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What you want to say – 28th December 2016 December 28, 2016

Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.
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As always, following on Dr. X’s suggestion, it’s all yours, “announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose”, feel free.

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1. GW - December 28, 2016

Advertising on the web is deeply broken as a business model.

Because you pay for supposed eyeballs on a video/site and clickthrough. And this can be increasingly convincingly faked by robots.

Enter Methbot.

Methbot’s coders built many of the fraud network’s tools from scratch — including the Web browser that each rented computer in the network uses to mimic Web sites displaying video ads. Spoofing actual news Web sites and other popular video-rich destinations, Methbot requests video ads from ad networks, and serves the ads to a vast array of bots that “watch” the videos.

To make each Web browsing session appear more like one generated by a human, Methbot simulates cursor clicks and mouse movements, and even forges social network login information so that it appears the user who viewed the ad was logged in to a social network at the time.

What’s specifically new about Methbot?

“They created dedicated data centers to support proxy networks in order to hide the single origin source of their operation. This is the first time we’ve seen data centers impersonating residential internet connections. This makes the scale of this operation virtually unlimited, with none of the typical durability issues of maintaining a constant base of infected user machines.”

We’re talking $3-$5 million a day erm ‘earnings’ here.

How long before CLR can hire action from one of one of these botnets and become obscenely rich through advertising revenue?

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2. Tawdy - December 28, 2016

Didn’t have the chance earlier, I hope ye all got over the highly moneyed period of Christmas, it`s really a depressing time for a lot of people.

I do hope that 2017 is a more progressive year for the many strands of the left.

Best wishes to all on here for 2017.

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WorldbyStorm - December 28, 2016

And to you Tawdy likewise.

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Starkadder - December 28, 2016

Happy New Year to everyone who posts regularly on the CDR.

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GW - December 28, 2016

Seconded or should I say fourthed, Tawdy.

2017 will certainly be ‘interesting’ and let’s endevour to ensure that some of that falls to our benefit.

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3. Starkadder - December 28, 2016

ROI government to push for speedy admittance of Northern Ireland to EU in event of Irish unity:

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/state-to-seek-automatic-eu-entry-for-ni-in-event-of-unification-1.2918722

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4. GW - December 28, 2016

Mr. Stross is prognosticating on 2017 here.

I have to say that the following:

April The first round of the French presidential election took place on 23 April, with the two leading candidates going forward to a run-off election on May 7th. As predicted, candidates to the left of François Fillon cannibalized each others’ votes, leading to a run-off between this extreme right-wing (homophobic, anti-abortion) candidate and Marine le Pen, an actual xenophobic nationalist.

Confronted with the same choice as in the 2002 presidential election, the only way to keep the neo-Nazi out of the Elysee palace was to vote for the hardline rightist. But Da’esh’s local affiliates, in a rare display of cluefullness, stayed home … and so did the socialist vote.

France thus officially elected its first female president—a fascist who proposed to unilaterally take France out of NATO and the EU and expel all muslim immigrants…

seems quite likely, at this juncture.

Not to mention a good part of the people (many of them former Communist Party voters) who haven’t voted for over a decade likely going to le Pen, and will be overlooked by the polling.

Even if Fillon is 10% ahead in the polls before the run-off I shall be hard to dissuade on this one.

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5. GW - December 28, 2016

Apparently Israel and New Zealand are now in a state of war.

Expect many more WTF? moments like this in 2017.

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6. botheredbarney - December 28, 2016

BONO AND HUGS CAN BRING PEACE – this must be in the running for a prize in the Inflated Headlines competition for this outgoing year of 2016.
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/bono-and-hugs-can-bring-peace-35324777.html

We can safely expect further walking-on-water spectaculars in 2017.

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7. CL - December 29, 2016

Anthony Cronin has died. He was cultural advisor to Haughey.
http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books-arts/unfailingly-courteous-and-generous-poet-and-critic-anthony-cronin-dies-aged-88-35325503.html

Here’s a piece he wrote on Guns and Yeats. He quotes Joyce:

‘“Ireland has already had enough equivocations and misunderstandings. If she wants to put on the play we have all waited for so long, this time let it be whole, and complete and definitive. Our advice to the Irish producers is the same as that our fathers gave them not long ago—Hurry upl”

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8. Tomboktu - December 29, 2016

There is an interesting review of David Begg’s book over at DRB:

http://www.drb.ie/essays/beyond-the-failure-narrative

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CL - December 29, 2016

“it retails at a whopping €68, and hence is destined mainly for university libraries. But it will undoubtedly be widely read among Ireland’s policy elites”- of, by and for the elites?

“Konrad Adenauer, spent years in concentration camps.” Not sure about that.

” the undoubted deep crisis of social democracy in general, everywhere on the retreat since its transition to a professionalised, career-based politics, is not something the book addresses…
With Trump in the White House it seems clear we are on the verge of a great wave of similar movements, rather than a revitalised social democracy, triumphing across the West. A convincing remake of social democracy dispensing with the neo-liberalism of the Blair era is undoubtedly urgently needed.” (quotations from the review by Philip O’Connor)
__
“Begg might be considered the ultimate insider….

Begg… offers a trenchant defence for trade unions across Europe as agents of change in rescuing the continent from the “Hayekian nightmare into which it has fallen”…
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/ireland-small-open-economies-and-european-integration-by-david-begg-1.2715275#.V4o3Mc5T4qM.twitter

Its not clear how further European integration, as Begg advocates, will rescue the continent from the ‘Hayekian nightmare’

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9. Gerryboy - December 29, 2016

Blimey, French gastronomes are being cheated. Apparently, one-third of oysters served in restaurants are test tube oysters, not the real vraie chose harvested from Clew Bay and elsewhere. Here’s a golden opportunity for Irish oysters to get a brand name the equivalent of Kerrygold and make a killing on the French oyster market. But what does this say about test tube babies or IVF? Ou sont les vraies bebes?

http://www.lepoint.fr/gastronomie/reveillon-une-huitre-sur-trois-est-artificielle-29-12-2016-2093592_82.php

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10. Starkadder - December 29, 2016

FBI and Department of Homeland Security release report detailing allegations that actors linked to Russian government hacking into the
Democratic Party:

Click to access JAR_16-20296.pdf

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141651336

Meanwhile, the US expels numerous Russian diplomats and closes 2
compounds:

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/29/politics/russia-sanctions-announced-by-white-house/index.html

This is really worrying. What happens when an aggressively
pro-Putin leader takes power next month, with this scandal undermining his already weak mandate even further? No horrific possibility seems unthinkable. 😦

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CL - December 30, 2016

-Trump was noncommittal in his response to Obama’s actions.

“It’s time for our country to move on to bigger and better things. Nevertheless, in the interest of our country and its great people, I will meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week in order to be updated on the facts of this situation,” Trump said in a Thursday evening statement.-
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/obama-imposes-sanctions-russia-alleged-election-hacks-article-1.2927937

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WorldbyStorm - December 30, 2016

Big of him, isn’t it?

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CL - December 30, 2016

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia announced that he would not retaliate against the United States’ decision to expel Russian diplomats and impose new sanctions…

“While we reserve the right to take reciprocal measures, we’re not going to downgrade ourselves to the level of irresponsible ‘kitchen’ diplomacy,” Mr. Putin said, using a common Russian idiom for quarrelsome and unseemly acts. “In our future steps on the way toward the restoration of Russia-United States relations, we will proceed from the policy pursued by the administration of D. Trump.”

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sonofstan - December 30, 2016

someone else wwho can’t wait for the changing of the guard in the WH is T- May, who has criticised John Kerry’s speech describing Netanyahu as ever so slightly right wing. Firstly, isn’t this Boris’ job, and secondly, when even the Tory chair of the commons Foreign Affairs committee doesn’t know what you’re doing, maybe you really don’t know what you’re doing.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/30/tory-mp-crispin-blunt-questions-theresa-may-criticism-john-kerry-israel

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CL - December 30, 2016

Former prime minister Ehud Barak praised Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech Wednesday, tweeting that “this the way Russia and China think as well as the majority of Israelis.” Barak added that “The prime minister is being dragged after the messianic stream, standing in front of an abyss and insisting on walking forward.”
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/222451

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APT31 - December 30, 2016

All in all this year has been a good one for president Putin. I’m not sure he quite expected that Trump would win – but was looking to achieve a weakened Clinton presidency. However fortune favours…

Putin can afford to not react as expected, because he’s just shown that only he can enforce a ceasefire in Syria.

Spiegel has some kind of document from the FBI that purports to detail how APT28 & 29 (reportedly Russki ‘cyberwarfare’ units) spearfished the DNC computers and released all those emails, or physically planted active code. Worth a quick glance if you’re into that kind of thing. Now there’s a lot of blinding with technical flim-flam which probably impresses journalists who don’t know any better, but it looks like standard spear-fishing and injection procedure to me. Not a shred of proof that it was conducted by the comrades in APT28/9 – apart from a couple of exploit signatures, that frankly could be anyones.

Full disclosure – I’ve been promised an ‘all the vodka you can drink plus the subsequent liver transplant’ tanker tour of Kalingrad for introducing this blatant piece of misinformation.

Cheers, Vlad, and happy early Year of the Rooster.

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WorldbyStorm - December 30, 2016

“Putin can afford to not react as expected, because he’s just shown that only he can enforce a ceasefire in Syria.”

Very true. And he gets a bit of goodwill going in from D. Trump too which is not to be discounted. This is going to be fascinating to watch. Whether it was the Russians or not, and who knows – in one way they’d be crazy not to try to take advantage of everything they can and as you say yourself a weakened Clinton would have suited Putin just as well – so far so good for some. The longer term implications? Well, again it’s going to be fascinating to watch. The contradictions pile up one atop the other. Russia kind of onside, though what of the chatter about the nuclear arms race. The Israeli’s more than onside – though not a lot that can be done to pushback against the settlements resolution weak as it was. T May hammering on the door attempting to curry influence. If Trump send good wishes to Le Pen? But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Oh it’s going to quite some four years ahead. Let’s hope it’s not eight.

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CL - December 31, 2016

“Great move on delay (by V. Putin) – I always knew he was very smart!” Trump wrote on Twitter from Florida, where he is on vacation.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-cyber-idUSKBN14I1TY

Trump does appear to want detente with Russia and to put an end to the new cold war. This puts him in conflict with Paul Ryan, McConnell, McCain, and various neocons both Democratic and Republican. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

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11. Paddy Healy - December 30, 2016

IN MEMORY OF TOMMY O’BRIEN, Opera Lover and Broadcaster
New Stanza by Paddy Healy in the Two Travellers by CJ BOLAND
FULL POEM http://wp.me/pKzXa-LN
THE TWO TRAVELLERS
(1)“All over the world”, the traveller said,
“In my peregrination’s I’ve been;
And there’s nothing remarkable, living or dead,
But these eyes of mine have seen.
From the land of the ape and the marmoset,
To the tents of the Fellaheen”
Said the other, “ I’ll lay you an even bet
You were never in Farranalleen.”
V(a)( IN MEMORY of TOMMY O’BRIEN-Paddy Healy)
I’ve heard Callas at La Scala, Pavarotti at the Met
In Prague for Giovanni, heard Mozart’s famed Duet
I’ve heard Verdi at Verona,
Quaffed Wagner by the Rhine
Come here said the other,
“Did you ever listen to Tommy O’Brien?”
(V11)“And I’d rather be strolling along the quay,
And watching the river flow,
Than growing tea with the cute Chinee,
Or mining in Mexico.
And I wouldn’t much care for Sierra Leone,
If I hadn’t seen Killenaule,
And the man that was never in Mullinahone
Shouldn’t say he had travelled at all”

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Joe - December 30, 2016

There’s me in work, Paddy, saying to myself I must get a hold of that poem ‘Were you ever in Borris-in-Ossory’. For my friend from Tipp so I can recite it in the pub next time they win the All Ireland. And then you give me this handy link. Thanks!

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12. sonofstan - December 30, 2016

The guardian and elsewhere keep reporting that there are 3m EU citizens in the UK. There’s a great deal more than that; about 63m+

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13. Phil F - December 31, 2016

1975 interview with Seamus Costello on the Officials’ attempts to stop the IRSP getting off the ground: https://theirishrevolution.wordpress.com/2016/12/28/seamus-costello-interview-1975-on-officials-attempts-to-destroy-the-irsp/

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14. CL - December 31, 2016

“Mr Burns tipped as next US ambassador to Ireland”
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/mr-burns-tipped-as-next-us-ambassador-to-ireland-437172.html

D’oh!

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15. roddy - December 31, 2016

Release the hounds!

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