© Georgia Senate/Unknown/KJN
Puppet Masters
© Marketwatch
The hack of FireEye, a company with an array of contracts across the national security space both in the United States and its allies, is among the most significant breaches in recent memory. The company's shares dropped 8% in after-hours trading.
The FireEye breach was disclosed in a public filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission citing CEO Kevin Mandia. A blog post by the company here said "red team tools" were stolen as part of a highly sophisticated, likely government-backed hacking operation that used previously unseen techniques.
It is not clear exactly when the hack initially took place, but a person familiar with the events said the company has been resetting user passwords over the past two weeks.
Beyond the tool theft, the hackers also appeared to be interested in a subset of FireEye customers: government agencies.
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, said he would ask for more information.
"We have asked the relevant intelligence agencies to brief the Committee in the coming days about this attack, any vulnerabilities that may arise from it, and actions to mitigate the impacts."There is no evidence that FireEye's hacking tools have been used or that client data was stolen. But the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Microsoft Corp are helping to look.
© Reuters/Joe Skipper/Matt Rourke/AP/Reuters/Patrick T. Fallon/KJN
Alejandro Mayorkas, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security
Former VP Joe Biden
33rd California Attorney General Xavier Becerra
Alejandro Mayorkas, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security
Former VP Joe Biden
33rd California Attorney General Xavier Becerra
Biden nominated Becerra to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and Mayorkas to oversee the Department of Homeland Security. Becerra was a U.S. congressman in Los Angeles and Mayorkas was the U.S. attorney for the city when they sought reprieve for Vignali.
Comment: Pay to Sway: Fine examples of Biden's kind of people and the level of corruption of which he is most familiar and best known.
© vaccineuk/IRS/KJN
A poke and a check?
A poke and a check?
And that plan is: Offering Americans a $1,500 "incentive payment" to acquiesce to receiving both doses of the vaccine. Delaney argued that the plan would benefit all Americans, even those who still refuse, because it might help the country crush the virus more quickly. "The faster we get 75% of this country vaccinated, the faster we end Covid and the sooner everything returns to normal," Delaney said in an interview with CNBC.com.
To be sure, Delaney's plan has virtually zero chance of becoming law. Republicans and Democrats can't even seem to agree on basic things like the size of the package ($600BN or $900BN) and whether businesses deserve a liability shield to stop them from being sued by people claiming to have been infected in their establishment (GOP leader Mitch McConnell sees this as a must). President Trump recently promised Americans that the vaccine wouldn't be mandatory.
Delaney initially conceived of the scheme as a workaround for the widespread public skepticism about the vaccine. While recent opinion polls show that the number of Americans planning to get the vaccine as soon as it's available has been on the upswing, more than 40% of the population either has already been infected, doesn't see any urgent need for a vaccine, or simply doesn't trust the data.
Comment: "So, why should the federal government spend all that money when there are other, cheaper, ways to pressure families into submitting?" How abominably frugal!
Bernie Sanders comes forth to admit the Dems are holding back on a COVID relief bill (the one Pelosi has been stone-walling for weeks):
The running narrative on COVID-19 relief bills is that Republicans are the ones withholding it from the people, but as Vermont Senator and avowed democratic-socialist Bernie Sanders recently admitted, it's been the Democrats holding it back the entire time.It is no secret Pelosi was stonewalling this decision until the fake election win took place. She has admitted this.
The admission came during an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN. Tapper asked about the $1.8 trillion bill that White House Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was working on with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and that Democrats walked away from.
"That's right!" said Sanders. Tapper asked Sanders if walking away from it was a mistake."That's what I'm saying! That's exactly what I'm saying! Here was a proposal much much larger, Democrats are, 'no that's not good enough,' and now we're prepared to accept a proposal that has I think $350 billion dollars in new money? I don't think this is much of a compromise. I think the Republicans have probably gotten 90% of what they want. Our job is to fight and get at least a 50-50 deal. We gotta do a lot better and negotiate a lot harder."Democrats have been blaming the GOP for America not getting any COVID relief, but as you can see, Sanders has just admitted that it was the Democrats who are currently to blame for this.
This admission comes after politicians like New York's socialist darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attempted to point the finger at Mitch McConnell and the Republicans. It's a point that Ted Cruz shot down, resulting in a back and forth with the New York congresswoman until she eventually lost the argument and decided not to respond.
Despite Sanders's talk of getting more funding for the people, this reeks more of a political tactic regarding who gets the credit than anything else. The last thing Democrats need is for checks to be dolled out under a Republican-controlled Senate and White House, thus softening any view of the Republicans potential voters may have.
The bottom line is that if you were expecting a check, you know who to blame now.
See also:
- With Biden 'in queue': Pelosi u-turns on her monstrous Covid-19 relief bill
- Nancy Pelosi admits she blocked COVID relief bill for months
- Pelosi's bad week just got a helluva lot worse!
- Trump orders Mnuchin, Meadows and GOP leadership to stop negotiating coronavirus stimulus until after the election
- Will $2T fix it? Covid-19 exposes the state of America's economy and society
© Reuters/Ako Rasheed
Bombed Khabbaz oilfield, December 9, 2020
Bombed Khabbaz oilfield, December 9, 2020
"The Khabbaz oilfield in Kirkuk governorate was subjected to a terrorist attack after two oil wells were detonated with two explosive devices," a statement read.
Undersecretary for Extraction Affairs Karim Hattab said the explosive charges were detonated at 1:30 am and 2.00 am.
The ministry did not provide any further information about the attack but said the fire and safety team at the North Oil Company and security authorities were working to control the fires and assess the damage.
Comment: Images from the scene:
© REUTERS/Mike Segar
Joe Biden shakes hands with former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack during a campaign event in Newton, Iowa, January 30, 2020
Joe Biden shakes hands with former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack during a campaign event in Newton, Iowa, January 30, 2020
Vilsack's pending appointment was first reported on Tuesday by NPR, citing "a source familiar with the transition discussions." The same source said Congresswoman Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) was tapped to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Bloomberg later reported the same thing.
Biden's appointment of Vilsack fits his publicly stated intent to reassemble the administration of President Barack Obama, in which he served as VP. Vilsack was Obama's agriculture secretary for all eight years, and spent the previous eight governing Iowa.
Comment: Is there any more convincing proof that Biden is merely a figurehead?
© Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Partners in crime? Then-President Barack Obama (L) nominates chief counterterrorism adviser John Brennan (R), to be CIA Director during an event in the East Room at the White House on Jan. 7, 2013.
Partners in crime? Then-President Barack Obama (L) nominates chief counterterrorism adviser John Brennan (R), to be CIA Director during an event in the East Room at the White House on Jan. 7, 2013.
The following is an excerpt from Lee Smith's book out October 29, "The Plot Against the President: The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History."After Donald Trump was elected forty-fifth president of the United States, the operation designed to undermine his campaign transformed. It became an instrument to bring down the commander in chief. The coup started almost immediately after the polls closed.
Hillary Clinton's communications team decided within twenty-four hours of her concession speech to message that the election was illegitimate, that Russia had interfered to help Trump.
Obama was working against Trump until the hour he left office. His national security advisor, Susan Rice, commemorated it with an email to herself on January 20, moments before Trump's inauguration. She wrote to memorialize a meeting in the White House two weeks before.
© Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
William Barr and Donald Trump
William Barr and Donald Trump
The letter, obtained by The Post, was originally written and sent last Thursday by Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Tx.), two days after the nation's top law enforcement agent said that the Justice Department had not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud that would alter the outcome of the presidential race.
Gooden opted to resend the letter this week after dozens of GOP lawmakers agreed to add their names to the correspondence, including Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Louie Gohmert (R-Tx.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and Mo Brooks (R-Ala.).
Comment: If Barr is playing a strategic game, the outlines of it are invisible.
© Sputnik / Pavel Lvov; Pool via REUTERS / Jacob King
(L) Sputnik V vaccine (R) Margaret Keenan
(L) Sputnik V vaccine (R) Margaret Keenan
Western media seems to be blissfully unaware that by attacking Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, for seemingly geopolitical reasons, it's handing ammunition to people at home who seek to argue that no jab is safe.
The roll-out of American Big Pharma's Covid-19 vaccine has been covered in the West as a medical miracle. But Russia's alternative, the first in the world to be registered, has either been largely ignored or savaged, by the US/UK press.
On Tuesday, the UK's state broadcaster BBC pushed out two headlines on new jabs being made available across the globe. In the first, it set out how 90-year-old Margaret Keenan had become the "first in the world to receive a Covid-19 vaccine outside of a trial," after getting the Pfizer vaccine in England. But, in almost the same breath, they reported that mass immunization had already begun in Moscow on the previous Saturday with Russia's own formula.
Comment: Interesting that the possibility that vaccinations (especially those developed at breakneck speed), might not be safe, never occurs to the author. Even so, if one must take a jab in order to be able to continue with one's life, the chances that the Sputnik formula is much safer than anything produced by the West is high. There is no talk of genetic alterations arising from the Russian formula. The western pharma companies, on the other hand, are practically giddy at the prospect of tinkering with the human genome on a mass scale and making billions doing it. Who would you trust?
- How Russia won race for Covid-19 vaccine: Decades of research, not political power plays
- As Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine takes the lead, its Chief Medical Officer's recent promotion of 'gene-editing vaccines' comes to light
- As Russia begins final stage of coronavirus vaccine trial, volunteers confirmed to have immunity and no side effects
- Sputnik V, world's first Covid-19 vaccine, launched - Putin's daughter among first to take it - Vaccine will NOT be mandatory in Russia
- COVID vaccine hesitancy widespread, even among medical professionals
- How COVID-19 vaccine can destroy your immune system
- Here's why you should skip the COVID vaccine
© Reuters / Yuri Maltsev
FILE PHOTO. A general view shows the Island of Kunashir, one of four Russia's Southern Kuril islands.
FILE PHOTO. A general view shows the Island of Kunashir, one of four Russia's Southern Kuril islands.
The bizarre move by US officials first caught the eye of Japanese media last week. It transpired that Russian citizens born on the islands of Habomai, Shikotan, Kunashir, and Iturup were considered Japanese by the US immigration authorities for the purpose of drawing green cards.
The sneaky designation sparked an angry reaction in Moscow, with Russian diplomats stressing that the country's sovereignty over the four islands is not the subject of any dispute.
Comment: American exceptionalism included the belief that the US could create its own reality, however, with its power waning, its ability to coerce others into sharing in their delusions is also waning:
- China says it will respond to US admiral visit to Taiwan, Washington says it 'is not leaving' the South China Sea dispute
- Vlad the Peacemaker offers Japan's Abe 'peace treaty with no preconditions by end of year'
Comment: Georgia politicians are acknowledging flaws in their election process and offer intent on addressing many issues. Their statement is worth the look. Hopefully more states take a similar lead.