Word of an Iran deal this morning hasn’t goosed the markets. In fact, the Dow was about flat when I peeked at it.
What was moving was the price of oil, which was down into the $51 range. And that is likely because if the deal is approved by the US (big hurdle there) then oil supplies will be plentiful and with the US rig count up a tad, looks like Boone Pickens might be off on his $70 oil by year end call made just last week.
Interestingly, the European markets were down. We can only attribute to the notion that war is good for the economy and peace is a loser. Hence, if the Iran deal is a solid, there won’t be all those bunker busters and arms sales.
President Obama “has the gloat on” about the deal and says he will veto any attempt by congress to block it.
For a constitutional scholar, the real problem may come if congress over-rides the veto, but that will have to await disclosure of what’s specifically in the deal.
And given how the TPP misdealing’s went, I don’t expect that today. But go ahead, surprise me, please.
Meanwhile, a court in Iran has issued a $50 billion judgment against the USA which would be almost comical, except I suppose there will be people in Washington who will support paying it.
“If you want a deal bad enough, you’ll make a bad deal” may be about to ring true.
Greece Troubles Continue
The idea of having “foreign supervisors” ruling Greece is not playing well. We may get a chance to see how NATO will react when Greece boils over…that’d be interesting, we think.
As you read more details over here, think of the world EuroCoup.
Retail Fails
Fell in the fresh report out just a few minutes ago from Census:
The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for June, adjusted for seasonal variation and
holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $442.0 billion, a decrease of 0.3 percent (±0.5%)* from the previous month, but up
1.4 percent (±0.9%) above June 2014. Total sales for the April 2015 through June 2015 period were up 1.7 percent (±0.7%) from the same period a
year ago. The April 2015 to May 2015 percent change was revised from +1.2 percent (±0.5%) to +1.0 percent (±0.3%).Retail trade sales were down 0.3 percent (±0.5%)* from May 2015, but up 0.6 percent (±0.7%)* above last year. Food services and drinking places were
up 7.7 percent (±3.3%) from June 2014 and sporting goods, hobby, books and music were up 6.6 percent (±1.9%) from last year. Gasoline stations
were down 17.1% (±1.4%) from the previous year.
Only thing holding the economy together is car sales:
Go buy another one…save ‘Merica.
It’s Here
Some Recovery, Huh?
Food stamp recipients are over 45-million again. Oh boy. If this is a recovery, I can hardly wait to see what a pullback will be like.
If you’re keeping track, this is for two years in a row. No, didn’t see any demographics on who is new to ‘em…
Seattle Shaker
Wait till you read the hair-raising details about what a major quake in the Pacific Northwest would be like…
KOIN-TV in Portland says Oregon will be toast, too. Though damned if I could figure out white, wheat, or rye…
Attacking the Pot Shops
Pretty interesting case up in Colorado, where an out of state “anti crime” group has forced one pot shop to close under organized crime and racketeering charges.
Where this will be interesting is that under Colorado state law it’s not illegal, but under federal law (we assume d paid for by alcohol interests who don’t want competition and the insurance industry) it is… Where there’s a will, there’s a lawyer.
Mozilla Blocking Flash
If you have Adobe Flash installed, might want to see why Mozilla (FireFox) is now blocking it by default.
Or, maybe you like security vulnerabilities…
Microsoft or others may be attacking xp with photo/video LG Android hack? http://www.prosefights.org/malwaretips/mbamfix.htm#wizarddownload
“For a constitutional scholar, the real problem may come if congress over-rides the veto, but that will have to await disclosure of what’s specifically in the deal.”
Hmmmm… Aren’t they on recess or summer break.. maybe even a well deserved summer vacation.. IN my opinion They haven’t gone to work and done anything in years… what would inspire them so much that that situation would change now.I think in order to find out what will happen next with that agreement a person would have to check to see where the special interest and corporate lobbyists sit on this issue……Also it Seems to me that you would have to punch the time clock and show up to do anything significant…..Or maybe I just have lost all confidence in our Congress and the dc two step group..
The Spy In Your Office Who Works 24/7 and Stores All Your Documents For You
How come every five years your company and your Government gives away all its secrets and classified data. All the data just walks right out the door under your noses!
Answer: The Copier sitting outside your office. I looked at the specs on the Japanese copiers from Kyocera and they have 170 GB hard drive (and who knows how many others) for data storage. Every document you or your Receptionist or anybody else that had any documents to be copied went onto that hard drive because they were all scanned and how easy it is to have a data file management system on that big or little copier. At the end of the lease, the Office Mgr go you a big new bright copier and the Techs simply came and wheeled the old one away with all your data on the hard drive if your IT boys did not digitally over write (shred) the drive. The hard drive went to back to Japan, or China or Russia or wherever to be refurbished and anybody to get a data download. Nobody in your office every asked for the electronic board to be removed before that copier went out the door. It has been going on globally for decades right under our collective noses!
The copier also has an IP address on your network. You may be able to send documents remotely to it from your iPhone. It is Wi-Fi capable. Your local branch that installed
may call it up to check its “status” for how many copies it made monthly or how low is the toner. That means your local Copier branch is accessing that hard drive with all your data on it – and so can anybody else. If any Copier Maintenance man or anybody else is connecting a Laptop to that copier to read the monthly usage data they can download anything on that drive. There may be more than one drive because data storage devices today are small and store huge GB of data and nobody knows what is on the electronics board of the copier not even the repair man because today it repair by replacement. Rumor has it, DOD has cameras and recording systems that can be mounted into nanobots or look like a tiny fly on the wall so it is no stretch that the Japanese/Chinese copier is listening to your conversations as people stand around the copier and can video. If the your copier is connected to a Wi-Fi system to “report its data to the copier branch” you can assume your drive and data has been hacked by somebody. If that copier is connected to your “internal security network” it is a back door into your LAN bypassing the firewall because it you can send your data files by iPhone to be copied from remote location so can your data go out the door by sane link.
The Copier’s hard drive does not come with anti-virus protection. There is no way of knowing if it had a malignant virus on it that planted itself into your LAN system and records data on the copier hard drive of everything on your LAN System by everybody. Ask your IT Dept if it has ever scanned the copier had drive for malignant virus code and watch the blank looks on their faces.
Copiers come off lease everyday all over the world and all the data, plans, strategies, and financial data goes out the door with them. Of course, nobody really wants that data. If you do not believe me just ask NSA?
Possible Security Steps to Take:
1. Get the current copiers off your LAN and stop the Wi-Fi connection or establish a separate Wi-Fi only for copiers.
2. Find out if your copier has an IP address and have IT start to monitor the transmissions.
3. Check with independent copier security company about their experience with copier security and how IT can digitally shred the copier drive every night.
4. Have two “dumb copiers” not connected to anything (disable Wi-Fi) to copy classified documents.
5. Do not transmit classified documents from a remote location to copier over a wireless Wi-Fi system. Assume anything transmitted in past has been compromised.
6. Stop the local copier branch from connecting to copier over remote Wi-Fi system unless IT has taken steps to isolate to make this a secure connection. IT must digitally shred the hard drive before a local copier branch can connect to copier either by laptop (repair man comes into your offices) or by Wi-Fi.
7. Put up a partition in front of copier and locate it away from your coffee pot (where people gather to talk) and not in a Conference Room. Do not conduct business discussions around your copier.
8. Xerox has a copier hard drive the client can pull and digitally shred. Ricoh copiers says it is the client’s responsibility. Others do not even talk about it and the data goes out the door when the copier is replaced. Some copier leases may say the client cannot touch the electronics or have access. Get rid of these copiers.
9. Security and IT need to vet the copier repair who comes to office (true for phone system as well). Security should have he repairman’s SSN# and independently conduct an background investigation. IT should be informed by business office of any copier changes as well as all copier locations in the company.
10. Copier hard drive could have a malignant virus on it when it came to the copier mfg to be installed on mfg line. Anybody in the loop who mfg, services, repairs or installs software on that copier drive hardware/electronics board could have installed a malignant virus on the copier hard drive to record and send all data that comes to the copier. The fact that a copier can be connected to the company’s LAN leaves the possibility that the virus replicates itself on the company LAN as part of copier color management software or copier billing codes and it now has access to all data on the LAN Network – everything. It can send this data to only the copier hard drive and IT would never know it as it checks the hard drives on company laptops!?
11. Your IT Dept should scan the color copier hard drive when the copier was installed (nobody does this!?). The copier operating system could also be configured to intercept any wireless transmissions even if it is not connected to LAN. Copiers today also are FAX machines (with no real security). Any FAX sent over wireless system of your printer or copier can assumed to be compromised.
12. We all go to Doctor’s offices and the receptionist runs copies your driver’s license, medical cards, your medical forms you just filled out, etc. The same goes on everyday in small bank branches, realtor offices and small business that have no IT and security is having some anti-virus protection on their computer system. Nobody shredded that copier hard drive when it is replaced and anybody can intercept its wireless transmissions. Assume all our medical data has been compromised – same maybe true of Hospital copier business practices although they are aware of issues. However, anybody with a laptop can connect to that copier and download the hard drive.
13. Maybe your Congressman’s office in Washington DC is secure (really believe somebody scanned the solid state hard drive in the copier in the Washington Office – if so, how did they do that?), but what about the thousands of satellite Staffer’s offices all over the country with wireless system and copier and fax machines talking to Washington DC every day. Do you think any of those copier drives were ever shredded before the copier was replaced?
14. With the majority of business and public systems actually manufactured in China today what is the probability some of the parts in your copier were made in China?
Would that be a solid state hard drive made by a Taiwanese company doing business in China where the Chinese Government has to “inspect” all hard drives in Copiers?
15. Welcome to the world of CyberSecurity!
So nobody has a problem with:
Japanese copiers having mega GB drives with
Chinese Chipsets with
DOD Encryption and
Russian anti-virus software shipped via
Panamanian flag ships with
North Korean sailors loaded by
Somalian port labor in Dubai on
German containers and delivered to your site by
Arab truck drivers and installed by
Iranian Network engineers operating over
Israel owned Telecom System and maintained by
Low bid Mexican Cartel with
Billing going thru a NSA Satellite!
What could possibly go wrong with this of Chain of Custody?
Wow..in a similar thought..didn’t they discover a couple of months ago a flaw programmed inti the chips that allowed someone to actually log onto your computer and activate your camera or download your information. ..another reason why we should go back to manufacturing in the usa
Since it takes the Senate to approve any such deal – it’s NOT veto-able by the occupier in the white house down the road. This is NOT a bill initiated by the congress that needs his approval – treaties work the other way. It’s kinda like choosing a justice for the Supreme Court – the pres asks and the Senate filibusters or just says no – or yes. the pres then doesn’t have a choice about them accepting or not – he can’t seat a justice not approved by the Senate – not yet anyway.