Draft | Ch1llej

https://elyssadblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/20/draft/

Draft

http://powersthatbeat.blogspot.cl/2013/06/google-googles-ocd-sanity-checker.html?m=1

Google Googles: OCD Sanity Checker

Google Goggles: Sanity Checker!

How much do I love, love, the person who created this program???

If only I had this years ago… before I buried myself in hundreds of hard copies and countless drafts waiting to be edited, checked, scanned, formatted, reviewed, merged, referenced, compared or merged with older versions of the same document.

Files upon files are waiting to be examined, edited, completed, and submitted at a later date TBA… 

At least I am not the only one in need of a "sanity checker!"

Living everyday with so much unfinished business and self-doubt has stopped me dead in my tracks! Preventing me from moving forward and doing so many things that are absent from my life.
Even the most simple tasks become insurmountable obstacles when left to my own devices (usually at least 2-3 dictionaries, a thesaurus, grammar textbook, and the Chicago Manual of Style or the APA.) 
Ridiculous, right? Everything in my life takes at least 3x longer than the average (normal) individual. This can be anything from filing a job application, turning in graduate school applications, assignments and projects on time…

EVERYTHING is late!

EVERYTHING is pending!

EVERYTHING is probably good enough!

EVERYTHING was probably good enough in the first time around!

Getting caught up on insignificant details such as grammar, text wrapping, format styles, has come to define my adult life and experience. Interfering with my academic, personal, and professional goals

I want a sanity checker!!!!
 
When you are still editing the very same article after 13 or 14 years, you have a problem.

 I have a problem!
 
If I can ever figure out how to use it, hopefully it will prevent me from searching through thousands of text logs and backup files….

I need a sanity checker!

Working on your um-teenth hundredth draft gets tedious. Hopefully google goggles is better at time management and will not spend too much time hovering over typos, font size and other imperfections that probably make my writing a little more human…. a few misplaced commas never hurt anyone unless they are placed after a dollar sign!
Where can I sign up for a personal the "sanity checker" to guide me through the rest of my life??? To clear a path to my desk or help me find the floor…
Thanks so much to the genius who invented this gadget! I hope it works well!
How I wish I could revert back to my days before the technological revolution. My mind has information overload. My life has information overload. My brain is full!
My cyberseeking tools and inquisitive mind have become my kryptonite. Please– make it stop! Stop the questions, stop the memories, stop the madness!

Just, plain, stop!
I miss Professor Marks' red ink pens back in college. Long before I knew what a computer was or how to turn the damn thing on. Now there's e-mail, Internet, spyware, malware, software utilities…
Life was so much easier before I became dependent upon technology and this stupid little box I cannot seem to pull myself away from. And now, much like my racing thoughts and RAM (random access memory) and my crazy busy mind that is a near perfect reflection of my chaotic life. 
My paper trail reaches from one room into the next… one year to the next… one decade to the next…
Now I can't seem to turn the thing off… I can't seem to turn anything in, and I can't seem to make things just perfect enough.
Wish me luck as I uncover more and more of my past… although I have often had regrets about sending imperfect documents prematurely: either too soon, too often, or sometimes too early; surely sending something is far better than not sending anything at all… 
In this life, people are never remembered for what they start– only for what they finish.

Even The New York Times posted a peralink. Not fair, copyLEFT
NEW YORK TIMES <~ THERE IS ALWAYS A PERMALINK!
HYPERLINK ADDED FOR IN YOUR FACE PURPOSES… 1/7/10
GOOGLE GOOGLES… I HAD THEM FIRST. GRRRRR… 

(your welcome)
Drunk, and Dangerous, at the KeyboardMail Goggles, a new feature on Google's Gmail program, is intended to help stamp out a scourge that few knew existed: late-night drunken e-mailing.October 19, 2008 – By ALEX WILLIAMS – Fashion & Style
HERBALKING – Bits BlogMail Goggles, a new feature on Google's Gmail program, is intended to help stamp out a scourge that few knew existed: late-night drunken …
Google Inc. Mail Goggles, a new feature on Google's Gmail program, is intended to help stamp out a scourge that few knew existed: late-night drunken e-mailing. …

from the Blog Community …Mail Goggles, a new feature on Google's Gmail program, is intended to help stamp out a scourge that few knew existed: latenight drunken emailing. …

I WILL ADD THE LATEST VERSION…. OF ANOTHER BRILLIANT IDEA THAT I SHOULD NEVER HAVE LET OUT OF THE BAG… FUCK THE NEW YORK TIMES.

I STILL REMEMBER THE HEADLINE YOU SNAGGED ON SEPTEMPBER 12: THAT WAS MINE TOO. YOUR REPORTER COULD HAVE AT LEAST BOUGHT ME DRINK WHILE SITTING NEXT TO ME IN THE EAST VILLAGE! Grrrr….. #yeahisaidit 

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. Catchy, approprite, and I even can't get letter to the editor?

 Well things are chaning. The news is in our hands now. So no more media manipualtion. i'm so tired of reading the crap you guys put out to distract us from he issues…. and since I get a job… i may as well, keep writing for free..

AC made a forutne off the story I posted for free… but I haven't forgotten.  
Once the Democrats lost their foothold on the State Floor, AC quickly moved into a highly coveted position with the newly elected Republican Governor. How is nobody saw this except me?? 
While enrolled in the School of Journalism at Columbia University (J6306 Public Journalism) we carefully studied the trajectory of "career journalists" and their migration into the public consciousness as speech writers. Pat Buchanan refused to speak with us during his presidential campaign at Columbia. We suspect it was due to his desire to hide from his colleagues as he too attended the J-School at Columbia before he became a presidential hopeful. We knew much about his career, his academic record, and some intimate details from the Dean's Office. Scandals galore over this special Alun. 
[[to be continued when I have bandwidth to find oh the story]{
I know my own words. and it really hurts when I can't even get a letter to the editor printed, or a response from a local journalist about when call give them a hint where to look for REAL news.
So I don't give a fuck if you all go down in flames. 
Power to the people.

Because they wrote me off long ago…. and you may laugh because I'm different, but I laugh because you are all the same. 
$1.00 for this story….. how much did AC make? I call your bluff. And funny thing…. I never even got the dollar. I can't wait for that audit.   
It may take some time, but you have no idea, how much I could have helped. 
It was is a good story. The economist thought so… so did USA Today and US News and World Report. 
All I wanted was to get the information out, so why charge ME to download my own story only to see someone elses byline?

I am watching the watchers…. and heads, up… I'm pretty damn good at it! 

Yeah, I said it; and i'll say it again if i need to. 

Fuck you, AC!

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FBI Taps Hacker Tactics to Spy on Suspects - WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323997004578641993388259674

FBI Taps Hacker Tactics to Spy on Suspects

Law-Enforcement Officials Expand Use of Tools Such as Spyware as People Under Investigation 'Go Dark,' Evading Wiretaps

Jennifer Valentino-DeVries and

Updated Aug. 3, 2013 3:17 p.m. ET

By

Danny Yadron

Law-enforcement officials in the U.S. are expanding the use of tools routinely used by computer hackers to gather information on suspects, bringing the criminal wiretap into the cyber age.

Federal agencies have largely kept quiet about these capabilities, but court documents and interviews with people involved in the programs provide new details about the hacking tools, including spyware delivered to computers and phones through...

To Read the Full Story

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US spy agencies eavesdrop on Kiwi | Stuff.co.nz

http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/8972743/US-spy-agencies-eavesdrop-on-Kiwi

US spy agencies eavesdrop on Kiwi

The New Zealand military received help from US spy agencies to monitor the phone calls of Kiwi journalist Jon Stephenson and his associates while he was in Afghanistan reporting on the war.

Stephenson has described the revelation as a serious violation of his privacy, and the intrusion into New Zealand media freedom has been slammed as an abuse of human rights.

The spying came at a time when the New Zealand Defence Force was unhappy at Stephenson's reporting of its handling of Afghan prisoners and was trying to find out who was giving him confidential information.

The monitoring occurred in the second half of last year when Stephenson was working as Kabul correspondent for the US McClatchy news service and for various New Zealand news organisations.

The Sunday Star-Times has learned that New Zealand Defence Force personnel had copies of intercepted phone "metadata" for Stephenson, the type of intelligence publicised by US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden. The intelligence reports showed who Stephenson had phoned and then who those people had phoned, creating what the sources called a "tree" of the journalist's associates.

New Zealand SAS troops in Kabul had access to the reports and were using them in active investigations into Stephenson.

The sources believed the phone monitoring was being done to try to identify Stephenson's journalistic contacts and sources. They drew a picture of a metadata tree the Defence Force had obtained, which included Stephenson and named contacts in the Afghan government and military.

The sources who described the monitoring of Stephenson's phone calls in Afghanistan said that the NZSIS has an officer based in Kabul who was known to be involved in the Stephenson investigations.

And since early in the Afghanistan war, the GCSB has secretly posted staff to the main US intelligence centre at Bagram, north of Kabul. They work in a special "signals intelligence" unit that co-ordinates electronic surveillance to assist military targeting. It is likely to be this organisation that monitored Stephenson.

Stephenson and the Defence Force clashed in the Wellington High Court two weeks ago after it claimed Stephonson had invented a story about visiting an Afghan base.

The Human Rights Foundation says Defence Force involvement in monitoring a journalist is an abuse of fundamental human rights.

"Don't they understand the vital importance of freedom of the press?" spokesman Tim McBride said. "Independent journalism is especially important in a controversial war zone where the public has a right to know what really happens and not just get military public relations," he said.

The news has emerged as the Government prepares to pass legislation which will allow the Defence Force to use the GCSB to spy on New Zealanders.

The Stephenson surveillance suggests the Defence Force may be seeking the GCSB assistance, in part, for investigating leaks and whistleblowers.

Stephenson said monitoring a journalist's communications could also threaten the safety of their sources "by enabling security authorities to track down and intimidate people disclosing information to that journalist".

He said there was "a world of difference between investigating a genuine security threat and monitoring a journalist because his reporting is inconvenient or embarrassing to politicians and defence officials".

The Star-Times asked Chief of Defence Force Rhys Jones and Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman if they were aware of the surveillance of Stephenson, if they approved of it and whether they authorised the investigation of Stephenson (including the phone monitoring).

They were also asked if they thought journalists should be classified as threats. Neither answered the questions.

Defence Force spokesman Geoff Davies said: "As your request relates to a legal matter involving Jon Stephenson which is still before the court, it would not be appropriate for the Chief of Defence Force to comment."

In fact, none of the issues before that court relate to the surveillance or security manual.

Coleman's press secretary said the minister was not available for comment and to try again next week.

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said the monitoring of Stephenson demonstrates that the security services see the media and journalists as a legitimate target.

"Democracy totally relies on a free and independent press," he said. "Current attempts to strengthen the security apparatus for monitoring New Zealanders is deeply disturbing and menacing for democracy."

An internal Defence document leaked to the Star-Times reveals that defence security staff viewed investigative journalists as "hostile" threats requiring "counteraction". The classified security manual lists security threats, including "certain investigative journalists" who may attempt to obtain "politically sensitive information".

The manual says Chief of Defence Force approval is required before any NZDF participation in "counter intelligence activity" is undertaken. (See separate story)

Stephenson took defamation action against the Defence Force after Jones claimed that Stephenson had invented a story about visiting an Afghan base as part of an article about mishandling of prisoners.

Although the case ended with a hung jury two weeks ago, Jones conceded during the hearing that he now accepted Stephenson had visited the base and interviewed its Afghan commander.

Victoria University lecturer in media studies Peter Thompson said the Afghanistan monitoring and the security manual's view of investigative journalists confirmed the concerns raised in the High Court case.

There was "a concerted and deliberate effort to denigrate that journalist's reputation for political ends".

There is currently controversy in the United States over government monitoring of journalists. In May the Associated Press reported that the Justice Department had secretly obtained two months' worth of phone records of its reporters and editors.

The media organisation said it was a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into its news gathering process.

PROBING JOURNALISTS DEEMED THREAT

A leaked New Zealand Defence Force security manual reveals it sees three main "subversion" threats it needs to protect itself against: foreign intelligence services, organisations with extreme ideologies and "certain investigative journalists".

In the minds of the defence chiefs, probing journalists apparently belong on the same list as the KGB and al Qaeda.

The manual's first chapter is called "Basic Principles of Defence Security". It says a key part of protecting classified information is investigating the "capabilities and intentions of hostile organisations and individuals" and taking counteraction against them.

The manual, which was issued as an order by the Chief of Defence Force, places journalists among the hostile individuals. It defines "The Threat" as espionage, sabotage, subversion and terrorism, and includes investigative journalists under the heading "subversion".

Subversion, it says, is action designed to "weaken the military, economic or political strength of a nation by undermining the morale, loyalty or reliability of its citizens."

It highlights people acquiring classified information to "bring the Government into disrepute".

This threat came from hostile intelligence services and extreme organisations, and "there is also a threat from certain investigative journalists who may seek to acquire and exploit official information for similar reasons", it says.

Viewing journalism as a security threat has serious implications. The manual states that "plans to counter the activities of hostile intelligence services and subversive organisations and individuals must be based on accurate and timely intelligence concerning the identity, capabilities and intentions of the hostile elements".

It says "one means of obtaining security intelligence is the investigation of breaches of security".

This is where the security manual may be relevant to the monitoring of Jon Stephenson's phone calls. The Defence Force was unhappy at Stephenson's access to confidential information about prisoner handling in Afghanistan and began investigating to discover his sources.

The manual continues that "counter intelligence" means "activities which are concerned with identifying and counteracting the threat to security", including by individuals engaged in "subversion".

It notes: "The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service is the only organisation sanctioned to conduct Counter Intelligence activities in New Zealand. [Chief of Defence Force] approval is required before any NZDF participation in any CI activity is undertaken."

Under the NZSIS Act, subversion is a legal justification for surveillance of an individual.

The sources who described the monitoring of Stephenson's phone calls in Afghanistan said the NZSIS has an officer based in Kabul who was known to be involved in the Stephenson investigations.

To reinforce its concern, the defence security manual raises investigative journalists a second time under a category called "non-traditional threats". The threat of investigative journalists, it says, is that they may attempt to obtain "politically sensitive information".

Politically sensitive information, such as the kind of stories that Stephenson was writing, is however about politics and political accountability, not security. Metro magazine editor Simon Wilson, who has published a number of Jon Stephenson's prisoner stories, said the Defence Force seemed to see Stephenson as the "enemy", as a threat to the Defence Force.

"But that's not how Jon works and how journalism works," he said. "Jon is just going about his business as a journalist."

The New Zealand Defence Force "seems to be confusing national security with its own desire not to be embarrassed by disclosures that reveal it has broken the rules", he said.

Sunday Star Times

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Extreme poverty returns to America ~ op ed from an outraged American!!

McConnell and Paul Ryan just announced their plan to do away with food stamps. 

I will fight like hell to make sure this doesn't happen. 

Richest country in the world and we can't even feed hungry children. They are also trying to do away with Free Lunch at Public Schools. Meanwhile the super rich just received a tax credit from Trump's Tax Bill for Private School Tuition eliminating true individual mandate in Obamacare. Trump openly admitted that he intentionally hid this detail from the public. 

From my days working for the DCS, CPS and for Governor Bredesen that a School lunch is often the only balanced meal an underprivileged child gets daily. 

Trumps only legislative achievement has been a  widely unpopular tax scam that will leave 13 Million Americans without healthcare. 

But hey, as Trump Friday night at Mar-A-Lago to people who can afford a $200,000 membership fee, "You all just got a lot richer." 

Possibly the only time he told the truth. 

Elyssa D. Durant

Policy and Research Analyst 

Columbia University, NY NY

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/made-by-history/wp/2017/12/21/extreme-poverty-returns-to-america/?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-posteverything%3Ahomepage%2Fcard&utm_term=.e9c22166fe7a&__twitter_impression=true

Extreme poverty returns to America

The U.N. finds growing numbers of Americans are living in the most impoverished circumstances. How did we get here?

By Premilla Nadasen

December 21, 2017 at 6:00 AM

| Perspective

The rising rate of homelessness in places like San Diego is one of the signs of growing poverty in the United States. (Gregory Bull/AP)

"Finish all your food," my mother used to tell me. "There's a child in Africa who would love to have that food on your plate." It was an effective disciplinary approach, especially because my family is from Africa. But my experience is not unique. Images of poverty in the "Third World" — then and now — permeate American society, reassuring us about our country's ostensible democratic promise and potential for upward mobility. What economists call "extreme poverty," most Americans think, is a distant problem, a hallmark of the less developed world.

But could extreme poverty also be a feature of what is (although perhaps not for long) one of the richest and most powerful nations in the world? Quite possibly. To answer the question, the United Nations launched an investigation of extreme poverty in the United States.

Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, has just wrapped up a 15-day tour of the United States. His team visited Alabama, California, Puerto Rico, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. The findings, released last Friday, documented homelessness, unsafe sanitation and sewage disposal practices, as well as police surveillance, criminalization and harassment of the poor. The rise in poverty, they found, disproportionately affects people of color and women, but also large swaths of white Americans. The report concluded that the pervasiveness of poverty and inequality "are shockingly at odds with [the United States'] immense wealth and its founding commitment to human rights."

To be sure, poverty in the United States is not equivalent to poverty in less developed countries. This has never been a country free of inequality and poverty, but their rapid growth over the past two decades has undermined any professed commitment to equal opportunity or the belief that the nation's prosperity rests on the well-being of ordinary Americans.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, unfettered capitalism in the United States led to rapid economic expansion. This was characterized by widening class disparities and profound economic insecurity among the poor, a recipe that contributed to the crisis of the Great Depression.

Amid this crisis, our modern welfare state was born. Because of massive grass-roots protest, politicians and business leaders came to believe that capitalism would function better — in fact, flourish — if Americans could be assured a basic standard of living. While the welfare state primarily benefited and bolstered the white middle class with housing and education assistance, it also uplifted many of the poor (both white and nonwhite) through Social Security for the elderly, monthly stipends for single mothers and the disabled, and a minimum wage for workers. The safety net was later expanded to include food stamps, public housing and health care.

Although unequal and stigmatizing, public assistance successfully kept most people out of extreme poverty. The welfare state fueled post-World War II economic growth, strengthened consumer capitalism by putting money in the hands of the middle and working classes, and upheld the promise (if not always the reality) of upward mobility through access to education and a modicum of economic security.

But since the 1970s, the safety net has been diminished considerably. Labor regulations protecting workers have been rolled back, and funding for education and public programs has declined. The poor have been the hardest hit. With welfare reform in 1996, poor single parents with children now have a lifetime limit of five years of assistance and mandatory work requirements. Some states require fingerprinting or drug testing of applicants, which effectively criminalizes them without cause. The obstacles to getting on welfare are formidable, the benefits meager. The number of families on welfare declined from 4.6 million in 1996 to 1.1 million this year. The decline of the welfare rolls has not meant a decline in poverty, however.

Instead, the shredding of the safety net led to a rise in poverty. Forty million Americans live in poverty, nearly half in deep poverty — which U.N. investigators defined as people reporting income less than one-half of the poverty threshold. The United States has the highest child poverty rates — 25 percent — in the developed world. Then there are the extremely poor who live on less than $2 per day per person and don't have access to basic human services such as sanitation, shelter, education and health care. These are people who cannot find work, who have used up their five-year lifetime limit on assistance, who do not qualify for any other programs or who may live in remote areas. They are disconnected from both the safety net and the job market.

In addition to the reduction of public assistance and social services, the rise in extreme poverty can also be attributed to growing inequality. To quote the U.N. report: "The American Dream is rapidly becoming the American Illusion, as the U.S. … now has the lowest rate of social mobility of any of the rich countries." In 1981, the top 1 percent of adults earned on average 27 times more than the bottom 50 percent of adults. Today the top 1 percent earn 81 times more than the bottom 50 percent.

Declining wages at the lower end of the economic ladder make it harder for people to save for times of crisis or to get back on their feet. A full-time, year-round minimum wage worker, often employed in a dead-end job, falls below the poverty threshold for a family of three and often has to rely on food stamps.

The current tax bill promises to further exacerbate the problem by providing generous tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans, modest tax cuts for many middle-class families and decreased spending on programs that help the poor, which currently constitute only 1.5 percent of federal outlays.

The growth of extreme poverty in the land of plenty is an indicator that we shouldn't be talking about how to slash spending on social programs, but how to expand services and better meet the needs of the vulnerable among us. One and a half million American households live in extreme poverty today, nearly twice as many as 20 years ago. If this trend continues, we will undoubtedly see the number of extremely poor Americans rise dramatically, imperiling the values of democracy and human rights.

Getting children to eat their food is a peculiar problem of those who have enough to eat. With my own children, it seems that a more appropriate way to encourage them to clean their plates is to tell them: "Finish all your food. There's a child down the block who would be thrilled to have that food on your plate."

---

Premilla Nadasen teaches at Barnard College and is the author of "Welfare Warriors: The Welfare Rights Movement" and "Household Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women Who Built a Movement."

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Report: Trump dealt with North Korea missile launch as his Mar—Lago club's members dined nearby

UGH

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-dealt-with-north-korea-missile-launch-as-his-clubs-members-dined-nearby/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab4i

Report: Trump dealt with North Korea missile launch as his club's members dined nearby

Politics

President Trump dealt with a major national security issue during his weekend getaway at Mar-a-Lago with members of the club eating dinner near his table on the terrace outside.

One guest who joined the club a few months ago, Richard DeAgazio, posted photos of what happened on his Facebook account, that were publicly taken down but then obtained by CBS News.

DeAgazio, a retired investor, told The Washington Post in an interview Monday that he was sitting about six tables away from where Mr. Trump and his team sat with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. While he was sitting there, DeAgazio said that he learned that North Korea had just test-fired a ballistic missile and he turned to look at the president's table.

"That's when I saw things changing, you know," DeAgazio told the Post. "The prime minister's staff sort of surrounded him, and they had a little pow-wow."

He added that staffers used flashlights on their phones to light up documents for the leaders to look at. It isn't known what Abe and the president were reading.

When asked about the reports WH press spokesman Sean Spicer said "The president was briefed in a classified setting (SCIF) both before and after dinner on the situation in North Korea." 

Richard DeAgazio

"HOLY MOLY !!!" DeAgazio wrote on Facebook, according to the Post, when he posted closer-up photos. "It was fascinating to watch the flurry of activity at dinner when the news came that North Korea had launched a missile in the direction of Japan. The Prime Minister Abe of Japan huddles with his staff and the President is on the phone with Washington DC. the two world leaders then conferred and then went into another room for hastily arranged press conference. Wow.....the center of the action!!!"

Though the president was among guests at Mar-a-Lago, it does not mean that club member have open access to him. One member who did not want to be named told CBS News, "As a member you can dine within sight of him but he is always encircled by Secret Service, and the chances of him being networked are zero."  

Richard DeAgazio

Nuclear football photo 

DeAgazio also reportedly posted a photo with the man who he said carries the nuclear football. 

Trump fan takes selfie with the guy carrying the "nuclear football" and posts his face and ID on his FB. This is not supposed to happen. pic.twitter.com/QHa4but2Zz

— Chris Kennedy (@Chris_Kennedy2) February 13, 2017

CBS contributor Michael Morell, who was a former acting director of the CIA, said the president's military aide shouldn't be taking photos with guests.  

"That is less about security and more about trivializing the enormous significance of that young man's job," Morell told CBS News. "If I were his commanding officer, I would counsel him."

After the news spread about North Korea's actions, Mr. Trump and Abe delivered a brief on-camera statement in which Abe called the missile launch "absolutely intolerable" and Mr. Trump said, "I just want everybody to understand and fully know that the United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100 percent."

CBS News' Jillian Hughes and Caroline Horn contributed to this report.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort is a hacker's dream, investigation alleges - SO TEMPTING

SO TEMPTING 

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/trump-mar-a-lago-weak-security-investigation/

Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort is a hacker's dream, investigation alleges

May 18, 2017 2:30 PM EDT

SciTech

By Shanika Gunaratna / CBS News

President Trump, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, their wives and guests dine at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort on Feb. 10, 2017. Getty

Dismal internet security at Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties leaves the president — and U.S. national security interests -- egregiously exposed to hacking threats, according to a joint investigation by ProPublica and Gizmodo published Wednesday.

The investigation exposed a long litany of security vulnerabilities at Mar-a-Lago and three other Trump family-owned properties frequented by the president, including:

• Three weakly encrypted Wi-Fi networks, a Wi-Fi-enabled "open" printer (which can be used by hackers as an entry point to infiltrate a larger network), and an unencrypted router at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

• Two open Wi-Fi networks, which anyone could join without a password, at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

• A long list of weaknesses -- "weak and open Wi-Fi networks, wireless printers without passwords, servers with outdated and vulnerable software, and unencrypted login pages to back-end databases containing sensitive information" -- at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., and a Trump golf club in Sterling, Virginia.

The presence of weakly protected or unsecured Wi-Fi networks across Trump properties is particularly concerning, as hackers could leverage these networks to infiltrate computers and smartphones, potentially gaining a pair of ears on the ground where sensitive conversations and high-level presidential business are unfolding.

Questions about national security briefing in Mar-a-Lago dining room

The situation is "bad, very bad," Jeremiah Grossman of cybersecurity firm SentinelOne told ProPublica and Gizmodo. "I'd assume the data is already stolen and systems compromised."

Mar-a-Lago is a frequent base for the president's meetings with U.S. officials and foreign dignitaries, and an obvious target for hackers. The president has met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, British politician Nigel Farage, and Chinese President Xi Jinping at his family-owned Mar-a-Lago club. The president also conducts high-level operations on these properties: for instance, he authorized the April strike on a Syrian airbase while meeting with Xi at Mar-a-Lago.

In March, the U.S. Government Accountability Office agreed to Democrats' demands to open an investigation into the president's stays at Mar-a-Lago, and specifically explore information security, screening standards for guests, and travel expenses billed to taxpayers. Two months later, that report is still in its "early stages," ProPublica and Gizmodo said -- which is what prompted the two outlets to test security levels themselves.

A Coast Guard boat patrols outside the Mar-a-Lago Resort on Feb. 11, 2017 in Palm Beach, Fla. Getty

The reporters set up a 2-foot wireless antenna aboard a rented boat and piloted it within about 800 feet of the beachfront club in Palm Beach.

"There, we picked up signals from the club's wireless networks, three of which were protected with a weak and outmoded form of encryption known as WEP. In 2005, an FBI agent publicly broke this type of encryption in minutes," write co-authors Jeff Larson, Surya Mattu and Julia Angwin.

"By comparison, the military limits the signal strength of networks at places such as Camp David and the White House so that they are not reachable from a car driving by. It also requires wireless networks to use the strongest available form of encryption."

The investigation comes as the world reels from a massive cyberattack last week, in which hackers used so-called WannaCry ransomware to cripple Britain's nationally run hospitals and businesses and government offices in countries around the globe.

Trump's weekend trips to Mar-a-Lago cost taxpayers millions

Mr. Trump has spent seven weekends at Mar-a-Lago and one at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, out of his first 17 weekends as president. The Center for American Progress, a liberal organization tracking his travel, estimates the cost to U.S. taxpayers at $26 million.

The president's travel habits are a departure from those of his predecessors: both President Obama and President Bush took weekend getaways at Camp David, where the Defense Information Systems Agency is responsible for digital security.

A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization told ProPublica and Gizmodo that the company follows "cybersecurity best practices" and is "confident in the steps we have taken to protect our business and safeguard our information." 

The White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment, according to ProPublica and Gizmodo.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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President Trump expected to arrive today - December 22, 2017

Trumps visit costs us approximately $1 Million per day. $60,000 DAILY in overtime for @PBCountySheriff 

Palm Beach business lose fortunes; road closures; no fly zone huge inconvenience. Palm Beach has a $40 Million deficit Trump paid a mere $3.4 Million.

https://www.wptv.com/news/region-c-palm-beach-county/palm-beach/president-trump-expected-to-arrive-today

President Trump expected to arrive today

WPTV Webteam

President Trump is expected to arrive in Palm Beach County Friday for the holidays.

As a result, road closures are in effect in the town of Palm Beach around Mar-a-Lago.

PALM BEACH RESTRICTIONS:

Expect traffic delays and road closures near Mar-a-Lago thru Monday, January 1, 2018.  
During the closure period, all forms of travel, including pedestrian travel, are prohibited on S. Ocean Blvd from the intersection of S. County Road to Southern Boulevard. The travel restrictions will also extend eastward to the ocean. If you are a resident living south of the South Ocean Blvd. and South County intersection you will be granted access with proper credentials.
As a reminder, commercial vehicles (including landscaping trucks) are prohibited from traveling east on Southern Blvd and North of the 1200 block of S. Ocean. Marine security zones will be in effect during this period.

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