Thursday, November 23, 2023

Repost from March 2013. Good idea.

Now that the Canucks are going to play a game in the old Vancouver Millionaires' uniforms, why not make it a yearly tradition charity game? Something that might inspire the players, catch the public interest and do some good for charities?


Hugh Lehman
A yearly game where the players would give up perhaps most of a one game salary to charity? The idea being that those previous Canucks, the Vancouver Millionaires of 1919, probably didn't even earn ANY pay for their Stanley Cup winning game! They played for the love of hockey.


It could easily be a charity event and raise a ton of money for those less able. The Canuck players will find incentive in the fact that most of them today ARE millionaires with the good fortune to be healthy and able to seek a personal life goal. While those guys in 1919 DID win a Stanley Cup that our modern era players have not yet been able to duplicate. 

Ryan Kessler

And the Canuck fans could be asked to donate cash or goods on Millionaire Retro game night!
They might even dress up in 1919 wear themselves! Have the music of the era too, have 'A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody' lyrics on the scoreboard for a singalong after the first period!

It could catch on and be a lot of fun for players, fans, and a great cause.  
What do you think, Mike Gillis? 

What about it Patrick Albin?



Sunday, August 20, 2023

You decide - - -

Jason Aldean's new song. 

Is is racist? Troubling? Anti anything but crime?


This song was released by Jason Aldean, May 2023.

Aldean talks about crime in large cities, and how that behavior is not tolerated in small towns because people care about their communities and have the means to protect themselves. Who feels threatened by this? You know who.

 

read it for yourself -

  ______________________________________________________________________

 

Try That in a Small Town

Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk
Car jack an old lady at a red light
Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store
Ya think it's cool, well, act a fool if ya like
Cuss out a cop, spit in his face
Stomp on the flag and light it up
Yeah, ya think you're tough

Well, try that in a small town
See how far ya make it down the road
'Round here we take care of our own
You cross that line, it won't take long
For you to find out, I recommend you don't
Try that in a small town

Got a gun that my granddad gave me
They say one day they're gonna round up
Well, that shit might fly in the city, good luck

Well, try that in a small town
See how far ya make it down the road
'Round here we take care of our own
You cross that line, it won't take long
For you to find out, I recommend you don't

Try that in a small town
Full of good ol' boys, raised up right
If you're looking for a fight
Try that in a small town
Try that in a small town

Try that in a small town
(See how far ya make it down the road)
'Round here we take care of our own
You cross that line, it won't take long
For you to find out, I recommend you don't
Try that in a small town
Try that in a small town, mm-mm

Try that in a small town

_____________________________________________________________________

 

So ask why this was removed from CMT, Country Music Television? Why are radio stations refusing to play it? They've been tolerant of criminal behavior for far too long. Who is finding a problem with law and order? If you live in North America and are aware you have already seen each of these situations on some video post. 

Country music is honest and the words don't try to obscure their meanings. Is it a protest? You bet it is and perhaps we can expect more from law abiding citizens who are pissed off about the decline of civility in America.

Is it racist? Or are the people complaining about it the racists who are automatically blaming race for this behavior even though there is not one word about Blacks, Whites, Yellow, Green, Red or Brown people?  Why can't so called WOKE songs, Hip Hop and RAP and general anti-everything trash be held to the same standards?

Maybe ask someone.

BTW, it became number 1 on the Billboard Top 100! Perhaps the regular folks like it and are expressing themselves.

 

 

Is he anything but a country boy?


Wednesday, August 02, 2023

Welcome Followers (update)

This is updated from June 2013 - Still applies.
 
Welcome to the NSA as a new follower of my blog. As CIA Whistleblower Edward Snowden has recently revealed, they are surveilling everyone now so I know someone will actually be reading my stuff. (This is very encouraging when I have been trying to publish my dog story for 4 years) 
 
Please invite your brother agencies to share too; the RCMP, FBI, CSIS, CIA, CSEC, DEA, MI5, MI6, MI7? HAARP, DARPA, SPCA, NCIS, Men in Black, DIA, US Secret Service, Homeland Security, DAR, Space Command, et al. I have such gratitude to you all, writers need all the stroking they can get!
I apologize in advance, if you find things on here that you didn't think people already knew. We are out here in reality. And we question everything.
 
The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, (CALEA) requires that all US telecommunications companies modify their equipment to allow easy wiretapping of telephone, VoIP, and broadband internet traffic.
And of course you already know virtually all these agencies have built in back doors 
to just about every single App you download to your server, phone, computer, tablet, or memory stick. Started long ago when the Government threatened to split Microsoft into three unless Bill Gates allowed it.
 
The Washington Post reported in 2010 that there were 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies in 10,000 locations in the United States that are working on counter-terrorism, homeland security, and intelligence, and that the intelligence community as a whole includes 854,000 people holding top-secret clearances. And did you know that even if you retired 30 years ago from the CIA, you'll probably still have your clearance status and be able to tinker around with whatever that new widow down the street is emailing to her friends? 

According to a 2008 study by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, (DNI) private contractors make up 29% of the workforce in the US intelligence community and cost the equivalent of 49% of their personnel budgets. Five corporations dominate our privatized intelligence industry.
wiki  - Mass Surveillance Internet
 
Wow, so I have 854, 000 new followers! Exciting. And private contractor guys too. That means the Blackwater shadow army is following me too, or as they choose to be called now, Xe Services, oh wait, they changed their name yet again to Academi. Way less menacing. You almost expect their smart guys in knobby tweed brown sports jackets instead of black SWAT gear! Are the Minutemen on our side or theirs? There's also private corporations Booz Allen,
(https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/07/21/booz-allen-lawsuit-false-charges/)  and SAIC  (they do Mission Support which is analytics and Artificial Intelligence! Kinda fits, right?) They are joining in to watch/read/listen to us. (me)  

So adding all these people up who are now interested in what I say, just because I said Obama bombed in his attempt to be humorous at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, (you see, the trigger is using the name Obama, in the same sentence as the word bombed.)  I expect now that I have easily passed the one million count in followers of my blog! 

I don't feel so lonely anymore, knowing that virtually ALL my posts are being read by these intelligent/intellectual/intelligence people inside their big obsidian building in Maryland. And my file in Utah is growing too, as this is now 2023, I assume literally ALL my posts, calls, correspondence, texts. social media comments, arguments with the gardener, restaurant reservations to be on record with a red asterisk! And I expect if I ever call 9-1-1, someone will answer saying, "What do you want, Bob?"  
I am probably the topic of coffee-break confabs, water-cooler chit-chat or water-closet whispers?  

 
I'll try harder now, I promise. Now that I know you guys are all here watching.


I might email Putin and Xi, maybe get the Russian SVR following me. And add those old KGB guys too, who may be out in a gulag but can't stop spying. China's MSS should follow me too. Those kinds of numbers would put me into NSA spy-satellite attention. I wonder if the Geylen Organization is still active in Germany? It is a long way from the OSS isn't it?

I feel so welcome where ever I am these days. 



Psst! I can see that guy with binoculars in my neighbor's tree peering into my bedroom, should I bring him a coffee? 
Hello? I know you can hear me. One lump or two?


Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Windows Update ... NO!


I have Windows 11. It constantly updates itself. Like EVERY DAY! This cannot be correct. It starts in the background without any warning to me and stops whatever I am doing from working! I try to find out why until I discover it is working on its own. Sometimes the only way to stop it is to physically shut down the computer with the button! Software won't do it. This is not a gremlin, it is a Vampire!

It all started from a Window Update. When I used to start the computer, the screen showed me my C;/ drive FIRST and I went to the folder I always start with ... THEN a Windows Update changed it and now it only shows Home, Desktop, One Drive, (which I have NEVER used), D:/ the CD player, Quick Access, haha, E:/, the SD card  G:/ the external Back Up unit and everything BUT my C:/ drive where all my folders and files are! 

So, I went into settings, and tried to stop all Updates, you can only stop Updates for 5 weeks. BUT - wait ... it updates anyway! The next day! Without asking or notice. Windows 11 doesn't work for YOU, it does what the programmer told it to do when installing the treacherous Windows software. They call it security and whatever. I run two of my own malware Apps to see what, if anything is wrong and only get a few cookies that have nothing to show me.

So I find a way (I thought) to stop all updates permanently. The Path is long and has several parts to follow. The first part is Start menu, and gpedit.msc. The action results in a message; MICROSOFT/WINDOWS cannot find that file! After searching around and realizing that thousands of others can't find it either, and Microsoft has not fixed the path over lo, these many years, the conclusion is they don't want us to find it!

I find another site. And TRY to follow the path to get where I want but you cannot DO these instructions unless you have a separate computer available to FOLLOW the endless travel clicks because you must go away from the instructions to implement them! 

Even when I try to sign in to Microsoft it says I cannot use a personal email. It has to be my Work or School email. I am USING a Windows edition that CAME with the computer! I did NOT steal it from my Work (I don't have a freaking JOB!) and my School days were in the 40s and 50s when there were NO FREAKING COMPUTERS! 

Another option? is to do a Reset. And this perfidious machine says it will not touch my personal files. BUT, when I dig down a bit, it WILL delete all the Programs (Apps now) that I downloaded (from my very own CD) to RUN those freaking personal files. No more Photoshop, no WordPerfect, no more Expression Web, no Movie Magic Screenwriter, no Firefox browser. Not even my special Xena Solitaire where you don't always WANT to turn the cards over! 

So I want to take a minute to reflect on my miserable life by playing a song. Stored in My Music files - Windows says 'We can't get to your music right now, try again in a bit.'  Are they out of breath or something from running around trying to destroy me?

I am a writer and NEED to concentrate on what I am doing and NOT be spewing my frustration, now turning into hatred, into a blog! And I know now that Jason Bourne is gonna die because all that technology he is using to evade capture just ain't gonna work! Kim Jong Un doesn't need rockets to conquer America, just send us technology and be sure the instructions are easy, we'll press the nuclear buttons ourselves!

So far the only option I have, (I already sprayed RAID into it) is to toss this ASUS laptop into a garbage can, but then someone else might find it in a landfill and start using it! Even homeless scroungers don't need more aggravation. So I have to smash it with a sledge hammer, burn it with phosphorus Thermate and drop it into one of those deep German lakes that are probably still guarded by the SS. Der Schutzstaffel, you look it up, I have to go get cigarettes and start smoking again. 


I used to be smart until I got a computer.



Saturday, July 01, 2023

Canada Pride?

Call me old fashioned. But I can remember celebrating Canada on Dominion Day. We were proud of Canada then. Now it is Canada Day, July 1st.
 
A recent poll I saw said a huge portion of Canadians don't give a damn about their own country now. It used to be a respectful and quiet pride. Flags and fun and picnics with the day off. 
 
Outside my window they are painting the building. A whole crew of Mexicans, doing a wonderful job refreshing the apartment block. Lots of buzzes, engines running, warning tones from a heavy crane reaching high. Mexico celebrates Carnival, Holy Week, Easter etc. and Anniversario de la Independence, September 16, which commemorates Mexico's independence from Spain and is most important to them. I assume Canada Day is not on their list, nor do I expect it to be, or on any country's list. I think it is what happens when we allow our politicians to not give a damn.
 
Every country seems to revere an important event ... Canada has many. WWII was important to us. While America entered that war in 1941, we heard the distress call from Britain in 1939 and just went with what we had. And Canada shone brightly in that war. In 1945 I was a kid in the street with people rejoicing the end of the victory and a man gave me a small flag to wave. It was the Red Ensign then. We are so fortunate to have much to be proud of but we no longer celebrate. 
And often if we do these days, it is under the criticism of someone pointing out how offensive and bad it is to be doing it. And Canadians, as is their wont to do, say sorry, and just shut up.
 
Hard to imagine Americans backing away from July 4th. Maybe those who bad mouth the USA should stop and start to emulate them for of their pride in their country? 
 
Before this post gets banned and has a warning that I am violating 'Community Standards' again maybe an explanation of those standards is due, so the reader can understand whose standards they are?  
 
Canadian media keeps reminding us how we are now made of a huge diversity of races, classes, colors, religions, voices and how nice that is, but are we losing our uniqueness? Are we becoming a transition to nothingness? No personality? No common goal?
 
I have a large Canadian flag on my balcony right now, but it is the only one in the neighborhood and seems to attract only curious looks. Well I am proud and not apologetically so.
 
So I hope some people are able to read this before it is removed by a 'moderator' as offensive. The guidelines seem to encompass anything one says as 'offensive'.






 
 

Monday, June 12, 2023

I Can't Keep Up

repost from 2016


I don't know who are the good guys, the bad guys or the semi bad guys or the almost good good guys. There might even be mediocre guys too? I suspect they might be us because we have been purposely confused by a misguided media.

We can be pretty sure North Korea is bad. Or at least their leader Kim Jong Un is. Buffoons can be threatening like clowns. But the Middle-East is the topic here. For now.

We thought Saddam Hussein was bad, then good, then bad again. But that was because the USA told us and so we bombed him and then hanged him. But Saddam and his Bath party were Sunnis in power in a mostly Shia Iraq, then he got kicked out by America for being mean to the Kurds which no one gave a shat about before. Some believe that if we had left Saddam Hussein alone and in power, the Middle East would be just fine like it was. Iraq being the buffer zone between Shia Syria and Shia Iran.

So Saddam tells the US Ambassador April Glaspie that the Kuwaitis are side drilling and stealing Iraq's oil. USA says that has nothing to do with us, those are your internal affairs. So Saddam attacks Kuwait. Suddenly it IS something to do with America. Was Glaspie bad or good when she told Saddam ‘the Kuwait issue is not associated with America’? Why does America need to approve other country’s actions? In USA’s agenda for Middle East, people dying are secondary to preserving oil reserves.

H.W. read-my-lips Bush attacks Saddam. And we have the first Gulf war. (by the way, the Emir of Kuwait promised the US he would install Democracy if they helped him) Hasn't happened yet so it must have been bad.

But the US arms industry along with Halliburton-Dick Cheney needed a timely war after Saddam thumbed his nose at Bush senior while staying in power after that first Gulf War. So Daddy’s ‘best boy’, George Jr. does the second Gulf War and that basically created ISIS out of the displaced Sunnis who fled Saddam's Iraq under the second American bombardment/invasion. WMDs and all. (If there were any) Colin Powel is such a terrible liar. Bad … must be. Iraq's power and oil was in control of Sunni Muslims. Sort of. Iraqi oil has been privatized of course, and is now safely in the hands of American interests. Good if you are the US Military?

Exactly what Hillary tried to do when she tragically screwed up in Libya resulting in ISIS having control of their oil instead of America. Or Libya. The country has been left in chaos. It is called regime change war. Must be bad.

So Iran is Shia and the Saudis are Sunni. Syria is Shia. They are murdering their own people who are sometimes called rebel fighters. Whenever the media uses 'fighters' it is to minimize your thoughts of it being a religious war. (Yassir Arafat was a terrorist until he became a fighter) USA was fighting against ISIS who are against the Syrian army. Makes your head spin, doesn't it? And we cannot just blame Muslims, because the US and other arms industries are not Muslim. Heathen maybe, but not Muslim. Saudis are not heathen just Muslim, but they buy billions in US weapons. (Good if they’re defending themselves, bad if they’re just using them to bomb Yemen)

And the Kurds who were mercilessly persecuted by Saddam, which was okay when the West liked Saddam Hussein (Good) and his 25% of the world's oil reserves, are now fighting Syria. But the Turks hate the Kurds and have started attacking them (the PKK) across their border with Northern Iraq. Of course USA loves the Kurds now because they are fighting ISIS. The same folks who were killing them under Saddam when they were Iraqis.


Meanwhile the USA gets an airbase in Turkey. From which to launch airstrikes against ISIS, but not the Kurds because they are on the same side. (As the USA not Turkey, I think) Whew. The USA keeps fighting ISIS with air strikes against pick-up trucks. (Good) Some vehicles were even sent from America! (Bad) Meanwhile the Turks are said to be buying oil from ISIS. (Bad)  

Then Assad of Syria invites the Russians back (Bad) and they flash airstrikes across Syria and kill thousands of ISIS targets that somehow, Obama couldn't? Even Trump says that is a good thing if they want to fight a common enemy he would welcome them when America is using a million dollar cruise missile to destroy a 400 dollar Toyota. (Not so good)
But the prospect of USA and Russia combining to stop war was way too practical and downright ugly to imagine by Pentagon powers, who pondered the question of no war = no weapon sales and rejected Trump’s idea out of hand. Russia is our enemy and dammit we’re gonna keep it that way, no matter how good they act. (Bad)

But the resident bogeyman, Putin, was outmaneuvering Obama in the Middle-East (Bad) at every turn and seemed to have the Sunni ISIS in retreat. (Good) News reported by Aljazeera, (Bad) and CNN (Good then, Bad now) No 50 shades of gray, only black or white.

Canada was in there too with 4 (four) airstrikes in the last few months and they might have blown a desert latrine to smithereens! (unsanitary) What the hell, says ISIS, sand covers up your shit just fine. Remember the second Gulf War when Canada sent a warship to the Red Sea (Good) and it got there just when the war was over and everyone was having ice cream on the beach! (Good/Bad?) And AP had reporters already there filming the invaders as they rowed to shore. (Funny)

Wait, now we get to Muammar Gaddafi in Libya repenting his bad boy past, eliminating his ‘Line of Death’ and becoming a friend of America. (Good) But not quite good enough? Too late says Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, we have plans for Libya, so she vetoes his proposal of democracy (?) and pushes him out to the desert where he gets a Mussolini treatment by angry mobs and sends North Africa into total turmoil including her Benghazi action which ended with American Marines being killed including their own Ambassador! (Way bad) Good grief, does everyone in US government get to start a war?

And confusion and terror is spreading across North Africa right now before we even know who is who? Egypt's Arab Spring seems forgotten for the moment.  Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi now governs under the watchful eye of Israel and he knows if they ever return they will cross the canal and all of Egypt will start wearing yarmulkes before he can finish writing his name. But the fomenting of trouble is working just fine in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and they seem content just to send terrorists into Europe with their migrants. (Bad)

Take a breath and know that Kim Jong Un is still THE bad guy. (Good) But no one knows what to do with him because China likes him. (Bad) And China are bad good guys or maybe good bad guys. Depending on what America wants to sell them while ignoring their huge trade deficit. (Bad)

Back to M.E.


Meanwhile bin Laden is dead. (?) Maybe for sure this time. Many think Bill Clinton got him years ago with a cruise missile at Tora Bora where he was hiding in caves. (Good) But a bad mistake, because a very useful bogeyman was gone too soon. (Good/Bad?) Wasted and you can't waste a good bad guy when you need to keep the population in check. There's no telling what laws could have come into effect with bin Laden on the loose!

Homeland Security was drooling at the prospect of arming every police force in America with state-of-the-art military weapons. (You see the US Constitution declares that the Government can never use the Army on American soil against its own people. (Good) So the Pentagon has quietly gone about giving local police forces the latest high tech military equipment, thereby creating a ready-made Army on American soil that isn't really an army. Maybe just thugs, who WILL shoot on American citizens. (Bad)

The good-bad guys (read NSA, CIA, etc) didn't want bin Laden dead. He was too valuable to scare people. So the CIA tried to keep him alive through various fakes and look-nearly-alike actors. Osama bin Fakens. But none of that spin was working so they raided his alleged Pakistan hideout and Navy Seals killed him for Obama’s credit. (Good) Or did they? Virtually ALL the Seals in that operation were killed later under mysterious circumstances. (Very Bad)
And the only pic of that raid is of a bin Laden character watching 'Little House in the Desert' on TV while all hell breaks loose in his compound with three helicopters and Seal Team Six! (go ahead and laugh, most anyone who was paying attention laughed too)
And even lately, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has said bin Laden is alive and well and living in the Bahamas! (?) He might be staying with Jacques Brel. BTW, the military said they dumped bin Laden's body in the sea but can't remember where. (?)
And Afghanistan right now has the ever ready Taliban looking after it. (Bad)

And now Lebanon is hell. Jordan is treading a fine line of not sure who to suck up to. Queen Noor is the only smart one and left. Israelis and Palestinians are at each other's throats. (Bad) The Saudis are bombing Yemen, (Bad) but staying out of Iraq/Iran. Oh yes, the Ayatollah of Iran signs a nuclear deal with the USA. (What?) Be careful Mr. Ayatolla, Saddam and Gaddafi were pro American too. Just before they were deposed and murdered. But hey, John Kerry signed a nuke deal too, (Bad) so it must be good.

And the so-called Five Eyes Nations, America, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand are spying on all of us. (info courtesy of Snowden) And if we have any common sense, we must admit that these Five Eyes can be bad guys too because they are spying on each other, including the US CIA spying on Britain, Germany's Angela Merkel, then French President Hollande, the Dutch, Spanish and every one in between. Basically everyone else in the whole freakin' world! They were caught spying on 38 embassies! (Bad)

And in South America. Brazil hates America now because they spied on President Dilma Rouseff and got her dumped. Venezuela is in turmoil, because they have oil and wouldn't follow US policies. (?) So we have an alliance of BRICS nations. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa loosely standing together against the good guys/bad guys. 


So it is almost impossible to select the good guys or the bad guys in the Middle East without an engineering schematic, but it all depends on who writes the program. And which direction the wind is blowing.
The famous coded telegram from Japan in 1941 which said 'East Wind, rain.' was their signal to start their war.
But damn, which way IS the wind blowing now?
We can't tell because only seven companies control 90% of the media and they are the ones feeding us info, from their perspective, from their agenda and to their controlled media, and into YOUR TV. (Bad) Your only hope of any semblance of what is really happening in the world is alternative media. (Good)

Could be that one side in this endless war for world dominance is wearing black beards and dusty fatigues while the other has clean hands and wears Alexander Amosu pinstriped suits. ($142,800.00 at a store near you)

You have to open the package to see who is killing who, but both sides bleed just the same. Listen first, to hear if the package is ticking. (Bad)
I can't keep up, who ARE the bad guys anyway?

You might imagine a comic book bad guy, chuckling and stroking his mustache and saying how lovely wars are, until you realize he’s a Pentagonian. Yes, they have their very own species and no one believes them. (Because we saw those 4 frames of the Pentagon attack)

I haven't even got to the Rothschilds and Rockefellers or the Bilderberg Conferences yet. And we'll do Good Bad and Ugly when we talk next time about Ukraine, the seeping truth emerging and why Joe and Hunter Biden are so nervous.

I'll try to keep up but may have too much sand in my sandals.

 

Monday, January 23, 2023

Canucks Gong Show - Same Old

 Self destruction at it's worst?
As always, Vancouver Canucks followers are trying to figure out what their team management is doing. This is not new. This is the history of the Canucks. 
 
So Jim Rutherford's first steps as Director of Hockey Operations was to bring along Patrick Alvin as GM. (He could have brought Charlie McCarthy) Then he adds a staff of specialists doing whatever they do. No one seems clear on their role. Rutherford's intent was obviously to get rid of Bruce Boudreau and replace him because of the faltering team. But the results seem like the management of the franchise is the part that is floundering. 
Rutherford came in AFTER the owner had chosen the coach, and it was clear from Day 1 that he was not 'his man'. Boudreau had a contract. If replaced the team would have three coaches being paid. Travis Green, Bruce Boudreau and Rick Tocchet.
 
But let's get to the point. Fans are wondering if Jim Rutherford really understands his job now. Or is he up to something else? 
Start with Tocchet who plead guilty to the charges of illegal sports gambling in 2006 while he was an assistant coach under Wayne Gretsky. Tocchet was given a suspended sentence on condition he testify and refrain from gambling and see a doctor about betting issues. (His partner in the gambling ring got 7 years) Janet Gretsky was also implicated in the New Jersey State Police investigation called Operation Slapshot, which was about illegal sports gambling, money laundering and conspiracy, along with Travis Green, Jeremy Roenick and others. The ring was said to have ties to an Eastern US organized crime family.
 
So this is Rutherford's choice as head coach. With a losing record in coaching. Wait, it gets even better. Also hired were two assistants coming in with Tocchet, Sergei Gonchar and Adam Foote. Gonchar will apparently coach the defense VIA ZOOM meetings with Canucks' defensive players! He will be with the team only intermittently! Do you believe all this? Yes because it is the Canucks! So can we expect Gonchar to fix our defense from wherever he is at the moment? Evidently Rutherford does.  

Is Jim Rutherford trying to steer the team into a 'tank' to get a chance at Conner Bedard in the draft? Ask yourself if Canucks have ever had a favorable draft over Eastern teams in the NHL. The League is run from the East, it is a draft LOTTERY.
 
Will players want to come here to Vancouver? Do the current players want to STAY here with a bleak future? Will Petterssen want to sign long term and suffer his career through another 3 or 4 year rebuild? Is the team better now? Can it be better after Horvat, Boeser, Schenn, Garland etc leave?

Are hockey fans happy with the new slant of the NHL going heavily into gambling now with ads featuring current players advocating betting for a sure win? Does it herald a new NHL which has to be watched for point shaving in games? We all know how easily players OR Refs can change the outcome of a game.

It all started long ago in the entry draft into the league in 1970, when Buffalo Sabres picked first and chose perennial all-star and Hall of Famer, Gilbert Perrault. Canucks got Dale Tallon. It was a lotto wheel spin and we've been spinning our wheels ever since.
 
We should have known something was wrong then. 
Are hockey fans just dumb people?



Thursday, August 18, 2022

Hong Kong Again

 

Demand is growing for Ottawa to support a Richmond man who was recently put on a wanted list by the Communist Chinese Hong Kong government.

The situation is one that observers have been predicting could happen since Hong Kong (China) implemented a new national security law in June 2020. 

Victor Ho, a former editor-in-chief of the Sing Tao Daily newspaper, was accused by the Hong Kong government’s security bureau earlier this month of subverting state power after he participated in a Toronto news conference proposing a Hong Kong parliament-in-exile that would oppose Beijing’s clampdown on political freedoms. Editorial coverage of Chinese Communist Party controlled Sing Tao has shifted noticeably since the takeover; 

Sing Tao now - 

  • Avoids or limits coverage of politically sensitive topics such as 1989 military crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters, Tibet and Taiwanese independence.
  • Shifts critical opinions to back pages.
  • Chooses 'politically correct' rhetoric.
  • Directs investigative journalism to favor soft news or a simple accounting of emerging events.

Sing Tao is now a Communist Party media. Two Canadian MPs and a concerned citizens group recently called on Prime Minister Trudeau and federal foreign affairs minister to step up and take note of Ho’s case and publicly denounce the Hong Kong government.

We all knew it would happen that the Chinese Communists would never honour their agreement with Britain when they took over in 1997. 

We need to take Mr. Ho seriously.

Here is a remembrance of Hong Kong I posted here previously - 

In April 1975 I was in Hong Kong. It was British then and a fascinating city for a Canadian. Full of energy and human action. Today HongKongers feel they are a unique people who with their freedoms over a hundred years have built something special that needs no suppression of their dynamic spirit. 
 
We stayed in Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon and had a nice hotel right on Nathan Road. The old Kai Tak airport was only a narrow strip of reclaimed land that jutted from the main waterfront into Victoria Harbour circled by high buildings. The pilot flies over the tops and there was no glide path, so he has to suddenly cut power and drop between those skyscrapers, but crank it on again about half way down to get going and avoid being a splat! Then you look out the window and the wings seem over the water because the tarmac is so narrow. You appreciate the skill of airline pilots. 
 
And you soon discover the bus drivers' skill too as they race their double-deckers on a tortuous route through the city, narrowly missing overhanging awnings and surging crowds. Hong Kong may be British but it's not London,

You visit Hong Kong Island via the Star Ferry. When you want to cross from Kowloon you just run aboard and toss your money into a huge funnel and are never sure if they actually count it. 
You might see a rare Chinese Junk passing with orange sails, or witness people in the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter who live their whole lives in little sampans. Or go to the magical Tiger Balm Gardens and buy a little vial for aches and pains. And it works! 
Although the riches of Hong Kong were evident in the fantastic array of modern high buildings and Rolls Royces, the poor were visible too. Living in grey tents or a lean-to on the hillside with only a piece of corrugated tin for shelter, sometimes whole families eked out a living by making plastic flowers or little toys and dolls. Cooking in tiny pots. Julia Child once said the Chinese were the best cooks because they could make their food taste the same wherever they were in the world!
 
While we were there Chiang Kai-Shek died. April 5, 1975. He was the Nationalist revolutionary and military leader of the Republic of China from 1928 to his death in Taipei, on Taiwan island, the last stand of the free Chinese against the Communist hordes that still rule today. What was called Mainland China then, and wants now to eliminate Taiwanese democracy from China. As Beijing has done with those brave HongKongers who resisted as long as they could. Taiwan may be the last hold of Free Chinese.
 
In 1975 you had to escape to Hong Kong from China. While we watched on the news of Chiang Kai-Shek's passing, the hillsides bloomed with the red and blue flags of the Republic lamenting the event. And it seemed that however poor those hardy people struggling on the slopes were, they loved their freedom more than bowing to the communist regime and needed to show it to the world.
 
Says a lot about their mettle, doesn't it?   

  

Note: In 1842 China ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain in perpetuity,  (Treaty of Nan King)  followed by the Kowloon peninsula (Convention of Peking) in 1860, also to the British in perpetuity. The lease was up only on the New Territories in 1997. Many China watchers feel the Brits betrayed the people of Hong Kong and considered business interests more important than the freedom of the people.

Also; Taiwan is not a parliament in exile, it is the home of FREE Chinese people who cherish liberty and is NOT part of the communist regime. And the large population of Chinese people who now reside in Western Canada are also here because they escaped the oppression of a Communist Government.




Monday, August 01, 2022

Tim Horton's coffee, a donut, and your info.

Repost update in regard to the controversial Tim Horton's App YOU downloaded to your own phone. Original was posted in 2017 and we all know 'they' have progressed since then..
 
Do you think you are being surveilled? You bet you are and it's all your own fault!

I just got a new Samsung phone, and here is what I found in the small print, certain things that you allow without being asked - - - This is just part of the Samsung legal. I have cut some of the lawyer language.


  • Your Samsung may often download Updates automatically through Wi-Fi or other network connection ... Samsung will provide you with notice of the Update where practicable.  (Which could mean it may NOT and you won't know what exactly happened?)
  • Internet Access - The Samsung Software will access the internet through your mobile network which may result in additional charges. (Whaaa?)
  • Third-Party Materials - Certain Third-Party (TP) applications may be downloaded to your Samsung Mobile Device. Such applications may include content data, information or materials, or provide links to TP websites, you acknowledge and agree that Samsung is NOT responsible or liable for any content on said downloads. You agree that use of these TP materials (that you did NOT agree about) is at your sole risk. You agree not to harass, abuse, threaten or infringe on the right of the TP stuff, (that someone put on your phone which you did not ask for) TP materials are governed by the TP terms of use and which may include personal data you provide, even unknowingly are subject to that TP's privacy policy. (So you can see now that you have NO control over your own phone and what someone may put on it!) and Samsung in bold upper case, disclaims any responsibility for any disclosure from TP practices! (So an UNKNOWN entity puts stuff on YOUR phone without your knowledge and YOU are to blame for whatever results that makes! WOW!)
  • Then they have another loud talk basically saying they are not responsible for anything at all!  lol
Samsung Privacy Policy Highlights
  • We collect personal information that you provide ... from Third Party sources, social networks and analytics. We may share your personal information with affiliate or trusted partner companies, insurance companies, law enforcement agencies, etc. (THEY may trust them but I don't know if I do. They are not even telling me who their so-called trusted partners are!)
  • We collect - Device info, hardware model, IMEI number, phone number, serial number, country code, network code, MAC  address, IP address, settings on your device, cookies, pixels, (Whoa! a word about pixels, like those used to make a picture of a nice cow in that field. It is made up of pixels, maybe a million or so - tracking pixels can be added to any picture and you think you'll see one? Nope. Remember microdots from WWII? Meanwhile these magic pixels are sending out data about YOU!) Log info, usage info such as time and duration of your use of certain services and any info stored in cookies that WE (your phone) have set on your devices! (Whew, how long did I stare at Miss String Bikini '75? That iron collar on my neck is getting tighter!  All to provide ME with a 'better' experience, it says here!) Sure.
  • WE (your phone) will disclose your information to -  Affiliates. Business Partners, who work together, like a bank, research etc, These business partners control and manage your personal info. (Big list after that too.)
  • Your use of our services will involve the transfer, storage, and processing of your personal info to other countries in particular the Republic of Korea, but also - the EEA, USA, China, Singapore, Vietnam, India, Canada, the Philippines and Japan. (Of course we have NO IDEA who some of those countries may share your data with once THEY have it, do we? And the tech industry is trying to scare us away from Huawei for spying?
Well, this is far too long to expect you to read and store the info, suffice to say that your phone IS intruding on your privacy. Spying on you, without you knowing they are doing it, or without you knowing WHO is getting YOUR info) Give me a break, go directly to the gullible line.
Lots more headings tucked into those innocent looking paragraphs. 
And now it has 'View Security certificates' - Scroll down this one if you have the afternoon off, there are hundreds of these on your phone, all there to help YOU.
Here are only a couple - AS Sertifitseerimiskeskus - Chungwa Telecom Co. Limited - QuoVadis Limited - (I don't even like Victor Mature) - Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik (just because I bought Turkish bread at the bakery?) - Secure Trust Corporation - (Secure Trust?) There are fifty more on my phone. Sorry, but I don't feel better about this. As Paul Newman would say to Butch, "Who ARE those guys?"

And better still, you can now use a fingerprint AND/OR face recognition to access your phone! So you press your finger into a box that records your print, and now you use that to make your phone work. Is that a problem that virtually anything going into your phone becomes digital info that is nothing more than a series of numbers! I have never activated a fingerprint reader, but somehow my phone already has a heading - Fingerprints with a - SHA-256 fingerprint heading, and an alphanumeric like this - 41:C9:23:86 etc and those number-letters go on and on! 256 finger prints are already there? Are these the prints of the spy guys who are going to be reading and listening and watching everything I do on my shiny new communication device? Are they pre-installed? 256 of them! How many do they need?

And what about face recognition? Go ahead. Now 'They' know who you are, on your phone, on the street, going into that concert, loitering near the bank. Hmm, all this is for you. Nothing controversial about that. Is there? Is there? In China those face masks are used even without smog! I know why. And those numbers when digitized and duplicated by simply inputting the string into any computer and viola; there, I just typed in your fingerprint! Or your photo, and there you are, grinning like a gerbil with a new wheel!

Well has the desired effect been achieved? What can I do except take the easy way out like the rest of you? 'I'm not doing anything wrong so I have nothing to worry about ' you say. As long as I continue to keep my job, watch baseball and whatever they want me to be normal about. Sure.

The problem is, what exactly is normal or wrong? Who defines wrong? I go to church. But what Church? We saw Jeffrey Epstein going to a church once. Was it a Shinto Temple? It's wrong to be a Copt in Egypt. You're not an agnostic are you? Will Christians become illegal? 

And where did you go when you conveniently 'forgot' your phone in the bar that night? You went back the next day to retrieve it, but what did you do in those nine hours, 22 minutes and 49 seconds while it was out of your pulse range? Did you foment revolution? Who did you go home with? You drive an older car without the black box so they couldn't track you. You better buy a new car, they'll put ads on your phone to help you pick.
And that selfie at the game. Why did you include the man 2 rows back and one over? Do you know that guy? Why is he watching you? WE know him.
This could be endless and I am not a paranoiac! But I am afraid to play Words with Friends now because what about the words I use? Are they saying something subliminal about me that is revealing my hidden personality? The FBI is using software now that can identify a potential criminal! (and arrest you because you are likely to commit a crime)
OMG what have I said on facebook and Twitter? What videos did I like on YouTube? 
Paranoid? Nooo. Sorry Mom, but we can only talk now on benches in public parks with lots of truck traffic passing by.
 
And by the way, say Hi to Bixby, on your Samsung, he's their resident fink. He probably knows Siri, Alexa and all those other informers, snitchers and stool pigeons too! You don't know what HE looks like, but he knows what YOU look like. There might be an app on your phone right now sending all your calls, texts, photos, and more to who knows? You know of course, that your camera phone works without any tell-tale light now, don't you? It can be bypassed. And how do you know your microphone is on or off?
 
Give me a minute, I'm taking deep breaths.
 
So. Do I think I am being surveilled? You bet I do and it's all my own damned fault! I bought a new 'smart' cel phone, but don't you be a smart ass and think yours is different, because it ain't! Your Google or iPhone will be exactly he same, the brand makes little difference and you'd be a fool to think other wise. Get used to your virtual ankle bracelet and speak clearly when you whisper.
 
But I'm keeping my old car, it doesn't have a little black surveillance box with a location track record like every new car and knows where to go without On-Star.
 
Trust me.
 
The only question remaining is this:  If Tim Hortons had said to you before downloading the App, 'We will give you a coffee and a donut to record virtually ALL your personal information." Would you have agreed?
 
 
[Shhh!  Got this from an old Dick Tracy comic.  Invisible ink for writing secret notes - you use lemon juice with a nib pen and the message cannot be seen until you heat the paper .... I'm just trying to help.]