Unless there's a coup...
I fantasize T being dragged from the White House by Secret Service agents like an unruly, drunk airline passenger "escorted" off a plane.
Unless there's a coup...
I fantasize T being dragged from the White House by Secret Service agents like an unruly, drunk airline passenger "escorted" off a plane.
She's quoted in an article written by Hugh Delehany in AARP Bulletin:
What gives you hope now?
"I'm hopeful about young people because they're taking an interest in the future of the planet. And I'm also hopeful about America, at a time when some Americans are not, because I don't think it's over for America yet. I think America is an ornery and diverse enough place that it would be very hard to get everybody to line up and do some kind or weird salute, even though the country has had a fascist undercurrent since the 1930s or so. I'm counting on Americans' crankiness and orneriness to keep things from going too far in either extreme."
I like that; crankiness and orneriness. We certainly are that.
I'm on my third week of trying to sort out my computers after sort of being hacked (no one succeeded in getting through.) The more I try to fix things, the more messed up it becomes. I had hoped that my computer geek nephew could rescue me, but the app we use to enable him to take over my computer won't run on my current OS system. When I tried to upgrade the system, my laptop doesn't have enough memory, and my desktop is too old to upgrade.
I also keep loosing my Blogger (Google) editing access to this blog. I've somehow reconnected three times now, and I hope it sticks. As not-so-great as I have been at maintaining this blog, the thought of recreating it is too much. (POST SCRIPT: I finally realized that I have access to two Google accounts, and our blog is under the SPARTA google account run by Jack. My apologies to Jack if this caused him any problems.)
It looks like my best way out of this is to get over to Best Buy and get a new MacBook Pro WITH LOTS OF MEMORY. You'll never regret paying more for more memory. I'll see if I can get anything for my 2013 iMac Pro desktop, my mom's 2011 iMac desktop, and my 2015 MacBook Pro.
Years ago, I realized that I had given more than I had planned to several of the charities I support. Many of these NFPs (Not-For-Profits) send out multiple mailings, some even monthly. I wasn't keeping track.
Now I save all the renewal letters, sit down in January, and write checks (or go online) to most of the organizations I donate to. I have a spread sheet that lists all the organizations. The list includes the donations I've made in the past, this year's donation, the check number, and the date. There's a section for monetary donations to NFPs and a section for in-kind donations (food donations, Goodwill, mileage for volunteer work, school supplies).
There's a third section for non-tax deductible donations. This would include organizations that work for political causes: Greenpeace, political parties, ACLU, WREA, SPARTA.
The rules for getting credit on your taxes have changed, but that's only one reason to keep track of your giving. The bigger one for me is that I give what I budgeted. That doesn't preclude me from giving extra as the year progresses, but just helps me keep track of what I've given so far.
This list is updated as the year moves forward. Some people prefer to do this at year's end, when many organizations are trying to balance their budgets. They can also count the donations on the current year's taxes.
It's a good idea to run the charities you support through Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator does an excellent job of reporting which organizations are utilizing your money most effectively. For example, Doctors Without Borders has earned 4 stars, and has a 93.5 out of 100 score for financial and accountability/transparency. Charity Navigator offers a great deal of data on each organization it rates.
And I'm One |
Santha suggested that I do a weekly article on financial tips. Well, I can think of two; after that I'll have to steal from some other blog.
My first tip is to update and change all your passwords on a regular basis. I was hacked on six accounts last week: Amazon, Spectrum, ebay, Walmart, Google, and PayPal. I contacted all my money accounts (and my mom's) and made sure that they were secure. I didn't loose any money.
The nightmare began.
I've now changed my password on Amazon over ten times since Monday. I would change it once, and then it wouldn't accept the new password. Or the new one would work on my desktop but not on my phone. Then my amazon prime video kicked me off my phone, then one TV, then another.
Another problem was that my original passwords had been reasonably easy to understand and remember, as in "Oscarevil14". As they suggest, I used more "secure" passwords like "CghJ87^fboi))8jwh902i". Now this may be secure, but two problems exist. The first is that it's impossible to remember, so if you loose your list of passwords, too bad. The other problem is that I could rarely type the mess of letters and numbers in correctly.
Needless to say, all this activity caught the eye of the computerized security eye of Amazon. I was shut out several times.
And this was just one account. I went over my list of passwords and accounts, changed what I could, actually contacted companies to cancel accounts, and deleted, deleted, deleted.
I've discovered nooks and crannies on my computer and phone with lists of websites and passwords that go on forever. I have yet to tackle all the different passwords for my desktop, laptop, phone, Apple ID. iTunes, iCloud, system preferences: users and groups, key-chain, computer account-printer, Airport, network code, Microsoft account, and on and on. One problem is that I don't really know what most of these are so I hesitate to touch them.
Oh, and I lost the SPARTA blog a few times. It still existed, but I couldn't access it to edit. My editor's version was blank. But, abracadabra, it has reappeared. For now.
So I can attest that all those anti-scam warnings you receive and know you should be following through on are nothing compared to the headache you'll have to go through if you wait for trouble to happen. I was lucky and didn't loose any money. But the time and vexation could have been avoided if I had followed the suggestions given by law enforcement, senior organizations, and the government.
In the end, I'm going to take my desktop, laptop, and phone into the experts and have them sanitize all devices.
Here's some links with excellent guidelines:
https://www.ag.state.mn.us/Consumer/Publications/HowtoProtectYourselfAgainstHackers.asp
https://www.savethestudent.org/extra-guides/32-ways-avoid-cyber-hacked.html
Favorite T-shirt/bumper sticker sightings:
Science flies you to the moon;
Religion flies you into buildings.
Don’t piss off old people;
The older we get,
the less “life in prison”
Is a deterrent.
I am the DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST
Trump warned you about
WINE (noun):
The glue holding this 2020 s***show together.
UNDERESTIMATE ME;
That will be fun.
As you may have heard, Mary Ann Krems has passed away. She was our President from 2012-2015 and a force in the community. We'll forward information as we receive it.
From WREA, a directive that local meetings are suspended until further notice. We'll hope that we can meet in November. Our October book sale is canceled, and there will be no book take-ins until further notice.
The Executive Committee accepted a temporary budget for 2020-2021 until the membership can meet and vote. The budget assumes no book sales in October and April, and we will be holding off on grants for now. Like everything, there's a "one day at a time" outlook.
There is a great concern that membership will drop at the local and state level. Just a reminder, that WREA is THE watchdog for our pension fund. They were experiencing a dramatic drop in membership last year, so that trend is likely to continue. If there's ever a time to advocate for public schools, teachers, and the ETF, it's now. Let's not let this break our organization.
With that said, dues can be sent in for 2020-2021. You can download the application from the sidebar and send it with a $12 check to: Jan Langton, 2010 Aspen Lane, Plover, WI 54467.
These people are paid:
Life Members
Joyce C.
Barb C.
Mary E.
Jerry K.
Jan L.
Carol L.
Cathy M.
Sherrilee W.
John W.
Kathy W.
Emeritus
Betty A.
Kathy B.
Isadora C.
Janice H.
Susan P.
Elbert R.
David S.
Lillian S.
Joyce W.
Paid through 2021
Marion A.
Betty E. 2022
O Phillip I.
Nancy K.
Barb K.
David P.
Marchita P.
Scott R.
Marc T.
Happy Endings |
» “Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts.”(I have the DVD if anyone would like to borrow it.)
» “How can you not love Texas politics? You pick up the paper in the morning and it's kind of like finding Fidel Castro in the refrigerator.”
» On Pat Buchanan's culture-war speech at the 1992 Republican convention: "It probably sounded better in the original German."
» “We get so scared of something—scared of communism or crime or drugs or illegal aliens—that we think we can make ourselves safer by sacrificing freedom. Never works. It's still true: the only thing to fear is fear itself.”
» “My friend Mercedes Pena made me get in touch with my emotions just before I had a breast cut off. Just as I suspected, they were awful. ‘How do you Latinas do this—all the time in touch with your emotions?’ I asked her. ‘That's why we take siestas,’ she replied.”
» “I have been attacked by Rush Limbaugh on the air, an experience somewhat akin to being gummed by a newt. It doesn't actually hurt, but it leaves you with slimy stuff on your ankle.”
» “Keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.”