Something is happening with the North Korean internet system. Right now, there is no way to say what that something is, but whatever it is, North Korea’s internet service is suffering one of its worst outages in recent memory. And even more stranger is the fact that this massive outage comes just days after President Obama promised a “proportional response” to the North’s confirmed attack on Sony Entertainment.
“I haven’t seen such a steady beat of routing instability and outages in KP before,” said Doug Madory, director of Internet analysis at the cybsecurity firm Dyn Research, according to Martyn Williams of the excellent blog North Korea Tech. Madory explained, “Usually there are isolated blips, not continuous connectivity problems. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are absorbing some sort of attack presently.”
While it’s entirely possible that this is due to run-of-the-mill maintenance or technical issues, it’s hard to miss that the outage comes just days after President Obama condemned North Korea as responsible for the massive cyberattack against Sony and pledged a “proportional” US response. Two other cybersecurity firms confirmed to the New York Times that North Korea’s is collapsing amid an apparent cyber attack.
Rudy Giuliani is a ham. He is a political bad actor who uses unfortunate situations to further his own political ambitions. The man went on television all weekend criticizing the present mayor for allowing the protesters to “take over” the city and “blocking the Brooklyn bridge” during recent protests. But as it turns out, Giuliani is known for doing just that – taking over the city through protests even blocking the Brooklyn Bridge… and in Giuliani’s case, he literally took it over!
The protest in question happened during the Dinkins administration and it featured Rudy Giuliani who used the protest as an opportunity to launch a successful campaign for New York City against Dave Dinkins.
Below is an excerpt from an article written by The New York Times, as it detailed the events that unfolds in 1990’s. Balloon Juice dug this up.
Thousands of off-duty police officers thronged around City Hall yesterday, swarming through police barricades to rally on the steps of the hall and blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge for nearly an hour in the most unruly and angry police demonstration in recent memory.
The 300 uniformed officers who were supposed to control the crowd did little or nothing to stop the protesters from jumping barricades, tramping on automobiles, mobbing the steps of City Hall or taking over the bridge. In some cases, the on-duty officers encouraged the protesters.
While the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association had called the rally to protest Mayor David N. Dinkins’s proposal to create an independent civilian agency that would look into police misconduct, the huge turnout — estimated by the Police Department at 10,000 protesters — and the harsh emotional pitch reflected widespread anger among rank-and-file officers toward the Mayor for his handling of riots against the police in Washington Heights last July, his refusal to give them semiautomatic weapons and his appointment of an outside panel to investigate corruption.
“He never supports us on anything,” said Officer Tara Fanning of the Midtown South Precinct, echoing the view of many in the crowd. “A cop shoots someone with a gun who’s a drug dealer, and he goes and visits the family.”
Mayor Dinkins, who was not at City Hall during the demonstration, denounced the protest as “bordering on hooliganism” and said he held the P.B.A. president, Phil Caruso, responsible for what happened. He accused Mr. Caruso of inciting his members’ passions and suggested the union leader was motivated in part by contract negotiations.
The Mayor also assailed Rudolph W. Giuliani, the probable Republican mayoral candidate, who spoke out against the Mayor at the union rally. Mr. Dinkins said Mr. Giuliani had egged on the protest irresponsibly for political reasons. “He’s clearly, clearly an opportunist,” Mr. Dinkins said. “He’s seizing upon a fragile circumstance in our city for his own political gain.”
North Korea was able to bully Sony Entertainment and the movie theaters into censoring one of their comedy movies, The Interview. What got North Korea upset was the fact that this movie – a comedy mind you – is about the assassination of their “dear leader,” Kim Jong Um.
Over the last few days a lot of people have voiced their opinion on Sony and the steps they took, but one voice in particular stands out from all the rest. That of Dr. Evil.
As I said before, it really doesn’t feel like the holidays, and with the events of the past week I would guess that others are wondering where the spirit went. Or when it’s really going to arrive.
The Sony hacking is certainly a wake-up call for anyone who doubts the severity of our online, privacy-free, abc123 password-protected culture. That a foreign government, and one that we consider to be a running joke, could inflict such pain on us and our free time is disturbing and frightening. Sony employees are rightfully feeling exposed, not to mention that, evidently, Hollywood backstabbing culture is still alive and well as evidenced by the hacked e-mails from company executives.
Honestly, though; did the creators of The Interview really have to use actual names? One of the first rules of comedy, or at least the ones I learned, was that funny comes from imagination and suggestion, rather than always bashing someone on the head with facts. I’m not in favor of naming any world leader and then killing them on film unless that’s what actually happened to them. It would have been more funny if the film’s creators had made up a country and a leader, given him the same hairdo, so that, yes, even American audiences would have recognized who the character was supposed to be, and done the film that way. Killing a real name? Bad form, no matter who it is.
President Obama has promised a proportional response, but I’m not sure what that means in this context. A proportional cultural action is not really possible given North Korea’s film industry, which seems to consist of one person with a camera following Kim Jong-un around all day. We could also hack into their e-mail and read more messages that promise a fiery death to America. That’s comedy.
And while we’re speaking of hermit countries who whine over Olympic sanctions, President Obama’s Cuba gambit is everything that absolutely drives the Republicans nuts about the man. Just when they think they have him humbled by the terrible results of last month’s congressional elections, the president comes out and reminds everyone that the executive is an equal branch to the others and has certain powers at its disposal. And make no mistake about his announcement; this is a big deal that will reshape the hemisphere in the short term and the world in the long term.
Raul Castro can say all he wants about how Cuba is going to stay a Communist country. In 10 years he might be gone and Cuba will have a capitalist economy and, I’m thinking, democratic reform. Yes, I know that many pundits are saying that Cuba will be like China or Vietnam — one party states that allow their people to get wealthy while repressing them politically.
I’m, guessing otherwise. My sense is that proximity to the United States will work in freedom’s favor by blunting foreign adventurers who want to gain some favor on the island. Vladimir Putin might want to play the history card, but we will never stand for that. And it’s likely that we will do all we can to blunt China’s influence too. In fact, our main competitors in Cuba will be other Latin American countries who already see a compatriot waking up and wanting to join the region’s economic system. No, Cuba will be different. There will be growing pains, but it will be different.
Back in Congress, Obama had masterfully put the Republicans back in their Cold War box. By opposing his opening to Cuba, he’s reinforced the idea that the right has no new ideas on what to do about the island and would continue the embargo for another 50 years if they could find a way to win a presidential election during that time. Senator Marco Rubio’s fiery response is exactly the wrong message at a time when economic and cultural engagement are what’s needed.
Besides, it wasn’t that long ago when the right wing was lauding Vladimir Putin and his shirtless foreign policy that seemed to compare favorably with Obama’s more composed, measured approach. That’s what always backing the hare in a marathon will get you. Putin is lording over an economy that is tanking, while the United States has seen steady growth for the past six years, and now with an added bonus of rising wages. Gas prices are sharply down. The XL pipeline might become superfluous if they go any lower. The US is a major contributor to a landmark climate agreement. Things can turn around quickly in this world.
Ignorant Rudy Giuliani and the New York police union were quick to cast blame for the murder of two New York police officers on President Obama, Al Sharpton, Mayor Bill DeBladio and even Eric Garner himself. But back in the land of reality, the family of the man police killed earlier this year denounced all violence against police officers and once again called for peace in their son’s name.
“Anyone who’s standing with us, we want you to not use Eric Garner’s name for violence because we are not about that,” Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, told reporters. “I’m standing here in sorrow about losing those two police officers.”
The officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, were shot Saturday while sitting in their squad car. Investigators are examining social media posts by the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, suggesting that the killings were retaliation for the deaths of Garner and of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
“I’m putting wings on pigs today,” one post said. “They take 1 of ours … let’s take 2 of theirs.”
Protesters have marched in cities across the country since grand juries declined to indict the officer in the confrontation with Garner and the officer who shot Brown to death. Garner’s widow, Esaw, asked on Sunday that future protests remain peaceful.
“My husband was not a violent man,” she said. “We don’t want violence connected to his name.” She also expressed empathy for the families of the officers. “I know what they’re going through to lose a loved one right before the holidays,” she said.
Appearing on Fox News on Sunday, Rudy Giuliani did what he does best, divide people with his dumb, ignorant rhetoric.
Giuliani was brought on Fox to talk about the recent unfortunate shooting of two police officers in Brooklyn New York on Saturday, when he chose instead to cast blame on the president of the United States for apparently inciting Americans to protest the killings of black men like Eric Garner and Mike Brown.
Giuliani, for what it’s worth, disagreed with the police union’s mouthpiece, who claimed that New York’s mayor has “blood on his hands.” Giuliani instead offered this;
“I think it goes to far to blame the mayor for the murder or to ask for the mayor’s resignation,” Giuliani said.
He continued: “We’ve had four months of propaganda starting with the president that everybody should hate the police,” Giuliani said. “The protests are being embraced, the protests are being encouraged. The protests, even the ones that don’t lead to violence, a lot of them lead to violence, all lead to a conclusion. The police are bad, the police are racist. That is completely wrong.”
Giuliani added that leaders like Obama and Al Sharpton “have created an atmosphere of severe, strong, anti-police hatred in certain communities.”
You got that? When police shoot or kill unarmed men, no one should have anything to say about that. Don’t voice your opinion, don’t exercise your constitutional right to protest because if you do, then you “hate the police.”
In his weekly address, President Obama took some time to praise the rebound of the American economy, something the president hasn’t done in a long time although evidence of economic prosperity is evident.
The steps we took nearly six years ago to rescue our economy and rebuild it on a new foundation helped make 2014 the strongest year for job growth since the 1990s. Over the past 57 months, our businesses have created nearly 11 million new jobs. And in a hopeful sign for middle-class families, wages are on the rise again.
Our investments in American manufacturing have helped fuel its best stretch of job growth since the ‘90s. America is now the number one producer of oil and gas, saving drivers about 70 cents a gallon at the pump over last Christmas. The auto industry we rescued is on track for its strongest year since 2005. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, about 10 million Americans have gained health insurance in the past year alone. And since I took office, we have cut our deficits by about two-thirds.
Meanwhile, around the world, America is leading. We’re leading the coalition to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL. We’re leading the global fight to combat the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. We’re leading global efforts to address climate change, including last month’s joint announcement with China. We’re turning a new page in our relationship with the Cuban people.
In an interview on CNN’s State of The Union, President Obama reiterated that Sony “made a mistake” when they decided to bow to North Korea’s threats and canceled the showing of the movie, The Interview. But the president also said that he understood Sony’s decision as a company, but wished they had talked to him first before pulling the plug on the movie.
“I was pretty sympathetic to the fact that they have business considerations that they got to make,” the president said. “Had they talked to me directly about this decision, I might have called the movie theater chains and distributors and asked them what the story was.”
Mr. Obama continued saying that Sony’s decision set a dangerous precedent, one that cannot be adhere to.
“If we set a precedent in which a dictator in another country can disrupt through cyber, a company’s distribution chain or its products, and as a consequence we start censoring ourselves, that’s a problem,” Obama said.
“And it’s a problem not just for the entertainment industry, it’s a problem for the news industry,” he said. “CNN has done critical stories about North Korea. What happens if in fact there is a breach in CNN’s cyberspace? Are we going to suddenly say, are we not going to report on North Korea?
“So the key here is not to suggest that Sony was a bad actor. It’s making a broader point that all of us have to adapt to the possibility of cyber attacks, we have to do a lot more to guard against them.”
The Reverend Al Sharpton, a staple in both the Eric Garner and Mike Brown shooting, released a statement today following the apparent assassination of two New York City police officers in Brooklyn today.
“I have spoken to the Garner family and we are outraged by the early reports of the police killed in Brooklyn today, Any use of the names of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, in connection with any violence or killing of police, is reprehensible and against the pursuit of justice in both cases.
We have stressed at every rally and march that anyone engaged in any violence is an enemy to the pursuit of justice for Eric Garner and Michael Brown. We have been criticized at National Action Network for not allowing rhetoric or chanting of violence and would abruptly denounce it at all of our gatherings. The Garner family and I have always stressed that we do not believe that all police are bad, in fact we have stressed that most police are not bad.
We plan to hold a press conference in the morning to express our outrage and our condolences to the families and the police department. Details to follow.”
The officers were killed while sitting in their patrol car in Bed Sty Brooklyn. The shooter ran then turned the gun on himself at a subway station.
Like I couldn’t understand the murders of Mike Brown or Eric Garner or any other person killed by the people who were supposed to protect and serve them, I also cannot understand why anyone would kill a police officer or worse, two police officers who were doing nothing but sitting in their patrol car.
My confusion once again manifested itself after hearing about a gunman who walked up to two police officers sitting in their car in the BedSty section of Brooklyn New York, and murdered those officers in broad daylight before running off and taking his own life in a nearby subway station.
We are supposed to be better than this!
The shooting took place in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Both officers were rushed to Woodhull hospital, where one was pronounced dead, police said. The second officer was later pronounced dead at the hospital, according to a senior city official and a law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the shooting. They were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Authorities say the suspect fatally shot himself inside the station. His motive wasn’t immediately clear.
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