The world needs a giant wake-up call. I think this is it.

Everyone in the world needs to read this article. I posted this on my Facebook page today, and some of my friends commented and said they were horrified by it. I am as well.

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-18/china-social-credit-a-model-citizen-in-a-digital-dictatorship/10200278?pfmredir=sm&sf197878142=1&smid=Page%3A+ABC+Australia-Facebook_Organic&WT.tsrc=Facebook_Organic

We need to wake up fast to what is really going on around us. Look up from your cell phones and see what is happening. China is just the start of this insanity. If you don't think it can happen in your own country, think again. We only need the right combination of circumstances for it to take hold. This is scary stuff, people. We need to fight this kind of digital control with every ounce of our beings. Otherwise, there will be no humanity left after these types of governments and dictators gain complete control of us. I don't want this kind of society for the future, and I will fight against it in any way possible. Please share this article; unfortunately, it is not fake news. I checked around online, and found other articles dealing with this story:

https://mindmatters.today/2018/09/digital-dictatorship/

https://www.realclearscience.com/2018/09/20/china_is_building_a_digital_dictatorship_282883.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eViswN602_k

I do understand why some people want to go off the grid and live without internet, without an online presence. The problem is that almost all the things we do nowadays are connected in some way, shape, or form to internet--banking, stock trading, shopping, social media, smartphones, travel, careers, reading, music, and so on. Our lives may not be 'tracked' in the same way as they will be in China by 2020, but our digital lives are alive and thriving online as we speak. It will not surprise me if major companies dabbling in AI will find a way to tie all our digital information together and begin to exert control over us. Most of that type of control will have to do with marketing--pressuring us to buy this or that by defining our needs for us. But if the government begins to do that, it will be the end of freedom as we know and take for granted--the end of being able to think, speak and write freely. It will not be a world that I will want to live in.



 

Check out Bill Bramhall's political cartoons for September

Another online item to check out--this time it's the totally spot on political cartoons courtesy of Bramhall. You'll find them in the New York Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/nydn-bramhall-cartoons-for-september-2018-20180908-photogallery.html

What to say about these cartoons, except that they're great. If you need to know what's going on in the world of Trump, you'll find out by reading these cartoons. He skewers Trump. Thanks for telling it like it is!

Check out Tappan Zee Bridge@oldtzb on Twitter

If you check out one thing today online, check out this Twitter account--Tappan Zee Bridge@oldtzb:  https://twitter.com/oldtzb

If the old Tappan Zee Bridge could speak, I am certain that this is what it would be saying. Kudos to the person behind this account. I love it. The first thing you read when you access the account is the following (just to give you an idea of the intelligent sense of humor that defines the entire account):

Tappan Zee Bridge@oldtzb
"Bridging since 1955. Living like there's no 2019".

Thank you for giving a voice to the feelings we all have about the old bridge now that the new bridge is up and 'bridging'. For those of us who are nearly the same age as the old bridge, it's a wonderful way to deal with saying goodbye to the bridge in a humorous, intelligent and pointed way. Many of the tweets are just spot on.

Here is a recent newspaper article talking about this Twitter account:  https://eu.lohud.com/story/news/local/rockland/2018/09/21/tappan-zee-bridge-silent-all-these-years-speaks-out-twitter/1366539002/

Please, keep on tweeting. Sincerely, a loyal fan. 

A dog rescued by a kind person

If this video doesn't break your heart, I don't know what will. Even though this poor dog was rescued, it breaks my heart to know that someone or some family left him/her behind when evacuating their home due to hurricane Florence. If you have a pet, it is part of your family, and you should take your pet with you in situations like this. Your pets love you and trust you to do the right thing; how can you live with yourself if you don't make the effort to take them with you when you evacuate?

I thought about this story for hours after I saw the video. It made me cry, and that's a good thing, because I haven't been able to cry much lately. I think I've become too inured to the crazy, cold, inhumane and unjust world we live in. I need to see more positive stories; I need to know that there are still good people in the world. Because there are. All the media ever tells us about are all the bad people and situations in the world.

https://www.facebook.com/CBSNewYork/videos/263733037814957/

A good song by Dennis Lloyd--Nevermind