AS HEARD ON: WGAN Mornings News with Matt Gagnon: Elections, Hacking, USB Safety

Good morning everybody! 

Happy Veterans Day to all who have served and are serving!

I was on WGAN this morning with Matt Gagnon and started off this morning talking about electoral issues that are taking front and center in the result counts going on.  I discussed some of the known weaknesses in our Electoral system and how it looks like they may actually have used that as a way in. Then we discussed how a Biden administration would deal with technology and a bit about Section 230 protections for Big Tech. Then we got into CA Prop 22 and the ramifications that it could have nationwide. Here we go with Matt.

These and more tech tips, news, and updates just visit - CraigPeterson.com

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Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Craig Peterson: [00:00:00] Hey, good morning, everybody. Craig Peterson here. Hey, I want to just thank you guys for listening to the podcast, subscribing to the podcast. If you can on whatever platform. Although iTunes is still the 800-pound gorilla when it comes to tracking the whole podcast industry. And I've been podcasting now for about 20 years, a long time.

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So I know why you guys like to kind of mess with things. So many people have Android devices and just going ahead and subscribing on the iTunes page works even for an Android, you may not be able to get them that way, but please do subscribe. And if you're listening on some other platform tune in, or Iheart, or any of these other big ones out there, just subscribed to those. I would so appreciate it.

So this morning, Matt Gagnon et Moi, have talked a little bit about the election and the technology talked a little bit about what Sidney Powell had to say. This is President Trump's. Attorney and she was talking with Lou Dobbs on Friday, last week about something called scorecard and the hammer. So talk a little bit about that. What that is and what that means. We got into the gig economy and something that happened out in California in a referendum about Uber and Lyft. So here we go with Mr. Gagnon.  I plan on being back again on Saturday. We're going to continue to do that one podcast format rather than giving you eight podcasts. Back in the day, I was giving you 12 podcasts. There was just too much work to run the business, the homeschool, eight kids, and everything else. So we cut it back to eight, but now it'll just be these three. I usually do three or four radio appearances a week.

I do television appearances too, but I just thought about that and I don't usually put them up as podcasts. I probably should. Then we'll have one, which is my big podcast of the week covering all of our topics. All right, take care. Here we go.

Matt Gagnon: [00:03:09] WGAN morning news. It is about that time of the week on Wednesday to talk to Craig Peterson. Our tech guru joins us now and also joins you on Saturdays at one o'clock for I think he's an expanded tech talk, is what we can call it, really, Craig.

Craig Peterson: [00:03:23] Yeah, it is. I get to go into more detail on a lot of the articles of the week. What's going on? Why is it going on and really what you need to know about it?

Matt Gagnon: [00:03:32] Make sure you tune in for that, but let's get a little quick preview of that right now, by talking about some of these, some of these things that are on our tech list here for the day. I will start with the election though. there's a lot of interesting stuff. tech-related as it relates to the election we just lived through here. Any sort of thoughts or observations from your perspective here, Craig, on what we just saw in this last week or so?

Craig Peterson: [00:03:51] Oh, there's some interesting stuff. I don't know if you saw Lou Dobbs on Friday, I was actually watching it and was shocked at what Sidney Powell was saying.

We've talked before about what are the potential problems with an election when it comes to people trying to steal it and certainly, President Trump has talked about some, at least his team has talked about some potential problems, with voting and voting machines. We've seen some ballots had to be rerun some software that might've been a problem, but we, you and I talked.-, Matt, about potential problems.

It was really being between the polling places, the Secretaries of States offices, and of course the federal bureaucracy that's trying to keep track of all of it.  Sidney Powell, who is an attorney for the president, as well as Michael Flynn came out and started talking about something called hammer and scorecard programs that apparently were developed by the NSA used by the CIA and the state department to do some manipulation of foreign elections and monitor them as well, but really for manipulation. Apparently now I heard her say that hammer and scorecard were used in this election. Now there's not a lot of information out there about any of this stuff. We'll see what happens. And she apparently is putting together a lawsuit about all of this.

Hammer and Scorecard program is aimed directly at what I've been saying for about 20 years is the weakest part of our election infrastructure, those ultimate systems that give the final tallies. so we'll see what happens with that. Overall. I think the machines anyway, and the technology that was used really seemed to work pretty darn well.

Matt Gagnon: [00:05:48] Talking to Craig Peterson, our tech guru. He joins us to talk over technology once a week here on Wednesdays.

So we can have lawsuits, Craig, there's a lot of stuff of course, about Google. And there's also a lot of discussions about section 230 and the Biden administration in-waiting, if you will, has actually been talking about making changes to section 230 of the communications decency act as well.

What is this whole story all about here?

Craig Peterson: [00:06:11] Hold on, I've been asked by quite a few people. About what do I think is going to happen. If a Biden administration takes over. The bottom line, there are a few things that they've talked a lot about. You mentioned section 230, which treats these big social media sites like they are the town square. Somebody posts something on that town square billboard, and it's defamatory incites violence, et cetera. As a general rule, the person that owns a billboard is not held responsible. Some people might want to pull it down. They might put graffiti all over those things that they disagree with. But in general, they are protected.

Interestingly enough, to me, Joe Biden has been talking about getting rid of some of those protections for the big social media sites and basically agreeing, I think Matt with you, which is a shocker, but that. in fact, if they're going to act like a publisher and sensor things and control what which is exactly what a publisher does, you don't talk about every possible story that has ever been out there.

You can't, there isn't enough time here on WGAN and for the morning news. You have to do some censoring, basically, boil it down. If you defame someone there are consequences. And it looks like the Biden administration might actually jump on that. Although I think they have higher priorities, try and reign these guys in right.

They have also been talking about, these companies are just too big, too powerful. And they're talking about using the antitrust act to in fact break them apart. So it's interesting. The things they've been complaining about over at the FCC are things that they're looking to do.

Matt Gagnon: [00:08:10] Talking to Craig Peterson. He joins us to talk about technology Craig before I let you go. I also want to ask about what happened in California here, with Uber and Lyft and that referendum question, out there, but proposition 22 last Tuesday, what that means in the future? What does it mean for these companies? And perhaps even, labor laws in general. What do you think?

Craig Peterson: [00:08:30] We've been talking this morning, of course, about the new minimum wage here in Portland. And what does that mean? In California, the state has been trying to tackle is Uber and Lyft drivers as though they are employees and they want Uber and Lyft to take the gig economy to turn all of these people into employees.

Now the gig economy is where you can go online to a site like Fiverr. And if you have little things to be done for your business, your home, your association, check it out. Fiverr F I V E R R.com, where you can get a little logo design, you can have all kinds of stuff. Yep. It is or 20 bucks, whatever it might be, that's the gig economy.

So if you hire someone to make a little logo for you, is, are they an employee? I think obviously not.

But how far up does that go?  Should Uber and Lyft drivers be treated as employees, which has all kinds of implications?  California decided in that referendum hey, no, they should not be treated entirely as employees.

So this, I think will have a ripple effect throughout the United States because there are a couple of dozen States right now that are trying to figure out. How should the gig workers be treated ultimately, and more specifically Uber and Lyft?  I think some might follow California's lead here.

Matt Gagnon: [00:09:59] And that my friends is Craig Peterson.

He's got all these topics and so much more to talk about here on his show, coming up here on Saturday. I appreciate it as always. Craig, thanks so much for giving us a preview into the world of technology. And we'll talk to you again next week.

Craig Peterson: [00:10:09] Hey, take care. Bye-bye.

Matt Gagnon: [00:10:10] You bet.

Craig Peterson: [00:10:11] Hey, how's that for a quick cutoff?

All right, everybody. Thanks for joining me. Don't forget if you would please go to Craig peterson.com/itunes, or just go to iTunes and subscribe to my podcast. It really helps. All right. Take care, everybody, and thanks for being with us today. Bye-bye.

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