September 2021 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Raids: Anonymous Safety Deposit Box US Private Vaults, FBI Illegal General Warrants
by grarpamp 27 Sep '22

27 Sep '22

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-04-02/fbi-beverly-hills-vault… FBI Raids Business Renting Anonymous Safety Deposit Boxes, Forces Customers To Reveal Identity To Get Stuff Back In a case that's already sparked one lawsuit, a Beverly Hills strip mall business which rents private, anonymous safe deposit boxes was raided by the FBI last month - at which time the agency conducted a blanket seizure of hundreds of customers' belongings. Federal agents relied on informants and at least one undercover officer to gather information about transactions that took place at U.S. Private Vaults. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) To retrieve their valuables, customers will need to "identify themselves and subject themselves to an investigation to verify their legal ownership," according to the Los Angeles Times, which noted that one customer has already gone to court claiming that the government overreached by confiscating the contents of every security box. The company, U.S. Private Vaults, has been accused of laundering money for drug dealers - who anonymously stashed guns, drugs and cash. In an indictment against U.S. Private Vaults, Inc., the U.S. attorney for Los Angeles accused the company of marketing itself deliberately to attract criminals, saying it brazenly promoted itself as a place customers could store valuables with confidence that tax authorities would be hard-pressed to learn their identities or what was stored in their locked boxes. To access the facility, customers needed no identification; it took just an eye and hand scan to unlock the door. “We don’t even want to know your name,” it advertised, according to prosecutors. -Los Angeles Times The feds used "multiple informants and at least one undercover police officer who posed as customers" to surveil the store and gather information about its customers. One of the company's owners and several employees are accused of being involved in drug sales that took place at the business, as well as helping customers to convert cash into gold in a way that would avoid suspicion. Of note, U.S. Private Vaults shared a storefront with Gold Business - named as a co-conspirator in the indictment - which is accused of helping customers convert cash into gold to avoid having to report currency transactions which exceed $10,000. A sign taped to the front door of U.S. Private Vaults instructs customers on how to recover their possessions. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) In the March 9 indictment that was unsealed Friday, a federal grand jury charged U.S. Private Vaults with three counts of conspiracy — to launder money, distribute narcotics and structure cash transactions to dodge detection. None of the people who are allegedly behind the operation were named in the court records. It is was not immediately clear whether any individuals will face criminal charges as well. -Los Angeles Times The FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency took five days to go through and process all the boxes after the raid began on March 22, according to court documents. US prosecutors argued on Friday that while the original warrant remains under seal, the magistrate judge who approved it thought that the sweeping seizures were appropriate. "The government seized the nests of safety deposit boxes because there was overwhelming evidence that USPV was a criminal business that conspired with its criminal clients to distribute drugs, launder money, and structure transactions to avoid currency reporting requirements, among other offenses," prosecutors claimed in papers filed in Los Angeles federal court. According to prosecutors, the raid produced an unspecified number of weapons, fentanyl, OxyContin, and "huge stacks of $100 bills" which were flagged by drug-sniffing dogs. One box reportedly had $1 million in cash. The indictment was unsealed on Friday - just one hour before a court-issued deadline to respond to a lawsuit brought by a US Private Vaults customers who alleged that the blanket seizure was unconstitutional. The unnamed customer, listed in court papers as John Doe, said the search warrant should not have authorized seizure of the jewelry, currency and bullion that he kept in his three boxes at U.S. Private Vaults, because there was no probable cause to suspect the person committed a crime. “Just as the tenant of each apartment controls that space and therefore has a reasonable expectation of privacy in it, each of the hundreds of renters of safety deposit boxes ... has a separate reasonable expectation of privacy in his or her separately controlled box or boxes,” the person’s attorney, Benjamin N. Gluck, wrote in the complaint. -Los Angeles Times The customer seeks to stop the FBI from requiring anonymous customers to reveal themselves and undergo an investigation to verify legal ownership of their valuables - with attorney Benjamin Gluck arguing that the government is holding his client's goods "hostage" until he identifies himself. Gluck pointed to a statement by assistant US Attorney Andrew Brown describing the procedure for retrieving valuables. "Though Mr. Brown perhaps deserves credit for his candor, his announced plan is grossly improper and manifestly unconstitutional," wrote Gluck, noting that Brown had previously conceded in court papers that some US Private Vaults customers were "honest citizens to whom the government wishes to return their property." "But the majority of the box holders are criminals who used USPV’s anonymity to hide their ill-gotten wealth," he wrote. "To distinguish between honest and criminal customers, the government must examine the specific facts of each box and each claim, precisely what the anonymous plaintiff wants to prevent by refusing to disclose not only his identity, but even the specific boxes he claims are his." Federal agents have seized evidence from U.S. Private Vaults, a Beverly Hills business that has been charged with three counts of conspiracy. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Beverly Hills attorney Nina Marino, who represents several US Private Vaults clients, said that even if there were some criminal customers, "that does not authorize the government’s conduct in this sweeping action of not only seizing innocent box owners’ property, but viewing that property." "Every single person that paid money on a monthly basis did that with the expectation of maintaining their anonymity, and it’s just outrageous that the government has such low regard for the 4th Amendment and for an individual’s expectation of privacy," she added. UCLA law professor Beth Colgan called the issue "fascinating," adding that the big question is whether the search warrant was based on sufficient probable cause to believe that evidence of criminal wrongdoing would be found in virtually all of the safe deposit boxes. "I would just be very surprised if a judge had approved a warrant that would allow the FBI to go through every single box absent evidence that the entire system was corrupt," said Colgan. "Maybe they have the evidence, and that’s the thing we don’t know."

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Cypherpunks for open borders
by professor rat 03 Sep '22

03 Sep '22

This seems uncontroversial - open borders in the absence of a command economy and full-spectrum welfare ie national-healthcare-style state is decidedly pro-market, pro-freedom, and pro-peace. Certainly open-borders are as intrinsic to crypto-anarchism as diversity-of-tactics. That is certainly uncontroversial. It may be that some self-described cypherpunk might decide to advocate for border controls for some reason. The onus is then on them to prove their case. Such as in Jeff Berwick Vs John Galton However no crypto-anarchist will be caught dead arguing for nationalist borders; I promise youse.

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John McAfee dead by suicide after extradition approved by Spanish court.
by jim bell 26 Aug '22

26 Aug '22

There is an "opportunity cost" to NOT implementing my 'Assassination Politics' 1995 invention. http://jya.com/ap.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_cost?wprov=sfla1 How many tech people have been victimized by government in ways that would never have occurred had an AP-type system been functioning? Edward Snowden. Ross Ulbricht. Now John McAfee. Phil Zimmermann, author of PGP-1, was harassed for a few years. Even, dare I say, myself. The Internet has greatly changed the world in the last 25 years because people implemented ideas that hardly existed 30 years ago. Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Google. Smartphones. TOR. Encrypted phones. Dark Markets. Why not AP? Why not implement the one thing that has a good chance of taking down every government on the face of the Earth? No wars, no militaries, no taxes, no governments. Are those goals any less important than any of the other advances technology has brought us? U.S. software mogul John McAfee dies by hanging in Spanish prison - lawyer says | | | | | | | | | | | U.S. software mogul John McAfee dies by hanging in Spanish prison - lawyer says U.S. technology entrepreneur John McAfee apparently hanged himself in his prison cell on Wednesday after the Spanish high court authorised his extradition to the United States, his lawyer told Reuters. | | | |

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As many as 200 Americans have now reported possible symptoms of 'Havana Syndrome'
by jim bell 22 Jul '22

22 Jul '22

https://news.yahoo.com/many-200-americans-now-reported-083000770.html Almost half of those reporting symptoms are linked to the CIA, say officials, with possible cases in Berlin and Vienna and on every continent but Antarctica._--__-------- Jim Bell's comment follows. Given how easy it should be to do an audio or radio/microwave spectrum analysis, using a SDR and smartphone, I'm surprised this is still so mysterious.

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Globalism: MINDSPACE - From 9/11 to The Great Reset Matrix
by grarpamp 05 Jul '22

05 Jul '22

https://asiatimes.com/2020/09/from-9-11-to-the-great-reset/ https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/21252030%20Agenda%2… https://www.bi.team/publications/mindspace/ " Something’s gotta give. And then, out of the blue, it did. A drive by design towards ironclad concentration of power and geoeconomic diktats was first conceptualized – under the deceptive cover of “sustainable development” – already in 2015 at the UN (here it is, in detail). Now, this new operating system – or technocratic digital dystopia – is finally being codified, packaged and “sold” since mid summer via a lavish, concerted propaganda campaign. The whole Planet Lockdown hysteria that elevated Covid-19 to post-modern Black Plague proportions has been consistently debunked, for instance here and here, drawing from the highly respected, original Cambridge source. The de facto controlled demolition of large swathes of the global economy allowed corporate and vulture capitalism, world wide, to rake untold profits out of the destruction of collapsed businesses. And all that proceeded with widespread public acceptance – an astonishing process of voluntary servitude. None of it is accidental. As an example, over ten years ago, even before setting up a – privatized – Behavioral Insights Team, the British government was very much interested in “influencing” behavior, in collaboration with the London School of Economics and Imperial College. The end result was the MINDSPACE report. That was all about behavioral science influencing policymaking and most of all, imposing neo-Orwellian population control. MINDSPACE, crucially, featured close collaboration between Imperial College and the Santa Monica-based RAND corporation. Translation: the authors of the absurdly flawed computer models that fed the Planet Lockdown paranoia working in conjunction with the top Pentagon-linked think tank. https://www.weforum.org/focus/the-great-reset https://intelligence.weforum.org/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/strategic-intelligence-widget-artifi… https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/now-is-the-time-for-a-great-reset/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/07/covid19-this-is-how-to-get-the-great… And that is more than enough to beautifully set up “the cure”: The Great Reset. The beating heart The Great Reset was officially launched in early June by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – the natural habitat of Davos Man. Its conceptual base is something the WEF describes as Strategic Intelligence Platform: “a dynamic system of contextual intelligence that enables users to trace relationships and interdependencies between issues, supporting more informed decision-making”. The Great Reset is immensely ambitious, spanning over 50 fields of knowledge and practice. It interconnects everything from economy recovery recommendations to “sustainable business models”, from restoration of the environment to the redesign of social contracts. The beating heart of this matrix is – what else – the Strategic Intelligence Platform, encompassing, literally, everything: “sustainable development”, “global governance”, capital markets, climate change, biodiversity, human rights, gender parity, LGBTI, systemic racism, international trade and investment, the – wobbly – future of the travel and tourism industries, food, air pollution, digital identity, blockchain, 5G, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI). The Great Reset presupposes that all stakeholders – as in the whole planet – must toe the line. Otherwise, as Schwab stresses, we will have “more polarization, nationalism, racism, increased social unrest and conflicts”. In the end, only an all-in-one Plan A applies for making these systems interact seamlessly: the Great Reset – shorthand for a New World Order that has always been glowingly evoked, but never implemented. There is no Plan B. Whether Covid-19’s ultimate “window of opportunity” presented itself as a mere coincidence or by design, will always remain a very juicy question. Already three months ago, Schwab’s book hinted that the more everyone is mired in the global paralysis, the more it’s clear that things will never be allowed (italics mine) to return to what we considered normal. What has been imposed as an ironclad consensus is that without a Covid-19 vaccine there’s no possibility of anything resembling normality. https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/05/15/how-biosecurity-is-enabli… What matters above all is the “window of opportunity” offered by Covid-19, boosting, among other issues, the expansion of what I previously described as Digital Neo-Feudalism – or Algorithm gobbling up Politics. No wonder politico-economic institutions from the WTO to the EU as well as the Trilateral Commission are already investing in “rejuvenation” processes, code for even more concentration of power. "

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Limits to growth
by coderman 22 Jun '22

22 Jun '22

https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3xw3x/new-research-vindicates-1972-mit-pre… MIT Predicted in 1972 That Society Will Collapse This Century. New Research Shows We’re on Schedule. A 1972 MIT study predicted that rapid economic growth would lead to societal collapse in the mid 21st century. A new paper shows we’re unfortunately right on schedule. NA by [Nafeez Ahmed](https://www.vice.com/en/contributor/nafeez-ahmed) July 14, 2021, 6:00am - - - [GettyImages-1189106363] Image: Getty A remarkable new study by a director at one of the largest accounting firms in the world has found that a famous, decades-old warning from MIT about the risk of industrial civilization collapsing appears to be accurate based on new empirical data. As the world looks forward to a rebound in economic growth following the devastation wrought by the pandemic, the research raises urgent questions about the risks of attempting to simply return to the pre-pandemic ‘normal.’ In 1972, a team of MIT scientists got together to study the risks of civilizational collapse. Their [system dynamics model](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/jun/04/sc… published by the Club of Rome identified impending ‘limits to growth’ (LtG) that meant industrial civilization was on track to collapse sometime within the 21st century, due to overexploitation of planetary resources. The controversial MIT analysis generated heated debate, and was widely derided at the time by pundits who misrepresented its findings and methods. But the analysis has now received stunning vindication from a study written by a senior director at professional services giant KPMG, one of the 'Big Four' accounting firms as measured by global revenue. Limits to growth The study was published in the Yale Journal of Industrial Ecology in November 2020 and is available [on the KPMG website](https://advisory.kpmg.us/articles/2021/limits-to-growth.html). It concludes that the current business-as-usual trajectory of global civilization is heading toward the terminal decline of economic growth within the coming decade—and at worst, could trigger societal collapse by around 2040. The study represents the first time a top analyst working within a mainstream global corporate entity has taken the ‘limits to growth’ model seriously. Its author, Gaya Herrington, is Sustainability and Dynamic System Analysis Lead at KPMG in the United States. However, she decided to undertake the research as a personal project to understand how well the MIT model stood the test of time. The study itself is not affiliated or conducted on behalf of KPMG, and does not necessarily reflect the views of KPMG. Herrington performed the research as an extension of [her Masters thesis](https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/37364868) at Harvard University in her capacity as an advisor to the Club of Rome. However, she is quoted [explaining her project](https://advisory.kpmg.us/articles/2021/limits-to-growth.html) on the KPMG website as follows: “Given the unappealing prospect of collapse, I was curious to see which scenarios were aligning most closely with empirical data today. After all, the book that featured this world model was a bestseller in the 70s, and by now we’d have several decades of empirical data which would make a comparison meaningful. But to my surprise I could not find recent attempts for this. So I decided to do it myself.” Titled ‘Update to limits to growth: Comparing the World3 model with empirical data’, the study attempts to assess how MIT’s ‘World3’ model stacks up against new empirical data. Previous studies that attempted to do this found that the model’s worst-case scenarios accurately reflected real-world developments. However, the [last study](https://sustainable.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/2763500/MSSI-ResearchPaper-4_Turner_2014.pdf) of this nature was completed in 2014. The risk of collapse Herrington’s new analysis examines data across 10 key variables, namely population, fertility rates, mortality rates, industrial output, food production, services, non-renewable resources, persistent pollution, human welfare, and ecological footprint. She found that the latest data most closely aligns with two particular scenarios, ‘BAU2’ (business-as-usual) and ‘CT’ (comprehensive technology). “BAU2 and CT scenarios show a halt in growth within a decade or so from now,” the study concludes. “Both scenarios thus indicate that continuing business as usual, that is, pursuing continuous growth, is not possible. Even when paired with unprecedented technological development and adoption, business as usual as modelled by LtG would inevitably lead to declines in industrial capital, agricultural output, and welfare levels within this century.” Study author Gaya Herrington told Motherboard that in the MIT World3 models, collapse “does not mean that humanity will cease to exist,” but rather that “economic and industrial growth will stop, and then decline, which will hurt food production and standards of living… In terms of timing, the BAU2 scenario shows a steep decline to set in around 2040.” [image3.png] The ‘Business-as-Usual’ scenario (Source: Herrington, 2021 The end of growth? In the comprehensive technology (CT) scenario, economic decline still sets in around this date with a range of possible negative consequences, but this does not lead to societal collapse. [image1.png] The ‘Comprehensive Technology’ scenario (Source: Herrington, 2021 Unfortunately, the scenario which was the least closest fit to the latest empirical data happens to be the most optimistic pathway known as ‘SW’ (stabilized world), in which civilization follows a sustainable path and experiences the smallest declines in economic growth—based on a combination of technological innovation and widespread investment in public health and education. [image2.png] )The ‘Stabilized World’ Scenario (Source: Herrington, 2021) Although both the business-as-usual and comprehensive technology scenarios point to the coming end of economic growth in around 10 years, only the BAU2 scenario “shows a clear collapse pattern, whereas CT suggests the possibility of future declines being relatively soft landings, at least for humanity in general.” Both scenarios currently “seem to align quite closely not just with observed data,” Herrington concludes in her study, indicating that the future is open. A window of opportunity While focusing on the pursuit of continued economic growth for its own sake will be futile, the study finds that technological progress and increased investments in public services could not just avoid the risk of collapse, but lead to a new stable and prosperous civilization operating safely within planetary boundaries. But we really have only the next decade to change course. “At this point therefore, the data most aligns with the CT and BAU2 scenarios which indicate a slowdown and eventual halt in growth within the next decade or so, but World3 leaves open whether the subsequent decline will constitute a collapse,” the study concludes. Although the ‘stabilized world’ scenario “tracks least closely, a deliberate trajectory change brought about by society turning toward another goal than growth is still possible. The LtG work implies that this window of opportunity is closing fast.” In a presentation at the World Economic Forum in 2020 delivered in her capacity as a KPMG director, Herrington [argued](https://www.weflive.com/story/e968fb0963974e1e8f6c636e5654cbc2) for ‘agrowth’—an agnostic approach to growth which focuses on other economic goals and priorities. “Changing our societal priorities hardly needs to be a capitulation to grim necessity,” she said. “Human activity can be regenerative and our productive capacities can be transformed. In fact, we are seeing examples of that happening right now. Expanding those efforts now creates a world full of opportunity that is also sustainable.” She noted how the rapid development and deployment of vaccines at unprecedented rates in response to the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates that we are capable of responding rapidly and constructively to global challenges if we choose to act. We need exactly such a determined approach to the environmental crisis. “The necessary changes will not be easy and pose transition challenges but a sustainable and inclusive future is still possible,” said Herrington. The best available data suggests that what we decide over the next 10 years will determine the long-term fate of human civilization. Although the odds are on a knife-edge, Herrington pointed to a “rapid rise” in environmental, social and good governance priorities as a basis for optimism, signalling the change in thinking taking place in both governments and businesses. She told me that perhaps the most important implication of her research is that it’s not too late to create a truly sustainable civilization that works for all.

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The Verge: Elon Musk says Starlink internet service will be ‘fully mobile’ in 2021
by jim bell 27 May '22

27 May '22

The Verge: Elon Musk says Starlink internet service will be ‘fully mobile’ in 2021. https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/16/22388378/elon-musk-starlink-satellite-in… Jim Bell's comment: I imagine, and hope, that this news will signal the ability of the Starlink system to be used by people in "freedom-hostile" nations. But, that may depend on how this is implemented. Can anyone buy a dish and use it anywhere on Earth? Without regard to political boundaries?

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The New Yorker: How Vulnerable Is G.P.S.?
by jim bell 24 May '22

24 May '22

The New Yorker: How Vulnerable Is G.P.S.?. https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/how-vulnerable-is-gps

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DropGangs: Post and Parcel Delivery Services Fully Monitored [re: WikiLeaks was: FreeAssange.net]
by grarpamp 17 Apr '22

17 Apr '22

> Guess who had a PO Box next to Wikileaks > > https://www.theage.com.au/national/world-leaders-would-love-the-key-to-this… > > They avoided a drone strike on the university by demolishing the > Melbourne Uni post office voluntarily: > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABWuKVaT13s > > After they destroyed that, they took out the local pub too: > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yCKYW5YUWw The USA USPS takes automated pictures of all items passing through its facilities, OCR them, stores them forever, and gives them away to whoever they like that comes asking. Mail and delivery services worldwide are now doing similar, including requiring and recording government photo ID to send parcels and letters, storing all camera footage, facial, and ALPR logs, of the facilities forever, etc.

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Bantering with punk-stasi-victim was Re: Slavery was Formally Abolished Today, Happy Freedom Day
by Karl 05 Mar '22

05 Mar '22

On 2/2/21, Punk-BatSoup-Stasi 2.0 <punks(a)tfwno.gf> wrote: > On Mon, 1 Feb 2021 15:48:18 -0500 > Karl <gmkarl(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> Juan, you don't mean these things you say here. > > Of course I mean what I say. And I say what I mean. And I'm one of the many reincarnations of hope, but that doesn't mean people should ever make decisions based off of that. >> You don't have to say them in this thread. > > Why would I let that sort of US govt propaganda pass? I find it especially > repulsive. Thanks for keeping the thread nice for the rest of the day I posted it <3 It's is _disgusting_ that they call it human trafficking now instead of slavery, and that makes it _obvious_ that slavers influenced them. It's still pretty obvious they're resisting that. > Maybe you shouldn't be promoting the US govt on this list? And painting the > US govt as being opposed to slavery, a preposterous idea. There are at least two different US governments: 1. the words written on paper 2. the behaviors that people actually engage in and they're blurry. On paper, the US govt is firmly opposed to slavery. Most people believe in the paper and hate the actions. It would be ideal if we could share human trafficking rescue avenues that are run by anarchists, but if I did that they would get obliterated by their local government's unwritten behaviors. > https://humantraffickinghotline.org/national-hotline-overview > > "received $3.5 million through competitive funding through the U.S. > Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and > Families, Grant # 90ZV0134-01-00. The project will be financed with 71.87% > of federal funds and 28.13% ($1.37 million) by non-governmental sources" > > of course that '28%' of 'non govt sources' comes from 'private' fascists of > the bill gates-soros kind. It's shitty that our avenues are the ones that are "authorised". It's ludicrous to ask every victim to ask for help themselves, when victims are taught alternate languages where asking for help is spoken in words that keep everyone enslaved. I don't know this situation well enough to respect you, here, but it's obvious that you're posting things that are illogical more than it is worth your time to do so. It's obvious that me, zenaan, and professor rat are also doing these things. The things we're posting help the interests of people with a lot of money. Those people have probably effectively enslaved us in some way. Some of us may be viscerally and highly aware of that being the case, and that set of people may not be related to the set of people able to talk about it, but all of us can get government aid for being abused if we demonstrate real symptoms of abuse.

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