Educational CyberPlayground Newsletter 3-23-21

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TAXES

Mr. Biden campaigned on increasing the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, raising the top individual tax rate from 37% to 39.6% and increasing capital gains taxes on people who earn more than $1 million per year.

BITCOIN

Milton Friedman predicts the rise of Bitcoin in 1999!

Milton Friedman – Rights of Workers (Q&A)

The mainstream press has declared Bitcoin “dead” at least 500 times over its existence. They’ve been wrong every single time.

December close: $28,992
January close: $33,141
February close: $45,240
March 17 price: $55,000
We are only 3.5 months into the #bitcoin bull market.

Bitcoin is worth more than Visa and Mastercard put together, not to mention the world’s 3 biggest banks

Why central banks around the world want to get into digital currencies — And so it begins… At first, a mere crack.
A French parliament member has signed a petition to amend the legal guidelines to allow the central financial institution of France to purchase and maintain bitcoin in addition to different cryptocurrencies. The petition urges lawmakers to urgently take into account the matter, warning that not proudly owning bitcoin will put France “in a financially weak place inside 5-10 years.”

The Banks will be begging for bitcoin.

ENERGY

Federal Reserve’s Digital Dollar Push Worries Wall Street

3 bitcoin-mining experts explain why concerns around the cryptocurrency’s massive energy consumption are overblown

#MoscowMitch Kentucky poised to approve tax, energy incentives for cryptocurrency mining -THEY ARE BURNING COAL

Bitcoin uses more energy than American Airlines and each $1 billion in inflows is equal to owning 1.2 million cars, Bank of America says.
In 2019, American Airlines spent $9.395 billion on fuel to generate $3.065 billion in operating income. Energy intensity is 306% vs. 1% for #Bitcoin The primary use of BTC energy is to protect $1 trillion+ network assets.

Colorado’s legal cannabis farms emit more carbon than its coal mines

“Quantifying #Bitcoin’s Carbon Emissions” by @BryceWeiner addresses the network’s power consumption in terms of renewable and nonrenewable sources.
One cannot solve a problem before one quantifies it.
Note: I *explained* my work but I did not *show* my work. This will force any detractors to perform the calculations on their own, which provides a basis by which any discussion might be had as to its accuracy from a position of direct knowledge.
Also note: this method can be applied to any network using any consensus method provided a proper engineering review is performed to identify the exact computer instructions required to complete a calculation.
Imagine thinking there’s a more noble purpose for that electricity than providing the means to exit the capitalist death machine.

REPUBLICANS ARE A LEPER COLONY

Nearly Half Of All Americans, Including Most Republicans, Say They Would Not Get Covid-19 Vaccine

US prison guards refusing vaccine despite COVID-19 outbreaks

Opposing the Vaccines: GOP has a Serious Health Issue

Novel Coronavirus Circulated Undetected Months before First COVID-19 Cases in Wuhan, China

Congressman calls for service members, veterans who stormed the Capitol to be stripped of benefits

FBI Director Wray Interview: Capitol Attack, Atlanta Shootings

New Proud Boys Charles Donohoe and Zach Rehl Busted for Capitol Riot Have Wild Police Ties

“A Tradition of Violence: The History of Deputy Gangs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department

Fox News Network Producer Eric Spinato COVID DEAD !
Media CEO Suzanne Scott, Fox News president Jay Wallace, and Fox Business president Lauren Petterson spreading covid lies.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/22/media/fox-business-network-producer-eric-spinato-death/index.html

DOJ official says there is evidence to charge sedition in U.S. Capitol assault

70% of voters support the Equality Act even as Senate Republicans try to stop it

DARK MONEY

The Money Trail to the Siege at the Capitol Leads to Charles Koch and Koch Industries

The IRS Now Audits Poor Americans at About the Same Rate as the Top 1%

The IRS collects just 39% of taxes owed by millionaire tax evaders. Tax evasion is usually a rich-people thing because regular people get taxes taken from their paycheck. If we collected what rich people legally owe, we could cut taxes for everyone else.

Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who has written extensively on the corrupting influence of dark money on American democracy, chairs that Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights.
https://harvardjol.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2020/05/Sen.-Whitehouse_Dark-Money.pdf

Lisa Graves, President of the Center for Media and Democracy, that was presented at this hearing, there would be no doubt in their minds that the Federal court system in the United States has been obscenely corrupted by dark money, coming predominantly from fossil fuels billionaire Charles Koch and his dark money network.
https://wallstreetonparade.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Testimony-of-Lisa-Graves-on-Dark-Money-Corrupting-the-Courts-March-10-2021.pdf

France to return Klimt painting sold under duress during Nazi era

Koch’s political arm, Americans for Prosperity (AFP)
“AFP is only one part of the influence machine Koch Industries’ CEO has built up to capture the Supreme Court—and, with it, the meaning of our Constitution. The network he funds includes the Federalist Society a pro-corporate anti-regulatory agenda. Leonard Leo, the Co-Chairman of the Koch-funded Federalist Society. Graves says that “more than $400 million” was received by this dark money network between 2014 and 2018.

Graves list the following as part of the dark money judicial nominations influence network, in addition to the Federal Society:

“CRC Advisors. In 2020, Leo announced he was moving from executive vice president to co-chair of the Federalist Society to lead a for-profit company called CRC Advisors. It advises wealthy donors on judicial appointments, state officials, and policies. Its CEO is Leo’s friend Greg Mueller, who led Creative Response Concepts (CRC), a public relations firm that Koch groups have hired. CRC has been a major contractor of the Federalist Society since at least 2007 and has been paid by numerous Leo organizations in recent years. Jonathan Bunch serves as its executive director and is a former Federalist Society staffer, according to a CRC press release.

“Judicial Crisis Network/Concord Fund. After the 2004 election, the Judicial Crisis Network (JCN) was conceived at a small dinner party Leo attended with Neil Corkery and others. Justice Antonin Scalia was a guest. Launched as the Judicial Confirmation Network, it was created in anticipation of the Supreme Court vacancies that George W. Bush ultimately filled with Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito. Corkery was one of three original board members, with Gary Marx (a Ralph Reed operative) and James Hirsen (an advisor to Mel Gibson’s splinter Traditionalist sect). Corkery has acted as a treasurer of several Leo-linked groups, in addition to helping to lead the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage.

“JCN is led by Carrie Severino, a protégé of Leo’s who used to clerk for Justice Thomas, out of the Federalist Society office. But, according to a former media relations director for Leo, ‘The JCN is Leonard Leo’s PR organization—nothing more and nothing less.’ The groups serves as a major conduit of money to the Republican Attorneys General Association, its sister group the Rule of Law Defense Fund, and the Republican State Leadership Committee (which has spent millions to try to capture state Supreme Courts, including on hundreds of thousands of ads in 2020).

“During the Trump administration, JCN received massive infusions of cash from one donor, whose identity was not made public. Subsequently filings by a group called the Wellspring Committee, discussed below, showed it provided similarly large grants to JCN, and Wellspring in turn received most of its funding from a single secret source. For example, in 2018, Wellspring made a $17.1M anonymous donation to Judicial Crisis Network (78% of total revenue of $22M in dark money that year). The year before that, it made a $21.5M anonymous donation to JCN (84% of revenue of $25.6M in dark money that year).

“Wellspring Committee. The group was created and run by Ann and Neil Corkery. Its origins are in the Koch donor network. Then, after Justice Scalia died, it got more than $28 million from one donor. In 2016-17, it gave JCN $38 million, as JCN blocked [Obama nominee Merrick] Garland and backed Gorsuch. After much scrutiny and Kavanaugh was confirmed, it closed its doors. In all, it gave JCN more than $58 million.

“Rule of Law Trust. As Wellspring was being closed down, Neil Corkery created this group in 2018. Leo is listed as its only trustee, and almost all its known expenses are related to BH Group reimbursements, another Leo group. Rule of Law Trust brought in three contributions (possibly from one, two, or three individuals) totaling $80 million in 2018. It distributed two grants in 2019: $500,000 to People United for Privacy and $895,000 to America Engaged.

“America Engaged. Leo is this group’s president, and Bunch is a director. Other board members are C. Boyden Gray and Todd Graves, a former state attorney general. It has given nearly $4 million to Charles Koch’s Freedom Partners. In 2017, it gave nearly $1 million to the NRA as it backed Gorsuch.

“Judicial Education Project/85 Fund. This is a Neil Corkery entity tied to Leo. JEP’s other fictitious names are the ‘Law and Policy Forum’ and the ‘Honest Elections Project’ (HEP), which has been criticized for peddling voter fraud claims. JEP has filed amicus briefs in Severino’s name siding with Trump on emoluments, and in cases on abortion, the Affordable Care Act, Deferred Action for Parents of Dreamers, the Voting Rights Act, and attacks on workers.

“BH Group, LLC. This was created by Corkery after Scalia died. As of the last known publicly filing, Leo controls 35% of it, and he has been listed as an employee. Since 2016, it received $2.37 million from JCN and $2 million from JEP. It also contributed $1 million to Trump’s inauguration. Wellspring gave it over $1.5 million for PR, yet it does not have a website.

“BH Fund. Leo is the president; Bunch is a director. It was launched with a secret $24 million donor and gave $20 million to George Mason University’s law school, securing Scalia’s name and Leo’s special influence.

“Freedom and Opportunity Fund. Leo is president, with Graves and Bunch on the board. It gave $4 million to the Independent Women’s Voice as it sought to keep Scalia’s vacancy open and supported the Gorsuch nomination. It received $400,000 from BH Group in 2017

The Federalist Society, Dark Money, and Trump’s Court – Pittsburgh Current

The Koch Coup: Charles Koch’s Political Machine Bankrolled Senators Who Will Attempt to Steal Election for Trump Tomorrow

The White Republican Political Machine

And there it is – election machine rigging claims by supporters of #TheBigLie determined “not credible.”

Investigation finds Pennsylvania postal worker’s mail-in ballot fraud allegation was hogwash.

Italy Can Evict Steve Bannon’s School for Far-Right ‘Gladiators’ From an 800-Year-Old Monastery, the Country’s Top Court Rules

The world abandoned COVID-19’s best antidote: Whistleblowers

278 GOP Lawmakers Voted for Trump Tax Scam, But 0 Voted for Covid Relief

Facebook Has Found a New Way to Ruin Media

$1.3 Trillion ‘Pandemic Profits’ of US Billionaires Could Pay for Two-Thirds of Biden Covid Relief Plan

Republican Racist Idiot Arizona GOP lawmaker John Kavanagh says ‘quality’ of vote should matter!

Rep. Paul Gosar’s siblings say he’s a white supremacist — but his GOP colleagues stay silent

Belief in white Jesus linked to racism

“Original Black Panther Party speak out in Minneapolis”

“Huge Victory”: Black Farmers Hail $5B in New COVID Relief Law to Redress Generations of Racism

ALSO TRUE

DoNotPay can file unemployment claims for every state

Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

Scientists claim feeding cows seaweed could slash their methane emissions by a staggering 82 percent

Maine Dairy Drivers Settle Overtime Case That Hinged On An Absent Comma

SolarWinds Hack Compromises U.S. Courts Electronic Filings

A hacker who exposed Verkada’s surveillance camera snafu has been raided

Biden administration to cancel $1 billion in student-loan debt held by scammed borrowers

Biden’s Education Secretary cancels debt for about 72,000 students

Top NATO Scientist With Security Clearance Busted Spying for China

Most Americans say prosecuting Capitol rioters is ‘very important’

Educational CyberPlayground: NetHappenings Newsletter – Security 8-25-2020

CyberPlayGround NetHappenings©1989

Educational CyberPlayground, Inc.:
NetHappenings Newsletter – Security 8-25-2020

 

SECURITY

KNOWLEDGE
Only the Rich will know
. Valuable Reporting is behind a paywall.  The rest of us will know less.  And very few people are going to pay for all of it. The people who don’t will be more and more clueless.

EAT THE RICH

“While 92 million can’t afford health care, the 4 richest Americans are now worth $512.8 billion:
– Jeff Bezos: $193 billion
– Bill Gates: $122 billion
– Mark Zuckerberg: $101 billion
– Elon Musk: $96.8 billion

It’s time to tax the billionaire class and expand Medicare to all.

Biden to ABC’s David Muir on raising taxes: ‘No new taxes’ for anyone making less than $400,000

Cyrus Vance Jr the Manhattan prosecutor agrees to shelve subpoena for Trump tax returns
Cyrus Vance Jr., the Democratic district attorney for Manhattan, had the legal right as of this Friday to enforce a New York grand jury subpoena to obtain a lengthy financial paper trail that includes Trump’s corporate and personal tax records. The 2nd Circuit will hear arguments Sept. 1. No matter what the public is never going to see them EVER!

IRS puts cryptocurrency front and center of 2020 tax return
You won’t be able to overlook the question this time: the US agency wants to know if you’ve transacted with virtual currency.

Facebook agrees to pay France €106m in back taxes for the last TEN YEARS
When you’re a large multinational company or a very high net worth individual, then taxes aren’t really an objective calculation. The tax code in most countries, despite being tens of thousands of pages of legalese, are extremely subjective. This subjective and loose language allow for innumerable loopholes and tax dodges.  If you’re using these creative methods, the chances are that you’ll get audited every single year by the IRS or local equivalent. Trump famously gets audited every year. Your tax lawyers & accountants will then negotiate a tax payment with the tax office. I used the word negotiate because there is no one true formula for tax owed. It doesn’t exist, especially not for corporations.
When you add in ‘creative’ intellectual property ownership and royalty payments, then the tax office basically has no idea where money is flowing. This is why EU countries commonly lob these huge penalties. Facebook tries to pay X in tax, and the tax office says they should pay X2, and then after negotiation they pay X1.5.

COVID

Gov. Cuomo  “The COVID problem in New York was a direct result of the negligence of the federal government. If this was a private situation, the state could sue the federal government for negligence. Gross negligence.”

Trump Admin Puts COVID-Wracked Meat Processor on Food Safety Panel The Brazilian meat conglomerate that presided over an alleged “work while sick” culture at a Colorado plant and deadly COVID cluster at a Nebraska facility during the early months of the pandemic will now advise the federal government on health policies.

Two European patients re-infected with coronavirus

COVID-19 at University of Iowa: Student tests positive, laments experience

Fearing coronavirus, a Michigan college tracks its students with a flawed app

Asymptomatic Children Carry Higher COVID-19 Viral Load Than Adults In ICUs

Facebook still has no cure for virus misinformation. A study by a left-leaning human rights group found the platform has exposed people to bad info on health and vaccines 3.8 billion times — four times more often than it has shown them information from credible institutions.

A friendly reminder that the @FBI designated QAnon a domestic terrorist threat and a few thousand people are now outing themselves as potential terrorists. The best thing about white supremacists is that they are 100% predictable.

College

Google Has a Plan to Disrupt the College Degree

Higher Ed needs to shut it down right now

Jeffrey Epstein’s Harvard Connections Show How Money Can Distort Research

Yale administrator to returning students, is *stunning*:
A Yale administrator told students to prepare for ‘possibly deaths’ — and it shows what a predictable disaster reopening is

DOJ Finds Illegal Discrimination at Yale

More Discrimination against White / Asian

Yale Antitrust Scholars Resign
Because Director Advises Apple, Amazon
A leading antitrust crusader revealed she was getting paid by companies facing antitrust scrutiny by federal and state authorities, as well as her own antitrust research project. Fiona Scott Morton had failed to disclose consulting contracts with Apple and Amazon, which Morton defended by pointing to her criticisms of Facebook and Google. As author David Dayen points out in the piece, all these companies regularly conduct similar antitrust violations:

 

Post Office

CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder submitted written testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on the Trump Administration’s repeated and flagrant attempts to undermine the United States Postal Service (USPS) and specifically the serious ethical issues raised by Trump-appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s service.
DeJoy is the first Postmaster General in decades to have no experience as a letter carrier, a qualification that ensured every previous Postmaster General personally understood the critical work of the agency’s core employees. DeJoy has been a willing and eager participant in Trump’s attempts to attack and discredit the USPS generally, and the safe, nonpartisan process of voting by mail. In addition to his lack of qualifications, and his furtherance of Trump’s baseless attacks on voting by mail, he holds at least $30 million of financial interests in USPS competitors and contractors. DeJoy and Trump appear to be intentionally destroying an institution that has served our nation since before the Constitution, no less during a pandemic when voters are relying on voting by mail to decrease the risk of contracting or spreading the coronavirus. We urge Congress to not allow for the destruction of an institution that is so fundamentally tied to our rights and the social fabric of our nation.

Transparency

Apple says WordPress doesn’t have to add in-app purchases. “Apple’s remarks come after WordPress founding developer Matt Mullenweg tweeted Friday that Apple was going to cut off updates and bug fixes to the open-source software app unless it committed to supporting in-app purchases for WordPress’ payment plans.”

Twitter ‘Transparency Center’ shows government data requests by country. “About every six months, Twitter releases a transparency report detailing things like how many state-backed accounts it has suspended and the number of government requests for information on account holders. Today, Twitter is unveiling a centralized hub for those reports and the data they contain. The new Twitter Transparency Center is now live.”

How Police Secretly Took Over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime
Police monitored a hundred million encrypted messages sent through Encrochat, a network used by career criminals to discuss drug deals, murders, and extortion plots.

Kane Gamble, aka Cracka,  hacked the former head of the CIA is back on the net

Customs and Border Protection paid $476,000 to a location data firm called Venntel, takes location data harvested from ordinary apps installed on peoples’ phones (games, weather, etc) and sells access to the government!

The UAE and Saudi governments have gotten so much data from hacking phones with NSO’s Pegasus spyware that they don’t know what to do with it all. So, NSO has hired Israeli military veterans to help them.

Inside NSO, Israel’s billion-dollar spyware giant
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/08/19/1006458/nso-spyware-controversy-pegasus-human-rights/

MIT Technology Review ($): NSO Group is one of the most secretive private surveillance companies in the world. Maker of the Pegasus mobile spyware, NSO has embroiled itself in a number of cases involving human rights abuses and governments spying on their most vocal critics — just by supplying the spyware. @HowellONeill (https://twitter.com/HowellONeill/status/1296041134310010883) looks at NSO — and some of its victims. It’s an interesting two part long-form on different sides of the same coin. A fascinating read, with new details on how NSO chooses (and monitors) its customers. You can find part two here () .
More: MIT Technology Review | @HowellONeill (https://twitter.com/HowellONeill/status/1296041134310010883) | @jsrailton (https://twitter.com/jsrailton/status/1296115306662965248)

 

Joe Sullivan, Uber’s former security chief who currently serves as Cloudflare’s security head, was charged this week with attempting to conceal a massive data breach that saw hackers steal 57 million user accounts of Uber drivers and passengers. The charges are “believed to be the first against an executive stemming from a company’s response to a security incident,” reports @kateconger (https://twitter.com/kateconger) . Sullivan negotiated a $100,000 “bug bounty” payout to the hackers, which later cost him his job. The hackers were later charged by U.S. prosecutors. Uber didn’t disclose the breach until a year later in 2017, after which Uber was forced to pay $148 million to settle an investigation brought by several attorneys general.

One of the charges is “misprision of a felony,” a fairly archaic crime. The elements are Principal completed felony; Defendant had full knowledge of that fact; failed to notify authorities; and took affirmative steps to conceal the crime.

NPR https://www.npr.org/2020/08/20/904113981/former-uber-executive-charged-with-paying-hush-money-to-conceal-massive-breach)

Cruise operator Carnival hit by ransomware
Cyberscoop: Remember earlier this year those cruise ships full of passengers with coronavirus? That same cruise company, Carnival, has just been hit by a data-stealing ransomware attack. Some of the company’s data was downloaded by the ransomware actors, the company confirmed in a regulatory filing. Earlier this year the company’s Princess Cruises brand admitted a data breach (https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/13/princess-cruises-coronavirus-breach/) involving names, addresses, Social Security numbers and government IDs — including passport numbers and driver license numbers — along with financial and health information.

U.S. regulator proposes scaling back personal information from trading database. “The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday said it would remove some personal information from a controversial trading database, bowing to pressure from the brokerage industry which has long warned the project would be vulnerable to hacks. Friday’s proposal, which is subject to a public consultation, seeks to limit the scope of sensitive information required by a massive new industry trading database, the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), conceived to help the regulator better police the markets.”

Lockpicking Lawyer

Police Want Your Smart Speaker—Here’s Why