September 2020 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Missing messages about AP in the Cypherpunks archive.
by jim bell 19 Sep '20

19 Sep '20

Here is a copy of an old message where somebody actually counted the daily messages in the Cypherpunks archive. You can see that there is a huge time period, months long, that APPEAR to have no messages at all. This evidences forgery of the archive. ----- Forwarded Message -----From: jim bell <jdb10987(a)yahoo.com>To: John Gilmore <gnu(a)toad.com>; CypherPunks <cypherpunks(a)lists.cpunks.org>; Tom Busby <tom(a)busby.ninja>; declan(a)well.com <declan(a)well.com>; Ryan Lackey <ryan(a)venona.com>Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2019, 09:58:20 PM PSTSubject: Re: Your Cypherpunks archive John Gilmore hasn't responded to this. I think he should respond. It is unseemly for him to apparently lack concern that the Cypherpunks archive has been severely tampered with. I think he should strenuously object to such tampering, and he should demand that the person or persons responsible be exposed. Same for Tom Busby, who is now responsible for the archive. Same for Ryan Lackey. And Declan McCullagh, who should display interest into this whole sham, as well. They should also not merely willingly, but in fact enthusiastically, participate in this project. Jim Bell On Tuesday, December 10, 2019, 01:14:59 AM PST, jim bell <jdb10987(a)yahoo.com> wrote: To John Gilmore, You expressed an idea that you didn't see a problem with YOUR copy of the CP archive. Well, it isn't clear whether YOUR copy is identical to the one currently maintained by Tom Busby. Below, is a list of dates, and the number of CP postings on each date. You can easily see that each day up to and including Feb 13, 1995, there are many tens of emails posted on CP. On February 14, there is only a single posting. The next postings are one each on May 11 and May 16, 1995. After that, the next posting is on July 11, 1995. And there are yet again many tens of postings each day from July 11 to December 31, 1995. Except, I guess, for a few days in December, 1995. So, for a period about 3 days short of 6 months, there were only two (2) messages posted. Tell me, is there a vast, 6-month hole in YOUR archive as well? Like, everybody on the CP list just went to sleep for a while, like in the British movie "Village of the Damned"? I'm thinking of the 1960 version. Village of the Damned (1960) Official Trailer - George Sanders, Peter Vaughan Movie HD | | | | | | | | | | | Village of the Damned (1960) Official Trailer - George Sanders, Peter Va... | | | Anyway, I think you will now agree that if this is a "conspiracy theory", it's a pretty damned GOOD conspiracy theory! So, what explains those missing 6-months-minus-3-days of emails? Jim Bell ----- Forwarded Message -----From: Punk - Stasi 2.0 <punks(a)tfwno.gf>To: "cypherpunks(a)lists.cpunks.org" <cypherpunks(a)lists.cpunks.org>Sent: Saturday, November 2, 2019, 11:21:40 PM PDTSubject: Re: Your Cypherpunks archive Ok, I counted messages per day for jan-->dec 1995, and there is a continous hole which I first overlooked. Indeed 4 (almost) complete months are missing : march, april, may and june. From ~July 10 to the end of the year it seems fairly complete though. The messages are not perfectly ordered date-wise either. As a matter of fact the file for the year 95 also contains messages from 1996, 97, 99 (like this Date: Tue Sep 07 12:48:45 1999) and possibly more. I wrongly assumed that the 10,000 messages I first counter from february to december were evenly distributed but they are not. Still, there are virtually no references to Jim, AP and the like during July, August, September, October, November and December and those months are complete. day message count 1 Jan 95 17 2 Jan 95 25 3 Jan 95 68 4 Jan 95 57 5 Jan 95 47 6 Jan 95 95 7 Jan 95 70 8 Jan 95 19 9 Jan 95 58 12 Jan 95 83 10 Jan 95 56 11 Jan 95 65 13 Jan 95 51 14 Jan 95 19 15 Jan 95 39 16 Jan 95 39 17 Jan 95 50 18 Jan 95 63 19 Jan 95 62 20 Jan 95 77 21 Jan 95 45 22 Jan 95 45 23 Jan 95 45 24 Jan 95 41 25 Jan 95 51 26 Jan 95 67 27 Jan 95 55 29 Jan 95 54 28 Jan 95 36 30 Jan 95 43 31 Jan 95 57 1 Feb 95 48 2 Feb 95 40 3 Feb 95 31 4 Feb 95 22 5 Feb 95 44 6 Feb 95 60 7 Feb 95 65 8 Feb 95 97 9 Feb 95 69 10 Feb 95 71 11 Feb 95 28 12 Feb 95 42 13 Feb 95 72 14 Feb 95 1 11 May 95 1 16 May 95 1 11 Jul 95 29 12 Jul 95 97 13 Jul 95 150 14 Jul 95 64 15 Jul 95 36 16 Jul 95 30 18 Jul 95 62 17 Jul 95 71 19 Jul 95 53 20 Jul 95 70 21 Jul 95 84 22 Jul 95 33 21 Aug 95 61 23 Jul 95 32 24 Jul 95 42 25 Jul 95 32 26 Jul 95 47 27 Jul 95 47 28 Jul 95 56 29 Jul 95 43 30 Jul 95 31 31 Jul 95 88 1 Aug 95 80 2 Aug 95 39 3 Aug 95 67 4 Aug 95 47 5 Aug 95 12 6 Aug 95 15 7 Aug 95 52 8 Aug 95 34 9 Aug 95 49 10 Aug 95 78 11 Aug 95 64 12 Aug 95 34 14 Aug 95 42 13 Aug 95 15 15 Aug 95 32 16 Aug 95 50 17 Aug 95 92 18 Aug 95 82 19 Aug 95 43 28 Aug 95 46 20 Aug 95 43 22 Aug 95 35 23 Aug 95 77 24 Aug 95 88 25 Aug 95 65 26 Aug 95 36 27 Aug 95 39 29 Aug 95 60 20 Sep 95 194 30 Aug 95 44 31 Aug 95 50 1 Sep 95 58 2 Sep 95 28 3 Sep 95 66 4 Sep 95 64 5 Sep 95 74 6 Sep 95 92 7 Sep 95 96 8 Sep 95 71 9 Sep 95 33 10 Sep 95 48 11 Sep 95 42 12 Sep 95 79 13 Sep 95 79 14 Sep 95 79 15 Sep 95 82 19 Sep 95 133 16 Sep 95 70 17 Sep 95 53 18 Sep 95 91 23 Sep 95 44 21 Sep 95 108 30 Sep 95 54 22 Sep 95 116 24 Sep 95 50 25 Sep 95 68 26 Sep 95 103 27 Sep 95 90 28 Sep 95 65 29 Sep 95 64 1 Oct 95 50 2 Oct 95 79 3 Oct 95 60 4 Oct 95 56 5 Oct 95 72 6 Oct 95 65 7 Oct 95 26 9 Oct 95 120 8 Oct 95 57 10 Oct 95 83 11 Oct 95 106 12 Oct 95 94 13 Oct 95 73 14 Oct 95 43 15 Oct 95 73 16 Oct 95 48 17 Oct 95 49 18 Oct 95 101 19 Oct 95 79 20 Oct 95 45 21 Oct 95 35 23 Oct 95 77 22 Oct 95 53 24 Oct 95 125 25 Oct 95 98 26 Oct 95 23 27 Oct 95 71 28 Oct 95 35 29 Oct 95 23 30 Oct 95 24 31 Oct 95 60 1 Nov 95 77 2 Nov 95 48 3 Nov 95 73 4 Nov 95 57 5 Nov 95 81 6 Nov 95 49 7 Nov 95 77 8 Nov 95 46 9 Nov 95 64 10 Nov 95 51 11 Nov 95 40 12 Nov 95 3 13 Nov 95 48 14 Nov 95 69 15 Nov 95 69 16 Nov 95 57 17 Nov 95 66 18 Nov 95 50 19 Nov 95 43 20 Nov 95 25 21 Nov 95 57 22 Nov 95 67 23 Nov 95 53 24 Nov 95 39 25 Nov 95 31 26 Nov 95 35 27 Nov 95 34 28 Nov 95 68 29 Nov 95 68 30 Nov 95 117 1 Dec 95 115 2 Dec 95 98 3 Dec 95 85 4 Dec 95 2 8 Dec 95 1 12 Dec 95 65 11 Dec 95 7 13 Dec 95 77 14 Dec 95 52 15 Dec 95 19 16 Dec 95 54 17 Dec 95 24 18 Dec 95 45 19 Dec 95 44 20 Dec 95 8 22 Dec 95 11 23 Dec 95 45 24 Dec 95 40 25 Dec 95 29 26 Dec 95 30 27 Dec 95 19 28 Dec 95 66 29 Dec 95 54

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Unix: The First Ten Years of Machines
by grarpamp 19 Sep '20

19 Sep '20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwVu2BWLZqA The Incredible Machine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTlzaDgzPY8 The First Ten Years of Unix https://bsdimp.blogspot.com/2019/10/video-footage-of-first-pdp-7-to-run-uni… https://www.tuhs.org/ https://www.kryoflux.com/

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Edward Snowden with Joe Rogan #1536 2020-09-15
by grarpamp 19 Sep '20

19 Sep '20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z _Rl82OQDoOc Edward Snowden with Joe Rogan #1536 2020-09-15

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Should this be Part 11 of the Assassination Politics Essay? An inquiry to Declan McCullagh, who once was a journalist subscribed to the Cypherpunks email list
by jim bell 19 Sep '20

19 Sep '20

To: Declan McCullaghSeptember 18, 2020 Declan, I would say that there has been a lot of history between us over the last 20+ years, but the reality is that there has not been nearly ENOUGH "history" between us, The meaning of that will shortly become quite clear to the people reading this message on the current Cypherpunks (CP) list. You were a prominent person writing on the CP list in the mid-late 1990's, and aware of those events. You were certainly aware of the history of my Assassination Politics (AP) essay on that list: You will have had independent memories of those events, which unfortunately most of the current CP list subscribers probably don't: So, you don't have to entirely rely on the records that might exist on that history. You have the ability to identify discrepancies in any asserted history of those events. Put simply, you can help identify forgeries. To cut to the most-immediate issue here, I was recently discussing events with a couple of journalists, Brian Merchant and Will Stephenson, who are proposing to fact-check an article for the magazine, Harper's. They said it was on 'dark-web assassination markets', yet I have not yet even seen a text of this proposed article. So, obviously, I don't know if it's just a 'hit-job'. Or even if it is not that, an article that intentionally avoids mentioning my story involving the Federal Government's misconduct regarding me and the AP essay. To help inform them of the history behind the AP essay, and of course the CP list, and how it was treated by (among others, the Federal Government) I decided to look into a seeminly-tiny issue that I, myself, had long (20+ years) wondered above: When, exactly, did my AP essay appear, and especially when it appeared in comparison to the time the Feds had someone (Daniel J. Saban, perhaps owner of remodeling firm Sundown Development Construction) buy the house next to mine (theirs was 7302 Corregidor, Vancouver Washington 98664). Such I suspected the Feds of doing, suspected at least as early as 1997, and I had confirmed it to my satisfaction by May 2000: I found that the local property tax records shows that 7302 Corregidor had been sold as of March 1, 1995. The seller, John Hauer, was a local Vancouver science teacher, and he presumably was offered a Federal job with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories in West Richland Washington. Being a teacher, it was very unlikely that he would accept a job elsewhere and effectively break the contract he had with the local school that employed him. Hauer was lured away to allow a Fed agent (Saban) to use that property as a spying operation, much as they did to Robert Hanssen, FBI spy. Put simply, how much a rush were they in, in doing that? See my 2003 lawsuit, James Dalton Bell, et al v. United States, et al | | | | James Dalton Bell, et al v. United States, et al | | | and its October 2004 Amendment, http://cryptome.org/jdb/jdb-v-usa-oct2004.pdf to see most of the underlying details. To recap, I recalled thinking of the idea, the one that would later be written into the AP essay, in early January 1995. At that time, it occurred to me that the residents of 49 states would be better off if a specific United States Senator, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, somehow woke up one day dead. But the problem is that no single such resident would want this outcome sufficiently much to do the task himself, or at least hire somebody to do that, Yet, I realized that if you could somehow totalize the "wants" of millions of people in this regard, you could conceivably offer this combined amount to somebody to accomplish what millions of people would have thought was a worthy deed. I expected that they WOULD have done so, except that they would have thought their entire lives that such a mechanism was impossible, I realized that it would be best if these amounts of money could be collected anonymously, so only the donors know who they are. Similarly, I understood that this amount should best be offered anonymously, so that only the person who deserves the award knows who he is. Thus, I simultaneously employed the concepts that would later be labelled "crowdfunding" and "crowdsourcing". Although, I don't claim to have invented either concept: See the funding for the base of the Statue of LIberty, and the "March of Dimes" charity, and also the research for the Oxford English Dictionary during about 1870-1930. I had read the August 1993 issue of Scientific American, and the article by David Chaum, cryptographer, that article describing not merely an experimental form of digital cash, but also form of cryptographic anonymity: These ideas, I believed and still believe, could be employed to accept money donations anonymously, accept what I called "predictions" about future outcomes, determine which predictor was correct, and subsequently make an anonymous payment to that predictor, But not only that, to do so in a way which will prove, without any doubt, to all donors and everyone else in the world, that the person who made the correct prediction (whoever he is) is actually being rewarded with the collected reward. Nobody could 'cheat'. Everyone would know that if he fulfilled his role in the arrangement, his own rights would be protected. These were concepts that would eventually be studied in the Ethereum syste, and especially the Augur program, Yet, nobody would actually have to know the identity of the predictor, except for himself. After a few weeks of intense consideration of this idea, mostly looking for possible flaws, I wrote Part 1 of what would eventually be the 10 parts of Assassination Politics. At the time, I was not aware of the existence of the Cypherpunks email list, although I must have been aware of the bare concept of an 'death market', the concept that the founders of Cypherpunks had extensively discussed in the early 1990's. Presumably, I had had a discussion with somebody, probably on the FIDOnet network to which I subscribed (?), on this subject. I was aware of a mailing list called 'Digitaliberty', which I think was founded by businessman Bill Frezza in December 1994, that promoted the concept of achieving freedom through technology. Excellent idea. Unfortunately, the AP essay was a bit too...well advanced for his tastes. Well, about a week ago, I decided to figure out a basic timeline regarding my release of the AP essay. I knew there was some sort of Cypherpunks Archive, maybe I had accessed it very briefly a few years ago. So, I did a Google-search for 'cypherpunks archive'. and found one: https://cryptoanarchy.wiki/blog/2018/07/05/the-cypherpunks-mailing-list-arc… And, then I found a list of various years' archives: https://mailing-list-archive.cryptoanarchy.wiki/ And then, the 1995 archive itself: https://mailing-list-archive.cryptoanarchy.wiki/archive/1995/ I was mystified by the seeming absence of the data for March, April, and June 1995. But in fact, the data is almost completely absent from February 14, 1995 through much of July, 1995. That looked somewhat like an accidental data omission. So, I tried looking at these individual months, and I discovered an astonishing thing: With the exception of a very tiny number of messages in the months of November and December 1995 referring to AP, I could find nothing of these following text strings elsewhere:"jim bell", "jimbell(a)pacifier.com", "AP", " AP "," Assassination Politics". There were a few exceptions to this seeming rule, and they were effectively even weirder: " ap " was present about 15 times, most of which occurred in the context of referring to "Associated Press", and in one case "killer ap" (yes, one 'p'). This archive alerts us to: http://cypherpunks.venona.com/raw/ I searched the 1995 for 'bell', and I got some references to Bell [telephone, or ATT, etc), there were a few postings by Cypherpunk Charles Bell (no relation, apparently), a reference to the "bell curve", "Blue Bell PA", Bellcore, Bell Atlantic, MaBellNet, Bell Labs, "opening bell" (senate), "regional Bell operating companies", "every rebellious human", "Pacific Bell", and finally, the 48'th "Bell" was "Pacific Bell". Curiously, the date of that message was Thursday, January 19, 1995. Then I was informed by Chrome browser that there were not merely 48 "bell"s, but in fact at least 453. Unfortunately the system is so slow, I don't have the patience to proceed, But at least so far, it does not appear that there are any references reflecting me, except a tiny number in November and December 1995. If somebody else searches, he should do it beginning in July and going, perhaps, to October. Do you see any? And, a study of the 1996 archive file, the number of "jimbell(a)pacifier.com" is large, so far at least 2,688. While I cannot exclude the possibility that some messages were tampered with in the 1996 archive file too, it certainly didn't fit the 1995 pattern. As of this point, except for a couple of trolls who temporarily challenged my conclusion, but who seem to have gone quiet, it appears that the current CP subscribers agree with me that the 1995 file has been severely tampered with. WHY THAT KIND OF TAMPERING WITH THE ARCHIVE FILE? I've said elsewhere that they were obviously not trying to erase the memory of the world as to the existence of the AP idea. But what they have done is extensively forged the history of the AP idea. I believe I know why. If you do a text search for ' "assassination politics" "1995" ', this means that you will find only documents which contain both data strings. While google reports about 2,010 results, it's likely that at least hundreds of sites report the AP essay as having been written as early as 1995. If my messages concerning AP in the CP archive were entirely erased in 1995, that would be quite inconsisent with virtually every source reporting that the idea was first published and discussed in that year. Leaving a handful of 1995 messages seemingly avoids this problem. You apparently weren't mentioned, either as an originator, a target, or a subject in the CP list 1992, 1993, 1994, nor before December 1995. However, given the massive forgery that the 1995 archive was given, it isn't clear when you showed up: Was it shortly after my AP essay was posted, approximately mid-February, 1995, or as late as it currently appears, December 17, 1995. Or somewhere in between? If you do a text search for 'declan' in the 1996 archive file, you get 3,328 hits, although there may be multiple hits for each posted message, When I search for 'declan b., I am seeing 430 hits, although this string appears both in postings by him, and postings to him. When I search for 'declan b.' in the 1995 archive file, I see 11 listings, and the earliest is December 18, 1995. With slightly more messages "to" you than "from" you. Can you help confirm the nature of the forgery of the 1995 Cypherpunks archive? Jim Bell Cy

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Microwave and Acoustic weapons.
by jim bell 19 Sep '20

19 Sep '20

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a34059879/military-police… - The federal government asked the Washington, D.C. National Guard if it had nonlethal weapons to use during this summer's protests in our nation's capital, according to an NPR report. - The Active Denial System (ADS) produces scalding heat, while the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) bombards targets with painful, intense sound. - The weapons, although specifically designed not to kill or permanently injure, would have been a huge escalation of the protests. Some have described them as “too scary to use.” The U.S. government sought to have two scary, albeit non-lethal weapons on hand during this summer’s protests in Washington, D.C., according to an NPR report. The Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) and Active Denial System (ADS) are designed to produce instantaneous pain, causing crowds to disperse and allowing authorities to reimpose order. Experts, however, claim the weapons are “too scary to use,” and people can become too incapacitated to move out of the pain zone. U.S. military authorities asked the District of Columbia National Guard if it had the LRAD and ADS in its inventory, but it did not. The authorities made the request on June 1, 2020, the same day armored police tear-gassed protestors in Lafayette Square—described by a Guard officer as “peaceful”—to clear the way for President Donald Trump's photo opportunity in front of a church. Guardsmen were on hand for the protests, but were not armed with weapons. Two Guard helicopters, however, flew low over protesters in an attempt to disperse them.

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US Court PACER Bill Proposes to End Paywall
by grarpamp 19 Sep '20

19 Sep '20

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/09/bill-to-tear-down-federal-court… https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/09/new-bill-would-finally-tear-dow… https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/08/appeals-court-finds-users-were-… https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/ Some PACER users here. The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved the Open Courts Act -- legislation to overhaul PACER, the federal courts' system for accessing public documents. The proposal would guarantee free public access to judicial documents, ending the current practice of charging 10 cents per page for many documents -- as well as search results. From a report: The bill must still be passed by the full House and the Senate and signed by the president. With Election Day just seven weeks away, the act is unlikely to become law during this session of Congress. Still, the vote is significant because it indicates the breadth of congressional support for tearing down the PACER paywall. The legislation is co-sponsored by Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), whose bill we covered in 2018, and a fellow Georgian, Democrat Hank Johnson. Prior to Tuesday's vote of the House Judiciary Committee, the bill received a strong endorsement from Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). "It is indefensible that the public must pay fees, and unjustifiably high fees at that, to know what is happening in their own courts," Nadler said.

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Caitlin Johnstone re Assange: Exposing war crimes should always be legal - [PEACE]
by Zenaan Harkness 19 Sep '20

19 Sep '20

Caitlin Johnstone continues dropping truth bombs on the world, and lately via that thorn in the side of the West, RT.com (well done Ms Johnstone!): Caitlin Johnstone: Exposing war crimes should always be legal. Committing and hiding them should not https://www.rt.com/op-ed/501031-caitlin-johnstone-exposing-war-crimes/

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Google's antitrust battles: What you need to know
by jim bell 18 Sep '20

18 Sep '20

Google's antitrust battles: What you need to know Google's antitrust battles: What you need to know | | | | | | | | | | | Google's antitrust battles: What you need to know The search giant is headed for a historic showdown with the Department of Justice. The DOJ is just one of many t... | | | [partial quote follows] "What are the antitrust issues facing Google? Google's dominance in web search, digital advertising and smartphone software are the primary areas of interest to lawmakers and regulators. " "The company processes around 90% of all online searches in the US. That stranglehold is the foundation of Google's massive advertising business, which generates almost all of the company's $160 billion in annual sales. Google has been accused of hurting competitors by prioritizing its own products, like shopping ads or local business listings, over the listings of rivals in its search results. Critics also complain that the tech giant takes content from publishers and other websites and uses that information in prepared answers directly on Google's search engine, rather than simply providing a list of links that send users away to other sites. " "Google's ad business is also under a microscope because the company owns every step in a complicated system that connects ad sellers and buyers, which rivals say gives Google an unfair edge over the market. Much of the company's advertising prowess comes from acquisitions, including the 2008 buyout of the ad-tech firm DoubleClick." "The company also owns the Android operating system, the most popular mobile software in the world. Its dominance is hard to overstate; Android powers almost nine out of every 10 smartphones shipped globally. The tech giant has been accused of using that dominance to strong-arm partners to bundle Google's apps, like search and Maps, into their offerings. " "When is a DOJ lawsuit expected? The DOJ could file a lawsuit as soon as the end of the month, according to the Times report, but the exact timing isn't known. Attorney General Bill Barr and the 40 or so lawyers working on the case have disagreed over when it should be filed, the Times reported. " There's also an internal dispute at the DOJ over how broad the complaint should be. One team of lawyers is looking into Google's search business, while another is probing its advertising business, according to The Wall Street Journal. | | | | | | | | | | | WSJ News Exclusive | Justice Department Disagreement Arises Over Possibl... Brent Kendall Some Justice Department staffers have expressed internal concerns over plans to bring an antitrust lawsuit again... | | |

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Fwd: History of U.S. conspiracy theories-as-movements (including QAnon) from the 1790s-present
by Cecilia Tanaka 18 Sep '20

18 Sep '20

Not a wow-revolutionary-changing-life post, but the subject is interesting and, with a bit of luck, can inspire someone here, yay! :D Wish you all an awesome life, and many sweet kisses and good books!!! <3 Ceci, zzzleepy and late, sorry Shawn, grarpamp, Mark et all... ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: David Bray Date: Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 21:56 Subject: History of U.S. conspiracy theories-as-movements (including QAnon) from the 1790s-present Conspiracy movements usually end up entering the halls of power. And then they get absorbed. By Stephen Mihm <https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/authors/AP8wRWjVDoM/stephen-mihm> September 17, 2020, 10:45 AM EDT https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-09-17/qanon-explained-as-u-… [image: In American history, conspiracy theory-making has a way of turning into policymaking.] In American history, conspiracy theory-making has a way of turning into policymaking. Photographer: Antonistock/iStockphoto Stephen Mihm, an associate professor of history at the University of Georgia, is a contributor to Bloomberg Opinion. Read more opinion <https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/authors/AP8wRWjVDoM/stephen-mihm>Follow @SMihm on Twitter <https://www.twitter.com/SMihm> COMMENTS 26 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Share <https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.co…> Tweet <https://twitter.com/share?text=Throughout%20U.S.%20history%2C%20conspiracy%…> Post <https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&title=The%20QAnon%20Party%3…> Email <?subject=The%20QAnon%20Party%3F%20It%E2%80%99s%20Not%20a%20Conspiracy%20Theory%20-%20Bloomberg&body=The%20QAnon%20Party%3F%20It%E2%80%99s%20Not%20a%20Conspiracy%20Theory%0D%0A%0D%0Aby%20Stephen%20Mihm%0D%0A%0D%0A%3Cp%3EConspiracy%20movements%20usually%20end%20up%20entering%20the%20halls%20of%20power.%20And%20then%20they%20get%20absorbed.%3C%2Fp%3E%0D%0A%0D%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fopinion%2Farticles%2F2020-09-17%2Fqanon-explained-as-u-s-political-history> In this article 82064Z BLUE BOOK Private Company <https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/82064Z:FH> It’s tempting to view QAnon’s rise as a threat to America’s democracy — especially with a believer poised to win <https://www.npr.org/2020/08/13/901985118/from-fringe-to-congress-qanon-back…> a seat in the House of Representatives. But history suggests that conspiracy-based movements have been a part of the U.S. democracy since the nation’s founding. Long before the modern Republican and Democratic parties held sway, a succession of others rose and fell. In between, smaller fringe movements surged, often embracing some pretty bizarre conspiracies. Eventually, though, the QAnons of the past didn’t take over mainstream parties. Rather, their entry into the halls of power led to their absorption — or, alternatively, excommunication — by more mainstream parties. The historian Richard Hofstadter was one of the first to highlight the significance of “paranoid” politics in a now-famous essay <https://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/> in 1964. Such conspiracies, he observed, invariably hold that a secretive cabal of elite insiders intends to corrupt and destroy the nation. QAnon’s satanic pedophiles working from within the “deep state” is squarely in this tradition. Conspiratorial thinking first gained traction in U.S. politics in the late 1790s, when the New Englander Federalists, their power on the wane, became convinced that Illuminati members headquartered in Europe were plotting to destroy the new nation with their trademark secularism. A strange coalition of Federalist politicians and congregational preachers joined together to sound the alarm. More from <https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion?in_source=postr_index> Hedge Funds Can't Possibly Survive the Nasdaq Whale <https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2020-09-17/hedge-funds-struggle-as-…> Why Portland, of All Places, Erupted <https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2020-09-17/why-protests-in-portland…> Are Stocks Losing Some of Their Liquidity Momentum? <https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2020-09-17/are-stocks-losing-some-o…> Covid-19 Lockdowns May Have Saved Kids’ Lives <https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2020-09-17/child-mortality-covid-19…> Some Federalist true believers argued that Thomas Jefferson, who would challenge John Adams for the presidency, was the leader of the American Illuminati and the embodiment of the antichrist. Rev. Timothy Dwight, who was arguably the most prominent pastor associated with the Federalists, led the call to arms in a famous sermon. “Shall we, my brethren, become partakers of these sins?” he asked his congregation in 1798. “Shall we introduce them into our government, our schools, our families? Shall our sons become the disciplines of Voltaire … or our daughters the concubines of the Illuminati?” This early movement, though, quickly faded out — as did the Federalist Party. Indeed, Jefferson’s victory in 1800 ushered in the demise of the Federalists over the next two decades. But conspiracy thinking hardly vanished. In the 1820s, the U.S. was left with only a single major political party, the Democratic Republicans. The fragile consensus unraveled over the course of the decade, triggering a fresh wave of paranoia. Back then, many members of the nation’s political elite belonged to the Freemasons, a fraternal order that flourished in many countries. Membership in this society came with a pledge of secrecy, and high-ranking Masons earned titles like “master” and “high priest.” This was the “deep state” circa 1826, complete with a star defector like Q: William Morgan. The former Mason — and critic of the Masonic Order — was arrested and promptly disappeared. Though no one ever found a body, the backlash against Freemasons was ferocious. Before long, an entire political party had emerged dedicated to exposing the iniquities of the secret order: the Anti-Masonic Party. As one historian of this movement has written <https://www.amazon.com/Anti-Masonic-Party-United-States-1826-1843/dp/081319…>, “Masonic secrecy became synonymous with darkness, sin, immorality, intemperance, treason, and the work of Satan.” Or as one Anti-Mason politician put it, Freemasonry lured people down “the steps that lead down to the gates of hell; the paths of perdition; conclaves of corruption, atheism, and infidelity.” [image: President Trump Holds Make America Great Again Rally In Pennsylvania] QAnon’s claims sound a lot like earlier conspiracy movements. Photographer: Rick Loomis/Getty Images And yet, this did not lead to the end of the republic, then in its fourth decade. Instead, the Anti-Masonic Party became institutionalized as a political force, settling on key issues far removed from their original obsession, like higher tariffs. An Anti-Mason won the governorship of Vermont in 1831; in total, the Anti-Masons sent 40 individuals to Congress, and many more to state legislatures. It was then largely absorbed by the newly formed Whig Party, which vied with the Democrats for dominance beginning in the 1830s. By the 1840s, though, an even more elaborate set of conspiracy theories would soon coalesce in response to the flood of Catholic immigrants. The alleged papal plot to destroy America triggered even more tell-all “memoirs” than the one about Masons. These included bestselling books like “The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk,” purportedly written by a nun who had fled the convent. It painted a sensationalized portrait rampant with sexual deviance, infanticide, and secret and subversive plots. First published in 1836, it launched a flood of similar exposes with titles like “Mysteries of Popery Unveiled.” Some native-born Protestants, fearful of papist meddling, combined to create a secretive society to counteract international Catholic influence. The Order of the Star-Spangled Banner, as it was known, soon became a formal political party dubbed the Know Nothings, a nod to the secretive nature of its members. Like the Anti-Masons, the Know Nothings arose at a moment of realignment of the major political parties: The Whig Party was fading away. In fact, most of the Know Nothings eventually joined a new political party by the middle of the 1850s. They called themselves Republicans. The Populist Party, founded in 1891, was a serious political organization <https://www.amazon.com/Populist-Vision-Charles-Postel/dp/0195384717>. Though not primarily obsessed with conspiracies, some of its members embraced, among other things, the belief that a cabal of international bankers — typically Jews — manipulated events to suit their needs. The Populists helped make works like “Seven Financial Conspiracies That Have Enslaved the American People” a bestseller. While the party faded away, many of its members would find a home in the increasingly progressive Democratic Party. In 1958, a candy magnate named Robert Welch founded the John Birch Society, a group that anticipated much of the QAnon worldview. For most people, the John Birch Society is vaguely associated with anti-communism. In reality, though, Welch and his society offered a far more expansive, all-encompassing vision <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10570310209374748?journalCode=r…> of a worldwide conspiracy long before the arrival of the communists. In his writings, Welch traced the roots of a collectivist conspiracy back to — you guessed it — the Illuminati. According to Welch, this all-powerful secret society created a shadowy cabal he called the “INSIDERS” — usually denoted in capital letters — who had been behind history’s watershed events, from the French Revolution to the founding of the Soviet Union. According to Welch, communism was but a “tool of the total conspiracy” that aimed to create an internationalist “one-world government.” Welch’s breathless account of this “satanic program” held that mainstream politicians and military leaders were either unwitting dupes of this master plan or ruthless agents of the underlying conspiracy. He would impugn leaders like General George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower, who Welch considered “a dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy.” Nothing, he warned his followers, was as it seemed; appearances could be deceiving. Rank-and-file Republicans, many of them veterans of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s crusade against a communist conspiracy, flocked to Welch’s organization. Hundreds of chapters sprang up around the country. At its peak, it numbered at least 100,000 members and operated 400 bookstores that sold Welch’s manifesto, “The Blue Book,” as well as the society’s other publications. The Republicans had an uneasy relationship with the John Birch Society, tolerating its antics but aware that doing so might tar the party as extremists. It fell to the party’s chief intellectual, William F. Buckley, to marginalize the Birchers. In the early 1960s, he wrote a series of articles from his perch as editor of the National Review, attacking <https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/06/william-f-buckley-john-birch-society…> the group for disseminating “paranoid and unpatriotic drivel.” The campaign succeeded, and the John Birch Society saw its influence wane. But their excommunication was done in service of a larger rebranding of the Republican Party, one that intensified after Barry Goldwater’s loss in a landslide to Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. These efforts would ultimately propel Richard Nixon, and later, Ronald Reagan, to the White House. Forty years later, we are watching the demise of that incarnation of the Republican Party and the rise of QAnon. All the familiar ingredients are there: the fantasies that the world is controlled by secretive groups of insiders who are agents of secularism and Satan himself, and that they are sexually deviant and hellbent on the nation’s destruction. Add to that QAnon’s embrace of nativism and anti-Semitism, and you’ve got a banquet of conspiracy theories served up to the credulous. Can our political system tame this madness? If history is any guide, there’s reason for optimism. But one thing to keep in mind is that this may be the beginning of a very long haul.

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Cybersecurity: CPU and Systems without Intel ME, AMD PSP, Etc
by grarpamp 18 Sep '20

18 Sep '20

https://freundschafter.com/cybersecurity-cpu-and-system-alternatives-withou… " The fastest one is the AMD A10-6800K " A more comprehensive wiki that put all such anti-features into a table would not leave out other ranges of hardware either... IBM Power, RISC-V, phones, etc. It is not known if such a security / risk comparison exists. #OpenFabs , #OpenHW

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