LG smart TVs caught logging audio with <br/>screen off and snooping on local devices

LG smart TVs caught logging audio with screen off and snooping on local devices 1 reply Posted by Christopher L — Post Reply An investigation by Gamers Nexus found LG smart TVs sweep local networks to map phones and nearby devices. Tests also showed the sets can capture microphone audio with the screen off — they then upload data once reconnected to the internet. LG smart TVs continuously sweep home networks, map secondary devices, and log microphone audio while appearing to be turned off, Futility 5 replies Posted by Christopher L — Post Reply In Morgan Robertson's 1898 novel, Futility, a superliner on her maiden transatlantic voyage strikes an iceberg and sinks, with all but 13 on board drowned. His fictional ship is named the Titan. Pulling out of the harbor, she strikes and sinks a smaller ship — just as the Titanic did 14 years later. (snip) My beloved Eric Hoffer, the longshoreman philosopher, noted that the truism 'an artist sees the future' is incorrect: An artist sees the present. Bessent disdains Warren's sciolism 13 replies Posted by Christopher L — Post Reply Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent a heavily footnoted nastygram that is accessible online here. Secretary Bessent responded in a letter that is accessible via X here. The coverage is insufficient to the hilarity of the Warren/Bessent exchange. "I am in receipt of your August 13 letter, which unfortunately reveals that you know even less about foreign exchange markets than you do about banking. What is equally shocking, but not surprising: not a single member of your media mob has a rudimentary-enough level of financial market literacy to spot your remedial error." The $40 Trillion National Debt and the 'Budget Hawk' Ruse That Led to MAGA 4 replies Posted by Christopher L — Post Reply An unsettling milestone occurred in recent weeks, with the federal government's debt surpassing $40 trillion. When I cast my first ballot in 1984, the $1.5 trillion of national debt was considered a looming crisis. It had nearly tripled and was considered an even bigger crisis by the time Ross Perot first ran for president eight years later. When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, the amount was up to $20 trillion. It concerns me too. But there are two other aspects of this generations-long 'crisis' that I find politically significant Boosted by Tariffs, U.S. Manufacturing Enters a Renaissance 2 replies Posted by Christopher L — Post Reply So much for the idea that tariffs would damage U.S. productivity and manufacturing. Ever since Donald Trump returned to the White House and especially since Trump's Liberation Day tariff announcement, the economic press has reported that American manufacturing is struggling under President Trump's tariffs. Even worse: stories have frequently claimed that manufacturing is struggling because of the tariffs. The Wall Street Journal declared manufacturing 'in retreat.' The Associated Press said tariffs were 'hurting American manufacturers instead of helping them. There's just one problem: none of that is happening. If tariffs are hurting American manufacturing, someone forgot to tell the factories. Natural Gas, AI, and the Industrial Boom Nobody Wants to Talk About 1 reply Posted by Christopher L — Post Reply A subject I feel is important to keep covering, despite the puzzling disinterest of the political and media class, is the extraordinary industrial growth that is occurring in the United States. There is effectively a massive 'stimulus package' of spending going on, it is being privately funded. For once, taxpayers are benefiting from this vast 'shovel-ready' stimulus, unlike recent government stimulus spending, in which money was simply redistributed from taxpayers to favored recipients. electricity. There is also massive re-shoring due to President Trump's tariffs and America-first policies that are making the U.S. a manufacturing powerhouse again. Why Fauci's Refusal To Answer Congress Puts His Pardon In Jeopardy 9 replies Posted by Christopher L — Post Reply Dr. Anthony Fauci's appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last week quickly stalled when, in his opening statement, Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. He was noticeably nervous, visibly shaking, and devoid of the arrogance he previously brought to congressional hearings. ... Ultimately, we learned nothing new at the hearing. But what persists is whether Fauci's invocation of the Fifth Amendment was proper, especially given his pardon from President Biden. The Tina Peters trial became a fight over whether the system could withstand public inspection. 3 replies Posted by Christopher L — Post Reply The American people have been told, over and over, to trust institutions that have not earned that trust. Not Republican institutions. Not Democratic institutions. Not partisan prosecutors. Not judges who hide behind procedure while the public asks basic questions. Not media outlets that decide in advance who the villain is and then write every story backward from that conclusion. That is the frame through which the Tina Peters case should be understood. Tina Peters was a county clerk who tried to preserve evidence inside a black-box election system, and the machine responded by making an example out of her. Flipping the script: Coloradans no longer run their government 5 replies Posted by Christopher L — Post Reply We the people of Colorado no longer control our own state constitution. I found this out the hard way. In Colorado, a government for, by, and of the people is a fib. 'Right to Know' denied. Over a year-and-a-half of work we crafted a constitutional reform based on what many other states already have, called 'Right to Know.' It's simple: a fundamental right for the people to access public records and government deliberations, with reasonable exceptions. But you won't see this proposed amendment on your fall ballot. The state Title Board voted 2–1 to block it. Can Virginia Be Fixed? 4 replies Posted by Christopher L — Post Reply Election Day 2025 was a broad disaster for Republicans. Everyone could see that. New Jersey stayed blue, but Virginia went back to being blue at the state level, and the Virginia Democrat party took greater dominance over the Old Dominion's state legislature. Nationally, Republicans could not avoid the backlash in voter turnout, since the common pattern is that the party out of power rebounds in the Virginia and New Jersey elections the year after the Presidential election. However, Democrats didn't just rebound, they superabounded, especially in Virginia. It didn't have to end this way. Before Peters is resentenced, Barrett must decide whether he keeps the case 4 replies Posted by Christopher L — Post Reply A Mesa County judge has ordered the state's attorneys to respond to a motion seeking his removal from the Tina Peters case, setting up a legal fight that will determine who presides over her resentencing—and who decides whether she remains in prison while that process unfolds. In an April 22 order, District Court Judge Matthew Barrett directed the state to file a response 'as soon as practicable,' with a deadline of April 27.