There seems to be a pattern emerging. It’s not a good pattern mind.
It’s not a good pattern at all.
It’s not the kind of pattern that unfolds line by line as you follow the intricate instructions laid down by the Amish quilt makers of yore.
No, this pattern is one woven from the needle-thin threads of a delusional mind. The tapestry being created before our very eyes is that of an executive office plum-stuffed with people entirely unsuited to their appointed task. At first glance, it looks like a joke. We’re being trolled we tell ourselves.
But no, this is actually happening.
Detached 22
We have Ben Carson the human equivalent of a narcoleptic but-fuck. A man who attempted to murder someone back when he was 14. A man who believes that Egypt’s pyramids were used to store grain and not pharaohs.
Despite the fact that we keep finding dead pharaohs in them.
He’s to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
For National Secretary Adviser, Trump has chosen retired General Michael Flynn. His first piece of advice might well be to not let him handle any overly sensitive material. He has something of a reputation for leaking classified information.
Still, it will be good for him to get back to work. He was fired from his position as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) back in 2014 for one of two reasons. According to Flynn it had something to do with his use of the term radical jihadis. According to almost everyone else, it was because he is an uncompromising ass-hat.
And then there is Scott Pruitt who is to be put in charge of the EPA. As a climate change denyin’, pollution lovin’ fossil fuel lobby whipping post with fewer environmental credentials than a fart in a space suit, his appointment makes sense only to those of us who suspect Trump is going to nuke us all to oblivion anyway.
Pruitt’s principle stance towards the environment seems to be to ask the question “is it dirty enough yet?” and then take a dry dump on it before anyone has had time to respond.
The list goes on and on and at no point does it get better.
A woman who made a fortune promoting fake wrestling matches gets the Small Business Administration. A Secretary of State pick who has to alert his probation officer before leaving the country.
Crazy Shades Of Winter
And then there’s his cyber guru.
Nobody seems to know at exactly what point Rudy Giuliani’s descent into madness began. Having mixed up his speech at the Republican National convention with a print out of the Thuggee heart-eating scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, it seemed clear that all was not well. He set his brain to slow cook in its own juices. He wrote letters of farewell to his near and dear. And then? Then he stepped off that little cliff called reality and dived head first into a septic tank filled with conspiracy theory, diatribe, and intellectual contortions.
Who could be better suited to the task of defending America from nations hell-bent on attacking its soft underbelly? Who could be more in tune with the beating pulse of technology than a non-CGI Grand Moff Tarkin whose relationship with facts is on less firm footing than Trump’s relationship with his daughter Tiffany?
Still, at least he’s been in the business for a while. He must know all about internet security, identity theft, firewalls and so on.
You’d think.
Hack A Mole
Which is why news that his website — which is currently down for reasons unknown — was described by IT industry publication the Register as:
“… A five-year-old build of Joomla packed with vulnerabilities,” is of some concern.
Security hack Den Tentler was the first to notice that something was amiss.
I'll um… just leave these here.https://t.co/tEyhixOK6hhttps://t.co/OhBjRn929Phttps://t.co/XMlLhyyOZ7https://t.co/kIibpxOplZ
— D̒͂̕ᵈăᵃn̕ᶰ Ť̾̾̓͐͒͠ᵗe͗̑́̋̂́͡ᵉn̅ᶰtᵗl̀̓͘ᶫe̓̒̂̚ᵉrʳ (@Viss) January 12, 2017
Whilst his observation was somewhat opaque to non-techies he was thankfully on hand to troubleshoot the problem further.
Speaking to the register he said:
“Seventy-year-old Luddite autocrats who often brag about not using technology are somehow put in charge of technology: it’s like setting our country on fire and giving every supranational hacker a roman candle – or, rather, not setting on fire, but dousing in gasoline.”
Sadly, attempts at turning Giuliani ‘on and off again,’ don’t seem to have resolved the issue.
Ty Miller, a director at Sydney-based infosec biz Threat Intelligence also weighed in on the debate. After a brief perusal he warned that within minutes he was able to:
“Identify a combined list of 41 publicly known vulnerabilities and 19 publicly available exploits.”
It makes little sense. It’s almost as if cabinet choices should be based on expertise. It’s almost like rewarding loyalty like you’re a feudal overlord passing out favors at a jousting tournament is no basis for a system of government.
Watch Giulini talk about cyber security and get it totally wrong:
