Saturday, February 15, 2020
MIT Warns That Voting App Used in Several States is Vulnerable for Hackers to ‘Alter, Stop or Expose’ Votes
The app used in several states can be exploited, according to researchers.
An internet-based voting app that has been used on a limited basis in West Virginia, Denver, Oregon and Utah is vulnerable to hackers, according to Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers.
The research indicates that Voatz, an app that has been mostly used for absentee voters and miitary personnel voting overseas, can be exploited to “alter, stop or expose how an individual has voted.”
Election security experts have long warned that internet-based voting is prone for hacking, but that hasn’t stopped states from attempting it.
“We all have an interest in increasing access to the ballot, but in order to maintain trust in our elections system, we must assure that voting systems meet the high technical and operation security standards before they are put in the field,” said Daniel Weitzner, an MIT scientist who helped to prepare the report, on Thursday.
Donald Kersey, a general counsel in the secretary of state’s office in West Virginia, explained that the state has to use electronic voting due to a new law that allows disabled people to vote online. He claims his state hasn’t committed to using the Voatz app.
“Obviously, integrity and security are prime, but voter confidence is equally important,” Kersey said.
Voatz disputes the MIT study, claiming that it was conducted in “bad faith,” and used an older, outdated form of their app that has since been improved. Nevertheless, the experts are crowing that this study backs what they have been saying about the dangers of electronic voting for many years.
“Not to in any way diminish this (excellent) work, but the fact that an online mobile voting scheme has serious security flaws is ultimately unsurprising,” tweeted Matt Blaze, a Georgetown University professor of computer science and law. “Every serious expert has warned against Internet voting.”
“In my view, based on MIT’s findings, no responsible jurisdiction should use Voatz in real elections any time soon,” wrote J. Alex Halderman, a University of Michigan professor. “It will take major advances in security technology before Internet voting is...
Granddaughter of Slaying Victim, 92, Backs Trump’s Fight Against Illegal-Immigrant ‘Sanctuaries’
Daria Ortiz’s voice cracked when speaking at a White House event Friday, as she described how New York City’s “sanctuary city” status let her family—and the rest of the city’s residents—down.
Her 92-year-old grandmother, Maria Fuentes, a legal immigrant from the Dominican Republic, was sexually assaulted and killed last month, and police have charged illegal immigrant and alleged repeat criminal offender Reeaz Khan, 21.
Khan, from Guyana, was previously arrested on assault charges, but the city released him, despite an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer request.
Sanctuary jurisdictions are cities, counties, and states that provide a safe haven for illegal immigrants—in some cases, dangerous criminals—and obstruct federal immigration enforcement. That usually comes in the form of ignoring ICE detainer orders, except when there is a court order.
In these trying times, we must turn to the greatest document in the history of the world to promise freedom and opportunity to its citizens for guidance. Find out more now >>
“Before coming to America, [Fuentes] worked as a secretary for the president in her native country, the Dominican Republic. She is a shining example of people who come legally to this country, work hard and do the right thing, and are law-abiding citizens,” Ortiz said. “My grandmother raised her children and her grandchildren while working hard to give us a future.”
Ortiz stood with President Donald Trump in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House, speaking to a crowd of about 220 U.S. Border Patrol agents and family members at a gathering of the National Border Patrol Council, the agents’ union.
During the event, Trump spoke about his administration’s immigration policies, the border wall, and cracking down on sanctuary jurisdictions.
The Justice Department recently filed lawsuits against the states of California and New Jersey, as well as against King County, Washington. All three lawsuits argue that the states and the county have violated the Supremacy Clause of Article VI of the Constitution, contending the jurisdictions are flouting federal immigration laws.
“Unfortunately, my grandmother had to be the example of why something like this horrific crime should never happen,” Ortiz said, adding:
What Would You Do If You Truly Believed Inaction Would Be The Apocalypse?
Ramona is Not Just Your Common Annoying Pest....
Bernie's Trotskyites Are Not Just Pests.
They Are Dangerous.
They'll Lose, But Expect Havoc.
John Brennan Under DOJ Scrutiny, As John Durham’s Criminal Investigation Expands
U.S. Attorney John Durham – charged with the criminal probe into the FBI’s Russia investigation of the Trump campaign – has been questioning CIA officials closely involved with John Brennan’s 2017 intelligence community assessment regarding direct Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to U.S. officials.
In May 2017, Brennan denied during a hearing before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that its agency relied on the now debunked Christopher Steele dossier for the Intelligence Community Assessment report. He told then Congressman Trey Gowdy “we didn’t” use the Steele dossier.
“It wasn’t part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had,” Brennan stated. “It was not in any way used as a basis for the Intelligence Community assessment that was done. It was — it was not.”
However, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz confirmed in his report that the dossier was used in the Obama administration’s 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA). As stated in the IG report, there were discussions by top intelligence officials as to whether the Steele dossier should be included in the ICA report.
But upon careful inspection of Horowitz’s report, on page 179, investigators ask former FBI Director James Comey if he discussed the dossier with Brennan and whether or not it should be given to President Obama. According to the report, Comey told investigators that Brennan said it was “important” enough to include in the ICA — clearly part of the “corpus of intelligence information” they had.
According to a recent report by The New York Times, Durham’s probe is specifically looking at that January 2017 intelligence community assessment, which concluded with “high confidence” that Russian President Vladimir Putin “ordered an influence campaign in 2016.”
From the New York Times:
“Mr. Durham appears to be pursuing a theory that the C.I.A., under its former director John O. Brennan, had a preconceived notion about Russia or was trying to get to a particular result — and was nefariously trying to keep other agencies from seeing the full picture lest they interfere with that goal, the people said.”
Sources with knowledge have said CIA officials questioned by Durham’s investigative team
“are extremely concerned with the investigation and the direction it’s heading.”
Brennan’s assessment stated that Putin wanted to “undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate former Secretary of State [Hillary] Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency.” It also stated that Putin “developed a clear preference for...
Cambridge Academic Says Human Race Must Become Extinct to Save the Planet
And white men are first to go, obviously.
A Cambridge academic has called for the extinction of humanity to save the planet while noting that white, male, heterosexuals are to blame for all the world’s woes.
In her new book The Ahuman Manifesto, Professor Patricia MacCormack argues that the only way to prevent ecological disaster is to begin “gradually phasing out reproduction.”
Speaking to CambridgeshireLive, Professor MacCormack made it clear who would be first on the evolutionary chopping block.
“The basic premise of the book is that we’re in the age of the Anthropocene, humanity has caused mass problems and one of them is creating this hierarchal world where white, male, heterosexual and able-bodied people are succeeding, and people of different races, genders, sexualities and those with disabilities are struggling to get that,” she said.
According to CambridgeshireLive’s Alistair Ryder, despite literally calling for the entire human species to be wiped out, the book has a “joyful and optimistic tone.”
Ok, then.
MacCormack said her ideas were first inspired by her interest in “feminism and queer theory.” Imagine my shock.
The professor also wants to completely dismantle religion, although whether that would extend to her own beliefs is unclear.
MacCormack appears in a YouTube video entitled ‘Performing the Occult’ in which she discusses the crucial topic of “vulvic deamonitalia.”
She also featured in a DVD called Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide, in which she reviews a movie called The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, which is about an “exploited Aboriginal Australian” who commits a massacre in the name of racial justice.
“Hats off to Morticia for cutting to the chase,” writes Dave Blount. “Worship of the other, hatred for your kind is at the core of liberal ideology. This has inevitably led to support for...
Buttigieg’s War and ‘The Shortest Way Home’
When Mayor Pete Buttigieg talks about his military service, his opponents fall silent, the media fall in love, and his political prospects soar. Veterans roll their eyes.
CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Mr. Buttigieg Sunday if President Trump “deserves some credit” for the strike that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani. “No,” the candidate replied, “not until we know whether this was a good decision and how this decision was made.” He questioned whether “it was the right strategic move” and said his own judgment “is informed by the experience of having been on one of those planes headed into a war zone.”
But Mr. Buttigieg’s stint in the Navy isn’t as impressive as he makes it out to be. His 2019 memoir is called “Shortest Way Home,” an apt description of his military service. He entered the military through a little-used shortcut: direct commission in the reserves. The usual route to an officer’s commission includes four years at Annapolis or another military academy or months of intense training at Officer Candidate School. ROTC programs send prospective officers to far-flung summer training programs and require military drills during the academic year. Mr. Buttigieg skipped all that—no obstacle courses, no weapons training, no evaluation of his ability or willingness to lead. Paperwork, a health exam and a background check were all it took to make him a naval officer.
He writes that his reserve service “will always be one of the highlights of my life, but the price of admission was an ongoing flow of administrativia.” That’s not how it’s supposed to work. The paperwork isn’t the price of admission but the start of a long, grueling test.
Combat veterans have grumbled for decades about the direct-commission route. The politically connected and other luminaries who receive immediate commissions are disparaged as “pomeranian princes.” Former Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus became a Naval Reserve officer in 2018 at age 46. Hunter Biden, son of the former vice president, accepted a direct commission but was discharged after one month of service for failing a drug test.
Mr. Buttigieg was assigned to a comfortable corner of military life, the Naval Station in Great Lakes, Ill. Paperwork and light exercise were the order of the day. “Working eight-hour days,” he writes, was “a relaxing contrast from my day job, and spending time with sailors from all walks of civilian life, was a healthy antidote to the all absorbing work I had in South Bend.” He calls it “a forced, but welcome, change of pace from the constant activity of being mayor.”
During a November debate, Mr. Buttigieg proclaimed: “I have the experience of being commanded into a war zone by an American president.” The reality isn’t so grandiose. In 2013, he writes, he “made sure my chain of command knew that I would rather go sooner than later, and would rather go to Afghanistan than anywhere else.”
Arriving there, he “felt a sense of purpose, maybe even idealism, that can only be compared to the feeling of starting on a political campaign. I thought back to 2004 and John Kerry’s presidential run, and then remembered that it was during the campaign that I saw the iconic footage of his testimony as the spokesman for Vietnam Veterans against the War.”
The comparison is telling. Mr. Buttigieg has just started his time in a war he says he’s idealistic about, but he daydreams about John Kerry protesting Vietnam after he got back. Many veterans detest Mr. Kerry’s “iconic” 1971 testimony, in which he slandered American servicemen. But it did launch a decadeslong political career.
Mr. Buttigieg spent some five months in Afghanistan, where he writes that he remained less busy than he’d been at City Hall, with “more time for reflection and reading than I was used to back home.” He writes that he would take “a laptop and a cigar up to the roof at midnight to pick up a Wi-Fi signal and patch via Skype into a staff meeting at home.” The closest he came to combat was ferrying other staffers around in an SUV: In his campaign kickoff speech last April he referred to “119 trips I took outside the wire, driving or guarding a vehicle.” That’s a strange thing to count...
Bolsheviks Bashing Bill Barr Because Burisma Bamboozle By Bureaucrats..
Some Republicans Are Involved Too.
They Are All Scared.
They All Need To Go To Jail.
They Will Try To Take Down Bill Barr To Protect Their Lucrative Scam.
The 90 Miles Mystery Video: Nyctophilia Edition #200
Before You Click On The "Read More" Link,
Please Only Do So If You Are Over 21 Years Old.
If You are Easily Upset, Triggered Or Offended, This Is Not The Place For You.
Please Leave Silently Into The Night......
The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #898
You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?
It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,
from the beautiful to the repugnant,
from the mysterious to the familiar.
If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,
you could be inspired, you could be appalled.
This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.
You have been warned.
Friday, February 14, 2020
Report: U.S. the Global Leader for Reducing CO2 Emissions in 2019
The United States led the world in tackling CO2 emissions last year while combining that singular success with solid economic growth, a new report reveals.
It has also been confirmed while the U.S. was hitting its climate goals, at the same time “80 percent of the increase in CO2 emissions came from Asia and that China and India both contributed significantly” to global increases.
“The United States saw the largest decline in energy-related CO2 emissions in 2019 on a country basis – a fall of 140 Mt, or 2.9%, to 4.8 Gt,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported Tuesday. “US emissions are now down almost 1 Gt from their peak in the year 2000, the largest absolute decline by any country over that period.”
“A 15% reduction in the use of coal for power generation underpinned the decline in overall US emissions in 2019,” the IEA continued.
“Coal-fired power plants faced even stronger competition from natural gas-fired generation, with benchmark gas prices an average of 45% lower than 2018 levels. As a result, gas increased its share in electricity generation to a record high of 37%. Overall electricity demand declined because demand for air-conditioning and heating was lower as a result of milder summer and winter weather.”
U.S. success in leading the world in tackling CO2 emissions was not lost on those who support its current efforts.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) responded on Twitter, “FACT you will NEVER see on the 6 o’clock news: U.S. emissions FELL 2.9%, or by 140 million tons, continuing the trend of the United States LEADING THE WORLD IN TOTAL EMISSIONS DECLINE since 2000.”
FACT you will NEVER see on the 6 o’clock news: U.S. emissions FELL 2.9%, or by 140 million tons, continuing the trend of the United States LEADING THE WORLD IN TOTAL EMISSIONS DECLINE since 2000. twitter.com/dcexaminer/sta…
17K people are talking about this
“In China, emissions rose but were tempered by slower economic growth and higher output from low-carbon sources of electricity,” the IEA reported. “Renewables continued to...
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US says it can prove Huawei has backdoor access to mobile-phone networks
US hasn't made evidence public but reportedly shared it with UK and Germany.
US officials say they have evidence that Huawei has backdoor access to mobile-phone networks around the world, according to a Wall Street Journal article published today.
"We have evidence that Huawei has the capability secretly to access sensitive and personal information in systems it maintains and sells around the world," US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien told the Journal.
The United States has long claimed that Huawei can secretly access networks through the networking gear it sells to telcos, but the goverment previously argued that it doesn't need to show any proof. US officials still are not providing such evidence publicly but have begun sharing their intelligence with other countries, the Journal report said.
The Journal wrote:
The US kept the intelligence highly classified until late last year, when American officials provided details to allies including the UK and Germany, according to officials from the three countries. That was a tactical turnabout by the US, which in the past had argued that it didn't need to produce hard evidence of the threat it says Huawei poses to nations' security.
The US has been sharing this evidence at the same time the Trump administration tries to convince allies to get Huawei gear out of their networks.
US officials said they have been aware of Huawei's backdoor access "since observing it in 2009 in early 4G equipment," the Journal wrote. However, the US officials quoted by the Journal "declined to say whether the US has observed Huawei using this access."
Backdoors designed for law enforcement
Telecom-equipment makers who sell products to carriers "are required by law to build into their hardware ways for authorities to access the networks for lawful purposes," but they "are also required to build equipment in such a way that the manufacturer can't get access without the consent of...
Now Congressional Democrats Think They Can Get Bill Barr
The attorney general is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on March 31. Let’s hope he can put an end to this partisan witch hunt before the Democrats lead the country into another time consuming, expensive, and baseless investigation.
Stone was convicted of witness tampering and lying to Congress in November. These crimes (often called “process crimes”) occurred during the investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Federal prosecutors recommended that Stone serve a prison sentence of seven to nine years.
President Trump did not take kindly to this recommendation, calling it “terrible and unfair.” Shortly thereafter, the Justice Department announced that the recommended sentence was “shocking” and that it planned to amend its recommendation to the court and ask for a shorter sentence. That led all four prosecutors to withdraw from the case. The president subsequently congratulated Barr for the decision to seek a lighter sentence.
As the Daily Caller reported, a Justice Department source indicated that the decision to revise Stone’s recommended sentence was made before Trump published his tweets. Moreover, a senior Justice Department official told Fox News, “The department finds seven to nine years extreme, excessive and grossly disproportionate. The sentencing recommendation was not what had been briefed to the Department.”
Naturally, some on the Left called for Barr’s immediate resignation or possible impeachment. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) indicated that Barr had “no choice” but to resign. Presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) tweeted:
40 Sex discrimination suits against accused sexist pig Mike Bloomberg
Bloomberg has one donor — himself — and with his own money, he has managed to surge to third place in several 2020 polls this week. He also bought his way onto the primary debate stage. Nancy Pelosi sees him as a positive.
His background isn’t glorious. He made a lot of his money off Red China, which he praises often, and he thinks it’s okay to throw black kids up against a wall to frisk them. What is getting little attention, however, is his sexist pig past, which he has always denied having.
The work environment he has set up over the years is described as deeply sexist, even as he claims to be Progressive fighting for minorities and women.
Mike Bloomberg’s stories of misogyny and sexism appear in lawsuits and journalistic accounts. He doesn’t physically abuse women; he’s more insidious than that, concentrating on disparaging comments and demeaning jokes.
“In December 2015, employees at Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun-control organization funded by Bloomberg, arrived at work to find a holiday gift on their desks from their employer: the former mayor’s 1997 autobiography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg. Flipping through the book, staffers found themselves uncomfortably reading their billionaire founder’s boasts about keeping “a girlfriend in every city” and other womanizing exploits as a Wall Street up-and-comer,” far-left GQ reported.
There are some 40 sex discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuits brought against him and his organizations by 64 women over the past several decades.
SOME OF THE STORIES
Sekiko Garrison didn’t meet his criteria for respectful treatment.
Sekiko Sakai Garrison, a former sales representative at Bloomberg LP, alleged in a 1997 lawsuit that when then-CEO Mike Bloomberg found out she was pregnant, he told her, “Kill it!” He also said, “Great! Number 16!” There were 16 women on maternity leave at the time.
When Bloomberg saw her engagement ring, he commented, “What is the guy dumb and blind? What the hell is he marrying you for?”
He once pointed to another female employee and told Garrison, “If you looked like that, I’d do you in a second.” Bloomberg denied having said most of those things, but reportedly left Garrison a voicemail saying that if he did make the comments, he “didn’t mean it.”
Bloomberg reportedly did concede that he had said of Garrison and other women, “I’d do her.” In making the concession, however, he insisted that he had believed that...