Looking for the good in the bad.

I was laying in bed all morning trying to decide how to react to this fiasco.  Lets be blunt here.  The world is coming to an end.  Were all going to die, and it doesn't mater if we move to Canada, New Zealand or Mars, Trump is going to nuke us all.

But before we all die, I'd like to take a moment to look over what happened this past 2 years or so and see if we can figure out what cause the collapse of humanity.  And, if we somehow survive this, (or any future generations mutated of Cockroaches should find this) how we can build a better world tomorrow.

Lets start by clearing out some of the myths that I've heard.

Myth of the Third Parties

I can't tell you how many times I have heard "A vote for [insert third party/wishful third party/fictional character candidate] is a vote for [insert bad person here].

One reason this complaint is so commonplace is because they do not run local elections.  They do not build local bases of running to build on, and so we see them as siphoning away votes at the top in an attempt to play spoiler.

But the reason third parties do not win is because of the way we run our democracy.  Our elections are a win-or-lose system.  Either one party wins or the other one wins.  This was not the intent of the founding fathers.  In fact George Washington, perhaps the only independent ever to attain the highest office, warned against joining political parties in his farewell address.  The very next election was a vote between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalist.  Shifts in political parties don't happen all that often.  The last time it occurred was when Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican to win after the Democrat ticket split, and most Whigs moved to the Republican party.

To contrast, other democracies, such as the UK and the Commonwealth States, have multiple parties.  Most won't ever stand a chance of succeeding a bid to become prime minister or president, but they still run very successful campaigns on the local level.  I should also point out here that these democracies are mostly parliamentarian.  So these countries do not choose a president, they choose the people to join parliament, and one of these people are selected by parliament to become president, or prime minister.  This would the equivalent of having the Speaker of the House become president.

This is how the third party can become powerful.  To create a government and elect a Prime Minister, one party has to have majority control (50%+1) of the chamber.  This is hard to do when you have multiple third party candidates elected.  Since they cannot form a majority, the party with the most members in parliament must work with the third parties to create a coalition government.  This often involves getting concessions from that party.

While there are sometimes situations where a candidate is voted on as a "protest vote" we need realize that third party candidate are also legitimate candidates too.  To pass off a vote for a third party candidate as a vote for the opponent ignores the fundamental concept of our democracy.  For better or for worse, we all have the right to sit at the table.

Myth of the Bernie or Busters

Yes, a lot of millennials were sore, even angry, after the primaries.  Most of us are just as angry over a Tump presidency.  But it is also important to point out that the overwhelming majority of these Bernie supporters did come after the primaries.  The Bernie or Bust movement was just that, a bust.  There was no consensus as to what they would do.  And most of them realized they needed to support Clinton to save their own skins.

The bottom line is that Gary Johnson did not win Berners.  Ask anyone who says this for proof.  I guarantee you they will make a correlation argument.  And you know what they say about correlation and causation.  But lets look at the facts.  Does it make any sense that Berners would flock to someone who is the exact opposite of Bernie?  The truth is, the ones who did court third party candidates chose to vote Jill Stein.  Her policies were much closer to Sander's policies than Gary Johnson.  Even then, she barely registered over 1% of the vote.  Keep in mind that some of these people would have voted for Jill regardless of who was on the Democratic Ticket.

So why did Gary Johnson get so much of the vote?  The more likely answer is a coalition of disenfranchised Ron Paul Libertarians and disenfranchised Republicans.

If you look over the exit polls it is clear.  Twas apathy that killed the beast.

Autopsy.

It wasn't just Millennials that were apathetic.  The entire Obama Coalition fell apart.  She did worse with Millennials, Blacks, Hispanics, and Women than Obama did in 2012.  Some of this could be due to the rampant voter suppression we are seeing across the board.  But its not just their fault

We can blame Clinton for her derision of some of these groups.  As I have said may times before, the time for party unity was in February.  But rather than unify the party, she worked to divide it by Disqualifying, Dismantling, and Defeating Sanders and Unify the party later.  When she should have listened to the other side, she decided Salt the Earth.

We can also blame the DNC for their coronation of Clinton.  This is nothing new in Kentucky.  This year, Jim Gray was coordinated as the Democratic Senate candidate.  in 2015 Jack Conway was coordinated as the Democratic Governor Candidate, and in 2010, the Senate Candidate.  In 2014, Alison Lundregen Grimes was coordinated into the Democratic Senate Candidate.  All of these campaigns lost.  Coronations do not work.  They isolate candidate from criticism until it is too late.

Moreover, the DNC broke their contract and lock out Sanders from his data files.  They ignored repeated security warning from the Sanders campaign.  They quickly accused Sanders delegates of violence that never occurred, but ignored Clinton delegates physically assaulting Sanders Delegates.

Worse still, the DNC did fight to get Clinton at the top of the ticket.  And rather than apologizing for their mistakes, they blamed Russian hackers.  Russian hackers did not write those emails.  They did not refer to Hispanic Outreach as "The Taco Bowl Initiative," they did not plan to question Sanders on his religion, and they did not supply the press talking points.

But I believe this painful loss does have one silver lining.  The era of Neo-Liberalism is over.  What voters are rejecting (and have been for some time) is this pro-corporate, anti-people policies that have come to define politics for a long time.  A lot of people came to support Sander's progressive policies in places where progressives thought was lost to them.  This is nothing more than a fundamental failure in understanding the people on the ground.  While Sanders may not have won, people who he supported through the Our Revolution campaign did.  Some areas, such as Kentucky, Nebraska, and  Iowa, are places Democrats have written off.

It's time we sent a new message.  We owe it to our nation to go back to being the party of the people.  But to do this, we need all hands on deck. There is a group of people who have gotten together to reform the Democratic Party.  We have learned a lot this election cycle.  We know now how the party works.  Now is the time to fix it from within.

Here is where you can start.

Our Revolution
One of the issues Sanders preached in his primary campaign was getting involved.  This means running for the local elections.  Thinks like School Board, City Councal, even Dog Catcher.  This PAC was put together to help you do just that.
https://ourrevolution.com

Democracy for America
A progressive PAC developed (Surprisingly enough) by Howard Dean.  However this firebrand PAC has also achieved some surprising results, such as turning Virginia blue, and getting people such as Elizabeth Warren in office.  They also offer training and classes to help people campaigning techniques and Staff campaigns, and even run.  Don't be scared off by Dean's name however.  DFA actually backed Sanders for the primary.
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/

The New Kentucky Project
A project to get progressives elected in Kentucky.  Started by Kentucky Sports Radio host and Progressive Protege Matt Jones and former Kentucky State Auditor Adam Edelen whom Rachel Maddow called a Rising Star, The New Kentucky Project was put together to recruit and promote progressive Kentucky candidates into office.
https://newkentuckyproject.com/

DemEnter
A closed Facebook group who is trying to reform the Democrat Party to be the party of the people.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/552411761613048/

We got 2 years to do this next.  Lets do it!

What we have in common

It's easy for Millennials and Baby Boomers to accuse one another for the problems in the world today.  Boomers say Millennials are self absorbed, naive, disruptive, narcissistic.  Millennials in turn say the Boomers are selfish, self centered, and lack a great deal of understanding for their plight.

I could write, yet another article, on how the Boomer decisions harmed the Millennial generation.  I could write another article in a growing course on the wealth gap between Boomers and Millennials.  The lack of jobs, the destruction of unions, rising tuition costs and stagnant pay.  I'll have already already written plenty myself.

But after watching CNN's series "The Sixties", I've come to realize something staggering.  There are a lot more similarities between the Hippie generations of our parents, and the Occupy generation of the Millennials today.  Perhaps with a bit of comparison, we can see more eye-to-eye on what divides us, and perhaps come to a better understanding of our future.

The 60's is a generation that was steeped in tragedy.  Assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, and Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King.  Vietnam War in full swing.  A quagmire that was seeing increased disillusionment back home.  A political process that greatly ignored the plight of these individuals, even physically beating the would-be peaceful protesters both inside and outside the 1968 Democratic Convention.  And corporations that ignored the damage they were doing to the planet.  The fear of a Soviet nuclear attack was in the back of everyone's mind

Our generation too was steeped in tragedy.  On September 11th, we witnessed death on a grand scale right in our back yards.  A lifetime of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Pakistan, Yemen, not to mention the threat of war in Korea and in the China Sea.  A political process that was rigged from the beginning, and being just in time for the convention in Philadelphia.  Many of the delegates were treated just as inconsiderately, being drowned out by white noise, having their seats taken by scabs, or downright insulted for our positions.  And our fear, not just from Russia, but from ISIS as well.

While Hippies gathered in Woodstock or Haight-Ashbury, we gathered in Zuccotti park.  System of a Down, and Rage against the Machine is our Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead.  Bernie Sanders is our Robert Kennedy.

Boomers had their movements, Civil Rights, Feminism, Farm Workers of America, Communes, The Electric Acid Kool-Aid Experiment.  We too have our movements, such as Occupy, Black Lives Matter, Fairness Coalition, and Fight for 15.

So where is the disagreements?  It's easy to say that they just grew up.  The hippy movement was a complete bust.  Reality set in.  But did it?

What about programs that are designed to protect the planet.  The EPA, or Earth Day? Today, there is hardly a city that doesn't have its own recycling program.  We no longer put lead in our gas tanks.  There are a lot of restrictions on what chemicals can be used, or where it can be stored, or dumped.

What about women's rights?  Birth Control was once taboo.  Today, I do not know of very many women who do not use birth control.  The right to choose what happens to their body is not a question today.  In fact, our generation is building upon that, deciding what is acceptable behavior between men and women.

But we also know the fight is not over.

We today fight a new front in the world of civil rights.  Even though Jim Crowe laws are dead, and we even have our first black president, discrimination is not.  Lynchings have given way to police assassinations of our black youth.  Today, authoritarians are using Voter ID laws and gerrymandering to suppress votes, rather than tests, or threats of violence.  And with Segregation being illegal, financial segregation is still very much alive.

The Farm Workers of America have fought sucessfully for the right to unionize.  Today we stand in unity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe as they struggle to protect their homeland from corporate vandals.

It's hard to argue that the demonstrations of yesterday, did not impact the world today.  But it is also important that the struggle is still not over.  What we fight for today is not unlike the fight Boomers fought then.  Our non-violent tactics were what we learned from them.  Our chants have not changed in the last 50 years.

And while we have both struggled, we have also seen great advancements.  Your generation saw the first men land on the moon.  Today we make our mark on Mars, as well as Asteroids and Comets in deep space.  We have taken your invention of computers, and the internet, and created a world wide web, putting the entire world in our back pockets.

We have tried to learn from the mistakes of the past, we are determined to see through the hippy vision of world unity.  One of peace, love, sustainability.  One that is kind to our earth, and kind to each other.  No doubt we will make mistakes as well.  But that is all part of the process.

Clearing the Air on Windows 10 Authentication

My Motherboard went out on my last month.  At first I thought it was the Power Supply, but then after buying a new power supply found that this was not the case.  I also found out how to properly test your power supply.  But that's another story.

What this piece is about is dealing with Windows 10 Authentication.  The entire authentication system is a mess in the IT world.  Part of this is due to Microsoft's silence on the issue, claiming they don't wan't to give Pirates a leg up.  Part of this is Microsoft changing the rules.  Part of this is due to rumors that get spread about the Authentication system.  And part of this is due to people's long-standing mistrust of Microsoft.

So lets clear the air and separate fact from fiction.

Definitions
Before we begin.  Lets get on the same page and define some terms.

Product Key, Key - The letters and numbers you enter into a text box that shows that you have purchased a product.

Digital Entitlement - Similar to the Product key, except the information is stored onto your UFEI

UFEI - A computer's firmware where you can edit settings such as boot order, date and time, and Motherboard features.  Think of it as a BIOS 2.0.  Also allows for Secure Boot, Faster boot times

BIOS - A computers firmware where you can edit settings such as boot order, date and time, and motherboard features.  Does not allow for Secure Boot.  This was used in the early days of computers.  UFEI is it's upgrade.

Authentication - The process used to prove that the copy of Windows you are using is legit

Activation - Sending information to Microsoft such as you Product Key or Digital Entitlement info and Hardware signature to verify your copy of Windows is legit.

Hardware Signature. - Hardware information that tells Microsoft the details of your computer.  Done to verify your computer does not need a new copy of Windows.

OEM Version/Copies - Original Equipment Manufacture.  Microsoft sells OEM versions of Windows to Manufactures, (Dell, HP, Toshiba, Lenovo) for use in PC and Laptops.

Retail Version/Copies - A version of windows that is sold to the general public.  Can be found in Brick and Mortar stores, Online, or Digital Downloads.

Recovery Partition - A partition on the hard drive that could be used to reinstall Windows.

How it used to work
Lets now talk about the history of Authentication.  (If your like Lt. Gov. Jeannie Hampton and don't like history, you can skip down to the "Clearing the Air part.)

From the early days, Windows 95, to authenticate you would have to type in a product key.  This key could be found inside the box.  Simply type it in and presto, it works!

However, with the advent of the Internet, such product keys could easily be found online.  Meaning you could prove you have a "legit" copy of windows by borrowing your friends CD and a brief search online.  To combat this, Windows XP required that you had to activate your copy of Windows in addition to typing in your product key.  Usually this could be done online with a simple click of the "Activate Now" button.  But sometimes this didn't work, either because you were offline, or because you tried to activate it too many times.  The person on the other end would read off a really long string of numbers to type in, and then your set.

Problem with how it used to work
There were some inherent problems with all of this.

The first problem was that pirates figured out how to rig this system.  That way, they could run their not-legit copies of Windows by running a simple program that would tell you what to type.

The second problem was the fact that you would always loose your product key.  That is unless it was attached to your computer, in which case it would be rendered unreadable by the rubbing and heat generated by the computer.

The final problem was the amount of time spent on talking on the phone with Microsoft Support.  I don't even want to think how many hours of angry chat time their Helpdesk team racked up with authentication errors.

So Microsoft wanted to create a new way of doing things to make things a seamless as possible.
With Windows Vista, they created the recovery partition.  This would allow you to (In theory) recover Windows without a disk.  This worked well until you corrupted, or destroyed your recovery partition.  And when that happened, you still needed a product key.

So Microsoft set out to rid the world of recovery keys.  This endeavor led them to upgrade the one part of the computer that hasn't seen an update since the foundation of the OS.  The BIOS.  Sure there have been advancements, but this new system, UFEI, did so much more.  It could keep viruses from overwriting the OS, protect the motherboard from destruction, create a GUI interface, and speed up the boot process and make it completely seamless.  The best part is there would be no Product Keys to keep track of.  It would all be stored in the UFEI.

But with Windows 10, determined to be the last Windows ever produced, they envisioned an OS that would never have to be reinstalled.  Or if it did, would just work.  No Product keys.  Seamless activation.  Just Windows 10.

Finding Converts
With Windows Vista, Windows discovered a problem.  People didn't like Vista.  Vista was horribly rolled out.  The people who did use Vista, only used it because it came on their computer.  The bread and butter for Microsoft, the Business community, resoundingly rejected Vista.  Thus when Windows 7 came out, they did something unprecedented.  They opened it up for the world to see.  In a unifying moment that could put Democrats and Republicans alike to shame, they allowed everyone who wanted to try out Windows 7 to do so as a beta.  The results was overwhelming.  Businesses made the switch, as did home users.  It was a great time.

Then, because its Microsoft, they decided to roll out Windows 8.

Windows 8 was supposed to be a Unity moment of a different sort.  The world was moving to Tablets.  Apple was doing great by bringing together iPad, iPhone, Desktop, and Laptop users together on one OS and everyone was happy.  So Why not Zoidberg Microsoft?

Except, iOS and OSX was not the same OS.  Each one, while looking similar, was not the same thing.  So Microsoft's attempt to bring Tablets, Phones, Laptops, Desktops, and XBox users onto one system failed miserably.  First, there was no native desktop.  Your start menu was the desktop.  If you needed a start menu button, you had to swipe from the right.  Can you swipe with a mouse?  No?  Me either.  Businesses didn't accept this as an alternative, and a lot of the common peasants didn't like it either.  It was a PR nightmare.

So to placate the unruly crowd, they decided to release Windows 8.1.  Free.  This would give people their start button (not the menu, just the button) and improve access to the desktop.  Oh yea, and they canned the Metro Design guy for good measure.  But this was a stop gap.

Because this was such a bad rollout of any OS in the history of computing, they decided to separate themselves by 1 number.  from Window 8 to Windows 10.  The last windows ever to be created.
They also wanted people to unify people on 1 system.  (There were still people on Windows XP.)

To do this.  They did a very interesting promotion.  In the first year, everyone who has Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 gets Windows 10.  For free.  No strings attached.  (What?  Really?  Whats the catch?  No catch?  Are you sure?  No.  Seriously, theres a catch.  What is it?  Your telling me that I get a free upgrade to Windows 10?  BS.  No BS?  come on...Really?)

So this is where things get harry, and where the myths begin.

Clearing the Air
I knew getting a new MoBo would make reinstalling Windows a hassle.  So I did research.  And I found a lot of crap.  (As in, people who have no idea what the hell they are talking about but insist on giving their two cents in anyway.)  So lets sift through the crap and find out where we stand.

Is Windows 10 really free?  
For now it is.  As of the writing of this, its will no longer be free in a few weeks, so get moving if you want windows 10 without paying for it.

What's the catch? 
No catch.  Ok, there is a few catches, but not many.  The big one is that your upgrade is free "for the life of your computer."  For those who have a cookie-cutter machine, this means your upgrade is good until that machine meets its maker...in the form of recycled gold and silicon.  But for those of us who are the makers of our computers, there is an ever pressing philosophical question.  At what point does your upgrades constitute having a new computer?  I don't think even Microsoft knows the answer to that.  For some, this won't matter.  I'll explain in a bit.

Digital Entitlement vs. Product Key? 
Digital Entitlement is a set of hashes stored in the UFEI that tells Windows that this computer is cool to use Windows.  You don't need to type anything out on a keyboard to prove you bought it legally.  A Product Key is a bunch of letters and numbers that you type in to prove to Windows you bought it legally.  Yes, both do the same thing.  The difference is how it is recorded.  One is digital, one is not.

Do I need Product Key to reinstall Windows 10? 
Depends.  If your reinstalling it on the same system hardware, your good.  No product key needed.  But if you are changing your Motherboard, then yes, you will need some kind of product key.  Also, if you bought a box copy of Windows 10, you need a product key.

OEM vs Retail 
This is probably the biggest point of contention.  In the past, OEM copies were meant for computer manufactures, while Retail copies were meant for common folks.  The only difference between the two was who you called for support.  If you had an OEM copy, you needed to contact the manufacture.  If you had a retail copy, you could contact Microsoft.

For those of us who support our own machines, we weren't inclined to contact neither Microsoft nor the manufacture.  In many cases, we were the manufacture.  In this case, we were able to go online and find an OEM copy of windows cheeper than the retail copy.  Contrary to popular belief, Microsoft was perfectly fine with this.  Just don't go crying to them when there was a problem.

Now there is a new difference.  Retail copies are now transferable.  If I bought a new computer, I could take my retail copy with me.  But my OEM copy will always be tied to my current computer. This also holds true for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 that have been upgraded to Windows 10.

How would this play out in a Custom Build?  No clue.  Again what is the definition of a "New Computer"?  Odds are, since the key is tied to the MoBo, chances are New MoBo = New Computer.  I have a feeling someone is going to go to court over this sooner than later.

Can you use a Windows 7/8/8.1 keys in Windows 10 
Since the upgrade was free, your windows 7 key should be good to use in Windows 10.  In theory, this shouldn't matter since if you needed to reinstall Windows 10, your digital entitlement should mean your set.  But changing a MoBo means reinstalling the OS and using a key.  So can you use a Windows 7 key in Windows 10?

The answer used to be no.  Windows 10 only accepted Windows 10 keys.  And that sucked.  The workaround was you had to reinstall Windows 7 with the Windows 7 key, and then use your free upgrade again to go back to Windows 10.  So how would this work after the free upgrade period?

Fortunately Microsoft saw this problem  With the release of Build 10565, you can use your Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 key to do a clean install of Windows 10 without installing 7.  In my case, I had to run an update to get to 10565.  But this was a painless process.

How does Activation work?
Like every Windows version from XP on, the Product Key (and now the Digital Entitlement) only got you so far.  You also have to Activate your key in Windows for it to work.  Microsoft has been especially silent on this aspect, since it is their bread and butter.  The one thing we do know is that the activation is attached to your hardware.

Each piece of hardware has a code attached to it.  If the codes are changed in any significant way, Microsoft's Activation Servers would flag it.  This would then require you to contact Microsoft to activate it.  Small things like upgraded RAM, Hard Drives, and Video Cards shouldn't make a difference.  But major changes like Motherboards, and CPUs could.

My Experience
I cannot speak for everyone's experience.  I can only speak for mine.  So I'll share my situation with you and let your compare notes.  (If you have a story with a similar or different outcome, let me know.)

About a month ago, my Motherboard went out.  It just died while using it.  It took that long to get the money together for a replacement.  (Delayed by my believing it was the power supply.  Seriously stop laughing.  It's embarrassing.)  My old Motherboard was a Gigabyte GA-B85-HD3.  My replacement is an ASRock H97 Pro4.  I was worried that this might be a gamble since this isn't even the same brand.  But it looked like the best bang for the buck and I didn't have a lot of buck at the time.  everything else, including the CPU was migrated over.  (This wasn't really an upgrade, as you will notice.)

On first boot, I got a windows could not start error.  Completely expected.  I just changed my entire motherboard over to a new system.  So I set to reinstall.

I couldn't find any info on my situation, most of what I did find was plastered with misinformation and hearsay.  I set to reinstall Windows and prepared for a call to Microsoft.

Since I didn't have a Windows 10 key, I grew concerned about my ability to upgrade.  I was sure if I talked to Microsoft, they would understand.  But I skipped the key portion in the install and got right to work.

After the install, I tried to put my Windows 7 key in.  (Retail version) No good.  I tried to download and force the update to take, and even downloaded Build 10565 from online.  Didn't work.  The next day, my computer auto updated.  One of those updates happened to be Build 10565.  Once that was installed, I tried the Windows 7 key again.  Not only did it take, but it automatically activated.  No call to Microsoft needed.

Conclusion
I cant speak for everyone's situation.  I certainly can't speak for everyone's situation.  I do hope the information above will help clarify some misconceptions, even when Microsoft isn't really keen on doing so.  When activating, some variables that seem to be most relevant are:

• Retail vs OEM

Some things that could be relevent but with no confirmation:

• Upgrade vs Replacement
• Number of parts replaced (Different MoBo, same CPU)
• Signing in to Microsoft Account associated with the previous build.

Some info that could be relevant but probably not are:

• OS Update
• Time the device was offline
• Situation when computer crashed.

Some things that definitely are not relevant or relevant enough:

• Part replaced
• Free Upgrade vs Purchased Copy of Windows 10
• Product Key or Digital Entitlement.

As for the misconceptions, I hope this answers a lot of questions out there.  Those who have serious mistrust issues with Microsoft, I can't really blame you.  As the old saying goes, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."  This one might not be.

A few questions still linger on the whole Free Upgrade part.  Of course there is the "How do you define new computer."  But other questions that need to be asked are:

• How long will this last?  
• If I just perpetually upgrade my computer in small increments, will Windows always be free for me?  
• Will I always be able to use my Windows 7 key for Windows 10?  
• Or will I be cut off somewhere?  
• How much is Microsoft loosing in this deal?
• Is my situation so rare, that it's almost negligible to Microsoft's bottom line?

I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft doesn't have the the  answers here.  Perhaps they are taking the "Cross that bridge when we get there" approach.  Sounds like a plan to me.  Now to load Netrunner into my UFEI...

And Millennials are, and Feminist arn't. Feminism to Millennials.

"Raise your hand if you consider yourself  a feminist."
Nobody raised their hands.
"Ok, now if Feminism was defined as believing that all women should have the same rights as men, who would consider themselves feminists"
A lot more people raised their hands.
"That, is the actual definition of feminism.  If that is what you believe, than it is OK to consider yourself a feminist.

Granted, I was probably only one or two men who raised their hands the second time in this community college setting.  Bowling Green was a very conservative town.  I suppose I didn't understand feminism fully at the time.  Perhaps it was fear of being ostracized.  But regardless of what you call it, its hard, for most people anyway, to denounce equal rights.  But feminism isn't just about equal rights among the sexes.  It's about treating one another fairly.  Believing that everyone should have a fair shot, no mater what gender they are born with.

But most would also agree that equal rights is fair treatment.  It is not debt for past transgressions.

This is why I was so disappointed in some statements made by prominent feminist over the last week.

“We can tell our story of how we climbed the ladder, and a lot of you younger women think it’s done. It’s not done,” Ms. Albright said of the broader fight for women’s equality. “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other!”

Gloria Steinem, one of the most famous spokeswomen of the feminist movement, took the sentiment a step further on Friday in an interview with the talk show host Bill Maher. Explaining how women tend to become more active in politics as they become older, she suggested younger women were just backing Mr. Sanders so that they could meet young men.
“When you’re young, you’re thinking, ‘Where are the boys? The boys are with Bernie,’ ” Ms. Steinem said.

 New York Times, Febuary 7, 2016

 Before I delve deeper into these comments, lets take a moment and see who these people are.

Madeline Albright is a well known Diplomat and Politician in the United States. She has served as UN Ambassador, and later became the first female Secretary of State.  I vividly remember her as Secretary of State.  She actually set off a long line of Secretaries of State who were either female, African-American, or both.  Started with her tenure in 1992, and ended when Hillary Clinton stepped down and was replaced with then Senator John Kerry in 2013.  That 21 years of progress,

Gloria Steinem is a famous 1960's journalist and leader in the feminist movement.  She fought hard against the male-dominated press at the time, and help lead the push that led to women have the right to control their own body.

To be fair, Steinem and Albright has every right to peruse any candidate they desire.  But for two women who help break the glass ceiling, it is sad to hear their rhetoric now as they push for Clinton's nomination.

For Albright, the idea that all women should stick together, is a positive one on its face.  But her suggestion that women millennial votes, who are overwhelmingly supporting Clinton's rival, Senator Bernie Sanders, is somehow treasonous is sad and deplorable.  It is the suggestion that women of all ages should vote for Clinton by default, and any deviation from that is ignoring nearly a century and a half of progress.  Albright's belief, and what I believe was Clinton's belief from the forefront, was that millennial women will vote like all other women.

But this suggestion ignores a central tenants of feminism:  Free Will.  If women have the right to choose who they vote for, shouldn't they have the right NOT to vote for Clinton?  Perhaps there is this idea that somehow Clinton is owed the nomination.  But as I said before, equal rights is not a debt to be owed, but fair treatment.

Steinem's comments were even more deplorable.  It is simply inconceivable that a leader in the feminist movement could suggest that Millennial women were flocking to Sanders because they lack any control over their sex drives.  This is a statement we would have expected from Ann Coulter, not Gloria Steinem.  Maybe we really don't know her.  But with statements like that, its likely we would no longer care to know her.

Rather than marginalizing Millennial women, what Steinem, Albright, and Clinton should do is figure out why Millennials, both men and women are moving to Sanders in large numbers.

Lets start with the PR aspect.  Clinton, it seems like, have treated Millennials as another box on her check list.   Women? Check.  African Americans?  Check.  Millennials?  Uncheck.   How do we get Millennials?  Make a Star Wars reference?  Use Social Media?  Taylor Swift songs?  She's even got an iPhone.  (See?!  Shes Cool!  Please clap!)

Meanwhile, most Millennials would probably find it hard to believe Sanders could operate his old Nokia flip phone on the Jitterbug network.  (Full disclaimer, I don't actually know if Bernie Sanders even has a cell phone.)

But what Sanders does have that Clinton does not have, is authenticity.  Sanders may be older than the hills, but at least hes authentic.  And authenticity = honesty.  We have seen his track record.  We have seen what he has done.  Have we agreed with his record 100 percent of the time?  No.  But he's not going to hide that fact either.  And we realize we aren't going to agree with him on every issue.  Meanwhile, Clinton has proven to be deceptive with her record on more than one occasion.  You cannot tell us you are not paid for by Wall Street when your supporting the deregulation (And continued deregulation) of investment and consumer banking.  You cannot tell us that you were against the TPP when you were at the negotiation table.  And you cannot hid this in the information age, which formed while you were first lady.

But more important than that  are the issues.  High tuition costs, and by extension, large student loan debts.  These debts are so massive that many are forgoing mortgages, and new cars.  If they are not renting (and cohabiting) they are moving back home.  For the few that are lucky to find jobs, the jobs they are finding are not paying nearly enough.  With too much debt and no way to pay it off, they are looking for a candidate who will help.  They are also wanting to move to a public single-payer system, so there is less they have to worry about when they do get sick.  Sanders's has the plans in place to do this.  Clinton, however has largely dismissed these plans as inconceivable, and impossible.

Worst still, she blatantly lies about his plan.  Do you honestly expect us to believe that Sanders will completely dismantle Obamacare before setting up Medicare for all?  Do you think this will scare us, or somehow sway our vote?  Do you think we won't do our homework?

How shallow do you think Millennials really are?  We are ambitious, not stupid.  We see through the holes.  We don't need to be lectured about what it means to be a feminist, when our lecturers are exposing their own sexist views.  For Millennials, Feminism is a much a men's movement as it is a women's movement.  It's an issue not limited to equal rights for women, but is directly linked to civil rights for African Americans, Hispanics, Latinos, Gays, Transgender, Transsexual, Bisexual, Pansexuals, people who have physical as well as mental aliments.  We want people, not just ourselves, to have the right to be who they are, and not confined into some kind of box.

If that is not what Feminism is about, I'll put my hand down now.

Amazon Auto Update Concerns

Of corse the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is to roll over, grab my phone, and fight cats.  (Blackberry, stop chewing on my phone cable.  Mac, I love you too, but please stop licking my face.  You been eating out of the litter box again.)

But between bouts of affection and my dreaming of maybe getting up, I noticed that Amazon had an update.  Ok cool.  Except, you know the part where you get transfered to the Play Store and it asks you if you accept new permissions?  Yea, that didn't happen.  Instead, it jumped straight to Amazon updating directly on my phone.  WTF?  I don't think so.

Force quit + Uninstall....Ok I can't Uninstall because of some deal Samsung or T-Mobile has with Amazon.  So....Disable?  Yes, and remove the crapware.  Also, I think I'm going to go to the Play Store and give them a piece of my mind. 

But I didn't see Amazon.  Just Amazon Prime, Amazon Marketplace, and similar apps.  Weird, not main Amazon app.

Then I got curious.  I wonder if anyone else had something like this happen to them.  So I searched.  And I found out about the Apple/Google vs Amazon war.  First link was the most facinating answer I found all morning.

According to Android Police, Google has removed the Amazon app because it did not follow rules for apps.  An update in September to include an app store, caused Google to change the rules of engagement (Non-compete agreement) not two weeks later "to clarify the rule".  Thus they (and HumbeBundle evedently) have been banished from the marketplace.

So if want their default app, you will have to go through Amazon directly to get their apk.  (Or you can purchase a Samsung Galaxy S5 from T-Mobile.)

Dear Facebook. Words Are Meaningless

Never in my life, have I seen a CEO or Founder as divorced from his own company workings as Mark Zuckerberg is from Facebook. 

In recent days, too many of my friends are getting booted from Facebook over the “real name” policy.  According to Facebook, this policy is designed to protect users from abuse. 

“[The policy] helps keep people safe,” said Zuckerberg in a Q&A session. “We know that people are much less likely to try to act abusively towards other members of our community when they’re using their real names.

However “real name” doesn’t have to be legal name.  At least that is what both Chief Product Officer Chris Cox and Zuckerberg have insisted.  Rather, the “real name” is “whatever you go by.”

“There is some confusion about what our policy actually is,” the CEO wrote during a Facebook Q&A. “Real name does not mean your legal name. Your real name is whatever you go by and what your friends call you. If your friends all call you by a nickname and you want to use that name on Facebook, you should be able to do that.”

Someone might want to inform the Facebook support team. 

Currently, if your account is flagged for being fake, Facebook will requires you to prove your identity in one of three ways.  1) Government ID, such as a Passport or Driver’s License, 2) two Non-Governmental IDs such as a letter or transit card.  Or 3) forms of ID that can confirm your name, and date of birth or photo.  Presumably the latter is the method you can use to prove your “real name.”  But unless you get your junk mail with “the name you go by”.  Your pretty much out of luck.

Actually, your probably still out of luck.

Jemmaroid Von Laalaa, took a route that I seriously contemplated.  Jemmaroid (formally known as Jemma Rodgers) changed her legal name.  Yet according to The Telegraph, Facebook was still reluctant to let her in.  In fact, it took 6 weeks before Jemmaroid was allowed back in. 

A Facebook spokesperson told CNET "Facebook asks people to use their authentic names, as we believe this makes people more accountable for what they say. In this instance, we made a mistake, but we reactivated the account last week. We apologize for any inconvenience that this caused."

Before that, a number of Trans women were subjected to this same treatment.  After a protest in front of Facebook’s office, they were able to get the policy changed for them.  It would seem the only way to force Facebook to use your “real name.” is to make them look like crap to the media.  That, or know someone on the inside it seems.

A quick look at CPO Chris Cox friends list shows some have found a way to skirt the rules.  Or at least get look the other way.  Names like Boz, Archibong, Luu-Van, Tutu and Trollman all appear. One of these names are Monomymous, meaning that they have only have one name.  Yet Facebook requires two.  Are these legitimate names?  How would these people feel being required to prove their identity?  And how was this one person able to create a mononymous name?

But somehow this real name policy is supposed to protect us.  Zuckerberg emphasized that a real name requirement exists, at least in part, to protect Facebook users. “There are plenty of cases — for example, a woman leaving an abusive relationship and trying to avoid her violent ex-husband — where preventing the ex-husband from creating profiles with fake names and harassing her is important. As long as he’s using his real name, she can easily block him.”

First, this is assuming the violent ex-husband is using a real name.  A person is not required to prove their ID at the account’s creation.  Thus, it’s more likely that said ex-husband will create an account that is nowhere near his real name and use it to continue his abuse.  It would only get reported if this name is identified as being fake.  Using a normal-sounding name, like John Smith, likely won’t get a second look from someone reporting it.

Not only does the real name policy fail to protect users from abuse, it is also a tool for abuse.  In several incidents people who have or use pseudonyms have been reported for no reason except revenge.  When the members of the Trans community spoke out, many were being reported by a person who’s only goal was to torture Trans women.  A friend of mine was reported by a family member because her name was “Insulting to the family name.”  (Her last name is Rice.  She called herself “Fried Rice).  Another friend was reported because he too was Monynomous.  Unlike Mr. Cox friend, he had to create a fake second name.  This was reported for being fake.  My crime was speaking out on a political issue I care deeply about.  I did not harassing any individual.  Simply speaking my mind on a news site. 

Many of the people who are victims of this policy have been on since the beginning.  My account was created when Facebook still required a .edu email address another friend who’s account was suspended had one “since Facebook was born.”  If a person intended to be abusive with a pseudonym for that long.  Surely they would have done so by now. 

What Facebook fails to realize is that many of these pseudonyms, themselves, a form of protection.  I personally use a pseudonym to prevent employers, coworkers, family, and other individuals I do not want to be able to find me from locating me and harassing me.  Others its more serious than that.  LGBT individuals may use pseudonyms to keep their family from prying into their lives or discovering their sexuality.  Many will use Pseudonyms to protect them from abusive relationships, a method much safer than trusting a partner to use his/her real name.  Decedents from repressive regimes, and people hiding from gangs and cartels, use pseudonyms to protect themselves or love ones they may have had to leave behind.  Many famous individuals use pseudonyms to connect with loved ones in private without being crushed by fans.  Others may have real names that do not line up with their Stage names, which is more commonly known.  And while Facebook prides itself in being progressive, those who’s name doesn’t line up with their gender, as well as Native Americans have found themselves repeatedly proving their name is real.

Terran Tom and the 47 Trators

Sounds like a Grimm's fairytail.  More like grim than Grimm.

Not long after the legally dubious invite to address Congress extended to Netenyahu, 47 Senators decided to bypass the Diplomate in Cheif by sending a letter to the Grand Ayatollah of Iran to dismiss any effort of an agreement.  At its least, it's disrespectful. Not to the President or the Ayatollah, but to the American people.  Hashtags abound from #47Trators, #GOPwantsWar, and the.more.personal #TerahnTom. (Tom Cotton of Arkansas was the writer of ththis letter.)

Editorials abound criticizing the letter.  Even going as far as calling it a "clown letter"

But it was Obama's comments that got me thinking.  "I am embarrassed for them."

When I was in Middle School, there was a kid that this discription fit perfectly. Looking back now, there is a chance she had Autism or something, but.that was before it became as well known.  All I knew was she wasn't all there. She would often find herself in these oddball predicaments that would make even the best of us facepalm.  Not from destress, but from embarrassment.  She obviously wasn't embarrassed. We were embarrassed FOR her.

On example was after school.  I was waiting for my mom at the front office when she walks in.  We had our awkward exchange (as was custom)  but then the office phone started ringing.  As custom at our school, nobody was there to answer it.  She looked at me and said "phone is ringing."
"Yup"
"Someone should answer it."
"No, better leave that alone."
"but the phone is ringing."
"I know, just let it ring."
"Yea but its ringing."

Before I knew it, she was behind.the counter and on the phone.  Just then, Principal Shepard walked in.  She said the person was looking for someone.  Mr Shepherd took the phone from her and sent her to his office.  He took care of the call and went in the office where a very loud argument took place.  With her insisting "it was ringing off the hook!"

This is one of a few instances I was embarrassed for her.  In fact, it was one of a few instances I was embarrassed for anybody.  Its not a feeling that comes up a lot.

I can't say for sure what the mental state of the senetors who signed on this letter, but I think we should be embarrassed for these senetors as well.  Embarrassed for their excuses, of their defense. And really of the people who voted them into office. 

Then again, this congress has done a lot of embarrassing things as of late.