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Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

reuters.com

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Re: Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

#91

Post by swirepe »

ralmidani wrote: post #79
saladgnu054 wrote: post #60

Can we say "the Russian government" or "the Russian secret services" or something similar? Why always this tone with the Russians, the Russians are wonderful people, like everyone else trying to live their lives with the hand they were dealt. Am I the only one that sees how offensive this trope is to about 150 million people?

I’m Syrian-American and I hate it when people say “the Syrians” when they really mean the barbaric Assad regime. I do, however, think it’s more out of stupidity than malice; it stems from a statist worldview rather than an intentional desire to demonize the people subject to a given state’s rule.

I agree that saying "the Syrians" feels incorrect, but how do you feel about saying just the name of the country as shorthand for the country's government? For example

America donated fidget spinners to Syra

vs

The American government donated fidget spinners to the Syrian government

(but not 'The Americans donated fidget spinners to the Syrians')

Re: Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

#92

Post by hsbauauvhabzb »

saladgnu054 wrote: post #60

Can we say "the Russian government" or "the Russian secret services" or something similar? Why always this tone with the Russians, the Russians are wonderful people, like everyone else trying to live their lives with the hand they were dealt. Am I the only one that sees how offensive this trope is to about 150 million people?

As an Aussie, it feels like a tone set in American film and tv which consistently paints Russia as a frenemy which probably influences the writers.

I’m sure the Russians are fed the very same sorts of propaganda tho.

Re: Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

#93

Post by netsharc »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #69
saladgnu054 wrote: post #60

Can we say "the Russian government" or "the Russian secret services" or something similar? Why always this tone with the Russians, the Russians are wonderful people, like everyone else trying to live their lives with the hand they were dealt. Am I the only one that sees how offensive this trope is to about 150 million people?

While I agree with your general sentiment, in this specific case the person appeared motivated to literally just sell the laptop to some Russian people, with the expectation that they had the ability to resell the laptop to the Russian government. The people who broke into the Capitol and stole things are not the smartest or most well-connected people. More details are available in some of the court docs that are flo…

> disconnected from reality.

The frightening bit is that in their "reality", the deep state with the help of Communist Party of China (or are they lizard people?) stole the election, the judges are part of the theft, MSM is just lying to the brainwashed masses, etc, etc. And that they're the patriots trying to save the country.

The funny bit is how they're crying that it's China (oops, I mean, Chinese government) who's controlling Biden. Why couldn't it be Putin? Is it because the Russians (oops, I mean, Putin) are their friends now? Or that they subconsciously know that Trump was Putin's poorly-trained lapdog?

Re: Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

#94

Post by im3w1l »

adrr wrote: post #55
newacct583 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or even small organizations, or individuals. Our phones storage is uniformly encrypted by default now and have been for several years. There's absolutely no reason that Windows installs and Linux distros should offer unencrypted storage as anything but a hidden option for experts. That said: there's no particular reason to think this laptop wasn't encrypted.

Because it doesn’t matter to most people outside of a business setting. Forgetting your password and losing your backup key is a bigger risk especially some backup drive of pictures/videos.

I think best practices will emerge eventually, that strike a balance. Like having a password but writing it down and putting it in an offsite safe deposit box. Or maybe something based on shamir's secret sharing.

We need to see a lot of failures (both failing open and closed) and do postmortems before one strategy is recognized as winner, that's what I believe.

Re: Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

#95

Post by IgorPartola »

IntelMiner wrote: post #85
naniwaduni wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That ... doesn't seem quite right, no.

I'd disagree People that are unhinged in their view of reality enough to think that they're going to just - Take a week off work - Book a hotel room - Board a plane - Take down the government - Fly home - Go back to work People who think that can be integrated into "just another day" are likely unhinged enough that they'd become violent when "challenged" at home on much smaller issues

This is going to be a major generalization here, but "they aren't sending their best". One of the people at the riots was flying two flags: a US flag and a Georgia flag below that. That is Georgia the country, because he didn't think to check what the state's flag actually looks like. These people walked for an hour between the two ropes in the Statuary Hall. These people took selfies while committing multiple federal felony crimes.

I don't know how this relates to domestic abuse, but it certainly points to few people there using their brains to full capacity.

Re: Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

#96

Post by type0 »

SpaceRaccoon wrote: post #3

> to Russians I don't understand why they say "to Russians" or "to the Russians" instead of "to Russian intelligence". It's like being Russian is the crime itself. They wouldn't write "tried to sell the computer to Jews".

> They wouldn't write "tried to sell the computer to Jews".

From the article - “intended to send the computer device to a friend in Russia, who then planned to sell the device to SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service" Maybe that friend weren't ethnically russian, no one cares, the point is that it sounds more villainous.

Re: Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

#97

Post by rongdongdong »

idownvoted wrote: post #90

As a foreigner with limited knowledge about the powers of a US House Speaker: What value would a laptop of Nancy Pelosi provide to a foreign government, if it doesn’t include incriminating content? I‘m not suggesting that this story is bogus, but rather that Riley June Williams hopes were and she vastly overestimated the laptop’s value to anyone.

SAM files and other such sensitive data come to mind

Re: Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

#98

Post by MisterTea »

saladgnu054 wrote: post #60

Can we say "the Russian government" or "the Russian secret services" or something similar? Why always this tone with the Russians, the Russians are wonderful people, like everyone else trying to live their lives with the hand they were dealt. Am I the only one that sees how offensive this trope is to about 150 million people?

"Can we say "the American government" or "Central Intelligence Agency" or something similar? Why always this tone with the Americans, the Americans are wonderful people, like everyone else trying to live their lives with the hand they were dealt. Am I the only one that sees how offensive this trope is to about 330 million people?"

Re: Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

#99

Post by ProblemFactory »

swirepe wrote: post #91
ralmidani wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m Syrian-American and I hate it when people say “the Syrians” when they really mean the barbaric Assad regime. I do, however, think it’s more out of stupidity than malice; it stems from a statist worldview rather than an intentional desire to demonize the people subject to a given state’s rule.

I agree that saying "the Syrians" feels incorrect, but how do you feel about saying just the name of the country as shorthand for the country's government? For example America donated fidget spinners to Syra vs The American government donated fidget spinners to the Syrian government (but not 'The Americans donated fidget spinners to the Syrians')

The classical news terminology is to use the name of the capital city to refer to the government of a country.

Washington donated fidget spinners, Damascus invited experts from Moscow to inspect the latest advances in ball bearing technology.

Re: Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

#100

Post by joshka »

hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #92
saladgnu054 wrote: post #60

Can we say "the Russian government" or "the Russian secret services" or something similar? Why always this tone with the Russians, the Russians are wonderful people, like everyone else trying to live their lives with the hand they were dealt. Am I the only one that sees how offensive this trope is to about 150 million people?

As an Aussie, it feels like a tone set in American film and tv which consistently paints Russia as a frenemy which probably influences the writers. I’m sure the Russians are fed the very same sorts of propaganda tho.

(Another Aussie here). How do you feel about Canberra is ... instead of the Australian Government is ...
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