https://www.cbsnews.com/news/walter-...to-be-removed/

I have said this before. I get and accept why the doctor has been removed from the schedule. I believe the criticism was valid and at least on the surface looks medically sound. Despite that, He is a representative of the hospital and GW Medical Faculty Associates. He can't been seen criticizing the customers no matter how right he may be. However, this example is why I don't understand those that say others should not be lose their jobs for publicly taking such stances. Maybe it is time to change how we handle these types of situations. Until then, this is what we do and have always done.

Some additional details on the raid.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/07/us/fl...nvs/index.html

So when a public figure does something risky that could impact the health of others, we should just shut the fuck up about it right?

What if he had Ebola? What if he had HIV and stated he was going to have unprotected sex with his wife? And he said these things in public, doesn't the public have a right to be informed to the counter and correct argument on how unsafe those actions are?

Why does Orange Dipshit get a pass? If I had done it I could have been arrested like that couple that knowingly went on a plane positive with Covid.

No that is not what I am saying at all. My focus is on the doctor not the president. I will quote what I said about the doctor's criticism.


Saying what the doctor said takes courage because one of the risks is that he may be removed from his position(s). Keeping him on the schedule also takes courage on the part of both Walter Reed and GW Medical Faculty Associates. For many, to not remove him would generally be seen as supporting what he says. The businesses leave themselves open to be targeted by the current administration and their supporters. I believe there was pressure applied to remove the doctor from the schedule The easy way out for those businesses is to bow to the pressure, remove him from the schedule and move on. That is what they did. I understand it from the business's POV in the same way I would understand if the business took the same action the other way. If the doctor had taken a opinion supportive of what the President's actions and the pressure was coming from the other side. That is why I ended with this.


We have seen a recent trend of people complaining that "X" should not lose their job for having publicly expressing stances that may lead to their place of employment receiving pressure political or otherwise. The reasoning given is people are allowed to publicly express opinions without the threat of such an "unfair" consequence. If the doctor with his credentials is getting "cancelled" for expressing his opinion, I am not sure why it could not happen to someone else. Especially those that have less credibility to speak on topics than Dr. Phillips has to speak on his. At least there is some credible evidence behind what the doctor is saying.

I would love for it to be different. I would love for the businesses to support the employee's right to have the opinion, take a stand for what they believe in and be willing to deal with the effects thereafter. That is generally not the precedent that has been set. That is not the way these things are handled in the main.

Least surprising news of the day: Jenna Ellis has COVID.

trump going all in on 2024 will hamstring the entire Republican party. They will have to either support him completely the next four years, and anyone who thought that they might run again, will either be expelled from the party if they go against him, or have to get in line until the crazy train runs out of gas.

dickhead waddled out of the medal of freedom ceremony in the middle of it leaving the recipient...a wrestler just standing there.

*waddle waddle waddle*

Called it! I just hope this doesn't mean someone more competent and sane takes over the law suits now. As with all others, i hope they recover quickly and have no lasting effects.

Apparently she's the first transmission through Just For Men.

I would have stolen a bunch of pens and a letter opener.

In also not shocking news, Kellyanne Conway signs a multi-million deal to write about her time in the White House. I only approve of this if they sign Conway's husband and daughter to write their own sections of the book detailing their time in the Conway house during these four years.

Judge Sullivan dismisses case against Flynn-early indications are that his hands were tied by the pardon. Hope the new AG can bring new charges against him.

Not just any wrestler. Arguably the greatest wrestler and the greatest wrestling coach of all time.

EDIT: Of course we are talking about Dan Gable.

There has to be a pretty solid NDA for anyone in this White House, right?

Shouldn't be and they shouldn't stand up in court. Trump isn't the boss in the sense that he owns the company and pays the employees.

He's not quite there yet but Trump reminds me of Bagdad Bob.

The text of two of Trump's tweets this morning. He's getting very close to calling for violence. In other news, with the exception of Romney, the GOP either agrees or stays silent.

The Republicans know that standing up to Trump will be the end of their career (save maybe guys like Romney). As much as I disliked Brian Kemp, he has bravely thrown away his political future to do the right thing. He and the rest of the state Republicans officials are all gone in primaries two years from now. That is if they aren't kicked out of office earlier. Sometimes bravery is just doing your job.

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Can't wait for Republican Gov nominee Marjorie Taylor Greene.

He's there. His whole press department has followed that same line of thinking.

Trump gets #4 with Morocco and keeping up the momentum. I do hope SA happens next year.

Why is the US bribing countries to get them to say nice things about Israel?

So Trump can win a Nobel Peace Prize to own the libs.

Per trumpy - "That's how business works!" But it's totally not quid pro quo, because he has never heard of that, and has no idea about it, and it's totally not that, because a very smart person once said "sir, it's totally not that."

Yeah what a complete joke that whole “Middle East peace treaty” is. Similar to his ridiculous and fake China trade war that was a complete and total lose for the US.

Are you disagreeing with the approach (quid pro quo), the end results, being anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian, or just general Trump bashing?

You don't think having 4 muslim countries normalize (or at least begin to) relationships with Israel is a good thing even if the US has to "bribe" them? That's pretty much how things work, there's typically some sort of quid pro quo.

And I've not read of any too outrageous bribes (but admittedly, I'm expecting a big one for SA).

Why are we doing the bribing and not Israel?

I think giving the UAE f-35 isn't great. In general, we should be reducing military sales to SA for certain. Overall, i am for peace. I just don't know how long any of this last past the quid-pro-quo.

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I'll take that answer as anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian.

Appreciate you answering my question with your thoughts vs some pseudo Socratic approach.

I agree, I don't know how long it'll last. But Egypt and Jordan has lasted a while and so I think there is a fair chance this will last especially if SA (biggest anti-Iran power in the region) gets on board.

Nothing has worked well for the past 20+ years. This approach has gotten some results so far. So let's give it some more room.

I don't see how these are "bad" deals for the US, Israel or the 4 countries. Admittedly it is bad for the Palestinians.

lol

Is now a good time to complain about bias and personal attacks?

You and the bros are easily up 100 to 2.

Almost the same as Trump complaining that Hunter is corrupt.

racist

Anti-semite.

Damn, 101-3 now.

anti-dentite

Ageist. 102-4.

Good thing we are keeping politics in this thread. The Wuhan non-political would be a mess.

Anti-dentite mean you're against dentist?

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Nah, just casually trading insults ala Seinfeld.

Save it for Festivus!

I've had a lot of wine

Next you'll be saying that they should have their own schools!

I couldn't find one. But there is hope in thinking Festivus is gaining some momentum.

400 Bad Request

Trump's questioning on why Pfizer drug hasn't been approved yet brought up the question of why it hasn't (although it has now under Trump's pressure).

I've not read anything that explains why it hadn't been approved other than "following the process", "keep to the high standards" etc. which is all great but that does imply that UK is not doing so. It would be good for FDA to be transparent and say "we are at this stage; we are reviewing X, Y, Z; we are waiting for other parties to complete A, B, C" etc.

The real question that is bugging me is the FDA and all necessary agencies working a lot of overtime (e.g. rotating shifts) or as close to 24 x 7 to get things done; or is it primarily 8-5 job, 5 days a week.

I don't have any facts or read anything in MSM to tell me they are or not, but the delayed Pfizer approval process and lack of transparent answer brought this cynical question to mind.

Anyone have any insights how UK was able to approve before the US? and is FDA and other agencies working a lot of overtime including weekends to get things done?

The UK largely took Pfizer's word and the US did a deep review of the data.

One of the big reasons people are saying they won't take the vaccine is that they fear the process was rushed and safety issues were missed. I'm not sure starting vaccines a few days early would be beneficial given that.

Thanks, appreciate the answer.

I searched on this and did find references to what you said. Different ways of doing it and does seem the US is more rigorous by doing an "independent" review, which is good. If it only adds a week, I agree I prefer the rigor.

The funny thing is that the Pfizer drug was scheduled to be approved on Saturday and the trump administration went through all that bullshit to get force it to get approved on Friday. Made a big show of force and power so it could hit the end of the week news cycle. It didn't mean anything other than that.

Trump fires the head of cyber-security, and now there has been a serious breach at Treasury by a foreign actor. Hmmmm....

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Btw, it was a Russian group behind it. What a surprise. It always goes back to Russia.

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Barr resigns.

Attorney General Barr has resigned - effective Dec. 23 pic.twitter.com/gjyaq9Er5M

— West Wing Reports (@WestWingReport) December 14, 2020

lol Trump sent that fat pig out to pasture

I wonder what comes next. I'm thinking Trump tries to name Rudy as acting AG, so he can use the DOJ to do a Hunter Biden investigation and file suits against states that didn't vote for Trump.

And I am sure in comes someone worse. At least it is likely they will incompetent.

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Bring back that TE from Iowa again.

Hunter seriously needs to get the fuck out of dodge right now if he already hadn't

I missed this at the time, but this the best summary of Trump I have ever seen, largely I guess as it was written by a Brit

Nate White’s stunning answer to the question: Why do many British people not like Donald Trump? – Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

Perfect summary and a good indicator of why some of his supporters, who share many of those traits find him so endearing.

What struck me most was that I had overlooked the complete absence of any sense of humour.

Yeah, if you don't count mean-spirited mockery, the man doesn't have a sense of humor. He certainly doesn't have one about himself.

He would be the worst co-worker in the world. Takes credit for every good thing that happens on the team, and throws everybody under the bus every time something bad happens.

I still remember that one. It's one of the three things I've read that I think will really encapsulate the Trump Presidency.

Another: hxxps://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/the-cruelty-is-the-point/572104/ (xx'd since it keeps doing funky formatting things when I include the actual link)

The other I can't find now, sadly. I think it was on Yahoo and was from 2017 or maybe even late 2016 and it talked about how Nixon fatigue finally caught up to Nixon - how people just didn't want a brick to the head every morning - and how that might play out for Trump.

SI

Haven't seen anything in the news about Rudi. Anyone have an update on his situation?

I don't know what thread this should go in, but the Russia hack thing is a very big deal and far worse than what the media has ahold of so far.

We were lucky and stopped using SolarWinds over a year ago, but I have friends working in agencies that are using SolarWinds and to say people are shitting their pants would be a massive understatement.

This seems like it should be the biggest story in the world right now.

SCOOP/BREAKING NEWS: The Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, have evidence that hackers accessed their networks, officials directly familiar with the matter said. https://t.co/w3aIRvY67c

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) December 17, 2020

It's weird.

I think that people (media, politicians) aren't making too big of a deal of it b/c they don't want Trump to notice it.

They are all just kind of waiting/hoping Biden will come in and start dealing with the problem.

The last thing they want is fealty to Russian hackers to become another litmus test for the MAGAs.

I should probably pay more attention but InfoSec where I work doesn't talk a whole lot, especially when stuff screws up (probably not unique to here). But I've seen a couple of Change Request Forms this past week for SolarWinds and FireEye. Yay...

SI

Is it possible that the Biden transition team actually found the breach?

I'd be very surprised. My guess is, based on the nature of what happened, that it was SolarWinds that discovered it.

This is scary bad though. Whoever did it (we assume Russia but it's not 100% conclusive yet) had access to some of our network data at the state and national level for months.

It's so vague and seemingly technical right now, I don't think the media knows how to report it so that people can understand it without assuming it's a Trump-Russia thing.

It is just an interesting coincidence that two weeks after Biden began receiving intel briefings the breach was discovered.

You see what happens when you don't put things on your own private server.;)

Never mind all the back doors and access they have installed since. This is not the last we're going to hear of it. Especially considering how lazy our posture has been to cyber-security for along time in this country (EASE OF USE ALWAYS WINS).

SI

There is so much of the hacking thing that goes along with the complete clean-out of the Defense department that has the conspiracy part of my brain screaming.

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FireEye found it. Kind of randomly as an employee got a suspicious alert about someone trying to login to his account.

No one in the government had a clue it seems. Or they just didn't care because it was a country friendly to Trump's interests.

Regardless, cybersecurity is way behind in this country. Russians running laps around our government. Guess we should order another fighter jet we will never use instead of keeping our networks safe.

Thanks for that info about FireEye.

Don't want to be accused of not giving credit where credit is due.

Good job Vice President Pence for showing leadership via getting the Covid vaccine this morning.

I would only say that the government cyber security is way behind. Working in the cyber security strategic advisory area of the industry many commercial organizations are spending a ton of money in this area. That being s@id the bad guys are always going to be ahead of us. But yes the US government cyber security is a joke at this point and Biden needs to really focus on that again after Trump admin f it up pretty good the last 4 years.

It always goes back to Russia. 4 years of him blowing Putin.

Just like with how they dismantled pandemic response teams, they did the same in cybersecurity.

Obama wasn't great at it but they wldid make a huge push in his 2nd term to catch us up. Trump dismantled most of it. There is practically no one protecting our networks. Rely mostly on private companies with little incentive. Look at the date of these.

Exclusive: White House cyber memo warns of new network risks - Axios
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nyt...nment.amp.html

Totally agree Rainmaker.

Since when has not knowing how to report something ever stopped the media from doing it anyway?

On a serious note this is a sensational story and the Russian dogwhistle always plays well but events like this are almost always an inside job.

Micha, there has to be a better use of your time than posting here.

You spelled Mischa wrong. You need to seriously up your smack-talk game.

Браво!

Some reporting is bound to be off; this seems like a pretty solid rundown.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/techn...us-government/

I hadn't seen that article yet, but it's in line with what I've heard from people working it. Those closest to to what's going on aren't 100% convinced it's Russia but that's where the evidence is pointing.

The fact that the White House has kept quiet points to Russia.

The WSJ has done amazing work on the story so far. Behind a paywall so not sure how many people will see it.

Well, that and the sophistication and method of attack. There aren't that many actors who can pull off something like this. And, frankly, it feels more like a Russia attack. China's attacks are typically more brute force and most of the other actors who can do this are a bit more clumsy.

SI

The thing that bugs me about the hack is that we spend a fortune on defense. This isn't an issue of not having funding, it's an issue of allocation. Romney laid out a good example in an interview. This would be like the Russians flying a spy plane over our country undetected. What would our response be to that?

So why aren't we treating cybersecurity like that? Why aren't we funding it the way we fund air defense and other stuff? It's a much bigger threat than any foreign military. Countries wouldn't have to lob over missiles during a conflict, they could just shut down our power grid.

Same goes for pandemics. It's a much bigger threat than a military conflict on our soil. This article talks about how we can map out all existing viruses that could jump to humans and have a vaccine essentially ready for production if it happens. Just a few billion dollars.

We Had the COVID-19 Vaccine the Whole Time

I agree entirely with everything you just posted.

Agree. Galaril has more experience in this field than I do so I'd like to hear what he says.

Basically rogue hackers wouldn't be this patient. There would be something they would want out of it. And the sophistication and pace at which they adapted would make it a large team.

And the biggest evidence against it being China is that the President and his allies would not stop talking about it if it was. Russia gets a pass like usual.

To be fair, I'm just reading about it on trade websites and what we've talked about internally. Also, I'm just a Sys Admin - I'm not on the InfoSec side of the house.

EDIT: So my educated guesses are from that - my international politics are just guesses and not that well informed. Not my world.
Also, we are running both SolarWinds and FireEye, but, in theory, we did not get the compromised packages. However, I cynically think that's because we're so behind on patching on some of our stuff that they'd have to have the vulnerability in place back in 2017 of us to finally have it installed in our systems today.

SI

Of course, one of the fun nuggets to come out of this is that the server's password was solarwinds123 and this:



Security Researcher: 'solarwinds123' Password Left Firm Vulnerable in 2019 - ExtremeTech

So, on the one hand - sophisticated attack. On the other hand, wide open access that could have been had by anyone for years. And, of course, most of us are looking at that story like "damn - yup, seen so much like this".

There's a reason why everyone else has different views of everyone else on this matrix. But when it comes to sys admins, everyone sees us the same and the only debate is between single birds of double birds:



SI

My guess is that it is like all government spending. You can't have a ribbon cutting ceremony that shows off cybersecurity or pandemic prevention.

Remember how we spent a fortune buying up mortgages and treasuries to get the banks to loan more? Well the banks just used that money to buyback stocks.

This is a country that can't give $1200 to its citizens.

Subscribe to read | Financial Times

And when did $1200 be the defining number that needs to be given out. It was so freaking low to start with, and that they've only done it once, when they should have been doing it every month is a joke. It should be substantially more than $1200, given to every living, breathing person. It'll be the most direct use of small business injection they can give.

We needed to give $4 trillion to big businesses so they could buyback stocks.

Deficit hawks are back!

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson blocked an effort to deliver $1,200 stimulus checks to Americans today — citing deficit concerns.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 18, 2020

That pic is fantastic. I'm going to share it with my team.

I saw it on one of those made up holidays like sys admin day a year or two ago and it's been near and dear to my heart ever since.

SI

And take on more bad debt. Don't forget that.

SI