…so…this might have gotten away from me a little…maybe it’s just another of those things that happen when you lose enough sleep…but…you ever have one of those days when you look at the headlines & just think to yourself “why is this still a thing?”
One of the most powerful Democrats in Washington has issued a frank warning to members of his own party, saying they need to find a way to pass major voting rights legislation or they will lose control of Congress.
Top House Democrat Jim Clyburn: ‘No way we’d let filibuster deny voting rights’ [Guardian]
In 1963, when the newly sworn in Lyndon Baines Johnson was advised against using his limited political capital on the controversial issue of civil and voting rights for Black Americans, he responded: “Well, what the hell’s the presidency for?”
[…]
On one side are Republicans, who control most state legislatures and are using false claims of election fraud to enact an avalanche of voting restrictions on everything from early voting and voting by mail to voter IDs. They also plan to gerrymander their way back to a US House of Representatives majority.After losing the Senate and the presidency, they’re determined to win back power by rigging the rules against Democrats, disproportionately Black and brown voters. As a lawyer for the Arizona Republican party put it baldly before the supreme court, without such restrictions Republicans are “at a competitive disadvantage relative to Democrats”.
[…]
The proposed law mandates automatic registration of new voters, voting by mail and at least 15 days of early voting. It bans restrictive voter ID laws and purges of voter rolls, changes studies suggest would increase voter participation, especially by racial minorities. It also requires that congressional redistricting be done by independent commissions and creates a system of public financing for congressional campaigns.The legislation sailed through the House last week, on a party line vote. The showdown will occur in the Senate, where Republicans are determined to kill it. Although Democrats possess a razor-thin majority, the bill doesn’t stand a chance unless Democrats can overcome two big obstacles.
The first is the filibuster, requiring 60 votes to pass regular legislation. Notably, the filibuster is not in the constitution and not even in law. It’s a rule that has historically been used against civil rights and voting rights bills, as it was in the 1960s when LBJ narrowly overcame it.
But if they try, they face a second obstacle. Two Democrats – Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona – have said they won’t vote to end the filibuster, presumably because they want to preserve their centrist image and appeal to Republicans in their states. A few other Democrats are lukewarm to the idea.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/07/joe-biden-lbj-lyndon-johnson-voting-rights-filibuster
Manchin Expresses Openness to Making Filibuster Harder to Use [NYT]
…friends like these, eh?
Seeking to explain his part in dramatically prolonging marathon Senate proceedings before the passage of Joe Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus relief bill, Joe Manchin may only have succeeded in exposing a dangerous fissure in Democratic ranks.
In winning controversial modifications to benefits for struggling Americans, the West Virginia senator said, he had tried to “make sure we were targeting where the help was needed” and to do “everything I could to bring us together”.
[…]
In the Senate on Friday, Manchin mounted a late push to scale back unemployment benefits in the stimulus package, a huge and historic piece of legislation meant to help Americans struggling amid a pandemic which has cratered the US economy. His move prompted hours of negotiations, followed by a compromise and voting through the night.
[…]
It seems clear a $15 minimum wage has no hope of clearing 60 votes in the Senate. That super-majority, known as the filibuster, is said by champions including Manchin to protect minority rights – though it came to prominence largely as a way for southern segregationists to oppose civil rights reform.The House has passed HR1, a sweeping voting rights bill meant to counter efforts by Republicans in the states to dramatically restrict sections of the population that favour Democrats. But HR1 seems doomed unless Senate Democrats scrap the filibuster.
Even if they did, centrists like Manchin would enjoy immense power. Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press, the senator cited his own stand on the relief bill as he explained why he was opposed to scrapping the filibuster.
Joe Manchin’s stimulus stand exposes dangerous fissures in Democratic ranks [Guardian]
[…]
He also said he did not favour using reconciliation for voting rights legislation.
Although March 4 came and went without a bloody coup attempt — that is, without another bloody coup attempt — damage was still done. Lawmakers abandoned their workplace out of fear of politically motivated violence. This not only disrupted the people’s business. It also sent a dangerous signal that Congress can be intimidated — that the state of American government is fragile.
Allowing the U.S. government to be held hostage by political extremists is unacceptable. [NYT]
The 6 January 2021 attempted coup at the US Capitol, followed by the impeachment acquittal of Donald Trump by Republican senators, was an assault on our democracy in real time. Perpetuated by Trump’s conspiracy theories and aided and abetted by many of his enablers, the false claims of a rigged election led to violence and death that day. Even more concerning, however, are those within power who still push the false conspiracy of voter fraud and election irregularities as a cover for widespread voter suppression tactics. Though we may claim that the violence on 6 January was and still is a threat to our democracy, the real danger to democratic norms comes from pervasive voter suppression schemes across the country.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, there have been 253 bills introduced in 43 states since the start of 2021 to restrict expanded voting opportunities. As the Brennan Center explains: “These proposals primarily seek to: 1) limit mail voting access; 2) impose stricter voter ID requirements; 3) slash voter registration opportunities; and 4) enable more aggressive voter roll purges.” These bills are being introduced in state legislatures throughout the country by Republican legislators.
Since Shelby County v Holder, a 2013 US supreme court case which gutted key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, at least 25 states have passed racist voter suppression laws, including to reduce early voting days and create barriers to language access. This is in addition to partisan gerrymandering and redistricting measures that create obstacles across race and class lines.These measures disproportionately target Black, brown, indigenous and poor white people joining together to demand progressive change. The real threat to our democracy is not the man who recently held the highest office, but rather those throughout our state legislatures who continue to push false narratives about voter fraud.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/07/amelia-boynton-selma-anniversary-voting-rights
Outrage as Georgia Republicans approve bill to restrict voting access [Guardian]
…yeah
On Sunday, though, Graham (R-S.C.) described the relationship between Trump and the GOP in starker terms: as something akin to a hostage situation.
[…]
Graham, as he often has, insisted that he was trying to make the best of the situation — to get the good out of Trump while dealing with the bad.“Donald Trump was my friend before the riot,” Graham said. “And I’m trying to keep a relationship with him after the riot. I still consider him a friend. What happened was a dark day in American history, and we’re going to move forward. So here’s what you need to know about me: I want this to continue — I want us to continue the policies that I think will make America strong. I believe the best way for the Republican Party to do that is with Trump, not without Trump.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/08/sen-lindsey-graham-describes-gop-hostage-trump/
Senator Lindsey Graham has defended his refusal to abandon Donald Trump in the aftermath of the deadly attack on the Capitol, saying that though the former president has “a dark side … what I’m trying to do is just harness the magic”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/08/lindsey-graham-donald-trump-republican-party-interview
…gotta wonder what kind of magic they think that might be?
The Republican National Committee is moving part of its spring donor retreat next month to Mar-a-Lago from a nearby hotel for a dinner speech that will be headlined by former president Donald Trump, according to Republicans involved in the planning of the event.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-rnc-mar-a-lago/2021/03/08/story.html
[…]
The national party will sign a contract with Mar-a-Lago to host the event and will be paying Trump’s club for the use of the facilities and the meal, according to a Republican involved in the planning, who declined to share the size of the fee.
[…]
Spending money at the club is also likely to curry favor with Trump, who often attended GOP events during his presidency when they were held at his hotels. During the Trump administration, the RNC donor retreat was regularly held at a Palm Beach hotel, with a portion at Mar-a-Lago.
[…]
His legal team also recently sent a cease-and-desist letter to the RNC and two GOP congressional committees, demanding they not use his name or likeness in fundraising appeals without his explicit consent, according to a copy of the letter viewed by The Washington Post. Politico first reported the existence of the letter.
[…]
In a letter Monday to Trump’s PAC, the RNC chief counsel wrote that in McDaniel’s conversation with Trump over the weekend, the former president “reaffirmed” that he “approves of the RNC’s current use of his name in fundraising and other materials,” according to a copy reviewed by The Post.
…but I’m sure it’s not what it looks like…I guess that’s the appeal of magical thinking, after all
A man linked by prosecutors to the Oath Keepers and Republican strategist Roger Stone was arrested Monday in New York and charged with criminal involvement in the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/prosecutors-arrest-oath-keeper-seen-with-roger-stone-before-capitol-riot/2021/03/08/story.html
…I guess you might say they’re the party of traditional self-delusion
Most Republicans who spoke at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla., avoided acknowledging the events of Jan. 6. But less than 30 seconds into his speech, Senator Josh Hawley confronted them head on.
That day, Mr. Hawley said, had underscored the “great crisis moment” in which Americans currently found themselves. That day, he explained, the mob had come for him.
The “woke mob,” that is. In the weeks since, they had “tried to cancel me, censor me, expel me, shut me down.” To “stop me,” Mr. Hawley said, “from representing you.”
“And guess what?” he went on, his tempo building, the audience applauding: “I’m here today, I’m not going anywhere, and I’m not backing down.”
[…]
In a campaign season that coincided with Mr. Trump’s political ascent, Mr. Hawley found an eager audience among Missouri’s donor class and Republican elders. He dazzled them by seeming to be everything Mr. Trump was not: tempered, thoughtful, a reservoir of adjectives like “Burkean.” When asked about their first meetings with Mr. Hawley, powerful people in Missouri recalled being enchanted not so much by his vision for office, but by the fact that he sounded smart.
[…]
Among Mr. Hawley’s first — and most important — enthusiasts was John Danforth, the former senator and elder statesman of Missouri Republicans. His blessing was crucial for an ambitious young man looking to scale the state’s political ranks.
[…]
Yet when asked, Mr. Danforth couldn’t recall what it was he thought Mr. Hawley wanted to accomplish, as attorney general or as a senator. “I don’t know that I had an impression of that,” he said after a pause.Mr. Danforth helped Mr. Hawley gain the support of the state’s major Republican contributors. Chief among them was David Humphreys, Mr. Hawley’s largest donor, who has given millions of dollars to his campaigns and political action committee.
Josh Hawley Is ‘Not Going Anywhere.’ How Did He Get Here? [NYT]
[…]
When Mr. Hawley arrived in Washington in January 2019 as Missouri’s junior senator, he positioned himself as the intellectual heir of Trumpism — the politician who could integrate the president’s populist instincts into a comprehensive ideology for the G.O.P. In his maiden speech, he summoned the lamentation of cultural erosion he’d been refining since high school, arguing that the “great American middle” had been overlooked by a “new, arrogant aristocracy.”
[…]
He did not discourage whispers about 2024, and some younger Trump campaign aides, who saw him as the “refined” version of their boss, mused privately about working for him should he run. It wasn’t long before Donald Trump Jr. was inviting him to lunch at his father’s Washington hotel.
[…]
And so on Dec. 30, Josh Hawley became the first Senate Republican to announce his intent to challenge Mr. Biden’s congressional certification.
[…]
He tried to thread the needle as he always had, wrapping his objection not in fevered “STOP THE STEAL” tweets but in questions about the constitutionality of mail-in voting in Pennsylvania.
[…]
As his advisers saw it, the lessons of the Trump era — that success in today’s G.O.P. means never having to say you’re sorry — were clear. And Josh Hawley was nothing if not a star student.
…so that’d be a mostly-but-not-entirely-rhetorical question
Inside the Lincoln Project’s Secrets, Side Deals and Scandals [NYT]
…like “what’s so hard to understand about this?”
…or this?
After “defund the police” became the rallying cry of protests last summer, Democratic leaders spent months criticizing the slogan and worrying about its impact on elections. While party infighting was dominating headlines, local activists were campaigning to make the catchphrase a reality in cities across the US.
[…]
More than 20 major cities have reduced their police budgets in some form, an unprecedented trend, though the scale and circumstances vary dramatically. The activists who have long campaigned to take money from US police are now fighting to ensure that the initial cuts are only the start – and that a growing backlash from law enforcement, elected officials and some community groups does not derail their progress.
[…]
police spending has tripled over the last 40 years, helping to make the US a world leader in incarceration and police killings. Even as cities have faced financial shortfalls, local governments consistently spent an increasing share of their general funds on police (despite repeated research showing that increasing police funding does not correlate to reduced crime).
[…]
With public pressure on them, mayors and city councils responded. In 2020 budget votes, advocacy groups won over $840m in direct cuts from US police departments and at least $160m investments in community services, according to an analysis by Interrupting Criminalization, an initiative at the Barnard Center for Research on Women. In 25 cities, such as Denver and Oakland, officials moved to remove police from schools, saving an additional $34m.“Folks might look at $840m as a drop in the bucket of the $100bn we spend on police each year, but it definitely reverses the trend of constantly increasing police budgets over the past many decades,” said Andrea J Ritchie, one of the Barnard researchers, “and it did so in a way that also secured the transfer of funds from policing to community-based safety strategies.”
[…]
Austin, Texas, has made some of the most dramatic changes in the country, directly cutting roughly $20m from the police department, and moving $80m from the agency by shifting certain services out of law enforcement. The city has gone from spending 40% of its $1.1bn general fund on police to now allocating about 26% to law enforcement.
[…]
One of the greatest obstacles to defunding law enforcement agencies are powerful police unions, which have long opposed reforms and negotiated strong protections in their contracts that typically make it impossible for cities to terminate or lay off officers.Unions have launched aggressive PR campaigns to counter the movement. In Austin, the Texas Municipal Police Association (TMPA) created highway billboards saying “Warning! Austin Police Defunded, Enter at Your Own Risk” and “Limited Support Next 20 Miles” – and put up the signs in September, before the new budget had gone into effect.
The Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has also repeatedly threatened to try to force Austin to restore its police budget through legislation, and other state Republicans have spread misinformation about crime rates in the city.
“There are attempts to play up perceived dangers and to associate it with changes in the budget, without evidence,” said Harris. “A lot of the fear mongering that comes out of law enforcement is designed to play up racial tensions and racist myths.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/07/us-cities-defund-police-transferring-money-community
As FiveThirtyEight has noted, support for Black Lives Matter “skyrocketed” after Floyd was killed, but much of that support ended sometime before Jacob Blake was shot in Kenosha, Wis., three months later. As the site put it about polling around the time of Blake’s shooting:
“About 49 percent of registered voters said they supported the movement, compared with around 38 percent in opposition — similar to BLM’s net approval before Floyd’s death. That drop in popularity has largely been driven by increased opposition among white Republicans (80 percent of whom oppose the movement, higher than before Floyd’s death) and white independents (who now support BLM at similar levels as before Floyd’s death).”
Furthermore, a USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll released on Friday found that just 28 percent of white Americans believe that what happened to Floyd was murder. That was down from 55 percent in June.
[…]
“Republican legislators in Florida and 21 other states are considering tough new penalties for protesters who break laws. As in Florida, some of the bills also would prevent localities from cutting police budgets and give some legal protection to people who injure protesters.”One of the rallying cries during the summer protest was to “defund the police.” But by some measures, spending on the police actually moved in the opposite direction. As Bloomberg CityLab reported in January, “Even as the 50 largest U.S. cities reduced their 2021 police budgets by 5.2 percent in aggregate — often as part of broader pandemic cost-cutting initiatives — law enforcement spending as a share of general expenditures rose slightly to 13.7 percent from 13.6 percent.”
Did the summer’s protests reflect a racial reckoning or seasonal solidarity? [NYT]
…let’s just say there’s some mixed signals out there
Everywhere, there are signs seen and unseen that Minneapolis is bracing for the landmark trial of the former police officer charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death.
[…]
Chauvin has indicated that he’ll mount a “not guilty” defense, and hundreds of proposed witnesses means the trial could stretch through late April or early May, if it begins as scheduled. It will be live-streamed from three courtroom cameras.City and county officials in Minneapolis estimate they are spending a combined $1 million on security efforts ahead of the trial, fortifying public buildings, lining streets with fencing and barbed wire, and bringing in the National Guard and other law enforcement officers.
[…]
Global protests over police brutality and racial injustice were sparked by bystander video that captured the Memorial Day encounter in which Chauvin knelt on 46-year-old Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes as he was handcuffed facedown on a South Minneapolis street. Body-camera video shows that Chauvin, 44, kept his knee on the Black man even after another responding officer told him he could not detect Floyd’s pulse.
[…]
“It feels like we’ve been here before,” [Nekima Levy] Armstrong said. “We know there’s no guarantee that Derek Chauvin or any of the three officers will be held accountable, even with the damning video evidence that we all saw. . . . And it’s like, if you can’t see a conviction in this case, we won’t see a conviction in any other case involving a White officer causing the death of a Black person in the state of Minnesota.”
[…]
Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Democrats who were criticized for their slow response to the civil unrest last summer, have announced a massive deployment of law enforcement to guard the proceedings, including 2,000 National Guard members and at least 1,100 law enforcement officers.
[…]
That includes scores of officers from agencies around the state who are coming in to back up the Minneapolis police, which has lost more than a quarter of its force as officers have quit or taken leave in the months since Floyd’s death, some citing injuries or PTSD suffered during last year’s unrest. The security will be increased in phases throughout the trial, with the highest deployment to begin during closing arguments in anticipation of jury deliberation and a verdict.
[…]
Jeanelle Austin, a longtime racial justice activist who helps oversee the makeshift memorial that has arisen where Floyd was killed, at the corner of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in South Minneapolis, said she has fielded calls, including from people out of state, about the intense security and influx of police into Minneapolis, convinced the city knows Chauvin won’t be convicted.“Y’all ain’t getting a conviction: That’s the message that’s being communicated to the people, whether they thought about it or not,” Austin said of the city. “And that’s what’s so problematic. It’s like instigating moves. You don’t want any harm to come to anyone or anything. Yet the way you’ve postured yourself is that something is going to be so upsetting that it’s going to happen. And so it is.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/minneapolis-derek-chauvin-trial-george-floyd/2021/03/07/story.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/1-killed-in-shooting-near-george-floyd-memorial-in-minneapolis
…but
The legal uncertainty came on what was supposed to be the first day of jury selection in the trial. But proceedings were halted almost immediately after prosecutors questioned whether Cahill could move forward without ruling on the prosecution’s efforts to reinstate a charge of third-degree murder. Cahill, who threw out the charge in the fall, saying it could not be applied to the case, was ordered by the Minnesota Court of Appeals on Friday to reconsider his decision.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/murder-trial-of-derek-chauvin-accused-of-killing-george-floyd-begins-in-minnesota/2021/03/08/story.html
[…]
But other matters have raised uncertainty about a possible delay in the trial. Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s attorney, agreed that Cahill should continue with jury selection and weighing other matters related to charges in the case. However, he signaled that he intends to file an appeal with the Minnesota Supreme Court if the appellate court decides the third-degree murder charge should be reinstated.
…you know…I’m sure the response will be totally “proportional”…right?
Michigan Trooper Is Charged After Setting Dog on Man for Nearly 4 Minutes [NYT]
…it’s enough to make you wonder who’s paying attention
A senator had a simple question for the FBI’s counterterrorism chief at a hearing last week about the Capitol riot.
[…]
“To my knowledge, no, ma’am,” the counterterrorism chief, Jill Sanborn, responded, going on to explain that the FBI can’t monitor “First Amendment-protected activities” without a tip or an open investigation that directs agents to a specific post.The senator, Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., kept pressing. “So the FBI does not monitor publicly available social media conversations?”
“Correct, ma’am,” Sanborn replied. “It’s not within our authorities.”
Fact check: false. FBI agents have said in court records that they monitor public social media, and the bureau recently signed a $14 million contract with a “threat intelligence” company called ZeroFox “to proactively identify threats to the United States and its interests” on the internet. For years, the FBI has had a similar arrangement with DataMinr, which can flag social media postings of interest to its clients.
[…]
It’s not clear whether the bureau is seeking to use big data or artificial intelligence tools, as the National Security Agency does in sorting through the massive amounts of data it sucks in from abroad. Not only terrorism, but also school shootings, child pornography and foreign influence, could be detected through more aggressive social media monitoring by the FBI, experts say.
[…]
Procurement documents don’t shed much light on how the FBI has used DataMinr or ZeroFox, which analyze social media data for customers. But they suggest a fairly limited scope.“Social media platforms are often used as the first means of alerting to various threats, natural disasters, and crimes; sometimes before the authorities are called,” an FBI document in the ZeroFox procurement file said, adding that the bureau needed commercial software to “allow for the receipt of publicly available data from social media platforms.”
[…]
“White supremacists and far-right militants have been violent in public rallies over the last four years,” said Mike German, a former FBI agent and expert at the Brennan Center for Justice, a think tank in New York, adding that the violence was all the justification the FBI needed to take investigative steps like monitoring social media.“So this argument is more an attempt to shield the FBI from criticism than actually acknowledging how its failures have allowed these groups to gain strength and become more violent,” he said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/fbi-official-told-congress-bureau-can-t-monitor-americans-social-media-that-s-not-true
…& to what
…or who?
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/creator-viral-tom-cruise-deepfakes-speaks
…as we ask ourselves where the money goes?
…though much like the minimum wage stuff…it’s not like there aren’t places it might be nice to see some of that money go?
Tucked inside the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that cleared the Senate on Saturday is an $86 billion aid package that has nothing to do with the pandemic.
Rather, the $86 billion is a taxpayer bailout for about 185 union pension plans that are so close to collapse that without the rescue, more than a million retired truck drivers, retail clerks, builders and others could be forced to forgo retirement income.
The bailout targets multiemployer pension plans, which bring groups of companies together with a union to provide guaranteed benefits. All told, about 1,400 of the plans cover about 10.7 million active and retired workers, often in fields like construction or entertainment where the workers move from job to job. As the work force ages, an alarming number of the plans are running out of money. The trend predated the pandemic and is a result of fading unions, serial bankruptcies and the misplaced hope that investment income would foot most of the bill so that employers and workers wouldn’t have to.
Rescue Package Includes $86 Billion Bailout for Failing Pensions [NYT]
In a well-functioning democracy, putting together a big public investment plan wouldn’t be hard. “Every bit of polling evidence I have reviewed,” wrote Gallup’s Frank Newport, “shows that Americans are extremely supportive of new government infrastructure legislation.” Remember, the Trump administration spent four years promising a plan any day now, although it never delivered.
But every bit of polling evidence I’ve reviewed also showed that Americans — including many Republicans — supported the American Rescue Plan. Yet not a single elected Republican voted for it.
Republicans will probably offer similar lock-step opposition to anything Democrats propose on infrastructure. In fact, the very popularity of infrastructure spending will stiffen their opposition, because what they want, above all, is to make the Biden administration a failure.
The relief bill is done; infrastructure may be harder. [NYT]
…oh, yeah…& then there’s “the cyber”…that shit is tricky AF
Just as it plans to begin retaliating against Russia for the large-scale hacking of American government agencies and corporations discovered late last year, the Biden administration faces a new cyberattack that raises the question of whether it will have to strike back at another major adversary: China.
Preparing for Retaliation Against Russia, U.S. Confronts Hacking by China [NYT]
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/08/microsoft-cyber-attack-biden-emergency-task-force
FireEye discovered a new “sophisticated second-stage backdoor” on the servers of an organization compromised by the threat actors behind the SolarWinds supply-chain attack.
The new malware is dubbed Sunshuttle, and it was “uploaded by a U.S.-based entity to a public malware repository in August 2020.”
FireEye researchers Lindsay Smith, Jonathan Leathery, and Ben Read believe Sunshuttle is linked to the threat actor behind the SolarWinds supply-chain attack.
[…]
If the connection made by FireEye with the state hackers behind the SolarWinds hack checks out, Sunshuttle would be the fourth malware found while investigating the supply-chain attack.The threat actor who orchestrated the attacks is currently tracked as UNC2452 (FireEye), StellarParticle (CrowdStrike), SolarStorm (Palo Alto Unit 42), and Dark Halo (Volexity).
CrowdStrike found the Sunspot malware used to inject backdoors in Orion platform builds after being dropped by in the development environment of SolarWinds’ Orion IT management software.
The Sunburst (Solorigate) backdoor malware was deployed during second-stage attacks on the systems of organizations using trojanized Orion builds via the platform’s built-in automatic update mechanism.
FireEye found a third malware named Teardrop, a previously unknown memory-only dropper and a post-exploitation tool the attackers used to deploy customized Cobalt Strike beacons.
A fourth malware, Symantec found Raindrop, a malware similar to Teardrop used by the SolarWinds hackers to deliver Cobalt Strike beacons during post-exploitation.
While investigating the supply-chain attack, Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 and Microsoft discovered SuperNova, a malware strain not linked to UNC2452 but also delivered using trojanized Orion builds.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fireeye-finds-new-malware-likely-linked-to-solarwinds-hackers/
…much as we wish they weren’t…viruses are by nature a moving target
Virus Variant in Brazil Infected Many Who Had Already Recovered From Covid-19
…still…let’s just hope we’re not all doomed anyway, eh?
The Everyday Chemicals That Might Be Leading Us to Our Extinction [NYT]
Yes, yes, this is all well and good/bad, but I still think it was Wills who was curious about what Hazza and Meg’s baby would look like. As many have pointed out, by shrouding the instigator of this “awkward” conversation in mystery, it manages to cast a lurid pall on the entire royal family. Well-played, Sussexes, well-played. Your move, “Buck House.”
I don’t understand any of this, but at least it’s not happening next door, like it is for the Irish.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EwB9iCjXAAQ3RtB?format=jpg&name=900×900
Nothing is better black comedy than the FBI saying “Oh, no, no no, we couldn’t possibly monitor things without a warrant!” as if J. Edgar Hoover’s name isn’t still on their damn building.
If the Capitol invaders were Black, Hispanic, Muslim, left-wing or anarchist, there magically would have been an itchy-fingered regiment waiting for them despite the FBI’s inability to, y’know, check Twitter or whatever.
The one person they seem to have been monitoring bevore 1/6 had an Arabic name:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2021/03/08/fbi-had-an-open-investigation-into-a-qanon-cultist-predicting-world-war-3-before-january-6/
a) OF COURSE it was.
b) My retired stepfather, who is not on social media, was saying the weekend before that he hoped Congress was taking security precautions given what was coming. If he could put 2+2 together from watching news and reading newspapers, law enforcement has zero excuse to throw up their hands and be like “Well, whom among us could have possibly guessed…” No! Lots of people did!
I’m thinking we may need to change these DOT categories to Long Reads.
Bear memes are the best, it is known.
Creepy.
New York woman discovers secret apartment behind bathroom mirror
…I wondered about this…was it just the adjoining apartment in the middle of renovation…or is it only accessible through her wall?
She was able to exit the apartment so it had a door but I think she was in another building or something because the route back to her own apartment was circuitous.
This was a big thing in Chicago housing projects in the 80s. Good times! (NOT).
Oh, and go f-ck yourself, Lindsey.
Lindsey Graham, reverse ferret: how John McCain’s spaniel became Trump’s poodle