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cksmart-world · 1 year ago

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SMART BOMB

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysis

By Christopher Smart

Sept. 26, 2023

AN INSIDE GUIDE TO MORMON-SPEAK

Praise the Lord, The Salt Lake Tribune has published a holy glossary for heathens so folks like Wilson and the band can better translate what Mormons are saying. For example: “Celestial Kingdom — When members speak of heaven, they usually mean the Celestial Kingdom.” It's a public service for people like those moving here from Austin, Texas. To help, the staff here at Smart Bomb added more info to this new Deseret Dictionary:

Flip — The Mormon term for another F-word. e.g., “What the flip.”

Garbage — The LDS word for excrement, e.g., “Can you believe that garbage.”

Gentile — Heathens who are targets of Mormon missionaries who must be saved by dunking them in water.

Jack Mormon — A lost soul who has strayed from righteousness and needs help to quit their sinning ways.

Apostate — A Jack Mormon who is beyond saving and must be kept away from women and children.

Baptism of the dead — Mormons can baptize anyone and meet them in the Celestial Kingdom. That way, everyone gets to heaven, including Adolf Hitler and Anne Frank. For real.

Word of Wisdom — Always take two Mormons fishing — that way they won't drink the beer.

A NATION OF SLOBS

America owes Fonzi a big wet kiss — or does it. T shirts and jeans are now the uniform of… just about everyone. And this country's big dress-down has spread like Covid from Italy to Argentina and from Russia to Morocco. John Fetterman, the recently elected U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, is famous for the hoodies and shorts he sports around the Capital. Last week, Majority Leader Chuck Shumer relaxed the official Senate dress code, setting the stage for god-knows-what. Hold on Wilson, the band might think that's cool but have you ever returned to this country and landed at JFK or LAX. You can tell you're back in the states because people in the airport are wearing bad looking T shirts, flip-flops and basketball shorts exposing rear cleavage. Yecht. Land of the free, home of the slobs. Sure, Marlon Brando looked good in a T shirt and denims in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” but the middle-aged guy at the airport Starbucks in the saggy jeans and gut hanging out of his Raiders tee doesn't recall the Fonz. It's gotten so bad that gangsters don't even dress up any more. Rich people dress down, too, but their jeans cost $600, the sneakers $300 and the tees — who knows. At least their but-crack isn't showing. Call it “slob chic.” If you're a real slob, this could be a good year for you. But pull up your shorts — please.

THE CHAOS CAUCUS AND THE GRAND INQUISITION

Feeling dysfunctional? Cheer up. Compared to the U.S. House of Representatives — or should we say Clown House — you're practically normal. Even Wilson and the band look upstanding compared to this lot. Ohio Republican Jim Jordan did his impression of Grand Inquisitor looking to torch Hunter Biden, who was in scurrilous cahoots with then V.P. Joe Biden plotting heresy and kickbacks. In the committee's dock, Attorney General Merrick Garland was roughed up by inquisitors, snarling that he dished Hunter — and therefore his father — special treatment while going after conservatives like Queen Isabella beheading Moors in the Spanish Inquisition. Why, the Grand Inquisitor demanded, did then-president Donald Trump appoint U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss to investigate Hunter. “The fix was in.” Huh? What? Beyond the buffoonish prelude to the impeachment of President Biden, Republicans dueled in House corridors with a cadre of far-right saboteurs who were playing government-shutdown-chicken with hapless Speaker Kevin McCarthy — window dressing for their real agenda of scaling back Ukraine aid and imposing social policy dictates on abortion and gender. Oh, and one more thing — they want Kevin McCarthy's head on a spike. Call it Making America Great Again.

Post script — That's a wrap for another spacey week here at Smart Bomb where we keep track of asteroids so you don't have to. Get this Wilson, seven years ago, NASA launched an unmanned spacecraft called OSIRIS-REx to collect a sample of the 4 billion-year-old asteroid Bennu that's only one-third of a mile wide. Hovering over the asteroid, the spacecraft's robotic arm scooped up eight ounces of space dirt and returned to Earth's orbit, dropping the stuff off in a capsule that landed in the west desert bombing range at Dugway Proving Ground here in Utah. The molecular material of the sample could provide clues to our planet's origins. Then OSIRIS-REx flew off to it's next stop — the asteroid Apophis with a scheduled encounter in 2029. Simply amazing. Of course, we can't pass a budget or convince conservatives that Earth is imperiled by climate change due to burning of fossil fuels. But people love science. Well, some people, anyway. Others watch TV, talk on cell phones and drive cars but don't believe in science. Vaccination — nah. Funny, isn't it, Wilson. Did a man walk on the moon or was it just a sophisticated hoax, like 9-11. There are so many hoaxes anymore. With Donald Trump alone, there are dozens and dozens. Maybe we didn't go to Bennu after all.

OK Wilson, to say the Republican party is all flipped up would be an understatement. They've got the entire country sittin' in limbo. What's a mother to do. We shouldn't worry about what we can't control but there's this existential doom hanging over us and it's not an asteroid. Well, flip it. Tell the band to crack open the beers and get us on outa here:

Sitting here in limbo But I know it won't be long Sitting here in limbo Like a bird without a song Well, they're putting up a resistance But I know that my faith will lead me on Sitting here in limbo Waiting for the dice to roll Yeah, now, sitting here in limbo Got some time to search my soul Well, they're putting up a resistance But I know that my faith will lead me on Sitting here in limbo Waiting for the tide to flow

Sitting here in limbo Knowing that I have to go Well, they're putting up a resistance But I know that my faith will lead me on I don't know where life will take me But I know where I have been I don't know what life will show me But I know what I have seen Tried my hand at love and friendship That is past and gone And now it's time to move along Sitting in limbo, sitting in limbo Limbo limbo, sitting in limbo

(Sitting in Limbo — Jimmy Cliff)

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abolitioncommunism · 4 years ago

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“Congressional Democrats want to make it easier to identify and prosecute police misconduct; Joe Biden wants to give police departments $300 million. But efforts to solve police violence through liberal reforms like these have failed for nearly a century.

Enough. We can’t reform the police. The only way to diminish police violence is to reduce contact between the public and the police.

There is not a single era in United States history in which the police were not a force of violence against black people. Policing in the South emerged from the slave patrols in the 1700 and 1800s that caught and returned runaway slaves. In the North, the first municipal police departments in the mid-1800s helped quash labor strikes and riots against the rich. Everywhere, they have suppressed marginalized populations to protect the status quo.

So when you see a police officer pressing his knee into a black man’s neck until he dies, that’s the logical result of policing in America. When a police officer brutalizes a black person, he is doing what he sees as his job.

Now two weeks of nationwide protests have led some to call for defunding the police, while others argue that doing so would make us less safe.

The first thing to point out is that police officers don’t do what you think they do. They spend most of their time responding to noise complaints, issuing parking and traffic citations, and dealing with other noncriminal issues. We’ve been taught to think they “catch the bad guys; they chase the bank robbers; they find the serial killers,” said Alex Vitale, the coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College, in an interview with Jacobin. But this is “a big myth,” he said. “The vast majority of police officers make one felony arrest a year. If they make two, they’re cop of the month.”

We can’t simply change their job descriptions to focus on the worst of the worst criminals. That’s not what they are set up to do.

Second, a “safe” world is not one in which the police keep black and other marginalized people in check through threats of arrest, incarceration, violence and death.

I’ve been advocating the abolition of the police for years. Regardless of your view on police power — whether you want to get rid of the police or simply to make them less violent — here’s an immediate demand we can all make: Cut the number of police in half and cut their budget in half. Fewer police officers equals fewer opportunities for them to brutalize and kill people. The idea is gaining traction in Minneapolis, Dallas, Los Angeles and other cities.

History is instructive, not because it offers us a blueprint for how to act in the present but because it can help us ask better questions for the future.

The Lexow Committee undertook the first major investigation into police misconduct in New York City in 1894. At the time, the most common complaint against the police was about “clubbing” — “the routine bludgeoning of citizens by patrolmen armed with nightsticks or blackjacks,” as the historian Marilynn Johnson has written.

The Wickersham Commission, convened to study the criminal justice system and examine the problem of Prohibition enforcement, offered a scathing indictment in 1931, including evidence of brutal interrogation strategies. It put the blame on a lack of professionalism among the police.

After the 1967 urban uprisings, the Kerner Commission found that “police actions were ‘final’ incidents before the outbreak of violence in 12 of the 24 surveyed disorders.” Its report listed a now-familiar set of recommendations, like working to build “community support for law enforcement” and reviewing police operations “in the ghetto, to ensure proper conduct by police officers.”

These commissions didn’t stop the violence; they just served as a kind of counterinsurgent function each time police violence led to protests. Calls for similar reforms were trotted out in response to the brutal police beating of Rodney King in 1991 and the rebellion that followed, and again after the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. The final report of the Obama administration’s President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing resulted in procedural tweaks like implicit-bias training, police-community listening sessions, slight alterations of use-of-force policies and systems to identify potentially problematic officers early on.

But even a member of the task force, Tracey Meares, noted in 2017, “policing as we know it must be abolished before it can be transformed.”

The philosophy undergirding these reforms is that more rules will mean less violence. But police officers break rules all the time. Look what has happened over the past few weeks — police officers slashing tires, shoving old men on camera, and arresting and injuring journalists and protesters. These officers are not worried about repercussions any more than Daniel Pantaleo, the former New York City police officer whose chokehold led to Eric Garner’s death; he waved to a camera filming the incident. He knew that the police union would back him up and he was right. He stayed on the job for five more years.

Minneapolis had instituted many of these “best practices” but failed to remove Derek Chauvin from the force despite 17 misconduct complaints over nearly two decades, culminating in the entire world watching as he knelt on George Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes.

Why on earth would we think the same reforms would work now? We need to change our demands. The surest way of reducing police violence is to reduce the power of the police, by cutting budgets and the number of officers.

But don’t get me wrong. We are not abandoning our communities to violence. We don’t want to just close police departments. We want to make them obsolete.

We should redirect the billions that now go to police departments toward providing health care, housing, education and good jobs. If we did this, there would be less need for the police in the first place.

We can build other ways of responding to harms in our society. Trained “community care workers” could do mental-health checks if someone needs help. Towns could use restorative-justice models instead of throwing people in prison.

What about rape? The current approach hasn’t ended it. In fact most rapists never see the inside of a courtroom. Two-thirds of people who experience sexual violence never report it to anyone. Those who file police reports are often dissatisfied with the response. Additionally, police officers themselves commit sexual assault alarmingly often. A study in 2010 found that sexual misconduct was the second most frequently reported form of police misconduct. In 2015, The Buffalo News found that an officer was caught for sexual misconduct every five days.

When people, especially white people, consider a world without the police, they envision a society as violent as our current one, merely without law enforcement — and they shudder. As a society, we have been so indoctrinated with the idea that we solve problems by policing and caging people that many cannot imagine anything other than prisons and the police as solutions to violence and harm.

People like me who want to abolish prisons and police, however, have a vision of a different society, built on cooperation instead of individualism, on mutual aid instead of self-preservation. What would the country look like if it had billions of extra dollars to spend on housing, food and education for all? This change in society wouldn’t happen immediately, but the protests show that many people are ready to embrace a different vision of safety and justice.

When the streets calm and people suggest once again that we hire more black police officers or create more civilian review boards, I hope that we remember all the times those efforts have failed.”

#mariame kaba #prison abolition #abolitionism #u #quote #readings

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96thdayofrage · 3 years ago

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“Special thanks to BitDefender for helping fix our issues,” DarkSide said. “This will make us even better.”

DarkSide soon proved it wasn’t bluffing, unleashing a string of attacks. This month, it paralyzed the Colonial Pipeline Co., prompting a shutdown of the 5,500 mile pipeline that carries 45% of the fuel used on the East Coast, quickly followed by a rise in gasoline prices, panic buying of gas across the Southeast and closures of thousands of gas stations. Absent Bitdefender’s announcement, it’s possible that the crisis might have been contained, and that Colonial might have quietly restored its system with Wosar and Gillespie’s decryption tool.

Instead, Colonial paid DarkSide $4.4 million in Bitcoin for a key to unlock its files. “I will admit that I wasn’t comfortable seeing money go out the door to people like this,” CEO Joseph Blount told The Wall Street Journal.

The missed opportunity was part of a broader pattern of botched or half-hearted responses to the growing menace of ransomware, which during the pandemic has disabled businesses, schools, hospitals and government agencies across the country. The incident also shows how antivirus companies eager to make a name for themselves sometimes violate one of the cardinal rules of the cat-and-mouse game of cyber-warfare: Don’t let your opponents know what you’ve figured out. During World War II, when the British secret service learned from decrypted communications that the Gestapo was planning to abduct and murder a valuable double agent, Johnny Jebsen, his handler wasn’t allowed to warn him for fear of cluing in the enemy that its cipher had been cracked. Today, ransomware hunters like Wosar and Gillespie try to prolong the attackers’ ignorance, even at the cost of contacting fewer victims. Sooner or later, as payments drop off, the cybercriminals realize that something has gone wrong.

Whether to tout a decryption tool is a “calculated decision,” said Rob McLeod, senior director of the threat response unit for cybersecurity firm eSentire. From the marketing perspective, “You are singing that song from the rooftops about how you have come up with a security solution that will decrypt a victim’s data. And then the security researcher angle says, ‘Don’t disclose any information here. Keep the ransomware bugs that we’ve found that allow us to decode the data secret, so as not to notify the threat actors.’”

In a post on the dark web, DarkSide thanked Bitdefender for identifying a flaw in the gang’s ransomware. (Highlight added by ProPublica.)

Wosar said that publicly releasing tools, as Bitdefender did, has become riskier as ransoms have soared and the gangs have grown wealthier and more technically adept. In the early days of ransomware, when hackers froze home computers for a few hundred dollars, they often couldn’t determine how their code was broken unless the flaw was specifically pointed out to them.

Today, the creators of ransomware “have access to reverse engineers and penetration testers who are very very capable,” he said. “That’s how they gain entrance to these oftentimes highly secured networks in the first place. They download the decryptor, they disassemble it, they reverse engineer it and they figure out exactly why we were able to decrypt their files. And 24 hours later, the whole thing is fixed. Bitdefender should have known better.”

It wasn’t the first time that Bitdefender trumpeted a solution that Wosar or Gillespie had beaten it to. Gillespie had broken the code of a ransomware strain called GoGoogle and was helping victims without any fanfare, when Bitdefender released a decryption tool in May 2020. Other companies have also announced breakthroughs publicly, Wosar and Gillespie said.

“People are desperate for a news mention, and big security companies don’t care about victims,” Wosar said.

Bogdan Botezatu, director of threat research at Bucharest, Romania-based Bitdefender, said the company wasn’t aware of the earlier success in unlocking files infected by DarkSide. Regardless, he said, Bitdefender decided to publish its tool “because most victims who fall for ransomware do not have the right connection with ransomware support groups and won’t know where to ask for help unless they can learn about the existence of tools from media reports or with a simple search.”

Bitdefender has provided free technical support to more than a dozen DarkSide victims, and “we believe many others have successfully used the tool without our intervention,” Botezatu said. Over the years, Bitdefender has helped individuals and businesses avoid paying more than $100 million in ransom, he said.

Bitdefender recognized that DarkSide might correct the flaw, Botezatu said. “We are well aware that attackers are agile and adapt to our decryptors.” But DarkSide might have “spotted the issue” anyway. “We don’t believe in ransomware decryptors made silently available. Attackers will learn about their existence by impersonating home users or companies in need, while the vast majority of victims will have no idea that they can get their data back for free.”

The attack on Colonial Pipeline, and the ensuing chaos at the gas pumps throughout the Southeast, appears to have spurred the federal government to be more vigilant. President Joe Biden issued an executive order to improve cybersecurity and create a blueprint for a federal response to cyberattacks. DarkSide said it was shutting down under U.S. pressure, although ransomware crews have often disbanded to avoid scrutiny and then re-formed under new names, or their members have launched or joined other groups.

“As sophisticated as they are, these guys will pop up again, and they’ll be that much smarter,” said Aaron Tantleff, a Chicago cybersecurity attorney who has consulted with 10 companies attacked by DarkSide. “They’ll come back with a vengeance.”

At least until now, private researchers and companies have often been more effective than the government in fighting ransomware. Last October, Microsoft disrupted the infrastructure of Trickbot, a network of more than 1 million infected computers that disseminated the notorious Ryuk strain of ransomware, by disabling its servers and communications. That month, ProtonMail, the Swiss-based email service, shut down 20,000 Ryuk-related accounts.

Wosar and Gillespie, who belong to a worldwide volunteer group called the Ransomware Hunting Team, have cracked more than 300 major ransomware strains and variants, saving an estimated 4 million victims from paying billions of dollars.

By contrast, the FBI rarely decrypts ransomware or arrests the attackers, who are typically based in countries like Russia or Iran that lack extradition agreements with the U.S. DarkSide, for instance, is believed to operate out of Russia. Far more victims seek help from the Hunting Team, through websites maintained by its members, than from the FBI.

The U.S. Secret Service also investigates ransomware, which falls under its purview of combating financial crimes. But, especially in election years, it sometimes rotates agents off cyber assignments to carry out its better-known mission of protecting presidents, vice presidents, major party candidates and their families. European law enforcement, especially the Dutch National Police, has been more successful than the U.S. in arresting attackers and seizing servers.

Similarly, the U.S. government has made only modest headway in pushing private industry, including pipeline companies, to strengthen cybersecurity defenses. Cybersecurity oversight is divided among an alphabet soup of agencies, hampering coordination. The Department of Homeland Security conducts “vulnerability assessments” for critical infrastructure, which includes pipelines.

It reviewed Colonial Pipeline in around 2013 as part of a study of places where a cyberattack might cause a catastrophe. The pipeline was deemed resilient, meaning that it could recover quickly, according to a former DHS official. The department did not respond to questions about any subsequent reviews.

Five years later, DHS created a pipeline cybersecurity initiative to identify weaknesses in pipeline computer systems and recommend strategies to address them. Participation is voluntary, and a person familiar with the initiative said that it is more useful for smaller companies with limited in-house IT expertise than for big ones like Colonial. The National Risk Management Center, which oversees the initiative, also grapples with other thorny issues such as election security.

Ransomware has skyrocketed since 2012, when the advent of Bitcoin made it hard to track or block payments. The criminals’ tactics have evolved from indiscriminate “spray and pray” campaigns seeking a few hundred dollars apiece to targeting specific businesses, government agencies and nonprofit groups with multimillion-dollar demands.

Attacks on energy businesses in particular have increased during the pandemic — not just in the U.S. but in Canada, Latin America and Europe. As the companies allowed employees to work from home, they relaxed some security controls, McLeod said.

Since 2019, numerous gangs have ratcheted up pressure with a technique known as “double extortion.” Upon entering a system, they steal sensitive data before launching ransomware that encodes the files and makes it impossible for hospitals, universities and cities to do their daily work. If the loss of computer access is not sufficiently intimidating, they threaten to reveal confidential information, often posting samples as leverage. For instance, when the Washington, D.C., police department didn’t pay the $4 million ransom demanded by a gang called Babuk last month, Babuk published intelligence briefings, names of criminal suspects and witnesses, and personnel files, from medical information to polygraph test results, of officers and job candidates.

DarkSide, which emerged last August, epitomized this new breed. It chose targets based on a careful financial analysis or information gleaned from corporate emails. For instance, it attacked one of Tantleff’s clients during a week when the hackers knew the company would be vulnerable because it was transitioning its files to the cloud and didn’t have clean backups.

To infiltrate target networks, the gang used advanced methods such as “zero-day exploits” that immediately take advantage of software vulnerabilities before they can be patched. Once inside, it moved swiftly, looking not only for sensitive data but also for the victim’s cyber insurance policy, so it could peg its demands to the amount of coverage. After two to three days of poking around, DarkSide encrypted the files.

“They have a faster attack window,” said Christopher Ballod, associate managing director for cyber risk at Kroll, the business investigations firm, who has advised half a dozen DarkSide victims. “The longer you dwell in the system, the more likely you are to be caught.”

Typically, DarkSide’s demands were “on the high end of the scale,” $5 million and up, Ballod said. One scary tactic: If publicly traded companies didn’t pay the ransom, DarkSide threatened to share information stolen from them with short-sellers who would profit if the share price dropped upon publication.

DarkSide’s site on the dark web identified dozens of victims and described the confidential data it claimed to have filched from them. One was New Orleans law firm Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann. “A big annoyance is what it was,” attorney Phil Wittmann said, referring to the DarkSide attack in February. “We paid them nothing,” said Michael Walshe Jr., chair of the firm’s management committee, declining to comment further.

Last November, DarkSide adopted what is known as a “ransomware-as-a-service” model. Under this model, it partnered with affiliates who launched the attacks. The affiliates received 75% to 90% of the ransom, with DarkSide keeping the remainder. As this partnership suggests, the ransomware ecosystem is a distorted mirror of corporate culture, with everything from job interviews to procedures for handling disputes. After DarkSide shut down, several people who identified themselves as its affiliates complained on a dispute resolution forum that it had stiffed them. “The target paid, but I did not receive my share,” one wrote.

Together, DarkSide and its affiliates reportedly grossed at least $90 million. Seven of Tantleff’s clients, including two companies in the energy industry, paid ransoms ranging from $1.25 million to $6 million, reflecting negotiated discounts from initial demands of $7.5 million to $30 million. His other three clients hit by DarkSide did not pay. In one of those cases, the hackers demanded $50 million. Negotiations grew acrimonious, and the two sides couldn’t agree on a price.

DarkSide’s representatives were shrewd bargainers, Tantleff said. If a victim said it couldn’t afford the ransom because of the pandemic, DarkSide was ready with data showing that the company’s revenue was up, or that COVID-19’s impact was factored into the price.

DarkSide’s grasp of geopolitics was less advanced than its approach to ransomware. Around the same time that it adopted the affiliate model, it posted that it was planning to safeguard information stolen from victims by storing it in servers in Iran. DarkSide apparently didn’t realize that an Iranian connection would complicate its collection of ransoms from victims in the U.S., which has economic sanctions restricting financial transactions with Iran. Although DarkSide later walked back this statement, saying that it had only considered Iran as a possible location, numerous cyber insurers had concerns about covering payments to the group. Coveware, a Connecticut firm that negotiates with attackers on behalf of victims, stopped dealing with DarkSide.

Ballod said that, with their insurers unwilling to reimburse the ransom, none of his clients paid DarkSide, despite concerns about exposure of their data. Even if they had caved in to DarkSide, and received assurances from the hackers in return that the data would be shredded, the information might still leak, he said.

During DarkSide’s changeover to the affiliate model, a flaw was introduced into its ransomware. The vulnerability caught the attention of members of the Ransomware Hunting Team. Established in 2016, the invitation-only team consists of about a dozen volunteers in the U.S., Spain, Italy, Germany, Hungary and the U.K. They work in cybersecurity or related fields. In their spare time, they collaborate in finding and decrypting new ransomware strains.

Several members, including Wosar, have little formal education but an aptitude for coding. A high school dropout, Wosar grew up in a working-class family near the German port city of Rostock. In 1992, at the age of 8, he saw a computer for the first time and was entranced. By 16, he was developing his own antivirus software and making money from it. Now 37, he has worked for antivirus firm Emsisoft since its inception almost two decades ago and is its chief technology officer. He moved to the U.K. from Germany in 2018 and lives near London.

He has been battling ransomware hackers since 2012, when he cracked a strain called ACCDFISA, which stood for “Anti Cyber Crime Department of Federal Internet Security Agency.” This fictional agency was notifying people that child pornography had infected their computers, and so it was blocking access to their files unless they paid $100 to remove the virus.

The ACCDFISA hacker eventually noticed that the strain had been decrypted and released a revised version. Many of Wosar’s subsequent triumphs were also fleeting. He and his teammates tried to keep criminals blissfully unaware for as long as possible that their strain was vulnerable. They left cryptic messages on forums inviting victims to contact them for assistance or sent direct messages to people who posted that they had been attacked.

In the course of protecting against computer intrusions, analysts at antivirus firms sometimes detected ransomware flaws and built decryption tools, though it wasn’t their main focus. Sometimes they collided with Wosar.

In 2014, Wosar discovered that a ransomware strain called CryptoDefense copied and pasted from Microsoft Windows some of the code it used to lock and unlock files, not realizing that the same code was preserved in a folder on the victim’s own computer. It was missing the signal, or “flag,” in their program, usually included by ransomware creators to instruct Windows not to save a copy of the key.

Wosar quickly developed a decryption tool to retrieve the key. “We faced an interesting conundrum,” Sarah White, another Hunting Team member, wrote on Emsisoft’s blog. “How to get our tool out to the most victims possible without alerting the malware developer of his mistake?”

Wosar discreetly sought out CryptoDefense victims through support forums, volunteer networks and announcements of where to contact for help. He avoided describing how the tool worked or the blunder it exploited. When victims came forward, he supplied the fix, scrubbing the ransomware from at least 350 computers. CryptoDefense eventually “caught on to us ... but he still did not have access to the decrypter we used and had no idea how we were unlocking his victims’ files,” White wrote.

But then an antivirus company, Symantec, uncovered the same problem and bragged about the discovery on a blog post that “contained enough information to help the CryptoDefense developer find and correct the flaw,” White wrote. Within 24 hours the attackers began spreading a revised version. They changed its name to CryptoWall and made $325 million.

Symantec “chose quick publicity over helping CryptoDefense victims recover their files,” White wrote. “Sometimes there are things that are better left unsaid.”

A spokeswoman for Broadcom, which acquired Symantec’s enterprise security business in 2019, declined to comment, saying that “the team members who worked on the tool are no longer with the company.”

Like Wosar, the 29-year-old Gillespie comes from poverty and never went to college. When he was growing up in central Illinois, his family struggled so much financially that they sometimes had to move in with friends or relatives. After high school, he worked full time for 10 years at a computer repair chain called Nerds on Call. Last year, he became a malware and cybersecurity researcher at Coveware.

Last December, he messaged Wosar for help. Gillespie had been working with a DarkSide victim who had paid a ransom and received a tool to recover the data. But DarkSide’s decryptor had a reputation for being slow, and the victim hoped that Gillespie could speed up the process.

Gillespie analyzed the software, which contained a key to release the files. He wanted to extract the key, but because it was stored in an unusually complex way, he couldn’t. He turned to Wosar, who was able to isolate it.

The teammates then began testing the key on other files infected by DarkSide. Gillespie checked files uploaded by victims to the website he operates, ID Ransomware, while Wosar used VirusTotal, an online database of suspected malware.

That night, they shared a discovery.

“I have confirmation DarkSide is re-using their RSA keys,” Gillespie wrote to the Hunting Team on its Slack channel. A type of cryptography, RSA generates two keys: a public key to encode data and a private key to decipher it. RSA is used legitimately to safeguard many aspects of e-commerce, such as protecting credit numbers. But it’s also been co-opted by ransomware hackers.

“I noticed the same as I was able to decrypt newly encrypted files using their decrypter,” Wosar replied less than an hour later, at 2:45 a.m. London time.

Their analysis showed that, before adopting the affiliate model, DarkSide had used a different public and private key for each victim. Wosar suspected that, during this transition, DarkSide introduced a mistake into its affiliate portal used to generate the ransomware for each target. Wosar and Gillespie could now use the key that Wosar had extracted to retrieve files from Windows machines seized by DarkSide. The cryptographic blunder didn’t affect Linux operating systems.

“We were scratching our heads,” Wosar said. “Could they really have fucked up this badly? DarkSide was one of the more professional ransomware-as-a-service schemes out there. For them to make such a huge mistake is very, very rare.”

The Hunting Team celebrated quietly, without seeking publicity. White, who is a computer science student at Royal Holloway, part of the University of London, began looking for DarkSide victims. She contacted firms that handle digital forensics and incident response.

“We told them, ‘Hey listen, if you have any DarkSide victims, tell them to reach out to us, we can help them. We can recover their files and they don’t have to pay a huge ransom,’” Wosar said.

The DarkSide hackers mostly took the Christmas season off. Gillespie and Wosar expected that, when the attacks resumed in the new year, their discovery would help dozens of victims. But then Bitdefender published its post, under the headline “Darkside Ransomware Decryption Tool.”

In a messaging channel with the ransomware response community, someone asked why Bitdefender would tip off the hackers. “Publicity,” White responded. “Looks good. I can guarantee they’ll fix it much faster now though.”

She was right. The next day, DarkSide acknowledged the error that Wosar and Gillespie had found before Bitdefender. “Due to the problem with key generation, some companies have the same keys,” the hackers wrote, adding that up to 40% of keys were affected.

DarkSide mocked Bitdefender for releasing the decryptor at “the wrong time…., as the activity of us and our partners during the New Year holidays is the lowest.”

Adding to the team’s frustrations, Wosar discovered that the Bitdefender tool had its own drawbacks. Using the company’s decryptor, he tried to unlock samples infected by DarkSide and found that they were damaged in the process. “They actually implemented the decryption wrong,” Wosar said. “That means if victims did use the Bitdefender tool, there’s a good chance that they damaged the data.”

Asked about Wosar’s criticism, Botezatu said that data recovery is difficult, and that Bitdefender has “taken all precautions to make sure that we’re not compromising user data” including exhaustive testing and “code that evaluates whether the resulting decrypted file is valid.”

Even without Bitdefender, DarkSide might have soon realized its mistake anyway, Wosar and Gillespie said. For example, as they sifted through compromised networks, the hackers might have come across emails in which victims helped by the Hunting Team discussed the flaw.

“They might figure it out that way — that is always a possibility,” Wosar said. “But it’s especially painful if a vulnerability is being burned through something stupid like this.”

The incident led the Hunting Team to coin a term for the premature exposure of a weakness in a ransomware strain. “Internally, we often joke, ‘Yeah, they are probably going to pull a Bitdefender,’” Wosar said.

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quakerjoe · 5 years ago

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In the end, not even the Progressive Bernie Base showing up for Hillary in larger numbers than her own supporters did for Obama in 2008, could prevent the inevitable. A massively flawed candidate who failed to electrify the Democratic base and make the case to Rust Belt voters- why she is the better option than the Populist candidate spraying out anti-trade rhetoric.

Blame whatever you want. The blame rests squarely on all of us. But there is so many lessons to learn from the 2016 Primary and General Election. Populism and Progressive policy became the central topic. Healthcare is a right. The ultra-rich are KING in America, and they must be reigned in. Primary process should be more fair. Flowery platitudes aren’t enough to generate excitement for the poor to turn out, etc.

Literally ZERO of these lessons were learned. Even in the face of an ACTUAL Corona-virus pandemic, with over 30 million unemployed, more and more uninsured at the time of writing this- the Democratic party has done nearly nothing to fix the problems from 2016. Actually, in all my shock- they’ve made them worse. The Democratic party pulled every string it could. Bent over backwards to not only stop Bernie Sanders, but stifle Progressives and our policy agenda. All in an orchestration to crown their nominee just years after a 2016 lawsuit said the DNC can meddle how ever they like in their own “Democratic process”. All to push a man who did next to no campaigning in any states past South Carolina. A man who didn’t actually work for your vote, but instead- coasted on “Hope and Change” establishment nostalgia, for when times weren’t so chaotic.

So for pragmatism sake, let’s push all that aside for just one moment. We can debate all day about how “fair” Joe Biden’s path to the Democratic Nomination has been. But let’s view Biden on his own merits for his candidacy’s sake. What’s the incentive for Progressives to vote for Joe? Well- unless you’re sticking to the concept of the very first paragraph of this article, the answer is: There isn’t one.

If Hillary Clinton were a flawed candidate, Biden may just be the worst nominee in history. A long history of terrible behavior including coddling racists, racist behavior, repeated threats at slashing the safety net, warmongering for a devastating Iraq war that’s helped kill endless innocent civilians all based on a lie, the nomination of Justice Thomas and controversial treatment of Anita hill, the Obama administration’s failure to even pass a Public Option with a Super Majority government, while pushing a healthcare plan that was little more than barely a small step in the right direction.

Now- Biden stands as the presumptive Democratic Nominee, and with a sizable Progressive Bernie Base up for grabs, what has Joe Biden done to earn our vote?

Answer: Nothing. Well, at least nothing significant.

Three items come immediately to mind on what Joe Biden is doing to “reach left”.

1: Joe wants to lower the Medicare age to 60. By comparison, Hillary Clinton wanted to lower it to as low as 50.

2: Joe Biden wants to eliminate student debt for those making under $125K. By comparison, Bernie Sanders wanted to eliminate it universally.

3: Nebulously- Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders have created “working groups” on various policy issues focusing on education, criminal justice, climate change, immigration, the economy, and health care policy. As of yet, nothing has come of these “groups” on policy.

As the Primary was coming to a close, I as a Progressive- was completely open to Joe moving (not reaching) left on policy positions.

Overwhelmingly, if you ask Sanders supporters what they care about most, it’s Policy.

What will you do for the underprivileged working class people of America?

What will you do for my children and grand children facing a Climate Change future?

What will you do for your Mass Incarceration mess, ending the drug war, legalizing Marijuana, and freeing non-violent drug offenders?

What will you do for the upwards of 45K people who die each year because health care is not affordable?

The 67% of American bankruptcies being due to health care costs?

BUT. Sanders supporters also believe in principle. Consistency. History. Fighting for change. Decency. Human rights. We’re also majority young people (a group Joe Biden did not do well with). Perhaps these things could be talked out. But now there’s a bigger elephant in the room. One that establishment Democrats and Joe’s supporters are ignoring.

Joe Biden was credibly accused of rape.

Democrats spent months yelling about “Believing Women” during the Kavanaugh Confirmation hearings. Rightfully fighting for Christine Blasey Ford’s story to be heard- knowing it would be a fruitless task at the hands of a twisted Senate Republican majority. Now, establishment Democrats are making the media rounds with Biden campaign talking points with denials and every attempt to downplay Tara Reade as not a credible accuser, even as several corroborations of her story have surfaced, 1 of which was an archive video of who Tara Reade alleges is her mother discussing the issue with Larry King on CNN in 1993. Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s campaign has it’s surrogates and supporters on news networks shielding Biden. Nancy Pelosi downplays the accusations, Kirsten Gillibrand (who helped cancel Al Franken) is downplaying the accusations. Alyssa Milano, prominent #MeToo voice, who made a performative appearance at the Brett Kavanagh hearings, now wants to “change the rules” on the movement in favor of a sort of ‘Due Process’- a process that many perpetrators cancelled by #MeToo never got, in favor of protecting Joe Biden.

What this means to me is that Democrats think it’s perfectly fine to be selective on who and who doesn’t deserve to be heard and taken seriously, based on who’s on your team. As if it should be that easy to just shed your principles like Snake skin, hypocritically protecting one predator, while gunning for another that doesn’t fit with you politically.

In 2016, I was perfectly fine voting for the “lesser evil”. Now that the party has loudly stated that not only does my values, principles, and policy demands for the poor and sick of America, not matter- I should fall in line with a candidate that has helped endless innocent people die overseas with America’s imperial military reach, helped endless people die at home because they cant afford a doctor, said that he has “no empathy” for young people- the same young people that have to live and suffer under the conditions of Climate Change while he’s dead and gone, sexually assaulted and violated multiple women, said that nothing will fundamentally change for the same rich people who are now gaining BILLIONS under pandemic conditions while their workers get sicker, if they’re even employed at all.

Moderate establishment Democrats and voters tell me that Trump is the number one threat. That we need to “vote blue no matter who”. Just how “blue” is Joe biden? Just how dissimilar is Joe Biden and his supporters from Trump and his following? For all of the cries of the “angry Bernie Bros” online, I see countless accosting and abusive discourse examples from Biden supporters calling any dissenters “Russian Bots”, or “MAGA Hats”. Being told that I’m somehow a Trump voter by default, for not immediately supporting Biden. All this when all I’ve ever seen from “the Bernie Bros” is aggressively holding smear artists to facts and truth in a thick environment of misrepresentation of Bernie Sanders and his platform.

So- Why shouldn’t Progressives vote for Joe Biden?

This Democratic party doesn’t give a damn about you. Nor does it care about Progressive policy. The party and its supporters spend all this time, smearing Sanders and his base as “Not democrats”, angry “socialists who want free stuff”, “How are you gonna PAY for it?!” etc etc, all while claiming to support SOME form of our policy, and then dropping it the second it doesn’t feel politically advantageous. This party threw everything it could into stopping YOU. With tactics like voter suppression, using a silly app suspiciously funded and supported by shady actors in Iowa, taking WEEKS to give final results, running Super PACs against Bernie and our movement, fear-mongering about Bernie when he did win states, gas lighting the public on “elect-ability”, using a literal pandemic against Bernie to guilt him into dropping out while attempting to blame him for continued spread of COVID-19, while they sent voters to the polls and we didn’t.

And after zero policy concessions, zero good will, repeated demands we fall in line after more than a year of being slammed and disrespected, showing up for Hillary Clinton and then being blamed for her loss anyway, which is inevitable again if Joe loses? Are we just going to keep allowing that? Just how long do we have to hold our noses, voting for Moderate do-nothing lite Republicans who would sooner see you die, than provide you affordable and universal healthcare, because a Billionaire would stand to lose money. Even NOW, during a Pandemic this party has done next to NOTHING to secure the livelihoods of American citizens, as more and more die, get furloughed, and cant pay their bills. All while Trump and Republicans take credit for pitching more common sense plans (even though they want to send us all back to work/school to feed the machine).

This- is the “resistance” party? THIS is the best we can do? Performative rage against a fascist clown while propping up an accused rapist warmongering corporatist with cognitive decline and previous racist tendencies? THIS is what the party keeps telling us we better support or be shamed as somehow supporting the “bad guy”?

Listen, #NotMeUs- this will never stop. This party will NEVER stop using us as a prop for our ideas and passion, then throwing us under the bus when they think they no longer need us. They cannot continue to be allowed to drag us further to the right with guilt trips and shaming. They will NEVER take you seriously unto you take serious action. We’ve been preaching about “action” this whole campaign. Why should that “action” stop in the ballot box? Have some foresight for just a moment and envision how this plays out in future elections, unless you stand up and make them WORK for your vote.

I, for one will not vote for Joe Biden. But I wont shame you for your vote, no matter who it’s for. Why? Because the party did a terrible job at earning -your- vote. I’d maybe only criticize you if you don’t show up at all. There’s so many down-ballot candidate who need support. Even if you leave the President box unchecked, at least show up for the other races.

But consider: There are other options that have been stifled for way too long. Perhaps its time we give them a shot, no? Green Party is running Howie Hawkins and a platform that is much closer to our principles that Biden would ever try for. Justin Amash just jumped into the race if you’re a little more on the Libertarian side. Jesse Ventura is also discovering running on the Green ticket as well. Just imagine Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura on the debate stage with Donald Trump? Popcorn for DAYS.

In order for us to be taken seriously, we must prove that we’re capable of holding the party accountable. Not voting for them is the ultimate accountability, and you get to keep your principles intact.

Now- to the ultimate argument you’d inevitably get: “You would be helping Donald Trump secure 4 more years”.

My response? You don’t have to bare the blame for that. You wont be at fault for Joe Biden losing any more than those who chose not to vote at all. It’s on the party to earn these votes. That’s how elections work. If you hate the candidate and don’t feel good about them as a person, why is it your responsibility to put them in office? To me- one of the most personal things a person has, is their vote. Not their dollars, or their Tweets. It’s checking a box for the person YOU chose to represent you. If that person doesn’t believe in hardly anything you personally believe in- why is it that they deserve your vote, again? How is it that they’re are somehow entitled to that vote? They don’t, and they aren’t. I’m looking at you too, Republicans.

In closing…

Progressives, I’m sorry to break it to you but- Medicare For All is not on the ballot. Taxing the rich is not on the ballot. Ending corruption and crooked politicians is not on the ballot.

But- ending a terrible two-party system IS on the ballot. Taking your personal vote back, IS on the ballot. In my opinion- the only wasted vote, is the one you were demanded in giving up to what you don’t believe in.

-LZ

https://medium.com/@legacyzero/why-sanders-supporters-should-not-vote-for-joe-biden-a9146bee189b

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chronicallyalive89 · 5 years ago

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I’m mad as hell but mostly exhausted

I realize Bernie dropped out a few days ago. I’m still processing. I wasn’t originally a Bernie fan. I mean, he was fine, but Liz was my choice. She didn’t get enough support, so by default I had to go with Bernie. That stung. But I dealt. But now Bernie’s out. And here’s what I’m faced with. Trump. Or Biden. And I’m pissed. And completely fucking exhausted.

Like many women, I actually grieved Elizabeth Warren’s end. When Hillary lost, we were told our country was ready for a woman in the Oval Office...just not this woman. Ok. Despite her imminent qualifications, her opponent’s utter lack of qualifications, and the fact that her opponent had multiple criminal implications, we swallowed that. With Liz, we had a candidate who was seasoned, qualified, and had well thought out plans. She still got no support. So it wasn’t not this woman, it was not ANY woman.

For reference, according to Wikipedia, 75 countries have had female heads of state since 1918. That includes countries as diverse as United Kingdom, Mongolia, Pakistan, and the Central African Republic. The fact that US women were to be denied a seat at the most important table again...yes. That deserves a beat.

It then came down to Bernie and Biden. While neither were my first choice, a curious thing happened. The Coronavirus swooped in and shut the country down, threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands, and the livelihoods of millions more. Bernie, as an active senator, worked on stimulus bills, single handedly insuring unemployment protection for gig workers. Biden? Silently carried on.

Except for that thing.

A former staffer accused Biden of rape. And let’s be honest. Joe’s been creepily handsy on women on camera and off for decades, so this isn’t hard to believe. But interestingly, this story got almost no play. Not even from #metoo movement that’s supposed to stand up for these women.

And then Bernie bowed out.

And we’re left with Trump the rapist, or Joe the rapist. And I’m exhausted. And I’m angry.

The party that is supposed to stand for women has in the course of just over a month:

Told women they will not lead the country, no matter who they are

Demanded that those same women vote for a rapist because he’s “not as bad as the other rapist”

Democrats have long touted the strategy of “Blue no matter who”. And then you brought me this guy. You tell me that I need to think of people of color, of wome, of Muslims, of RBG, of the courts!

And you’re right. And I’m going to tell you why NONE of that matters,

You see I, like millions of people like me, are rape survivors. When I see Biden I don’t see better than Trump. I see another rapist that you allowed to sit in that place of power. When you tell me to think of all of those people when I vote, you’ve neglected to mention the survivors of assault. And we’re told over and over to sit down. To be quiet. To not make a commotion for everyone else. We’ve done our part, you’ve failed us by putting two rapists on the ballot. You don’t get to demand anything else from me.

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allen-howell · 5 years ago

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What is Freedom?

What most working class Americans possess is nothing like true freedom. They are kept just comfortable enough so that they will continue to serve as cogs in the machinery—but their productivity has been harnessed in the same way as has the productivity of those lower down in the pecking order who work 40 or more hours per week and yet still must apply for public assistance. Using data by the U.S. BLS, the average productivity per American worker has increased approximately 400% since 1950. The productivity of the labor force has increased dramatically, but wages have been uncoupled from that productivity—starting at around the Nixon era. From top to bottom—from the highest paid to the lowest paid wage earners (those who actually work)—we receive a meager fraction of the true fruits of our labor. Our wages, adjusted for inflation, are nothing like 400% higher than wages were in 1950. The number of hours we work per week also is not 400% lower. The American dream is predicated on the bedrock principle that hard work pays off. We have been taught to believe that a) the harder a person works, b) the more skill and talent a person possesses, and c) the more ability a person has to work well with others; the more success each such person ought to be able to enjoy. That’s what the concept of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness means to most Americans. Most people who “want to make American great again” probably would accept that definition.

The fat cats who own banks, corporations, governments, and so forth, have figured out how to keep us working their fields (so to speak) in an increasingly profitable manner from 1950 until now. They have figured out how to make our slice of the pie narrower and narrower, although we are the ones producing the pie and helping it to increase in size relative to the overall U.S. population. Even those of us who have figured out how to start our own businesses end up paying most of our profits to the fat cats at the top because smaller businesses must compete on price with publicly traded businesses who are unfairly favored by all three branches of the government. Therefore, small businesses are not able to afford to pay employees substantially more than big corporations pay employees because of the economy of scale created by the unlevel playing field that was becoming the new status quo as Nixon and his Supreme Court appointees began to work things out. They managed to fix things so that “our wealth circuit got plugged into our political circuit.” Government officials who work for the fat cats (pretty much all of them regardless of their political stripes) have continued to rig the game against the little guy. Because of high interest rates, low corporate tax rates, and exorbitant pay for top-level managers, we all end up working for the same few fat cats who exist at the very top of the pyramid.

To keep this system working and to keep us from revolting, all the fat cats need to do is make sure that, in the words of George Orwell, “some animals are more equal than others.” Even though we all get milked, shorn, and butchered, those of us who live in nicer houses in nicer neighborhoods are content to allow those at lower socioeconomic levels to suffer unfairly because their pain doesn’t touch us directly. We watch police brutality on the news but it doesn’t move us. We see public schools that are grossly underfunded and it doesn’t affect us. We have been taught to think of each other as different—depending on race, religion, and so forth. The fat cats have artificially divided us so that we will not work together to fight the oppression that touches all of us—as long as it doesn’t touch us equally: “Well, at least I’m better off than that guy over there.”

When we vote to preserve the status quo (voting for Joe Biden is a good example, but voting for Donald Trump, in a sneakier way, also is), we vote to keep ourselves at our current levels of freedom, which, as I’ve already explained, is not true freedom—because the quality and quantity of our labor has been uncoupled from our wages. The fat cats have figured out how to steal our productivity in the same way that Kings in wealthy kingdoms have stolen from the peasants who work “their” land. We still haven’t awoken to the fact that we all are yoked—that none of us are truly free.

The primary hindrance for all of us is a fear-based belief in scarcity. That’s why austerity is so devastating. “How you gonna pay for that?” We have failed to adjust our expectations higher as productivity has improved. This belief plays right into the hands of the fat cats. In this vastly wealthy country, there is enough for everyone to live well without exhausting the resources of the planet and without bullying other countries. We do not have to live in the world of Charles Dickens. But the fat cats have figured out how to keep the mid-level frogs on simmer so that they won’t align themselves with the increasingly desperate frogs who are being cooked at higher temperatures.

The way out of this dilemma is probably not going to be as simple as “Vote Blue No Matter Who.” As George Carlin points out: “Forget the politicians. They are irrelevant. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice! You have OWNERS! They OWN YOU.” The only hope to fix this mess and get our productivity hooked back up to our wages is to reduce the influence of the fat cats who together control the planetary economic system. UNPOPULAR OPINION (at least to the fat cats): WHEREAS, money is the predominant way to control this planet; and WHEREAS, the fat cats possess most of the money; THEREFORE, we need to remove most of their money from them. Until we do, they will retain their influence and easily rig the next system—whether capitalism or communism. The real problem is how money flows and who controls that flow.

The people who are talented and industrious still deserve to be compensated in proportion to their talent and industry—particularly if their high ethical standards match their talent and industry. In a just system, those who would inevitably succeed at the highest levels should be able to live very well, as long as their high standard of living would not require others to live in squalor. Collectively, humanity would need to agree not to exploit and prey on each other and not to exploit the planet. We would need to agree that hard work and talent should pay off but that, at certain income levels, most of the surplus wealth of individuals and of corporations should be used to fund infrastructure and other items that can be clearly justified as beneficial for the common good. Banks and corporations should be limited in size and scope and occupations and industries that exist primarily to skim wealth from regular people should be abolished. The fat cats cannot hope to spend even a fraction of their wealth in ways that benefit them personally so we all should admit that, most of all, their wealth has been used to control the rest of us—their wars, their diseases, their “cures,” and their need for there to be so many of us all crowded together in utter dependence on them and on their systems.

Will the fat cats agree to all of this? Will their puppet politicians write and enforce the laws that would strip their masters of power? In short, can there be a solution that happens at the ballot box—or will the voter revolution that some envision end up with torches and pitchforks (or assault rifles and missiles) after all? If George Carlin was right, we must resign ourselves to our fate: “It’s never going to get any better, don’t look for it, be happy with what you’ve got.” He was referring to our educational system that now indoctrinates us in ways that make it easy for our masters to keep controlling us. If he was right, we need to educate ourselves in some other, better way so that we can stand up in unity with our fellow wage-earners and come to some agreements that will not allow for future predation. If Carlin is right, the fat cats will never agree with us. As Frederick Douglass stated: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” For the demand to be made in a way that foregoes bloodshed, everyone who works for a living will need to understand that we’re all in this together. We will need to come to an understanding that is based on the underlying principles of mutual abundance and justice. We will need to overcome our predatory instincts and allow our best motives to come to the front.

Carlin was right about our education system. Not only is education terrible at educating everyone from all walks of life, it is intentionally so. Those on the higher rungs of life have long been taught how to exploit others rather than being taught how to create a rising tide that could lift all ships. Our fat cat masters know where the weak place is in their vicious circle. If people could be truly educated instead of being indoctrinated, everything would change. If viable solutions are available and humanity continues down its predatory and mutually exploitative path, it is because we will be unable to discover the truths that are hidden in plain sight.

#freedom #carlin #bernie #biden #communism #capitalism #socialism #education #democratic socialism

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hope-for-olicity · 6 years ago

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Like many other "Game of Thrones" fans, including my colleague Rachel Leah, my initial reaction to last Sunday's sex scene involving Arya Stark was initially one of shock that the show was, you know, going there. Oh sure, I expected some flirting and some light making out between Arya and her long-time crush Gendry. But I did not, like many viewers, expect young Arya to get after it like she did, aggressively seducing Gendry and stripping down naked in front of the camera, albeit in a shot that was surprisingly tasteful for a show that has been infamous in the past for sexploitation.

My mind sprung through all the rationalizations to justify my discomfort: I don't know if she's old enough! Even if she is, she started off on the show as a child, making this weird! We're not used to thinking of Arya that way! Couldn't they have been more coy about the whole thing?

But pretty quickly, I recognized those thoughts for the excuses that they were. The actress, Maisie Williams, is a grown adult of 22 and her character is plenty old enough to know her own mind when it comes to sex. (After all, Arya is older than Bran, a character that was literally just described as having grown into a man in the last episode.) And in a show where everyone, including her brother Jon Snow, gets naked for the camera, it would be paternalistic to turn away from Arya's moment in the sheets.

And as for an unwillingness to accept that a girl I once knew as a child is an adult woman now, that was the worst hypocrisy of all. As a feminist writer, I've spent more than a decade railing against the "purity" double standard that congratulates men for having sex while treating women's sexual behavior as dirty. And one of the most common ways that standard is enforced is treating an "innocent" girl's maturation into an adult woman as a tragedy, as if merely growing into sexual maturity degrades her personhood.

This double standard is everywhere in our society. Sex education and reproductive health care for younger people still falls short all over the country, because so many adults assume such things violate the "innocence" of young girls. Condoms are relatively easy to get, but when feminists tried to remove age restrictions on female-controlled contraception such as Plan B, they met widespread political resistance. And 37 states require parental notification or consent for a girl under 18 to get an abortion, even though the average age for first sexual intercourse is 17.

Refusing to accept that girls grow up is often treated not as the oppressive force that it is, but as something cute or comical. Take former Vice President Joe Biden, for instance, suggesting a young man had a duty to "to keep the guys away from your sister." Or the multitude of T-shirts with jokes about fathers murdering their daughters' boyfriends. Built into this joke is the assumption young men wanting sex is normal and expected, but if a young woman does it, she's ruined.

We all swim in these cultural messages — my own dad made jokes about carrying a gun around when boys came calling — so it's no surprise that my own lizard brain recoiled at the image of Arya expressing her sexuality so assertively onscreen.

But that is an unfair impulse, and so I'm calling myself and everyone else out for our discomfort and calling on us all to do better about supporting young women, even fictional young women, who take charge of their own sexuality.

Contrast the discomfort many felt at seeing Arya's sex scene with the way that another young character, Podrick Payne, has been celebrated for a season 3 episode in which he lost his virginity in a literal brothel orgy. I have no quarrel with the scene, which was mostly set up for a joke about how the bumbling teenager is a secret sexual savant. But it's worth pointing out that his was a far more raunchy premise than Arya's touching love scene with one boy she's had a crush on for years.

The actor who plays Podrick, Daniel Portman, was 21 when the brothel scene aired, a full year younger than Williams now. And his character was coded as much younger — likely 15 or 16, and a squire who at the time was still mostly naive to the ways of the world. Arya, on the other hand, has traveled by herself for years and is a trained assassin. But she's female and so somehow it's more troubling for audiences to see her get it on with a boy she likes than to see the childish and sheltered Podrick jump straight into an orgy.

It's hard not to suspect that a great deal of audience discomfort with Arya's scene came not from the actor's naked body, but from the character's naked desire. Arya initiates the sex talk, and when Gendry accedes, she claws at his clothes like a woman who has been dreaming of this day for years — which is what she is. There was none of the coyness that women are expected to display. Instead, as with most things, Arya is a woman who knows what she wants and goes after it with abandon.

The scene should be celebrated for its feminism. For one thing, it's a model of enthusiastic consent, and completely stomps the ridiculous but still widespread idea that it somehow kills the mood for people to use the spoken word to ask for sex. And Arya doesn't have to be something she's not — more feminine, more demure, more ladylike — to get the male affection she wants. Arya has no time for fancy boys, but likes to get down with a sweaty weapons smith, and there is nothing wrong with that.

This feminism is why I'm not particularly worried that this scene might read as permission to the men in the audience who want to leer at teen girls like creeps, which is always a concern. Men who like the "Lolita" fantasy — and who all too often harass teen girls in the real world — like the idea of violating a girl's "innocence." But Arya isn't innocent. Nor should we demand that she should be.

"Game of Thrones" has always been smarter about gender and sexism than many fans have understood. (See the way that Sansa Stark, long dismissed as a bimbo because she's more feminine than her sister, turns out to be one of the smartest characters on the show.) And Sunday night's episode showed this yet again, by confronting one of the most entrenched sexist taboos, against letting girls — especially tomboyish girls — grow into women.

Yes, it was startling. But hopefully Arya's scene with Gendry, and our reactions to it, will kickstart a conversation about how screwed up it is that we expect girls to stay children for far longer than we expect it of boys. Arya has traveled the world, killed dozens of men, and now will be fighting a zombie army. She's not a child anymore, and expecting her to be is unfair to her and to all young women who have a right to leave childhood behind.

#arya stark #arya x gendry #game of thrones #double standards

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anthonybialy · 3 years ago

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Afghanistanabandon

Why did the CDC withdraw troops from Afghanistan? The agency that replaced three branches will swear they only ripped off landlords while the nominal executive let the Taliban lord over land. It's easier to let bureaucrats decree than obey some dumb Constitution.

Joe Biden wishes he could accuse someone else of doing his job. The part-time president dodging job tasks is the best hope for preserving the republic. He has nobody to demonize for letting humanity's biggest foe fill the void.

Delinquents committed to tearing down civilization are free to prey after the teachers bailed. The Taliban recaptured a very sad nation in less time than Fat Tony took to bring booze back to Springfield. White House officials recited that it'd take 72 hours to evacuate a totally stable embassy like it was scientific, but they didn't even get that long to stop the spread.

The quasi-president hopes to get away with playing hooky by making us endure the results of him showing up to work. The Taliban exploits the eviction moratorium. Whoever's commander-in-chief must be mortified.

Stop interrupting the slot car tournament. You Twitter generation people want everything instantly, like how you demand the guy who ran for and won this job take less than a week to address the Legion of Doom setting up a Kabul branch. Every chair is empty in a vapid White House. Biden has something in common with Afghanistan’s president: they both fled.

American soldiers were the only adults with authority. If you're concerned about endless war, I’ve got news about how many American military personnel stand in South Korea with barrels pointed northward. What next: we keep bases in Germany and Japan after that one world war?

Walking away while an opponent is punching doesn't end the fight. The real War on Women is about to recommence in Kabul. Someone tell Biden Islamist lunatics aren’t wearing masks to get him to care. Barbarians didn't present vaccine cards before taking seats.

Liberals should pretend the Taliban is outraged about vaccine shortages. They tried their hardest to convince everyone that regarding Cuba. Inflation in Kabul may not be temporary.

An Islamic terror sponsor offers distractions from other White House failures. Finding America's missing southern border doesn't seem like such an urgent priority anymore. At least Kabul didn't fall as quickly as the line demarcating southern Texas. The government finally does something fast, and everyone complains.

I wish Biden defended Kabul like his fans defend him. Shrieking that it's a previous president's fault is certainly a sign the war turned out well. Yes, Donald Trump sucks for thinking he could strike a deal with the Taliban as part of his endless shtick, especially considering his deft dealing turned out about as well as taking on the NFL. That failure despite boasting goes along with a million other overcompensation for personal insecurity with empty boasting. But the retired game show host also didn't order the military to dash away like Bill Clinton from a paternity test.

Presidents from each party can suck it. Next time, make sure there's at least one adult finalist for president, and not just by technical virtue of being born in the 1940s. One of the truly joyous parts about rabidly blind partisanship is how very calm cultists feel compelled to assign 100 percent fault to the other side.

Both the incumbent and previous presidents can be despicable, and you can even assign scolding unevenly. The victorious geezer gets a higher percentage of fault than he did of the vote. After all, he just lost an area renowned for hosting peril to a deranged death cult.

John Wayne Gacy wonders who stuffed corpses in the crawlspace. The Hot Dog Car sketch gets a workout as the Biden White House focuses on its top priority of finding someone to blame. The most embarrassing part for those who treat responsibility as communal for personal reasons is seeing direct consequences of actions.

Noticing what happens is despised by liberals who excuse criminals while showing how much they care about the poor by creating more of them. And forget what happens when victory is beaten by a desire for faux peace.

Biden was too busy waging war on free breathing. The tradition of Democrats loathing successful Americans more than American enemies is not a proud one. The White House's primary nemesis is Ron DeSantis. For someone the president loathes, he's sure making it easy for him to take his job.

September 11's 20th anniversary will be spent fearing terror attacks. The White House is deeply invested in helping people remember what being constantly scared of assaults by the wicked felt like. Did you want to forget, you anti-patriot? Letting Earth's most bloodthirsty fiends set up a clubhouse would be ominous enough if there weren't precedent for how much evil they can inflict with time and space to ponder.

Speaking of knowing better, the White House would like you to stop noticing how Kabul and Saigon are de facto sister cities. Fleeing embassies doesn't quite project power. Abandoning Vietnam would bring back memories for the president if he could recall what he had for breakfast.

Elderly imbecility is his best excuse. Decrepitude can't be used to explain unforgivable decisions almost half a century ago when then-Senator Biden did everything he could to ensure diabolical communists overtook Vietnamese desperate to avoid tyranny. Say what you want about the nasty putzing president, but at least he sticks to his principles.

The administration is baffled by how its awesome comity led to Earth's most diabolical theocracy getting a sequel. Even a country without reliable wifi like Afghanistan should've heard there's a cool ice-cream eating president by now. Kamala Harris is shocked the Taliban didn’t have to sleep with anyone to gain power.

As for the president in name only, it’s almost like he’s a prickly dolt who’s wrong about every last thing and has obviously never been in charge of anything. The probationary leader spent an indolent lifetime enabling mooching in the legislature instead of figuring out how useful people operate. An untrained 78-year-old never even learned how to do one of government's few jobs, namely not throwing away war gains.

Biden's doing great except for the part where he has no clue how the world works, from thinking government is swell at providing insurance to acting like walking away from a war is the same as winning it.

Seeing the world perfectly incorrectly makes it even more so. A ghastly regime that lets their BFF terrorists hang out getting a reboot thanks to the president's production is too perfect of an example. He's naturally and sadly harassing the wrong people. Biden wants to take your money and autonomy as he lets the Taliban take Afghanistan.

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orbemnews · 3 years ago

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JPMorgan Shakes Up the Race to Succeed Jamie Dimon In a position to succeed? JPMorgan Chase announced a major management shuffle yesterday, renewing chatter about a hotly debated topic on Wall Street: Who will succeed Jamie Dimon as C.E.O.? The changes may also pave the way for a woman to lead the United States’ largest bank. Here’s the rundown: Marianne Lake, the bank’s head of consumer lending, and Jennifer Piepszak, its chief financial officer, will become joint heads of the consumer and community bank, effective immediately. Gordon Smith, who has run the bank’s consumer operation since 2012 and served as co-chief operating officer and co-president since 2018, said he would retire at the end of the year. Daniel Pinto will become JPMorgan’s sole president and C.O.O. (and remains the head of the corporate and investment bank), and Jeremy Barnum will succeed Lake as C.F.O. The moves solidify Lake and Piepszak as contenders for C.E.O. The executives, both 51, are now in charge of a business that takes in more than $50 billion per year in revenue. In a memo to staff, Dimon praised Lake and Piepszak as “superb executives who are both examples of our extremely talented and deep management bench.” Dimon, 65, took his role as the bank’s C.E.O. in late 2005, making him the longest-tenured big bank chief. “The board has said it would like Jamie to remain in his role for a significant number of years,” Joe Evangelisti, a JPMorgan spokesman, said in a statement. The new setup creates an unusual situation in which two executives competing for the top job share a leadership role. That may be tricky to navigate, management experts say, and whether it’s a good test of leadership skills is debatable. Co-management can be hard to pull off. In a 2012 paper, Ryan Krause of the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University examined how sharing power impacted the performance of public companies. Estimating the relative power of co-C.E.O.s using proxies such as tenure and stock ownership, he and his co-authors concluded that executives who had more equal levels of power performed worse than those with disproportionate power. “We interpret this as being evidence that, basically, having co-C.E.O.s really only works if they’re not really co-C.E.O.s,” Krause told DealBook. Co-leaders of a division, he said, may be more successful because they can more easily divide responsibilities instead of sharing authority. Such setups are not uncommon at JPMorgan. It could highlight the ability to work collaboratively, said Steve Odland, the head of the Conference Board and the former C.E.O. of Office Depot and AutoZone. “Whenever you’re in a C.E.O. successor position, it’s difficult because there are a lot of things that have to go right and you’re under the microscope,” Odland said. “But to do so with your competitor, and have to compete with your co-head, at the same time you’re making it work is especially stressful. Which is why it’s an interesting test, because the person who succeeds at this should be amply able to succeed in the C.E.O. role.” Is it a good idea? Dan Ciampa, an adviser to C.E.O.s and directors during leadership transitions, said that he wouldn’t recommend such a test (speaking generally, and not about JPMorgan specifically). “It may make sense to have co-division leaders or co-unit leaders and maybe even co-C.E.O.s,” he said. “But to use that as a way to determine who the next person should be to run the entire organization, to me it says that the board and the sitting C.E.O. and the head of H.R. have probably not done their homework.” Flashback: One sign of Dimon’s long tenure at JPMorgan is measured by a famous cover of Fortune magazine from Sept. 2008, featuring him and seven of his top lieutenants, headlined “The Survivors.” When Smith retires, Dimon will be the only person on the cover left at the bank. HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING AT&T investors sour on the WarnerMedia-Discovery deal. Shares in AT&T fell nearly 6 percent yesterday (and are down again premarket today), as shareholders reckoned with the possibility that the spinout of its media arm would expose issues at its core wireless business — and lead to a smaller dividend. Bank of America will raise its minimum wage to $25 an hour by 2025. The announcement cements the lender’s status as a leader on pay in the banking industry: In 2019, it was one of the first to guarantee a $20 hourly wage, a goal it achieved a year ahead of schedule. Amazon indefinitely bans the police from using its facial-recognition software. The company extended a moratorium imposed last year amid the nationwide protests over racial injustice and biased policing. Though critics have said that the technology leads to unfair treatment of African-Americans, Amazon has defended the product’s accuracy. More signs of life in retail. Target reported a 23 percent jump in sales for the first quarter from a year ago, as shoppers returned to stores. It joined Macy’s and Walmart in surpassing analysts’ estimates. Also, a reminder: Most pandemic restrictions in New York City end today. Today in Business Updated May 18, 2021, 9:07 p.m. ET The criminal investigation into the Trump Organization widens. The office of New York’s attorney general, which has been running a civil inquiry into the Trump family company, joined the Manhattan attorney general’s criminal investigation into potential financial crimes, including tax and bank fraud. Bitcoin’s wild ride The largest cryptocurrency’s price is down sharply again today, leaving it 40 percent lower than its mid-April high. (Other cryptocurrencies — even Dogecoin! — are similarly suffering.) As usual, there are a few potential culprits: Chinese regulators issued a stern warning to financial institutions (again) not to accept cryptocurrency as payment. Elon Musk’s U-turn on Bitcoin is continuing to roil investors’ appetite for the currency. Some industry executives said such pullbacks were “normal” in crypto. That said … Bitcoin is still up more than 30 percent for the year, Ethereum nearly 300 percent and Dogecoin more than 8,000 percent. A lot of investors are feeling plenty flush, for now; more on that below. “There’s been such an erosion of trust, distrust for government, distrust for the virus, distrust for this party or that party. So when you tell the public what to do, there are people who say, ‘How can I trust the guy without the mask?’” — Dr. Howard Markel, a medical historian at the University of Michigan, on how the new mask guidelines from the C.D.C. have created a complicated vaccination honor code. The business case for better care policies JPMorgan Chase, McDonald’s, Spotify, Uber and almost 200 other businesses announced today that they have formed a coalition focused on “reimagining” the United States’ “caregiving infrastructure.” The coalition, called the Care Economy Business Council, is a strong signal that fixing the crumbling care systems for children and older people is essential to the economic recovery. The new group will pressure Congress to pass policies that enable workers — particularly women — to get back to work. Led by Time’s Up, the advocacy group formed by powerful women in Hollywood, the council is demanding federally funded family and medical leave, affordable child care and care for older relatives, and higher wages for caregiving workers. “What I’m seeing now that I have not seen in the many years I’ve been working on this constellation of issues is a realization by employers that they have a stake in this,” said Tina Tchen, the chief executive of Time’s Up. The pandemic laid bare the caregiving sector’s limits, particularly in child care. Many providers either shuttered or cut back on hours, leaving parents without a reliable and safe space for their children while they worked. That was a major reason that hundreds of thousands of women left the work force in the past year, bringing the female labor participation rate to the lowest level since the 1980s. For many executives, the crisis made clear that the entire system needed an overhaul, as companies scrambled to cobble together solutions such as flexible work hours and additional child care stipends. The issue is “bigger than something we can solve on our own,” said Christy Pambianchi, the chief human resources officer at Verizon, a member of the council. President Biden’s two-part infrastructure plan proposes pumping $425 billion into the child care industry and an additional $400 billion to expand in-home care for older adults and those with disabilities. The plan also offers businesses a tax credit for building child care centers in their workplaces. Philanthropies bank crypto windfalls Charities have an inherent interest in cryptocurrencies because, increasingly, their fates are intertwined. Nonprofits benefit from financial windfalls and recently people have been getting rich with crypto. “There’s no question” that the price of cryptocurrency is linked to the volume of giving, said Joe Huston, the managing director of Give Directly, a global aid group. Crypto is volatile, especially lately, but philanthropies have seen consistent growth in digital asset donations over time. Fidelity Charitable reported that crypto giving went from $13 million in 2018 to $28 million in 2020. Give Directly has seen a “big uptick,” Huston told DealBook. The Twitter founder Jack Dorsey gave the group $12.8 million, the co-founder of the Ethereum platform Vitalik Buterin donated $4.8 million and Elon Musk of Tesla gave “some.” The cryptocurrency exchange FTX donates one percent of its fees and encourages traders to channel returns to charity. But newfound riches donated in novel ways raise questions. Buterin recently gave $1.2 billion dollars to fund Covid relief efforts in India. The gift was in SHIB, a crypto token named after a Shiba Inu dog that’s a derivative of the onetime joke crypto Dogecoin. These tokens were sent unbidden to Buterin to bolster their value. His approach in giving them away was “impressively lightweight and fast,” Huston said, showing how frictionless crypto-based philanthropy can be. Previously, it was unimaginable to transfer such an enormous sum without an institutional intermediary. “There are a lot of young people with stupid amounts of money,” said Austin Detwiler, a consultant at American Philanthropic, a consulting firm. Fund-raisers should facilitate giving from this new generation, mindful that “it’s easy to start accepting crypto, but it’s volatile, so have a policy,” he said. THE SPEED READ Deals Robinhood plans to publicly disclose its I.P.O. filings as soon as next week. (Bloomberg) A firm founded by the son of China’s vice premier has reportedly become one of the country’s most aggressive investors in tech companies. (FT) Politics and policy How electric pickups — like the Ford F-150 that President Biden tested yesterday — are a key part of the White House’s infrastructure plans. (NYT) The Senate is considering a bill that would pour $120 billion into research in semiconductors and other technologies to counter China’s supply chain dominance. (NYT) Tech The e-commerce lender Klarna, one of Europe’s most valuable tech start-ups, said its decision on a London I.P.O. depends on Britain’s rolling out relaxed fintech rules. (Bloomberg) The Financial Conduct Authority, a British regulator, warned 300 fintech start-ups to stop misleading customers by comparing themselves to fully fledged banks. (FT) Best of the rest Demand for WeWork office space has now surpassed prepandemic levels, according to its chairman. (Bloomberg) Bill Gates has disclosed over $3 billion in stock transfers to Melinda French Gates since they announced their divorce. (WSJ) “Hertz, the Original Meme Stock, Rewards Its True Believers” (WSJ) We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to [email protected]. Source link Orbem News #Dimon #Jamie #JPMorgan #Race #Shakes #succeed

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cksmart-world · 4 years ago

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The completely unnecessary news analysis

by Christopher Smart

March 9, 2021

MURDER AMONG JACK MORMONS

As you know by now, Netflix is streaming a new three-part series called “Murder Among Jack Mormons.” Authorities from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints objected on account of the Lord told them he doesn't like the term “Jack.” It's all quite embarrassing. The documentary focuses on Mark Hofmann who in 1985 killed two people with bombs. Hofmann, who was a closeted Jack Mormon and a master forger, kept “finding” old documents that seemed to undermine the church, founded by Joseph Smith in 1830. Religions are always trying to authenticate their faith — like Jesus walking on water. Closer inspection reveals it was low tide. Smith was led to gold plates that held The Book of Mormon gospel by an angel called Moroni. But Hofmann “discovered” a letter that said it was actually a “white salamander” that guided old Joe. It was so shocking that Mormon leaders turned a whiter shade of pale — it was that bad. They quickly bought the letter so it would never be seen. Of course, it was a fake because everyone knows Angel Moroni is real and fell off the LDS Temple in a recent earthquake. In the end, Hofmann accidentally blew himself up and almost died. Maybe he wishes he did die. It's better to explode than fade away.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL DATING GETS DICEY

You think things are bad here now that Dr. Seuss has been outlawed and Glenn Beck and Kevin McCarthy have lost it over “Green Eggs and Ham.” Well, it could be a lot worse, according to The Drake Equation. Three CalTech physicists have just updated the 1961 mathematical model developed by Frank Drake to find where and when life is most likely to occur in the Milky Way. It also identifies the prime factor affecting life's prevalence: Intelligent creatures' tendency toward self-annihilation. (We could not possibly make this up.) The takeaway from the new study: “Most of the alien civilizations that ever dotted our galaxy have probably killed themselves off already.” Not everyone wanted this information to get out. It's going to kill real estate values once people realize that demand could tank once the self-annihilation begins here on Earth. And if you've got stock in Elon Musk's Space X company, you should dump it fast. The news also is troubling for The Amazing Kreskin’s Supernatural Dating Society. (It's for real, folks.) According to Cosmopolitan magazine, it's $15 a month for a Premium membership and $20 for VIP. It's not the bargain it once was — the Princess Laya of your dreams is probably dead. But who knows, you could get lucky.

HOW MR. POTATO HEAD GOT HIS GROOVE BACK

This has rocked Trumpist America to its core: Reportedly, Mr. Potato Head lost his thing. Or should we say, 'thang.' It totally blew away Republicans who watch Mr. Potato Head closely. In fact, David Alvord, a Republican on the Salt Lake County Council, said the Left won't be satisfied until every male is castrated (like Mr. Potato Head) and plays girls soccer. He went on to say the Libs won't be happy until “there are no males, no females ... we have no children, and simply have new humans arrive in labs and immediately put into a school for indoctrination.” (You can't make this stuff up.) It's the Culture Wars and Republicans need something new to hate. OK, Reality Check: It was toy maker Hasbro, not Democrats, that decided to redesign the Potato Head box so that it would be inclusive of Mrs. Potato Head (how liberal can you get). Yes, Mr. and Mrs. are both in birthday suits inside the box, possibly bumping and grinding to Tina Turner or Bruce “Can't-start-a-fire-without-a-spark” Springsteen. Don't tell Tucker Carlson. As for David Alvord and his righteously repressed Republican libido — therapy and Viagra could be helpful. As Democrat Jim Bradley, put it, “Alvord is a sourpuss.” Well, Wilson, if you don't know what that is, don't ask.

Post script — That's it for another week here at Smart Bomb, where we keep track of Dr. Seuss so you don't have to. As Democrats went full throttle last week to pass one of the largest stimulus packages ever, Republicans, not to be outdone, were busy raising outrage over Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head. It's Cancel Culture, they vented. We're seeing the end of freedom in America! What's next, Bugs Bunny and SpongeBob SquarePants? This is the same party to which motivational speaker and flim-flam artist Burgess Owens belongs. As you will recall, at CPAC — the MAGA version of Burning Man — Owens said Democrats would self-destruct. You got it, Wilson, it's called projection. But that wasn't nearly enough. President Joe Biden scoffed at anti-maskers, saying, “We don't need Neanderthal thinking” — and all hell broke loose. How was he to know that Republican Sen. Marco Rubio's parents were Neanderthals from Cuba. Marco, who has large knuckles, was hurt, saying that Biden had insulted everyone with even the tiniest bit of Neanderthal DNA — it was elitism at its archaeological worst. But it was Trevor Noah who summed it up best: “Biden got Republicans to say the N-word and acknowledge evolution at the same time.” OMG!

Alright Wilson, you and the guys in the band are looking pretty perky and we know it's not your diet. By now, you've probably been checking out the Supernatural Dating Society website, so let it rip:

Woke up this morning with light in my eyes And then realized it was still dark outside It was a light comin'down from the sky I don't know who or why Must be those strangers that come every night Whose saucers shaped light put people up tight Leave blue green footprints that glow in the dark I hope they get home all right Hey Mr.Spaceman, won't you please take me along I won't do anything wrong Hey Mr.Spaceman, won't you please take me along For a ride

Hey Mr.Spaceman, won't you please take me along I won't do anything wrong Hey Mr.Spaceman, won't you please take me along For a ride

(Hey Mr. Spaceman — The Byrds)

PPS — During this difficult time for newspapers please make a donation to our very important local alternative news source, Salt Lake City Weekly, at PressBackers.com, a nonprofit dedicated to help fund local journalism. Thank you.

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keywestlou · 4 years ago

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BIDEN NOT SCREWING AROUND WITH STIMULUS BILL

You could tell from my writings the past few days of my concern that Biden was waiting too long towards moving the Democratic version of the stimulus bill and the Republicans would take advantage of him

My concerns were misplaced.

The Democrats yesterday began the voting procedures required to get things done in due course basically Biden’s way. What has been undertaken is the path to passing COVID-19 without threat of a GOP filibuster.

All 50 Democratic Senators voted as a block. Vice President Harris broke the tie vote with the Senate by casting her vote. Democrats won 51-50 as it should be with with an equally divided Congress.

Trump’s impeachment trial now gets in the way. Further voting on the stimulus package will have to await the end of the trial. Senators cannot chew gum and walk at the same time. It is expected the final package will be voted on in late February or March.

Many Republicans complained Democrats were resorting to “aggressive tactics.” I smile. What have the Republicans been doing for the last 10-12 years.

There is a flaw in the ointment from my perspective. Biden was willing to give on the $1,400 to satisfy Republican demands. Republican demands mean nothing now.

Two Democrats are playing politics, however. They want significantly less than $1,400. How much not certain. But nowhere near the $1,400 number. Based on some convoluted scheme.

The two Democratic Senators are West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Krysten Sinema.

I have my own opinion why Manchin wants the number cut significantly. I do not understand why Sineema does.

Manchin has been a Senator for many years. Governor of West Virginia before. He has been able to consistently win in a Republican state.

I think Manchin is flexing his muscles in this instant. Biden needs all 50 Democratic votes. Manchin is playing tough guy. Willing to provide Biden with his vote if Biden lowers the $1,400 number significantly.

Biden will have no alternative but to accede to Manchin’s demand. I suspect Manchin will play this game from now on. The situation has given him a power he previously did not have.

This morning’s Citizens’ Voice carried 2 interesting comments.

The first is “…..today’s Republicans are the weakest, wimpiest, most pathetic crop of needy nincompoops in American history.”

The second concerns Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. A mental case. The comment referred to Greene as “…..a O Anon-promoting female version of Trump-only without the charm…..Greene embraces the conspiracy theory that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre and the slaughter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School…..were staged. The woman is a CREEP.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene was marked a loser yesterday. The House voted to remove her from all committee assignments.

In my opinion, they should have removed her from Congress. Though I am not sure if the House has such power.

The woman lies. Continuously. Changes her stories more times than Trump did. She seems to get mixed up. The American people likewise seem to get mixed up hearing her.

A very large block of Republicans supported her. Only 11 voted with the Democrats to remove her committee assignments.

Such Republicans are crazy, also. However in a different fashion. They know better, but do not have the courage to stand against Trump and his supporters in the House.

The entertainment group SAG was preparing to throw Trump out of the organization because of January 6. Trump got wind of it. Beat SAG to the punch. He quit.

Those against Trump continue to surface each day. Makes me wonder if he would get 70 million plus votes today as he did November 3.

DAY 10…..Greece the First Time

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Key West Lou

Hello world!

More of Louis from Santorini, Greece. Santorini is as close to God as you can get on earth. What a place!

Yesterday, I had major problems with DAY 9. I lost most of it in never never land. Today, I had intended to play catch up. Instead things are moving on the euro front and I have decided to take a day off from reporting my trip to share the euro situation further with you. It is important not only to Greece, Spain, Italy and Germany, but most nations of the world. Including the United States.

I will play catch up tomorrow regarding the trip.

This euro problem is constantly fomenting. A bit more each day. The Greeks unquestionably hate the Germans. The Germans think the Greeks are stupid and know not how to manage money.

I compare the present euro situation to Hitler’s invasion of Poland. It was a German invasion with bullets and planes. Here it is an economic intrusion and the euros have replaced the bullets and planes.

The result is the same, however. War. Presently an economic one. It could turn into bullets, etc. One nation cannot deprive another of the sustenance required to live properly. Recoupment and retaliation are the result.

The Greeks are hurting economically.

Santorini for example is back where Key West was three years ago. For several years, Key West experienced unbounded prosperity. Everyone working. Most making more dollars than they ever had. Real estate prices going through the roof. Hotel and restaurant prices constantly on the rise.

There was no end in sight as to this ever escalating prosperity. Then came the mortgage crash. Primarily inspired by the banks. And persons who were greedy enough to think they could own a home costing more than they could afford were in trouble.

Santorini is in that place today. This is year one. The economic crash hit big time this year. Hotels and restaurants are learning they have to lower their prices. Tourists are not coming in the numbers they used to. They either have no money or have a fear of not having any. Everyone working for less. Every one doing whatever it will take to keep the business they have and encourage new business.

I had dinner the other night with a friend I met here. We dined at one of Santorini’s better restaurants. Each of us had an appetizer, five drinks between us, and a whole fresh fish each. Bill time arrived. A robust 40ish woman brought it to our table. She introduced herself as the owner’s daughter, thanked us for coming, asked that we return another time, and told us the two appetizers and five drinks were on the house.

I read this morning on the BBS news network that the Greek islands are in trouble. Santorini was not mentioned. Other islands were. Business dramatically down. One hotel having 20 rooms had only 3 occupied. Bad days not ahead. Bad days already here.

I read a long article on the euro problem also today. By the multi billionaire, maybe trillionaire, George Soros. It was well written. Soros basically said the present problem is of Germany’s making. They are the only nation that prospered under the euro situation. Everyone in Germany making more and more money. Germans buying up everything. Even real estate. Prices going up like there is no tomorrow. But so what, the German’s believe their money making will go on forever.

Soros says no way! He gives the present situation three months before a severe economic crisis hits. Unless the right thing is done, of course. Which I think means Germany becoming more liberal and cheaper with its loaning programs to other European nations. Germany is the bank. The other nations the borrowers.

Soros thinks there will shortly be a short term solution. A band-aid one. Lasting about three months also. At that time most of the European nations will not be able to make their loan payments to Germany. Then the shit will hit the fan! Germany will also hurt because they are not being repaid. Eventually and soon there after there could be a European economic collapse leading to a world wide one.

Everyone will suffer. Including once again the Germans since the paper they hold evidencing the loans will have become worthless.

I got a manicure yesterday. At Hair & Soul. I spoke with the owner Catherine Risvani about the economic situation.

Think Key West as I share her comments with you.

The rent on her beauty parlor has gone up. The rent on her home has gone up. The price of beauty supplies has gone up. In the meantime, her business has gone down. Fewer visitors. Fewer locals being able to afford her services. How much can she raise her prices and still attract business?

Catherine’s attitude was good. We have had problems before. We are having them again. This too will pass.

Encouraging. Hopeful. However, I am not sure she is correct. The devastation of the economy as suggested means businesses out of business. 1929 and the present U.S. recession all over again. But worse.

When people are without work, when parents cannot feed or educate their children, violence can occur. I sense that possibility here in Greece.

Enough for today. I have a ton of things which I wish to share with you. I am now two days behind. I promise to get caught up tomorrow. This euro thing captivated me.

Tomorrow you will read of a cold front. Yes, even here in the Greek Isles. Just like Key West. The story of Nikos and Maria. It will blow you out how they have succeeded and are now doing everything to make sure they can preserve that which they earned over the years by hard work.

How about solar panels for power? Yes, here in Santorini. And apparently not expensive. No cable TV. Antennas on the roofs. A restaurant called something Katina sitting on a shelf in the water surrounded by a gigantic mountain of lava remaining from the volcano 3,500 years ago. Steps. More steps. A nude woman swimming. The story of a former Onassis property which sits right next door to Niko’s property. A description of my cave’s bathroom. Cheap alcohol.

And more.

Join me. Read me again tomorrow. All this is too good to miss.

In the meantime, enjoy your day!

BIDEN NOT SCREWING AROUND WITH STIMULUS BILL was originally published on Key West Lou

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whereareroo · 4 years ago

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NEVER FORGET

WF THOUGHTS (1/7/21).

I'm a tough guy. I don't get emotional. Yesterday, my heart was broken. That's how bad it was. January 6, 2021 will be remembered as one of the darkest days in American history.

A group of domestic terrorists, somewhere around 2,000 of them, stormed the Capitol in Washington D.C. Congress was meeting, for what is normally a routine session, to "rubber stamp" the Electoral College election results and to formally declare that Joe Biden will be the next president.

The domestic terrorists were rabid Donald Trump supporters. Having lost at the ballot box, they decided to use violence to block the formal declaration of Biden's victory. They believed that they could keep Trump in office if they could delay the Electoral College pronouncement and somehow force a recount in the swing states.

The Capitol Building is the most sacred building in Washington D.C. I worked there as an intern in 1979. I mean no disrespect to the White House, the Supreme Court, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, or the Jefferson memorial. The simple fact is that the Capitol Building outranks all of them. That's where we send the people who represent us. It's where the laws are made. It's a very special place.

The domestic terrorists desecrated the Capitol. After breaking through windows and doors, they rampaged through the hallways. There are pictures of the terrorists in the House Chamber, where they took turns sitting in the Speaker's chair. There are similar pictures of the Senate Chamber, with terrorists sitting in the chair of the Presiding Officer. One terrorist broke into the private office of the Speaker and sat at her desk. There are all sorts of pictures of the terrorists, some with the Confederate flag, taking "selfies" with the historic statues that are displayed throughout the Capitol. In addition to the physical damage to "The People's House," four people died in the various riots.

As I watched on television, my heart broke. This wasn't an attack by foreign enemies. This was an attack by Americans. What has happened to America? Why are there Americans who are willing to attack the Capitol? Where did we go wrong?

Let me give you another fact that makes the picture even darker. The attack was orchestrated by the sitting president of the United States! How sick is that? It makes me physically ill.

For weeks now, Trump has been unable to accept the fact that he lost the election. Without evidence, he claims that the election was rigged. Without evidence, he claims that there was massive voter fraud. Every day, particularly on Twitter, he's been raging about his loss and demanding that his loyalists do something to reverse the results of the election. Trump thinks that he's King, and he has no respect for elections.

For the past 10 days, Trump has been urging his loyalists to meet in Washington on January 6th for a "Victory Rally." He conducted that rally, down the street from the Capitol, a few hours before the attack.

At the rally, as he has been doing for weeks, Trump declared that he won the election. He screamed that the presidency was being stolen from him, and from his supporters. Trump raged for 90 minutes. As he concluded his remarks, Trump instructed his followers to march down to the Capitol to stop the confirmation of Biden's victory and to demand that Congress allow additional recounts that would prove that Trump won the election. Inspired by their leader, Trump's troops went down the street and ransacked the Capitol. A deranged president had convinced his supporters to do the unthinkable.

The saddest part of all is that this was preventable. Trump never should have been president. America made a big mistake. Once Trump was in the White House, something like this was inevitable.

In 2015, as the 2016 presidential election was approaching, a long list of Republicans announced that they were seeking the Republican nomination. Trump was one of the candidates. There were 16 other candidates. In terms of experience and temperament, all 16 were more qualified than Trump. For good reason, everybody expected that the Trump campaign would flop.

From the very start, there were big questions about Trump's mental stability and his various other deficits. During the announcement of his candidacy, after descending on the Trump Tower elevator, Trump's racism was on full display. He attacked immigrants and the non-White population of America. Soon thereafter, dozens of women came forward with sexual harassment claims. Those claims later gained traction when a tape was released of Trump bragging, to an Access Hollywood reporter, that he frequently grabbed women by their private parts. Trump was clearly a bully, and he used nicknames to bully his opponents. He attacked the wife of Ted Cruz, made fun of Marco Rubio's height, picked on Chris Christie's weight, and said that Carly Fiorina had an ugly face. Overall, Trump regularly acted like a deranged person. Trump certainly was not a normal candidate by any stretch of the imagination. All of Trump's opponents spoke out about his erratic behavior and his unfitness for office. Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the other Republican candidates, said: "If Trump wins it will be the end of the Republican Party."

Instead of rallying around a candidate with fewer deficits, the leaders of the Republican Party allowed their selection process to become a circular firing squad amongst numerous candidates. With the primary vote split among so many contenders, Trump was able to accumulate a large share of delegates even though he was regularly rejected by 65% of Republicans. In the end, because of their refusal to coalesce around a single strong candidate, the Republican nominee in 2016 was their least qualified--and most dangerous--candidate. Nobody thought that Trump had a chance of winning the presidency. Nobody thought he was qualified. Everybody was afraid of his obvious deficits.

The 2016 presidential race became a race between two very unpopular candidates. Hillary Clinton was not likeable. Donald Trump was not likeable. Almost everybody thought Hillary's experience would give her the edge over Trump's craziness. Everybody was wrong. Trump lost the popular vote by 4 million votes but, by virtue of 77,000 votes spread across three key swing states, Trump won in the Electoral College. The Republican's least qualified candidate, the candidate with the least experience and biggest deficits, was president of the United States.

Throughout his presidency, Trump has been disliked by the leaders of the Republican Party and by mainstream Republicans. He's not their cup of tea. Every day, normal Republicans have been walking on eggshells and hoping that Trump doesn't do something stupid that day. It would take pages to list all of Trump's abnormal and unpresidential actions. Let's just say that the bad days have outnumbered the good days. Because of his strange behavior and extreme narcissism, Trump has run through a long list of cabinet members and top advisers. The true professionals, the capable people, couldn't tolerate him and didn't want to be associated with him. Many top positions have gone vacant, and many others are filled by inexperienced Trump loyalists with minimal qualifications. The Trump presidency has been a very, very rough ride. Trump has been a ticking timebomb.

Instead of getting rid of their ticking timebomb, and running a better candidate in 2020, the leaders of the Republican Party stuck with Trump for the 2020 race. That was a big mistake. In 2016, it was a miracle that he won. It was very unlikely that the miracle would repeat itself in 2020, particularly since Trump's frightening deficits had been on full display for four years. Nonetheless, for craven political reasons, and knowing that a catastrophic explosion was inevitable, the Republicans stuck with their ticking timebomb.

Well, Trump lost in 2020 and--sadly but unsurprisingly--the timebomb has exploded in Trump's final days in office. He's a deranged person who has no limits. He has no problem attacking our democracy, and he has no qualms about asking his angry supporters to attack our democracy. He's a lunatic. At his "victory" rally yesterday, in front of television cameras, Trump basically asked his supporters to attack the Capitol. Wrongfully believing that the presidency has been stolen from their leader, because that's what he's been telling them for weeks, Trump supporters launched their attack on the Capitol. Do you think the leaders of the Republican Party, and the Republican primary voters, might be having second thoughts about the candidate that they picked in 2016 and 2020? Both times, there were plenty of qualified candidates to choose from. Both times, they picked a madman who didn't hide the fact that he was a madman. Yesterday, we saw the madman and his team in action. It was inevitable and predictable.

To soothe myself in times of trouble, I always look for the lesson to be learned. Here, I think the lesson is very obvious. Picking a president is not a joke. Supporting a deranged candidate isn't funny and it's a dumb way to "protest" against the establishment. We can avoid deranged candidates if we focus on people who have been elected to high office a few times. If someone has survived several rigorous campaigns, and successfully performed their duties in a high office, they're probably not crazy. We need to resist the pull to elect somebody who is "different" or somebody who claims to be an "outsider." Putting an untested person in the White House is a risky proposition. Given the large megaphone that comes with the office, a crazy president can assemble a large group of crazy supporters and incite them to do unthinkable acts. We just learned that lesson the hard way. We should never go down that road again.

Let's never forget January 6, 2021. We should think about that day whenever we vote in a presidential primary or a presidential election. Don't vote for deranged candidates. It's that simple. That's the only way to protect our democracy and our sacred institutions. Let's pray that we never see another president who orchestrates a violent assault against the Capitol and Congress.

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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The Biggest Geek Culture Moments of 2020

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains a spoiler for The Mandalorian Season 2

2020 has been a wild and unpredictable year for most of us, but it also brought with it a ton of key cultural incidents and shifts that kept online news and trade outlets pretty busy at their keyboards. As we finally grind toward the end of a very weird 12 months, we’ve been looking back at some of the more stand-out moments in geek culture, which we’ll recap with you here.

You may find that these cultural markers aren’t listed in chronological order. That’s because in 2020, time ceased to exist in its previously understood form. Wednesday rarely meant anything, Monday was still technically the worst but couldn’t be trusted either way, Saturdays were no longer reserved for the notion of relaxation, and any given Tuesday might as well have taken place in a different universe, such was the obliqueness of its concept. Is it December right now, or July? No one really knows anymore.

But things still happened in 2020! Things and stuff definitely happened, we’re almost sure of it. Here are some of the things and stuff that probably happened, several of which you’d struggle to explain to a past version of yourself without the board from Chernobyl and scheduled breaks…

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson Get COVID-19

Shit got real on March 11 when beloved Forrest Gump actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson both tested positive for COVID-19 while filming on location in Australia. 63-year-old Hanks, who has Type 2 Diabetes and a stent in his heart, was fairly sure he was in a high-risk group, but at the time we still knew very little about the virus.

Hanks’ updates on he and Wilson’s recovery were little lights in the darkness over the next few weeks, and when the pair appeared to have made it through the worst, there was a sense of relief that 2020 would – at the very least – not steal him, but Hanks said he was way more relaxed than us about the whole thing. “I’m not one who wakes up in the morning wondering if I’m going to see the end of the day or not,” he told The Guardian. “I’m pretty calm about that.” He’s since become a strong advocate for social distancing measures. – KH

Tiger King of the World

Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness debuted on Netflix globally on March 20, becoming the first quarantine binge of the pandemic. A problematic series from the get-go, there was comfort to be found in its existence, as it became apparent that even if things were really quite shit at home, at least you hadn’t been fed to a tiger yet. Or sent to jail for arranging a hit on your nemesis. Or had accidentally shot yourself in the head. Or, etc and so on. – KH

The Snyder Cut Rises

They said it would never happen. And by “they” I have to confess, I mean “we.” But it’s true, Warner Bros. actually is spending tens of millions of dollars to let Zack Snyder finish his Justice League movie as he originally intended it. And the fans who have kept hope alive since the disappointing Joss Whedon-helmed theatrical cut of the movie are getting even more than they bargained for, since the no-longer-mythical “Snyder Cut” isn’t just a movie, it’s a four hour long miniseries event headed to HBO Max.

The early 2021 release of the Director’s Cut of Justice League (which now appears to be its official title) will mark the culmination of five years of fan demands, and will finally put a bow on Snyder’s original vision of the DCEU, completing the trilogy he began with 2016’s Man of Steel. Hopefully it lives up to everyone’s expectations. – MC

Next-Gen Gaming Breaks the Internet…Literally

2020 turned out to be a very important year for gaming. Not only did it see the release of many highly-anticipated titles, such as The Last of Us Part II, Cyberpunk 2077, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Ghost of Tsushima, but it also ushered in a new generation of gaming with the arrival of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 as well as new PC graphics cards from NVIDIA and AMD.

Unfortunately, when it comes to next-gen gaming in 2020, all other topics of discussion are eclipsed by just how difficult it’s been to actually buy any of these new consoles or GPUs. From the moment pre-orders opened, getting one of these next-gen products has been a nightmare. Retail sites like Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop went down almost immediately on day 1 of pre-orders for both consoles, and have remained generally low in stock ever since, servers shaky at best. And the scalpers who used bots to buy up consoles and graphics cards to flip for exorbitant prices certainly haven’t helped.

If you got that next-gen gaming experience you wanted for Christmas this year, count yourself lucky! – JS

Trolls World Tour Starts a War

Universal’s Trolls World Tour was the first major movie to properly break and go straight to go streaming in 2020. Whether this was a movie you’d have personally sought out or not, it would have made a ton of money in a non-pandemic year. After that, eyes turned to the big studios, as we waited to see whether the likes of Black Widow, Bill & Ted Face the Music, or Mulan would follow suit.

Warner Bros., who had strenuously backed Christopher Nolan’s Tenet for a theatrical release, did a handbrake turn late in 2020 when it announced – to much industry outrage – that its full schedule of big budget movies, including Dune and The Matrix 4, would see a “day and date” streaming release on HBO Max in 2021 after Wonder Woman 1984 would do the same on Christmas Day. Disney has so far refused to match this gambit, but there are big changes and repercussions afoot for the theatrical release model, even when this is all over. – KH

Disney Doesn’t Throw Away Its Shot

While the first couple of movies to crack the theatrical window such as Trolls: World Tour and Onward were treated as relatively low stakes and aimed at a younger demographic, no early release came earlier, or made as much noise, as Hamilton going to Disney+ over Independence Day Weekend. The filmed version of the original cast performance dropped on the streamer a full 15 months ahead of its planned theatrical release, and it was by any measure a roaring success, finally enabling millions of people who had long been enamored with the soundtrack but been shut out of ticket lotteries and prohibitive Broadway pricing to experience Lin-Manuel Miranda’s history lesson in the comfort of their own home.

Early data suggests that his was the biggest direct-to-streaming release of the year, which should surprise exactly nobody. – MC

Of course, the success of Hamilton emboldened…

Borat 2 Sex Lawyer

Donald Trump’s most visible lawyer Rudy Giuliani already had a bad rep, but in late October he was literally caught with his hands down his pants in a New York City hotel room after being tricked into comedian Sasha Baron Cohen’s Borat sequel, Subsequent Moviefilm. During one particular scene, Borat and his ‘daughter’ Tutar (Maria Bakalova) tried to seduce Giuliani.

“Rudolph was Donald’s best buddy in the whole world,” Borat narrated. “And also very dignified statesman of the highest order. This would not be easy.”

If you’re really serious about legally challenging the vote you don’t send your two worst kids and the Borat sex lawyer.

— Ned Hartley (@NedHartley) November 6, 2020

It was in fact very easy, and he reportedly thought she was only 15. Still struggling with the knowledge that Giuliani got away with it? You and everyone else, pal. Still, at least he might go down in history as “the Borat sex lawyer.” – KH

Timthetatman’s Fall Guys Twitch Gauntlet

Timthetatman’s August quest to win a crown on Mediatonic’s smash hit battle royale knockout game Fall Guys was a supremely satisfying highlight of the year. Streamer Timothy Betar, who can typically be found playing slightly more ‘grown up’ games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on Twitch, simply got a bee in his bonnet about not being able to win at Fall Guys. Betar spent nearly two weeks playing the game for long stretches of time as his audience grew exponentially, almost always failing at the very last moment, while a huge chunk of the gaming community trolled and encouraged him in equal measure – including the official Fall Guys Twitter account.

In the end, almost 340,000 viewers were watching Tim live on Twitch as he finally snatched a single Fall Guys crown, giving those of us trapped at home a chance to experience a single vicarious moment of pure exhilaration. Truly wonderful. – KH

“Crisp Rat”

It was a big year for Chris Pratt on social media, despite the fact that he didn’t really do much of note except have a baby and finish filming Jurassic World: Dominion. The fallout from 2019’s accusations that the actor attends an anti-LGBT church was the blood that pumped through the veins of Twitter’s 24/7 cancellation machine, refueled by Pratt’s non-appearance at Joe Biden’s virtual fundraiser alongside other MCU castmates.

Some saw this as “evidence” that the actor was deserving of a cancelation, and he was dubbed “the worst Chris” in Hollywood. Robert Downey Jr. and other Marvel stars jumped to his defence, declaring Pratt “a real #Christian who lives by #principle” and who has “never demonstrated anything but #positivity and #gratitude”, but Twitter had made up its mind, and it was soon recasting Jack Black in every role Pratt had filled to date. – KH

His Name …Is Grogu

It’s rather surreal to think that The Mandalorian’s powerful pop culture impact was mostly attributed to a character who had no proper name, only officially referred to as “The Child,” and colloquially—for lack of a better term—dubbed “Baby Yoda.” However, this year’s Chapter 13 would see Rosario Dawson’s debuting live-action version of animated favorite Ahsoka Tano use the Force to child-whisper the name of “Grogu.” In doing so, fans, Star Wars-driven SEO, and the Disney merchandising apparatus received an early Christmas present. However, even with the emotionally evocative Season 2 finale in the rear-view mirror, breaking the habit of calling him Baby Yoda is going to be a process as tough as worrying about his safety, especially given his new destination, and with whom it will likely have him come into contact. – JB

Tenet-cious C

Christopher Nolan was the butt who wouldn’t quit in 2020 as he sought to Save Cinema with his highly anticipated blockbuster about time travel, heists and many guns going pow-pow-pow. Whether it was his intention or not, he seemingly encouraged punters to ignore escalating scientific evidence to avoid indoor public spaces and trot along to their local theatre to watch the film. Nolan’s heart was probably in the right place, but it was a bad look for the director overall, compounded by Tenet’s eventual release on streaming, when the majority of keen audiences finally got a chance to clap their eyes on what turned out to be …well, let’s just say “not exactly a masterpiece.” – KH

Actual footage of people responding to Nolan’s pleas.

DC FanDome

Fandom has collectively been at a loss as far as how to replace the convention experience during the pandemic. And so far, attempts by heavy hitters like San Diego Comic-Con and New York Comic Con to replicate the buzz of a weekend packed with fan experiences and big news drops were tremendous disappointments. Pre-recorded Zoom panels don’t excite when all we do all day as a society is stare at that cursed app, buggy launches make it worse, and the fact that studios/networks/publishers didn’t really help put their best foot forward didn’t help.

But then along came DC FanDome.

What many (including this writer) expected to be a weekend-long infomercial about DC Universe intellectual property and how wonderful new corporate overlords AT&T would be for all these juicy brands was instead the slickest, most exciting, and yes…even newsworthy virtual event of the year. Rapid fire announcements from the big screen debut of the Justice Society in Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam movie to concept art from the long-awaited Flashpoint film were only the appetizer, with Warner Bros. unveiling a stunningly cool trailer for The Batman, and delivering the equivalent of a Saturday night in Hall H to fans who have been mostly confined to their homes since the spring. – MC

Meet Elliot Page

In a year when so much of the news was bad, joyous announcements felt that much more sweet. This was the case for Elliot Page’s sharing that he is trans, and uses “he” and “they” pronouns.

“I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life,” the 33-year-old Canadian actor, who is perhaps best known for their work in Juno, the X-Men prequel films, and Netflix’s Umbrella Academy, wrote on Instagram in early December. “I feel overwhelming gratitude for the incredible people who have supported me along this journey. I can’t begin to express how remarkable it feels to finally love who I am enough to pursue my authentic self.”

While it was a moment of celebration and affirmation, Page also used the opportunity to educate the public on the ongoing epidemic of violence against Black and brown trans women in particular, at least 40 of whom have been killed in the U.S. this year. Page wrote: “To all trans people who deal with harassment, self-loathing, abuse and the thread of violence every day: I see you, I love you and I will do everything I can to change this world for the better.” -KB

The Diamond Monopoly Breaks

Diamond Comics Distributors has for years been a uniter in the comics industry for years. It didn’t matter how much DC or Marvel heads would be at each other’s throats – when a damaged box with only 70% of the comics your shop ordered rolled in a day late, everyone agreed that Diamond was terrible.

Until April, when, in the middle of the pandemic, DC backed two new distributors. Then, a contingent of fans couldn’t rush to Diamond’s defense fast enough.

Lunar Distribution and UCS Comics Distribution were new comics distributors created by DCBS and Midtown Comics, respectively, and stood up by DC to create competition against Diamond’s not-technically-but-really monopoly. This was an enormous shift decades in the making, and coupled with DC’s move to a Tuesday NCBD, represented the biggest change in the comics industry this century. – JD

Dr DisRespect Gets Kicked off Twitch

The live streaming community was rife with controversies this year, especially when it came to Twitch: misconduct allegations lodged at many of its most high-profile streamers, a reportedly toxic and abusive work environment within the company, and a DMCA fiasco that saw streamers’ content disappear over night. And then there was Dr DisRespect’s exit from the platform.

Booted from Twitch at the end of June despite a hefty multi-year, multi-million dollar contract, the streamer, whose real name is Guy Beahm, suddenly found himself completely erased from existence, his channel and content deleted from the service. But why? At first, many in the industry assumed the worst, especially since it came just as Twitch was beginning to address misconduct in its community.

But despite the high-profile break up between Twitch and one of its key stars, we still don’t actually know why Beahm was kicked off the platform all of these months later. All Twitch has said on the matter is that Beahm “acted in violation of our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service,” while the streamer himself has remained largely silent on the matter. For now, Beahm’s exit from Twitch remains one of the streaming community’s biggest mysteries. – JS

The Depp-osition

In the #MeToo era, it is still incredibly rare for powerful men to be held accountable for the abuse of their power, but there are signs that this is beginning to change. The November announcement that Johnny Depp had been asked to resign from the Fantastic Beasts series was one of those signs. The announcement, via Depp’s Instagram, came only days after a U.K. court ruled that British tabloid The Sun was not committing libel when they described Depp as “a wife-beater” in 2018.

While the decision by Warner Bros. to fire Depp is an important step forward, it could still be described as a baby one. Depp will still be getting his full $16 million salary for his Fantastic Beasts 3 role, even though Mads Mikkelsen has been recast in the role of Grindelwald, because there was no morality clause in his contract. (It should be noted that Depp’s contract for the third film was finalized well after allegations against Depp first came to light.) Following the announcement, Amber Heard, Depp’s ex-wife and the survivor in this “wife-beater” scenario, has had to face a wave of online harassment that includes a petition to have her fired from her role as Mera in the DCEU.

The whole thing demonstrates just how ill-equipped Hollywood is as an industry and we as a culture still are when it comes to dealing with abuse. Let’s hope, in 2021, we do better when it comes to holding alleged abusers accountable and supporting survivors. – KB

The Last of Us Part II Leaks

Arguably the most highly anticipated game of 2020 (and our Game of the Year), The Last of Us Part II faced a mountain of seemingly insurmountable expectations. Could Naughty Dog not only follow up one of the greatest games ever made but top itself? Many fans learned the answer much sooner than expected when the game leaked weeks before its release in June.

Despite rumors that the leak was the work of a disgruntled employee, the security breach actually turned out to be courtesy of a hacker, who published most of the game’s cinematics and story beats on the internet for all to find. All of its big twists, reveals, and emotional moments lay bare before we were really ready for them. – JS

Marie Javins Becomes Editor in Chief of DC Comics

After a year of massive changes at DC Comics – which saw long-tenured co-publisher Dan Didio fired, a new new comic book day established through new distributors, and a merger with AT&T bear bitter fruit – DC’s year started to turn itself around when they pulled off the only successful online convention with FanDome.

And hot on FanDome’s heels was the historic announcement of their new EIC: Marie Javins, a longtime comics pro who worked her way up from colorist to become the first woman to serve as DC’s Editor-in-Chief since Jenette Kahn. Javins’ keen eye for talent and long history in the industry inspired a good deal of confidence in DC’s future, and the new talent lined up for DC’s Future State initiative and beyond have only reinforced that. – JD

George R.R. Martin Jailed in Theory

George R.R. Martin’s self-imposed deadline for finishing The Winds of Winter passed in July, and with it came the knowledge that he could now be jailed for his lackadaisical approach to completing the long-in-gestation addition to the A Song of Ice and Fire series. See, ol’ George had previously told Game of Thrones fans that they had “formal written permission” to imprison him “in a small cabin on White Island, overlooking that lake of sulfuric acid” until he was done writing, should he not produce his manuscript by July 29. A little bit of fun was had online that day, as people threatened to frogmarch Martin straight to jail. We were pretty desperate for something to do at that point, tbf. – KH

Cyberpunk 2077 Is a Disaster

CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 went from one of the year’s most anticipated games to a title that had fans genuinely begging for refunds when it was finally released in December, after they discovered it was virtually unplayable on PS4 and Xbox One, riddled with occasionally hilarious bugs, missing big features, and packed with potentially offensive characterizations and broken AI, leading to an online meltdown from gamers that didn’t even really compare to the similar release troubles of titles like Anthem and No Man’s Sky. What a mess.

Whole game is going to be a meme.

— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) July 2, 2018

They really called it. – KH

Chris Evans Posts His Dick

If you’ve ever accidentally posted something online that you definitely didn’t mean to post online, you’ll know the pure, heart stopping panic that Chris Evans must have felt in September when he shared a screen-recorded video to Instagram that he’d forgotten to crop, revealing his personal camera roll. Yes, the Avengers: Endgame actor had indeed just shown a rabid fan base his (surprisingly thick) cock, and there was no going back, because so many people took a screenshot at once that the collective noise probably triggered a spike in seismic activity visible on the Richter scale.

Evans removed the video and likely cringed so hard that he collapsed in on himself like a dying star forming a black hole, but took it on the chin and used his eventual response to encourage people to vote in November’s election. – KH

Now that I have your attention 🤦🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️…. VOTE Nov 3rd!!!

— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) September 15, 2020

Rick Moranis Attacked

Ghostbusters and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids star Rick Moranis – by all accounts a total sweetheart – was randomly attacked near Central Park at the start of October. The formerly-retired actor was punched in the head and knocked to the ground by a man wearing an “I Love NY” hoodie who was later apprehended and charged. Violence on the streets of New York isn’t exactly unheard of, but when the geek community heard of the attack on Moranis, it went full on Taken in under a minute. “I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.” How DARE. – KH

John Boyega’s Black Lives Matter Speech

On May 25th, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black father, grandfather, son, and brother—a human—was killed by Derek Chauvin, a white member of the Minneapolis Police Department, as three other policemen stood by. Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck for 9.5 minutes as Floyd begged, “I can’t breathe.” The video of the killing launched a wave of Black Lives Matters protests across the United States and world, aimed at eradicating white supremacy in all of its forms.

George Floyd was neither the first nor the last Black person who died at the hands of a police officer in 2020. (Say Their Names is an ongoing, work-in-progress list of all the Black men, women, and children killed in the U.S. by police and civilians.) And there is not just one moment or human that has defined the ongoing Black Lives Matters movement in 2020, which is made up of many people, including the many activists who organize within the decentralized movement. One of many moments, however, came when John Boyega took up the megaphone to give an impromptu and emotional speech during a Hyde Park demonstration about the death of George Floyd in early June.

“Black lives have always mattered. We have always been important. We have always meant something. We have always succeeded regardless. And now is the time. I ain’t waiting,” said the British-Nigerian actor and producer, who was visibly holding back tears, to the other protestors gathered.

Boyega has continued to use his celebrity to speak out against racism in the industry and beyond, all while knowing that it could affect his career. In September, Boyega did an interview with GQ in which he spoke about the unequal narrative treatment he and other actors of color got in the Star Wars franchise compared to the white actors in the film.

“You get yourself involved in projects and you’re not necessarily going to like everything,” Boyega said. “[But] what I would say to Disney is do not bring out a Black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are, and then have them pushed to the side. It’s not good. I’ll say it straight up … You knew what to do with these other people, but when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know fuck all.” – KB

Quibi? I Hardly Knew Ye

“Is it better to burn out than fade away?” could have been a question knocking about in the heads of Quibi’s founders during 2020. The newbie streaming service, which developed content as “quick bites” consumable in 7-10 minute increments, ended up being a flash in the pan as it struggled to rustle up subscribers in a year very much not suited to the concept of “I don’t have time to watch anything”.

Quibi had initially raised $1.75 billion in pre-launch funding and had more than 175 shows and movies lined up for viewers, but none of it was enough to counter the madness playing out behind the scenes of the hopeful, and ultimately hopeless, platform. RIP to a real one. – KH

Whedon Under Fire

It’s safe to say that the one-time King of the Nerds has not had a pleasant last few years, and that’s even before COVID-19 struck. But much of Joss Whedon’s troubles seem increasingly to be of his own making. As if the disapproving response to his version of Justice League wasn’t enough, Whedon was accused by actor Ray Fisher (Cyborg) of fomenting racism and toxicity on the set – a claim indirectly backed up by co-stars Jason Momoa and Gal Gadot.

The fallout, true or not, seems to have landed close enough for Whedon to depart his upcoming HBO fantasy series The Nevers, a project he created but won’t see through to its launch after three years of work. The Whedon-produced Pippa Smith: Grown-Up Detective was also quietly scrapped at Freeform. – DK

pic.twitter.com/e3N00xCr5i

— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) December 10, 2020

Patty’s Squad

At the moment, the future of Star Wars would seem to be on television. The success of The Mandalorian and the galaxy of spinoffs (more on those in a moment) announced by Disney and Lucasfilm would seem to indicate that. But Star Wars is far from finished on the big screen, and when it returns in 2023, it’s going to make history, with Patty Jenkins finally shattering the glass ceiling of Star Wars directors with her take on the fan favorite Rogue Squadron concept.

Jenkins is, of course, no stranger to big franchise projects, having helmed both Wonder Woman movies for Warner Bros. The announcement of a coveted director taking on a big franchise competitor coming in the wake of WB’s troubled relationship with talent after sending their entire theatrical slate to HBO Max for 2021 sure feels like a victory for Disney, even as Jenkins is still confirmed to direct a third Wonder Woman film for WB. Regardless of studio politics, Jenkins promising to deliver “the greatest fighter pilot movie of all time,” albeit one set in the Star Wars galaxy is a wonderful promise, and we’re looking forward to seeing how she keeps it. – MC

Disney Goes Even More Franchise Crazy

Disney’s December investors call didn’t produce the kind of announcements expected – there were rumors that a global 18+ streaming element was in the wind and that Black Widow would go straight to Disney+ – but the Mouse House tried to make up for it by revealing a fistful of new projects that included ten (10!) new Star Wars series, a bunch of new Marvel series and movies, a Toy Story spinoff film called Lightyear and a sequel to Enchanted. That’s not even the half of it, though, as the reveals just kept on coming, to the point where even a dedicated Disney fan felt downright exhausted, and prompting many a “how much is too much?” think piece. – KH

This is by no means an exhaustive list! Feel free to share your own big geek moments in the comments.

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The post The Biggest Geek Culture Moments of 2020 appeared first on Den of Geek.

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freckles-shop · 4 years ago

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Dachshund Witch Halloween Pumpkin T-Shirt

Would be 12 I didn’t do it all and didn’t break it down all the way I just didn’t feel like could already know I’m just doing is to help cement so so three coming at a Dachshund Witch Halloween Pumpkin T-Shirt 30 that the 12 for Joel night you know if you break it down SCA to be 33 you know you that 30 is what 3D longest with what three so all out I want to know about that 33 number you know I go to Biden 3425 well 34 I want to see if exceeded 34 because I added up the word batting I get 34 I in the sub number C high handed to output from a two over put the knot over the full 501 full is 5 dB month this argument so number now the but check it out see the 294 the five and a five that’s telling you something see what I like to do telling applet to switch stuff around I see numbers I put the C letter that the number County is a language out you may in a way is to eat is bad in the name Biden is telling you what is what he’s doing who we sell is telling right there if you put the letters waited the second letter is be the ninth letter is. To grant clemency which at one point included plans to bring a delegation of rap stars to White House those plans were scuttled first by trumps impeachment and then by the pandemic Weldon believes the presidential lobbying Drive may have impressed the judge we show that this man had a ton of support and is going to do a lot of positive things he said to Leslie that judge is a trouble pointing a Republican appointee Obama point dear what but good good for that judge and trumpet after step back because of the one before that first step act it wouldn’t happen I think we need to read anymore this article I think we can move past so we know who alone is already others wanted to show you guys this in and I should add is pulled up a must for my stream last night when I was talking to a brother Lloyd but black guys matter thing because Turner causes TV ratings crush the woke NBA is the NBA’s on his black lies matter bullshit now they are 12 million viewers lot suckers 39 million viewers when it held that more Americans watch news and sports there was a time. When he does get this out the account both the crankand he needs both of you should get out I was I’d say one thing like Ron has been getting screwed in every which way except the way that he wants it’s like you a lot the Phillies lost the girl he left the castle multiple times can we just let this guy bone please can we just give him even 10 minutesand come inand be like hey I gotta think like not going to wear what actually think is in bronze heartand mind because how many times have we heard him mention the girl in the castle he’s been from askedand it always seemed like his affection for Terryand was very sincere sure I could die but then when he came down to it

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You have to learn what it means to be a Dachshund Witch Halloween Pumpkin T-Shirt barrier breaker yourself in this job you’re about to take America’s first second gentleman and all their although they’re not with us here today to thank Ellen Cole as well I a chance to speak to Doug mom and dad and Ellen Cole and the really get our kids together let them know what what’s coming our my grandchildren are about the age of the their children got to speak my campaigns I’ve been family affair campaign run so Godson news for you are all by is the best part even an honorary buying for quite some time you know I came first to know was through our son bovine there were friends they served as Atty the same time. Under control no real help for the states and local governments trying to fill the vacuum of leadership from the White House no real help for children and educators for small businesses and front line workers that halted there ones holding our country together instead he’s issuing executive orders making promises that the end will defined the Social Security system on insisting that this virus will disappear the Joe Biden Harris administration to compress a plan to meet the challenge of 19 and turned the corner on this pandemic masking Claire science based guidance dramatically scaling up testing getting states and local governments resources they need to open his goals a business safely we can do this we just need a president and vice president willing to lead take responsibility this president says my fall the government the governor should thank me more is an old saying goes give me a break in an economic crisis more than 16 million Americans 16 million still out of work. I he often than I walked in here laissez out estate they came from a bat but no animals as far as we know cannot carry you there is one dollar this motherfucker is as much about your radio will fade away you just get into it we going to do itand others that in china there being in the carbonate spread to italy that’s another pandemic this week it was declared a pandemic this morning down from said if we all to be some granting until july or august maybe earlier maybe later the stock market has crashed yeah I this morning los angeles is mandated to shut down until march 31 seven cisco is mandated is it that said enter new york I got the new yorkand chicago shut down all bars restaurant everything anything like that I demand this morning is in his 70s he never seen anything like this now the spanish flu would be the closest like 1912and was actually lays on the gel over million people you you are communicating a lot better than he was a back then medicine is hopefully better via case number right now See Other related products: Dachshund Witch Halloween Pumpkin T-Shirt

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