Author: Kate

Blog Notes: Website Security Fundraiser

Blogging 7 Comments

We don’t hold many fundraisers here at SDA, thanks to the financial support of regular readers. However, that reader support ebbs and flows and over the summer months, it ebbs especially low. None of this was ever noteworthy in the past, which is why I’ve never noted it.

However, after a major security breach last year due a previously unknown vulnerability in WordPress (that took two weeks and a team of technicians to diagnose and close) it became necessary to upgrade the blog’s security plan. It’s not outrageously expensive, but it’s still a hit on the pocketbook.

So – if it’s been a while, and you’re in the mood to hit the tip jar, we’d appreciate it. (If you’ve donated to the blog over the past couple of months, please consider yourself as already have done so.) Any funds raised over and above what’s required will be shared with our guest bloggers. Etransfer is the best method, but there’s a paypal link on the sidebar as well.

Thanks again to everyone who has contributed to SDA over the years, with your tips, donations and word of mouth support!

When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal

Uncategorized 7 Comments

The manhunt continues…

Capitol Police officers met the hoodie-wearing person suspected of planting a pipe bomb near the Republican National Committee office during the alleged bomb-drop operation but did not detain or arrest the person, Blaze News has learned.

Despite apparently having the suspect next to two squad cars for nearly three minutes on Jan. 5, 2021, the officers did not detain or arrest the alleged bomber and allowed the person to go back to the crime scene and ostensibly finish the alleged bomb drop, previously undisclosed security video shows.

Apparent police interactions with the bomber were never disclosed by Capitol Police or the FBI, which has failed to identify the suspect despite nearly 44 months of investigation and a $500,000 reward.[…]

The video discovery raises serious questions about what was discussed during the nearly three-minute apparent meeting between police and the alleged bomber — and why the officers didn’t detain the person or publicly report the incident after the RNC bomb was found the next day.

It also raises the question of why the FBI never shared the video with its own agents or the public and did not disclose or explain the bomber’s seeming interaction with Capitol Police.

Related.

How Deep, Señor Maduro?

Great Moments In Socialism 14 Comments

All is unfolding as prophesized.

One of Venezuela’s top election officials, in a declaration sure to jolt the crisis-weary nation, said in an interview that he had no proof that Venezuela’s authoritarian president won last month’s election.

Since the July 28 vote, governments around the world have expressed skepticism, and even outright disbelief, over President Nicolás Maduro’s claim to victory. But the statement by Juan Carlos Delpino — a member of the government body that announced Mr. Maduro’s win — represents the first major criticism from inside the electoral system.

Speaking on the record to a reporter for the first time since the vote, Mr. Delpino said he “had not received any evidence” that Mr. Maduro actually won a majority of the vote.

Neither the electoral body nor Mr. Maduro has released tallies to support assertions that the president won re-election, while the opposition has published receipts from thousands of voting machines that show its candidate, Edmundo González, won an overwhelming majority.

In declaring Mr. Maduro the winner without evidence, the country’s election body “failed the country,” Mr. Delpino said. “I am ashamed, and I ask the Venezuelan people for forgiveness. Because the entire plan that was woven — to hold elections accepted by all — was not achieved.”

Sean Penn was a man before his time.

Jack Of Diamonds

stuff 10 Comments

Decorating his office was a colourful painting of a thoroughbred horse race, and a framed photo of Frank Sinatra with his Rat Pack pals outside the Sands hotel, an iconic Las Vegas casino from a bygone era. Sinatra’s photo was mounted alongside playing cards from a Sands poker deck. The only card face-up in the frame was the Ace of Diamonds. It seems a missed opportunity for it not to be the Jack, because this was the office of a real-life Jack of Diamonds.

Detective-Constable Kevin Williams, an investigator with Toronto Police Service’s financial crimes unit, introduced himself and asked the man for his name.

Jack Kronis, he replied.

Grab a coffee.

Pavel Durov Arrested In France

Drain The Swamp Surveillance State Tech 17 Comments

Guardian;

Pavel Durov, billionaire co-founder and chief executive of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at the Bourget airport outside Paris on Saturday evening, TF1 TV said, citing an unnamed source.

Durov was travelling aboard his private jet, TF1 said on its website, adding he had been targeted by an arrest warrant in France.

The 39-year-old is understood to have been travelling from Azerbaijan and was arrested at about 8pm local time (6pm GMT).

Durov was expected to appear in court on Sunday.

The Russia-born entrepreneur lives in Dubai, where Telegram is based, and holds dual citizenship of France and the United Arab Emirates.

@ShadowofEzra;

Telegram founder Pavel Durov recently revealed to Tucker Carlson that the FBI approached a Telegram engineer, attempting to secretly hire him to install a backdoor that would allow U.S. intelligence agencies to spy on users.

The FBI also hired agents to infiltrate ‘anti-vaxx’ Telegram groups, with FBI contractors creating multiple fake online identities to join chatrooms run by groups opposing vaccine mandates.

Mike Benz provides background.

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

Alternative Subsidy 27 Comments

As EV sales slump, Volkswagen scales back battery factories

Volkswagen will wait to see what electric car demand is like before building out all six of its previously planned battery factories. Thomas Schmall, VW’s board member in charge of technology, told a German newspaper that “building battery cell factories is not an end to itself” and that a goal of 200 GWh of lithium-ion cells by 2030 was not set in stone.

It’s a bit too simplistic to say that all new technologies conform to the now-infamous Gartner hype cycle, but it’s hard not to think of that squiggly line when discussing EVs. After years of hearing lofty goals of all-electric lineups and an end to internal combustion engines from OEMs, Tesla’s skyrocketing valuation got investors interested in electrification, and for a while, things just went mad.

But the promised fall in battery costs never really materialized, and in the US, EVs still command a price premium, at least for the first owner. The initial hype, coupled with the limited availability of new models, saw dealers load the cars and trucks they could get with hefty markups, further alienating potential customers. And now, when those markups and inventory shortages are mostly a thing of the past, interest rates have soared.

Vielfalt Macht Stark!

More Pavilions At Folkfest 27 Comments

Germany: three killed and four seriously injured at diversity festival

At least three people have been killed and four are seriously wounded, German police have said, after an attack at a festival in the city of Solingen in the country’s west on Friday night.

Police said the weapon was believed to be a knife.

No one has been arrested and police said they had deployed a “large contingent” including a helicopter to search for the male assailant who fled the scene. Police declined to discuss a possible motive or speculate about the identity of the suspect.

Federal health minister Karl Lauterbach said he hoped “rescue teams can save the wounded who are still alive and that police can catch the cowardly and pathetic perpetrator”.

Regional premier Hendrik Wüst, who arrived at the scene early on Saturday, posted earlier on X that “All of North Rhine-Westphalia stands with the people in Solingen, above all with the victims and their families,” he said, expressing “huge thanks to the many rescue workers and our police who are in these minutes fighting for people’s lives”.

The attack happened at an event marking the city’s 650th anniversary and billed as a festival of diversity that began on Friday and was supposed to run through to Sunday. Around 10,000 people attended, many gathering around a stage with live music on the Fronhof market square in the city centre.

Most of those wounded are believed to have been attacked directly front of the stage, the daily Bild reported, adding that the man appeared to target the throats of his victims.

Eyewitnesses report “Arab looking man”, still at large.

Art Of The Deal

#WalkAway Art Of The Deal Democrats Trump 93 Comments

RFK Jr endorses Trump: “RFK Jr. Endorses Donald Trump and Drops Out of the Presidential Race, Leaving a Scathing Attack on the Democrat Party.”

Great moments in “Where were you when?”… CNN cuts away

Unburdened by political savvy, Harris refused to meet with him.

Update: Trump rally, live from Arizona, and the Youtube feed is extremely low resolution… weird.

So here it is on Rumble.

Highly recommended: Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn reaction to the endorsement.

One Flu Out Of The Wuhan Nest

Gain of Function 29 Comments

Dr Steven Quay;

Finally, our peer-reviewed paper is published.

WIV created an undisclosed MERS synthetic virus and was swapping out receptor binding domains.

MERS is 30% lethal but, at least in nature, it fails to support human-to-human transmission.

Why is a #CCP supported lab doing this? […]

Remember, a key claim of the ‘Proximal Origin’ paper was that a lab would never use an undisclosed backbone for dangerous research.

Here is the proof that claim is wrong.

Paper is here

Our Chinese-Installed Government In Ottawa

Basic Dictatorship Chinada Shiny Pony 10 Comments

Sam Cooper;

The indications I’m getting from Washington is political arguments are being made on targeting Canada in sanction like actions that would take actual property, because of Ottawa’s inaction on PRC national security issues. Not sure how it develops but this discussion explains

Podcast here (51 min): … whether Foreign Minister Melanie Joly’s visit to Beijing was representative of Canadian voters, or more likely to benefit influential industrialists in Quebec that have backed Liberal prime ministers from Pierre and Justin Trudeau to Jean Chretien.

Blacklocks: Chinese Communist Party agents allegedly acted as Elections Canada poll workers in the 2021 campaign…

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