"The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it." -- John F. Kennedy

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A group representing some of Spain's largest media outlets have sued Meta, demanding €550 million ($596 million) in recompense for Zuckercorp's "systemic and massive" disregard for EU privacy regulations that have left them at risk of collapse.

The lawsuit, filed by the Information Media Association (AMI) on behalf of 83 Spanish outlets – including industry leaders El Mundo, El País and others – accuses Meta of violating the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) since it came into effect in 2018 until mid-2023, when Meta finally bowed to regulator pressure and promised it would begin explicitly asking for EU users' permission when seeking to collect data for advertising purposes.

According to AMI, Meta "failed to comply with [the GDPR], ignoring the regulatory requirement that citizens must consent to the use of their data for advertising profiling," and that its scofflaw practices contributed to its dominant advertising position across the EU.

Tags: COMPUTERS/INTERNET, EUROPE
Posted on: Dec 05 11:19

Tiny bits of space junk too small to track using current methods could be detected by a novel process using by ground-based radio dishes, according to the latest research.

Big pieces of space junk, like parts of spent rocket boosters or broken satellites, are easy to spot because their orbits are known and they’re big enough to get a reading on. But the millions of smaller items are harder to find, and more are appearing as large items of orbital debris slowly degrade and fragment.

Astroboffins fear that as more such objects come into existence, the risk of debris colliding to create a dangerous chain reaction is increasing.

Tags: SCIENCE/ HEALTH/ CLIMATE/ NATURE
Posted on: Dec 05 11:18

A sample of the Qilin ransomware gang's VMware ESXi encryptor has been found and it could be one of the most advanced and customizable Linux encryptors seen to date.

The enterprise is increasingly moving to virtual machines to host their servers, as they allow for better usage of available CPU, memory, and storage resources.

Due to this adoption, almost all ransomware gangs have created dedicated VMware ESXi encryptors to target these servers.

Tags: COMPUTERS/INTERNET
Posted on: Dec 05 11:16

WordPress administrators are being emailed fake WordPress security advisories for a fictitious vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-45124 to infect sites with a malicious plugin.

The campaign has been caught and reported by WordPress security experts at Wordfence and PatchStack, who published alerts on their sites to raise awareness.

The emails pretend to be from WordPress, warning that a new critical remote code execution (RCE) flaw in the platform was detected on the admin's site, urging them to download and install a plugin that allegedly addresses the security issue.

Tags: COMPUTERS/INTERNET
Posted on: Dec 05 11:14

Google announced today that the December 2023 Android security updates tackle 85 vulnerabilities, including a critical severity zero-click remote code execution (RCE) bug.

Tracked as CVE-2023-40088, the zero-click RCE bug was found in Android's System component and doesn't require additional privileges to be exploited.

While the company has yet to reveal if attackers have targeted this security flaw in the wild, threat actors could exploit it to gain arbitrary code execution without user interaction.

Tags: COMPUTERS/INTERNET
Posted on: Dec 05 11:12

More than a dozen malicious loan apps, which are generically named SpyLoan, have been downloaded more than 12 million times this year from Google Play but the count is much larger since they are also available on third-party stores and suspicious websites.

SpyLoan Android threats steal from the device personal data that includes a list of all accounts, device info, call logs, installed apps, calendar events, local Wi-Fi network details, and metadata from images. Researchers say that the risk also extends to contacts list, location data, and text messages.

They pose as legitimate financial services for personal loans that promise "quick and easy access to funds." However, they trick users into accepting high-interest payments and then the threat actor blackmails victims into paying the money.

Tags: COMPUTERS/INTERNET
Posted on: Dec 05 11:10

In a controversial turn of policy advocacy, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) is now advocating for a bold and contentious plan as proposed by another Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL): allowing illegal immigrants to serve in the U.S. military as a pathway to citizenship.

By: orraz
Tags: CURRENT EVENTS
Posted on: Dec 05 10:42

In an ironic twist at the Climate Change Conference in Dubai, John Kerry, the Biden regime’s climate envoy, may have inadvertently highlighted the need for personal methane reduction in a manner most unexpected.

By: orraz
Tags: CURRENT EVENTS
Posted on: Dec 05 10:42

Controversial Democratic incumbent Ilhan Omar of Minnesota’s 5th congressional district is up for re-election this year, but she will have her work cut out for her in the primary against not one but three formidable opponents.

Following a narrow loss in the 2022 primary, former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels announced on Sunday that he would challenge progressive Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in the upcoming primary.

While speaking with WCCO, a local radio station, moderate Democrat Samuels declared his intention to run for Omar’s congressional seat. Omar narrowly defeated the former city council member by two points in 2022. Samuels claimed on Sunday that Omar is “beatable” after his close loss.

Tags: POLITICS/ ELECTIONS/ CORRUPTION
Posted on: Dec 05 10:12

A House Republican representing part of New York City says she has "smoking gun" proof that city officials are trying to help get illegal immigrants registered to vote, something the city has staunchly denied. 

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., announced on Sunday that she had obtained a copy of a contract between New York City’s Department of Social Services and Homes for the Homeless, a nonprofit that has been contracted to build emergency migrant shelters as the border crisis depletes the city’s resources.

In an appendix of that contract, a copy of which was obtained by Fox News Digital, the city appears to require contractors to provide copies of voter registration forms for migrants at their shelters, Malliotakis said.

Tags: IMMIGRATION/GLOBALISM, POLITICS/ ELECTIONS/ CORRUPTION, VOTE FRAUD
Posted on: Dec 05 10:07

GREAT MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE FBI.

"[Your information is] too precise, too complete to be believed. The questionnaire plus the other information you brought spell out in detail exactly where, when, how, and by whom we are to be attacked. If anything, it sounds like a trap."

FBI response to the top British spy, Dusan Popov (code named "Tricycle") on August 10, 1941, dismissing Popov's report of the complete Japanese plan for the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor: The Verdict Of History by Gordon Prange, appendix 7 published in 1986. Based on records from the JOINT CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack, Nov 15, 1945 to May 31, 1946.

GREAT MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE FBI PART 2.

In 1964, accusations that the song "Louie Louie" as recorded by The Kingstons contained obscene lyrics led to a two year FBI effort to analyze the recording to determine what was actually being sung ... before someone mentioned that the lyrics were on file at the US Copyright office.

Tags: CURRENT EVENTS, POLITICS/ ELECTIONS/ CORRUPTION
Posted on: Dec 05 10:02

The Democrats and their idiot cheerleaders in the media have long been known for exhibiting textbook cases of projection when accusing Republicans of almost anything. 

In my most recent column, I examine the new fever-pitch false narrative about the "alarm" that Donald Trump will end free elections and trample on civil rights if he returns to the presidency. Honestly, even if he did go that route, he would have a difficult time one-upping the current occupant of the White House. 

To anyone paying attention to reality, Joe Biden and his rogue goon squad Justice Department would prefer that half of the country be locked up. It's easier to get an election to go their way if the voters who oppose them are legally indisposed. They've been working feverishly to make sure that the Republican frontrunner is legally unavailable, after all. 

In a time when our southern border is being besieged by various and sundry criminals and college campuses are overrun by protesters who support the most heinous terrorists in the world, it would be nice to think that the formerly trustworthy people at the Federal Bureau of Investigation were focused on some of them. Alas, this is the Biden FBI, and it is singularly focused on any threats to Democratic election victories. 

Catherine wrote yesterday about former FBI agent Steve Friend, who is now going public with what he knows about the priorities of the Bureau:

Tags: COVER-UP/ DECEPTIONS/ PROPAGANDA, POLITICS/ ELECTIONS/ CORRUPTION, WHITE HOUSE
Posted on: Dec 05 10:01

A bill to block the implementation of federal EV mandates passed the House Rules Committee 9-4 Monday.

The Choice in Automobile Retail Sales (CARS) Act will now go to a floor vote on Tuesday.

The EPA proposed aggressive tailpipe emissions standards earlier this year that would, if finalized, would require 67% of new cars and small SUVs to be electric, along with a large portion of heavy-duty vehicles, by 2032.

Reps. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., and Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., along with more than a dozen House Republicans, introduced the CARS Act, which would prohibit regulations that mandate the use of any specific type of technology or limit availability of new vehicles based on engine type.

Tags: CLIMATEGATE, ECONOMY, POLITICS/ ELECTIONS/ CORRUPTION, SCIENCE/ HEALTH/ CLIMATE/ NATURE
Posted on: Dec 05 10:00

Someone wrote on a rock.

Send in the military.

This is some straight up Mr. Burns type “release the hounds” sh*t.

I mean – the military?

For graffiti?

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Posted on: Dec 05 09:52

“People can’t even afford fast food these days”. Meanwhile there are lines wrapped around every fast food chain I see. They all seem to be busier than ever.

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Posted on: Dec 05 09:52

The rapidly growing debt of the U.S. federal government has hit another milestone, topping more than $100,000 in debt per person.

While the U.S. population and the U.S. national debt are large numbers that are difficult to calculate, the rough debt estimate and rough population estimate end up at about $100,000 of federal debt per person in the U.S.

The U.S. Census population clock estimates the U.S. population at nearly 336 million. Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department estimates the national debt is nearly $34 trillion.

Tags: ECONOMY
Posted on: Dec 05 09:44

THE ANTI-TRUMP ALARM GOES OFF. Around this time in 2015, some in the political commentary class had a collective realization: Donald Trump could win the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. A freakout of sorts ensued, although many remained confident that Hillary Clinton would defeat Trump in the 2016 general election. An even larger freakout occurred on the night of Nov. 8, 2016.

Now we are seeing a repeat of the events of late 2015. The Iowa caucuses are six weeks away. Trump has an overwhelming lead in national polls — 47.3 percentage points over his nearest competitor, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls. Trump's leads in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina are 29.7 points, 27 points, and 30.5 points, respectively, although the polling in those states is getting old, with the most recent polls measuring opinion about three weeks ago. But the basic fact is: Trump is far, far ahead. He is the favorite to win the GOP nomination.

That's certainly alarming to many in the political commentary world. Even more alarming has been a spate of polls, too many to be ignored, showing Trump defeating President Joe Biden in a head-to-head general election matchup. Put all those surveys together, and it is freakout time again. Here are four examples.

Tags: CORPORATE MEDIA, COVER-UP/ DECEPTIONS/ PROPAGANDA, POLITICS/ ELECTIONS/ CORRUPTION
Posted on: Dec 05 09:40

The best-case scenario for one of the most common COVID-19 interventions may be that it has no measurable effect on infection, recent studies suggest.

A systematic review of studies of mask mandates for children, published Saturday in the British Medical Journal's Archives of Disease in Childhood, found "no association" with infection or transmission in 16 of the 22 observational studies and "critical" or "serious" risk of bias in the six countervailing studies. It got the attention of Elon Musk, owner of X, formerly Twitter.

Self-reported SARS-CoV-2 infection was higher the more often people said they wore masks, according to a Norwegian study accepted for publication Nov. 13 in the Cambridge University Press journal Epidemiology and Infection.

Tags: CONSUMER RIGHTS / PRODUCT REPORTS, COVER-UP/ DECEPTIONS/ PROPAGANDA, POLITICS/ ELECTIONS/ CORRUPTION, SCIENCE/ HEALTH/ CLIMATE/ NATURE
Posted on: Dec 05 09:40

Congress at the urging of the Biden administration agreed in 2021 to spend $7.5 billion to build tens of thousands of electric vehicle chargers across the country, aiming to appease anxious drivers while tackling climate change.

Two years later, the program has yet to install a single charger.

States and the charger industry blame the delays mostly on the labyrinth of new contracting and performance requirements they have to navigate to receive federal funds. While federal officials have authorized more than $2 billion of the funds to be sent to states, fewer than half of states have even started to take bids from contractors to build the chargers — let alone begin construction.

Tags: CLIMATEGATE, CONSUMER RIGHTS / PRODUCT REPORTS, ECONOMY, SCIENCE/ HEALTH/ CLIMATE/ NATURE
Posted on: Dec 05 09:35

Sir, you have been convicted of a crime and are sentenced to 75 years is jail.

What was my crime?

We don’t need to tell you that.

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Posted on: Dec 05 09:26
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Posted on: Dec 05 09:25

Credit card spending has taken a nosedive, officially entering contraction territory, despite a reported 35% surge in retail sales above pre-pandemic levels. The discrepancy between retail sales growth and the significant decline in credit card transactions reveals a stark contrast in consumer behavior.

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Posted on: Dec 05 09:25

 A House Democrat running to become the next mayor of Houston, Texas, appeared in a campaign advertisement showing the wrong date.

By: orraz
Tags: CURRENT EVENTS
Posted on: Dec 05 09:19