Althouse: At the Wednesday Night Cafe...

August 29, 2018

At the Wednesday Night Cafe...

... you can talk ‘til Thursday.

125 comments:

Mr. Majestyk said...: Per Instapundit, Sarah Palin has been told to stay away from McCain's funeral. The lack of class is astonishing.; 8/29/18, 7:52 PM
mccullough said...: About 30 games left in MLB regular season. Should be some good playoff races the last month.; 8/29/18, 7:54 PM
JackWayne said...: My take is that maybe it wasn’t Mr. McCain that asked Trump to stay away. Maybe it was the Mrs. or the Miss?; 8/29/18, 7:56 PM
Mike Sylwester said...: Yesterday the Consortium News website published an article tilted How the Department of Homeland Security Created a Deceptive Tale of Russia Hacking US Voter Sites, written by Gareth Porter.

I recommend that everyone read the entire article, but I summarize it as follows.

During the summer and fall of 2016, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was trying to justify an expansion of its power by designating state and local voting systems as "critical infrastructure". The designation would enable DHS to regulate those voter systems. For this justification, DHS strove to create a public hysteria that these voter systems were being breached by the Russian Government.

DHS provided information to journalists, who then published articles with titles like "“Russian Hackers Targeted Nearly Half of States’ Voter Registration Systems”. Such articles cited unidentified sources “knowledgeable” about the matter.

The sources were DHS officials who were tendentiously interpreting and spreading information in order to justify the expansion of their own DHS bureaucratic empire. Essentially, all hacking attempts were interpreted as political actions of the evil Russian government.

State election officials were surprised and alarmed by such articles in the mass media. When the election officials asked DHS to clarify the scare stories, DHS's clarifications were foolish. In at least one case, it turned out that DHS itself had tried to hack the election database of the state of Georgia.

That old fool James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, went along with DHS's scare-mongering about Russian-government hackers.

In fact, hacking has been happening for a long time and all the time to all kinds of computer systems.

[quote from Porter's article]

In an interview with me last year, Ken Menzel, the legal adviser to the Illinois secretary of state, confirmed ... “Hackers have been trying constantly to get into it since 2006,” Menzel said, adding that they had been probing every other official Illinois database with such personal data for vulnerabilities as well. “Every governmental database — driver’s licenses, health care, you name it — has people trying to get into it,” said Menzel.

[end quote]

The primary motive of hackers is to steal personal data that can be used or sold for criminal profit.

-----

Continued in my following comment ...; 8/29/18, 7:56 PM
JackWayne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/29/18, 7:56 PM
Michael K said...: Yes, the Palin insult was confirmed by someone in the McCain entourage.

Nicole Wallace lives !

Palin has a home in Phoenix.; 8/29/18, 7:58 PM
Mike Sylwester said...: Continued from my comment at 7:56 PM
-----

In October 2016 DHS issued a report claiming that election systems in 21 states were “potentially targeted by Russian government cyber actors” -- potentially targeted.

DHS's claim was based on eight IP addresses identified in hacking attempts on election systems in Illinois and Arizona. Six of the eight IP addresses had been traced to an entity called King Servers, owned by a young Russian living in Siberia.

[quote]

But as DHS cyber specialists knew well, the country of ownership of the server doesn’t prove anything about who was responsible for hacking.

As cyber-security expert Jeffrey Carr pointed out, the Russian hackers who coordinated the Russian attack on [Caucasus] Georgian government websites in 2008 used a Texas-based company as the hosting provider.

The cyber-security firm ThreatConnect noted in 2016 that one of the other two IP addresses had hosted a Russian criminal market for five months in 2015. But that was not a serious indicator, either. Private IP addresses are reassigned frequently by server companies, so there is not a necessary connection between users of the same IP address at different times.

The DHS methodology of selecting reports of cyber incidents involving election-related websites as “potentially targeted” by Russian government-sponsored hackers was based on no objective evidence whatever. The resulting list appears to have included any one of the eight addresses as well as any attack or “scan” on a public website that could be linked in any way to elections. ....

In fact, 14 of the 21 states on the list experienced nothing more than the routine scanning that occurs every day, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Only six involved what was referred to as a “malicious access attempt,” meaning an effort to penetrate the site. One of them was in Ohio, where the attempt to find a weakness lasted less than a second and was considered by DHS’s internet security contractor a “non-event” at the time....

[unquote]

-----

Continued in my following comment.; 8/29/18, 8:05 PM
mccullough said...: Palin supported Trump, and McCain (and the Bushes) supported Hillary. McCain probably considered it a personal insult to his Honor.; 8/29/18, 8:08 PM
Mike Sylwester said...: Continued from my comment at 8:05 PM
-----

[quote]

Arizona’s further exchanges with DHS revealed just how far DHS had gone .... Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan tweeted that DHS had informed her that “the Russian government targeted our voter registration systems in 2016.” After meeting with DHS officials in early October 2017, however, Reagan wrote in a blog post that DHS “could not confirm that any attempted Russian government hack occurred whatsoever to any election-related system in Arizona, much less the statewide voter registration database.”

What the DHS said in that meeting, as Reagan’s spokesman Matt Roberts recounted to me, is even more shocking. “When we pressed DHS on what exactly was actually targeted, they said it was the Phoenix public library’s computer system,” Roberts recalled.

[end quote, emphasis added]

The hysteria was reinforced by a leak of an NSA report to the Intercept internet magazine.

[quote]

... In an intelligence analysis obtained by The Intercept and reported in June 2017, NSA analysts wrote that the GRU had sent a spear-phishing email ... to a vendor of voting machine technology in Florida. The hackers then designed a fake web page that looked like that of the vendor. .... The objective of the new spear-phishing campaign, the NSA suggested, was to get control of their computers through malware to carry out the exfiltration of voter-related data.

But the authors of The Intercept story failed to notice crucial details in the NSA report that should have tipped them off that the attribution of the spear-phishing campaign to the GRU was based merely on the analysts’ own judgment — and that their judgment was faulty.

The Intercept article included a color-coded chart from the original NSA report that provides crucial information missing from the text of the NSA analysis itself as well as the Intercept account. The chart clearly distinguishes between the elements of the NSA’s account of the alleged Russian scheme that were based on “Confirmed Information” (shown in green) and those that were based on “Analyst Judgment” (shown in yellow). The connection between the “operator” of the spear-phishing campaign the report describes and an unidentified entity confirmed to be under the authority of the GRU is shown as a yellow line, meaning that it is based on “Analyst Judgment” and labeled “probably.”

[end quote]

Continued in my following comment.; 8/29/18, 8:11 PM
mccullough said...: The biggest story about McCain’s death is that Trump won’t be going to his funeral.; 8/29/18, 8:12 PM
Michael Fitzgerald said...: Macaca.; 8/29/18, 8:12 PM
Big Mike said...: McCain probably considered it a personal insult to his Honor.

That's that thing about people trained in West Point or Annapolis. They tell you "Duty, Honor, Country" but first comes their career.; 8/29/18, 8:13 PM
Mike Sylwester said...: ontinued from my comment at 8:13 PM
-----

[quote]

The Mueller indictment of GRU officers released on July 13, 2018, appeared at first reading to offer new evidence of Russian government responsibility for the hacking of Illinois and other state voter-related websites. A close analysis of the relevant paragraphs, however, confirms the lack of any real intelligence supporting that claim.

Mueller accused two GRU officers of working with unidentified “co-conspirators” on those hacks. But the only alleged evidence linking the GRU to the operators in the hacking incidents is the claim that a GRU official named Anatoly Kovalev and “co-conspirators” deleted search history related to the preparation for the hack ....

A careful reading of the relevant paragraphs shows that the claim is spurious. The first sentence in Paragraph 71 says that both Kovalev and his “co-conspirators” researched domains used by U.S. state boards of elections and other entities “for website vulnerabilities.” The second says Kovalev and “co-conspirators” had searched for “state political party email addresses, including filtered queries for email addresses listed on state Republican Party websites.”

... searching Republican Party websites for email addresses is hardly evidence of any hacking plan. .... any deletion by Kovalev of his search history ... would not be evidence of his involvement in the hacking of the Illinois election board website. ....

... it becomes clear that the repetition in every paragraph of the section of the phrase “Kovalev and his co-conspirators” was aimed at giving the reader the impression the accusation is based on hard intelligence about possible collusion that doesn’t exist.

[end quote]

Continued in my following comment.; 8/29/18, 8:15 PM
iowan2 said...: Banning individuals from your funeral is the antithesis of great hero and statesman. I can thing of nothing that would be more petty; 8/29/18, 8:15 PM
Hagar said...: McCain also publicly stated that he regretted choosing Palin as his running mate rather than Joe Lieberman. The guy just was not very bright and had atrocious personal judgment.

By contrast, Palin has always been careful to speak well of McCain and his entourage, whatever her actual feelings might have been.; 8/29/18, 8:16 PM
Mike Sylwester said...: Continued from my comment at 8:15 PM
-----

[quote]

The DHS campaign to establish its role as the protector of US electoral institutions is not the only case in which that agency has used a devious means to sow fear of Russian cyber-attacks.

In December 2016, DHS and the FBI published a long list of IP addresses as indicators of possible Russian cyber-attacks. But most of the addresses on the list had no connection with Russian intelligence, as former U.S. government cyber-warfare officer Rob Lee found on close examination.

When someone at the Burlington, Vermont, Electric Company spotted one of those IP addresses on one of its computers, the company reported it to DHS. But instead of quietly investigating the address to verify that it was indeed an indicator of Russian intrusion, DHS immediately informed The Washington Post.

The result was a sensational story that Russian hackers had penetrated the US power grid. In fact, the IP address in question was merely Yahoo’s email server, as Rob Lee told me, and the computer had not even been connected to the power grid. The threat to the power grid was a tall tale created by a DHS official, which the Post had to embarrassingly retract.

[end quote]

The article continues, but my summary ends here.

Read the entire article.; 8/29/18, 8:19 PM
Jupiter said...: Well, the Russians may not be hacking the voting machines, but the Chi-Coms did receive a copy of every e-mail Hillary sent as Secretary of State, due to her criminal recklessness in using a basically unsecured private server. And the Chi-Coms also managed to steal the application data of almost everyone who ever applied for a US security clearance from the Office of Personnel Management, another grotesquely incompetent federal agency. The idea that the Us government can keep a secret is laughable. They can't even keep secrets from us any more.; 8/29/18, 8:29 PM
cacimbo said...: Even in death McCain is catering to the media. Snubbing Palin shows what trash the McCain family really is.; 8/29/18, 8:32 PM
stevew said...: Baseball races are heating up, should be a fun and entertaining September. Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back at Starbucks (seems early but I don't drink that stuff so meh). Is it me or do the holiday weekends seem to start earlier (Thursday night/Friday morning) these days? All the pettiness from McCain and his camp are nothing new and consistent with the man's behavior during his political career. "Potentially targeted" is, I suppose, a thought crime right, not a crime crime? Daytime temp is forecast to drop 25+ degrees between today and tomorrow, I, for one, am delighted. Do you suppose the Chinese can shed some light on what the Russians were up to in the 2016 election cycle?

-sw; 8/29/18, 8:34 PM
Michael K said...: The Palin snub is now the top story on Drudge. I think there should be a campaign to get Ducey to appoint her. She is an Arizona resident.; 8/29/18, 8:40 PM
Two-eyed Jack said...: While there was a real John McCain, of whom, like most of those who did not know him personally, I know only a little, I have started to think of him as the principal figure in two novels (yet to be written, but shimmering out there). My fictional McCain:

In the first novel, a callow, hot-headed young pilot finds his way through life smoothed by respect for his father and grandfather, powerful and talented military leaders. Finally, he is involved in a massive disaster, the Forrestal fire, which, while he did not directly cause, he made much worse by some action of his ( perhaps he inadvertently released the bomb that rolled into the pool of burning jet fuel, which, since it was outdated ordinance in poor condition, exploded in 90 seconds, rather than the 10 minutes the fire team expected, leading to the death of the entire fire crew and a chain reaction of 8 additional explosions and death and injury to hundreds of sailors). His actions and reactions in the aftermath of the disaster, failing to assist his shipmates, waiting passively during the fire, then leaving the ship for Saigon without permission, bring to mind Conrad’s Lord Jim. He is held blameless in an official inquiry, but whispers suggest that troubling facts were suppressed by politically motivated brass. He transfers to a different ship, but his poor reputation precedes him. After a few short months, he is shot down over North Vietnam and finds himself a prisoner of war. He finds redemption in captivity and in standing up to his captors, despite cruel punishment and regains his respect for himself. Unexpectedly, he returns home as a hero.

In the second novel, McCain has entered on a political career, but feels a hollowness inside him. Is he really the hero that all hail him to be? He abandons his wife for a wealthy younger woman who pushes him toward politics, flattering and bankrolling him. He proceeds in his political career, but has trouble establishing a larger sense of purpose or finding causes to which he can commit himself. He pushes for military intervention and vindication for military action as a means of keeping the world in proper channels of control. Interventionism also creates opportunities for heroism and determination by the military men he sees as better embodiments of what he admired in his father and grandfather, but always felt lacking in himself. Despite missteps, he is popular with the press and increasingly finds himself playing the statesman and party leader. After failing in a first attempt at the party nomination, he wills himself to victory within his party, but then finds himself curiously disconnected from his own candidacy in the general election, and he loses to a much younger man, who, he cannot help himself from thinking, deserved the presidency more than he. He retreats to his political career, but finds it empty now, not really honored, fighting with people he despises while inwardly knowing that he never could recapture the certainty of purpose that sustained him as a POW. He finds he can make peace with the Vietnamese, but not with his own president, and ultimately, not with himself.

Lt. Cmdr. John S. McCain III said later he heard a "whooshy" sound then a "low-order explosion" in front of him. Suddenly, two A-4s ahead of his plane were engulfed in flaming jet fuel spewed from them. A bomb dropped to the deck and rolled about six feet and came to rest in a pool of burning fuel.; 8/29/18, 8:44 PM
hawkeyedjb said...: "I think there should be a campaign to get Ducey to appoint her..."

Hooeee, now that would be a world-class poke in the eye! But Doug Ducey is a cautious politician without a daring bone in his body. I just hope he appoints someone who will represent the people of AZ. No family members, please; that would be like naming a law after someone: useless and unserious.; 8/29/18, 8:52 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: whoever dies first gets to do the snubbing--

...so if you are the petty, vindictive type, remember:
"Dont wait for your ship to come in-- swim out after it!"

gnome sane?; 8/29/18, 8:57 PM
etbass said...: I like Palin and voted for her in 2008. But please, no more women. Do you realize how many women are in congress now? I think the 19th amendment was a mistake and now we are putting them in charge.; 8/29/18, 9:00 PM
wildswan said...: Nice, Two eyed jack.; 8/29/18, 9:23 PM
exhelodrvr1 said...: "That's that thing about people trained in West Point or Annapolis. They tell you "Duty, Honor, Country" but first comes their career."

Painting with a pretty broad brush there.; 8/29/18, 9:26 PM
wildswan said...: You know, the McCain family has been dealing with a man - an imperfect hot-tempered man - dying from brain cancer for the last year. We shouldn't demand grace and perfect poise from them if we see they are obviously emotional and upset.; 8/29/18, 9:30 PM
Michael K said...: I was mostly joking about appointing Palin although I would love to see it.

The problem with Kelli Ward is that she would be senior to the winner of the primary who I think will be elected.

If he appointed Martha, I'm not sure Ward would win the election in November while I think Martha will.; 8/29/18, 9:41 PM
Big Mike said...: @exhelodrvr1, I worked in the Pentagon.; 8/29/18, 9:47 PM
The Godfather said...: De mortuis nil nisi bonum.

My father died of brain cancer -- I think the same kind that killed McCain -- in 1976.

McCain's family and his post mortem spokespersons can have their stage now. After a decent interval those of us who thought he was less than a Saint will have our opportunity to comment.; 8/29/18, 9:48 PM
Chuck said...: Do you mean to tell me that John McCain’s family excluded Sarah Palin from his memorial service like Donald Trump excluded her from his Administration?

I’ll belice it when someone other than Joel Pollak at Breitbart reports the story.; 8/29/18, 9:59 PM
StephenFearby said...: The craziest do-it-yourself story of the day:

Mom killed in car crash after boyfriend cut brake lines to make crack pipe...

https://nypost.com/2018/08/29/mom-killed-in-car-crash-after-boyfriend-cut-brake-lines-to-make-crack-pipe-police/; 8/29/18, 10:00 PM
mockturtle said...: Mccullough observes: About 30 games left in MLB regular season. Should be some good playoff races the last month.

Yes! Only the AL East and Central seem to be cut and dried.; 8/29/18, 10:01 PM
I Callahan said...: Do you mean to tell me that John McCain’s family excluded Sarah Palin from his memorial service like Donald Trump excluded her from his Administration?

Right, because those two things are exactly the same thing. She was his fucking running mate, you pompous ass.

You’ve become a caricature.; 8/29/18, 10:09 PM
narciso said...: Thanks for finding that mike Sylvester, all these lawsuits and indictments rely on that poor attribution, another interesting detail is these supposed Russian intelligence wouldn't have started on this project, there would be traced from other enterprises.; 8/29/18, 10:11 PM
narciso said...: Furthermore before lanny worked for firtash he worked for the post Bhutto junta in the 90s, you know who is considered their tool, I mean Khan, the new prime minister.; 8/29/18, 10:13 PM
Ralph L said...: then leaving the ship for Saigon without permission

I'd never heard that until yesterday, plus he that was interviewed for US News. Hard to believe none of his enemies exploited that.; 8/29/18, 10:14 PM
Ralph L said...: If he was spiteful toward Palin, wouldn't he have disinvited W also?
He must really have blamed her for 2008.; 8/29/18, 10:17 PM
readering said...: Trump tweets or states multiple crazy things every day including today. But folks here obsess about Palin, whose egotistical antics may not have cost McCain the election (Lehman and his reaction to Lehman remains the best explanation), but they sure didn't help.; 8/29/18, 10:20 PM
readering said...: Ralph L, well put.; 8/29/18, 10:21 PM
narciso said...: No he used her as an excuse to throw the election, the definitive proof didn't surface till 2012, although she probably suspected.; 8/29/18, 10:22 PM
narciso said...: I ignore the whole matter with the forrestal and leave out his shoot down, a naval aviators life is no picnic, but subsequent choices he made when he came home are something else.; 8/29/18, 10:24 PM
narciso said...: So a real analysis of the servers, would allow interested parties to challenge these lawsuits.; 8/29/18, 10:26 PM
mccullough said...: If Trump hadn’t been elected McCain probably would have disinvited W.

He invited Obama and W to speak so that he could show what swell bi-partisanship is.

Incompetence and arrogance is also bi-partisan. McCain wants Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to eulogize him. The guys who were so bad that Trump was a plausible choice and a much better president than those fools.

McCain put more thought into his funeral than into his 2008 campaign.; 8/29/18, 10:31 PM
tim in vermont said...: Palin was disinvited so as not to offend his new Democrat friends, and this time they will stay his friends as long as he stays dead.; 8/29/18, 10:36 PM
DavidD said...: Appointing Palin as McCain's replacement would have a certain symmetry, since she’d been his running mate and would’ve been his successor if he’d been elected and then had died in office sometime before his term as President ended.; 8/29/18, 10:37 PM
Two-eyed Jack said...: Narcisco said "I ignore the whole matter with the Forrestal."

As I said, I am imagining a fictional character. Maybe real life was different,; 8/29/18, 10:44 PM
Francisco D said...: " Do you mean to tell me that John McCain’s family excluded Sarah Palin from his memorial service like Donald Trump excluded her from his Administration?"

Do you have any knowledge about Palin wanting to be part of the Trump administration, aside from what "confidential" sources told CNN and the NYT?

NPR Chuckles has an unusual affinity for media that foster the left wing agenda.

Unexpectedly!; 8/29/18, 10:45 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: i would hope evolution supports my theoary Einstein was really smart and able to explain complex arguments simply if simplistict, to children for example.

If so why does the smartest guy get bored of k owing why he started understa ding others: to decently allkw.them.a better option, including in extreme cases the option, singular, of betterment.
Quite impressive inclination-wise given.; 8/29/18, 10:45 PM
stephen cooper said...: Guildofcannonballs - Einstein may or may not have been smart. You would have to spend a coupe years immersed in the easy intellectual environment he grew up in - with all its advantages, advantages nobody has had since - to be able to judge if he was actually"smart" or just someone who incrementally added to what other people were saying.

Smart people do get bored, but they realize that is a failure in themselves. God does not get bored because when you care about other people you realize all that matters is charity and God understands that and if you have a choice between doing something charitable and being bored you do the charitable thing.

Everybody knows that, or knew that once. That is why I, for one, cannot understand the fear of death that so many people claim to experience. What about the fear of not being there for somebody who needed you to be there for them, and realizing, after the fact, that you were not there for the person you thought was your friend?

Last time I commented on something you wrote you just continued saying nonsense, as if I did not exist. Maybe I don't, and maybe you will spend the next hundred years writing trolling comments, with a few good comments interspersed. Have fun with that. But try and do better.; 8/29/18, 10:57 PM
narciso said...: He does that with everybody Steven,; 8/29/18, 11:01 PM
William said...: Aretha is being buried with every known accouterment except an unbreakable will, or, for that matter, any will. The lawyers will play Jaryndyce & Jaryndyce with the many heirs and get a good chunk of the estate. She died after a long illness and apparently had some requests for her funeral arrangements, but no will. Maybe there was someone in her life to whom she owed a particular debt of gratitude. If so, that person will never know about it. From what I've read she was born into chaos, and she will leave a certain amount of chaos in her wake. That's not to say, she didn't leave a hefty karmic balance of payments in her favor, but she should have left a will.......McCain also, has a lot of karma working for him, but not inviting Palin is kind of tacky-- if he was indeeed responsible for the snub. When I check out, I'll try not to leave a choppy wake.. On the other hand, I haven't created all that much positive karma in my passage; 8/29/18, 11:16 PM
Yancey Ward said...: It is good thing Trump isn't going to McCain's funeral, otherwise all the talking heads would be talking about nothing but Trump, Trump, Trump- at least Trump keeps from being the object of attention at the McCain funeral.

Does that need a sarcasm tag? I can't tell any longer.; 8/29/18, 11:20 PM
narciso said...: So it seems like the land confiscation bill is being retired, but another will replace it.; 8/29/18, 11:42 PM
narciso said...: Fwiw:

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1009953/south-africa-farmers-donald-trump-theresa-may-cyril-ramaphosa-land-reforms; 8/29/18, 11:56 PM
Drago said...: Trump going after Carl Bernstein?!

Egads! Thats going to trigger an astonishingly powerful LLR Chuck auto-#StrongDemCNNDefenseMode response!!; 8/30/18, 1:02 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Praise de Land and pass the plate!

(You could lose your head over this shit.); 8/30/18, 2:01 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Whoa-Ho-HO: ”Three arrested in New Mexico Muslim extremist compound WALK FREE after judge drops child neglect charges because prosecutors missed evidence deadline, as dad and wife plead nto guilty”

Missed a (arbitrary?) deadline - child killers go free. This place RULES!; 8/30/18, 2:42 AM
Drago said...: narciso: "So it seems like the land confiscation bill is being retired, but another will replace it."

Some things, like the LLR Chuck/John McCain approved IRS targeting of conservatives, are best implemented quietly and without a paper trail.; 8/30/18, 3:02 AM
gadfly said...: I don't claim to be an expert on computer hacking but the article denying the validity of Mueller's indictment of Russian hackers was written by an organization recently headed by Robert Parry whose liberal writings began in the times of Iran-Contra. His background indicates no exceptional talent in hashing out the intricacies of hacking in general.

A Dutch intelligence agency, AIVD, detected Russian hackers code-named Cozy Bear engaged in hacking Democrat computers and turned their information over to the FBI. Mueller's team determined that the Dutch were not tilting at windmills and investigated further. Nobody has proved Mueller wrong so far, so I'll bet on whatever path he chooses.; 8/30/18, 3:36 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: DOESN’T COLLECTIVE INSANITY EXPLAIN IT? Who’s coordinating the sudden loony leftist lionization of Stormy Daniels?

Collective insanity + coordination,...could mean: The Democrats, it's a cult.; 8/30/18, 3:39 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: "WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD?"

It got trampledunder the weight of cultists saying "you can believe what you want to believe" because "it works for me!" until it doesn't and they have to go to the hospital.; 8/30/18, 3:44 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Even a casual reader of Instapundit could be forgiven for thinking they understand my song’s thesis - here's Ed Driscoll:

"AS HUNTER S. THOMPSON WARNED IN 1972, “THE ONLY WAY TO SAVE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS TO DESTROY IT.” The protesters have become the Democratic Party."

They see it. They just don't understand what they're looking at.; 8/30/18, 3:52 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Yahoo Admits It Scans Emails to Collect Data to Sell to Advertisers

Yahoo Admits What They All Do Because,...Oh, Never Mind. Go do your yoga or whatever and forget about it.; 8/30/18, 4:00 AM
Drago said...: gadfly: "I don't claim to be an expert on computer hacking...."

LOL

Well, we'll just stop you right there I guess.; 8/30/18, 4:08 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: RICHARD FERNANDEZ ON INSTAPUNDIT: “When the totality of cultural warfare and revolution now raging throughout the world is summed we may be watching an event bigger than the fall of the Soviet Union. The event doesn’t have a name yet, on the day we finally understand, it will. But understanding may prove the most difficult part.”

Pffft. It's name is "CULTISM" and it's easy to check - once you admit it's real and happening. Until then, it's operating - unchecked - through a different set of networks, that you're (in part) ignoring and (in part) taking for granted as ”harmless”. That's the mistake. That's where the loophole, the gray area - whatever you want to call it - occurs.; 8/30/18, 4:10 AM
Birkel said...: If the first 500 comments didn’t convince you,
the next 500 might. Amirite?; 8/30/18, 4:14 AM
Drago said...: Crack: "Pffft. It's name is "CULTISM" and it's easy to check - once you admit it's real and happening."

So, let me see if I've got the logic on this one nailed down.

I have to accept the premise of an assertion and once I do, it will be easier "to check" whether or not the assertion is "real and happening".

Okay then.; 8/30/18, 4:23 AM
Drago said...: And mind you, I don't even know yet whether or not I agree with Crack on this particular issue.

I'm just not a big fan of logically self-refuting statements.; 8/30/18, 4:24 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: “Antifa is whiter than Pat Boone making a mayonnaise sandwich with Wonder bread in a Minnesota snowstorm.”

Trapped between them - who hate black Republican types - and the KKK-leaners on the Republican side (including those of you so despicably concerned about us "leaving the plantation" or whatever) all that's left is staying with black folks, because they're the most easily identifiable as "on my side" when trouble happens. Whites "on my side" will sit and watch us get abused for a while before they say anything. You can get pretty fucked-up waiting for them, especially if that's repeated, and it is, over a lifetime.

This is a funny comment, though. Shows whites know who they are, too, when they're not pretending that blacks are seeing things.; 8/30/18, 4:28 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Drago said...

"So, let me see if I've got the logic on this one nailed down."

You don't - you can't even read - so stop with the condescending tone. It makes you look even more stupid than you are.

Thomas Sowell would even tell you that.; 8/30/18, 4:29 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Drago said...

"And mind you, I don't even know yet whether or not I agree with Crack on this particular issue.

I'm just not a big fan of logically self-refuting statements."

You're using "checked" in a different way than I am - I'm saying NewAge's progress can be "checked" - stopped, halted, etc.; 8/30/18, 4:35 AM
Matt Sablan said...: Err... Mueller has to prove himself right. Not the other way around.; 8/30/18, 4:38 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Check it out - from Instapundit: “Apparently, the memo went out at CNN this week to defend Antifa: CNN’s Don Lemon Explains Antifa: ‘No Organization Is Perfect.’”

And who can you find claiming he *personally* schooled Don Lemon on his particular style of "journalism" - with no pushback from Don Lemon? The rapper (who runs a Twitter cult and says he's known to read auras), Talib Kweli.

So who sent out that memo again?; 8/30/18, 4:50 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: THE ATLANTIC: "The Republican Party Isn't Really the Anti-Science Party - Conservative conflict with science on evolution and global warming has been exaggerated—while liberals get a free pass for their own failings."

It's a good thing I'm not trying to help, because I'm apparently lousy at it.; 8/30/18, 5:03 AM
rehajm said...: Mueller was chosen because of his experience in framing innocents. It was a job requirement for head of the special counsel...; 8/30/18, 5:44 AM
Humperdink said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/30/18, 5:45 AM
Humperdink said...: Funniest line of the day:

As Cameron Gray of NRA TV tweets in response (to CNN's Jeffrey Toobin) “Antifa is whiter than Pat Boone making a mayonnaise sandwich with Wonder bread in a Minnesota snowstorm."; 8/30/18, 5:47 AM
rehajm said...: The link above is supposed to link the whole article at the Boston Herald but it's now behind a paywall, apparently. That's new. The Boston Herald must be on its last legs. As a recent cost cutting effort they are moving out of Boston to the burbs. They are now the Braintree Herald.; 8/30/18, 5:48 AM
rehajm said...: Drudge's picture of Woodward and Bernstein makes them look like Statler and Waldorf.

They are Statler and Waldorf at this point.; 8/30/18, 5:51 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: gadfly at 3:36 AM
A Dutch intelligence agency, AIVD, detected Russian hackers code-named Cozy Bear engaged in hacking Democrat computers and turned their information over to the FBI.

The linked article's first paragraph indicates that the Dutch AIVD's monitoring of Cozy Bear happened in the summer of 2015 (fifteen).

Although the liked article claims that AIVD monitoring of Cozy Bear found that the hacking was against "the Democratic Party of the United States" other reporting specifies that the hacking was against the US State Department.

Apparently the linked article is hacking the Democratic Party with the US State Department.

It makes sense that Russian Intelligence might try to hack into the computer system of the US State Department.

It does not make much sense that it would try to hack the computer system of the Democratic Party -- especially in the summer of 2015 (fifteen).; 8/30/18, 6:02 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: Continuing my comment at 6:02 AM

From the article linked by gadfly

That's how the AIVD becomes witness to the Russian hackers harassing and penetrating the leaders of the Democratic Party, transferring thousands of emails and documents. It won't be the last time they alert their American counterparts. And yet, it will be months before the United States realize what this warning means: that with these hacks the Russians have interfered with the American elections. And the AIVD hackers have seen it happening before their very eyes.

According to gadfly's article, AIVD witnessed in the summer of 2015 (fifteen) Russian hackers transferring thousands of emails and documents from the computers of leaders of the Democratic Party.

That reporting is tendentious. There is no evidence that AIVD witnessed any such transfer in the summer of 2015 (fifteen).

The hacking in the summer of 2015 targeted the US State Department, which indeed was headed by leaders of the Democratic Party. However, AIVD did not find any hacking that targeted the Democratic Party.; 8/30/18, 6:10 AM
rehajm said...: Didn't Crack have a post about some guy with a $100K hospital bill? I was going to support it with this story on cross subsidies. Did he remove it?

Sigh. Guess it wasn't crazy enough...; 8/30/18, 6:18 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: Continuing my comment at 6:10 AM

From the article linked by gadfly

Three American intelligence services state with 'high confidence' that the Kremlin was behind the attack on the Democratic Party. That certainty, sources say, is derived from the AIVD hackers ...

For a long while, the claim was that all 17 intelligence services of the US Government expressed this "high confidence".

The number "17" was a lie that Hillary Clinton declared -- a lie that James Clapper did not correct publicly during 2016, because Clapper felt that the lie was helping Clinton to win the election.

Now that Clinton has lost, Clapper has reduced the number from 17 to 3.

However, the "high confidence" was not expressed by three intelligence services. Rather it was expressed by a hand-picked group of Trump-hating analysts from three intelligence services.

When Clapper selected the analysts for this committee, he did not select any analysts from the US State Department or from the Defense Intelligence Agency. Clapper did not trust those agencies to support the "high confidence" conclusion he was concocting.

One of the three agencies was the NSA. The NSA analysts did not support the "high confidence" conclusion. The "high confidence" was expressed only by the analysts from the CIA and FBI.; 8/30/18, 6:21 AM
rhhardin said...: Amazon reopened their Twinsburg Ohio distribution center, which had opened briefly and then was wiped out by a tornado. The contract revision storm must have been awesome, as they had to revert to the just-previous sites and distribution methods and cancel the new contracts, I'd assume.

There were a couple of weeks when Amazon Prime didn't work out well, week delays, as they just dropped stuff in the mail from anywhere.

A DVD came from Twinsburg today. A truck leaves at midnight and hits all the post offices by 6am, without the previous need for an airplane.; 8/30/18, 6:25 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: Big Mike,
I is one.; 8/30/18, 6:28 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: Continuing my comment at 6:21 AM

From the article linked by gadfly

... the AIVD hackers were able to acquire such useful information in 2014. The team uses a CNA, which stands for Computer Network Attack. These hackers are permitted to perform offensive operations: to penetrate and attack hostile networks. It's a relatively small team within a larger digital business unit of about 80-100 people.

In other words, the Dutch Intelligence service hacks computer systems of foreign countries.

By doing so, Dutch Intelligence found that Russian Intelligence hacks computer systems of foreign countries.

Of course, the USA's own Intelligence services likewise hack computer systems of foreign governments.

Likewise, the Intelligence services of practically every modern country -- China, Israel, the United Kingdom and so forth and so on -- hack computer systems of foreign countries.; 8/30/18, 6:28 AM
MadisonMan said...: Everyone knows someone who kills the Buzz every time they open up their mouth.

(Looks at a particular Althouse poster); 8/30/18, 6:30 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: Correcting my comment at 6:02

Apparently the linked article is hacking the Democratic Party with the US State Department.

Apparently the linked article is conflating the Democratic Party with the US State Department.; 8/30/18, 6:30 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: From the article linked by gadfly

The Dutch access to the Russian hackers' network soon pays off. In November, the Russians prepare for an attack on one of their prime targets: the American State Department. By now, they've obtained e-mail addresses and the login credentials of several civil servants. They manage to enter the non-classified part of the computer network. ....

What follows is a rare battle between the attackers, who are attempting to further infiltrate the State Department ...

This happened in November 2014 (fourteen), and the target was the US State Department.

We know this because Dutch Intelligence was hacking computers in Russia.

Just like US Intelligence likewise hacks computers in Russia -- and perhaps hacks also even computers in Holland.; 8/30/18, 6:37 AM
Ralph L said...: Lots of choices there, Mad man.; 8/30/18, 6:37 AM
Ralph L said...: Just give us the link and a quick, intelligible (non-narcistic) hint.; 8/30/18, 6:40 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: All the reporting on this subject indicate that the Dutch AIVD hack of this computer systems in Russia ended in about the summer of 2015 (fifteen).

This is the first such article I have seen that insinuates that AIVD witnessed hacking of the Democratic National Committee in 2016 (sixteen).; 8/30/18, 6:41 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: "The Palin snub is now the top story on Drudge. I think there should be a campaign to get Ducey to appoint her. She is an Arizona resident."

Thing is that yes, there would be symmetry if Ducey appointed Palin (except that she probably kept her AK residency), but also this would put Ducey's reelection at risk if he appointed Cindy McCain. Palin would be the better Senator, and by far the better candidate when reelection came around. I see Ducey giving the seat to the Democrats when the seat comes up for election, if he goes with Mrs McCain. She has no political experience, stole McCain from his first wife with her money and youth, and has to be the one snubbing both Trump and Palin - or at least is condoning it. But I think that it is Mrs McCain, and opposing Trump is not a good thing in AZ, at least right now - as evidenced by all the Republican ads on the air portraying themselves as Trump's best friend, or the Dem as his worst enemy. This, of course, makes Palin look like the former, by being the other person snubbed by the McCains.; 8/30/18, 6:49 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: "One of the three agencies was the NSA. The NSA analysts did not support the "high confidence" conclusion. The "high confidence" was expressed only by the analysts from the CIA and FBI."

Surprise. Surprise.; 8/30/18, 6:52 AM
Ralph L said...: Sonny Bono's widow did a decent job and was reelected, IIRC.
As Cindy stayed in AZ all these years, I doubt she wants it.

One of the speakers today is the son of McC's first wife that he adopted. It's odd that his bio daughter with her was invisible in 2008.; 8/30/18, 6:57 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Schools Crack Down as More Students Cut Class

Why? When all an adult has to say is "I don't care, yoga works for me!" (or "I don't care, it was the Russians!") who needs an education? YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BE ASKED TO USE IT.; 8/30/18, 7:20 AM
readering said...: Someone needs to stop POTUS tweeting about stories few are following.; 8/30/18, 7:24 AM
Drago said...: Crack: "You don't - you can't even read - so stop with the condescending tone. It makes you look even more stupid than you are.
Thomas Sowell would even tell you that."

LOL

Do go on....; 8/30/18, 7:28 AM
Drago said...: Crack: "..and the KKK-leaners on the Republican side (including those of you so despicably concerned about us "leaving the plantation" or whatever"

LOL; 8/30/18, 7:31 AM
Chris N said...: I’m an internet comment expert, and this is my comment.; 8/30/18, 7:31 AM
Drago said...: Crack: "It's a good thing I'm not trying to help, because I'm apparently lousy at it."

An evergreen comment..at long long last.; 8/30/18, 7:32 AM
Drago said...: Chris N: "I’m an internet comment expert, and this is my comment."

I am fairly certain I saw your TedTalk.; 8/30/18, 7:33 AM
Sara D said...: Michael Cohen testified , last year,before the Senate Intelligence committee that he had no idea if Mr. Trump knew in advance about the meeting at Trump Tower

https://www.axios.com/michael-cohen-didnt-know-trump-tower-meeting-534240d0-915e-4d44-9d37-ab247e067ee0.html; 8/30/18, 7:38 AM
Drago said...: If you are wondering LLR Chuck is so angry today is due to 2nd Qtr GDP raised to 4.2 percent! 4.2%

Something LLR Chuck and all the lefties told us was impossible.; 8/30/18, 7:38 AM
narciso said...: Now it was the puzzle palace, that reality winner, stole that document from and then had it published in the intercept, it's about power, and who poses a threat, remember that dhs flier that flagged prolifers and returning veterans over islamists, as the folks to look out for,; 8/30/18, 7:39 AM
narciso said...: Chesterton is attributed the line 'if you don't believe in something, you'll fall for anything'; 8/30/18, 7:41 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Mount Vernon man decapitated girlfriend after he 'had spoken with God'

I'd say "Don't do that" but some insist it's a healthy practice.; 8/30/18, 8:03 AM
narciso said...: this was him, covering up isi involvement in Mumbai:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/lanny-davis/bombay-tragedy-beware-of_b_147516.html; 8/30/18, 8:11 AM
narciso said...: nothing to see here

https://saraacarter.com/two-weeks-after-ellison-abuse-allegations-dnc-offers-no-update-from-review/; 8/30/18, 8:22 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: "The defendants accused in a $511 million fraud scheme destroyed evidence in anticipation of a 2016 raid on a home and businesses with ties to a polygamous sect, prosecutors said in court papers unsealed [August 28th]."

"That raid by FBI and IRS agents targeted a home and offices of Kingston Group members. Federal prosecutors wrote that shelves had been emptied and computer hard drives had been wiped before agents arrived."

Gee, if only this country didn't treat dangerous cults as protected groups, maybe this kind of stuff wouldn't happen as often. Somebody should ask good ol' Mitt Romney, since this is from his neck of the woods (that promised there'd be no polygamy).; 8/30/18, 8:51 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Mike Pence Believes God Wants Him to Be President

And - just like with the yoga cultists - there's no way to dissuade him, using logic. Does anyone understand what a clusterfuck life becomes when some people in your society deliberately don't allow logic to interfere with their so-called "thinking"? Does that matter to anyone? Making society into a clusterfuck, instead of something more orderly and consistent? Do you think that kind of thing would lead to mass shootings?

I think that kind of thing would lead to mass shootings....; 8/30/18, 8:56 AM
Drago said...: Crack: "Making society into a clusterfuck, instead of something more orderly and consistent? Do you think that kind of thing would lead to mass shootings?"

LOL

Chinese society under Mao was certainly orderly and without Christian faith.....and then they decided murdering 10's of millions of their own citizens was totes cool.

You wanna know why the atheist commies in China did that?

Duh! Racism of course!; 8/30/18, 9:39 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Oh, Man, remember when I was going off about homeopathy and DSHEA, and got told I had to be wrong because homeopathy is water so nothing is safer?

Homeopathic co. expands recall as FDA warns of “life-threatening” infections

It's just another example of why I HATE having to debate uninformed assholes who don't follow (or follow-up on) the real news out there.; 8/30/18, 10:51 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Drago said...

"Chinese society under Mao was certainly orderly and without Christian faith.....and then they decided murdering 10's of millions of their own citizens was totes cool.

You wanna know why the atheist commies in China did that?

Duh! Racism of course!"

Who do the same fools try to debate me - only to be treated like the fools they are - AGAIN? Mao invented the "Traditional Chinese Medicine" you assholes are trying to make real here. And, not only that, but Mao practiced the Stalinesque form of Communism - and who was Stalin?

The former Catholic schoolboy who wanted to be a pastor. Didn't the Catholics help Hitler? And aren't they in trouble now - for fucking with kids? What are y'all gonna do about them? I'll tell you:

You're going to feed them more kids, that's what - because you're so DECENT.

Now take your limited educations, and racist assumptions, and go back to whatever white enclave you learned con artistry from and leave me alone.; 8/30/18, 10:58 AM
mockturtle said...: and leave me alone.

We will, Crack. Now promise to leave us alone.; 8/30/18, 12:05 PM
Unknown said...: I've lurked here for many years, and sometimes comment. The breadth of wit has always brought me back. Personal news: I have started taking holy communion at my local Catholic parish. That's all I wanted to say today. Best. Matt Blaine; 8/30/18, 1:20 PM
langford peel said...: Hey Crack don't monkey around with homeopathic medicine.....it saved my life and the life of one of my kids.

American medicine just wants to give you another pill. Fuck that.

Natural healing the s the best thing for you. Diet, rest and exercise beats the hell out of pills.; 8/30/18, 2:58 PM
Jim at said...: The lack of class is astonishing.

No it isn't. It's typical and entirely predictable.

The guy was a prick.; 8/30/18, 3:17 PM
Jim at said...: Do you mean to tell me that John McCain’s family excluded Sarah Palin from his memorial service like Donald Trump excluded her from his Administration?

Sometimes, you really make the extra effort to be stupid, Chuck. This is one of those times.

Gentle reminder that Palin was McCain's VP pick. You know, in case you forgot and can't make the connection of why one event is not related to the other.; 8/30/18, 3:23 PM
Jim at said...: Someone needs to stop POTUS tweeting about stories few are following. - readering

Seems to me you're the one who's obsessed with his tweets. Maybe - oh, I don't know - you could stop reading them.

I pay no attention to what he tweets and very little attention to what he says. I pay attention to what he does. Try that.; 8/30/18, 3:35 PM
langford peel said...: The Crack Emcee is a black Super Hero.

Sort of like Luke Cage.

For retards.; 8/30/18, 4:51 PM
readering said...: I don't follow POTUS on twitter but 51.4 million do according to his twitter page (no doubt includes healthy number of fake/bot followers). I doubt Jim you pay little attention to what he says and no attention to what he tweets yet pay attention to what he does because what he mostly does is talk and tweet.; 8/30/18, 5:01 PM
mockturtle said...: I don't think Crack
is even black.; 8/30/18, 7:16 PM
mockturtle said...: But maybe he identifies as black. ;-); 8/30/18, 7:36 PM