HMM: Did NPR Reveal an Ugly Truth About ‘Joker’ Criticism?

CYBERSECURITY: FBI warns of major ransomware attacks as criminals go “big-game hunting.”

Data from CrowdStrike has shown a rise in what the firm refers to as “big-game hunting” over the past 18 months. These attacks focus on high-value data or assets within organizations that are especially sensitive to downtime—so the motivation to pay a ransom is consequently very high.

“Big-game hunters are essentially targeting people within an organization for the sole purpose of identifying critical assets for the purpose of deploying their ransomware,” said Jen Ayers, CrowdStrike’s Vice President in charge of the Falcon OverWatch threat-hunting service in an interview with Ars. “[Hitting] one financial transaction server, you can charge a lot more for that than you could for a thousand consumers with ransomware — you’re going to make a lot more money a lot faster.”

It’s amazing how many servers lack security patches, or sometimes even just password protection.

OFFICIAL EXTORTION: Minneapolis Mayor Tries to Shut Down Trump Rally With ‘Outrageous’ Security Fee.

They’re scared.

SPENGLER: We Don’t Have Good Options With Turkey and Iran — We’ll Have to Work Hard to Get Them.

I’M NOT WATCHING THIS VIDEO: Warp speeds in ‘Star Trek’ are achingly slow, and a simple animation by a former NASA scientist proves it. “I have genuinely felt a sense of despair at the distances involved in our solar system and beyond. It’s been one of my aims to make everyone else feel as bad as me.”

Gee, thanks.

DAVID HARSANYI: Hey, Congress: Take Back Your War Powers, Or Shut Up About Syria.

Congress is the institution vested with the power to declare wars, to debate where we send troops, and decide which conflicts are funded. Presidents have been ignoring this arrangement, abuse authorizations for the use of military force (AUMFs), and imbue themselves with the power to engage in conflicts wherever they like, without any coherent endgame, and without any buy-in from Congress.

Congress, in turn, has shown no interest in genuinely challenging executive power, because its members are far more concerned with political self-preservation. Ignoring abuse shields them from tough choices and ensuing criticism—even as they use war as a partisan cudgel.

Even if you don’t believe all these conflicts rise to an Article I declaration, and I don’t, the more accountability there is in foreign entanglements the better.

Indeed.

THIS IS JUST WRONG: One Of The World’s Most Famous Brands Wants You To Drink Whisky In An Outrageous New Way (And People Are Laughing).

Now along comes the second biggest whisky brand in the world — Glenlivet — to offer a completely new way for the younger generations to get into whisky.

This new way is Tide Pods.

Well, not exactly Tide Pods, but Whisky Pods.

Why have a glass and some rocks when you can have 23 milliliters of fine Glenlivet couched in a seaweed-based pouch?

Just no.

WAIT, WHAT? Muslim Drag Queen in Vice Mag: Islam Is ‘Inherently Queer.’

WELL, GOOD:

This got less attention than when Apple pulled the Hong Kong police-tracking app from the App Store, but late last week it was restored in time for the weekend’s protests. Whether this was due to a change of heart at HQ, or (more likely) a screwup caused by the company’s notoriously flaky approval process, we’ll never know. Either way, it’s good that it’s back.

RULE 34A: IF IT DOESN’T EXIST, THERE’S STILL PORN OF IT: Most AI-Generated Deepfake Videos Online Are Porn.

PRIVACY: Cheap smartphones have a disturbing secret. “Billions of people worldwide access the internet only through their phones. But using a cheap smartphone comes with some serious trade-offs.”

According to an analysis by the advocacy group Privacy International, a $17 Android smartphone called MYA2 MyPhone, which was launched in December 2017, has a host of privacy problems that make its owner vulnerable to hackers and to data-hungry tech companies.

First, it comes with an outdated version of Android with known security vulnerabilities that can’t be updated or patched. The MYA2 also has apps that can’t be updated or deleted, and those apps contain multiple security and privacy flaws. One of those pre-installed apps that can’t be removed, Facebook Lite, gets default permission to track everywhere you go, upload all your contacts, and read your phone’s calendar. The fact that Facebook Lite can’t be removed is especially worrying because the app suffered a major privacy snafu earlier this year when hundreds of millions of Facebook Lite users had their passwords exposed. Facebook did not respond to request for comment.

Philippines-based MyPhone said the specs of the MYA2 limited it to shipping the phone with Android 6.0, and since then it says it has “lost access and support to update the apps we have pre-installed” with the device. Given that the MYA2 phone, like many low-cost Android smartphones, runs outdated versions of the Android OS and can’t be updated due to their hardware limitations, users of such phones are limited to relatively light privacy protections compared to what modern OSes, like Android 10, offer today.

The MYA2 is just one example of how cheap smartphones leak personal information, provide few if any privacy protections, and are incredibly easy to hack compared to their more expensive counterparts.

Caveat emptor.

UNEXPECTEDLY: New Poll Suggests Dems’ Impeachment Fever Helping Trump With Independents.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Dick’s CEO Turns Perfectly Good Rifles Into Scrap Metal to Make a Point of Some Kind. “Put this guy in charge of a lemonade stand, and you’ll end up with a couple of homeless little girls.”

THE MOST CALIFORNIA HEADLINE EVER: Questions of unethical dealing hit high-speed rail. But don’t stop construction in Fresno.

First, Assemblyman Jim Patterson, the Republican from Fresno, last month wrote the state agency that oversees politicians and public officials with concerns that a member of the rail project’s board had a financial conflict of interest, or at the least, an appearance of one. It was the second time this year Patterson had brought such a concern to the Fair Political Practices Commission. In the first instance, the rail project’s deputy chief operating officer had to step aside while his case came under investigation.

Second, the Los Angeles Times published a story that certain legislators in Southern California and the Bay Area are now considering using their voting clout to redirect state funds from the bullet train to rail projects in their areas. The lawmakers want to alleviate the freeway congestion that so frequently stymies their region.

Taken together, the developments are new fodder for detractors who think high-speed-rail is a colossal boondoggle that should be stopped. But, if anything, they should focus the rail board even more on getting the project done while making sure its leadership is completely ethical in all its dealings.

Another layer of administration ought to do it. Just one more…

NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL A FIRST-WORLD PROBLEM: World’s super-rich hit by private jet pilot shortage.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Hillary Is Running…At the Mouth. “Many rumors are swirling about saying that Her Majesty the Royal Granny Maojackets Hillary Clinton may want to dip her ugly toes into the presidential race waters once again. As an American voter who would prefer that no Democrats ever be in power again, I only have one thought about that: Please God, yes.”

PRETTY BIG: Just How Big of a Deal Is China’s DF-17 Missile?

Unlike traditional ballistic missile re-entry vehicles, which are propelled to great heights by a booster rocket only to fall back to Earth on a roughly predictable trajectory, boost-glide vehicles leverage atmospheric lift and drag forces to glide – imagine a pebble skipping over the surface of a lake.

As they glide they accumulate tremendous heat and speed. To a limited degree, they can manoeuvre low to evade radars designed to look for high-flying missile re-entry vehicles outside the Earth’s atmosphere. Because they give such little warning, in the final moments of flight, the weapons can catch point defences – such as short-range missile defence systems – off guard.

In the case of the DF-17, China has looked to build up a highly precise system. U.S. analysis of the missile’s first tests in November 2017 found an impressive degree of precision – with the test units apparently striking within metres of their targets.

For now, China claims the DF-17 will only carry conventional munitions. But even a nothing more exotic than a slug of tungsten moving the hypersonic speed is going to deliver a lot of kinetic energy to the target.

WINNING: Democrats are wrong. Middle-class incomes surging – thanks to Trump policies.

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Does state government deserve more of your money?

Colorado:

Do you look forward to an annual tax refund check? Or do you want to donate your tax refund to the state government? That is just what Proposition CC is asking you to do – forever.

It says “without raising taxes” and technically, there is no tax rate increase but the government will keep more of your money which means you will pay more in taxes and have less in your bank account to spend on things that you or your family might need.

The politicians hope that you don’t remember that when Referendum C passed in 2005, it was to go to education and highways. Funny how, now, Proposition CC is to go for basically the same things.

So where did that money go? Who knows. As the non-partisan state staff will tell you, it is impossible to know how the money was spent. What we do know is that education and highway funding did not increase by the amount of increased revenue to the state. Why? Because politicians can change the rules by just passing a bill – and they do every budget cycle.

As Bill Whittle has noted, government doesn’t collect taxes in order to perform services — it performs services in order to justify taxes. And like any slacker it will do the least while collecting the most.

WHY BOTHER, WHEN THE WORLD ENDS IN 2031? Company behind Dove and Ben & Jerry’s plans to cut use of plastic in half by 2025.

They’re certainly in no rush.

THIS IS LOVELY: Clarence Thomas Opens Up About Finding God in ‘One of the Darkest Periods of My Life.’

DOES THIS EVEN RISE TO THE LEVEL OF “UNEXPECTEDLY?”: Treasury Department Complains of Unworthy EV Credit Recipients.

YES. NEXT QUESTION? Is Hillary Positioning Herself to Jump in if Biden Falters?

FLASHBACK: Chuck Todd has always been a left-wing hack.

He’s always been embarrassingly prickly when called on it, too.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. The Media Is Way Too Easily Distracted By Twitter-Friendly Stories.

Political Twitter is easily distracted by stories with a dangerously unbalanced ratio of news value to entertainment value, even more so than the cable networks. (I’m not excluding myself from this.) Because the conversation is driven by coastal journalists who use our accounts for social and professional purposes, there’s a premium on media gossip, insular Beltway chatter, and amusing viral content. Neither of the stories mentioned above speak to broader trends whatsoever.

The problem is that news outlets also use Twitter as an assignment editor, which has the effect of artificially inflating the importance of such stories—in newsrooms, boardrooms, and living rooms.

Related:

I still read a couple of my own curated Twitter lists, for the same reason I have to read fake news outlets like WaPo and the NYT. But getting off the platform as a participant is one of the best decisions I’ve made all year.