2021-01-12

etc

• Is Truth Irrelevant? - Thomas Sowell

• UFOs: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Collection - The Black Vault

  • 149mb Original CIA UFO Collection CD-ROM Contents
  • 342mb "searchable pdf" OCR beset effort CIA UFO Collection CD-ROM Contents

• FCC grants permission for polar launch of Starlink satellites - SpaceNews

• DarkMarket: The internet’s biggest darknet just got taken down

• An amendment to the Constitution of the USA to abolish the electoral college

• Hey, here's an idea: do this more often. Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

• ‘No longer acceptable’ for platforms to take key decisions alone, EU Commission says – EURACTIV.com

• Central Spain records temperatures of -25C after snowstorm - BBC News

• Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

• California woman, 91, armed with shotgun, dies after being shot by deputies | Fox News

• Pet food recall expands after 70 dogs die from mold toxin

• General Motors unveils flying car prototype

  • GM shares hit record high on electric van and flying car concept

• Department of Defense and Department of Commerce Explore 5G Challenge to Develop Open 5G Systems > U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE > Release

• Major Incident at Fastly

• Pirated Academic Database Sci-Hub Is Now on the ‘Uncensorable Web’ | Nasdaq

• California Is Worse Than You Think | Mises Wire

• Google Sued by YouTube Rival Rumble over Search Rankings

• Plotting Propositions – the Mathematics of Persuasion | Bill Wadge's Blog

• Two Worlds: So Much Prosperity, So Much Skepticism · Collaborative Fund

• CBS This Morning: Apple to Make 'Big Announcement' Tomorrow Morning - MacRumors

• Tucker Carlson's frightening summation of what's happening in America - American Thinker

• Here are six videos of Democrats calling for violence or physical confrontations that are still active on Twitter

Solarwinds

• Solarwind, Fireeye, Microsoft and Cisco leaks are offered for sale | Hacker News

  Washington Post attributed the attack to Russian actor APT29/Cozy Bear on Dec 14th [1], "unnamed gov sources".

  FireEye [2] Dec 13th & Volexity [3] Dec 14th were more cautious, citing an unknown actor dubbed UNC2452, and Dark Halo, respectively.

  Recorded Future made a (fair but ultimately inconclusive) case for Chinese attribution [4], Dec 30th.

  US gov/CISA continues to claim "Russian linked" [5], Jan 5th.

  Kaspersky reported a link to the Kazuar malware used by Russian actor Turla [6], Jan 11th.

  CrowdStrike's report on the malware injector [7], Jan 11th says "does not attribute the SUNSPOT implant, SUNBURST backdoor or TEARDROP post-exploitation tool to any known adversary".

  [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/russian-gov... [2] https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2020/12/evasive... [3] https://www.volexity.com/blog/2020/12/14/dark-halo-leverages... [4] https://www.recordedfuture.com/solarwinds-attribution/ [5] https://www.cisa.gov/news/2021/01/05/joint-statement-federal... [6] https://securelist.com/sunburst-backdoor-kazuar/99981/ [7] https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/sunspot-malware-technical-a... -- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25755811

Anticipated Peaceful Protests

• How key states plan to secure their capitol buildings ahead of possible armed pro-Trump protests - CNN

• Salesforce says it has 'taken action' to prevent further U.S. political violence

Capitol Insurection

• Parler Users Video GPS Data Shows Involvement in Capitol Attack

• Capitol Hill siege 'may be the beginning of the end of Big Tech': Scott Galloway

• U.S. Capitol Mob Brings Questions, Fallout For Pro-Trump Police : NPR

• Six hours of paralysis: Inside Trump's failure to act after a mob stormed the Capitol - The Washington Post

• Shirtless, Horned Capitol Rioter Jake Angeli Demands Organic Food In Jail

• Capitol Violence — FBI

• Schumer Urges FBI To Add Capitol Rioter "Insurrectionists" To No-Fly List | ZeroHedge

• Capitol Police Officers Suspended, Over A Dozen Investigated For Supporting Pro-Trump Demonstrators | ZeroHedge

• "Incitement" Timeline Debunked as Ex-Capitol Police Chief Says Pelosi, McConnell's Sergeants-at-Arms Refused Security Measures - The National Pulse

  And while the Washington Post clumsily attempts to blame President Trump for the violence – despite the President calling for “peaceful” protests and the “cheering on” of Congressmen – their own article admits the “first wave of protesters arrived at the Capitol about 12:40pm.”

  President Trump’s speech didn’t conclude until 1:11pm, and with at least a 45-minute walk between the two locations with crowd-related delays, that would put the first people from Trump’s speech at Capitol Hill no earlier than 1:56pm – a full hour and sixteen minutes after troublemakers arrived.

  In fact, rioters who breached the perimeter would have had to leave before Trump’s speech even began (at 12pm precisely) to make it in time for the events as they are detailed by authorities.

  This correlates with Sund’s interview, where he admits: “I realized at 1pm, things aren’t going well… I’m watching my people getting slammed.”

The Purge / Republicans Are Evil

• Florida state rep requests gov divest from Amazon, Twitter, Apple, Google and FB

• Facebook to staff: Avoid company-branded clothing for own safety

• PayPal Dumps GiveSendGo, the 'Christian' Crowdfunding Site Used by Proud Boys

• LawEnforcementToday on Twitter: "FB has just blocked Law Enforcement Today - with it's nearly 900,000 members - from posting. All admins blocked from posting to any page and group they are associated with. This is out of control."

• Silencing Trump: How 'big tech' is taking Trumpism offline - BBC News

• Amazon and Facebook staff warned of threats to safety - BBC News

• The Lies that can Undermine Democracy

• A Thread from @ConceptualJames: "They've become so accustomed to just manufacturing whatever public sentiment that they want"

• Salesforce ‘Takes Action’ to Prevent RNC Emails from Inciting Violence

• It's 1984 On Steroids! Big Banks, Corps, Stop Donations, House Dems Move To Make MAGA Illegal - The Lid

• Liberal Media Scream: CNN wants conservative media squelched in 'national emergency'

• PBS top lawyer says gov should build 'enlightenment camps' and remove children from Trump supporting homes - Sara A. Carter : Sara A. Carter

Parler

• Parler v. AWS – Defendant Response (Opposing Temporary Restraining Order) [pdf]

• "Twitter" not found: Violent hashtag frequencies in Parler | by anonymous data scientist | Jan, 2021 | Medium

• Leaked memos Amazon warn 'be vigilant' due to threats to blow up data centers

• How Silicon Valley, in a Show of Monopolistic Force, Destroyed Parler

  • I like reading this; I agree with much of it, and yet it still makes me uneasy. Things like this:

    The article quoted Fadi Quran, campaign director at the human rights group Avaaz, as saying: “In DC, we saw QAnon conspiracists and other militias that would never have grown to this size without being turbo-charged by Facebook and Twitter.” So we'll accept the characterization of the crowd was "QAnon compiracists and other militias," because this article is agreeing with us; right? The other view is that even Greenwald, with different views, sees the same reality and agrees its rancid.

• Parler Moves Domain Registrar

• An Absurdly Basic Bug Let Anyone Grab All of Parler's Data

• Why Parler's revival on public cloud is complicated and unlikely

• Parler’s amateur coding could come back to haunt Capitol Hill rioters

OrangeManBad

• "I Will Not Yield To Political Games": Pence Responds To Pelosi, Won't Invoke 25th Amendment | ZeroHedge

• China Won Trump’s Trade War and Got Americans to Foot the Bill

• Civil rights groups demand Google remove Trump's YouTube channel

• DC Attorney General Looking Into Arresting Trump and Others – JONATHAN TURLEY

• Trump rewrites history, calls pre-riot speech “totally appropriate”

• Manatee harassment under investigation after the word 'Trump' was found scratched on an animal's back - CNN

• https://twitter.com/PeterSweden7/status/1349013230996357121

  Trump is now getting completely canceled. Deutsche Bank who has been the primary lender to Trump for decades is refusing to do business with him. Signature Bank closing his accounts. If they can do it to the President, they can do it to you - And they will.

World

• Uganda bans social media ahead of presidential election

• "This is not a parody" https://twitter.com/Policy/status/1349059275461685250

  Twitter Public Policy @Policy Ahead of the Ugandan election, we're hearing reports that Internet service providers are being ordered to block social media and messaging apps. We strongly condemn internet shutdowns – they are hugely harmful, violate basic human rights and the principles of the #OpenInternet. 12:22 PM · Jan 12, 202

  • I honestly can't believe Twitter just tweeted this. But Twitter just tweeted this. | Not the Bee

• Mike Pompeo claims without evidence that Iran is al-Qaida's new 'home base' | US news | The Guardian

• Prominent rights group labels Israel an 'apartheid regime' for first time

• Exclusive: Luxembourg, EU snub Pompeo in final Europe trip, diplomats say | Reuters

COVID

• American Apathy: Our Declining Interest in Covid-19 Cases and Deaths

  Oh, Beller also said that if “even if Biden wins, we go for all the Republican voters, Homeland Security will take their children away…”

• Democrats offer bill fining lawmakers who don't wear masks in Capitol | TheHill

• U.S. to require negative Covid-19 tests for international air passengers

• Bruce Willis asked to leave pharmacy for refusing to wear a mask

• L.A. County Tells Residents To Wear Masks Inside Own Homes | ZeroHedge

• LED lights found to kill coronavirus: Global first in fight against COVID-19 - American Friends of Tel Aviv University American Friends of Tel Aviv University