Fight Back the Phishers

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yogi
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

Post by yogi »

Record keeping is becoming more and more sophisticated and technology is advancing at breakneck speed. The tools are already in place to keep a dossier for every living human, but of course, nobody actually has done that. There are many huge databases of public and private records that can be harvested by an interested party. The hard part would be finding out who has the data. I'd say maybe in a dozen years or less all the large governments of the world will have a lot of details about their citizens stashed away in some databank. As countries are wont to do, they share information when appropriate to do so. Thus documenting the entire population of the earth will not be in a single database - that will take maybe 20 years. :mrgreen:
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

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20 years? Probably more like 50 years, the way our government works, or don't work as the case may be.

The big social networks have amassed more usable information on people in the last ten years than the government has in the last 100 years. What the government does have, which is probably 100 times more, is not really usable to them, which is why they are trying to gain access to the databases belonging to others, which is well organized.

I see numerous government made documents nearly every day. The number of mistakes on them are mind boggling.
A lot of the mistakes are made when trying to read the original paperwork and copying it to text. But now with digital imaging, we can also see the original copies to compare. Half the time it is simple mistyping and/or transposing letters or numbers. Or the inability to decipher some fancy script writing.

I actually have a story about one instance that happened in our family. A new recorder of deeds took over for one who was retiring. His first job was to take all the files which were stored in numerical and/or date order, and arrange them in alphabetical order. He could not distinguish the letter D from the letter T when both were nearly identical in the fancy script a form clerk used on marriage licenses, birth and death certificates, etc. So rather than try to figure out which was which, he placed all the fancy script D's in the T's file drawer, along with a whole lot of F and G too.
So when yet another recorder of deeds took over, and they were converting files to text, if it was in the T drawer, it was assumed to be a T, regardless of what letter it really was.
Many of these mistakes did not come to light until the digital age, and the copying of originals as image files.

One thing of interest, the letter J was not added to the English language until the mid-17th century.
Although it did appear in a few isolated cases as early as the 16th century.
Now think of all the people you know who's last names begin with a J. Jones, Johnson, James, Jeffries, etc.
When trying to seek out their ancestors, you hit a brick wall around 1760.
Many changed their original names when moving to a new country, such as emigrating to America.
But they also did so if moving like from England to France or Germany, or even to a new area in their own country.

Swedish names can really make searching ancestors hard also. For example: John Nilson's sons will have the surname Johnson, and his daughters will have the surname Johnsdotter. Now John Nilson's son, Frederick Johnson, has a son he names Anders, and Anders surname would be Fredrickson. Likewise, Anders Frederickson's son would carry the surname Anderson. In many cases, they quit using the suffix Dotter on girls, so then Anders daughter would also be named Anderson, but often spelled Andersen, changing the O to E.

Doing genealogy can be both fun and frustrating at the same time!
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

Post by yogi »

The global database of people won't be compiled by a single government entity. They won't get any more accurate regarding ancestry than they are already. The identity and whereabouts of all humans living now and over the next twenty years will be documented quite thoroughly by corporations. Governments will get involved as well but the bulk of the work will come from the private sector. You can go to places like Facebook and Google right now and ask for a "core dump" of all they got on you. You would be astonished at how detailed it all is, and it's not confined to the use of their products. They have those ubiquitous partners, you know?

Are you aware that Facebook is collecting information about your healthcare? https://www.healthline.com/health-news/ ... e-on-you#1
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

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Yeppers. I've done a core dump from Farcebook a couple of times. Everything except the actual posts I made.
I was curious to see what all they did have on me.
If you want a bigger surprise, get copies of everything the big three credit reporting agencies have on you.
You would never believe in a million years the number of mistakes they have in those files.
They had me living in at least eight different places all during the same time period, by making bad assumptions.
Just because I owned a house doesn't mean I ever lived there. I owned several rental properties, and bought homes for renovation purposes too. Had to get occupancy inspections before I could resell them which is what triggered the big three as thinking I must have lived there. Nitwits.

Ever since the doctors started putting stuff on-line, places like Farcebook have managed to glean data from those sources. I've never checked what Farcebook has, and nothing appeared back when I did a core dump. But then too, I didn't have onl-line accounts with any of my doctors until recently.
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

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The point I'm making here is that this is just the beginning. At one time this data harvesting was attributed to a need for marketers to provide better targeted services (ads). I'm sure that's how it started, but things got sophisticated along the way. The Russians, for example, have been developing ways to politicize data. For example, when they learned enough about the British population they flooded the media with pro-Brexit propaganda. A lot of borderline people were influenced by it. The Russians have a vested interest in breaking up Europe, NATO in particular, which explains why they became experts at social engineering. The collection of data, such as what is done on Facebook, can be a very powerful weapon. This goes well beyond selling soap to females who play Candy Crush Saga on Facebook.

People from Facebook, Twitter, Google, and the godz only know who else, have been "interviewed" by congress recently. The extent of what is going on there could encourage congress to pass some laws regulating what kind of data can be collected and for what purpose. That might be a good thing, but only if the congress can convince the Russians and Chinese to play nice too. I do have a feeling that Facebook will be dismembered and forced to operate as several different companies. They did this to AT&T when they were seen as a monopoly of the telecommunications industry. It is not hard to imagine something similar being applied to social networks, but for different reasons, of course.
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

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I would like to see the cable companies split up much in the same way Ma Bell was.
Cities on the take make a fortune in kickbacks from the cable companies by giving them exclusive areas in their cities and banning all other competition from those areas.

Sorta like Unions were a good thing when they were first organized, but as soon the workers demands were finally met, new laws passed, etc. they have outlived their usefulness and only hurt the workers instead of help them now.

I'm careful about what I put out on any social media platform. I figure if you don't put it out there, they can't extract useful information from it.

Ancestry places the word Private on all living people when you do a search on others family trees.
This is a good idea to protect privacy.
However, if you are doing the research on your own family tree, and add some of those families marked Private, you can extrapolate the information from Public Records, and Obituaries from newspapers, which often list all the family members, spouses, kids, etc.
When I was operating a business that needed personal data about applicants, I subscribed to the credit unions. Although the information they provide is inundated with errors, there is enough there for you to figure out if the applicant is a deadbeat or not, plus a lot of things they probably didn't wish you knew about them.
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

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Cable companies have the same problem that AT&T had: infrastructure. Everybody wants to use the same lines, but they don't have a good way to share the costs. When Ma Bell disintegrated, AT&T, who installed all the telephone networks, was forced to allow the others to use their wires. Thus the need for duplicate networks was eliminated. Kickbacks are a different story. I can see why cities would do it in order to maintain a reliable base of income, but it's not the best thing for a consumers market. Competition is what drives the economy. At least that was the argument they used with AT&T.

Back in the old days of slave labor, unions made sense. But, as you say, eventually things normalized and the grievances were minimized. The downfall of unions was the Mafia taking them over. They never did find Hoffa, did they?

There may be a few hiding places where privacy is respected, but for the most part it's a deprecated concept. It's been monetized and that means there is no longer an incentive to keep secrets. You best be sure to take care about what you put on Facebook, or any other social media. Maybe it's no longer relevant to you personally, but many companies have people who check the social media for activity by prospective employees. Some even want your password so they can see the good stuff. You might think it's an invasion of privacy, but it's no worse than having a background check done by the FBI. You can run, but you can't hide. :lol:
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

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I'm still in a fight with TBI over a licensing issue. Although I've never been charged or convicted of a felony of any kind, not even close, according to TBI I appear to be a felon based on the information they have.
It took close to a year, just to figure out what the heck they said they had on me, and after I found out what it was, and the steps I had to take to get it cleared up, it took almost another year. However, it is still not cleared up.
I don't appear in the records of any of the law enforcement agencies they claimed provided the data. Not only did I contact the assumed county they claimed was the source, I also contacted every county around the key county, and none had anything on me. However, a few did agree to draft a letter to TBI saying they have never charged me with anything.
This was not good enough for TBI, and they still refused to issue my license.

Several months after all the above took place, I learned that all records are destroyed if there is no connection to a crime. However, the individual law enforcement departments may keep their records forever. After many months of continuous searching, we finally found the source of TBI's information. Something I had long forgotten about.
Two kids broke into a tavern and stole a handful of slim-jim sausages. Turns out, they didn't really break in either, they merely reached in through a partially open casement window and grabbed the nearly empty box of slim-jims.
I pulled off the road, and when I saw the parking lot lights come on, I got out of my car and walked that direction. Some guy, probably the owner of the tavern, was holding the two kids at bay with a shotgun. When he saw me, he motioned for me to join them. About a half-hour later the cops showed up and we were all arrested. One of the first things they did at the station house was take our fingerprints. Then they talked to each of us separately in a small room. I didn't know diddly about what went on at the tavern, but about an hour later I was released, and no charges filed against me. I don't know what happened with the two kids though.
So, because my fingerprints were taken in association with a burglary, even though I was never charged with anything, and Missouri deletes all records after one year, they have nothing on me at all to say what happened. They would have only kept a file on me if I was charged with something. It's this lack of paperwork why TBI won't back down from their position.

I did talk to an attorney over the matter, and he said it's best I just leave it be. Knowing TBI they will add to my record and claim I drove the getaway car, and make matters even worse for me. By the way, this incident was over 50 years ago too, right after I just turned 18. It never affected my getting a black level security clearance when I worked on NASA projects. But it sure affects getting anything done with TBI down here.
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

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I'm assuming (bad thing, I know) that you are talking about the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI). If it were anything other than them, I'd suggest a suit for defamation of character and/or preventing you from earning a living by not issuing a license. With the way things are going in governments today, I've become quite cynical. My guess is that those TBI folks know they have no basis for their claim, other than missing reports. That means for the right price you could buy a license. Of course you would need to know the right lawyer in order to contact the right person, plus having that license would have to be worth the effort. Then again, you already put A LOT of effort into it. Obviously the lawyer who gave you advice doesn't want to fight the system. He's probably right in saying life could get worse if he doesn't succeed. Nonetheless, I suspect if you found the right mouthpiece you can get a settlement in your favor.

It also seems odd that MO would only keep records for 12 months. Perhaps they don't have computers. :shrug:
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

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Yes TBI is TN Bureau of Investigation.

Although this is not what my fight with them is currently about, but before I moved down here, I submitted all of my trades licenses, and they said no problem we will reciprocate on all of them. After I moved down here, they wouldn't honor any of them. I was 56 years old then, and I would be 74 years old by the time I earned them all back. Their loss, I just retired.
I often wonder if the reason they refused to honor my trades licenses has to do with the same issue that popped up now.

As far as Missouri goes, if no charges were ever made, which naturally means there was no trial or conviction. They expunge those useless records.
I think the problem started when they did move into computerization and old records were scanned into the system by the individual police departments.

I've purchased various rifles and handguns over the years, but sold them all before I moved south.
Went to buy a little .22 target pistol I fell in love with, since the frau and I were going to an indoor shooting range on occasion. She is licensed to conceal carry and wanted to practice which is how we ended up going to the range.
And that's when the trouble with TBI started. I was turned down a permit to buy from a licensed gun dealer.
No biggie really, except I really wanted that particular target pistol.
We happened to be back in St. Loo to visit family, and I stopped in a gun shop there and they ran a check on me, no problems at all popped up, so I picked up small .22 target pistol there.
Later, down here, at a gun show, I picked up another semi-auto, from a reseller who didn't need to do background checks. Only the licensed dealers there need to. However, we learned a few things the hard way. As long as the frau shows her concealed carry permit, she can buy anything without an additional check.

The thing is, there is no record of me ever being charged with something even close to a felony.
I've never been to trial, nor have I been convicted for anything. This is one reason why no records exist.
Other than one 50 year old paper fingerprint card where the reason box for taking the prints says burglary.
Ironically, their system also has my fingerprints showing my black (top) level security clearance from 1967 to work on NASA projects, a job not open to felons at all.
But to TBI, unless I myself can prove I'm not a felon, they consider me so. How do you prove you're not something?
Other than getting the letters from each of the counties showing I have no charges for anything against me, which TBI apparently has ignored.
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

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Maybe I'm missing something, but the solution to the TBI problem seems obvious. Somebody somewhere at the TBI office knows exactly why you have been turned down. They have some source of information that is being used against you. Would it be possible to determine what that source is and go to the source directly for a letter explaining the situation? If it's that fingerprint file with "burgulary" stamped on it, is it not possible to go to the people who generated the file and explain your situation? In Illinois it would be possible to take a case such as yours to the local state representative's office and get it resolved that way - assuming (again) you truly are not felonious. Then, too, the TN politicians might not be as sweet and lovable as those in Illinois. LOL

There is a lot of talk about gun laws, and you bring up some of the reasons why I think they may need to be reworked just a little bit. There is no consistency. My understanding is that I, or my 14 year old kid, could go to the state of NC and buy a semi-automatic gun with no questions asked. I'm not sure that can be done through legitimate dealers, but nobody in NC buys guns from gun stores anyway. I guess all that is convenient and not illegal, not to mention being covered by our constitution. It just seems not right that I personally would need a background check here in MO but only need the cash to buy a gun in NC.
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

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That's what I did do Yogi! It took months of digging to find out what data they had on me, to find it was just a single item, an electronic copy of the fingerprint card.
Tracking down which police department entered it into the state of Missouri system is totally impossible. They were not even sure which county it passed through on the way to the state level.
This is why I went to the most likely county first to get a letter, and when TBI didn't accept it, I went to each surrounding county of the first.
When I talked to TBI several times, they couldn't understand why I couldn't remember when or where this took place. Such an event should have been so traumatic I would never forget it, much less where. But at the time they questioned me, I had no idea why they thought I was a felon.
I checked with my old home town police department first, then with a police department who came to my work to arrest me over a minor incident, but they never took my fingerprints. Both of these police departments did some checking for me and could not find anything, other than the reason they came to work to arrest me, and that was from a warrant issued by my home town police over a traffic ticket I got only the day before. Yeah, sounded strange to me too!
My home town police picked me up at the police station in the town where I was working and brought me home, they never took my fingerprints either, just tossed me in a cell for about an hour until our family attorney showed up and got me out.
This is when I finally learned why they came to arrest me.
After I got the ticket, and was told I could leave, the cop who wrote the ticket said I threw gravel all over his car as I sped out when I left. Then he said he blew a radiator hose while chasing me down the highway. On a highway I was not even on. I took the attorney to the location where the cop wrote me the ticket, it was a concrete road with a blacktop shoulder, no gravel in sight anywhere, plus the highway was in the opposite direction of where I was headed after I got the ticket. When we went to court it was tossed out. The cop made a mistake about which person he wrote a ticket too, who was stopped on a gravel shoulder.
I remembered all of that, but TBI said that's not what it was about. Eventually I found out about the fingerprint card.
And this is when the conversations mentioned earlier above began to take place.
I submitted the letters from the main county, and each surrounding county to TBI, and waited, and waited, and waited.
I finally gave up worrying about anymore. I have my target pistol and another, plus my wife has several larger pistols she carries, not all at once, hi hi. She likes her snub nose 357 the best, but has others which are larger. Me, I've got my little 22's and that's enough for me.
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

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Wow. That's a classic needle in a haystack story. The only problem is that there is no haystack for you to search for a needle. The great state of MO cleaned house and people like you who need missing records are out of luck. Again, my only reaction to all that would be to seek political help. Perhaps that works better in Illinois than in Tennessee, not that it matters since you got what you wanted in the end.

The only gun I ever fired was a .22 rifle. My best friend bought one after he came home from military service and we would go target shooting at a local range. It was a great way to waste some time on an otherwise boring Sunday afternoon. It was fun, and I could have qualified to own one, but I never was that impressed. At the time I was looking for hobbies that didn't cost a lot to pursue. The cost of the rifle was out of my range to begin with, and then the ammo was a never ending expense. It's kind of like buying ink for printers these days. :grin:

Many of the gun owning people I talk to justify their gun as a deterrence of would be attackers. There might be an element of truth to that, but generally attacks are sudden and without warning. Getting your deterrence in hand most likely isn't possible in many cases. Then, too, I grew up in Chicago. It was not as deadly back then as it is now but there were neighborhoods you knew to avoid. That didn't stop us guys from driving through them to see why we should not be there. We only got shot at once and were quite a distance away after our drive by. That just reinforced my opinion that defensive gun owners rarely have the timing available to them to be effective. In other words, it's pointless to own a gun for protection. That is, it's pointless to me. I've also heard a few stories where the bad guys were surprised by the fact their intended victims were armed. Home invasions are a good example of that. Target shooting and hunting are good reasons to have a gun. Both still seem too expensive to me.
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

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They way the laws are currently written, about the only place you can defend yourself is inside your own home, and then only if threatened with deadly force.
Before I moved south, and this is going back over 25 year ago too, I stopped four different robberies back home.
Two of those were at Linda's Variety Store, before it became Norge Village Laundromat.
One was at Stahl's Market, and one at O'Hara Drugs.
If the perps decided to run, there would have been nothing I could do about it. Luckily, they knew I wasn't a cop so just froze knowing I might shoot them. Ironically, I only had a little 2 barrel derringer back then that used 22 shorts. A pellet gun had more power and accuracy, hi hi. Des Peres News and Views gave me a line about the Stahl's Market robbery, but merely said I blocked the robber from leaving the store until police arrived.

My office is in my detached garage, and if I'm reading the law correctly, I can't do much about someone who might break into the garage or into my office, even if I'm in here, unless I'm threatened with deadly force. Although I own my garage and it is on my property, it is not considered my domicile. No matter, I keep a gun ready to grab anyhow. It could be a deterrent to someone breaking in my door with me in here.
My bug killer guy comes by once every three months, he always calls me when he gets here and says he will be going around my garage too, if I'm in there, it's only him, not to worry, hi hi.
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

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I had some friends in England where gun ownership was limited to sportsmen, and the police came by unannounced from time to time to be sure your weapons were secure and locked up as prescribed by law. Only the SWAT teams there have guns. The regular patrol cops do not. We can argue statistics, but there are notably less killings from gunshots in England when compared to the United States. I don't know why that would be the case, but it kind of blows a hole in any theories about deterrence.

The attitude about guns here in America seems to have its roots in our history. When the country was first settled guns were as common as leather boots. Nobody thought twice about it even in the days of the Wild Wild West. And, of course, it's even mentioned in our constitution. The folks in Europe come from a different historical background where guns were not allowed or necessary. The monarchs took care of all the security issues for the peasants. Then again, there were a lot more hangings back there. Which reminds me, I read recently where lynching is now a federal crime. :rolleyes:
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

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A LITTLE GUN HISTORY

In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.

China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million educated people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century because of gun control: 56 million.

It has now been 12 months since gun owners in Australia were forced by new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by their own Government, a program costing Australia taxpayers more than $500 million dollars. The first year results are now in:

List of 7 items:

Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2 percent.

Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6 percent.

Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)!

In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300 percent. Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the criminals did not, and criminals still possess their guns!

While figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in armed robbery with firearms, this has changed drastically upward in the past 12 months, since criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is unarmed.

There has also been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the ELDERLY. Australian politicians are at a loss to explain how public safety has decreased, after such monumental effort, and expense was expended in successfully ridding Australian society of guns. The Australian experience and the other historical facts above prove it.

You won’t see this data on the US evening news, or hear politicians disseminating this information…. The NY Sullivan Act intended to tip the advantage toward Irish criminals, away from Italian criminals, and far away from the lawful.

Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes, gun-control laws adversely affect only the law-abiding citizens.

Take note my fellow Americans, before it’s too late!

The next time someone talks in favor of gun control, please remind them of this history lesson.

With guns, we are ‘citizens’. Without them, we are ‘subjects’.

During WWII the Japanese decided not to invade America because they knew most Americans were ARMED!

***

Naturally crimes with guns are higher in the US than the UK because we do have guns.
However, the overall crime rate for the UK is much higher than the US.
Total Crimes per 1000 population UK 109.97 - US 41.29
Worldwide, the UK ranks 4th in all crimes, and the US is 22nd.
4 major US cities, all run by Democrats, is responsible for 95% of the crimes in our country.
If we remove those 4 cities from the worldwide count, we drop almost to the bottom of the list.
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

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The "historic" numbers you quote are pretty interesting. They would be more interesting if there were sources for the numbers, but that's almost irrelevant. The millions of people of the USSR, Turkey, Germany, China, et. al., were exterminated by their own governments for political reasons that gun ownership could not prevent. Possibly the kill rate would have slowed some, which I doubt, but the extermination was not caused by one-on-one citizens against each other. It is difficult for me to imagine how even an assault weapon owner would fend off a tank or stop a government from committing genocide. :rolleyes:

That history lesson sounds like it came right out of the pages of the NRA users manual which would be fine if it was based on fact and not designed to appeal to emotions (propaganda). If I were to meet the publishers of the data you quoted, I would ask them to review this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_m ... ted_States I would then like to hear their justification for gun owners mass murdering so many innocent people. I'm sure they would begin by reminding me that guns don't kill people; people kill people. Well, there is no list of mass murders involving people (without guns) killing other people. Or, at least I couldn't find one.
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

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My source of information comes from several reliable sources, like GunFacts.info, JustFacts.com, Politifact.com, FactCheck.org, etc.
I will often check a statement I find to see if it is a Myth or a Fact. Often they are a mixture of both which renders them as a Myth.
The whole purpose of our 2nd Amendment is for the citizenry to be capable of defending itself against tyranny by our own government. Our forefathers just released themselves from British bondage, so knew full well what could happen when a government turns against its own people.
But over 90% of the purpose of the 2nd Amendment has been usurped by our government.
Civilians no longer have an equivalent fire power to the government, who can destroy our entire civilization at the push of a button, and sadly, and as evidenced currently, they won't hesitate to do so to get their way.
Our government is hell bent on turning honest citizens into criminals with the stroke of a pen so they can be punished or killed. Very few of our appointed or elected officials keep their oath of office to defend our constitution, in fact, the majority of those elected are against our constitution and want it abolished so they can gain complete control. And sadly, they've conned enough people to vote in criminals as their leaders.
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

Post by yogi »

You touch upon a few sensitive points in your last commenty. I don't think our forefathers imagined private citizens owning assault weapons and attacking school children, which is why they didn't suggest banning it. All I can say about the 2nd amendment is that it provides for the maintenance of a militia. It doesn't get down to the nitty gritty details, as is the case with most of the constitution. It's written pretty much as a guideline and not an instruction manual. The Supreme Court is designed to interpret those guidelines.

The election of Donald Trump as president is a marvelous example of how your observations can turn into a reality. I can't say how brilliant or how stupid the man is, but I do know he wrote about the failures he sees in democracy. Many of the democratic institutions are corrupt. His preference is for an authoritarian government, which he would head of course. The way to get there is through creating dissension, depleting the treasury, abolishing the free press, and corrupting the judicial system. Some of the pundits say the Russians and their cyber war tactics are using Trump as their tool to destroy our democracy. They don't really care what happens next. All the Russian regime is aiming for is failure of our government so that they would be in a position of power to dominate world affairs.

There is ample evidence that money laundering has made not only Donald Trump vulnerable, but most of the Republican leadership as well. Among other sources these corrupt politicians are being funded by the NRA, yes, the National Rifle Association. The NRA is being funded by Russian oligarchs. It doesn't take much analysis to see what is going on. And, I don't want to sound overly political because it's not only Republicans who are beholden to the Russian Mafia. Democrats, Progressives, and Independents seem to be falling in line as well. Your guess is as good as mine. I don't know if democracy in this country will survive. I do know we are at a critical juncture.
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Kellemora
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Re: Fight Back the Phishers

Post by Kellemora »

Ahem Yogi - The United States is a Republic, not a Democracy.
Most of the individual states operate as a Democracy, which is fine.
But we are a Republic for a very specific reason.
To keep four or five cities from controlling the entire country comprised of tens of thousands of cities.
Our forefathers knew what they were doing!
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