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Mantra: “We should focus our actions, time, and resources on Direct Action, Mutual Aid, and Community Outreach… No War but Class War!”

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Cake day: August 5th, 2023

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  • Alt. Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20241007151423/https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/atandt-verizon-reportedly-hacked-to-target-us-govt-wiretapping-platform/


    Multiple U.S. broadband providers, including Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen Technologies, have been breached by a Chinese hacking group tracked as Salt Typhoon, the Wall Street Journal reports.

    It is unclear when the intrusion occurred, but WSJ cites people familiar with the matter, saying that “for months or longer, the hackers might have held access to network infrastructure used to cooperate with lawful U.S. requests for communications data.”

    According to the WSJ, the attack was discovered in recent weeks and is being investigated by the U.S. government and security experts in the private sector.

    Salt Typhoon has been active since at least 2019 and is considered a sophisticated hacking group focusing on government entities and telecommunications companies typically in the Southeast Asia region.

    Security researchers also found that the threat actor attacked hotels, engineering companies, and law firms in Brazil, Burkina Faso, South Africa, Canada, Israel, France, Guatemala, Lithuania, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.

    The hackers usually obtain initial access to the target network by exploiting vulnerabilities, such as the ProxyLogon vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server (CVE-2021-26855, CVE-2021-26857, CVE-2021-26858, and CVE-2021-27065).

    In previous attacks attributed to Salt Typhoon/Ghost Emperor, the threat actor used a custom backdoor called SparrowDoor, customized versions of the Mimikatz tool for extracting authentication data, and a Windows kernel-mode rootkit Demodex.

    Chinese APT hacking groups have been increasingly targeting U.S. and European networking devices and ISPs in cyberespionage attacks.

    In August, cybersecurity researchers at Lumen’s Black Lotus Labs disclosed that the Chinese threat actors known as “Volt Typhoon” exploited a zero-day flaw in Versa Director to steal credentials and breach corporate networks. During these attacks, the threat actors breached multiple ISPs and MSPs in the U.S. and India, which is not believed to be related to the recent breaches.

    In September, Black Lotus Labs and law enforcement disrupted a massive Chinese botnet named “Raptor Train” that compromised over 260,000 SOHO routers, IP cameras with malware. This botnet was used by the “Flax Typhoon” threat actors for DDoS attacks and as a proxy to launch stealthy attacks on other organizations.

    While these attacks have been attributed to different Chinese hacking groups, they are believed to operate under the same umbrella, commonly sharing infrastructure and tools.


  • Well, the government forced the rail road unions to agree to the watered-down negotiations instead of their original demands due to the laws passed.

    Instead of siding with the working class and forcing corporations to meet the Uninos demands, they help the corporations and once again betray the working class.

    I agree though; in this case, they did nothing to help make it worse or better for the unions, but alleged pressure was added as always.

    Again, Harris is not doing as well as before, Muslim support for Dr. Jill Stein and other groups is at an all-time high, and the support Trump is receiving from the working class is increasing, so intervening in a strike would lessen support of the Democrats even more than it already is at.

    I don’t think we will agree on this, due to my views on the intentional systematic problems our society has:

    The duopoly likes to play political theater; both act like they are for the working class, but in reality, policy helps the owner-class much more, while crumbs are offered to the working class to keep us quiet.


    The settlement pushes the strike and any potential shortages past the November presidential election, eliminating a potential liability for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee. It’s also a big plus for the Biden-Harris administration, which has billed itself as the most union-friendly in American history. Shortages could have driven up prices and reignited inflation.

    Thursday’s deal came after administration officials met with foreign-owned shipping companies before dawn on Zoom, according to a person briefed on the day’s events who asked not to be identified because the talks were private. The White House wanted to increase pressure to settle, emphasizing the responsibility to reopen the ports to help with recovery from Hurricane Helene, the person said.[1]


    1. [1] https://apnews.com/article/longshoremen-strike-ports-dockworkers-agreement-86fac07d1189e11ca4816b2cbf37affb ↩︎





  • I don’t trust any governments or politicians; we must always be critical of those with power and influence.

    Biden was forced to cave to their demands due to the backlash on breaking the railroad strike and this being an election year.

    The working class must continue to unite against the owner class; a general strike would help force the government and the corporations to listen to working class struggles instead of the same old crumbs we reicve from the duopoly; many grassroots movements have arisen for this occasion!

    “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” ― Frederick Douglass


    Dockworkers strike suspended, tentative agreement includes 62% pay raise over 6 years [Max Zahn, Meredith Deliso, and Soo Youn | October 3, 2024 | abcnews.go.com] https://abcnews.go.com/US/dockworkers-strike-suspended-sources/story?id=114445386

    The tentative agreement would increase workers’ wages by 62% over the life of the 6-year contract, sources familiar confirm to ABC News.

    This represents a significant increase from the shipping industry group’s offer of a 50% wage increase earlier this week. The union had been pushing for a 77% pay hike over six years.

    The tentative agreement would bring the hourly wage for a top dockworker to $63 per hour at the end of the new contract, up from $39 per hour under the expired contract.

    “I want to applaud the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance for coming together to reopen the East Coast and Gulf ports. Today’s tentative agreement on a record wage and an extension of the collective bargaining process represents critical progress towards a strong contract,” Preisdent Joe Biden said on the agreement.

    Tens of thousands of U.S. dockworkers had walked off the job early Tuesday morning, clogging dozens of ports along the East and Gulf coasts.

    Amid the strike, USMX said Wednesday it remained “committed to bargaining in good faith to address the ILA’s demands and USMX’s concerns.”

    A prolonged work stoppage of several weeks or months could have rekindled inflation for some goods and triggered layoffs at manufacturers as raw materials dried up, experts said.

    In 2002, a strike among workers at West Coast ports lasted 11 days before then-President George W. Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act and ended the standoff.



  • We must not let our government stop another major strike.

    The working class must stay united against the owner class.


    Biden signs bill to block U.S. railroad strike [David Shepardson and Nandita Bose | December 2, 2022 | https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-signs-bill-block-us-railroad-strike-2022-12-02/]

    The U.S. Senate voted 80 to 15 on Thursday to impose a tentative contract deal reached in September on a dozen unions representing 115,000 workers, who could have gone on strike on Dec. 9. But the Senate failed to approve a measure that would have provided paid sick days to railroad workers.

    Eight of 12 unions had ratified the deal. But some labor leaders have criticized Biden, a self-described friend of labor, for asking Congress to impose a contract that workers in four unions have rejected over its lack of paid sick leave

    Railroads have slashed labor and other costs to bolster profits in recent years, and have been fiercely opposed to adding paid sick time that would require them to hire more staff.

    Teamsters President Sean O’Brien harshly criticized the Senate vote on sick leave. “Rail carriers make record profits. Rail workers get zero paid sick days. Is this OK? Paid sick leave is a basic human right. This system is failing,” O’Brien wrote on Twitter.

    Without the legislation, rail workers could have gone out next week, but the impacts would be felt as soon as this weekend as railroads stopped accepting hazardous materials shipments and commuter railroads began canceling passenger service.

    The contracts cover workers at carriers including Union Pacific (UNP.N), opens new tab, Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s (BRKa.N), opens new tab BNSF, CSX (CSX.O), opens new tab, Norfolk Southern Corp (NSC.N), opens new tab and Kansas City Southern.



  • Every time I hear about Uyghurs, I get reminded of the good work independent journalists do.

    Specifically this article, Max Blumenthal | April 30, 2021: https://thegrayzone.com/2021/04/30/xinjiang-forced-labor-china-uyghur/

    The Grayzone: Independent news and investigative journalism on politics and empire.

    The editor-in-chief of The Grayzone, Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and the author of several books, including best-selling Republican Gomorrah, Goliath, The Fifty One Day War, and The Management of Savagery. He has produced print articles for an array of publications, many video reports, and several documentaries, including Killing Gaza. Blumenthal founded The Grayzone in 2015 to shine a journalistic light on America’s state of perpetual war and its dangerous domestic repercussions.


    The additions to the entity list under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act marked the first time a China-based steel company or aspartame sweetener business had been targeted by U.S. law enforcement, DHS said.

    The federal law that President Joe Biden signed at the end of 2021 followed allegations of human rights abuses by Beijing against members of the ethnic Uyghur group and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. The Chinese government has rejected the claims as lies and has defended its practice and policy in Xinjiang as fighting terror and ensuring stability.

    The new approach marked a shift in the U.S. trade relationship with China to increasingly take into account national security and human rights. Beijing has accused the U.S. of using human rights as a pretext to suppress China’s economic growth.

    Since June 2022, the entity list has grown to 75 companies accused of using forced labor in Xinjiang or sourcing materials tied to that forced labor, Homeland Security said.










  • “Neither major candidate was able to make serious commitments to our union to ensure the interests of working people are always put before Big Business,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said in a statement.

    He added, “We sought commitments from both [former president Donald] Trump and [Vice President Kamala] Harris not to interfere in critical union campaigns or core Teamsters industries—and to honor our members’ right to strike—but were unable to secure those pledges.”

    The Teamsters, which represents truck drivers, freight workers and others, held similar meetings with Trump and President Joe Biden when he was still seeking re-election.

    On Wednesday, the union released the results of their survey, which was conducted after Biden dropped out of the race. It found that almost 60% of rank-and-file union members preferred to endorse Trump, while 34% backed Harris, according to an electronic member poll. A phone poll indicated similar margins, with 58% supporting Trump and 31% supporting Harris.

    “While the Teamsters Executive Board is making no formal endorsement, the hardworking members of the Teamsters have been loud and clear— they want President Trump back in the White House!” said campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt in a statement. “These hardworking men and women are the backbone of America and President Trump will strongly stand up for them when he’s back in the White House.”[1]


    1. [1] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/teamsters-union-declines-endorse-presidential-election-breaking-decade-rcna171711 ↩︎