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Ebola Scare Shows Just How Well The Private Sector Works

While I have to listen to the Ultra Conservative bunch tell me time and time again that the Government does not work, and we should let the free market/private sector do the work because they know better how to get the job done.

I will now make it a mission to explain point blank that they are dead wrong !

To be clear, I’m not here to say that the Government does no wrong or anything resembling that.

It would be clear that if what they say is true, they would not currently be clamoring that the CDC is at fault for Ebola spreading within the boundaries of the United States.

It does not require much thought. If Corporate America could do it better, it would not have needed the Government to tell it what to do in fact it needs to step up personal protection for workers in the field. And that it what caused it to spread on the U.S. soil.

So now let me hear the same bunch tell me again that the private sector knows better. It was not the CDC that told them to NOT use better PPE with workers in the field. If they know better, it would not have happened.

But as with anything profound as this, finger pointing almost always leads to the Government because they did not tell you enough of what to do. And those agency’s that get that finger probably have had their budget slashed over the past 15 years. So there are limited resources to monitor or enforce what rules remain on the books.

In any case, even with the new insight on how to handle a new threat that will be sure to yet pose some new problems, we will learn from it and overcome. The real problem is if we either fail to learn or fail to act on what we have learned. That would be a threat that the private sector would be sure to give us in the name of profits. Of course, we only here about that after the disaster happens.

Those that do not like the Government “telling them what to do” got their way when we took regulation off the banks in 1999 and look what that rewarded us with in less than 8 years. That would be the same as done to the Savings And Loans in the 80’s and I’ll bet most of you now have not one Savings And Loan in your zip-code.

If those that tell you that you should not like Government telling you what to do then please ask them why they are the same folks telling you the Government needs to tell women what they can do with their bodies or that we all should have to say prayer in school or say the pledge of allegiance.

I agree that the Government could use a few lessons on spending wisely. Most of these types of problems goes to the root of a corrupt officials getting a kick back for other favors.

It would be a more prudent position to take to spend the same time and energy to make the system work better by eliminating the corruption problems first and the individual issues second.

In any case, the Ebola problem was corrected quickly and I doubt you would have got the same response from the private sector, or, as I said, it would never had been a issue to start with.

DATA SECURITY -Two Words With Nothing In Common !

My story starts in the year 2000 when I had a bit of a argument with a head of a I.T. department for a university over credit card security online. To prove my point, I had to put my money where my mouth was and just make a attempt to show exactly what I was talking about. So I let the I.T. pro pick a random site with eCommerce. I would have a day to show credit card numbers with expiration dates and personal info. I really thought my timeline was a bit stiff as I was a very busy person at the time but… with minutes I had the info printed out as proof. I had made my point but did never mention it again as I had always feared there would be those that might strong arm someone who had knowlage of how to do such a thing. So no rubbing it in would be allowed.

What I did was to use that sites internal database by using the online search in a overt way as I was taking a guess as to where it would be found and that the two were on the same server and was correct with the first try. I dumbfounded myself in amazement. Many folks were hacked in those days and never knew it until they were arguing with their credit card co that they did not make those charges that were showing up on their bill.

Now we have taken many lessons from those early days and one would think that you can’t have easy pick’ns anymore. Think again. Our servers have gotten much more complex, and with complexity comes more services (functions ability of the server) and with more services comes more security holes. There are some security holes that have been around for 10 or more years and are just now being discovered. Problem is the hackers had knowlage of them long before they were publicly discovered either by accident or after witnessing a hack live.

Just in the past year, public announcements of data breaches of credit card number and personal info lost to hackers is at a all time high with no end in site.

This is to fail to mention the ones that happen that we do not hear about or have yet to hear about.

Major Breaches Starting with Target in Nov 2014 with others to include Morgan Stanley Chase Bank, SuperValue, Home Depot, Dairy Queen, K-Mart and the list is much broader with regional operators. Many more have been hacked and are yet to discover it. Some try to keep it deniable so they do not have to announce anything. You never discover what you fail to look for even if it is staring you in the face.

It is conceivable that the majority of Americans have had at least one account breached in the past year and have yet to know or feel the ramifications of it.

Chains are like security, and are only as strong as their weakest link. Today’s security chains have broken links to start with. But that is nothing new.

Please read this from a writer at the infamous WIRED Magazine who’s entire life was deleted in a hour and was done in simple ways.

There is several things to consider that retailers will not like to hear of.

“Stop warehousing data” – It is inevitable that you will be hacked. What reason do you have for keeping data around about your customers when the cost of it is ultimately paid by that customer in many ways, especially credit card numbers. Data Stored will always be Data Hacked at some point. It is valuable to many folks both criminal and to data mining companies that we don’t even know what they have on you unless you are looking to buy it and do so.

Granted, most of the more recent hacks have been from a malware that is capturing live data or very recent data but many other hacks are simply copying the contents of databases where it is stored.

After a credit card transaction is complete, only the transaction number should be stored with your personal info and that personal info should not be married to that transaction info 90 days after they have been paid for the transaction by the issuing bank. This is valuable info to the retailer that they did not have to pay a data mining company’s for and they can sell or trade it for other data.

They always like to “Get To Know You Better” about your shopping and spending habits. They would like to make you not just a “predictable shopper”, but one that can be easily “baited” if you know when, where and how much to bait each person. Those efforts seem to “Pay Off” and are getting better all the time with the more data they collect and hold. That is why it is so valuable to retailers and even politics and criminals (one in the same ??). This is how so many company’s you never herd of are making a very good living just collecting, warehousing and selling it.

The big problem here is that you are being judged by it and you don’t know who has it or what it is and have no way of knowing if it is correct.

Corporate America and YOU need to be sure it is far more costly to repair damage when breaches happen than to do the right thing in doing much more in protecting it. But you do need to have something to say about “what data” of you is being sold and “specifically to who” and “for what purpose” and give you a chance to say something about it’s accuracy beforehand.

It should be a given that Data Mining Company’s should not be allowed to exist in their present form if you think about privacy and your rights to know what others are judging you on without your knowlage. Imagine not being able to get a copy of your credit report to check for accuracy.

After all… some of the data could be about medical purchases you made for someone else ( a violation of HIPA medical privacy ) and in the future or possibly even now, you may be judged harshly for it for a job or life insurance or something similar and not know it. This is only one example of how data mining can and will hurt you.

While most of you complain about what the government is listening in on in our communications, you are missing out on the really big one that has been going on for many more years. I don’t fear my government as much as I fear Corporate America.

I’ll bet when data miners are hacked, you will never hear about it !

Yes, Data and Security have nothing in common. Only that some data is slightly more secure than others. Any data that just sits there is a very good easy target. If it is good enough to store for a while, it is very valuable to someone !

Europe seems to have it right in some ways… they are pushing for “The Right To Be Forgotten”.

Google that to learn more.

Exxon and Others want to lift U.S. Oil Export Ban

Consumers have finally seen a benefit of the U.S. export ban that helps keep energy prices here stable no matter the queer happenings of the world market. Now what ? Lift that ban ? I think not unless you like shooting yourself in the foot and here is why.

While the Oil Co’s are in fear of their bottom line of record profits from oil revenue the last 10 years will not continue and they all tout that we are making more oil in the United States than ever, it still falls short of reliance of imported oil. They confuse the issue to the public by using broader terms like “North America” or “The Americas” both terms include countries like Mexico, Canada and the later with Brazil and Chile.

So don’t let the smoke and mirrors of their talk fool you into thinking that it means more jobs ere in the U.S. because cheaper energy is what has been creating the jobs and that will soon end if the price of West Texas Intermediate Crude is the same as Brent North Sea Crude.

Perhaps when we are producing more U.S. oil than we consume in the U.S. , only that oil in surplus should be considered for export. At that point, the price of gasoline should be under $2 a gallon. Think of the job growth that will create !

But I fear that this will not be understood as the trick wording as I mentioned above and they will have the public fooled into being passive about it. After all, they make it sound like we have a surplus of oil now…. Not True … and remember that your car does not run on natural gas and natural gas does not come from oil !

The surplus of natural gas they talk about has yet to lower anyone’s’ heating bill that I know of.

I would say, let’s not talk about this again until the U.S. has a true surplus of “OIL”.

FCC Puts Comcast / Time Warner Merger On HOLD!

As reported by Forbes and many others, The FCC is hitting the pause button on merger considerations for Comcast & Time Warner Cable Co’s.

It is easy to speculate that it is a political discussion to move any announcements outside of the coming Mid-Term Congressional Elections.

The stated facts in this case do not take that long to parse and verify. There are those Congressman who receive a bunch of favor from Comcast and Time Warner.

There is no real reason to postpone a decision here. It is clear that these cable co’s should be competing for each others business and a merger should not be allowed. But the FCC will make the issue something other than what it is and perhaps allow this monopoly to expand.

Just remember how hard it is to breakup a monster like this once they have the monetary and political clout to buy whatever political decisions they want. One could argue that they are already there.

Starfish and Coffee PT-2 Syrian Problem still exists

I want to bring to mind to all of you saying the U.S. needs to go to Syria and whoop some butts…

Where were you one year ago when this first came up ? Nobody wanted to do anything as I pointed out Sept 8th 2013 here http://mootnews.com/starfish-and-coffee_the-syrian-dialemma/

So some of you are lashing out at the President for not having a plan for something he has already been told by Congress and the public that you have no stomach for.

Plans take time to make and most especially when it requires and involves other nations to participate.

Or do you now want to go it alone? Well, I am at a point that if you can not get those to participate that have the most at stake (Turkey, Saudi Arabia, etc) we probably should not be going in at all. Don’t need a plan for that. I side with Obama.

You can not make peace through war when those that get served by peace have no vested interest in the war. You can quote me on that !

Most of you knee-jerk-reactionaries would ignore the problems when they only would cost us some bucks and would rather pay for fixing it with our own blood. Good for you, and I hope that you and your family will be the first in line at the recruitment office.

We are now very close for the need for our boots on the ground. Has the media kept you so uninformed that you did not realize this a year ago ?

Late Addendum:

If Congress, that seems to have a bunch to say about telling the President that he needs ground troops to fight the battle, wants to “declare war” , THEY NEED TO DO JUST THAT.

Congress can not criticize the President on one hand and not give appropriations and authorizations for what they think should happen.

How to get away with murder: Incorporate !

This post has little substance but a great big idea that has been known by the very few to take advantage of the many.

Do your dirty little deeds through a corporation and you don’t have to go to jail.

As a added bonus, you can get the shareholders and taxpayers to pay the fines and prop you back up as a viable corporation when you fail while you reap all of the rewards.

(gee, I thought a corporate charter was to be revoked when corporations stopped acting in public interest. After all that’s how you get the charter to be exempt from normal liabilities)

It’s better than a “get out of jail free card” because you will never face trial.

Corporations have more rights than a citizen and don’t have to fight wars and can lobby congress to make the rules and tax code in your favor.

Do it today and get away with anything tomorrow. It Pays !

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