Monthly Archives: November 2018

Canada's Regulated Players Failing To Supply Captive "Legal" Cannabis Market

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Two weeks into the effort to capture the local cannabis market launched by a criminal organization referring to themselves as the "Canadian Government", they are without product to sell (archived). New actors in the cannabis market aligned with this upstart Canadian cartel are failing to keep up with demand for the most easily cultivated crop of of commercial value ever developed. Physical store fronts are reducing hours and closing for much of the week as they face a complete  absence of any product to sell. The shortages are not of any particular kind or grade of cannabis in a way that suggests misreading demand in a selective consumer market. The shortages are of any weed at all.

The winners in this situation are the black and gray market actors satisfying the market they have long supplied in the face of a coordinated bullying campaign to rob them of their livelihoods. As this situation continues, the new Canadian cartel is faced with four options:

  1. They surrender their failed efforts to be a cartel, admit their mistakes, and open the market up by tossing the rulebook.
  2. They reach out to the people they tried to squash in a spirit of friendship and hope their efforts are met with forgiveness.
  3. They continune their effortful ignoring of the black and gray markets in the end writing off their own cartel play as a public health service achieving a Uruguay situation.
  4. The claws come out and in the name of revenue "legalization" is made more oppresive by tax agents than prohibition ever was.

It is still early in the game, and there is little information on how this criminal organization which decided to get into the drug trade is going to play the collision between their plans and reality. However, persons at risk if the claws do come out are advised to maintain their operational security without relaxing simply because "legalization" is the word of the day. It is necessary to remember the enemy is indeed a criminal organization that decided to attempt capturing the local drug trade.

Another Intel CPU Sidechannel Leak Documented With The Leak Dependent Once Again On A Thing Intel Did To Boost Appearance Of Speed

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Another issue with Intel CPUs has been documented demonstrating the things are leaking bits from what Intel's marketing labels "secure" parts of CPU cores through a sidechannel made available via the simultanuous multi threading gimmick Intel's marketers labeled "hyperthreading" (archived). This has not been a good year for the accumulated gimmicks Intel has been tossing in their chips to simulate speed.

This vulnerability has been dubbed "Portsmash" as the continued accretion of trendy names for these things shows no signs of stopping.

Alleged CIA Leaker Schulte Alleged to Continue Leaking USG Seekrits From Jail

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Joshua Schulte, whom the USG alleges was the party responsible for liberating the "Vault 7" lulz showing that in the post-Snowden era the CIA moved to do all the sames things USG.NSA was criticized for, faces fresh leak charges relating to his effort to assemble a legal defense against the USG's charges (archived). The USG alleges Schulte leaked from his current residence at the New York Metro "Correctional" Center what the stooges are referring to as "Protected Search Warrant Materials" while Shulte is complaining to the judge assigned in the case that his ability to raise a defense is being impaired. This raises serious questions concerning how much the pretense of due process for criminal defendants has crumbled if discussion of process documents like the search warrant are blocked from discussion.

Schulte was only indicted in the case after months of whispers concerning how the case was too weak to bring an indictment. This circus suggests the USG's ability to handle defendants that don't roll over and take plea deals is rapidly degrading.

Pot To Kettle: Please No Decades Of Pain (That Was Our Schtick)

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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is begging China to "act like a normal nation" and avoid capturing developing nations in a debt trap leading to decades of pain widely distributed around the world (archived). This appeal seemingly crafted to tear at the heartstrings is void of a certain necessary context: Trapping developing nations in debt and amplifying their pain is the US and EU's schtick and they would very much like China to step back and get out of their way.

Chinese foreign investment isn't always without controversy where it occurs, but it tends to have a transparency the old IMF scheme lacked. Raw materials for otherwise inaccessible finished goods is a rather kind deal compared to what was on offer before.