Blazingcatfur – Page 6042 – "Worse than Hitler since 2006"

Dozens of Al Jazeera journalists allegedly hacked using Israeli firm’s spyware

Spyware sold by an Israeli private intelligence firm was allegedly used to hack the phones of dozens of Al Jazeera journalists in an unprecedented cyber-attack that is likely to have been ordered by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to leading researchers.

In a stunning new report, researchers at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto said they discovered what appears to be a major espionage campaign against one of the world’s leading media organisations, which is based in Qatar and has long been a thorn in the side of many of the region’s autocratic regimes.

The report, written by some of the world’s top digital surveillance researchers, also raises troubling new questions about the apparent vulnerability of the Apple iPhone, which has sought to promote a reputation for security and commitment to privacy.

by Blazingcatfur•December 21, 2020December 21, 2020•0•Cyber War

‘Show us the evidence’: Scientists call for clarity on claim that new Covid-19 variant strain is 70% more contagious

Boris Johnson was last night urged to publish clear evidence of the Covid data he used to cancel Christmas for millions.

The Prime Minister has warned the new variant of coronavirus may be up to 70 per cent more transmissible than previous strains and could overwhelm the NHS.

But last night one scientist demanded greater transparency over the number that shut down swathes of the UK.

by Blazingcatfur•December 21, 2020December 21, 2020•0•"China eats weird animals disease", WTF?

LILLEY: Trudeau bans UK flights, but is it too late to stop new COVID strain

The Trudeau government is blocking flights from the United Kingdom as Britain deals with a new strain of COVID-19 that apparently spreads faster and easier than what we have been dealing with over the last year.

The ban, which takes effect at midnight Sunday, is also only for 72 hours.

by Blazingcatfur•December 21, 2020December 21, 2020•0•"China eats weird animals disease"

Every single US state is being advised to consider ethnic minorities as critical groups for vaccination with HALF prioritizing black and Hispanic residents over white

These include New Mexico, where collaboration with Native Americans is being prioritized; California, which has committed to ensuring black and Hispanic people have greater access to the vaccine; and Oregon, where health officials have said that ethnic minorities with have ‘equitable access’ to the shot.

by Sarcasticat•December 21, 2020December 20, 2020•0•"China eats weird animals disease", race/ethnicity, USA

The future of work: How the pandemic’s ‘awakening’ will shape Canada’s labour force

Canada’s first robot barista kiosk emerged in Toronto’s upscale Yorkville neighbourhood in September. The Dark Horse Automat espresso bar offers specialty coffee on demand, delivered without any human contact to the caffeine-seeker.

This is one of countless innovative new ways of getting work done that were born out of the pandemic. The automat is an example of technology that can replace several shifts of work, perhaps even a barista position or two, though it requires servicing and regular maintenance. In fact, there are few facets of the way that we approach and perform our work that haven’t been impacted by the pandemic.

by Sarcasticat•December 21, 2020December 20, 2020•0•"China eats weird animals disease", Canada, Economy, The Future

Birx travels, family visits highlight pandemic safety perils

As COVID-19 cases skyrocketed before the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus response, warned Americans to “be vigilant” and limit celebrations to “your immediate household.”

For many Americans that guidance has been difficult to abide, including for Birx herself.

The day after Thanksgiving, she traveled to one of her vacation properties on Fenwick Island in Delaware. She was accompanied by three generations of her family from two households. Birx, her husband Paige Reffe, a daughter, son-in-law and two young grandchildren were present.

by Sarcasticat•December 21, 2020December 20, 2020•0•"China eats weird animals disease", Big Nanny, Hypocrisy

KNIGHT: The OPP investigation into the RCMP has ramped up

Earlier this year, the Ontario Provincial Police conducted a criminal investigation into senior members of the RCMP on allegations of obstruction of justice – relating to the treatment of the RCMP officers involved in the arrest and death of Robert Dziekanski.

by Sarcasticat•December 21, 2020December 20, 2020•0•Canada, RCMP

Continental Breakfast

Cheese Curd Breakfast Poutine With Red Eye Gravy

Concern among Muslims over halal status of COVID-19 vaccine

As companies race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine and countries scramble to secure doses, questions about the use of pork products — banned by some religious groups — has raised concerns about the possibility of disrupted immunization campaigns.

Law Prohibits Pence From Accepting Electoral Votes From Fraudulently Certified States – Constitutional Lawyer

Ivan Raiklin says Vice President Pence can request states send Electoral College slates that actually reflect the will of the people.

WaPo Publishes Cartoon Depicting Republican Lawmakers As Rats Who Tried To ‘Subvert The Constitution’

The cartoon, drawn by The Post’s editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes and titled “All the Republican rats,” includes well over 100 named “state attorneys general and U.S. Congress members” accused of allowing President Donald Trump to attempt to stay in office.

Thousands of protesters take to streets in Montreal against lockdown

Thousands of people marched through Montreal Sunday protesting government restrictions put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Montreal police (SPVM) handed out 269 infractions to protesters who weren’t wearing masks, according to SPVM spokesperson Julien Levesque.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault announced all non-essential businesses would be required to close from Dec. 25 to Jan. 11.

GUNTER: This Christmas, let’s aim for personal sacrifice over state surveillance and enforcement

I’m OK with federal and provincial politicians, plus public health officials, being persistent nags about hand-washing, mask-wearing and not getting together with more than our own households over Christmas.

Those are all good messages to repeat.

But I would draw the line at Cromwellian enforcement of COVID restrictions against Yuletide social gatherings.

Refugees seeking a fresh start in Canada amid coronavirus face uncertain future

Ali Mansour spent his first two weeks in Canada watching through a window as winter give way to spring and squirrels ran across the lawn.

As one of the last refugees to arrive in Canada before the border closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it still felt like freedom.

“It felt like I was in a movie,” he said via an interpreter in an interview with The Canadian Press from his home in Waterloo, Ont.

by Sarcasticat•December 21, 2020December 21, 2020•0•Continental Breakfast

2020 Election Integrity – A Snapshot Showing Where We Stand

Chief Justice Roberts’s Supreme Court is manifestly reluctant to fulfill its statutory responsibilities, despite overwhelming, and steadily accruing, evidence of significant fraud that the election outcome. However, in 2018, President Trump may have prepared a time bomb that can still save the day.

Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, filed a complaint asserting that election fraud disenfranchised Texas voters. Texas voting was done within the framework of the U.S. Constitution and battleground states strayed beyond legal boundaries, to put it mildly. The legal votes of Texans were nullified by the alleged fraudulent votes of those states.

by Blazingcatfur•December 21, 2020December 20, 2020•0•"US Presidential Election 2020"

Biden’s Latest Identity Politics Pick Is a Radical With a Land Grab Scheme – She wants to seize an additional 400 million acres of land.

New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland — a Native American through her mother’s lineage — is the newest addition to Biden’s identity politics bingo card. Haaland was tapped for Secretary of the Interior, a position with control over conservation and oil and gas drilling on public lands, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and a swath of other agencies like the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Indian Education.

Environmentalists were titillated to see a Native American nominated to take charge of land conservation and Native affairs, especially after President Trump authorized oil drilling, pipelines, and the border wall on land considered by some Native activists to be sacred.

by Blazingcatfur•December 21, 2020December 19, 2020•0•"Joe Sleazebag Biden"

‘God will forgive me or not’: Inside the world of a people smuggler

Before he got on the boat to make the clandestine crossing, Shafiullah called his family in Afghanistan to tell them he was OK and on his way to Turkey.

After the call, Shafiullah, who was 16, boarded the boat. He was one of about 100 passengers that night, last June, and one of thousands of men who have have fled Afghanistan every month this year in search of a more secure life in Europe.

Shafiullah was already inside Turkey, but the people smugglers he had paid to ferry him to Istanbul were heading across Lake Van to avoid police roadblocks. The lake’s waters are dangerous, and the smugglers were setting out at night.

by Blazingcatfur•December 21, 2020December 20, 2020•0•Camp Of The Saints

The shocking cruelty of cancelling Christmas

So Christmas is cancelled. The neo-Cromwellian edict has been issued. The thing that Boris Johnson said would be ‘inhuman’ just a few days ago has now been done. For the first time in centuries people in vast swathes of England – London and the South East – will be forbidden by law from celebrating Christmas together. The government’s promise of five days’ relief from the stifling, atomising, soul-destroying lockdown of everyday life has been snatched away from us. It’s too risky, the experts say; the disease will spread and cause great harm. You know what else will cause great harm? This cruel, disproportionate cancellation of Christmas; this decree against family festivities and human engagement.

But we have new traditions like “The Rat Out Your Neighbors Advent Calendar.”

by Blazingcatfur•December 21, 2020December 20, 2020•0•"China eats weird animals disease", Christmas

Trump Campaign Files Supreme Court Challenge to Overturn Election Results in Pennsylvania

President Donald Trump’s campaign team on Sunday filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse cases by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that changed mail-in ballot laws.

The campaign’s case (pdf) is attempting to reverse three cases decided by the state’s Supreme Court that “illegally changed” the mail-in ballot laws “immediately before and after the 2020 presidential election.” The lawyers contended that the Supreme Court’s decisions are in violation of Article II of the Constitution and the 2000 Bush v. Gore ruling.

by Blazingcatfur•December 20, 2020December 20, 2020•0•"US Presidential Election 2020"

Mark Durie: Macron’s Vain Hope For An Enlightened Islam

“A fundamental problem with Macron’s renewal program lies in a difference between Islam and Christianity, namely that the very idea of secularity is alien to Islam. The principle of the separation of church and state rests on biblical foundations. It was noteworthy that Marine Le Pen quoted a phrase of Jesus Christ in her recent speech against Islamism, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and render to God the things that are God’s” (Mark 12:17). Nothing like this exists in Islam: everything is Allah’s, and the core of Islam is about the exertion of power in service of Allah. As Bernard Lewis repeatedly pointed out, classical Arabic did not even have the language to make the distinction between church and state, sacred and profane, spiritual and temporal, and ecclesiastical and secular. Such terms entered Arabic via the writings of Arabic-speaking Christians.”

Islam does not do integration.

by Blazingcatfur•December 20, 2020December 20, 2020•0•"Islamophobia", France, Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West

All The People Who Should Be Embarrassed About The Latest Hunter Biden News, Ranked

A lot of powerful people have a lot to be embarrassed about.

Last week, President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team released a statement acknowledging the existence of an investigation under the Delaware U.S. attorney’s office probing Hunter Biden’s tax affairs. The investigation joins a broader probe examining Hunter’s finances underway by the securities fraud unit in the Southern District of New York, reported by Politico, and another targeting James Biden, Joe Biden’s brother, in Pennsylvania related to a series of hospital deals.

by Blazingcatfur•December 20, 2020December 20, 2020•0•"Joe Sleazebag Biden"