A New Thread to Pull

This past few days, and for about fifteen years now, I have had a project in development involving a reimagining of Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The original work was something a horror novel, if truth be told, intended to convince northern farmwives of the inherent evils of slavery. Written in the 1840s, it was widely distributed in the pulp book mail order market where, at the time, women subscribed to book  programs where they would recieve a book monthly. This helped them out socially quite a bit by giving them something to talk about after church and in the sewing circle. Somethings never really change, though the means shift around a bit.

The structure of the story, the way it flows, is a melodramatic thing that overstates most of what might be thought to actually be happening to slaves in our "perculiar institution". But this story was cited as a cause of the Civil War when I was in grammar school. (Where I didn't pay much attention.) I was assigned this book as reading in the fifth grade, never did it, then the idea forced me into reading the book at fifty years old.  The  plot is a particular thing. We start together, split focus into two divergent story arcs, then rejoin at the end. This was written in the 1850s and the verbosity is pretty heavy handed. The scenes are heavy handed. The movement is choppy, like a cartoon.

But at some point I had an idea, between 2005 and 2013, and since then I have gone to college, built a farm and a retirement business, written ninty-plus stories of various lengths, and otherwise just got older. But the story stuck around and lived on. About a week ago my Muse showed up speaking loudly about this story. No telling what triggered it. So I do what I do: tuck in and type. But things are going a bit differently this time and it gives me hope for the future of this book.

I have been learning and building tools to allow myself to keep true to a storyline. I have an organizational chart to track relationships, a timeline to put events on and make sure they operate sequentially, an adequate word processor, spreadsheets to plot things in an organized manner, and a file naming structure which allows me to keep track of closed files logically so they can be opened appropriately. All of these things came to me over time to remedy a lack of inherited organizational and professional writing skills, and also a burning desire to just dig in and type, when I got a new idea. Tools to keep me on task so I don't write the thread and paint myself into the corner of whatever place I started building.  This time all of these tools are being brought to bear and the Muse has signed on to allowing me to do the hard parts prior to doing the fun stuff (like writing stories). 

Let's see where this goes, but here's the draft of the first Chapter of what promises to be a 155 page quick reader. It seems destined to borrow (without plagerizing) Stowe in her goals and mostly within the outline of her work, but deep in the sci-fy genre.  

The Shadow on Canaan - Fragment

(© Copyright 2026 David E. Smith, Banks, Oregon, USA - All Rights Reserved)

If ever there were 'ere such place as is home.

There would be comfort for those who would stay.

No matter how high,  or lowly born.

Or how far they might roam.

Chapter 1 - The Book of Daniel 

1.0 Before the Beginning

Gentle Readers we must start at the beginning using the right foot if we don't wish to lose our way. Our different  paths have lead us all to a rainy Winter's night in a very large house near Cincinnati, in Ohio. This is the ancestral home of the Ferguson Family where we might learn more about a grave injustice. But for now it is enough that we imagine a wonderfully warm and welcoming place with soft evening lights and very little noise.

1.1

“Daniel, it’s time to say goodnight.”

”But Pappy I’m not sleepy yet. Can't we have another story.” A little boy, barely five years old was already snuggled down deeply in the thick blankets and comforters on an overly large bed. One could see from looking in his eyes that he was ready for sleep. But part of his nightly ritual was pretending that he was not tired. The boy always loved his bed. No one had ever found trouble in getting him under the covers.

“Your Mother said ten o’clock Daniel.” Pappy said this in a soothing voice. “No use in making her mad now. Better roll over and say goodnight.”

As the boy rolled to face the wall, he said sleepily, “Pappy? Will you stay here with me until I’m asleep?”

“I always do. Anytime you need me, just call out and I’ll be there.” Pappy started Daniel’s favorite sleepy-time music and faded the lights down just a little at a time as Daniel drifted off to sleep. “Good night Daniel, sweet dreams”.

“Good night Pappy,” said Daniel. As the song came to an end, the lights dimmed to barely visible glow on the ceiling. “I love you Pappy.”

“I love you too Daniel,” said Pappy.

1.2

Pappy left the boy to his dreams, then left open the household intercom just in case Daniel needed something. The nightly routine didn’t change much for Daniel in these early years. Nine-thirty was bed time. Ten o'clock was sleepy time. Daniel would rise when he felt like it. Pappy knew that soon the boy would start school and begin following a stricter schedule. Tonight all was as it should be.

At exactly ten-ten Pappy finished his security sweep and ordered the Abe security system to lock all outside doors and windows. Pappy instructed the environmental Robo into night time efficiency. At exactly ten-eleven Pappy ask Mammy to closed down the pantry and prepare a lite meal for the Master. The Driver Abe had signaled “home soon” and added “no supper”. The time was exactly ten-twenty-one when the Mistress called Pappy to her sitting room.

“Pappy, I don’t think you should be telling Daniel that you love him.” The Mistress shook her hear slightly, “It’s not right.

“Yes Ma'am,” Pappy replied in a customarily dry tone. Pappy could sense more of the same was incoming.

“They tell me that leading child psychologists think it might cause undesirable tendencies later in life.” The Mistress was practicing the ages old art of crochet, an appropriate hobby for a woman of good family, home alone, late in the evening. She didn't look up from the work in her soft hands, but did shift slightly in her wing backed chair. “If children become too attached to their Pappys this early in life they might develop a dependency.” The Mistress said all this casually and without looking up from the thread-work project she had been working on for nearly two years. “He's the Stewart's future so we can't have dependencies.

“No ma'am,” Pappy said. “As you say ma'am. Though, it does seem to comfort him and I don’t think it will cause him harm.” Pappy had a great deal of experience in these matters. He had raised Daniel’s father, and his father’s father in much the same fashion; watching them all grow into strong and confident men.

“I know you mean well Pappy, and I don’t wish to meddle in your affairs; but this is my decision.” The Mistress of the house did not like being challenged and it did not matter a speck if Pappy had been running Stewart House for more than three generations of Stewart Patriarchs. Pappy had never given her cause to worry; but if pressed to it, she would indeed send him into Cycles. They both knew she would enforce her rule out of principle.

“As you wish Ma'am,” said the Pappy, who knew his place in the Stewart pecking order. “I see that the Master has arrived. Shall I tell him where to find you?”

Putting the hooked needle work down under the light on the side table she began to rise, “No thank you Pappy, I 'll go down and meet him and call if I need something.” The tall woman, dressed well, but in comfortable clothing, checked the mirror over the hearth in her Sitting Room before floating silently down the hallway towards the kitchen muttering softly: “I do wish he'd come in through the front door. He comes in like the groceries.” Her husband had always come through from the carriage house where they kept the cars. ”He has never lost his childhood ways.” She stopped with the double opening into the kitchen just ahead. “By the way Pappy,” the Mistress said without looking, “remind the Driver Abe that the Master will be flying to New Chicago tomorrow.”

“He already knows Ma'am; the Jumper is fueled and ready.”

“Don’t be impertinent Pappy, simply tell-the-driver to be ready. Taking the Jumper is okay and the Master can put down at the Office.” Her tone was not cross, but it was best not to cross her.

“Yes Ma'am,” said Pappy without any discernible tone in his voice at all.

1.3

As Daniel lay in his bed, his long life flashed briefly before his eyes as would a video edited too harshly for time. Daniel had a long and happy life. A young man's life full of adventure. A grown man's life of triumph in business. An old man's life of family and children with their own lives. In every way one might measure a life his was measured as a good one. Now Daniel lay dying. At the tender age of one-hundred, eleven years old he lay in his comfortable bed at nine-forty-five in the evening, talking with Pappy and happy to be there. As they had always been.

Daniel scarcely remembered his youngest years. The “sweet dream” wishes that came always from Pappy; the eternal service Pappy had provided, without question, for his every waking and sleeping minute, were all appreciated then, as now. Daniel had always loved Pappy and didn’t care whether his Mother disapproved. She was long since dead and buried alongside his father. Daniel's thoughts seemed to blur his conception of time and he couldn’t tell, and didn’t care, which event came first or after. Daniel hoped that the stories were true, that he would now see his father again. He hoped to spend some time with the man who spent so little time with in life and so much time trying to please.

“Pappy?” He said without noticing the thousands of thousands of times he had said it before. “Are you there?”

“I am always here Daniel.” The Pappy said in his best sleepy-time voice. “I have always been here and will be here whenever you need me. Just call and I will come.”

“I love you Pappy,” said Daniel.

“Thank you Daniel’ said the Pappy who had never told Daniel of his Mother’s order that he not respond in kind. Pappy had worked out a way around her orders very soon after she had issued them.

“Do you love me Pappy?” ask Daniel. It had been years since he had rarely ask the Pappy this particular question; but tonight was unique and he wanted this little comfort, a feeling of belonging to someone, a sense of family.

“Yes Daniel, now and forever,” returned the reply Daniel had wished for. Though Daniel had heard it rarely from his blood parents, his Pappy had never failed to give the right answer.

“Pappy, how long have you served the Stewarts?”

“I don’t know Daniel.” Pappy answered, before adding: “The dates with precision anyway. My Cycle was re-set in twenty-two-ten by the Taking. There is little left of that life I had before that.”

Daniel felt a chill run through him, the pain he might have felt in earlier times was almost completely blocked by modern medicine, but the pain was still there; only masked from sensations by a swarm of Cobots patrolling his blood stream. Daniel knew that there was not much time left and he welcomed the journey ahead. “Pappy. From what you do know, can you guess how long you have been with the family?”

“I don’t have to guess Daniel,” said Pappy proudly. “I have always been with the Stewart Family and I became Pappy here when the Estate was built.” Pappy let his voice raise a little to lighten the mood in the room. “Though why they left that particular information available to me I cannot tell you.”

“Are in family Pappy?” Daniel said, not surprised by the knowledge. The records had been made was clear on this. But he was surprised that Pappy knew anything of it.

“That much I do not know Daniel. ”

“Pappy, please send the following record to our attorneys.” Daniel talked clearly and quickly, as if he had just finished a breakfast before leaving for work. “Mr. Kendrick, As the last act of my long and happy life and in addendum to my last will and testament. As my last act on Earth I free Pappy of Stewart House of any obligation of servitude to the Stewart family or any person or entity in perpetuity. Charles Thomas Shelby is my genetically verified family member and I release him fully realizing the consequences of my action. Send that immediately Pappy. Or should I say Tom?”

“It is sent Daniel, Tom is fine, though it seems so strange to hear that old name spoken and have it meant to describe me. God knows I don't know what to do with the information.” Pappy, now Charles Thomas Stewart, could begin to remember himself as the chemical blocks on his personality deep in his semi-Liquid Matrix the blocks dissolving from the moment his name was mentioned.

“I can't tell you Pap . . . Tom. I suppose you are free to do pretty much as you like. And free to discontinue yourself if you wish, though I wouldn't until I thought about it a bit first.” As he said this Daniel began to lose his sight, the light draining from him. “It takes a family connection you know, to set free a Pappy or Mammy. You are a rarity indeed; but we knew this all along, didn’t we.”

What might have passed for panic swept through the circuits and electron pathways of the Tom's semi-liquid matrix. There was so much to sort and recollect. He could see Daniel slipping away and wished he had the capacity to show his grief somehow. Something within him knew what grief felt like. Grief was like a the fog coming down the valley from the Lake far to the north. It would soon overtake him and decrease him. But Tom had no way to express this, having no Mechatron ready nearby. The thought of this made him wonder if he still might be able to access House assets like Mechatrons, or even give instructions to the House Staff.

“But you see Grand-Uncle, you are free to know whatever you wish, to learn whatever you want to learn, to go wherever you wish, to find yourself. If that is still possible.”

The only thing Tom could say was “Thank you Great Nephew.” Tom had no time to think before he sensed the failing heart of his long time charge and former master. The last thing Daniel Stewart heard in life was his “Pappy” saying, “I love you Daniel, sweet dreams” without having to be ask for the pleasure.

The last thing Daniel Stewart felt in life was love for what was technically, a sort of machine.

I am not intensly political, but I dabble. .

I matriculated at Drake House at Pacific University (Class of 2015) and politics in a Philosophy major isn't really an area of study there. There were a great deal political science classes in my curriculum vitea though. I became interested in this area of study early on and had some good teachers which taught Constitution stuff and government structure. So when I look at these things I kid myself that I can see what is really happening and then find I am wrong, though rarely on form, but fifty-fifty on conclusions. So I dabble knowing I live way out of town and nobody will see my mistakes. 

This election two days ago is worthy of a short notation here. 

Never have I ever . . . Seen a party so hell bent on losing and another party so adept at taking advantage of the weakness. Democrats may still have a time trying to tie the current president down and stop the madness, but I am hopeful. Republicans have the opportunity to shrug off the mad king scenario and knock off the old guard that helped the Mad King do so much damage. So there's ample possibility on both sides to do some housework, or at least dust off the law books and see what's in them.

The House has a veto proof Democrat majority, Subpena Power, and Chair assignments.
The Democrat Senate majority is just a few votes from over-riding any veto, has subpena power, makes chair assinments, and can dictate process. 
The Mad King is still in the big chair saying he will veto everything. No telling what he might do otherwise and listening to him speak offers no clue as to what he will do because he is dishonest.

Let's just see how it goes. My hope is that they will kill the fillabuster and impeach everyone quickly following a plan made over many years of waitng for the opportunity. But that's just me taking the chance on being wrong. 

On Corruption

In a great many ways corruption is something like a cold virus. A cold virus might be any number of differing viruses which share a set of symptoms which are widely known. Corruption also might be of many similar types and share symptoms which are widely known. A common cold virus is easily spread and might use a large number of vectors to find a host and become implanted. So too does corruption find its host using a large number of vectors to spread itself within the sample of host availability. And finally, once a host is infected, or corrupted, the issue must run its course; there is little we can do to stop it without some abnormal treatment is found. Lets drop the virus analogy at this point and focus on corruption within any system.

Corruption is defined here as some factor of a system becoming deliberately misused to further an intrusion uninterested in the purpose of the system being targeted at it's onset. This can be simple. A small bribe might be offered to a doorman so that he will allow passage into a secure facility and information or further access is also granted, while the building system, including the doorman, is designed to keep such intrusions out for specific reasons.

• These prohibited intrusions might be innocuous:

  • Such as a sports fan wishing to get a rare autograph.

• The corruption may be minor:

  • Such as a photographer wishing to confirm some rumor by photographing the actions of others without permission.

• The Corruption might be politically or morally positive in its intention:

  • The photographs show clear evidence of wrong doing by a corrupt person.

• Or corruption might be decidedly negative:

  • The photographs create evidence for blackmail of some person who himself is corrupt.
    

In these many ways corruption spreads, for the good, the bad, and the ugly purposes it finds. The Doorman is the object of the corrupter, he too may have good or bad purposes and intentions, the least of which are achieving the bribe he receives. In the blackmail or positive versions above the corrupter spread corruption in a good or very bad cause, the Doorman might engage his services in hopes his actions bring about the end of the corruption being photographed because of his actions, and the money might be needed to fund other good causes. But the fact remains that no matter the cause, or effect, the corruption is spread, embeds itself in the host, and is frightfully difficult to remove without destroying the system under corrupt intent.

People who have been corrupted are often open to further corruption and few become immune from it, having been corrupted. More likely is that a person who has successfully corrupted another person will reinfect that person for further aims at later point, even if this is to find another victim with good or bad desires. The subject of a corrupting re-introduction is more likely to comply since the previous corruption is still a liability and undiscovered (no matter how minor).

The only way out might seem to be by taking care against corruptions, but this is nearly impossible, so we invent laws which levy stiff penalties when corruption is called out. These penalties offer opportunities for corruption if the corrupter finds a potential host which is not yet corrupted but can be made to look that way. Some minor slip up, omission, or misinterpretation that can be converted to a corrupting purpose can spread the corruption and make it difficult to remove. The corrupted, facing stiff penalties, but otherwise not a willing participant, may aid the corrupter further in an effort of self preservation. Again, this leads to a system built to handle corruption becoming corrupted. It is possible to corrupt the system until it no longer represents the reasoning behind creating the system in the first place and the laws protecting it.

The simple fact about corruption is that moral training and character building within a society is the best way of prevention. Teaching people right from wrong, and the voluntary nature of social contracting, allows a person to not become corrupted because becoming corrupted is anathema to the subjects themselves. A right thinking and un-corruptable person has no need of participating and the down sides of becoming involved are too dire. (Though even in the Amish community, with all of its moral safeguards and isolation from corrupting influences, corruption abounds.) The interior feeling of becoming a bad person, even if never found out by others, would drag on the subject and so the action being proposed that would corrupt the system would never take place or would become exposed. This is a straight arrow approach, something which the entire society must value and maintain. This is no silver bullet for corruption, though it is the simplest form of prevention.

Secondary guards and guideposts, things which protect the system by checking the parts for corruption or availability for corruption are expensive to build and maintain, but this is how intelligence systems usually protect themselves from corruption. Policing, policy checking, and immediately removing corruption when found might slow corruption possibilities, but no system can be free of the possibility inside or especially outside of the system in question.

A tertiary system assumes that corruption will happen to some extent. Knowing where corruption will most likely occur allows closely targeted monitoring of the system and contingency replacement of corrupted component parts before the system breaks down entirely under the weight of it's corruption. These systems set goals for lowering the amount of corruption opportunities available in a modular fashion. Wartime spy programs often allow some measure of corruption into their system to use in spreading corruption to the corrupter. Double agents are useful and can be monitored and checks placed upon the outcomes. Once no longer viable vectors, the double agents can be removed without further corruption of the system since the removal is implied at the onset. This third way is useful when a system is built to allow it, but stopping the corruption entirely usually is not practical, just delayed.

The fourth way a system becomes corrupted is entirely from the interior of the system. Some part of the system itself works against the goals of the other parts, leading to members taking on corruptions that stabilize the system. (Such is the case in  police organizationsas an internal affairs officer.) A computer system might have exploits to bypass longer pathways to success in its functional routines, set by the designers as a boost to efficacy. An office manager may find that pens and note pads are being used at an unexpected rate because of unknown reasons, or misdirect resources for the betterment of the system improperly. This is the most common manner in which corruptions are introduced into systems, expediency and a willingness to pervert the system for its own good. We might find this sort of corruption in police forces where unwritten policy replaces law enforcement policy and legality for the betterment of the system which somehow is insufficient in certain cases. Corruptions of this type are all too common, usually leading to ever increasing modes of unwritten policies which can eventually be indistinguishable from the laws they should pursue. Torture of a prisoner might become the quickest route to finding facts in some area of law enforcement, the torture being a corrupt practice. This practice becomes the system which can then be reinfected with further expedient corruptions, such as harsher treatments which lead into the death of the subject. This in fact does remove the problem, but is unjust and corrupt if the Legal system requires proof of guilt. These murders must be covered up to preserve the corrupted system and maintain the performative aspect of law giving. The law simply does not come into the conversation because all parties feel justified by their own actions. Law enforcement becomes an absurdity and public confidence fails as law enforcement must become draconian to maintain the good intended but corrupt system that it created. These dire outcomes are not necessary in this fourth manner of corrupting a system.

A person may simply be eating a candy bar that should have been included in the inventory to stave off the hunger of missing a lunch break so that the inventory could be done on time. While more efficient than stopping work and eating lunch as they should, this tax on business is quite a large part of the loss due to corruption. Eventually there will be people all over the place with empty wrappers in their trash receptacles, profits fail, employees are let go, etcetera. If policy and policing fail to provide a manner of prevention, then perhaps a focus on detection and removal is a better route to follow.

Laws, rules, and systems of policing the system under question are expensive, slow, and even slowing to the system efficiency. A fine system of post depression economics once called Keynesian Economic modeling worked very well to “right the ship” of world economies under the pressures of the Great Depression and World War Two; but Keynesian Economics was also thought to have laid the groundwork for “stag-flation” (an unintedned consequence which mimmicked the outcomes of  corruption) thirty years later and these theories were abandoned because government over spending and intermittent debt undermined the system which supported better outcomes. Loop holes were found in the Keynesian system and exploits allowed extravagant spending on military capacity and even thrift,  in an otherwise peaceful and prosperous world. The spending, needing a cause for continuance, drove war making and a need for more increased spending. Keynes never saw this coming in his system and it became corrupted by efficieny and a lack of prescience. Building a better mousetrap worked, the system worked well and easily, but the lack of any system of prevention lead into failure due to corruption none-the-less.

A multi-modal program of systems to keep corruption at manageable levels might be possible, but these are usually ad hoc systems of reaction to failure rather than planning for success. We might find that pens are being pilfered by most employees and put controls on the supply. This may momentarily slow the losses of pens, but also remove an incentive from employees dependent on that supply as a perk. Paying the employees not to steal pens might work until they find that they can indeed have the money and the pens both. Or a system may attempt to control the supply and choke itself in inefficiency, such as issuing bullets to soldiers in tightly controlled numbers too small to handle the threat while teaching marksmanship, ammunition conversation, and spent case-counting, may help with the problem of spending too much on ammunition; or the system might attempt to restrict the amount of bullets that might go into a weapon in a finite amount of time. Each system layered in may have a deleterious effect somewhere else in the system.

Replacement of a system which has become corrupted seems the simplest means of insuring that corruption does not persist. In American Courts it is possible to replace a jury even during deliberation of a verdict, as juries are seen as only true when the verdict is only based on the evidence presented. A computer system which is open to prying might become corrupted in many ways, but replacing the system is inexpensive and easily accomplished on a routine basis. Data is locked down at a certain point where corruption is not present and then re-introduced at intervals to remove corruption by deletion. These seem very practical in systems where infrastructure is the thing. If a computer system routinely removes all changes to its data occasionally, corruption is indeed removed if never prevented. Changes in the data itself may need interventions and constant updating, but each change in the underlying system means more opportunities for unforeseen corruption. In data systems, efficacy based solutions (such as check sum checking) may aid in corruption or prevention. However, if there is a model for facing the inevitable failure of any system due to corruption, then this is the one. Replace the entire system occasionally and check the data constantly.

Hard programming to keep outsiders from entering the prohibited system may also slow innovations and bring on stagnation or economic disadvantages by making the system inaccessible for necessary change in the shorter terms necessary to maintain an efficient position. In light switches and dispensing machines this works well, the opportunities for corruption become entirely external to the corrupter. Stacking incorruptible systems one before another may offer some protections and modular replacement of system components would allow change over time. But this is a purely machine form of design and so any system designed to perform a single set of functions, even if not corruptible, and even if efficient, will become less useful as new needs and new tastes are found and new systems built to service the next need. Again, modular construction of this sort of machine may stave off completely anachronistic machinery lining the walls of buildings everywhere, but old systems will be hard to take down.

It seems that corruption will intrude into any system, even if it makes little difference to important systems, and even if the system continues as it should after the intrusion. But restricting motion to stave off corrupting influences may stifle innovation and improvement, adding inefficiency more destructive than some minor or major corruption influence. So what is to be done?

• Firstly. Assume corruption is present and spend resources to control it only if the system itself is too valuable to allow corruption to enter into it.

• Secondly. Assume corruption will be introduced and create a system of social conditioning which abhors it, but allow dissent and innovation in treatment of corruption and soft policing and policy enforcement to maintain the status quo of low priority corruption influences.

• Thirdly. Disincentive-ize corruption by making systems open to inspection by other not involved in the system itself. This is the system most use today through password protection schemes even when no sensitive objects might be found within the system being protected.

• Fourth. Routinely replace systems where they fail rather than patch them against exploitation. If a system proves too costly to maintain, because it becomes corrupted too easily, replace the system with a better model.

Corruption is as it appears, as would a cold virus that might run through the population of any office environment where people meet in a manner close enough to spread a virus. Once corruption gets loose, the intentions of the office to allow close contact must change; removing contact at the onset of planning will be less efficient; allowing contact will become inefficient once the virus gets into the system, so to plan for both scenarios might be the most prudent path even if the virus cannot be stopped. Removing those people from the office who have virus symptoms decreases productivity and rarely will it stop the virus since the virus embeds without symptoms and spreads before symptoms occur. And the best manner for virus protection is the ability to self identify symptoms and take appropriate action, but this may open the door to other forms of corruption, such as malingering, and require other systems of prevention. Or you might simply understand that virulence will occur and act on it in a multi-modal manner:

• Do business as usual and monitor for outside and interior signs of infection.

• This is the current mode for information systems protection generally.

• Once identified, remove the infected to safe distance and allow functions to continue remotely as allowed by circumstance, or replace the infected with others, then clean everything of contamination. Continue to monitor and remove infection as necessary, clean again as necessary.

  • This is the enhanced system of backup and replacement in information systems built more robustly.

• If the system becomes widely effected by contamination, close up shop and try to work remotely in planned a fall-back system which negates the losses but is less efficient.

  • This is the model of most who choose not to protect themselves from system corruptions.

You might simply allow the virus to run its course. This is something nobody wants, but is likely the most prevalent. Political corruptions become entrenched until ineffective and replaceable. It is hard on systems and people to allow corruption to rule the day.

Each of the above steps is less efficient than the intended outcomes determined in a plan which does not include the idea of a corruption, but the manager who determines corruption likely will not occur is not building a system based on probability but instead basing assumptions on the mere possibility that a virus occurring in any closed system is very low. Neither are likely to be proven true over time.

Since most corruption is involved in political, economic, and informational, systems, these being the manner in which commerce and interaction occur generally, these are the areas most involved in becoming corrupted and remaining in that state without action. Removal of corruption is best accomplish by those who find themselves corrupted, but this requires self assurance, self-monitoring, and in the event of corruption, self-policing. Corruption itself cannot be avoided so long as advantage is the goal and efficiency very often opens a system up to corruption. Stern measures will do little to stop the corruption, even once it is found, since once established corruption is difficult to extract from the system. As we pursue efficient methods of controlling our lives, we open ourselves up to corruption and these may seem quite small at the onset while allowing further corruptions to occur which we did not expect.

By far the best means of combating corruption is to expose it openly since most corruption involves attempts at remaining clandestine in the effort tend toward continuing in the corrupt effort, while the advantages of efficiency without corrupting influences warrant care for others over profit. The potential for loss and fear of the unknown when corruption is hidden allows systems to be created which are more openly corruptible, or corruption becomes more difficult to slow once it becomes embedded in the system. Exposure of corruption openly tends toward mitigating outcomes for the better.

Therefore accepting loss, a planned form including some intermediate failure, is the key to removing corruption from the system by removing any motive toward corruption at its closet inception point. Accepting corruption as a likely outcome will negate the need for extraordinary losses, even if shorter termed profit might be foregone on occasion. Accepting loss due to corruption and accepting the attendant loss of profit (which is inevitable in any system) will allow a system to be built which fails and then recovers quickly when compared to systems built otherwise.

COVID 2026

I wrote this a few weeks ago and we thought we were on the downslope of the virus. But as it turned out there was another two weeks of chest congestion and then a week of brain fog. We've been a bit lazy these few weeks and since we haven't very much to do that is pressing things are going long as they do. Not really sick, not fully back to life. Wear the mask, get the jab. You don't want this.

___________________________________________________________________________

Our friend COVID is back and loose in the world. I am just today finished with the infection following two weeks of fairly horrible cold symptoms. We had vaccines last year so our troubles were perhaps less than those unvaccinated recently.

It comes on like a truck, bearing down from nowhere and moving fast. The main symptoms are over in a week but I can see there was some danger in the upper respiratory aspects of it in the first few days. Coughing until you are out of air isn't as fun as it sounds. Robatussin worked pretty well but the  muscle pain from coughing was three days of badness. This past week has been mostly chest congestion and brain fog, but cold pills do the job of slowing the cough. We spotted this as COVID right away because we had it in 2019. 

Mask up. Get the shot. Stay away from people if you can. Hopefully we learned the lessons of 2020, but the President likely didn't. If this gets loose like it did back then you'll need to follow better council.

Flock Cameras

What if, for no reason you know of, a man shows up wherever you go with a camera and a notebook who is taking your picture and writng down where you are and what you are doing? He appears harmless and you never hear or see him do anything with the stuff he is collecting. Perhaps this is simple neuvo people watching, something the kids are doing which is innocent and more than a bit invasive, but not illegal? 

You might call a cop because it is suspect behavior at the least, if only to put your mind at rest.

• But what if it turns out that this man with his camera is a cop working on some police project they are thinking of doing later if it turns out that the project is needed to protect us all? 
• He isn't surveiling you, as such, just a sample of the citizenry and you happened along.
• You might wonder why they don't simply announce it and get some public input prior to beginning.
• You might ask to be excluded, as is your right, and he would have to go away.
• But what if he didn't?
• Or you might ask the man with the camera directly why he is doing this stuff. 
• But what if he says it is none of your business?
• What if he threatens legal action against you for wanting to know?
• What if the next day he is replaced by two such men?
• Or you might get pissed off if you are doing nothing wrong because it is your right to be left alone.
• You might want to smash his camera.
• You might want to tear up his notes.
• But what if the police protect his right to continue doing what he is doing despite the invasion of your privacy?

Now change the scenario so that the man with the camera is lazy and flying a drone around and following your movements that way. He doesn't want you to worry about seeing him doing what he is doing and has all the best intentions. He promises not to use the information wrongly. What would the difference be to you?

And even if it turns out the drone is owned by Goodtimes Inc, a ficticious marketing company aimed at making you happy (just looking for the opportunity to sell you a boat because boats make people happy). Would it make any difference that they didn't ask if you wanted them to help you be happy or even if boats interest you, or if you wanted your picture taken?

Government needs tools to do its job effectively. That being said, Government has a process by which it goes about using those tools which is entirely subject to the will and consent of the governed and overseen by all of its citizens equally. Private companies have no such protective architecture in place. So when government circumvents the protections of the people's choosing and opts to contract surveilance it knows is marginally illegal and absolutely immoral, it is time to act to reign these things in. 

Today I am worried about something I needn't worry about but do: Flock Cameras. I won't go into what they are, Google will tell you all you need to know if you don't know. 

Yesterday I heard about Flock Cameras and did some cursory looking into it. Oregon has suprizingly few of these things compared to the rest of the country, but the few we have are still too many. Private companies are surveiling the streets and squares of the United States, photographing everything rolling by and logging the movements of every person in the country.

This has to stop and we have to stop it. Here's why. . . .

The fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects us all from unreasonable searches and seizures. You have the right to privacy in your personal effects and documents and this is a right which can be over-ridden reasonably once due process occurs, but otherwise this right cannot be violated. These cameras directly violate that right. 

It is no business of anyone where I go, and they have no need to know who I visit, where I buy things, or what I am doing generally unless I am involved in some sort of criminal enterprise that they are already aware of prior to my becoming a subject to their lawful investigation. Even then they have to follow process fully before invading my rights. But police are allowing these camera to be set up and then to sell them information which tracks me, and you. They do this by signing a contract which allows it that they themselves cannot simply end the contract allowed collection of data, so the contract is in force even without police consent or any intent of the police to use the data. 

The wrong here is not immediately apparent damages. The wrong is the invasion of privacy by "thinking machines" that know no rights at all. Why must I protect myself from being targeted by machines which collect data without cause? I don't want to be talking about this but it seems necessary that I do.

Yesterday I looked into these things.

I don't go many places, but the Fred Meyer on Imbrie has two of these things watching who comes and goes. So I wrote Fred Meyer and explained that I will not use the Fred Meyer on Imbrie so long as those cameras exist where they are. I said openly that I would join in protest of these things if I see one. But for a wonderful company like Fred Meyer there simply is no win in having these things on thier property, so why are they putting them in? What possible use is it to them? What bottom line issue does this improve for them or their customers?

It really doesn't matter why Freddies  did it. Whoever made that decision ought to be fired and go to work for ICE or the CIA because that is where these sorts of people thrive. But that I have my picture taken, my license plate photographed, the make, model, color, and details of my car logged, and the movement of me and my effects through the world checked. This is a problem looking for a justification. Not a problem requiring a just solution where all are concerned equally that Flock cameras solve for us all.