According to WikiLeaks, the CIA uses a program called Weeping Angel to turn Americans’ smart televisions into bugs that work even when they are powered down. It turns out that the CIA is spying on Americans like the NSA was at the time of the Edward Snowden leaks. But hey, if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear, right?
Donald Trump Finds Out the CIA Has Been Spying On Him
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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His taxes? Already a part of the record. His Moscow hotel tapes … why would Putin even give him a copy? David Duke selfies? Like that’d hurt him now? He is “everybody’s” president.
T-rump is already notorious. Yawn.
DanD
A member of MI6 was hired by the other Republican candidates and also by Secretary Clinton to dig up dirt on Trump, so he paid a Russian for that dirt. The Russian was a gifted reporter in the glorious tradition of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, and we know, since Napoleon was a historical figure, that War and Peace is a history book, and everything in War and Peace has been verified by Tolstoy’s autobiographer, Warren Pease.
And the Wikileaks documents prove that the CIA knows how to leave false fingerprints when hacking, to ‘prove’ that someone else did the hacking.
> His Moscow hotel tapes … why would Putin even give him a copy?
In a word: blackmail.
If T-rump ever had a golden-shower extravaganza in Moscow, to be blackmailed, all that’s needed is that Putin (or whomever) claims to know about it and has video. Actually producing the video for review is a completely unnecessary risk to both blackmailed and blackmailer. For some third party to claim that such video exists ultimately has to either put up or shut up.
To me, it simply sounds like Hillary’s fantasy-porno.
DanD
> sounds like Hillary’s fantasy-porno.
ewwww. yuck. ptooey. ra-a-a-a-lph.
If I can’t sleep tonight it will be all your fault. Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go guzzle cheap vodka in a desperate attempt to erase that mental image…
In “Hiroshima Mon Amour” *SPOILER* the main female character had a German officer as a lover during the war. It takes about an hour for the film to get to the part where you find that out, and you only find it out because she’s getting her hair cut off by the villagers after the German officer is shot and killed.
I mention that because it represents a time in which people were punished for behaviors that were considered not quite treason but of poor judgment because they undermined the sense of victim-solidarity.
Now, we have bug-TVs. Surveillance devices in our homes that can monitor us 24/7. And what will happen of the technical staffers who knew this? What will happen to the CEOs who knew this? What will happen to all the people who had to have known about this? They won’t even get their heads shaved.
So we now enter the next stage: Work for Master, get your chocolate bars and nylons, and even if you’re caught, you won’t face even a token punishment.
Perhaps the next thing is to put large, obvious surveillance cameras in the kindergartens. You know, get the kids used to being watched. If you can destroy the concept of privacy at an early age, think how much easier it will be to control everyone,
Surveillance in kindergartens ensure that a) staff cannot abuse children unobserved; and b) staff who do not abuse children cannot be falsely charged. So not a bad thing.
Back in ’84, all Party members were forced to live with 2-way TVs that could not be turned off. These TVs recorded everything the Party members said and did, and also yelled at them to do the calisthenics required by the Party.
We’ve coma a long way since ’84. Big Brother has been working tirelessly. Now Party members have TVs they can turn off, but which record everything they say and do even when turned off! And for all I know, yell at them to perform the required daily calisthenics!
“Now Party members have TVs they can turn off, but which record everything they say and do even when turned off!”
*
I’ve heard this before, and I have to ask if this technology will work if the TV is unplugged. I keep my TV plugged into a power strip which is always “off” except when I turn on the TV. I started doing this years ago to keep the clock from running and using electricity unnecessarily. What do you think? 😉
> I have to ask if this technology will work if the TV is unplugged.
(puttin’ on my engineer hat) – possible, but doubtful, at least in mass production. All it would take would be a rechargeable battery or other storage device, e.g. many of my audio-visual keep the clock running even during power outages. But putting spy tech into every TV sold would undercut the bottom line (see my reply to Falco below)
OTOH, you’re a known subversive, consorting with the likes of Ted Rall. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that a spook crept into your home and rewired your TV. But it would be far easier to simply plant a more traditional bug.
Me, I don’t own a TV with a mic, I keep my PC webcam and mic unplugged when not in use; and I’ve got covers over my devices’ cameras. I heartily recommend that everyone does so.
In kommunist Яussia, everrry house has TV. But you don’t vatch it, it vatches you.
– Yakov Smirnoff
You ask: “What will happen to the CEOs who knew this?”
First, for all we know, it was tech companies which offered to commercially develop (presumably DoD) technology.
Second, in any case, we can be sure the CEOs have been adequately rewarded.
Hey, Falco – I question this statement, “for all we know, it was tech companies which offered to commercially develop (presumably DoD) technology.”
I agree we don’t KNOW in that we don’t have absolute proof; and of course there could always be one or two which sell out.
But in general, the tech industry knows something that The Secret Police has trouble understanding. To wit: if you put in a back door the bad guys can use it just as easily as the good guys. I know for a fact that Microslop and Intel spelled that out in no uncertain terms back in the 90’s. (not that I consider the CIA or NSA to be ‘good guys’)
Moreover, the CEOs’ remuneration comes from the public. I doubt the CIA can offer a big enough bribe to sway the likes of Bill Gates. He has more to lose by cooperating than he stands to gain.
What we do know is that many of the telecommunication firms which cooperated with Die Gestapo were coerced. “Dat’s some nice phone company youse got dere. It’d be a shame if sumpin was to happen to it….”
Bottom line: it’s highly unlikely that Micro$oft, Apple or Samsung *volunteered* to help out. Some little guys with ethics as low as their profit margin may have offered their services in hacking the big guys, but the big guys themselves almost certainly did not.
Don’t get me wrong – the big guy’s CEOs tend to be greedy, dishonest, sociopaths. They have no particular ethics to violate; but they do understand where their paychecks come from.
Factor into the equation “net neutrality”! There’s a reason that certain elements want to curtail internet communications. 🙁
ooooo! Speaking of little guys being bribed – the FBI pays members of the Geek Squad to search your computers while they’re ostensibly fixing them:
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/12/1642731/-Best-Buy-s-Geek-Squad-provides-extra-service-a-search-of-your-computer-and-a-report-to-the-FBI