Researchers from the University of Toronto’s amazing Citizen Lab (previously) have published a new report detailing the latest tactics from the autocratic government of Ethiopia, “the world’s first turnkey surveillance state”
whose human rights abuses have been entirely enabled with software and
expertise purchased on the open market, largely from companies in
western countries like Finfisher and Hacking Team.
In Champing at the Cyberbit,
Citizen Lab researchers Bill Marczak, Geoffrey Alexander, Sarah McKune,
John Scott-Railton, and Ron Deibert disclose how malware developed and
sold by the Israeli company Cyberbit (a subsidiary of Elbit) was used to
attack members of the Ethiopian opposition, including political exiles
in the USA and elsewhere who were forced to leave Ethiopia in fear of
their lives.
Citizen Lab also determined that the malware servers used to effect
these attacks were actively operated and managed by Cyberbit – in other
words, they actively colluded in the use of their products to attack
journalists and peaceful democratic opposition figures on behalf of a
tyrannical regime.
Cyberbit also targeted Citizen Lab researcher Bill Marczak.
Citizen Lab was able to assemble a complete picture of the illegal
surveillance that Cyberbit effected on behalf of Ethiopia because
Cyberbit failed to secure its servers; once Citizen Lab discovered them,
they were able to browse all the surveillance data that Cyberbit’s
malware had extracted from its victims.
Citizen Lab also used Cyberbit’s publicly readable data to track where
the company had demonstrated its products and determined that the
company was making sales calls in many failed and autocratic states,
including Rwanda, Nigeria, Zambia, Vietnam, Thailand, Uzbekistan,
Kazakhstan, and The Philippines.
Air force pilots in WWII got shot like crazy and suffered farcical
levels of fatalities; in an effort to save airmen, the Allies used
statistical analysis to determine where the planes that limped home had
taken flak and armored up those sections – which totally failed to
work. That’s because the planes that made it home had suffered
non-critical damage, so shoring up the sections where they’d been hit
had virtually no effect on the rate at which flak to critical sections
of the aircraft caused it to be shot out of the sky. In other words, by
looking at survivors rather than the dead, they were protecting the least important parts of the planes.
In a transcript of a speech given at Voxxed Days Belgrad, Daniel G
Siegel describes how this “bullet hole misconception” traps technology
designers – their survivor bias causes them to solve the problems that
are sufficiently unserious that they can survive until someone can
notice them. It’s like a customer service department that only hears
from the people whose experience is sufficiently bearable that they buy
their purchases and then complain – but they don’t hear anything from
the vastly larger numbers who never make it to the cash register because
of some process failure.
This is particularly exacerbated by the professionalization and
financialization of the tech sector. When there was no defined pipeline
into computing, people came from lots of different disciplines; when the
cash rewards for tech sector success were modest, people came because
of their passion, not their dreams of riches. The homogenization of tech
to people with engineering degrees who want to get really rich puts the
focus on a very narrow class of production and innovation techniques.
Oobah Butler once had a job writing fake Tripadvisor restaurant reviews
for £10/each, paid by restauranteurs; having learned how powerful these
reviews were, he decided to turn his south London shed into the
best-regarded restaurant in all of London.
He created a fake business for his shed, took soft-focus shots of “food”
(really gaffs like sponges covered in paint with shaving cream
garnish), then started gaming the Tripadvisor rankings. Soon, people
started to call him asking him for reservations (he always told them he
was fully booked).
This seeming exclusivity drove interest in “The Shed at Dulwich,”
sending him racing up the Tripadvisor league-table. He started to get
resumes and free samples from companies eager to supply his highly
regarded restaurant. PR agencies pitched him.
Once he reached number one, the reservations requests reached a fever
pitch. Finally, he relented and opened his “restaurant” for one night,
buying frozen TV dinners from the discount supermarket Iceland and
serving them to excited diners. He led people to their tables wearing
blindfolds and created a whole show around the service of these meals.
Some of them tried to come back for another dinner.
“Crisis Pregnancy Centers” are fake abortion clinics run by religious fanatics who use online fraud to get them to the top of the search results in order to lure women seeking abortions to visiting a place they believe to be an abortion clinic, but which is really a religious mission where the people pretending to be medical professionals dispense misinformation about the medical risks of abortion, then apply high-pressure sales tactics to bully and trick women into carrying unwanted pregnancies to term.
In 2015, California introduced the Reproductive FACT Act, which limited the use of “intentionally deceptive advertising and counseling practices [that] often confuse, misinform, and even intimidate women from making fully-informed, time-sensitive decisions about critical health care.”
Under the Reproductive FACT Act, Crisis Pregnancy Centers are no longer allowed to deceive women into thinking that they are speaking to licensed medical personnel, and they must inform women who enter their premises that “the state provides free or affordable access to contraception, prenatal care, and abortion.”
The National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, an industry group for these centers, is taking a First Amendment lawsuit against the law and the state of California to the Supreme Court, arguing that their free speech rights protect their ability to deceive women about the science of pregnancy and whether their counselors have medical qualifications.
NIFLA’s suit is being bankrolled by Arizona’s Alliance Defending Freedom, the religious group that sued for the right of cake-makers to discriminate against gay people.
Horrifyingly, there’s a good chance that NIFLA could win, because they’ve framed their First Amendment claims in terms that are especially friendly to earlier decisions from Chief Justice Kennedy, and they can count on Justice Neil Gorsuch (who stole Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court seat with help from Donald Trump) to rubberstamp any anti-abortion move, no matter how despicable.
I’m profoundly baffled by people who say Trump is a “religious person” just because he wants more people to say Merry Christmas. I saw this comment today on his Facebook page.
“Regardless if you agree with everything Trump does, it’s nice to see a president be sincere and open about his religious beliefs.”
This man has only been “religious” in times where it benefited him. I have not seen any indication that he takes his Christianity seriously. Nor do I think he is anything close to a “good Christian.”
Allow me to demonstrate…
The seven deadly sins.
Gluttony: His favorite meal is burnt steak with ketchup. His body is a temple.
Pride: “Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest–and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure, it’s not your fault”
Sloth: Days after the crisis in Puerto Rico, Trump spent his weekend playing golf instead of working.
Wrath: “…when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he’s fired! He’s fired!’”
Envy: President Obama had one of the biggest inauguration audiences ever seen. Trump… not so much. Despite this, Trump’s press secretary declared, “That was the largest audience to witness an inauguration, period. Both in person and around the globe.“
Are these the lies of an envious man? I invite you to judge for yourself.
So we have the deadly sins covered. How about the commandments?
1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
A bit philosophical, but I would say Trump worships money and power before any deity.
2. You shall not make false idols.
Trump is his own idol. Evidenced by the fake framed Time magazines with him photoshopped onto the cover posted proudly in his golf resorts.
Many experts have claimed he has Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
“President Donald Trump says the Navy should ditch longstanding plans for electro-magnetic catapults for its aircraft carriers and go back to goddamned steam."
Ah yes, goddamned steam. The devil’s energy source.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Instead of attending any kind of church, here is a lovely picture of Trump golfing… on a Sunday.
Poorly, it seems.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
He has honored his father by accepting a small loan of a million dollars, building up a fortune, making horrible business decisions, and eventually declaring bankruptcy six times. Some might say he tarnished the family name.
He has honored his mother by never really talking about her and pretending she barely exists.
6. You shall not murder.
"In Donald Trump’s first 7 months as President, we tracked 1,196 alleged incidents in which we assess at least 2,819-4,529 civilians died.”
He is on pace to out-drone Obama in his very first year.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
HAHAHAHAHA!
Sorry. I couldn’t contain myself on that one.
During divorce proceedings, Trump pleaded the fifth 97 times to avoid admitting to adultery. In his infamous Access Hollywood audio recordings he said, “I moved on her like a bitch. But I couldn’t get there. And she was married.”
He clearly takes marital bonds very seriously considering he has tied the knot 3 times
8. You shall not steal.
Trump stole $258,000 from his own charities to help settle legal disputes. He also took over his son’s charity for sick kids with cancer and used it to make profit.
He literally stole from kids with cancer.
9. You shall not bear false witness.
On average, Trump lies about 5 times per day. In his first seven months in office, he tallied a total of 1,057 false or misleading statements.
10. You shall not covet.
This commandment used to be about your neighbor’s house and his super cool donkey that was far better than your crappy ass. I’m not sure that applies to modern day coveting. For this commandment I decided to return to Time magazine. Trump has coveted being Time’s “Person of the Year” for quite some time. Some might say he is obsessed with it.
It all started back in 2012.
“I knew last year that @TIME Magazine lost all credibility when they didn’t include me in their Top 100.”
Later that year…
“The Time Magazine list of the 100 Most Influential People is a joke and stunt of a magazine that will, like Newsweek, soon be dead. Bad list!”
In 2015 they finally did put him on the cover. He seemed to change his tune a bit.
“On the cover of @TIME Magazine—a great honor!”
But then he changed his mind again.
“I told you @TIME Magazine would never pick me as person of the year despite being the big favorite. They picked person who is ruining Germany.”
His fellow super religious and non-creepy friend, Bill O’Reilly, backed him up.
“Thank you @oreillyfactor for your wonderful editorial as to why I should have been @TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year. You should run Time!”
After the 2016 election, Time finally gave in and named him “Person of the Year."
"Thank you to Time Magazine and Financial Times for naming me "Person of the Year” – a great honor!“
(Fun fact: Hitler also won in 1938!)
And that brings us to now, where Trump decides to "low-key” covet this “great honor.” Apparently he is much too busy getting people to say Merry Christmas to accept the award.
“Time Magazine called to say that I was PROBABLY going to be named ‘Man (Person) of the Year,’ like last year, but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot. I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway!”
*cough* Bullshit! *cough*
And that is Donald J. Trump… impressive Christian role model.
In the spirit of Trump’s Christmas crusade, I invite you to look upon this hellscape beautiful Christmas scene with his lovely wife, Melania.
