{"id":93606,"date":"2021-05-13T20:41:52","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T00:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=93606"},"modified":"2021-05-13T20:41:58","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T00:41:58","slug":"the-daily-gouge-archive-wednesday-may-12th-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=93606","title":{"rendered":"The Daily Gouge Archive, Wednesday, May 12th, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Wednesday, May 12th, 2021…but before we begin, consider this meme forwarded by James Nichols which perfectly depicts the deplorable priorities of our present government:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yes, while the Socialist sympathizers in 46*’s clown car of an Administration are busy ferreting out politically-incorrect pronouns, the AP is reporting the recent cyberattack on the vital Colonial Pipeline which supplies almost half of the fuel consumed on the East Coast has been linked to a criminal gang, the DarkSide<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/a>, which, curiously enough, is “known to avoid targeting organizations in former Soviet bloc nations”.\u00a0 Perhaps because, as the WSJ<\/em>\u00a0relates, the DarkSide organization likely IS Russian<\/em><\/span><\/a>, or at the very least closely affiliated with the Kremlin.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a related item, Jim Geraghty expands on the AP report<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/a> by noting the…<\/strong><\/p>\n

“…DarkSide<\/em> hackers pinky-swear not to attack<\/span><\/em> hospitals, schools, nonprofits, or government targets. \u201cThe groups are increasingly becoming ruthlessly efficient,\u201d says Brett Callow, a threat analyst at antivirus company Emsisoft.<\/span> \u201cThey have more of a chance of success the easier they make life for their victims\u2014or the easier they make it to pay them.\u201d Say, fellas, who do you think uses<\/em><\/span> all that oil from that pipeline you just shut down?<\/span> Among others, hospitals, schools, nonprofits, and the government<\/span><\/em>!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

At the risk of irking every environmentalist who\u2019s somehow convinced he can live without oil, maybe we should build more<\/em><\/span> pipelines so we\u2019re less dependent upon any single one<\/em><\/span>?<\/span> To adopt a common slogan running around these days,\u00a0oil and natural-gas pipelines ARE\u00a0infrastructure<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span>…”<\/p>\n

An insightful deduction\u00a0NRO<\/em>‘s Kevin Williamson runs with in his regular Tuesday offering<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Every now and then, the world pauses briefly to say,\u00a0\u201cHey, dummy \u2014 pay attention.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Seventeen states<\/em><\/span> and \u2014 oh, glorious irony<\/em><\/span>! \u2014 the District of Columbia have declared states of emergency<\/em><\/span> after the closure of the Colonial pipeline, which brings fuel from Gulf Coast refineries to eastern cities.<\/span> Gasoline prices already are rising<\/em><\/span> and are expected to rise sharply<\/em><\/span> in the immediate future. Atlanta\u2019s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, fresh off the indignity of losing the title of world\u2019s busiest airport to Bai Yun International in Guangzhou, is nervously watching its fuel stores, as are other airports (including Charlotte Douglas and Raleigh-Durham) served by the pipeline.<\/span> The population centers of the East Coast are at risk of significant disruption to everything from deliveries to travel \u2014 because almost half the fuel used in the most densely populated part of the country<\/em><\/span> travels through a single pipeline<\/span><\/em> that runs from Houston to Linden, N.J., currently out of service after an apparent act of extortion through cyberterrorism.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHey, dummy<\/span><\/em> \u2014 pay attention<\/span><\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

…<\/span>Even if<\/span><\/em> you believe, as President Biden says he does, that the United States must be coerced by federal bayonets to accept a radically different economic model that forgoes fossil fuels, abandoning the fossil-fuel infrastructure before that transition has happened<\/em><\/span> \u2014 indeed, before some of the necessary technologies<\/em><\/span> that might one day enable such a transition even have been developed<\/span><\/em> \u2014 is insanely irresponsible<\/em><\/span>. It makes Americans hostages<\/em><\/span> to a narrowminded and moralistic ideology<\/span><\/em>.<\/span> If you believe, as I do, that under any reasonably responsible policy fossil fuels \u2014 especially natural gas \u2014 will be part of the mix for the foreseeable future, then preventing environmentally responsible investment in and development of the necessary infrastructure is radical misgovernance<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span>…”<\/p>\n

Now<\/em><\/span>, imagine it was winter<\/em><\/span>, and in addition<\/em><\/span> to a shortage of gasoline<\/em><\/span>, the Northeast was suffering an inadequate supply of\u00a0home eating oil<\/em><\/span>.\u00a0 Then<\/em><\/span> imagine, rather than 46*, The Donald<\/span><\/em> had been in office.\u00a0 Any question<\/em><\/span> the reaction of the MSM would have been a might more vocal, as Tucker relates<\/em><\/span><\/a>?!?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, as the Editorial Board at the Journal<\/em> accurately assesses, the Colonial Pipeline shutdown is a warning of worse to come<\/em><\/span><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

BTW, as Rebekah Koffler notes, contrary to some reporting, our government has known<\/em><\/span> about this threat not for y<\/em>ears<\/span><\/em>, but for <\/em>decades<\/em><\/span>, with the first Russian cyberattack dating back to 1996.\u00a0 In other words, whilst the Russkies have been busy planning and executing attacks on some of our<\/em><\/span>\u00a0most critical infrastructure, Progressives here at home have directed their<\/em><\/span> energies at realizing, in no particular order of priority, racial division, speech codes, genderless locker rooms and toilets, a socially-engineered, enfeebled U.S. Military, unrestricted illegal immigration, a nuclear-armed Iran and ChiCom world dominance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the interest of full disclosure, we consider Dubya a Progressive, as in recent years he and his family have repeatedly shown themselves as such.\u00a0 And though The Donald had four years to address the issue, we’ll grant him the benefit of the doubt, occupied as he was from the moment he was elected combatting uncorroborated claims of collusion, an implacably hostile opposition and press, disloyal subordinates and the constant threat of impeachment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

EDITOR’S NOTE<\/em><\/span>: Being an inquiring Conservative mind, we wondered how on earth the Colonial Pipeline could have been accessible to malevolent outside forces, seeing as it should<\/em><\/span> have been a secure, sealed system.\u00a0 So we went to our go-to guy, a computer expert who will remain unnamed.\u00a0 He posited the likelihood…which he’ll be looking to confirm in the next day or so…it resulted from a simple phishing expedition which hooked someone within the Colonial Pipeline organization whose computer was connected to the system into opening an email, thereby introducing the ransomware.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He also noted the majority of the pipeline’s operations remain mechanical, and that the system was shutdown<\/span><\/em> due to an overabundance of caution<\/em><\/span>.\u00a0 Sound at all familiar<\/em><\/span>?!?<\/strong><\/p>\n

And here we thought TLJ receiving dozens of emails from unsolicited sellers was a problem.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, like the toilet paper shortage which accompanied the broken two-weeks-to-flatten-the-curve promise, the only reason most areas will experience a gasoline shortage is because of panicky idiots who don’t understand the issue at hand, which is expected to be rectified no later than Friday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Which begs the question why, as Katie Pavlich informs us<\/em><\/span><\/a>, despite the Colonial Pipeline situation, rockets raining down on Israel and everything else going wrong in the world, The Groper called it a day at 1534 (That’s 3:34 PM for you civilians) without giving any assurance America should…<\/strong><\/p>\n