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Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

reuters.com

411–420 of 747 posts

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it was somebody else's account. Also, see @foone's thread here: https://twitter.com/Foone/status/1346924327996772354 tl;dr: the government has appropriate computer security in place to prevent this sort of thing, and it's not clear what the deal was with that particular computer.

how hard is + L to lock your screen?

When you hear the mob screaming outside, glass breaking, and are likely being told to evacuate by messages on your computer and security outside? I wouldn't bet that I'd remember. Not locking your screen is as expected as it is forgivable under the circumstances.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because someone on the inside opened the door and let them in, it’s not “storming”? Those Twitter comments are all suggesting this was a setup, but the more likely scenario is that most of those that should be serving as police either were sympathetic to today’s right wing rhetoric or weren’t prepared for a mess of people. What were they supposed to do at the point of this video? Pull out their guns and escalate the…

> People died anyway. Same happened at CHAZ, a couple black kids got killed by some nutjob police LARPers. I don’t recall a big hubbub blaming left wing rhetoric or arguing for the immediate destruction and disbanding of the autonomous zones. I remember an absolute heartbreaking interview with the kid’s father. There was no interest for the BLM crowd to hold their own accountable.

Are we really sitting here comparing storming the capitol building and interrupting the certification of the electoral vote, to CHAZ? Pipe bombs were placed in capital buildings, the insurrectionists were armed and had zip ties. Five people died as a result of these actions. The idea that this is at all comparable to CHAZ, is ridiculous.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would enemy spies get out of that. Even prima fascie top military secrets like battle plans (those must be updated and shuffled regularly to prevent a situation exactly like that) have very little immediate usefulness. It's 21st century, it's beyond anybody's ability to hide things like size, dislocation, and basic capabilities of your force

Oh you think the generals readily involve old Pelosi with the battle plans? I sort of doubt they would trust her with anything digital that’s supposed to be a secret.

I think the same, and I very much doubt US general staff being inept to a point of holding war plans on a computer.

Intel reports? Again, most real deal intel sources would be either kept real deal secret, or really not being such.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#414
post #347

Sounds like there were operatives embedded in the crowd and knew where and what to go after. The damage is done.

Holy shit. When I had my laptop stolen last year I assumed it was the druggies down the street, but you’re right! Stolen laptop? Must be operatives

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably the same reason police moved barricades, waved them in, and took selfies with them.

I’m sorry but if you’re a couple of police officers in a room full of literal terrorists, of course you’re going to try to be as restrained and friendly as possible. You’re horribly outnumbered. They would be murdered if they tried to take on the crowd. They needed to wait for reinforcements to arrive, and meanwhile do their best to keep the crowd from going fully insane. They managed the situation with very few peop…

The uh, selfie thing though..

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firing on a mob is risky as hell and not morally clear. I can't blame Capitol Police--at least for the actions after it already got out of hand. If federal security at Court House shoots BLM protestors who are entering a federal court house, those security people would probably get charged with murder. It's unreasonable to expect Capitol Police to make that sort of moral choice in the moment. And if you give cops the…

> If federal security at Court House shoots BLM protestors who are entering a federal court house, those security people would probably get charged with murder. Probably? Says who? In fact, multiple people have been shot (fatally or otherwise) during BLM protests, and actions against those officers have been very much the exception.

I'm not aware of police using live bullets against unarmed people to prevent them from entering a government facility. Though I could be ignorant of clear examples.

At least in Minnesota and Portland they let looters burn/occupy the buildings without contest.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#417
Until evidence is substantiated, we should assume the parties that be will try to continue to blow this out of proportion. It shouldn't be surprising that one of Pelosi's aides is going to try to make the breach of the capital sound like something bigger than it really was - you know... to come up with more excuses to expand the surveillance of innocent citizens. As a Biden voter who also went to BLM protests (can't believe I have to lead with this on HN nowadays...) I can honestly say that many of those events were more violent and destructive than what happened Wednesday. Yes - I believe the people who stormed the capital were morons and will all likely end up in federal "pound me in the ass" prison [0].

The pictures of staffers "cleaning up after the destruction" that show them just putting plastic cups into trash bags are hilarious. If only we could get both sides who disagree with the govt to cooperate and compromise - without a need to rely on gov to facilitate compromise maybe we could start to see light at the end of the tunnel? It's now clearer than ever that the government and even trump don't support what the people want. There's more than enough common ground to stop sending huge sums of money to other countries, to support small business (minority or otherwise) and be reasonable, the only thing standing in the way is division. Calling the other side inhuman or unworthy is walking into the same trap that gave us trump...

0 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBzvMLW0ii4

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#418
post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think any of your rogue nation club have any interest hacking US politicians , except for, probably, blackmail? US is an open society, and most US politicians speak what they think, or at least you can guess, or even ask them yourself! Those people are like open books. Unlike of your usual cabal totalitarians, who either don't speak at all, or purposefully try to hide their real aims by engaging in double…

I can't imagine you really believe that. The US may have an open society, but the US doesn't have an open government. Look at just the tiniest amount of publicly known items from Snowden and Wikileaks. Those alone indicate a greater iceberg of secrets.

Very good argument, but I cannot believe that anything of Wikileaks leaks would be really new, or of much value to Russians, or Chinese.

US diplomatic talks with sketchy regimes? I bet China, and Russia would've not needed any spies there really.

US sales of weapons? US sells them everywhere, and they don't need spies to know the bottom price, when most of weapon buyers would just tell them that themselves. You don't have too much alternatives in a duopoly market.

US spies on Russian, or Chinese soil? You don't need to tell regimes like that of them being penetrated. Xi, and Pu realize perfectly well that they are surrounded by thousands of sketchy, and unreliable officers.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#419

What an absolute mess. Whatever political spectrum you might be on, having people roaming around the halls of a sensitive government institution is not in the interest of any US citizen. Security of our institutions, elections and democracy should be a non-partisan issue.

> having people roaming around the halls of a sensitive government institution Depends on your views on right to rebel.

Right to rebel?

I'm not aware of that one.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They turned down an offer from the Pentagon to supplement manpower Hmm, why turn down an offer of assistance from a military whose commander-in-chief wants to overturn the election? I can think of a few reasons...

I'm curious - what are those reasons, and how would the lack of an invitation thwart them?

Most obviously, if you invite the military in and ask them to secure a portion of the building, you're exposed to the risk that the commander-in-chief will order them out (or order them to stand aside); it's unlikely that forces could be redeployed fast enough to respond to such a defection. (And no, you can't avoid this danger by having all the forces working together everywhere; far too many command-and-control issues arise.) If you don't invite the military to assist in the first place... well, then you're not relying on them to guard your back.

There's also a fundamental democratic issue at stake: It's not by coincidence that the United States Capitol Police answers to the legislature and not to the executive -- indeed, this is seen around the world (e.g. Canada's Parliamentary Protective Service answers to the Speakers of the House and Senate) and arguably the principle that military forces should not be brought to the seat of legislative power dates back to the Roman Republic... which swiftly became the Roman Empire after Caesar crossed the Rubicon with an army at his back.

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