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US Again Bombs Nations On Other Side Of The World In “Self-Defense”

The US is again illegally bombing nations on the other side of the planet which it has invaded and occupied and branded this murderous aggression as “defensive”.

“At President Biden’s direction, U.S. military forces earlier this evening conducted defensive precision airstrikes against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region,” reads a statement by Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby. “The targets were selected because these facilities are utilized by Iran-backed militias that are engaged in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks against U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq. Specifically, the U.S. strikes targeted operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq, both of which lie close to the border between those countries.”

Even more absurd than the fact that we’re all still pretending this clearly dementia-addled president is “directing” anything is the claim that these actions were “defensive” in nature. It is not possible for occupying invaders to be acting defensively in the nations they are occupying an invading; US troops are only in Iraq by way of an illegal 2003 invasion, a bogus 2014 re-entry, and a refusal to leave at the Iraqi government’s request last year, and they are in Syria illegally and without the permission of the Syrian government. They can therefore only ever be aggressors; they cannot be acting defensively.

It’s like if you broke into your neighbor’s house to rob him, killed him when he tried to stop you, and then claimed self-defense because you consider his home your property. Only in the American exceptionalist alternate universe is this considered normal and acceptable.

The only actual defensive action that the US could legitimately take to protect troops in Iraq and Syria would be to remove US troops from Iraq and Syria.

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The Weird, Creepy Media Blackout On Recent Assange Revelations

As of this writing, it has been three days since the Icelandic newspaper Stundin broke the story that a key witness in the US government’s case against Julian Assange had fabricated allegations against the WikiLeaks founder. And yet, somehow, Assange is still in prison.

Weirder still, not one major western media outlet outside of Iceland has reported on this massive and entirely legitimate news story. A search brings up coverage by Icelandic media, by Russian media, and by smaller western outlets like Democracy Now, World Socialist Website, Consortium News, Zero Hedge and some others, but as of this writing this story has been completely ignored by all major outlets who are ostensibly responsible for informing the public in the western world.

It’s not that those outlets have been ignoring Assange altogether these last few days either. Reuters recently published an interview with Assange’s fiance Stella Moris. Evening Standard has a recent article out on Assange’s plans to marry Moris in Belmarsh, as does Deutsche Welle. It’s just this one story in particular that they’ve been blacking out completely.

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Former NXIVM Second-in-Command Allison Mack Sentenced to Three Years in Prison

Allison Mack, the former star of the CW’s Smallville, was sentenced on Wednesday to three years in prison, as well as a $20,000 fine. In April 2019, she pleaded guilty to charges of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy related to her role in NXIVM, the Albany-based self-improvement group and multi-level marketing organization commonly referred to in the media as a “sex cult.”

Former member Jessica Joan, who revealed last December that she had been a Jane Doe in the case, gave an impassioned victim statement during the proceedings, in which she described Mack as “a demon of a woman” who had groomed her to be a “sex slave.” “Allison Mack and Keith Raniere are the most evil monsters I’ve ever met,” she said. “She sought me out like a predator stalking their prey.”

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Facebook censors those who spread ‘misinformation,’ but looks the other way while pimps abuse children

Before losing a recent landmark court case, Facebook attempted to distance itself from the human trafficking taking place on its platform. If only it were as hands-on about child sex crimes as it is about political speech.

The Texas Supreme Court ruled on Friday that Facebook can be held liable for the conduct of pimps and traffickers on its platform – a landmark decision that opens the firm up to further legal action from a trio of teenage trafficking victims. 

In the suit, filed in 2018, the three young women accused the company of running “an unrestricted platform to stalk, exploit, recruit, groom, and extort children into the sex trade.” One was 15 when an older man contacted her on Facebook, offered her a modeling job, photographed her, posted the pictures on the now-defunct BackPage website, and prostituted her to other men, leading her to be “raped, beaten, and forced into further sex trafficking.” The other two girls were 14, and reported almost identical experiences, with one openly pimped out for “dates” on Instagram, a Facebook subsidiary.

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San Francisco Homeless Camp Costs $60,000 Per Tent, Per Year

The news comes as San Francisco mulls renewing the program, which could cost about $57,000 per tent. There are currently about 260 tents, the report notes.

The city is paying “about twice the median cost of a one-bedroom apartment for each tent”, the report says. And the encampment is being funded by a 2018 business tax known as Proposition C. 

The city is expecting to spend more than $1 billion over the next two years on homelessness. Mayor Breed calls it a “historic investment,” according to the SF Chronicle. 

Supervisor Hillary Ronen said at a budget meeting: “It is a big deal to have showers and bathrooms, and I don’t dispute that. But the cost just doesn’t make any sense.”

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BOE botched NYC mayoral primary results by including ‘test’ run

The too-close-to-call Democratic primary race that will likely decide New York’s next mayor was thrown into disarray after election officials admitted they accidentally included “test” results in the vote count, leading to 135,000 extra ballots.

The botching of the city’s first ranked-choice election was first flagged by front-runner Eric Adams, who pointed out that preliminary results from the Board of Elections showed that 941,832 votes were cast for the Democratic mayoral nomination, a huge increase from the 799,827 that were counted on primary day last week.

The BOE clarified its screwup in a tweet Tuesday night.

“It has been determined that ballot images used for testing were not cleared from the Election Management System (EMS),” the board said of the fiasco.

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Your IoT Device is Likely Spying on You through Backdoor Security Flaws

Many people are used to trading privacy for convenience these days. After all, this is how those with nefarious agendas get people to adopt technology that continually spies on them. IoT technology is no different. A recently discovered security vulnerability from a major manufacturer of IoT devices has exposed just how dangerous this technology can be. The following article from TweakLibrary details how this sort of surveillance technology can wreak havoc upon our lives. – Truth Unmuted Editor Jesse Smith

This Security Vulnerability Could Change An IoT Device Into A Nasty Spy

IoT has had a remarkable impact on our lives. We now have devices connected over a network that are capable of making our lives much easier and comfortable. From smartphones to smartwatches to internet-powered doorbells, door alarms, security cameras, speakers, door locks, lights, bulbs, and baby monitors, the list is just endless. However, with this boon, a bane looms around and that is, miscreants can hack into these devices and if not acted upon promptly, they can wreak havoc on our lives. But, when can hackers feed on IoT devices? The answer is when they sniff a security vulnerability or when we as users don’t practice healthy security habits.

We’ll get into the security habits on a user’s part later in the blog but, let’s first discuss how a security vulnerability can lead a hacker into your IoT device and then into your personal or professional life. Quite recently, a security vulnerability has hit IoT devices. This security flaw can give access to your IoT audio and video feeds and turn into a spying tool.

What is This Security Vulnerability All About? How Severe Is The Security Flaw

As per the researchers at Nozomi Networks Lab and DHS, the security flaw can let malicious attackers tamper with an IoT device. They can easily convert a given IoT device such as a home security camera, a baby monitor, or a smart doorbell into a spying tool. Owing to this vulnerability, they can steal crucial data or spy on video feeds as well. Apart from intruding into one’s personal lives through the aforementioned channels, an attacker can even steal crucial business data such as data related to customers, employees, or even production techniques. The security flaw is indeed very severe. So much so that the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) rates it at 9.1/10 on a severity scale.

How Did This Security Flaw Surface?

The flaw is a supply chain bug that was discovered in a software component (P2P SDK) manufactured by a company called ThroughTek who is one of the prominent suppliers of IoT devices. The P2P’s SDK gives remote access to audio/ video streams over the internet. The SDK is found in smart sensors, security cameras such as baby and pet monitoring cameras,  doorbells, etc. and it help a viewer gain access to audio/ video streams. The flaw affects P2P’s version 3.1.5 or before. As Nozomi has demonstrated, the older versions of the SDK allow data packets to be intercepted while in transit. A hacker can refurbish these packets into complete audio or video streams.

ThroughTek’s Defence

ThroughTek has countered this bug in version 3.3 that was released in mid-2020. Though the issue is that quite many devices still run the older build. Secondly, as per ThroughTek, to conduct an attack, a prospective attacker will need to have extensive knowledge of network sniffer tools, network security, and encryption algorithm.

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