Moot News .com

Web Sites to replace “brick and mortar” stores soon? Cyber Monday shows a big picture

We have herd this prediction before and know that things just got a little ahead of themselves. Some time has passed and many years after the .Com bubble has burst, a new reality has emerged that has been hurried by the resent economic downturn.

It is plain to see if you have been watching what Amazon.com who is king of the hill in record online sales and Wal-Mart have been doing. Wal-Mart had given me some clues that they were indeed worried about the online sale space when they changed their logo to what looks identical to the icon for online data waiting symbol. Latter I see them engaging online sales of video and music as netflix and itunes are now a direct competitor for them and Wal-Marts Share is shrinking.

I have always said that the only competitor I can see in the future to have any force against Wal-Mart is the Internet in general. If I must be forced to buy all this foreign stuff, it is likely I may be buying it directly from a warehouse in the US or China. If Wal-Mart can cut out the middle man… so can I !

Major retailers have the most to loose and the most to gain and the staying power to make a conversion but they may be entering the online market a little late as there are plenty of retailers and marketers that have experience in the game and who knows what new idea will come down that info highway to throw them all a curve because anyone can compete on the web.

The problem gets to be how fair search engines can be to each retailer especially when they may spend a bunch of advertisement dollars within.

But here are some interesting clips to read on the first noticeable major shift from Bricks to Clicks.

Mediapost Publications The Obsolescence Of Brick-and-Mortar Predicting majority shift to clicks in 5 years.

MSNBC Cyber Monday Sales Report

Global Warming hits News Again with Hackers Scandal

There are some important points to be made in the aftermath of this scandal and I must point out, if it matters, that I consider myself an environmentalist by practice not by preaching to others and I must say, “I told you so”.

Looking at this from a science point of view as I always have, it has been clear to me that those preaching the man-made causes of global warming have not only exaggerated their points and con-screwed data of good science but most important they ignored much other undisputed science data that was out there before this had become a issue in the early 90’s. Just after the time we were told we had been in a “mini ice age” in the 80’s and the culprit then was particulates in the air from man-made sources.

The biggest farce is/was that carbon dioxide was the major culprit to man-made global warming.
It was well known that the two most major causes of man-made global warming are deforestation and water vapor but mainly the water vapor. Yes, water vapor retains more of the suns infra-red energy (heat). If you don’t believe that and want proof you can see, just look at the temperature when there are no clouds at night. Watch your weekly weather forecast and its plain to see or look at infra-red satellite photos as I do as this is the only way to see clouds at night.

Now for the man-made portion of the water vapor comes from the same thing as the carbon dioxide that they had you in fear of did plus a few extra sources. You see whenever you burn a fossil fuel, you make water vapor and other by products depending on how efficient the burn is. If you have a high efficiency gas or propane furnace, you know there is a moisture collection unit for water that drops out of the burner . It does not matter if it is propane or gasoline or methane (natural gas) water vapor is a by-product and it is not normally visible.
Please read this wiki on water vapor and greenhouse gasses. And remember that power and chemical plants are the #1 man made producers of water vapor. This is more easily captured than carbon dioxide.

I can see how someone could make some assumptions about carbon dioxide levels rising but this has been caused by deforestation and actually lowering the level of oxygen in out air that our grand kids will surely notice before they die. Deforestation also allows for the the drying of soil and releasing more moisture to the air.
But now it makes me laugh when I think of all the times I was the odd man out when someone was blaming the last forest fire or hurricane on global warming. That is just a stretch of misrepresented science. these same folks have a hard time believing that I am a environmentalist by practice.

I have solar power and I don’t take the tax-credits for it. You may think that is dumb but there is a reason that I will post in the future on that. Soon I will have solar heating units to complement a small geothermal heat pump (something I designed in the late 70’s and early 80’s I am finally putting to task. I minimize my use of chemicals and find alternatives to them and I must say often the alternatives are better and cheaper. But you don’t think any of the chemical company’s are going to tell you about them do you. You must take a personal interest and want to do something for yourself to make your life better. I know at current trends that when I retire (maybe never) I want my living costs to be as low as they can be and as simple as it can be. That is a problem for many as when you hit that age, it is often too late to made changes and you will be owned by the oil company’s, utilities and banks till you die.

In all this issue over these years, I am reminded of history of when they were testing hydrogen bombs. Some alarmed it would burn the entire atmosphere of the earth up. And later found that even a atomic blast was a puny event by the vast size of our environment So I am “not” sounding the alarm bells like it is the end of the world but something to keep in mind because man does contribute but we really do not know by how much and how long it takes for the effects to show. Cautiously optimistic is how I see it.

OK so I am glad the crap hit the fan as they had seemed to be getting away with it all these years but what damage does this scandal do to those who might be true environmental folks like myself. I am afraid that all the true science will be ignored now those idiots have discredited all science. I am glad to see this come to light before we invested much of our GDP on it and missed the real target.

Just the last 4 digits of your Social Security Number Please…

I am sure you hear this at least once a month unless you are dead!
Do you think you are safe and/or more secure by verifying yourself with countless services by using the last 4 digits of your SSN?
I am here to explain to you why this makes things less secure!

1st
Why do most non-social security, non-banking services even have it to begin with. It has nothing to do with my taxes or SS so why do you keep it stored in a Database somewhere that it is even more exposed to hackers?
The answer I normally get from company’s is that we are using it to verify your credit.
My response is… OK, you verified me and I Passed ! Now get it out of your database !

2nd
Oh… you only want the last four digits, not the whole thing?
Think about this. So everyone now only needs the last 4 digits of your SSN to change something in your account or in one case I remember so well, to pay my AT&T wireless bill. I can only suspect the reason for so much security with them is because they have been hacked more than once.
So now those that would do you harm do not need get or remember the whole 9 digits of your SSN, just the last 4. That’s all they want. Safer?

I even have a bank that wants you to log-in to their online banking services with your entire 9 digit SSN as a user name. Would you prefer it was only the last four digits?
I can’t think of a more stupid insecure way for ones self. Of course the bank does not care about your security, only theirs and the ability for them to keep staff services (real people) at a minimum and most folks don’t remember their account number (but could look it up on a check that the bank don’t want you using anymore).

It is time to call in to question who is entitled to your SSN. Yes it is time for the Federal Government to step in a set some laws on this as it is being abused more and more and so more susceptible to hacks across the web that nobody will admit to unless caught red-handed.

In my state of Ohio, a privacy act was set into place some time in the 80’s and re-enforced again in the 90’s to stop vendors from asking for SSN for check cashing purposes.
They used to write the SSN’s on the check at one time. Also SSN’s were phased out on our State driving license and for good reason.
I caught a tool rental vendor who wanted my drivers Lic. for a toll rental, thinking he was going to copy my License number. The next stop at the rental for a new item, I noticed on my receipt that my SSN was not only in their database but printed on the slip. I still see vendors refusing to take checks without SSN numbers and I will now either use a credit card or cash but not without making a scene about it.

If your state still uses SSN on your Drivers License, I suggest you get a sticker to put over that area.

Meanwhile, watch who your are giving it to in the first place and ask yourself why the need it ?
And if they are going to keep it on file, ask for a privacy policy on their holding of it. They must be able to present that to you if they are going to ask for it/use it/hold it.

I am in the habit now of asking for what exact purpose they will use it in the future because once you give it away, things can change the the policy that no one reads in the first place and the fact that you can’t take it back. I also want to know who they will share it with.

It’s a MOOT jungle out there and you can’t get a SSN renewed/changed. Once it’s broke it’s broke for the rest of your life !

A Look Back and Forward At The Banks – Socialism for the RICH !

As you have herd it said before, sometimes you must step out from the trees to see the forest. So lets do that in a 20 year step back and see how this mess evolved and where it may lead.

The Banks with the aid of the Federal Reserve wanted to get much of the regulation that was keeping them from making money (so they said) and over the years in several steps they got what they wanted and much more as they were allowed to By-Pass Anti-Trust laws and merge and acquire others to get bigger and bigger.

Much of this regulation removed was simple like how much capitol (real money reserves) they need to have with respect to the amount of loans they have out and that is assuming lower risk loans. normally it would have been 20% reserves. That is $20 in cash for every $100 they lend. This reserve level I am told has gone down to as low as 2% and the loans have been very high risk. This is also why your savings account pays no interest, they don’t need your money to back their loans or at least up front.

This level was cut down over the years and almost eliminated after Republicans took over congress and the White House. The premise was they would and could manage themselves respectfully without the need for the Government to tell them what they could do.

To put extra nails in the coffin, Banking Regulators budgets shrank so the Government did not have the capability to watch the many complex products they were making out of thin air and falsely rated by those who’s Business it was to rate the quality of the products created.

If you care to take the time to look back at the reasons many of the regulations were on the books in the first place, you will find that they have mis-behaved many times before that put our nation in peril. It takes a bunch of time and money to put regulations in place so they were not there for no reason, the Nation paid the price to get them once.

So we gave them everything they lobbied our Congress for and look what they did with it in such a short time!

So NOW…. here we are having bailed out the banking system again and what has changed.

Banks can now borrow money from the Fed at 0% interest and have been lending most of it to adventures overseas. This is why China, India, France and Germany are not feeling this as bad as the U.S. as capitol markets are flowing. This was to provide liquidity to the U.S. market not overseas markets. And Taxpayers are paying the FDIC to insure these loans that do not benefit them in the slightest way. So if I have this right…

We borrowed money from China to prop up the banks that we make the money available to for free and they and they lend to to ventures in China but backed by the American Taxpayer ? I want a piece of that action!

Congress is about to take up regulations of the banks again. But how can the people get good regulation when 1/3 of Congress is up for re-election and these guys want their campaigns funded.

I am very weary when Representatives and Senators talk about re-structuring the system. This usually means they want to provide smoke and mirrors to allow a much more politically controlled version of what we had and probably benefits to the Banks that we will not realize until its to late (gotcha again).

A fix is a simple concept. Just put back the regulations we had and add some for those things that were not covered and put some more oversight and penalties for those that break them. A higher standard for those that could threaten the entire system so if they want to be that big and powerful, it comes with a price.

To go a bit further, I do not see why the banks can not be charged a variable rate for the money they get from the Fed based on credit risk just like they do to people ! I bet they would not like it and I also bet as long as there is non-political oversight we would not have a problem again.

A bit further yet, no bank should be allowed to take 0% Fed money for foreign lending without explicit consent of Congress (holding someone elected accountable) or let them pay a normal market rate for it if the money is not destined for the U.S. . A deadline for Banks to pay the TARP money back or be broken into pieces and sold off to someone who is not to big to fail.

“What we have here is Corporate Socialism” because the banks have not changed their behavior knowing the Federal Government and the American Taxpayer will be there to bail them out again because they are so big, they threaten the entire system of the world not just what is most important, our economy.

They have but one more chance to get REGULATION right because one more blunder like this and we will find ourselves being a very small economy with a very large debt and that will have the most historic consequences for National Security as well as the American Dream.

Dear Glen Beck,

Get off of my airwaves! Geetttt offffffff myyyyyy airwaves!

I will not speak against the lies you spread on my airwaves. But you need to stop the lies about yourself.

You are not a Conservative, Not a Republican, You are a “Neo-Capitalist” dressed as a Conservative Republican.

You and the folks you support in your world and the same ones that nearly brought this country to its knees and we are all paying for it now. Our kids will be paying for it too if we can even make it that far.

Much Closer to True Conservatives like William Buckley, Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan would probably not ever be caught near your likes for any reason. Oh… you may have meet one or two as a younger man, but not since you have evolved into a Neo-Capitalist.

But I can see the folks you rub elbows with are also the beneficiary of lots of bank and insurance lobby money so I do understand as I might be tempted to lie as much when facing all the benefits that this much money can do to a man.

You and the rest of your Neo-Capitalists are about to destroy the Republican Party and give the Conservative movement a very bad rap.

Now it reminds me of those that are about to loose power who would say anything to keep controversy and yourself in the front of the spotlight.

Most of all, since the airwaves are a public trust so get off my AIRWAVES !

Social Security, Taxes, Budgets and Politics

You absolutely will not believe what I’m about to tell you. I will hold the Moot Explanation till the end.

Background on my mother who is 67, just suffered a stoke 3 months ago, worked a mans job while she collected a measly $500 a month SS benefits until my father passed several years ago and she started receiving his benefits as they were married for more than 25 years. She had a heart attack last year in which she had to stop working.

She receives a letter in the mail Sept 22 from the Social Security office stating they are going to re-evaluate her benefits to now include the money she contributed while she was working and collecting.(great)

On the 10th of October, she gets some mail from the bank stating her bank account is over drafted multiple times as her house payment is with the same bank and they take it out of her account automatically and the checks she wrote for car payment and grocer also were Non Sufficient Funds. I go to the bank for her and find that Social Security made no deposit to her account.

It’s one thing to re-evaluate but another to stop payments without warning.

A stop at the local SS office and they do not understand what is up. The family quikly gets some money deposited in her account before the fees hemorage the rest of a check if and when she gets it. They submitted paperwork that was going to take 3 to 4 days to get a reply from. So we wait 6 as one day is a holiday.

This next visit to the office we are told they still know nothing and I ask if there is someone else I can call or go see to speak with in this matter of missing SS deposit (direct deposit) and I am told NO, There is no one you can speak with. I simply state that since you are the one and only you will be seeing a lot of me until I know she is getting her money as scheduled and I know why this happened.

They do an emergency or “hardship” release of funds to her account to hold her over but as I explained, That will take care of the bank and credit fees so what will she live on?

A few days later, She receives a letter in the mail stating that they have recalculated her benefits to include the income contributions she made since 1996 and was going to pay her $348 to make up in the lost time she contributed while she collected. This also states that they are not done with the case yet. This is dated Oct 17th.

After receiving a letter on Oct 23rd that merely stated they deposited the “Hardship money” , I decided to call the number listed on the paper to see if anyone could do anything before her bills come due next month.

This is the first part I do not believe. For one, the Automated Speaker in the menu keeps spending a lot of time telling me all of these web addresses to get answers to my questions. Now if this was my mother calling she would be totally lost as well as all the other elderly who have never touched a computer in their life. I have seen some pretty crazy automated menu systems for the phone but the system at the SS office takes the cake hands down!

Having spoke with my mothers bank and several banks I deal with about this, I come to find there were a lot of folks who were in the same boat and did not receive their direct deposit of SS benefits. I wonder just how long they can deal with this. (I hope they have more money in reserves than my mother).

To continue with my call… After doing a 8 minute Q & A with the computer via touch tone phone, I wait an additional 20 minutes for someone to speak to me. Then the system takes me back to the beginning of the Q & A and determined to get through to someone no matter how long it takes as I’m not working, I wait an additional 12 minutes before I get to speak to a person.

This is where I re-explain the entire story and ask why was her check stopped for this month? How long does this take to resolve? Who is actually making these decisions? is there anyone else I can talk to on the matter? No questions answered but the last question is answered with I can’t talk to anyone else in the matter.

At this point if this was you or your mother or father, you would want to be calling your congressman right about now and I wanted to and may still but I came to realize the politics of this situation. Its about Budgets. Let me explain.

You see, it’s about budget time in Congress and all departments of the government are worried about cuts to their budget. As I have seen in other areas of the Government both US and State and even at Local/County level, someone who wants to apply pressure to keep or extend funding to their department stages a problem that can only be fixed with money. These normally only happen where a deciding politician can be embarrass and in this case it is Congress and they are the sole authority in all spending in this county.

So knowing this, do I still want to call my US representative and stage a picket with all the elderly I found with the same problem at the local SS office and invite the Media? (its kinda like giving them what they want)

Actually, I think that they should cut the SS budget! Why? Because they seem to have a bunch of folks working that can not do anything, can not answer questions and only tell me they can not forward me to a higher dept or person that can handle it so why do we need them? They could have done that with the automated teleperson that everyone hates, so their job is not really needed.

Of course Nothing I have said or done has helped my mom know where she stands with SS and I am furious and frustrated and feel very sorry for some of the Seniors that do not have a caring son or daughter that might handle this for them and my story continues another day. I would like to hear yours if you or your parents did not get your check.

Recent Posts

Web Sites to replace “brick and mortar” stores soon? Cyber Monday shows a big picture

Global Warming hits News Again with Hackers Scandal

A Look Back and Forward At The Banks – Socialism for the RICH !

Dear Glen Beck,

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