Another Fine Mess

[RANT]

“Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into.” That was what Oliver Hardy said to Stan Laurel and the same can be said for the politicians.

Outdated computer system exploited in Florida water treatment plant hack
Investigators are still trying to determine who's behind the hack.
ABC News
ByJosh Margolin and Ivan Pereira
February 11, 2021


An outdated version of Windows and a weak cybersecurity network allowed hackers to access a Florida wastewater treatment plant's computer system and momentarily tamper with the water supply, federal investigators revealed in a memo obtained by ABC News.

The FBI's Cyber Division on Tuesday notified law enforcement agencies and businesses to warn them about the computer vulnerabilities, which led to the Bruce T. Haddock Water Treatment Plant in Oldsmar being hacked on Feb. 5.

The plant's computer systems were using Windows 7, which hasn't received support or updates from Microsoft in over a year, according to the FBI.

Okay why were they using ancient computers?

If this went undetected it would a thousand time worst than Flint Michigan!

Let’s take a look at the Root Cause of the hack.

First question: Why were they using a legacy computer?
Answer: This is a regulated utility, their budget needs to be approved by a political appointed commission. So the utility had make one of two choices, they are caught between a rock and a hard place. They can either take the funds from another project or increase the budget.

How do you think a board of political appointees of raising taxes? So the water treatment plant us twenty year old computers and software. Magnify this all across the country, every water treatment plant in the nation is affected!

But it is not only water treatment plants but all unities and transportation network.

• Did you know that one of the oldest railroad bridges are here Connecticut was built in 1907! It is the Connecticut river bridge, and it is the oldest bridge between New York and Boston.
• Did you know that the FAA is using 40 year old computers?
• Did you know that the Interstate system was built in the 50’s, 60s, and 70s.
• Did you know that the electrical grid was also built around that time frame 50s-60s.

But what politician wants to raise taxes, which ever party raised the taxes that other party will attack them.

But the infrastructure needs up dating! There is no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

I am a big fan of Keynesian Economics which went out of favor with Reagan's Trickle Down Theory.

Keynesian economics is a macroeconomic economic theory of total spending in the economy and its effects on output, employment, and inflation. Keynesian economics was developed by the British economist John Maynard Keynes during the 1930s in an attempt to understand the Great Depression. Keynesian economics is considered a "demand-side" theory that focuses on changes in the economy over the short run. Keynes’s theory was the first to sharply separate the study of economic behavior and markets based on individual incentives from the study of broad national economic aggregate variables and constructs.

Based on his theory, Keynes advocated for increased government expenditures and lower taxes to stimulate demand and pull the global economy out of the depression. Subsequently, Keynesian economics was used to refer to the concept that optimal economic performance could be achieved—and economic slumps prevented—by influencing aggregate demand through activist stabilization and economic intervention policies by the government.

In other words… Priming the pump.

So if we spend money on rebuilding our infrastructure the economy will grow.

But where do we get the tax dollars to rebuild it?

So here is Diana’s Economic Recovery Plan.

First where do we get the tax dollars? Well we did it once and we can do it again, we racked up a huge debt from World War II. That war was fought on a credit card. Tax brackets went actually as high as 90%! So lets bring them back, start stepping the tax brackets say around a million dollars of income. I am a firm believer in “Use Tax” to a certain extent like tolls and a gas tax. Also bring back the estate tax! The Republicans call it “The Death Tax” but I like to call it “The No Dynasty Tax” When Trump dies do you want his kids to inherit billions of dollars and pass along Trump’s dynasty? Because that is what will happen, I say tax estates above say a million dollars, that is about 15% of the population so the other 85% will not be taxed at all.

Take those dollars and,

• Give a portion to those making under $60,000… give them a tax cut.
• Use a portion to pay off our huge debt.
• Use the remainder to rebuild the infrastructure, putting people to work… or priming the pump.

[/RANT]