#foreign adversaries

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

dave whammond

* * * *

Shocking disclosures regarding a data breach at the National Labor Relations Board suggest illegal conduct by DOGE members

Over the weekend, NPR published a lengthy story about a potential major data breach at the National Labor Relations Board. At first blush, the story sounds like it is in 45th place on the list of the most horrible things that Trump and DOGE have done in the first 86 days of his administration.

But you must pay attention to this story. It is a national scandal that suggests DOGE has intentionally exposed confidential US government information to foreign adversaries.

I will give a very brief summary, but urge you to read, listen to, or watch one of the sources I cite below.

In short, a whistleblower from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claims the following:

DOGE gained access to the NLRB's most sensitive information, which included labor complaints, identity of whistleblowers, identity of private employees engaged in union organizing, and enforcement actions against private companies (like Tesla and SpaceX).

DOGE turned off log files that would record their actions.

DOGE set up a “black box” inside the NLRB network so that NLRB IT personnel could not monitor what was happening.

DOGE disabled security protections, thereby exposing the NLRB’s sensitive information to the internet.

Within 15 minutes of the firewall protections being disabled, someone using an IP address in Russia used a username and password for a DOGE team member to attempt to access the NLRB information.

NLRB IT members witnessed a massive spike in information being downloaded from the NLRB servers.

A DOGE team member set up a file that was briefly visible on a public forum; the filename suggested that it was a “backdoor” download program for an NLRB-specific database.

The NLRB IT staff asked the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) security team to help launch an investigation, but the CISA investigation was peremptorily shut down without explanation.

The employee who asked CISA to begin the investigation received a typed note on his residence door which warned the employee to drop the request for CISA assistance and included personal details about the employee known only from government files. The note also included a drone photo of the employee walking his dog on a public street.

A spokesperson for the NLRB issued a statement claiming that DOGE never visited the NLRB and did not gain access to NLRB data—a statement that seems to a blatant, easily disprovable lie.

I have not done justice to the details of the story. There are three ways you can educate yourself about this story.

First, the lengthy NPR article is here: NPR, Whistleblower details how DOGE may have taken sensitive NLRB data.

Second, the NPR report has a seven-minute audio summary embedded in the article. It is an accessible entry point into the article.

Finally, Rachel Maddow did an excellent job of explaining the whistleblower allegations on Tuesday evening. I have excerpted the 20-minute segment of her show that includes an interview with the whistleblower and his attorney. See The Rachel Maddow Show, Whistleblower Excerpt, April 15, 2025.

As a personal favor to me (and you), I urge you to watch the Rachel Maddow segment. It will bring you up to speed on this scandal, which will be around for a long time and may be the undoing of DOGE.

If you watch the Rachel Maddow show, you will meet the whistleblower--Daniel Berulis—who is a loyal employee of the federal government who says that he “hopes he is wrong” in believing that DOGE exposed sensitive information to someone in Russia who was using a DOGE username and password.

At this very moment, there are hundreds or thousands of Daniel Berulises in the federal government who have not come forward. Daniel Berulis’s example should encourage them to come forward to describe other instances of DOGE misconduct or carelessness that may have harmed America’s interests.

If Berulis’s allegations are true, it is difficult to see how the conduct by at least one DOGE member does not rise to the level of a felony. We need to know more and must be open to the facts, including denials of the allegations. But the allegations are truly shocking and suggest that DOGE may have inflicted grievous injury on the US by exposing confidential information.

CODA: As shocking as the above allegations are, we have reasonable grounds for believing misconduct by Trump administration officials in seeking to conceal their unlawful actions.

Remember Signalgate? You may recall that CIA Director John Ratcliffe participated in chats on an non-secure commercial application. Congress has asked that all such communications be turned over for review.

Well, it might not shock you to learn that the CIA’s information technology team has informed Congress that none of John Ratcliff’s communications on Signal are recoverable. See MSNBC, Missing Signal messages from CIA director’s phone raise cover-up concerns.

Remember after the January 6 insurrection when most of the Secret Service’s texts were mysteriously deleted and therefore unavailable for review by the January 6 Committee? See PBS News, Government watchdog says Secret Service agents deleted Jan. 6 text messages.

Once is a mistake. Twice is a suspicious coincidence. Three times is a damning pattern. Secret Service. Signalgate. DOGE. It appears that actors within the Trump administration believe that destroying communications is an acceptable way to avoid accountability. It is up to Congress and the courts to get to the bottom of the DOGE NLRB incident and Signalgate as quickly as possible—before more evidence goes missing.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[william-r-melich]

Tik Tok on the Chopping Block - 04/25/2024

Yesterday, Joe Biden signed the Tik Tok Divest-or-Ban bill into law. I covered this bill extensively in my post, "Tik Tok Bill/HR 7521" back on March 16th of this year. This bill forces ByteDance to sell Tik Tok within one year. It's clear to me that this Chinese owned company is controlled by the CCP and is using it to gather information on US citizens and influence children toward committing self-harm and suicide.

Tik Tok's CEO, Shou Zi Chew released the following video statement yesterday. "Make no mistake, this is a ban, a ban on you and your voice. We are confident, and we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts. The facts and the Constitution are on our side, and we expect to prevail again." He was referring to how they circumvented Trump's executive order to ban the app in the U.S. back in 2020. Tik Tok's position is that through China's Counterespionage Law, its customer data is stored in Virginia and backed up in Singapore. They claim that they have never or ever will share U.S. data with the CCP. Yet the owner of ByteDance previously issued a letter of apology to the CCP about failing to follow the CCP's directives. It's obvious to me that they are more of an arm of the CCP than a private company and we should not trust them. At the same time, I'm also conflicted about trusting our own government. Regardless it's now signed into law, like it or not.

Tik Tok and ByteDance together spent over $7 million since the beginning of this year on TV and digital ads in an effort to stop legislation from passing the bill. A Tik Tok spokesperson said this, "This expenditure reflects work we do to educate policy makers about how legislation could affect our community of 170 million American users." Tik Tok officials lobbied Congress and Biden's executive office last quarter. Biden's executive office contains the National Security Council, the Office Management and Budget, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and other divisions.

As I mentioned in my previous post on this bill last March, Donald Trump and Elon Musk both came out against it. Trump is concerned that it could expand government powers on other platforms, and Musk is concerned about censorship. The bill is intended to remove any foreign influence and investment in social media platforms and websites here in the U.S. The government would have to prove that a foreign entity is directly involved and then initially force divestment, and then later if necessary deplatform the app and shut down their operating websites.

I'm all for private companies operating platforms that allow freedom of expression, but not if they're being operated by a foreign adversary like China's CCP. Yet I'm always very skeptical of our government and their tendencies to over-reach in order to go after their political opposition. Especially with this current bunch in charge. All we can do is to stay informed and hopefully for the sake of our freedom and security vote in Republican majorities in both the house and senate, and get Donald Trump back into office, in my opinion.

[abyss-is-lame]

Please for the love of everything, SPREAD THIS VIDEO. I'm not one to get into these situations where I'm like 'spread this! reblog! reshare! show your friends!' for mental health reasons but this is very very important. Tag your friends and spread this video as much as you can, read the bill for yourself, TAKE ACTION. @in-a-mello-mood @scraptumblers @amfloofer Read the bill 'HR 7521' here:

[justinspoliticalcorner]

It has officially arrived: ByteDance-owned TikTok is (temporarily) banned in the USA. Late Saturday evening at around 10:30PM ET/9:30PM CT/7:30PM PT, before the TikTok Ban law was set to officially take effect, users of the app in the USA got this message: “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok right now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned.” Apple and Google app stores have removed the app, meaning that you cannot download the app or update the app. Not only is TikTok temporarily banned, but also Lemon8 and CapCut, which are under ByteDance’s umbrella. The ban on TikTok stems from President Joe Biden (D) signing the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA) on April 24th, 2024, after the House passed it 360-58 on April 20th (the original House version passed it on March 13th, 2024 352-65), 2024 and the Senate passed it on April 23rd, 2024 79-18. The bill required ByteDance to divest TikTok and its subsidiaries to a buyer not controlled by a foreign adversary. The Supreme Court then unanimously and disgracefully ruled 9-0 per curiam in TikTok v. Garland on January 17th, 2025 that the law banning TikTok is valid.

The ban on TikTok is a nationwide tragedy, along with the return of felon-elect Donald Trump to the White House. The ban on TikTok has zero to do with national security, but a way to squelch pro-LGBTQ+ and pro-Palestine sentiments. The app’s ban would be very disastrous to music consumption and discovery, as its influence in the music world has risen within the last five years.

Read the full post at my Substack.

[newsreleted]

TikTok set to be banned in the US after losing appeal

See More.....

[kaleidoscope1967eyes]

im not a tiktok girlie but come on y'all isn't a ban like. censorship

[dugaodna]

i want the tory party to rip its own dick off over the next 48 hours and it will happen. it will happen trust me

[firstoccupier]

The USA's Hypothetical Exit from NATO: A World Transformed

Analyzing the Potential Consequences of America’s Withdrawal from Military Alliances Date: March 3, 2025 In a dramatic hypothetical scenario, if the United States were to withdraw from NATO, the geopolitical landscape could undergo significant transformations. This article explores the potential benefits for the USA, the risks for the global community, and the implications of such a drastic…

[halfchick]

I hope Elon gets his ass beat

[nationallawreview]

Breaking News: U.S. Supreme Court Upholds TikTok Ban Law

On January 17, 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States (“SCOTUS”) unanimously upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (the “Act”), which restricts companies from making foreign adversary controlled applications available (i.e., on an app store) and from providing hosting services with respect to such apps. The Act does not apply to covered…

[frombehindthepen]

Huh? I Don't Get It!

Huh? I Don't Get It! #Technology #Users #Decisions #Logic

Image Credit: Pixabay You know I can be a little slow in processing the logic behind what some people are thinking or not thinking. So, let me just cut to the chase. Many people have already heard that there is a looming TikTok ban because of user information privacy and safety concerns from a foreign adversary. This issue has received governmental bipartisan support, and a decision is due on…

[radio-charlie]

Who gives a fuck about this flag versus that flag? The truth is that underneath it all people make deals across borders for posses you can't see. You're told this is an antisemitic mindset when who the fuck said anything about it being Jewish people behind it all? It's a lot of different types of people. What, wondering if the most powerful people in the entire fucking world pull strings behind the curtains makes you a Nazi? LOL bitch please. 9 times out of 10 I heard that line it was from feds.

They want a world-ending war. They want differences to be irreconciliable. Buy time here to make a heaven for themselves elsewhere.

[finchandthebard]

The "tiktok ban" should scare you and here's why.

Rant made by an autistic, history-loving, chronically online American tiktok cosplayer. Please let me know if I've gotten anything wrong and I will edit the post.

Reblog to spread awareness!

This is not just about Tiktok, and it's not about national security. The Tiktok ban is wrapped up in the "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act" which has the ability to ban any foreign website or app that the United States government sees as a threat to their "democracy." Not only that, but if the gov't didn't want China to gather data, then they would ban things like Shein and Temu (the latter which they advertised during the Super Bowl), which collect similar data that Tiktok does. If they wanted to prevent our data being stolen in general, they would ban companies like Meta, which monetarily supports the Tiktok ban and had to change their name because "Facebook" was associated with the largest data leak in history.

The documentations of the Tiktok court interrogations prove how incompetent our government is. Repeatedly asking the TikTok CEO Mr. Chew if he's Chinese while he repeatedly assures them he's Singaporean. The officials being concerned that they can't find Singapore on a map. The officials then being confused why the app would be able to have access to their wifi because it needs wifi to load.

The possibility of the US buying Tiktok exposes a greater issue in America: monopolies. The Sherman Antitrust Act was passed in 1890 that restricted the activities of large companies known as monopolies, which started out as small companies and would either buy other companies or buy the factories which produced all their materials. This eliminated competition in the market and gave the monopolies almost full control of quality and prices of items, and it was considered very anti-American at the time. Since the US already has multiple major social medias, including Facebook (Meta), Instagram (Meta), Threads (Meta), X (formerly Twitter), Snapchat, and Reddit, adding Tiktok would mean that nobody could compete with the US in the social media market. This makes them a monopoly, and it's incredibly dangerous.

Banning Tiktok breaks several American trademarks. A) the Republicans banning Tiktok are very concerned about their second amendment right to own guns, but they seem to not care about the first amendment right to freedom of speech and press, which Tiktok delivers. Of course there are app guidelines, but for the most part you have fairly uncensored political and ethical commentary like no other social media. B) the only other countries that have banned Tiktok are either heavily demonized by America or are direct targets for American propaganda (ex. China), which really doesn't make the ban look good. C) banning a social media for the purpose of censorship is a trademark of communism, which Americans are INCREDIBLY wary of.

Your country may follow in suit. Because of America's influence as a global superpower and an ally to many other major powers, America banning Tiktok would likely lead to a domino effect in other countries.

The rich get richer. There is a concept called social darwinism, in which it is the rich's beliefs that the poor must fend for themselves without the help of the government in order to make a living - "survival of the fittest." Tiktok contributed around $14.7 billion USD in 2023 and $24.2 billion in 2024, and it supports around 224,000 jobs [source]. The actual Tiktok website says in 2023, they contributed $15 billion USD in revenue and supported 7 million US businesses [source]. Without these jobs, there could be in increase in homelessness, debt, and sickness due to withdrawals (if you're incredibly addicted to Tiktok) and lack of quick dopamine hits (due to the rapidfire nature of the algorithm).

Remember that the president is not your friend !! Many of the political figures rallying to support Tiktok right now, such as President Biden, initially voted for the ban. President Biden is likely supporting now so that Trump won't get credit for it, and future President Trump is likely doing it for brownie points among younger generations.

The Xiaohongshu migration exposed the American government and its lies. The stories from American 'Tiktok refugees' about the questions from native Chinese on the Xiaohongshu / Rednote / Redbook app (considered the Chinese mixed of Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook) posed a lot of conspiracies and realizations about the American government. The Chinese actually own their homes, they have lower food prices than we do, and they have a slim homelessness rate. Whether this is true or not, it has greatly influenced how we see ourselves in the grand scheme of the American oligarchy, and that is not something that can be suppressed with an app being banned.

Tiktok is not totally Chinese! The CEO is Singaporean, as I've already stated, and there are multiple headquarters in the US, with the main one being in Los Angeles.

In conclusion...

Whether Tiktok is banned or not, whether permanently or not, no matter who saves it or rallies against it, remember that it is harder to scare and control someone when they are in a group. And if you think this was interesting, I'd love it if you could reblog to show some support and inform your friends as well. <3

THIS IS NOT RIGHT VS LEFT❗️IT'S UP VS DOWN❗️