Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

The problem people have with Biden’s age is the color of the VPs skin.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Bark louder, little dog.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

This fight is for everything.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

I was promised a recession.

“They not like us!” (that’s for sure!)

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2018 / Open Thread: Local Races, Utah Edition — High & (Very, Very) Low

Open Thread: Local Races, Utah Edition — High & (Very, Very) Low

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The professionals weigh in…

As a fellow Masshole, I concur with Mr. Pierce:


.

Wanna-be Breitbrat Jacob Wohl chips in with a cunning plan…

TBH, since the Fusion GPS / Wolff book news dropped this morning, I suspect Steve Bannon’s got quite enough on his plate without an expensive referendum on how much consistent GOP voters don’t like him. But it’s good to know the hardcore racist/sexist/nativist bigots will be harrassing Romney from the right while the Democrats are pushing our “leftist” (humanist) agenda!

Reader Interactions

89Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I think this may become a meme

    Jena Friedman @ JenaFriedman
    Every negative stereotype society attributes to women is actually embodied in realDonaldTrump.

    Anne Helen Petersen‏Verified account @ annehelen
    Superficiality, frivolity, gossip-obsessed, loves the phone, obsessed with social media, judgmental of other people’s outfits, uniquely capable of destructive

    Emily Nussbaum@ emilynussbaum
    Vain, moody, irrational and greedy, bad at math, swoons at strongmen, threatened by powerful women, Daddy issues, a sucker for empty praise, wants two scoops of ice cream.

  2. 2.

    chris

    Bannon’s cup runneth over. This makes me happy.

    Bannon has in recent weeks also alienated his main financial backer, Rebekah Mercer, after he told several other major conservative donors that he would be able to count on the Mercers’ financial support should he run for president, a person familiar with the conversations said. The person said Mercer now does not plan to financially support Bannon’s future projects — and that she was frustrated by his moves in Alabama and some of his comments in the news media that seemed to stoke unnecessary fights.

    A person close to Bannon said he was not running for president. Bannon and Mercer declined to comment through representatives.

    Wapo link

  6. 6.

    Another Scott

    Jenny Wilson sounds fine, but there’s a primary in Utah that doesn’t happen until late June. Does anyone have strong feelings about her competition?

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    This is the wrong question. No US Senator from Utah is going to “lead the NeverTrump movement.”

    I agree, if that Senator is named Romney. I think McMullen might do it if eh could win

    But would the signer of Romneycare vote to repeal Obamacare? I don’t think so.

    Does AG explain that thought? I think Romeny would step on Chuck Grassley’s addled pate to cast that vote

  10. 10.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    Al Giordano:

    But would the signer of Romneycare vote to repeal Obamacare? I don’t think so.

    How clueless is this mook? Rhetorical question. He seems to forget that “Romneycare” was a Democratic program that Romney couldn’t veto, so he rolled with it. And on Giordano’s Twitter timeline people are justifiably dragging him on this, pointing out that in 2012 Romney said repealing Obamacare was going to be the first thing he would do as president. His response is to yell at everybody to get off his timeline with their ridiculous comments. Good times.

  11. 11.

    Schlemazel

    Given how hard Willard ran against ‘Romneycare’ in ’12 I am betting he will vote to kill ACA just as soon as is possible. He sees that as his shot at redemption and a path to the White Hors . . . er House

  12. 12.

    Calouste

    @chris: Bannon is a vindictive, nihilistic piece of work who likes to (metaphorically) blow stuff up. See today’s book for an example. The Mercers might be somewhat unpleasantly surprised by future Bannon actions.

  14. 14.

    SgrAstar

    @Another Scott: Jenny Wilson can not beat Mittens. Period. She could step up from the county council- perhaps run for SLC mayor- and try to develop an image that could convince the mormon majority down the line. If the initiative for non-partisan redistricting in 2020 succeeds, she might be able to mount a successful run for Congress. Right now I just don’t see her as having much of a constituency, beyond admirers of her father, former SLC mayor Ted Wilson. Her political future really depends on her adopting a much higher profile, with appeals to issues that have broad-based support: homelessness, clean air, economic growth, better schools.

  15. 15.

    Jager

    I would have like to have heard the conversation between Corey Lewandowski and his wife Alison about the fact his boss thinks Hope Hicks is “the best piece of tail he’s ever had”

  16. 16.

    chris

    @Calouste: Agreed. I assume that money won’t really be a problem for Bannon, dog knows there’s more than one deranged billionaire out there although more deranged than Rebekah might be a high bar to clear.

    The Mercers might be somewhat unpleasantly surprised by future Bannon actions.

    Oh I hope so!

  19. 19.

    Yarrow

    @Jager: The rumor of their sleeping together has been out there for months. I would imagine that discussion has already taken place, but I bet his wife doesn’t like it being published in a book. And Lewandowski is known to hit women so that conversation could turn ugly.

  20. 20.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Enforce the Trump NDA – bring it the fuck on, LOL. Once shattered, all are broken forever.

    I hate Trump. I should be packing to leave for Hanoi Friday morning, but I’m hammered and looking for more goodies in this.

  21. 21.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    On another note, I’ve drawn yet my zillionth suspension from twitter for using the word “fuck”.

    I think I’m inclined to escalate…

  24. 24.

    Another Scott

    @SgrAstar: Thanks.

    Wikipedia says she ran for Mayor in 2007, but lost in the primary.

    She may be great, and maybe lightning will strike and she’ll have a chance against Rmoney, but don’t see the reason to donate to her campaign so early. She needs to prove she can win the primary first, IMHO. Unless she’s running against a Democratic version of Cliven Bundy or something…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  26. 26.

    gene108

    @Jager:

    Corey Lewandowski and his wife Alison about the fact his boss thinks Hope Hicks is “the best piece of tail he’s ever had”

    Corey’s boss would be Trump, unless I am reading this wrongly.

  27. 27.

    Tenar Arha

    OT & repeat (from the likely dead thread on fundraising)

    General question, because I just got an appeal. What’s the deal with the Democratic Governors Association? Are they useful? Do they disburse funds and assistance, or are they more set up for incumbents?

  28. 28.

    Ken

    @chris:

    A person close to Bannon said he was not running for president.

    Of course not, but I’ll bet he plans to fundraise for his run…

  30. 30.

    Quinerly

    @Yarrow: I read earlier today that Corey and wife have known each other since 9th and 8th grades. Her first husband died on 9/11. 4 children, ages 9 and under (think I have those ages correct) I feel badly for her.

  33. 33.

    danielx

    Securities fraudster asks alcoholic to run for Senate in Mormon state…sounds about right #notright

    — Aaron Gershoff (@ajg6882) January 3, 2018

    C’mon, work with me here, Aaron!

    — Jacob Wohl

  35. 35.

    Tenar Arha

    @Adam L Silverman: A Twitter thread that starts here seems credible

    1. Apparently I don’t know how to thread, so here goes my second attempt at blasting you with critical news on this “Intel Chip problem” which is not an Intel problem but an entire chipmaker design problem that affects virtually all processors on the market.

  36. 36.

    Another Scott

    @Adam L Silverman: TheReg broke the original story. They have more about Intel’s attempt to spin the issue.

    Chipzilla [Intel] doesn’t want you to know that every Intel processor since 1995 that implements out-of-order execution is potentially affected by Meltdown – except Itanium, and the Atom before 2013.

    Basically, Intel (used in most desktop computers) and ARM processors (used in just about every cell phone and tablet) have a memory access flaw that has to be worked around via changes to the operating system (until new chips with fixes are available) or malware can poke around in memory that they should be forbidden from accessing. Such poking around is the way viruses and malware are able to do their magic, and their damage.

    AMD processors aren’t affected.

    That’s my understanding, anyway.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  38. 38.

    mattH

    @SgrAstar: Wilson had a chance, slim though it was, against Hatch, what with the majority of the state wanting him not to run again. I could see her riding that dissatisfaction to an extremely narrow win if she could have gotten some debates with him showing just how senile he is, compounding enough to push her over the line with a narrow win. With him out, it’s unlikely she could be any Republican in the state, regardless of who it is.

    In some ways Mittens is the least bad choice we could end up with. I think a lot of what he is doing right this moment is gauging who his caucus challengers are and if he goes that route or tries for a primary run, and from a larger point of view, “does being Senator make me a better Presidential candidate”? We aren’t guaranteed that he’ll run, but I still think he’s slightly better than another Mike Lee.

    I hate the politics in this state.

  39. 39.

    Another Scott

    @Another Scott: Looking at TheReg article more carefully, Intel processors are affected by both vulnerabilities, some ARM processors are affected by both, some AMD processors are affected by one.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  41. 41.

    Mary G

    @Tenar Arha: That is an excellent thread with explanation for people like me, as well as completely terrifying. It’s funny, the publishers and editors at the NYT suck, the political reporters suck, but some of the individual reporters are really professional and knowledgeable, like Nicole Perlroth there.

  43. 43.

    Mike J

    @Adam L Silverman: It’s the real deal. Patch stuff that you can. Browsers, OSs, refrigerators, marital aids.

    Google says the webview component in android should update automagically to keep your phone safe.

  50. 50.

    Another Scott

    @Tenar Arha: I got a letter from them recently. I don’t recall ever giving to them before. I dunno how effective they are, etc.

    But we know that politics takes resources.

    Virginia just had it’s gubernatorial election in November, so I’m not paying much attention to those races at the moment. Maybe later in the year.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  53. 53.

    Omnes Omnibus

    OT: Apparently, my downstairs neighbor was trying to drive somewhere and collapsed behind the wheel, parking someone else in. The police showed up and were treating it as a drunk/drug pass out. I just went out and talked to them and explained that she had some sort of degenerative disease (we have never been close enough to talk about what it was. although she had asked me about disability attorneys) The cops then changed their approach and treated it as an casualty response. An ambulance showed up quickly. White guy privilege can help.

  54. 54.

    Chet Murthy

    @Adam L Silverman: The basic flaw here is that there’s a (very clever) way for malicious code to access (read) memory that normally is off-limits due to memory-access-protections. And versions of the bug are present in Intel, AMD, and ARM processors. So basically, all computers. BUT …. from my reading, it doesn’t appear to be so severe on things like desktops and laptops. I could be wrong, but:

    (1) the exploit here requires malicious code. If malicious code makes it onto your laptop or desktop, you’re dead already — all your files are accessible and the sorts of protection (containerization) that seems standard on phones, sure won’t be there on your laptop.

    –> on desktops/laptops, there’s an old saying: “every local exploit is a root exploit”. That is, if you can get malicious binary code running on the machine in any way then the machine is considered fully-compromised. Of course, that “malicious binary code” doesn’t mean “malicious javascript” or “malicious flash”. it means malicious native code.

    (2) sure, on phones, it’s hard to know when you install an app, that the code is safe, and we have ample evidence that people install apps with all sorts of malevolent code. So it’s a big problem for phones

    (3) of course, for cloud computing, this is a big-ass problem — cloud vendors (amazon) run arbitrary code from customers, and now that arbitrary code could read memory it ought not have access to.

    So yeah, this is a big, big deal on phones&tablets. And sure, we should patch everything. But for devices that never download untrusted binary code, it doesn’t seem to be earth-shattering.

    Maybe I’m missing something.

  55. 55.

    JGabriel

    UtahPolicy.com via Chart @ Top:

    If the US Senate Election was between the following, who would you vote for?

    72% – Mitt Romney
    21% – Jenny Wilson
    07% – Don’t Know

    Utah, where the 28% are the sane ones.

  56. 56.

    dmsilev

    @Adam L Silverman: Good article, albeit somewhat technical, on Ars Technica.

    Short version: there are two major potential security issues that have come to light today. One is primarily applicable to CPUs made by Intel (nicknamed “Meltdown”), and the other is applicable to pretty much any high-performance processor designed in the last 15 or 20 years (“Spectre”). Meltdown has the more serious potential for exposure of privileged information (passwords, for instance) to malware. There’s a software patch for that issue which will roll out for Windows and Linux shortly, at the cost of some CPU performance (how much depends on the workload; I’ve seen numbers ranging from a 5 to 35 percent hit). Spectre is, at least as far as we know, unpatchable by software and will require new, redesigned hardware, to fully fix, so that’s …not good.

  59. 59.

    danielx

    @dmsilev:

    Damn, I thought that for once being an AMD fanboy was going to be a good thing.

    Obviously begs the question of how AMD will fix the issue, in addition to a host of other questions. I am certain that any number of high powered people are conversing this evening over one of two questions:

    – how can we limit our exposure on this?
    – how can we make money on this?

    How you or I get any satisfaction, like new fucking hardware, is entirely a secondary concern. Perhaps I should put it more like NEW FUCKING HARDWARE, in case AMD’s social network/blog monitoring systems missed my point. Insecure systems that cannot be fixed short of hardware-level replacement with next generation processors that haven’t even been released yet?

    I foresee a boom in paper accounting forms and the like, since…come to think of it, a boom in just about every unhackable* widget, electronic or otherwise, in existence. How many intel and AMD processors are in use by the armed forces for all kinds of things?

    Jeebus, if you want to be totally secure you’re going back to 1940s security measures. Which were, come to think of it, about the best available at the time after centuries of refinement.

    *…oops. Anything is hackable under the right circumstances, through accident or intent. But if certain things are absolutely crucial to have clearly communicated, cutting down the odds by use of not one but two officer couriers, for example, will become mandatory. Or should, anyway.

  60. 60.

    amygdala

    @Omnes Omnibus: Thank you for doing the right thing. If she gets through this ok, I hope one of her docs brings up getting a Medic-Alert bracelet or necklace.

  61. 61.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @amygdala: Thanks, but it was weird. I had a few drinks but the cops were all “yes, sir.” A combo of privilege and my ability to maintain.

  64. 64.

    Adam L Silverman

    I want to thank everyone that got back to my question about this processor flaw/vulnerability. I greatly appreciate it.

  66. 66.

    danielx

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    True dat, but it took some years to do it. Besides, do i really sound like i know what i’m talking about? I just started thinking my way through this, i don’t know shit. But if communication takes place through intel processors and can be attacked at hardware level, or amd processors, etc…it sounds like a problem that just gets bigger the more you think about it.

  68. 68.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    actual correction in Politico story about the rift between Bannon and the trmps

    CORRECTION: An earlier version of the story misidentified the fictional character name Bannon uses to refer to Jared Kushner as Frodo, a “Lord of the Rings” reference, rather than Fredo, a reference to “The Godfather.”

    which raises the question, what nicknames does Bannon have for the trump boys?

  69. 69.

    Another Scott

    @danielx: All software has bugs. All hardware has bugs. It’s part of life.

    These bugs are being addressed with OS updates (at the cost of decreased performance). Don’t panic.

    :-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  73. 73.

    Another Scott

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Kinda-sorta.

    Cribbing from another site:

    The problem is not that the password is blank.

    By default, MacOS ships with the root account disabled. This is right and proper. The password is blank. This is also right and proper.

    The problem is that attempting to log in as root enables the root account and then lets you in with the blank password.

    That is not right and proper.

    It’s a complete and utter fuck-up, and indicates that Apple have learnt little about testing software since the humiliation of the GotoFail bug.

    They fixed it pretty quickly (though their first patch apparently broke some things).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  77. 77.

    Another Scott

    @danielx: I’m no expert, but remember that CPUs are basically machines that run software. The software tells them what to do, so if we don’t want them to do something, we change the software.

    From the MeltdownAttack.com link above:

    Spectre breaks the isolation between different applications. It allows an attacker to trick error-free programs, which follow best practices, into leaking their secrets. In fact, the safety checks of said best practices actually increase the attack surface and may make applications more susceptible to Spectre

    Spectre is harder to exploit than Meltdown, but it is also harder to mitigate. However, it is possible to prevent specific known exploits based on Spectre through software patches.

    Note that Google has patches and protections out already, as outlined here.

    There is a cost to using these software patches – it bypasses the problematic (faster) hardware and makes the CPU work harder, slowing things down.

    HTH.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  78. 78.

    Aleta

    Looking at windy.com. Why are we having a hurricane this time of year? Because the water is warm?
    30ft waves offshore. Then a huge burp of Canadian air is coming in.
    And then Fri a huge storm comes from the west.

  79. 79.

    Manxome Bromide

    Delurking for this one – hi, jackals.

    My understanding is that Spectre is in some sense an intrinsic side effect of an optimization we introduced to basically all processors in the mid-1990s: computer instructions that don’t have anything to do with one another can be made to run faster because you can run them at the same time. The issue with Spectre is that an attacker can set things up so that their code will run faster if and only if one of the bits in somebody else’s code is a 1 or a 0. By setting this up a bunch of different ways, it can make a series of deductions and ultimately work out what your memory contents must be. It never actually looks at anyone else’s memory; it can deduce what must be in it by how its own performance changes.

    The defense is to, at appropriate times, wipe out all evidence that anyone else ever existed, which basically means “you never get to do this optimization” and that means performance penalties. That’s easy to set up for Meltdown – the case there is “asking the OS to do something on your behalf” – but Spectre seems to be unpriviliged, ordinary applications deducing things about each other by spinning away within what are supposed to be their sandboxes. That’s a harder nut to crack, and the worst case may be like cryptography; you have to write software in a special way to make it unreadable. (Example there include working out your crypto key by looking at variations in your laptop’s power draw as you do something that required encryption.)

    The, uh, good news, such as it is, is that this information leak appears to be one-way. You can steal secrets with it, but because the whole trick involves seeing how your own behavior is modified, you can’t actually modify anyone else’s state.

  80. 80.

    cthulhu

    @SgrAstar:

    Jenny Wilson can not beat Mittens. Period. She could step up from the county council- perhaps run for SLC mayor- and try to develop an image that could convince the mormon majority down the line. If the initiative for non-partisan redistricting in 2020 succeeds, she might be able to mount a successful run for Congress. Right now I just don’t see her as having much of a constituency, beyond admirers of her father, former SLC mayor Ted Wilson. Her political future really depends on her adopting a much higher profile, with appeals to issues that have broad-based support: homelessness, clean air, economic growth, better schools.

    Exactly. Dems are not going to win any statewide races in Utah for the foreseeable future but you also indicate why there is some upside for her to do this: more recognition which might benefit her in a more winnable future race.

  81. 81.

    danielx

    @Another Scott:

    True…also sorta obviates the need for new processors until such time as intel/AMD/whomever produces new ones which eliminate a known major flaw.

    I see plots for a couple of suspense/thriller novels here –

    1. The team shown on video are assassinated one by one until only one is left, who is also the only one who can fix the problem(s), who has to be saved by somebody, leading to…something.
    2. The flaw is exploited to …what?
    – wipe out all electronic financial records everywhere, simultaneously
    – randomly distribute the financial holdings of anyone with a net worth in excess of, say, fifty million dollars
    – used to corrupt electronic communications in coordination with an attack of hundreds of thousands of swarms of self directed drones, programmed towards specific targets and people….

    Can i get a witness!

  83. 83.

    danielx

    @Amir Khalid:

    That’s what I’m thinking. Whatever I come up with – whenever somebody says no, that’s too crazy, I can always say: hey, look who’s sitting in the Oval Office. Then get back with me about that crazy business you speak of.

  84. 84.

    Shalimar

    @Adam L Silverman: If spouse didn’t divorce Lewandowski last year when the affair was widely reported, not sure why should would now just because Trump thinks Hicks is hotter than she is.

  85. 85.

    Shalimar

    @Adam L Silverman: The history of sex toy marketing is rife with legal restrictions on what they could be used for. Laws prohibiting anything to be sold for sexual purposes were common, which led manufacturers and retailers to come up with creative alternative purposes they could claim. More relevant here, there were also laws in various jurisdictions including Alabama which restricted them to use by married couples. Sex was supposed to be only for procreative purposes. Thus, the phrase “marital aids”. It wasn’t poorly chosen. It was literally the only thing they could say to avoid getting arrested.

  86. 86.

    Chris T.

    @dmsilev: In security terms, both (Meltdown and Spectre) use performance as a covert channel. That’s not great. However, Meltdown also allows you, via Intel-specific prefetch instructions (that don’t work this way on AMD), to read the actual values out of nominally-protected memory. You can then combine that with an attack called Rowhammer that uses weak (non-ECC-protected) hardware to somewhat predictably flip bits in other programs running on the machine, including privileged ones and including the kernel itself. It takes a while—a lot of real time and a lot of CPU power—but this lets you do pretty much anything.

    That’s pretty damn bad.

    The performance-dragging patches (which drag anywhere from “barely noticeable” to about 30% in the stats someone gathered) prevent you from reading bits. This means you can still use Rowhammer to flip bits but you can no longer target the bit-flipping.

    Computers with ECC (some larger servers on Intel, and newer Ryzen offers ECC) can, but don’t necessarily do (some BIOSes are just broken), protect against bit-flipping. DRAM hardware could be designed so that it doesn’t break when hammered by Rowhammer techniques. Most home computers don’t have ECC: it was abandoned even by the server guys for a while for price and speed reasons. (ECC, at least in this application, is a hardware system to detect and correct memory errors. Typically one can detect and correct a single flipped bit, and detect two flipped bits, in any machine word. The Rowhammer trick will usually only flip one or two bits in a word. There are other error detection and correction codes used in other applications, such as Reed-Solomon codes—look that phrase up on Wikipedia.)

    Spectre seems a lot harder to use for anything useful. Covert channels exist in most systems; the security concern is limiting their bandwidth. Spectre’s is low; Meltdown’s is much higher and, on Intel systems, far broader. (Note: I’m not a security expert, just somewhat versed in it.)

  87. 87.

    Spanky

    Woke up by the snow plow going by
    Looked outside and we have less than 2 inches. Still, vommute is going to be a mess.

    Don’t want to get outta bed ….

  89. 89.

    J R in WV

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Thanks for helping your neighbor out. Sick people don’t thrive in the justice system.

    Cops don’t seem to be attuned to the fact that illness can cause erratic behavior, probably more often than drugs/drink.

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