DL Open Thread: Thursday, October 28, 2021

Silly Russians, Don’t You Know The NRA Is Bankrupt?  Russian hackers allegedly post NRA stuff on dark web:

The gang behind the attack—which calls itself “Grief”—recently began sharing images of the reputed files to a site on the dark web. It is unclear just how much data is supposed to have been stolen, though members of the infosec community have wasted no time in posting screenshots of the leaked material to Twitter.

Ransomware gangs will often post samples of their victim’s information to publicly available “leak sites.” This is an extortion tactic, meant to goad victims into caving to criminals’ financial demands.

This reminds me, I’ve been derelict in my Stealth Sondheim postings.  From Assassins,  wannabe killers wax rhapsodic over their weapon-of-choice. First, the lyrics, which identify the characters, now the song:

Is This The ‘Table Scraps’ Bill?  Maybe, but, per usual, who knows whether Manchin/Sinema will deign to sign off on it?  My guess: No, they won’t.  What a shit-show. Let ’em switch sides now so at least the Rethugs can get blamed.

Yep. Pence Stopped The Coup, Likely Unwittingly:

The two-page memo written by Eastman proposed that Pence reject certified Electoral College votes and then either declare Trump the winner or invalidate enough votes to send the election to the House of Representatives, where Republicans controlled a majority of delegations. That memo was first published in September in Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s book Peril.

Read this piece in the National Review.  I’m tellin’ ya, we only have a couple of years left of even the appearance of democracy here.  A feckless Democratic Party, and a Republican white base terrified of being in the minority.

Democratic Data Firm Secretly Working For Rethugs.  A secret no longer:

The involvement of TargetSmart’s owners in electing right-wing Republicans has remained unknown among the political professionals within Democratic and progressive campaign circles. Informed about this, a former technology specialist for the Democrats says, “This is not a good look for TargetSmart.” And a union official notes, “This is pretty damning…In the world [TargetSmart] occupies, it couldn’t be much worse. A lot of Democratic consulting firms do work for corporations that don’t always support Democrats or progressives. But to have a sister company working on behalf of Republicans is not good for its standing.” Several Democratic data operatives point out that given the value of data these days—and the sensitivity about its usages—Democrats and progressives could be wary of retaining a data firm with a direct corporate link to a company aiding Republican candidates, even if TargetSmart is operationally distinct from the other firm. One Democratic strategist puts it this way: Because TargetSmart has so much “control over the crown jewels of the party—its data—to have have a sister company that pals around with insurrectionists is alarming.”

Faithful Friends To Get New Home.  So well-deserved.  Such good people, such great volunteers, and so many animals who have found their forever families (including one of our cats, who my oldest daughter adopted while volunteering there).

“It wasn’t until I got involved with Faithful Friends that I realized how much this organization truly is the voice of homeless pets,” Struthers said. “Faithful Friends’ focus has always been to do the right thing for the animals. When the organization was started over 20 years ago, the kill rate in Delaware for animals in shelters was over 90%. And now, Delaware has a 90% save rate. The change in the percentage didn’t start happening until Faithful Friends began.”

It took a lot of work to get to that point, as well, she said. From lobbying and the crafting of legislation, it took years of effort, much of it led by Faithful Friends. Pointing to Delaware’s moniker as the First State, Struthers said Faithful Friends has also been first a number of times.

“We were the first to have a pet food bank, first to do low-cost veterinary services beyond spay, neuter, and vaccine clinics,” Struthers said. “We were the first to have a pet lifeline resource to answer questions of pet owners. We have a statewide pet-assisted therapy program with over 50 participants throughout the state.”

That seems a good note to close today’s show.  Gotta hurry on over to see whether the Delaware House Of Representatives has reached a resolution on ‘Maps Held Hostage’.

What do you want to talk about?