SoylentNews

After serving me well these past five years, my good old Nexus 7 is finally going to retire. I've gotten a new tablet, a Xiaomi Mi Pad 4, which is more or less the same form factor, just slightly bigger, and the hardware specs are really sweet. But I should have been a tad more careful reading of both the place I bought it from and the stuff on XDA about it. First off I'd bought a version that has a Chinese ROM. This shouldn't be such a big deal, except that the damn thing doesn't have Google Play or any sane app market. There's the Mi App Store, and while it has some of my essential tablet apps, some omissions are rather notable, not even including including something as basic as a workable FTP client. Since one of the main uses of my tablet is to play video files I download from a network storage server at home, this is essential. Maybe there is something there that could do that... if only I could read Chinese. F-Droid seems to help somewhat, except that there still isn't a simple FTP client that will let me download several files in a batch. The closest thing there seems to be Ghost Commander, but it downloads all the files in parallel and can't display progress for all of them. This is ridiculous. Even the web browsers like Firefox are in Chinese! The keyboard is also the Google Chinese keyboard, and there's something of a dearth of alternative keyboard apps, at least no keyboard that will let me type numbers on a password screen lock without pressing a modifier key. I fucking hate that. There is a lot of space on a 1920×1200 screen that is 8" across, I could use a row of number keys at the top thank you very much! There certainly seems to be nothing like the Hacker's Keyboard on Google Play, which you can actually use vi on a remote shell with because it gives you that all-important Esc key. :P

The other thing is that locked bootloader. I could have flashed a custom ROM to remove the useless Chinese cruft. While Xiaomi will allow me to unlock it if I want to (after giving them something like $250 for it I expect no less), they have an irksome requirement. They are making me wait 720 hours (yes a whole fucking month) before they will permit me to unlock. The fact that they impose this delay on you for your "protection" is extremely irritating and paternalistic. Sure, if the device is stolen it becomes essentially unusable if the bootloader is locked but there are better ways to make that happen I think. Given the lack of GPS or LTE circuitry in this version of the Mi Pad 4 I have, if that happens I don't think it's going to help. So do I own my device or not? Seems they want to hang onto it for a month longer before they'll actually give it to me.

In the meantime I've managed to sideload a few of the essentials after using Titanium Backup on my Nexus 7 to convert them into APKs. They largely seem to work.

My daughter was telling me about an app that day-cares and schools use to send photos of kids to 'helicopter' and panic parents and I tried explaining why that was a security issue:

How do you explain to people who don't realise the problem that there IS a problem.

I've tried using the Jewish registration at the Nazi police stations (what, 1939ish?).
I've tried hacker data stealing.
Data collection of kids through adulthood.....

What is a good argument to use against "App! Facebook! Wow! If you don't do anything wrong you have nothing to worry about"?

Anyone got a good speal?

We're Making America Great Again. And part of that is honoring the guy who made America great in the first place. By discovering it. Naming it. And opening it for BUSINESS! So I've proclaimed today as a VERY SPECIAL day to honor the fantastic Christopher Columbus. He was a very smart businessman. But he had a big heart. So inspiring! For too long, people forgot how our Country started -- Columbus. I didn't forget. He's forgotten no more. Because I did a Proclamation. We are finally going to open the history books on the Columbus family, their lives, their schemes, their adventures. CELEBRATE!!! whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-columbus-day-2018

I'll be just fine using only my Mac mini until it arrives.

Tomorrow I've set my alarm for 4:00 AM, then will register homeless people to vote at Vancouver's Share House. It is a men's shelter and a soup kitchen, restroom and shower facility for both men and women.

I've got 200 Washington State voter registration forms, the Secretary Of State has PDFs on their website.

I'm getting up so early so I'll have time to sit in a stupour for a while before setting out for West Vancouver. I always have an incredibly difficult time for the first hour after I get out of bad. That totally sucks but it eventually dissipates, then I feel just fine.

At 11:00 AM I'm going to register at a church in Central Vancouver; they serve lunch at 11:30-12:30.

During the afternoon I'm going to register at an apartment building that houses 55 veterans who were previously homeless or at risk for becoming so, then an apartment building for garden-variety homeless not far from my own apartment, then late afternoon I'll drop off the completed forms at the Clark County Elections Commissions in the big county building next to the courthouse and jail, also in West Vancouver.

Tuesday morning I'll go to the Multnomah County Elections Commission in South-East Portland to request a pack of 500 registration forms - Oregon doesn't provide PDFs. Then at 4:00 I'll register at the Blanchet House Of Hospitality in Oldtown, then at 5:30 at the Portland Rescue Mission. It's in Oldtown too.

Tomorrow is the last day for registering Washington residents but for Oregon I have until a week from Tuesday.

I'm very tired, I'll have an easy time getting to sleep. I'll go to bed in a half hour.

I had some leftover Kraft Dinner with diced tofu because I was quite hungry when I got home but after I post this I'll heat up some homemade chicken soup. The previous resident of my apartment left me lots of really great cookware including a three gallon stainless steel pot. I used five large chicken thighs, two large onions, a whole bunch of celery, lots of carrots and five medium russet potatoes.

Life Is Good

Read this. Fuckin' read it. You want someone with violent tendencies? You want "disasturbation?" You want stone-cold nihilism? Runaway has you covered. Here he is, cheering for megadeaths, wishing horrible demise upon 50 million people he dislikes ("progressives") because he thinks people with brown skin are somehow the privileged class in this country. He also seems to think I'm some kind of unreconstructed Marxist, which is...not only not right, it's not even wrong. I've bolded the especially...telling...parts of this little rant.

Alright then -

A civil war will be uglier than most liberals have ever dreamed. Maybe uglier than the war-happy conservative capitalists have dreamed, as well.

But, it might be better than allowing the progressives to have control. The so-called left is hardly any more left than the R's are, but they are strongly into authoritarianism. That left makes me look silly as hell with my claims of being an authoritarian. The REAL difference between me, and them, is the legitimacy of authority. If I recognize an authority as being legitimate, then I respect it. If I don't recognize an authority as legitimate, I fight it.

Your left wants to create it's own authority by force. There is no legitimacy to either the force, or the authority which they desire. None.

But, if the right stands by, and watches the "left" proceed, it's possible that the progressives could win. Chances are slim, but the possibility exists.

Yes, I'd rather see twenty million dead liberals lying in the streets, than to see their progressive heros taking over this country. And, I'll willingly sacrifice five million dead conservatives and independents to put a stop to the progressives.

The tree of life must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots, from time to time.

And, welcome to reality, where most important decisions by nations are settled by force. As it has been for tens of thousands of years, so it will be for tens of thousands of years into the future.

Have you ever considered the dystopias portrayed in much of science fiction? Have you never imagined one of those dystopias, in which death is preferable to living? The dystopia being offered to us by the progressives is one in which a child can be punished, and branded for life, if he so much as notices that his own skin is not the same color as that of his teacher, or one of his class mates. In this computer age, any "deviant" behaviour will be documented, put into a database, and NEVER forgotten.

Progressives promise a number of things, which I fear, and despise, with their racial inequality ranking high. "People of color" vs "white and Asian". It's already real, it has made it into headlines. Follow that to it's logical conclusion - if you're brown, or black, you get a leg up in education, employment, in everything. If you're white, or Asian, you get shit on, and you're lucky if you can ever get a job cleaning septic tanks, or collecting garbage.

The party, as well as the progressives, have forgotten Martin Luther King, who had a dream. They've abandoned his dream. Today, they don't want equality, they want vengeance.

And, I, for one, am not willing that my grandchildren should be cast into some third-rate citizen role, to make those brown or black people happy. I side with King - my great grandchildren should compete with black, white, brown, and Asian for their place in life. And, the best man/woman for the job should win the job.

Political correctness? I've fought that bullshit since I first heard of it. It was a Soviet construction - if you were in good graces with the party, then you were politically correct. Fuck PC. Seriously, just fuck PC. Progressives promise to enslave my descendants, at the expense of brown and black people. Just fuck them.

Twenty million dead progressives? Make it fifty million - it's all the same to me. A future with slavery in it looks pretty damned bleak, no matter whether it's my descendants, or yours, or whoever's. We had a war, ~150 years ago, over a number of issues, including slavery. Today, "liberals" want to go back and explore slavery. Kill 'em all, and let God sort them out.

The bunch of dumb bastards in charge of the Democrat party need to pull their heads out of their asses, BEFORE they spark that civil war. Once the first few shots are fired, there will be no mercy.

Gawwwwwwwwwd...DAMN. This is what a meltdown looks like. This is what "identity politics" actually is. The man has gone bat-boinking nuts. Okay Runaway, suit up in your Rambo gear, here's an MP3 player with the soundtracks to the entire Contra series on it, here's some MREs, now go and defend your country from those horrible brown people.

Jesus. Jetskiing. CHRIST.

Thank you Kansas, we love Kansas! And thank you @VP Pence, very smart Dem Senators Susan Collins & Joe Manchin & our LOYAL Rep Senators -- I'm so proud of how you all put America First today! Congrats (soon) ASS. JUSTICE BART! VOTE Nov. 6th.! #RedTide https://www.pscp.tv/w/bolO8zFvTlFs...

If you can help me out, please post in the comments so only one person buys me one.

Last night I left my bag at a light rail station in downtown Portland. It was gone when I came back.

The only item that I lost, that I really need is an Apple Wall Wart. The connection is magnetic, it will disconnect if someone trips over the cord. However the very fine springs that push the brass pins against the brass cups in my power jack tend to fatigue and break, so no one sells used MagSafes.

• 85W Apple MagSafe 2 Power Adapter For 15-Inch MacBook Pro With Retina Display

Other World Computing has then new for $54.99.

On a different page is another 85W wart for MacBook Pros. The one I need is for "Retina Display" units at the link above. The retina display has a square array of four or more physical pixel for each logical pixel. It's real nice on my eyes.

Shipping address:

Michael Crawford
650 NW Irving St
Portland, OR 97209-1272
USA

+1 (971) 386-3996
mdcrawford@gmail.com

FedEx Ground shipping is free. I'm cool with the 4-5 day delivery - there are some other MacBook Pro users here at NedSpace, enough of them that I only need to pester just one person each day.

https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-45739335/
This ^ should never have happened.

We've registered our son (despite my mis-givings) with the police as moderate to severely autistic, non-verbal, with slight cerebral palsy BECAUSE WE DON'T WANT THINGS LIKE THIS to happen to him (as well as for other reasons, explained below).

The police in Canada seem to be much better trained (or more patient) than in the States, but we don't want anything going wrong for him in any encounters.
He is rarely out of our sight or hearing and we got him a Medic-Alert tag for his running shoes that can point police to his info (supposedly, they are trained to look for tags like this), but registered him with the local police to let them have INSTANT info if he ever did go missing (they won't have to wait for us to get them pictures and info: they will be able to access it from their site).
They will know his name, any nick-names he will respond (possibly) to, how he might react to them, how to get calm him down, that he will probably want to be hugged, etc.

We want him to be trouble free if found by the police (the school has let him run a couple of times but have always caught up to him eventually.... so far).

But what happened in the video above is disgusting. He sprays water at them and they taze him over and over and over and over????
WTF?

If that happened to our son, they would be seeing a VERY expensive court case and disciplinary actions and HELL FIRE RAINED DOWN ON THEM and have their asses plugged with cement if possible.

Never. ever. ever. should. have. happened.

*****
Just read the rest of the story: the down syndrome kid being asphyxiated by police and the other shit.

No charges were laid against the cops who tazed the kid in the shower?

My God.
How do these people go on in their lives.

You win the presidency, in theory you're not supposed to do great in the midterms. Right? We won and we've been working very hard at our agenda of Making America Great Again. But you know what, honestly, with what we've done on jobs, on our Country, on our Military -- we're gonna talk about our veterans, what we've done -- on Energy. Who the hell can beat us, I mean who can beat us? Who can beat us?

One of the Fake News people said recently, and they hated to say it, but that Trump has actually fulfilled MORE PROMISES THAN HE PROMISED. It's true, look what we're doing. 4.2% GDP. Every point is 3.5 trillion dollars and 10 million jobs. And when I took it over, our Country was headed south. We were going down. Instead of 4.2, you'd be at negative. Negative 4.2. Last quarter it was 4.1, it was just adjusted upward to 4.2. And it's going much higher. We've created over 4 million jobs since the election. We've lifted almost 4 million Americans off of food stamps. Wow!! Number 1 we're taking care of people. Number 2 it doesn't cost us anything. We've added nearly, it will soon be 600,000 new manufacturing jobs. We weren't supposed to be adding manufacturing jobs. Companies are pooring back into our Country.

Our Coal Industry is back -- people said it would never happen. We're giving great healthcare. We're in the process of building the strongest military we've ever had -- by far. Wage growth highest in nearly 17 months. USMCA, big victory for our wonderful American Industries & Workers. Lot of praise for that one. So much praise. 45.wh.gov/USMCA

Democrats, they want to end ICE. They want to end a lot of things. Open boarders. Can you believe it? Hey, how would you like this platform? We want open boarders, we want High Taxes, we want Crime -- because basically they're saying, Crime. So they have Crime, they have High Taxes, they have Open Boarders. Oh, and by the way, and we don't want to fund the Military. You have no idea how hard it is to get money for the Military. It's almost impossible. It's like a full-time job. But we got that money, we got a lot of money! If the Democrats got 51 votes in the Senate, they would open our nation's boarders, they would starve our Law Enforcement -- do we love our Law Enforcement? Seriously. I got a tremendous percentage of Law Enforcement vote. But, you know, I think I might have, do I get 100%? Let's say I didn't. Who the hell wouldn't vote for me from Law Enforcement? OK? We've done a lot. We've gotten them a lot of surplus material from the Military. You know, we had all this. We had hundreds of millions of dollars of surplus material. And our previous administration, under no circumstances did they want to give this to Law Enforcement. Because they thought it presented a wrong "image." We gave it out to Law Enforcement. And the Law Enforcement does like us. If you want to stop sanctuary cities -- they're rebelling in California, of all places. If you want to protect communities from really bad, bad crime, then you've got to vote Republican. This election is about security and it's about prosperity. We've done things that nobody can believe.

I will tell you, they did a poll. They call it the Daily Presidential Tracking Poll. Just came out today. Thursday. Overall support, 50%. Look, it's a poll. But we love those polls, don't we? I love polls. Only when they're good. When they're not good, I don't talk about them. But they do a lot of phoney polls. The Fake News Media. They do a lot of polls, they call them suppression polls. They make them bad, so you go to a movie instead of voting. But I'll tell you, in 2016 nobody went to a movie!!! pic.twitter.com/6HQVaEXH0I