Bloggerlife.blog

10/28/2025

Today’s blog

Lynn Murphy Mark

In the news

Last evening was unusual in that the TV was only on for about an hour and a quarter. But that brief time, spent with Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell, was sobering. Rachel talked about the technology that allows one’s phone to be “bugged” without any knowledge on the part of the phone’s owner. There’s a spyware called Pegasus, “…designed for total data extraction, essentially turning your phone into an open book. Once it infects a device it gain access to an astonishing range of personal information: your text messages and emails, photos and videos, and track your location via GPS, all in real time.” (McAfee). According to Rachel, Pegasus isn’t the only option out there to monitor anyone at any time.

This “tool” is available to this administration. The plan is to make this spyware available to ICE agents, for the express purpose of tracking “aliens” and finding them and having information about their lives. For your high tech information, researchers call this spyware a “zero-click threat” because it invades a phone without a click on a suspicious link, or a download, or even a mistake on the phone owner’s part. As if that isn’t enough of a fright, Pegasus has the capability to activate the phone’s camera and microphone to secretly record a person and their surroundings.

After the chilling thought that ICE has access to this technology, the coverage turned to how the ICE thugs are behaving in Chicago. There were several clips of tear gas and pepper balls being used against citizens protesting against the invasion by this poorly prepared “army”. The officers, mostly wearing masks, think nothing of throwing someone on the ground – men and women – and no one is spared the possibility of a violent attack for doing nothing more than peacefully protesting. There was a picture of a young man’s back with over 20 open wounds from being shot with pepper balls. 

Pepper balls are “non-lethal” projectiles filled with an irritant derived from peppers. When the pepper ball is fired it bursts on impact, releasing the irritant powder that causes coughing, choking, and actual wounds that look like craters on the skin. From what I could see the thugs were firing indiscriminately at people gathered on a street. 

Then there is the matter of who these new ICE recruits are and how they are trained. Apparently, in the rush to get them out to the streets, some of the recruits’ training is being done with people that have not been properly vetted. A number of them have criminal records, were never fingerprinted or drug tested, and cannot pass the physical requirements. Mostly this is happening because ICE wants to hire 10,000 recruits before year’s end, and is only about half way there. Training time has also been reduced from the usual 16 weeks to seven or eight weeks. 

In the recruitment ads for ICE, there is the possibility of getting up to a $50,000 signing bonus. Apparently this money will be available, while SNAP (Food security) benefits will be shut off on November 1. This means that while a poorly prepared army is being gathered to fight against the residents of the United States, millions of people are in danger of losing food assistance benefits. 

This disgraceful fact can be laid at the feet of Congress as we enter almost a month of a government shutdown. Mike Johnson, such a twit, keeps the House closed so that no negotiations can happen to try and re-open the government. And, he doesn’t have to swear in Adelita Grijalva from Arizona. That is because she represents the vote that can force the Epstein files to be released from the justice department. In my opinion the shutdown, the battle plans against “drug cartels”, the high profile ICE actions are all designed to take attention away from THE EPSTEIN FILES…

By the time the television was turned off, I was doing a slow boil. I try to avoid those whenever possible because it seems a useless waste of energy. And this close to bedtime is taking a chance. However, I am blessed to be a gifted sleeper, regardless of circumstances. I closed my eyes and drifted to slumberland without a care, only to start thinking about it at 0445 when my eyes opened.