As much as I love my cellphone, computers and even my occasional social media posts, a part of me has always loathed technology.
I do not like the dependency it causes (some people can’t memorize phone numbers or find their way around a city block), I do not like how technology allows people to unintentionally isolate themselves as they sit with their heads bowed, fixated with whatever is on their phone, nor do I appreciate the ever-constant technological advances that seem to get us more and more disconnected from other human beings, thus reducing our social skills.
Technology is great for practical reasons, such as data related to research in the health and science industries, but we need to slow down in other aspects, because the way I see it, the constant evolution of technology will continue to cripple us as a people.
Technology also helps bad people further their destructive platforms.
Last week, FBI Director James Comey spoke before the Senate Intelligence Committee about the agency’s difficulty accessing data from Syed Rizwan Farook’s and Tashfeen Malik’s phones. Farook and Malik are the husband and wife duo who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, last December. It was the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.
There is an 18-minute gap in the narrative of the couple’s whereabouts after the attack and before the two were gunned down by police hours later. That information is essential for the FBI to finish its investigation and potentially prevent future attacks.
The device, an iPhone5, is a product of Apple Inc. In the fall of 2014, Apple redesigned the way phones are encrypted, making it “more difficult for law enforcement to access encrypted data on cellphones.” This week, a judge directed Apple to assist the FBI in its effort to get around the phone passcode protection and any auto-erase functions.
Apple has refused.
In a statement, the technology giant says doing so would “undermine encryption by creating a backdoor that could potentially be used on other future devices.”
Whatever!
The FBI is not asking for the method Apple uses to encrypt data; they just want Apple to turn off the auto-erase functions so the government can access the information. But rather than help the government combat terrorism and other travesties, Apple appears to be more concerned with its bottom line: making more money.
The two killers probably communicated with another terrorist immediately after the killing spree. The government needs that information. Apple’s refusal to accommodate law enforcement and the federal government in particular is absurd.
Technology has advanced so much that the federal government can’t seem to keep up; yet there are American companies who hold the key to imperative information, but those companies refuse to work alongside federal officials to combat attacks that leave this country incredibly vulnerable.
Completely ridiculous!
In more completely ridiculous government news, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said President Obama should not be able to nominate the replacement for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who, at age 79, passed away from an apparent heart attack last week.
McConnell made the statement shortly after Scalia’s death was confirmed, during a time when other elected officials released statements offering condolences to Scalia’s family. Not only was the statement distasteful, but it also bucks the Constitution, which states the sitting president has the authority and responsibility to nominate a new justice to fill any Supreme Court vacancy. There is no asterisk in the Constitution that says if it is the president’s last year in office he cannot or should not nominate a justice. McConnell’s attempt to ignore or rewrite the Constitution is blatantly disrespectful to Obama as president. Shame on McConnell and all the Republican presidential candidates who have chosen to ignore the United States Constitution.
Speaking of Republican presidential candidates, there is one candidate any frequent reader of this column knows I dislike: Donald Trump. I have authentic disdain for that man. He is a bully who is only good at insulting others in his attempt to ignore real issues or offer tangible solutions.
The Republican race for America’s highest office has become a joke — primarily because of Donald Trump.
I was so elated when our president rather eloquently addressed Trump’s candidacy.
“The presidency isn’t a matter of pandering and doing whatever will get you in the news on a given day. And sometimes, it requires you making hard decisions even when people don’t like it,” Obama said, adding that whoever succeeds him needs to be able to reflect the importance of the office and give foreign leaders confidence he or she knows their names and something about their nations’ histories.
“Whoever’s standing where I’m standing right now has the nuclear codes with them, and can order 21-year-olds into a firefight, and (has) to make sure that the banking system doesn’t collapse, and is often responsible for not just the United States of America, but 20 other countries that are having big problems or are falling apart and are going to be looking for us to do something. The American people are pretty sensible, and I think they’ll make a sensible choice in the end.”
Any Republican candidate besides Trump would be a better alternative to lead the party. Now is the time for Americans to truly act sensibly … let’s get it done!
