We Crashed

John Johnson

Our computers crashed. The older laptop stopped working and sat around for months. I took it to Clay Claiborne and he fixed it.

Then our main computer crashed but was still under warranty. We installed Raid 0 and found out the crash was Dell’s fault. One Windows file breaks and a computer is useless.

Also, our Website was hacked into, no problems detected. The two incidents don’t seem related, but who knows?

Once again Clay helped by trying to save most of the data and reinstalling Windows. I did lose data and a number of programs because I didn’t have the current discs.

We nearly skipped the April issue but decided not to. Another cliff hanger.

It costs us a lot of work, time and funds to keep faith with our subscribers and calendar submissions. We desperately need a lot more funding to get back up to what passes for normal.

(“Normal,” these days means operating at a severe deficit of we need to continue publishing. Seriously, folks. We are hanging by a thread.)

I’m good with computers but there some things  are beyond me. Volunteer help is desperately needed. We have a three year old Dell XPS with Windows XP and a eight year old Dell laptop that’s practically obsolete.

A few Foundations offer grant programs. We need someone to help write grants. We also need small racks for displaying Change-Links where venues still permit use of such racks.

Snippets of current events

Obama is building the biggest-ever surveillance structure, one that will be able monitor most phone calls, emails and other behaviors without warrants, let alone any good reasons.

He is also persecuting and imprisoning honest whistle blowers (read Bradley Manning). In a functional society, it’s everyone’s duty to expose criminal activity in business and government agencies.

Wall Street, BofA, Goldman Sacs and others continue to bilk billions from their “customers.” The promised crack down on bogus foreclosures is… well, bogus. The behemoths pay their fines – at about one tenth the value of the theft achieved – while everywhere corruption deepens. Check out Matt Taibbi’s Rolling Stone article on the Banksters: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/gangster-banks-keep-winning-public-business-why-20120322, as well as his other articles.

Also, the Congress and President are poised to push through the so-called “Jobs Act” that opens up even more Wall Street corruption and puts more funds into their reelection campaigns. As is the usual practice, its name implies a selective and inaccurate reading of what the bill intends.

At this writing the bill has been modified by the Senate and returned to the House. Obama urges quick passage. But the revised version strips away further safeguards, such as removing former obstacles to a company’s going public and its ability to raise funds privately.

Right Wing media jerks are agitating for a race war. And mainstream media ignore this and most of these other issues I’ve raised.

One recent high point: walking from my Doctors office I noticed a group of women, (late twenties) walking toward me. One had an open blouse and large exposed breasts. I did my best not to stare, but as she passed she gave me a wonderful smile.