My E-mail is free, but its IMAP4. There are no Ads with it. Smart phones are only fine in the circumstance that you have Android, have a spin of Android with LineageOS, Root, Magisk, etc, and do NOT have GApps flashed to your device and largely rely on F-Droid and ApkPure.
Consumers need to take their Privacy seriously too. This means:
- Demand to buy Android Devices with unlockable Bootloaders that can run Lineage OS. - Maps provided by Osmand on Android - Self Host a Federated NextCloud/OwnCloud Service for Roaming Storage on a PC they own with a Dynamic DNS Provider. - Handle Contacts, Calendaring,and Task related services on a Groupware service. - Instant Messaging/Social Media done Via Libpurple based Spectrum2 Servers. (again, hosted on the same set of Devices as the NextCloud/Groupware Solution.) This is so that if you have a Discord/FaceBook/Skype/etc account, It can't track you.
These are the only things that will really change the privacy game.
I have always bought my Android Phones direct from Manufacturer. I have a BLU Studio 5.0. An R1 HD, and a Vivo 5, which is my current daily driver.
The Studio 5.0C I have has no custom Rom for it. I use a modified Stock Rom with Root+XPrivacy. I do have TWRP installed. It runs Android KitKat. It never had a locked bootloader. GAPPS Removed.
The R1 HD Has several Custom Roms. I had to use a Bootloader exploit to unlock the Bootloader, and Flash TWRP, then Flash only Rom where all the hardware works. Which is LineageOS 13.1 (Android Marshmellow.). GAPPS was not included.
There are LineageOS 14.1 Roms for the R1 HD, they work pretty well, but, not if you want the camera to work.
it's a problem with the drivers built into the kernel. We don't have the sources, and never will. The only option is to reverse engineer the binaries, but the amount of work required has caused pretty much everyone to abandon this phone.
And that brings us too: The Vivo 5. I had to do some really risky stuff to get this thing's bootloader unlocked using SP Flash tools. But I got it, and I now run LineageOS 14.1 Android Nougat 7.1.2 and all the hardware works, I have full root control, and no GAPPS Even through there is other Android Nougat roms, there is no Oreo Rom. Which has me worried.
This is one of the serious reasons we need to be able to root/custom Rom our Devices. Apple Users are defenseless on this front.
Google Location Services is built into pretty much every Stock Rom Android Smart Phone, no matter how "Vanilla" you get it with the sole exception of LineageOS Based Custom Roms. There is no switching it off, unless you intend to not use data or Wifi completely.
With LineageOS, you have UnifiledNlp which lets you choose your location provider, that can be Google, or it can be Mozilla, or it can be LocalGSM Backend or Local Wifi, which eliminates to some extent the tracking device and Privacy invasion aspects of Android Devices.
You can partially mitigate some of it by using OsmAnd~ for Android, but that only keeps your intended destinations safe, and not your actual history.
If your Stuck with a Stock Rom, because no LineageOS Rom exists for your device, there is Root+XPrivacy. If you can get Root. That might let you switch off Google Location services, but without a custom Recovery and a way to unroot, your device will soft brick on the next update. This is also an issue for LineageOS Users who get one unofficial LineageOS
Apple users are in even worse shape. The minute that Apple's leadership changes, to be more compliant with government's wishes, then Apple devices are suddenly hte biggest possible liability in terms of security.
I used it with eGroupware. I normally selected the "Sync with your own Server" Option that stored the Book Marks in a JSON File over DAV in eGroupware on my local domain controllers. Thw issue became, it started to update itself to disable that functionality whenever it could in favor of LastPass. I'd still like to get the whole "Sync on your own Server" Functionality as a JSON file if possible.
Run an eGroupware on Apache with CalDAV Turned on. Tasks lists are just another form of Calendaring.
On Linux and Windows: Configure Mozilla Thunderbird with the Thunderbird Lightning extension. On Android: Configure DavDroid From F-Droid with CalDAV resource.
About pushing right wing Agendas. This includes the "Deep State" conspiracies being pushed right now. The issue is not so much Trump, its the US Congress, which is full of Neo-Fascists. This has been an on-going thing since the Gingrich Revolution of 1994. Basically, the way I see it, the US was on the path to being a purely secular, liberal democracy, and the right wing US Parties have used the idea of De-funding US Public institutions in an effort to try and restore the traditions, and racist ideas of the past.
Only thats not what is actually happening. What's actually happening, is the US is crumbling from within because the actual democratic mechanics of the US are disintegrating. If there is not a "Blue Wave" in 2018, that removes alot of these Senators and House Members from office, and impeaches Donald Trump, we are very likely to see the US Become an outright oligarchical dictatorship, Donald Trump isn't even the real threat here, its the Republican Politicians who won't check him, who are letting him pack right wing ideologues to the courts.
If GW Bush were as bad a Trump is, he'd have been impeached. So Trump is a symptom of the problem, the real problem is people like Paul Ryan, and his ilk. Along with people who aren't even in congress like Robert Mercer and Rebekah Mercer.
why can these devices not operate like any other Android Product and allow the install of F-Droid like Apps that allow for support for CarDav/CardDav/etc. Or whatever resource they connect to with some other privately owned device/server not controlled by FitBit?
The fact that Linux is the underlying OS to Android has brought a couple of things:
1. An End to the hardware Nightmares of Linux. Linux generally is not at the mercy of Windows Drivers. Linux Drivers for Android Devices has translated well to Linux Drivers on x86 for Desktop Linux.
2. Root on our devices. Our Devices are our devices. I don't care how much I paid for the Device. If I was sold a device retail and paid for it in full, its mine. I don't care if they were sold on Amazon. We all should be entitled to have root, and unlocked bootloaders on our devices we pay for. The manufacturer can void the warranty, but thats all. So what happens when root isn't a thing because of FushciaOS?
3. I have enough trouble with the LineageOS Team and "unsupported devices running unofficial builds. I really hate LineageOS's behavior twoards GSM Phones, and MediaTek Devices. It makes me furious.
I currently run the DirtyCow TWRP LineageOS 13.x Rom, and I am concerned about future BLU Devices such as the BLU Life One X3. I don't want to go back to the BLU Stock Rom under any circumstances. I don't even run GApps. I can't run the LineageOS 14.x Rom because of the Requirement the camera work and I have a Bluetooth headset.
I got lucky and picked up refurbished R1 HD. to Replace my Studio 5.x. It had not been updated and used the older Rom that could be unlocked to load LineageOS... More than 6 months have passed and here I am debating another handset because unless I move back to the Stock Rom, I have no means to patch against KRACK.
So the question becomes: Where do I go from here? Do I buy a BLU R2 or BLU Life One X3 now, stick it in a Drawer, and wait some months until a LineageOS Build is made for it?
XDA Developers Forum doesn't even organize the new devices. News about them is scattered around other forums. I'd hate to have move manufacturers because we are constantly battling BLU's Bullshit on this.
This needs to be investigated. BLU needs to put up a thing that says: Running a Custom Rom? Need Camera Drivers? Install this APK. And stop locking bootloaders on devices we buy outright! If I can do fastboot oem unlock, it should work.
I can't immediately tell, but these Phones seem to have some variant that looks really similar to the MediaTek chips that BLU sells, only they seem to be called the Kirin. (Its like they made extremely high Quality MediaTek CPUs and Mali GPUs. Can anyone speak to the quality and build of these devices? AT&T Has a history of wanting Custom locked down builds of Android Roms on Phones they sell, loaded up with garbage. I'm sure the idea of selling some MediaTek relative with ADUPS is a non-starter for any US Carrier.
There was this Zork Clone (text adventures) on the Apple II, called SMIRK, and you were a man starting out in a tent with a lantern, and you walk down a path, into a cave. The SMIRK is guarding Emeralds. There are two Tigers guarding dandylions and alo some Rubies. If yo piss of the SMIRK, the SMIRK will point at you and turn you to Ashes.
Its not the fact that ID was required to be shown. It was the fact that certain ID Types were Permitted. Texas was the most Severe and Egregious example. They permitted you to use Driver's Licenses, and Gun Permits, but not State ID cards (which are the same thing as a Driver's Licence, but say they are for ID only, typically people with disabilities have them, and you can even buy Alcohol with them, or Student ID cards issued from Universities.)
Look. The US 2016 Election happened for a few reasons:
1. Mass White Supremacist Blowback from 8 years of having a black President. 2. Right Wing anti-worker and anti-union behaviour that crushed the Middle Class. Socially, Obama was a liberal President. But Economically, he was a Center Right Wing Republican. He signed the TPP, which had it been ratified, would have created one of the worst International Oligarchies of Human history over the planet Earth. 3. A series of "Voter ID Laws" that were intended to allow Republicans in Northern states and other places to steal elections by denying young people, and people of color the right to vote. They are effectively Jim Crow laws, but targeted at Black people specifically. 4. The Rise of a Radical Christian Dominionist Congress in 2013, that was only ever held in check by Presidential Veto. 5. The fact that the Democrats effectively put up the worst Candiate possible to galvanize Right Wing Hate of the US left. They alienated Populists who feared - again, that the TPP would have been ratified under a Congress with Hilary Clinton as President.
What can fix this? 1. The 2018 Elections need to be a complete revolt against the Republican Party. There needs to be a bounce back of the liberal left and an refutation of the Conservative Christian right, as secular instutions the right is dismantling by Christian Fascists get reassembled.
The Battery has Colbalt in it. This is almost always true of iDevices (iPhones) because its cheaper to make the battery with Cobalt (mined from Africa and parts of Asia.) Android Devices also can have these but some Android Phones use The lithium iron phosphate a (LiFePO4) battery. These batteries do not have the Cancer Risk the Cobalt batteries do.
This is starting to sound like... people in the final stages of addiction to heavy narcotics. We are so desprate to find a way to make money because so many of us are absolutely improverished because of the absolutely policies of the US that have created absolutely Medieval divisions in wealth, and Canada seems to be in the same position on a ten year lag.
Racism, Religion (Particularly Christianity, but also Islam) and Corporatism are literally leading us to the extinction of the Human species. I see literally no way out of this beyond a Social Democratic revolution in the US, the prosecutions of polluters, money launderers, and banks that do not conform to the Glass-Stegal Regulations, In addition, heavy taxation on Billionaires, and the re-nationaization of National parks, and Wildlife reserves. The banning of Fracking and the prohibition of Oil Exploration in the Arctic North.
My Android Phones use LineageOS which is Android, without Google. Google GApps is an optional Flash package for LineageOS you can flash with if you want to but you don't have too. In my case, I don't. I use F-Droid and APK Pure.
BLU Started out to be one of the GSM Good Guys. They offered a MediaTek based, inexpensive, near Stock Android experience I own two BLU Studio 5.0C devices, and two BLU R1 HD. They didn't have locked bootloaders. They supported proper FastBoot and Recovery. Most applications were not installed in the system parition. Root was easy.
Then you found out that BLU either couldn't, or wouldn't update the version of Android on their devices, instead they would patch KitKat or Lollipop against whatever vulnerabilities they have. This was because their MediaTek Drivers made updatng the roms very likely to break things. Then, after a few years, they started dropping support for devices entirely.
Then came things like the Sponsorship deals with Amazon to put Ads on lock screens... and this started with the R1 HD... and... oh boy... here we go. Here came the locked bootloaders. Here came the Amazon Preloads of whatever App they had. When people started rooting them to get rid of that garbage, they responded by altering their Preloaders to patch out Fast Boot Access, and disable SP Flash tools. By this time there were TWRP recoveries, Alternate Stock roms, and LineageOS Builds.
They not only disabled SP Flash Tools for their Amazon suppoerted models, but every model post the R1 HD that wasn't Ad supported.
The last straw for me was the ADUPS Debacle, and the MTK Logger vulnerability, and I promise you, I will not buy another device from BLU.
This is about building the great Firewall of USA. The Public internet Started under Title II in the 90s, as just an aspect of Phone Service. During the Bush years, they were reclassified as Title I, for a while, then Obama got in office and his FCC head made it Title II again.
The problem really is this: 2016's election was a kind of political Coup of sorts on both parties.
What happened was, that there was racist blowback from Obama by racist white voters, and displaced workers. Some of the complaints were legitimate, most were not. The Human species is likely doomed because of this. A fraudulent Demagogue, rose to power in the Republican party, and captured the nomination. Using voter suppression laws put in by Republican state legislatures in the north, he managed to disenfranchise just enough of the poor and minority voters to reverse what would have been a Democratic Victory in a few key states. Keep in mind there were police raids in Indiana of the police shutting down Black majority Polling places where they were being registered to vote.
One of the reasons for the existence of the electoral college, is that the electors are supposed to see a transparent fraud, demagogue, and liar, and take into account the nature of the popular vote. There was no clearer cause for the electors to reverse their votes, and install Hilary Clinton. But alot of the electors were staunch republicans. They replaced any electors who even tried to stop this.I think there was one guy who tried to vote for the John Kasich?
Keep in mind that the forces of the Old Confederacy has more of a vote than it should anyway.
Now they have until the next election to try and solidify their grip on power. I can foresee more voter suppression based on race, religion, or political affiliation. The cable and Telecom companies have an interest in controlling communication, to make sure that the US Never becomes a liberal country again. See since the Bush years, the way it has worked is, the right passes some horrible draconian law, and it gets reversed by a Judge that deems it unconstitutional.
There's too much money to be made from this kind of Fascism the far right wants. The far right controls the government now. They are engaging in violence and fraud to get their way. In the past, this has been done at the state level in the deep south. But because the US didn't deal with it then, the way they should have they grew and now have taken over the Federal Government.
Should the Electors of the Electoral College Reversed their vote? Yes. I think so. Can the 2018 Election in the US House Senate fix this? Well it can slow it down. But unless some far left Justice Democrats are elected, I don't see any other way out of this than Revolution/Civil War. I fully expect the right to use every dirty trick it can to stay in power. The last liberal President we really had was Bill Clinton.
I could list a bunch of other stories, of games and fun stuff, but Ages ago, just before I graduated with a Bachelors Degree, in the far off year of 2008, I had to take this Statistics Course that was unrelated to my Major. It was like one of those Dangling Gen-Ed courses. It was done completely online and it absolutely required Internet Explorer 6.x
You could NOT do the tests on anything else. So I had a Dell Ubuntu Laptop that Ran I think it was Hardy Heron, that had a Wine Isolated Prefix that ran IE6 just for this site. This course was a miserable slog of difficulty, and it required alot of studying and concentration, and then, came the day, of the online Final Exam which had to be Proctored by a Certified Disabilities Coordinator for my case.
I get in the Computer lab, they all run XP... and they all run Internet Explorer 7. Not one system will load the site to take the exam. I brought my laptop with me, and the Disabilies Coordinator contacted the Professor and gave the OK for me to bot up my Linux Laptop, plug it into the Ethernet Jack, and take the exam... I made a B. But had I not had my Wine capable laptop running Linux and IE6, I'd have failed that exam, and likely the class.
The next semester, the entire IE6 application that was made on was redone in Flash and suddenly worked in FireFox with the Linux Flash NPAPI module.
USians got Trump because Obama didn't reign in Corruption in the Political Class, fix FDR style guards on the Economy, and basically governed as a Center-Right Republican on Economic issues, and Center Left Democrat on Social issues.
Because he failed to stablize the declining middle class, allowed the decimation of Unions, and because of the Citizens United Ruling, it opened the door for our elections to be bought. This has been happening because the US have basically a far right government in Congress and it's driving the US into Medieval Fudalism. The combination of Economic Collapse, and of the presence of a Black President galvanized elements of White Nationalism that have been bulding since the Bush/Gore Election, and Septermber 11th 2001.
The Abortion and Gay thing, and religious fanaticism issues are actually issues of Whites being able to outbreed non-Whites. So the Conservative republicans are resorting to violence, and fraud now to rig elections. It is the collapse of Democracy in motion, and it will likely take a war to fix it. Maybe. History has a way of surprising everyone.
But as long as the Jim Bakkers and the Lance Wallanaus and the Rick Wiles exist, they present a threat to democracy because they represent the Christian Taliban.
No Qual Comm would mean no CDMA. If they decide to put MediaTek chips for Cellular support it will happen to have the effect of drastically limiting Carrier Support for these devices.
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My E-mail is free, but its IMAP4. There are no Ads with it.
Smart phones are only fine in the circumstance that you have Android, have a spin of Android with LineageOS, Root, Magisk, etc, and do NOT have GApps flashed to your device and largely rely on F-Droid and ApkPure.
Consumers need to take their Privacy seriously too. This means:
- Demand to buy Android Devices with unlockable Bootloaders that can run Lineage OS.
- Maps provided by Osmand on Android
- Self Host a Federated NextCloud/OwnCloud Service for Roaming Storage on a PC they own with a Dynamic DNS Provider.
- Handle Contacts, Calendaring,and Task related services on a Groupware service.
- Instant Messaging/Social Media done Via Libpurple based Spectrum2 Servers. (again, hosted on the same set of Devices as the NextCloud/Groupware Solution.)
This is so that if you have a Discord/FaceBook/Skype/etc account, It can't track you.
These are the only things that will really change the privacy game.
I have always bought my Android Phones direct from Manufacturer. I have a BLU Studio 5.0. An R1 HD, and a Vivo 5, which is my current daily driver.
The Studio 5.0C I have has no custom Rom for it. I use a modified Stock Rom with Root+XPrivacy. I do have TWRP installed. It runs Android KitKat. It never had a locked bootloader. GAPPS Removed.
The R1 HD Has several Custom Roms. I had to use a Bootloader exploit to unlock the Bootloader, and Flash TWRP, then Flash only Rom where all the hardware works. Which is LineageOS 13.1 (Android Marshmellow.). GAPPS was not included.
There are LineageOS 14.1 Roms for the R1 HD, they work pretty well, but, not if you want the camera to work.
it's a problem with the drivers built into the kernel. We don't have the sources, and never will. The only option is to reverse engineer the binaries, but the amount of work required has caused pretty much everyone to abandon this phone.
And that brings us too:
The Vivo 5. I had to do some really risky stuff to get this thing's bootloader unlocked using SP Flash tools. But I got it, and I now run LineageOS 14.1 Android Nougat 7.1.2 and all the hardware works, I have full root control, and no GAPPS Even through there is other Android Nougat roms, there is no Oreo Rom. Which has me worried.
This is one of the serious reasons we need to be able to root/custom Rom our Devices. Apple Users are defenseless on this front.
Google Location Services is built into pretty much every Stock Rom Android Smart Phone, no matter how "Vanilla" you get it with the sole exception of LineageOS Based Custom Roms. There is no switching it off, unless you intend to not use data or Wifi completely.
With LineageOS, you have UnifiledNlp which lets you choose your location provider, that can be Google, or it can be Mozilla, or it can be LocalGSM Backend or Local Wifi, which eliminates to some extent the tracking device and Privacy invasion aspects of Android Devices.
You can partially mitigate some of it by using OsmAnd~ for Android, but that only keeps your intended destinations safe, and not your actual history.
If your Stuck with a Stock Rom, because no LineageOS Rom exists for your device, there is Root+XPrivacy. If you can get Root. That might let you switch off Google Location services, but without a custom Recovery and a way to unroot, your device will soft brick on the next update. This is also an issue for LineageOS Users who get one unofficial LineageOS
Apple users are in even worse shape. The minute that Apple's leadership changes, to be more compliant with government's wishes, then Apple devices are suddenly hte biggest possible liability in terms of security.
I used it with eGroupware. I normally selected the "Sync with your own Server" Option that stored the Book Marks in a JSON File over DAV in eGroupware on my local domain controllers. Thw issue became, it started to update itself to disable that functionality whenever it could in favor of LastPass. I'd still like to get the whole "Sync on your own Server" Functionality as a JSON file if possible.
Run an eGroupware on Apache with CalDAV Turned on. Tasks lists are just another form of Calendaring.
On Linux and Windows: Configure Mozilla Thunderbird with the Thunderbird Lightning extension.
On Android: Configure DavDroid From F-Droid with CalDAV resource.
Is this resolvable by booting into Fastboot, installing TWRP, and Flashing LineageOS+GAppps to the Device?
About pushing right wing Agendas. This includes the "Deep State" conspiracies being pushed right now. The issue is not so much Trump, its the US Congress, which is full of Neo-Fascists. This has been an on-going thing since the Gingrich Revolution of 1994. Basically, the way I see it, the US was on the path to being a purely secular, liberal democracy, and the right wing US Parties have used the idea of De-funding US Public institutions in an effort to try and restore the traditions, and racist ideas of the past.
Only thats not what is actually happening. What's actually happening, is the US is crumbling from within because the actual democratic mechanics of the US are disintegrating. If there is not a "Blue Wave" in 2018, that removes alot of these Senators and House Members from office, and impeaches Donald Trump, we are very likely to see the US Become an outright oligarchical dictatorship, Donald Trump isn't even the real threat here, its the Republican Politicians who won't check him, who are letting him pack right wing ideologues to the courts.
If GW Bush were as bad a Trump is, he'd have been impeached. So Trump is a symptom of the problem, the real problem is people like Paul Ryan, and his ilk. Along with people who aren't even in congress like Robert Mercer and Rebekah Mercer.
why can these devices not operate like any other Android Product and allow the install of F-Droid like Apps that allow for support for CarDav/CardDav/etc. Or whatever resource they connect to with some other privately owned device/server not controlled by FitBit?
The fact that Linux is the underlying OS to Android has brought a couple of things:
1. An End to the hardware Nightmares of Linux. Linux generally is not at the mercy of Windows Drivers. Linux Drivers for Android Devices has translated well to Linux Drivers on x86 for Desktop Linux.
2. Root on our devices. Our Devices are our devices. I don't care how much I paid for the Device. If I was sold a device retail and paid for it in full, its mine. I don't care if they were sold on Amazon. We all should be entitled to have root, and unlocked bootloaders on our devices we pay for. The manufacturer can void the warranty, but thats all. So what happens when root isn't a thing because of FushciaOS?
3. I have enough trouble with the LineageOS Team and "unsupported devices running unofficial builds. I really hate LineageOS's behavior twoards GSM Phones, and MediaTek Devices. It makes me furious.
No, they are in a price range I can afford.
I currently run the DirtyCow TWRP LineageOS 13.x Rom, and I am concerned about future BLU Devices such as the BLU Life One X3. I don't want to go back to the BLU Stock Rom under any circumstances. I don't even run GApps. I can't run the LineageOS 14.x Rom because of the Requirement the camera work and I have a Bluetooth headset.
I got lucky and picked up refurbished R1 HD. to Replace my Studio 5.x. It had not been updated and used the older Rom that could be unlocked to load LineageOS... More than 6 months have passed and here I am debating another handset because unless I move back to the Stock Rom, I have no means to patch against KRACK.
So the question becomes: Where do I go from here? Do I buy a BLU R2 or BLU Life One X3 now, stick it in a Drawer, and wait some months until a LineageOS Build is made for it?
XDA Developers Forum doesn't even organize the new devices. News about them is scattered around other forums. I'd hate to have move manufacturers because we are constantly battling BLU's Bullshit on this.
This needs to be investigated. BLU needs to put up a thing that says: Running a Custom Rom? Need Camera Drivers? Install this APK. And stop locking bootloaders on devices we buy outright! If I can do fastboot oem unlock, it should work.
I can't immediately tell, but these Phones seem to have some variant that looks really similar to the MediaTek chips that BLU sells, only they seem to be called the Kirin. (Its like they made extremely high Quality MediaTek CPUs and Mali GPUs. Can anyone speak to the quality and build of these devices? AT&T Has a history of wanting Custom locked down builds of Android Roms on Phones they sell, loaded up with garbage. I'm sure the idea of selling some MediaTek relative with ADUPS is a non-starter for any US Carrier.
There was this Zork Clone (text adventures) on the Apple II, called SMIRK, and you were a man starting out in a tent with a lantern, and you walk down a path, into a cave. The SMIRK is guarding Emeralds. There are two Tigers guarding dandylions and alo some Rubies. If yo piss of the SMIRK, the SMIRK will point at you and turn you to Ashes.
Its not the fact that ID was required to be shown. It was the fact that certain ID Types were Permitted. Texas was the most Severe and Egregious example. They permitted you to use Driver's Licenses, and Gun Permits, but not State ID cards (which are the same thing as a Driver's Licence, but say they are for ID only, typically people with disabilities have them, and you can even buy Alcohol with them, or Student ID cards issued from Universities.)
Look. The US 2016 Election happened for a few reasons:
1. Mass White Supremacist Blowback from 8 years of having a black President.
2. Right Wing anti-worker and anti-union behaviour that crushed the Middle Class. Socially, Obama was a liberal President. But Economically, he was a Center Right Wing Republican. He signed the TPP, which had it been ratified, would have created one of the worst International Oligarchies of Human history over the planet Earth.
3. A series of "Voter ID Laws" that were intended to allow Republicans in Northern states and other places to steal elections by denying young people, and people of color the right to vote. They are effectively Jim Crow laws, but targeted at Black people specifically.
4. The Rise of a Radical Christian Dominionist Congress in 2013, that was only ever held in check by Presidential Veto.
5. The fact that the Democrats effectively put up the worst Candiate possible to galvanize Right Wing Hate of the US left. They alienated Populists who feared - again, that the TPP would have been ratified under a Congress with Hilary Clinton as President.
What can fix this?
1. The 2018 Elections need to be a complete revolt against the Republican Party. There needs to be a bounce back of the liberal left and an refutation of the Conservative Christian right, as secular instutions the right is dismantling by Christian Fascists get reassembled.
-Or-
The US Breaks up leading to civil war.
The Battery has Colbalt in it. This is almost always true of iDevices (iPhones) because its cheaper to make the battery with Cobalt (mined from Africa and parts of Asia.) Android Devices also can have these but some Android Phones use The lithium iron phosphate a (LiFePO4) battery. These batteries do not have the Cancer Risk the Cobalt batteries do.
This is starting to sound like... people in the final stages of addiction to heavy narcotics. We are so desprate to find a way to make money because so many of us are absolutely improverished because of the absolutely policies of the US that have created absolutely Medieval divisions in wealth, and Canada seems to be in the same position on a ten year lag.
Racism, Religion (Particularly Christianity, but also Islam) and Corporatism are literally leading us to the extinction of the Human species.
I see literally no way out of this beyond a Social Democratic revolution in the US, the prosecutions of polluters, money launderers, and banks that do not conform to the Glass-Stegal Regulations, In addition, heavy taxation on Billionaires, and the re-nationaization of National parks, and Wildlife reserves. The banning of Fracking and the prohibition of Oil Exploration in the Arctic North.
My Android Phones use LineageOS which is Android, without Google. Google GApps is an optional Flash package for LineageOS you can flash with if you want to but you don't have too. In my case, I don't. I use F-Droid and APK Pure.
BLU Started out to be one of the GSM Good Guys. They offered a MediaTek based, inexpensive, near Stock Android experience I own two BLU Studio 5.0C devices, and two BLU R1 HD. They didn't have locked bootloaders. They supported proper FastBoot and Recovery. Most applications were not installed in the system parition. Root was easy.
Then you found out that BLU either couldn't, or wouldn't update the version of Android on their devices, instead they would patch KitKat or Lollipop against whatever vulnerabilities they have. This was because their MediaTek Drivers made updatng the roms very likely to break things. Then, after a few years, they started dropping support for devices entirely.
Then came things like the Sponsorship deals with Amazon to put Ads on lock screens... and this started with the R1 HD... and... oh boy... here we go. Here came the locked bootloaders. Here came the Amazon Preloads of whatever App they had. When people started rooting them to get rid of that garbage, they responded by altering their Preloaders to patch out Fast Boot Access, and disable SP Flash tools. By this time there were TWRP recoveries, Alternate Stock roms, and LineageOS Builds.
They not only disabled SP Flash Tools for their Amazon suppoerted models, but every model post the R1 HD that wasn't Ad supported.
The last straw for me was the ADUPS Debacle, and the MTK Logger vulnerability, and I promise you, I will not buy another device from BLU.
This is about building the great Firewall of USA. The Public internet Started under Title II in the 90s, as just an aspect of Phone Service. During the Bush years, they were reclassified as Title I, for a while, then Obama got in office and his FCC head made it Title II again.
The problem really is this: 2016's election was a kind of political Coup of sorts on both parties.
What happened was, that there was racist blowback from Obama by racist white voters, and displaced workers. Some of the complaints were legitimate, most were not. The Human species is likely doomed because of this. A fraudulent Demagogue, rose to power in the Republican party, and captured the nomination. Using voter suppression laws put in by Republican state legislatures in the north, he managed to disenfranchise just enough of the poor and minority voters to reverse what would have been a Democratic Victory in a few key states. Keep in mind there were police raids in Indiana of the police shutting down Black majority Polling places where they were being registered to vote.
One of the reasons for the existence of the electoral college, is that the electors are supposed to see a transparent fraud, demagogue, and liar, and take into account the nature of the popular vote. There was no clearer cause for the electors to reverse their votes, and install Hilary Clinton. But alot of the electors were staunch republicans. They replaced any electors who even tried to stop this.I think there was one guy who tried to vote for the John Kasich?
Keep in mind that the forces of the Old Confederacy has more of a vote than it should anyway.
Now they have until the next election to try and solidify their grip on power. I can foresee more voter suppression based on race, religion, or political affiliation. The cable and Telecom companies have an interest in controlling communication, to make sure that the US Never becomes a liberal country again. See since the Bush years, the way it has worked is, the right passes some horrible draconian law, and it gets reversed by a Judge that deems it unconstitutional.
There's too much money to be made from this kind of Fascism the far right wants. The far right controls the government now. They are engaging in violence and fraud to get their way. In the past, this has been done at the state level in the deep south. But because the US didn't deal with it then, the way they should have they grew and now have taken over the Federal Government.
Should the Electors of the Electoral College Reversed their vote? Yes. I think so.
Can the 2018 Election in the US House Senate fix this? Well it can slow it down. But unless some far left Justice Democrats are elected, I don't see any other way out of this than Revolution/Civil War. I fully expect the right to use every dirty trick it can to stay in power. The last liberal President we really had was Bill Clinton.
I could list a bunch of other stories, of games and fun stuff, but Ages ago, just before I graduated with a Bachelors Degree, in the far off year of 2008, I had to take this Statistics Course that was unrelated to my Major. It was like one of those Dangling Gen-Ed courses. It was done completely online and it absolutely required Internet Explorer 6.x
You could NOT do the tests on anything else. So I had a Dell Ubuntu Laptop that Ran I think it was Hardy Heron, that had a Wine Isolated Prefix that ran IE6 just for this site. This course was a miserable slog of difficulty, and it required alot of studying and concentration, and then, came the day, of the online Final Exam which had to be Proctored by a Certified Disabilities Coordinator for my case.
I get in the Computer lab, they all run XP... and they all run Internet Explorer 7. Not one system will load the site to take the exam. I brought my laptop with me, and the Disabilies Coordinator contacted the Professor and gave the OK for me to bot up my Linux Laptop, plug it into the Ethernet Jack, and take the exam... I made a B. But had I not had my Wine capable laptop running Linux and IE6, I'd have failed that exam, and likely the class.
The next semester, the entire IE6 application that was made on was redone in Flash and suddenly worked in FireFox with the Linux Flash NPAPI module.
No I am not. I don't use Cloud Services I don't run. My Android Phone uses LineageOS with F-Droid and not GApps. I use eGroupware, I use OwnCloud.
USians got Trump because Obama didn't reign in Corruption in the Political Class, fix FDR style guards on the Economy, and basically governed as a Center-Right Republican on Economic issues, and Center Left Democrat on Social issues.
Because he failed to stablize the declining middle class, allowed the decimation of Unions, and because of the Citizens United Ruling, it opened the door for our elections to be bought. This has been happening because the US have basically a far right government in Congress and it's driving the US into Medieval Fudalism. The combination of Economic Collapse, and of the presence of a Black President galvanized elements of White Nationalism that have been bulding since the Bush/Gore Election, and Septermber 11th 2001.
The Abortion and Gay thing, and religious fanaticism issues are actually issues of Whites being able to outbreed non-Whites. So the Conservative republicans are resorting to violence, and fraud now to rig elections. It is the collapse of Democracy in motion, and it will likely take a war to fix it. Maybe. History has a way of surprising everyone.
But as long as the Jim Bakkers and the Lance Wallanaus and the Rick Wiles exist, they present a threat to democracy because they represent the Christian Taliban.
No Qual Comm would mean no CDMA. If they decide to put MediaTek chips for Cellular support it will happen to have the effect of drastically limiting Carrier Support for these devices.