Drumbeats for the cashless society

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Bottom Feeder said:
Shoppers who pay in cash are subsidizing credit card reward points
Click to expand...
This, just as a new fraud has come out - "Shimming," which entails jamming a thin printed micro-circuitboard into the card feed, which reads card and transaction data. As opposed to "skimming," which was (and is) a printed-circuitboard plastic overlay on a key pad.

Yet the Masterminds still want to push us into this Cashless dystopia. And they lack the ability to reconsider their conclusions and plans on new evidence and consequences.
 
A bit of a side tangent...yesterday, I was going to take a few days off and hike in Glacier.

I've got a new camping rig - I'm trying Van Life, now; sold my pickup (used for hauling mortarsickles, but no moar) and bought this old-but-solid Toyota van, cheap. It's 20 years old with 150k miles, so I'm still getting to know it. Local trips don't tell the whole story.

The plan was, get to Glacier, set up camp, do the thing, have a good time...see if there's room enough, if the bed I've fabricated, works, if my electrical-power scheme pans out, if an old electric blanket takes the place of a heater inside. You know.

The trip was fine - I'm only 150 miles outside the park - but, the campsite was impossible. Here's why: First, they don't allow walk-ups. Only reservations.

Only PAID reservations. Yeah, okay...that's an ugly trend we've seen.

SECOND...you can only MAKE those pre-paid reservations...WITH AN APP.

NOT on your computer. Only the phone app will allow it.

It doesn't say that on their web page. You can access the web page with your computer; you just can't move to reserving an open site. Only the app.

Only PAY through that app.

Here's the problem: What is an "app"?

An "app" is instructions to DOWNLOAD A PROGRAM from the repository the stupefone has on record. An app is not the program - it's instructions to RETRIEVE the program, for the session.

You don't know who wrote the program. The program written last week, when the App Store accepted it in their repository, may have been replaced yesterday with an "updated" program. Which may or may not have backdoors, malware, or security glitches, intentional or not.

To put it short: a Stupefone or tablet has LESS security than your library's public-access computer. Would you do your banking at the library, on their computer? Most people I know wouldn't access the bank or even email off the library's Wi-Fi, even. Which itself poses risks.

You can control your computer. You can remove programs; deactivate others, cut off internet access. Add or remove files. Monitor activity, actual traffic, online. Used to be, when your hard drive started humming, and you were doing nothing, you'd look to see what inputs you have on your internet connection. You'd been hacked; cut off the connection and then do a scan for a root kit.

Can't do that with a phone.

So...I don't do email, or banking, or money, or any of the "pay" apps, on my Stupefone.

So...I can't have a campsite in a National Park, now. I get the free access as a 65-plus disabled veteran; but it's meaningless because any time money is involved...the United States Park Service, will not take United States currency from a United States citizen and veteran of their military.

It's a small thing, but I'm still torqued.

Side note: What did I do? I was directed to some Forest Service primitive campsites about 20 miles outside the park, but the "ranger" (DEI hire fee-mail) didn't tell me, didn't know, that the Hungry Horse area campsites were on OHV-trails. Jeep trails. A minivan won't make them there.

That left the usual commercial campsites, all of them brimming with people who couldn't get into Agpar Campsite...so I just said, fuggitt. I had a nice hike - already in the park; but the road through was closed (God knows why) and the park was packed...this wasn't working out.

Government efficiency.

Government nudging...us, into their wonderful Cashless Utopia. Where all our records are there for their inspection. AND where it's easy for this scum to hack/scam their way into our FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS.

They replaced a small problem - the logistics of money-handling - with a massive new problem for customer-users.
 
Yep, I concur casey, tried to update my retirement tax deductions and was REQUIRED to download an app (on a stupidfone) to continue. After about an hour on the telephone I finally connected with a human being who, after even moar wasted time, finally was able to reduce the deduction to my requested amount.
everybody GOTS to have a stupidfone to do shit now
Calvin Pissin.jpg​
 
Bottom Feeder said:
Yep, I concur casey, tried to update my retirement tax deductions and was REQUIRED to download an app (on a stupidfone) to continue. After about an hour on the telephone I finally connected with a human being who, after even moar wasted time, finally was able to reduce the deduction to my requested amount.
everybody GOTS to have a stupidfone to do shit now
Click to expand...
And that is not accidental.

It's a spy/monitoring and tracking device. They've already seduced all they can with the (USAID-subsidized) "social" mediuh; and now it's time for the stick.

I can (not happily) comply (to the minimum required) in using a Stupefone to do some stuff; but making my bank/finances/medical-information/credit/personal data, is a bridge too far.

I don't know what the hell I'm going to do in the years ahead. Pray for collapse, probably. It'll be just as bad, with my retirement ended; but as it's shaping up, not any worse.
 
And it does no good to bitch. I'm always getting that: "Why don't you just get a cell phone and make it easier on yourself?" bullshit back when I do. I used burner flip phones for a while, but they got too expensive. They were phones, not tiny computers. And no texting on em and I changed my cell number with each new burner (about once a year).
 
pmbug said:
You should send the park service a strongly worded letter.
Click to expand...
A revisit to the problem a few days later.

First, the irony hit me: There is NO EMAIL I can send to any National Park Service office. No Customer Service office. No Complaint Department manager ("Our Complaint Manager is Helen Waite. You have a complaint, go to Helen Waite...").

I have a PAPER form, printed on the top and bottom, space for a handwritten response.

Let's just say my penmanship sucks. I have lousy eye-hand coordination; teachers used to mark me down for my handwriting. I taught myself typing early just to get around the problem, which had me all set for the first phase of the computer revolution.

I could type up the complaint, articulately - and if I forwarded a copy to my Congresscretin, I bet I'd get a response.

BUT THERE ARE NO MORE TYPEWRITERS anymore.

On first-generation printers (Daisy-Wheel) I could roll that paper in and have the printer type in the center. Not possible now with the inkjet printers. Especially since I don't HAVE one - I don't print enough to make it worth my buying, the few times I need something printed, I take it to Kinkos. Flash drive plugs into their printer. All automated now - don't even have to bother the drooling, tatted freaks at the counter.

I could do a See-Attached on the form and print the thing out on a second sheet...but the way that Complaint Form is, it's tri-folded, intended to be tape-sealed and mailed without an envelope.

I could address an envelope, of course, but I expect they'd just toss it because it doesn't fit in with their expected shape/form/weight. The square-peg/round-hole problem.

But the irony. I can NOT pay actual money for the service/privilege/gate-fee I am requesting: An overnight camping site. ONLY ELECTRONIC.

Yet I can NOT address any ISSUES I have, electronically! Know what that tells me about my complaint, and what they do with complaints? The Rotary File.

Online, using the crude AI that Brave Search offers, leads me to a long series of Reddit threads of others having similar issues. So obviously they know and understand, and obviously, they've sent the issue to Zorro Fox Gibbon.
 
^
Hey Casey - your post got me curious. Haven't been to a national park in years so I decided to look around on their website. Came up with this:


Contact The National Park Service

Don't know if it will do you any good but maybe worth a look see.
 
You can also try contacting your US Congressman/Representative to voice your complaint. Might be like farting into the wind, but maybe you catch lightning in a bottle. They do seem to care when older constituents are grumpy because they generally vote (and talk to each other).
 
searcher said:
^
Hey Casey - your post got me curious. Haven't been to a national park in years so I decided to look around on their website. Came up with this:


Contact The National Park Service

Don't know if it will do you any good but maybe worth a look see.
Click to expand...
I'll fish around, see if there's an email link that works.

There's no hyperlink from Recreation.gov, which is the site handling park information and fees.

Not surprising - that second site is pretty crude in layout, and designed to be actually used (reservations made) via phone/payment app.

I had considered walking into one of my Congresscretin's offices (two senators, one Houseplant...the Senators are less busy, given our unique demographics, one House mouse for the whole state)...but they surely know about it.

And either are with the program or are okay with the program. It pushes the Elite fantasy - CONTROL of the Unwashed.

I won't make that trip; I'll save bothering the irritable Nobility who resent standing for elections, for something that matters. This is...just the way it is, now.

National Parks are not for the People, anymore. They're for someone, something, else.
 
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