Do you want to be naked or dress up your data?

Facebook's Cambridge Analytica’s unbridled use of the profile data of 50 million Facebook members during the 2016 election must have opened the eyes of at least some of those out there that give up their personal data at an alarming rate. This practice has virtually abolished the word privacy to another planet. The Nation says...

"Nearly the entire Internet is based on the following trade: You give us intimate personal data, and we give you magical services for free. This is the original sin, and almost every major website you visit (except Wikipedia) commits it. (Yes, dear online Nation reader, there are at least five trackers running on you as you read this.)"

The Internet is a wonderful invention, no doubt something we could not do without these days. My wife and I were talking today about all the books on our shelves we could get rid of since every bit of information in them can be found on the Internet. What we have collected over the years includes a large amount of reference, which we plan to give to used book stores and library sales, along with fiction, which is comprised of several of the classics. Most of the fiction, especially the classics, we will keep. In many homes a well stocked library was always considered a necessity.

Just this May the General Data Protection Regulation took effect in Europe, and we will all see a subtle shift in how big platforms deal with our data. Already I have had a notice from Blogger that they are updating my blog to confirm with the new European regulations. The purpose in all this is transparency of what personal data companies collect about you online. In the case of Cambridge Analytica it was all about politics, how they determine the right location on Facebook to place a political ad.

A Democratic firm by the name of DSPolitical claims to have invented a “political cookie,” an online tool for targeting individual voters, a new technology online much like direct mail was in its infancy. It's supposed to spare you from being flooded with useless political ads that you would prefer not to see. But to do that, it must know everything it can about you to make the decision. And there lies the problem. At least for those of us conscious of our privacy rights. Unfortunately the rest of you will fling your private information at anyone that promises you "magical services for free." Duh?

Concealed-carry laws amplify violent crime

I live in gun-loving Arizona, one of 33 states where the right-to-carry law means you can swagger all around town like you are Wyatt Earp reincarnated. In Arizona you can actually take your gun into bars, schools and public buildings. The National Rifle Assn. with head gun nut, Wayne LaPierre, leading the way, has convinced these pathetic souls that their guns are more valuable than the lives of their family, friends, neighbors and innocent individuals. But all of this could be changing if an apathetic American public takes notice of new research on concealed-carry.

This all may have stemmed from the research of John Lott and David Mustard in 1997 that found more guns meant less crime, which was flawed in its findings, even certifying an increase in violence with concealed-carry through new research by legal scholars John Donohue and Abhay Aneja and economist Kyle Weber. They confirmed the following frightening statistic published in The Nation...

"Ten years after a state passes a right-to-carry law, violent crime—which includes murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault—will be 13 to 15 percent higher than if the state had done nothing."

Adding to the validity of the new report is the number of years available to the researchers on which to base their analysis; those years between 1981 and 2007 when right-to-carry laws were passed, ten of those years after the John Lott and David Mustard report. The new paper took advantage of cutting-edge statistical techniques by constructing synthetic control groups for states using what’s known as a LASSO analysis to pick the best variables for comparison. Their findings were always consistent in the fact that...

"When states passed right-to-carry laws, violent crime ended up higher than it would have been otherwise."

It's time to get the cowboys and cowgirls off the street and generally begin a sweep to curb the number of guns owned in this country with some relatively tough new reasonable gun laws. 

Trump unconscionable in self adoration

Here's how the Oval Office lunatic honored the fallen dead on Memorial Day with the tweet heard around the world that makes the U.S look like idiots...

“Happy Memorial Day! Those who died for our great country would be very happy and proud at how well our country is doing today. Best economy in decades, lowest unemployment numbers for Blacks and Hispanics EVER (& women in 18years), rebuilding our Military and so much more. Nice!”

Actually, it just leaves you speechless. 

Memorial Day for the heroes

The word memorial is identified as a commemorative act to perpetuate the memory of a person, event, etc., usually carried out as a monument or a holiday. Originally known as Decoration Day, Memorial Day was inaugurated by proclamation of General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic [U.S. Army] in 1868. It was for the purpose of honoring the 620,000 soldiers killed in the Civil War. In comparison, 644,000 were killed in all other conflicts. In going to war, the participant realizes his or her chance of not coming home alive. That's a hero, and we have many of those today.

There are 22 million veterans in the U.S. (10 percent are women) meaning that 7.3 percent of all living Americans have served in the military at some point in their lives. There are lots of reasons for joining up but then there is also the draft, initiated when personnel were needed for the Korean and Vietnam Wars. In other words, the military is made up of a complex group of individuals, but no matter how they entered the service, they were there to fight for, and, if necessary, die for their country. Those that died are the ones we pay tribute to today, honoring their lives and commitment.

Here are three things you may not have known about Memorial Day...

• John Logan originally meant Memorial Day for Union Soldiers only
• The Vietnam War was responsible for Memorial Day becoming a national holiday
• Although many towns claim to have been the birthplace of Memorial Day, Waterloo, New York is officially recognized as the first to commemorate the day

Along with my fellow veterans and all the rest of you out there, we want to convey our gratitude to those who didn't make it back and our heartfelt thanks for your ultimate sacrifice.

Don't let someone steal your new Medicare card

My insurer, United Healthcare, in connection with my AARP membership, just sent me their guidelines to help avoid someone scamming your new Medicare card which you should be receiving any day, if not already. Their points are:

• No action is needed. New Medicare cards will be automatically mailed to the address that CMS has on file. Medicare beneficiaries should not provide any information to anyone claiming it is needed for the new card.
• A temporary card is not needed. Medicare beneficiaries can continue to use their existing card until they receive a new one.
• CMS does not charge for Medicare cards.
• Medicare will not call. Be suspicious of anyone calling about the new Medicare card.

The most frightening thing you can experience today is medical identity theft. Here's the worst-case scenario. Someone steals your medical records, say, by having your new Medicare card info. They go to the hospital with a life-threatening diagnosis of diabetes. Because they have stolen your medical records, this information is entered into your file. You are not diabetic and at some point something happens to you that you are taken to the hospital unconscious. Because your record now indicates you are diabetic, it could be assumed you are in a diabetic coma, thus, doses of insulin to revive you.

Depending on how much insulin you were given, you could have dangerous side effects like hypoglycemia where blood sugar levels are so low that the body is not able to function properly. or it could even cause death. OK, this is the extreme, but I use this example to point out the fact that you should guard your medical records as much or more than your financial information. It is my understanding that one of the primary reasons for issuing new Medicare cards is to get rid of the Social Security number as you Medicare ID number.

That means you must protect it now the same as you have always been advised to protect the SS number.


   

	.

Mexican gun violence stems from lax U.S. gun laws

There is only one gun store in Mexico, just outside Mexico City, heavily guarded on a Military base. To even get inside the store, buyers must go through months of background checks. And Mexico has its own 2nd Amendment, but it stipulates that federal law "will determine the cases, conditions, requirements and places" of gun ownership. And while each day the army gun store sells only an average of just 38 firearms to civilians, "an estimated 580 weapons are smuggled into Mexico from the United States." Clearly, their problem is U.S. gun laws, making more guns available to the public.

The LA Times reports...

"About 70% of guns recovered by Mexican law enforcement officials from 2011 to 2016 were originally purchased from legal gun dealers in the United States, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives."

How does this all stack up? It's the American connection where the National Rifle Assn.'s head gun nut, Wayne LaPierre, believes in spreading guns around the country like the spreading of seeds by farmers in the Spring planting. Guns proliferate on the streets much like the crops in the fields. Except, they end up killing the innocent rather than feeding the hungry. It's an American tradition that is now seriously affecting our southern neighbor, adding to the drug cartel violence. There are 67,000 licensed gun dealers and gun shows in this country, the latter where just a warm body can buy a gun.

Mexico has a ban on assault weapons but, once again, enough come across the U.S. border to satisfy the appetite of the bad guys, especially cartels, in this case. Chelsea Parsons of the Center for American Progress touts the problems of International drug trafficking in a report that "found that 66% of Mexico's homicides were committed with a gun in 2017, up from 15% in 1997." It's beginning to look more and more like the U.S. and they don't like it. Ricardo Anaya of the National Action Party said recently...

"Instead of threatening walls, instead of threatening to militarize the border, we demand that they stop the flow of arms from the United States to Mexico."

Illegal immigrants coming north and illegal guns going south. What should be the priority with such a good nation that has been our partner for years? 

Did No. Korea call V.P. Pence a "political dummy?"

Mike Pence

Donald Trump has cancelled the Nuclear Summit with No. Korea's Kim Jong-un due to rhetoric on the part of Kim. Choe Son Hui, a vice-minister in the North Korean Foreign Ministry then said...

"if the US continued on its current path, she would suggest to North Korea's leadership that they reconsider the planned summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un."

She then called V. P. Mike Pence a "political dummy" for warning "North Korea that it could end up like Libya if it fails to make a nuclear deal with Washington." Choe called the comments "unbridled and impudent." Pence said on Fox News, "As the President made clear, this will only end like the Libya model ended if Kim Jong Un doesn't make a deal." And then John Bolton commented, "the US would look to the negotiations with Libya during the early 2000s when dealing with North Korea." You would think they were already in the war room with these remarks.

Adam Mount, the director of the Defense Posture Project at the Federation of American Scientists said, Pence's comments were the "most explicit regime change threat yet" from the Trump administration. Jean Lee, the director of the Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy at the Wilson Center commented, "They (the North Koreans) are very proud, they don't like being bullied and they certainly don't like the repeated references to Libya and the repeated reference to its poverty." Unfortunately, our negotiator is perhaps the world's top bully.