Is The Average Variation Of Clouds CO2?

The past couple of weeks have been interesting, here. A few years back, we returned to the old cooler weather patterns of prior to the mid-70s PDO flip. Not really a surprise as the PDO has flipped back to that state.

Now for about 30 years it has been hot summers here. June was pretty much hot and miserable (compared to the cool phase). Then this summer we had a largely cool and cloudy June, again, like in the prior PDO phase. We did get a couple of sporadic hot days (near / at 100 F) and then cool returned. The month isn’t over yet, but here’s a graph of temperatures to date:

KSJC San Jose California Airport June 2017 partial month

Now the one big thing I can add to the graph itself is simple. I watched the sky during that time, closely. The cool days were cloudy to overcast. The hot days were clear blue sky. Temperature directly matched to degree of clouds. Cloudy days are cool. Clear days are hot.

During these three weeks of data, there is nearly zero change of any of the Milankovitch parameters. Insolation is a functional constant to a large number of decimal places. Our latitude and longitude and distance to water do not change. All manner of variables in this complex soup are held constant by the nature of their 1000s of year rate of change. On the scale of a couple of weeks, geologic time scale events ARE constants.

Even the slow rise of CO2 on a decadal scale is a constant and the seasonal change similarly near zero. CO2 is also a functional constant.

NONE of these temperature changes can be attributed to anything solar, celestial, gas composition changes, volcanic, etc. etc. What changed was the clouds, as observed. Now the cloud changes could also indicate some change of the winds and air mass. Barometric pressure changes indicate something moved through the area. We get cyclonic systems formed out in the deep Pacific that drift ashore here. Usually full of rain in winter, but by summer they are just remnant winds, all the precipitation wrung out of them. Particularly interesting to me is that as pressure dropped, the clouds cleared and it got hotter. This is NOT your east coast or mid-west low pressure storm system. Just a bit of clear dry air. I didn’t see any cyclonic systems on the weather report, so this is likely due to hot air inland rising and pulling on our area, sucking down the pressure some. An interesting “Dig Here!” would be to get regional wind maps for the area and see what lows and highs existed. But that’s just looking at the thing that caused the change of clouds, not the change of temperature. Winds were very low and have a daily cycle. It’s solar heat causing an afternoon breeze, then dying down at night.

What matters here is just the temperature graph. During the first week it “tick-tocks” back and forth between the daily “norms”. Average cloud. Average temperatures. A nearly symmetrical rise and fall. The range is about 15 F. That happens 2 x in 24 hours, so about a degree F / hour. Tell me again WHY I’m supposed to care about a 0.01 F variance in a thing with a daily 15 F range? Any “Anthropogenic Warming” is irrelevant to the daily cycle.

Then we look over at the overcast days around the 8th to 12th. The highs are significantly depressed. The lows are near the “norms”, though. A bit of cloud can knock 10 degrees F off the highs. So to detect a 0.01 degree effect we must know cloud density to 1/1000 of the norm. Clearly, since we have nearly zero cloud data, even minor changes of cloud can swamp entirely anything being attributed to CO2. We have a giant cloud error band swamping the available data.

On about the 16th, the clouds had gone back to the normal puffy bits, then completely vanished. Clear sky and a lower humidity. The sun was hot upon the skin and the earth. Temperatures rise to have the lows about 20 F above the norms and the highs about the same. So just having a “clear day” can jump temperatures 20 degrees F, or swing them about 30 F from an overcast day. Hmmm…

At the right edge, the daily “puffy clouds” return, the air is a bit more humid, and the temperatures are again moderated. Back to the cool side. Cool air off the cold Pacific. We have a current come down from Alaska just off shore. About 45 F water. That air slowly drifts inland and heats as it heads to Nevada and points beyond. In the short run, the Pacific is a constant temperature, it changes over years by a tiny bit (both ways…). In the couple of weeks time frame, we have a constant source of cool air and temperatures depend on solar heating it, clouds modulating that.

So where is CO2 in all this? Nowhere to be found. It didn’t change the clouds. It didn’t change the sun. It didn’t change the light on the ground. It didn’t change anything. So IF we have a 20 degrees F to 30 degrees F change of temperatures from clouds, and then ignore changes in clouds, how can we say ANYTHING about CO2? If we average all those daily temperatures for this month, it tells us about clouds, not about CO2.

So if we average temperature changes over the State, the Continent, or even the Globe, isn’t that really just informing us about changes of CLOUDS, not changes of CO2? We have an existence proof of one very very clear case where temperature is being entirely driven by cloud changes. Given that, an average of such changes, globally, can NOT be attributed to something else that didn’t change. Then, given such a daily Average Of Global Temperatures is driven by clouds, how can one assert that changes over years, of a fraction of the daily changes of temperature, can not also be entirely explained by changes of cloud cover (that is poorly tracked at all, and completely ignored in vast areas of the planet)? Hmmm?

What this simple observation shows is that temperatures are strongly controlled by cloud cover in any given location. In a prior posting I found that long term averages have a strong latitude component (the “folk wisdom” that it’s a few degrees colder as you move north from L.A. to San Francisco to Portland to Seattle) and distance from water (Phoenix is hotter than Los Angeles). But those geographic things do not change, so can not be part of any change of recorded temperature trends. Then there is a precipitation component that can change; but precipitation depends on clouds…

What does change is amount of cloud and precipitation. It is water and clouds that account for changes, not any hypothetical “back radiation” that is lost in the minor decimal places of the error bands of cloud and precipitation measurements.

It really IS that simple: Cloud levels and precipitation are shown to control temperature ranges in the short run, so averages of them over long runs will also be dominant. Yet we do NOT have good data for changes of clouds or precipitation over time, and they are treated as a parameter in climate models, or as a dependent variable on CO2, so the models are quite useless for enlightenment on cloud and precipitation.

Until cloud and precipitation data are adequate AND accounted for properly AND the error bands are low enough to cover 1/10 degree increments, we can’t say there is ANY effect from CO2 on temperature. It is at most a conjecture, and not a very good one. You can not ignore the major driver of changes of temperatures (as shown in the above graph) and then attribute temperature changes to something else by supposition.

There is no reason to presume cloud and precipitation are constant over decade to century scales. We have geologic history saying deserts become tropical rain forests and that grasslands become deserts. That the Monsoon Band can wobble 400 miles over time. We KNOW cloud and precipitation does change, so assuming it is not changing (and so, not the cause of temperature changes) would be, and is, idiotic.

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Dear God I Hope He’s Wrong – But “Hope Is Not A Strategy”

I live in a flood of links and pointers. I drown in it. I’m not complaining, mind you, it is my “natural element”. However, this means I’ll often open a tab, read the first few lines, think “Gee, that might be interesting” and leave it open, and then a month or three passes. When I find I just MUST close some tabs, a closer look and pruning happens. Much “interesting in theory” hits the delete can when read in reality. But some things are more engaging. Then, far to often, the back-pointer to where that link came from is lost. Such is the case for this article. I think, maybe, it was in “tips” but who knows. (really, who, if you know, speak up…)

The basic notion of the article is that The Left (ill defined as it is) is livid over Trump, wants to foment a Palace Coup of sorts, and is willing to use violence and corruption (especially of government, media, schools, and more) to get it. Unfortunately, the “facts on the ground” support that notion. There is a very clear orchestrated Color Revolution attempt underway. IMHO it isn’t making enough headway, but if I’ve learned anything it is that the Globalist (Soros funded especially) Agenda simply Does Not Stop. It will not stop until eradicated. I’ve seen way too many times that the pro-liberty pro-individualism camp makes a win, then stops; and then it gets reversed by an Un-Dead Left making another mindless attack.

So reading / watching news, it is very clear that is what IS happening. An attempted Color Revolution. Pushing to regain power for The Left at any cost and with “morality need not apply”.

Then there is the Antifa violent attacks on anyone who opens their mouth to say “Maybe Trump has a point”. The college campuses enforcing conformance to Left Doctrine and abolishing open dialog, shutting down “all things Right”. The Media that dutifully reports the same clearly orchestrated Left Wing Talking Points each and every day. Also, I live (for now…) in Kalifornia and can assure you it is as bad as the article says. (Most recently a gun ban law was passed. Anything over 10 rounds sends you to the pokey. NO Exceptions unless you are An Enforcer… Oh, and you MUST register several classes of transactions, such as exchanging “Ammunition” – that is now defined to include EMPTY magazines and empty sheet metal clips. Fees from this registry to be used to fund fighting legal challenges to the law. I.e. forcing the folks oppressed to pay for defending the oppression.)

Then this article articulates the thing I’d hinted at when I said “They don’t want to see what comes next” (in the context of a “take down” of Trump on bogus charges; like the whole Russia Thing).

There are a few nits I can harvest on minor points. Things like his “Twitter Poll” results. Hey, it is polling your own followers. Statistically not usable for a whole population metric. Yet it does indicate what “folks of his sort” are thinking. What he, and they, are thinking is that The Left is busy being evil and the end game is violence, so prep for it. (Near as I can read between his lines).

Dear God I hope he is wrong. “But hope is not a strategy – E.M.Smith” and I can’t see where he is clearly wrong. At most, a bit over-hyped.

So what is this article?

https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2017/02/23/draft-n2289256

Straightforward From Here To The Left’s Fascist, Maybe Violent, Endgame
Kurt Schlichter

Posted: Feb 23, 2017 12:01 AM

The Democrat Party, its Media serfs, and Social Justice Incorporated are all outraged because we uppity normals are again presuming to rule ourselves, and their agony is delightful. Less delightful is how, in the process of trying to claw their way back into power, they are incinerating the norms and rules that preserve our political order. That stuff Hillary babbled about honoring the legitimacy of elections? Yeah, no. There’s an invisible asterisk only liberals can see that explains that the norms and rules are void when liberals lose.

So, where does this crisis end?

These folks have succeeded in Europe, Australia, and almost in the UK (who are trying to “slip the noose” but busy being rounded up again…); so don’t expect them to think the USA is not subject do the same “take down”.

We know where the leftists want it to end, with us silenced and subservient forever, toiling to pay taxes for them to redistribute to their clients as they pick at, poke at and torment us. You look at the things Trump stands for and all of them are about lifting the yoke off of us – cutting taxes, slashing regulations, guaranteeing the Second Amendment, protecting our religious liberty, and safeguarding us from terrorists and illegals. But everything liberals want, everything Hillary ran on, is about clamping the yoke ever tighter around our necks – raising taxes, issuing more regulations, disarming us, limiting our religious freedom, and putting us at risk from terrorists and alien criminals. The whole leftist platform is about putting us down and keeping us down.

Think what they will do if they take power again.

Skipping a big, but good, chunk…

Do you think Hillary Clinton or whatever aspiring Hugo Chavez they offer up next is going to protect us from violent leftist thugs, or encourage them? Remember how Obama weaponized agencies like the IRS against conservatives? Multiply that by a thousand. Think about the “hate speech” rules used to silence conservatives on campus; imagine them as federal law. That’s coming, just like in Europe – it’s now a crime in France to speak out against abortion. Do you imagine leftists don’t dream of doing that? No, once back in power they will ensure we will never be able to challenge their rule. One man (or woman or other), one vote, one more time, then never again.

He lays out a laundry list of various things The Left has done to corrupt and grab power, and asks how folks will take that, here.

I recently polled people on Twitter about what they thought of the chances of serious violence in the coming four years, and the results from 6,159 people are alarming. “Stop being a nut” got 10%; I was hoping it would get about 95%. “We’ll wise up” and find a way out of this crisis, got 13%. But “50/50 leftists may try violence” got a stunning 41%, while “It’s coming. Gear up” got a terrifying 36%.

His conclusion is that things could revert to the old peaceful dialog, but most likely won’t. Having lived in California through the transition from Reagan as Governor to Governor Moonbeam (J. Brown); unfortunately, I can assure you that a non-violent slow march into Left Dogma Prison is very much attainable. It has worked in Europe, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and so many more. It has worked in California and New York for sure, here. It is in “progress” and it is winning; with hardly any “resistance” from those who support traditional values.

For that reason I think his implicit expectation of armed resistance is not going to happen. Look at the takeover of 1/6 of the economy by The Feds and how it is now not even being fought by the Republicans. Not even window dressing it, but minor tune-ups is all they offer. Get rid of it by vote? Not even on the table. So WHO is going to be stopping that by “force of arms”? Not a single soul.

Now you only need to do a socialization take over of 1/6 of the economy 6 times and you are done. Yet that ignores that about 2/6 are already socialist enterprises in that they are The Government. By my count, that makes 1/2 the total economy, minimum, is already a Socialist Government Run Enterprise (even ignoring things like the GM Socialist avoidance of Bankruptcy or the 4 $Trillion balance sheet of The Federal Reserve Bank dominating real estate). All without anyone firing a shot (or even complaining effectively).

So I “get it” about his evident frustration. The USA is no longer a “Free Market Economy”, leaving that in W.W.II. It left “Mixed Economy” behind in the ’70s. It is now a full on Lange Type Socialism (or “3rd Way” socialism – AKA Fascism as originally defined by Mussolini). With Obamacare, we firmly crossed the line into dominantly Socialist as an economy. I’ve yet to see evidence of any nation recovering from that without passing through collapse first, and certainly not having a violent resistance prior to the complete economic collapse. Heck, even Venezuela is still limited to street riots as their Police and Military have not yet gotten hungry enough to swap sides.

So I see no possibility of his vision of an armed resistance happening. Just not what history shows as the path these things take. Violence by The Left to facilitate the entry? Sure. We already have that in Antifa and on campuses; and there is a history of it by The Left (which, BTW, includes the National Socialists of Germany and the Fascist 3rd Way Socialists of Italy)

I do hope he is wrong. Both about the end game, and about the process we are in inevitably leading to the conflict.

I just don’t see any evidence that his premise of the cause of conflict is wrong; only that his conclusion that the result is violence fails on too many folks being greedy and not enough being brave…

I do, dearly, hope that Trump can recover the America I knew a generation or two ago. I hope The Left can be presented some major “Fails” in places like BREXIT; the collapse of the EU, ascendancy of Russia in Eurasia (thanks to their Nationalism preventing collapse) as a bulwark against the Islamist Invasion; the loss of Venezuela (and perhaps with that the rest of South America realizing that playing with The Socialism Shiny Thing always ends this way…) I hope for all those things. I expect thin gruel…

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Thank You UPS – a DILF Moment, maybe…

So about 1973? or so I was working as an admissions clerk at a rural hospital. Paying my way through the UC system. I’d decided I didn’t like being dependent on my parents. I like to tell myself it was due to their modest means, but really it was so I didn’t have to take any “advice” from them. The old “my money my rules” thing. Except they had NEVER been judgmental at me and NEVER said anything close to that. Not “controlling” at all. Yet I wanted zero obligation. Just a “me and liberty” thing. Realize my parents were teenagers when they met during W.W.II and by the time I was in college, they had been through a World War, married, had a first kid, and for my Mum, moved to another continent. I figured I ought to be at least as capable of handling independence as them… Plus, Dad was sort of ‘semi-retired’ in that he ran a few rental houses he had bought, but in rural land, money was not in free supply… So I felt obligated to pull my own weight, plus some, maybe.

So I’d picked up a job that pretty much covered my costs. I still needed to work full boat “balls to the wall” in the summer at the peach cannery to make enough to get through the school year, but I was able to tell my folks “Thanks, but I don’t need you paying my bills now”. I think I saw a bit of pride in my Dad’s eyes, then. He had an Amish Mom, and the Amish find Pride Is A Sin, so showing a bit of pride was a pretty big deal, IMHO.

So that’s the “back story”. I’m in school, working pretty much as much as possible while carrying a full load at UC, and trying to make my own place in the world.

So I’m at the little ( 60 bed ) rural hospital a dozen miles from campus and I’m handling pretty much everything that is “office related” on weekends. That’s Admissions, radio to the local ambulance service, helping the occasional nurse need for a bit of beef to help “turn a patient” (Male Nurses were not common then, so a Big Guy – 100 kilos – to help was an advantage not to be wasted…. Even got pulled into the ER once as a Spanish / English translator – this was when translation wasn’t mandated and was more catch as catch can…)

So here I was, typing up 7 layer Real Carbon Copy admissions forms. Things where ANY typo required 7 layers of “white out” and a retype… Let’s just say my 52 WPM was closer to 25 when doing them… Well, anyone who types much knows that long fingernails either get PRECISELY placed outside the key, or you must file them back to avoid a very unpleasant nail bed insult. So opening the drawer I found where one of the other “office girls” had left a very nice emery board in the drawer. I decided I needed to shorten the nails.

Now picture this: A 100 kilo semi-buff guy leaning back in the chair “doing his nails”… and in comes the UPS Dialy Delivery. Remember, this is the ’70s… I have one leg crossed over the other, filing away and blowing off the dust… Through the wall of glass, I see the brown UPS shirt and a large package on the shoulder…

Now the fun starts.

She looks over at me and does a ‘double take’ while I’m noticing she is a she and do a double take. We both realize that we are “way out of gender role” for the era… Me “doing my nails” and her with a box on her shoulder. I need to put down my nail file, uncross my legs, and sign for the shipment. She needs to place the large box where I can get it and put in in the back room… We are BOTH grinning at each other and both very well aware we are in “inverse roles”. It was a bit magical for both of us, as in that era pretty much 99.99999% of UPS drivers were men and admissions clerks were women. Yeah, it was a ‘special moment’ for both of us as we recognized each other breaking stereotypes.

So that “magic moment” from the ’70s has stuck with me for decades, never ever approached for the special character of it.

Until today.

Fast Forward 40 Years

So the spouse had ordered 3 or 4 book cases about a year ago. I dutifully assembled each one as it arrived. I got “tired of this shit” and the last one to arrive stayed in the box for about a year…. Leaning against the wall. In my own defense, the formaldehyde from the pressed board was making me a bit ill on the first batch and I decided to just let it slowly de-gas in the carton… then, well, I didn’t want to deal with it.

So today I finally decided to “put it together”. Now the weather lately has been 90s F to 100 F and we have a tiny window A/C that the spouse does not to like to run as the vibrations give her headaches. Well, it is cooler today than yesterday and that’s cooler than 2 days ago. I have ice, quinine water, and gin. OK, that means I’m “good to go”… So I decide to assemble the Last Bookcase….

Now this is a bit indelicate, but I’m going to plead “cultural privilege”… I have a strong Celtic thread running through my self image, and the Celts often fought in the nude. It makes sense, you dissipate the most heat that way, and it was hot… It wasn’t kinky or anything I think…

So I’m assembling this bookcase “in the nude” with hammers and screwdrivers and such, at a bit before noon, so it isn’t exactly cool. I’ve got a bit of that “patina of sweat” on me and I’m about 1/2 way done. Now it’s been a few years since I regularly did Karate training, but I’m still fairly well muscled in the arms and shoulders, with only a bit of “love handles” at the waist. I’m a Smith, after all, and we tend to the strong shoulders, strong arms, shaped like 1500s body armour breast plate sort of look. And I’m hammering and doing my thing….

Across the street, out the office window, I see the UPS truck park in the shade…. Oh Damn. The spouse has been ordering all sorts of stuff for the impending “Daughter Wedding”… OK, I run to the bedroom and pull on some boxers. It ought to be FINE for the “UPS Guy”…

And I dash to the Front Door as the shadow of “Person with Package” falls on the lace curtains….

Then It Happens…

OK, I’m “good enough” and I throw open the front door and say “just put it inside on the tile”!

Now I’m looking at a “rather buff” Hispanic “20 something” or maybe early 30s. Dark shiny thick hair in a stereotypical bun as SHE places the large package in the hallway…. Her hair would be wavy or in curls once out of the tight large bun… She is a bit warm from the weather, and our eyes meet. She has “scanned me” and knows I’m here in the hallway in my underwear …

There are times when time stops. There are folks who have a great “people reader” and folks who have none. Sometimes they all collide.

So I have a great people reader. Some years back I finally understood how it works. “Micro expressions” are invisible to many folks. To me, they are blatant. I think this is due to a very fast visual processor. In any case, I see “thoughts” flicker over folks faces in near real time.

Now I’m going to describe something that elapsed in about 4 seconds. It will take minutes to “get it”. But such is life….

I suddenly realize the “UPS Guy” isn’t of the “male persuasion”. She takes my direction to “place it in the hallway” as I’d pulled the door open in front of her, and does, in fact, place a large box on the tile. I see her noticing that I’m not all flab and have some muscle definition while standing in the hallway in my “lingerie”… she sees me noticing that she is a she, and has her own “bit of sweat” glisten along with the “hair in a bun but can do locks and curls” and is a bit “buff” from running and schlepping packages of various weights all day… Yes, it is “Deja Vu All Over Again”…

I suddenly realize I’m the “House Wife” (or perhaps “House Husband” is more accurate) meeting the “Delivery Guy” at the door in my lingerie and an invite inside the door… She enjoys the moment…

Now I can’t say why.

Was it a momentary “flicker” of “Hey, I could boff this guy and he’s not all bad”? Was it “Hey, we’re in a role reversal… Sweet!”. Was it just “OMG I can NOW tell the guys over the post run break-room banter “Yeah, I had a lingerie moment. “I could have ‘done the guy’ but hey, I don’t want to punch below my weight”… and be one of the guys…

I have no idea.

All I know is was for a brief moment (no pun intended on ‘briefs’ OK?) we had that same “connection”. We both knew we were living a stereotype, but from the other side…

And no, I don’t expect anything to happen.

Did I mention the spouse signed up for Amazon Prime? And I could order lots of cheap things and have UPS deliver them “next day”… I might see my way clear to order a $5 thing-a-day until She comes back again…

Does anyone know if UPS accepts tips to drivers?…

Role Reversal, you say that like it is a Bad thing…

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HDCP & Paranoid Copy Protection Wires

I’ve come to really enjoy the ROKU device and service. Now mostly we just watch Netflix on it, and the LG has a Netflix app of it’s own, so for that TV it is kind of redundant. However, even there, it has a couple of benefits. First off, it is faster. The built in LG App takes enough resources that whatever passes as a brain in the “Smart” part of the LG “smart” TV can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. So, for example, if you re running the Netflix LG App, some of the buttons on the remote can no longer work. I’ve not catalogued exactly which, but things like changing the picture attributes and such ( i.e. changing volume works, but don’t try to get into or out of ‘sports mode’ video enhancement IIRC). So most of the time we use the Roku stick on the LG and ignore its “smarts”.

The ROKU is also a distinct gadget, so can travel with me to hotel rooms (provided they have fast WiFi…) and it can simply be unplugged from the TV to assure it isn’t doing anything. The Toshiba “dumb” TV with a Roku stick is preferable to the LG with Apps built in. (The sound on the Toshiba is also better. At higher volumes, the LG starts to have some “buzz” from the plastics vibrating. The Toshiba seems to have better Dolby decode as well.) So from a security point of view, dumb + stick beats “built in and can’t be sure it is off”. Were I having a ‘do over’ I’d get two Toshibas instead.

Now on the Roku there are so many channels it is a few weeks work to look at them all and decide, so I’ve not done that. That isn’t including the private channels that need a special password to see, either. (Yes, you can set up your own family TV station only shared with those you give the magic words to…) I’ve got a very very small subset selected ( 333 channels…) and I’ve at least done a couple of minute sample of each of them to verify they might have some interest. (i.e. don’t demand a ‘registration’ or want me to pay to view, and seem to have a theme that might interest me). Realize, too, that each of those “channels” can have subdirectories or subchannels, so things like Pluto have 100ish other stations, like RT and Newsy and NBC and…, lurking to explore further. I’ve still not looked at most of the 333 for longer than my initial selection minute.

Along the way, the ones I have looked at, are often what seems to be someone’s old VHS library uploaded. Many channels have the same selections of movies where the copyright has expired. So I need to prune that list down to a few that I like, too. Lots of old John Wayne Westerns repeat, for example. But while watching several of these “cheap and sleazy” providers, I’d noticed an odd “flash” of an image on the screen. WT?

Usually only one brief time, and a line of text I couldn’t read as I usually was looking elsewhere in the frame when it popped up. Eventually one channel was “bad enough” it popped about every 4 minutes. I decided to stare successively at where each word showed up and “get the message”. It’s a white text on a purplish field. It is an HDCP copy violation notice. “HDCP Unauthorized Content”

OK, so I’d thought maybe these folks had boosted a copy of their stuff and left in this to warn they were boosted, or maybe they didn’t realize.

I was wrong.

Looking into that message, I found it was caused when “your HDMI cable is too long”, among other things. But I didn’t have a cable. The Roku plugged directly into the TV…

A bit more digging, and I found that in order to thwart copy making, the HDMI standard includes a protocol for validating that the devices on each end are ‘approved’ and have signed up to not allow copies to be made. IF your “device” doesn’t compute the right magic cookie encryption key fast enough, you get a message saying Your Have Been A Bad Boy!!!… Now since the Roku must talk over the internet to get the ‘credentials’ of the supplier to compute the magic sauce, it’s a little slower than your Satellite Box at coming up with the key. For most sites, this isn’t an issue, but it looks like some of the cheaper ones are running on servers that just don’t answer as fast as a real service (like Netflix and Youtube and The CW) so you get that message flash, sometimes, on some of them. OK, I can live with that, I guess.

https://support.roku.com/article/208755468-i-see-a-purple-screen-that-says-hdcp-unauthorized-content-disabled-when-i-try-to-play-content-

What to do if you see a purple screen or an “HDCP Unauthorized” message
Background

A Roku® streaming player displays a purple screen as shown below with the message “HDCP unauthorized.”, or just a plain purple screen, if it detects that the TV or Audio/Video Receiver (AVR) does not support the proper content protection technology, called HDCP. HDCP is the standard the movie and TV industry requires for preventing copying of digital audio and video content over an HDMI® cable link. If your TV or AVR does not support HDCP and you try to play video, you may see one of the purple screens below. This issue may also be a result of other problems like a faulty HDMI cable or HDMI connector. This FAQ explains how to resolve the issue of seeing a purple screen when using your Roku player.

This explains what to do if it comes and stays, but they don’t seem to care about the ‘flicker’ on some channels where it shows and goes…

And, of course, there’s a wiki…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-bandwidth_Digital_Content_Protection

High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) is a form of digital copy protection developed by Intel Corporation[1] to prevent copying of digital audio and video content as it travels across connections. Types of connections include DisplayPort (DP), Digital Visual Interface (DVI), and High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), as well as less popular, or now defunct, protocols like Gigabit Video Interface (GVIF) and Unified Display Interface (UDI).

The system is meant to stop HDCP-encrypted content from being played on unauthorized devices or devices which have been modified to copy HDCP content. Before sending data, a transmitting device checks that the receiver is authorized to receive it. If so, the transmitter encrypts the data to prevent eavesdropping as it flows to the receiver.

In order to make a device that plays HDCP-enabled work, the manufacturer must obtain a license from Intel subsidiary Digital Content Protection LLC, pay an annual fee, and submit to various conditions. For example, the device cannot be designed to copy; it must “frustrate attempts to defeat the content protection requirements”; it must not transmit high definition protected video to non-HDCP receivers; and DVD-Audio works can be played only at CD-audio quality by non-HDCP digital audio outputs (analog audio outputs have no quality limits).

Oh, gee, security from Intel, the folks who brought your broken math (the “repentium” bug) and insecure coprocessors you can’t control. What could possibly go wrong…

Cryptanalysis researchers demonstrated flaws in HDCP as early as 2010. In September 2010, an HDCP master key that allows for the generation of valid device keys was released to the public, rendering the key revocation feature of HDCP useless. Intel has confirmed that the crack is real, and believes the master key was reverse engineered rather than leaked. In practical terms, the impact of the crack has been described as “the digital equivalent of pointing a video camera at the TV”, and of limited importance for consumers because the encryption of high-definition discs has been attacked directly, with the loss of interactive features like menus. Intel threatened to sue anyone producing an unlicensed device.

Gee, I’m sure suing can provide copy protection… NOT!

But wait, there’s more…

In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved HDCP as a “Digital Output Protection Technology” on August 4, 2004. The FCC’s Broadcast flag regulations, which were struck down by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, would have required DRM technologies on all digital outputs from HDTV signal demodulators. Congress is still considering legislation that would implement something similar to the Broadcast Flag. The HDCP standard is more restrictive than the FCC’s Digital Output Protection Technology requirement. HDCP bans compliant products from converting HDCP-restricted content to full-resolution analog form, presumably in an attempt to reduce the size of the analog hole.

On January 19, 2005, the European Information, Communications, and Consumer Electronics Technology Industry Associations (EICTA) announced that HDCP is a required component of the European “HD ready” label.

Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7 both use HDCP in computer graphics cards and monitors.

Well, yet another reason not to use Microsoft or Windows… Nothing like forcing a broken copy prevention overhead onto everything and then trying to debug it when things don’t work perfectly…

Then there’s the various ways it has been broken, oh, and it comes in “versions” so might it someday suffer an ‘upgrade’ that is NOT backward compatible with your present devices and require you to buy all new ones? Hmmm….

Circumvention

HDCP strippers remove HDCP information from the video signal in order to allow the data to flow freely to a non-HDCP display. It is currently unclear whether such devices would remain working if the HDCP licensing body issued key-revocation lists, which may be installed via new media (e.g. newer Blu-ray Discs) played-back by another device (e.g. a Blu-ray Disc player) connected to it.

Cryptanalysis

In 2001, Scott Crosby of Carnegie Mellon University wrote a paper with Ian Goldberg, Robert Johnson, Dawn Song, and David Wagner called “A Cryptanalysis of the High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection System”, and presented it at ACM-CCS8 DRM Workshop on November 5.

The authors concluded that HDCP’s linear key exchange is a fundamental weakness, and discussed ways to:

Eavesdrop on any data.
Clone any device with only its public key.
Avoid any blacklist on devices.
Create new device key vectors.
In aggregate, usurp the authority completely.

They also said the Blom’s scheme key swap could be broken by a so-called conspiracy attack: obtaining the keys of at least 40 devices and reconstructing the secret symmetrical master matrix that was used to compute them.

Around the same time, Niels Ferguson independently claimed to have broken the HDCP scheme, but he did not publish his research, citing legal concerns arising from the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

In November 2011 Professor Tim Güneysu of Ruhr-Universität Bochum revealed he had broken the HDCP 1.3 encryption standard.

Master key release

On September 14, 2010, Engadget reported the release of a possible genuine HDCP master key which can create device keys that can authenticate with other HDCP compliant devices without obtaining valid keys from The Digital Content Protection LLC. This master key would neutralize the key revocation feature of HDCP, because new keys can be created when old ones are revoked. Since the master key is known, it follows that an unlicensed HDCP decoding device could simply use the master key to dynamically generate new keys on the fly, making revocation impossible. It was not immediately clear who discovered the key or how they discovered it, though the discovery was announced via a Twitter update which linked to a Pastebin snippet containing the key and instructions on how to use it. Engadget said the attacker may have used the method proposed by Crosby in 2001 to retrieve the master key, although they cited a different researcher. On September 16, Intel confirmed that the code had been cracked. Intel has threatened legal action against anyone producing hardware to circumvent the HDCP, possibly under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

HDCP v2.2, v2.1 and v2.0 breach

On August 2012 version 2.1 was proved broken. The attack used the fact that the pairing process sends the Km key obfuscated with an XOR. That makes the encryptor (receiver) unaware of whether it encrypts or decrypts the key. Further, the input parameters for the XOR and the AES above it are fixed from the receiver side, meaning the transmitter can enforce repeating exactly the same operation. Such a setting allows an attacker to monitor the pairing protocol, repeat it with a small change and extract the Km key. The small change is to pick the “random” key to be the encrypted key from the previous flow. Now, the attacker runs the protocol and in its pairing message it gets E(E(Km)). Since E() is based on XOR it undoes itself, thus exposing the Km of the legitimate device.

V2.2 was released to fix that weakness by adding randomness provided by the receiver side. However the transmitter in V2.2 must not support receivers of V2.1 or V2.0 in order to avoid this attack. Hence a new erratum was released to redefine the field called “Type” to prevent backward compatibility with versions below 2.2. The “Type” flag should be requested by the content’s usage rules (i.e. via the DRM or CAS that opened the content).

In August 2015, version 2.2 was rumored to be broken. An episode of Netflix’s UHD version of series Breaking Bad was leaked to the Internet in UHD format; its metadata indicated it was an HDMI cap, meaning it was captured through HDMI interface that removed HDCP 2.2 protection.

On November 4, 2015, Chinese company LegendSky Tech Co., already known for their other HDCP rippers/splitters under the HDFury brand, released the HDFury Integral, a device that can remove HDCP 2.2 from HDCP-enabled UHD works. On December 31, 2015, Warner Bros and Digital Content Protection, LLC (DCP, the owners of HDCP) filed a lawsuit against LegendSky. Nevertheless, the lawsuit was ultimately dropped after LegendSky argued that the device did not “strip” HDCP content protection but rather downgraded it to an older version, a measure which is explicitly permitted in DCP’s licensing manual.

Problems

HDCP can cause problems for users who want to connect multiple screens to a device; for example, a bar with several televisions connected to one satellite receiver or when a user has a closed laptop and uses an external display as the only monitor. HDCP devices can create multiple keys, allowing each screen to operate, but the number varies from device to device; e.g., a Dish or Sky satellite receiver can generate 16 keys. The technology sometimes causes handshaking problems where devices cannot establish a connection, especially with older high-definition displays.

Edward Felten wrote “the main practical effect of HDCP has been to create one more way in which your electronics could fail to work properly with your TV,” and concluded in the aftermath of the master key fiasco that HDCP has been “less a security system than a tool for shaping the consumer electronics market.”

Additional issues arise when interactive media (i.e. video games) suffer from control latency, because it requires additional processing for encoding/decoding. Various everyday usage situation, such as live streaming or capture of game play, are also adversely affected.

There is also the problem that all Apple laptop products, presumably in order to reduce switching time, when confronted with an HDCP compliant device, automatically switch all output from the DVI / Mini DisplayPort / Thunderbolt connector port to HDCP compliant. This is a problem if the user wishes to record or use videoconferencing facilities further down the chain, because these are inherently forbidden by HDCP. This applies even if the output is not HDCP work, like a PowerPoint presentation.

Additionally all Android based devices and some later PC tablets encrypt all content at the output, regardless of whether the user is displaying simple presentation works such as a PowerPoint, or copyrighted works such as a DVD or downloaded movie. This causes issues for recording devices such as those found in all major university lecture rooms. Lecturer’s PowerPoint slides or other non-copyrighted works cannot be captured or displayed in the university lecture recordings.

Well, at least now we know why all those perfectly legal and desirable things to do are no longer working. It is all to “protect” us from having the same ability to make home recordings of shows as we had on our old VHS machines… One wonders if “The Sony Decision” could be used (since it found we had that ‘right’) to show this process is taking away our rights…

Sigh.

Yet Another Copy Protect scheme that doesn’t work and has been entirely compromised, but is still being forced on everyone despite that, and despite the fact that it breaks perfectly legal uses of YOUR stuff.

But at least now I know why those things won’t work, and why I get that “purple flash” sometimes in cheapo channels…

I wonder if there is a Linux based HDCP defeat…

FWIW, the more common approach seems to be a cheap “HDMI Splitter” where some of them “authenticate” on one of the lines but then opens output to both and may (or may not) strip the HDCP from the second port. Cheap, made in China (of course…) and available. For anyone who isn’t interested in trick ways to make their own keys and totally hose the “protection” at the software level.

So much stupid driven by so much greed causing so much broken to no benefit.

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Shooting of Republican Congressional Baseball Practice

Looks like the Hysterical Left has resorted to violence in the shooting today in Virginia

This is “rapidly evolving” and the police briefing was very short on facts.

1 shooter in custody. Some unknown number of police injured. 5 transported via ambulance. 1 congressman (Steve Scalise, Republican House Whip) in hospital and surgery, prognosis for full recovery ATM.

As it was a Republican practice and the shooter asked who was practicing, it is pretty clear it was partisan.

I’m very surprised that with the number of congress members involved they didn’t have stronger security. An interview with one of the congressmen (Ohio?) who was on the field where the shooting was happening, said many took shelter in the 1st base dugout and a security officer started shooting back (toward the 3rd base dugout) and that it “wasn’t a fair fight” when you have “pistols against a rifle”. Even local police now carry AR-15 rifles in their vehicles and high end security details have bullpup auto Personal Defense Weapons under their coats; so a few brave officers with pistols seems light to me. Then again, it was early in the news cycle and the perp got taken down fairly quickly, all things considered.

A “man on the street” interview with a person watching from a gym across from it all said the perp had an AK like rifle “with a curved magazine”.

Of course, the Democrats are already calling for “gun control” ( Virginia Governor said there were “93 million” lost to gun violence each day in America… did it a few times before being corrected to “93” no million…) and of course little Chucky Schumer the camera hound was in front of one as soon as possible. (I don’t know he ranted on gun control, but he always does. I changed the channel as soon as his face hit the screen…)

So look for The Usual demands that individual constitutional rights be removed. Never mind that it was an assault on Republicans from The Progressive Left.

Watch out for copy cat shootings, and probably a good time to avoid high profile behaviours and events.

Figuring one congressman, one shooter, and a couple of cops injured, that leaves one additional injured TBD.

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Indulging A Fantasy Conspiracy Theory

This posting is very out of character for me, and breaks some of my own rules. Then again, it is good to get out of your usual character from time to time, and rules are only interesting if you find out their actual utility by seeing what happens when they are broken some times.

I generally do a “put down” on any “conspiracy theory”. Simply because they typically can not be proven, are full of fantasy bits, have little relationship to objective reality, and are generally driven by some strong agenda and not by a dispassionate examination of the known facts.

I also generally avoid “making stuff up” when there is real data from that objective reality to work with.

In this posting I’m going to indulge, shall we call it “fantasy facts”? Things that “fit”, and very well might be, but for which the only evidence is a fantasy.

In this posting I’m going to present a “Conspiracy Theory”. Pure and simple.

Why? Well, some times an interesting idea grabs hold of you by the fancy and won’t let go. This is the stuff that interesting novels are made of, and it is a valuable art form…

So unlike the usual “Data, analysis, conclusions”, I’m going to do “Given this conclusion what assumptions can we draw?”.

The Setup

One of my favorite movies is “3 Days of the Condor”. A plot based on the idea of an international conspiracy to control oil, and reaching high into the ranks of Government. Even controlling agents inside the C.I.A. There is a sub-plot of assassination, and another of romance.

This fantasy rests lightly on that setup as a starting point. It asks: “What if the Agencies control the USA / EU?”.

Elements of this plot have been around in many forms. From the Illuminati to the One World Order to others as shadowy extra-national elites running the world. Generally the image is of them controlling politicians and other well connected folks. But what if it ran the other way, too? What if the TLAs (Three Letter Agencies) of the world decided to select and control who got elected, who stayed in power, who ran the world (nominally, at least), who made $Millions and €Millions? Folks have hinted at this; what with Daddy Bush being CIA and Putin being KGB; asking if perhaps they put their own out front due to the needs of the moment.

The Images, Seen Dimly

What are some things we know, or likely know?

There is an entrenched global elite.

They work in coopetition with each other. (Cooperation while competing)

They prefer stability and control (and making a personal fortune) over fair play, freedom (of the people), or morality as popularly understood.

Most of them like to stay out of the public eye. Long ago they learned that attracting attention brings envy and attacks.

They have no allegiance to any given country or culture or language. (This has been true since European Royalty and days of Empire).

A free people with the USA Military and TLAs under popular control would scare the hell out of them. Almost as much as the Communist Empires being out of their control.

The Democrats always accuse others of doing what the Democrats have actually done.

What are some likely plausibles?

The USA has had at least one major party completely captured by them (Democrats) and the major party machine of the the other under fair control (Republicans).

During the fall of the USSR, their TLAs took over and have been basically running Russia since.

Money Talks, and the House Of Saud has a LOT of money. They bought their way in after the Arab Oil Embargo of the ’70s didn’t work out all that well. They are playing a double game. “In the Global Elite” and comfortable making compromise deals, while at the same time working to destroy it via expanding global Islam so as to “take down” the western elite and their countries.

Old Family Europe runs the EU. It was created as a counterbalance to the USA / USSR power centers, and then the old political elite took over. The ability to vote for things in the EU being largely symbolic (why let the serfs run anything?) being a big tip-off.

There is a highly coordinated attempt to remove National Sovereignty via Treaties and Agreements. From TTIP to Paris to TPP and more. They are clearly structured for a targeted and planned goal, not just independently negotiated. That requires organization, planning, and money. That the whole Global Warming Industry has one goal is obvious, and that it is pushed like heroin and with $BILLIONS behind it is also obvious. It isn’t about saving the planet, the science, or even the morality. It is about control and money; truth be damned.

And now for some Conspiracy Theory Seasoning:

John Kennedy was getting out of control and threatened to take down the entire world. We were hours or minutes from global thermonuclear war. It is likely that the CIA worked with the Secret Service to expose him to risk, and with the Mafia to do the actual work of removing him. Johnson working to arrange it and take over. (At the time, the CIA was known to work closely with the Mafia and had since W.W.II). This was the moment when it was realized it was essential for the TLAs of the world to prevent the people and the politicians from burning the earth to a cinder. So they stepped up to the plate and “took care of things”. From that point forward, it would be obvious they would never go back to the high risk behaviours of before, letting the people select any old person to be running the place, and worse, picking the head of the TLAs…

Once they controlled the King Making, they controlled the President, and that lets them set their own TLA leadership “from the club”. Folks on the “in” list who do their bidding well, get made rich. (See Clintons as a prime example). Folks who stray, get “nudged” back in line via anything from arranged scandals (Julian Assange being charged with rape for having mutually agreed sex with a couple of Swedish dishes… ) to Special Prosecutors, to in the extreme, an assassination ( note that the populist Ronald Reagan was shot when his 2nd in command was a TLA guy… Just sayin’…)

Now once you have control of, say, the EU and the USA (and their TLAs) you can set about doing “take downs” of most any minor government that doesn’t play ball. (Scratch Libia, Syria, etc. etc. etc.) and replace governments as needed (see the long list of “Color Revolutions”). What’s not to like?

The Particulars Right Now

So now we can look at some particulars and ask if they fit the above Conspiracy Context, or not.

Trump was NOT supposed to win. It was supposed to be Baby Bush #2 (Jeb) or Hillary. Both from “the right families” and it was “their turn”. We were to be given a choice of Tweedledee or Tweedledum. But folks were just too fed up with nothing ever changing, so were voting Sanders or Trump in droves. The Democrats, being fully pwned, forced Hillary to the front and shit on Sanders. The Republicans thought they had a good enough “indirect” control and pushed every button and pulled ever lever; but as soon as anyone was anointed as the Approved Candidate, they got shot down by The People. In the end, Trump was The Guy.

OK, so Hillary is going to win.

Everyone told us so. All the polls. All the news. All of EVERYTHING, including Republican Senators, told us the only choice was Hillary.

But Trump won.

Oh Dear.

So what comes next?

The Great Russian Scare!!

But we KNOW the NSA and their other TLA friends can put the “fingerprints” of Russians on their hacks and operations. Their leaked tools show it.

We KNOW that the Democrats were in full control of the Government, it’s Agencies, and their minions just prior to the swearing in of The Donald.

We KNOW that the Democrats were quite happy to indulge in dirty tricks and rigging (see Sanders…) and that they were well entrenched in The System after all those many many years of appointing folks and running the place.

The latest intel on “The Russian Hacking The Election” shows that the places attacked were voting machine vendors AND county voters registration operations.

We KNOW the Democrats want to do demographic packing and redistricting games and (via leaked emails) moving lots of folks around to vote twice, They also LOVE the idea of letting felons and illegals vote (their core voters?…) and generally like to keep voters on rolls long after they have died (see Chicago history for loads of dead folks votes…)

Hmmm….

Now stir and let simmer…

How would a Russian in Russia benefit from hacking the County Voters Registrations? How many Russians could fly over during the election week, as “John Jones”, to vote anyway?

How would the Democrats benefit from hacking the Voters Registrations? Oh, the way they do by all their OTHER shenanigans….

The Conspiracy Theory:

Did the Democrats, through their control of the TLAs, “hack” the voting machine companies and attack the County Voters Registration officers for the purpose of adding more voters and votes for The Approved Candidate? Using the tools in hand to plant the “evidence” that it was Russians wot dun it so as to point away from themselves. Qui Bono? The Democrats and the Global Elites. Who did NOT benefit? The Russians and the Republicans.

Yet it STILL wasn’t enough. Trump was elected. (Maybe they didn’t get the electoral college figured right and concentrated too much on popular vote; or believed their own polls about the States Hillary skipped, and lost).

Now, faced with The Wrong President, and the prospect he might start replacing Their Guys as the heads of agencies and courts, they implement the disaster recovery plan. It starts with accusing the POTUS and Republicans of everything the Democrats actually did. Russia is the boogie man (and their TLA guys are sure to endorse that conclusion faster than it can be announced). The whole Color Revolution script is rolled out. “Illegitimate” is being branded on everything as fast as possible. “Collusion with the Russians” (knowing they had already arranged the ‘evidence’) the battle cry. Special Prosecutors and Investigations in the tool bag. Rent A Mob protests coordinated nicely and with full cooperation of “leadership” at the local level so as not to arrest the “wrong people”…

Go as slow as possible on any and all appointments. Try to gin up a impeachment, and delay and obstruct until something, anything, can be manufactured. Coordinate with all the lap-dog media to push the corruption / illegitimate / incompetent story line 24 x 7.

All because they dare not lose control of who appoints the folks who run the TLAs…

Further, the Republican Party Machine is doing it’s damnedest to assure that Trump is NOT seen as a Party Leader. Can’t have an outsider deciding who gets to run for what…

It does kind of fit with the known knowns. It fits with the news flow and the personalities of the folks in charge. It fits with Putin not “playing ball” with the Western Elite, so they want to smear Russia, Putin, and anything connected to them. Nothing like smearing two of your targets with each other…

So that’s my minor Conspiracy Theory Fantasy. The Neocon Republicans and the Democrats colluding to swap which of their Approved Candidates gets elected POTUS, and both getting caught with failure this cycle. Democrats controlling the government in the prior 8 years using every branch to assure Hillary was given her assigned prize. Republicans planned on giving Jeb his shot at it, if Hillary was just too greasy for voters to accept; not realizing voters had noticed that Bush POTUSes were just Clinton Lite.

Then Trump spit in their punch bowl and pointed out their candidates were stupid, self serving, and slime balls; and got the votes of We The People. Now TPTB are smearing, slime-ing, and “investigating” like crazy while they 4-wall the Concern Troll “News” of it and try to hobble then drive from office the current POTUS. All while using their TLAs to finger the Russians as a spit in the eye of Putin for not playing ball with them (and to cover their use of a Russian Ruse to cover their own voter fraud tracks).

Epilogue

Do I believe that? No, not really. Yet I also don’t NOT believe it. It could easily be accurate and true. There just isn’t any information to let you prove secret meetings happened, or didn’t happen. To prove Hillary conspired with Democratic Elites to get Sanders sidelined… oh, wait, we do have proof of that one… ;-) Well, we can’t prove the Bushes are entitled well connected TLA insiders with marginal skill so mostly getting those plum jobs via insider influence and old money ties… oh, wait…

Well, in any case, we can’t really PROVE that all the rich and powerful who gather in secrecy at places like the Bilderberg confab are not just there for the free coffee and cakes… and are there to conspire in private to dominate the world for their own benefit; that just happens by accident…

On this thread only, feel free to make up an amusing Conspiracy Theory, connect the unconnected dots (and even the unconnectable dots ;-) Toss mud at the Rich And Powerful, or the shady and bought. Just remember to do it all in good fun. This is an indulgence of the wacky and the crazy theories of the world, not a role model. I’ll not be chiding folks for failure to “keep a tidy mind” nor exposing the missing logical undergirding of any particular thesis. Since the reality is all hidden from sight behind locked doors and run by shady self serving characters anyway, I’m pretty sure the realty can’t be better than the random “crazy talk” theory… just different in the details.

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Puerto Rico Votes For Statehood & Nobody Cares

This last weekend Puerto Rico held a vote on Statehood (again…) and this time chose to become a State.

News today mostly ignores it. Al Jazeera had a story on it, many others not so much. Reuters saw no reason to mention it in their 15 minute summary of news.

Why?

Well, for one thing, they vote every few years. State vs Independent vs No-Change Commonwealth. Results are mostly no-change. Nothing changes anyway. For another thing, it is a “vote without a difference”. “Non-Binding Referendum”. Meaning “You can vote but if we don’t like the result, well, we’ll ignore it.” Now I’ve never really understood why anyone voting would care about anything that has zero effect. TPTB will just ignore it and do what they want anyway.

No surprise there was “historically low turnout”. But the die-hards were for becoming a State. Now the P.R. Government will put together a request to become a State, that goes to Congress in the USA, who will most likely just ignore it. Seems you can want to be a State, and apply to become a State, but can’t do anything about it.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/amid-historically-low-turnout-puerto-ricans-vote-statehood-n770801

Amid Historically Low Turnout, Puerto Ricans Vote for Statehood

by Patricia Guadalupe

Residents of Puerto Rico voted overwhelmingly Sunday for statehood in a non-binding vote. The turnout was historically low, however — almost eight out of 10 voters did not participate.

Yeah, 20% turnout…

After a while, when your vote doesn’t do anything, you just stop playing the game of charades. Part of why dictators like to have compulsory voting. It is hard to hide the fact that everyone is on the beach on voting day… and you have no mandate.

So will Puerto Rico become the 51st State? Tune in next year for the next vote… round and round she goes, where she stops, nobody knows…

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