April 2021 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

INQUIRER.net: Throat spray and hydroxychloroquine found to reduce risk of COVID-19 infection—Singapore study
by jim bell 27 Apr '21

27 Apr '21

INQUIRER.net: Throat spray and hydroxychloroquine found to reduce risk of COVID-19 infection—Singapore study. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1423624/throat-spray-and-hydroxychloroquine-f…

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Censorship Silent non-Public [re: prediction of control user program]
by grarpamp 27 Apr '21

27 Apr '21

> I tried to send this to libtech but I don't seem to be able to At least two posts silently censored there this week alone, plus now perhaps or likely yours. Libtech et al are run by such censors, they censor libertarian, freedom, alternate views, refutations, and crypto speech, while permitting piles of lame job conference and paper posts. Libtech, cryptography, tor... all now silently cowardly, censored, and dead... any former ethos gone, now pro GovCorp force of death leftist "democracy", anti actual freedom peace love anarchy, quite possibly sold out. Sad really. Any system capable of predicting behaviour, is a system that will be abused to control fuck and enslave you. The only valid reason to discover and catalog the state of it, is to fight back against it until it is gone.

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[spam] [paranoia] tty stream
by Karl 27 Apr '21

27 Apr '21

does anyone recognise the UI element displaying this on tty1? It happened for maybe half an hour today on raspbian. Systemd was in graphical mode, but I mostly use the ttys. I haven't seen it before or since. https://youtu.be/TPKA_xgI8_8 note: if using youtube, we should move to freer alternatives, I think one might have been called peertube? unsure. Figuring out the unexpected system behaviors I experience seems good. Let me know if there are threads on this list I should be catching up on and replying to. It's hard to cover them all.

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SpyVeillance: Global Resource Systems Packet Forensics Saulino Pentagon AS8003 Neustar Tidewater Laskin
by grarpamp 27 Apr '21

27 Apr '21

https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-government-and-politics-b26a… https://www.wired.com/2010/03/packet-forensics/ Verify and pin your pki certs... Global Resource Systems Packet Forensics Raymond Saulino Pentagon AS8003 Neustar Tidewater Laskin Defense Digital Service "This Is Massive": Shadowy DARPA-Linked Company Took Over 'Chunk' Of Pentagon's Internet In Inauguration Day Mystery A shadowy company set up last September linked to a DARPA / FBI contractor who peddled a 'lawful intercept' internet spy device to government agencies and law enforcement a decade ago, took over a massive portion of the Pentagon's idle internet addresses on the day of President Biden's inauguration, according to an in-depth investigation by the Associated Press. The valuable internet real estate has since quadrupled to 175 million IP addresses which were previously owned by the US Department of Defense - about 1/25th the size of the current internet, and over twice the size of the internet space actually used by the Pentagon. "It is massive. That is the biggest thing in the history of the internet," said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at network operating company Kenntic. The company, Global Resource Systems, was established by a Beverly Hills attorney, and now resides in a shared workspace above a Florida bank. The company did not return phone calls or emails from The Associated Press. It has no web presence, though it has the domain grscorp.com. Its name doesn’t appear on the directory of its Plantation, Florida, domicile, and a receptionist drew a blank when an AP reporter asked for a company representative at the office earlier this month. She found its name on a tenant list and suggested trying email. Records show the company has not obtained a business license in Plantation. Incorporated in Delaware and registered by a Beverly Hills lawyer, Global Resource Systems LLC now manages more internet space than China Telecom, AT&T or Comcast. -Associated Press One name is linked to Global Resource Systems in the Florida business registry - that of Raymond Saulino - who as recently as 2018 was listed in Nevada corporate records as a managing director of a cybersecurity/internet surveillance company called Packet Forensics. According to the report, "The company had nearly $40 million in publicly disclosed federal contracts over the past decade, with the FBI and the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency among its customers." In 2011, Packet Forensics and Saulino, its spokesman, were featured in a Wired story because the company was selling an appliance to government agencies and law enforcement that let them spy on people’s web browsing using forged security certificates. The company continues to sell “lawful intercept” equipment, according to its website. One of its current contracts with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is for “harnessing autonomy for countering cyber-adversary systems.” A contract description says it is investigating “technologies for conducting safe, nondisruptive, and effective active defense operations in cyberspace.” Contract language from 2019 says the program would “investigate the feasibility of creating safe and reliable autonomous software agencies that can effectively counter malicious botnet implants and similar large-scale malware.” Saulino is also listed as a principal with a company called Tidewater Laskin Associates. Incorporated in 2018 (and sharing the same Virginia Beach, VA address as Packet Forensics - a UPS store - with different mailbox numbers), Tidewater obtained an FCC license in April 2020 for unknown reasons. Calls to the number listed on the Tidewater Laskin FCC filing are answered by an automated service that offers four different options but doesn’t connect callers with a single one, recycling all calls to the initial voice recording. Saulino did not return phone calls seeking comment, and a longtime colleague at Packet Forensics, Rodney Joffe, said he believed Saulino was retired. Joffe, a cybersecurity luminary, declined further comment. Joffe is chief technical officer at Neustar Inc., which provides internet intelligence and services for major industries, including telecommunications and defense. -AP And now a company linked to Saulino, which didn't exist before September, took control of a massive chunk of the Pentagon's internet space on inauguration day for unknown reasons. According to a terse and opaque explanation from the Pentagon's Brett Goldstein - head of the Defense Digital Service which is running the project, the military hopes to "assess, evaluate and prevent unauthorized use of DoD IP address space" and "identify potential vulnerabilities" in order to defend against cyber-intrusions by global adversaries who consistently infiltrate US networks - occasionally from unused internet blocks. What that has to do with Global Resource Systems is anyone's guess. Explanations for what the internet space could be used for are purely speculative, and include "honeypots" - machines set up with vulnerabilities laid as bait to draw hackers, "Or it could be looking to set up dedicated infrastructure — software and servers — to scour traffic for suspect activity." "This greatly increases the space they could monitor," said Madory. Why did the Pentagon choose Global Resource Systems - a company linked to a 'spooky' individual - on inauguration day? "As to why the DoD would have done that I’m a little mystified, same as you," internet pioneer Paul Vixie told AP. More via AP: Deepening the mystery is Global Resource Systems’ name. It is identical to that of a firm that independent internet fraud researcher Ron Guilmette says was sending out email spam using the very same internet routing identifier. It shut down more than a decade ago. All that differs is the type of company. This one’s a limited liability corporation. The other was a corporation. Both used the same street address in Plantation, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale. “It’s deeply suspicious,” said Guilmette, who unsuccessfully sued the previous incarnation of Global Resource Systems in 2006 for unfair business practices. Guilmette considers such masquerading, known as slip-streaming, a ham-handed tactic in this situation. “If they wanted to be more serious about hiding this they could have not used Ray Saulino and this suspicious name.” Guilmette and Madory were alerted to the mystery when network operators began inquiring about it on an email list in mid-March. But almost everyone involved didn’t want to talk about it. Mike Leber, who owns Hurricane Electric, the internet backbone company handling the address blocks’ traffic, didn’t return emails or phone messages. Despite an internet address crunch, the Pentagon — which created the internet — has shown no interest in selling any of its address space, and a Defense Department spokesman, Russell Goemaere, told the AP on Saturday that none of the newly announced space has been sold.

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Fwd: Public user prediction software?
by Karl 26 Apr '21

26 Apr '21

Hi tolerant cpunks, I tried to send this to libtech but I don't seem to be able to due to personal concerns. I'm now having a bout of amnesia and unlikely to resend it. Here it is if you guys would like it. ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Karl <gmkarl(a)gmail.com> Date: Sat, Apr 24, 2021, 6:52 AM Subject: Public user prediction software? To: liberationtech <liberationtech(a)lists.stanford.edu> Mainstream reporting on targeted advertisement technology claim it can actually predict our behavior accurately enough to make it seem like it is surveilling us when it is not. It also seems to influence our behavior to make us easier to predict; this probably provides revenue to the advertisement algorithms. What is the state of public behavior prediction software? Is there any public tool that can help people understand this technology by playing with it?

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Cryptocurrency: Thodex Exchange CEO Runs Off With $2B
by grarpamp 26 Apr '21

26 Apr '21

https://cryptopotato.com/ceo-of-a-turkish-crypto-exchange-thodex-reportedly… Not your keys, Not your coins. Develop, deploy, and use distributed cross-coin DEX. Dozens Arrested After CEO Of Turkish Crypto Exchange Flees With $2 Billion Turkish authorities have detained 62 people over alleged links to the Istanbul-based cryptocurrency exchange Thodex after its founder fled with a reported $2 billion in investors' assets, Turkish media reported. The suspects were apprehended in raids carried out in eight cities including Istanbul, Anadolu Agency reported on Friday. Police issued arrest warrants for 16 other people. The arrests come after nearly 400,000 users of a Turkish cryptocurrency exchange were left out of their accounts without being able to withdraw their funds. The platform’s website has been down for several days, while reports suggest its CEO has already fled the country with up to $2 billion. Bloomberg reported that Thodex, a Turkey-based crypto exchange, has ceased trading, citing an “unspecified partnership transaction.” The trading platform, founded in 2017, issued a statement explaining that all services will remain shut down for about five working days. However, the message reassured customers that they shouldn’t worry about their funds. In retrospect, they should. Approximately at the same time, though, users started to complain about their inability to access their own assets. As Crypto Potato notes, some took it to Twitter to complain about losing much of their net worth. A local #Crypto exchange where I'd ~20% of my entire trading capital got rug pulled -20 days no withdrawal (fiat & crypto) -Then the website went offline -Then the CEO run abroad I'm not broke, but it hurts... Alot It sucks, Even when u deal with regulated exchanges#Thodex — Feras_Crypto (will Never DM you First) (@FeraSY1) April 21, 2021 He wasn't alone: on Thursday, hundreds of thousands of users were unable to get access to their digital wallets. "We have started the legal procedures and lodged a complaint at the prosecutor's office," a lawyer for some investors said. Prosecutors were investigating the businessman on charges of "aggravated fraud and founding a criminal organisation". ÖNEMLİ DUYURU pic.twitter.com/3aBeJjFSYQ — THODEX (@thodexofficial) April 22, 2021 According to subsequent coverage the exchange’s chief executive officer and founder, Faruk Fatih Ozer had fled the country. Following news of Ozer’s alleged escape from Turkey, users of the local exchange hired a law firm to file a complaint against Thodex. Oguz Evren Kilic, representing an unspecified number of Thodex customers, confirmed the development, saying, “we have filed a legal complaint on Wednesday.” He speculated that the funds on the Turkish exchange could be worth “hundreds of millions of dollars,” as the exchange had 391,000 users. According to another report, Thodex’s CEO and founder has run away in Thailand with an estimated amount of roughly $2 billion. Overnight, Turkish security officials released a photo of Thodex founder Faruk Fatih Ozer going through passport control at Istanbul Airport on his way to Albania. Turkish security officials released a photo of Thodex founder Faruk Fatih Ozer going through passport control at Istanbul airport on April 22, 2021. On Friday, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu made a phone call to his Albanian counterpart to request Ozer be captured and repatriated. At the same time, Turkish police raided the company's headquarters on the Asian side of Istanbul and seized computers and digital materials, press reports revealed. Turkish authorities also started procedures to issue an international warrant to arrest and extradite the missing founder of a cryptocurrency exchange, Anadolu Agency reported. In a message on the company's Twitter account, Ozer said he was abroad for meetings with foreign investors and would return home "in a few days and cooperate with judicial authorities so that the truth can come out". Subsequent updates indicated that this was a lie. In recent months, a growing numbers of Turks turned to cryptocurrency in a bid to shield their savings in the face of a sharp decline in the value of the Turkish lira and high inflation. The Turkish crypto market remains unregulated despite growing scepticism from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government about its safety. Last week, Turkish authorities took a step to regulating the cryptocurrency industry, and as we reported last week, Turkey officially banned users from using cryptos as payment instruments starting April 30th. The government spent a massive $165 billion in foreign-exchange reserves over the past two years, effectively leaving its central bank without reserves Erdogan revealed on Wednesday, part of a futile effort to prop up the national currency. Concern about the country’s dwindling foreign-exchange reserves, which are negative when money borrowed by the government from private banks via swap agreements are factored in, has fueled concern about both lira and dollar deposits -- and pushed savers into alternative investment vehicles. Last Friday, the volume of trade in Turkish crypto markets tripled to over $1.2 billion from a week earlier, according to data published by coingecko.com, which tracks data on price, volume and market value on crypto markets. That compares with an average daily trading volume in the Turkish stock market’s benchmark index of about $3.1 billion. “One can establish a crypto exchange with just 50,000 liras (about $6,000) in capital,” Oguz Evren Kilic, a lawyer representing Thodex users, said by phone. “There’s a huge regulatory gap in this field.” Meanwhile, as Bloomberg reports, last month Thodex initiated a campaign to boost membership by offering millions of free Dogecoins to new registrants. Its website says 4 million of the coins were distributed, though many people have taken to social media to complain they never received them. In the latest development in this bizarre saga, in a statement published from an unknown location, Thodex CEO Faruk Fatih Ozer promised to repay investors and to return to Turkey to face justice after he did. “I was born as one of the three siblings of a civil servant,” Ozer said in his statement, adding that he’s a high-school dropout. As the company ran into financial trouble, he said he thought about either committing suicide or giving himself up to authorities, but both of those options meant clients’ assets would never be retrieved. “So I decided to stay alive and fight, work and repay my debts to you,” he said. “The day I repay all my debt, I will return to my country and give myself in to justice.” Narrator: "he won't return."

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SW That Elected Trump Based On SW That Elected Obama
by Karl 26 Apr '21

26 Apr '21

But when Trump was elected, the man who designed the software and the following excerpt was working for a military contractor to do so, rather than a political party. I'm having trouble continuing to read his book ;p > Insurgencies, by nature, are asymmetric, in that a few people can cause large effects. So catalyzing an insurgency within the belligerent’s organization requires first concentrating resources on a few key target groups. This is optimized by good profiling and identifying the types of people who are both susceptible to new ways of thinking and connected enough to inject our counternarrative into their social network. > > The most effective form of perspecticide is one that first mutates the concept of self. In this light, the manipulator attempts to “steal” the concept of self from his target, replacing it with his own. This usually starts with attempting to smother the opponent’s narratives and then dominating the informational environment around the target. Often this involves gradually breaking down what are called psychological resilience factors over several months. Programs are designed to create unrealistic perceptions in the targets that result in confusion and damage self-efficacy. Targets are encouraged to begin catastrophizing about minor or imagined events, and counternarratives attempt to remove meaning, creating an impression of confusing or senseless events. Counternarratives also attempt to foster distrust in order to mitigate an existing hierarchy or group when you begin to think that you are being used in some unfair way, or when events seem senseless or purposeless. You become less willing to accept setbacks, take risks, or comply with commands. > > But simply degrading morale is often not enough. The ultimate aim is to trigger negative emotions and thought processes associated with impulsive, erratic, or compulsive behavior. This moves a target from mild or passive resistance (e.g., less productivity, taking fewer risks, rumors, etc.) into a realm of more disruptive behaviors (e.g., arguing, insubordination, mutiny, etc.). This approach has been taken in South America, for example, to provoke disunity among members of narcotics operations, increasing the likelihood of information leaks, defections, or internal conflicts that erode a supply chain. The most susceptible targets are typically the ones who exhibit neurotic or narcissistic traits, as they tend to be less psychologically resilient to stressing narratives. This is because neuroticism can make a person more prone to paranoid ideation, as they tend to experience more anxiety and impulsiveness and place more reliance on intuitive rather than deliberative thinking. People high on the narcissism scale are susceptible because they are more prone to

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Cryptocurrency: Total Global Market Cap Blows Past $2T
by grarpamp 26 Apr '21

26 Apr '21

1 Crypto now = $2028 GigaFiats BTC $1100B, ETH $245B privacy (via any popular method, fusion, BCH) $12B privacy (via any native method, mix, XMR) $5B $4T by eoy. Someone is spending tens of millions of dollars to suppress Privacy... https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/mkj20r/someone_is_spending… https://cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8369-21 Coinbase ordered to pay $6.5M fine for being caught running bots to manipulate crypto prices on their platform. "Bitcoin wasn’t created to make you rich. It was created to make you free."

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Libertarian: Free Peaceful Independent NAPsters, Coming Under SpyVeillance and Assault?
by grarpamp 26 Apr '21

26 Apr '21

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-feds-are-coming-for-libertari… Jim Bovard: The Feds Are Coming For Libertarians Authored by Jim Bovard via The Libertarian Institute, https://rats-nosnitch.com/rats/ https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1352007118392582148 https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2021/01/feds-in-oregon-filed-most-alleged-… https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/02/fbi-director-christ… http://www.newsweek.com/capitol-police-chief-calls-january-6-riot-terrorist… https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/capitol-attack-domestic-ex… https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/02/fbi-director-christ… https://twitter.com/beinlibertarian/status/1352095243022323718 https://jimbovard.com/blog/2006/07/21/boston-globe-the-terrorist-batting-av… https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2005/06/12/us-campaign-prod… https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2005/06/12/us-campaign-prod… https://www.salon.com/2013/07/10/only_1_percent_of_terrorists_caught_by_fbi… https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/07/fbi-terrorist-informants/ https://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1214/p99s01-woam.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/08/21/law-enforcement-… https://fee.org/articles/federal-surveillance-the-threat-to-americans-secur… https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-report-documents-fbi-abuse-911 https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/policing/2021/02/02/police-killing-s… https://mises.org/wire/one-year-later-police-still-wont-come-clean-duncan-l… https://jimbovard.com/blog/2013/01/02/claire-wolfes-hot-rats/ https://www.amazon.com/101-Things-Til-Revolution-Self-Liberation/dp/1893626… https://www.techradar.com/news/massive-parler-data-leak-exposes-millions-of… Jim Bovard: The Feds Are Coming For Libertarians On the day that Joe Biden was inaugurated as president, former CIA chief John Brennan announced on television that federal intelligence agencies "are moving in laser-like fashion to try to uncover as much as they can about" various suspect groups, specifically mentioning libertarians. Libertarians are in the federal crosshairs. Six or seven years ago, there was a lot of prattle about how "the libertarian moment has arrived." I always knew that was hokum. Since then, there has been a huge increase in hostility to libertarians in Washington DC and elsewhere around the country. Many libertarians assume they have nothing to fear because they are not engaged in seeking to violently overthrow the government. But the feds will be able to find many other pretexts to target peaceful citizens with supposedly subversive ideas. Federal law already defines "domestic terrorism" far more broadly than most people realize. As the Oregonian recently noted, "Cases categorized as domestic terrorism include allegations of…knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted [government] building or grounds…civil disorders and making threatening communications." FBI chief Christopher Wray told a Senate Committee that the FBI has 2,000 ongoing domestic terrorism investigations. Wray recognizes the terrorist peril as the ticket to a bigger budget: "We need more agents; we need more analysts." The Biden administration is itching for a broad new domestic terrorism law to enable even more crackdowns. Libertarians need to recognize how that definition of terrorism has already mushroomed. Capitol Police acting chief Yogananda Pittman, testifying to Congress, described the January 6 clash at the Capitol as "a terrorist attack by tens of thousands of insurrectionists." Apparently, anyone who tromped from Trump’s raging speech to the Capitol that day was a terrorist, or at least an "insurrectionist" (“terrorist” spelled with more letters?). After the clash at the Capitol on January 6, the de facto definition of terrorism seems to be "anything that frightens politicians." Will we find out too late that the new de facto definition of "domestic terrorist" is "individuals who distrust the feds and own two guns and more than 100 bullets"? Another codeword for who the feds will target is "extremists." The Washington Post in January portrayed "domestic extremists" as "a disease that seems to have taken hold in the nation’s nervous system." Last fall, FBI boss Wray told Congress that among the "underlying drivers for domestic violent extremism" are "perceptions of government or law enforcement overreach." Libertarians are practically defined by their perception of government as overreaching. After the January 6 clash, Wray portrayed more busts as proof of FBI triumphs: "The more of the arrests that you see, well, that’s obviously good news for everybody that we’re arresting people who need to be arrested." Here we see the former CIA chief, John Brennan, saying that libertarians are no different than "white supremacists and domestic terrorists," as he calls for the need to bring foreign terror war tactics onto US soil to squash them all. pic.twitter.com/M02Bw7Be9J — Being Libertarian (@beinlibertarian) January 21, 2021 In the coming years, the feds may treat libertarians like Muslims were treated after 9/11. Any new crackdown on terrorism will turn into a numbers game in which justice and fair play don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell. Between 2001 and 2006, federal prosecutors charged 10 times as many people in terrorism investigations as they convicted on terrorism-related charges. President Bush declared in 2005 that "federal terrorism investigations have resulted in charges against more than 400 suspects, and more than half of those charged have been convicted." But only 39 people were convicted on crimes tied to terrorism or national security, a Washington Post analysis found. Entrapment opened the floodgates to federal terrorism indictments. Trevor Aaronson, author of The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism, estimated that only about 1 percent of the 500 people charged with international terrorism offenses in the decade after 9/11 were bona fide threats. Thirty times as many were induced by the FBI to behave in ways that prompted their arrest. In 2006, the FBI fabricated a terror scheme by the Liberty City Seven, where an informant encouraged a bunch of dimwits in Florida to babble about blowing up government buildings. That group was so knuckle-headed that they asked the FBI informant for military uniforms and wanted to conduct a parade. Few Americans recognize how badly the legal playing field is tilted against them. When FBI agents knock on their doors, many Americans won’t hesitate to open up because they assume "those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear." But the FBI is exploiting a sweeping law that criminalizes casual comments. Federal agents have the right to lie to you and to put you in prison if you lie to them. Any citizen who makes even a single-word ("no" or "yes") false utterance to a federal agent faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. It gets worse. You don’t have to actually lie. FBI agents can fabricate the sentences they use to hang you. Unlike most law enforcement agencies, the FBI rarely videotapes interviews, thereby permitting agents to create the narrative or "facts" which then can be used to charge individuals with false statements. Instead of a transcript, an FBI agent writes up a memo a day or two later asserting what you said. FBI agents have been taught that subjects of FBI investigations "have forfeited their right to the truth," which helps explain the vast increase in federal entrapment operations. If the FBI shows up at your door, they might have already accessed every email and text message you sent in recent years. They may have vacuumed all your social media activity—those private Facebook messages you sent—HA! They may have also accessed all your credit card and other financial data. And the FBI may have already interrogated other people to squeeze out accusations against you that they can throw in your face. Then they launch into a game of 20 questions—with a federal indictment awaiting if they claim you answered untruthfully. Politicians in Washington don’t see such abuses as a problem; instead, they are a grand opportunity to smite people who don’t kowtow. It wasn’t that long ago—in the final 15 years of J. Edgar Hoover’s reign—that the FBI became America’s thought police. The FBI’s COINTELPRO program conducted thousands of covert operations to incite street warfare between violent groups, to get people fired, to portray innocent people as government informants, to destroy marriages with poison pen letters, and to cripple or destroy leftist, black, white racist, and anti-war organizations. A 1976 Senate report warned, "The American people need to be assured that never again will a federal agency be permitted to conduct a secret war against those citizens it considers threats to the established order." But legal and administrative restrictions on the FBI evaporated in the post 9/11 panic, resulting in pervasive abuses of Americans’ rights. The FBI now operates with near-total impunity. The same is true of many state and local police departments who may be hungering for new federal subsidies to crackdown on the extremist peril. How might this play out in the daily lives of people guilty of entertaining libertarian ideas? Consider Duncan Lemp, a 21-year-old Maryland man who was shot to death in a predawn raid in March 2021 after police smashed in his bedroom window and tossed flash bang grenades into his bedroom. Lemp was active on Twitter and liked several tweets by Libertarian presidential candidate John McAfee. Lemp’s last tweet declared, "The Constitution is dead." Two months later, so was Lemp. The Montgomery County, Maryland government later admitted that Lemp was targeted in part because was "anti-government" and "anti-police". Plus, Lemp was outspoken about his support of the Second Amendment and posted photos of himself with guns on Instagram. Police saw one such photo and concluded that Lemp possessed a semi-automatic rifle that was illegal to own in Maryland. After they killed him and searched the Lemp home, they realized they had mis-identified the firearm—it was legal. But police, prosecutors, and local politicians treated that like a harmless paperwork error: nobody cared about the wrongful killing of Duncan Lemp. The police case against Lemp also came from accusations from one or more confidential informants. Lemp trusted people who betrayed him to the police, allegedly with false accusations according to Lemp family lawyer, Rene Sandler. A month after Lemp was killed, activists held a protest at Montgomery County Police headquarters. I attended that event as a journalist (the ol’ press pass flopping around my neck) and was chagrined to see how the event went down. Guys in Hawaii-style "Boogaloo" shirts were using bullhorns to scream profanities at cops and were pointlessly blocking a road. One of the most prominent organizers told attendees to bring firearms to the event, despite Maryland law prohibiting firearms at protests. He told people on Facebook to show up with their guns anyhow and just walk around, pretending not to be part of the demonstration. That guy was full of bluster but never showed up for the protest himself. Almost 10% of the 30 protesters were arrested for firearms or other offenses. I later heard that one of the guys suspected of being a police informant against Lemp was at that rally pretending to demand justice for Lemp. In the coming months and years, many libertarians could be indicted not for violent acts against the government but for unwise or reckless words uttered in proximity to government informants. If you don’t know someone like the back of your hand, then you better be damn careful what you say around them. And even if you know a person well, that doesn’t oblige you to join them in a leap off a legal cliff. Simply because someone spouts anti-government zeal doesn’t make them more trustworthy than a congressman. Claire Wolfe, the author of 101 Things to Do Until the Revolution, wrote an excellent guide to recognizing government informants which she made available for free online. Simple prudence can suffice to avoid many tripwires. If some new acquaintance wants to provide you a pipe bomb to help "make a statement," he probably isn’t a real friend. There was a saying among antiwar activists in the 1960s and 1970s that the person who most fervently advocates violence is likely the undercover government agent. Activists should also recognize the likelihood that they could be surveilled online or in person. Parler was supposed to be a secure alternative to other online venues but millions of its messages were leaked earlier this year. The answer is not to shut up and sure as hell not to cease fighting for your rights and liberties. Friends of freedom need to continue valiantly and peacefully championing their ideas. At some point, more Americans will finally recognize the folly of permitting politicians and government agents to capture vast unchecked power over everyone else. In the meantime, prudent libertarians will avoid writing anything in an email that they don’t want to hear read out loud in federal court.

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Cryptocurrency: Open The Books - Forced, Non Opt Out, Govt Waste
by grarpamp 26 Apr '21

26 Apr '21

https://www.openthebooks.com/ Distributed cryptocurrency disables force fraud and waste, enables free choice. Kraken telling customers on the login page: "Not your keys, not your coins". "Keep the majority of your crypto offline... Only keep the funds you need for trading and other activities on Kraken." Bitcoin-BTC unusable for tx under $5k due to network fees, market share tanks well below 50% in response.

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