The Department of Defense has issued a warning not to use any Lenovo computers on their networks.
Lenovo is the personal computing division that IBM sold to the Chinese several years ago. A simple web search on Lenovo will turn up results like those quoted below.
On Friday the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee wrote to the FBI warning that secrets stored on former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s private email server may have been compromised by a Clinton aide’s use of a Lenovo computer.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R., Va.) stated in a letter to FBI Director James Comey that Heather Samuelson, former White House liaison to the State Department, used two Lenovo laptops to sort some of the thousands of classified emails from Clinton’s server.
“Lenovo computers, and specifically the models used by Heather Samuelson for reviewing classified emails, have been shown by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to contain software, dating back to 2010, that permits remote hacking attacks,” Goodlatte stated.
Two years ago Chinese firm Lenovo got banned from supplying equipment for networks of the intelligence and defense services various countries due to hacking and spying concerns.
Earlier this year, Lenovo was caught red-handed for selling laptops pre-installed with Superfish malware.
One of the most popular Chinese computer manufacturers ‘Lenovo’ has been caught once again using a hidden Windows feature to preinstall unwanted and unremovable rootkit software on certain Lenovo laptop and desktop systems it sells.
Ever when users reinstalled a clean version of Windows on some Lenovo devices, the software would reappear. Link: ZDNet—Rootkit can’t be deleted
The rootkit Superfish seems to have been written by a company called Komodia and is designed to break SSL encryption and inject web advertising into your browsing session. Link: Superfish Rootkit
The bottom line is that if your device is connected to the Internet then any information on it should be regarded as public. There is a private, military data system that is like a private Internet but that system is so locked down that more casual users don’t have access to it. Clearly a Secretary of State running a pay-to-play scam is not able to use it for her own enrichment. Instead she was stuck with using the public Internet.
Yesterday, you read about the dead voting. Estimates are that over 4,000,000 fraudulent and/or fictitious voters—including the dead—will cast ballots in next month’s presidential election.
I’m getting ready to read Orwell’s famous novel with my son. He’s old enough to see what this dystopian future is all about and see the parallels with modern life. One thing that has become crystal clear in the last year is that 1984 is here. While there is a “Big Brother” theme running thru all levels of government, there is something Orwell didn’t see and that is the willingness of privately owned corporations to voluntarily rewrite “the truth” to score points and gain protection from the government.
Big corporations love big government. They give millions to politicians for two reasons: to be protected from legislative harm in the form of taxation and regulation and secondly to have government protect them from competition.
Now corporations are publicly going a step further, they are filtering news and information to prevent the public from learning anything that might be harmful to those in office. This first came to my notice when the University of California, Davis was outed for paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to a company so that an incident on the campus would be scrubbed or at least buried from Internet searches. Students that were protesting on the campus as part of the George Soros funded Occupy Wall Street Campaign were maced by campus police. The school leadership wanted this unfortunate publicity to go away so they hired a private company to sweep the incident under the rug. People sympathetic to the students caused an uproar and thwarted the effort generating even more bad publicity for the school.
Now Hillary Clinton is the beneficiary of companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Google scrubbing articles, suppressing information, and literally rewriting history for her benefit. This is in addition to thousands of college students, homeless, and others employed by Clinton to bully Trump supporters at rallies, online, and via other means.
Here are a few links about the extent of the fraud that are all up today:
• Dem Operative Who Oversaw Trump Rally Agitators Visited White House 342 Times
A key operative in a Democratic scheme to send agitators to cause unrest at Donald Trump’s rallies has visited the White House 342 times since 2009, White House records show.
Robert Creamer, who acted as a middle man between the Clinton campaign, the Democratic National Committee and “protesters” who tried — and succeeded — to provoke violence at Trump rallies met with President Obama 47 times, according to White House records. Creamer’s last visit was in June 2016.
Hillary Clinton is not the only one who is a beneficiary of history revisionism in the computer age, local Elk Grove State Assembly member Jim Cooper has had his past scrubbed as well.
Jim Cooper’s 2010 race against Scott Jones has been scrubbed of damning comments made by Cooper, I know because I heard him say the words, my information was firsthand. At the time, the Sacramento County Sherriff’s Office was experiencing budget cutbacks and laying off employees. Moral in the department was going down. Elk Grove and other newly created cities in Sacramento County had also been poaching employees from the Sheriff’s Department since 2006 and many longtime officers had left for better working conditions. Cooper’s solution was to fully fund the Sheriff’s Department via traffic cameras. He wanted cameras everywhere not for safety but for revenue generation. He wanted the Department to fine the public enough to pay for law enforcement (which they are already paying for via other taxes). In the early part of his campaign this idea was central to his revenue solution; however, virtually no mention of this can be found on any Internet search conducted today. Cooper’s words have been scrubbed.
Ditto for Jim Cooper’s many mentions by the Sacramento County Grand Jury. Cooper’s record has been rehabilitated, unfortunately he has not.
Oh, since I’m on the subject of Cooper, he is still the one and only Small Business of the Month at the Elk Grove Dos Coyotes restaurant. Let’s see, May, June, July, August, September, October; yeah, six months in a row. *
To play with Paul Harvey’s phrase, “You know what the news is, if Liberals have their way, you’ll never know the rest of the story.”
So next time you read something on Snopes or some other allegedly reliable website, just remember that you might be getting the scrubbed version and not the unvarnished truth. Let the buyer beware.
Follow-up, Dos Coyotes management was contacted and stated that Cooper had awarded them as small business of the month. Sorry but the poster is not acknowledging Dos as anything. It’s Cooper self-promotion.
The undertaker is finally catching up to the top two primary system in California.
The political parties in the state are supposed to have elections every two years for their county central committees. These bodies are elected county by county in each of California’s 58 counties. Last year these elections were not held. This was done with the blessing of the parties. They were telling people that they would have to switch to have them coincide every four years with the Presidential Primary vote. Otherwise the parties will have to pay county by county to put their central committee elections on the ballot. To hold this vote any other way is too expensive for them.
As a generalization, delegates to the statewide party conventions (at least on the Republican side) are 1/3 from county central committees, 1/3 from candidates, and 1/3 from elected officials.
In light of this precedent, the Independent Voter Project is asking all county registrars to refrain from expending any public resources for the administration of party central committee elections unless each political party requesting such administration first agrees to reimburse taxpayers for the full and fair public costs related thereto.”
I don’t even think the suit will have to go the distance to be successful. I think they will get a temporary injunction against the central committee elections and the county clerks will comply and it will be a done deal. The judge will then make the injunction permenant and the only grassroots path to access political parties will be just as extinct as the woolly mammoth.
Another part of the fabric of the Republic goes to the waste bin of history and the sheeple will not miss it.
Former Sacramento Congressman Vic Fazio was quoted back in the 1980’s as saying “Don’t go quoting the Constitution to me, let’s get back to reality”. Unfortunately, this Liberal Democrat was a harbinger of what has come to pass in the intervening years.
The song “Stop the World” by Randy Stonehill puts much of our wrongs into a succinct form:
We’re putting criminals in office Cause it’s way too crowded in the jails T.V. is our teacher now The schools are overrun by thugs And children skip their innocence And graduate to sex and drugs Right is wrong and wrong is right White is black and black is white
Millions of people in this country have taken an oath to “…defend the country from all enemies foreign and domestic” but look at their actions, they clearly don’t believe it.
Not only have the barbarians repeatedly stormed the gates, but our leaders are inviting the barbarians—including those from the Seventh Century—to come here and stay. They are welcome to setup outposts of insurgence within our borders. Why? Because they have a common enemy: Christianity.
The American experiment in democracy appears to be experiencing its last dying breaths. The country is burdened with so much debt that all the wealth in the world could literally not pay all the obligations of government let alone the consumer debt of its people.
Yes, the United States is experiencing the same civil war that is raging in the rest of the West. Secular Humanism and Islam are uniting to destroy Christianity. Christianity is responsible for Western Culture but its heirs have forgotten God and think they can do it without Him. Each of our leaders—like their counterparts in the Biblical books of Chronicles and Kings—have done more wickedness than all the leaders before them. They glory in their wickedness. Our gods are called Choice instead of Moloch, athletes, actors, musicians, or politicians instead of Ba’al (local deities), Marvel and D.C. instead of Olympus or Valhalla and the power of the State is vested in Washington instead of Egypt.
Pluralism has the practical effect of establishing a modern Rome where you can have any god you want as long as Caesar is Lord. To hold to the supremacy of the Biblical God is anathema to our culture. This is even true of most self-identified Christians.
Sorry but it’s true. The pervasiveness of abortion, divorce, homosexuality, child abuse, drugs, tattoos, or any other metric of evil in our society is the same inside the Church or out. As a whole, there is no measurable difference between those calling themselves “Christian” and the general population. Most children of Christian families that are raised in the church leave their faith as soon as they go off to college if not before. Is it any wonder when only two colleges in the United States still believe the biblical account of Genesis? If Genesis is a myth then so is the rest of the Bible. Without “The Fall” there is no sin and no God; therefore, no need for a Savior.
The Clinton v Trump campaign may seem important to us at the moment but regardless of who wins, the trajectory of the country will continue to further decline. The vote will only determine how fast the decline will continue. The Republic is over; the only struggle now is what will replace it. Look for less freedom, more government, and more persecution. Jesus said to count the cost of following Him and we are beginning to see that even in this country the price is rapidly increasing. To openly follow Him will cost you, jobs, property, and your freedom; not in the future but now. Welcome to the curses of Deuteronomy 28:15–68
We are clearly under God’s judgment but instead of repenting, we are acting like Alfred E Newman from Mad Magazine and saying, “What, me worry?”
Alfred E Newman
The Constitution was supposed to be THE list of the powers of the national government—enumerated powers—but now it means the opposite, unless specifically prohibited, the nation government thinks its fair game to fill their coffers or interfere in you daily life. Rightly interpreted, the government created by the Constitution was so small and remote that it shouldn’t matter who is in office. As envisioned by the document, the President and Supreme Court had very little responsibility. Almost all power was to be in the Congress. (Remember that they just dumped a King and country and were looking not to repeat that mistake again.) As written, the leadership in Washington was to affect your daily lives as much as the winner of the San Francisco 49ers versus the Oakland Raiders game last year.
Triumvirates didn’t work too well in Ancient Rome and it is likely that ours will end-up in the same place. We have the Imperial President that rules by Executive Orders instead of edicts; a legislative branch that is a cheap parody of the Imperial Senate of Star Wars or Roman Senate under the Caesars. (Can you say symbolism over substance?) The only difference is that we have a Supreme Court. The Court gets to make laws too but they have become a laughingstock. They have no real power, no army or way to enforce anything and they serve at the pleasure of the President. When needed, they always fall in line to the will of the President. Lest you disagree with me, look back to Roosevelt and the New Deal. “A switch in time saved nine” is not a nursery rhyme but an historical fact.
Someday soon, a President is not going to leave the White House at the end of his term but remain in power. He might even change his title to Chancellor or caretaker. The Court will reluctantly find it Constitutional and the Congress will standby idly wringing their hands when it happens but that day is almost here.
Germany once laughed at Hitler and his National Socialists but everything Hitler did including the Holocaust was with the blessing of their Legislature and Courts. Well socialists now run most of this country, the only squabble is will we be National Socialists or Internationalist Socialists (Globalists)? We might even adopt a Fascist economic model just to spice things up and create the illusion of private ownership of the means of production.
I think Fazio was right; we are no long bound by the Constitution. Like people that go to church and don’t let their professed faith affect their daily lives, we pay lip-service to the founding document but don’t feel constrained to follow it. Conservative Protestants have been saying that we live in a Post-Christian world since Francis Schaeffer in the 1980’s; well I think it’s high time that we called our era in modern America the Post-Constitutional one. My only question is did Post-Constitutional America begin with FDR or Obama? I will have to ponder that one a while longer.
Eight years ago, it was our worst versus their worst and Obama won. This time it’s our loudest versus their loudest. The election isn’t over yet but there’s been a hell of a lot of jury tampering going on lately.
Trump was caught on tape saying something that many—especially on the Left seem to claim is reprehensible. Trump used words but Bill Clinton did what Trump said and worse. Nobody has accused Trump of rape but Bill Clinton is a proven sexual predator and gets a pass from the same people feigning outrage at Trump.
Isn’t that what the entire pornography industry is based on; fantasies that men have about women that they can never have. It was Larry Flint—publisher of Hustler magazine—that famously came to Bill Clinton’s defense during the impeachment and Monica affairs. What party defends and promotes pornography, perversion, and tearing down social norms? It’s in their rainbow DNA. Pornography is such a big deal that it’s even on the California ballot; we get to vote on whether those in adult films must use condoms when filming pornographic movies.
And you thought Liberals wanted to keep government out of your bedroom? Yeah, right!
Trump talks about keeping America safe while Hillary—as Secretary of State—purposely killed those in her care. Thanks to Michael Bay, at least some low information voters have heard of Benghazi.
How come Trump’s words are xenophobia while Hillary wants to expand the Obama policy of flooding the country with Muslims that want to kill and enslave us? Oh, and implement Sharia Law. People that came here used to want to be Americans, but now they want to reshape America to be just like whatever Third World hole they crawled out of.
Even after campaigning twice for president and spending a billion dollars in political ads during this election cycle, no Clinton supporter can tell you three accomplishments of Hillary. They only know that Trump is evil because he is a Republican and uses sarcasm when answering stupid questions from the Fourth Estate.
If you needed more proof that taxpayer money is being spent on supporting Measure B here is yet another nugget of evidence.
Please note that the website registrations for Yes on Measure B Link: MeasureB-Yes and the Sacramento Go Link: SacramentoGo websites are hosted by the same Internet server. Sacramento Go is the site being pushed at taxpayer expense by various cities and the county of Sacramento to gin-up support for higher taxes.
Sacramento Go website registration data
Measure B Yes registration data
Both sites have the same Internet Protocol (IP) address. 173.236.197.171 This is more than coincidence.
It’s time to cue the music to “It’s a Small World” There are no coincidences in this campaign, it is one seamlessly orchestrated scam on the low information voters of this region.Both Republican and Democrat elected officials are united in pulling one over on the voters of this county. This is what government means when they advocate a public-private partnership.
Also please note that both the taxpayer funded flyer and the mailer from the Yes campaign are using the very same publisher. All the taxpayer funded advocacy literature is illegal and an in-kind contribution to the Yes campaign.
Map key from Yes Campaign mailing
Map from City of Elk Grove taxpayer funded flyer
There is no doubt that both the taxpayer funded flyer and the one from the Yes campaign were created by the same company. The graphics are identical. Both were mailed a few days apart.
When you live in a one party system this kind of corruption is rampant and unchecked.
It’s no great surprise to me—especially in a state that in now governed by one political party—that taxpayer money is being spent to try to raise taxes. Last week, a coordinated campaign flyer was sent throughout Sacramento County to promote passage of Measure B—the sales tax increase for transportation.
Depending on where you live, it was paid for by various local governments. In the Rosemont area, it was paid for by the County of Sacramento. Where I live, it was paid for by the City of Elk Grove. I’m trying to get information on which other local governments were part of this coordinated effort. I’m sure Rancho Cordova and Citrus Heights were in on it too. The flyer is made by the same publisher with some tweaks to target various parts of the county.
Besides being paid for with taxpayer money, the flyers did not have any campaign identification on them. The required committee disclosures and I.D. numbers were not on them. The flyer clearly promoted passage of the tax increase and directed people to the yes on B website.
So why is that a big deal you might ask? Because they were sent not on the basis of utility bills or tax rolls or other relationships to local government, they were sent to registered voters.
My proof is simply. The flyer sent to my house was not sent to my wife and me. All county and city utilities are in our name except for the one that is in the name of my deceased mother-in-law. No, the flyer was sent to my adult stepchildren. Their only tie to our house is voter registration. My stepson is in the Air Force and lives outside of California. The only government records with his name and our address on them is his voter registration. My stepdaughter’s only government records with her name on them are one motor vehicle, and her voter registration. No insurance, cell phones, utilities or anything else is in their names now or at any time in the past.
Voter registration records can legally only be used for political purposes.
Therefore for a political flyer to be sent to registered voters without being reported as a political expenditure is a clear violation of campaign finance law.
So we have two violations of the law in play:
1. Taxpayer money used to pay for a political mailer that is not identified as such
2. The flyer is sent to people on the basis of being registered voters
This is the second time that I am aware that the City of Elk Grove has funded a political flyer in favor of the tax increase. Clearly the elected officials at city hall are either in on this abuse of taxpayer money or not minding the store; either way is not good for citizens or the rule of law.
I’m encouraging the Sith Lord to file a formal complaint with the Fair Political Practices Committee (FPPC). Any action they take—which is a questionable proposition—would be long after the election in November. However, it might be grounds to get the tax increase challenged in court should it pass.
My wife thought my previous version of this review was too harsh so I’ve rewritten this blog to reflect her critique.
Last night there was a nationwide screening of the documentary Targeted: Exposing the Gun Control Agenda. Link: Targeted The Movie
The film was made by Jesse Winton and his father Randy . This is the Winton’s second film. Their first was on the subject of adoption.
I saw the movie at a theater in Folsom, CA. Jesse and Randy were both in attendance. I have known them for several years. Also in attendance was the sheriff of El Dorado County—John D’Agostini—who is featured in the film and Paul Shaver—who portrayed the gun maker in the film.
Targeted is the story of 20 year old Jesse Winton as he explores gun control and the Second Amendment. The story was believable and compelling. It reflected the Winton’s family values without being “in your face” about it. It was logically presented. The movie makes an historical case for the linkage of bearing arms and freedom. It begins in the present and explores the background of where the Second Amendment originated. It presents a logical case for how the Founding Fathers built upon the work of others and asserted that the Declaration of Independence was an expression of existing beliefs about the relationship of a sovereign to his people. The film was about an hour long plus the panel discussion that follows.
The film is a challenge to the American people to embrace their heritage. Winton reminds us that Rights come from God not government; therefore, government has no right to deprive people of Liberty; especially with false promises of security.
There will be another showing October 5th. I recommend that you get a few friends to go see the movie. However, please be careful how you invite people. If you mention the title of the movie on Facebook, know that your post and account will be subject to censorship or worse.
Other Thoughts
Please sir, can I have some more?
The thing I really wanted to see more of was politicians calling for gun control that had no idea what they were talking about. These video clips were presented in a staccato fashion and the moment passed too quickly.
I know this project took about three years to get from concept to cinema. I also know that there is lots of great footage that literally didn’t make the final cut. I hope they add a feature on the DVD to give us a look at some of this material. My recollection is that they have some great footage of Diane Feinstein saying some outrageous things about guns (probably on more than one occasion).
Comments on Production Quality
Production and editing were good; especially considering the shoestring budget that was used to make the film. Photography was good but a few spots were too dark or a little off on the exposure settings. Some shots using magnification were slightly pixelated—most of these were outdoor shots of scenery. (That’s the risk you take when you need to get something on the first take.) The film’s audio was well done; however, the panel discussion following the film had some audio issues but I’m not sure if it was from emulating stereo sound or just the challenges of miking five people simultaneously during a live production.
The most difficult thing to watch in the film was the television clips at the beginning. Several were hard on my eyes because the video quality was poor. It seemed like they were made with a camera in front of a television set or lifted from low quality YouTube uploads. Perhaps it’s one of those things where it looks great on a monitor but when magnified to the proportions of a movie theater screen, it just shows all the blemishes that seemed minor on a television.
The HD antenna that I deployed when our family “cut the cord” was really marginal. The antenna was located in our attic but many local channels were downright unwatchable. All we were able to get on some stations was pixels that changed every four or five seconds and highly fragmented audio. To watch many shows, I had to catch them on Hulu the following day. Watching the evening news was impossible on many stations and ditto for live sports.
Just in time for the new television season—such as it is—I went to Frys and bought a new antenna. (Assembly required) I then got up the nerve to get on the roof to install it. Our ladder is too short to reach the roof and standing on the top step is a dicey proposition—especially when working by yourself. Thankfully, my eleven year old is willing to help his old dad by holding the ladder.
I removed the DirecTV dish and replaced it with the new antenna. I used the same mast but had to exclude some parts from the clamp assembly to get it to fit.
It may not reach the advertised 70 miles but we do get more channels and at a much better quality. After filtering out the Spanish language and home shopping stations, we still have a fairly good variety of over-the-air stuff to choose from.
