Not enough Whisky for this Tango Foxtrot

[RoseMorninStar]

What an utterly beautiful, wonderful, glorious headline:

Anti-gay Hungarian politician József Szájer resigns after being caught attending 25-man orgy in breach of COVID-19 rules

My hubby had a field day with this.

[Alatar]

Today in "not the Onion"

https://www.vg247.com/2020/12/17/space- ... moted-ps5/

Apparently, the Airman 1st Class (who was promptly demoted to from Senior Airman thanks to the transgression) was contacted by his superior and told to get to the class to which he simply replied: “Yolo, PS5 > letters of discipline.”

[Frelga]

https://twitter.com/BrentBozell/status/ ... 88163?s=19

"Founder of the Media Research Center" is about to find out that asking on Twitter

Why is it that when you go to Antifa. com it takes you to ... the Biden White House?

will only encourage people to register all sorts of insulting domain names that redirect to every site connected to you, and also domains that appear to be connected to you and redirect to, for example, porn sites.

[Inanna]

Ah. I hope so. The dipshits comment was funny.

[Frelga]

Turns out, LOTR takes legal precedence over the US Constitution.

Guys, an actual filing in federal court is asking for the court to establish the Stewardship of Gondor in the absence of Aragorn. No, I'm not joking. h.t @questauthority

20210122_173703.jpg (55.39 KiB) Viewed 5462 times

The tweet has the link to the pdf and there's more in the thread.

https://twitter.com/RMFifthCircuit/stat ... 89761?s=19

[Inanna]

Unbelievable

[N.E. Brigand]

Turns out, LOTR takes legal precedence over the US Constitution.

Guys, an actual filing in federal court is asking for the court to establish the Stewardship of Gondor in the absence of Aragorn. No, I'm not joking. h.t @questauthority

20210122_173703.jpg

The tweet has the link to the pdf and there's more in the thread.
https://twitter.com/RMFifthCircuit/stat ... 89761?s=19

One thing that annoyed me when I first saw Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring was the implication that either Aragorn or his ancestors had deliberately abandoned Gondor. And now that incorrect idea has made its way into a legal filing.

[RoseMorninStar]

[N.E. Brigand]

And in a chilling article:
https://www.npr.org/2019/10/15/77024971 ... -and-trump
What else aren't we being told because it might damage a powerful person? I'm really, really, really freakin tired of the rich and/or powerful being propped up above the law.
And once again I wonder where we are with exposing and prosecuting those involved with Epstein. Nobody is a solo sex-trafficker.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/busi ... state.html
This has been my WTF browse through the news today. And it's only 10am

Unfortunately, the rich and powerful have far too often circumvented the law and consequences of their crimes throughout history. It is no wonder the poor and weak cling/clung to the idea of a divine being who sees all and will judge all from a purely moral perspective. It also explains why so many had a problem with the selling of 'indulgences' as if the church/priests could 'grease the palm' of God for entry into heaven. What a mixed up world of manipulation!

Hmm. https://newrepublic.com/article/161060/leon-black-american-tradition-impunity

After a year of mounting pressure from investors and outside critics, Leon Black, the billionaire chief executive of private equity giant Apollo Global Management, announced on Monday that he would step down later this year. Apparently the revelation that Black gave $148 million to deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein for supposed financial advice was enough to provoke an internal revolt among Apollo’s leadership.

The author of that article notes: "I asked a tax lawyer and apparently it is not normal to be paid $148 million for tax advice, just so we're clear."

[elengil]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... eace-prize

I got nuthin.

[RoseMorninStar]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... eace-prize

I got nuthin.

I think this explains it:

The bar for nominations is low, as they are are accepted from thousands of people, from members of parliament to former winners and heads of state. There were more than 300 nominations for last year’s award, which was ultimately won by the World Food Programme.

Nominations, which closed on Sunday, do not imply an endorsement from the Nobel committee.

I think some people have themselves nominated just to say they were nominated and have it make the news.

[elengil]

[N.E. Brigand]

Not sure where this should go, but maybe infrastructure systems shouldn't be set up so that it's possible to remotely access the computer that controls a city's water supply and use that system to attempt to poison thousands of people:

Someone tried to poison Oldsmar’s water supply during hack, sheriff says

Fortunately, a worker noticed the setting was changed to increase the amount of lye (which is used in small quantities to de-acidify drinking water) from 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million, and adjusted the level back before it took effect. But I'm not sure that proves there are enough safeguards.

[RoseMorninStar]

You may not find this comforting, but stuff like this happens with our grid all of the time and yes, something should be done.

[Frelga]

I remember reading a Wired article on how Russia can hack into Ukrainian power grid to turn it off or on. The American security expert called in to consult said that there is absolutely no reason why they can't do the same thing to the US grid.

There was a joke that the newest piece of electronic equipment a software engineer keeps in the house is a twenty years old printer, and there's a loaded gun next to it at all times in case it makes a sudden noise.

[RoseMorninStar]

I believe it has been reported that experts believe Russia has hacked (or has the ability to hack) our power grid. Threats from Russia have been greatly downplayed in the past couple of years. On the other hand, the source of that information said they had no doubt the US also has personnel who could hack Russia's power grid and that threat maintains a sort of (uneasy) balance.

[Frelga]

I suppose it's better than the nukes...

[RoseMorninStar]

Some of our power grid is nuclear. Russians Who Pose Election Threat Have Hacked Nuclear Plants and Power Grid. Article includes info on water treatment facilities too. Indeed.

[N.E. Brigand]

I have no idea what thread should receive this news, but:

Deathbed Letter From Former Cop Claims NYPD, FBI Helped Kill Malcolm X

The undercover police officer, Ray Wood, died of cancer in 2011, but before his passing he gave his brother a letter in which he claims that he was ordered to set up two of Malcolm X's bodyguards so that they were arrested (and thus not around to protect the fiery civil rights activist) a few days before the assassination. He also claims that one of the men convicted of killing Malcolm X, Thomas Johnson, who claimed his entire life that he was innocent, was framed in part to maintain Wood's cover.

As I recall, Spike Lee's 1992 biographical film about Malcolm X, although generally lauded, received some criticism for hinting that the government played a role in the murder.

[Túrin Turambar]

CPAC has cancelled scheduled speaker rapper Young Pharaoh over anti-Semitic tweets. The theme of CPAC this year is "America uncancelled".