mandate from the voters will be weak. As the dictator of a Russia competing with the USA, Putin would be much better off with Hillary. As ex head of KGB Putin knows this. It's been suggested that the reason they only leak Democratic dirty laundry is that the Replublicans have tighter security and the hackers were not able to break in. If true, that's a good reason to vote Republican.
Hillary claimed that Obama cut the national debt. That's a flat out lie, the national debt doubled under Obama.
Hillary derided all tax cuts as "tax cuts for the rich". Well, since half the population pays NO federal income tax, tax cuts only benefit the taxpaying half of the population. If paying income tax makes you rich, then I suppose so. But cutting taxes is good. It's good for the economy, it worked for both Kennedy and Reagan, its good for taxpayers. And a mere 5% of the taxpayers pay most of the taxes.
The Donald failed to nail Hillary on what she has accomplished on all her years on the public teat. The real answer is she accomplished nothing. No bills, no laws, no treaties, no peace talks, nada.
And finally Hillary wants to forbid anyone on the no-fly list from buying guns. The no-fly list is maintained by bureaucrats somewhere and is completely arbitrary. Citizens get stuck on it and there is no way off. I don't want to give faceless federal bureaucrats the power to take away citizen's second amendment rights on a whim.
The Donald came on pretty strong. He'd be better if he could stick to the subject, and not go rambling off about pet peeves that the voters either don't care about or don't like. He did get in a fair number of solid slams on Hillary. Hillary wasn't quite as good. I'd give this one to The Donald, but just barely, a squeaker.
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Leaf Peeping.
It was a lovely day, sun, warm, clear sky. Leaves still bright. I decided I had to get out and look. So I drove over the Kancamagus to Conway, and back thru Crawford Notch. Foliage was magnificent all the way. Whole hillsides showing gold and red. Individual trees all bright red. I brought the camera, but I already have, and have posted, a bunch of pix of brightly color leaves, so I didn't take any more. Plus a lot of really beautiful scenes don't photograph well, you have to be there and see them.
Good Trip. At the right time of year.
Good Trip. At the right time of year.
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