December 2019 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Twitter executive responsible for the Middle East is UK Army soldier from the Information Warfare unit
by Razer 27 Apr '20

27 Apr '20

A Twitter executive, responsible for the Middle East, has been exposed as a British Army soldier active in the ‘information warfare’ unit, dedicated to propaganda, known as the 77th Brigade, an exclusive report by the U.K.-based Middle East Eye outlet has revealed. There are fresh questions over the relationship between social media companies and western security states after details emerged about Twitter’s high-level staff. Middle East Eye revealed that Twitter executive Gordon MacMillan is a member of the 77th Brigade of the U.K. military, which claims to have “the capability to compete in the war of narratives at the tactical level”. The revelations come amid recent controversies around Twitter banning accounts critical of U.S. foreign policy. In August almost 1,000 accounts that criticized ongoing protests in Hong Kong were banned from the platform. The 77th Brigade is an amalgamation of two existing British military units, the Media Operations Group and the 15 Psychological Operations Group. “In our 77 Brigade … we have got some remarkable talent when it comes to social media, production design," Army General Nick Carter said speaking of the mission of the brigade at a London think tank. "We also, though, need to continue to improve our ability to fight on this new battlefield, and I think it’s important that we build on the excellent foundation we’ve created for Information Warfare through our 77 Brigade which is now giving us the capability to compete in the war of narratives at the tactical level.” There are also concerns about the role Macmillan is playing in U.K. politics. Investigative journalist Kit Klarenberg found tweets that showed hostility towards Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has been critical of U.K. interventions in the Middle East, “Maybe I'm just being cynical/paranoid/worse. But @GordonMacMillan's tweets about Corbyn and Labour are universally negative and almost universally negative respectively,” Klarenberg commented in a tweet. Former soldier Joe Glenton, who was imprisoned following his refusal to return to another tour of duty in Afghanistan, and hit the headlines after attending an anti-war rally, also commented on the revelations saying “This is vital journalism. It adds to concerns I have had about the placement and role of 77 Brigade people in public life more generally." Both Twitter and the 77th Brigade claim that they do not have a formal link. https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Twitter-Exec-Exposed-as-UK-Military-Off… Rr Sent from my Androgyne dee-vice with K-9 Mail

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"democracy" vs Monarchy - the Russian conversation
by Zenaan Harkness 18 Apr '20

18 Apr '20

Modern "democracy" makes its own extremely strong case against itself. "Monarchy" is just one form "benevolent dictatorship", when it works, but is anything but benevolent when it doesn't work. Hereditary monarchy consistently descends into something as bad as "democracy" is today. Personality cult worship is also a societal pathology. Putin actually did save Russia from total disintegration (to the great chagrin of Harvard's "economic shock therapy" oligarch creators) - and a significant percentage of the Russian population bemoans that Putin "did not go far enough" (in putting unethical oligarchs in jail for instance). Although the lie we've been fed for decades that "democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the rest" has lead many away from the path of critical thinking about our Western system and how it is used to dominate us, the truth is that this quotable quote contains an assumption at its core underlying that lie, which also leads people astray, "that government is something important, necessary". Mechanisms of conflict resolution are what's needed. Government is one form of conflict resolution, notwithstanding the tyranny of the majority/ the mob, the tyranny of the minority, and the usurpation of not only government, but any and every form of shared common delusion or collective concensus agreement - there are always problems to solve. And yes, we've never had a real anarchy, or a real libertarian or direct democracy. BUT, we have had "relatively benevolent" benevolent dictators - in the modern floss world, Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman and others, and throughout history, some of the rulers have been, from the point of view of their citizens, generally, and genuinely, benevolent - not the majority I presume, but certainly some. So benevolent dictatorship - if you truly have an actually benevolent dictator at the top - is one of the most constructive and functional societal arrangements, as long as the various forms of descent into tyranny are successfully guarded against - hereditary right does not make logical sense and history shows us it readily descends into tyranny (old Roman empire, many Monarchies). One could be cautiously hopeful that Russia will carry through with its excellent "democratic" threat of Etherium based public ledger, publicly auditable national voting, and even more to eventually put everything to the vote - a true direct democracy (as Malcolm always says, at least the people would have only their collective selves to blame, for every law and clause). Now although we in The West are supremely enlightened since 400 years and view the world eminently objectively from unassailable glass towers << COUGH >> << COUGH >>, with our deeply nuanced understanding and abiding and unconditional empathy for our Russian brothers <<...>>, we immediately understand not only why they (rightly I would say) view Putin as a benevolent dictator and somewhat of a saviour of all Russia and Christendom, but carry some not insignificant concern for the day, roughly 6.5 years from now, when Putin steps down from his benevolent dictator role. Our Russkie brethren have a significantly more vibrant public discussion (a bit unbalanced in some ways, and very different to what we see in the pathological Western MSM), and one which is naturally drawn from their very rich (as in interesting) past, thus the real and significant desire of a portion of the Russian population to return to Monarchy (see below). In a very real sense this shift is unstoppable, just as the Christian revival is unstoppable in Russia (they are STILL opening on average 3 new churches a day, day in, day out, and have for a few years now) - since as some (<cough>Razer<cough>) have utterly failed to grasp, that which you try to (or temporarily successfully) suppress, be it the Huwaite Nazis or the Russian Orthodox Churches, you do nothing but strengthen the backlash when it comes. The cycle (the resolution of the existential crisis sweeping the globe, both Eurasian and Western) is likely not back to Monarchy, as the path of the awareness and realisation of sovereignty in this reality has gone thusly: God/Creator -> Monarchs -> Man (the individual) -> _ _ _ _ The natural or cyclical progression is something other than "back to Kings and Queens" - the majority simply won't give up their dawning sovereignty, and so some other resolution is inevitable. Since vesting sovereignty in the individual, in Man, has actually yet to be really done, that is what must eventuate, notwithstanding the vehement and violent opposition from the oligarchs who rabidly continue to attempt to suppress the sovereignty of the vast majority of individuals in their unbalanced and relentless pursuit of "more power" which journey, of itself, can never conclude except by suppression of everyone except for a single individual - Atlas Shrugged must be read for those who fail to grasp this simple conclusion. In other words, we are still in the transition from the ultimate power of the Earthly Monarch, to vesting sovereignty in Man, the individual. The glorification of the individual, as seen so strongly in the West, carries its own psychoses and societal pathologies (also seen widely in the West), yet before a different journey can begin, we seem bound to play out the present one to its conclusion - and the struggle for sovereignty (its true vesting in the individual) is now a very small step away - technologically, direct democracy is almost trivial today, requiring nothing more than a little leadership and collective will in this direction, and Russia's Ethereum-based voting looks to be the first solid step on this journey. Don't worry though - the individual quest for meaning and significance shall continue, and once the extreme vesting of sovereignty in the individual is (shortly - over the next decade) attained, then discovery and pursuit of the next step in the evolution of mankind shall begin - seeking the deepest understandings and experiences within the nature of our existence, consciousness and its source, and the mystery of the matrix of this particular "reality" within which we find ourselves - for want of words, that search for the divine, for "the Creator", for "God" - but this time by "going within" rather than settling for the mediation of the priest, the imam, or the medicine man. Nikola Tesla (not Nickola) spoke/ wrote quite poignantly to the art (science?) of contemplation and its use in the pursuit of creativity, knowledge, and manifestation in reality - in some ways he was quite the modern exemplar of this journey. May you find that which Soul seeks for itself, ** Democracy Is Fraud! - We Need Monarchy! - Hugely Popular Russian Priest on Top TV Show ( Dmitry Smirnov) https://russia-insider.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fa2faf7034c3c3c413… ------------------------------------------------------------ by Mark Boden on Sun, Feb 25, 2018 Dmitry Smirnov is one of the best known priests in Russia and has a very large following. He is ubiquitous on television, radio, and YouTube, where his videos frequently get 100s of 1000s of views on his channel. (Russian only). He is a brilliant public speaker and excellent at debate, known for his sharp wit and quick comebacks. He is especially loved for his sermons, which are all on his YouTube channel, and is by far the most popular preacher in Russia. ** The Coming War to End All Wars https://russia-insider.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fa2faf7034c3c3c413… ------------------------------------------------------------ by Ed Curtin on Sun, Feb 25, 2018 “The compulsive hatred of Putin by many who have almost zero idea about Putin or Russian history is disproportionate to any rational analysis, but not surprising. Trump and Putin are like weird doppelgangers in the liberal imagination.” —John Steppling, “Trump, Putin, and Nikolas Cruz Walk into a Bar” ** If America Wasn’t America, the United States Would Be Bombing It https://russia-insider.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fa2faf7034c3c3c413… ------------------------------------------------------------ by Darius Shahtahmasebi on Sun, Feb 25, 2018 On January 8, 2018, former government advisor Edward Luttwak wrote an opinion piece for Foreign Policy titled “It’s Time to Bomb North Korea.” Luttwak’s thesis is relatively straightforward. There is a government out there that may very soon acquire nuclear-weapons capabilities, and this country cannot be trusted to responsibly handle such a stockpile. The responsibility to protect the world from a rogue nation cannot be argued with, and we understandably have a duty to ensure the future of humanity. ** The Guardian Is Right – Ghouta Is 'Syria’s Srebrenica' https://russia-insider.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fa2faf7034c3c3c413… ------------------------------------------------------------ by Catte on Sun, Feb 25, 2018 Simon Tisdall’s latest fact-lite, emotionally manipulative lament that the West isn’t doing enough to save the lovely terrorists in Syria makes one unintentionally accurate claim. “Eastern Ghouta,” he says “is turning into Syria’s Srebrenica.” We agree with him on this, but not for the reasons he offers in his article. Let’s remind ourselves about the real story of Srebrenica and the wider context of the break up of Yugoslavia. Srebrenica didn’t happen in a vacuum. It was part of the “civil war” that shattered the former Yugoslavia into warring regions. NATO supported the civil war and encouraged the secession of Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. It saw chaos in the region as advantageous to its interests.

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Fact-checkers have lost important digital tools — and will lose one more in September - Poynter
by jim bell 17 Apr '20

17 Apr '20

https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2019/fact-checkers-have-lost-importan…

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Re: Libertarian Economic Logic (chart attached)
by Zenaan Harkness 11 Apr '20

11 Apr '20

On Mon, Sep 23, 2019 at 05:54:02PM +1000, jamesd(a)echeque.com wrote: > > > > And in case you missed it, there's 100s of sites these days such > > > > as http://opensourcemachinetools.org/wordpress/ > > > > Which don't tell you how to make a pencil. > > On 2019-09-23 09:33, Zenaan Harkness wrote: > > How many years was the interval between when RMS started his version > > of "the free software movement/ community" and now (now being a > > relevant point in time where we see an incredibly abundant cornucopia > > of all manner of computer software, in free forms available to all) ? > > Since that software was produced by handful of very smart people, that > irrelevant to question of whether you can make a pencil without a boss telling > you how to do it. > > You can make some gun parts with a threedee printer and software downloaded > from the internet, but some gun parts you cannot. And for a very long time, > no one could make those parts except existing large scale gun makers. > > And watching Ivan the Troll make those gun parts, it was absolutely obvious to > me that come civil war II, it is not going to be a large number of people > making full auto weapons in their home workshop. We are going to have to > conscript Ivan the Troll, and conscript a thousand people to do what he damn > well tells them to do. There's a principle there I do agree with. The benevolent dictator, the individual with capacity - call it creative intuitive or inherent or something. I am well aware that those of capacity ("any relevant level of capacity" perhaps?) cannot be duplicated in general. And yes, come civil war, very few will have the ability and capacity to create anything particularly useful, in a relevant time frame, to the defence of their family. I think calling "inherent intuitive ability in one or more areas" "a boss" leads to unfortunate descent of the conversation. One of the great problems of today is the Marxist indoctrination of many, when they go to college, and combined with the relative technological abundance and access to Wikipedia we have, a lot of "spoilt brats" think not only can they do anything, but that the world owes them everything and they ought not have to lift a finger to receive everthing, and this approach has gottem them a fair way in the "cotton wool parents" world we now live in. And come civil war, a few inherent but long buried facts will, usefully if painfully, expose themselves rather rudely to those who've been living such delusions. Anyway, there are those who are intent on building up the publicly accessible knowledge base on how to make things. Some will join them. Perhaps even someone who already knows how to make pencils, and perhaps few people will even be able to follow the instructions - perhaps none (though I doubt that - such a view smacks of ego hubris); timeframes though... I can't stop wondering about the Werner von Braun and NASA USA rocket building history though ... I usually prefer to have the discussion on the list by the way. Regards, Zenaan

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Diplomat suffered memory loss while stationed in China.
by jim bell 09 Apr '20

09 Apr '20

Anyone with an Android smartphone should be able to download an audio spectrum analyzer app to detect various sonic events. Further, I believe that USB-connected SDR's (Software-Defined Radios) which can implement cheap spectrum analyzers are cheaply available. https://www.walmart.com/ip/100KHz-1-7GHz-Full-Band-UV-HF-RTL-SDR-USB-Tuner-… $25.31, in kit form.Although, this specific one is limited to 100Khz-1 GHz. Anything reasonably usable to go to at least 3 GHz. Jim Bell BY BOB SALSBERG, Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — A U.S. diplomat who said he suffered headaches and memory loss under mysterious circumstances while stationed in China pledged Friday to donate his brain to head injury researchers. Mark Lenzi, 44, is an unusual addition to the several thousand others, including many former NFL players who suffered concussions during their careers, who previously signed agreements to have their brains studied after they die by the CTE Center at Boston University. A security engineer for the U.S. State Department, Lenzi was among a number of diplomats who were brought home last year from the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China, after reporting as-yet-unexplained symptoms. The State Department has drawn no link between those diplomats and 26 workers at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba who were withdrawn in 2017 after reporting symptoms, including those consistent with minor traumatic brain injury, or concussion. "The engineer in me wants to get to the bottom of this type of concussion and exactly what happened to me," Lenzi said while signing the pledge in Boston with representatives of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, an organization that collaborates with the BU researchers by recruiting donors and publicizing the dangers associated with head trauma. Chris Nowinski, co-founder and chief executive of the foundation, said the brain injury community must continue research to find answers for head trauma. "There are patients out there that need answers from the scientific community," he said. Lenzi now works at a State Department passport office in his native New Hampshire. He said he and his wife began hearing strange noises in their apartment in 2017, and later developed symptoms consistent with concussion. In an interview with the AP, he said he initially did not associate the noises with the symptoms, believing the headaches may have been triggered by smog. Lenzi has not been identified by U.S. officials as someone suffering from injuries similar to those suffered by diplomats in Cuba. The State Department said Friday that out of 15 diplomats or family members from China who underwent additional medical evaluation in the U.S., 14 were found not to have symptoms like those from Cuba and the other case had not been determined. [end of partial quote]

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Organ Harvesting - "good business practice" - China's evil underbelly - [PEACE]
by Zenaan Harkness 09 Apr '20

09 Apr '20

Business - "take advantage" (in Chinese) - "good Chinese business practice" where if someone's on death row, why not make good use of their organs? And if someone with an organ you need, is not on death's row, perhaps they're involved in an illegal religion and can be 'disappeared' with state support... Aka, why we should disengage from China, why we should not buy Chinese, why we should hold ourselves to higher standards than the very Jewish slave and organ harvesting trades. Robert Kaplan lays out a simple parable to make this even easier to understand. The Moral Case For Decoupling From China https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/moral-case-decoupling-china https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/12/the_moral_case_for_decoupl… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-2cArChw5M ~290MiB with -F18 ... The whole 68-minute interview is interesting but where he is a thought leader is in his parable of the delicatessen, transcribed below: "Suppose you lived on 86th st and at the local delicatessen with fine produce, at the front of the shop were all these goodies. But if you went to the very back of the shop there were sort of vats which were kept just above freezing which had freshly harvested kidneys and livers and hearts and all the things which are used at this moment. … People are being killed so their organs can be used for transplants. Many of which go to the very elderly Chinese leadership or their children. The son of one of the recent leaders of China has had cancer and he has had many organs replaced. Well, what would you say about this shop. Would you say, well, I think I’ll just shop in the front of the shop and I won’t pay any attention to the fact that there are all these living human organs, God knows where they came from, that are in the back. What you would say is ‘What the heck is this shop doing in America?’ You can’t decouple these things. This is one integral system. And that is one of the reasons we have to quarantine China economically. A rationalisation for saying ‘Well yes it’s true that there is some question with what Hitler is doing with the gypsies and the Jews but Leica still makes a hell of a good camera.” ...

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Are you a man, or a pouty little bitch? - [PEACE]
by Zenaan Harkness 05 Apr '20

05 Apr '20

A 6 minute true story for y'all (and just a couple mentions o' God). tl;dr - "Am I a man . . . or a pouty little bitch?" Fell Back Into the Fallen State ... All For a Girl! ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpWnAdhv3J8 ~5:54 "I'm going to get myself out of this hole, because I put myself in this hole." JLP - "Rebuilding the family by rebuilding the man." -- 5 day challenge muffas :) Do not wake the snake for 5 days.

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Gold and Silver coin - South Carolina 4th state in the union, Ag/Au = legal tender - [MONEY]
by Zenaan Harkness 02 Apr '20

02 Apr '20

>From the "getting back to the constitution" and the "about time" departments (but Texas is not yet one of those 4 states): South Carolina Legal Tender Act Would Treat Gold & Silver As Money https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/south-carolina-legal-tender-act-would-t… https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/south-carolina-legal-tender-act-w… A bill prefiled in the South Carolina House would make gold and silver coins legal tender in the state. Passage of this bill would take a step toward creating currency competition in South Carolina and undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money. Rep. Stewart Jones filed House Bill 4678 (H.4678) on Nov. 20. Under the proposed law, “gold and silver coins minted foreign or domestic shall be legal tender in the State of South Carolina under the laws of this State. No person or other entity may compel another person or other entity to tender or accept gold or silver coin unless agreed upon by the parties.” Practically speaking, this would allow South Carolina residents to use gold or silver coins to pay taxes and other debts owed to the state. In effect, it would put gold and silver on the same footing as Federal Reserve notes. The phrase, “unless agreed upon by the parties” has important legal ramifications. This wording reaffirms the court’s ability, and constitutional responsibility according to Article I, Section 10, to require specific performance when enforcing such contracts. If voluntary parties agree to be paid, or to pay, in gold and silver coin, South Carolina courts could not substitute any other thing, e.g. Federal Reserve Notes, as payment. South Carolina could become the fourth state to recognize gold and silver as legal tender. Utah led the way, reestablishing constitutional money in 2011. Wyoming and Oklahoma have since joined. The effect has been most dramatic in Utah where United Precious Metals Association (UMPA) was established after the passage of the Utah Specie Legal Tender Act and the elimination of all taxes on gold and silver. UPMA offers accounts denominated in U.S. minted gold and silver dollars. The company also recently released the “Utah Goldback.” UPMA describes it as “the first local, voluntary currency to be made of a spendable, beautiful, physical gold.” South Carolina has already repealed the sales tax on gold and silver. That removed one barrier to using gold and silver in everyday transactions. Capital gains taxes are still imposed on gold and silver for state income tax purposes. After establishing gold and silver as legal tender, South Carolina should repeal the capital gains tax to completely open the door to using it as money. As the Sound Money Defence League explains, “Practically speaking, state laws that recognize gold and silver as money restore a government view of precious metals as the favored form of money – a currency rather than a piece of property or other asset. Using this logic, it would be inappropriate for a state to levy taxes when the precious metals are used or exchanged.” Background ...

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[RUS] Yolo's money shot^Bquote — “I would still like to at least get some facts supporting our unsuccessful meddling.”
by Zenaan Harkness 22 Mar '20

22 Mar '20

Oh how we love a good troll. And All the better when it's a troll stating a fact. And on the international stage, Sergei "Yolo" Lavrov is a troll on a roll, at the top of his game (+ with a number of other Russkie public figures to be frank) - a great time in history for the comedy connoisseur. ** Watch Russian FM Call British FM a Liar To His Face - He's Absolutely Right (Video) https://russia-insider.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fa2faf7034c3c3c413… ------------------------------------------------------------ by Michael Bateman on Fri, Dec 22, 2017 Oh what a tangled web we weave, when at first we practice to deceive ... Lavrov is on a roll here. Three weeks ago he, correctly, called US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley a liar, albeit, not to her face. Watch Boris Johnson bumble through this embarrassing exchange with Lavrov in Moscow yesterday. One thing we can say about Trump, he appears to be speeding up the end game, leaving foreign and military policy essentially to the war hawks - whether this is a good or a bad thing is debatable, but more war is certainly not less war, and more guns and bombs does not mean less shooting and deaths: ** Israel, Saudi Arabia and the US Are About to Invade Syria - Brace For Impact https://russia-insider.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fa2faf7034c3c3c413… ------------------------------------------------------------ by Alexander Orlov on Fri, Dec 22, 2017 The Russian Defense Ministry recently announced that the United States is training a new armed force at the former refugee camp in El Khaseq province, citing the Center for Syrian Reconciliation. ** Trump Opens up US Arms Sales to Kiev, Escalates War in East Ukraine, and Ensures More Russian Aid for Rebels https://russia-insider.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fa2faf7034c3c3c413… ------------------------------------------------------------ by Daniel Larison on Fri, Dec 22, 2017 Trump is pressing ahead with the foolish option of arming Ukraine: The Trump administration has approved the first ever U.S. commercial sale of lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine, in a clear break from the de facto U.S. ban on arms sales that dates back to the Obama administration. ** Iran Is on a Roll - the Deep State Is Definitely Planning a Major Attack https://russia-insider.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fa2faf7034c3c3c413… ------------------------------------------------------------ by (Fash the Nation)Tom Shackleford on Fri, Dec 22, 2017 Primer on Iran Iran is a nation with a long and proud history, dating back to the Persian empire. It is about the size of Western Europe and has a population in excess of 80 million. Iran also has the 3rd largest reserves of conventional (cheaply extracted) oil in the world and the 2nd largest natural gas reserves. Iran is clearly a force to be reckoned with. As such, it considers itself the protector of Shi’a Muslims, who often live under extreme Sunni repression throughout the region. No amount of US pressure has succeeded in halting the “protector” policy.

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root "login" xterm to increase security?
by Zenaan Harkness 20 Mar '20

20 Mar '20

So someone cracking into one's local user account via browser sploit, one of the first acts would likely be to plant a password capture script, e.g. wrapping sudo or something otherwise requiring password entry. Once a password is obtained, via brute force or trojan, sudo gives the entire system away. A convenience is some do "useradd me disk" - but again, any crack of local account (even without password), now gives away all disks. Convenience vs security. So what to do? 1) delgroup me disk "Important" data such as keyfiles ought be stored with no "primary user account access", so group "disk" ought not be part of "primary user"'s groups. Are there any other groups that "really ought" be removed from the local primary user account? 2) Disable sudo and disable su su (as well as sudo) again has the problem of password capture if su or sudo is run from the primary user account after a sploit + trojan planted. So, obviously, we need "clean" root logins, i.e.: - separate root account for admin/disk tasks - clean login, i.e. not via primary user account but using a clean "login" process outside any user account And so logically, the immediate test is as follows (does not work for me, gives me a .profile/.bashrc shell, not a login prompt): xterm -ls Note man xterm: -ls This option indicates that the shell that is started in the xterm window will be a login shell (i.e., the first character of argv[0] will be a dash, indicating to the shell that it should read the user's .login or .profile). The -ls flag and the loginShell resource are ignored if -e is also given, because xterm does not know how to make the shell start the given command after whatever it does when it is a login shell - the user's shell of choice need not be a Bourne shell after all. Also, xterm -e is supposed to provide a consistent functionality for other applications that need to start text-mode programs in a window, and if loginShell were not ignored, the result of ~/.profile might interfere with that. If you do want the effect of -ls and -e simultaneously, you may get away with something like xterm -e /bin/bash -l -c "my command here" Finally, -ls is not completely ignored, because xterm -ls -e does write a /var/log/wtmp entry (if configured to do so), whereas xterm -e does not. QUESTIONS: a) anyone know how to make xterm -ls give a 'clean' login prompt? b) is any presumption of a "clean" login prompt inside xterm, when launched from a primary account xterm session, a folly? c) is there any other option for root in X, which could be considered "resonably secure" in the face of a cracked local X using account? 3) Qubes. Isolate each activity into its own VM. Notwithstanding hardware/CPU level firetruckery (another problem which as grarpamp reminds us requires OpenFabs, OpenHW, OpenCPU etc), isolating each activity, especially public facing activity such as web browsing, appears to be a very reasonable proposition - this way a browser crack means root access in the browser's VM, and not automatically into the rest of the system (VM sploits notwithstanding).

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