Free Republic

For those here on Free Republic who have been frequent targets of hacking efforts... and who played a key role in exposing the "Solar Winds" exploit...

It appears others are becoming aware...

"Russians" my ass...

Reading that one wrong ?

We should be thanking Australia, first, for demonstrating how to most efficiently convert hard core leftists into a rabble of angry Republicans fomenting a tax revolt.

Exposing the entitlement of lefties who demand more government control... but then not only refuse to comply with government rules... but refuse to pay for it ? Seems a win-win, to me.

I’m with Australia... out ahead of the curve in figuring out how to sustain the tax base at the tech oligarchs expense, when the only thing left of the economy is in the value of a click...

Otherwise, the choice you are presented with is one between who you will be governed by... the government you elected, or the un-elected oligarchs assuming they can dictate terms to you, while refusing to pay the taxes needed to support those same policies they want to force you to adopt.

If nothing else... Facebook’s tantrum... declaring lefty tech oligarchs as not only above the law, but above being taxed... defines a crack in the armor of tech monopolies... grown fat on state subsidies and exemptions from laws that apply to everyone else. Australia should double down... making it impossible for Facebook to survive in Australia... thus fostering an new ability to develop market competition in the space... by obviating the advantages of the monopoly.

A perfect response... would be to apply an equal or greater tax on them every time they remove or deny access to a posted link...

“But by demanding publicly that America at once – “within two weeks” – return to the agreement, Zarif has miscalculated the American reaction.”

Don’t think you can read that “reaction” into this situation. More likely that, independent of subject, expecting Biden et al to be able to do anything “within two weeks” is a miscalculation.

How many “snow days” did they calculate in that ? And, when the weather warms... how many ‘nice spring day” pauses should be allowed... before expecting Biden to do anything but try to catch a bit of sun while lounging on the patio ?

The contrast with the animated and energetic Trump could not be more stark... which doesn’t make Biden’s dementia into a policy statement... rather than a functional limit.

Thought it worth an update here, with another pat on the back for the crowd here who helped to crowd source awareness of the vulnerability, and generate exposure of the hack, that enabled (among others) the Solar Winds exploit.

One of the core vulnerabilities we identified in this thread is now being addressed, in some small part, at least: The assumption that anyone with status as an approved system software provider should be “trusted” is being revised... their former grant of access to all the files in your system, by default, is being altered to enable “trusted provider” access to their own files, only, and not others.

Here’s how they’re addressing that in Ubuntu version 21:

...”for new installations of Ubuntu 21.04, or for users created on a machine that has been upgraded to Ubuntu 21.04, home directories will be private by default.

“For a lot of systems that have only one primary user, this change may not appear to have a huge impact. However, whilst these machines may have only one human user, they likely have other user accounts already on them which are created by various system services. This change now means that in the future if an attacker were to exploit some previously unknown vulnerability in a given system service that is running as a separate user, they would then not be able to access the data of any other user (both human or system service) on the system. This provides a more secure out-of-the-box experience for users and system administrators.”

https://ubuntu.com/blog/private-home-directories-for-ubuntu-21-04

I assume others are making similar changes to restrict how much system level access is granted based on “trust by default” of every and all of the peripheral players. The knock on and network effects of making that change should dramatically alter the intrinsic risk profile and security of everyone and everything... for a while, at least.

Will be interesting to note changes in the environment that result... as the pace of development in new exploits slows in response... and a lot of undiscovered exploits are shutdown because of the change... as the change is implemented. Legacy systems won’t be effected... so the primary impact should become apparent in an enhanced stability apparent in newer OS installations and upgrades.

Legacy systems should be able to be upgraded too, with some fairly simple inputs... at least in the linux/unix related communities... but herding the cats to enable it without it breaking things in legacy-land might be harder.

Anyway... thanks again for helping to make the digital world a safer place.

“Strong evidence, including Chansley’s own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and TRUMP SUPPORTERS.”

Capitol Police officer who DID kill a Trump supporter... is said to be a BLM supporter who’s social media was filled with threats of violence against Trump supporters.

Chansley... same sort of thing... was there intending his violent actions, and his inducement of others violence, would be blamed on Trump supporters.

The events of Jan 6... did not see anyone involved changing their stripes for spots.

That includes the bad actors inside the chambers... continuing to be bad actors... continuing to be very quick to accept Antifa’s version of things... while enabling them in their purposes. The guiltiest... were those inside... still lying about the election fraud... and trying to stir up this trouble, coordinating it, to change the subject...

Should note... there’s been zero evidence presented, much less proof, showing Trump did anything wrong.

Hirohno’s comments are a proof they’re using impeachment as a cover for passing a bill of attainder...

And, because they had to cheat to try to force him out of office... and cheat to prevent the cheat being recognized... now they’re cheating, by lying about the facts, again, while trying to impeach Trump, again, based on a fraud, again, because... trust us... the election was totally legitimate ?

Hirono: One Goal of Impeachment Is to Prevent Trump from Ever Holding Public Office Again

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3925657/posts

What really happened on Jan 6... that matters... was an attempt to pass off a totally fake election and its fraudulent results as if they were legitimate... ignoring the fraud that was practiced, while accepting its products as legitimate... hoping we might accept the results after watching a badly staged and wholly illegitimate process attempt to validate it.

It didn’t work.

The rest... seems only intended to distract us from that point that does matter... while also BLAMING us for creating the thing being used to distract us... and use it to ATTACK US ALL THE MORE.

And, still, the fraud has not been redressed... only denied.

Here on FR... minds appear made up... and the quantity of posting is down... while the quality is skewed toward the bias of the most persistent and the worst of the paid trolls continuing the patter of “nothing to see here, move along”...

We can’t unsee it... we refuse to be told after the fact that we didn’t see what we saw...

Adding to the lie of the election fraud with the BIGGER and more personal lie that peaceful demonstrators rightly seeking justice in elections that are not fraudulent... was perpetrating the crime of the century... is unlikely to change minds rather than significantly reinforce prior awareness of the lack of good faith on the other side with shocking new proofs.

And, subsequent events can only work to consolidate that understanding that a stolen election is only one element in the accumulation of STILL GROWING wrongs being done to us...

Our “baseless claims” that the election was not free and fair, because of fraud, and because of the lack of free speech... requires disallowing anyone speaking the word “fraud”... and requires eliminating speaker from the public square ? Yeah. That will convince us of your legitimacy.

/s

As the wrongs being done us continue to multiply and intensify... it can’t possibly be interpreted as anything other than mens rea... proof of the wrong being denied.

But the extremes being embraced now in the effort made in denial... clearly are not survivable.

Effort made preventing claims of election fraud being properly investigated... now require converting our country into a totalitarian dictatorship to prevent that decision being reversed... questioned... or even mentioned ?

That’s not going to work.

Did SolarWinds Make the Right Move in Hiring Former CISA Director Christopher Krebs?

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3925598/posts

If you consider this hire in relation to the history on this thread, in which Freepers (because targeted) exposed the bigger hack underlying the Solar Winds partial exposure... and see it mostly in relation to the “social hacking” element in particular...

Q: Why would anyone hire a guy who was exposed as being the most clueless... in an attempt to restore “integrity” lost due to that exact cluelessness ?

A: Because it suggests the only failure they recognize having occurred... was in getting caught.

Yes, events post “Solar Winds” suggest more over time that the hack was “Deep State” in origin... not “foreign” and not “domestic”... but “globalist” in origin... that including both foreign and domestic components... including a domestic Advanced Persistent Threat that “lost an asset” in the Solar Winds hack being exposed.

I’ve seen no credible effort being made to address any of the larger issues that were behind enabling the Solar Winds hack... which was only “an instance” of the exploitation of LARGER proven vulnerabilities.

The silence is the definitive answer...

A bill of attainder is, in context of legislative acts, a legislative body convicting someone of a crime and imposing penalties by legislative act, as by passing a law, or otherwise by a legislature voting to convict or punish someone. The Constitution forbids it... mostly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_attainder

There are two exceptions defined in the Constitution:

One, in the case of impeachment... where it is legislatures alone who act, although with judicial participation required in the case of the President being impeached, as the Chief Justice presides...

That (mostly, again) means that if you’re not able to be impeached, you can’t be subjected to attainder.

However, attainder, as it exists in the judicial meaning of it versus the legislative sense, means a court empowered in similarly stripping a person of civil rights and property rights, which, in the Constitution, is allowed in the case of treason... in which case attainder is allowed, but only within the limits of the lifetime of a person, with no corruption of blood... meaning no inheritance of guilt or punishment.

Here in the U.S. understanding:

https://law.justia.com/constitution/us/article-3/46-corruption-of-the-blood-and-forfeiture.html

Here in the English view, which, prior to this change in 1814, was one of the major injustices that served as a driving factor in the Revolutionary War:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_of_Blood_Act_1814

I would argue that civil forfeiture as it is practiced today runs afoul of the prohibition on attainder AND corruption of blood... while also obviating civil right, property rights, and due process in its imposition. It empowers police to act as prosecutor, judge and jury in takings that occur FAR outside due process...

Biden is already lobbying to slow the roll... some advocating that saying its because the drama would interfere with implementing his agenda.

A few might argue it as necessary to lower the temperature now before the Capitol is invaded again, only for real...

Reality is probably closer to acknowledging the fear that Trump’s defense will succeed as a proof of his innocence, along with both an indictment and proof of others guilt.

Agree.

Almost everything you read about this is wrong... most of it put up by people who don’t know, who have never studied it, but have an opinion driven by how the heat of the moment influences their concern.

The Constitution empowers the Congress to impeach government officials.

The Constitution, quite wrongly today, assumes good faith and good judgement will constrain excess.

Presidents, once they are out of office, remain subject to that rule, and may be impeached, as they remain in offices of trust. They continue to be paid. They continue to be provided unique access to information. A security clearance is a foothold inside the process... but also a point of attachment to it ? As a former commander in chief, Presidents are not that different than other members of the military who, as officers, upon leaving service, remain as commissioned officers who are still subject to recall in the event of urgent need, while inactive. It’s not just a job.

The attendant risks are easily enough avoidable, though... if you choose to voluntarily relinquish those sorts of attachments. They can’t hold you to an obligation against your will... after you’ve already surrendered it.

However, once Trump is out of office, the whole point, from Democrats point of view... is that an impeachment provides a set of remedies that extends to denying him the right to ever fill public office, again. And, that’s why they’re doing it... hoping to prevent Trump running again in 2024.

But, they’d still need cooperation from Senate Republicans to make that happen... it requiring a separate vote on imposing that penalty in addition to voting to convict un the impeachment first. Odds of that happening, pretty close to zero... going negative and inverting over time, perhaps ?

Along the way, of course, they’ll hope that conducting a witch hunt impeachment, again, would provide them with some fodder to funnel to federal, state and local courts... in order to sustain their witch hunt in other venue in future.

That it’s obvious as a horribly bad idea isn’t a restraint on Democrats right now... apparent even just given a look at the range of horribly bad legislation already being tabled. They’re already seeking to conduct purges of political opposition throughout government, including converting the FBI and the DOJ into their own SS and Gestapo... while elevating Antifa/BLM to above the law, and declaring anyone who opposes them to be a terrorist:

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3925167/posts

“None of the voiolations (sic) is a crime. It is not a crime for the government to lie to the public or to withhold information.”

In Michigan it is, and it’s a felony.

All you are saying is you believe them to be more afraid of China than of Trump...

I disagree... and it is their own behavior that provides the proof... whether you choose to see it or not.

I’m curious...

This Pope is not the only false Pope... or usurper... in history ?

But, the split between the Church in Rome and the Eastern Orthodox branch addresses solutions that appear today to have already been accepted by the current Pope, given his ongoing “accommodation” of the Emperor Xi of China.

Having already sold off one branch of the church to the highest bidder... not the faithful... seems it should leave the rest of the Church in a quandary, whether merely curious about what they may be worth in the market, or ready to buy themselves out of Papal control as the “Chinese Church” has... seems it misses entirely the Eastern Orthodox solution... or the history of having competing Popes in different seats ?

How the Church in America chooses, knowing that the risks include sustaining consequences in the element of error this Pope has imposed, tied to the failure to address sexual abuse and pedophilia in a convincing way... seems too little addressed. And, its not like the loss of the Eastern churches (Orthodox and Chinese) are the only losses experienced. Is there another Martin Luther lurking out there ?

You think impeaching a President, on Trumped up charges, when he has a week left in office... is not a desperate act ?

What is it they are afraid of... if they’re not afraid of exposing themselves by removing their masks, now:

You think... cheating in an election, so flagrantly that no one could possibly miss it, or fail to understand... was not a desperate act ?

You think... shutting down opponents speech... to prevent any mention of the word... is not a desperate act ?

You think... fostering the violence over the last year, in an attempt to cow the American public... is not a desperate act ?

Pitching blatant frauds... as “Russia, Russia, Russia”... was not a desperate act ?

Apparently, your perception prevents you recognizing acts of desperation... even when behavior transgresses norms.

If truth did not matter to them, they’d have no reason to try to manipulate others perception.

Their “truth”... is what they want YOU to believe...

And that has nothing to do with truth... save perhaps in the degree to which it obtains its opposite ?

Why and how would it be useful... to get people to believe the opposite of what is true ?

Agree they have unmasked... or have been unmasked.

What impact that has is not yet determined.

Note that issue emerging, even in the R’s who are opposing impeachment: are they defending Trump because he did no wrong, and was wronged... or are they objecting that doing anything like that now is only likely to result in greater disruption of the status quo ?

But, keep in mind, when the pretense is set aside, and a quiet conversation in negotiation is ongoing...

The guy who takes off his shoe and pounds the table with it... is not winning the argument.

Yours assumes that they, not you, are captive to the system of finance that they have created to benefit themselves ?

The taxation system is structured... for purpose. That purpose is not to “pay the bills” ?

As long as it is their money, not yours, that drives the system they created... they will own and control you, both.

Other than the recurrent issue in Presidential assassinations all targeting Presidents who were threatening the control of the banks...

The singular thread in American history after the founding that is the most telling, is the history of the fight in Congress over “if we will have a bank”, and “what bank we will have”...

Lincoln didn’t die because of the Civil War... but because, at the end of the war, he intended to eliminate the debt and return us to being a free country, not beholden to banks.

The U.S. is unique in what we would be without the banks control... but, otherwise, not different than other nations in what control by the banks begets.