Recent Comments

1. about 17 hours ago on Al Goodwyn Editorial Cartoons

   Why does Al hate Europe?

2. 1 day ago on Al Goodwyn Editorial Cartoons

   “SIGINT is another US Intel program spying on everyone”

   Can you point to the US Department of SIGINT? SIGINT is a method of collecting intelligence (Signals Intelligence) by trying to intercept communications between a hostile or potentially hostile source & whoever they’re talking to . The term started with the Britain trying to tap into German telegraph communications in WW I.

   The United States has broad & strong Constitutional protections against warrantless interception of communications between people in the US. Those protections become weaker when the communication is between a person in the US & a person outside the US. Those protections don’t apply at all to communications between non-US Citizens who aren’t in the US. If you don’t think every spy agency around the globe is less willing to eavesdrop on people in the US who they’re interested in, I have a bridge to sell you!

   We do have a problem with various entities of the NSA doing warrantless collection of data on US Citizens. It’s been a repeated scandal. It’s one of the few issues where partisanship doesn’t necessarily indicate where your Congresscritters stand. I hate Rand Paul, but he does get this issue right. You might hate Ron Wyden, but he & Paul have repeatedly worked together to curb warrantless data collection.

   Do you know where your Congresscritters stand?

3. 1 day ago on Al Goodwyn Editorial Cartoons

   Nothing I haven’t said about AirDrop in that link.

   I looked at the reports from the Hong Kong protests. Foreign journalists put their airdrop on “open to everyone” & got stuff. I suspect they were tipped off to do so. The default is “Contacts Only” for some very good reasons. The premise that this was a valuable tool for protestors assumes lots of people set their airdrop to “everyone” & forgets to switch it back. Apple is rolling this behavior out worldwide soon. As a “bending to the regime” claim, it’s got merit, but I can see why Apple decided not to die on this particular hill.

   https://qz.com/1660460/hong-kong-protesters-use-airdrop-to-breach-chinas-firewall

   I’d be curious to know how many people routinely leave their airdrop open for anyone to drop files on their device. Chime in folks!

4. 2 days ago on Al Goodwyn Editorial Cartoons

   “An apple app used by protesters in China has been made harder to use in China. And ONLY in China.”

   For those wondering, Apple changed AirDrop (a feature that allows iPhones to transfer documents from one phone to another directly, thus avoid China’s telecom security & censorship) to only work for 10 minutes for people not in your contacts list. They plan to roll this out globally, because outside of China, the feature has been used to drop ermm… unwanted images on random stranger’s phones.

   The change happened in China nearly a month ago, before the protests really gained traction. It was used in Hong Kong protests though, so it’s likely Apple was responding to regime pressure to roll it out early there. OTH, I’d be worried about the authorities tracking me down if I was using such an insecure feature to spread anti-government info.

5. 2 days ago on Michael Ramirez

   “I’m sure that those in China who are being welded into their homes and set on fire are inspired by your bravery!”

   Maybe you & Cancun Cruz can hop on a plane with a crowbar & a fire extinguisher & do something about it. As for me, I see Biden working (relatively) quietly to strengthen a coalition in the region to counter China’s goal of becoming an even more intimidating regional hegemon.

6. 2 days ago on Michael Ramirez

   “I have trouble believing that some of the commenters think Xi or the CCP feel a need for “justification””

   Even authoritarian regimes need a certain level of acceptance from the masses. Xi & the CCP have spent the last decade or so convincing the people that they should accept curtailing of political expression in order to enjoy an increasing standard of living brought about by economic growth. I’ve been a long time skeptic of the long term viability of that system, since China has grabbed most of the low hanging fruit available to a centrally planned, heavily subsidized manufacturing economy.

   Xi has been increasingly turning to boosting Han-centric nationalism & anti-Western sentiment to brand internal criticism as “unpatriotic”. His rhetoric at least, is a “China First” policy that reduces reliance on external sources for critical needs. Sound familiar?

   Again, not defending Xi, but if you don’t understand his thought process, you can’t really assess his actions.

7. 2 days ago on Henry Payne

   I’ve said plenty of “grownup” things, but that’s not what you’re here for. Here’s the relevant passage from the “Technical report on the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK”, that you right wingers are misrepresenting:

   “From an early stage it was recognised that advice to avoid unnecessary visits to healthcare could discourage necessary health-seeking behaviours, and so there were early communications reiterating that urgent and necessary health services remained open and encouraging their use. However, there were reports particularly during the first wave of people avoiding health services in an effort to both reduce demand on the health service and manage their own risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2. This is an important point to consider for a future pandemic.”

   So no, it wasn’t lockdowns, as much as people avoiding hospitals & doctors’ offices voluntarily. There’s nothing in the report suggesting there will be more deaths caused by a result of this, than telling people “it’s just a cold, just go about your business as normal” would have.

   Really, I’m just letting you prattle on nonsense to make sure martens’ comment is the top comment. ;^)

8. 2 days ago on Michael Ramirez

   Republicans: “Biden is going to blunder into a war with China.”

   Also, Republicans: “Why won’t Biden call Xi a murderous thug?”

   Biden & White House officials have repeatedly said the CCP should respect peaceful protests. Despite what the warhawks in the GOP pretend, most of the backlash is against lockdowns & ‘zero covid’ policy, not demands to overthrow the Chinese Government. The CCP is already blaming the protests on ‘outside agitators’. A full throated support of the protests from Biden is as likely to provide justification for even harsher actions against them.

9. 2 days ago on Gary Varvel

   Content is thin until Gym Jordan can start shouting red faced nonsense about Hunter Biden in House Committees. Can’t even get traction on gas prices.

   https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/01/energy/gas-prices-us-russia-ukraine/index.html

10. 2 days ago on Get Fuzzy

    Surprised the young earth creationists haven’t thought of this.