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Snarkoleptic
Snarkoleptic's Journal
Snarkoleptic's Journal
May 4, 2017
Flying Pigs installation will block Trump sign in Chicago
https://archpaper.com/2017/05/flying-pigs-trump-sign-chicago/This is really happening. Late last year Chicago-based New World Design proposed Flying Pigs on Parade: A Chicago River Folly, an installation of four golden flying pigs directly in front of the Trump sign on the Trump International Hotel and Tower.
After receiving permission from Roger Waters, co-founder, bassist, and lead songwriter of Pink Floyd, New World Design will reproduce the same pig used for the iconic Pink Floyd photo shoot over Battersea Park Power Station, London, for the Animals album cover. This time the pigs will be gold. The helium-filled balloons will then be floated, single file, from a construction barge in the Chicago River at just such a height to obscure the 20-foot-by-141-foot Trump sign. The single day installation is expected to be launched in late August or early September.
----
The pigs hold multiple meanings and make a number of pop culture references, most clearly to the 1977 Pink Floyd album cover and George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Other references include Trump’s alleged “Miss Piggy” comment directed at a former Miss Universe and the gold so often used in Trump’s interior design.
“The design follows meticulous rationale in imparting layers of meaning but ultimately allows for interpretation by individual viewers,” said Jeffrey Roberts, partner at New World Design.
May 3, 2017
Further evidence of a mentally unbalanced man-child peering dubiously through the oval office curtains.
https://twitter.com/BCAppelbaum/status/822478866035986435/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rawstory.com%2F2017%2F05%2Ftrump-directly-involved-in-hunt-for-twitter-user-exposing-his-tiny-inauguration-crowd-report%2F
Trump directly involved in hunt for Twitter user exposing his tiny inauguration crowd
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/trump-directly-involved-in-hunt-for-twitter-user-exposing-his-tiny-inauguration-crowd-report/Further evidence of a mentally unbalanced man-child peering dubiously through the oval office curtains.
Newly released internal emails from the National Park Service show President Donald Trump got, “directly involved” in the NPS investigation into the source of a tweet with unflattering crowd sizes on Inauguration Day.
CBS News reports that, “after the retweet and ensuing news coverage of its deletion, the size of the crowd at the inauguration became one of the dominant news stories of Mr. Trump’s first days in office.”
https://twitter.com/BCAppelbaum/status/822478866035986435/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rawstory.com%2F2017%2F05%2Ftrump-directly-involved-in-hunt-for-twitter-user-exposing-his-tiny-inauguration-crowd-report%2F
Now, 995 pages of government documents released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request show the direct involvement of Trump.
Previously, the Washington Post reported that NPS director Michael T. Reynolds was pressured the morning after the inauguration to produce photos substantiating the President’s claims of a million to a million and a half in attendance. “Experts, however, have estimated that the 2017 turnout was no more than a third the size of Obama’s eight years earlier.”
April 30, 2017
Suspected Nazi enthusiast & Fake Terror Expert Sebastian Gorka is OUT!
Sebastian Gorka to accept position outside White House: report
Source: The Hill
Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to the president, will take a position that deals with the "war of ideas" regarding radical Islamic extremism, sources told The Washington Examiner on Sunday.
Gorka has served as both a national security adviser and on the Strategic Initiatives Group, which is an organization within the White House, according to the publication.
The news he is accepting an outside role comes after reports raising questions about his security clearance status.
--snip--
A spokesman for the National Security Council told the publication he did not "personally know" about Gorka's future.
Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/331318-sebastian-gorka-to-accept-position-outside-white-house-report
Suspected Nazi enthusiast & Fake Terror Expert Sebastian Gorka is OUT!
April 29, 2017
Not-so-fun-facts are important to mention during calls to congress as well.
Number of Americans with Pre-Existing Conditions by Congressional District
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/healthcare/news/2017/04/05/430059/number-americans-pre-existing-conditions-congressional-district/
Healthcare groups denounce revised GOP health bill (Call your congresscritter, please)
Please call your congresscritter to push back on those supporting this ill-conceived bill.
The first AHCA wasn't mean & dumb enough, so they made it meaner and dumber to attract the firebaggers.
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/330896-american-medical-association-denounces-gop-health-bill
Leading healthcare and advocacy groups are urging Congress not to pass the revised Republican ObamaCare replacement bill, fearing that changes could harm those with pre-existing conditions.
The American Hospital Association (AHA), American Medical Association (AMA) and American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) all denounced the revised bill on Thursday. The groups were already opposed to the American Health Care Act (AHCA), saying that millions would lose coverage, but raised new concerns about an amendment from Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.).
“We are deeply concerned that the AHCA would result in millions of Americans losing their current health insurance coverage,” AMA President Dr. James Madara wrote in a letter. “Nothing in the MacArthur amendment remedies the shortcomings of the underlying bill.”
The amendment would also allow states to apply for waivers to repeal ObamaCare’s community rating protection, which protects people with pre-existing conditions from being charged much higher premiums.
“We are particularly concerned about allowing states to waive this requirement because it will likely lead to patients losing their coverage,” Madara wrote.
The AARP says the revised bill is "even worse," warning lawmakers it intends to "let all 38 million of our members know exactly" how their representative votes on the legislation, if it makes it to the House floor.
Not-so-fun-facts are important to mention during calls to congress as well.
Number of Americans with Pre-Existing Conditions by Congressional District
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/healthcare/news/2017/04/05/430059/number-americans-pre-existing-conditions-congressional-district/
April 28, 2017
Number of Americans with Pre-Existing Conditions by Congressional District
Please consider looking up your district and calling your congresscritter.
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/healthcare/news/2017/04/05/430059/number-americans-pre-existing-conditions-congressional-district/
Here are nine people who will lose their health coverage under #Trumpcare and one who won't:
1. a diabetic
2. a cancer survivor
3. an asthmatic
4. someone with allergies
5. a heart disease patient
6. an HIV/AIDS patient
7. someone with chronic lung disease
8. someone with Cystic Fibrosis
9. someone with Multiple Sclerosis
10. your congresscritter
April 27, 2017
Russian-controlled telecom hijacks financial services Internet traffic
Visa, MasterCard, and Symantec among dozens affected by "suspicious" BGP mishap.
This is one of those stories that I'm filing under 'sleeper story', that will later be shown to be part of a broader controversy.
https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/04/russian-controlled-telecom-hijacks-financial-services-internet-traffic/
On Wednesday, large chunks of network traffic belonging to MasterCard, Visa, and more than two dozen other financial services companies were briefly routed through a Russian government-controlled telecom under unexplained circumstances that renew lingering questions about the trust and reliability of some of the most sensitive Internet communications.
Anomalies in the border gateway protocol—which routes large-scale amounts of traffic among Internet backbones, ISPs, and other large networks—are common and usually the result of human error. While it's possible Wednesday's five- to seven-minute hijack of 36 large network blocks may also have been inadvertent, the high concentration of technology and financial services companies affected made the incident "curious" to engineers at network monitoring service BGPmon. What's more, the way some of the affected networks were redirected indicated their underlying prefixes had been manually inserted into BGP tables, most likely by someone at Rostelecom, the Russian government-controlled telecom that improperly announced ownership of the blocks.
"Quite suspicious"
"I would classify this as quite suspicious," Doug Madory, director of Internet analysis at network management firm Dyn, told Ars. "Typically accidental leaks appear more voluminous and indiscriminate. This would appear to be targeted to financial institutions. A typical cause of these errors [is] in some sort of internal traffic engineering, but it would seem strange that someone would limit their traffic engineering to mostly financial networks."
Normally, the network traffic bound for MasterCard, Visa, and the other affected companies passes through services providers that the companies hire and authorize. Using BGP routing tables, the authorized providers "announce" their ownership of the large blocks of IP addresses belonging to the client companies. On Wednesday afternoon at around 3:36pm Pacific time, however, Rostelecom suddenly announced its control of the blocks. As a result, traffic flowing into the affected networks started passing through Rostelecom's routers. The hijacking lasted five to seven minutes. When it was over, normal routing was restored. The event is nicely captured in a graphic here.
The hijacking could have allowed individuals in Russia to intercept or manipulate traffic flowing into the affected address space. Such interception or manipulation would be most easily done to data that wasn't encrypted, but even in cases when it was encrypted, traffic might still be decrypted using attacks with names such as Logjam and DROWN, which work against outdated transport layer security implementations that some organizations still use.
Anomalies in the border gateway protocol—which routes large-scale amounts of traffic among Internet backbones, ISPs, and other large networks—are common and usually the result of human error. While it's possible Wednesday's five- to seven-minute hijack of 36 large network blocks may also have been inadvertent, the high concentration of technology and financial services companies affected made the incident "curious" to engineers at network monitoring service BGPmon. What's more, the way some of the affected networks were redirected indicated their underlying prefixes had been manually inserted into BGP tables, most likely by someone at Rostelecom, the Russian government-controlled telecom that improperly announced ownership of the blocks.
"Quite suspicious"
"I would classify this as quite suspicious," Doug Madory, director of Internet analysis at network management firm Dyn, told Ars. "Typically accidental leaks appear more voluminous and indiscriminate. This would appear to be targeted to financial institutions. A typical cause of these errors [is] in some sort of internal traffic engineering, but it would seem strange that someone would limit their traffic engineering to mostly financial networks."
Normally, the network traffic bound for MasterCard, Visa, and the other affected companies passes through services providers that the companies hire and authorize. Using BGP routing tables, the authorized providers "announce" their ownership of the large blocks of IP addresses belonging to the client companies. On Wednesday afternoon at around 3:36pm Pacific time, however, Rostelecom suddenly announced its control of the blocks. As a result, traffic flowing into the affected networks started passing through Rostelecom's routers. The hijacking lasted five to seven minutes. When it was over, normal routing was restored. The event is nicely captured in a graphic here.
The hijacking could have allowed individuals in Russia to intercept or manipulate traffic flowing into the affected address space. Such interception or manipulation would be most easily done to data that wasn't encrypted, but even in cases when it was encrypted, traffic might still be decrypted using attacks with names such as Logjam and DROWN, which work against outdated transport layer security implementations that some organizations still use.
April 26, 2017
New Alt-Right Fight Club Ready for Street Violence - (aaaand cue the brownshirts)
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/04/25/new-alt-right-%E2%80%9Cfight-club%E2%80%9D-ready-street-violenceA new fight-club “fraternity” of young white, pro-Trump men is being formed, its organizers claim, to defend free-speech rights by “Alt-Right” leaders and engage in street fighting.
Kyle Chapman, a California activist arrested earlier this month in a clash in Berkeley between anti-fascist protesters and pro-Trump demonstrators, announced this week he is forming the Fraternal Order of Alt Knights (cleverly called “FOAK).
Chapman, who uses the Internet meme “Based Stick Man,” says his new militant, highly-masculine group will be the “tactical defensive arm” of the Proud Boys, another group that shows up at pro-Trump rallies looking to rumble with counter-protesters.
“We don’t fear the fight. We are the fight,” Chapman said in a recent social media post announcing FOAK’s formation.
“I’m proud to announce that my newly created Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights will be partnering with Proud Boys,” Chapman said, with the “full-approval” of its founder, Gavin McInnes.
McInnes co-founded Vice magazine a decade ago and more recently has been a frequent guest on FOX News and a contributor for the racist site VDARE where he denigrated Muslims and called Asian Americans “slopes” and “riceballs.”
Now described as a “neo-masculine reactionary,” McInnes calls his Proud Boys a “pro-West fraternal organization.”
Kyle Chapman, a California activist arrested earlier this month in a clash in Berkeley between anti-fascist protesters and pro-Trump demonstrators, announced this week he is forming the Fraternal Order of Alt Knights (cleverly called “FOAK).
Chapman, who uses the Internet meme “Based Stick Man,” says his new militant, highly-masculine group will be the “tactical defensive arm” of the Proud Boys, another group that shows up at pro-Trump rallies looking to rumble with counter-protesters.
“We don’t fear the fight. We are the fight,” Chapman said in a recent social media post announcing FOAK’s formation.
“I’m proud to announce that my newly created Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights will be partnering with Proud Boys,” Chapman said, with the “full-approval” of its founder, Gavin McInnes.
McInnes co-founded Vice magazine a decade ago and more recently has been a frequent guest on FOX News and a contributor for the racist site VDARE where he denigrated Muslims and called Asian Americans “slopes” and “riceballs.”
Now described as a “neo-masculine reactionary,” McInnes calls his Proud Boys a “pro-West fraternal organization.”
April 25, 2017
Think Trump's Stupid? Get A Load Of This Interview
Astonishing...no words...arrrggghhh!
April 21, 2017
Trump Administration Distances Itself From Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman Amid Call For Recusal
http://www.ibtimes.com/around-world/trump-administration-distances-itself-blackstone-ceo-stephen-schwarzman-amid-callWisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin became the first federal lawmaker to call for Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman to recuse himself from helping to shape Trump administration policy that affects Schwarzman’s private equity firm. Another influential Democrat joined in — and the White House, under fire Friday, began to distance itself from the billionaire adviser.
The Donald Trump administration now argues that even though Schwarzman chairs the White House Strategic and Policy Council — the members of that panel are appointed by Trump — the Blackstone CEO is not working for the White House in any official capacity, and is merely operating his own outside group.
The criticism, call for recusal and abrupt moves by the White House followed an International Business Times report that detailed how Schwarzman’s White House panel is overseeing regulatory, energy and infrastructure policies that could enrich Blackstone.
In December, Trump’s transition team announced the creation of the Strategic and Policy Forum, whose members “will be called upon to meet with the President frequently to share their specific experience and knowledge” and “to provide direct input to the President” on policy matters. Trump himself appointed the members of the panel and named Schwarzman as chair. The group has convened meetings at the White House; Cabinet officials have presented policies to the group for review. Trump and Schwarzman led a session of the Strategic and Policy Forum at the White House earlier this month.
The Donald Trump administration now argues that even though Schwarzman chairs the White House Strategic and Policy Council — the members of that panel are appointed by Trump — the Blackstone CEO is not working for the White House in any official capacity, and is merely operating his own outside group.
The criticism, call for recusal and abrupt moves by the White House followed an International Business Times report that detailed how Schwarzman’s White House panel is overseeing regulatory, energy and infrastructure policies that could enrich Blackstone.
In December, Trump’s transition team announced the creation of the Strategic and Policy Forum, whose members “will be called upon to meet with the President frequently to share their specific experience and knowledge” and “to provide direct input to the President” on policy matters. Trump himself appointed the members of the panel and named Schwarzman as chair. The group has convened meetings at the White House; Cabinet officials have presented policies to the group for review. Trump and Schwarzman led a session of the Strategic and Policy Forum at the White House earlier this month.
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