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Thursday, March 27, 2025

Lies and Astounding Incompetence

Check out this article at Der Spiegel. This link should be to a non-paywalled English language translation. 
Private contact details of the most important security advisers to U.S. President Donald Trump can be found on the internet. DER SPIEGEL reporters were able to find mobile phone numbers, email addresses and even some passwords belonging to the top officials.

To do so, the reporters used commercial people search engines along with hacked customer data that has been published on the web. Those affected by the leaks include National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
   ~~~
Hostile intelligence services could use this publicly available data to hack the communications of those affected by installing spyware on their devices. It is thus conceivable that foreign agents were privy to the Signal chat group in which Gabbard, Waltz and Hegseth discussed a military strike.   
~~~
Tulsi Gabbard has declined to comment. DER SPIEGEL reporting has demonstrated, though, that privately used and publicly accessible telephone numbers belonging to her and Waltz are, in fact, linked to Signal accounts.
~~~
It was particularly easy for DER SPIEGEL reporters to discover Hegseth’s mobile number and email address. They turned to a commercial provider of contact information that is primarily used by companies for sales, marketing and recruitment.
   ~~~
A search of leaked user data revealed that the email address and, in some cases, even the password associated with it, could be found in over 20 publicly accessible leaks. Using publicly available information, it was possible to verify that the email address was used just a few days ago.
(source)
Meanwhile, the man who never takes responsibility for anything that goes wrong says that “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man.” Shades of Susan Collins

CIA Director John Ratcliffe and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, who really should know what is and is not considered classified, repeatedly stated in a hearing before congress that the chat did NOT contain classified info. Kegseth was screeching that “Nobody was texting war plans. And that’s all I have to say about that.” He then added, “I know exactly what I’m doing.” Sure man. I believe US defense officials, people who are actually qualified for their jobs, beg to differ. 

After all the rat boinking twats got up and lied under oath about the chat's sensitivity, The Atlantic published the balance of the Houthi/Yemen bombing texts. Hey, the big cheeses said it wasn't classified info!

JESUS SPYWARE CHRIST WE’RE SO FUCKED! Also, none of our former allies should trust us again—not while this administration of clowns, cons, incompetent fools, and filthy, reptilian, kakistocratic grifters are in power.

Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Chucklehead Corner

We're gonna need a bigger clown car.

I imagine you’ve already read how the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was accidentally included in a Signal group chat discussing plans to bomb the Houthis in Yemen. 

The group included VP Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and others.

HOW did this happen?

  • Could it have been a purposeful leak attempt? If so, who’s the heroic leaker?
  • Is Kegseth (not a typo) in Trumpy’s doghouse now?
  • Will ANYONE be held accountable for this incredibly boneheaded, middle school level, colossal fuck up?

The National Security Agency sent out an operational security special bulletin to its employees in February 2025 warning them of vulnerabilities in using the encrypted messaging application Signal, according to internal NSA documents obtained by CBS News.
   ~~~
The NSA is an arm of the Defense Department and specializes in signals intelligence — which is derived from electronic transmissions — and cybersecurity. The agency is responsible for monitoring, collecting and processing information and data for U.S. national security interests. 
   ~~~
"A vulnerability has been identified in the Signal Messenger Application. The use of Signal by common targets of surveillance and espionage activity has made the application a high value target to intercept sensitive information," the internal bulletin begins.
 (source)

The Department of Defense controls the NSA. That’s Kegseth’s department. I would think that, given his very own damn department’s warnings about Signal (issued just last month), drunk, rapey, frat boy Pete would have known that using the app wasn’t smart.

The advisory states "Russian professional hacking groups are employing the 'linked devices' feature to spy on encrypted conversations." It goes on to note that Google has also identified Russian hackers who are targeting "Signal Messenger to spy on persons of interest.” (source)

Steven Witkoff was in Russia when he was added to the chat. Was Putin’s intelligence crew monitoring? Given that Trump (AKA Krasnov), Gabbard, and Musk are on Team Russia anyway, does it matter?

Ratcliffe and Gabbard claim the Yemen strike plans contained no classified information. Sure. If that’s the case, show us all the details. Make it public.

It’s outrageous that the Trump White House accidentally shared top-secret war plans with a journalist. Those should only be available to people using a public bathroom at Mar-a-Lago.
~ Borowitz Report
Mike Waltz spunout a fairy tale that The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg dastardly hacked his way into their Signal chat. At the same time, these bozos are claiming that using their personal phones and a not-so-secure app is safe/not vulnerable to hacking. Also, secret war plans aren't really secret.

Which is it you rake-stepping bumblers? Either the app is so porous that it can be easily hacked by a magazine editor (who just happened to know the times of all the pertinent exchanges) OR Signal’s encryption is so impenetrable that it’s safe for secret military attack planning discussions?

With charmless, fecal brained louts like this at the top of our government, it's totally unsurprising that the entire world is laughing at us.

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

People Power

Be the change that you wish to see in the world.
~ Mahatma Gandhi 

 Ya know the theory about the orcas who are taking out the rich people boats? That they’re just playing—they see the yachts as toys? Well, on that note, let’s all be the orcas we wish to see in the world.

At a Musk/TeslaTakedown protest in Berkeley (where the majority of the protesters were white and over 60 years of age) a 33 year old, taser wielding, pro-MusKKKer got into the crowd and attempted to fuck shit up. It wasn’t his first stab at trolling the regular Fourth Street demonstrations either.

Assbrain, Ricardo Ruiz, pulled a stun gun on one of the protesters who had verbally confronted him. He flashed it in her face and grabbed her. She then pulled him off his bike and slammed him up against a car. Another protester helped restrain Ruiz until he was rescued by a cop.

Check out the vid. Susan’s my new hero.
 
How else we can put pressure on Ketamine Clyde? Tesla was his largest revenue generator. With continued protest pressure his stake will no longer be his most valuable asset.

SpaceX is next up. Starlink is part of SpaceX. What’s that? A satellite internet service provider.

My understanding is that satellite internet is not the preferred way to go. It's generally more expensive and slower than traditional wired connections and has more potential weather related disruptions. It’s good for rural areas where getting a decent connection requires sacrifices to ancient gods, remembering all the words to your 6th grade history class report and figuring out which potion makes you shrink and which one makes you grow.

 Why do governments, like Ukraine, use satellite communication? It provides the ability to reach remote areas anywhere. You can maintain a connection that’s not affected by disasters or emergencies. It works a treat in battlefield situations.

Starlink, is used extensively by Kyiv's troops. It would be…ahhhdreadfully inconvenient for them to need to find a new provider in the midst of this fight for their lives and freedom.

After February 28th’s disastrous meeting with Mango Mussolini and the cranky couchfucker, Musk waffled over continuing to provide services to Ukraine. It took protest and public shaming to get him to do the right thing.

Starlinks for Ukraine are paid for by the Polish Digitization Ministry at the cost of about $50 million per year. The ethics of threatening the victim of aggression apart, if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider we will be forced to look for other suppliers.
~ Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski
Leon is not giving away SATCOM for free. Poland’s paying for it. ALSO, the rat bastard is no fucking hero for, just barely, doing the right thing. He’s only slightly less disgustingly evil. You don't get cookies for being a tiny bit less of an obscene greedhead.

Christ, Space Karen is such a vile, regrettable thing. Mommy Maye really should have just swallowed.

Starlink is NOT a monopoly.

We can do to Starlink what we’re doing to Tesla. As individual consumers, we can choose other service providers. If your government uses it, lobby, petition, blackmail and beg your leaders to use someone else. There ARE other options out there.

Competitors include: ViaSat, NBN Sky Muster, TeleSat, SES S. A., OneWeb, Telstra, Amazon’s Project Kuiper, EchoStar Mobile, Hughes Network System, and Inmarsat.

Do itstarve Starlink.

Monday, March 24, 2025

Jethro Snowflake and Bleach Bondi

Call the ICE Tip Line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE (866-347-2423) to report immigration violations or criminal activity. No really.

Let’s start with Elon Musk.

In 1995…Musk was admitted to graduate school at Stanford but didn’t enroll in classes, instead working on an online services startup that would eventually be known as Zip2… In 1996, the (Washington) Post reported, investors made a funding agreement contingent on Musk and his brother Kimbal—who has stated that the brothers were “illegal immigrants”obtaining authorization to work in the US within 45 days. “Their immigration status was not what it should be for them to be legally employed running a company in the US,” Zip2 board member Derek Proudian told the Post.
   ~~~
…“on purely legal grounds, this would justify revoking citizenship, because if he had told the truth, he would not have been eligible for an H1-B, a green card, or naturalization.(source)
Another good reason to yeet him out of the US—Musk’s family tree is, essentially, a hula hoop.

Jana Bezuidenhout was only 4 years old when Leon’s daddy, Errol, married her mother. Daddy Musk and Jana’s mom were together for 18 years—the entirety of Jana’s childhood through adolescence. (her biological father died in car crash so Errol’s the only father she’s ever known)

For what it’s worth, even the old serial test-tube baby maker was creeped out.
"Elon was getting concerned that Errol, who was then fifty-six, was becoming uncomfortably attentive to one of his stepdaughters, Jana, who was then fifteen…” (source)
Jana was groomed. Errol has said that, on being told she was up the spout, he insisted on a DNA test to make sure he was really responsible. What a prince, eh? They’ve now had a second child.

Unsurprisingly, Dueling Banjos keeps playing in my head. I think I’ll just refer to the Ketamine Nazi as Jethro from now on.

Attorney General Bleach Bondi has come to the poor, sweet, chainsaw wielding, multibillionaire nazi’s defense after that cruel, all-powerful House Rep Jasmine Crockett ruthlessly attacked him (insert MASSIVE eyeball here).

Bondi threatened Crockett over her criticism of Jethro and endorsement of the peaceful protests of the unelected inbred snowflake and his pricey self-exploding cars. Bondi says Crockett is encouraging “domestic terrorism.”

"You know, that could be a weapon of mass destruction that they're throwing in Tesla dealerships, that they're lighting these Tesla charging stations on fire, that are in residential neighborhoods," she noted. 

Bondi pledged not to go easy on people who vandalize Teslas. 

"We are looking at everything, especially if this is a concerted effort," she vowed. "This is domestic terrorism."
   ~~~
"And Maria, now you have this congresswoman, Crockett, who is calling for attacks on Elon Musk on her birthday," she added. "Let's take him out on my birthday,” she says.
(source)

First, this twat has quite the whacked imagination.

Second, that’s straight up fascism. How? She’s a state official (appointed by an insane, raging nimrod) who is using her power to intimidate an elected representative of the people for criticizing an unelected billionaire. That’s a merger of state and corporate power in an attempt to silence dissent.

Didn’t Bleach Bondi go to law school? Is she unfamiliar with the First Amendment? Is she just too dim to understand simple words like peaceful protest? Is she unclear on fascism NOT being a smart look?

Are all Republicans just skeevy used car salesmen now or are they all just stepping up to protect poor widdle Jethro’s hurt fee-fees and bank accounts.

Possibly BB understands she’ll be thrown under the Tantrum Toddler’s bus the next time he needs a scapegoat so she’s auditioning in advance for a hot job at the Fox propaganda network. She's just dancing around reality as fast as she can.


Clapback from Crockett:
Just in case the slow people listening decide to pick this up later, I want to say that I have never promoted violence whatsoever…I’ve also never made excuses for those violent acts, such as the ones on January 6th. So Pam Bondi, if you have an issue with terrorism, maybe you should talk to your boss about locking back up those guys he let out that participated in January 6. (source)

Also too, perhaps BB should familiarize herself with Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) - § 2635.702 Use of public office for private gain:

An employee may not use their public office for their own private gain; for the endorsement of any product, service, or enterprise (except as otherwise permitted by this part or other applicable law or regulation); or for the private gain of friends, relatives, or persons with whom the employee is affiliated in a nongovernmental capacity . . .
If she wants to do promos for Tesla like her boss and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, she should keep in mind that, unlike the gold plated tinpot dictator wannabe, she’s not Teflon.

Sunday, March 23, 2025

Saturday, March 22, 2025

No Explanation, No Warning

Earlier this month a French scientist (whose name has not been disclosed), traveling to Houston, Texas for a conference was denied entry to the US. Immigration officers at the airport confiscated and searched his phone, looking for anything critical of the ultra-fragile Orange Cesspool administration

This measure was apparently taken by the American authorities because the researcher’s phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration’s research policy,” the minister added.
   ~~~
The researcher was reportedly then accused of writings “that reflect hatred toward Trump and can be described as terrorism”.

Another AFP source said that US authorities accused the French researcher of “hateful and conspiratorial messages”. He was reportedly also informed of an FBI investigation, but told that “charges were dropped” before being expelled. (source

Apparently, having opinions that hurt Captain Shitzinpants' oh-so-delicate fees-fees makes one a terrorist now.

On Monday March 17th, a Georgetown University professor was arrested by masked agents who said they were from the DHS and that his visa had been revoked. Dr. Badar Khan Suri, from India, is accused of "spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.” Badar’s Ph.D., by the by, was in Peace & Conflict Studies from Nelson Mandela Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution. His wife is an American citizen of Palestinian descent.

Remember Mahmoud Khalil? Yeah, he’s still being held in an ICE detention center in Louisiana. To date, Khalil has not been charged with a crime.

Rebecca Burke, the  28-year-old cartoonist from Wales was imprisoned for 19 days.

Mr Burke said he and his wife, Andrea, did not know for certain she was coming home until she walked through the arrivals gate at Heathrow, and only knew she had left the detention facility because another detainee called them.

They took her from the detention centre to the airport, Becky's told us she was in leg chains, waist chains and handcuffs. We just think that’s totally disgusting, what on earth did they think she was going to do?
(source)
 Why was she taken? //shrugs// Some minor, bullshit visa issue. Rebecca does NOT have a criminal record and was just a tourist.

Dr. Rasha Alawieh
, a physician specializing in kidney transplants and professor at Brown University, a Lebanese citizen, H-1B visa holder, was taken at Boston airport. Federal agents had found photos of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on her phone.

She had attended this man’s funeral and I guess, in the microscopically tiny brains of this administration, that means she's a terrorist.

There’s Canadian citizen Jasmine Mooney:

There was no explanation, no warning. One minute, I was in an immigration office talking to an officer about my work visa, which had been approved months before and allowed me, a Canadian, to work in the US. The next, I was told to put my hands against the wall, and patted down like a criminal before being sent to an Ice detention center without the chance to talk to a lawyer.
   ~~~
We were bound in chains that wrapped tightly around our waists, with our cuffed hands secured to our bodies and shackles restraining our feet, forcing every movement into a slow, clinking struggle.
   ~~~
There were no pillows. The room was ice cold, and one blanket wasn’t enough. Around me, women lay curled into themselves, heads covered, looking like a room full of corpses. This place made the last jail feel like the Four Seasons.
   ~~~
 It felt like we had all been kidnapped, thrown into some sort of sick psychological experiment meant to strip us of every ounce of strength and dignity.
   ~~~
The reality became clear: Ice detention isn’t just a bureaucratic nightmare. It’s a business. These facilities are privately owned and run for profit.

Companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group receive government funding based on the number of people they detain, which is why they lobby for stricter immigration policies. It’s a lucrative business: CoreCivic made over $560m from Ice contracts in a single year. In 2024, GEO Group made more than $763m from Ice contracts. (source)

Go read Jasmine’s story. It’ll blow your mind!

So far, three German citizens have been jailed—Lucas Sielaff, Jessica Brösche, and Fabian Schmidt.

Todd Lyons is the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE is part of the Department of Homeland Security. Brownshirt Barbie, the always cosplaying, puppy offing Kristi Noem, is in charge of Homeland Security.

This song is playing in my head this morning:
Bruce CockburnIf I Had a Rocket Launcher

Friday, March 21, 2025

The Great Book Escape

Now, possibly, more than ever I’m in escape mode. Yes, I’m talking about books. Hell’s bells, even reading Greek myth based stories is beyond me.
John Scalzi’s latest, When the Moon Hits Your Eye, comes out in days.

The moon has turned into cheese.
Now humanity has to deal with it.
For some it’s an opportunity. For others it’s a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty. And then there are the billions looking to the sky and wondering how a thing that was always just there is now... something absolutely impossible.

Astronauts and billionaires, comedians and bank executives, professors and presidents, teenagers and terminal patients at the end of their lives -- over the length of an entire lunar cycle, each get their moment in the moonlight. To panic, to plan, to wonder and to pray, to laugh and to grieve. All in a kaleidoscopic novel that goes all the places you’d expect, and then to so many places you wouldn’t.

It’s a wild moonage daydream. Ride this rocket.
(source)
I have two very important questions.

  1.   Specifically, what KIND of cheese? Cheddar? Bleu? Camembert? Ricotta? Gouda? Feta? Brie? I mean, this is important—I NEED to know!
  2.   How can I get the ebook without shopping on Amazon? I’m, as you know, perma-boycotting Amazon. 

Why? They’re:

  • Tax cheats.
  • Pay their employees shit wages AND otherwise abuse them
  • Putting small, independently owned shops out of business
  • Racist fucks
  • Union busters
   and
  • Owner, Jeff Bezos, is a BIG supporter of the Fascist Fuck administration
Given that Kindles use a proprietary file format (a format that Amazon owns and controls), I can’t download and read the book from other, unboycotted sources. WHAT to do? I’m going to download an EPUB file on my laptop and read When the Moon Hits Your Eye in Apple Books. Yes, reading on my Kindle would be easier, not as unwieldy, but until I can get a tablet, it’ll do.

Why go through all this fuss? Why not just get an ink on paper book? My eyes don’t work as well as they used to. I need to be able to enlarge the font a LOT. Ebooks are a gift from Nabu (Mesopotamian god of wisdom and writing).

Scalzi’s new book comes at just the right time.

I recently finished Clare Pooley’s The Authenticity Project. I must not have read the synopsis before taking it out of the library—I didn’t know it was a romance novel. ICK!

The story? A former big time, uptight lawyer drops out and opens a cafe. An obnoxious, alcoholic day trader bottoms out and tries sobriety and self awareness. An elderly, eccentric, and lonely painter asks are we really honest with each ourselves and others? What would happen if we were?

These characters and others all intersect and eventually there’s a happily ever after. Within the first few chapters it was clear that the ex-lawyer and the soon to be sober drunk would end up together. The lawyer’s interim beau is lovely but obvs temporary. The artist is there to act as catalyst and color. Each player’s part is transparent. Pooley’s prose is engaging but her story building was like an 18th century glass-cased clock—you can see how each wheel, each spring, each weight fit together to create a working timepiece.

Absolutely predictable.

Why did I keep reading? It was either that or doomscroll.  What am I reading until the new Scalzi hits? My Murder by Katie Williams. Basically, the clone of a murdered woman sets out to solve her own murder. Cheery stuff, eh?

So far, it’s engaging but def not amusing—not enough to keep me from doomscrolling. I NEED Scalzi World NOW!

Thursday, March 20, 2025

New In Boycotting

The Tesla boycott is working Shares dropped again this morning after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s Wednesday night cheerleading.
The stock is down 5% in the last five days, 35% in the last month and 42% so far this year. (source

Boycotts work! Let's spread the misery to other soulless corporations.

In a ridiculously misguided and utterly tone deaf attempt to comply in advance, Ben & Jerry’s parent company, Unilever, has canned B&J’s CEO for not putting the kibosh on the company’s social activism.

In a Tuesday night filing in Manhattan federal court, Ben & Jerry's said Unilever advised on March 3 it was "removing and replacing" Stever without the required approval from its board, after repeatedly threatening personnel if they did not comply with the parent's "efforts to silence the social mission."
   ~~~
Stever became chief executive in May 2023, and has been with the Vermont-based maker of Cherry Garcia since starting as a tour guide in 1988.

Ben & Jerry's sued Unilever in November to stop alleged efforts to dismantle its board and end its progressive social activism, which has included protesting the war in Gaza, supporting a movement to defund police, and attempting to criticize U.S. President Donald Trump. (source)
I only mention it but, not only does Ben & Jerry’s make the MOST excellent dairy treats, they have ALWAYS been raging lefties. That’s part of their appeal.  

When Unilever bought Ben & Jerry's they agreed to let B&J maintain an independent board to oversee the brand. The board is now suing the surrender-money parent company. GOOD!
Anuradha Mittal, the chair of Ben & Jerry’s independent board, said: “Dave has courageously advanced the company’s social mission and values, has continued to drive innovation in its super premium product range, and has delivered strong financial results, far outpacing the rest of Unilever’s ice-cream business.
   ~~~
The court filing said: “Unilever has repeatedly threatened Ben & Jerry’s personnel, including CEO David Stever, should they fail to comply with Unilever’s efforts to silence the social mission. (source)
If Unilever wanted a profits-before-people ice cream maker they could have picked Bronx born Häagen-Daz. Oh, *whoopsie* no they can’t. Häagen-Daz is owned by General Mills. They could TRY to pick up Boxford, Massachusett’s Benson’s Ice Cream and turn it into a bazillion selling Trump approved product but I doubt the family would be interested.

I only mention it but Unilever already owns Breyer’s, Good Humor, Klondike, Magnum, Popsicle, Fudgesicle, Heartbrand, and 34 other ice cream makers around the world. Are they aiming to become THE pro-Trump frozen dessert empire?

Here are some of Unilever’s other subsidiaries for boycotting purposes:

  • Hellmann's (mayonnaise, ketchups, mustard, sauces, salad dressings)
  • Knorr (sauces, stock cubes, ready-meals, meal kits, ready-soups, frozen food)
  • Brylcreem
  • Brut (it still exists? Who uses that shit—80 year old dudes who never got the memo that it’s the cologne of laughable losers?)
  • Close-Up (toothpaste)
  • Dove (skin care, soap, hair care, and deodorant)
  • Lever 2000 soap
  • Lifebuoy
  • Caress (soap)

That’s just a small sampling of companies they own here in the U.S. You can hit up Unilever’s site OR Wikipedia to see more.

Unilever is a British-Dutch megacorporation. The CEO, as of March first of this year, is Fernando Fernandez.

I love Ben & Jerry's. They make non-dairy versions too. I hope they win the suit against evil Unilever so's I can still enjoy a cup now and then.

BOYCOTT COLLABORATORS!