On Wednesday, February 7, 2024 at 12:18:46 AM UTC+11, Fred Bloggs wrote:
> 'The Google report comes a day after the United States announced a new visa restriction policy for those it said were misusing commercial spyware, allowing the placing of restrictions on individuals believed to have been involved in the abuse of commercial spyware, as well as for those who facilitate such actions and benefit from it.'
>
> https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/google-calls-out-spyware-firms-advocates-tighter-regulation-2024-02-06/
>
> US to restrict visas for those who misuse commercial spyware
>
> https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-announces-visa-restriction-policy-those-misusing-commercial-spyware-2024-02-05/
>
> 'The new policy will also apply to investors and operators of the commercial spyware believed to be misused, a senior Biden administration official said. '
>
> Private hacking tools have targeted at least 50 U.S. officials in recent years.
>
> That will be as effective as the feckless misguided attempts to stop the spread of COVID into the country, meaning it won't work at all...clearly underestimates the determination of the miscreants.

Why? Trump's anti-Covid-19 activities were designed to make his supporters feel happy, and he only acted on the advice the he thought would sell well to them. It's effectiveness didn't interest him at all. Hence the essentially racist ban on travellers from China - which did work - and the fecklessly casual approach to travellers from Europe who did manage to infect a great many Americans a few months later.

There's not a lot of public interest in spyware or it's abuse, so the intelligence community will have a relatively free hand. And if it inconveniences the general public, they will told that it is their patriotic duty to put up with the inconveniences.

There's no guarantee that they will be particularly effective, but at least Trump will be out of the loop. He is exactly the sort of political figure who would be abusing it, which might encourage Biden and the Democrats to get serious about the issue.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

On Wednesday, February 7, 2024 at 1:33:18 AM UTC+11, Fred Bloggs wrote:
> On Tuesday, February 6, 2024 at 9:09:57 AM UTC-5, Anthony William Sloman wrote:
> > On Wednesday, February 7, 2024 at 12:18:46 AM UTC+11, Fred Bloggs wrote:
> > > 'The Google report comes a day after the United States announced a new visa restriction policy for those it said were misusing commercial spyware, allowing the placing of restrictions on individuals believed to have been involved in the abuse of commercial spyware, as well as for those who facilitate such actions and benefit from it.'
> > >
> > > https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/google-calls-out-spyware-firms-advocates-tighter-regulation-2024-02-06/
> > >
> > > US to restrict visas for those who misuse commercial spyware
> > >
> > > https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-announces-visa-restriction-policy-those-misusing-commercial-spyware-2024-02-05/
> > >
> > > 'The new policy will also apply to investors and operators of the commercial spyware believed to be misused, a senior Biden administration official said. '
> > >
> > > Private hacking tools have targeted at least 50 U.S. officials in recent years.
> > >
> > > That will be as effective as the feckless misguided attempts to stop the spread of COVID into the country, meaning it won't work at all...clearly underestimates the determination of the miscreants.
> >
> > Why? Trump's anti-Covid-19 activities were designed to make his supporters feel happy, and he only acted on the advice the he thought would sell well to them. It's effectiveness didn't interest him at all. Hence the essentially racist ban on travellers from China - which did work - and the fecklessly casual approach to travellers from Europe who did manage to infect a great many Americans a few months later.
> >
> > There's not a lot of public interest in spyware or it's abuse, so the intelligence community will have a relatively free hand. And if it inconveniences the general public, they will told that it is their patriotic duty to put up with the inconveniences.
> >
> > There's no guarantee that they will be particularly effective, but at least Trump will be out of the loop. He is exactly the sort of political figure who would be abusing it, which might encourage Biden and the Democrats to get serious about the issue.
>
> Trump won't be on the ballot. He's not very good at selecting lawyers, and his representation in the SC hearing on the Disqualification Clause is nothing short of pathetic. Despite asinine remarks made by the likes of Gavin Newsome who said elections should be decided by ballot and not the courtroom, the reality is constitutional requirements are not open to voter discretion.

The reality is that Trump has a lot of money - not as much as he claims, but enough to pay for the lawyers he needs. The US justice system isn't - by design - good at restraining people with money.

> Moneyed Republicans, of the kind who have at least two SC in their pockets, don't want Trump in office either. They want a GOP victory with a sane candidate.

What sane candidate would go near the Republican Party at the moment? Nikki Haley looks sane enough, but the fact that she got into the race at all suggests a rather poor grasp of reality. If Trump gets ousted as a candidate, most of his enthusiastic supporters will go home and not vote for anybody - which is probably a good thing in anybody silly enough to be Trump supporter, but not good for any other Republican candidate.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

On Thursday, February 8, 2024 at 1:07:42 AM UTC+11, Fred Bloggs wrote:
> On Tuesday, February 6, 2024 at 10:56:37 PM UTC-5, Anthony William Sloman wrote:
> > On Wednesday, February 7, 2024 at 1:33:18 AM UTC+11, Fred Bloggs wrote:
> > > On Tuesday, February 6, 2024 at 9:09:57 AM UTC-5, Anthony William Sloman wrote:
> > > > On Wednesday, February 7, 2024 at 12:18:46 AM UTC+11, Fred Bloggs wrote:
> > > > > 'The Google report comes a day after the United States announced a new visa restriction policy for those it said were misusing commercial spyware, allowing the placing of restrictions on individuals believed to have been involved in the abuse of commercial spyware, as well as for those who facilitate such actions and benefit from it.'
> > > > >
> > > > > https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/google-calls-out-spyware-firms-advocates-tighter-regulation-2024-02-06/
> > > > >
> > > > > US to restrict visas for those who misuse commercial spyware
> > > > >
> > > > > https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-announces-visa-restriction-policy-those-misusing-commercial-spyware-2024-02-05/
> > > > >
> > > > > 'The new policy will also apply to investors and operators of the commercial spyware believed to be misused, a senior Biden administration official said. '
> > > > >
> > > > > Private hacking tools have targeted at least 50 U.S. officials in recent years.
> > > > >
> > > > > That will be as effective as the feckless misguided attempts to stop the spread of COVID into the country, meaning it won't work at all...clearly underestimates the determination of the miscreants.
> > > >
> > > > Why? Trump's anti-Covid-19 activities were designed to make his supporters feel happy, and he only acted on the advice the he thought would sell well to them. It's effectiveness didn't interest him at all. Hence the essentially racist ban on travellers from China - which did work - and the fecklessly casual approach to travellers from Europe who did manage to infect a great many Americans a few months later.
> > > >
> > > > There's not a lot of public interest in spyware or it's abuse, so the intelligence community will have a relatively free hand. And if it inconveniences the general public, they will told that it is their patriotic duty to put up with the inconveniences.
> > > >
> > > > There's no guarantee that they will be particularly effective, but at least Trump will be out of the loop. He is exactly the sort of political figure who would be abusing it, which might encourage Biden and the Democrats to get serious about the issue.
> > >
> > > Trump won't be on the ballot. He's not very good at selecting lawyers, and his representation in the SC hearing on the Disqualification Clause is nothing short of pathetic. Despite asinine remarks made by the likes of Gavin Newsome who said elections should be decided by ballot and not the courtroom, the reality is constitutional requirements are not open to voter discretion.
> >
> > The reality is that Trump has a lot of money - not as much as he claims, but enough to pay for the lawyers he needs. The US justice system isn't - by design - good at restraining people with money.
>
> There's an excellent chance Trump will be sentenced to a term in prison. His appeal of his criminal prosecution to the federal appellate court was just shot down and returned to the circuit court for trial.

We can hope, but there lots of lawyers and probably lots of spurious appeals left to go.

> Lawyer edited version of the appellate ruling:
>
> DC Circuit Sends SEAL Team 6 To Assassinate Trump's Ridiculous Immunity Arguments
>
> https://abovethelaw.com/2024/02/dc-circuit-sends-seal-team-6-to-assassinate-trumps-ridiculous-immunity-arguments/
>
> His lawyers are ripping him off. The most sane advice would be to plead guilty, which he damn well knows he is.
>
> > > Moneyed Republicans, of the kind who have at least two SC in their pockets, don't want Trump in office either. They want a GOP victory with a sane candidate.
> >
> > What sane candidate would go near the Republican Party at the moment? Nikki Haley looks sane enough, but the fact that she got into the race at all suggests a rather poor grasp of reality. If Trump gets ousted as a candidate, most of his enthusiastic supporters will go home and not vote for anybody - which is probably a good thing in anybody silly enough to be Trump supporter, but not good for any other Republican candidate.
>
> You're out of touch.

To my great relief.

> You just may see the same thing happen to the Dems in 2024 as happened to the GOP in 2020: enough party support either doesn't vote at all or votes for the opposition because of serious dissatisfaction with the job they're doing.

In 2020 America had Trump to be dissatisfied with. He'd mismanaged the Covid-19 epidemic, and killed a lot of people. Biden hasn't screwed up on anything like the same scale.

> People are really fed up with urban crime and uncontrolled immigration with its ridiculous give-aways they're supposed to pay for.

Americans always say that, but every other advanced industrial economy else does a better job of dealing with these problems, mostly by spending more money - what Americans described as ridiculous give-aways, but what turn out to be the price of getting the children of poor well enough fed to exploit all the education they can use. Once you've managed that, urban crime becomes a less attractive career path.

"Well-enough fed" does include weaning them off junk food, even if a lot of wealthy Americans owe their wealth to making people sick.

US immigration isn't "uncontrolled" - it's actually controlled by the people who need to import cheap labour, because they don't like paying the taxes that would allow the unskilled end of the American work force to do the jobs that are now handled by immigrant labour.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney