National, Regional and Local News

[Owendonovan]

There may be some spyware out of Israel that can.

[patrick]

I'm mildly shocked that DeSantis is on the non-campaign trail (since he's not running for anything of course) in Virginia and New Hampshire today and not in Florida since his state is underwater. There's a lot of cameras on Florida right now and he loves attention.

That’s his mojo. Asking him to stay in FL during flooding is not in his DNA. He did sneak to Tallahassee to sign 6 week abortion ban then moved on to VA wasting FL tax payer dollars

[ponchi101]

Can this be enforced?

First thing that I thought. A cop comes over. He tells you to show him your phone, to check for tik-tok. In how many ways can you tell him to F.O?

[JazzNU]

Can this be enforced?

As of right now, I don't believe so. Apparently the drafters of the legislation, smart cookies that they are, came up with the law with no feasible way to enforce it. Assuming they are telling the truth, tech people said there isn't a way to geo-block on a state by state basis, if it's offered in the US, they can't just ban it in Montana. There are fines attached that make it seem a bit like a money grab, basically fining Google, Apple, and Amazon and any other app store $10k a day for offering the app for download in the state. I doubt any of it will be enforceable, so this seems rather performative. But we'll see.

There are no fines attached to users.

This has nothing to do with Montana government phones, by the way. That move was already made by the governor there in line with many other states to make sure there is limited access to more sensitive information.

[ti-amie]

The Arrest of Jack Teixeira Reveals New Security Challenges | Time
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[Deuce]

This is incredible.
Absolutely mind bogglingly pathetic...

This is wrong on every conceivable level:
Several incompetent cops who don't know how to read a simple street address...
Several incompetent cops who find it humorous that they don't know how to read a simple street address...
Several incompetent cops who don't announce themselves loudly and clearly when they had several opportunities to do so...
Seemingly regular citizens with children who live in fear to the point of having a gun in the house...
Seemingly regular citizens with children who answer their door with gun in hand...

It's beyond sad that this type of situation occurs so regularly in the U.S. that the majority have become immune and indifferent to them.
I wish Americans could understand how absolutely foreign and out of this world and crazy situations like the one in the link below, the perpetual mass killings, the constant neverending spotlight on politics, having someone like Trump elected president, etc., etc. are to us Canadians who live in a comparatively civilized country.

Police Knew They Were at the Wrong Address When They Fatally Shot Man...

.

[Owendonovan]

Frankly, I'm a little surprised certain Americans haven't targeted members of the NRA for elimination, but then those who are against the NRA aren't the violent type. I place the violence in America squarely on the shoulders of republicans and their grotesque priorities and policies.

I have no protection in my gym against an active shooter, I would have to go outside to lock the door. I walk by projects that often have "shots detected" on my citizen app (machetes are an oddly popular weapon that shows up on that app). My husband saw a woman get clocked on the subway for no reason the other day. There's at least 3 painfully mentally ill people who wander my neighborhood daily.

I'm neither immune nor indifferent, I vote against the violence, I make noise at work regarding my safety. I'm fully cognizant of the perception of America as are all us Americans on this forum are. Don't lump us into that pot of ignorant Americans you speak of, please.

[ti-amie]

Judd Legum
@juddlegum@journa.host
1. UPDATES

@CSexton25@twitter.com is confronted about living full-time in Nashville but taking per diem payments as if he lives 2 hours away in Crossville

His response is to dissemble: "I live in Crossville. My home is in Crossville."

Sexton owns a 600K luxury home in Nashville

Part 2 is urging you to subscribe to his Substack for updates.



https://journa.host/@juddlegum/110215251424967859

[Deuce]

Frankly, I'm a little surprised certain Americans haven't targeted members of the NRA for elimination, but then those who are against the NRA aren't the violent type. I place the violence in America squarely on the shoulders of republicans and their grotesque priorities and policies.

^ Easy and very cliche to blame 'republicans'.
Senseless violence and a penchant for guns have existed in the U.S. as a nucleus for a long, long time. It's got no more to do with republicans than it has to do with democrats - it's just an extremely dysfunctional mindset that is passed on from generation to generation via various means - family, friends, media, etc. and has come to be expected.

I walk by projects that often have "shots detected" on my citizen app (machetes are an oddly popular weapon that shows up on that app).

^ Wow.
Just Wow.
'Shots detected' on a 'citizen app'... That is so incredibly sad... This is exactly the kind of thing that I'm referring to that the majority of Americans seem to view as being perfectly normal, but which is so foreign to us Canadians that when we hear of things like this, we see it as being completely ridiculous and tragic.

I'm neither immune nor indifferent, I vote against the violence, I make noise at work regarding my safety. I'm fully cognizant of the perception of America as are all us Americans on this forum are. Don't lump us into that pot of ignorant Americans you speak of, please.

^ What I mean is that they're the kind of things that Americans see as being normal because they are so used to them happening - whereas in Canada, the same things would be seen with incredible and absolute shock.

[ti-amie]

F.B.I. Arrests Two on Charges Tied to Chinese Police Outpost in New York
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged the men with conspiring with the Chinese government and destroying evidence.

By William K. Rashbaum and Karen Zraick
April 17, 2023
Updated 7:45 p.m. ET


Breon S. Peace, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, announced the charges in a news conference on Monday.Credit...Andrew Seng for The New York Times

For years, thousands of New Yorkers and tourists have walked past an unassuming office building in Lower Manhattan. On Monday, federal prosecutors unsealed criminal charges accusing two men of helping run an unauthorized Chinese police outpost there, one of more than 100 around the globe used to intimidate and control China’s citizens abroad, and to stamp out criticism of the ruling Communist Party.

The two men were arrested on Monday and charged with conspiring to act as agents of the Chinese government, and with obstructing justice. They are said to have used the police outpost to intimidate Chinese dissidents living in the United States, on China’s behalf.

Charges were also unveiled in two related cases: one against 34 Chinese police officers accused of harassing Chinese nationals who lived in the New York area, and another against eight Chinese officials accused of directing a Zoom employee based in China to remove dissidents from the platform.

The Manhattan police outpost, court papers say, was overseen by the Fuzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, a branch of China’s Ministry of Public Security. It is one of scores of such operations around the world that have unnerved diplomats and intelligence officials.

The case represents the first time criminal charges have been brought in connection with such a police outpost, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn.

The charges against the men, Lu Jianwang, 61, also known as Harry Lu, and Chen Jinping, 59, grew out of an investigation by the F.B.I. and the U.S. attorney’s office into the outpost, which conducted its operations without jurisdiction or diplomatic approval.

“Today’s charges are a crystal clear response to the P.R.C. that we are onto you, we know what you’re doing and we will stop it from happening in the United States of America,” Breon S. Peace, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn said, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China. “We don’t need or want a secret police station in our great city.”

Officials described all three cases as being part of a worldwide effort to suppress criticism of China’s government.

“The People’s Republic of China, through its Ministry of Public Security, has engaged in a multifront campaign to extend the reach and impact of its authoritarian system into the United States and elsewhere around the world,” said David Newman, the Justice Department’s top national security official in Washington.

F.B.I. counterintelligence agents searched the police outpost, located on the third floor of a nondescript glass-sheathed building at 107 East Broadway, as part of their investigation last fall.

The six-story office building, on a bustling street on the edge of Chinatown in Lower Manhattan lined with restaurants, seafood shops, electronics stores and other businesses, also houses an acupuncturist, an engineering company and an accounting firm.

The search amounted to an escalation in the global dispute over China’s efforts to police its diaspora far beyond its borders.

Officials in Ireland, Canada and the Netherlands have called on China to shut down similar operations in their countries. The F.B.I. raid in New York was the first known example of authorities seizing materials from one of the outposts.

Mr. Lu and Mr. Chen were charged with obstruction of justice and accused of destroying text messages between themselves and their handler at the Ministry of Public Security in October 2022, around the time of the F.B.I. search.

They were also charged with conspiring to act as agents of the People’s Republic of China without registering with the Justice Department, as the law requires.

The charges were announced Monday at a news conference in Brooklyn by Mr. Peace, Mr. Newman, and Michael Driscoll, the F.B.I. assistant director who leads the New York office.

Mr. Lu, who is also known as Harry Lu, lives in the Bronx and maintains a residence in China. Mr. Chen lives in Manhattan. Both men are American citizens and were released on bail after appearances before a magistrate judge on Monday afternoon.

Relatives of the men declined to comment. A court-appointed lawyer for Mr. Chen, Susan G. Kellman, said that he worked as a home health aide and owned no property to use as collateral.

In 2018 IRS filings, Mr. Lu was listed as the president of a nonprofit organization called the America Changle Association NY, whose offices housed the police outpost.

A criminal complaint unsealed on Monday said that the group was formed in 2013 and lists its charitable mission as a “social gathering place” for people from the Chinese city of Fuzhou. The complaint says Mr. Lu serves as the association’s general adviser and Mr. Chen as its secretary general.

When news that the F.B.I. had searched the Manhattan office was first reported in January, the Chinese Embassy in Washington downplayed the role of the police outposts, saying they were staffed by volunteers who helped Chinese nationals perform routine tasks like renewing their driver’s licenses back home.

But the American authorities said that they were clearly focused on monitoring members of the Chinese diaspora and infringing on their right to free speech.

“It is our belief that the ultimate purpose of this illegal police station was not to protect and serve,” Mr. Driscoll said, “but rather silence, harass and threaten individuals here in the United States.”

The two other cases revolved around political speech in the digital sphere. But all of the defendants are believed to be in China, which does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.

One expanded a case first filed in 2020, in which prosecutors brought charges against Xinjiang Jin, formerly a China-based executive at the videoconferencing company Zoom, accusing him of disrupting and censoring commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

The amended complaint unsealed on Monday expands the charges to eight Chinese officials and another person who prosecutors say directed the activity.

The remaining case charged 34 officers of China’s Ministry of Public Security with operating a “troll farm” to attack Chinese dissidents, sow division and disseminate disinformation. The officers were part of an elite task force called the 912 Special Project Working Group, prosecutors said.

The complaint alleges that the group created thousands of fake profiles on social media sites including Twitter, and spread propaganda about topics like human rights in Hong Kong and the Xinjiang region, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, unrest after the police killing of George Floyd, and Covid-19.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/nyre ... 2afbcd939d

[ponchi101]

I remember when, starting with Nixon in the 70's and escalating with Reagan in the 80's, the idea was that by engaging with China in commercial enterprises and making China a more prosperous nation, they would slowly come around to more a democratic behavior (or even a full democracy).
Such a foolish idea.
What we now have is a fully grown system that targets its nationals across the globe. And which is tied to all economic markets, because, of course, we can't live without all the things that get manufactured there.
And, of course, China's growth stopped growth in other regions. For example, there is no way that any L. American company can compete with them. Therefore, our growth is affected. Simply because Nike decided to have all its plants there, and not one in S. America.
(Just an example).

[JazzNU]

Seems like it was most of the student body

[JazzNU]

[JazzNU]

[JazzNU]

The RECORDING was illegal?!?