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Posts by Lord Link
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2022-08-28 at 3:56 PM UTC in Scientists Grow “Synthetic” Embryo With Brain and Beating Heart – Without Eggs or Spermhttps://scitechdaily.com/scientists-grow-synthetic-embryo-with-brain-and-beating-heart-without-eggs-or-sperm/
Scientists from the University of Cambridge have created model embryos from mouse stem cells that form a brain, a beating heart, and the foundations of all the other organs of the body. It represents a new avenue for recreating the first stages of life.
The team of researchers, led by Professor Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, developed the embryo model without eggs or sperm. Instead, they used stem cells – the body’s master cells, which can develop into almost any cell type in the body.
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2022-08-23 at 2:38 PM UTC in Colorado Senator Says He 'Cannot Continue' to Be a Republican Due to Party's Jan. 6, Stolen Election Claims
Originally posted by cigreting Climate change 😂
You liberals crack me up with how out of touch you retards are
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/07/01/skepticism-to-acceptance-how-putins-views-on-climate-change-evolved-over-the-years-a74391
In a 2015 address to the UN, Putin had changed his tone, acknowledging that climate change is “one of the gravest challenges humanity is facing” and promising by 2030 to cut Russia’s emissions by 70-75%, compared with 1990 levels. -
2022-08-23 at 2:34 PM UTC in US urges Americans to leave Ukraine (August 23rd, 2022)
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2022-08-23 at 2:24 PM UTC in Moscow Exchange says it will stop accepting US dollars as collateral amid Russia's move away from 'toxic' currencieshttps://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/moscow-exchange-stop-accepting-us-dollars-collateral-toxic-currencies-2022-8
On Monday, the Moscow Exchange announced it will stop accepting US dollars as collateral on the foreign exchange and securities market from August 29.
The exchange did not explain the new policy or provide further details, but it had already limited the use of the greenback as collateral to 25% from 50% earlier in August. The Moscow Exchange is the largest exchange in Russia. -
2022-08-23 at 2:20 PM UTC in WHO alert on ‘new' Covid variants in coming days amid rise in hospitalisation, deaths.https://www.livemint.com/news/world/who-alert-on-new-covid-variants-in-coming-days-amid-rise-in-hospitalisation-deaths-11661070932867.html
As per data, globally, over the last 4 weeks, 26,722,228 new cases and 62,892 new deaths were reported to WHO. That’s a 15% rise in new cases & a +35% increase in new deaths over the reporting period.
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2022-08-23 at 2:06 PM UTC in “ 16 Sanders Joins Striking Starbucks Workers on the Picket Line in Bostonhttps://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/08/21/sanders-joins-striking-starbucks-workers-picket-line-boston
"You at Starbucks all across this country are inspiring working people who are sick and tired of getting screwed over and who want decent wages, decent working conditions, and they want not to be treated as cogs in a machine."
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2022-08-23 at 2:01 PM UTC in FOX: The Trump Mar-a-Lago search was justifiedhttps://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-mar-a-lago-search-justified
The truth needs to be set forth plainly and simply, and so let’s get down to brass tacks here. What happened on August 8, 2022, was not tyranny. It was not political persecution. It was not a minor dust up over bureaucratic processes blown out of proportion. It was the criminal justice system operating just like it does with any other private citizen on any other given day ending in a "y."
Trump was the president and commander-in-chief up until noon on January 20, 2021. The moment Joe Biden took the Oath of Office, Trump became just another private citizen in his 70s who vacations in Florida during the winter months to avoid the bitter cold back in his native home in the Northeast. He was no longer shielded by any privileges or protections of the Office of the Presidency at the point beyond physical security protection. He is subject to the laws of the United States just like anyone else.
What also is true is that Trump had particular legal obligation as the former president to properly turn over presidential records to the National Archives and Records Administration. That is mandated by the Presidential Records Act because those records are the property of the United States. They are not Trump’s personal property.
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If this were a mere issue of simply recovering unclassified presidential records, though, there likely never would have been a criminal element to this matter. But buried into those boxes were countless properly marked classified documents. Those documents lacked any markings indicating that Trump had ever declassified them. No actual substantiated evidence indicates Mr. Trump ever declassified them. No one viewing those records would have any reason to view them as anything other than properly classified documents. -
2022-08-23 at 1:57 PM UTC in Files copied from voting systems were shared with Trump supporters, election deniershttps://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/08/22/election-system-copied-files-trump/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com
Sensitive election system files obtained by attorneys working to overturn President Donald Trump’s 2020 defeat were shared with election deniers, conspiracy theorists and right-wing commentators, according to records reviewed by The Washington Post.
A Georgia computer forensics firm, hired by the attorneys, placed the files on a server, where company records show they were downloaded dozens of times. Among the downloaders were accounts associated with a Texas meteorologist who has appeared on Sean Hannity’s radio show; a podcaster who suggested political enemies should be executed; a former pro surfer who pushed disproven theories that the 2020 election was manipulated; and a self-described former “seduction and pickup coach” who claims to also have been a hacker.
Plaintiffs in a long-running federal lawsuit over the security of Georgia’s voting systems obtained the new records from the company, Atlanta-based SullivanStrickler, under a subpoena to one of its executives. The records include contracts between the firm and the Trump-allied attorneys, notably Sidney Powell. The data files are described as copies of components from election systems in Coffee County, Ga., and Antrim County, Mich.
A series of data leaks and alleged breaches of local elections offices since 2020 has prompted criminal investigations and fueled concerns among some security experts that public disclosure of information collected from voting systems could be exploited by hackers and other people seeking to manipulate future elections.
Since Donald Trump first suggested the 2020 election might be stolen, Republicans have latched onto the claim. Here’s how it became a litmus test for the party. (Video: JM Rieger/The Washington Post)
Access to U.S. voting system software and other components is tightly regulated, and the government classifies those systems as “critical infrastructure.” The new batch of records shows for the first time how the files copied from election systems were distributed to people in multiple states.
Marilyn Marks, executive director of the nonprofit Coalition for Good Governance, which is one of the plaintiffs in the Georgia lawsuit, said the records appeared to show the files were handled recklessly. “The implications go far beyond Coffee County or Georgia,” Marks said.
In a statement to The Post, SullivanStrickler said the attorneys who hired the firm directed it “to contact county officials to obtain access to certain data” from Dominion Voting Systems machines in Georgia and Michigan.
“Likewise, the firm was directed by attorneys to distribute that data to certain individuals,” the statement said. The firm said that it “had [and has] no reason to believe that, as officers of the court, these attorneys would ask or direct SullivanStrickler to do anything either improper or illegal.”
Dominion Voting Systems has been the target of baseless claims from Trump, his advisers and allied news organizations that its machines were hacked and were programmed to flip votes from one candidate to another. The Colorado-based company has filed a host of defamation lawsuits over the statements.
Dominion declined to comment on ongoing investigations but in a statement said: “What is important is that nearly two years after the 2020 election, no credible evidence has ever been presented to any court or authority that voting machines did anything other than count votes accurately and reliably in all states.”
The Post reported on Aug. 15 that an earlier set of records released in response to the subpoena showed SullivanStrickler was hired in late November 2020 to conduct a multistate effort to copy software and other data from county election systems. The effort was more successful than previously known, accessing equipment in Georgia, Michigan and Nevada.
That same day, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) opened “a computer trespass investigation” regarding an elections server in Coffee County, bureau spokeswoman Nelly Miles said. Under Georgia law, knowingly using a computer or network without authority and with the intention of deleting, altering or interfering with programs or data is computer trespass, a felony.
SullivanStrickler’s statement said the firm would be “fully cooperative” with investigators. “We are confident that it will quickly become apparent that we did nothing wrong and were operating in good faith at all times,” it said.
The new documents were disclosed after plaintiffs asked the forensics firm who had accessed the Georgia elections data that the firm had collected, according to two people familiar with the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the litigation. The plaintiffs also received copies of the raw elections systems data collected by SullivanStrickler in Georgia, but those were not among records reviewed by The Post.
The new records also inadvertently detailed the sharing of data the firm collected during a separate forensic examination in Antrim County, where a judge in December 2020 had granted access to elections systems in response to a lawsuit challenging the 2020 results. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed.
In the records turned over to the Georgia plaintiffs, some pages, and portions of others, were blacked out. However, the text beneath some of the blacked-out blocks became visible when a Post reporter copied and pasted it into a separate file, showing downloads of files labeled “Antrim.”
In Georgia, Gabriel Sterling, the interim chief of staff in the Secretary of State’s office, told The Post in a statement that wrongdoers would be prosecuted. The secretary is a defendant in the litigation that uncovered the new records. Miles, the GBI spokeswoman, said in emails that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office on Aug. 2 had asked the agency to join efforts to examine the alleged Coffee County breach.
“Any attempts to illegally access election systems in Georgia will not be tolerated — whether it is rogue election officials, conspiracy-theorist attorneys, or security consultants working for those conspiracy theorists,” Sterling said.
The records show that 10 people downloaded data collected from Georgia or Michigan between December 2020 and February 2021. They also show in more detail the role of Powell, the attorney who pushed false claims about voting machines in a flurry of swing-state lawsuits for Trump, as well as the role of Jesse Binnall, an outside counsel to the Trump campaign. Powell and Binnall signed engagement agreements authorizing SullivanStrickler to carry out “computer forensic collections,” the documents show.
A 16-page agreement signed by Binnall on Nov. 30, 2020, stated it covered data collection in Nevada, where Binnall had won a court order granting limited access to equipment, and in Georgia. The agreement said Binnall would pay SullivanStrickler $19,500 per day for a team of three people to work in Nevada, and listed potential fees for work in Georgia.
Powell did not respond to requests for comment. The newly released records do not show Binnall in discussions about Coffee County.
A legal adviser to the Trump campaign, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said the campaign had not intended to contract the firm in Georgia. “To the extent Georgia was ever mentioned in the agreement, it was an error in wording that was missed because of substantial time pressure,” the person said.
A visit to rural Georgia
SullivanStrickler investigators ultimately copied data from elections systems in Coffee County offices on Jan. 7, 2021, the records show. A senior executive from the firm, Paul Maggio, updated Powell by email on their progress. The firm billed Powell $26,000 for a day’s work by four people.
SullivanStrickler sent its statement after The Post emailed Maggio seeking comment.
Misty Hampton, then a local elections supervisor, allowed the group into the Coffee offices so they could prove the “election was not done true and correct,” she previously told The Post. Hampton resigned under pressure last year because she falsified time sheets, according to county officials.
Maggio began uploading the Coffee County data to the company’s file-sharing server on Jan. 9, according to the records. One record appeared to list accounts that were granted access to the server and whether they had permissions to download, upload or delete files.
During the following weeks, the records show, files named in part “Coffee County” were downloaded by accounts in the names of at least four people outside the firm: Jim Penrose, a cybersecurity consultant who has said he formerly worked for the National Security Agency; Doug Logan, whose firm CyberNinjas conducted a Republican election review in Arizona; Conan Hayes, a former pro surfer from Hawaii; and a fourth person identified as “Scott T.”
Hayes and “Scott T” were listed in the company records as working for ASOG, short for Allied Security Operations Group. The Post previously reported how the Addison, Tex.-based firm rose from obscurity to produce a report on Antrim County that, although discredited, was circulated among senior administration officials and cited by Trump as proof the 2020 election was stolen.
A Twitter account used by Hayes has posted conspiracy theory material and images purportedly of Dominion voting systems in Michigan. In an affidavit first reported by the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, an investigator for the district attorney in Mesa County, Colo., alleged that Hayes worked with local officials there to copy elections software in May 2021. Three local officials were indicted on felony charges over the alleged breach. No charges were filed against Hayes.
Penrose, Logan and Hayes did not respond to requests for comment.
Kevin Skoglund, a cybersecurity expert working for plaintiffs in the Georgia lawsuit, told The Post that copies of elections software and other data like those collected by SullivanStrickler in Coffee County could aid people trying to compromise machines that use similar systems.
“We can’t know how many copies exist or who has them,” Skoglund said. “Someone might distribute it willingly or just fail to keep their copy safe.”
Downloads of data from Antrim
SullivanStrickler’s work in Michigan began after Republican lawyer Matthew DePerno, who had filed the election challenge lawsuit in Antrim County, won a Dec. 4, 2020, court order granting access to the county’s elections systems. Antrim was under scrutiny after initially reporting inaccurate vote tallies that showed Joe Biden beating Trump in a Republican stronghold. DePerno is now the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for Michigan attorney general.
The judge in the lawsuit, Kevin A. Elsenheimer, issued a protective order “restricting use, distribution or manipulation of the forensic images and/or other information gleaned from the forensic investigation” without further authorization from the court.
A Dec. 6, 2020, engagement agreement signed by Powell said SullivanStrickler would be paid $26,000 per day for work in Michigan by a team of four. It also said the firm would be paid the same rate for work in Arizona, but did not elaborate. That day, the firm made copies from elections equipment in Antrim’s county offices.
Over the following week, two SullivanStrickler employees who worked on the Antrim examination uploaded dozens of files to a folder named “Forensic Images,” the company records show. This folder was stored within another folder, whose name was the project number cited by the firm in emails about elections work. Some of these files were shared with attorneys representing Antrim and Michigan’s attorney general in the lawsuit.
On Dec. 15, Elsenheimer lifted his protective order, ruling that DePerno’s team could release a redacted version of ASOG’s report on Antrim and distribute the findings of the forensic examination “as they see fit.”
After that, the SullivanStrickler records show, Antrim files were downloaded by accounts that the records say belonged to people including John Basham, a Texas-based meteorologist who has pushed false claims about the election on social media; former Michigan state senator Patrick Colbeck, who has promoted conspiracy theories about election fraud and other topics; and “Joe Ottman,” an apparent misspelling of right-wing podcaster Joe Oltmann, who has called for gallows to be built to “take care of all these traitors to our nation.”
The account the records tied to Basham began downloading dozens of files, some labeled “election management server,” in late December. The account that records tie to Colbeck downloaded six files from the same folder on Jan. 5, 2021, according to the records, including files labeled “election management server” and “ThumbDrives.” Colbeck in a film about the election released last year said that he had asked DePerno to take on the lawsuit there.
The “Joe Ottman” account downloaded two files on Jan. 6, according to the records. The email address associated with this account was Oltmann’s, according to filings in a separate court case. Oltmann wrote in a Jan. 6 email filed to that case that he was “sitting with Matt DePerno” and intended to publish “raw data from Antrim County machines.”
During a Jan. 11 hearing in the Antrim case, an attorney for Michigan’s attorney general raised concerns that forensic images from Antrim’s systems had been published online.
DePerno noted that there was no longer any protective order shielding these files.
Elsenheimer stated that anything not included in ASOG’s report was “still subject to” a protective order, a transcript shows. Elsenheimer said DePerno could share Antrim’s forensic images with his expert witnesses — a group that ultimately included Logan, Hayes and Penrose — but that “mass distribution” was not permitted, according to the transcript.
The SullivanStrickler records show that downloads continued. On Jan. 16, an account in the name of Michal Pospieszalski, author of the book “How To Talk To Hot Women,” downloaded a file from the Antrim folder. On Jan. 19, the same account downloaded another folder, which contained multiple files labeled “AntrimEMS” and others relating to Coffee County. A profile for Pospieszalski on a pickup artists website describes him as a “former hacker,” and his online résumé states that he worked between 2005 and 2006 as chief technology officer of the Election Science Institute, a now-defunct voter integrity group.
Steven Hertzberg, the group’s director at the time, told The Post he did not recognize Pospieszalski’s name but that he “did employ a white hat hacker around that time” who matched Pospieszalski’s physical description. Pospieszalski is also president of Matter Voting, a company that is developing voting systems based on blockchain technology also used in cryptocurrency, according to the firm’s website.
Basham also downloaded multiple “election management server” files from the same folder between Jan. 27 and Jan. 29, and then again on Feb. 11 and Feb. 12, according to the records.
In emails to The Post, DePerno said he had complied with the judge’s rulings.
“No order prohibited access to the forensic images at any time after December 15, 2020,” DePerno wrote in an email. “If the files were shared with people who were not experts it was not a breech of any order.”
When forensic images from Antrim’s systems were later widely shared during a “symposium” held in South Dakota in August 2021 by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, DePerno emailed Lindell a cease and desist demand, court records show. “Those images are under protective order,” DePerno told Lindell.
DePerno did not respond to a question about when the protective order he cited to Lindell came into effect.
Asked if he had requested access for Oltmann, Basham, Pospieszalski and Colbeck, DePerno said he did not recall who did so and does not know Pospieszalski. About Oltmann, DePerno said in an email: “If SullivanStrickler gave him access then he had every right to have the images.”
Basham said in an email that based on his reading of The Post, “I Do Not Expect Anything I Say To Be Represented Honestly.” Pospieszalski said in a message to The Post that he “can’t comment on what I did or did not find as part of my retained work for the Antrim county legal team as I’m under NDA,” a nondisclosure agreement. He characterized his eight years as a seduction and pickup coach as a “giant detour” from a career mostly focused on computer security.
Colbeck and Oltmann did not respond to requests for comment.
Data security expert Harri Hursti said in a court filing after the Lindell symposium that widespread release of server images “lowers the barrier to planning an attack against any election management system running this Dominion software.” -
2022-08-23 at 1:52 PM UTC in Colorado Senator Says He 'Cannot Continue' to Be a Republican Due to Party's Jan. 6, Stolen Election Claimshttps://people.com/politics/colorado-state-senator-leaves-republican-party-denounces-trump/
n a statement released Monday and shared by Axios, Priola says he first became a Republican in 1990, at a time when President Ronald Reagan was "looking out for American interests, not cozying up to Russia" and working "across the aisle on immigration issues."
"I haven't changed much in 30 years, but my party has," Priola — who represents Colorado's 25th District — adds.
Elsewhere in his statement, Priola writes that the modern-day Republican Party is facing a number of "existential" crises, from a failure to distance itself from Trump to a failure to act on climate change.
"I cannot continue to be a part of a political party that is okay with a violent attempt to overturn a free and fair election and continues to peddle claims that the 2020 election was stolen," Priola writes.
He continues: "For these reasons, today, I'm announcing that I have changed my party registration from Republican to Democrat."
Priola writes that he will begin caucusing with Democrats, but will "not be changing the way I vote on legislation," adding that he continues to be pro-life, pro-school choice and pro-Second Amendment.
"Even if there will continue to be issues that I disagree with the Democratic Party on, there is too much at stake right now for Republicans to be in charge," he writes. -
2022-08-23 at 1:49 PM UTC in DOJ is seeking further surveillance video from Mar-a-Lago, suggesting Trump may still have secret documents there: NYThttps://www.businessinsider.com/doj-seeks-mar-a-lago-footage-may-mean-trump-has-more-secret-docs-nyt-2022-8
The FBI has subpoenaed more surveillance camera footage from Mar-a-Lago, The New York Times reported.
Per the outlet, this could be a sign that "officials are not certain whether they have recovered all the presidential records" from the former President Donald Trump's home.
The Times cited unnamed sources for the detail that officials are seeking additional footage, which it said came after the August 8 raid which removed dozens of boxes of material from Mar-a-Lago. The new subpoenas showed that officials were still scrutinizing Trump and his aides' handling of the documents before the search, sources told the publication.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did representatives for Trump. -
2022-08-23 at 1:46 PM UTC in US urges Americans to leave Ukraine (August 23rd, 2022)https://ua.usembassy.gov/security-alert-u-s-embassy-kyiv-ukraine-6/
(Today)Event: The Department of State has information that Russia is stepping up efforts to launch strikes against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and government facilities in the coming days. Russian strikes in Ukraine pose a continued threat to civilians and civilian infrastructure. The U.S. Embassy urges U.S. citizens to depart Ukraine now using privately available ground transportation options if it is safe to do so.
(January 19th, 2022)
https://twitter.com/RusEmbUSA/status/1483612850333663239
Russian embassy in US posted:We stress once again: 🇷🇺 is not going to attack anyone. The practice of moving troops on our own soil is a sovereign right. We call to end the hysteria and not to pile on tension around the #Donbass problem.
(February 12th, 2022)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/feb/12/ukraine-crisis-russia-invasion-fears-putin-biden-latest-newsIn Moscow, Yuri Ushakov, a senior foreign policy adviser, called the conversation between the leaders “balanced and businesslike” and confirmed “the presidents have agreed to continue contacts at all levels”. But he rejected US claims that a Russian attack was imminent. “Hysteria has reached its peak,” Ushakov said.
