Yeah, when I put it that way, a damn tiny computer bug seems like a lot bigger deal than it appears on my iddy biddy phone, but THAT IS THE BENEFIT of having independent, loud-mouthed, wolf-mannered software developers serving as unannounced GAMMA TESTERS of your product.
Hey, I could have put it worse. I could have said
DON’T LET THESE DIRTY ROTTEN DEMS FUCK WITH TURTLEHEAD’S GAME, YOU DOPES, OR WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE UNDER PRESIDENT CROOKED HILLARY OR JOE “WHAT DOES THIS BUTTON DO” BIDEN.
Bottom Line: Consider this the world’s most dangerous and assholish bug report. But WAKE UP YOU SUCKERS – we are dealing with MA CANKLES, and she ain’t no ordinary criminal.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/16/10/18/tim-cook-included-in-early-list-of-potential-vp-candidates-for-clinton-campaign
Short message….
THE COOK stews THE TURTLE over THE WOLF’S mangy carcass.
OK, let’s back up.
Have any of you heard of “WinRed”?
WINRED is that thing on your PHONE that takes your TRUMP DONATIONS at the END OF THE MONTH.
You know how you get all those guilt-inducing emails and messages from EVERYBODY?
- President Trump
- Vice President Pence
- Mitch McConnell
- Kevin McCarthy
- Steve Scalise
- Elise Stefanik
- Eric Trump
- Lara Trump
- Don Jr.
- Many, many more
Those messages that get more and more desperate as the end of the month approaches, and MORE and MORE “X”? 2X, then 3X, then 4X, then 5X, and if you’re like me, you wait until the end of the month, after doing the bills, to make sure you can give a nice donation with 4X or 5X for
FOUR MORE YEARS
Right?
AND IT GETS BETTER.
What they’re doing NOW is adding options for MOAR MONEY to MOAR PEOPLE.
People like MITCH, and KEVIN, and all your FAVORITE MAGA STARS. Also for people in tight races.
THE DOWNTICKET RACES.
NOW – this stuff is important, because TRUMP just told us that WINNING THIS ELECTION is the strategy to HEAL AMERICA. Thanks to MARICA for alerting me to what our VSG said.
Now – I have to tell you – Trump has stated in other venues that his idea of winning this election includes a STRONGER SENATE and a FLIPPED HOUSE.
And we ain’t gonna do that if these people are ROBBED of their WinRed donations.
Well, hold onto your iPhones, people.
HERE IS THE BUG.
The phone browser system always takes all your information, then gives you the PAYMENT INTERFACE. The payment interface includes a CREDIT CARD or APPLE PAY.
Now, in the past, I used both, because my Apple Pay goes to the same credit card. Not much difference. But THIS was all before they started adding the interface for EXTRA donations to Mitch and crew. Once that happened, for no particular reason, I just happened to choose the credit card option. And at the end, after giving money to Trump, I would give some to the other folks.
BUUUUUT…..
This last time, interestingly, the APPLE PAY option didn’t WAIT – it appeared EARLY, and got in front of my usual donation sequence. It didn’t WAIT to appear with the credit card payment stuff, after I had gone to the trouble of entering all my data.
NOPE – it appeared right at the beginning, because I had jumped right there from a personalized link in a text message. It knew who I was, filling in my name and a couple of other items, knew who I was going to pay, and presented me with the option to simply go to APPLE PAY right up front.
So I tried it. And it paid, RIGHT THEN, and just dumped me out into a weird “done” state that looked like I hadn’t even STARTED the donation process. Yeah, it was easy, but it felt like I hadn’t even donated.
First of all, I had no idea if Apple was going to make sure that my numbers got added to the monthly totals for the GOP, because I hadn’t really gone through the normal collection of all my data. Maybe they DID send my info – maybe they DIDN’T. I got no notifications – no receipts. The whole thing felt weird – like I wasn’t even sure that WinRed got my money.
As of YESTERDAY they had not notified my credit card – I’ll check again soon.
But THAT wasn’t the worst part.
NO MITCH. NO KEVIN. NO STEVE. NO ELISE.
I wanted to give Mitch some money. Oh, I’ll do it at the end of THIS month – plenty of EXTRA to make up for missing February – but really, the BIGGER GAME IS APPARENT.
If you use Apple Pay – at least in that early part – based on my experience – it does NOT take you through to the other candidates.
THAT is a HELL OF A BUG.
Politically effective “whoops” disguised as CONVENIENCE.
Now I ain’t blamin’ WinRed. WinRed is a great, WINNING product. But the problem is very likely that they’re GOOD PEOPLE. They haven’t dealt with the shiftiest of criminals, like DA WOOF has.
Most people aren’t SUSPICIOUS AS HELL OF APPLE. But when I figured out that APPLE WATCH knew when I was TAKING A DUMP AT WORK during initial testing – yeah – it knows when you unlock your gun case, too.
Nothing as dangerous as an HONEST MAN in I.T., brothers and sisters.
Anyway, these people who lost coin are some VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE in November…..
LIKE THE GUY RESPONSIBLE FOR 220 JUDGES…..
…..who in my opinion likely got screwed out of some MAJOR CASH.
SO – I just want to say……
PLEASE don’t let one BAD APPLE spoil the Turtle Pond.
THINK DIFFERENT.
Wolf just wants a happy forest. Happy Turtle, happy Honeybadger, happy Lion – happy Wolf.
Maybe not so happy jackass and maybe not so happy rotten apple farmer, but tough luck, you sneaks. We’ll catch YOU on the NEXT TRICK.
W
*Checks Phone*
Still not Apple.
Check.
*smart*
Except that means it’s probably Android, which is Google. Who somehow make Apple look virtuous and holy next to what they do to you.
Bwaa true. They both hate us sensible American patriots.
Indeed. Almost all browser core code “engine” is “Chrome”.
From back in the day when we nerds hopped up cars instead of phones (which all came from Bell, aka Western Electric) [OK, some of us did, blue box, red box, et. al.], Chrome Don’t Get Ya Home…..
IIRC, some of that Chrome Code is black-box as well… who knows what evil lies in the heart of Google (aka Alphabet)…
I was slated to “inherit” my son’s Lumia 650 after he got an i-Thing. Unfortunately Satan Nutella killed it.
Now I’m weighing the cost/benefits of used “smart”phones versus horridly overpriced new ones… sigh…
SAD!!!!!! Nice UI, reasonable funtcionality, but abysmal app support/development (coinciding with the dank colorless MSDN dev environmnet)… One of the rare instances where M$ did something right, but (not so rare) killed it, giving up early.
Almost a mirror image of HP, who make brilliant hardware (or at least used to), but give up too early on software. If M$ had opened more APIs to their apps (LookOut :), Word, Excel, etc.), and the three-way lawsuit between Apple, HP, and someone-I-can’t-remember, the PC landscape (and the super-duper-mini landscape) might well have looked a lot different…
HPDesk was a great mail system. And, back in those days, M$ used HP3000s internally. Hmmm. What could have been…
Oh ugh. Those M’fuckers!!! I do NOT click to donate on those 2X, 3X … desperation, unsolicited texts because they don’t say who they are OR who is matching the 2X or where you are sending your money. So I don’t even get to the BAD Apple Bugs!!!!
I donate at donaldjtrump.com or winred.com and I think that’s where I have also donated to Susan Collins (for Kavanagh) and Elise Stefanik (for stellar defense in impeachment).
Wolfie, winred needs to know about this. Time to get the word to them.
They’ll get it. No problem.
There is some chance it’s already fixed, but (1) I want to make absolutely sure, and (2) this is a great case to demonstrate PLAUSIBILITY – one of my next posts.
So glad you are so adept at rooting this stuff out for us, Wolfie. The range of talent in this Deplorable Tree is quite extraordinary 🥰
Your thought there has stimulated some amazing realizations – about how quickly we covered all the bases here. Very interesting.
Open Sourcing for White Hats 🤓
Think Q might have had something to do with it? How we all got here is pretty amazing, really.
I’m pretty sure the answer is “yes”. I’m just not sure exactly WHY it’s yes!!!
Because Q loves us, and wants us to be happy!
Glad I dont own a phone but Kimi has one of them Google Pixel phones thru Verizon. I dont trust the damn things enough to have one, kimis phone is always turning itself on and that ain’t right.
Y’all can have them smartphones I might get one if they ever go to rotary dial lol and that ain’t happenin…
It is really crazy to see what people sacrifice for convenience always wanting a smarter phone.
Yeah, dumber is looking better all the time in phones!
Let’s hope Rand Paul sticks to his guns on FISA and the Patriot Act.
Rand really pisses me off sometimes but when it comes to our Freedom he is a stand up guy and is a great defender of Freedom.
FISAgate on Trump literally DOOMED a clean re-approval of FISA. Trump could VETO from now to forever, and the VOTERS will stick by him. Comey and Brennan destroyed it.
“Never again”.
Amen Wolf, after November that’s when the shits really gonna hit the fan.
If it doesn’t, I’m going galt on participating in this “democracy”.
I was there already, but Trump happened, so I’m giving it one more try.
There is no peace without justice, and no justice without JUDGMENT.
AMEN. That quote is a keeper.
Amen
One of the glorious hardware features in the PinePhone ( https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/ ) is actual hardware switches for cameras, microphones, etc. As in, they can take over the processor completely and still not eavesdrop because the microphone is physically not connected to the sound encoder — wire is cut; bridge out; you can’t get there from here.
Very cool. I like that sucker. Hope they’ve got a production model sooner rather than later.
I want one.
Me too!!
But I thought I was the only one Melania wanted to have lunch with in LA.
You mean EVERYONE is invited?
Galaxy phone forever!
HA! I almost never get Melania. I get Eric and Lara! And POTUS himself!!! 😀
I get every one of them….
SEVERAL times…. EVERY day!
Sheesh…..
If I had THEIR money…..
I’d BURN mine!
I get no Don jrs or Erics, a few VSGPOTUSDJTs, and a whole bunch of Melanias (with no photos, so they go straight into recycling).
Nokia 6210i forever…
If I want a camera, I have four (OK five, one with REAL FILM), and not fixed focus or fixed aperature,
If I want a PC, I have 17 (blush), various sizes/vintages up to 16-core servers (contemplating a Threadripper),
If I want an organizer, I have a DayTimer (OK,a couple sizes) (anyone remember them?????)…
And, best of all, if I want to phone, I have a candybar phone with GREAT audio, great reception, and around a two-week standby time (though I need to replace the ancient battery because it’s had a couple of “swims” too many)… but how many smart phones can survive being dropped in the snow (with salt/defrosting chemicals, no less), being punted under a car, picked up, dried off, and lived to see a new day???
Sometimes “dumb” is better. But the Siren Song of “There’s An App For That” is becoming all but impossible to ignore or avoid… Trying desperately to avoid getting wrecked on the shoals of i-Things… and the demonic shine of Chrome steers everyone from home…
Ima gettin burner phones ( like Chuckie has) an callin all ya’ll!!! Thanks for this post Wolfie!!!! If I am not receiving “Potential Spam” I am getting Trump contribution texts!!! I love him! and do contribute..but…somethings up!!! And yeah.. I have Apple phone!
Then just use your credit card if you donate off your phone. Don’t trust Apple Pay until after the election!
I don’t do Apple Pay Wolfie!!! and I don’t save CC info—I give (to a billionaire🤷♀️–Regularly) LOL without hesitation!!! Cuz…He’s worth…EVERY PENNY!!!
I called McTurtle and Rand Paul’s office today at the behest of BMT! Get Schmuckie censured and your Senators name on that Hawley bill!; and get Mcturtle to back DOUG COLLINS in the Senate!!! THIS IS HUGE! MCturtle is sending money to the chick running against him! Sound the alarms here!!!
Doug Collins has to be going somewhere else. Trump must have some plan for him. Mentioned him for DNI, and they used THAT to get Ratcliffe in, because Doug Collins scared the HELL out of the Dems and the Swamp, and suddenly Ratcliffe was OK.
Trump likes that chick – I know – bad history – but she’s a total MAGA convert, apparently – cleaned up her act. Ratcliffe is going to DNI – the leftists are terrified of a GAY (Grenell) in charge of DNI – can you believe it? Hypocrite wussies! So POTUS is signaling Ratcliffe for DNI, and Meadows for COS, and if Mulvaney is leaving for Ireland, that means Collins is open for SOMETHING. Trump loves both Collins and that chick. Collins is going somewhere good. Trust POTUS!!! But that chick has the inside track. I’m sure of it.
Thanks Wolfie!!! Moving at the speed of …downhill rollercoaster!!!! I always trust POTUS…AND…YOU!!!!
Yup, I just TRUST GOD and TRUST TRUMP. I think there are a lot of people out there that Trump figures he can FIX and USE LIKE NEW, so he can get “two for one” that way, keeping both that person plus whoever else is better.
Like..Mick Mulvaney and Mark Meadows!!!👀👀👀.. just an example!!!!
Exactly!!!
Now something is up there with Mick making that move. Some kind of POTUS chess where he’s moving a piece to a different level for more reasons than there are levels. Eyes open!!!
Interesting too that the idiot media (YSM/MCM/urilanists) are saying President Trump fired Mulvaney…
Kind of hard to fire someone when you’re moving them to a different position…
Then again, the yellow media over here often translate [probably by machine] the Washed-Poo, the Old Gay Lady, and the Walled Street Urinal without even checking for resasonableness…
Why let truth and accuracy get in the way of a good narrative???
The other thing to look out for is that there are a zillion spammers who have registered websites like, “ReElectDonaldTrump.com” and — for all anybody knows, actually deposit the funds in Bernie’s bank account (or, just as likely, Kim Jong-un’s foreign exchange account).
Chuckie….
Just think of “The Name Game” song… (might have been before your time…)… (just sound it out :D)…
(Freddie, Freddie, bo-Beddie, banana-fanna fo-feddie, me, my, bo beddie, Freddie)… 😀 😀 😀 😆 …
Cuppa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HA!😂😂😂😂
I started getting some random number that purported to be one of the Trump kids…never said who, just always asked for a donation. Blocked them.
I give through the official 88022 text links. Is this what the WinRed thing is? I’m confused.
WinRed links may get sent to you by a lot of different means. I get all kinds of different numbers with different appeals. Think of a funnel that all leads to one place! If you end up at WinRed, you’re at the right place.
Yeah, the 88022 is reliable, but I get Trump Alerts, plus dozens of others. In my experience they’ve all led back to WinRed – same interface. They have a slightly different front end that comes through House Members, but it’s the same software.
Smart thing is to just keep doing what you’re doing. Can’t get in trouble that way! 😀
Ima getting my Trump whiskey glasses right now!!!!
Wowsa!!! …
I need some Trump Covfefe mugs… and I can add some “Irish” to them 🙂
(Or even some G&T glasses… or some multi-focal glasses 😎 )
I have a 14 yr old flip phone that doesn’t do more than call, text and take stupid pictures of my thumb (which are too small to see). we don’t need or want internet on our phones, so we haven’t upgraded ever…but finding batteries is getting more and more challenging.
when I send a donation to POTUS, it’s a check in a card—like Grandmothers are wont to do…lol
Smart! No troubles that way! LOL!!!
nothing else works out here in the boonies…LOL…
a fortuitous coincidence??
I think of it as a chosen level of security expressing itself in ways you may or may not have thought of when you chose it! 😀
well, your way makes me seem smart and prescient instead of stupid lucky…I’ll take it!
“It’s a feature, not a bug! You CHOSE WISELY!”
Customer perception management! 😀
“But what do I do if robbers show up? I can’t mail a check……”
“Allow me to show you one of our other fine security products! And you can pay with a check!”
here come Da Judge
Serious question.
Isn’t entering the family Credit Card info onto ANY IT device a breach of security and responsibility???
With all the examples of compromised systems (Equifax , OPM +++) in recent past, isn’t that blind faith ??
We have always ,set up the purchase online , then and use the phone to call , talk to a human for CC# transfer to complete transaction .
I understand millions everyday do ,
But there have to be millions more , like me who don’t and won’t .
Yes, some of us still live in the stone age. Untethered to such technology.
I purchase a pre-paid credit card for such donations, OR , if offered PayPal , simply to limit my liability .
Doing otherwise, puts the cart before the cart.
Some email political contribution sites accept it ,.. some won’t .
For example ,try as I may , Jim Jordan and Joe Airapio sites would not accept it.
Others would, No response from either via email inquiry why, ..made donation attempt even,more questionable .
Alternatives ???
A lot depends on the protections that your financial institution is able to provide on your accounts and transactions.
The most important part is knowing your rights!
Assume that because you are a target, your account WILL be compromised at SOME point. Not IF, but WHEN.
A couple of rules of thumb:
* Never mix business and personal charges. I was on a business trip ~September when my corporate card was compromised. Suddenly I had a slew of charges from restaurants in Chicago on my card. I called the Too Big To Fail Bank to alert them and had them put a hold on the account. I was far from impressed with their fraud prevention and dispute process, but the point was it was on the corporate account, not my personal cards or credit history
* Travel is a higher risk time for card fraud. My family was taking a vacation in ~May when my wife’s debit card was compromised. In that instance Small State Bank reached out to us first and alerted us. The issue was cleaned up in a couple days.
* Credit transactions have lot more protection on them than Debit transactions. Know your bank’s policy on both. A typical debit card has a 48 hour fraud reporting requirement. Yours may be longer but you need to know what the bank considers your responsibility. If you have a good bank, this won’t be a problem, and they’ll be alerting YOU when THEY see a problem, rather than the other way around. General rule, credit transactions have more protection than debit.
* I specifically rejected Tiny State Bank when I learned that they had a particularly harsh policy toward fraud on debit transactions. They tried to back peddle the problem but eventually could not get enough business at their bank and ended up “merging” with Micro-State Bank.
* Check your bank balance and transactions DAILY or EVERY 48 HOURS. This is the best practice for financial hygiene. Find a way to make it easy – use a secure web portal or a phone app. I have transaction alerts set by Small State Bank to alert on EVERY transaction greater than $1.
* Using cash for small day to day transactions will reduce your exposure. Going for fast food is convenient but the high-volume machines are attractive targets.
* Paypal is a pretty good layer of protection. Even if it is linked to your bank account, you have another financial institution with good protection policies for fraud protection and for disputes. An unlinked Paypal account is even better – keep the balance only what is needed and your risk is very limited.
* If you are Dave Ramsey you already know how to protect yourself. But if you maintain a credit card, you can use it for higher risk transactions. I have one credit card in particular that I do not use at all except for unusual cases: deposits, car/truck rentals, hotels, certain personal travel transactions, high dollar online purchases, certain medical expenses not covered by HSA. I recommend not using credit cards for any day to day transactions.
* If you are carrying a balance on your credit card, DON’T. It is harder to monitor fraud on an account that has a continuous balance. If you need help paying down a debt that’s another discussion, but the best way to know where you stand is to have a $0 balance at the end of every month.
* Keep multiple bank accounts and do not link them. At a minimum a single checking and a savings account is a necessity. In some cases you can set your paycheck to auto-deposit to a savings account or a money market account. Then, you transfer what you need to the checking account. If the checking account is compromised, you have some risk but at the end of the day they cannot drain your nest egg.
* If you have to file a dispute, you filed within 24 hours, and you get a run around with the bank over it, FIRE THEM. Find another bank. Transfer credit balances if necessary.
Love your last recommendation. Being bad-ass customer is a skill that can be pulled out rarely from the cover of nice guy customer to great effect. I find that rejecting run-around immediately as run-around wises them up real fast – they’re not dealing with the push-over they thought they were dealing with.
Exactly! Consumers don’t use their power of CHOICE nearly enough!
FIRE that underperforming bank!!!
It’s all risky. Even voice. Beyond the fact that your voice data doesn’t really disappear. People write stuff down when you do voice, and nowadays they take your CCV number, too, which is the KEY to abusing your CC data, and WRITE IT DOWN. If you use a web form, there is MORE CHANCE that the CCV data is cleanly discarded immediately, because it’s supposed to be discarded, and the code is there to discard it – hopefully. Again, you take a risk either way.
The only truly safe way to protect yourself from CC troubles is CASH, but then you subject yourself to CASH troubles. The whole reason BANKS started was so that people didn’t have to move value around insecurely – somebody else handled the security aspects.
IMO, the greatest error of money-handling is believing that there is one answer for everybody. One has to examine their own situation, their own experience, and the advice and experience of others, and then choose wisely. Then CHANGE TACTICS based on experience.
For instance, I tend to use ONE credit card which has proven highly resilient on fraud. They are like a PROVEN security service – catching fraud EARLY, FAST and HARD. They are like magic for me. Sometimes they over-react – I appreciate it. They get nervous when I leave town or buy anything out of character. I like it. I trust them.
However, this may not work for other people, whose own experiences may differ for millions of reasons. This same company may have even FAILED THEM.
I like a lot of the answers that michaelh recommends, but not all of them. My situation is a bit different – different rules. But I have learned much from experience.
It’s a rough world out there, Pilgrim, on the long trip to Jerusalem and back! 😀
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Knights_Templar#Bankers
As with many above, I receive numerous text and email daily. looking for donations. President, Eric, Don, Brad, Mitch…endless. D E L E T E.
Have no idea if they are all legit, or a few strays scamming for my financial information.
Sort of like that stray phone call, from unknown claiming to be with President Trump reelection. Zero trust in any of it.
Nor do I fret over 2X, 3X… My guess is guys with big bucks or whoever is “matching” has already decided how much to donate. Clearly not tech savvy, so I stick with simple.
Me thinks even the smartest tech savvy can get spoofed.
Monthly donation process… *https://www.donaldjtrump.com/get-involved/
^^^ Click on top right… 😉
Gets me… *https://secure.winred.com/djt/we-made-history?amount=150&location=websitenav
With President Trump getting my piddly $50 every month. Divvy up as he allows them to do so is good by me.
All good points and info above Many Thanks!
No need to change my lifestyle and habits to accommodate an insecure system that should already be secure
Lucky for me, had no problem with pre-paid card @Trump site so it got several 🙂
We like to keep it simple, cash, one or two cards ,that’s it. wifey keeps it all straight , and she’s a penny pinching bookkeeper…
Keep it simple!!!