Scenes From The Cyberwar In Ukraine

January 9th, 2024

The front lines in Ukraine have been static for the last few months, with Russia grinding away in Avdiivka to little effect and Ukraine having failed to effect further advances. However, there are a few snippets of interest from the ongoing cyberwar, on both sides. I thought it worth taking a look at.

  • First, Russia claimed a successful, long-running penetration of Ukrainian a telecom service.

    Over nearly a decade, the hacker group within Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency known as Sandworm has launched some of the most disruptive cyberattacks in history against Ukraine’s power grids, financial system, media, and government agencies. Signs now point to that same usual suspect being responsible for sabotaging a major mobile provider for the country, cutting off communications for millions and even temporarily sabotaging the air raid warning system in the capital of Kyiv.

    On Tuesday, a cyberattack hit Kyivstar, one of Ukraine’s largest mobile and internet providers. The details of how that attack was carried out remain far from clear. But it “resulted in essential services of the company’s technology network being blocked,” according to a statement posted by Ukraine’s Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT-UA.

    Kyivstar’s CEO, Oleksandr Komarov, told Ukrainian national television on Tuesday, according to Reuters, that the hacking incident “significantly damaged [Kyivstar’s] infrastructure [and] limited access.”

    “We could not counter it at the virtual level, so we shut down Kyivstar physically to limit the enemy’s access,” he continued. “War is also happening in cyberspace. Unfortunately, we have been hit as a result of this war.”

    The Ukrainian government hasn’t yet publicly attributed the cyberattack to any known hacker group—nor have any cybersecurity companies or researchers. But on Tuesday, a Ukrainian official within its SSSCIP computer security agency, which oversees CERT-UA, pointed out in a message to reporters that a group known as Solntsepek had claimed credit for the attack in a Telegram post, and noted that the group has been linked to the notorious Sandworm unit of Russia’s GRU.

  • But pro-Ukrainian hackers have managed to strike back, by breaching a Russian Internet provider.

    The pro-Ukrainian hacker group Blackjack is claiming that it breached a Moscow internet provider to seek revenge for a Russian cyberattack on Ukraine’s largest telecom company, Kyivstar.

    The attack on M9com was carried out in cooperation with Ukraine’s security forces (SBU), said a source in Ukraine’s law enforcement agency who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly about the incident.

    There isn’t much information available about the attack, and the SBU’s role in the operation. Hackers said Monday on their Telegram channel that they will reveal more details soon. So far, the only confirmation of the incident they have provided includes screenshots of the allegedly hacked systems of the internet provider.

    The group also published some of the data obtained during the hack on a darknet site accessible via the Tor browser.

    The time frame of the attack on M9com is unclear, but as of the time of writing, the allegedly hacked website is up and running. There has been no mention of the operator’s shutdown in the Russian media or on its official website. The company has not replied to requests for comment.

    This is not the first time Ukrainian civilian hackers have allegedly cooperated with security services to attack Russian organizations. In an incident publicized in October, two groups of pro-Ukrainian hackers and the SBU claimed to have breached Russia’s largest private bank, Alfa-Bank.

  • Ukrainian hackers also announced that they hacked Russia’s tax systems.

    The Ukrainian government’s military intelligence service says it hacked the Russian Federal Taxation Service (FNS), wiping the agency’s database and backup copies.

    Following this operation, carried out by cyber units within Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence, military intelligence officers breached Russia’s federal taxation service central servers and 2,300 regional servers across Russia and occupied Ukrainian territories.

    The breach led to all compromised FTS servers being infected with malware, as well as the hacking of a Russian IT company that provides FNS with data center services.

    The attack also reportedly resulted in the complete deletion of configuration files crucial for the functionality of Russia’s extensive taxation system, wiping out both the main database and its backup copies

    As Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) says, the repercussions of the cyberattack have been severe, causing a breakdown in communication between Moscow’s central office and the 2,300 territorial departments that also got hacked in the attack.

    It has led to a virtual collapse of one of Russia’s vital governmental agencies with a significant loss of tax-related data, according to GUR, as well as tax data-related internet traffic across Russia falling into the hands of Ukraine’s military hackers, as The Record first reported.

    If this is true, it will take quite some time to get tax collections up and running again. And the inability to collect taxes will severely hamper Russia’s ability to finance the war.

  • Speaking of the Alfa-Bank hack, just recently Ukrainian hackers announced that they made all their data available online.

    The Ukrainian hacker group Kiborg has made the entire client base of the Russian Alfa Bank publicly available.

    Kiborg hackers, acting in collaboration with NLB hackers, gained access to the customer database in October 2023 and exposed information about 44,000 customers.

    The database contains information on the names, dates of birth, phone numbers, cards and accounts of 38 million unique individuals and legal entities.

    The Vazhnyye Istorii (Important Stories) website clarified that this includes over 24 million customer accounts and over 13 million more data on legal entities.

    • Both sides have struck cyberblows against the other, but Ukraine seems to have done more damage to Russia than vice-versa this week.

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    Posted in Global Warming, Military | 4 Comments »

    Did Israel Just Declare Victory Over Hamas?

    January 8th, 2024

    Three months in, reporting on the Israel-Hamas War has been notably poor, focused on playing up Israel-inflicted casualties and hyping the possibility of a wider two-front war with Hezbollah rather than concrete information on whether Israel is achieving military objectives or not.

    So it would be easy to miss this announcement that “IDF says it has completed the ‘dismantling of Hamas’ military framework.'”

    The Israel Defense Forces claimed on Sunday that it has “completed the dismantling of Hamas’ military framework” in the northern Gaza Strip, hitting hundreds of targets and taking out key leaders of the terrorist group.

    In an assessment of the first three months of the war between Israel and Hamas, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesperson, said Israeli forces have met their goals through airstrikes, ground operations and intelligence gathering in the primary objective of eliminating Hamas.

    The Israel Defense Forces claimed on Sunday that it has “completed the dismantling of Hamas’ military framework” in the northern Gaza Strip, hitting hundreds of targets and taking out key leaders of the terrorist group.

    In an assessment of the first three months of the war between Israel and Hamas, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesperson, said Israeli forces have met their goals through airstrikes, ground operations and intelligence gathering in the primary objective of eliminating Hamas.

    Among the Hamas commanders eliminated was Ahmad Randor, Hagari said, showing what he said was a photograph of Randor sitting with his command echelon in a bunker 40 meters, or about 131 feet, underground.

    “We have completed the dismantling of Hamas’ military framework in the northern Gaza Strip and will continue to deepen the achievement, strengthening the barrier and the defense components along the security fence,” Hagari said.

    More:

    The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced on January 6 that it “dismantled” the 12 Hamas battalions in the northern Gaza Strip. IDF officials added that they have dismantled Hamas’ “military framework” in the northern Gaza Strip. An Israeli Army Radio defense correspondent reported on January 6 that Israeli forces no longer permanently operate in the entire area of the northern strip and have moved to the border with Israel. IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on January 6 that the IDF would focus on the central and southern parts of the Gaza Strip and strengthen defenses along the Israel-Gaza Strip border fence. These announcements are consistent with the IDF stating that it would establish a security buffer zone in the northern Gaza Strip in the third phase of its operations. This third phase also involved Israeli forces conducting raids against Hamas compounds, destroying tunnels, killing remaining fighters, seizing intelligence and military equipment. CTP-ISW assessed on December 22 that, in Hamas’ Northern Strip Brigade and Gaza City Brigade, three battalions are combat ineffective, eight are degraded, and one is combat effective.

    ISW goes on to warn that Hamas has not been completely destroyed and will likely reconstitute itself. But that’s pretty much standard operating procedures for transnational jihadist terror organizations.

    No one questioned the IDF’s ability to ability to dismantle Hamas. Israel has one of the most modern, disciplined, technically savvy and motivated armed forces in the world. (Having enemies who literally call for the complete extermination of the Jewish race is a powerful motivator.) Hamas, on the other hand, is a terrorist organization whose main skills seem to be raping and murdering civilians and building tunnels. The only question was whether the the feckless, Iran-dealing Biden Administration and it’s Obama foreign policy retreads would be able to pressure Israel into halting before the job was done. That appears not to be the case.

    Another sign that IDF has succeeded is the distinct lack of apparent Hamas activity in Gaza.

    Today’s Livemap snapshot shows one rocket strike into Israel and one dead Al Jazerra journalist in Gaza. There’s precious little sign of any organized, robust Hamas military resistance left in Gaza.

    Nor are there any signs of Hezbollah “opening up a second front.”

    Though Hezbollah evidently launched rockets at an Israeli base this weekend, right now they’re only firing off the occasional mortar. Rockets and mortar attacks like this are just common terrorist pinpricks, and do not constitute anything like a “second front.” Meanwhile, Israeli planes are hitting Hezbollah positions with impunity.

    What constitutes victory for the Israeli government? It took fourteen years after the end of Operation Cast Lead for Hamas to reconstitute itself. Assuming the Shia fundamentalist government remains in power in Iran (which in turn depends on how badly American Democratic Administrations want to prop it up), then maybe we can look forward to a similar period of relative peace on Israel’s southern front.

    And presumably Israel won’t be caught asleep at the switch again the next time Hamas stages a big attack.

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    Posted in Foreign Policy, Guns, Jihad, Military | 14 Comments »

    Bird, Bird, Bird, Bird Isn’t The Word

    January 7th, 2024

    There was a December story I never got to cover properly, and that was my delight over Bird Scooter’s bankruptcy.

    Electric scooter company Bird Global announced Wednesday that it has filed for bankruptcy protection in an attempt to stabilize its wobbly finances.

    The move marks a sobering comedown for a formerly high-flying startup that was trying to make it easier to get around big cities in an environmentally friendly way with its fleet of electric scooters. The concept attracted about $500 million in investments from prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners before becoming a publicly traded company in 2021.

    The things have been annoying ubiquitous in downtown Austin, from Bird and other firms like Lime.

    Now, the Miami-based company finds itself struggling to survive after losing more than $430 million since the end of 2021.

    Bird has lined up $25 million in financing from MidCap Financial, a division of Apollo Global Management, as it tries to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Florida.

    Michael Washinushi, Bird’s interim CEO, predicted the company will be able to bounce back and continue its “mission to make cities more livable” by providing vehicles that don’t clog the roads nor burn fuel. But investors seemed doubtful as Bird’s stock lost nearly 80% of its remaining value Wednesday to close at 8 cents per share, a far cry from its price of about $154 at the end of 2021.

    I have no objections to electric scooters themselves, or even renting electric scooters. What I object most strenuously to is the business model Bird and their ilk have pursued, which is: Just leave your scooters any damn place and we’ll pick them up later.

    This is an abuse of both the commons and any patches of private property these scooter-renting Eloi happen to leave their discarded vehicles scattered onto. We have laws against littering, and they should apply equally to people who dump these things on lawns and sidewalks.

    Bird and their ilk seem both a sneaky assault on private property, and an ill-considered investment scheme of companies trying to gin up a new market far in advance of real demand, much like WeWork. And this “ride sharing” idea already failed miserably in China with multiple non-electric bike startups going bust and leaving behind mountains of unused bikes.

    Thanks to their abuse of the commons, Bird deserves to go bust.

    And now a bonus Family Guy clip:

    (Note: BlueHost is still going dog slow. I’ll try to chat with someone there tomorrow.)

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    Posted in unions, video | 4 Comments »

    How A Coffee Shortage Almost Ended East Germany

    January 6th, 2024

    East Germany was widely cited as the most successful of the Warsaw Pact puppet states, the one whose industrious nature “made communism work.” That was never true, but East Germany did seem to function more efficiently than the rest of the bloc.

    One reason: Coffee.

  • “In the fall of 1977 the Ministry for State Security, the Stasi, East Germany’s feared secret police, warned the government that the country was on the verge of revolt. The trust lost in this incident would never be restored.”
  • “From the beginning, East Germany did not have access to the same level of luxury goods as the non-Soviet bloc West. Immediately after the second World War and through the 1950s, the Soviet Union supplied most of the coffee in the German Democratic Republic.”
  • “As East Germany became more autarkic from the Soviet Union, so followed its need to supply coffee independently.”
  • “The average East German coffee household expenditure was twice the amount spent on shoes, and equal to the amount spent on furniture.”
  • “This accounted for 4% of all retail sales in the GDR. As the East German state attempted to gain coffee independence, they also pushed as a core part of East German identity. Coffee allowed workers to be more productive, which contributed to a more prosperous society while maintaining an aesthetic of an invigorated society.”
  • “There was a problem though: it was a scarce resource and it was expensive to import. But, because of its importance, the Socialist Unity Party (the SED, who were effectively the state) saw a bargain that could be had from it. By being able to provide a scarce resource, it gave them legitimacy. But to gain this legitimacy they were constantly fighting back against a black market.”
  • “Officially any interaction with the black market
    was illegal. Unofficially everyone knew it existed, and the Socialist Unity Party wasn’t happy with it, but it offered a window into what scarce resources would engender support if they could provide them.”

  • “Even before the Cold War, coffee in Germany was scarce – the blends were often not real coffee but blends of varying quality. This continued on after the post-war division and a fight between the Socialist Unity Party and the people of East Germany. The SED wanted to be the ones to provide coffee – the public wanted more of it and at a better quality. Thus developed a black market that the SED was constantly trying to stay ahead of.”
  • “One of the reasons for the Berlin Wall was that the SED couldn’t regulate the black market. It allowed goods to flood in from the West they were trying to provide, while allowing goods from the East (with subsidized prices) to flow out.”
  • “But, by 1973, things in East Germany had stabilized and things were, well, good. At least according to the CIA.”
  • “The SED had achieved a Faustian bargain: A black market where people had to depend upon relationships with each other to get access to goods meant that the populace actively grew in solidarity with each other.”
  • “The average East German citizen was willing to deal with shortages because it was something everyone was enduring together. In short, East Germany had entered a period of political stability, with a relatively high standard of living, and the shortcomings of the system reinforced the ideals that the system preached.”
  • “Two events at the beginning of the 1970s shook the East German economy to its core: the 1973 oil shock, and a failed coffee crop in Brazil. These events compounded within the fragile East German economy: to import goods from the west (such as oil) they needed to use western currency. As the price of oil skyrocketed, so did the rate at which East Germany drained its reserves of Western currency.” This part I’m not so sure of. I believe that East Germany imported most (but not all) of its oil from the Soviet Union under the Comecon plan. Oil prices from that did increase, but not immediately.
  • “Luxury goods, like coffee, became prohibitively expensive in an economy planned out to the penny. Before the failed coffee crop, East Germany spent 150 million marks per year on coffee imports. After the crisis began, this number had skyrocketed to 700 million. The SED was faced with a dilemma: money for oil, or marks for mocha?”
  • “They attempted to split the difference. The only coffee imported would be the higher end blends that the party leadership used. Lower end brands were either eliminated completely, or the recipe adjusted to use less coffee. Further, certain blends would only be available in Intershops, which required the use of Western currency – which would help the state refill it’s currency coffers.”
  • “East Germans rejected the new coffee mixes in a way the state was not prepared for. In a report to SED leadership on September 1, 1977, the Ministry for State stated that, ‘the quality and price of [the new coffee mixes] are rejected by broad circles of the population.'”
  • “Complaints recorded by the Stasi included ‘critical indications of taste,’ and a first indication that the new mixes were unable to be processed to the ‘full filtering capability in household machines.’ The coffee mixes were breaking the machines.”
  • “The Stasi further expressed in this report that workers resented party officials requesting austerity for workers, while still importing ‘expensive Western cars for officials.'”
  • “Additionally, Stasi reports say that citizen did not believe the ‘information policy.’ Far from just rejecting the new coffee mixes, were rejecting the SED’s handling of the crisis.”
  • “By September 12, the frustration over austerity moved to unrest. A Stasi report stated that in discussions among workers, ‘skeptical, resigned, pessimistic and negative opinions up to aggressive arguments become clear.'”
  • “While blaming Western media for this development, the Stasi also states that there are rumors of ‘warning strikes.'” These strikes would demand wages be paid in Western currency so that they could shop at the Intershops.”
  • “In relation, the report states growing frustration with the expansion of Intershop stores, with the simultaneous ‘elimination of low-price coffees and the limited supply in restaurants.’
  • Workers also believed that the classless East German society was now stratified, with three distinct categories: those without western currency who would be forced to endure austerity, those with access to western currency who could shop at Intershops, and ‘privileged persons and high officials who…drove expensive Western cars and [weren’t] affected by austerity.'”
  • “These last two categories were contrasted with the common worker and pensioner who ‘have returned to the point where begging letters have been sent to [West Germany]’ for coffee.'”
  • They were even criticizing Party officials! “East Germany was on the precipice of a revolt.”
  • “The SED would finally act on 23 September to contain the growing unrest. The price of the lowest quality mixes was reduced, and a communication was published on the coffee shortage, explaining the reasoning behind austerity measures.”
  • East Germany also started sourcing coffee from Vietnam.

    • Eventually, of course, East Germany would cease to exist due to the “internal contradictions” of communism and because the Soviet Union could no longer afford to keep it’s foot on Eastern Europe’s neck.

    Note: Bluehost has been dog slow for the last 24 hours. If this keeps up tomorrow I’ll try to go through the agonizing technical support process to do something about it…

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    Posted in Communism, Economics, video | 2 Comments »

    LinkSwarm For January 5, 2024

    January 5th, 2024

    Happy New Year, everyone! The Biden Recession bites deeper, Israel dirtnaps a top terrorist, Harvard’s chief plagiarist finally steps down, and the crypto CEO who wasn’t there. It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

    

  • Once again, the new job numbers are horrible.

    The monthly nonfarm payrolls (from the Establishment Survey) may have been weak at 216K but the far more accurate Household Survey showed that the number of Employed workers actually collapsed by an unprecedented 683K, the biggest drop since the US economy was shutdown by covid!

    Even scarier, while the monthly grind higher in the payrolls number (pulled from the far less accurate Establishment Survey) means that US jobs hit a record high every month with bizarre consistency and in December this was certainly the case, the total nonfarm employment number rose to an all time high 157.232 million, the abovementioned collapse in US Employment (per Household survey) meant that there were only 161.183 million employed people in the US, the lowest since June, with the now traditional divergence between these two surveys glaringly obvious.

  • Israel takes out senior Hamas leader in Beirut.

    A senior Hamas leader was killed Tuesday in a drone strike in Beirut, Lebanon, during a meeting between Palestinian factions at a Hamas office.

    Saleh al-Arouri, deputy chairman of Hamas’s political bureau and commander of the terror group’s military wing in the West Bank, and at least five others died from the explosion, which occurred near Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut, Lebanese state media reported. Several more were injured. Following the blast, Hamas blamed Israel for the “Zionist raid” amid its ongoing war with the Jewish state. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the strike.

    Many Israeli officials declined to comment. However, Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich posted a statement on X shortly after the attack: “Surely your enemies will perish, O Israel.”

    In November, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated he ordered the nation’s Mossad spy agency to eliminate Hamas leaders around the world after the militant group’s coordinated October 7 attack. Netanyahu’s office also declined to comment about the explosion.

    Al-Arouri, whom Hamas described as “one of the architects” of the terror attack on Israel, had close ties with Yahwa Sinwar, the group’s leader in Gaza. Al-Arouri is the most senior Hamas leader to have been killed since the war began in early October.

  • Supreme Court to take up Trump’s Colorado ballot case.
  • A good chunk of the Epstein files have finally been released. Some revelations: Bill Clinton “likes them young” and Donald Trump didn’t have sex with at least one girl who was asked under oath about it.
  • Harvard President Claudine Gay finally does the right thing and resigns in wake of burgeoning plagiarism scandal.
  • A three act farce: Act 1: “Ohio governor Mike DeWine (R.) on Friday vetoed a bill that would have banned both transgender procedures for minors and trans student-athlete participation in school sports in the state.” Act 2: Turns out DeWine has taken taken over $40,000 in donations from pro-child-genital-mutilation hospitals. Act 3: “Republican Ohio governor Mike DeWine issued an “emergency” executive order Friday banning child gender-transition surgeries after receiving intense backlash last week for vetoing a bill with a broader but similar mandate.” Ohio’s Republican legislature can and should override DeWine’s foolish veto.
  • “President of Illinois NAACP suspended after saying migrants are ‘savages who are ‘raping people, breaking into homes.'” Speaking the truth is now crime
  • “Border Protection Officer Charged with Human Smuggling. Emanuel Celedon is also charged with bribery and drug trafficking.”
  • Robert F. Kennedy, jr. qualifies for the presidential ballot in Utah.

    Last month, American Values 2024, a super PAC supporting the third-party candidate, announced a plan to spend nearly $15 million to get Kennedy on the ballot in ten states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, New York and Texas. All are important to winning the 2024 race.

    I don’t see RFK Jr. doing even as well in Utah as Egg McMuffin did in 2016, and of the other states, only Arizona, Colorado, Michigan and Nevada might have any effect on the election, all four of which went (however fraudulently) for Biden in 2020.

  • “Harris County Criminal Court Judge Arrested for Domestic Violence on New Year’s Eve. Harris County Judge Frank Aguilar is alleged to have assaulted and impeded the breathing of a female victim.” Aguilar is, of course, a Democrat.
  • “Louisiana sporting goods employees fired for chasing shoplifter who stole gun.” Get bent, Academy. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • Crypto hedge fund CEO may not have actually existed. That’s some mighty fine vetting there, investors…
  • Ricky Gervais has a great idea: He and Dave Chappelle should co-host the Oscars. That would indeed be a smash ratings success, and I would watch the Oscars for the first time this century.
  • New commie gaming regulations lop $80 billion off Chinese video game company values.
  • TGIFriday’s just closed 36 locations in 12 states, including four in Texas. Thanks, Joe Biden.
  • Plus for Sephora “Body Butter”: Smoother skin. Minus: Attracts Spiders.
  • Mythbuster‘s Adam Savage keeps buying replica torturer baby masks from Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. Also, he watched it once a day, every day, for six months while working at a movie theater. Which explains a lot.
  • “Texas Agrees To Two-State Solution With Austin.”

    This is the only way for us to live in peace,” said Texas Governor Greg Abbot. “The citizens of Austin have been at war with the people of Texas for many years now, and to end the bloodshed for future generations, we are willing to recognize Austin as its own separate and sovereign land.”

    The resolution brought much-needed relief to the war-torn area, where battle lines had been drawn along the border of Austin. “The weirdo hipsters of Austin can stand down now,” said Texas Senator Ted Cruz in a statement acknowledging the resolution. “The people of Austin can now stop patrolling the perimeter of the city in armored tanks and go back to driving electric vehicles, painting strange murals nobody understands, and hating everything the United States stands for.”

  • “Detroit Pistons relegated to the WNBA.”

    • Bluehost is dog slow today, so I should wrap this up.

    Hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.





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    Posted in Austin, Border Control, Communism, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Jihad, Media Watch, Military, Regulation, Republicans, Social Justice Warriors, Supreme Court, Texas | 1 Comment »

    BREAKING: Wayne LaPierre Resigns As NRA Head

    January 5th, 2024

    Today’s LinkSwarm is still coming, but this is worth a newsflash.

    Longtime National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre announced his resignation Friday, Fox News Digital has learned.

    Better late then never, but this is still several years too late.

    “With pride in all that we have accomplished, I am announcing my resignation from the NRA,” LaPierre said in the NRA’s press release, which was exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital. “I’ve been a card-carrying member of this organization for most of my adult life, and I will never stop supporting the NRA and its fight to defend Second Amendment freedom. My passion for our cause burns as deeply as ever.”

    In recent years, LaPierre’s passion seemed to be for lining his pockets, building a wall of cronies between him and accountability, and dragging the organization down with him rather than stepping aside.

    NRA President Charles Cotton said during the board meeting Friday in Irving, Texas, that he accepted LaPierre’s resignation. LaPierre, 74, cited health reasons as motivation behind the departure.

    The resignation will take effect Jan. 31. Andrew Arulanandam, the NRA’s executive and head of general operations, will serve as interim CEO and executive vice president of the NRA.

    Arulanandam is one of Wayne’s toadies, and the organization won’t be free of LaPierre’s taint until all his cronies are swept from the board and positions of power.

    The announcement comes as LaPierre is set to face trial in the corruption case brought by Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James. James – who before being elected the state’s AG, vowed to take on the NRA and slammed the group as a “terrorist organization” – brought forth a lawsuit in 2020 accusing NRA leadership of violating state and federal laws to divert millions of dollars to their own pockets.

    The James lawsuit is indeed a political witchhunt, but it was LaPierre’s self-dealing that gave James the opening she needed to go after him.

    Someone free of LaPierre’s taint, like former, well-respected NRA-ILA head Chris Cox, should be brought in to clean out Wayne’s Augean stables. Until those urgent reforms are carried out, NRA still won’t get any of my money.

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    Posted in Guns | 9 Comments »

    Taqueria Robber Shooter No-Billed

    January 4th, 2024

    Despite the best efforts of various Soros-backed tools, the right to self defense is still alive and well in Texas.

    A Harris County grand jury has declined to charge a man who shot and killed a robber at a Houston-area taqueria one year ago in an incident that has drawn attention to bail bond policies in the state’s most populous county.

    On January 5, 2023, 30-year-old Eric Eugene Washington entered the El Ranchito restaurant in southwest Houston and robbed several customers wielding what appeared to be a gun. Security video from the location shows one customer using his own gun to shoot Washington nine times. The unidentified man then took the money Washington had stolen, returned it to customers, finished his coffee, and after throwing a cup down near Washington’s body, left the establishment.

    Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

    Police investigators determined that Washington had been wielding a fake plastic gun at the time of the robbery.

    The name of the man who shot Washington was not released to the public, but his attorney Juan L. Guerra released a statement last year noting that the shooter feared for his life and “acted to protect everyone in the restaurant.”

    “This event has been very traumatic, taking a human life is something he does not take lightly and will burden him for the rest of his life,” said Guerra.

    Texas law allows residents to use deadly force to protect themselves or others in the face of threats, even in public places.

    According to a statement from the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, all homicides must be reviewed by a grand jury of 12 randomly selected residents who meet for three months to review evidence and criminal charges. If nine or more determine that probable cause does not exist, they issue a “no bill,” clearing the individual of criminal wrongdoing.

    Washington had been convicted of Aggravated Robbery with a Deadly Weapon in 2015 and served 7 years before being released on parole. In December 2022, he was arrested on charges of Assault of a Family Member but was released on a $500 bond by Harris County Criminal Court at Law 10.

    A bonded out felon in Harris County committ8ing more crimes? I’ll try to contain my shock.

    Andy Kahan, victims advocate for Crime Stoppers of Houston, told The Texan he is advocating for new legislation that would prohibit personal recognizance bonds for offenders on parole for violent crimes when charged with a new offense.

    “You didn’t help Eric Washington by giving him a bond,” said Kahan.

    Indeed.

    There was a lot of debate at the time over whether the self-defense shooter firing nine shots was excessive or not, and of course various leftwing “activists” wanted him charged. But despite their best efforts, self-defense still remains legal in Texas, and a jury agreed the shooter was justified.

    Thugs should realize that if they pull a gun (real or otherwise) in a restaurant in Texas, there’s a good chance some of the patrons are packing.

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    Posted in Crime, Foreign Policy, Guns, Texas, unions, video | 2 Comments »

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Swatted

    January 3rd, 2024

    Those scumbags who file false reports in order to elicit a (possible fatal) police response to their intended target are at it again, and this time their target was none other that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Wednesday morning that his home in McKinney was victim to a “swatting” incident.

    Paxton took to social media to alert the public that he and his family “were not home at the time and were made aware of the false report when a state trooper, who was contacted by McKinney police, informed [them] of the incident.”

    “On New Year’s Day, a currently unidentified caller made a false report to 911 describing a life-threatening situation at our home in McKinney. As a result, the City of McKinney Police and Fire Departments quickly and bravely responded to what they believed could be a dangerous environment,” he explained.

    According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation “swatting” is “making a hoax call to 9-1-1 to draw a response from law enforcement, usually a [special weapons and tactics or] SWAT Team … it is a serious crime, and one that has potentially dangerous consequences.”

    “It is also important to acknowledge that this ‘swatting’ incident happened weeks after the disgraced Speaker of the House Dade Phelan, his lieutenants, and the Dallas Morning News doxed our family by publicly posting our address,” Paxton continued on social media.

    “We understand some people may not agree with our strong conservative efforts to secure the border, prevent election fraud, and protect our constitutional liberties, but compromising the effectiveness and safety of law enforcement is completely unacceptable.”

    Interesting that Paxton fingered Phelan’s crew as the possible perpetrators rather than the usual leftwing loons who employee the tactic.

    In any case, I’ve got to believe that SWATing the Attorney General is a pretty risky gambit. I mean, I’m pretty sure any AG is going to have the resources to pursue the perps. Likewise, I’m pretty sure he can get a warrant for the device data, and even an unregistered burner phone can be tracked.

    Here’s hoping the perp who swatted Paxton ends up earning himself a nice, long stint behind bars.

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    Posted in Crime, Texas | 6 Comments »

    Dave Chappelle Takes On Transexual Madness Again

    January 2nd, 2024

    Some public figures are cowed by social justice warriors attacking them for transgressions against The Holy Narrative. Comedian Dave Chappelle is not among them, as his newly dropped special proves.

    The segment they excerpt is a funny (and true) bit.

    I don’t have Netflix (I’m one of those codgers that watches things off the arcane format known as “DVDs”), so it will be a while until I track the latest special down. But it’s good to see Chappelle standing tall against the woke mob.

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    Posted in Republicans, unions, video | No Comments »

    Cartel Gunbattle Just South Of U.S. Border

    January 1st, 2024

    It looks like there was a running gunbattle between the Mexican National Guard and the Sinaloa drug cartel in Sonoyta, Sonora, just south of Lukeville, Arizona on the U.S. border, on December 29. There’s a dearth of news stories on the event, so here are two video compilations (with a little overlap) of the fighting.

    I haven’t seen any news reports of this in American media, possibly because they think their primary goal is to avoid reporting anything on the border that the Biden Administration’s “pro illegal alien invasion” policies make them look bad with voters.

    Indeed, there was a gun battle at a different crossing point earlier this month.

    A federal law-enforcement source shared with FOX Business Network an internal officer safety alert dated December 13th that warns CBP agents to be vigilant after the Mexican military seized 10 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at the border.

    The IEDs were found by Mexican authorities after Tucson border patrol observed gunshots at the U.S.-Mexico border and a Tucson supervisory border patrol agent arrested an armed person on the U.S. side who had a loaded AK-47 rifle, two loaded AK magazines, loose rounds and a handgun.

    Add “border danger” to “budget deficits” in the category of Things That Could Blow Up At Any Moment Our Chattering Classes Refuse To Talk About.

    P.S. Happy New Year, everyone!

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    Posted in Border Control, Crime, Media Watch, Military, video | 4 Comments »

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