The SolarWinds crack gained access to companies that service infrastructure such as turbines. The crackers may be able to wreck machinery, much as the US did to Iran's uranium centrifuges some years ago.

No one in the US knows whether they are in a position to shut off, or wreck, critical infrastructure.

I've said for many years that we should not connect such thing to the internet.

Bogus Johnson got serious in the last three weeks and negotiated a trade deal with the EU in the nick of time.

This surprised me. His refusal to confront the disagreements led me to think he wanted the UK to exit with no deal. It is now clear that he did not really want that.

So why did he keep proposing impossible solutions and disregarding the importance of the problem? I don't know, but my guess is that until earlier this month he thought he could make the problem go away by refusing to acknowledge it. And he thought the EU negotiators were bluffers like him.

Here's what the Guardian says about this.

*The Covid crisis has shown how privatisation corrodes democracy.*

*Not only has outsourcing failed citizens during the pandemic — it makes states less responsive and less accountable.*

New pun.

The US should base its thoughts about war on the self-inflicted disasters of Vietnam and Iraq, not on victory over Hitler.