The S.S. United States reaches Florida

There are some great video shots of the ship under tow in this video.

Congress pushes back on UK snooping

Maybe there's something in the water in Washington D.C. these days, but this is clearly A Very Good Thing Indeed:

A bipartisan, bicameral pair of lawmakers urged newly confirmed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to reevaluate U.S. cybersecurity and intelligence-sharing relations with the United Kingdom in response to a report revealing that the UK secretly ordered Apple to build a backdoor into encrypted iCloud backups.

The Feb. 7 report from the Washington Post says that the order issued last month demands UK law enforcement and intelligence operatives be granted worldwide, unfettered access to users’ protected cloud data. Apple customers residing in the United States would be cast into that dragnet.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., asked Gabbard in the Thursday missive if the Trump administration was made aware of the order by stakeholders and whether the White House has understanding of the CLOUD Act, which lets U.S. law enforcement get data stored by American tech companies, even if that data is on servers outside the U.S., by using warrants or subpoenas.

“If Apple is forced to build a backdoor in its products, that backdoor will end up in Americans’ phones, tablets, and computers, undermining the security of Americans’ data, as well as of the countless federal, state and local government agencies that entrust sensitive data to Apple products,” they wrote in their letter to Gabbard.

Remember, Encryption Backdoors are a Very Bad Idea.  It's not just me saying this, it's the former Director of the UK's GCHQ (their NSA equivalent).

And well done to Congresscritters from both parties in both the House and Senate for putting some pressure on the idiots in Blimey.

What Real Diversity Is

Representative Brian Mast from Florida has five minutes to make a point and he puts it to use. The best best explanation of how diversity should work I've heard from a politician.

The DOGE website is now posting the money saved by their efforts

It still looks like a work in progress, but this likely will be pretty interesting.

Presiden't day - Best and Worst Presidents

I've posted this each President's Day for ten years but have found no reason to adjust the rankings.

It's not a real President's birthday (Lincoln's was the 12th, Washington's is the 22nd), but everyone wants a day off, so sorry Abe and George, but we're taking it today.  But in the spirit intended for the holiday, let me offer up Borepatch's bestest and worstest lists for Presidents.

Top Five:

#5: Calvin Coolidge

Nothing To Report is a fine epitaph for a President, in this day of unbridled expansion of Leviathan.

#4. Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson is perhaps the last (and first) President who exercised extra-Constitutional power in a manner that was unambiguously beneficial for the Republic (the Louisiana Purchase).  He repealed Adam's noxious Alien and Sedition Acts and pardoned those convicted under them.

#3. Grover Cleveland*. 

He didn't like the pomp and circumstance of the office, and he hated the payoffs so common then and now.  He continually vetoed pork spending (including for veterans of the War Between the States), so much so that he was defeated for re-election, but unusually won a second term later.  This quote is priceless (would that Latter Day Presidents rise so high), on vetoing a farm relief bill: "Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character." 

#2. Ronald Reagan

He at least tried to slow down the growth of Leviathan, the first President to do so in over half a century (see entry #5, above).  He would have reduced it further, except that his opposition to the Soviet fascist state and determination to end it cost boatloads of cash.  It also caused outrage among the home grown fascists in the Media and Universities, but was wildly popular among the general population which was (and hopefully still remains) sane.

#1. George Washington

Could have been King.  Wasn't.  Q.E.D. 

Bottom Five:

#5. John Adams.

There's no way to read the Alien and Sedition Acts as anything other than a blatant violation of the First Amendment.  It's a sad statement that the first violation of a Presidential Oath of Office was with President #2. 

#4. Woodrow Wilson.

Not only did he revive the spirit of Adams' Sedition Acts, he caused a Presidential opponent to be imprisoned under the terms of his grotesque Sedition Act of 1918.  He was Progressivism incarnate: he lied us into war, he jailed the anti-war opposition, he instituted a draft, reinstituted segregation in the Civil Service, and he was entirely soft-headed when it came to foreign policy.  The fact that Progressives love him (and hate Donald Trump) says all you need to know about them.

#3 Lyndon Johnson.

An able legislator who was able to get bills passed without having any real idea what they would do once enacted, he is responsible for more Americans living in poverty and despair than any occupant of the White House, and that says a lot.

#2. Franklin Roosevelt.

America's Mussolini - ruling extra-Constitutionally fixing wages and prices, packing the Supreme Court, and transforming the country into a bunch of takers who would sell their votes for a trifle.  He also rounded up a bunch of Americans and sent them to Concentration Camps.  But they were nice Concentration Camps - at least we're told that by his admirers.  At least Mussolini met an honorable end.

#1. Abraham Lincoln.

There's no doubt that the Constitution never would have been ratified if the States hadn't thought they could leave if they needed to.  Lincoln saw to it that 10% of the military-age male population was killed or wounded preventing that in an extra-Constitutional debacle unequaled in the Republic's history.  Along the way, he suspended Habeas Corpus, instituted the first ever draft on these shores, and jailed political opponents as he saw fit.  Needless to say, Progressives adore him.

So happy President's Day.  

* I am currently reading A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland (recommended).  I had not known that the very first First Lady to have Jackie Kennedy style glamor was his wife Frances, whom he wed in the White House itself.  Here she is in her salad days (courtesy of Wikipedia):

 

 

 

The reason that your iPhone updated its code last night

Apple patched a Zero Day bug that was being actively exploited in the wild.  I'm not a big fan of unannounced updates where I don't get a choice to approve it or not, but in this case Apple did exactly the right thing.

CMP Sales Update: 1911 pistols

The CMP is selling surplus 1911 pistols, starting at $1100.

Crisis by (Government) Design vs. DOGE

Peter brings up a point I've been making for quite a while that is being highlighted by Elon's DOGE:

It doesn't give enough attention, IMHO, to the "poverty industry" of NGO's, consultants, therapists and others who make a good living out of "managing" or "addressing" the causes, effects and reality of poverty, without ever doing anything to resolve the issues they identify - because that would cut off their income, and nobody (at least, from their perspective) wants that.

It's Rich People's Leftism:

Rich People's Leftism is one of the clearest explanations I've ever seen for the utter failure of government in Blue States:

With this new approach in mind, let me contrast Rich People’s Leftism (RPL) with Poor People’s Leftism (PPL).

RPL thinks that its goal is to help poor people, while PPL thinks that RPL’s primary goal is to ensure that wealthy leftists dominate and get great jobs.

You really should click through to read about Rich People's Leftism, which dates to 2010.  We've known about this for a long, long time.  A different view is "red pill/blue pill": 

... an old post from Isegoria (you do read him every day, don't you?) gives the best introduction to the topic, phrased in explicitly "Blue Pill"/"Red Pill" terminology:

The nature of the state

• The state is established by citizens to serve their needs. Its actions are generally righteous.
• The state is just another giant corporation. Its actions generally advance its own interests. Sometimes these interests coincide with ours, sometimes they don’t.

You should read Isegoria's post as well.  Then think about the proposed $3.5T spending bill that is before congress.  Who will it help?  Who are we told that is is going to help, but won't?  To ask the questions is to answer them.

What is interesting about the opening moves of DOGE is that we are now getting names to put next to all the Rich People's Leftism projects.

Anatomy of an online crime takedown

LOLOL:

"Bro we are in big trouble," said Callum Picari, 23, from Hornchurch, in East London, after infosec reporter Brian Krebs mentioned OTP Agency in a February 2021 investigation related to a separate phishing kit operation.

"U will get me bagged [sic]," Picari went on to say. "Bro delete the chat."

The perps in question look pretty much like you would expect them to look.

 

How humans make mistakes vs. how AI makes mistakes

This is pretty interesting reading.

So Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht

Ulbricht was the guy who set up the "Dark Web" site The Silk Road.  I am a little conflicted about this.

On the one hand, he made money on each drug deal that went through his site.  There's no question that this was dirty money.

On the other hand, his 2 life sentences without the possibility of parole was hideously excessive.  People have pointed out (rightly) that drug dealers convicted of using the site to sell their wares got much less time.

And on the gripping hand, a place where people can spend their money without the 24/7 government surveillance of everything sure seemed like it was a good thing.

I wonder if Trump would have issued the pardon if he hadn't been railroaded through the legal system himself.  All in all, the "Justice system" here has taken a huge credibility hit.

California Secession

 Secession is the talk in California these days. Newsweek Magazine reports that California is California is collecting signatures to put the issue on the ballot. They are calling it Calexit.

I doubt it goes anywhere, but it's an interesting thought exercise. California is a huge place, certainly large enough to be a country. It has an enormous economy. It could continue to trade with the United States and has the harbors and ports to trade with the world.

My first response would be to let them go peacefully. Establish borders. Wish them the best. 

The last time some States left the U.S. sent in troops and it was devastating. The casualties accounted for 2.5% of the population. The economic effects in the South are still being felt. Why subject the country to an internal war?

Losing California's reliably Democratic Senators and Congressmen, along California's 54 votes in the Electoral College would be benefit enough. It would ensure Republican victories in the White House and Congress for decades.

And here's why it won't happen. 

There is a pipeline that draws water from the Colorado River and diverts it to California. From Parker Dam water is pumped up over four mountain ranges before it flows into California. This pipeline, built as a public works project in the 1930s provides most of the water to Southern California for agricultural and home use.

How much water? Up to 4.4 million acre-feet according to the agreements between the western States and Mexico. An acre-foot of water is 325,851 gallons. 4.4 million acre-feet is on the high side of 97 billion gallons. Most years California doesn't get all of it's allotment, the available water is apportioned by percentages. But even in drought conditions, California's share is 29% of the available water in the Colorado River.

If California seceded, how long would it be before the United States turned off the pumps?

WWII After WWII

 Tacticus took up the offer to suggest new blogroll additions. The first one is a site I already visit and just hadn't thought to add. It's called WWII after WWII. The posts are themed around WWII weapons and equipment that continued to be used after the war ended.

It's now in the blogroll under Other Blogs I Read.

I went back to a recent post to use as an example. The topic is the post war use of P-51 Mustangs by the U.S. Army. Yes, the Army. RTWT.

New Year's Housekeeping

 It's a small thing, but when I look at some blogrolls, they are full of dead links and blogs that haven't been updated for years. So, once or twice I year, I prune our blogroll. We only lost two this year. There were three more that had moved to new sites and I updated our links. One got moved to Sadly Missed.

I also removed the Presidential walker from the sidebar, as Pr. Biden has left office. I like the idea of the having something in the sidebar, but unless I decide to commit to keeping it current, it's better off gone.

If anyone has suggestions for blogs we should visit and consider adding to our blogroll, drop them in the comments.

R.I.P. Bob Uecker

I was going to post the great Miller Lite commercial with him, but Dwight beat me to it. 

I can heartily endorse his book about his baseball career, Catcher In The Wry.

Rest in peace, Uke.

Security wasn't an afterthought, it wasn't thought of at all

This keeps coming up over and over.  The latest example is GoDaddy:

GoDaddy has failed to protect its web-hosting platform with even basic infosec tools and practices since 2018, according to the FTC, but the internet giant won’t face any immediate consequences for its many alleged acts of omission.

As one of the world's largest web-hosting companies, and a registry and registrar with about 82 million domain names in its care, one would assume GoDaddy would be adept at applying software updates and monitoring security-related events in its hosting environment to protect its millions of customers and the visitors to their websites from online threats.

But according to a Wednesday statement from the FTC, “GoDaddy has failed to implement reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect and monitor its website-hosting environments for security threats, and misled customers about the extent of its data security protections on its website hosting services.”

So what triple-propellorhead security tech did they miss?  Basics like security log analysis tools, multi-factor authentication on login, missing security patches, and not maintaining an inventory of their systems.  This is all Security 101.  Actually, it may be Security Pre-K.

If you use GoDaddy's hosting you might want to consider an alternative.

 

CMP Update

The Civilian Marksmanship Program has a limited number of M1 Garand rifles chambered in 7.62 NATO.  They have both the Mod-0 version for $900 and the Mod-1 version for $1200.  

You probably don't want the Mod-0 because it doesn't do well with standard ammo, and in fact the CMP categorizes them as unservicable.  The value is all historical.

The Mod-1 versions are safe to use with 7.62 NATO.

Tim Conway as the Fashion Police

And then the *real* police show up.  Pure gold.

UK-US "Special Relationship" in jeopardy

So says the BBC:

Musk has been vocal on X over the past week concerning the grooming gang scandal, which was covered up by the Labour government from the 90’s onwards for a period of over a decade.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer accused Musk and British politicians who support his call for justice for victims of grooming gangs of jumping on a “far-right bandwagon.”

According to BBC Newsnight, there is “absolute horror at the highest levels of government at the incendiary language we have seen from Elon Musk.”

Huh. So Elon's statement of facts - that hundreds of thousands of british girls were systematically gang raped by Pakistani immigrants over the span of decades - imperils our special relationship?  Weird.

What actually seems to be imperiling the special relationship is the UK Labour government selling out our base at Diego Garcia:

Last ditch negotiations are underway in London as Starmer attempts to ram through his Chagos sellout before Trump’s inauguration. Earlier today Guido revealed how the deal would see UK nuclear options sold out as part of the giveaway…

...

Trump advisers now say the President is beginning to see Chagos as one of the same issues. “If Starmer sells out UK sovereignty disabling the US base and nukes, it’s going to make Trump as furious as over Panama” says one well-placed Trump team member.

Huh.  My guess is that Trump refusing to shut Elon up about the UK.Gov mass rape scandal is the least of His Magesty's Government's problems.

Gun control leads straight to this

Germany is revoking firearms permits for AfD party members.  AfD is likely to be the biggest party in the coming March elections.