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Does the New Jersey Republican Party have a county committee problem?John Supino, campaign manager for Patriot Party gubernatorial candidate David Winkler, thinks so.

The campaign said that Winkler is the first candidate of the Patriot Party to run in New Jersey, and were it not for what Supino described as a broken and corrupted Republican County Committee system, the Patriot Party might not have been.

Herein lies the beginning of the new chapter of the NJGOP in the post-Trump era.The Republican Party has existed for 166 years.But the establishment of the Patriot Party as a consequence of Republican frustration may be the first crack in the Grand Old Partys foundations.It comes to grips with itself now that the Trump flagsintermixed with smoke and tear gashave passed from the US Capitol and Joe Biden occupies the Oval Office.

As far as New Jersey is concerned, however, where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by nearly 1,000,000, splinters such as those represented by candidates who want to continue a more Trumpian form of Republican Party will present at the least, an irritant but also a consequence.At the most, it could represent a reckoning and serious handicap to Republicans winning the governors office in the foreseeable future.Supino made it clear that the views expressed were his own and not necessarily those of Winkler, but that Republican woes were the blame of the Republicans themselves.

Last year, Winkler sought to run for Congress in the CD 8 Republican primary.The party came to [Winkler] and they asked him to drop out so they could install somebody else in his place, and the person who was put in his place was put there with the intention of losing, Supino said.David started getting a lot of attention and started doing wellI have no evidence that the other guy was there to throw the towel, but he didnt campaign, all he did was put his name on the ballot.To me, thats not a candidate who wants to win.CD 8, in the general election, consequently went to Democrat Albio Sires who beat Republican Jason Mushnick by a landslide 74% to 24.6%.Libertarian candidate Dan Delaney shaved off 3,329 votes but bears no blame for splitting the meager right-of-center vote and contributing to Sires victory.

To be fair to Mushnick, the Republican challengers performance at the polls may not be entirely surprising, however, given the institutional strength of Sires.His resume boasts a 12 year stint as mayor of West New York, then service in the New Jersey Assemblyas Speaker for 4 years, and then 13 years in the House of Representatives for CD13 and later CD8.Mushnick had previously run for Assembly District 31 with Mary Kay Palange against Democrats Angela McKnight and Nicholas Chiaravalotti, with the latter defeating the Republicans who never broke the double digits in terms of percentage taken.

Supino, who ran the campaign for Tricia Flanagan in the US Senate primary that ultimately went to Rik Mehta, took aim at the Republican county committee system for putting party interests ahead of the interests of the people.From my previous experience, the Republican Primary process is corrupt and broken.The county commission system needs to be abolished and done away with.Were probably the only one or maybe two states in the country that has this system.Its a system that perpetuates 21 kingmakers in this state.If you look at the race I did with Tricia, one person picked the candidate, that person was [Republican National Committeeman] Bill Palatucci, this is all public record.If you look at the newspaper articles, Palatucci put his arm around Mehta, took him to all the county committees with a wink and a nod and told the committees what to do, and they followed suit.So, in the worst light, Palatucci picked the candidate.In the best light, 300 or so people picked the candidate, but hundreds of thousands voted.

Palatucci had endorsed Hirsh Singh until a social media exchange over Governor Christie and Senator Cory Booker made the former switch his endorsement to Mehta, a candidate slammed by Joseph Rudy Rullo and Singh as a Democratic opiate peddler.

As for Murphys opposition headed to the election, Supino was sanguine about their timing.Jack [Ciattarelli] started last year, there are other people coming into the race on the Republican ticket, the Libertarian ticket.Voters dont care what you did the last year, they look at the last sixty days.We are going to do a hard push all the way.Events are easier to hold.Were going to draw more people than Biden, not that that is a huge accomplishment, but we are going to draw sizeable crowds.We see it already, and when the weather warms up, were going to be able to do more things outdoors.

Every campaign requires money, and good amounts of it, to keep in the game.The pandemic has curtailed most political campaigns of the usual nature, with candidates doing more and more virtual sessions to reach voters, which is a cost-saving route compared to the traditional methods.This could be advantageous to smaller campaigns, provided they can effectively use the media and internet to get the word out.I dont see overhead as being an issue.[Bob] Hugin spent millions of his own money and we dont call him senator, do we?Money is important, Im not going to lie, but we will have more than what we need.Theres a lot going on in the background, but there are things happening.This is going to be a national movement.

What the national movement referred to might manifest as, if it does, will only be seen with time. But Supinos predictions represent a serious problem for the post-Trump Republican Party as far as finding its way forward.In the state of New Jersey particularly, Supinos dissatisfaction which led to his break with the party is due to the very nature and habits of those who run the GOP.The Republicans have been in bed with Norcross for years.They had a meeting from what I understand, that 21 chairs got together and the discussion was how to run away from Trump.If thats the direction they want to take, thats up to them whether they exist or not.

What to do, then?The first thing they need to do is get rid of the county committee system that picks the candidates, because if they did, wed be running in a Republican primary.But because the system is so rigged, we had no choice but to go into a third party.

While Supino made it clear that he did not speak specifically on matters of policy, being the campaign manager, he said that the new party was coming from a position of common sense.To build support, they would be looking at a ground-level approach for what they believe are things average voters agree on.Well go to parents and ask do you want your high school girls to use the same restroom as high school boys?Nobody in their right mind could possibly agree with that.Eighty percent of the people who live their lives in such a way that these topics will touch homethose are things we are going after.

The platform was described as Common-sense populist.Very conservative, pro-2ndAmendment, pro-1stAmendment, constitutionalist.You dont need to be a lawyer to understand what the first ten amendments mean.

When asked if Supino thought that the Patriot Party represented a pathway going forward, a product of disenfranchisement with the GOP, he felt that the timing was right and that the Republican Partys own origins were proof that new parties had a viable chance, given the circumstances.With the reaction we are currently getting, not just from New Jersey but from around the country, I dont see why it wouldnt.The stage is set right now.Unlike the Tea Party, which in its time we have to give them credit, they did take the House.But we didnt have a stolen election, we didnt have people frustrated with the government the way they are today.I think the conditions are such that this may be the time.Weve had the Democratic Party since the beginning of the republic, there is no reason why if we started a new party in 1860 that we cant start a new one in 2020.The Republican Party was established in 1854 and ran its first presidential candidate, John C. Fremont, against James Buchanan in the 1856 election.Abraham Lincoln succeeded Buchanan in the election of 1860, the first Republican in the White House a mere 6 years after the partys creation.

When I went through the process of the county committee system and when I saw the corruption firsthand, I was appalled, Supino said.The alternative would be open primaries.Let the voters decide who is going to run.The county committees do not understand their role as they should be.They want to be the power brokers.They shouldnt be the power brokers, they should be the facilitators to get each candidates message to the people.They should host debates, meet the candidate nights, they should go out and promote every single candidate.Thats not the way it works.Right now theyve got twenty people in a room and the first thing they say is How much money do you have?Then they vote, as they are told to vote by their chairmen.Some counties are OK, they try to be fair.Morris county is trying to do a line and I hope they fail.

Supino said that of the counties, the best or fairest was probably his home county of Bergen.They have a Meet the Candidate Night where they invite every candidate and people who are interested in hearing the candidates can go.I think they should give every candidate their own night so they have more time with the people, however, I do think that that single event will probably put them out there.

In addition to the committee system being unfair, Supino accused the New Jersey Republicans of being out of touch.Presumably, the Patriot Party represents a new, alternative voice for those dissatisfied with the status quo.When you have votes in the New Jersey legislature, such as the BLM vote they took last year where every single Republican abstained, and a handful voted, for BLM Day.Is that what we stand for?A terrorist organization?I sent Representative Bergen Ted Cruzs analysis of who BLM is: theyre terrorists.And, unfortunately, the Republicans in New Jersey are afraid to call terrorists terrorists and people are fed up with it.They see the burning buildings and people dragged from their cars and kicked until theyre unconscious and were going to honor that terrorist organization with a day?The average person doesnt buy it.

The New Jersey legislature adopted June 19, or Juneteenth, as a holiday and signed by Governor Phil Murphy.Assemblywoman Shanique Speight (D-Essex)introduced Assembly Joint Resolution 171to designate June 13 as Black Lives Matter Day which passed the Assembly and presently sits in committee in the Senate.Assemblyman Jon Bramnick was among the Republicans to abstain, andaccording to North Jersey, said, Black lives matter. Let me say it again. Black lives matter But this resolution doesnt deal with a concept, it refers to a specific organization.

The American political system was quite literally rocked following the January 6 Capitol Hill riots, an event which left 1 Capitol Hill Police Officer dead and 15 hospitalized.When asked about the impacts on the Republican Party following the January 6 Capitol Hill riots, Supino said, We know what happened there.Lets not kid ourselves, ANTIFA and BLM sent people in to do that.We know that, theyve been on camera, theyve been identified.Where was the outrage when they were burning cities?This is the problem, the only people in DC like Matt Gaetz are the only ones who stand up and call it what it is.People respect politicians who have a backbone.

The claim that the hundreds of rioters were undercover ANTIFA and BLM personnel is dismissed by the Federal Bureau of Investigations Assistant Director Steven DAntuono who said there was no indication that they were involved.President Trump, in his call for peace and calm following the violence, told his followers we love you and that they should go home.Later, he released a message saying that those who participated in the violence would be held accountable.According to the New York Times, there has been dissention circulating among organizations such as the Proud Boys through channels like Telegram, calling Trump a total failure and weaka result of their sense of betrayal.

So, back to New Jerseydoes Jack Ciattarelli have a backbone?I like Jack, I know Jack, but from things I have seen lately, I am disappointed.

Supino felt that new ground was to be had with support from voters on both sides of the aisle looking for a more representative party.There are Democrats who arent AOC-style extremists and they want their kids to have a good education.They want their daughters not to have to use co-ed bathrooms, they want the best for their families.They see things going so far to the left, it isnt the way to go.

Nobody can have a political discussion without bringing up the contagious, microscopic elephant in the room.All aspects of life, including political life, have been impacted by the coronavirus and it has become a key issue for political leaders across the globe to handle.In many cases the legitimacy of the political establishment itself is tested by its coronavirus response, with electorates expecting results.We think [Florida Governor Ron] DeSantis is taking the right course.The cure cannot be worse than the disease, when youre putting people out of business.Especially in a state like New Jersey, where property taxes are typically into the tens of thousands, people are losing their homes and businesses, for what?The government employees who are enforcing this have never missed a paycheck.Youre not allowed to open your restaurant but you better pay your taxes.Supino said that the fault absolutely lies at the feet of the political establishment.

With Jack Ciattarelli as the clear Republican choice going into the gubernatorial election, politicos have wondered out loud whether or not Bob Hugin might enter the race, seeking another run following his unsuccessful attempt to dislodge US Senator Bob Menendez.But still, all politics is local, and the county committee system is where Supino has a problem.Thats where the corruption happens.Additionally, he had little enthusiasm for the prospect of a potential or theoretical Hugin candidacy, which he did not dismiss as a possibility.He was a horrible candidate.You dont out-liberal a liberal.He didnt lose because he spent money and he wasnt going to win because he spent money, he lost based on his ideas.I worked on his campaign for a bit, but nobody was excited about getting out of bed and going to vote for Bob Hugin.Theyre not going to drag their neighbor to the voting booth.

The most appropriate role for the county committees, Supino argued, was to hold events and promote every candidate.The NRC holds their convention after the popular vote.Why dont the committees?

Supino asserted that the Flanagan campaign was ignored by the Party during the senate primary race.When Gary Rich dropped out, we were at the convention in Hunterdon County.Gary Richs team and our team called [Camden County Republican Chairman]Rich Ambrosino repeatedly to reschedule Tricias time to talk.She said we cant be there because we have an obligation to Hunterdon county, she was scheduled for a certain date and time.We tried for three or four days, sending emailsnot just us, our team and Gary Richour two teams tried and tried to get a hold of somebody to reschedule the date.Natalie Rivera was running and when Ambrosino finally called Tricia back, he said we gave the slot to Natalie, she called us this morning and asked for it.Then they put out a statement that Tricia never showed up for her appointed time.While true she didnt show up, that was because we had the obligation in Hunterdon.We tried for days to reschedule it but they refused to pick up the phone or answer our emails.So, you see how these things work.

Supino railed against a Mafia-style committee system.When [a candidate] announced he was going to run for governor, he was going to the county committees, basically to ask for permission to run.Politicians shouldnt be asking politicians for permission to run, they should go to the people.Why do we have to check with these 21 people to get permission to represent us?He continued.These people will deny it until the ends of the Earth, but Tricias first question from Monmouth County was How come this is the first time youve come to see us?In other words, why didnt you come kiss our ring for a year?Her answer was appropriate, she said she was out talking to the people who actually vote.

In his assessment of the Republican Party as it stands now, Supino was not optimistic.Given exactly whats happening here, its hard to support them.They dont care if they lose so long as they maintain power within their power structure.

Whether or not the Republican Party sees a serious threat from a third party has yet to be seen.Nevertheless, this represents a symptom that the GOP of 2021 would do well to address.If it sweeps the matter under the rug, it does so at its peril, risking minority-party status not only due to superior Democratic voter registration, but an exodus of its own.

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Amid Post Trump Disorder in the GOP, Winkler and the Patriot Party Make a Stand - InsiderNJ

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Few agencies are more concerned with cybersecurity than the National Security Agency. One might say NSA has cyber in its DNA. Recently the agencys cybersecurity directorate marked a full year of operations. For details on what its managed to get done, deputy director Dave Luber spoke to Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Tom Temin: Mr. Luber, good to have you on.

Dave Luber: Tom, great to be here today.

Tom Temin: So first of all tell us roughly in general terms what the Cybersecurity Directorate does for NSA, and I guess youve got a kind of a government wide mission also.

Dave Luber: Well, thanks Tom. Cybersecurity Directorate was formed in 2019, and was created to integrate NSA cybersecurity mission to prevent and eradicate threats to our nations most sensitive systems and critical infrastructure. The Cybersecurity Directorate integrates NSA threat intelligence, vulnerability analysis, cryptographic knowledge, defensive operations and diverse technical expertise. Our cybersecurity year end review goes into more detail to this work we did towards the mission in 2020. And thats the first year of our full year as a Cybersecurity Directorate.

Tom Temin: Alright. And how many people are involved? Give us a sense of the scope of the activity here. And by the way, are you headquartered at the main NSA location?

Dave Luber: We are headquartered at the NSA main location in Fort Meade. And we have a vast number of folks that are part of our team, and just a great group of folks and professionals.

Tom Temin: And before we get into some of the specific accomplishments listed in the annual report, I just wanted to ask you, you think of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at Homeland Security, CISA, as being in a similar type of activity. Do you to talk to one another and is there some sort of collaboration or cooperation there?

Dave Luber: Absolutely, in fact, CISAs one of our prime partners, but not the only partner that we have across the US government. And Ill get into a little bit more of that when I talk about some of the activities that weve engaged on collectively together.

Tom Temin: Well, lets get into that annual report thats online. And what do you consider some of the top highlights?

Dave Luber: Well, first off, the top highlights, the Cybersecurity Year in Review was really created to demonstrate the returns on investment that NSA made in the cybersecurity area and for the stakeholders and the American taxpayers. Really, the document is a testament to the skills and resiliency of the NSA people, and the partners across the public and private sectors who worked together throughout the year to protect the US in cyberspace. The Year in Review, we really created this to highlight and an unclassified way the accomplishments that were driven by our tremendous workforce and the partners, and to even provide greater transparency to the audiences as we lean forward in this first year. And Id be happy to go into some additional details on some of the things that we worked in that report.

Tom Temin: Well, you mentioned that there were 30 actionable cybersecurity products. And tell us more about those these are things that you coded or programmed? You tell me.

Dave Luber: Really, when I talk about the cybersecurity advisories and products, what Im really talking about is security guidance, or assessments that weve put together to help our customers in the national security system, national security systems owners, the Department of Defense, the defense industrial base, and many others within government, understand how to configure their systems and understand also the threats that they may see from cyber actors. So whether thats making sure that we protect our nations vital vaccine and make sure the networks are protected from actors who may try and target vaccine makers, or when we talk about nation states that may want to use public vulnerabilities to gain access to your networks.

Tom Temin: Got it. And heres where maybe the collaboration with CISA would come in, and also maybe the National Institute of Standards and Technologies. They have advisories and guidance and so forth, yours seems to be maybe more oriented toward the intelligence community and DoD, the classified end.

Dave Luber: Both national security systems owners, yes, on the classified end, but also the unclassified end. So just to give you an example, one of the efforts that we put together in one of our products, we issued this jointly between NSA, CISA and partners in the UK and Canada to warn against a particular advanced persistent threat targeting organizations engaged in COVID-19 vaccine research in the US and the UK and Canada. So that joint advisory provided really important indicators of compromise and detection techniques, and actionable mitigations. And as you might imagine, those sorts of advisories then help those in the vaccine process and developing the vaccine to really go and look at their networks, examine those networks and put mitigations in place.

Tom Temin: Theres one highlight thats really interesting and that is you supported the DoDs transition to telework and releasing written products and providing commercial solutions for classified capability packages. And this applies to 100,000 people. Tell us more about that one.

Dave Luber: Sure, absolutely. And COVID-19 really made us rethink how we work across government. And just like the rest of the the United States, the US government started transitioning many of their employees to working from home. So our experts in the cybersecurity mission rose to the occasion really to support the DoD into the transition of telework, but also enabling more than 100,000 users to telework securely. And as you might imagine, that included everything from releasing the best practices and products to use in a telework environment, as well as how to identify and mitigate compromises to personal home networks as more users begin to use those as part of their official business.

Tom Temin: Yes, because thats a mode of work thats likely to continue at a high level for some time, maybe even after the pandemic.

Dave Luber: Absolutely. So this work continues and we are constantly engaging with many partners across the DoD and other national security systems owners to further refine that guidance and provide additional insights as we learn more about the best ways to operate securely in a telework environment.

Tom Temin: And getting back to the operation warp speed, which you supported again with advisories and so forth, and what to watch out for, did you detect any particular heightened activity other than what goes on normally out there in the wild directed toward that research and toward those companies?

Dave Luber: As I mentioned, NSA provides threat intelligence and cybersecurity advisements. And if we start to see demonstrated activity where advanced persistent threats are targeting organizations, especially those that are important to our national security, such as the vaccine research that was going on, were absolutely going to get those advisories out and get that information out to those so they can protect their networks. Operation Warp Speed is really a whole government effort led by the Department of Defense and Health and Human Services. We wanted to make sure that that team was poised and charged to produce and deliver safe and effective COVID vaccine capabilities.

Tom Temin: So now all you have to do is get it made and distributed and the country will be better off. And let me ask you this, what are you looking for in 2021 and beyond? You helped secure an election, thats over with, and Operation Warp Speed is mostly done because there is a vaccine. So what comes up next?

Dave Luber: Certainly when you think about what comes up next, we have been working, as you might know, on a number of different activities going on. Our cybersecurity advisories continue to be a very important part of our future and making sure that we can get those insights out to our customers, and to make sure that they have the best guidance possible to secure their networks against very advanced cyber threats.

Tom Temin: Because a lot of agencies including DoD and their statutory requirements to get after security of the supply chain, and then the SolarWinds issue hit which was a supply chain breach, so is supply chain part of what youre looking at in depth coming up?

Dave Luber: Absolutely. This was a cyber espionage operation which was executed at scale and speed with very nuanced tactics and techniques and procedures. The actor targeted private sector technology providers who both serve the government and corporate clients and used that access to gain a foothold into their victims. And then they carefully picked specific victims of interest. So due to the nature of the foreign intelligence and cybersecurity mission, we are out there providing support to both US government entities that have been affected by this activity.

Tom Temin: And one more question, at the website there is a illustration It looks like a wall chart of the 2020 accomplishments. And it says can you find the hidden message in this graphic, but its very tiny on a web browser. And no matter what I did, I couldnt get that to enlarge. So how do people get to that wall chart so that they can solve the hidden message in the graphic?

Dave Luber: I believe our wall chart is available on nsa.gov.

Tom Temin: Alright, and someone could download and print it and stick it up and figure it out?

Dave Luber: Thats correct.

Tom Temin: Dave Luber is Deputy Director of the Cybersecurity Directorate at the National Security Agency. Thanks so much for joining me.

Dave Luber: Thank you.

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NSAs cyber directorate marks a year in operation - Federal News Network

Bloomberg reports speculation that Russian intelligence services may have been especially interested in what they could glean from tech and cybersecurity firms over the course of the SolarWinds supply chain compromise. Insight into defenses and cyber tools would have been particularly valuable.

IT and cyber firms didnt, however, comprise the entire list of private sector targets. Infosecurity Magazine notes that the Sunburst vulnerability has been determined to affect a number of manufacturing companies. Kaspersky CERT found that targeting broke down as follows: 32.4% of all victims were industrial organizations, with manufacturing (18.11% of all victims) by far the most affected." Utilities (3.24%), construction (3.03%), transportation and logistics (2.97%), and oil and gas (1.35%) also figured in the list.

Solorigate has provoked Congressional interest in an earlier incident, a 2015 breach of Juniper Networks servers in which the attackers made small changes to code for the Dual_EC_DRBG encryption algorithm. NIST had promulgated the NSA-developed algorithm as a standard for encryption in 2006. Bloomberg Law reports that two Senators and eight Representatives have signed a letter asking NSA to explain whether it had backdoored the encryption in ways that enabled hostile intelligence services to compromise the software supply chain.

The Cyberspace Solarium Commission has produced a Transition Book for the new US Administration. They recommend three steps for immediate action:

Originally posted here:
Targets of the Solorigate threat actors. Congress asks NSA about backdoors. Cyberspace Solarium's Transition Book. - The CyberWire

The National Sports Authority (NSA) has expressed dissatisfaction over the unacceptable behaviour of fans and the blatant disregard for COVID-19 safety protocols during a match-day 11 encounter between Hearts of Oak and Great Olympics played at the Accra Sports Stadium, last Saturday.

In a press statement signed by Mr. Charles Amofah, Head of Public Relations of NSA, it said despite all the measures that have been put in place such as spaced out marked seats to ensure social distancing, fans were found jubilating, singing, hugging each other when their team scored, thus ignoring the safety protocols.

"In view of this, the Authority is using this medium to inform the Ghana Football Association(GFA) and the clubs using the facility that it would not hesitate to resort to matches being played behind closed doors, in order to ensure total adherence to the COVID-19 safety protocols.

"The Authority would like to assure the general public of its commitment to ensure strict compliance with the COVID-19 safety protocols, in collaboration with the law enforcement agents deployed to our facility," the statement said.

In other related development, the President of the Republic, Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo has entreated the NSA and GFA to ensure the compliance with a 25% capacity rule in our stadium with spectators adhering to social distancing rule and the wearing of masks.

Read more:
NSA fume over the violation of COVID-19 safety protocols - BusinessGhana

Sports News of Wednesday, 3 February 2021

Source: footballmadeinghana.com

National Sports Authority boss, Professor Peter Twumasi

The National Sports Authority boss, Professor Peter Twumasi has re-assured that the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi should be ready to host football matches soon, as renovation works near completion.

The facility has been closed for renovation works for close to a year now, with work progressing at a snails pace. The situation has forced football clubs who use the facility to find an alternative venue as they anxiously wait for works to be completed.

Asante Kotoko, King Faisal and Asokwa Deportivo for instance use different match venues for their respective home league games in the current campaign.

Asante Kotoko host games the Accra Sports Stadium while Faisal use the Techiman Ohene Ameyaw Park for the Ghana Premier League home games. Asokwa Deportivo also use the Len Clay Stadium at Obuasi for their home matches in the National Division One League.

Speaking after inspecting the progress of work done, Professor Peter Twumasi has indicated that works are currently moving on as planned. The underground PVC pipes have been laid to supply water to the automated sprinkler system. This is to help water the grass to grow to an appreciable level.

According to Professor Twumasi, all should be set for football matches to be played at the venue when this has been sorted.

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Baba Yara Stadium will be ready for use soon - NSA Boss - GhanaWeb