Some personal history: I’ve been using Wireshark since it was called Ethereal, all the way back to the very start of the 21st century, when I was introduced to an early version I used to examine a workplace network issue. Wireshark’s strongest feature is its ability to capture everything and then decode the packets it finds. I’ve been able to solve more than one seemingly intractable problem with Wireshark after all other attempts at problem solving failed.

In the screen capture above you can observe all the various devices on my home network sending out network messages. For example, you can see one of my Espressif boards (an ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1-N8R8) sending out an address resolution protocal (ARP) message. The lower windows show a packet I selected for further examination. It’s associated with one of the Amazon devices I have running in the house, and I do have a few.

The device I’ve been searching for recently is my Ring doorbell camera. I want to find it, then associate it to a fixed IP address within my WiFi access point, then trap all communications to another node within my home so I can enable all the features it can support locally and then shut down my monthly payment to use this device. I don’t need the service Amazon provides, but more specifically, I don’t want any more surveillance video flowing out to Amazon to be used by “law enforcement.” This is the start of my drive to discover all information flowing out of my home, and to curtail as much of it as possible. I’m done being a part of surveillance capitalism.

Wireshark Installation Note

This is installed via Homebrew. If you install Wireshark, then make sure to use brew install --cask wireshark in order to pick up the GUI frontend. If you perform a brew installation without cask, then you only get the command line portion. If you try to pick up the GUI with a following cask installation, it will fail, forcing you to remove the initial wireshark installation and starting over with cask.

Links

• Wireshark Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireshark
• Wireshark — https://www.wireshark.org
• Surveillance capitalism — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance_capitalism
• High tech is watching you — https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/03/harvard-professor-says-surveillance-capitalism-is-undermining-democracy/

problems running wireshark on macos 13

https://www.vote.org

We need to vote, in every election and in every jurisdiction we live in and are legally allowed to do so. For Florida, a.k.a. DeSantistan, we need to vote to push back hard against the decade’s long Republican campaign to deprive anyone who isn’t male, white, and rich of any rights they wish to enjoy, such as the right to vote.

The link beneath the vote.org logo will take you to a web site that will quickly and efficiently help you determine, based on where you live, when, where, and how to vote or register to vote if you aren’t registered. Voting works. It has been shown to work repeatedly in every election, major and minor, on year or off, if people are willing to vote and vote with compassion and intelligence, two key qualities that the Republican party are deathly afraid of and will do anything to stamp out within their own ranks. The Republican party is no longer the party of conservatism, but the party of authoritarianism leaning hard into fascism. Republicans now say the quiet parts out loud, that it is their intention to block and dismantle everything democratic that doesn’t support them and their rough ride over every citizen for political power and absolute control.

Please, at the very least, vote.

The screen capture above was taken on my iPhone on 7 November 2016, the day before the 2016 presidential election. The 538 site takes its name from the total number of electors in the electoral college. It uses a unique algorithm to calculate an overall statistical aggregation. The view above showed the statistical standing of Clinton vs Trump the day before the 2016 presidential election.

538 showed Clinton having a significant statistical lead over Trump. I voted that day, as I’ve always voted ever since I was old enough in 1972. 538 wasn’t the only site showing Clinton statistically far ahead. Two other sites I followed at the time, Slate and Salon, also had a statistical scoreboard showing Clinton far ahead. Slate’s and Salon’s were far less rigorous in their analysis. The 538 analysis was what I hung my hat on for “the truth” of public sentiment before the election.

Of course we know how 2016 turned out, and we’ve lived the Trumpian nightmare ever since. The day after the 2016 presidential election I immediately stopped following 538, Salon and Slate and I’ve not gone back since. I have no idea how the 2024 presidential election will turn out, especially over a year out from the election. All I know is if we want to keep the insanity out of the White House then we need to take nothing for granted, ignore the polls, and vote as if our very existence as a democracy is at stake, because it is.

POLLS ARE NOT VOTES! DON’T BE A LAZY LIBERAL! VOTE!

1. aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)
2. often used in contexts that suggest someone’s expressed beliefs about such matters are not backed with genuine concern or action

Link: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/woke

From Cambridge Dictionary:

1. aware, especially of social problems such as racism and inequality:

Link: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/woke

From Collins Dictionary:

1. aware of social and political injustice

Link: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/woke

From Wikipedia:

1. Woke is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination”. Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexism, and has also been used as shorthand for American Left ideas involving identity politics and social justice, such as the notion of white privilege and slavery reparations for African Americans.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke

The Wikipedia link is an excellent history of the use of woke going back to African American usage around the start of the twentieth century. It basically took 100 years for White folks to “wake up” to what Blacks had been horrifically suffering from for centuries in America.

A proposed law in Florida would force bloggers who write about Gov. Ron DeSantis and other elected officials to register with a state office and file monthly reports or face fines of $25 per day. The bill was filed in the Florida Senate Tuesday by Senator Jason Brodeur, a Republican.

If enacted, the proposed law would likely be challenged in court on grounds that it violates First Amendment protections of freedom of speech and the press. Defending his bill, Brodeur said, “Paid bloggers are lobbyists who write instead of talk. They both are professional electioneers. If lobbyists have to register and report, why shouldn’t paid bloggers?” according to the Florida Politics news website.

The bill text defines bloggers as people who write for websites or webpages that are “frequently updated with opinion, commentary, or business content.” Websites run by newspapers or “similar publications” are excluded from the definition.

There’s an article posted on ArsTechnica where Florida’s Little Dictator, Ron DeSantis, is trying to squelch all criticism within the state, especially anything critical of him. Oh, the proposed law has all the politicians listed out, but don’t be fooled: it’s all about him. I don’t get paid a penny for what I post, and I will never have advertising on my blog unless I can no longer pay to not have ads on my blog. But as along as I can run a blog as free of influence as possible, I will write about anything, including the wretched hive of scum and villainy known as Tallahassee.

I’ve been a citizen of Florida since moving here in 1984. One reason I moved down here was because it was a reasonable Democratic state, with Bob Graham as Florida’s Democratic Governor. We had Democratic Governors until 2000, when we got Jeb Bush. And it’s been a slow downhill slide into hell ever since. There are a number of reasons for the switch, one of which is the villainy of Republicans, and another is the incompetence of the Democratic party, as exemplified by what happened in Miami-Dade/Palm Beach Bush/Gore presidential recount and the “hanging chads” debacle. And the Florida Democratic party has only gotten worse since. Florida is Republican because the Democratic party cannot mount an effective political offense against Republicans. The sting of Gore’s loss is worsened by the fact that he won the popular vote, but had victory stolen from him by the machinations of the anti-democratic Electoral College.

Our only hope of kicking the Republicans out of power in Florida is to take advantage of these increasingly authoritarian acts being perpetrated by the Florida Republican party. Hopefully as Republicans get stupider, I pray the Florida Democrats will get smarter, and in the process, grow a backbone.

I will continue to do my very small part to call out the Republican assholes in Tallahassee. Fuck you, Ron DeSantis.

Links

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/03/florida-bill-would-make-bloggers-who-write-about-governor-register-with-state/

I am amazed by the spirit and resolve of the Ukrainian people, especially in light of all they’ve suffered at the hands of the Russians over the decades, especially the Hododomor, or Terror Famine, inflicted on Ukraine by Joseph Stalin in the early 1930s ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor ). The Russians are just as brutal today as they’ve ever been, especially the Russian Wagner Group. The following photos are some of what I collected in the early days of the war. These images seem to have effected me the most, although anything coming out of Ukraine documenting the death and suffering of the Ukrainians always brings me to a moment of prayer for the heroic Ukrainian people.

1. Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise;
2. for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me:
   they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
3. They compassed me about also with words of hatred;
   and fought against me without a cause.
4. For my love they are my adversaries:
   but I give myself unto prayer.
5. And they have rewarded me evil for good,
   and hatred for my love.
6. Set thou a wicked man over him:
   and let Satan stand at his right hand.
7. When he shall be judged, let him be condemned:
   and let his prayer become sin.
8. Let his days be few;
   and let another take his office.
9. Let his children be fatherless,
   and his wife a widow.
10. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg:
    let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.
11. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath;
    and let the strangers spoil his labour.
12. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him:
    neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.
13. Let his posterity be cut off;
    and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
14. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord;
    and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15. Let them be before the Lord continually,
    that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
16. Because that he remembered not to shew mercy,
    but persecuted the poor and needy man,
    that he might even slay the broken in heart.
17. As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him:
    as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.
18. As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment,
    so let it come into his bowels like water,
    and like oil into his bones.
19. Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him,
    and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.
20. Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord,
    and of them that speak evil against my soul.
21. But do thou for me, O God the Lord, for thy name’s sake:
    because thy mercy is good,
    deliver thou me.
22. For I am poor and needy,
    and my heart is wounded within me.
23. I am gone like the shadow when it declineth:
    I am tossed up and down as the locust.
24. My knees are weak through fasting;
    and my flesh faileth of fatness.
25. I became also a reproach unto them:
    when they looked upon me they shaked their heads.
26. Help me, O Lord my God:
    O save me according to thy mercy:
27. that they may know that this is thy hand;
    that thou, Lord, hast done it.
28. Let them curse, but bless thou:
    when they arise, let them be ashamed;
    but let thy servant rejoice.
29. Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame,
    and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.
30. I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth;
    yea, I will praise him among the multitude.
31. For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor,
    to save him from those that condemn his soul.

Lauren Boebert, Republican US Representative for Colorado’s 3rd congressional district, who won by only 500 votes in a cherry-red Republican district against her Democratic opponent, has been cherry picking quotes from the Old Testament, specifically Psalms 109, verses 8 and 9, to stir up the pagan Christians in Texas against President Biden. As usual, the grossly ignorant Boebert understands nothing of the the scripture from which she quotes.

Psalm 109 is attributed to King David and noted for containing some of the most severe curses in the Bible, such as verses 12 and 13. It has traditionally been called the “Judas Psalm” because of an particular interpretation relating in verse 8 (above in Psalm 109) to Judas Iscariot’s punishment as noted in the New Testament.

The best interpretation I’ve read of this Psalm is from Enduring World ( https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/psalm-109/ ) starting with:

This is a Psalm of David, and is thought to be the strongest of what are known as the imprecatory psalms, David’s songs that call down curses upon his enemies. It is important to remember that these are prayers, committing vengeance unto God. With the greater revelation of grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ, we understand that we are to pray for the good of our enemies, and not for their ruin.

Yet, we remind ourselves that David refused to act upon these curses; he left vengeance up to God. This is especially relevant regarding David, who knew what it was to take life with the sword. When David withheld vengeance, it was because he chose to, not because he lacked the opportunity, skill, or courage.

My own interpretation has President Biden standing in for King David, and thus the verses in green ( 1-5 and 30-31) speak to the condition of leadership in the face of relentless lying critics, such as the Magat Republican’ts. I particular point out verse 31, and the scripture “For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor…” The Republican’ts will have nothing to do with the poor, and as a consequence will stand before God in judgement as is foretold in Matthew 25, verses 31 through 46.

Links

sheep and goats

Today is Martin Luther King Jr Day, a federal holiday. It’s also my weekly shopping day.

I used to try to shop on Wednesdays when I first retired in order to avoid morning crowds, but the pandemic upended that fine planning. I would go shopping on whatever day would be appropriate based on what was supposed to be on store shelves at specific locations. Over time my shopping day drifted to Tuesday, and now it’s on Monday. If I get to Costco (which is where I do the bulk of my grocery shopping) early enough, I can get my gas without waiting and find a conveniently close parking spot, then head in as soon as they roll up the entrance door. I’ve got my shopping list on my iPhone, and I also use a calculator app to keep a running total of everything I put in my cart so I can keep a tight rein on expenses. The things you do in retirement these days.

The next spot I stop at on shopping Monday is the super Target next to the Costco. It’s there I pick up the few minor things that Costco doesn’t sell, like individual cans of vegetable refried beans and diet Bunderberg ginger bear. While I was on the way to the checkout, I happened to pass an end cap with m&m candies stacked on it. And wouldn’t you know it, they had those awful feminist m&m’s, like the small pack I bought yesterday at Walgreens. I didn’t get any today because that’s way too many for me to eat, and besides that, the bags are $12.59 each, which to be honest is a frivolous expense. If I have to spend that much money it had better be for something more important than a “party size” bag of m&m’s, or any candy for that matter. Lord only knows what that amount of candy would do to my blood sugar; if the candy didn’t kill me, my wife would for getting a bag like that.

I’m still amazed that the hard right (no longer need to call them conservative, because they can’t conserve anything) get wound up over little candies and how they’re presented. But this is the same type of hateful and prejudiced minds that have discriminated against black Americans since they were brought unwillingly to this continent centuries ago. Black Americans have been the targets of discrimination, violence, and death, from lynchings on up to MLK’s assassination in Memphis in 1968, and beyond to rampant police shootings around this nation. I’m sure this petty contrived outrage over m&m’s is an attempt to obscure the importance of this day and all the dark history against blacks the MLK holiday is meant to remind us of.

I’ve been waiting to say something intelligent and pithy about Biden’s mishandling of classified materials, but as usual, de Adder beat me to it and with style. The one editorial cartoon where Joe is using a classified document to wipe his oil dip stick next to his Corvette is priceless. This is my favorite cartoon of his so far.

As funny as the cartoons may be, the matter of controlling classified materials is anything but. I spent the last 30 years of my work life with a classification because the nature of my work demanded it. I was investigated every five years and filled out my fair share of Standard Form (SF) 86s to support those investigations. And all the yearly security classes I was required to attend. I was also caught up in the Office of Personnel Management’s 2015 data breach that included those very personal materials that were, as far as I’m concerned, just as critical as any officially classified information I was supposed to protect. Now here we are talking about an 80-year-old man who happened to have classified documents scattered around various personal locations from his time as vice president.

Of course the right will now point to Biden’s document faux pa and scream at the tops of their lungs that there’s no difference between Biden’s handling and Trump’s out-and-out theft of documents, stonewalling of returning said stolen documents, and then lying about having returned everything when in fact Trump hadn’t. Critical differences, naturally, but politics being what it is, and how lazy all journalism is and how decades of false equivalences and what-about-isms have eroded the ability to clearly define the truth, I’m certain it won’t be long before Trump’s crimes are dismissed, or else they just fade away.

How much classified and confidential information have we lost? We’ll never really know because I’m certain they don’t really know the full extent, and if they do, I’m also certain it’s been classified to hide the truth.

There’s been a tempest in a teakettle with the right, in that they now see the new m&m packaging as “woke.” I’ve seen some streaming comments on YouTube, all of them humorous, over how this is somehow a lessening of American prowess within the world. I found my package of woke m&ms today while I was out running an errand to a local drug store. You know, the place where you can get drugs, and now it seems, “woke” candy. Who knew? I can’t remember the last time I ate some m&ms, so I bought a few packages, tried them all, and discovered they all tasted very good. Again, who know that “woke” candies could taste so good? Now that I know about “woke” m&ms I’m going to purchase them wherever I can find them. And enjoy each and every one.

McCarthy is finally — finally — speaker of the House. After fifteen — fifteen — consecutive votes over four days. The Republican’ts have selected a male human (I won’t call him a man) who would do anything, say anything to win a seat of power. This is the perfect bookend to the January 6^th 2021 attempted coup riot. After the riot McCarthy traveled down to the attempted coup’s leader to offer obeisance to T**** and thus avoid holding him to any accountability for what happened. I have no idea what will happen now that a speaker has been selected from within the Republican’ts ranks, but I fear the worst for the health our republic with a party that knows nothing about true responsible governance and only about loudly airing their grievances on right-wing media.