BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: Navy Declares Initial Operational Capability for F-35C Joint Strike Fighter.
Author Archive: Stephen Green
March 1, 2019
THIS IS CNN: CNN didn’t disclose Democratic Party ties of questioners in Sanders town hall.
“Though we said at the beginning of the Town Hall that the audience was made up of Democrats and Independents, we should have more fully identified any political affiliations,” the cable news network said in a statement.
The outlet has come under fire for presenting the questioners on Monday’s episode as everyday voters, without mentioning that some are local party officials or work for politically connected firms.
Among those who quizzed the socialist presidential hopeful was Baltimore County Democratic Party Chair Tara Ebersole, who was identified on the episode only as a “former biology professor,” and Charles County Democratic Central Committee Chair Abena McAllister, who was described as “an active Democrat,” according to Mediaite.
Yunjung Seo was introduced as a college student, but neither host Wolf Blitzer nor the on-screen chyron mentioned that she is an intern at Democratic fundraising outfit the Katz Watson Group, according to her LinkedIn page.
And Shadi Nasab was also presented as a college student, even though her LinkedIn page says she is an intern at DC lobbying firm Cassidy and Associates.
So, the questioners weren’t much different from CNN staff.
GREAT: The Feds’ Favorite iPhone Hacking Tool Is Selling On eBay For $100—And It’s Leaking Data.
Cellebrite isn’t happy about those secondhand sales. On Tuesday, two sources from the forensics industry passed Forbes a letter from Cellebrite warning customers about reselling its hugely popular hacking devices because they could be used to access individuals’ private data. Rather than return the UFEDs to Cellebrite so they can be properly decommissioned, it appears police or other individuals who’ve acquired the machines are flogging them and failing to properly wipe them. Cybersecurity researchers are now warning that valuable case data and powerful police hacking tools could have leaked as a result.
Am I reading this correctly, that police are reselling hacking tools for private gain?
SPENGLER: ‘The Insider’s Guide to the Hebrew Bible.’
Claremont Review of Books is the “brainiest and best” among conservative publications, I’ve claimed previously on this page, and it is a privilege to contribute. The new issue has must-read essays by Charles Kessler on Trump in 2020 and Michael Anton on draining the swamp. It also presents my review-essay on a landmark edition of the Pentateuch in five volumes, with thousands of explanatory notes by the leading Orthodox Jewish authority of the 20th century, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik. He is known to Christian readers through his essay “The Lonely Man of Faith.” This magisterial work fairly might be called the insider’s guide to the Hebrew Bible. Clarement Review has generously unlocked the article for a limited time as a courtesy to PJ Media readers.
Clarement Review has generously unlocked the article for a limited time as a courtesy to PJ Media readers.I’m what we Jews call a “ba’al teshuvah,” a “returnee,” that is, observant later in life. I was brought up in a secular home and remained an atheist until my mid-30s. Not until the age of 40 did I attend synagogue weekly. Ten years ago I joined an Orthodox synagogue and became observant, after I encountered the work of Rabbi Soloveitchik. Reading the first pages of his book And From There You Shall Seek I fell off my chair–literally. I suppose one would call it a conversion experience.
You can read Spengler’s entire review here.
HEH: Diamond and Silk Tell Kamala Harris, ‘You Keep Your Reparations.’ “You don’t get to buy my silence.”
SURVEILLANCE STATE, AISLE SIX: Creeping on You in the Cold Drinks Aisle.
A new digital door technology from a company called Cooler Screens is now being tested in Walgreens, and it sounds absolutely awful. Rather than a basic, transparent glass door, coolers and freezers will be sealed by screens that show a sanitized image of the products behind them. Supposedly, these screens will:
• Save energy
• Help monitor inventory
• Help customers with poor eyesight
• Make products more visually appealing
That’s all nice enough, and those mild benefits might even be worth replacing a simple glass pane with a complex TV screen. However, further reading ultimately makes those benefits sound like nothing so much as an after-the-fact justification for the real motives behind this technology.
Flashing banner ads float between the digital rows of goods…in addition to the flashy ads and “smart” merchandising, these screens are equipped with sensors and cameras designed to watch and profile the appearance and actions of customers who find themselves in their path, like me. Approximate age and gender. How long my gaze lingers on the bottles of tea.
It’s a sure thing all the info collected will wind up in someone’s database.
OH: Chinese Auto Market Not As Hot As Everyone Thought.
Despite amassing a network of factories that could theoretically outproduce the rest of the world, the Asian country’s automotive sector only operates at about half its total capacity. That’s disconcerting. Even Europe, site of some serious industrial headwinds of its own, manages to operate around 70 percent capacity.
While the reasons for China’s woes are ludicrously complicated, one of the most pressing issues is that its economy is slowing much earlier than anticipated. Automakers, both foreign and domestic, almost universally believed that The People’s Republic would surpass the United States as the world’s largest automotive market — and they were right. But investments kept pouring in, factories were built, and the market started to cool prematurely. The situation only grew worse as incentives dried up and people began buying fewer cars; now, 2019 is shaping up to be a very bad year for the nation’s automotive sector.
Voters in free countries get a chance to throw the bastards out during a downturn. I wonder how the Chinese will vent their frustrations.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: It’s a condensed edition, but with more than enough linky goodness to start your day.
CYBERSECURITY: Comcast set Xfinity Mobile PINs to ‘0000’ by default, leaving customers vulnerable to hacks.
Comcast left customers of its Xfinity Mobile phone service vulnerable to hacks and identify theft by setting the default PIN codes of its accounts to “0000,” making it easy for malicious third parties to steal customers’ identities. The vulnerability was pointed out by one user who wrote in to The Washington Post to describe “a tech horror story,” which Comcast then confirmed.
The hacked user, from California, told the Post he had his phone number hijacked and transferred to a new account, with his credit card still attached to the new phone. The hacker then used the card to buy a new Apple computer in Georgia. If the PIN sounds familiar, that might be because Kanye West made headlines for setting his iPhone X password to 000000 — not a great look for any standard tech user or hip-hop mogul, but an even worse one for the IT department of a enormous telecommunications company servicing tens of millions of people.
There’s no excuse for this kind of thing in 2019, or even 2009.
READINESS: Navy Short 6,200 At-Sea Sailors Now to Meet New Manning Requirements.
According to the written testimony from Grady and U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. John Aquilino submitted for the hearing, the missing sailors are from the mid-grade and senior enlisted ranks that will take years to train and place in the fleet. The pair indicated there wasn’t a specific set of billets they needed to fill with the new sailors but rather that they were needed across platforms at sea.
That number could grow as the Navy adds ships to the fleet and personnel needs rise, Grady said. Growing sailors fast enough to the level of technical ability to operate the proposed 355 ships is set to be a major challenge for the service and a key focus of the Navy’s ongoing surface reform effort.
Acute manning problems were found to be a factor in the fatal collisions of USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) and USS John McCain (DDG-56). For example, Fitzgerald did not have lookouts on the bridge wing immediately before the crash, and sailors aboard McCain weren’t qualified to use the helm controls which contributed to its collision.
Not good.
MEGHAN MURPHY: Why I’m Suing Twitter.
Earlier this year, lawyers acting on my behalf filed a legal complaint against Twitter in California. The social media behemoth has been suspending accounts, not because users break Twitter rules, but because they break rank. Despite repeated claims that the platform exists as a space for free speech, and the company’s professed public commitment to refrain from banning users for ideological reasons, Twitter is now doing just that. Those who fail to adhere to the company’s preferred politics are picked off, with no accountability to speak of.
During an interview on a recent podcast, Sam Harris pressed Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on the recent ideological crackdown. Dorsey responded that the platform did not generally ban people for “one tweet,” but that it looked at “behaviours in the background” to determine which users should be suspended. Dorsey referenced behaviours like “doxing,” “threats of violence,” operating multiple accounts in order to harass particular people, and inducing “troll armies intending to silence someone.” I have done none of these things, yet was banned from the platform anyway, supposedly for breaking Twitter rules. Which rules? I can’t tell you—because Twitter hasn’t told me.
It’s Calvinball all the way down.
FORCE MULTIPLIER: Boeing unveils its 38ft-long autonomous ‘Loyal Wingman’ drone that uses AI to fly alongside piloted aircraft and is designed to carry missiles or bombs.
The unmanned drone, dubbed the ‘Loyal Wingman,’ is 38 feet long, has a 2,000 nautical mile range and is equipped with onboard sensors that enable it to conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, as well as electronic warfare.
It’s particularly suited for long-distance surveillance missions that humans can’t typically perform, according to the firm.
Wingman may also be able to carry missiles or bombs at some point in the future. Boeing hopes to sell the planes to customers around the world, though for now it remains a prototype design.
Faster, please.
CHRISTIAN TOTO: Tina Fey ‘Blames’ Fallon for Trump’s Election. “Liberals cannot forget how Fallon yukked it up with Trump weeks before Election Day.”
Does that mean we can pin the blame for Bill Clinton on Arsenio?
February 28, 2019
NORTH KOREA SUMMIT: My quick take is that Kim sensed Trump had political weakness at home due to the Cohen hearing, and bet that Trump couldn’t afford to walk away from a bad deal. He chose… poorly
MRS GRUNDY IS EVERYWHERE: Homeowner’s Association Fines Resident After Car Leaves Penis-Shaped Outline in Snowy Lot.
SARAH HOYT: The Flaw In Flawless. “Perfectionism should be classified as a disability. It has blighted more lives than autism, destroyed more potential work than brain damage, stopped more achievement than miss-education. It can devour entire civilizations, and arguably has.”
Yes.
IT’S CERTAINLY NO WAY TO COOL THINGS OFF: Pakistan may have violated Geneva Conventions after posting video of captured pilot.
IT’S COLLUSION I TELL YOU: US Cyber Command took Russian trolls offline during midterms.
JAMES SIMPSON: Ilhan Omar: Poster Child for the Red-Green Axis. “Stop ignoring this virulently anti-Semitic, anti-American coalition of subversives.”
PATRICK POOLE: NBC News Reporter Caught Lying about Michael Cohen Testimony on Trump and WikiLeaks. “Misrepresentations and outright lies are about all they have left.”
BUT OF COURSE: European Parliament Mandates Speed Limiters on All New Cars.
UK based Evo.co.uk is reporting that, after approval by key members of the European Parliament of regulations proposed by the European Transport Safety Council, speed limiters and data loggers will now be mandatory equipment on all new cars. The European Parliament’s Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection voted in favor of mandatory vehicle safety standards that could be in force within three years. Negotiations between the Parliament, Member States and the European Commission will determine how the new regulations are implemented.
The speed limiters, which go by the euphemism Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA), use GPS data and possibly traffic sign recognition to determine a road’s speed limit and then limit engine power to match that speed. While it’s possible to just press harder on the accelerator and go faster, if the car exceeds the speed limit for several seconds, an audible warning signal will sound, along with a visual warning displayed until speed is reduced to the legal limit.
The new regulations also mandate data loggers, plus driver assist features like lane warnings and autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection. It’s not clear if the data loggers would have any privacy protections.
The soft fascists continue their march through Europe.