thecrimeshop

2022-01-09

Experts Are Sounding the Warning Bells

Cristal M Clark

I used to believe that America would never see another civil war. Now I am not so sure. Just take a stroll through a busy part of town and that will paint a fairly grim picture of our country. People are mean and hateful more often than not. Individuals act out in violence, you have to be careful what you say and to whom. It can be frightening.

Thomas Homer-Dixon, a scholar who studies violent conflict, recently urged the Canadian government to prepare for an American implosion. “By 2025, American democracy could collapse, causing extreme domestic political instability, including widespread civil violence,” he wrote in Toronto’s Globe and Mail.

Barbara F. Walter “I’ve seen how civil wars start, and I know the signs that people miss. And I can see those signs emerging here at a surprisingly fast rate.”

Canadian novelist and critic Stephen Marche “The Next Civil War: Dispatches From the American Future.” “The United States is coming to an end, the question is how.”

John Harris writes in Politico, “Serious people now invoke ‘Civil War’ not as metaphor but as literal precedent.”

That’s all pretty damn sad when you think about it. What would a new civil war look like? I can tell you that it will unlikely look like red vs blue, it feels a lot like it will be more like what we saw during the insurrection. That’s right, a new civil war will not be government sanctioned, it will be rage filled us citizen sanctioned. We are seeing a huge rise in super intense political polarization in our nation. We are also seeing a significant rise in the number of individuals who feel that the country is being taken from them, or stolen, a large group of white Americans feel they are losing rights, privileges, they insist despite overwhelming facts that the election was stolen. They felt that the government overreached when it came to Covid and that the Government is still trying to overreach.

“MAGA Civil War.” The Boogaloo Bois, a surreal, violent, meme-obsessed anti-government movement, who get their name from a joke about a Civil War sequel. Republicans increasingly throw around the idea of armed conflict. In August, Representative Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina said, “If our election systems continue to be rigged and continue to be stolen, then it’s going to lead to one place and that’s bloodshed,” and suggested that he was willing, though reluctant, to take up arms.

It is those very ideologies that will lay the groundwork for a new civil war.

It wall paints a sad and grim picture of what could potentially happen in this country if we are not careful. The question is not if, it’s more a matter of when things will fall apart and we are staring down the barrel of a new civil war.

Cristal M Clark

2022-01-04

America – Under Attack

Cristal M Clark

Back in 2015, 2016 and 2017 I started talking about cyber security and cyber attacks, I mention that in a sense, a severe enough cyber attack i.e. one that takes out an entire electrical grid or one that could shut a major hospital or government down was essentially an act of terrorism, an act of war. People would laugh it off or tell me with pure disgust that I couldn’t possibly know what I was talking about.

And now? Well here we are looking at that very possibility.

According to John C Inglis the National Cyber Security Director, a cyberattack is typically considered an act of war when it achieves the same amount of damage as a kinetic weapon which includes things like loss of health safety or national security. But it goes further than that, when it shuts down an entire industry, city, hospital, cuts off the cash flow of a major business, bank or corporation for an extended period of time, it threatens the lives of Americans.

And here we are, we are seeing an increase in cyber attacks that take entire systems offline for not days but months.

You’d be kidding yourself if you didn’t believe other governments throughout the world are not playing a hand in all of this and yes including our own, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

Essentially, this will inevitably cause a war somewhere, here, another country, either way war will happen if we are unable to wipe out this threat altogether.

The sad truth is, that is much easier said than done. Researchers are finding new threats, backdoors and holes every minute of every day.

John Inglis warned a House Committee back in November about this and he is not wrong in that warning. With these attacks running rampant all over, we do face the very real threat of war.

So what do we do?

We can lecture businesses all we want about reducing the risk, tell them until we are blue in the face, it’s not going to help.

Perhaps, now would be an appropriate time to enter into some sort of accord, a peace treaty if you will with other world leaders with regards to cyber attacks. We have done this in the past with nuclear weapons and other things, it seems that this one is bad enough that we should be considering and working towards some sort of treaty until nations can better protect themselves from these attacks individually and we can all stand together to fight them and prosecute as a world those that are using cyber attacks as a way to watch the world burn.

Cristal M Clark

2022-01-03

Russia and China Are Teaming Up

Cristal M Clark

Some might say that Russia and China teaming up sounds insane but the reality is they are two of the most powerful nations, both poised to surpass the United States in almost everything and that includes the coveted roles of World Leaders and Space Leaders.

The two have presented a plan to build the joint International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). The proposed lunar base is slated to be ready for crewed visits by the year 2036 and it is important to note that it is completely unrelated to the NASA-led Artemis program, which is to land on the moon by 2024, and have the first woman of color on board. To other nations it has also become painfully clear that date is pretty unlikely for the United States. The better bet is that Corporate Space Travel is going to get us to the Moon and elsewhere a lot faster than NASA.

ILRS is open to other nations joining them, which makes a lot of folks wonder why the United States isn’t joining. We are already losing our footing as a world leader. Do we really want to lose any more ground by not working with other nationions in the effort to explore outer space? The point here is, we have all but ruined any chance of this planet’s ability to continue to support life for the long term, shouldn’t we start learning to play together in an effort to save life as we know it? Or does the US still think it’s king to all?

Cristal M Clark

2022-01-02

Cats and Technology Don’t Always Mix

Cristal M Clark

Cat’s have a bad rap for trying to kill us, which is not really true. They are quite intelligent and loving. They love to cuddle, talk to you, a cat’s meow is them attempting to mimic a baby’s cry, after all Siamese cats, if you have never had one, have mastered that.

We often joke about cats because they want our love and affection on their terms unlike that of a dog. They do understand most of what we are saying, they just choose to ignore us most of the time and they are often thought of as creatures who prefer to be alone.

Cat’s in many cultures are thought of as Godlike, much like that of a crow they are the perfect familiar and are like no other, oftentimes walking a fine line of being in between this world and another, always protecting us from that which we are unable to see, along with those pesky bugs that tend to sometimes get into our homes.

When we think about smart technology, it helps us with just about everything all in the palm of our hands or on our wrist. We can talk to our fridge from the comfort of ones office through their phone, set your crockpot, instapot or Suvie to cook while away from home, heck you can even brew some coffee while you drive home from your car and have it waiting for you the minute you walk in the door.

These days now, even ovens are granted smart technology. While we are creating all of this new and cool smart tech, we don’t think about how our pets might interact with it.

So are cats trying to kill us?

In South Korea officials are warning all cat owners to beware of some electric stoves, in particular ones that have touch-sensitive buttons, because a cats delicate little kitten mittens can in fact turn into murderous paws by setting off the stove, just by a little itty bitty bean touch.

Turns out that our poor little feline friends have been accused of single handedly starting over 100 fires between 2019 and 2021. Sadly it’s not only the touch tops, cats have also been known to turn the knobs on a stovetop as well.

Officials are urging people to be sure to childproof your stove unless you want to live life dangerously whilst homing a feline friend or two.

Cristal M Clark

2022-01-01

Welcome 2022

What Will We Face This Year?

Cristal M Clark

So many people were glad to see 2021 close and come to an end. 2021 was incredibly and unnecessarily full of drama. After taking most of last year off from writing to focus on my book, which will be out soon, I decided to take a break from everything going on around us. After having covered Trump being elected and the four years he was in office, I needed the break. The man is more exhausting than having 12, 2-year olds running rampant and at your side 24/7.

What will this new year bring us?

More Covid for sure, it seems that we need to learn to live with it because it’s not going away anytime soon. Facebook probably isn’t going away anytime soon, rebranding and attempting to create an alternate computerized world for users to live in rather than, oh I don’t know, get out and actually live life.

Climate change is not going away, it seems to be getting worse by the day much like Donald Trump, who just won’t go away. His icy grip on the world is as bad as Covid’s.

The world last year seemed more violent and the earth seemed more angry with our lack of respect towards it.

This year opened, many faced it with hope. The hope that we will learn tolerance, acceptance, forgiveness, kindness and begin to heal from the last year and the one before. With the hardships that many in our nation are facing each and every day on top of prices growing to that which exceeds the average working class’s ability to provide both a home and food, to the threat of Covid, or getting gun downed while shopping, I hope that at least my readers step into this New Year with an understanding and a kindness towards others that you have never put forth before, until now.

Happy New Year!

Cristal M Clark

2021-12-12

31-Years or Less

When Will the Earth Stop Sustaining Life?

Cristal M Clark

It is said that a world can only be habitable for so long before it becomes unable to support life. The earth is no exception to this rule, in fact we humans have stepped in and somehow sped up that inevitable process. Some say the earth has just 31 years left before she gives up on us, others will tell you it’s billions. The truth lies somewhere in the middle of all of that.

At the rate that we are destroying the planet along with its resources we stand a good chance of ensuring this world’s inevitable demise much more quickly than anyone could possibly anticipate.

Of course global warming is a thing, here in Colorado we are enjoying a rather dull and warm extended fall, rather than snow and blustery weather. In other parts of the country severe tornadoes have snuffed out life, obliterated entire towns, just yesterday in fact.

I remember once this really dumb woman who was a friend of my fathers told me that in Florida they don’t have to worry about emissions because they are between water. It is this very ineptitude that all but ensures our demise along with the planet.

The question is, are humans to blame entirely? Yes and no. The earth was always going to end yet we have not helped matters at all. We have sped up the process, we are tearing up natural resources to build more and more, we drive motorized transports that pollute the air, we have factories that pollute, we dump waste into our water supplies and oceans, we are destroying the wetlands, they are vanishing, and all for what? So that we can have stuff. We have put more emphasis on greed, money and stuff than we have towards living and ensuring that this world will be here long enough to support life until we can find another world that will support life well into the future.

Furthermore we have put more emphasis on stuff rather than space exploration, getting out and seeing what else is out there. Instead, we have new iphones, pelatons, smart watches, 3D printers that can print a steak if you so desire. We would rather have a new vehicle than look up to outer space, we would rather level an entire forest to build a new highrise apartment building made as quickly and cheaply as possible because the flats look cool.

Recently William Shatner traveled to space, I read somewhere that someone basically tried to shame him for doing it, space travel for the rich or something. Sadly, this space travel by the corporate world leaders is perhaps the only way since our governments can’t quite seem to figure out how to sort out stopping us from destroying this world faster than we need too, much less find a new home for all life here on earth.

If we continue to rid ourselves of our precious resources here on earth, the earth will in fact be unable to support life and I am not sure we would deserve another planet to destroy. To put it in simple terms, we are destroying the biosphere, which is the crucial element to sustain life.

Oxygen levels are decreasing and so is healthy sperm count in men according to science. None of that is a good thing, healthy sperm is a sign of the end if anyone is paying attention. That is due to our environment and the many abuses we have heaped onto it. Pollution, preservatives in foods, contaminated drinking water, no work life balance, the destruction of nature.

It all paints a rather grim picture of what is in store for this planet and us. We need to find a way to live while also reducing our carbon footprint on this planet if we hope to be here long enough to find a new planet.

The reality is that it makes no difference which side of the coin you land with regards to climate change, we will either speed it up or not, the real dilemma is how long can the earth continue to can sustain life?

If we cannot learn now, we never will and if we refuse to pay attention to the warning signs we along with the earth will become extinct.

Cristal M Clark

2021-10-31

Creates New Utopia or is it a Dystopian Hellhole?

Cristal M Clark

In case anyone missed it, Facebook is rebranding, morphine or rather attempting to change its image here. Mark Zuckerburg announced Facebook is now Meta this past week. The announcement caused quite the stir among those in the know. You see Facebook wants to become a strange and bizarre product presentation introducing the so-called metaverse.

That translates to the new metaverse is a dream of a future internet that we have only seen in films such as Demolition Man. To make matters much worse it seems that no one really has a set definition of what Meta will look like as of yet, simply because it’s a concept still and far from a reality.

Facebook describes it as “a set of virtual spaces where you can create and explore with other people who aren’t in the same physical space as you.”

Mark Zuckerberg’s presentation showed a series of concept videos that highlighted Facebook’s Meta’s vision for a sort of augmented reality one where you can send a holographic image of yourself to a concert with a friend attending in real life, or sit at a virtual meeting table with colleagues.

This caused some very loud alarm bells to start ringing. First, is this an attempt by Facebook to dodge its current public nightmare of leaks accusing the company of failing on purpose to stop false information, protect teenage girls or maybe how Facebook exploits its users without consent?

Who knows really. If Facebook failed to stop the spread of misinformation on any of it’s platforms now, it’s a pretty certain bet that they will fail under the guise of Meta at stopping it, nor will they stop attempting to exploit users being more in favor of the almighty advertising dollar.

More pointedly, does any of that really matter? Users of any social media platform, online shoppers, gamblers, gamers, hell cell phone owners are blindly giving intel away as it is. We bleed out information anytime you shop online, play an online game, answer those ridiculous memes designed to obtain things like your mother’s maiden name, year you were born…

I get it, the government, media outlets want to protect us all right? They do right and they want to stop this Evil Mark Zuckerburg from doing what he does like exploit us, right?

Isn’t that what the news does every single time they interview witnesses to let’s say a bank robbery where someone was shot and killed? What’s more, have you ever looked through the actual sponsored content on your local news outlets website, or CNN’s, FoxNews? You know those flashy ads that read more like they are actual news or advice from a well known doctor? Those sponsored content ads are created to exploit anyone who clicks on them, are they not?

Anytime a major news anchor drops his or her personal, emotional and vile opinion into a news story, they taint the news, it becomes invalidated. Anytime a major network directs its reporters to be on one side or the other, it invalidates the news, by default. Anytime it runs unproven advertisements like they do when viewing the news online, they are exploiting the audience, filling them with false information too.

So major broadcasters get to sound the alarm bell over social media, hence they are saying “Hey Mark, this is our goose egg and what is good for the Goose is, not good for the Gander!”

Who really knows if Meta will work or not, how long it will take to get up and running or if society is even ready for that? Seeing everyone’s reaction to being locked down, I am not so sure it will work out at all.

Cristal M Clark

2021-10-31

So Much Speculation.

Cristal M Clark

I keep seeing these poorly written articles with regards to why workers are quitting jobs lately and you know it’s all speculation really. Most of them are saying it boils down to one reason.

Some say it’s because employees want more money, others are saying employees want better life balance, while others are saying employees are sick of being mistreated by managers, bosses, co-workers and customers and form many employees, they want to work from home still. Lastly, employees want to be heard right? Companies either don’t take suggestions or they do it in such a way that it causes so much work drama that it never really changes anything.

The truth of the matter is actually pretty simple, the reason employees are quitting is not one reason over the other but rather all of the above. For the past few decades, it’s been the employer on the top of the food chain, employees feared losing a job, now it’s the employees that are calling the shots and driving change in the job market which is a long overdue correction that needed to happen.

When a company allows owners, shareholders and upper management to become wealthy while doing very little work not to mention not having one single idea as to how the day to day actually runs within an organization, it poisons the well so to speak. Employees are tired of working themselves to death and having very little show for it. Let’s be honest, most business owners and board members if forced to do it, would be unable to actually successfully run the day to day operations of the organizations they gleefully claim to run. They don’t run the organization, the underpaid staff does. That staff gets your customers, readers, fan base whatever you want to call, it’s your people not your brands that make it happen. Besides the idea of branding is a dying dinosaur since the cat is out of the bag that it is in fact, your employees that make it happen.

When employees who’ve been with an organization for 3 or more years start thinking about leaving, it’s a sign that something deep within the organization has in fact not been working and damage will be difficult to navigate and mitigate once long term employees start to leave.

For many it is about a living wage, which is significantly higher than minimum wage in the United States, every state’s minimum wage is so much lower than what an actual living wage is. It is sickening and has allowed employers to exploit workers. It is akin to modern day slavery. Then again so is work life balance and work life balance is not always just about days off, weekends, or sick time it has a lot more to do with flexibility.

The one thing that strikes me as funny about all of this are the employers whining about not being able to hire staff. Waitstaff for instance, instead of whining about why you cannot hire anyone, maybe try changing how you pay these folks, like oh I don’t know, offer a living wage and stop making your goddamn staff live off of tips. Start a trend here in the US, you know something like that.

Retail is the same, and the same could be said about hiring people at living wages. Ever wonder why people who are out of work flock to work at Starbucks? They pay a decent wage, bump wages up quickly, have tuition programs and offer a really good benefit package to employees. That shows when you visit a Starbucks, the employees are happy, fun, engaging and enjoy slinging coffee.

The solution to the employee shortage is literally staring every employer in the face, what is remarkably funny is that many employers still don’t want to admit it and still don’t want to do the right thing.

What’s worse than not having enough workers? This supply chain shortage right? Well, that’s not all staff shortage issues it will however add to the stress of hiring currently. Cyber attacks are playing an even bigger role in quite a bit of things than anyone realizes yet.

Cristal M Clark