February Current Events: a momentary lapse of treason

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Proud Christian Mom: Dec 20, 2006; READING COMPREHENSION IS HARD

https://twitter.com/mikeallen/status/1091718028272824321

# ? Feb 2, 2019 17:47

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# ? May 28, 2024 05:44

Best Friends: Nov 4, 2011

I've got a pretty good job and my health care still costs hundreds of dollars for routine visits.

There's polling indicating most people like their health care while also disliking the overall system. I wonder how much of that liking of health care comes from people comparing having anything versus the very real possibility of having little or nothing. People tend to think in terms of comparison to what's right next to them.

# ? Feb 2, 2019 17:48

Proud Christian Mom: Dec 20, 2006; READING COMPREHENSION IS HARD

also, most of yall dont have great insurance, your employer does. thats the entire problem.

# ? Feb 2, 2019 17:48

Nostalgia4Infinity: Feb 27, 2007; 10,000 YEARS WASN'T ENOUGH LURKING

I stand corrected re: insurance.

Mine loving sucks though.

# ? Feb 2, 2019 17:49

Bored As Fuck: Jan 1, 2006; Fun Shoe

Milo and POTUS posted:

That's what I figured it was because I have no clue what the others are trying to sing

Spoonman dude. Come on.

# ? Feb 2, 2019 17:51

Crab Dad: Dec 28, 2002; behold i have tempered and refined thee, but not as silver; as CRAB

Healthcare should not be a for-profit industry. It should be treated like national defense. An onerous but necessary function for the well being of the country.

# ? Feb 2, 2019 17:55

AreWeDrunkYet: Jul 8, 2006

That Works posted:

This is a bit overwrought. I work with most of the programs mentioned in the parent article and

Like, ok what they did was cute, but synthesizing DNA into a preconceived sequence is trivial these days. But to get the error to occur they had to make the program involved in compressing the output datafiles more unstable. They go on to point out that there are "3 other common programs" that get used in this type of work that have vulnerabilities that can generate the needed buffer overflow for their stuff to get out into the wild but since they weren't named I am skeptical about how common they actually are or exactly how vulnerable.

The whole thing is neat and clever but not really a big deal in regard to actual security.

It's a plain old injection attack, one of the easier things to mitigate if you're aware of the risk. But security is the last thing anyone worries about, so as the technology becomes more accessible there are going to be some hilariously bad implementations that are vulnerable to things like this.

# ? Feb 2, 2019 17:59

psydude: Apr 1, 2008

LingcodKilla posted:

Healthcare should not be a for-profit industry. It should be treated like national defense. An onerous but necessary function for the well being of the country.

Most draftees during WWI were malnourished, which resulted in the first nutrition programs.

# ? Feb 2, 2019 18:01

Nostalgia4Butts: Jun 1, 2006; WHERE MY HOSE DRINKERS AT

Proud Christian Mom posted:

https://twitter.com/mikeallen/status/1091718028272824321

gently caress yeah

# ? Feb 2, 2019 18:01

Hot Karl Marx: Mar 16, 2009; Politburo regulations about social distancing require to downgrade your Karlmarxing to cold, and sorry about the dnc primaries, please enjoy!

https://twitter.com/GideonResnick/s...ingawful.com%2F

# ? Feb 2, 2019 18:06

colachute: Mar 15, 2015

Hot Karl Marx posted:

https://twitter.com/GideonResnick/s...ingawful.com%2F

So basically �sorry for the racist poo poo I did. But actually....�

# ? Feb 2, 2019 18:07

Vasudus: May 30, 2003

eagerly awaiting proof via facial recognition that the person in the blackface is actually a time traveler wanted for six armed robberies in 2004

# ? Feb 2, 2019 18:08

Best Friends: Nov 4, 2011

The best tech minds sitting around a machine trying to fix the issue of facial recognition not working on black skin

# ? Feb 2, 2019 18:17

bloops: Dec 31, 2010; Thanks Ape Pussy!

Hot Karl Marx posted:

https://twitter.com/GideonResnick/s...ingawful.com%2F

He's planning on uploading the photo to Facebook to see whether or not it suggests its him in the photo.

# ? Feb 2, 2019 18:19

Waroduce: Aug 5, 2008

quote:

Washington (CNN)Suicides among active duty military personnel assigned to US Special Operations Command tripled in 2018, in a disturbing and as yet unexplained spike, CNN has learned.

Special Operations units saw 22 deaths by suicide in 2018, almost triple the eight cases seen in 2017, according to figures provided to CNN by the command.
SOCOM, as it's known, is the unified combatant command charged with overseeing the various Special Operations component of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force that take on counterterrorism and other specialized missions.
Based in Tampa, Florida, the command includes some of the military's most highly trained and effective fighting forces, including the Army's Delta Force and the Navy's SEAL Team Six.

While sudden spikes in suicide rates have been noted in both the military and civilian populations, military officials who spoke to CNN said what has happened at SOCOM is striking. The surge in SOCOM suicides comes as the Marine Corps and Navy are experiencing 10-year highs in the number of suicide deaths.

SOCOM began tracking suicides in detail in 2012, when there were 23 cases. Self-inflicted deaths steadily declined through 2016, when there were 15 cases, and then dropped to eight in 2017 before spiking last year.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/02/politics/socom-military-suicide-spike-2018/index.html

Also if you still weren't sure the Republican party is dirty, Russia has been following their fund right wing extremist playbook to the loving letter in the United States

quote:

The Players

Leonard Blavatnik is a Ukraine-born American businessman. He made his fortune through diversified investments in myriad companies through his conglomerate company, Access Industries. In 2015, he was named Britain's richest man with an estimated net worth of �17.1 billion as of April 2015. He and a friend from university, Viktor Vekselberg, joined with Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Group to form the AAR venture, which in 2011 was responsible for stopping the BP merger with Rosneft Oil, the Russian state-owned petrocorp (1). In March 2013, at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, there was a transfer of nearly $28 billion in U.S. currency from an account controlled by Rosneft, to one controlled by four Russian billionaires: Blavatnik, Vekselberg, Mikhail Fridman, and German Khan (2). Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin, often described as Russia's second-most-powerful man, was the central figure behind the deal.

In addition to funding Trump's inauguration party, Blavatnik has long funded Mitch McConnell's super-PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund; see FEC filings showing donations of $1M in December 2015, $500k in April 2016, and $1M on October 25 2016; note that AI Altep is a shell company of Access Industries (3). Also notice that Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone shows up for more than $2M on the October 25 filing, having also given $370k just one week prior. In October 2016, the dark-money super-PAC One Nation donates $11M to the Senate Leadership Fund, with which they share an office.

Following his election, Trump appointed as Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao -- who is Mitch McConnell's wife and donated $42k to campaigns of Senators who would later vote on her confirmation, including her husband. During the Obama-Trump transition, McConnell had raised doubts about the CIA's report that Russian hacking affected the election, and made clear that "he would consider any effort by the Obama White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics" (4). In mid-2016, McConnell's brother-in-law and billionaire investor Jim Breyer (husband of Chao's sister Angela, who became Independent Non-Executive Director of the Bank of China in November 2016) joined the board of Schwarzman's Blackstone Group. Almost a year later, following a $110B+ arms deal brokered with Saudi Arabia by Jared Kushner, the Saudis subsequently announced a $20B+ investment into Blackstone Group for U.S. infrastructure. Blackstone, especially the real estate arm led by Jonathan Gray, has long been involved with Kushner's enterprises.

A handwritten ledger surfaced in Ukraine in 2016 with dollar amounts and dates next to the name of Paul Manafort, who was then Donald Trump�s campaign chairman. Ukrainian investigators called it evidence of off-the-books payments from a pro-Russian political party. Financial records confirmed that at least $1.2 million in payments listed in the ledger next to Manafort�s name were actually received by his consulting firm in the United States in 2007 and 2009 (5). Manafort's political ties to former Ukrainian PM Viktor Yanukovich have been well documented.

The Timeline

On June 14 2016, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Speaker Paul Ryan have separate meetings with Ukrainian Prime Minister Vladimir Groysman, in which Groysman talks about Russia's financial support of populist politicians and their efforts to undermine democratic governments in Eastern Europe. The next day, McCarthy joked to Ryan and other GOP leaders that he thinks "Putin pays�Trump", after which Ryan laughs and tells the group not to leak the conversation (read the transcript here).

In August 2016, CIA Director John Brennan informs Congressional leadership (the Gang of Eight, as well as Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan) that Russia is intervening in the American election on behalf of Trump. On August 4 2016, Brennan confronts the head of Russia's FSB about the matter.

According to the famous "Steele Dossier" that comes to light in December 2016, one of Steele's inside sources describes the July 2016 meeting between Igor Sechin and Carter Page, Trump policy adviser from his campaign and foreign policy team. (In October, Russian experts would conclude that the inside source was probably a former KGB general, Oleg Erovinkin. In late December 2016, Erovinkin is found dead in his car.) According to the dossier, Sechin offers to broker a 19% sale of Rosneft to Trump's associates in return for the lifting of economic sanctions on Russia (image). Page has an audio recording of Trump promising to fulfill his end of the bargain. During the months of the general election, Trump's campaign has at least 18 undisclosed meetings/contacts with Russian officials.

On Election Day 2016, Stephen Schwarzman's housekeeper is pushed under a subway train (image, bottom]).

Following Trump's victory in November, the transition team quickly began moving to develop sanction relief for Russia, causing alarmed State Dept. officials to urge legislation codifying the sanctions. In early December, Kushner has a meeting with the Russian ambassador/spymaster Sergey Kislyak at Trump Tower, in which the men discuss the possibility of a secret back-channel for communications between the Trump team and the Kremlin.

In January 2017, 19.5% of Rosneft Oil is sold to a shell-of-shell-of-shell holding owned by (at the end of the chain) the trust company Intertrust [see the middle of image for holdings flowchart from Reuters, and tracing through shells from QHG to Intertrust]. Intertrust's major shareholder is Blackstone Group and therefore Stephen Schwarzman, who had been named chairman of the strategic and policy forum by Trump in December (he was offered a full-time role in the administration, but declined). Schwarzman now controls around 19% of Rosneft, as promised by Sechin, and has been seen with Trump at Mar-a-lago and many public events (image, bottom]). He remains a constant advisor to Trump.

On January 10 2017, Susan Rice, (Obama�s NSA), consults Michael Flynn about a plan to retake Raqqa from ISIS with the help of Syrian Kurdish forces. (The plan would have been executed under Trump, so Obama�s team wanted Flynn�s approval.) Flynn�s decision is to forestall the attack, an answer that happens to conform to the wishes of the Turkish government, which was benefiting from his lobbying work for which Flynn was paid at least $500,000. While Trump would eventually approve the military plan, Flynn�s decision 10 days before Trump took office delays the operation by several months. Flynn informs the Trump transition team that he is under investigation by the FBI for having been a foreign agent.

On January 27 2017, Donald Trump invites FBI Director James Comey to the White House for a private dinner, in which he asks for Comey's loyalty and assurances that there is no Russia investigation. The memos written by Comey regarding this and other conversations with Trump substantially corroborate his testimony before Congress.

In February, Trump asks Pence and Sessions to leave the Oval Office before pressuring Comey again to drop the Flynn investigation; Comey writes a detailed memo about this conversation. In March, Trump asked the director of national intelligence and the director of the National Security Agency to make statements confirming that the investigation had cleared him.

In late March, Flynn requests immunity from the Senate Intelligence Committee and the FBI in return for his testimony; his lawyer claims he has "a story to tell". On April 1 2017, this request is denied.

On April 27 2017, the "Mayflower Meeting" is held, shortly before Trump's first foreign policy speech, having been organized by his campaign chair Paul Manafort and Kremlin-think-tank coordinator Jacob Heilbrunn. In the room are Jeff Sessions (photo), Jared Kushner, and Manafort, along with ambassadors from Russia, Singapore, and the Philippines, and unidentified representatives from Rosneft. Trump's Secretary of Commerce is Wilbur Ross. He is the former vice-chair of the Bank of Cyprus, of which Vekselberg is the major shareholder. Ross, Schwarzman, Blavatnik, and McConnell/Chao would put together an $1T infrastructure plan that would depend on foreign money, as Chao admitted to Sean Hannity on Fox News on March 1 2017.

On May 9 2017, James Comey is fired as FBI Director, the week after he visited the "rocket docket" in federal court for the Eastern District of Virginia, and just days after he requested more resources for the Trump/Russia investigation. On May 10 2017, Trump meets with Russian FM Sergey Lavrov and Russian ambassador/spymaster Sergey Kislyak, in the Oval Office, without American press allowed but in the presence of Russian state media. At this meeting, Trump divulges code-word classified information from an Israeli intelligence source regarding the ISIS laptop-bomb plot; this source is said to be the most important double agent now working in ISIS, according to the Israeli Directorate of Military Intelligence (Aman). Trump also refers to Comey as a "nut job", and claims to the Russians that the investigation will be over now that Comey is gone (6). The same day of the Oval Office meeting with Russian diplomats, a federal grand jury in EDVA hands down multiple subpoenas for business/lobbying associates of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, regarding his foreign contacts in Turkey (Ekim Alptekin) and Russia (David Zaikin).

On May 11 2017, the Strategic Campaign Group's office is raided in Annapolis by the FBI and U.S. Marshals following the warrants handed down by EDVA from two separate grand juries, corresponding to ~25 indictments regarding money-laundering and many other charges. Less than a week later, former FBI Director Robert Mueller is appointed by the Deputy Attorney General to oversee the Russia investigation. In testimony before the House Intelligence Committee on May 23 2017, former CIA Director John Brennan verified that in August 2016 he had informed the Gang of Eight and others (including Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan) that Russia was intervening in the election on Trump's behalf. In late May, Jared Kushner is revealed to be among the targets of the FBI's Russia probe.

On June 2 2017, Mueller assumes control over the federal grand jury criminal investigations of Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn. James Comey testifies before the Senate Intel Committee on June 8 2017. The following week, Mueller's team confirms that they are investigating the president in part for obstruction of justice with respect to Comey and the Russia probe; as a result, Senate Intel agrees to avoid pursuing that aspect.

References:
1. Yenikeyeff, Shamil, "BP, Russian billionaires, and the Kremlin: a Power Triangle that never was", Oxford Energy Comment, November 23, 2011
2. Vardi, Nathan, "The Four Horsemen of Russia's Economic Apocalypse", Forbes, February 9, 2015
3. SEC statement identifying Al Altep as a shell of Access Industries
4. Entous et al. "Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House", Washington Post, December 9 2016
5. AP Exclusive: Manafort firm received Ukraine ledger payout
6. Apuzzo et al. NYTimes, May 19 2017

# ? Feb 2, 2019 18:21

FrozenVent: May 1, 2009; The Boeing 737-200QC is the undisputed workhorse of the skies.

How many of those suicides are actually disguised cover-up murders?

# ? Feb 2, 2019 18:24

Bored As Fuck: Jan 1, 2006; Fun Shoe

FrozenVent posted:

How many of those suicides are actually disguised cover-up murders?

I don't know, but with their operational tempo being what it has been for the last 18 years, I'm surprised the number is not higher. Though they generally do a decent job of weeding out the psychopaths (save for the SEALs, apparently), no one is immune to PTSD. It's a loving shame.

# ? Feb 2, 2019 18:44

Waroduce: Aug 5, 2008

Bored As gently caress posted:

I don't know, but with their operational tempo being what it has been for the last 18 years, I'm surprised the number is not higher. Though they generally do a decent job of weeding out the psychopaths (save for the SEALs, apparently), no one is immune to PTSD. It's a loving shame.

I read a paper somewhere that hypothesized it being such a small tightly knit community and high barrier of entry results in lower suicide rates than one would expect for personnel who are exposed so frequently to high stress situations.

:shrug:

no idea if that's true but someone here probably knows more than I

# ? Feb 2, 2019 18:55

shame on an IGA: Apr 8, 2005

Hot Karl Marx posted:

https://twitter.com/bldgblog/status...ingawful.com%2F

My DNA sequence links to goatse

This is the one that convinced me cybersecurity in any form is an absolutely lost cause: A man triggers a code execution exploit in Super Mario World for SNES and then reprograms the game to become Flappy Bird, entirely with manual controller inputs on original hardware

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB6eY73sLV0

# ? Feb 2, 2019 19:09

Proud Christian Mom: Dec 20, 2006; READING COMPREHENSION IS HARD

Waroduce posted:

I read a paper somewhere that hypothesized it being such a small tightly knit community and high barrier of entry results in lower suicide rates than one would expect for personnel who are exposed so frequently to high stress situations.

no idea if that's true but someone here probably knows more than I

they take it out on everyone else

# ? Feb 2, 2019 19:11

PookBear: Nov 1, 2008

what is the suicide rate when they get out though

# ? Feb 2, 2019 19:33

Hot Karl Marx: Mar 16, 2009; Politburo regulations about social distancing require to downgrade your Karlmarxing to cold, and sorry about the dnc primaries, please enjoy!

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1091746855761952770

this seems not good

# ? Feb 2, 2019 19:40

Tiny Timbs: Sep 6, 2008

Gonna be a real awkward trip to Moscow for the next group of START inspectors

# ? Feb 2, 2019 19:41

colachute: Mar 15, 2015

Hot Karl Marx posted:

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1091746855761952770

this seems not good

i wonder if russia wanted this to happen..

..hmmm tough to say

# ? Feb 2, 2019 19:42

Hot Karl Marx: Mar 16, 2009; Politburo regulations about social distancing require to downgrade your Karlmarxing to cold, and sorry about the dnc primaries, please enjoy!

more tactical nukes seems bad for everyone

edit: I mean why would putin want to be able to make them again, or does he really want another cold war?

# ? Feb 2, 2019 19:43

Tiny Timbs: Sep 6, 2008

IRBMs will still travel across multiple continents so they're far from tactical. Depending on where they launch from within Russia the IRBM range basically covers the entire hemisphere except for southern Africa and Australia.

Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Feb 2, 2019

# ? Feb 2, 2019 19:44

Hot Karl Marx: Mar 16, 2009; Politburo regulations about social distancing require to downgrade your Karlmarxing to cold, and sorry about the dnc primaries, please enjoy!

can't wait until there are infantry based mini nukes like starship troopers

# ? Feb 2, 2019 19:47

Wrong Theory: Aug 27, 2005; Satellite from days of old, lead me to your access code

Hot Karl Marx posted:

can't wait until there are infantry based mini nukes like starship troopers

"You trying to be a hero?!"

"Just trying to kill some blyat sir!"

# ? Feb 2, 2019 19:54

mods changed my name: Oct 30, 2017

that's already been a thing

# ? Feb 2, 2019 19:54

Time Crisis Actor: Apr 28, 2002; by Hand Knit

shame on an IGA posted:

This is the one that convinced me cybersecurity in any form is an absolutely lost cause: A man triggers a code execution exploit in Super Mario World for SNES and then reprograms the game to become Flappy Bird, entirely with manual controller inputs on original hardware

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB6eY73sLV0

More impressive is how they got blackface Mario within 4 minutes

# ? Feb 2, 2019 19:59

hobbesmaster: Jan 28, 2008

Hot Karl Marx posted:

can't wait until there are infantry based mini nukes like starship troopers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiM-RzPHyGs

# ? Feb 2, 2019 20:01

colachute: Mar 15, 2015

nvm

# ? Feb 2, 2019 20:08

Vasudus: May 30, 2003

Suicide isn't *really* an individual psychological issue, it's a societal-based phenomenon. But that requires that society accept the blame, and we can't have that. Modern suicide theory, aka Interpersonal Theory of Suicide, has three core tenants of what leads and individual to commit suicide: thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and acquired capability.

The first two are entirely a societal issue.

Belongingness is that psychosocial aspect that a lot of us miss about the military, and indeed being in the military often fills that need better than almost everything available. Sure, you could get that same feeling by having a good job, comfortable finances, a loving spouse, and meaningful purpose. How many of us have that in the outside world? Yeah, thought so. But the military checks off those boxes in our grey matter a lot easier.

Burdensomness is a non-factor in the military. Everyone has a purpose, even if you're loving awful at your job you won't dip down into the level of burdensomness to consider suicide. If you're in a good environment, this won't factor into things.

Acquired capability is the big one in the military. If you get desensitized enough then the threshold for the other two factors to become an issue gets lower. Unfortunately there's nothing that can be done about this one, and it's why the first two become more important.

The SF community is exactly that, a community. It goes far beyond the regular military community in every aspect of their lives. So for a SF community member to kill themselves that means that either they're so desensitized that it doesn't matter, or something external to that community is damaging the sense of community/sense of self.

tldr; according to modern suicide theory SF people should have drastically lower rates of suicide so this spike is a colossal red flag

# ? Feb 2, 2019 20:14

Proud Christian Mom: Dec 20, 2006; READING COMPREHENSION IS HARD

this seems like a fantastic time to stand down and start examining the long term effects that endless war has on military personnel, particularly SF but hold on a minute we need you to go merc some people in Venezuela

# ? Feb 2, 2019 20:28

Hannibal Rex: Feb 13, 2010

Hot Karl Marx posted:

more tactical nukes seems bad for everyone

edit: I mean why would putin want to be able to make them again, or does he really want another cold war?

Putin wants the Russian population to live under a permanent siege mentality, so he can get away with staying in power forever without providing any social or economical progress.

# ? Feb 2, 2019 20:33

mods changed my name: Oct 30, 2017

Hannibal Rex posted:

Putin wants the Russian population to live under a permanent siege mentality, so he can get away with staying in power forever without providing any social or economical progress.

# ? Feb 2, 2019 20:44

facialimpediment: Feb 11, 2005; as the world turns

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1091784206190067712

Hmmmmmm :thunk:

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1091784609090674689

OK GET THE gently caress OUT

# ? Feb 2, 2019 20:45

shame on an IGA: Apr 8, 2005

I could almost see letting the jackson thing slide a few years later but cmon it wasn't Dangerous era yet.

I was born in '85 and unironically thought MJ was a white woman until I was 9

# ? Feb 2, 2019 20:49

Hot Karl Marx: Mar 16, 2009; Politburo regulations about social distancing require to downgrade your Karlmarxing to cold, and sorry about the dnc primaries, please enjoy!

https://twitter.com/mviser/status/1091790039351263232

# ? Feb 2, 2019 21:13

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# ? May 28, 2024 05:44

Eugene V. Dubstep: Oct 4, 2013; Can't post for 8 years!

shame on an IGA posted:

I was born in '85 and unironically thought MJ was a white woman until I was 9

born a little later but same.

# ? Feb 2, 2019 21:29

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Internet VFW > February Current Events: a momentary lapse of treason

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