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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#243326: May 23rd 2018 at 5:55:34 PM

Now, if Trump refuses to stop blocking/unblock his previous targets...

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#243327: May 23rd 2018 at 5:55:41 PM

[up]x6

So, it's been declared that President Trump's blocking of people from him Twitter feed is a violation of the First Amendment and therefore unconstitutional. Why is this not a bigger deal? By definition, a President performing an unconstitutional act is grounds for impeachment.

Because almost every President has done at least one thing that has been declared unconstitutional by various levels of Courts. If we impeached every President that committed any unconstitutional act, regardless of what that act was, very few Presidents would have full terms. And don't even get me started on impeaching Congressmen and women for suggesting or voting for laws that ultimately become unconstitutional.

If Trump continues to ban people on his Twitter, then yes he should be impeached for that, but because this is precedent, this wouldn't be fair (or good) ground to impeach him on. Plus, there are a lot more legitimate things to impeach Trump on at this point that this is not needed.

edited 23rd May '18 5:56:37 PM by DingoWalley1

Ramidel Since: Jan, 2001
#243328: May 23rd 2018 at 5:58:01 PM

I wonder how the court is going to go about enforcing that.

Hylarn (Don’t ask)
#243329: May 23rd 2018 at 6:01:03 PM

I mean, this doesn't really matter, since you're never, ever going to get enough votes to remove Trump from office. Or any other president

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#243330: May 23rd 2018 at 6:13:52 PM

[up]That's a new low when it comes to demonizing free trade agreements. And I say this as someone who is not the biggest fan of them.

The exploitation of women by the factories there result in them becoming especially vulnerable to assault, rape, and murder.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#243331: May 23rd 2018 at 6:24:17 PM

[up] People have shown you how to use quote blocks. Why do you persist in not using them?

And as was already pointed out, the problem is on Mexico's end. It's not NAFTA's fault.

edited 23rd May '18 6:43:25 PM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#243332: May 23rd 2018 at 6:25:20 PM

[up]x13 I do want to put this out here.

Make sure to reboot your home routers, guys. That malware is particularly nasty and hard to trace, and infected at least 500,000 computers (and probably more) world-wide, so it's best to be safe. If it is infected by the malware, it will now reach out to the FBI cyber team instead of Russian Intelligence, and allows them to collect the IP addresses of the Devices that have been compromised.

Here's a bit more about the Malware, and the devices it targeted, if anyone is interested.

edited 23rd May '18 9:04:14 PM by megaeliz

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#243333: May 23rd 2018 at 6:26:39 PM

Can industrialization and free trade really explain sexual assault in these cases? Misogynistic views and exploitative labour practices long predate NAFTA and similar agreements. Now, maybe these issues became more numerous as more factories sprang up, but the conditions themselves were there before that. And until Mexico and similar countries agree to improve their labour conditions, among other things, that is not going to change, and economic pressure only goes so far before it simply hurts the people you are trying to help/your own economy, which just causes more problems back home.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#243334: May 23rd 2018 at 6:28:57 PM

Blaming Free Trade for everything bad under the sun is nothing new. It goes side by side with blaming "globalists". And yes, that's also a dogwhistle for "Jewish people".

Disgusted, but not surprised
speedyboris Since: Feb, 2010
#243335: May 23rd 2018 at 6:45:36 PM

[up]x3 Does that malware only affect routers, or modems too?

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#243336: May 23rd 2018 at 6:47:13 PM

Weirdly, the Show Markup Help isn't working for me.

Hence I would have done the quotes today but couldn't.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#243337: May 23rd 2018 at 6:51:11 PM

Pushover Media Critic already showed you how to do it. I already linked the page that lists all of the formatting rules. At this point I'm starting to wonder if you're deliberately doing this to annoy people.

edited 23rd May '18 6:51:20 PM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#243338: May 23rd 2018 at 6:51:40 PM

[up][up]Here's how you do it:

[[quoteblock]]put text here[[/quoteblock]]

Like so:

Weirdly, the Show Markup Help isn't working for me.

Hence I would have done the quotes today but couldn't.

edited 23rd May '18 6:51:50 PM by DingoWalley1

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#243339: May 23rd 2018 at 6:57:05 PM

[up][up][up][up] I'm not the best at cyber, but, here's a bit from the article I linked to about it. It's really quite nasty.

The VPN Filter malware is a multi-stage, modular platform with versatile capabilities to support both intelligence-collection and destructive cyber attack operations.

The stage 1 malware persists through a reboot, which sets it apart from most other malware that targets internet-of-things devices because malware normally does not survive a reboot of the device. The main purpose of stage 1 is to gain a persistent foothold and enable the deployment of the stage 2 malware. Stage 1 utilizes multiple redundant command and control (C2) mechanisms to discover the IP address of the current stage 2 deployment server, making this malware extremely robust and capable of dealing with unpredictable C2 infrastructure changes.

The stage 2 malware, which does not persist through a reboot, possesses capabilities that we have come to expect in a workhorse intelligence-collection platform, such as file collection, command execution, data exfiltration and device management. However, some versions of stage 2 also possess a self-destruct capability that overwrites a critical portion of the device's firmware and reboots the device, rendering it unusable. Based on the actor's demonstrated knowledge of these devices, and the existing capability in some stage 2 versions, we assess with high confidence that the actor could deploy this self-destruct command to most devices that it controls, regardless of whether the command is built into the stage 2 malware.

In addition, there are multiple stage 3 modules that serve as plugins for the stage 2 malware. These plugins provide stage 2 with additional functionality. As of this writing, we are aware of two plugin modules: a packet sniffer for collecting traffic that passes through the device, including theft of website credentials and monitoring of Modbus SCADA protocols, and a communications module that allows stage 2 to communicate over Tor. We assess with high confidence that several other plugin modules exist, but we have yet to discover them.

Tradecraft discussion

We assess with high confidence that this malware is used to create an expansive, hard-to-attribute infrastructure that can be used to serve multiple operational needs of the threat actor. Since the affected devices are legitimately owned by businesses or individuals, malicious activity conducted from infected devices could be mistakenly attributed to those who were actually victims of the actor. The capabilities built into the various stages and plugins of the malware are extremely versatile and would enable the actor to take advantage of devices in multiple ways.

Advanced threat actors, including nation-states, will try to make attribution of their cyber activities extremely difficult, unless it is in their interest for it to be openly known that they conducted a specific act. To this end, advanced threat actors use multiple techniques, including co-opting infrastructure owned by someone else to conduct their operations. The actor could easily use devices infected with this malware as hop points before connecting to their final victim in order to obfuscate their true point of origin.

The malware can also be leveraged to collect data that flows through the device. This could be for straightforward data-collection purposes, or to assess the potential value of the network that the device serves. If the network was deemed as having information of potential interest to the threat actor, they may choose to continue collecting content that passes through the device or to propagate into the connected network for data collection. At the time of this posting, we have not been able to acquire a third-stage plugin that would enable further exploitation of the network served by the device. However, we have seen indications that it does exist, and we assess that it is highly likely that such an advanced actor would naturally include that capability in malware that is this modular.

Finally, this malware could be used to conduct a large-scale destructive attack by using the "kill" command, which would render some or all of the physical devices unusable. This command is present in many of the stage 2 samples we've observed, but could also be triggered by utilizing the "exec" command available in all stage 2 samples. In most cases, this action is unrecoverable by most victims, requiring technical capabilities, know-how, or tools that no consumer should be expected to have. We are deeply concerned about this capability, and it is one of the driving reasons we have been quietly researching this threat over the past few months.

Should I put a list of currently known affected devices as well?

edited 23rd May '18 7:20:23 PM by megaeliz

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#243340: May 23rd 2018 at 6:57:24 PM

@M84, it goes hand-in-hand with nationalistic unilateralism, the same kind that gave the world the Iraq War and might give us an Iran one. Also, stuff like that threatens NATO and alliances in East Asia, which is only good news for everyone's favorite pair of authoritarian powers...

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Cid Campeador Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
Campeador
#243341: May 23rd 2018 at 7:04:43 PM

The exploitation of women by the factories there result in them becoming especially vulnerable to assault, rape, and murder.
Kindly fuck off.

The sexist, misogynist culture from my country is what's causing the femicides. It is a blight that's been plaguing my country, not just that one little city in the border, for decades if not centuries because the men in my country feel entitled to belittle, abuse and rape women because they've been taught that women are not people, just objects that exist only to provide sexual pleasure to men, raise children and cook food.

The women in Mexico are taught, since they're little, that their only purpose is to be a good wife and that means shutting up and opening her legs so any man who wants to have sex with them can do so because fuck consent, right? I've known and talked to countless women who will only talk about superficial things unless they get permission from their husband/father and/or male neighbour if none exist.

Now THAT is what's causing the femicides. The fact that if a girl ignores a random creep in the street he feels entitled to raping her and even killing her because she hurt his pathetic little ego.

If a woman is left to raise her family alone, or if she's got to take care of her parents because they get ill or something, she's at risk of being killed by her own father because he's the provider and she's stepping out of line.

This is a country where even the priests in rural towns will tell women that if they don't want to get killed, they should just accept their place.

I mean, do you even know why the cities and towns in the border are worse for women? It's called drugs. I mean, if the average Mexican is a sexist piece of shit, imagine how bad the drug dealers are. They're these horrible humans beings who hurt other people to get their way, brag about doing it and kill and/or torture those who get in their way. What do you think happens when a woman says "no" to one of these entitled little fuckers? Here's a hint, if she's lucky she'll only be raped by 1 man and then killed. If she's lucky.

And want to know what's the saddest thing? Cd. Juarez and other cities near the border are better with the treaty because at least these crappy factories provide a job to those women who wouldn't get one otherwise... unless they also joined the cartels, become prostitutes or risked getting killed while traveling the desert in the middle of the night to escape their city AND their abusive families who insist on treating women like objects because that's all they've known for generations.

So no, the femicides in Mexico are not because we got into a bad international treaty but because we've got a toxic culture that we haven't managed to fix yet.

edited 23rd May '18 7:15:25 PM by Cid

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#243342: May 23rd 2018 at 7:09:16 PM

[up] Yep, trying to claim that NAFTA is at fault for providing women with jobs is definitely some Stay in the Kitchen horseshit that ignores fucking everything that's actually causing the problem in Mexico.

If one wants to criticize NAFTA...that really isn't an appropriate way to do it.

edited 23rd May '18 7:11:00 PM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#243343: May 23rd 2018 at 7:13:02 PM

My view on the subject is that it's a deliberate campaign against the economic independence of women or at the very least profound neglect of women based on misogyny as well as the Stay in the Kitchen mentality.

I basically see a lot of American exploitation of financial situations and abuse of Mexican female workers. Sorry if I've got it wrong.

This is how you do it, dumbass

Thanks, got it!

edited 23rd May '18 7:13:33 PM by CharlesPhipps

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
RabidTanker God-Mayor of Sim-Kind Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
God-Mayor of Sim-Kind
#243344: May 23rd 2018 at 7:15:55 PM

Well, on the bright side, I'd just learned another reason why America's immigration problem exists.

But having an semi-terrible job is better than staying who-knows-where all day? Right?

Answer no master, never the slave Carry your dreams down into the grave Every heart, like every soul, equal to break
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#243345: May 23rd 2018 at 7:19:14 PM

http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/zombie-alert-startles-florida-residents-after-power-outage

ZOMBIES IN FLORIDA.

Yes, it was obviously a prank but given the Trump government denied it, you have to wonder.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#243346: May 23rd 2018 at 7:19:24 PM

[up][up] As I've mentioned before...we don't have an immigration "problem". At least it's not coming from Mexico.

Our actual problem is overseas people letting their visas expire.

The real reason anti-immigration jerks harp on about Mexico is because they just don't want more non-white people in the USA.

edited 23rd May '18 7:21:03 PM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#243347: May 23rd 2018 at 7:20:50 PM

As I've mentioned before...we don't have an immigration "problem". At least it's not coming from Mexico.

Our actual problem is overseas people letting their visas expire.

This is true.

There's no problem with people going over the border illegally. They come here legally and stay—and it's a "problem" which is at its lowest in years.

The real reason anti-immigration jerks harp on about Mexico is because they just don't want more non-white people in the USA.

As stated, there's no wall proposed around Canada.

Even though THEY have maple syrup syndicates.

edited 23rd May '18 7:22:47 PM by CharlesPhipps

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#243348: May 23rd 2018 at 7:21:34 PM

[up][up][up] Those emergency alerts are sent out by the city government, not the federal government.

edited 23rd May '18 7:22:19 PM by archonspeaks

They should have sent a poet.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#243349: May 23rd 2018 at 7:22:23 PM

And frankly, the idea that immigration is a "problem" is more than a little offensive to me, seeing as how I'm the son of a pair of immigrants.

Disgusted, but not surprised
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#243350: May 23rd 2018 at 7:23:14 PM

The American economy of rich jackasses also functions because of exploitation of immigrants.

So, I don't know who thinks they're getting what.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

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