The Two Tales of Russia Hacking NYT
Yesterday, CNN posted this "first on CNN" story:
Hackers thought to be working for Russian intelligence have carried out a series of cyber breaches targeting reporters at The New York Times and other US news organizations, according to…
North Dakota and Feds Suppress Native American Pipeline Protesters
What's the difference between these two pipelines? Only variations are the origin of the oil they may transport and their location as far as I can tell since they are described as competing pipelines.
Oh, and the Keystone XL pipeline was…
Monday: Build That Wall
Poor Ireland. Poor Inishturk. To be forced to consider the onslaught of refugees fleeing political upheaval should one loud-mouthed, bigoted, multi-bankrupt idiot with bad hair win the U.S. presidency. I'm amused at how the Irish in this short…
The Government Uses FISCR Fast Track to Put Down Judges' Rebellion, Expand Content Collection
Since it was first proposed, I've been warning (not once but twice!) about the FISCR Fast Track, a part of the USA Freedom Act that would permit the government to immediately ask the FISA Court of Review to review a FISC decision. The idea was…
Blame It On The Bossa Nova: Lochte and Brazilian Police
The travails of the Ryan Lochte gang of American Swimmers has been playing out for a full week now. The result has been almost universal scorn, if not hatred, for Lochte et. al, and almost complete credulous acceptance of the somewhat dubious,…
Breaking from Saudi Arabia!!! Two Month Old Misleading News
This Reuters exclusive is getting a lot of careless attention. Here's what a careless reader learns:
Exclusive: U.S. withdraws staff from Saudi Arabia dedicated to Yemen planning
From that headline, particularly the use of the present…
Wealthy Elites and Blowjobs
I haven't seen this part of the Shadow Broker files get mentioned. The files themselves are addressed to, "!!! Attention government sponsors of cyber warfare and those who profit from it !!!!" with a description of the auction for further…
Friday: Smells Like
With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now, entertain us
A mulatto, an Albino
A mosquito, my libido, yeah
-- excerpt, Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana
Been…
Where Are NSA's Overseers on the Shadow Brokers Release?
As Rayne has been noting, a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers released a set of NSA hacking tools. The release is interesting for what it teaches us about NSA's hacking and the speculation about who may have released so many tools at…
Thursday: Creep
Covers are often treated like poor relations in hand-me-downs. It's not the performer's own work, how can they possibly do the original justice?
Yeah...and then this. I think it's an example of an exceptional cover. It's one of my favorites.…
DC Cooties
There have been a series of stories fed to the press this week intended to heighten concerns about Trump advisor Paul Manafort's ties to Russian thugs (but not his numerous ties to other thugs). The NYT had a story about Manafort receiving cash…
Tuesday: One String
There aren't enough words to describe this genius who can do so much with a lone string. Brushy One String is the stagename of Andrew Chin, son of Jamaican musician Freddie McKay. McKay died in 1986 in his late 30s, leaving behind a body of…
Monday: Skate Away
Monday means it's movie day, and I think this charming little documentary fills the bill. Valley Of A Thousand Hills from Jess Colquhoun looks at Zulu youth participating in a skate camp and the impact on their lives. They're quite optimistic…
Six Years Later, the US Continues to Facilitate Saudi War Crimes
Over six years ago, according to a State Department cable liberated by Chelsea Manning, the US ambassador to Saudi Arabia met with Prince Khalid bin Sultan to complain about all the civilians the Saudis killed in an airstrike on a health clinic.…
Security Territory and Population Part 4: Conclusion of Description of Security and Population
The third lecture by Michel Foucault in Security, Territory and Population begins with a discussion of the systems of law and discipline considered from the standpoint of “norms”. In the system of law, norms are the acceptable behaviors,derived…
Friday: The Immoral Minority
While philosopher Slavoj Žižek isn't everybody's cup of quirky tea, he's got a valid point in this video.
The right-wing has abandoned its claim to be the Moral Majority.
Don't mistake this as a validation of the Democratic Party here…
Maybe FBI Has Lost Track of Who the Informants Are?
Here are all the informants and undercover employees listed in the criminal complaint against Erick Hendricks, who was arrested for conspiring to materially support ISIL in relation to the Garland, TX attack:
CHS-1: a paid informant for…
Until at Least 2014, NSA Was Having Troubles Preventing Back Door Searches of Upstream Searches
Since NSA's practice of conducting back door searches -- searches of already collected data based off the targeting of foreigners -- became widely known, the spooks have offered a few assurances about why we don't have to worry about these back…
Tuesday: En Garde
Looks like it's going to be a thing this week, covering women in sports. This is a marvelous example of covering a female competitor, this short film profiling U.S. Women's Individual Foil fencer Nzingha Prescod -- it's about her and her approach…
Yes, the Drone Rule Book Is a One-Off
Over at The New Republic, I've got a more formal piece on the weird hybrid document that serves as Obama's Drone Rule Book. In addition to some formal observations I made in this working thread, it has these descriptions from both "an administration…