i'm not enjoying this.

this isn't fun.

again: if somebody wants me to have a deeper background in this topic, i'm sorry, but i don't.

and, i don't want to be spending my time doing this right now, either.

so, i'm literally just going to reboot a few times and see what happens.

i should be able to compare what the drive looks like afterwards to what it looks like stored and go from there.

again - i'd rather be doing anything, but there's nothing else to do until i get the machine back up, or can potentially buy a new laptop.

if i can't figure out what it's doing on the most recent image, i can try one of the backup images.

that's what they're there for.

it's just going to be very annoying to rebuild it.

the only thing i can figure out is that windows update is running in the background, and it's installing a driver that is crashing the system.

i don't seem to be able to disable the update.

and, i don't want to install this driver at all.

so, this lock screen seems to come up almost immediately, no matter what i do at this point, and i haven't the slightest understanding as to why. that makes no sense to me. i didn't change anything.

i'm going to have to see if i can figure out which files are altering by opening up the broken install and sorting through it.

this is different than before. before, it was obvious that i was being hacked in real time. now, the machine isn't even connected to the internet. there's not even a network card in it.

i'm really completely at a loss. i don't have the slightest idea...

...but, i'm going to have to figure it out, because it's the only computer i can access my email on, and the only computer with microsoft word on it.

well, that was anti-climatic.

it's also reflective of the onset of american decline. 

never did i think i'd see a puny, insignificant, backwards little country like iran attack an american military base and manage to get away with it. 

it's kind of shameful. kind of shocking...

i know it's annoying, but you'd imagine the importance of securing the place right now.

i think that, with the amount of drama put into this, they've kind of given it away.

iran is fucked.

if you're there, get out.

again: i don't really know what the point is.

clearly, i'm still online.

i'm watching the news conference.

the only other thing i can thing of is that it's an activation thing, but how does it know? 

all i can do is reinstall over and over and over and over again until i figure it out.

how many times am i going to reinstall?

as many times as i have to, obviously.

what can i do besides try again?

if i did something on sunday, and it had one result, and i did exactly the same thing again on wednesday, it should have the same result.

that's not what's happening. somehow, the machine is finding a way to install these updates now, when it couldn't before.

i don't understand how that's possible.

see, i'm not surprised that the level of the attacks is increasing.

what i don't understand is what they're using to access the system. that pc has no internet connection.

i understand what it's doing - it's installing a windows update, which is preventing me from booting.

i don't understand how to stop it. i've turned the process off at every stage.

but, i have nothing else to do except keep trying.

two questions.

1) would you support bombing franco? how can you oppose bombing the ayatollah, then?

2) can you think of any other historical example where somebody openly attacked american bases like this and got away with it?

so, am i "supporting" the invasion of iran?

i don't know what that would mean, in context. what i'm pointing out is that the united states cannot allow iran to challenge it's hegemony like this. 

america is the empire. and, the empire cannot allow for this kind of insolence and disrespect from minor players like iran. it has to assert it's authority. that's how empire works.

but, i'm also pointing out that i don't care much for the iranian regime.

in the context of an actual war, my interests are not on either side, but rather with the opposition. there have been scenarios - the spanish civil war, world war two - where the left has supported the bombing of a particularly egregious regime, because it is particularly egregious.

i'm not saying this is like world war two. but, it's not like the invasion of iraq, which was foolish all around, either. i would suggest that it's maybe somewhere midway between the 2003 invasion of iraq and the spanish civil war. 

as previously noted, however, i'm not naive on the point. i don't expect american bombs to be working in the interests of iranian civil rights, but rather in the interests of saudi theocrats. once the mullahs are knocked out of power, the forces that the americans end up backing will likely be the most backwards-thinking on the ground, because that is what america has always supported. it would be a cruel turn of events if i "supported" an invasion in the name of democracy, and ended up with the shah's grandson back in power. it is likely that i would change sides as soon as the government fell.

so, what i'm saying is twofold:

1) iran's reaction was stupid, and america will need to react with extreme force. the media is out to lunch on this. the iranians need to be put in line and taught what their place is.
2) i do actually support some kind of regime change in iran, where there is a viable opposition on the ground, and would in no way want to oppose something that may help them in the end.
3) fuck the ayatollah, solidarity with iranian secularism.

there's a background file system called 'clfs' that i've never heard of before. it seems to have been invented and deployed after my years doing vista support (which was 2006-2007) and active directory support (2007-2008). i haven't done any tech support since 2008.

but, it seems to be a deployment tool that runs in the background and does more or less what i'm observing. i suspect that this is what they're doing.

i don't know if it's possible to dismantle it or not. but, i'm just as happy to break it, if it gets me back up and running. 

so, we're going to do another format/reimage, then avoid giving the system ownership of the files and then go from there.

if it's stable for a while, i'll figure out what's going on later. i don't care, really..

ok, so this isn't quite what i thought, but...

i think i was right about fixing the user permissions, but not in the way that i thought.

the funny semaphores do actually appear to be attached to the image backup, not the bios in the laptop. i don't know what's launching them.

but, what seems to be happening is that as soon as i fix the user permissions, the windows update succeeds, some of the shit gets installed and i get the lock screen, when it can't find the driver.

so, i was worried about the funny user names being remote users using backdoors to get in. rather, i think that the broken permissions were preventing the script from running.

again: i actually don't want to do this. i want to work on the liner notes. 

so....

.....if the machine is stable so long as i keep the permissions broken, i should keep the permissions broken. 

that means that i'm going to explicitly not reset the permissions, which i guess is why i was getting the errors, and we'll see how long i'm good for with that.

but, i'm also getting kind of fed up with the arrangement, and am willing, at this point, to look at options in just getting a new laptop at the pawn shop...

as a precaution, i have:

- unplugged the laptop

- removed the laptop's battery

- disconnected the laptop's cmos battery

- disconnected the laptop's ram

if there's still something in there after that, i'm going to have to flash or reprogram the board, and i wonder - can i do it with a bus pirate?

what am i doing?

i slept most of the day, was up around 11:00. my plan to carefully rebuild the image by copying one thing over at a time failed as i faced a mismatch between the user files in the fresh install and the archived one. so, i'm going to have to plow through, instead. 

i'm convinced that the thing that broke the install was a permissions issue, so i've added an extra step to the rebuild, around resetting the permissions from the install disc before i boot back up. i'm hoping that this is the "correct " way to get rid of these extra user permissions, which i suspect may be granting the authority to run the background scripts.

at this point, i am relatively convinced that there is not a worm in the classic sense on the loose, as it would have infected the various drives and bioses, and there's no sign of it. when i reboot, i'll need to check to see if i see any sign of the funny semaphores before i go to the other machine. 

if i convincingly test this and come up with a clean pc, and then get infected almost immediately upon installing it back into the laptop, it's clear enough what the answer is, and what the next step is.

that's where i'm leaning right now...i just kind of have to show myself the truth of it....

there's this idea that the fact that the united states didn't immediately respond indicates some kind of restraint.

under american law, it is the congress that has the power to declare war. there is one exception, and that's when america is attacked. see, and that's part of why what the iranians did here was so overwhelmingly stupid.

the united states is not currently at war against iran. so, if they had done just about anything else, trump would have been forced to introduce the measure into congress. as it is, he may claim the authority to declare a war, because they were attacked.

but, i think the correct reading of the delay is to deal with the legalities. i don't know what they think the best idea is, here, but it's going to be some combination of existing legislation, new legislation and executive order. it was probably pre-written.

it looks to me like iran essentially fell into a trap - trump wanted a war, but knew he couldn't get the congress to vote for one, so he goaded them into attacking him.

if he introduces it into congress, it could be as more of a political stunt then an actual governing decision. i know that a component of the democratic base thinks this is a no-brainer, but trust me when i say that this is going to be a bit of a problem for a klobuchar or a warren or even a sanders to have to deal with.

biden, buttigieg and bloomberg will at least be able to avoid a technical vote, but they're still in a difficult position of arguing against declaring a war against a country that attacked us troops. that's supposed to be an automatic war, basically. there's really no way out of this.

so, we'll see what he does. but, i'd expect him to do some combination of the following:

1) introduce legislation to declare war against iran
2) point to the ndaa in iraq as an authorization for some force
3) point to the part in the constitution where it says you can react to an attack

this is probably going to be a choreographed, big deal type of thing.

and, the iranians could have avoided it by being smart instead of being stupid. that's what putin should be looking at, here.

will the russians step in, though?

i don't think it's rational, at this point. 

the russians should support regime change, and try to build ties with the new government.

i hope that, at the end of this process, the iranian people are able to erect a secular democracy where they can govern themselves based on modern concepts.

but, their government has to be dismantled.

it's long overdue.

it just made it's last dumb mistake.

and, trump just killed his own legacy at this point, too.

he has now started a war; that was the one thing he previously had going for him - "at least he hasn't started a war".

he can't blame it on pelosi; i can blame it on pelosi, but he'll need to eat it.

that knocks him down the list a good ways.

let this be a lesson to future generations - this is what happens when you put stupid people in charge.

there's no way out of this, at this point.

buckle up. we're at war....

we're at war with iran.

they directly attacked us troops with uniformed personnel.

that's an act of war.

it may be true that the correct analysis is that this is why trump shouldn't have started this. this is why this was stupid.

but, that doesn't change the reality that the iranians just made a very, very, very bad choice and will need to be severely punished for it.

...but the truth is that they're probably selling them weapons behind the scenes, and it's just an excuse to increase defense spending.

if it were up to me, i'd tell the ayatalloh to kiss his ass goodbye...

an attack on american troops like that is an invitation for invasion, and i'd support one to get the point across.

up until this point, we could broadly rely on the iranians to act like adults in the face of american childishness.

i guess that's out the window. 

and, if it is, they will need to be annihilated.

we can't let them bomb nato troops...it doesn't matter what the circumstances are, that can't be tolerated.

they probably fired some rockets into the ocean.

regardless, this is still stupid and they still deserve what they get.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51028954