Dear patient readers,
We were under a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack Thursday afternoon and a heavy one for the better part of four hours on Friday afternoon. Thanks to the valiant efforts of our webhost, we currently have the situation under control.
Even though we’ve had site outages in the past due to traffic surges, this is the first time we’ve clearly been targeted for a DDoS attack. Both the volume and the nature of the queries were designed to bring the site down.
We hope this sort of thing does not happen again, but if it does, we hope you’ll bear with us while we bring the site back up.
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just glad to hear nc has come through it. whatever measures you need to take. nc is too valuable of a resource to lose.
1. better prepare for the day when Empire takes kontrol of the inertnet, and you have to use flash drives -samizdat-style- to spread the word…
2. funny i/you/we didn’t hear about the minor factoid of rescinding the law which made it unlawful for gummint institutions to use taxpayer funds to inform *cough* propagandize murikan citizens…
funny, almost as if the korporate-kontrolled media didn’t want us to know…
3. odder still, what *does* unka sammie do with the ‘social media sockpuppet’ software the MILITARY have bought which allows one operator to spoof hundreds of accounts to flood the inertnet with propaganda we pay for ? ? ?
4. finally, do we imagine all these monies are simply farcebook circle jerks, or do they use some of unka sam’s sugar to get black-hat hackers who are sicced on a list of ‘unfriendly’ (ie all too true) sites/people ? ? ?
deniability abounds…
I’ll eschew the usual banalities and ask if any source for the Attack was determined. My money’s on the two ‘C’s; China or the Clintons.
With a Distributed Denial of Service attack, the sources are from all over the globe, by definition.
That’s because people all over the world open email attachments looking to “add 4 inches” or a message from some “$€X¥ woman” and thereby become unwitting attack zombies. Doesn’t mean that the attacks weren’t all originated by one press of a button. Out of the two possibilities mentioned above, this site hasn’t walked over to the China beehive and kicked it a few times. This smacks of the ClintonTrollRearguard. They weren’t above uploading child porn to Facebook. I bet the politico piece was a stick in the eye too.
The attacks were directed at NC in a way that meant we and only we were clearly being targeted. It was a large scale attack and it really was from addresses all over the world. Our webhost has explained why this was not anything like an ordinary traffic surge from Chinese spambots (we’ve had those, for instance, and some of those we suspected was the site being crawled for porn images), and I cannot elaborate because that could also expose his remedy.
The past crippling traffic surges involved much less total traffic and came from a vastly smaller number of sources. That can be dealt with relatively easily (although it takes some doing to implement, there are certain manual steps to that defense).
are you going to file a criminal complaint?
That is not necessarily the case. Some organizations, such as Anonymous, have used something like the Low Orbit Ion Cannon program, which voluntarily places a user’s computer onto the botnet. I cannot speak for other such programs, but I know that in the case of Low Orbit Ion Cannon, anyone who downloaded it could also make use of the botnet and initiate a DDOS attack. Note that I am not pointing the finger at Anonymous here, just using their method as an example, and also pointing out that such networks provide an easy way for someone with different values/goals to enter and take control of the botnet as well.
It’s easy enough to pull off something sophisticated – people tend to forget that whatever the TLA’s, Corporates and Nation States have, some nerds had first!
I used to know some people working for one of the larger porn, pills & casino spamvertising outfits. Their motto is “…to stuff every orifice with advertising” (they do replace orifice with “channel” and “stuff” with “service” in the brochure though).
The volume of ads served from a few central locations is astonishing. And ads on the Internet are not just ads, they are in fact programs running on other peoples browsers.
To set up a DDOS attack from “the mothership”, all that “someone” has to do is to include a little bit of code, javascript typically, within each of the ads that will access the target website every time an ad comes up (They bundle code all the time as part of the normal business, they have tools for that). The malignant code will then be distributed globally in the ad server network and every time someone loads an ad-infested site without an ad-blocker, it will “hit” the target.
No command / control network needed. “Someone” can be one person doing a little business on the side or it could indeed be an ad network owned by one of the TLA’s; they have run marketing outfits since long before the Internet.
Ah. I learn stuff all the time from this suite of Freedom Fighters.
I’m still wondering if the command stream can be backtracked, or is that too expensive or onerous a task? Synoia makes a suggestion in that vein. Frankly, I don’t know enough about this phenomenon.
Still, resorting to banalities at last, you all have garnered the attention of someone.
The suggestion of the USS Liberty piece being a trigger for this level of spite has merit. I interacted with some hard core Z-ists in high school, and they were, well, bonkers.
Piss off a fanatic of whatever stripe and one can expect the odd fatwa winging its’ way to your inbox.
If this did indeed happen twice in succession, coming from the same source, then you are dealing with vindictive people. I hate to say it but comity and amity are in short supply in our ‘modern times.’
David Brock taking it to new levels!
Oooh…….
Maybe that evil monotone-with-a-name desires to purge Naked Capitalism of Secret Agent Kids?
After his failed attempt we’ll next be forced to accept cookies by Hillary Clinton!
;)
Well, if HRC’s machine has the reach to mess with Google’s algorithms, this was pretty much expected. I assumed some form of attack was going on when I got 404’s on NC over the last couple of days. Sad, but expected considering the political environment of the last week or so and the records of the parties (presumably) involved.
That’s what you get for explaining why #BernieOrBust is the correct path. That one was widely shared on social media. The Clinton Mafia does not countenance dissent. You think the 2008 version of the Enemies List was long? Dwarfed by the 2016 edition.
I see us as advocating for particular positions, save in banking and finance, where we have expertise. What I see us more in the business of doing is pulling signal out of the noise and debunking bad information. Our big point on Sanders v. Clinton is there are gaping policy differences between them on many issues, and there is no reason to believe that Clinton will do anything more than make gestures in the Sanders direction.
“…and there is no reason to believe that Clinton will do anything more than make gestures in the Sanders direction.”
Well, I’m not sure how that’s gonna work – Sanders deleted her account long ago out of pure boredom,,,,….toning it down wasn’t the solution!
I know that was your original intent in writing that Politico article. But in the end, wasn’t the article as much about penetrating the bubble they have created to block out the reality that Sanders supporters are not just dumb kids, and aren’t “coming home”? That’s what I took from it. After all, the excerpt of mine that you used wasn’t about the policy issues, it was about the commitment to do whatever it takes to keep Clinton out of office.
I know it’s a long shot, but I continue to hope that there are just enough superdelegates out there — especially if/when Sanders wins California — to vote for Sanders at the convention. I’m actually wondering if the clumsy “unity” parade this week helps that. Obama, Warren, bringing Cenk Uygur to heel — if after all that, there isn’t much movement towards Clinton, and Warren’s numbers (not just her social media numbers) sink, might that not help wake them up a bit? (Like I said, I do realize that’s still a long shot.)
If you read the article, the overwhelming majority of it (and yes, a lot of readers did not get that far) was discussing how the Democrats under Clinton and Obama had implemented policies that increased inequality and greatly reduced economic security for those outside the top 10%, and since the crisis, outside the top 1%. And voters have responded accordingly. The Dems took huge losses in Congressional elections (and all down the line) in both Administrations.
The theme of the piece originally was “Why Clinton Does Not Deserve the Sanders Vote” and the focus was on the policy issues. The editor made the “some Sanders voters are so disaffected that they are planning to vote for Trump, and they aren’t dopes” point prominent to get it more widely read and serve as a clearer wake-up call.
But the Clinton operatives are so unwilling to hear that anyone rational might vote for Trump that it just got them hysterical, as opposed to recognizing that their confidence that Clinton will trounce Trump is not well informed. This race is Trump’s to lose. He may well decide to lose it (or be too undisciplined to do what it takes to win), but the Clinton side seems utterly out of touch as to the precariousness of its position.
Nearly half the CA votes have not been counted. If Sanders’ margin of loss shrinks to 5 points, say, and Clinton’s bump in the polls with the triumphal coverage of her “winning” the nomination fades, and Trump pulls back to being head to head with her despite the Mexican judge row and the new, improved Twitterverse campaign against Trump (see Links when they launch, I have some skeptical comments about that), Team Dem ought to be back in freakout mode. If Trump can continue to be massively transgressive and actually does gain in the polls (or alternatively, he gets more selective and starts wearing his Reaganite hat more often, as he did in his speech after the CA primary), and all the conventional media and Clinton campaign attacks fail to dent him, Sanders will have a much better case to press. But Clinton has such a lock on the party that I don’t see her loosening her grip. The only thing that might fundamentally change that equation is some really devastating leaks from the FBI, Trump nailing her on some dirty Clinton Foundation dealings, or a health crisis.
My money is on the Lolita Express scandal. The MSM seems to be keeping it under wraps. For now.
Re: California votes being counted, I don’t see the number of votes changing either through Google’s or the NY Times’ reporting of the voting numbers. I checked my vote by mail ballot status on Thurs (not yet received) and again late last night PDT on Fri (received, which presumably means counted according to others who have checked their status), so some ballots are getting counted…somewhere. But the media does not appear to be updating the numbers. Infuriating but not surprising.
On a separate note, from reading the comments here during the election, it’s at least nice to come to NC and hear from other intelligent people who will also never vote for Clinton. I’ve become a pariah among my family and friends for that viewpoint, but I refuse to give in.
State totals – this page also has links for county totals and on the top of the page a link to uncounted ballots, where there’s a link to a PDF with county totals by type of ballot.
anon: Don’t be shy. I’m almost eighty-two, comfortably retired, and a life-long
Democrat, who has followed Mrs Clinton since 2006. I knew enough a long
time ago to not vote for her, ever. I’ll happily cast my ballot for Mr. Trump, and
expect and hope for at least some change in direction.
did you mean “i do NOT see us as advocating for particular positions”?
Fact check: The Clinton enemies “list” is in fact a spreadsheet.
Which makes sense, because how else would you expect them to do the, er, math?
So that’s what was going on….two or three times, I got redirected to a directory for the site.
Thought that might be it, happy you got through OK. Congrats to your host, too. Was finding something similar at Col Lang’s place, maybe him too?
Another thing to make me go hmmm, I have noticed my computer has been slow to glacial today — I’ll do a virus check right now, just in case.
Interesting – I’m in Pacific Time Zone and didn’t notice any disruption. Keep up the good fight!
Hmmmmm. Kuntstler’s website was also under a DDoS attack this week. Coincidence?
Weirdly, Kunstler has been too. Not that your politics are the same, but if any other sites I frequent start to get hit…
I imagine it would take big money and many people to work out who or what co-ordinated all those machines all over the world to begin attacking.
Somebody is upset or frightened to go to the trouble of D-DOSing this blog or any blog which gets attacked that way. It is a backhanded tribute to the threateningly good work that is done here.
Surprisingly, no. As of about four years ago, an hour to control 1000 bots costs on the order of $50. Find the right teenager and bring them together with the right rubber hose, and all will be revealed.
Yves, congratulations! Your article at Politico must have hit a nerve. Or maybe it was that USS Liberty article that set someone off. In any case. *tips*
heck, it could even have been for that mba article, but my first thought was too the clintons. they have both the cause and the petty vindictiveness.
This attack was bigger and more sophisticated than that.
Thurs and Fri links section both contained stories about the Kochs, and you rarely link to stories with Kochs as the subject. probably a coincidence. Maybe someone doesn’t like the links on the 2016 campaign? Can’t imagine anyone wanting to silence your financial reporting.
Glad your webhost has it sorted out.
A specifically targeted DDoS is serious business.
I think NC should take being targeted by a sophisticated DDoS as a badge of honor. (Although an honor you’d no doubt gladly do without.)
What is this USS Liberty article everyone keeps mentioning and how did I manage to miss it?
I don’t know or remember the USS Liberty article being referenced as having appeared here at NaCap . . . but I do know that there is a collection of USS Liberty blogposts by Colonel Lang and/or Others at his Sic Semper Tyrannis blog. It is under the category USS Liberty and here is the link.
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/uss-liberty/
No. Get Access to one one Bot PC, and trace the command connection.
Right back to the Tor hidden service whence it takes its orders. *sad trombone*
Yves:
As a friend once said to me, “When an a**hole gives you a hard time, you know that you must be doing something right.”
Q: What do the Clintoons and Israel (deep state, of) have in common?
A: Too much to list here.
I’m on the West Coast and I definitely noticed it throughout the afternoon.
Sorry you had to deal with that. Routine outages are one thing; malicious attacks are quite another. Glad to see the site is back up and running.
Towards the end of Firedoglake, it was subject to outages which (from the user’s point of view) looked the same as yesterday’s outage here. These went on for months in early 2015, and made the site unusable. I’ve always wondered whether it was a very determined DDOS attack. You read about prosecutions for DDOS attacks on corporate sites, but for some reason the Feds interest in `cyber security’ doesn’t seem to extend to protecting the First Amendment.
Thank you to Yves and Lambert for dealing with what must be a very alarming situation.
My first thoughts yesterday, when the outage happened again, was also about Firedoglake. Jane Hamsher did say that the site problems were DDOS attacks and asked users to chip in funds to help upgrade the server. It was shortly after that she decided to close down the site due to health problems.
I’m glad your tech people were able to cope, Yves.
I was a reader and author (in a small way) at FDL in those days. I think the prolonged DDoS attacks that went on for months, coupled with Jane’s health (and the stress of keeping the site up during those months) are largely what doomed it. I was AFK most of yesterday so unaware of the attack here. Glad it is at least mostly fixed now.
Which shows to go ya’ the importance of having a team of people running such a site (or anything, really). It’s a real shame that FDL is gone, but obviously putting that much responsibility on one individual isn’t a great idea, so far as organizational robustness and longevity are concerned.
and fdl was another site with a very good grasp of what’s going on.
Yeah, a friend often called my a Firebagger. He was right about that. And severely wrong about politics.
Immediately following the Politico article, I thought I noticed an increase in posters on this board defending Hillary, although they didn’t seem to convince anybody. After that didn’t work, the big attack ensued.
I was thinking about that, as well. Especially that guy with the cutesy name who was around the last couple of days, who did that Brockian tactic of claiming to LOVE Bernie but now it’s time, yada yada yada, Supreme Court, grow up…
I particularly enjoyed his appeal to Scott Lemieux as an authority, as if he could possibly matter.
Those with no honor cannot imagine the trait existing in another. Hillary Clinton is Richard Nixon.
And she’s ridden Bill’s coattails for 40 years. As my 29-year old radical feminist friend said, “We’re overdue for a female president, but dear God don’t let it be her. We might not have another for 30 years.”
Here I am!
Now, Mr. Strawman, show me one instance — in any of my posts over the past two days — that I was “defending Hillary.” Quite the opposite. I was ridiculing the whole Bernie or bust idea as childish. And I didn’t reference Lemieux, I referenced Scott E Kaufmann. And I stand by my statement that I’m gonna laugh my ass off when Bernie endorses Clinton because he understands the importance of not throwing an election to a ratfucker like Trump. Being an adult means making tough choices sometimes and not throwing a tantrum when you don’t get your own way. I think Yves and Lambert are doing an admirable job of holding Clinton’s feet to the fire, which they should continue to do. But you zealots, that treat every word they write like good little Jim Jones followers, are a national liability.
lol voting the way we want is not “throwing a tantrum”. if you had actually read much on this site, you would know that most people think he is going to endorse clinton, and that it doesn’t make a difference who he endorses, they aren’t going to be “good little jim jones followers” and vote for clinton. being an adult means making your own tough choices, including deciding which candidate is the lesser of 2 evils.
Words. Fail. Me.
Shorter: “Yves and Lambert are great, but you commenters are terrible.”
Of course, I’m no tactician, but don’t you think that’s just a little too transparent?
Adding, I regard the infantilization trope as a clear sign the poster isn’t arguing in good faith.
Ms Clinton is *so* isolated (insulated?) that her Ferragamos will never even be warmed by the likes us us DFH’s, let alone her footsies feel flames.
You know, with regard to voting, I have standards. My most important issue is global warming — nobody talking about that? OK, other line in the sand — I never *ever* vote for war criminals, and so far as I know, Mr. Trump has not committed any. Yet. That counts.
You used common Clinton talking points which are both false and insulting, making them ineffective. You may not be a Brock employee. I deal with Clinton advocates online whom I am confident are civilians who have just imbibed this swill and because they are authoritarian followers, trust that if their leader is saying it, it’s a good and useful thing to say.
I am aware there are soft Sanders supporters who might have timidly voted for him before scurrying back into the safety of Team Blue. I went back to LGM after Clinton’s hideous Nancy Reagan lies, and read even Lemieux saying maybe she shouldn’t and couldn’t be the nominee. How long did that last? A week? So perhaps your representations about yourself are accurate. It’s not particularly relevant.
Also, sorry I offended you by not remembering you were quoting SEK. It’s hilarious that you think it’s an improvement to quote a guy who couldn’t make it as an academic, doesn’t even mention his educational background in his public bio, and IIRC has a background in film analysis. He’s your authority on political science and strategy? Why on EARTH is he relevant?
Your argument is simply weak. I don’t care if Bernie endorses at the convention or not. His situation is different from mine. His options are different from mine. His constraints are different from mine. Ergo it may the case that even though we have fundamentally the same goals, our choices and pathways to achieve that goal are different.
What is your goal in coming here and insulting me? Do you actually think you’ll persuade me and people like me to do as you wish by this tactic? Is your goal that by shaming and stigmatizing my position you can paralyze others into passivity? Because you are not presenting an argument that is likely to move voters from my tactical choice to voting for Clinton. And if the best argument you can offer up is shame, and the most likely outcome of that argument is not an affirmative vote for Clinton but humiliated inaction, that doesn’t say much for your argument or your candidate. Because no matter who you voted for in the primaries, you are now advocating — supposedly — that people should vote for Clinton. But what you are really doing is trying to prevent people from effectively opposing her.
She and those working with her happily suppressed the voting electorate in Puerto Rico down to 8% of the expected turnout to get her “win” there. Not 8% of registered voters — 8% of the population that was expected to vote before Bill went down there and they slashed polling places and hours, and started threatening people with murder while forcing them to vote under observation. The problem with protest voting is that Clinton clearly does not care how small the electorate is that votes, as long as she gets one more vote than the other guy and gets the power she craves. I am not going to stigmatize people voting third party, because it is a difficult situation, some people simply see Trump and Clinton as equally terrible, and some people are committed to their parties, as they have every right to be.
But I see Clinton as by far the greater evil, and that preventing her from gaining the Presidency a great good, that could purge the Democratic Party of corruption and render it or its replacement party available as a vehicle for the progressive movement, and the majority of citizens of this county who want it and need it. Therefore, I am prepared to vote for Donald Trump to achieve this important goal. I don’t want to. I hope I don’t have to. I dragged myself around canvassing in brutal heat with a migraine and then spent 20 hours working the polls because I told myself if I am prepared to cast that vote, I have to do everything I can beforehand to keep that terrible binary choice from being my destiny.
Disagree with me if you wish. But calling me a zealot and a child is laughably off the mark. I am a patriot. I am willing to take on the burden of what I am claiming needs to be done. What are you? If you think it is more mature to go to a web site you are unfamiliar with to deride and slur strangers into voting for a candidate you yourself claim to dislike and can make no affirmative case for, I feel sorry for you, honestly. Don’t you have better things to do with your time?
One good thing she, why do we assume that this is so, does is force us to catalogue and systemize our thinking about this election. Wild emotionalism in politics is nothing new. Reasoned argument is rarer and more precious thereof.
The Politico article was apparently what p@##ed them the f@#% off. “You just stay over there on your little website and we can ignore you, but you come over and invade OUR HOME TURF with the truth, and we will counterattack.” Perhaps “General Hillary” herself ordered the attack.
Well, Yves, consider that this is one sign that NC has “arrived” at a level which justifies the resources needed to mount such an attack. Sadly, this kind of attack “goes with the territory”.
I’ll make a donation today to help thwart these degenerates and support your web defences. I encourage others to contribute also.
It’s surprising it has taken this long. I agree that the Politico article is a strong suspect. The gloves are starting to really come off. When does Kim Jong-un rip off his mask to reveal Hillary underneath?
After all, Hillary and Kim Jong Un have similar tastes in fashion.
hahahahahaha….
Evidently one of those jackets worn at an inequality speech cost 12K
Armani, $12,495 (list).
I have wondered who HRC’s wardrobe advisor was…
Also, of particular import; does H Clinton have any ‘advisor’ who fails shot?
The way she looks now, I’m tempted to start calling her things like: The Great Helmswoman, Histories End Point, and of course, Chairwoman Hills.
I did notice yesterday and thought it was odd. You must be hitting someone where it hurts. So glad y’all made it through okay.
I noticed both, and yesterday’s was pretty long. Many thanks to the yves, lambert and the webhost for working it through. Yes, I notice it is donation time for me as well…
My money’s on Clinton supporters angry about Yves’ Politico article. As others note above, it’s not at all difficult to put together a DoS attack. Lambert’s observation in another post regarding Dem voter suppression as an example of “working towards the Fuhrer” here in the US seems apt. Let a thousand flowers of suppression bloom!
Huh. It took a long time for this comment to post. Is NC under attack again?
My email service was hit last year by a pretty serious attack, probably by a certain Asian country:
https://protonmail.com/blog/protonmail-ddos-attacks/
Interesting reading, maybe some ideas.
Not like I need Protonmail’s security, it was sort of a reaction to realizing what I was getting on gmail. Excellent support.
I will make my long overdue first contribution to NC today and pledge to contribute hereafter, every time the site is taken down by an attack.
Rome wasn’t Bernt in a day.
Reify, as in reification?
Yup.
from Borges:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlön,_Uqbar,_Orbis_Tertius
I had this kind of thing happen to me a few times when I was running a social network for politics and economy.
It really sucks. It is opposition, they come from people in power running rackets be them Clinton supporters or not.
Rackets are criminal behavior, destroy the long term for the short term and sociopaths are drawn to them, because stealing for survival is important. That is because sociopaths are emotionally weak. Vote for me, to steal for you is happening writ large at the corporate and bottom level for votes.
Enforcing laws only on the little people destroys confidence in ways that general measurements about graft do not. It has a multiplying effect. Since the really wealthy tend to hoard cash, especially now that returns are shrinking, the society needs reinvestment and that won’t happen until the racketeering is dealt with.
One decides to help end the rackets or live in a national and global slum. There really isn’t other choices, it is a binary system we exist in. If you do nothing, others will make the choice for you which is a decision all to itself.
Very sorry to hear about the attack. I noticed it immediately, as it happened right during the time of day where I can finally take a quick breather at work, relax, collect my thoughts, and hop on NC for a bit to educate myself and stay informed. It really drove home how intensely valuable this place has become to me over the last year. I have a very stressful job that often pushes me to the brink. Taking the occasional break to stop in here is extremely helpful for me. NC is my daily reminder that even when it feels like every morning brings “more bad news” there are still a lot of rational, intelligent people out there having meaningful discussions and sharing perspectives.
Thank you SO MUCH, Yves, Lambert, and everyone, for all the great work that is done here. It really has improved my life in great measure. I often think about all the work that probably goes on behind the scenes to keep this place running and I want you to know I don’t take it for granted- I really can’t thank you enough! A good buddy of mine was dealing with DDoS at his firm a while back and i didn’t see him for a week during it. He later told me he had been working 18 hour days trying to get it under control. I hope the attacks stop and things get back to normal.
I sense Hillary has another couple private servers somewhere ……
I don’t think you have to worry about folks abandoning the site because it was down.
I believe it’s already been proven by those who come here that we’re loyal.
It sounds like your web host deserves a big thumbs up for their successful efforts at getting it back up!
+1
X1000!
The fierce loyalty is earned by the obvious integrity of the enterprise. The NC ship sails on, into stormy waters, with a crew on deck that daily lives up to the words of Pericles:
We should all have some fallback plan to stay in touch in case TPTB succeed in taking Yves off air. I will follow NC online, offline, or via carrier pigeon, smoke signal or tin cans with string if need be.
That’s the first reference I’ve heard to tin cans & string since I can remember!
My cousin & I did that as kids, but these days if I make reference to it the response I receive is a blank stare. Thanks for the memories!
This site is proof that it’s not only ‘those young kids’ who support Bernie’s views. (But glad those same young’uns who wouldn’t know how to use a rotary phone support his views, as well)
Those of us fortunate to have friends and allies in diverse places need to begin planning for a possible ramping up of free-speech suppression– as the kleptocrats dimly recognize that we dogs will never eat their dogfood. We may well need to become practitioners of samizdat.
I usually hang out at Ian Welsh when NC is down. There are other NC regulars there and also some NC refugees like Hugh. I think he stills reads NC though. The other day he cited Yves’ recent assessment of Liz Warren.
Although I don’t comment on Ian’s site nearly as much, I always like to see some familiar names there from here and vice versa.
After hearing of the ddos attack against your fine blog, I decided to donate some more money to the blog. I encourage everyone to do likewise. Every time evil people try to shut this blog down, we should respond with more support for it.
Thanks SO much!
Above, you, Yves, wrote “I see us as advocating for particular positions, save in banking and finance, where we have expertise. What I see us more in the business of doing is pulling signal out of the noise and debunking bad information.” (I take it that you actually meant to say “I see us as advocating for no particular positions…”; otherwise, forget I wrote this ). For your own sake, I hope you don’t underestimate how courageous and risky this is. Orwell’s apocryphal quote sums it up: “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
It’s taken me some time to accept the idea that we all organize knowledge into narratives. But it’s now simple to view today’s propaganda as promotion of “right-thinking” narratives, by making deceptive hints and suggestions on the one hand, and limiting information access on the other. (To see examples in action, view exchanges on youtube between AP reporter Matt Lee and White House spokespersons.)
A source that publicly casts doubt on the veracity of the hints, or expands our knowledge to include facts conflicting with the propaganda narrative, threatens to upset that narrative. (Indeed, the most truthful narratives incorporate as many accurate bits of information as possible). Today, information distortion has become so extreme that the MSM house-of-cards narratives have become vulnerable: great delicacy is required to maintain their acceptance. Indeed, over the entire west, significant numbers of the electorate have stopped accepting major parts of the elite narrative, with upsetting electoral results.
Nevertheless, if someone discusses challenging information, it becomes important to discredit such a source so that what they say isn’t taken seriously. You know better how that feels than myself. I’d not accuse this site of being deliberately subversive, but it’s enough that you consistently shine light upon situations falling in the WTF? category, simply on the basis of competent analysis.
Someone may have mentioned this already, but Jim Kunstler @ Clusterfuck Nation, another writer such as yourself who points out the failings of our current economic system and had written some rather blistering remarks about both Hillary and Trump, is also down due to a DDOS attack that bad been going on since at least June 6th when his last post went up and is still not resolved. He had to post his weekly blog on Patreon and the error message and reject message on the main page are still there today. So it’s not just you.
I find it strange that Kunstler would be worth a D-DOS attack. I used to read his blog but it became tiresome in its johnny-one-note repetition of his few pet themes. And it was low-info and data-poor enough that I can’t imagine what anyone would feel threatened by.
So clearly I must be missing the hidden value there because somebody clearly wants to stop it.
i’ll die without this site but i can live thru & support whatever is necessary to keep it live. seriously i can’t take any more disruptions of information. today, a library i frequent demanded $47.00 for a card renewal…l am only 2 blocks outside the county line where i’ve used the library for over 30yrs. when i got home i cried for sometime…felt strange to cry over something kind of trivial but libraries saved my life. i know i’m not alone either. i feel the same about NC. maybe i’m more fragile lately…Yves & Lambert, what you bring EVERYDAY is a beam into the darkness. embarrassingly thru tears…THANK YOU BOTH…and for allowing me to be apart of what history may note as nothing short of the ART OF LIFE during the spin cycle.
I hate that!!! I am so lucky that our local libraries have reciprocal agreements. So this very problem can’t happen here (Greater Kansas City)
I wish there was something that could be done. Maybe a direct request to the Library Director? … Library Clerks are powerless.
how kind of you and vatch to reply…knew i wasn’t alone. our libraries (atlanta ga) ‘say’ they don’t participate in interlibrary loaning across county lines. katiebird, you may be onto something…i’ll find a director Monday. the real pull on me today was realizing children unable to grow through a library. i donate children books to a group in India…its fun to reach across languages and cultures. the kids sleep with the books. a friend that delivers the books sent me a picture of a couple kids scourging thru miles of trash with one hand clenched on their book. we have all the books any country could desire…there could be an american generation on the horizon that lose this treasure. would they even know it?
i’ve dealt with sticker shock over the last couple yrs but $74.00 for a library card zinged me. now i fear my own warnings concerning recently reported gap in tax receipts.
Aby
” today, a library i frequent demanded $47.00 for a card renewal”
that sound fishy,I would contact PINES, your GA interlibrary loan service
FYI…
http://pines.georgialibraries.org/help-faqs#FAQholds
Where can I use my PINES card?
Your PINES Card
How can I get a PINES card?
Library cards are free to all residents of Georgia. To sign up for a library card, go into any participating PINES library. You will be asked to fill out an application form and to present identification. Original documents are required, photocopies are not acceptable. Acceptable ID for receiving a PINES card include:
a) photo ID showing current local address, OR
b) photo ID and one item from approved list (see below) showing current, local address (if photoID does not have correct address), OR
c) TWO (2) items from approved list (see below) showing current, local address.
Approved list includes:
•valid driver’s license
•valid voter registration card
•valid matricula consular
•checks with pre-printed addresses
•a utility bill
•tax receipt or other piece of mail that shows the user’s name and present address.
By signing the library card application form, you are accepting full responsibility for all fines and fees including late fines, and fees for lost or damaged materials.
You may use your PINES card at more than 275 libraries and affiliated service outlets in 53 library systems covering 144 counties throughout Georgia. There are several counties (for example, Fulton County) that do not participate in the PINES network but have their own independent library systems. If you are a resident of one of these areas, you may still obtain and use a PINES card, but you will have to travel to a participating PINES library to do so.
See the directory of all participating PINES libraries.
suspect for sure and thanks for the PINES info…not sure its up to date. the specific lib. is the Dunwoody branch in Dekalb Co…i live on the Fulton Co. line of Dekalb. i’m thinking this situation may be arising from Dunwoody and 4 other city-towns have recently Incorporated. another words their deep pockets aren’t deep enough.
i’ll get back to you in other links as i plow thru this and again, Thanks.
Most libraries participate in an interlibrary loan system. So if the library where you live doesn’t have a very good selection of books, you still ought to be able to ask them to get books from other libraries. Unfortunately, that adds a few days to the wait time for a book.
abynormal, check your mail.
Thanks Lambert
Appalled to hear NC was targetted – that can only be by evil people.
NC is a beacon of truth and a guide to the perplexed.
Since I lost everything to the banksters I’m very broke, but have still managed to donate small amounts to Bernie’s campaign.
I feel this site is just as important, so just made my first (small) donation.
NC, you’re awesome!
FWIW a staunch Republican girlfriend of mine just left & we’d been talking politics a bit.
She detests $hillary (of course) but likes Bernie & thinks he should run as an Independent & stay in the race.
Coming from her that’s yuuuge!
Both she & her husband are retired & have been paying for supplemental insurance (they both have fat pensions, as well, with hers providing some health care while he’s on Medicare, being older than her).
He had to cough up $1,600 for a crown after the insurance co denied his claim, saying that coverage doesn’t begin until after you’ve paid in for a year. His tooth had broken a week too early for coverage.
He was just denied pymt for prescriptions a Dr ordered, as well. When he asked what it cost (thinking maybe he’d just buy it), he was told $2,000!
Even they are growing increasingly frustrated & mad at health care & other things.
Perhaps that’s not a bad thing?
Not sure if anyone at NC reads comments this far south, but lately – last week or so – every time I click on an NC link, I get one of those ghost web sites screens that takes over in the middle of the screen, and I have to close it to get to the content that I want.
Any way to do away with those things?
That depends on what the “Ghost Screen” is doing there. Some advertising platforms do this as a matter of course. The site administrators here have very little control over the methods the ad service uses to present their wares. There are some methods to cut way down on adware on any site, but, I’ve been told that this site relies on the ad revenue for some of their operating expenses, so there, I’ll hold my tongue.
That is called a popup ad. We’ve asked them to be limited to 2X a day per visitor.
They are obnoxious, but this one is less bad than most, since it loads quickly and the x in the corner to get rid of it loads quickly too and is easy to click on. Most popup ads load slowly and/or load the x to close it well after the ad loads, as in they make sure you are stuck with it for a few seconds before you can clear it out.
I agree, easy to double click through..
The DoS is evil
Some party upset about Richard Smith’s great work seems the most obvious source.
Thanks, Yves and crew, you make the internet worth having.
Did any material disappear as a result of this attack?
Well, we can’t tell about comments that were submitted but the server was unable to accept, being or going down. Other than that, I think not.
I gather the presumed purpose of such an attack is to cause site proprietors to second guess themselves into broad self-censorship rather than singling out and objecting to particular pieces, comments, claims etc. I can imagine, though, a scenario that features the disruption plus some communication to the effect of ‘ this disruption will continue until you take down x, y, z particular author opinions or comments and ensure none similar appear’ though perhaps disguised (gee, why does Webstir come to mind other than a web stir is what took place?).
Anyway, the floodgates of anti-Muslim hate have been opened by the horror in Orlando – I’m sure all will rise to the occasion.
Before the day California voted, the Clinton campaign was talking about her having a 3 mio lead in popular votes vs. Sanders. After that, they mentioned an advantage of 5 mio votes. Using the link posted above ( http://vote.sos.ca.gov/returns/president/party/democratic/ ) I find a difference of 0,5 mio popular votes between Clinton and Sanders in California.
How reliable is the 5 mio popular vote statement? Any sources?
And now this guy’s web site is having problems:
http://www.bilderberg.org/2016.htm
The Powers-That-Be don’t like it when the little people speak up.
My guess for the DDoS attack was the PE guys. They have the most to lose from the sunlight in Yves’ articles.
A few of those PE guys might be Bilderbergers, such as Henry Kravis, even though most participants of the Bilderberg conferences hail from other realms of the plutocracy. It may not be a coincidence that these DDoS attacks occurred while some of the big shots were meeting in Dresden.
Here are this year’s participants:
http://www.bilderbergmeetings.org/participants.html