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President Trump, who has refused to accept the results of the White House race, tweeted that Krebs had been terminated "effective immediately."

(Image credit: Carolyn Kaster/AP)

Several days ago, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — a section of the Department of Homeland Security that, among other things, works on election security — issued a statement saying “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. Right now, across the country, election officials are reviewing and double checking the entire election process prior to finalizing the result. When states have close elections, many will recount ballots. All of the states with close results in the 2020 presidential race have paper records of each vote, allowing the ability to go back and count each ballot if necessary. This is an added benefit for security and resilience. This process allows for the identification and correction of any mistakes or errors. There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”

ICYMI: On allegations that election systems were manipulated, 59 election security experts all agree, "in every case of which we are aware, these claims either have been unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent." #Protect2020 https://t.co/Oj6NciYruD

— Chris Krebs #Protect2020 (@CISAKrebs) November 17, 2020

At the time, CISA director Christopher Krebs reportedly told people he expected President Donald Trump would fire him for undermining the president’s claim of widespread fraud in the election, and today the president tweeted that he has done just that. According to Trump, “The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 Election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud.” After the firing was announced, Krebs tweeted from his personal account “Honored to serve. We did it right.”

Honored to serve. We did it right. Defend Today, Secure Tomrorow. #Protect2020

— Chris Krebs (@C_C_Krebs) November 18, 2020

Under the direction of Krebs, CISA has actively pushed back against baseless rumors and conspiracy theories surrounding the election. The Rumor Control page provides factual information refuting claims spread by people including the president about things that supposedly happened November 3rd.

In 2018, @CISAKrebs (@C_C_Krebs) spoke about elections, cybersecurity, and disinformation at the @AtlanticCouncil.

"The overall purpose of an election is to convince the loser they lost…so this peaceful transition of power [can occur]."

Thank you for serving, Chris. pic.twitter.com/G6j3ytN2uc

— Graham Brookie (@GrahamBrookie) November 18, 2020

...votes from Trump to Biden, late voting, and many more. Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2020

"With COVID-19 cases increasing around the country, we will have to modify how to observe carnival season," the mayor said. She's asking for alternative ideas from the public.

(Image credit: Rusty Costanza/AP)

City Monster, my first graphic novel, is out now. Find it here.

As the Washington region braces for a Thanksgiving Day in the middle of a coronavirus surge, one leading grocery store chain has some advice in its pre-holiday advertising. “Hosting? Plan a Super Spread,” reads the tag line of a full page advertisement for Giant Food that appeared the December issue of its own magazine, Savory. The […]

Anheuser-Busch thinks that the best games console is one that can also store a couple of cans of the cold stuff. The brewery is launching BL6, a gaming PC in the shape of a six-pack with a built-in projector and, naturally, a couple of koozies to keep your light beers cold. Never one to say no to a techy marketing stunt, it’s the latest in a long series of gadgets and gizmos created by the beer brand.

The brewery is putting its tongue far into its cheek with the BL6, a product it compares to some other next-generation consoles that came out recently. And while Microsoft and Sony’s efforts can probably beat it spec-for-spec, neither rival machine comes with its own beer cooler, does it. It’s auctioning off a model, with all proceeds going to the National Restaurant Foundation. That money will support the charity’s “Change Is On The Menu” program, which helps train people in the food service industry. 

Bud Light has officially won the console wars. Introducing the BL6: the coolest* console ever. pic.twitter.com/4y6VPwRpPv

— Bud Light (@budlight) November 17, 2020

PCMag has actually spent some time with a BL6 unit, and says that the PC part of the machine is a Windows 10-running machine with an Intel Core i7 chip and 16GB of RAM. That’s paired up with an ASUS ZenBeam 720 Projector, and a pair of 8BitDo N30 Pro+ gamepads. It’s also packing its own battery, which the company says will run for two hours before you need to head back to a wall socket. It’s likely that the machine only has integrated graphics, but with enough grunt to run games like Tekken 7, Soul Calibur ViI and RBI Baseball 2020. 

Should you feel so compelled, you can bid for the BL6 over at Shop Beer Gear, with the current bid likely to have increased from the $100 currently there by the time this is published. 

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Oddly enough this was drawn just about a week before the Pfizer vaccine.

Today's News:

The brick-building masters at Lego are almost ready to launch their next wave of Mario-themed sets. Today, the Danish giant announced the Master Your Adventure Maker Set, which makes it easier for people to build their dream course. It contains a new start pipe that offers “increased rewards” in exchange for a shorter timer, according to a Lego press release. There’s also some basic baddies and a ‘customisation machine’ that lets players choose how Mario reacts to three special pieces. The set has a bunch of basic terrain and coloured bricks, too, so that it’s easier to link obstacles together and build a coherent course.

Lego is also adding three new expansion sets to its already impressive lineup, which currently includes Bowser’s Castle and a spooky yard haunted by King Boo. The new additions are: Chain Chomp Jungle Encounter Expansion Set, the Piranha Plant Puzzling Challenge Expansion Set and the Wiggler’s Poison Swamp Expansion Set. All three contain purple pieces that will poison Mario if he steps on them. If you have less cash to burn, there’s also two new Power-Up suits — Tanooki and Penguin themed — that give the plumber special abilities.

Finally, Lego is creating a second series of booster pack characters that can be added to any custom course. There are: Huckit Crab, Spiny Cheep Cheep, Ninji, Foo, Parachute Goomba, Fly Guy, Poison Mushroom, Para-Beetle, Thwimp and Bone Goomba.

The first Lego Super Mario sets launched on August 1st. They revolve around a special Mario figure which, thanks to a bunch of sensors, will react to different creations. The plumber will squeal when he steps on a piece of lava, for instance, or chirp triumphantly when he defeats a Shy Guy. Mario only comes in the aptly-named Adventures with Mario Starter Course. Once you’ve bought that pack, however, you’re free to buy the expansion sets in any order you wish. As I wrote in my original review, it’s a charming attempt at recreating Super Mario Maker in the real world.

All of the new sets announced today will be launching on January 1st. Here’s a full breakdown of the brick count and pricing:

• Super Mario Master Your Adventure Maker Set (366 Pieces): $59.99

• Super Mario Chain Chomp Jungle Encounter Expansion Set (160 Pieces): $19.99

• Super Mario Piranha Plant Puzzling Challenge Expansion Set (267 Pieces): $29.99

• Super Mario Wiggler’s Poison Swamp Expansion Set (374 Pieces): $39.99

• Super Mario Penguin Mario Power-Up Pack (18 Pieces): $9.99

• Super Mario Tanooki Mario Power-Up Pack (13 Pieces): $9.99

• Super Mario Character Packs – Series 2: $4.99

New Cyanide and Happiness Comic

Sportsvision: Dr. Revien’s Eye Exercise Program for Athletes
Revien and Gabor
1981

Submitter: This was found on the shelves in our public library system (mid-size, 10 branches.) It was no longer in the catalog, so came to me in the Technical Services department. I have no idea if the science behind this has been superseded or debunked, but at the very least, this is painfully out of date. The sports icons shown as examples in the pages include Terry Bradshaw, Bjorn Borg, Pete Rose and Nancy Lopez. And the illustrations and photographs are unselfconsciously 1970s hilarious.

Holly: This is owned by quite a lot of colleges and universities…including a College of Optometry library. I sincerely hope it isn’t part of the curriculum there!

The post Keep Your Eye on the Ball appeared first on Awful Library Books.

Wearing one as I'm posting this.

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I'm noticing all these depressing comics got drawn just prior to the election...

Today's News:

Apple has been forced to clarify how its Gatekeeper anti-malware platform works after security researchers suggested the system was violating privacy. The company, as spotted by 9to5Mac, has updated its support documentation to explain that the system does not track what its users are doing. At the same time, Apple has said that it will change how Gatekeeper functions in future to further minimize future risks.

This story begins back on November 12th, when a large number of Mac users reported failures opening third-party apps. The issue also spread to Apple’s own platforms, like iMessage and Apple Pay, which started to behave erratically for a short period of time. It was caused by Gatekeeper, a security system Apple introduced back in Mountain Lion to check if it should run a piece of software.

Essentially, if your Mac is connected to the internet, Gatekeeper will check to see if it’s safe to run a piece of software. Say, you click launch on Photoshop, your computer will ping an Apple server to ensure that Adobe still has a valid developer certificate. This process ordinarily is quick and invisible to users, except the volume of people upgrading to MacOS Big Sur overwhelmed the system and slowed it to a crawl.

Researchers, curious as to the cause of the slowdown, began analyzing the data their computers were sending to Apple’s servers. They claimed that the OS was sending details about what you were using in plain text to Apple HQ, which naturally caused plenty of consternation. Such claims were debunked by researcher Jacopo Jannone, who explained that OCSP, or Online Certificate Status Protocol, doesn’t work like that.

Apple has, however, said that it will look to ensure that Gatekeeper will, in future, further encrypt its transmission data and allow users to opt-out of the system. Although that might not be wise since, after all, the point of the system is to prevent malware running on your computer. The company added that it is going to work to ensure that server overloads like the one that happened last week don’t happen again. 

New Cyanide and Happiness Comic

Hee hee! Aren't we having fun?

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
You will be supervising a team of unhappy tubes.

Today's News:

Republican leaders in four critical states won by U.S. president-elect Joe Biden say they won't participate in a legally dubious scheme to flip their state's electors to vote for President Donald Trump. Their comments effectively shut down a half-baked plot some Republicans floated as a last chance to keep Trump in the White House.

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Hovertext:
This seemed way more funny and less depressing in the script stage...

Today's News:

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani speaks at a Philadelphia press conference on election lawsuits. | Bryan R. Smith/AFP/Getty Images

Trump is losing lawsuits in key states — and has lost some key members of his legal team as well.

President Donald Trump’s efforts to question the results of the 2020 presidential election using legal challenges have taken several major blows, with many lawsuits rejected or abandoned in key states, and prominent law firms withdrawing support for the president.

On Friday, Trump lawsuits suffered setbacks in three battleground states — all of which have been declared for President-elect Joe Biden.

In Michigan, a state judge rejected a Republican request to halt the certification of the vote in Wayne County — where Detroit sits — as “unwieldy,” according to the New York Times. The GOP had also alleged a variety of inappropriate conduct at polling stations, charges the judge dismissed as unspecific in some cases, and as “rife with speculation and guesswork” in others.

In Arizona, the Trump campaign abandoned a lawsuit alleging that ballots marked for Trump with felt-tipped markers had been unfairly thrown out — which was inspired by a false rumor — after determining that the number of votes at stake were too small to be meaningful, according to the Times.

And in Pennsylvania, a judge rejected six separate efforts by the Trump campaign to block the counting of nearly 9,000 mail ballots in two counties. The campaign had requested that those ballots be discounted because they were missing some requested information, like addresses or dates on outer envelopes, according to the Washington Post. Even if the ballots had been thrown out, however, the outcome in the state would have remained the same: Biden won Pennsylvania by more than 60,000 votes.

Trump’s campaign has also been abandoned by key members of its legal team. Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, one of the few prominent law firms to represent Trump’s legal efforts to question election results, withdrew from the federal lawsuit it had filed for the Trump campaign that attempted to alter the election’s results in Pennsylvania on Thursday — just days after filing the case.

Also on Friday, according to the New York Times, a high level employee at Jones Day, one the largest law firms in the US, announced during an internal meeting that the firm would not be involving itself in election litigation, despite the fact that Jones Day served as counsel to Trump’s 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.

Both firms were targeted on social media by the Lincoln Project, an advocacy outfit run by Republicans who oppose Trump. According to the Times, some lawyers at both firms had voiced discomfort or resigned in objection to their firms’ involvement with the Trump campaign both in the run-up to and in the aftermath of the election. The news was met with pointed criticism by the Trump campaign.

“Cancel culture has finally reached the courtroom,” Tim Murtaugh, the Trump campaign’s communications director, said in a statement in response to the news of Porter Wright’s withdrawal. “Leftist mobs descended upon some of the lawyers representing the president’s campaign and they buckled.”

These defections and losses are merely among the latest setbacks to Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the election through the courts. The Trump campaign and its allies have been filing a dizzying array of lawsuits — so many that, according to Politico, there is no accurate count of how many have been submitted. What is clear, however, is that Trump has a losing record: The campaign has won only one case and lost 15.

And that win — a ruling that Pennsylvania mail-in voters who failed to provide identification on or before November 9 will have their ballots discarded — won’t affect the current vote count. The minor number of ballots that will be affected had not yet been counted.

Giuliani’s takeover suggests things are going to be messy

As the president’s haphazard, throw-stuff-against-the-wall legal strategy has begun to fall apart, Trump has put his personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, in charge of his campaign lawsuits — a move that has distressed many of the president’s advisers, who see it as intensifying the chaos behind the president’s attempts to cling to power.

Trump appointed Giuliani to take over his legal campaign after news came out on Friday that his campaign was dropping its Arizona lawsuit.

Analysts say that the president’s decision to make one of his most polarizing and bombastic surrogates the new coordinator for his legal campaign just as it seems to be buckling suggests that he’s leaning into making litigation even more of an optics game.

“Mr. Trump has been trying every possible option to change the outcome and trying to get what he sees as ‘fighters’ making his case, often conflating a media strategy with a legal one,” the New York Times’s Maggie Haberman explained in her report on Giuliani’s new position.

According to Politico, top Trump campaign aides and advisers have been frustrated with Giuliani’s role in the president’s legal challenges — and fear that his incendiary and reckless style will hurt their plans for carefully orchestrated legal battles. Recently, Giuliani has made more sweeping claims than the Trump campaign has been willing to indulge, and has circumvented agreed-upon strategies when talking to the media.

And Giuliani reportedly offers the president more optimistic takes on the odds of existing lawsuits than many other advisers. According to the Times, Trump put Giuliani on speakerphone during a meeting with his aides on Thursday, and Giuliani scolded them for not telling the president the truth about his chances of winning in court.

Frustrated with this sort of behavior, the campaign reportedly plans on pursuing its own legal strategy separately from Giuliani’s efforts.

All told, these developments reflect what appears to be a collapsing legal machine, in which Trump is exhausting his options to effectively use lawsuits to question ballot counting procedures — an endeavor which had always been unlikely to alter the outcome of the election in the first place.

Since Election Day, President Trump has attacked Fox News repeatedly, particularly its newsroom. Now comes chatter from Washington that he wants to start up his own media outfit to take on Fox.

(Image credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Led by one of President Trump's nominees, the agency has been actively trying to correct misinformation spread by all sorts of actors, including Trump, about the election.

(Image credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Welcome to Asmodeus Investment Firm! We know you're going to fit in here just fine! Thank you for becoming a Devil Pact Warlock. It's your job to guide mortals and make deals with devils.

Beginning and Ending Song from Youtube Audio Library:
"Everything where it needs to be" by Nat Keefe & Hot Buttered Rum

New Cyanide and Happiness Comic