ATHOL DICKSON

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Floppys Rule

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Will floppy disks save your money or your life?
Will floppy disks save your money or your life?

In case you missed it, today the Internet stopped working. Okay, not the whole Internet, but enough of it to make a lot of people on the east coast very unhappy.

One of the Internet’s major domain name service providers was attacked by hackers who basically harnessed the bandwidth of tens of millions of online devices to dump a massive amount of junk data on the provider’s servers. Their computers were simply overwhelmed, and couldn’t go on processing legitimate data. One commentator I read compared it to trying to drink from a fire hose.

Apparently this attack was expected, at least by Internet security professionals.

One cyber security expert, Bruce Schneier, wrote a blog post predicting this attack over a month ago. He said someone (his guess is China or Russia) has been testing the limits of major companies along the Internet’s “backbone” for some time now. Like a series of feints from an besieging army intended to determine a fort’s defensive weaknesses, these hackers have been sending larger and larger packets of data to the service providers, testing their limits and learning about their reactions. Presumably the purpose is to learn how to do exactly what was done today. As Schneier wrote:

“These companies are seeing more attacks using three or four different vectors. This means that the companies have to use everything they’ve got to defend themselves. They can’t hold anything back. They’re forced to demonstrate their defense capabilities for the attacker.”

All of this reminded me of a news story from last May, about the fact that the US nuclear missile launch control system is run by computers that still use 8″ floppy disks. According to this article at The Conversation the military is not alone:

“Banks, air traffic control systems and many core civil or military functions rely on technology that is well past its sell-by date.”

So a lot of America’s most sensitive infrastructure is controlled by out of date technology. Sounds crazy, right? The birdbrains over at CNN certainly thought so, and spun that story like it was a bad thing, with Jake Tapper snarking, “….maybe we’ll have Nintendo Game Boys controlling our nukes by the next Presidential election.”  But not so fast. The fact is, like famous people who have gone back to using flip phones, much of America’s most sensitive infrastructure is still controlled by out of date technology, intentionally.

Why?

One simple reason: you can’t hack a computer system run by floppy disks. And today we found out that can be a very good thing.

The Fourth Estate Is A Fifth Column

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American Flag in DistressHave you been following the Wikileaks revelations? Leaked emails have confirmed what many Americans already suspected: reporters and news executives throughout the “mainstream media” have gone far beyond merely having a political bias. Abandoning all semblance of journalistic integrity they are working directly with politicians behind the scenes to manipulate the information American voters need to make informed decisions. The scandal has been slowing rising to the surface for months, but the latest Wikileaks blew the lid off. Click the links below to see how the rot has been uncovered at major news organizations such as:

The Atlantic
CNN
The New York Times
Politico
Associated Press
CNBC

Except for the first link above, which is about an older revelation, all of those links lead directly to the relevant emails at Wikileaks. If you don’t recognize the names in the emails, I suggest you Google them. Then read for yourself these emails that expose a reporter at The Atlantic who agrees to insert specific words in an upcoming article in return for an early look at a future Hillary Clinton speech, a  CNN contributor (now Democratic National Convention Chairperson) who leaks CNN Town Hall questions in advance to Hillary Clinton’s staff, a New York Times reporter and Clinton staffer who coordinate attacks on Donald Trump, a Politico reporter who allows Clinton’s campaign director to review the entire text of a news report to suggest changes, Clinton staffers who appear to control the timing of Associated Press news releases, and a CNBC panelist asking Clinton’s campaign director to suggest questions for Donald Trump in an upcoming interview.

I don’t know why these so-called “journalists” all seem to be supporting Hillary Clinton, and I don’t care. I’d be equally outraged if this kind of corruption came to light with Trump staffers. This is not about who the media supports. This is about rigging the entire American political system. It’s about robbing us of our right to chose government representatives based on facts. It’s about fraud, flat out, and it borders on treason as far as I’m concerned.

Obviously, we no longer have a mainstream news media which simply “leans” left. We have a “fourth estate” that actively and intentionally functions as a “fifth column” propaganda machine with the goal of brainwashing the American people.  But what can we do?

We can hit the mainstream media where it hurts, in their pocketbooks, that’s what we can do. Every time you buy one of their papers, subscribe to one of their websites, or pay for their content on your television screen, you’re paying them to lie to you. So stop doing that.

Switch off. Unplug. Cut the cable. Ditch the dish. And do it now, while you’re still angry about it.

I’m not saying bury your head in the sand. Now more than ever Americans need to know what’s really going on. Fortunately, there are still news sources online where you can get real news for free.

To help you with that, I’ve assembled a short list of original news sources and source aggregators which, as far as I know, are still behaving honestly. I’m not saying they don’t have a bias. I’m saying their bias is obvious, and to my knowledge they’re not actively colluding with politicians or the government to weave a fabric of outright lies and distortion. Some of these sources lean right; some lean left. I think it’s important to read them all to keep the information balanced. I scan them often. And again, all of them are free.

If you get your news here you’ll be pushing back on the propaganda, improving the accuracy of what you’re told, and saving money all at once. What’s not to love about that?

As for entertainment without network or cable programming, there’s always Netflix and Amazon Prime, both of which are cheaper than most cable plans. I subscribe to both, and have a surplus of excellent movies and television programming available at all times.

So, here are my first few suggestions for free, uncorrupted news sources. This batch leans right, but none of them seem to be in bed with the Republican Party (they often criticize GOP leaders, for example, and none are openly fond of Trump):

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/
http://dailycaller.com/section/us/
http://freebeacon.com/
http://heatst.com/
http://thefederalist.com/
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/
http://www.washingtontimes.com/

These are left leaning, but not full out socialists, and I have seen no sign on the sites or in Wikileaks that they’re actively helping Clinton get elected:

https://www.theguardian.com/us
http://www.macleans.ca/
http://www.reuters.com/news/us
http://www.upi.com/

Here are a couple of the better known polling sites where you can get raw facts without any spin:

http://www.pewresearch.org/
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/

And here’s a concept: learn about American foreign policy from foreigners!

http://www.jpost.com/
http://mideastposts.com/
https://www.rt.com/usa/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Everyone will find something they don’t like on this list, and that’s okay. Don’t stop here. Look around the Internet and create your own list. By all means, approach all news sources with skepticism. But whatever you do, stop supporting the corrupt propagandists of the mainstream media who have been caught red handed perverting America’s political process.

Choosing Between Ba’al and Beelzebub

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Beelzebub from The Pilgrim's Progress
Image of Beelzebub from John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678)

There is a kind of Christian who believes all good things come from above, and all bad from below. But as Job said, “Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” The reality is, God sometimes sends bad things, even to His most faithful people. Christians who don’t accept this do not know their Bible, and when the chips are down they tend to find out their faith is lukewarm and shallow.

God speaks everything into existence. That includes evil things. The Bible says so clearly, in many places. God does this not for evil, but for good. He tests us. Sometimes His testing comes in the form of a choice between two evils. By forcing us to make such choices, God teaches us to trust that all things work together for the good of those who love him. Perhaps the most famous Biblical example is the story of Isaac’s sacrifice, in which God forces Abraham to choose between disobedience to God, and the human sacrifice of his own son.

Obviously, choices like that are tough. Fortunately for us, God’s main concern is with what is in the heart. So in times of trouble Christians would be wise not to judge anyone who, with a heartfelt desire to please God, chooses what they believe to be the lesser of two evils…not even when it seems obvious to us they’ve chosen wrongly.

I was reminded of this by a Christian who seems to have forgotten it. Andy Crouch, who is executive editor of Christianity Today, recently wrote the following in that publication:

“Most Christians who support [Presidential candidate Donald] Trump have done so with reluctant strategic calculation…but there is a point at which strategy becomes its own form of idolatry—an attempt to manipulate the levers of history in favor of the causes we support. Strategy becomes idolatry, for ancient Israel and for us today, when we make alliances with those who seem to offer strength—the chariots of Egypt, the vassal kings of Rome—at the expense of our dependence on God who judges all nations, and in defiance of God’s manifest concern for the stranger, the widow, the orphan, and the oppressed. Strategy becomes idolatry when we betray our deepest values in pursuit of earthly influence. And because such strategy requires capitulating to idols and princes and denying the true God, it ultimately always fails.

So, here we have an influential Christian publicly accusing other Christians of a terrible sin, merely because he disagrees with their political choice. If Mr. Crouch had simply condemned Donald Trump’s obvious misogyny, immoral lifestyle, bullying behavior, and foul mouth, I would have heartily agreed. But Mr. Crouch wants me to know if I vote for Trump, I will become no better than Trump. I will commit idolatry. I’ll be “in defiance of God.” A vote for Donald Trump is no different from placing faith in Trump to save me, as if stepping into the voting booth for Trump is the modern equivalent of bringing sacrifices to the altar of Beelzebub.

For the vast majority of Christians I know, a vote for Trump will be just that: a vote. It’s not a declaration that Donald Trump is their personal Lord and Savior.

For the vast majority of Christians I know, a vote for Trump will be just that: a vote. It’s not a declaration that Donald Trump is their personal Lord and Savior. It’s not even a vote of confidence in Trump. On the contrary, most Christians I know who plan to vote for Trump are convinced “the stranger, the widow, the orphan, and the oppressed” would be worse off after a Trump Presidency. But they’re also convinced the results for such people would be even worse after a Clinton Presidency. They’re not idolaters, placing faith in a man or in the political system. They’re just sinners, doing the best they can to please their Father with their actions in spite of the fact that right now, in America, we’ve been cursed with two horrific choices.

A little later in the same opinion piece, Mr. Crouch writes, “Enthusiasm for a candidate like Trump gives our neighbors ample reason to doubt that we believe Jesus is Lord.” But I wonder what our neighbors think when Christians question each other’s faith because of politics? Shouldn’t Christians of all people avoid the slander and ugly insults that have become the norm between other Americans in this election cycle?

“For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged.” Andy Crouch, all the editors at Christianity Today, and you, and me, and every Christian everywhere would do well to remember that.

Lending to Lawyers

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Enron Logo
A Lawsuit I’d Love to Fund

I’ve been looking deeper into the idea of investing in lawsuits. In my last post on the subject I said this only works for me ethically when the investments are used for plaintiff’s medical and living expenses. I wrote “I’ll not be lending money to lawyers.” Since then I’ve learned more about the subject from litigation investment firms, and now my opinion is a bit more nuanced.

Before, I mentioned a “slip and fall” case that was brought against my architectural firm. It was a classic example of the kind of ambulance chasing lawsuit which has given the legal profession a bad name in America. The plaintiff didn’t even actually fall, for crying out loud. But it still cost me a $10,000 insurance deductible, and five days of my life. So I was robbed, and there’s still no way I would invest in anything that enables other attorneys to do the same. But I’ve learned this is usually a non-issue when it comes to investing in lawsuits, for several reasons.

Most predatory cases are personal injury lawsuits, and it turns out personal injury cases are very seldom funded by investment sponsors. One firm I contacted indicated that this kind of case accounts for only one quarter of one percent of the total cases in their portfolio. This may be because most of their investors agree with me about the ethics. It’s even possible a high percentage of investors have been victimized by predatory attorneys, just as I was. Investors obviously have money, and targeting people simply because they have money is what predatory attorneys do.

Also, investors want to allocate their money into assets where they will achieve the best returns. Naturally, that means the vast majority of litigation funding investments are made in lawsuits where big money is at stake. The potential settlement or judgment amounts in most personal injury lawsuits are small potatoes compared to class action or mass tort suits, in which multiple plaintiffs were allegedly harmed by a defendant which is usually a major corporation with very deep pockets.

I’m much more comfortable funding law firms which are representing plaintiffs in class action and mass tort suits because it’s far less likely that their lawsuits are frivolous.

I’m much more comfortable funding law firms which are representing plaintiffs in class action and mass tort suits because it’s far less likely that their lawsuits are frivolous. In our society, it’s easy for one unethical attorney to convince one greedy client to participate in a predatory lawsuit. But usually mass tort or class action suits involve dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of attorneys and plaintiffs, all of whom are independently convinced it’s worth the effort to sue. Whatever the facts of the case may be, when that many people are willing to go to court it’s unlikely their case is frivolous.

Next, there’s the issue of timing. It seems most law firms receive investment funding only after the “discovery” period of the lawsuit it complete. All the facts are in at that point, which does two things: 1) it reduces risk, because it’s possible to evaluate the likelihood of winning the case on its merits, and; 2) it reduces the possibility that the plaintiff has lied, exaggerated, or otherwise brought suit irresponsibly or unethically, because if that were true it would probably have been found out.

Because I know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of predatory lawsuits, at first I was not inclined to provide investment funds directly to law firms. But if I can provide funds to firms that are, for example, representing crowds of “little people” who were the victims of corporate fraud (such as the Enron scandal), or whose homes and neighborhoods were environmentally polluted by a company’s negligence, or who suffered health problems because of a drug known by the manufacturer to be defective, that seems like a good use of investment money in more ways than one.