Just in Case it Matters to You
Weekly Report 23-26
- THE ONLY 100% PROTECTION FROM COMPUTER HACKERS IS TO BE DISCONNECTED FROM THE INTERNET, AND TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTERS, a pretty impractical alternative in this day and age. But a handful of steps can certainly minimize and mitigate the risks from being hacked – identity stolen/ accounts robbed/ stolen files/ frozen accounts with ransom demands to retrieve/ misinformation & disinformation attacks/ being visually spied upon/ and more. A few critical steps to make yourself less hackable are: (1) freeze your credit; (2 two-factor authentication; (3) critical file backup; (4) antivirus installation; (5) strong & unique passwords; (6) visit SecureTheVillage.org for other tips and how to implement the first five. DCG is happy to provide courtesy consult in this critical arena for business or personal strategic and financial protection.
- “THERE ARE NOW OVER 200,000 FEDERAL AGENTS WITH ARREST AND FIREARM AUTHORITY (more than our 186K U.S. Marines)… A culture of militarization has permeated across federal bureaucracy.” Since 2006, some $3.7 billion has been spent on guns, ammunition and military-style equipment, by over a hundred rank & file Agencies, three-quarters of which are paper-pushing regulatory agencies – Environmental Protection/ Social Security/ Veterans Affairs/ IRS/ Health & Human Services/ Railroad Retirement Board/ even the Small Business Administration. “From AR-15 rifles to night-vision equipment, federal agencies are looking less like paper pushers at the DMV and more like a SWAT team in a Hollywood thriller. Just whom are they preparing to battle?” [TOWNHALL – 5/2/23]
- EVEN GREATER CHAOS IS COMING TO THE BORDER THIS WEEK with the Biden administration decision to abort Title 42 authority to return migrants back to Mexico. Some 400,000 are now expected to be arrested every month according to DHS, plus unknown numbers sneaking past, plus tens of thousands still being admitted through “a completely illegal ‘Parole’ program that releases them to go wherever they want in the U.S. after just a 15-minute interview, are considered ‘Qualified Aliens’ and thus entitled to many of the same welfare benefits available to citizens… While Congress specifically amended the statute covering Parole in 1996 to limit the power of presidents, this administration simply contends the opposite – that the statute actually empowers paroling an infinite number for as long as Biden is president… Meanwhile, when Obamacare was passed in 2010, Obama swore its benefits would not go to illegals, but just this month the White House announced that 580,000 who crossed the border before they turned 18 (DACA) would be made eligible for Obamacare and Medicaid.” Chaos is coming. [WASHINGTON EXAMINER – 4/26/23]
- THERE COULD EVENTUALLY BE ONE SORT OF GOOD OUTCOME FROM THE UKRAINE WAR: “a halt to being a ‘gangster’s paradise’ …The war has split the mafia and transformed global crime networks.” While the people-smuggling network has blossomed (with UN estimating some five million already in European ‘temporary protection’ including a hundred thousand trafficking victims), contraband networks have been reconfigured which curtail Ukraine’s major position in criminal syndicates as both a producer of illicit goods for export (drugs, amphetamines, weapons, tobacco) and as an import transit route for Latin American cocaine and Afghanistan heroine. “War and social dislocation generate opportunities for gangsters and their white-collar collaborators, but this war has severed the decades-old physical and social arteries between Ukraine & Russian criminal networks” which could lead to less criminal support. [ECONOMIST – 4/29/23]
- THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK: The epitome of progressive wokeness: https://www.instagram.com/p/Co54bXvAMKW/
About time! Deserved lambasting of the Democratic Senate Leader’s astonishing direct threat, Justice Dep’t support for violent activists, and attempts to undermine of the Constitutional authority of the Supreme Court: https://theamericandossier.com/articles/kennedy-criticizes-schumer-during-hearing-for-threatening-scotus-justices?utm_source=&utm_medium=deployer&utm_content=&utm_campaign=Newsletter&utm_term=
Cancelled air-flights, which have left thousands stranded at airports this year, are 40% caused by weather, but 60% from factors that airlines have control over – like maintenance issues and especially lack of crews. While airline companies received some $54 billion in pandemic subsidies to keep employees working, they still reduced thousands of workers by paying incentives to quit, but as travel resumed have struggled for replacements. Worst offenders are Southwest, Delta, American, United, Allegiant, Spirit, Jet Blue, Frontier, and budget airlines, according to latest investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Major disruption of the workforce is now all but assured by rapidly advancing Artificial Intelligence tools with ability to automate customer services, write text and generate code. The CEO of IBM has just announced plans for full automation of varying tasks, with likely replacement of 30% back office ‘non-customer-facing’ employees over the next five years. [FORTUNE]