I have been informed by my lawyers that if I don’t read some stuff we’ll all be “living in a refrigerator box behind the strip club eating dog food out of the can” https://t.co/atF7ikwwup
— kilgore trout, assless pajama afficianado (@KT_So_It_Goes) December 21, 2020
When the Grifter King falls, all the courtiers find themselves scrambling. As long as Trump was The Biggest Dick in the Room, the up-and-coming disinformation outlets felt they could push lies without being called out, but now that there’s a new President coming to town…
“Newsmax and OAN appear likely to face the same fate as so many of President Trump’s sycophants, who have watched him lie with impunity and imitated him — only to find that he’s the only one who can really get away with it.” https://t.co/devcWGxVax
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) December 21, 2020
And you know having to explain OAN’s plight is just breaking the NYTimes’ heart (not). “The ‘Red Slime’ Lawsuit That Could Sink Right-Wing Media”:
… Here’s the thing: Smartmatic wasn’t even used in the contested states. The company, now a major global player with over 300 employees, pulled out of the United States in 2007 after a controversy over its founders’ Venezuelan roots, and its only involvement this November was with a contract to help Los Angeles County run its election.
In an era of brazen political lies, Mr. Mugica has emerged as an unlikely figure with the power to put the genie back in the bottle. Last week, his lawyer sent scathing letters to the Fox News Channel, Newsmax and OAN demanding that they immediately, forcefully clear his company’s name — and that they retain documents for a planned defamation lawsuit. He has, legal experts say, an unusually strong case. And his new lawyer is J. Erik Connolly, who not coincidentally won the largest settlement in the history of American media defamation in 2017, at least $177 million, for a beef producer whose “lean finely textured beef” was described by ABC News as “pink slime.”
Now, Mr. Connolly’s target is a kind of red slime, the stream of preposterous lies coming from the White House and Republican officials around the country…
Mr. Mugica isn’t the only potential plaintiff. Dominion Voting Systems has hired another high-powered libel lawyer, Tom Clare, who has threatened legal action against Ms. Powell and the Trump campaign. Mr. Clare said in an emailed statement that “we are moving forward on the basis that she will not retract those false statements and that it will be necessary for Dominion to take aggressive legal action, both against Ms. Powell and the many others who have enabled and amplified her campaign of defamation by spreading damaging falsehoods about Dominion.”
These are legal threats any company, even a giant like Fox Corporation, would take seriously. And they could be fatal to the dream of a new “Trump TV,” a giant new media company in the president’s image, and perhaps contributing to his bottom line. Newsmax and OAN would each like to become that, and are both burning money to steal ratings from Fox, executives from both companies have acknowledged. They will need to raise significantly more money, or to sell quickly to investors, to build a Fox-style multibillion-dollar empire. But outstanding litigation with the potential of an enormous verdict will be enough to scare away most buyers…
Fox News and Fox Business, which have mentioned Dominion 792 times and Smartmatic 118 times between them, according to a search of the service TVEyes, appear to be taking the threat seriously. Over the weekend, they broadcast one of the strangest three-minute segments I’ve ever seen on television, with a disembodied and anonymous voice flatly asking a series of factual questions about Smartmatic of an expert on voting machines, Eddie Perez, who debunks a series of false claims. The segment, which appeared scripted to persuade a very literal-minded judge or jury that the network was being fair, aired over the weekend on the shows hosted by Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo, where Mr. Giuliani and Ms. Powell had made their most outlandish claims…
the real nightmare scenario is fox news / newsmax / oan sourced a bunch of their voting machine nonsense from recorded correspondences with the trump legal team. who wants to take bets they do not in fact have emails from sid & lin & rudes saying “attack smartmatic” on file
— kilgore trout, assless pajama afficianado (@KT_So_It_Goes) December 21, 2020
Newsmax's Chris Ruddy tells me that the statement that's making the rounds will be aired on ALL Newsmax TV shows. This began over the weekend and will continue today.
Here it is: pic.twitter.com/h5i8uKrVPM
— S.V. Dáte (@svdate) December 21, 2020
jl
“living in a refrigerator box behind the strip club eating dog food out of the can”
Baudists have thrived, personally and politically, on that regimen. Our thought and political leaders just have to pull up their socks and toughen up, is all.
trollhattan
Huh. Pity.
hells littlest angel
They could have pronounced Hugo Chavez’ name correctly, and maybe even mentioned that he’s been dead for seven years.
Roger Moore
Good. It’s about damn time someone stepped up and took these liars head on.
Baud
@jl:
If it weren’t for Smartmatic and Dominion, I’d be president.
Omnes Omnibus
It gets interesting when you defame someone/thing with a shitload of money and without public figure status.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@hells littlest angel: That’s what they want you to think. Truth is Chavez faked his own death just like JFK jr.
Frankensteinbeck
@Baud:
If there’s anything I’ve learned from Q, it’s that you ARE president, Baud. The information that you’re already in charge has been kept from the American people, but soon the Great Flush will arrive and you will suck all of Balloon Juice’s enemies down the drain.
Baud
@Frankensteinbeck:
I read that was “enemas.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Zounds! I remember the pink slime thing, but I thought it was McDonald’s. No memory of the lawsuit. Somebody on MSNBC today mentioned states where food has legal protection from defamation. If memory serves, the Texas Beef Protection Association (I may have that name wrong) sued Oprah! for bad-mouthing red meat, and she moved her whole production down to TX for the length of the trial. I think that’s where she found “Dr” Phil. I think he was some kind of trial consultant. Is that gobshite still on the television
ETA: I was not far off.
Texas Beef Group v. Winfrey.
Omnes Omnibus
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: JFK Jr and Chavez are the same person.
jonas
Good grief, I mean if on-air hosts on MSNBC or something went around for weeks claiming that all Apple computer products were specially designed to store and transmit child pornography or something, Apple’s lawyers wouldn’t be ripping their heads off and shitting down their necks? Please. Defamation is a tough needle to thread legally (as I understand) but this is so blatant that I think these networks’ lawyers see pretty clearly that if it ever went to trial, they’d be toast.
Baud
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Chavez is
JFK, Jr. Omnes Omnibus.PAM Dirac
@Frankensteinbeck: Only the true president would deny his own presidency.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah, Dr. Phil(has he delivered any babies?) was a jury consultant who primary client was Exxon-Mobil(they have more money than God).
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
nice!
cain
Schaden-fucken-freude – I’m all here for this.
Watching all the news channels forced to repudiate their own lies – the right wing noise machine is going to go ballistic. I can see a lot of pushback going against these news people. I think a lot of people are going to watch their entire news bubble and the false reality contained within bursting.
cain
@Frankensteinbeck:
Oh.. so you’ve seen the alternative episode of “Encounter at Farpoint” too, huh?
moops
@Baud:
I think you just have to send your own alternate electors to DC and have them select you to be President. No need to go whoring around looking for votes.
Baud
@moops:
But that’s the best part.
The Moar You Know
@cain: Nope.
The core premise which will remain untouched: Democrats are not Americans, therefore Democratic votes cannot be legal.
moops
@jonas: This won’t make it trial. But this on-air back tracking is designed to soften the financial blow they are about to take when they make their settlement while admitting no wrongdoing. It is designed to be part of the negotiations that are now certainly coming.
Mary G
The lawyer’s letter was 20 pages long, with examples, and specifically said that retraction might not be good enough. I like to imagine the Fox lawyers faces as they read it.
Of course, this won’t convince any of the true believers, who will chalk it up to the Deep State.
moops
@The Moar You Know: yeah, just read the Twitter feeds. The audience is in too deep to believe any bursting bubble. We are just going to get our next round of doubling down.
moops
I’m curious if Dominion will make the firing of certain on-air talent a condition of the settlement.
Ken
I am Omnibus.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Wait, wait, wait. Point of information. I remember the pink slime story. Are we now to believe that there is not in fact a beef “product” made of sweepings and discards processed into something the chemists think looks and tastes like meat?
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
I’m surprised there hasn’t been a porn movie titled “Deep State”.
They really dropped the balls on this one.
Adam L Silverman
This is the Newsmax anchor:
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: OT: did you get the email I sent across last night?
Brachiator
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Oh yeah, that’s right. Very good.
Or Dr Laura
And of course, Dr Pepper
Jim, Foolish Literalist
this morning Meadows was one of the enablers who had become a guard rail
Chyron HR
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Fixed.
ETA: The idiot wants to fight the evidence of voter fraud. Not the fraud, but the evidence of it.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
OT – I just went down the rabbit hole of Cameo (that thing where you hire popular actors to record greetings or messages of congratulations, etc. for your friends and family).
Pretty cool – I’ve got a daughter who’d be really jazzed to hear from either Crowley or Lucifer from Supernatural ($100 for Crowley, $50 for Lucifer). The Office cast is more expensive – Kevin, Packer, Toby and David Wallace are available. Lots of shows are represented!
debbie
@Roger Moore:
I wish Soros would.
hueyplong
This is the bestest thing ever on balloonjuice (until Trump Asphyxiated By Own Feces)
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Oprah turned out to be right. Turned out there was such a thing as mad cow disease. ??
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Brachiator: Don’t forget Dr. John, Dr. Hook, Doctor Who, and Dr. J.
Ken
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I’d bet the Doctor has delivered a baby or two, over the course of her very long lives.
zhena gogolia
@hells littlest angel:
Hell, they didn’t even pronounce Soros correctly, if you want to be Hungarian about it.
Oklahomo
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes, he’s still around. But, he opened up a minor can of hell early on in the pandemic when he was opposed to lock downs in a Fox interview.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Baud: Yeah, the phrasing is odd.
There was in fact a case today here in PA of a dead person voting.
For Trump.
I’m sure the Republicans will be demanding the maximum penalties the law allows, or more.
debbie
@cain:
I hope they also go after Limbaugh, Beck, etc.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Ha! That’s nothing! Joe Biden’s infant daughter (Naomi, aka Amy) faked her own death in that traffic accident 42 years ago and grew up to become Amy Coney Barrett. The incontrovertible proof of this is that the family car was hit by a truck full of corncobs, and — I hope you’re sitting down — the name of the turkey Trump pardoned at Thanksgiving was “Cob.”
Wonkette lays out all the legal reasoning: https://www.wonkette.com/is-amy-coney-barrett-secretly-joe-bidens-dead-daughter-qanon-creeps-think-so
Roger Moore
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
You are supposed to understand that the story was extremely one sided and presented the “lean finely textured beef” business in an unfair light. I don’t know enough about the issue to know if that’s true, but it’s at least a facially reasonable complaint. A lot of criticism of processed food in the media is based on a gut reaction to the way it’s processed and ignores the substantial effort food processors have made to ensure their food is provably safe.
More generally, there are two conflicting issues in the way we treat food in this country. On the one hand, we want food that we perceive as wholesome and recognizable. On the other hand, we demand food processors reduce waste by using every part of the food. Unfortunately, some of the things that are done to reduce waste result in products that we see as weird, disgusting, and unrecognizable, like pink slime. You can’t have it both ways.
Adam L Silverman
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Don’t forget:
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Suspecting that you were right, I did a quick Google, then erased my search history – it’s a rough trade leather gay bareback orgy title from 2018.
Here’s to the Industry – they’re always ready to capitalize a popular phrase….
Baud
Wilkerson says Flynn should be called back to active duty and court martialed.
ETA: On Hayes show.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Adam L Silverman: Of course, no Doctor would be complete without this (video)
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Who is Wilkerson?
Raoul Paste
Apparently even Pat Robertson is feeling the heat . He’s telling Trump to give it up and concede, and he is publicly saying that Trump’s behaviour is erratic
Is there any doubt that Robertsons motivation is fear and money? His organisation can be sued too. The threat of economic annihilation seems to be the key to dealing with the cancerous right-wing media
SFBayAreaGal
The television show Bull is based on Dr. Phil’s life when he was a jury consultant.
SFBayAreaGal
@Baud: I was telling my sister this yesterday.
trollhattan
@Baud:
Beginning to think this Mark Meadows person is not terribly bright.
Fight that mounting evidence mister president sir. It’s encroaching on your safe space.
MagdaInBlack
@SiubhanDuinne: Oh I’m glad you brought that one up. I just saw it. These people live in an entirely different universe. Good lord!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Baud:
If doable, I recommend it highly. Same for MacInerney.
Wouldn’t they have to maintain IRR status?
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: Not until after 20 JAN 2020.
@zhena gogolia: LTC (ret) Lawrence Wilkerson. He was Secretary Powell’s long time chief of staff. Including when Powell was Secretary of State.
Adam L Silverman
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: The gag at USAWC was to do it with “colonel”. Until they got to me and then it was “doctor”.
trollhattan
@Raoul Paste:
Ever since Pat Robertson blamed 9/11 on the gays that very same day, I’ve made it a habit not to pay close attention to things Pat Robertson says. Am surprised the dude’s still alive. How?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Foolish mortal. You think that Google will forget?
Your sidebar ads are about to get very interesting.
Adam L Silverman
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: No. Retired general officers/flag officers aren’t retired in the same way that other military retirees are. They are more easily subjected to recall. Though all other military retirees are also subject to recall.
zhena gogolia
@Adam L Silverman:
Thanks. I went to Leslie Jones’s twitter (my main source of news), but she wasn’t discussing his background.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
Believe it or not, but the inventor of Dr. Pepper actually was an MD.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@trollhattan: As you know, only the good die young.
Another Scott
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: … Dr. Otto…
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@Roger Moore:
We do?? I keep missing the memos.
UncleEbeneezer
Can this guy also sue FB/Twitter etc., in his defamation suit? Please say “yes”…
Another Scott
@lowtechcyclist: One of the tropes I remember from school was that Native Americans used every part of the bison. And that was good!
But us using every part of cattle and turkeys and pigs is bad!
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
terben
As someone who was actually born in Yorkshire, all I can say is ‘Luxury!’
lowtechcyclist
@Raoul Paste:
Before the election, Robertson was telling his followers that God told him Trump would be re-elected.
Those evangelicals do love their false prophets, so this won’t be a problem for Pat.
Another Scott
Gradually, and then suddenly…
Good, good.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kent
Breaking. We are so fucked. Biden is going to have to raze Washington to the ground and rebuild it.
Kent
No, but he can sue anyone who knowingly posted lies on FB and Twitter.
Love to see Donald Trump himself sued for both libel and slander. He’s done enough of it.
Ken
As I recall from The Devil and Daniel Webster, after the original seven years are done, the Devil offers an extension — provided you have children…
SFBayAreaGal
Woohoo, fog has rolled back. I’m able to see Saturn and Jupiter .
westyny
@moops: Moar hoaring!
TS (the original)
@Kent:
And he’s done it to people who are/were not public figures. One defence gone already.
Adam L Silverman
@zhena gogolia: He also has a snaggle tooth
Mike in NC
Forget about the Red Slime. I’m eager to see the Orange Slime slither off to Merde-A-Lago next month.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kent: E Jean Carroll is suing him for defamation, I think one of the other women he called a liar when she went public about his sexual assault
Dan B
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Are you expecting some “interesting” ads shortly?
Kent
@TS (the original): And in 30 days he is just an ordinary citizen with no longer any claim to “executive privilege” or any other excuse.
Mike in NC
@Brachiator: Dr Fine, Dr Howard, Dr Fine
Adam L Silverman
@Kent: As I wrote the other night: the strategic assumption has to be that they got into everything and have compromised everything.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ken: No, you’re fucking not.
TS (the original)
@Kent:
I think he may pardon himself – for all and any items arising during the period he was president. Then again, none of his current “associates” are person enough to tell him of what he will be facing come 20 January.
Kent
Libel and slander (i.e. defamation) are not Federal crimes. They are always tried under state defamation laws. He can’t pardon himself for that.
trollhattan
@SFBayAreaGal:
Lucky!
Why you send it here?
Kent
Rebuilding the entire Federal computer infrastructure is probably looong overdue to begin with, but is also going to be a hell of a stimulus and jobs package for tech workers and tech contractors. It will be nationwide too, as there are Federal computer systems everywhere.
Keith P.
Very ironic if Newsmax/OAN went the way of Gawker, ultimately purchased for peanuts at a bankruptcy auction by Stephen Colbert.
M31
@Kent: Senior Trump Treasury officials? their conversations were probably so boring; “Money is so cool!” “wow, money, let’s take it all” “Cool, look at all the money!”.
Putin would be like ‘amateurs, no one can shake down the oligarchy like I can’
trollhattan
@Ken:
Should that apply to Trump, his response will be, “Take any you want, except the pretty one.”
Ken
@Omnes Omnibus: Sorry, was making a Spartacus joke. At least your nym is unique – there’s someone else who’s been using “Ken”, and I’ve been pondering whether I should change mine — but I was here first!
Kent
Boring? It’s probably full of traitorous plotting to subvert the rule of law for Trump and the Russians now have them all by the balls.
TS (the original)
@Kent: Well that’s a blessing – I did not know that.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Private mode – I ain’t no dummy….
Mary G
The deplorables keep losing:
Also, too WaPo reports that the Covid stimulus bill includes raft of provisions to fight climate change.
Sweet!
Matt McIrvin
@Kent: Hillary’s server was far more secure.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Yeah, I just got home from work and am planning on watching the game tonight. I am a Racing 92 fan so I am happy to watch even though I know the result.
TS (the original)
@Ken:
I had the same issue – hence my change of nym a year or two ago – and then the duplicate disappeared.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: I will not read that. My brain thanks me.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Rachel Maddow reports from “sources”: Federal prosecutors discussing request for Giuliani’s electronic communications.
M31
@Adam L Silverman: Biden’s incoming tech team has got an astonishing job ahead. The mind boggles.
Who knows what kind of spyware has burrowed deep into all kinds of systems with 4 years of Trumpian malfeasance and Jared’s security clearance.
and who knows what the fuck secret shit Trump spilled over his unsecured cell phone
well, besides Russia, China, Israel, the Saudis, etc.
Ian
I have worked around meat butchering and processing. Pink slime was not a lie.
Patricia Kayden
@hells littlest angel: Yeah, the fact that Hugo Chavez is dead is a hint that Sidney Powell is stark raving mad.
Kent
@M31: It will be a good excuse to abandon a lot of bullshit old legacy systems and build up modern stuff from scratch. But it is going to be enormously expensive and time consuming to do.
Patricia Kayden
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I hope federal prosecutors go after these treasonous Trump lawyers with the full force of the law. They need to lose their law licenses and be prosecuted for treason. Thankfully, once he leaves office, Trump can’t pardon any more criminals so their goose will be cooked.
Amir Khalid
A news organisation with any principles would have given the correction the same prominence as the erroneous story. In this case that would mean Fox and Newsmax and that entire ilk would have to go 24×7 confessing to their “election fraud” lies. I consider no less to be a fitting and sufficient penance.
dmsilev
Excellence in Headlines:
Trump assembles a ragtag crew of conspiracy-minded allies in flailing bid to reverse election loss
Edit: if you need a program to keep track of the cast,
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Kent:
You know whose server was never compromised?
Yup.
Of course, when I think of Internet-linked control functions and critical databases being subject to intrusion and manipulation, you’d think that none of these dorks watched the pilot of the Battlestar Galactica reboot as to Adama’s problem with networked computers.
Martin
@Baud: I voted for you, and I’m pretty everyone I know voted for you. It inconceivable anyone else could have won this election.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
It’s a fitting bookend to the Trump era.
rikyrah
M31
@dmsilev: “ragtag” makes it sound like a bunch of scrappy kids, as opposed to a bunch of treasonous anti-democratic unamerican pieces of shit
but ‘flailing’ is pretty good
Martin
Amir Khalid
@Chyron HR:
I am disappointed by this news.
dmsilev
@M31: It’s a cross between the Scooby Gang, the Dirty Dozen, and the A Team. Except, you know, the exact opposite in competence. Also, Trump hates dogs.
M31
@Kent: it would be such a huge task, it’s hard to imagine — all that data, who knows how many formats, how much crucial stuff that has to be saved, maintained, aligned, jesus. Even the tiniest ‘cleaning up database’ work (to adapt an old system to a new one) I’ve been involved with was a fiddly awful chore with all kinds of ways to break it hahahaha
I wonder what is the oldest legacy system still running in the federal gov’t? I’m sure there are some offices still using 8″ floppies. Maybe they got rid of the punch cards, though
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Patricia Kayden: I always thought it would be a pretty safe bet that the books, and files, of Giuliani Associates or whatever it is wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny, and that’s before he became Chief Flying Monkey to Big Orange Glob of Corruption
And I wonder if Letitia James is getting any heads ups from SDNY, how much and how closely state and federal prosecutors can cooperate, when an Attorney General is watching.
Sm*t Cl*de
@trollhattan:
The joke’s on the Devil. Trump already sold his kids to the Unseelie Court, decades ago. He forgot to include a clause in the contract, insisting that the changeling substitutes be realistic.
Gary K
I love the goombah delivery of John Tabacco. Was Christopher Moltisanti unavailable?
Kent
@M31: NOAA had a bunch of old mainframe computers running old legacy scientific survey stuff when I was working there in the 90s and early 2000s. Basically old mainframe databases full of fisheries data that were running totally proprietary one-off software systems designed to do things like convert midwater acoustic fisheries surveys into stock assessments and such. The people who originally designed all that stuff are long retired. It’s nothing you can replace with anything off the shelf. Basically complicated algorithms tweaked over decades that convert hydro-acoustic data from survey ships into fisheries biomass estimates. That sort of thing. Only a handful of people even know how the stuff works.
I expect there are similar examples all across the government because so much of it is utterly unique and not duplicated by any commercial applications.
Of course these are not the systems that the Russians are hacking into.
Kent
I think they have to build up new systems from scratch for the critical secure stuff and just keep all the old legacy stuff running separately and try to patch it up as best they can on a triage basis. And we will have several decades of old and new running side by side.
Ruckus
@M31:
I understand it is the IRS who still runs on mag tape
?BillinGlendaleCA
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: …and Dr. Winston O’Boogie*.
*aka John Lennon.
Bill Arnold
@lowtechcyclist:
I have been wondering today whether Pat Robertson has been thinking about who exactly it was who was whispering in his mind’s ear. A Prince of Lies, perhaps?
Gin & Tonic
@Kent: Bullshit old legacy systems run not just in government, but all over business and industry. There are still mainframes, there’s still a market for COBOL programmers.
Another Scott
@M31: An example – ERAM replaces Host:
25 years.
For one system in one agency. And, IIRC, there’s a big push to use GPS systems now and not rely on ATC so much, so things are not “over”.
The federal government runs gigantic specialized networks of computers that have to run for decades. And can’t go down for weeks/months/years while some new system replaces it.
As with the rest of the government, there are complex rules about how the system is specified, who can bid on the contracts, how the contracts are awarded, how the contracts are monitored, and how the systems are maintained and upgraded. Technology often marches on at a much faster clip than the contract requirements.
Congress is very, very bad about funding decades-long projects, when their main concern too often is the next election…
Given all the other real constraints on the federal budget, don’t expect hundreds of billions of dollars to suddenly appear to fix any security issues. There will be money spent, but it will be modest (is my guess). Upgrades will of necessity be piecemeal.
IMHO.
Cheers,
Scott.
Yutsano
@Another Scott: The Italians use every part of the pig except the oink. And that’s only because they can’t catch it!
debbie
@M31:
Bet it turns out that Trump ended some oversight group or disbanded some committee that provided an opportunity for the Russians to get into systems.
Elie
This is gonna be fun to watch. Dominion and Smartmatic don’t have to play this shit with Fox, OAN or Newsmax. They are not politicians who have to worry about these jerks. They are private companies with enough dough to protect themselves and to punish someone who forgets that….
Bill Arnold
Ah, Pat Robertson has been on the God Will Reverse The Election (well, until yesterday?) : ““the Lord himself” will make sure that Donald Trump is president for another four years.”
Pat Robertson has made false prophesies many times, yet he never seems to get called out for false prophecy.
Gin & Tonic
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: They should ask Ukrainian intelligence. I’ll bet real cash money they have every word he uttered while in-country, and probably here as well.
Ruckus
@M31:
I’d bet the hardest part would be the language and age of the servers/data would be 8 bit, or maybe 16, so the structure of the languages would be so far different from what’s used today that even finding enough people with the knowledge of both would be very difficult. Company I worked for still had every thing for all their main business, which was a membership organization that’s now 96 yrs old, written in Cobol and finding people 20 yrs ago who could maintain it was tough. The federal government started to computerize earlier than that organization did.
Gin & Tonic
@Another Scott: The real problem is you don’t “fix security issues.” Security has to be designed in from the beginning, and with the Internet, it wasn’t. Internet communications is based on 40-year-old protocols that were designed when there was a handful of systems and the operators all knew each other.
Bill Arnold
@Kent:
The press is all-in on attributing these attacks to Russians/SVR without solid forensic evidence, just patterns. Wish they wouldn’t do that; at least (and reasonably) say “probable”. Also, a Microsoft analysis notes that there were two backdoors found in the SolarWinds Orion SW, and that they appeared to be installed/used by different actors. Bold mine:
Analyzing Solorigate, the compromised DLL file that started a sophisticated cyberattack, and how Microsoft Defender helps protect customers (December 18, 2020, Microsoft 365 Defender Research Team)
This will (may/could be) of course be used to spin up narratives about china and russia, etc. Ugh. The second backdoor found could easily have been installed and used by a non-state actor, and it is unclear whether the main actor was the one that triggered (accidentally?) a Duo MFA new-device alert (including a message to the employee) at FireEye, triggering an internal analysis that found the breach in the SolarWinds Orion SW.
Matt McIrvin
OT: gah, why do half the leftists in the world insist the Democratic Party has been continuously moving to the right? I’ve been watching it for 40+ years. It WAS moving right… from the 1970s until about 2004. The defeat of John Kerry was about the furthest point. Been moving leftward ever since then, in just about every way. The center of the party is currently left of Obama. Scott Lemieux is right about this.
Bill Arnold
@Matt McIrvin:
Smaller attack surface, at least.
The Russians (it was thought) were in the State Department unclassified email servers for years. Perhaps exorcised in (2014?) but who knows for sure except the Russians.
Yutsano
@Ruckus:
Confirmed.
HalfAssedHomesteader
“I’m reluctant to cheer on a defamation case against news organizations, even networks that appear to be amplifying dangerous lies.” [my emphasis]
Holy mother of god.
billcinsd
@Roger Moore: ignores the substantial effort food processors have made to ensure their food is provably safe.
I think you mean, ignores the substantial efforts food processors are forced to make because they didn’t used to make food that was safe
MobiusKlein
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Nor Doctor Seuss
dnfree
@Gin & Tonic: I retired from 45 years as a programmer analyst etc. in 2011. On the day I retired, there was not a single line of code I had written still in use anywhere. (The reason I retired when I did was that my last employer replaced most of their custom code with SAP.). But I never wrote in COBOL, other than a little maintenance, and I didn’t work for the government. Y2K resulted in replacement of a lot of old code.
Uncle Cosmo
@Baud: “Dp you solemnly swear to uphold and defend the Constipation of the United States against all enemas, foreign and domestic?”
Another Scott
@Gin & Tonic: True, and well known, but we do not live in the best of all possible worlds. And it’s not just the network, of course.
In 2018 DARPA had a BAA for a program to address the issue of figuring out ways to find software vulnerabilities faster.
Even if the ARPANET/Internet had been “secure” from the beginning, no complex, useful system can survive and thrive for 50 years without being re-engineered[1]. We’d still be having the same discussions today. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
[1] – Even Knuth made mistakes!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: Don’t forget Dr. Demento.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Hey! Look who’s getting all unifying again!
I like the way she never names names, like when she talked about her “colleagues” who view BLM as an enemy. It’s so much easier to not have to argue specifics….
a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio
@trollhattan: Satan has standards.
Kent
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: “Pro-Trump” Dems in safe seats?
Yes, I do think you have to name names. Who are these “pro-Trump” Dems in safe seats?
Far as I recall, Tulsi is the only Dem in Congress who didn’t vote to impeach the bastard.
Yutsano
@Kent: Tulsi didn’t run for her seat again. So unless AOC is twisting the knife on her way out, it’s not Tulsi. I think Hawai’i still has an all Democratic delegation but have to check.
Still two Democrats with a Native in there now!
Jay
@Kent:
she’s talking about votes on legislation.
Kyrsten Sinema has 51.1% of the time, voted for Yurtle and the Orange Douchebags legislation.
It’s a “call out” on the Blue Dogs.
Naming names, would be devisive.
Yutsano
Oh yeah. We got a new bill too.
Kent
@Jay: What legislation?
Name me one piece of legislation passed by the Senate and signed into law during Sinema’s tenure in the Senate that didn’t also pass the House under Pelosi.
Jay
@Kent:
way too much “ in the weeds” detail for my time and fog brain.
Progressive Dems have been calling out Blue Dogs for decades,
sometimes by name,
But now, because of AOC Derangement Syndrome, now it’s a “thing”.
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
?. You could do worse!
SWMBO
@Chyron HR: There goes my bucket list….sigh
Jim, Foolish Literalist
LOL
WaterGirl
@M31: I almost think you have to silo all the old stuff, take it off the network, and stand up entirely new systems that we can know are secure.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Do pro-Trump dems in safe seats even exist?
Miss Bianca
@Jay: It’s almost as if, when challenged, you can’t bother to provide the receipts.
Kind of like AOC in this instance.