The Temptress

jaehaerys1:

priceofliberty:

priceofliberty:

diedgrips:

TL;DR on the latest round of Wikileaks:

Literally nothing you do is safe from the CIA. There are numerous full-on spyware suites developed by them, mostly for iOS and Windows, but also targeting Android, Linux, OS X, and Solaris. Apps thought to be secure (Telegram with encryption enabled, WhatsApp, Signal) were compromised as well, as were a host of other devices (ie smart TVs).

THIS DOES NOT PERTAIN ONLY TO AMERICANS.

If you live in a Shengen area country, your country likely hosts several CIA backed cyberwar experts. They came in via the US consulate in Frankfurt. If you don’t, you likely do as well, but I can’t find anything without sifting through the files myself.

“I have nothing to hide, why does this matter?”: Because there are now multiple thousand “zero hour”- ie “developers get zero hours to fix”- vulnerabilities floating around that no one had any idea existed. The vulnerabilities themselves weren’t leaked, but it’s the fact that someone knew about these and didn’t say.

I hate to make this kinda clickbait-y thing, but this is honest to God one of the most important leaks in history. Our response to this is pretty much going to be life or death for privacy in the developed world. Be loud about this, be annoying about this, and do not shut up about this. Please reblog this and other posts relating to it.

Not just any someone, this is one of the U.S. federal government’s foremost intelligence agencies, the CIA, which even mainstream media has reported operates on a black (off the record) budget, infamous for handing over “full” reports that are almost entirely redacted.

It’s a wonder that anyone out there could believe they are not the subject of surveillance—everyone has something to hide.

• The USA can access personal email, chat, and web browsing history. (Source)
• The USA tracks the numbers of both parties on phone calls, their locations, as well as time and duration of the call. (Source)
• The USA can monitor text messages. (Source)
• The USA can monitor the data in smartphone applications. (Source)
• The USA can crack cellphone encryption codes. (Source)
• The USA can identify individuals’ friends, companions, and social networks. (Source)
• The USA monitors financial transactions. (Source)
• The USA monitors credit card purchases. (Source)
• The USA intercepts troves of personal webcam video from innocent people. (Source)
• The USA is working to crack all types of sophisticated computer encryption. (Source)
• The USA monitors communications between online gamers. (Source)
• The USA can set up fake Internet cafes to spy on unsuspecting users. (Source)
• The USA can remotely access computers by setting up a fake wireless connection. (Source)
• The USA can use radio waves to hack computers that aren’t connected to the internet. (Source)
• The USA can set up fake social networking profiles on LinkedIn for spying purposes. (Source)
• The USA undermines secure networks [Tor] by diverting users to non-secure channels. (Source)
• The USA can intercept phone calls by setting up fake mobile telephony base stations. (Source)
• The USA can install a fake SIM card in a cell phone to secretly control it. (Source)
• The USA can physically intercept packages, open them, and alter electronic devices. (Source)
• The USA makes a USB thumb drive that provides a wireless backdoor into the host computer. (Source)
• The USA can set up stations on rooftops to monitor local cell phone communications. (Source)
• The USA spies on text messages in China and can hack Chinese cell phones. (Source)
• The USA spies on foreign leaders’ cell phones. (Source)
• The USA intercepts meeting notes from foreign dignitaries. (Source)
• The USA has hacked into the United Nations’ video conferencing system. (Source)
• The USA can spy on ambassadors within embassies. (Source)
• The USA can track hotel reservations to monitor lodging arrangements. (Source)
• The USA can track communications within media organizations. (Source)
• The USA can tap transoceanic fiber-optic cables. (Source)
• The USA can intercept communications between aircraft and airports. (Source)

And this leak shows that the CIA has all of these technologies and proliferates them to other entities who want this information all the time. You need your privacy to protect yourself and your information. If you have nothing to hide, you have plenty to hide:

The line “if you’ve got nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about” is used all too often in defending surveillance overreach. It’s been debunked countless times in the past, but with the line being trotted out frequently in response to the NSA revelations, it’s time for yet another debunking, and there are two good ones that were recently published. First up, we’ve got Moxie Marlinspike at Wired, who points out that, you’re wrong if you think you’ve got nothing to hide, because our criminal laws are so crazy, that anyone sifting through your data would likely be able to pin quite a few crimes on you if they just wanted to.

Julian Sanchez points out:

Some of the potentially sensitive facts those records expose becomes obvious after giving it some thought: Who has called a substance abuse counselor, a suicide hotline, a divorce lawyer or an abortion provider? What websites do you read daily? What porn turns you on? What religious and political groups are you a member of?

Some are less obvious. Because your cellphone’s “routing information” typically includes information about the nearest cell tower, those records are also a kind of virtual map showing where you spend your time — and, when aggregated with others, who you like to spend it with.

We simply cannot possibly know when something is going to incriminate us and the State is not above scapegoating individuals or coercing them into submission. James Duane, a professor at Regent Law School and former defense attorney, notes:

Estimates of the current size of the body of federal criminal law vary. It has been reported that the Congressional Research Service cannot even count the current number of federal crimes. These laws are scattered in over 50 titles of the United States Code, encompassing roughly 27,000 pages. Worse yet, the statutory code sections often incorporate, by reference, the provisions and sanctions of administrative regulations promulgated by various regulatory agencies under congressional authorization. Estimates of how many such regulations exist are even less well settled, but the ABA thinks there are ”nearly 10,000.”

Supreme Court Justice Breyer elaborates:

The complexity of modern federal criminal law, codified in several thousand sections of the United States Code and the virtually infinite variety of factual circumstances that might trigger an investigation into a possible violation of the law, make it difficult for anyone to know, in advance, just when a particular set of statements might later appear (to a prosecutor) to be relevant to some such investigation.

Not just the State, but anyone could draw suspicion against you if they had the right information with the right circumstances. We are entitled to our privacy, and these institutions must be held to account.

Reblogging because the links in the bulleted list were broken, as someone brought to my attention.

This is why we criticize boomercons for (rightfully) being outraged about Chinese spyware but turning a blind eye to the US surveillance state out of some misguided and naive sense of nationalism.

(via horses-who-smile)

sushinfood:

kitsumekat:

ellipsisobsessed:

snakeybones:

burplesnurf2:

burplesnurf2:

burplesnurf2:

burplesnurf2:

the cha cha slide in full metal armor

“sliiide to the left”

*indescribably loud screeching of metal against asphalt*

“one hop this time”

*clonk*

“two hops this time”

*clonk clonk*

“everybody clap your hands!”

*clankclankclankclankclank*

Ask and ye shall receive ft. my drunk ass
Any other requests? Send ‘em my way! 

… apparently they now have a youtube channel filled with doing shenaniganry in armor.

Including the chicken dance

And the YMCA.

Y’all didn’t reblog the best one 

This is incredible.

(via spoilers-are-sin)

whatevercomestomymind:

perksofbeingdisabled:

septic-dr-schneep:

viostormcaller:

transyasha:

xfirecorex:

sodomymcscurvylegs:

lil-mizz-jay:

raenboow:

beeskeepony:

sushinfood:

rootbeergoddess:

locuas642:

marauders4evr:

marauders4evr:

Abled Person: Hey man, can you hold this wad of $2,000 and this one penny for me while I open my wallet?

Disabled Person: YOU COMPLETE AND UTTER FOOL!

The United States Government:

(Watch how many people don’t get this.)

#raises hand #i dont understand #please explain? 

In order for disabled people to receive any sort of financial assistant for their housing, food, bills, medical supplies, etc., they cannot ever have more than $2,000 of resources to their name. Ever.

It doesn’t matter what it’s for.

You’re saving up for a new wheelchair?

For college?

To put a downpayment on a house?

Hell man, you just happen to budget for once in your life so that you can have some extra money in case something bad happens?

Your benefits immediately get cut off if you’re a cent over $2,000.

And, even worse, you usually end up having to pay back every dollar the government gave you that month.

So say you get $400. If they find out you’re twenty dollars over the resource limit, you have to give them all $400 back and you undergo an investigation of your funds to see if you will continue getting money.

“What if I spend the money that day?”

Doesn’t matter. In fact, from what I can tell, people who do this are actually put under investigation for fraud.

And yes, this system literally kills people.

Remember when “Guardians of the Galaxy” came out? one of Rocket Racoon’s creators, Bill Mantlo, suffered an accident in 1992 and has irreparable brain damage.

before the movie came out, Marvel gave him an exclusive preview screening. SOme people were upset because they felt if Marvel was really wanted to thank mantlo, they should have donated money to Mantlo’s family.

Bill Mantlo’s brother had to come out and explain: If Marvel gave them monetary aid, Bill Mantlo would lose his financial assistance.

That’s so utterly depressing.

disgusting

I have friends on welfare who won’t pick up a penny in the street because they’d risk the welfare they struggled to get for 10 years.

oh look another fucked up thing in this world. let’s just add it to the list. number 63858b

My brother has been on California State SSI for autism for the last 10 years, and he absolutely has to (no joke, HAS TO) spend all 720 bucks of his SSI every month, because if he puts it in the bank he risks losing his SSI altogether.

Sometimes, at the end of the month, he has no idea what to do with his money because the whole month went by and he still has 400-ish bucks in his account, and he fucking panics because he doesn’t want to get anywhere near 2,000.

And here’s the funnest part of the story!

One day he did a huge commission on Second Life and wound up earning 1500 bucks off of it, and he told the guy to donate it 500 bucks at a time over 3 months. The guy didn’t want to, and just donated all 1500, which put my brother at 2,036 bucks.

The state IMMEDIATELY (I’m talking less than an hour) called him up to tell him over the phone that they were canceling his SSI, because they noticed he had gone over the 2,000 buck threshold. He had to tell them that someone had made a charitable donation to him and that this was not a common occurrence in any way shape or form, and upon not believing him, my mother had to call to talk to them as his legal caretaker and say basically the same thing until they called off the cancellation of his SSI money.

He also had to cancel his renter’s assistance because it put him to 1,062 a month, so if he went 30 days without spending any money they’d cancel his SSI altogether. Like, none of us in the family have any fucking clue why that regulation is in place and it’s the stupidest shit in human history.

Please, legal side of Tumblr, tell me what positive reasoning this law has?

Happy 4th of July everyone! This is what the “nation of opportunity” looks like.

There’s something called an ABLE account that can help. If you are on SSI and were diagnosed as disabled before the age of 26 you can apply for an ABLE account that will allow you to save up to $99,000. More people need to know about this!

thank you so much for this information. i’m applying for an abled account right now

THERES A WHAT

OH GOD BLESS THE SHIT OUTTA YOU YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW FREAKED OUT OVER THIS I WAS

I’ve been looking into SSI; I had no idea about this!

Read till the end for the important info

Reblog to literally save a disabled person’s life

(via gisellegrantham-deactivated2020)

By the time Jesus comes back he’s going to have to make wine into water smh