Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the Justice Department was engaging in “election interference” after special counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment against the former president.  Smith’s indictment, which comes after the Supreme Court ruled that presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, accuses Trump of two felony counts of obstructing an official proceeding, one felony count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, and one felony count of conspiracy against rights.  In a post on X, Trump said that the revised indictment amounted to “election interference” because mail-in ballots are about to be cast in North Carolina.  “It is DOJ policy that the Department of Justice should not take any action that will influence an election within 60 days of that election – but they just have taken such action,” he said. “Voting starts on September 6th, therefore the DOJ has violated its own policy – Election Interference. All of these Comrade Kamala/Biden Hoaxes should be immediately DISMISSED!” It is DOJ policy that the Department of Justice should not take any action that will influence an election within 60 days of that election – but they just have taken such action. Voting starts on September 6th, therefore the DOJ has violated its own policy – Election… — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 28, 2024 In an earlier post on Truth Social, Trump said that the revised indictment was “a direct assault on democracy.” “This is an unprecedented abuse of the Criminal Justice System. The case has to do with ‘Conspiracy to Obstruct the 2020 Presidential Election,’ when they are the ones that did the obstructing of the Election, not me,” he said. “They cheated on the Election, and they go after me for ‘cheating on the Election.’ Interestingly, this comes at the exact same time as Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook has admitted to concealing massive amounts of information, such as Hunter Biden’s Laptop from Hell, which is a direct acknowledgment that the 2020 Presidential Election was MANIPULATED and RIGGED by the DOJ. What they are doing now is the single greatest sabotage of our Democracy in History.” Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you. Smith’s office said that the indictment had been revised in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States, which said that presidents cannot be prosecuted for exercising core constitutional powers and are entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for official acts. “The superseding indictment, which was presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in this case, reflects the Government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s holdings and remand instructions in Trump v. United States,” the special counsel’s office claimed. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) reacted to the news of the revised indictment by saying that the Biden-Harris administration was weaponizing the DOJ. “Donald Trump continues to be the most persecuted politician in the history of our country. Today, after getting two of his cases thrown out by the courts, Jack Smith is grasping at straws once again,” he said. “Just 70 days before the election, Smith has brought yet another bogus indictment. Americans are sick of this corruption and shameless lawfare. They know this is not about justice, but about politics.”

'You wish it was a bad dream you could wake up from'

A viral image shared on X purports to show a statement from Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison disparaging conservatives. Lowe’s went and got woke. pic.twitter.com/7K5p0V6DSn — Scarlet (@SuzyLiberty2) August 24, 2024 Verdict: False The claim is false. A CNBC spokesperson denied the network had aired the X image featuring the purported remark from Ellison. Ellison’s actual […]

Montrose was formed in 1973 in California by guitarist Ronnie Montrose. Known for their powerful, guitar-driven sound, Montrose released four studio albums during their original run, including their self-titled debut, Montrose (1973), which is often regarded as one of the greatest hard rock albums of the 1970s. Despite numerous lineup changes, the band was known for its influential and iconic sound, fronted initially by vocalist Sammy Hagar. Montrose disbanded in 1977 but briefly reunited in 1987. Over the years, the band underwent multiple lineup changes with a revolving door of talented musicians who contributed to its legacy, though they never The post Complete List Of Montrose Band Members appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

It seems reasonable that a program designed to assist those with low incomes should go only to low-income households. But the Biden-Harris administration is using a dubious mechanism to get around that expectation in a program designed to help low-income families pay for broadband internet service. Congress created the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, to provide broadband internet assistance to low-income households. The program was supposed to last six months, but Congress made it permanent in 2021, renaming it the Affordable Connectivity Program and allocating nearly five times the original funding. Although funding for the Federal Communications Commission program ran out in the first half of this year, Congress is working to renew it. To qualify, households must show that they are low income. One way to demonstrate this: A household receives benefits from another means-tested welfare program such as the Lifeline Program or the Affordable Connectivity Program, which provide assistance with phone service and internet service, respectively. Another way to show eligibility: A member of the household receives a Pell Grant or is in a school lunch or breakfast program. Eligibility through school meal programs is how the Federal Communications Commission is doing an end run around income limits for the broadband program. This is because of something called the Community Eligibility Provision that was included in legislation, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, signed into law by President Barack Obama.   The Community Eligibility Provision allows any school to provide meals to all students if just 25% of the students come from low-income households. The provision also allows an entire school district to qualify for free school meals if 25% of students in the district are from low-income homes. (Originally, 40% of students in a school or district had to be from low-income households to qualify for the Community Eligibility Provision, but the Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Agriculture last year dropped the threshold to 25%.)   USDA also allows districts to group schools together as they see fit to meet the 25% threshold, even though the underlying law doesn’t permit districts to gerrymander in this way. In grouping schools, for example, a district could bring together four schools, two with 50% of children from low-income households and two others with no children from low-income households. All children in the four schools would qualify for free meals under the Community Eligibility Provision, because this grouping would meet the 25% threshold even though two schools don’t have a single student from a poor household. The Community Eligibility Provision is bad policy because it provides free school meals to students who don’t need financial assistance. And in some cases, this could happen when all or most students involved are from high-income homes. And now, the Federal Communications Commission is using the same provision to extend government assistance for broadband service to any household with a child who attends a school that meets the provision. It doesn’t matter whether the household is a low-income one or not. Like free school meals under the Community Eligibility Provision, you could have a school where all the students are from high-income homes yet all their families qualify for broadband assistance. And this despite benefits for both the meals and broadband programs being intended for low-income households. On top of this, it’s not clear the FCC has authority to qualify households for the Affordable Connectivity Program through a child’s being enrolled in an eligible school. The law creating the broadband program states that a household qualifies for the benefit if “at least one member of the household has applied for and been approved to receive benefits under the free and reduced-price lunch program … or the school breakfast program.” But the Community Eligibility Provision doesn’t require families to apply for school meals or go through an approval process for a child to qualify. In fact, one rationale for CEP, as it’s called, is that the provision eliminates the application process. The Federal Communications Commission provided flyers that schools may use to promote the Affordable Connectivity Program to families, specifically advertising that having a child in a school with “community eligibility” is sufficient for a household to qualify for the government’s broadband assistance. Survey data from the FCC indicates that many people enrolled in the Affordable Connectivity Program likely don’t need it: Fully 30% of participants said they had both home internet and mobile internet in the year before they enrolled. And 30% of participating households also said they were never without internet because they couldn’t afford it in any of the preceding 12 months before they got on the program. The FCC report doesn’t say whether families enrolled in the Affordable Connectivity Program through “community eligibility” were more likely to fall into these two groups. What is clear, though, is that the Community Eligibility Provision allows people to get on the broadband program regardless of their income level.   Program rolls for the Affordable Connectivity Program have grown substantially over the past two years, jumping from 9 million households in January 2022 to over 23 million households as of February 2024. If this broadband welfare program continues, Congress should clearly state that households can’t qualify for it through the Community Eligibility Provision. Even without congressional action, the FCC could clarify that having a child in a “community eligibility” school doesn’t qualify a household for the broadband benefit. The government’s welfare system needs substantial reform. It should be obvious that programs explicitly designed to provide benefits to low-income Americans should provide those benefits only to low-income households. Government agencies shouldn’t run programs according to their own whims. Using taxpayer dollars to subsidize households that aren’t in need is a waste of resources and undermines the purpose of means-tested programs. The post Biden-Harris Admin Uses Loopholes to Expand Welfare Benefits, Again appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Here's What Protecting Election Integrity and Defending Democracy Looks Like in Michigan

J6 Trespasser Gets Four Years in Prison

The expedition also secured the first-ever footage of a rare squid.

Weirdly, this is good news for your Wi-Fi.

Is the Chinese government spying on you through cameras manufactured by Chinese companies? According to the FCC and several state governments, the answer might well be “yes,” and regulators are attempting to take action to protect Americans’ privacy. Two of the largest surveillance camera manufacturers in the world — Hikvision and Dahua — are based in China and have strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party government. Because of the “unacceptable risk” their equipment allegedly poses to U.S. national security, the FCC banned sales and import of new technology from Hikvision and Dahua in 2022. In recent years, several governments — including Australia, the U.K., and India — have also taken action against the companies. Blaze News wanted to know to what extent the equipment manufactured by Hikvision and Dahua remains available in the U.S. and whether users are at risk of unwittingly sharing their data with China. The answers are in some respects disturbing, but in others encouraging. ‘Related to the Communist Party of China’: Hikvision and Dahua Cameras have become nearly ubiquitous in American culture, and we've embraced them because of their clear benefits. Cameras record precious memories, help secure private property, and even allow governments to identify toll-road users without disrupting traffic flows and nab speeding drivers at low cost. While few Americans, especially those in younger generations, worry about possible privacy concerns associated with these cameras, even fewer concern themselves about the implications of relying on equipment manufactured by a foreign adversary. They should. According to Radio Liberty, a Ukrainian outlet, 20% of all video surveillance cameras in the entire world are manufactured by Hikvision and another 10% by Dahua. The state of Nevada, for example, prohibits Hikvision and Dahua equipment at all state government offices and agencies out of 'security concerns.' What’s more, 37% of Hikvision is owned by CET HikGroup, which answers to other organizations run by the Chinese government. Chinese law reportedly demands that businesses share with the Chinese Communist Party some — if not all — of the critical information they glean through normal operations. “It should be understood that the companies of the People's Republic of China are companies that are closely related to the Communist Party of China. That is, there is no large, completely independent business in the PRC,” said Agia Zagrebelska, head of the Department of Minimization of Corruption Risks at the Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention, according to Radio Liberty. “This is not my subjective assessment,” Zagrebelska continued. “These are the requirements of their legislation.” Federal and state governments here in the U.S. are likewise highly concerned about Hikvision and Dahua. The Department of Defense included both companies on its list of designated “Chinese military companies operating in the U.S.,” a list released the same year the FCC banned sales and imports of the companies' new equipment. “These new rules are an important part of our ongoing actions to protect the American people from national security threats involving telecommunications,” FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said at the time in a statement, according to Tech Crunch. In April, a federal court upheld the inclusion of Hikvision and Dahua on the FCC’s Covered List, though it ruled that the FCC had likewise defined “critical infrastructure” too broadly when issuing the bans. At least 10 U.S. states have also imposed their own restrictions on Hikvision and Dahua equipment, IVPM reported. The state of Nevada, for example, prohibits Hikvision and Dahua equipment at all state government offices and agencies out of “security concerns.” In a statement, Hikvision told Blaze News: Hikvision disagrees with the FCC’s decision to include Hikvision into the “Covered List,” but it is important to note that the Court “vacated” and rejected the scope of the FCC’s “overbroad” and “entirely implausible” restrictions. Hikvision has always been clear that the company and its products present no threat to national security of the U.S. or the security of American consumers. No respected technical institution or assessment has concluded otherwise. Possible threats to American consumers Though federal and state governments have sounded the alarm about Hikvision and Dahua, surveillance cameras manufactured by these companies are still readily available for purchase in the U.S. A quick search of Amazon reveals that surveillance cameras emblazoned with the Hikvision name are available for as little as $50, with an average cost of about $100. The company even has its own Amazon store, offering an array of products, though notably, no surveillance cameras are advertised there, and the webcam tab is empty. With its many options and affordable prices, Hikvision views small- and medium-sized businesses as its target client base, according to the Record. At about $70 per unit, Dahua cameras on Amazon are roughly in the same price range as Hikvision cameras and target the same business market, though Dahua does not have its own Amazon store. Some may be surprised to learn that equipment manufactured by companies red-flagged by the government may still be sold legally in the U.S., but the reason is rather simple: The FCC banned only new technology from Hikvision and Dahua. Older technology is still available, though it could be banned later should regulators determine that such a step is necessary. ‘Physical separation’: Guarding against cyber menaces By all appearances, Hikvision and Dahua cameras look like typical surveillance cameras and in and of themselves do not pose a security risk upon installation. Potential problems arise only when these cameras are connected to the internet. 'You've now just given them the keys to the kingdom.' Many individuals and businesses prefer to connect cameras and servers to the internet to avail themselves of cloud storage and remote-access capabilities. However, users must segment their systems to prevent bad actors — like some foreign companies and governments — from tapping into the devices from the outside. “It's like having a fence in your yard,” Rob Coté, owner of a small cybersecurity company called Security Vitals, explained to Blaze News. “You have a physical separation, and it … thwarts the potential of a remote data grab.” “If the cameras had malicious content or the ability for remote access from an external resource built into them and you connect them to your core network, you've now just given them the keys to the kingdom.” In addition, businesses also ought to position surveillance cameras so as to prevent them from capturing sensitive or proprietary information, knowing that images captured on surveillance could be accessed in the case of a cyberattack. Thus, while the risk of possible data compromise is significant, average American consumers, even those who are not tech-savvy, can take steps to protect themselves and their sensitive data. First, they should take the time to do basic research into equipment before making any purchases and, as they would with other products, remain wary of attractive price tags. Secondly, they should consider purchasing other key cybersecurity equipment such as firewalls from a reputable vendor. Such vendors specialize in securing cyber environments for those without the means or inclination to do so themselves. “Make sure that those cameras are on a separate network that doesn't touch your key corporate assets or your core resources,” Coté further advised. In a statement, Hikvision told Blaze News: Hikvision’s business model in overseas markets generally involves selling products via distribution networks to integrators who then install the equipment at end-user facilities. Hikvision does not install devices at end users’ sites and end users have full control over how the equipment is used, which means that Hikvision, as an equipment manufacturer, has no visibility or access into end users’ video data. Dahua did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment. ‘Close rapport between Beijing and Moscow’: Other concerns As IPVM noted, governments from around the world have likewise banned or at least restricted the use of Hikvision and Dahua products at and by state agencies. Ukraine in particular became wary of the two camera manufacturers because of the recent political alliance between China and Russia. According to a January report from the Kyiv Independent, Hikvision and Dahua cameras are widely used in Ukraine in both private and public sectors. Should those companies access Ukrainian data and exfiltrate it to China, the data could make its way to Russian military leaders who might exploit it. 'Although the information is sent in encrypted form ... for the manufacturer and developer of these cameras, decoding such information will not pose a problem.' In fact, the outlet indicated that may have already happened: “Russian intelligence services have reportedly managed to access surveillance cameras, including older Hikvision devices, to guide strikes against Ukraine's cities, for example, during a mass missile attack on Jan. 2.” While the outlet could not confirm whether Russia had gained access to sensitive Ukrainian data, it insisted that “the close rapport between Beijing and Moscow makes the data transmission a security risk.” Furthermore, the outlet noted that the older Hikvision and Dahua models — some of which are almost assuredly in use in the U.S. — were easily hacked, creating other security complications. In practice tests conducted at the behest of Radio Liberty, the Ukrainian outlet cited above, skilled experts could hack into an older Hikvision model within 15 minutes. Other tests conducted on older models revealed that some servers in countries like Ireland and Germany were actually owned by American companies, including Amazon Web Services, but rented by Hikvision or Dahua, meaning that these Chinese companies effectively remained in control of servers in foreign countries thousands of miles away. “We see that even when the user wants to turn off the connection to the Dahua cloud service, such a connection still continues and information continues to reach the servers rented by Dahua via the internet,” Serhiy Denysenko, executive director of Laboratories of Computer Forensics, told Radio Liberty about a Dahua unit released in 2019. “And although the information is sent in encrypted form, I believe that for the manufacturer and developer of these cameras, decoding such information will not pose a problem,” Denysenko continued. “And these are precisely the security risks for the user, about which the manufacturer did not inform him.” In a statement, Hikvision told Blaze News: As a publicly traded commercial manufacturer, all of Hikvision offerings are designed for civil use. Hikvision declines to comment about the use of its equipment in specific markets. Separately, Hikvision becomes aware of a hack of any kind, it acts swiftly and takes every possible step to address it. Dahua and Amazon Web Services did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment. By far, the most secure “older” model camera that Radio Liberty tested was a Hikvision camera released in 2023. Because the unit demanded a more complex password for sign-in purposes and did not automatically transmit data upon connection to a network, Denysenko described it as “much safer.” Without more specific details about the model, it is difficult to determine whether that particular Hikvision model is available for purchase on Amazon. But with the FCC banning new technology from Hikvision and Dahua, the agency may have inadvertently prevented Americans from purchasing newer cameras with more advanced, built-in security protections. 'Always on and watching': Hikvision and Chinese detention camps Bet_Noire/Getty Another serious problem with Hikvision is its apparent history with the detention camps in China. According to one former detainee, Hikvision cameras installed in the camps ostensibly allowed guards to detect the slightest sound or movement and rebuke prisoners angrily for speaking without authorization. Ovalbek Turdakun — an ethnic Kyrgyz and a Christian — spent 10 months in a concentration camp in the Chinese region of Xinjiang in 2018. While incarcerated, Turdakun was subjected to horrific torture as well as onerous surveillance reportedly facilitated through Hikvision cameras. Though prisoners were crowded into cells and shut in for months at a time, they kept almost entirely silent because surveillance cameras installed there were “always on and watching,” Turdakun — who has since defected to the U.S. with his wife and son — told Tech Crunch through a translator. Prisoners even raised their hand and asked permission when they had to use the latrine hole “because of the cameras watching, always,” Turdakun reiterated. The slightest attempt at conversation incited angry censure transmitted through surveillance cameras. When shown the Hikvision logo, Turdakun claimed he saw it on all the cameras in the detention camp and in the surrounding Chinese city. While on house arrest, Hikvision cameras positioned in the city would alert authorities to Turdakun’s movements, prompting further harassment, he said. “The cameras are about [6 feet] in height — also Hikvision — and they’re on every sidewalk,” Turdakun explained to Tech Crunch. “There are so many of them, they don’t need to change the directions of the cameras. It doesn’t matter how long the road is, even the shortest road will have cameras. The whole entire city has cameras watching.” Tech Crunch admitted that it could not independently verify Turdakun’s reports but claimed they aligned with other reports given by survivors of Chinese detention camps. In a statement, Hikvision did not deny its previous association with Chinese detention camps, telling Blaze News: Hikvision takes all reports regarding human rights very seriously. As a market leader, we recognize our responsibility for protecting people and firmly oppose all forms of forced labor, child labor, and modern slavery. … Hikvision’s products and technologies serve vital roles in protecting people and society in more than 150 countries. Since entering global markets, Hikvision has and will continue to strictly comply with applicable laws and regulations in the countries where we operate and follow internationally accepted business ethics and business standards. We also continuously review and refine our personal data protection practices and policies to prevent misuse of our products. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!