Glenn Kirschner – Trump arguably violates conditions of pretrial release AND tries to insult his way out of a DC trial
The Lincoln Project – Special Counsel Jack Smith on Trump’s Third Indictment
Robert Reich – Why Thousands of Workers Are on Strike
The Ring of Fire – Police Killings Set Record High In 2022 & Arizona’s Secret Surveillance Program
Lion Dog Was Invisible To Everyone
[This is kind of the opposite of a shaggy dog story. It doesn’t build expectations in a certain direction. But it does have a punch line.]
Beau – Let’s talk about Finland, Russia, and David….
Yesterday, the radio opera was “L’Amant Anonyme,” the only surviving opera by Joseph Bologne {Chevalier de Saint-Georges) whom I assume no one here has ever heard of. He was a close contemporary of Mozart (10 years older and lived for 8 years after Mozart died.) History has forgotten a number of competent composers who were contemporaneous with Mozart, simply because he was such a towering fugure, but in the case of Saint-Georges there was more to it. But he was an interesting guy. He was born in Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, the son of a wealthy plantation owner and his wile’s maid, a Senegalese enslaved girl. When he was 7, his father was falsely accused of morder, and he was sent to Paris and enrolled in school there to prevent him from being sold into slavery should the accusation stick. Apparently it didn’t, because when he was 13 his father came to Paris with his mother, at which time he was enrolled in fencing school, in which he excelled perhaps even more than he did in music, and which probably kept him alive. It also got him appointed to the king’s personal guard and named a “Chevalier” (i.e. knighted) in his own right (as an illegitimate son, he could not inherit his father’s title.) In 1769 he joined a newly organized orchestra, of which he later became concertmaster and then conductor. in 1776 the Paris Opera needed new direction, and he was the obvious choise (and Marie Antoinette’s choice) to be the new Director. But three divas petitioned her not to appoint him on racial grounds, and he withdrew his name from consideration in order not to embarrass her. (Apparently, whatever her failings, she was not a racist, as so many philosphers of the French Enlightenment {I’m looking at you, Voltaire}, were.) He did, however, with backing from Count D’Ogny, commission Haydn to composed 6 symphonies (known as the Paris Symphonies), and he conducted their premiere. When the French Revolution began, he bcame the commanding officer of the first “citizens’ army” recognized in history (no one seems to want to count Wat Tyler’s fighters or William Wallace’s fighters as “citizens’ armies.”) I apologize for getting carried away by the composer, but I assure you, all this barely scratches the surface of his amazing life and accomplishments. The opera itself is reminiscent of Mozart, though perhaps not as complex musically – but a bit easier to follow on that account. It was recorded by Chicago’s Haymarket Opera Company, which specializes in baroque and early classical opera. It tells a sweet little story with a happy ending for all the characters. Next week – actually for the next four weeks – it’s back to China for one French and three Italian operas, and then, on December 10, the Met season begins.
Also – We can hope (I certainly hope) that this is the last time we will have to upend ourlives (and those of our animals – those who have them) but “falling back.” Just one more “spring forward” and then we get to set it and forget it. (as Arizona, for one, already does.” Although , since stats are allowed to deviate, who knows. Another reason to vote. As if we needed one.
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The Daily Beast – Your Uber Data Is Being Mined to Prevent Bridge Collapses
Quote – Overall, even with relatively few trips, the researchers found that just 10 datasets were 90 percent accurate at predicting bridge vibrations, and about 80 datasets increased the accuracy to 97 percent. Matarazzo and his team had specifically designed the system to distinguish vibrations pertinent to a bridge’s health from statistical noise that might be caused by variables like potholes and traffic. The more than 100 trips considered in the study amounted to less than 0.1 percent of the trips made on the Golden Gate Bridge daily, indicating that smartphone data represent “an enormous sensing potential,” the authors wrote in the study. “When fueled with long-term monitoring data, artificial intelligence has the potential to provide bridge engineers and owners with unprecedented information for maintenance and operation at virtually little to no extra cost.” Click through for article. There is no Uber data on me personally, since I’ve never used it. And, if there were, I would have zero hesitation about it being used to prevent bridge collapses, especially collapses like the one in India this week. But God help anyone whose data Republicans get their hands on.
Wired – When Your Neighbor Turns You In
Quote – “If the rule of law starts breaking—and especially if there’s a regime that is supportive of those actions—that’s really giving space for people to take actions that are illegal,” Amat says. “Knowing you will not be prosecuted is a big thing.” All of these sorts of things create a culture of fear in authoritarian countries. People are afraid of their neighbors, afraid to speak freely, and afraid of what might happen next. This fear is made worse by the fact that the citizens dealing with oppressive forces have no ability to hold those in power accountable when they go too far. CLick through for details. I don’t suppose anyone here needs any more incentive to vote – in fact, you probably already have voted. But I wish there were a way to get this knowledge to every indecidid voter in the nation in the next two days.
Glenn Kirschner – With J6 committee revelations, it’s time for DOJ to indict Donald Trump & his co-conspirators
Meidas Touch – BREAKING: Democrats SLAM GOP for voting AGAINST contraception bIll
The Lincoln Project – Josh Hawley Is A B*tch
“Nyet Vladimir” – Ukrainian War Song (The Ukrainian version of the Finnish song “Nyet Molotov.” The Finns wrote the song during the 1939-1940 Winter War they were fighting against the Russians. Sadly, the Ukrainians had to adopt the tune with different lyrics in 2022.)
John Fugelsang – America’s Next President, Ron DeSantis
Beau – Let’s talk about privacy and your cell phone….
Yesterday,I slept in again, due to shoulder issues again, although, because I resomved them a couple of hours earlier than the night before, I also got more sleep than the night before. Hopefyllu I have figures out the frmula and can resolve them earlier still while they last. I al assuing they are arthritis, and arthritis (and sciatica) hae a habit of coming in flare-ups and gong away again after 2-6 weeks, depending. That doesn’t mean they won’t ever come back, but – touching wood – after my knee flareup in February 2020 (which was agonizing), that knee has been fine ever since – unlike some other body parts I could mention. So there can be good long periosof no to minimal pain also.
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Project on Government Oversight – How to Protect Yourself from Surveillance While Seeking Reproductive Health Care
Quote – Living under an abortion ban in 2022 will not be similar to 1972, before Roe v. Wade. Due to the massive surveillance powers the government now possesses, the consequences of the ban could be much more draconian. Law enforcement not only has powerful tools to monitor individuals, but can capture a stream of sensitive data we produce in our daily lives, often without us realizing it’s happening. And investigating individuals for prohibited abortions will likely direct the government’s immense surveillance powers at the most intimate medical, familial, and sexual details of people’s lives. Click through for other aspects. I know a lot of readers here will never be pregnant – I won’t myself. But, in addition to at least some of us having people in our lives we care about whoo could, I found reading this made me think about other things I tend to take for granted. You may also.
Science alert – The Human Heart Can Repair Itself, And We Now Know Which Cells Are Crucial For It
Quote – Key to the study was the discovery of the role played by macrophages, specialist cells that can destroy bacteria or initiate helpful inflammation responses. As the first responders on a scene after a heart attack, these macrophages produce a particular type of protein called VEGFC, the researchers report. “We found that macrophages, or immune cells that rush to the heart after a heart attack to ‘eat’ damaged or dead tissue, also induce vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGFC) that triggers the formation of new lymphatic vessels and promotes healing,” says pathologist Edward Thorp from Northwestern University in Illinois. Click through for full info. There’s nothing here that makes any recommendations for current patients – but it’s hopeful that such recommendations may come as we understand more.
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
We’ve talked a great deal here about technology used by governments to spy on its citizens. This article is a bit of an update on some of the latest technology. “Pegasus” – it sounds so benign, doesn’t it? Images of unicorns and My Little Ponies come to mind. And I won’t even go so far as to say “This is the dark side,” because this technology can definitely be used for good. (Don’t you just wish it were being used right this moment to track Bannon? And a few choice others?) But it wll never be used effectively for good as long as it is being used by people who think they can tell a “bad guy” by looking at someone.
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What is Pegasus? A cybersecurity expert explains how the spyware invades phones and what it does when it gets in
A woman holds a phone in front of the office of NSO Group, which makes a tool that can see and hear everything a phone is used for. Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
End-to-end encryption is technology that scrambles messages on your phone and unscrambles them only on the recipients’ phones, which means anyone who intercepts the messages in between can’t read them. Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo are among the companies whose apps and services use end-to-end encryption.
This kind of encryption is good for protecting your privacy, but governments don’t like it because it makes it difficult for them to spy on people, whether tracking criminals and terrorists or, as some governments have been known to do, snooping on dissidents, protesters and journalists. Enter an Israeli technology firm, NSO Group.
The company’s flagship product is Pegasus, spyware that can stealthily enter a smartphone and gain access to everything on it, including its camera and microphone. Pegasus is designed to infiltrate devices running Android, Blackberry, iOS and Symbian operating systems and turn them into surveillance devices. The company says it sells Pegasus only to governments and only for the purposes of tracking criminals and terrorists.
How it works
Earlier version of Pegasus were installed on smartphones through vulnerabilities in commonly used apps or by spear-phishing, which involves tricking a targeted user into clicking a link or opening a document that secretly installs the software. It can also be installed over a wireless transceiver located near a target, or manually if an agent can steal the target’s phone.
Pegasus can infiltrate a smartphone via the widely used messaging app WhatsApp without the phone’s user noticing. Christoph Scholz/Flickr, CC BY-SA
Since 2019, Pegasus users have been able to install the software on smartphones with a missed call on WhatsApp, and can even delete the record of the missed call, making it impossible for the the phone’s owner to know anything is amiss. Another way is by simply sending a message to a user’s phone that produces no notification.
This means the latest version of this spyware does not require the smartphone user to do anything. All that is required for a successful spyware attack and installation is having a particular vulnerable app or operating system installed on the device. This is known as a zero-click exploit.
Once installed, Pegasus can theoretically harvest any data from the device and transmit it back to the attacker. It can steal photos and videos, recordings, location records, communications, web searches, passwords, call logs and social media posts. It also has the capability to activate cameras and microphones for real-time surveillance without the permission or knowledge of the user.
Who has been using Pegasus and why
NSO Group says it builds Pegasus solely for governments to use in counterterrorism and law enforcement work. The company markets it as a targeted spying tool to track criminals and terrorists and not for mass surveillance. The company does not disclose its clients.
The earliest reported use of Pegasus was by the Mexican government in 2011 to track notorious drug baron Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. The tool was also reportedly used to track people close to murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
It is unclear who or what types of people are being targeted and why. However, much of the recent reporting about Pegasus centers around a list of 50,000 phone numbers. The list has been attributed to NSO Group, but the list’s origins are unclear. A statement from Amnesty International in Israel stated that the list contains phone numbers that were marked as “of interest” to NSO’s various clients, though it’s not known if any of the phones associated with numbers have actually been tracked.
A media consortium, the Pegasus Project, analyzed the phone numbers on the list and identified over 1,000 people in over 50 countries. The findings included people who appear to fall outside of the NSO Group’s restriction to investigations of criminal and terrorist activity. These include politicians, government workers, journalists, human rights activists, business executives and Arab royal family members.
Other ways your phone can be tracked
Pegasus is breathtaking in its stealth and its seeming ability to take complete control of someone’s phone, but it’s not the only way people can be spied on through their phones. Some of the ways phones can aid surveillance and undermine privacy include location tracking, eavesdropping, malware and collecting data from sensors.
Law enforcement agencies use cell site simulators like this StingRay to intercept calls from phones in the vicinity of the device. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office via AP
Governments and phone companies can track a phone’s location by tracking cell signals from cell tower transceivers and cell transceiver simulators like the StingRay device. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals can also be used to track phones. In some cases, apps and web browsers can determine a phone’s location.
Eavesdropping on communications is harder to accomplish than tracking, but it is possible in situations in which encryption is weak or lacking. Some types of malware can compromise privacy by accessing data.
The good news is, depending on who you are, you’re unlikely to be targeted by a government wielding Pegasus. The bad news is, that fact alone does not guarantee your privacy.
================================================================ Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, beside the fact that there is no microchip small enough to go through a needle of the size used to deliver the CoViD vaccine, isn’t it ironic – or wouldn’t it be ironic if irony were still alive – that anti-vaxxers carry cell phones with them everywhere they go?
