Conservative blogger covering local politics, urban planning, and, frequently, western swing. Anglospherophile. Israelophile. ืฆึดืึผึืึนื ืึฐึผืึดืฉึฐืืคึธึผึฃื ืชึดึผืคึธึผืึถึื
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Joined October 2008
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This is the operating principle of mainstream media now: Report only the news that motivates the correct public response. Suppress news that might raise doubts or undermine obedience.
Use brackets for Pete's sake!
In 2014, researchers discovered that a single duplicated line in Apple's C source code (sslKeyExchange.c) allowed affected iPhones and Macs to accept forged SSL/TLS server key exchanges.
Because the second goto fail; was outside the if, it executed unconditionally whenever execution reached it skipping the cryptographic signature check entirely.
If the preceding hash operation succeeded, err was already 0. The function returned success without ever calling sslRawVerify().
One extra line had bypassed a critical authentication check.
Michael Bates ๐บ๐ธ๐ฌ๐ง๐ฆ๐บ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ retweeted
TO THE GREAT PEOPLE OF OKLAHOMA, MAKE A PLAN TO VOTE FOR:
ย
โ Kevin Hern for U.S. Senate
โ Mike Mazzei for Governor
โ T.W. Shannon for Lieutenant Governor
โ Cindy Byrd for State Treasurer
โ Mark Tedford for U.S. Congress (OK-01)
โ Josh Brecheen for U.S. Congress (OK-02)
โ Frank Lucas for U.S. Congress (OK-03)
โ Tom Cole for U.S. Congress (OK-04)
โ Stephanie Bice for U.S. Congress (OK-05)
ย
These Great Patriots have my Complete and Total Endorsement โ They will never let you down! President DONALD J. TRUMP
swampthevoteusa.com/oklahomaโฆ
Michael Bates ๐บ๐ธ๐ฌ๐ง๐ฆ๐บ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ retweeted
How bad is administrative bloat in higher ed?
At MIT, the โstudent body has grown by 8% and its faculty by 9% since the mid-1980s. By comparison, the tally of administrators jumped by 189%.โ
Michael Bates ๐บ๐ธ๐ฌ๐ง๐ฆ๐บ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ retweeted
I went to this tonight. I am a behind the scenes type of guy. I'm better on X than in real life but I wanted to go to see the turnout in person. This is a small town in a small county. It was absolutely packed. @MazzeiMike has a ton of momentum. Mike will win the rural vote so it's going to come down to the cities. It will take Tulsa, OKC and Norman in overwhelming numbers for Munson to win. All we have to do as conservatives is VOTE and we win.
Michael Bates ๐บ๐ธ๐ฌ๐ง๐ฆ๐บ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ retweeted
Something for Oklahomans to Keep in Mind:
Oklahomaโs State Superintendent of Public Instruction is elected by the people. The six other members of the Oklahoma State Board of Education are appointed by the governor, subject to confirmation by the Oklahoma Senate. The elected superintendent also serves on the board.
The State Board of Education adopts administrative rules governing public education, within the authority granted by state law. However, the board and superintendent do not have unlimited authority.
Under Oklahomaโs Administrative Procedures Act, proposed permanent administrative rules are submitted to the Legislature for review. The Legislature can approve or disapprove rules, including disapproving all or part of a rule, through the statutory process. The governor also has a role in the process.
This is an important check on the authority of the State Board of Education and the State Department of Education.
Your state representative and state senator can review proposed education rules through the legislative process and take action on them. They can also pursue legislation to change the laws that govern public education.
Oklahomaโs Constitution and statutes establish the responsibilities of the State Board of Education and the Legislature. These checks and balances help ensure that education policy operates within the authority established by law.
Your government is most responsive to the will of the people when citizens actively engage in the legislative process.
This is not a process where an election is won & the people then just have to sit & wait four years for the next election to see change.
Michael Bates ๐บ๐ธ๐ฌ๐ง๐ฆ๐บ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ retweeted
Weโre really in a part of the US that looks completely different from anything else weโve seen so far๐บ๐ธ
Michael Bates ๐บ๐ธ๐ฌ๐ง๐ฆ๐บ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ retweeted
3 things Cyndi Munson voted against that you guys seem to forget:
Facts -
1. Munson was among the โnoโ votes on HB 2339, which barred schools from vaccinating students without prior written parental or guardian authorization. The bill passed and became law. Opponents framed her vote as undercutting parental rights over childrenโs medical decisions.
2. Voted against the Save Womenโs Sports Act (2022)
On SB 2 (the Save Womenโs Sports Act), which required school athletic teams to be designated by biological sex and barred males from female teams, Munson was one of a small number of House members voting no.
3. Supported taxpayer-funded film/entertainment incentives:
Campaign and legislative summaries have noted Munsonโs support for measures such as HB 2110 that expanded or authorized rebate-style incentives (initially up to roughly $10 million, later higher) for film and entertainment productions in Oklahoma. She wants to direct public money toward Hollywood-style projects rather than core state priorities here locally.
She doesn't have Oklahoma in the best interest.
If you vote for her, you're voting for schools to vaccine your kids without your permission, boys playing sports with women, and kissing those local state funds goodbye to out of state movie makers.
Those are facts.
Michael Bates ๐บ๐ธ๐ฌ๐ง๐ฆ๐บ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ retweeted
1992 a meteor hit her car. Back in New Jersey and New York almost everybody I knew had โthe accentโ.
Michael Bates ๐บ๐ธ๐ฌ๐ง๐ฆ๐บ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ retweeted
Broke and woke is no way to go through life. youtube.com/watch?v=KnZ2A-4Bโฆ
Michael Bates ๐บ๐ธ๐ฌ๐ง๐ฆ๐บ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ retweeted
Friendly reminder that Cyndi Munson was born in California to a South Korean stranger and a Vietnam War soldier on a weekend pass....went to college in Nebraska and Georgetown after UCO...and then moved here to start her political career.....
She's not home cooked. She's not a leader. She's not qualified to be governor...
Michael Bates ๐บ๐ธ๐ฌ๐ง๐ฆ๐บ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ retweeted
I downloaded and plotted hourly data for approximately 100 years for many different tide gauges. Every hour is incorporated in these graphs.
The trend is essentially linear for every single one. No cherry-picking.
We are coming out of an ice age. Thus many stations show a few millimeters per year of increasing sea level and some show a few millimeters per year of decreasing sea level because ice is retreating and the continents are uplifting near polar regions.
As far as I can tell there is no sea-level catastrophe and those who say so don't have data to back it up: That is, they are scamming.
Michael Bates ๐บ๐ธ๐ฌ๐ง๐ฆ๐บ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ retweeted
The City Gate to the Biblical City of Dan, formerly Laish, Genesis 14. This gate is 4,000 years old, and you are looking at something that Abraham saw
Michael Bates ๐บ๐ธ๐ฌ๐ง๐ฆ๐บ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ retweeted
Well, would you have guessed that a Habsburg can also be a descendant of Lafayette, and thus a... Son of the ๐บ๐ธ American revolution?
Also, see you next time, D.C.!
Michael Bates ๐บ๐ธ๐ฌ๐ง๐ฆ๐บ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ retweeted
๐จA THREAD: on how I *accidentally* married my wife of 12 yrs.๐จ 1st, a few caveats. (1) We had planned to get married. We just didn't expect it to happen on the day it did (Oct 17); (2) We were married in Seoul, South Korea where wedding *ceremonies* are not legally binding. /1
Michael Bates ๐บ๐ธ๐ฌ๐ง๐ฆ๐บ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ retweeted
I mean, here you go, here's the map of birthrates by county in 2024.
The region of the US with:
- Infinite groundwater
- Infinite surface water
- Excellent precipitation
- Hardwood forest
- Mild summers
- No hurricane or wildfire risk
- Sufficient arable soil
No babies. Dying places. The places with the absolute best suite of ecological resources for ultra-long-term survival are... emptying out, while high-fertility families are packing into places with all kinds of problems such as chronic drought, lethal heat, wild hogs, no forests, hurricanes, wildfire risk, social problems, etc.
Are there some exceptions in the Great-Lakes-Northeast-Appalachian zone, birthrate-wise? Yes, they are counties with a lot of Amish and Mennonites or a lot of Haredi Jews.
One almost wonders if the spectacularly poor governance of the rural Northeast has been some kind of a deliberate ploy on the part of elites, who might be aiming to clear out the most choice land for ultra-long-range survival, so as to establish fiefdoms here... and to force rebellious high-TFR families into zones with unfavorable habitability over time...
I'm not saying this is happening, but man it'd be a great evil plan if I were an ultra-rich elite...
It's interesting because on a long enough timescale, entropy will claim the relatively fragile techno-industrial civilization that makes the South habitable via A/C.
While Northerners can grow their own heat without any high tech, you can't grow your own A/C.
This inverts basic ecological realities regarding habitability. Notice the Amish don't congregate very far South; once you take technology out of the picture, the South is a miserable, difficult place -- far more miserable than Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.
Frankly it drives me nuts, because the region with the best objective prospects for overall habitability -- excellent soil, hardwood forest, limitless groundwater, surface water, and high rainfall, low wildfire risk, plenty of game -- is the place that has no vitality, it is dying, there are no children here, there is no future is most of the rural North. This is because everybody is moving down to the synthetic 'A/C World'.
People are not rational. If they were, they would settle in places that have taken entropy into account, and that are well-positioned for a failure of the techno-industrial system -- and they'd live there, buying timberland and having many children. This is the most sensible thing you could do.
Instead: they buy condos in the South where a single power outage can kill, hurricanes flood, there are wild boars and weird hot-weather pathogens and so on.
And if you live in the sensible climate of the North and have a family, the absence of families here almost forces your hand; you find yourself drawn southward as if by magnetism, because there is life there -- smack dab in a climate that is ONLY habitable because of the supply chain that produces industrial refrigerant.
It makes short-term fatherly concerns conflict with long-term fatherly concerns, and any sensible Yankee father is embittered that he's stuck choosing between the barren depopulation of the North or the tenuous techno-fragility of the South.
Michael Bates ๐บ๐ธ๐ฌ๐ง๐ฆ๐บ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ retweeted
Security called me at 6:12 AM today.
"Patch every PHP server immediately."
I asked what happened.
"Two critical vulnerabilities. Remote code execution. No authentication required."
Cool.
How many PHP servers do we have?
According to inventory: 12
According to reality:
Nobody knows.
We found one running WordPress.
Three running old internal tools.
One under someone's desk.
Two inside vendor appliances.
A forgotten employee directory from 2016.
And a server named:
PHP-OLD-DO-NOT-TOUCH
Naturally, that one runs payroll exports.
Then we found a PHP 5.6 box.
I asked who owned it.
The documentation said:
BRIAN.
Brian left in 2019.
We called Brian.
He said:
"Oh wow, that's still running?"
Excellent.
By 8 AM, leadership joined the incident call.
CEO:
"Can hackers actually get in?"
Security:
"Potentially yes."
CEO:
"Without a password?"
Security:
"Yes."
CEO:
"Then why do WE need passwords?"
Not the lesson.
Finance asked if we could wait until the weekend to patch because downtime affects revenue.
Security explained that the alternative was letting strangers execute code on our servers.
Finance asked for a cost comparison.
At 9:17, someone suggested temporarily taking the vulnerable websites offline.
Marketing refused.
"Our campaign is live."
So for the next hour, the company officially decided maintaining a landing page for 20% off webinar registration was more important than preventing remote server takeover.
We finally patched everything we could find.
Then our scanner discovered another PHP server.
Hostname:
TEMP-PHP-2014
Uptime:
4,512 days.
Nobody knows what it does.
Nobody owns it.
Nobody can shut it down.
But every time we block network access, the warehouse stops printing shipping labels.
Security has classified it as critical infrastructure.
It is running PHP 5.4.
The vulnerability has existed longer than half our employees.
The emergency patch took four hours.
Finding out what PHP actually runs took eleven.
The internet isn't held together with code.
It's held together with servers everyone is afraid to turn off.
Michael Bates ๐บ๐ธ๐ฌ๐ง๐ฆ๐บ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ retweeted
So basically, today PHP got two critical bugs that let anyone run code on your server without even logging in, which is bad, and then the details leaked before the patch was even out, which is worse, and it works on WordPress and MediaWiki and Magento and Joomla and Laravel, and Censys says like 1.5 million servers are running a version with no fix, so the NSA was like "take your system offline," and the FBI was like "take your system offline," and CISA and the UK and CERT-EU were all like "take your system offline," and then the Prime Minister of Japan, the actual Prime Minister, posted at 5:55 in the morning telling 48.8 million people to take their system offline, so everyone took their system offline, like the Dutch cybersecurity agency took its own website offline, and the Dutch parliament went offline, and the Port of Rotterdam went offline, and Finland and France and Denmark started pulling government sites, and Wikipedia went down, and Archive.org went down, and Asana and GOG and Something Awful went down, and the University of Vienna's webmail went down for some reason, and that's just PHP. Because GitLab also dropped a CVSS 10.0, which is the highest score they give out, for a bug that's been there since 2014, so that's every self-hosted GitLab for twelve years, and then LiteLLM 1.107.0 got hijacked and shipped a credential stealer and a remote access trojan in every single wheel and the Docker images, including latest, and you didn't even have to import it, just installing it was enough, and it's the second time this year, and then Railway paused every deployment on the entire platform because someone got into the environment variables, so now everyone has to rotate every secret they've ever stored there, and TiDB Cloud said someone was walking around inside with stolen credentials for basically a month and an extortion group says they took 10.6 terabytes, and Zeabur got breached for the second time in two months and is just shutting down, like the whole company, and Node.js patched remote code execution and a TLS bypass, and CISA says Plex is being actively exploited, and someone took over 300 Tor exit relays to steal SSH passwords, and SafePay ransomware has hit over 600 critical infrastructure orgs, and India's biggest bank filed a data loss incident, and Japan has been in an official state of emergency in cyberspace since October 9, which honestly explains the 5:55 AM post. Oh, and eMudhra, a certificate authority that's issued over 60 million certificates, whose entire job is proving websites are who they say they are, was supposed to be using private keys that are random numbers over a hundred digits long, and one of them was 4. Just 4. And the others were like 66 and 237. Anyway, it's Wednesday.
Michael Bates ๐บ๐ธ๐ฌ๐ง๐ฆ๐บ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ retweeted
Please not this, Texans
Bush clan members back Democrat James Talarico in Texas Senate race bbc.in/3WiSar1
