Voting in New Jersey

 Well some whiz kid in Trenton came up with the new voting machines. Let me take you through the process:

1.First you meet some little old lady who is hard of hearing. She tries to get your name and finally she gets the computer scree you have to sign in on. She lost the sign in pen. She finds another sign in pen. You then have to sign a paper receipt as well. Then she gives you a "receipt" along with a blank long piece of paper you take to the ballot box.

2. Inside you insert the long sheet of paper. Then you get a scree that you have to assume you touch it somewhere to start.

3. Up comes the ballot. Going to enter my choices it automatically fills in the column for the other side. Now I have to delete them one by one and start over. Finally I find the place on the screen that says to enter the votes.

4. But wait, I must review my printed ballot now behind some long plastic screen in tiny letters. As far as I know it could have included Vladimir Putin! The clock is ticking. The lines get longer. I want out of this techno hell!

5. Finally check the entries, looks kind of OK, then pus the button on the screen to escape. Ooops, I guess I forgot something, I had to click on another key.

6. So out I come but I see my wife even worse. Her system crashed and two staff are trying to reboot this mess.

 In the old day you just clicked a knob and pushed enter. Now, some moronic software designer came up with this mess. And by the way, in my opinion, in New Jersey the organizations dominate voters.

Pity.

Kipling's Insight: Worth Considering

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

 

If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;

If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

 

A Graveyard in NH in the Fall

 

Failing Intelligence

 The current Administration seems to have more leaks than the Titanic. The leaks often reveal highly classified information. The Jerusalem Post seems to be one of the few outlets reporting the most recent fiasco. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, once called Defense Mapping Agency, prepared a report, highly classified detailing Israel's military assets and where they are. Great if you are Hammas, Iran et al. Then it got leaked. 

As the JP notes:

 The United States is investigating the leak of a pair of highly classified intelligence documents describing Israel’s preparations for a retaliatory strike on Iran, House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday. “The leak is very concerning,” said Johnson who is a Republican from Louisiana. The documents appear to have been prepared by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, describing US interpretations of Israeli Air Force and Navy planning based on satellite imagery from October 15-16. They began circulating last week on the Telegram messaging app. Israel has been planning a response to a ballistic missile barrage carried out by Iran on October 1, its second direct attack on Israel in six months. Israel has intensified its offensive in Gaza and Lebanon, days after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

 No wonder no one trusts Washington. These are targeting data. Targeting all of Israels military assets. Will anyone be found? Not with the current folks down there. Who is the real adversary. These reports, when I dealt with the DMA, were highly classified and tracked. Releasing one meant being able by markings to determine the source. However today with the privileged youth, anyone can do anything. Moreover, this news item was never in the sacred NY Times. 

The famous statement, "We are the Government and we are here to help you" has new meaning with the new brands of Government workers! You don't win a war with these people.

Reliable Service?

 As the NY Times noted today after a deadly NJT crash:

New Jersey Transit has been plagued with infrastructure issues for years, but especially struggled this spring and summer to provide reliable service to customers. A spate of failures caused delays during morning and evening commutes in May and June.

 I took the train in today and what was to be a 52 min ride ended up being 93 minutes. At least we got there. But there was the collapsing Penn Station, trash, construction, no exits, crowded stairways and the mess goes on. NJT could not meet a schedule if their lives depended upon it, and it seems it does. This is the classic Government employee syndrome play local. Add Amtrak on top and you have New York City becomes one of the worst cities in the world! Trash, scaffolds lasting 40+ years, threatening motor bikes and unreliable transportation. This does not include crime and corruption. And no one cares!

Curtains and Blinds

 I can determine the genetic makeup of a wide variety of cancers, I can write the greatest set of equations, I can hybridize the most beautiful daylilies but damned if I can remove blinds! Each blind has a different mechanism to place it on the wall, and the mechanism is hidden in some weird place. Underneath, at the end, by a screw, a flip lever, etc. The designers must have an abject hatred for the poor folks trying to hang them or clean them. Design principles are no longer enshrined in any fashion, it is a free range set of viscous designed frustrating the consumer with delight!