Are we our own worst enemy? Have we
created a world of 24/7 connectivity which allows others to track our
every move? Or, worse, given our adversaries a weapon to use against
us?
With the Russian interference in our
2016 election, and our president's insistence in refusing to believe
it even happened, are we seeing a threat that reaches inside our
borders, which no wall can stop?
This first video is a short interview
with author David Sanger, who wrote The
Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age. You'll have to follow the link to YouTube on the screen.
This second video is a full length
documentary on a vulnerability we all face as we navigate the wilds
of the internet world.
Perhaps staying off the grid just a
little isn't such a bad thing.
72 comments:
Initially I thought to try to maintain some privacy. However, I neglected to allow for the development of vertical integration of information chains. ISPs coöperate with Google these days, share cookie collected data. Free e-mail collects, even demands, your other e-mail identities, vendors cross-reference the e-mail address they demand with the ISP and the e-mail providers and the credit card companies, and Google and Facebook correlate it all for only a modest fee and, or course, for keeping their own copy of the correlations. And the machine keeps watching always for you slip up and show them another connection just once, and it remembers forever.
And now stores use their anti-shoplifting cameras to feed faces into their facial recognition programs, in case you show them patterns or information they can sell to Google or Facebook.
Eventually I pretty much gave it up.
There is no privacy anymore. I just had to get used to that idea.
trumptweetes: Major caps (à la our Catholic Pedophiles poster). Now Trump's threatening fire and fury the likes of which the world has never seen (not quite those words, but the thought is the same) towards Iran. Could mean that he's gonna be looking to them for a new photo-op before the year is up.
Still, it was only a brief respite and he was back on his Russian investigation rampage. He can't let that one go for even a day or two. He's gotta keep hammering home slogans for his dedicated Trumpkins. I'm thinking that in itself should be rebuke to the assertions of Trump's innocence constantly promoted by our Catholic Pedophile. But, apparently Catholic Pedophile doesn't see it that way.
Gentlemen'sQuarterly has an article examining the American autopsy of Otto Warmbier, American hostage whom the North Koreans returned only days before his death.
Results of the autopsy: Mr. Warmbier was a probable suicide attempt, both sides of his brain had suffered massive, just short of fatal, oxygen starvation at the same time. Most likely cause was an attempted hanging that didn't work out. A hanging by his captors probably would have worked out; they knew how to do that.
In spite of having been comatose for months he didn't even have any bed sores (an indication that he'd received close attention and diligent care--maybe not cutting edge medicine, but careful attention to his physical needs)
This would explain why the Trump administration didn't have themselves a long, loud howl about the North Koreans' treatment of Warmbier, something that I'd wondered before.
There is no privacy anymore.
You're right, they will get you one way or another.
Sad, very sad.
Immunity has been granted for five witnesses in the Manafort case.
A federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, has granted the request for five witnesses to testify with immunity in the criminal trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
US District Judge T.S. Ellis is also ordering the government to tell Manafort's team the nearly 30 witnesses they are going to use in the trial.
"A federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, has granted the request
for five witnesses to testify with immunity…"
Manafort had a request for an extension pending wanted the trial put off for another couple of months. I'll have to check how that came out I guess. Otherwise the trial could start this week. (Threatening further twitterbursts from our President.)
Trial has been pushed back to end of July. Could mean that Mueller's work get pushed back too, maybe lowers the chances of Mueller issuing further indictments before the mid-term elections.
Oh, now this has got to be a little embarrassing for Fox & Friends
Oops.
Well, they reacted quickly, so little harm was done.
Trump is taking the US down the path to tyranny
The United States was born in a revolt against the tyranny of King George III. The Constitution was designed to prevent tyranny through a system of checks and balances, but in President Trump's America, those safeguards are failing.
Donald Trump holds the grandiose belief that only he should rule America. Unchecked by cowed or complicit Republicans in Congress, Trump invokes executive authority to alter policies and practices long established by law and treaty.
He also seems to be sending us down the path to war with...someone. Except, of course, BFF Putin and Russia.
There's an assertion in your article reads as follows:
"Trump is single-handedly imposing hundreds of
billions of dollars of tariffs -- that is, taxes -- on
imported goods from key US allies and China, without
any explicit or implicit Congressional backing."
We probably ought to take notice that he has this power only because Congress passed a law explicitly authorizing him to take such actions of his own volition. (The Constitutionality of which would likely be held suspect by a truly conservative Supreme Court--but let's also quit pretending our Supreme Court is ‛conservative’; it's not; it's Republican is what it is.)
He can take the further action against the Iranians only because the Iranian nuclear deal was based on Obama's executive orders; it was never submitted to Congress as a treaty for ratification (same as with the Paris Climate Accords).
My point being: Trump can approach tyranny only because the courts and the congress are supine before him.
NBC News is running with a story that Trump's incendiary tweet to the President of Iran was actually part of a ‛carefully orchestrated sequence of events’. But, the story is based on claims from officials within the Trump administration, so we might want to take that claim with a grain of salt.
Trump is going to announce today a plan to borrow $12 billion from China to protect American farmers from tariffs he intends to slap on China. Or, so Reuters is telling us.
At some point in time China will stop buying treasuries. They will have to be more judicious in selling because doing too much of that would devalue their holdings.
Trump is floating the idea that the Russians will interfere in the next election in favor of the Democrats. Which is rather odd, if you ask me, considering that he has sworn up and down that the Russians have not interfered in the past, specifically the 2016 presidential election. Sounds like a preemptive shot just in case the Democrats do well.
"Trump is floating the idea that the Russians will interfere in the next
election in favor of the Democrats. Which is rather odd, if you ask me…"
It looks odd, I grant you. But, it may not be as odd as it looks at first glance.
I've been studying the phenomena here. The dedicated Trumpkins have been increasingly willing to pretend to believe whatever Trump says at a given moment. As they pour out their adulation, he increasingly tests his boundaries. He's just checkin’ here to see if he can move the boundary of his followers' loyalty to his cult just a little further. If they won't buy that one (and there's no reason to assume they'll suddenly balk at that particular spot), then he can back it up a bit. If they do buy that one then he can try to move the boundaries once again.
Lee: "There is no privacy anymore."
Lynnette: "You're right, they will get you one way or another. Sad, very sad."
You're both right. Dunno if I already posted 'bout this but after my last vacation where I had looked at certain pages on youtube from my Apple iPad, I came home and found suggeestions for exactly the same content on youtube on my Microsoft laptop.
And I don't even have a youtube account.
Still "They" knew it was the same person entering their site from a laptop in sweden that had entered it from an iPad in Thailand. I get how this can be done technically but it was still rather chilling to realise how much of our online doings is tracked and obviously also stored.
One should probably take the line that everything printed in these here tubes, even anonymously and even however long ago, can be brought back and attributed to a person. In which case a public office for me is pretty much fucked, since I have a history of having being a tad bit un-PC at times.
Also, imagine this new tech but under a really opressive regime. If the Soviet Union had had this capability. That would be nightmareish.
Lynnette: "Trump is floating the idea that the Russians will interfere in the next election in favor of the Democrats. Which is rather odd, if you ask me, considering that he has sworn up and down that the Russians have not interfered in the past, specifically the 2016 presidential election. Sounds like a preemptive shot just in case the Democrats do well."
Nah, he's just trollin'. Classic Trump. Can't believe ya'll still fall for it though. Never learn, do ya?
Lynnette: "He also seems to be sending us down the path to war with...someone. Except, of course, BFF Putin and Russia."
So you think a war with Russia, the only other military superpower and one that you have a MAD status with might be a good idea Lynnnette?
Who else is he "sending you down the path to war" with? The only possible one I have seen is Iran, and your former Bush government pretty much only did mot do that already cause their previous wars took longer than expected.
Plus I doubt Trump will attack Iran. I think he uses bluster on Twitter, just like he did against NK (little Rocketman, etc), only to try to keep the iranians off balance so he can strike a deal with them eventually. Perhaps they leave Syria, Assad gets to remain in place and that's the deal. Who knows, but I doubt Trump is looking for war.
"Nah, he's just trollin'."
I don't think so. It's already a twitter theme with him that there was collusion in the 2016 Presidential election, but that it was the Democrats doing the colluding with the Russians. He thinks the dedicated Trumpkins will swallow just about anything (he ain't wrong). He thinks he can sell them on this one (I don't know ‛bout that last notion; he'll have to get FoxNews or Radio-Right-Wing to go along, and I'm not sure they'll go along with him on that one).
Lani Davis, now representing Michael Cohen, said this morning that there were more tapes of Trump.
NASA claims to have found a subterranean lake on Mars, length unspecified, width up to 12 miles, and buried about a half mile deep. NBCNews
(It may contain neutrinos.)
Trump's rolling out a new gig this week.
All of a sudden he's putting the tariffs against Europe on hold for a while, and he's gonna pretend to be a hard-ass against Russia. This is a forced transformation. (Some slippage appearing lately on Radio-Right-Wing although FoxNews has mostly been holding fast; although they were having trouble keeping a straight face on that would/wouldn't transformation.) As a forced transformation one has to be a little bit dubious that it's got a shelf-life longer than that of milk.
One should probably take the line that everything printed in these here tubes, even anonymously and even however long ago, can be brought back and attributed to a person.
There have been many instances of people posting things on social media sites that have come back to haunt them. Yet people still seem okay with posting anything of the moment without thinking how it could appear down the road in their lives.
So you think a war with Russia, the only other military superpower and one that you have a MAD status with might be a good idea Lynnnette?
No, I don't think war with Russia a good idea. But I don't think rubber stamping everything they do is okay either. My point with that comment was that Trump doesn't use the same critical thinking as he does towards other leaders.
Who else is he "sending you down the path to war" with? The only possible one I have seen is Iran,...
Early on he was floating the idea of invading Venezuela. Fortunately we had saner minds that dissuaded him of that.
Apparently even Fox News, along with all the other news outlets, is a little peeved at Trump's banning a pool reporter from a WH press conference.
Lee: "It's already a twitter theme with him that there was collusion in the 2016 Presidential election, but that it was the Democrats doing the colluding with the Russians. He thinks the dedicated Trumpkins will swallow just about anything (he ain't wrong)."
OK but really Lee. We all know the result of ya'lls election had fuckall to do with Russia. It was Trumps speaches across the "rust belt" that got him the win. Not fucking Putin.
That Putin was indeed PLEASED with Trump winning is another matter, of course he was, and he said as much. But that was kinda obvious give Trumps "America First" and hillarys "Police the world" difference.
So yes, Putin preferred Trump. And yes, russian individuals went pro-Trump on Facebook (as was their right). But there was NO meddling into yall's elections, there is no proof of any of that.
"We all know the result of ya'lls election had fuckall
to do with Russia."
We actually know better. The margin was close enough, and the causal string is clear enough, if the Russians hadn't worked the social media in Trump's behalf, he'd not have pulled out those last 77,000 votes. History's pretty clear on that point. But, I don't expect you to listen to the truth on this account; I expect you prefer your fantasy enough that you'll stick with it. (Being as your not an American voter that matters not much anyway.)
Of course, if Comey hadn't re-raised the e-mail issue, then Trump would have come up short on that account. It took a string of details to deliver that last 77,000 votes that put Trump over the top in the electoral college. But, one of those details was the Russian meddling.
So far we don't have any direct evidence of Team Trump colluding with the Russians. What do have is direct evidence of Team Trump being eager as hell to collude with the Russians. If I'm supposed to believe that Putin never noticed them being eager, and/or noticed but decided to not work with them, then you're gonna need to come up with some reasonable explanation for how Putin could have possibly missed that opportunity.
Lynnette:
"No, I don't think war with Russia a good idea. But I don't think rubber stamping everything they do is okay either."
What is it that Russia does that is so horrid in your view?
I see yall's HBQTXXX fanatics attack Russia, yet you're OK with Saudi that would literally hang a faggot if they spotted one.
You whine about free press, and while Russia might not be a parragon in that departemnt it sure as shit is better that about 50% of countries on earth.
You whine about democracy and when Putin is re-elected with record numbers you call it a fraud.
WTF are they supposed to do? Name Rosie O'Donnel as president of Russia despite most people actuallt wanting Putin?
I'm so fucking sick of it all. yall are just fucking morons. can't even be reasoned with so why do I try. FUCK!!!
Typo to fix: (Catholic Pedophiles is lurk out there somewhere.
"Being as you're not an American voter that matters
not much anyway."
That last typo I'm just gonna leave as is.
Word out of the White House is that Bill Shine, Trump's new communications director and ex-FoxNews executive, Shine has ordered changes in lighting and standard camera positions to make Trump's hair look more like, well, hair, in the future. The idea is to cut down on the scalp showing through and maybe even help disguise some of the hairspray's effects.
LOL! Maybe try for little less of the orange tinge?
I think Trump choose the color to help obscure the bare scalp showing through, so that's unlikely to change much.
[Marcus]: What is it that Russia does that is so horrid in your view?
Right now when you say Russia you might as well be saying Putin, because the two are synonymous. It is Putin that I have a problem with.
You whine about democracy and when Putin is re-elected with record numbers you call it a fraud.
I don't remember specifically saying their election was fraudulent, but now that you mention it, I would guess there was some underhanded dealings going on there.
WTF are they supposed to do? Name Rosie O'Donnel as president of Russia despite most people actuallt wanting Putin?
If true then we would be going down the road that maybe that is what is really wrong with Russia...that they would want a man like Putin.
"…maybe that is what is really wrong with Russia...that they
would want a man like Putin."
He promises them renewed ‛respect’ in a world that seems to be passing them by, and the hope of a return to the old order, which they've convinced themselves was better than their present circumstance. This has been the siren song of fascists since Caesar first promised a rebirth of the grandeur of Rome (so long as he wasn't burdened by the constraints of a republic).
(Plus, he controls the Russian media, which means he can squelch opposing voices.)
Let us hope that the American people are smarter than Russians.
HOT, HOT, HOT here right now. I usually like warm weather but this is taking a toll even on me. 35 degrees centigrade every day. And we don't usually have AC in private homes here as it's usually not needed, so now my apartment has warmed up enough to feel like a bloody furnace 24/7.
And fires in the forests all over the place too. It hasn't rained since April. They say this is the driest sumer in 260 years, although what data they have from tthat back long ago I dunno 'bout. Sure as shit is warm though.
Is this just one of them off years where it's unusually warm, or is this the so called "climate change" kickin into gear? In any case I will look at gettin myself an AC after this here heat wave.
That is hot, Marcus. We just finished with temps that were around the same, maybe a couple degrees lower. It's now a comfortable 25 degrees centigrade here. We have been short on rain again, though, although not as bad as Sweden.
No fires here, but they are just talking about some bad ones in California again.
Yup, I'd advise getting some AC soon. Personally, I do think this is due to climate change and will just get worse. Meanwhile, a nice fan and a cold cloth around the neck might help you keep cool.
TrumpTweets: Trump is threatening to shut down the government over funding for his Great Wall of Trump to keep out the Hispanics. (Marcus should be pleased.)
After the Trump administration invited Putin to visit, the Russians publicly came out as cool to the idea, and Team Trump then decided to put the visit off until after ‛the Witch Hunt’ is over--probably next year sometime. Now Putin has announced an invitation for Trump to come to Putin.
I'm wondering if Putin found that irresistible, the opportunity to play with Trump in public--cat with a mouse type of thing. And I'm wondering if Trump will come as called.
Lynnette: "Meanwhile, a nice fan and a cold cloth around the neck might help you keep cool."
And some cold beers, some deicious icecold beers. That's the ticket!
TrumpTweets: In a break from pattern Trump went on an afternoon twitter rant, first about the media in general, and then back to the old itch, the Mueller investigation. (I'm kinda wondering what lead to the break from habit.)
Trump is threatening to shut down the government over funding for his Great Wall of Trump to keep out the Hispanics.
I'm hearing there was some push back from even Republicans on that. Not sure how serious it is though.
I'm wondering if Putin found that irresistible, the opportunity to play with Trump in public--cat with a mouse type of thing.
He's showing who's boss.
In a break from pattern Trump went on an afternoon twitter rant, first about the media in general, and then back to the old itch, the Mueller investigation.
The problem with his constant twittering is that eventually people start to yawn. Yes, we start to suffer from twitter overload and simply tune him out as just background noise.
And some cold beers, some deicious icecold beers. That's the ticket!
lol! I'll have to remember that. They were just saying that after this really lovely break of cooler weather we will be returning to hot, hot, hot.
Although, at the risk of sounding rather unimaginative, I am more of a Mike's Hard Lemonade kind of girl when looking for a refreshing drink.
"I'm hearing there was some push back from even Republicans on that."
The Republicans have been having trouble passing major legislation even when Trump happens to be onboard. With him in opposition it'll get dicey, even if they really want to stand up to him on this one (which is not guaranteed).
Lynnette: "Although, at the risk of sounding rather unimaginative, I am more of a Mike's Hard Lemonade kind of girl when looking for a refreshing drink."
Huh? D'you put vodka in that, or maybe gin? Sounds like it could be chilling and refreshing with either really.
Huh? D'you put vodka in that, or maybe gin?
Mike's comes with it's own.
But, speaking of vodka and refreshing drink, we have a nice cranberry slush we always spiked with vodka. It's just a combination of lemonade, cranberry juice, a fizzy mixer & vodka which we freeze and then pull out and let get slushy. REALLY nice on a hot day. (if you haven't noticed I'm into fruity types of drinks.) ;)
Hmmmm...seems that Russia (Putin) has been dumping US Treasuries this year. They've dumped over 80% of their holdings. Interesting.
North Korea is building more new ICBMs capable of hitting the United States. WashingtonPost
Lynnette: "But, speaking of vodka and refreshing drink, we have a nice cranberry slush we always spiked with vodka. It's just a combination of lemonade, cranberry juice, a fizzy mixer & vodka which we freeze and then pull out and let get slushy. REALLY nice on a hot day. (if you haven't noticed I'm into fruity types of drinks.) ;)"
That sounds really good Lynnette. I like fruity drinks too when it's hot weather. In Prague we went into Hardrock Café for drinks to escape from the heat. That was really nice.
Paul Manafort's first trial begins today in Virginia. CBS' Morning News told us just a few minutes ago that Manafort expects a presidential pardon if he's found guilty.
OK, so a pregnant goatess was raped to death not by 8 goats but surprisingly by 8 so called humans:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/pregnant-goat-dies-after-being-gangraped-by-8-men-in-haryana/story-JlFvxZgoPAePsZ4SVz7RbJ.html
"Police have booked eight men in a village in Haryana’s Mewat district for raping a goat Wednesday night. The seven-year-old goat was pregnant and died a day after the assault, police said."
But all in all, all humans are equal. All humans are the same. This might could just as well have been 8 white men in Missouri raping a goat to death. Surely that happened too, but it was blackened out BC white male privilige, no?
Right?
And I believe, I truly believe that if we import massive amounts of such goat-fuckers and then we really, really strive to INTEGRATE with them, then they will pay our pensions one day. And all will be well.
CBS' Morning News told us just a few minutes ago that Manafort expects a presidential pardon if he's found guilty.
Well, of course, he does. Trump's been dangling that option for quite some time now. The question is, would Trump come through it unscathed?
Attorney Michael Cohen apparently came to doubt that he'd get a pardon.
"Now Trump's threatening fire and fury the likes of which the world
has never seen…towards Iran. Could mean that he's gonna be
looking to them for a new photo-op before the year is up."
Lee C. @ Mon Jul 23, 07:30:00 am ↑↑
I would point out that, at a joint press conference with the Italian Prime Minister on Monday, Trump solicited the Iranians for a request for a summit meeting. He now wants them to ask him for a meeting, and promised "no preconditions". (Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has walked that back just a little--suggesting there might be some conditions after all, but Pompeo didn't actually mention any.)
If I can see through what Trump's up to, then certainly the Iranians can see it as well. Let's hope they don't actually agree to ask for a meeting; they seem to have his number already. No telling what he'll give away for free.
No comment on the Goat Rapers. Big surprise.
BC ackowiging that white men do NOT gang up eight at a time to rape a goat means thet there in fact ARE cultural or ethinc diffeerences and that some cultures and/or ethnicities are NOT a bonus to our societies.
Ya'll want more behedings, import more mexicans, ya'll want more gang violence import more hondurans, ya'll want more terrorism import more [basically any ME country fits here], you want more low level street crime import more africans.
And of course if you would be so inclined as to invate more goat rapists, then India and Pakistan and Afghanistan is the ticket, invite more of them.
"Ya'll want more behedings, import more mexicans…."
Statistics indicate that Mexican immigrants, both legal and illegal alike, are less likely to commit crimes, including violent crimes, than are native born American citizens.
"…ya'll want more gang violence import more hondurans…."
The violent Honduran gang, MS-13, got its start on the streets of the United States. It was born here. They learned the basic organizing concepts of gangs and learned gang violence from the very American gangs, The Crips, and The Bloods, and the like, and they took that knowledge home to Honduras with them when they were deported. They were born here.
"…ya'll want more terrorism import more [basically any
ME country fits here]…"
FBI and police statistics indicate that native-born, right-winger terrorism is more common than is Muslim jihadi activity (both percentage wise and in total) than is Muslim terrorism. I've told you before, your problem in Sweden is mostly of your own making. You're not integrating your immigrants. You tell me you don't want to and ain't gonna. Well, then, you're gonna get what ya get.
"…you want more low level street crime import more africans."
As with Mexicans, statistically less likely to commit crimes, violent or otherwise, than native born citizens.
"…And of course if you would be so inclined as to invate
more goat rapists…"
I'm not aware of any problem with goat raping having yet arisen among our Indian, Pakistani, or Afghan communities.
Word is that this morning's twitterburst from Trump was the result of Trump finding out that Mueller is asking for him to sit an interview in Mueller's investigation. twitterburst
I just noticed that I'd screwed up my second link above ↑↑. It was supposed to lead to ABCNews
Attorney Michael Cohen apparently came to doubt that he'd get a pardon.
Perhaps he has more dirt that will stick.
You mean Paul Manafort, yeah, it's likely Manafort's actually got the goods on Trump's collusion with the Russians. Not near as likely Cohen was there for that.
"You tell me you don't want to and ain't gonna.
Well, then, you're gonna get what ya get."
And, ya might as well quite whining about it like you expected any sympathy from me. You ask for this trouble, and they will deliver on your request.
"…it's likely Manafort's actually got the goods on Trump's
collusion with the Russians."
The other thing is, I'm beginning to think that Mueller's already got the goods on Trump, even without Manafort. (Just a suspicion that's been building watchin’ Mueller's moves; I think he's gonna name Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator à la Nixon in the Watergate scandal; I'd rather he tried for an indictment, if only going so far as to get the grand jury to vote for it and then dump it on Rosenstein's desk unsigned, but I don't think he'll do it).
New tariffs being imposed now on newsprint (newspaper paper) most of which is imported from Canada these days, 25% tariff.
Probably not just coincidental that Trump has also declared that the American news media is ‛the enemy of the people’. (Copying that great American patriot, Joseph Stalin, who made just exactly the same pronouncements about the newspapers he had to deal with just 70 years ago.)
The other thing is, I'm beginning to think that Mueller's already got the goods on Trump, even without Manafort.
I suspect that Mueller is extremely smart.
New tariffs being imposed now on newsprint (newspaper paper) most of which is imported from Canada these days, 25% tariff.
As per Trump's continuing war with the media.
The dissolution of Republican Party continues apace.
The Koch Brothers' political network, long a major source of funds and political ‛data’ for Republican candidates has formally broken with the Republican Party and has even threatened to support Democrats in the future. As a result, it's come under fire in a recent trumptweet.
Now it's also come under fire from the Republican National Committee, which has put out a formal warning to both donors and candidates to steer clear of the Koch Brothers' political network. Politico.com
Post a Comment