The Times seems to have talked with a couple of stooges involved in the big Twitter hack. These two helped bring Twitter and the media to their knees:
“lol” did not confirm his real-world identity, but said he lived on the West Coast and was in his 20s. “ever so anxious” said he was 19 and lived in the south of England with his mother.
The ringleader, Kirk, took 'slacktivism' to a new level. HR departments across the world should take note:
Mr. O'Connor said other hackers had informed him that Kirk got access to the Twitter credentials when he found a way into Twitter’s internal Slack messaging channel and saw them posted there, along with a service that gave him access to the company’s servers. People investigating the case said that was consistent with what they had learned so far. A Twitter spokesman declined to comment, citing the active investigation.
Slack disparagement of Bari Weiss led to her departure as well, and one of the most glorious "Here's What I REALLY Think" resignation letters ever. EVER!
As to Why We Care, sure, Twitter can bite me. But an Election Day news panic (Biden Heart Attack!) or Public Service messages announcing poll closings and active shooter situations could easily de-legitimize a close election.
The NY Times explores a few scenarios but leaves out two obvious one. Harder would be a simultaneous hack of CNN and the NY Times. If they both start reporting Air Force One has gone down in a fireball, well, by the time we figure it out who knows how much shit will have hit the fan?
Easier (and why do I give away my best ideas?) would be to hack Matt Drudge. As we all know, he mostly links to other sites with big stories. Fine, let him link to Spoof NY Times and CNN sites. The URLs won't match but enough people will be fooled that the panic and "WTF is happening" will be nuts. (Hmm, I'm kinda getting excited to see this... Talk about 2020 going out with a bang.)
The spoof website idea is so easy that long-time readers will remember I used to deploy it with my faux NY Times account. Never should have let that account lapse. I'm still looking for a John Kerry basher from 2004, with John Kerry waving good-bye to his electoral chances. Any minute now.
I think the shutdowns to remote are being driven by the accreditors--cognia (renamed from AdvancED to no longer have the name laid out in my book but still the same personnel). Only they have the power to make school districts fold so fast.
Ex--
The Teaching Tolerance materials are laid out in the report described here https://casel.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SEL-Roadmap-Press-Release.pdf called "Reunite Renew Thrive: Social and Emotional Learning Roadmap for reopening School". I read it last week in horror, if not surprise, and then have tracked down a lot of the so-called Tools.
Our mayor, who used to be the state chair of the Rep Party, wrote an op-ed last week that made it clear he had bought the 1619 Project narrative verbatim. He was calling on HOAs in this mostly upscale, 4th largest city in Ga in terms of population, to have the requisite confessional dialogues while socially distancing.
Miseducated, a moron, and demonstrating a tendency towards fascism properly understood is a terrible face for the Rep Party.
Posted by: rse | July 19, 2020 at 03:26 PM
New ...
And the Sundance timeline s/b bookmarked.
Posted by: sbwaters | July 19, 2020 at 03:28 PM
Very kind of TM to give us a new thread!
Posted by: President-Elect Jim,SunnyvaleCA | July 19, 2020 at 03:30 PM
Hi Sammy Small and mike in houston, good to see you. AISD is doing the same as Drippin and Houston, and I've signed my kids up to go back to school in person.
But I'm convinced that's just for show. Eventually they'll be "forced" to go entirely online and forego the Sept. 8th opening.
Posted by: Porchlight | July 19, 2020 at 03:45 PM
CH. Remember, the Feds knew Libby was not at fault before they started the probe, the same as they knew the Trump probe was faulty before they started the Mueller investigation.
Posted by: Davod | July 19, 2020 at 04:20 PM
Any word from TK today?
My neighbor who was taken away in an ambulance last night came home today. I guess a 101 temp doesn't qualify her.
Posted by: Jane | July 19, 2020 at 04:30 PM