Re: Assassination Politics

5 Aug 2021

      Slashdot's take on the matter from 2013, tldr...

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/11/18/2035202/meet-the-assassination-marke...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/11/18/meet-the-assassination-...

Meet the 'Assassination Market' Creator Who's Crowdfunding Murder With
Bitcoins 291
Posted by samzenpus on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:46PM from the
dark-places dept.
schwit1 writes "As Silk Road emerged from the 'dark-web', other sites
have appeared offering services that are frowned upon by most. As
Forbes reports, perhaps the most-disturbing is 'The Assassination
Market' run by a pseudonymous Kuwabatake Sanjuro. The site,
remarkably, is a crowdfunding service that lets anyone anonymously
contribute bitcoins towards a bounty on the head of any government
official–a kind of Kickstarter for political assassinations. As Forbes
reports, NSA Director Alexander and President Obama have a BTC40
bounty (~$24,000) but the highest bounty — perhaps not entirely
surprising — is BTC 124.14 (~$75,000) for none other than Ben
Bernanke."

http://www.outpost-of-freedom.com/jimbellap.htm
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3072985/  PAM Futures
http://fc12.ifca.ai/pre-proceedings/paper_69.pdf
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-11-18/dark-web-exposes-75000-bitcoin-base...
https://assmkedzgorodn7o.onion/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product

Assassination Politics (Score:4, Informative)
by ryanr ( 30917 ) * <ryan@thievco.com> on Monday November 18, 2013
@05:48PM (#45458139) Homepage Journal
Assassination Politics [outpost-of-freedom.com] I think he went to jail for it.

    Re:Assassination Politics (Score:5, Funny)
    by ifiwereasculptor ( 1870574 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@06:09PM (#45458355)

    As well he should. That website's layout is downright criminal.
        Re:Assassination Politics (Score:4, Interesting)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:56PM (#45459221)

        That page might be "downright criminal", however, it is not
the messenger, it is the message, that counts.
        That page was put up back in the mid-nineties. HTM code was
quite limited. So, it ain't pretty. Neither are those who think that
pretty means more than content.
        BTW, Jim did not put up the page. I did, as the FBI was
looking at both Jim and I (investigating), so out of respect for Jim,
I put it up while he was in prison. I will keep it up simply to stick
it in the face of the feds.
        There have been over 600 visits to the page, today, mostly
because of the link provided here. So, Jim's thoughts from two decades
ago seem to still deserve attention.
        Re:Assassination Politics (Score:2)
        by maestroX ( 1061960 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @08:43PM (#45459525)
        First post with a link that's not slashdotted.
        pussies
        Re:Assassination Politics (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @09:39AM (#45462491)

        That's odd, I'd say the layout is perfect.

        There are no huge bars of whitespace running down the sides of
the page, something that you commonly see in "properly" designed
layouts.

        There are no advertising inlays positioned in counterintuitive
locations.

        Paragraph breaks are used properly, and headings separate
sections of the text.

        The page even renders properly and remains 100% functional
when viewed in Lynx.

        I'd say the layout makes use of HTML the way HTML was designed
to be used. It's a refreshing change of pace. I'd argue that it's the
"Web 2.0" way of abusing HTML that's downright criminal.
    Re:Assassination Politics (Score:3)
    by Intrepid imaginaut ( 1970940 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@06:16PM (#45458433)

    Yeah this is fairly old news. As far as I'm aware he's been in and
out of prison for most of his life since proposing the idea in a fit
of extreme libertarianism. Did someone actually go through with it?
    Re:Assassination Politics (Score:3)
    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:19PM (#45458475)

    Credit Default Swaps.

    You can include practically any terms you want in a swap. I'm sure
the lawyers could write up a clause covering 'unplanned change in head
of state' to cover an assassination. In fact, it would not surprise me
if paper traded by major banks are covered for a sudden change in the
Fed's governing body.

    <Tinfoil_hat_mode>I would not be surprised if the mortgage backed
security market collapse was triggered in part by an 'unfavorable
change in the Administration' clause in some contracts.
</Tinfoil_hat_mode>
        Re:Assassination Politics (Score:3)
        by whoever57 ( 658626 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:32PM
(#45459059) Journal

        Agatha Christie: The Pale Horse.

        You place a bet with an unscrupulous bookmaker that a certain
person will live beyond the next month. When that doesn't happen, you
have to pay the bet.
            Re:Assassination Politics (Score:2)
            by bmo ( 77928 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:38PM (#45459099)

            You place a bet with an unscrupulous bookmaker that a
certain person will live beyond the next month. When that doesn't
happen, you have to pay the bet.

            Isn't this called insurance?

            "The good-hands people" around yer neck.

            --
            BMO
                Re:Assassination Politics (Score:3)
                by kill-1 ( 36256 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@07:43PM (#45459129)

                If you bet that your own house burns down, it's
insurance. If you bet that your neighbor's house burns down, it's a
credit default swap.
                Re:Assassination Politics (Score:3)
                by shentino ( 1139071 ) <shentino@gmail.com> on Monday
November 18, 2013 @08:18PM (#45459369)

                Actually with insurance you're betting that it WILL burn down.

                The analogy back to the bookmaker would be a bet
AGAINST survival.
        Re:Assassination Politics (Score:2)
        by Sarten-X ( 1102295 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:48PM
(#45459165) Homepage

        ...triggered in part by an 'unfavorable change in the
Administration' clause in some contracts...

        Perhaps not in contracts, but in my time working in finance, I
have seen investment strategies planned heavily on the outcome of a
single election, considering ramifications for a few years in advance.

        While I never saw anything as ridiculous as "sell all of
$SECURITY if $CANDIDATE wins", I did encounter plans like "if
$CANDIDATE wins, move into $SECURITY until $PROMISE happens, then move
out of $LOSER1 or $LOSER2 as appropriate".
        Re: Assassination Politics (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @10:43PM (#45460171)

        Record market highs are unfavorable?
    Re:Assassination Politics (Score:2)
    by boorack ( 1345877 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:49PM (#45458763)
    This will be pretty good excuse for government thugs to shut down
Bitcoin and possibly jail anyone having some in his/her posession. I'm
not sure US government thugs did actually conceive such crap but I'm
perfectly sure they wouldn't be happier hearing this news.
        Re:Assassination Politics (Score:1)
        by ButchDeLoria ( 2772751 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@06:54PM (#45458791)
        Good luck, after the Congressional hearing today, they're
going to embrace it.
            Re:Assassination Politics (Score:3)
            by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @09:18PM
(#45459737) Homepage

            because it's not cratering like the US dollar, the
government has to put their money into something.
                Re:Assassination Politics (Score:3)
                by TheRaven64 ( 641858 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@06:01AM (#45461721) Journal
                Bitcoins have experienced drops in value over the
course of a single day that are greater than the drop in value of the
US dollar over the entire great depression, or its total deflation
over the last 100 years. It's not cratering because it's value is
effectively a random number and it will keep going up for as long as
people are making money from the wild fluctuations in value of an
unregulated instrument. When the big speculators cash out and the rest
realise that they just own a magic number that no one with significant
assets has ever promised to accept in payment, you'll see what
cratering really means.
                Re: Assassination Politics (Score:0)
                by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013
@10:46PM (#45460183)

                How is the dollar cratering again?
        Re:Assassination Politics (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @09:13PM (#45459705)

        This will be pretty good excuse for government thugs to shut
down Bitcoin and possibly jail anyone having some in his/her
posession. I'm not sure US government thugs did actually conceive such
crap but I'm perfectly sure they wouldn't be happier hearing this
news.

        So you're saying that if any other government were to shut
down a site hosting a "hit" on the Head of State, they would not be
thugs?
        Good to know.
        Re:Assassination Politics (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21, 2013 @04:46PM (#45484693)

        Good luck with that. Bitcoin users are harder to track than
torrenters, and slowly becoming as numerous. The only reason they got
Silk Road's is because they tracked down the site and grabbed the
physical boxes in the process. Remember kids, never keep what you want
to keep. Meanwhile, I'd love to see them come up with a charge against
anyone involved in bitcoin that would stick.
    Re:Assassination Politics (Score:2)
    by amicusNYCL ( 1538833 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:18PM (#45458969)

    Yes, he went to jail for various tax-related charges, and then
again for violation of parole, and was released in March 2012. And now
this website is online. Not that the two have any affiliation.
    what about the ads in soldier of fortune (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:20PM (#45458497)

    where you can find people willing to do mercenary work
        Re:what about the ads in soldier of fortune (Score:5, Interesting)
        by Penguinisto ( 415985 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:54PM
(#45459197) Journal

        where you can find people willing to do mercenary work

        I suspect that up to half of them are bogus, and the other
half are likely scams. What's left is probably well out of Interpol
jurisdiction, let alone that of the FBI (or RCMP, or {insert European
national police force here} ), since you're probably going to do it in
the borders of some craphole nation already torn asunder by civil war
or rebellion.
            Re:what about the ads in soldier of fortune (Score:0)
            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @01:30AM
(#45460905)

            Everything is out of Interpol's jurisdiction, because
Interpol has no jurisdiction...anywhere. I'm not sure why comments
insinuating it does keep popping up on /. (Perhaps there are many Lord
of War fans lurking about?). Interpol as an organization only has the
ability to assist law enforcement agencies in member countries by
providing them with information. That's it.
                Re:what about the ads in soldier of fortune (Score:0)
                by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@12:14PM (#45464041)

                    Interpol as an organization only has the ability
to assist law enforcement agencies in member countries by providing
them with information.

                Even providing of information is normally done under
some jurisdiction.
        Re:what about the ads in soldier of fortune (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @10:25AM (#45462885)

        Those ads are mostly placed by pimply teenagers with delusions
of grandeur. COD fans who think they are ready for battle.
    Re:Assassination Politics (Score:1)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:54PM (#45458213)

    Not for it directly, for it is clear first-amendment content. The
feds got him for other things (questionable or not).
        Re:Assassination Politics (Score:3)
        by shentino ( 1139071 ) <shentino@gmail.com> on Monday
November 18, 2013 @08:17PM (#45459355)

        Soliciting a market for murder for hire is a lot WORSE than
shouting fire in a crowded theater.

        This is swinging your fist so far into your neighbor's nose
that you're punching the back of their skull out.
            Re:Assassination Politics (Score:3)
            by s.petry ( 762400 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @08:55PM
(#45459603)

            I don't think it's worse than that, because _if_ someone
attempted very few would be harmed. Nor do I think it's the same by
any comparative measure. Shouting "Fire" in a theater harms numerous
people that are all innocent. In the case of an assassination attempt,
most likely the guy who tried to pull the trigger, and perhaps a body
guard or two would be hurt and perhaps the politician. An attempted
assassination would be one criminal trying to kill another criminal
(at least using the sample names in TFA).

            People often make the mistake of putting politicians on
pedestal, and it should be treated as worse than janitorial use. At
least in a Republic.
                Re:Assassination Politics (Score:3)
                by Mitchell314 ( 1576581 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@11:18PM (#45460337)
                In the US, we don't hold the position that just
because you are a criminal means you should be killed. In fact, the
bill of rights has this peculiar amendment addressing that punishment
should not be in excess of the crime committed. It's dictatorships and
very anti-freedom hellholes that take the opposite stance.

                tl;dr: We put humans life (politician, criminal, or
not) on a pedestal. That's part of being a civilized Republic.
                    Re:Assassination Politics (Score:0)
                    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@12:32AM (#45460679)

                    "We put humans life (politician, criminal, or not)
on a pedestal."

                    Not exactly.

                    But those lives **certainly** have a great deal of
value... to the Corrections Corporation of America.
                    Re:Assassination Politics (Score:2)
                    by s.petry ( 762400 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@12:33AM (#45460685)

                    I didn't claim there was no equal protection under
the law. I responded to a person that claimed that assassinating a
political figure was worse than yelling fire in a crowded theater.

                    There was just a bit of sarcasm in the comment
regarding a criminal (assassin) killing a criminal (politician). A bit
because while everyone has equal protection, generally society has
much less pity on a criminal killing another criminal, compared to a
criminal killing a citizen that is not a criminal. Additionally,
criminals are displaced from society and during certain punishments
are not citizens (at least with the rights and privileges as every
other citizen.)

                    Putting politicians on a pedestal has nothing to
do with being a Republic. It is called being brain washed into
believing that all of these politicians are celebrities that should be
worshiped. The first President was pretty close to Socrates'
description of what a politician should be. He didn't want the job
either time he was voted in. People like that are the ideal a Republic
depends on to be successful.

                    If your last statement was that we are everyone is
"special" and you are trying to be the coach of the "feel good" squad,
do so with a bit less generalization after trying to argue a point
that was very specific.
                    Re:Assassination Politics (Score:2)
                    by TheRaven64 ( 641858 ) on Tuesday November 19,
2013 @05:56AM (#45461697) Journal
                    So you're saying that being a politician is just
considered a misdemeanour?
                Re: Assassination Politics (Score:0)
                by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013
@10:39PM (#45460145)

                So it's okay to kill janitors?
        Re:Assassination Politics (Score:1)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:18PM (#45458463)

        Everyone's guilty of something these days - if they want to
deal with you all they have to do is look closely enough.
            Re:Assassination Politics (Score:4, Insightful)
            by paiute ( 550198 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @08:21PM
(#45459385)

            Everyone's guilty of something these days - if they want
to deal with you all they have to do is look closely enough.

            If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most
honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him. -
Cardinal Richelieu
                Re:Assassination Politics (Score:0)
                by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013
@08:47PM (#45459565)

                Everyone's guilty of something these days - if they
want to deal with you all they have to do is look closely enough.

                If you give me six lines written by the hand of the
most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.
- Cardinal Richelieu

                That's because he used the handwriting sample to forge
contracts with the devil that his agents would then "discover" while
searching his enemy's house (the Church had its own extensive judicial
system in those days). It's one of those phrases, like "let them eat
cake", that has been twisted and distorted from its original context
even if it is not wholly apocryphal.
                    Re:Assassination Politics (Score:3, Funny)
                    by Jeremy Erwin ( 2054 ) on Monday November 18,
2013 @10:04PM (#45459975) Journal

                    That's because he used the handwriting sample to
forge contracts with the devil that his agents would then "discover"
while searching his enemy's house (the Church had its own extensive
judicial system in those days). It's one of those phrases, like "let
them eat cake", that has been twisted and distorted from its original
context even if it is not wholly apocryphal.

                    [citation needed]
                        Re:Assassination Politics (Score:2)
                        by jalopezp ( 2622345 ) on Tuesday November
19, 2013 @07:12AM (#45461933)
                        He's unlikely to even have said the phrase,
let alone implied anything about framing the poor honest man over a
pact with the devil. The story is not good because it's true, it's
good because it's good.
                Re:Assassination Politics (Score:2)
                by RockDoctor ( 15477 ) on Wednesday November 20, 2013
@05:50AM (#45471077) Journal

                    If you give me six lines written by the hand of
the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang
him. - Cardinal Richelieu

                Richelieu was an optimist.

                He admitted to the possibility of an honest man
existing, for his agents to find, get handwriting from, and then have
hung.

                Modern law enforcement doesn't really believe in the
possibility of people not being "perps" in some form.
    people who use it will get jack rubyed (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:26PM (#45458543)

    and the guy who did that will die soon after that
        Re:people who use it will get jack rubyed (Score:2)
        by FatdogHaiku ( 978357 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @08:41PM
(#45459505)
        Reminds me of the movie "Shooter"
        http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0822854/quotes [imdb.com]
        First quote...
    Re:Assassination Politics (Score:2)
    by homey of my owney ( 975234 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@08:19PM (#45459373)
    'have appeared offering services that are frowned upon by most.'

    Frowned on? Really? Frowned on?! Are you fucking kidding me? Have
reached the point with political correctness that we can't call it
what it is?! Fucking crazy?!
        Re:Assassination Politics (Score:2)
        by korbulon ( 2792438 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @08:31PM (#45459445)

        It's not political correctness when it's an obscene
understatement made for comic effect, but in your case...

        WHOOOSH!
            Re:Assassination Politics (Score:2)
            by chill ( 34294 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @09:09PM
(#45459671) Journal

            The Queen is not amused.
    Re:Assassination Politics (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @11:06AM (#45463355)

    I read the essay you linked to.

    My head hurts, and I want my money back.

    Jim Bell takes lunacy to a whole new level.

absolutely the dumbest idea ever (Score:5, Insightful)
by swschrad ( 312009 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:49PM
(#45458147) Homepage Journal

guaranteed to get the whole government in on breaking the Bitcoin
chain, as well as getting your ass parked in a Federal prison for a
whole lot of years. it's so idiotic that it has to be a government
operation to suck in idiots who are looking for jail time.

    Re:absolutely the dumbest idea ever (Score:5, Interesting)
    by ColdWetDog ( 752185 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:00PM
(#45458267) Homepage

    No, it's guaranteed to divest some foolish people from spare bitcoins.
        Re:absolutely the dumbest idea ever (Score:1)
        by kruach aum ( 1934852 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@02:22PM (#45465571)

        I don't know about you, but I divest of
        Re:absolutely the dumbest idea ever (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 20, 2013 @04:53PM (#45475939)

        (1) announce that you are taking money in escrow for payment
to assassins
        (2) do not pay out claims. Assassins and payers will not to
come forward and sue you, and if they did, you would just claim that
any contract that involves illegal activity is not a contract
        (3) profit :)
        (4) the Feds might go after you anyway on the grounds that
your website listing bounties is still an incitement to murder
        (5) jail :(
    Re:absolutely the dumbest idea ever (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:32PM (#45458601)

    Agreed. this is so monumentally stupid that I think its gotta be
either a government sting or a false flag operation to turn public
sentiment against bitcoin and scare lawmakers into shutting bitcoin
down.
        Re:absolutely the dumbest idea ever (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:54PM (#45458795)
        More likely a scam. Any hitman with the skills to kill a
sitting president isn't going to leave his fucking house for $25K.
You'd have to be a complete retard to believe that this is ever going
to work. The only one making money on this is the operator, who is
going to take the coins and run.
            Re: absolutely the dumbest idea ever (Score:3, Insightful)
            by Shakrai ( 717556 ) * on Monday November 18, 2013
@08:33PM (#45459449) Journal
            Hitmen with mad skills are largely a creation of
Hollywood. The lone wolf who is willing to die is what keeps the USSS
up at night, not the fictional professional assassin.
                Re: absolutely the dumbest idea ever (Score:2)
                by Impy the Impiuos Imp ( 442658 ) on Monday November
18, 2013 @09:20PM (#45459755) Journal

                But Batman...!
    Re:absolutely the dumbest idea ever (Score:2)
    by neo8750 ( 566137 ) <<ten.ikspez> <ta> <ikspez>> on Monday
November 18, 2013 @10:36PM (#45460137) Homepage
    Or could that be the point? What a better media story as why they
need to crack down harder on the internet...Just cause the services
being sold are bad doesnt mean that the person selling them is a bad
guy or even real. It could just be a huge charade to tarnish bitcoins
and its users.

this post is sarcasm (Score:4, Informative)
by gman003 ( 1693318 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:50PM (#45458155)

What, no direct link to the site?

How is this disturbing? (Score:5, Insightful)
by will_die ( 586523 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:50PM (#45458159) Homepage
It is pretty straight forward how it will work.
1) People send in money.
2) After a while the site closes down.
3) Person that put up the site earns a nice profit.

The only disturbing part is the guy did it so early, someone with real
planning would of waited for the US Presidential election and then
really brought in the money.

    Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:2)
    by mythosaz ( 572040 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:53PM (#45458209)

    This. A million times this.

    I wish I had a bitcoin scam to stand up while they're still
$hundreds a coin....

    Why do people send cash to god-knows-where and just pray it ever
goes where it's supposed to...
        Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:5, Insightful)
        by rogueippacket ( 1977626 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@05:58PM (#45458245)
        The same reason the vast majority of people have problems with
money - their spending decisions are largely driven by emotion and
lack discipline.
            Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:0)
            by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @11:48PM (#45460501)

            Yeah, and not because they can't find a fucking job that
pays a livable wage.

            Let them eat cake, right?
                Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:0)
                by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@12:25PM (#45464171)

                While there are certainly many people who can't find a
job that pays a liveable wage (BTW most seek for one that's not
related to fucking), it's certainly not the vast majority. And there
are more than enough examples of people who have an above-average
income and still have problems with their money. Heck, some superstars
who got shitloads of money end up broke because they simply couldn't
handle it.
                Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:0)
                by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@01:48PM (#45465165)

                Because someone doesnt have a good job theyre more
likely to send cash to an unknown website? That makes absolutely no
sense, dumbass.

                Poor people are not any more or less stupid than
non-poor people. Being poor is not some justifiable excuse for being
an idiot.
                    Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:0)
                    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@08:25PM (#45468723)

                    Poor people are not any more or less stupid than
non-poor people. Being poor is not some justifiable excuse for being
an idiot.

http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/08/31/1350207/the-cognitive-cost-of-povert...
[slashdot.org]
    Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:2)
    by icebike ( 68054 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:10PM (#45458369)

    It is pretty straight forward how it will work.

    1) People send in money.

    2) After a while the site closes down.

    3) Person that put up the site earns a nice profit.

    Strike number 3, an replace it with:

    3) Three letter agency that put up the site knocks on your door.

    Seriously, how could you not consider this might be a honeypot for kooks?
        Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:49PM (#45458771)

        So

        1)Set up honeypot website

        2)People donate to "assassinate person X fund"

        3)Person X gets assassinated

        4)Uhoh. You've just been implicated in enticement to the
assassination of person X. Enjoy your time in jail.

        (Where person X is someone who will not be named due to
jack-boot allergies but you know who I mean).
            Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:2)
            by icebike ( 68054 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:54PM
(#45458793)

            Except that the assassination doesn't actually have to take place.
            Merely offering money to such is illegal. Even if no money
has actually changed hands yet.
                Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:0)
                by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013
@07:12PM (#45458931)

                In the original proposal by Jim Bell, you aren't
actually offering money for assassination. You are just making a "bet"
on when some individual will die. You can increase the pot without
stating a time, in fact. Whoever wins the "bet" gets the money.

                In no way is that illegal. What this guy has done, on
the other hand.....
                    Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:2)
                    by khallow ( 566160 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@08:35PM (#45459471)

                    You are just making a "bet" on when some
individual will die. You can increase the pot without stating a time,
in fact.

                    [...]

                    In no way is that illegal.

                    Three factors can make it accessory to murder.
First, does the bet pay off if someone murders the subject of the bet?
Second, is the bet substantial enough that someone can profit by
murdering the subject? Third, will you benefit in some substantial way
by the death of the target? If the answer to those three questions is
"yes", then I think you're still subject to the law.

                    For example, life insurance allows you to bet on
other peoples' lives to some degree. Some people have gamed this so
that they're insuring relatives or friends who are unaware of the
insurance and then killing said relatives or friends. But here, if the
crime is revealed, then the insurance company doesn't pay out - it's a
basic part of life insurance policies. Even if the killer succeeds at
the murder and subsequent insurance payout, the insurance company
loses money and fails to profit at all from the scheme. So despite it
being a bet on someone's life, it fails two of the factors I mention.
                        Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:0)
                        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19,
2013 @02:32PM (#45465643)

                        Of course the person who ultimately pays for
the assassination in the bet model makes a bet that the person does
not get assassinated (because, after all, that's what makes him pay if
the assassination takes place). So assuming the rules you give are
correct and complete, let's check for him:

                            First, does the bet pay off if someone
murders the subject of the bet?

                        Clearly, no. For him the bet pays off if
nobody murders the subject of the bet.

                            Second, is the bet substantial enough that
someone can profit by murdering the subject?

                        Well, this is probably a yes (otherwise he'd
find no assassin "betting" against him). However, if it is a
much-hated person, it could also be a big number of small bets by
different people, and then no single bet would be substantial enough
by itself.

                            Third, will you benefit in some
substantial way by the death of the target?

                        At least not from the bet itself.

                        So if all three criteria have to be true, the
one paying is pretty safe. If two criteria have to be true, anyone
making only a small contribution is safe, and a single large better is
safe as long as he cannot be shown to profit from the death of the
target in some other way.

                        However I still think in the real world, you'd
not get away with this.
                            Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:2)
                            by khallow ( 566160 ) on Tuesday November
19, 2013 @10:07PM (#45469409)

                            Clearly, no. For him the bet pays off if
nobody murders the subject of the bet.

                            It pays off for the other side of the bet.
Bets always have at least two sides to them.

                            At least not from the bet itself.

                            The problem here is that it creates
incentive for a potential assassin or some party that contracts to
assassins to bet in favor of a person's death and then act to make
that happen in order to collect the winnings.
                Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:0)
                by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@03:15AM (#45461241)

                Thus proving once and for all bitcoin IS money.
        Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:2)
        by mjwalshe ( 1680392 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @08:34PM (#45459455)
        3) Three letter agency that put up the site knocks on your
door. - with a breaching charge
        Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @12:31PM (#45464235)

        Exactly. This is obviously a honeypot by CIA or FBI.
    seems wrong... (Score:4, Interesting)
    by schlachter ( 862210 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:22PM (#45458511)

    it seems wrong that such a site with a list of people to execute
could exist. it brings the good old lynch mob in to the digital era.
fun times. gov officials should not have to operate in fear of
assassination.

    yet. it is interesting that this is exactly what the us gov is
doing with its enemies, building hit lists, ranking them, and
executing.
        Re:seems wrong... (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:32PM (#45458599)

        Government officials should live in fear of their lives.
        They've shown that they can't be trusted in other circumstances.
        That said, this does look like an amazing scam.
        How are you ever going to prove you killed they person and get
your money?
        And how are you going to get your money back when no one kills
the person?
            Re:seems wrong... (Score:3)
            by Dan541 ( 1032000 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:38PM
(#45459101) Homepage

            Government officials should live in fear of their lives.

            Says the person living in fear of other /. users.
            Re:seems wrong... (Score:2)
            by Lennie ( 16154 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:59PM (#45459231)

            Just today I heard about a soccer world championship from
years ago. Where a player in the national team of Columbia made a big
mistake, they found him dead the next day with 12 bullets in his body.

            So it's definitely not only politicians which should be
careful it seems.
                Re:seems wrong... (Score:3)
                by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@09:23PM (#45459769) Homepage

                That was an accident, he fell on his pistol that fired
all 6 rounds, then he reloaded it and fell on it again.

                Stop trying to make it sound like something other than
a very simple and common accident.
                    Re:seems wrong... (Score:2)
                    by Lennie ( 16154 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@05:57AM (#45461701)

                    That reminds of Russia.

                    In Russia they have no problems with reporting a
suicide of a person with multiple gunshots to the head.

                    Or many, many stab wounds.

                    Possible, but not very highly unlikely that it was suicide.
                        Re:seems wrong... (Score:2)
                        by Lennie ( 16154 ) on Tuesday November 19,
2013 @05:58AM (#45461711)

                        I think I got my not and unlikely mixed up :-)
                        Re:seems wrong... (Score:1)
                        by airdweller ( 1816958 ) on Tuesday November
19, 2013 @05:54PM (#45467657)

                        "they have no problems with reporting a
suicide of a person with multiple gunshots to the head."
                        Actually, suicides with two gunshots to the
head are not unheard of. Not sure about more than two.
                12 bullets! (Score:2)
                by schlachter ( 862210 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@08:59PM (#45459615)

                Well, with 12 bullets in his body, it's no surprise
they found him dead.
                Now if you had said they found him practicing shots on
goal with 12 bullets in his body, now that would be surprising.
                    Re:12 bullets! (Score:0)
                    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@02:36PM (#45465693)

                        Now if you had said they found him practicing
shots on goal with 12 bullets in his body, now that would be
surprising.

                    While eating twelve bullets probably isn't exactly
healthy, I don't think it would not allow you to practice shots
afterwards.
            Re:seems wrong... (Score:0)
            by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:42PM (#45458695)

            There should be threat of job loss, not life, unless it
comes to war crimes.
            Re:seems wrong... (Score:2)
            by ultranova ( 717540 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@11:42PM (#45460469)

            Government officials should live in fear of their lives.
            They've shown that they can't be trusted in other circumstances.

            And ensuring that only those who's lust for power
overrides even their self-protection instinct seek the job improves
things how?
            Re:seems wrong... (Score:0)
            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @01:16PM
(#45464771)

                Government officials should live in fear of their lives.

            No. Do you know why all dictators are doing evil to the
people? Out of fear for their lives. There may be a few who are
genuinely evil, but most started with really good intentions, and got
turned into the monsters they became due to fear.

            The absolute worst you can have is someone in power who is
in fear for his life. And the absolute best of democracy is that you
can get rid of someone in power without taking his life. If I had to
choose between two "half-democracies", one where people are voted into
office, but then stay there for the rest of their life, and one where
you have no control over who gets into the office, but where you can
vote them out of office again (and then they cannot be put back in, of
course), I'd clearly take the second.

            And you don't even have to look to dictatorships. Just
look at the laws that have been enacted after 9/11. Why were those
passed? Simple: Out of fear. If you have fear, you want to have
control. The higher your fear, the higher your desire for control.
    Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:2)
    by Experiment 626 ( 698257 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:38PM
(#45458649)

    It is pretty straight forward how it will work.
    1) People send in money.
    2) After a while the site closes down.
    3) Person that put up the site earns a nice profit.

    Yes, tick off a community of users whose defining trait is that
like to hire hit men, that sounds like a wonderful business plan.
        Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:3)
        by Hentes ( 2461350 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:48PM (#45458751)

        But where would they hire the hitmen after the site has closed?
        Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:54PM (#45459203)

        The defining trait seems to be: fools with money, soon parted.

        There is a world of difference between being the kind of fool
who throws their money away carelessly on anonymous scams, and the
kind of person who actually has contacts with hired killers.

        In fact, in most cases, "hired kills" are not, it's more about
the gang mentality. Strong upper echelon gangsters pressure
vulnerable, naive recruits to commit murders to "prove themselves".
While we like to imagine these "professional killers" that are
glamorised in movies and video games, the vast majority of organised
murders are the result of peer pressure and attempts to prove loyalty
(including the large number of murders carried out by terrorists).
    Finally (Score:3)
    by theshowmecanuck ( 703852 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:46PM
(#45458725) Journal
    We found the missing part of the '???' belonging to this meme.
    Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:56PM (#45458227)

    Or it's simply a honeypot.
        Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:5, Funny)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:00PM (#45458279)

        Or some bizarre ultra-libertarian performance art.
            Re:How is this disturbing? (Score:3)
            by lgw ( 121541 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:56PM
(#45458805) Journal

            Is there a difference between a really good scam and
"bizarre ultra-libertarian performance art"? I think they meet in the
middle.
            THIS is "bizarre ultra-libertarian performance art (Score:2)
            by Dogtanian ( 588974 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@07:16PM (#45458953) Homepage

            Or it's simply a honeypot.

            Or some bizarre ultra-libertarian performance art.

            Still wouldn't be as bizarre or outlandish as the time in
2006 that Loyalist Michael Stone attempted to enter the Stormont
Assembly in Northern Ireland and assassinate the leaders of Sinn Fein,
then claimed that it was "performance art" [bbc.co.uk].

How do you claim the prize? (Score:2)
by tomkost ( 944194 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:51PM (#45458167)
How exactly do you prove your the one who shot or poisoned the target?
Seems difficult to collect not to mention the legalities and morals of
the act. Sounds more like an FBI honeypot.

    Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:2)
    by rogueippacket ( 1977626 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:03PM
(#45458299)
    They sort of explain it in the article - the theory is that being
the assassin, the act itself has been pre-meditated and you have
chosen the date of the murder. You then make a donation to the
deadpool, including a hashed version of your date. Once the act is
done, you send an email (ideally anonymous) to the site operator with
that date inside. The operator performs a hash check on it, and if it
matches the data included with your donation, you are most likely the
killer.
    Or, you're just really good at guessing when people are going to die.
        Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:5, Insightful)
        by jcochran ( 309950 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:39PM (#45458657)

        Seems to me that the creator of that site is shortsighted in
how he or she confirms who the assassin is. Namely, that the assassin
has to be able to specify the date of death prior to the death. That
task if fairly easy for a large number of ways of committing murder.
But not always possible. For instance.

        1. Poison
        2. Opportunity - Assassin may be in a position where he or she
has multiple chances of contact with the target, but is unable to
predict exactly when the contact would be suitable for the actual
assassination.

        Frankly, the motive of the site creator is rather foolish and
childish. Given this paragraph in the original article:

        Sanjuro's grisly ambitions go beyond raising the funds to
bankroll a few political killings. He believes that if Assassination
Market can persist and gain enough users, it will eventually enable
the assassinations of enough politicians that no one would dare to
hold office. He says he intends Assassination Market to destroy "all
governments, everywhere."

        it seems to me that Sanjuro is advocating world wide anarchy.

        I personally, don't like most governments, however total
anarchy is worse than the government we currently have. Frankly, we
need something to hold in check the various sociopathic assholes that
from time to time attack other people. We need public services such as
fire, police, sanitation, sewers, water, etc. There's a lot of
infrastructure that frankly needs a government. And even well
balanced, social people from time to time will disagree with each
other. And said disagreements will from time to time get quite
acrimonious. Hence the courts.

        Frankly, Sanjuro is either a nutcase, or a honeypot. In either
case, it would be best to avoid him.
            Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:1)
            by elsuperjefe ( 1487639 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@07:56PM (#45459215) Homepage

            Seems to me that the creator of that site is shortsighted
in how he or she confirms who the assassin is. Namely, that the
assassin has to be able to specify the date of death prior to the
death.

            in other words this could be seen as an office pool (with
no actual buy-in): guess when controversial government official X is
assassinated!

            Frankly, Sanjuro is either a nutcase, or a honeypot. In
either case, it would be best to avoid him.

            so you think that paying money (under real or false
pretenses) to have someone killed is something to be avoided? your
wisdom is inspiring.
            Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:2)
            by LF11 ( 18760 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @08:28PM
(#45459427) Homepage

            Why do you think anarchy is worse than the government we
currently have? All of those functions you describe are perfectly
reasonable to be accomplished on a town- or city-level at the highest.
                Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:2)
                by richlv ( 778496 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@09:16PM (#45459725)

                because another country that can pool resources will
just come over and kill or exile half of your population. be it
russia, china or whatever.
                Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:0)
                by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013
@09:53PM (#45459913)

                All of those functions you describe are perfectly
reasonable to be accomplished on a town- or city-level at the highest.

                ...And when that larger city a few miles over decides
you'd make a nice annexation?

                Anarchy is fucking retarded. For it to work, you sow
the seeds of the exact problem it claims to solve.
                Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:0)
                by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013
@10:42PM (#45460169)

                An ideological system run by murderers instilling the
fear of death doesn't sound much better (or even, perhaps, different)
than what we have now.
            Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:2)
            by kumanopuusan ( 698669 ) <goughnourc@noSpam.gmail.com>
on Monday November 18, 2013 @08:29PM (#45459431)

            The would-be assassin could register all of the several
methods and dates they're planning. They simply need to write down the
details separately, hash and make a separate one bitcoin donation for
each. It's not free, but it's still feasible.
            Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:2)
            by cheaphomemadeacid ( 881971 ) <`cheaphomemadeacid' `at'
`gmail.com'> on Monday November 18, 2013 @09:31PM (#45459811) Journal

            Frankly, we need something to hold in check the various
sociopathic assholes that from time to time attack other people.

            And you truly believe giving the same sociopathic assholes
guns/nukes/armies is gonna solve that? =)
            Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:2)
            by someone1234 ( 830754 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@03:29AM (#45461287)

            If i knew this site was serious, i would put bounty on
Sanjuro's head. But this is more likely a fraud. I would still put
bounty, but not on this site :D
            Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:2)
            by magic maverick ( 2615475 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@04:08AM (#45461395) Homepage Journal

            I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best
                                which governs least"; and I should
like to see it acted up
                                to more rapidly and systematically.
Carried out, it finally
                                amounts to this, which also I
believe--"That government is
                                best which governs not at all"; and
when men are prepared
                                for it, that will be the kind of
government which the will
                                have. Government is at best but an
expedient; but most
                                governments are usually, and all
governments are sometimes,
                                inexpedient. The objections which have
been brought against
                                a standing army, and they are many and
weighty, and deserve
                                to prevail, may also at last be
brought against a standing
                                government. The standing army is only
an arm of the
                                standing government. The government
itself, which is only
                                the mode which the people have chosen
to execute their will,
                                is equally liable to be abused and
perverted before the
                                people can act through it. Witness the
present [Afghani, and the previous Iraqi] war,
                                the work of comparatively a few
individuals using the
                                standing government as their tool; for
in the outset, the
                                people would not have consented to this measure.
                Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:0)
                by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@01:27PM (#45464915)

                Your logic is as sound as the logic of people who see
obesity and conclude that humans should not eat at all.
            Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:0)
            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @05:18AM
(#45461607)

            "it seems to me that Sanjuro is advocating world wide anarchy"

            John Lennon, "Imagine" Whatever happened to that guy?

            In other news, 50 years: JFK. RIP. Hardly an anarchist,
but arguably the last legitimate, real U.S. President.

            Peace. Out.
            Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:0)
            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @05:22AM
(#45461619)

            "Frankly, Sanjuro is either a nutcase, or a honeypot. In
either case, it would be best to avoid him."

            Bastard child of John Poindexter and Jim Bell?
            Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:0)
            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @10:49AM
(#45463183)

            But who would build the roads?!
                Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:2)
                by SteveFoerster ( 136027 ) <steve@stEULEReve ... m
minus math_god> on Wednesday November 20, 2013 @06:04PM (#45476671)
Homepage

                This is like living in a state that only has
state-owned liquor stores and asking, "But without government, who
will sell booze?"
            Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:2)
            by JavaLord ( 680960 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@12:04PM (#45463937) Journal
            I personally, don't like most governments, however total
anarchy is worse than the government we currently have.

            Total Anarchy could never exist for very long. If every
government disappeared tomorrow, it would create a power vacuum which
would be filled by some other entity. Perhaps a church, gang, tribal
council, etc. People like controlling one another (and harming one
another) way too much to ever make "overlords" extinct.
            Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:2)
            by SteveFoerster ( 136027 ) <steve@stEULEReve ... m minus
math_god> on Wednesday November 20, 2013 @06:02PM (#45476657) Homepage

            Frankly, we need something to hold in check the various
sociopathic assholes that from time to time attack other people.

            Right, that's the whole point of this thing.
            Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:0)
            by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 22, 2013 @01:26PM (#45492563)

            Its a noble cause.

            "it seems to me that Sanjuro is advocating world wide anarchy"

            This is not about anarchy, but more about chaos and
tribalism, keeping certain tribes small enough so that none of them
can have too much power will avoid genecide and war.

            Anarchy is more of an idealist concept that some form of
society could exist without any form of hierarchy, this is something
completely different (and much more reasonable).

            This is about the best idea I've heard of in years, and I
sincerely hope he can achieve that goal of abolishing all governments,
everywhere... But really, he will need our support.

            Have a little imagination, when someone tries something
new like this, we need to give it a chance, otherwise it can never
work, please try to be more supportive, it can work so long as people
don't bash it too much.
        Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:11PM (#45458371)

        Or you exhaustively checked dates against the deadpool.
    Re:How do you claim the prize? (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:10PM (#45458365)

    How exactly do you prove your the one who shot or poisoned the
target? Seems difficult to collect not to mention the legalities and
morals of the act. Sounds more like an FBI honeypot.

    Yeah. Typical FBI honey pot; Incite peoples to commit crime,
provide them the tool and the opportunity then make the arrest to
prove your relevance to the public.

Im on the list (Score:4, Insightful)
by EMG at MU ( 1194965 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:51PM (#45458171)
I feel like I have been put on the list just for reading this. But
then I realize I'm already on the list for everything else I read on
the internet.

I would be expecting the NSA to be cracking Bitcoin / TOR as we speak
to prosecute people for material support of terrorism.

    Re:Im on the list (Score:3)
    by LordLucless ( 582312 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:17PM (#45458441)

    I would be expecting the NSA to be cracking Bitcoin / TOR as we
speak to prosecute people for material support of terrorism.

    Cracking bitcoin wouldn't help the feds track down anyone. All it
would let them do is print free money, which they can pretty much do
anyway. Bitcoin isn't anonymous; it's pseudonymous. The NSA can, with
no effort at all, find out your Bitcoin pseudonym. Then they just need
to associate your that with your real identity, which they can do via
their traditional means of spying on everything that happens.
        Re:Im on the list (Score:2)
        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) * on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:24PM
(#45459003) Homepage Journal

        Not really. If you mine your own coins or get them through
secure physical transactions (exchanging USB flash drives) they can be
anonymous. Spend them via Tor and on something like this which does
not require any of your personal information.
            Re:Im on the list (Score:2)
            by LordLucless ( 582312 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@07:27PM (#45459033)

            Once you spend them, your transaction (and your pseudonym)
become part of the blockchain, and you are no longer anonymous (but
are still pseudonymous). That is, anyone who checks the blockchain can
find the id of who sent the coins. Anonymity relies on whether you can
stop anyone making a connection between your blockchain id (pseudonym)
and your actual identity - and you're correct, this is where things
like Tor come in.
                Re:Im on the list (Score:2)
                by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) * on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@01:56PM (#45465275) Homepage Journal

                If your ID is random and throwaway and never makes any
other transactions other than the mining then you remain anonymous.
Difficult to organize but far from impossible.
        Re:Im on the list (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:25PM (#45458539)

        Since they basically have a database of the entire internet,
it's not much more than a database query away.
        Re:Im on the list (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @08:42PM (#45468863)

        All it would let them do is print free money, which they can
pretty much do anyway.

        Why the "pretty much"? Did I miss something?

        Has their printer broke?
    Re:Im on the list (Score:3)
    by Lost Penguin ( 636359 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:36PM
(#45458633) Homepage
    "I would be expecting the NSA to be cracking Bitcoin"

    I would expect them to be mining with some large ass cluster to
fund new black projects.
    Re:Im on the list (Score:2)
    by mrchaotica ( 681592 ) * on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:00PM (#45458835)

    Everyone is on the list.

Jail time (Score:2)
by jklovanc ( 1603149 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:52PM (#45458187)

I bet that the owner of the site could be charged with "conspiracy to
commit murder".

    Re:Jail time (Score:4, Insightful)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:57PM (#45458241)

    I'm fairly sure they don't charge agents running a honeypot...
    Re:Jail time (Score:4, Insightful)
    by AGMW ( 594303 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:00PM (#45458273) Homepage
    Who was the US politician who openly called for Assange to be
assassinated? They've not collected him from Washington and shipped
him to Guantanamo yet I see!
        Re:Jail time (Score:2)
        by jklovanc ( 1603149 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:13PM (#45458411)

        That might be considered incitement but when monetary rewards
come into it then it crosses the line into conspiracy.I doubt any
politician or reporter ever said "I will pay someone $X to kill
Assange."
        Re:Jail time (Score:2)
        by evilviper ( 135110 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:22PM
(#45458505) Journal

            Who was the US politician who openly called for Assange to
be assassinated?

        "University of Calgary Professor" "Tom Flanagan, a former aide
to the Canadian prime minister, has called for Assange's
assassination"

        http://www.nbcnews.com/id/40467957/ns/us_news-wikileaks_in_security/t/assang...
[nbcnews.com]

        Canada is part of the US by now, isn't it? Did the kids sew
another star on the flag yet?

        Of course he was "obviously talking tongue-in-cheek" and got
quoted out-of-context by idiotic reporters.

        http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/flanagan-regrets-wikileaks-assassination-rem...
[www.cbc.ca]
        Re:Jail time (Score:4, Informative)
        by GameboyRMH ( 1153867 ) <gameboyrmh&gmail,com> on Monday
November 18, 2013 @06:52PM (#45458789) Journal

        Sarah Palin only said it in a wink-wink-nudge-nudge way, and he's a she:

        https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2010/11/does-palin-want-to-whack-assan...
[go.com]
        Re:Jail time (Score:2)
        by geekoid ( 135745 ) <.moc.oohay. .ta. .dnaltropnidad.> on
Monday November 18, 2013 @07:47PM (#45459161) Homepage Journal

        Canadian politician, not US.
        Re:Jail time (Score:-1)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:03PM (#45458303)

        Who was the US politician who openly called for Assange to be
assassinated?

        I don't know. You made it up.

        They've not collected him from Washington and shipped him to
Guantanamo yet I see!

        Hard to imprison someone who doesn't exist.
            Re:Jail time (Score:0)
            by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:25PM (#45458535)

            I think AGMW may be confusing Washington Time columnist
with an elected position. [washingtontimes.com]

            While AGME was incorrect, I do not believe Jeffrey T.
Kuhner has been arrested. Although, it's worth noting that he is not
offering money for said assination, but saying the US goverenment
should order it as a matter of policy.
        Re:Jail time (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:36PM (#45458631)

        Being a US politician, he is presumed "incompetent until
proven effective", so he just gets a free pass. Obviously no one
listens to our politicians or takes their promises seriously. I'm sure
Assange is perfectly safe.

So what if... (Score:4, Interesting)
by Yaztromo ( 655250 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:55PM
(#45458219) Homepage Journal

...someone starts a bounty on the site for "Kuwabatake Sanjuro"?

Yaz

    Re:So what if... (Score:3, Funny)
    by Shakrai ( 717556 ) * on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:59PM
(#45458255) Journal

    Can it be any Government official? I always knew I'd find a way to
get back at that small town meter maid.....
        Re:So what if... (Score:3)
        by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Monday November 18, 2013
@06:39PM (#45458659) Homepage Journal

        I always knew I'd find a way to get back at that small town
meter maid.....

        Oh, just pay the meters for other people and they'll
completely flip out [freekeene.com].
        Re:So what if... (Score:2)
        by geekoid ( 135745 ) <.moc.oohay. .ta. .dnaltropnidad.> on
Monday November 18, 2013 @07:48PM (#45459169) Homepage Journal

        Curse her for enforcing parking rules and not letting you do
what ever the hell you want.
    Re:So what if... (Score:2)
    by rsborg ( 111459 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:11PM
(#45458391) Homepage

    ...someone starts a bounty on the site for "Kuwabatake Sanjuro"?

    Yaz

    He's not a government official. Neat self-exclusion. Also by not
offering hits against corporate officers (way more interesting), he
prevents a large amount of extrajudicial consequence from hitting him
(governments are ostensibly bound by laws, corporations can operate in
low-law zones). Perhaps, he figures, focus on proving an MVP [1], and
then expand to more profitable markets once he has a reasonable amount
of success?

    [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product [wikipedia.org]
        Re:So what if... (Score:1)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:16PM (#45458423)

        Since when would a libertard be against something a
corporation does? They practically fall over themselves to suck the
dicks of Corporate America.
            ok remus (Score:0)
            by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:34PM (#45458621)

            as opposed to you, who just practically falls over himself
to suck dicks period!

            ZING
                Re:ok remus (Score:0)
                by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013
@06:48PM (#45458757)

                You were an excellent teacher.
        Re:So what if... (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @09:21PM (#45459757)

        He's not? How do you know? Who is he? Let's shoot this guy :)
    Re:So what if... (Score:2)
    by dpilot ( 134227 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:46PM
(#45458735) Homepage Journal

    "The Assassination Bureau", starring Diana Rigg (Mrs. Peel) amoung
others. The IMDB summary has the spoiler, but it's basically about the
parent post, set right before WWI.
    Re: So what if... (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:06PM (#45458887)

    Post of the day...you earned it.
    He's safe (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:56PM (#45459217)

    Since he's the only person who can pay out the coins. =)

    But still, would be a clear message for a government to send.
    Re:So what if... (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @11:59PM (#45460545)

    That might destroy us all... like typing "google" into google.

You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:5, Insightful)
by Hatta ( 162192 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:01PM (#45458283) Journal

Political violence doesn't work to actually implement social change.
It only plays into the hands of authoritarians who rule by fear, in
this case fear of you. Kill Bernanke, and they have a great propaganda
tool against your cause. And they can replace Bernanke with no
trouble. And you haven't actually done anything to harm the people
whose interests Bernanke is protecting.

There is an excellent essay on the topic, dating from the 1970s,
titled You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship [libcom.org]. From the
preamble:

    When left-wing terrorism is being carried out in a consistent way
in society, it gives the state extra leverage in using political
repression against individuals and the left in general.

    When by their own actions terrorists serve such ends, they are
contributing to the destruction of politics and the closing of various
options for the spreading of ideas before they have been fully
utilised.

    Of course, the state will readily use various repressive methods
if it meets any substantial resistance or if it has to handle a social
crisis which is creating resistance. Terrorism and guerrilla-ism
cannot be attacked just because they produce repression. Even more
important is the fact that there is nothing to have made it
worthwhile. In the end the guerrillas get wiped out and there is
nothing left but repression (and a law and order mentality amongst the
people).

    Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:3)
    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:10PM
(#45458363) Homepage

    Political violence doesn't work to actually implement social change.

    Shooting JFK was effective in changing policy.
        Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:2)
        by tylersoze ( 789256 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:21PM (#45458501)

        Uh it was? https://www.google.com/search?q=kennedy+vietnam [google.com]
            Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:2)
            by geekoid ( 135745 ) <.moc.oohay. .ta. .dnaltropnidad.>
on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:54PM (#45459201) Homepage Journal

            Yes, it was. Looking at his history, it's hard for me the
believe he would have let it go past '66 or so.
            The assassination put some one who wanted it to be a win
at any cost war.
        Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:1)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @08:10PM (#45459305)

        Indeed and I think the people who killed JFK, or at least
their familial descendants since these dynastic assholes are pretty
dynastic deserve some payback.

        I applaud this site. Alone Assassination is a poor tool. But I
think provided with other measures such as a working democracy it
could be part of a very well balanced system.

        It's primary downside is more fund will be stolen from the
regular working and generally uninterested non-political populace to
provide more security and protection.

        Captcha: Booming - lol
    Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:2)
    by mythosaz ( 572040 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:25PM (#45458537)

    Political violence doesn't work to actually implement social
change. It only plays into the hands of authoritarians who rule by
fear, in this case fear of you. Kill Bernanke, and they have a great
propaganda tool against your cause. And they can replace Bernanke with
no trouble. And you haven't actually done anything to harm the people
whose interests Bernanke is protecting.

    I like to think I shouldn't have to say I am not advocating the
assassination of Bernanke, but you never know around here...

    That said, an assassination of Bernanke might actually raise
consciousness of the whole, "Wait, huh, the Federal Reserve is
WHAT?!?" issue. It'd dominate news cycles. The assassin's manifesto
explaining how "evil" the whole thing is might get poured over on news
channels that aren't Fox. Who knows.
        Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:2)
        by Yaur ( 1069446 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:45PM (#45458711)
        Not likely. McVeigh's manifesto got 0 attention and
Kaczynski's only got published because it was demanded at a point
where he had already killed and promised to stop if it was published.
            Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:2)
            by geekoid ( 135745 ) <.moc.oohay. .ta. .dnaltropnidad.>
on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:56PM (#45459213) Homepage Journal

            Also, the vast majority of people may just realized the
Federal Reserve serves a very good purpose and chose to ignore kooks.
        Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:2)
        by geekoid ( 135745 ) <.moc.oohay. .ta. .dnaltropnidad.> on
Monday November 18, 2013 @07:55PM (#45459211) Homepage Journal

        ""Wait, huh, the Federal Reserve is WHAT?!?"
        since everyone knows that, I"m not sure why killing him would
do, in that regard.

        It would disrupt markets.
        Re: You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @11:08PM (#45460279)

        The Fed acts as the lender of last resort?
    Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:2, Flamebait)
    by Archangel Michael ( 180766 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@06:29PM (#45458569) Journal

    Political violence doesn't work to actually implement social change.

    Education by Liberals equals stupidity. American Revolution (to
name one). Civil War (to name another). If there is such a thing as a
"good war", then the ones fought for liberty are the ones worth
fighting, lest you end up a slave to a tyrant simply because you
believe the lie "Resistance is Futile".

    Unless of course you are looking for an individual (or small
group) who pulls off a coup of some sort. In which case, you'd be
equally wrong. The Assassination of MLK Jr, while it (helped) affected
change, it wasn't the change the assassin was aiming for. It did
however, help galvanize the movement and add people to the cause.
        Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:2)
        by Hatta ( 162192 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:44PM
(#45458703) Journal

        Unless of course you are looking for an individual (or small
group) who pulls off a coup of some sort.

        Yes, that is the type we're talking about here. By the time
you have a popular uprising, the social relationship is already
destroyed.

        In which case, you'd be equally wrong. The Assassination of
MLK Jr, while it (helped) affected change, it wasn't the change the
assassin was aiming for.

        And that's exactly the effect the authors of the essay are
warning against. Small scale political violence is counter-productive.
        Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:2)
        by geekoid ( 135745 ) <.moc.oohay. .ta. .dnaltropnidad.> on
Monday November 18, 2013 @08:00PM (#45459239) Homepage Journal

        "Education by Liberals equals stupidity. "

        You equal stupid. That whole statement is stupid, and the
world is now stupider because it's on the internet.

        The poster you are replying made a stupid statement, and some
how it's become education by liberals equals stupid.
    Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:3)
    by Ryanrule ( 1657199 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:32PM (#45458597)

    What if you blow up the authoritarians? Say, the cock brothers?
        Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 20, 2013 @12:32AM (#45469975)

        Who?
    Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:2)
    by wile_e_wonka ( 934864 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:42PM (#45458679)

    And they can replace Bernanke with no trouble.

    Like, they could replace Bernanke with this person
[wikipedia.org], who has already been selected to replace Bernanke...
(though not yet confirmed by the Senate)

    It seems like a bad time to have Bernanke at the top of the list.
What's the bounty on the new lady?
        Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:2)
        by Copid ( 137416 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @09:15PM (#45459719)
        In fact, they'd have no choice but to replace him with Janet
Yellen in the interim. She's the Vice Chair, so she takes over in his
absence anyway.
    Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:2)
    by BringsApples ( 3418089 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:25PM (#45459011)
    I hear what you're saying, but what if, and I'm going out on a
limb here, but what if the American government was ultimately behind
the 9/11 attacks? If the "authoritarians who rule by fear" are the
ones causing the fear, then it's win, win for them.

    Looking over what you quoted, seems to drive my point home, no?
    Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:2)
    by geekoid ( 135745 ) <.moc.oohay. .ta. .dnaltropnidad.> on Monday
November 18, 2013 @07:51PM (#45459187) Homepage Journal

    "Political violence doesn't work to actually implement social change. "
    that's why the Americas are British, Hitler is still running
Europe, and Japan has a a world power military.

    POlitical violence is what cause the former democratic and liberal
Mideastern countries to turn into religious theocracy.
        Re: You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @11:14PM (#45460309)

        That's why India is still British ... oh wait.
    Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:12PM (#45458405)

    Not according to the French (Revolution)!
    Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:28PM (#45459039)

    You're making a terrible assumption that killing Bernanke is only
limited to those who oppose him.

    Ultimately I don't see the assassination of Bernanke to forward or
thwart any agenda but there are plenty of causes that could benefit
from creating a martyr.
    Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:2)
    by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @10:31PM
(#45460117) Journal

    "Political violence doesn't work to actually implement social change."

    Gavril Princip begs to differ.
    Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:2)
    by martin-boundary ( 547041 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@08:05AM (#45462095)
    Thing is, they don't need to wait until someone kills Bernanke to
have a great propaganda tool against any cause. They can and will
crank up the propaganda when it pleases them, all that's required is
repetition, repetition, repetition throughout the media.

    So by all means refrain from fighting back on anything if you
like, it's a great way to stroke your ego thinking you're so important
that you can give them a propaganda opportunity they *need*, and would
*never* have had if *you* hadn't stood up for your principles.

    Me, I do what I like. If I get fed up enough, I act accordingly.
That's what men have done for centuries.
    Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:2)
    by Tom ( 822 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @08:18AM (#45462135)
Homepage Journal

    You can go back even further.

    Nietzsche already wrote it, in his famously aphorism style: It is
only thanks to the anarchists that the kings are sitting in their
chairs solidly again. (no quote marks, because I cite from memory and
it's probably not 100% correct).
    Re:You Can't Blow up a Social Relationship (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @09:25AM (#45462411)

    i cant beleive you got insightful for that crap, the only reason
we are where we are today is because after 2000 years kings realized
that if you have everything and people dont have anything to lose, you
life will last 20 years tops before someone beheads you and pees down
your throat, but if everybody has shit, your life lasts 80, you will
still have more thatn you will ever need, and no one will cap your
ass. Thats the whole road this species has traveled, thats the whole
civilization right there, we are fucking going nowhere, and the
circumstances today are there because of self preservation of the
elite, because absolute greed leads to, instead of dudes getting head,
dudes losing their heads

    the theory of "and at some point tyrants grew a soul" or the
theory of "and somehow, possibly by magic, people got their rights",
ARE *******************FUCKING RETARDED BULLSHIT**************

Bernanke and Bitcoin (Score:2)
by Lorens ( 597774 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:04PM (#45458319) Journal

Searching for Ben Bernanke brings up as first news "BERNANKE: Bitcoin
'May Hold Long-Term Promise'
Business Insider - 4 hours ago
Ben Bernanke sort of endorses Bitcoin."

Do you think he knew of the bounty?

    Re:Bernanke and Bitcoin (Score:2)
    by GodfatherofSoul ( 174979 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:16PM
(#45458435)

    Bernanke endorse US bonds. Do you think he endorses paying meth
whores for $10 backstreet hummers?
        Re: Bernanke and Bitcoin (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @11:16PM (#45460325)

        T-bills are the gold of the international banking system.

Anyone Else Remember the Pentagon Futures Market? (Score:3)
by StickyWidget ( 741415 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:08PM (#45458341)
I just remember the Pentagon wanting to set up something like this
because they tend to be such great predictors of the future.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3072985/ [nbcnews.com]

~Sticky

    Re:Anyone Else Remember the Pentagon Futures Marke (Score:2)
    by Burz ( 138833 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @10:29PM
(#45460109) Homepage Journal

    I thought of it as soon as I saw the headline. Thanks for posting a link!

Oh right... Ben Bernanke, of COURSE. (Score:5, Interesting)
by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:11PM (#45458383)

... only the guy who near single-handedly saved the world economy from
total and utter destruction.

(YES, he did have a bit to do with the bubble in the first place...
but that was mostly the previous free-market, deregulationist Fed
chairman's fault.)

Of course, this assassination nonsense is a scam and a horrific idea.
But sweet jesus, these anti-Fed demogogues are such self-denialist
losers. Sure, let's go back to the gold standard so we can have a
Panic every 15 years. Let's relinquish total control over our money
supply and our economy for absolutely no reason. Let's just hand over
our nation's economic advantage as the world's go-to currency... great
idea... ...say the same idiots who insisted QE would lead to global
hyperinflation (wrong), that the biggest problem our government has is
the national debt (wrong), that nations need to tighten their belts
during a recession (wrong), that there was no gold bubble (wrong), and
that nothing bad would ever happen if we default... How many times do
these people have to be proven wrong, over and over?

But I guess it makes sense that the ultra-paranoid sorts of people who
would be attracted to the idea of bitcoin are the same ones who would
hold some kind of insane vendetta against the Fed, totally missing the
mark on who REALLY to blame for the near collapse and meltdown of
western civilization.

    Not anti fed (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:05PM (#45458871)

    Its altogether more simple, they have bitcoins. Why look for
paranoia when greed will do.
    Self denialist losers ? (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @08:01PM (#45459247)

    who the hell modded you interesting? Right - those who expose the
theft are "Self denialist losers" compared to the biggest theft in
human history.

    Let me give you a lesson in reality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFDe5kUUyT0

    Once you digest that, and you have no response for the criminal
enterprise that is "the fed", slowly walk away from your computer and
take a deep breath. Then come back to reality. You're back? Great!

    In a nutshell, the federal reserve is the reason we as humanity
are enslaved by debt. And Ben Bernanke heads that private cartel of
foreign banks (who's shareholders are never disclosed) I can
understand why someone might not like his evil thievery.

    That's great you bought the entire mainstream media lie anonymous
coward. But those who know about jekyll island, the betrayal of
woodrow wilson to the united states, and how andrew jackson fought
this evil banking force when their chartesr expired, know the true
history of banking.

    You take your last 10 years of your pitiful understanding of the
history and shove it up your butthole, while the rest of us recognize
hundreds of years of European banking interests subverting the liberty
of every nation on earth.

    END THE FED
        Re:Self denialist losers ? (Score:2)
        by Xaedalus ( 1192463 ) <Xaedalys.yahoo@com> on Monday
November 18, 2013 @08:14PM (#45459339)
        Yeah cool story bro... I'll side with OP. Last time I checked,
European banking interests weren't all that solvent thanks to the
dithering of the EU. Plus, an economy based on debt has done far more
for the general good of humanity than an economy based on produced net
assets ever has. There's a very good reason that the Dutch and the
English eventually bested the French in the 1700's.
            Re:Self denialist losers ? (Score:0)
            by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @08:44PM (#45459537)

            The debt we have today is far different than the debt of
yesteryear. The world today is extremely wealthy, wealthier beyond the
wildest dreams of 18th century thinkers.

            The problem is allocation. What to do with all that
wealth. You can't "invest" it all in factories and stores. That's too
risky. Wealth has accumulated faster than the ability of societies to
reliably put it to go use--at least, using our current social models.

            So the end result is that you have a ton of wealth
floating around. Much of it is parked in the stock market and other
similar assets, not principally to be invested in companies, but
because these markets allow you to grow money on trees, effectively.
Much of the surplus wealth from around the world just keeps getting
put into these baskets. And it'll keep working in perpetuity, as long
as the underlying economy remains relatively profitable (as it has)
and people don't panic. The rest is parked as "debt". But this isn't
traditional debt. They're not trying to make tons of money. They're
simply trying to preserve value in a world awash in cash.

            "Debt", especially government debt, just doesn't mean the
same thing as it used to. It's a different beast altogether. This is
why pumping more money into the system, as we have, hasn't resulted in
much, if any inflation. There are two different economic universes in
existence--the traditional one, where money is invested in capital
assets, and this nether world in which trillions of dollars of wealth
has no place to go. Adding more money into this nether world doesn't
create inflation, because these guys aren't using it to increase
salaries or reduce prices or anything of the sort. We gauge inflation
by the price of goods and services, but the handful of people and
companies with all this money... they can't effect the price of basic
goods and services, because they're limited by how much they can
consume. And they're not stupid enough to initiate a race to the
bottom by "investing" in basic goods and services and flooding those
industries with cash.
                Re:Self denialist losers ? (Score:0)
                by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013
@09:02PM (#45459631)

                As an example, say somebody gave you $10 billion
dollars today. How long would it take you to adjust your consumption
behavior to spend more? Weeks, months, maybe years. Then what? There's
a cap to how much can spend as an individual. So you switch into
entrepreneur mode. How much could you spend on starting or funding
ventures? Probably a lot, but it would take a long while to figure out
where to place that money. And after you've exhausted all your ideas
on cool new industries, then what? Unless you're Elon Musk, you
probably have billions still. So you "invest" it in the stock market.
But with the relatively rare exception of an IPO (a few per day,
mostly small) or buyback plan, most money placed into the stock market
just sits there, never to be used by any company for capital
investments.

                Enlarge this scenario by many orders of magnitude. All
of sudden your old intuition about how money works is utterly and
completely useless to understand the dynamics of all this wealth.

                One of the only strategies that economists have come
up with to date for how to put this money to effective use is
government debt. If investors are too skittish to invest in capital
expenditures, then just borrow their money, hand them an IOU, and
invest it yourself. And the only people capable of pulling off this
trick are large governments.

                Is that a good idea? Maybe, maybe not. But if it's a
bad idea, it's not bad for any obvious reason, other than "government
is profligate and stupid" But corporations can be just as profligate
and stupid. Whether it's the government spending it, or a corporation,
hardly matters.. But if we make a normative judgment that some of this
wealth needs to be put to productive use, and if corporations are too
skittish to do it, then why not do it ourselves?

                We've entered a brave new world.
                    Re:Self denialist losers ? (Score:2)
                    by Copid ( 137416 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@09:18PM (#45459739)

                        So you "invest" it in the stock market. But
with the relatively rare exception of an IPO (a few per day, mostly
small) or buyback plan, most money placed into the stock market just
sits there, never to be used by any company for capital investments.

                    Money doesn't go "into" the stock market. It goes
through the stock market and ends up in the hands of whomever you
bought the shares from. That's a critical distinction that causes
serious trouble for your theory.
            Re:Self denialist losers ? (Score:0)
            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @11:14AM
(#45463437)

            Rand Gold Owl. Special Special Special secret power knowledge.
        Re:Self denialist losers ? (Score:2)
        by jratcliffe ( 208809 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @08:29PM
(#45459435)

        You take your last 10 years of your pitiful understanding of
the history and shove it up your butthole, while the rest of us
recognize hundreds of years of European banking interests subverting
the liberty of every nation on earth.

        Translation: it's the Jews!!!
    Re:Oh right... Ben Bernanke, of COURSE. (Score:1)
    by geekoid ( 135745 ) <.moc.oohay. .ta. .dnaltropnidad.> on Monday
November 18, 2013 @08:02PM (#45459261) Homepage Journal

    Don't bother, about 2 people on /. actually understand why the
Federal Reserve is their and how it operates.

    These simpletons think everything has one silver bullet solution.
        Re:Oh right... Ben Bernanke, of COURSE. (Score:1)
        by Shakrai ( 717556 ) * on Monday November 18, 2013 @09:48PM
(#45459879) Journal

        Don't bother, about 2 people on /. actually understand why the
Federal Reserve is their and how it operates.

        Ah, but do they know the difference between 'their' and 'there'?

        This poster doesn't claim to fully understand the black magick
of modern economics, but I do understand these two numbers:

        APR on my savings account: 0.05%
        APR on my car loan: 0.9%

        The current policy is discouraging the accumulation of savings
while encouraging the assumption of ever increasing debt loads at all
levels of society: individual, corporate, and governmental. You don't
have to hate the Federal Reserve to realize that's not going to end
well for us in the long run.
            Re:Oh right... Ben Bernanke, of COURSE. (Score:2)
            by Copid ( 137416 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @02:19AM
(#45461097)

                The current policy is discouraging the accumulation of
savings while encouraging the assumption of ever increasing debt loads
at all levels of society: individual, corporate, and governmental.

            The current policy is discouraging the accumulation of
savings accounts (and cash in your matress) and encouraging savers to
put their money to more productive use. That's a good thing when the
economy is performing below its potential. Thought experiment: if
savings accounts started paying 20% tomorrow, what would happen to
investment in productive activities?
    Re:Oh right... Ben Bernanke, of COURSE. (Score:2)
    by MikeBabcock ( 65886 ) <mtb-slashdot@mikebabcock.ca> on Monday
November 18, 2013 @11:23PM (#45460365) Homepage Journal

    I'm all for not assassinating people, but the gold standard didn't
cause the problems you think it did.
    Re:Oh right... Ben Bernanke, of COURSE. (Score:2)
    by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@07:13AM (#45461937) Journal
    Yeah, Bernanke's a real genius. It takes a special kind of genius
to turn a recession into an ongoing malaise.

The name Sanjuro Kuwabatake (Score:5, Informative)
by seibai ( 1805884 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:12PM (#45458399)

For people who don't get the joke, "kuwabatake" means "mulberry farm"
in Japanese (where you would raise silk worms).

"Sanjuro" is a standard alias for a 30 year old guy [wikipedia.org]
(it literally means "30 year old guy", more or less).

    Re:The name Sanjuro Kuwabatake (Score:1)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:24PM (#45458525)

    The name of Toshiro Mifune's character in the movie Yojimbo. He
pretty much comes up with the name on the spot when he was asked.
        Re:The name Sanjuro Kuwabatake (Score:2)
        by Jamu ( 852752 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @08:24PM (#45459403)
        Great film. It was remade as A Fistful of Dollars.
    Re:The name Sanjuro Kuwabatake (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:26PM (#45458553)

    And for those who *really* don't get the joke, it's Toshiro
Mifune's character in Yojimo.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yojimbo_%28film%29
    Re:The name Sanjuro Kuwabatake (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @02:44AM (#45461165)

    The joke is that he's not a 30 year old farmer at all, he's a 40
year old otaku living in his mom's basement.
    Re:The name Sanjuro Kuwabatake (Score:1)
    by hicksw ( 716194 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @10:58PM (#45469611)

    ... "Sanjuro" is a standard alias for a 30 year old guy (it
literally means "30 year old guy", more or less) ...

    and all this time I thought it meant, "Return of the Bodyguard"

    ...and I don't mean Kevin Costner.

PsyOps? (Score:2)
by IonOtter ( 629215 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:16PM (#45458437) Homepage

I wonder if this isn't an operation to sour the public on Bitcoin? I
mean, not that it needs much to sour the folks here on Slashdot, but
the common Joe/Jane on the street might need some Emmanuel Goldsteins
to scream at for two minutes.

And with all the revelations of Snowden and Wikileaks, calling someone
a "tinfoil hatter" has lost most of it's sting.

hmm (Score:2)
by buddyglass ( 925859 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:31PM (#45458591)
I'll laugh if the entire site is a honeypot designed to identify
people willing to crowdfund the assassination of world leaders.

    Re:hmm (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @10:00PM (#45459951)

    Anyone remember the Rockford Files where Angel (local dipshit) has
an ad for hit-man services, figuring his customers will not be able to
complain if he doesn't come through. Everything goes great until one
of the targets gets killed - but not by him LOL.

Summary ripped without attribution? (Score:2)
by ThePyro ( 645161 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:06PM (#45458873)

Summary appears to be ripped verbatim from zerohedge. Or did it
originate somewhere else? It'd be nice if people would cite their
sources.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-11-18/dark-web-exposes-75000-bitcoin-base...
[zerohedge.com]

CIA funding? (Score:2)
by danbuter ( 2019760 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:06PM (#45458889)
Why do I think the home server for this assassination market is
located at the CIA headquarters?

business method patent (Score:4, Insightful)
by Jodka ( 520060 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:26PM (#45459031)

For every assassination bounty hosted they should also host a
corresponding anti-assassination bounty. The assassin would be paid
the net pro-assassination value, that is, the difference between the
two bounties, and the bounty hosting site would keep the remainder.
For opposing interests of equal magnitude in a bidding war this would
be hugely profitable for the bounty hosting site and also result in
nobody actually getting assassinated. It would also be more equitable
because it represents the opinions of both pro-assassination and
anti-assassination sides, not just the pro-assassination side.

Though seriously, the entire subject is revolting. Almost every
American, love Obama or hate Obama, love Bush or hate Bush, agrees
that they do not want their President to be assassinated. Despite
disagreements in American politics, there are essential fundamental
core values which unite us all, and that we do not assassinate our
leaders is one of them.

    Re:business method patent (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @01:54AM (#45461001)

    Funny. Has any other nation actually had so big percentage of
their top officials asssasinated as the USA?
    Re:business method patent (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @02:11AM (#45461067)

    Though seriously, the entire subject is revolting. Almost every
American, love Obama or hate Obama, love Bush or hate Bush, agrees
that they do not want their President to be assassinated.

    As someone who remembers JFK's assassination (and as well RFK &
MLK) I couldn't agree with you more. Assassination is a tool of
cowards who afraid of the world changing in a way that won't fit their
world view (or occasionally summary executions in a power grab).
    Re:business method patent (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @03:23AM (#45461269)

    "... there are essential fundamental core values which unite us
all, and that we do not assassinate our leaders is one of them."

    Kennedy, hello?
        Re:business method patent (Score:2)
        by SleazyRidr ( 1563649 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@11:16AM (#45463461)

        Are you... trying to say that the Kennedy assassination was a
good thing, in line with American values?
        Re:business method patent (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @12:18PM (#45464073)

        Whether the belief is a value shared by opposing political
parties and whether leaders are actually assassinated, as you
reference using the example of Kennedy, are distinct issues.

    Re:business method patent (Score:2)
    by Dan541 ( 1032000 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @09:42AM
(#45462509) Homepage

    Personally I think it's a scam. The site operator will simply take
the bitcoins for themselves.

    This is one occasion where I have no sympathy for the scam victims.
    Re:business method patent (Score:2)
    by SleazyRidr ( 1563649 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @11:20AM (#45463497)

    I agree with your underlying point, that assassinating politicians
will generally lead to bad things, but I can't help seeing the
technical difficulties in your proposed way the market could work.

    Take the Obama figure of $24k. He's still fairly popular, so he
could probably raise that much for the "don't assassinate Barrack
Obama" campaign. The site owners walk off with $48k for nothing!
People will see that and stop using the site. Actually then the site
will die and the only bad thing is that a couple of jokers walk off
with a bunch of money, so it might be alright after all...
    Re:business method patent (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @11:51AM (#45463795)

    soooo, when your bounty is up over a certain threshold you get a
nice mail "Look at that, some people really want to kill you. You
know, if SOMEBODY were to give me "insert_threshold_plus_fees" you
would have nothing to fear.

    Yes, that really sounds great.
    Re:business method patent (Score:2)
    by MooseTick ( 895855 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @12:31PM
(#45464225) Homepage

    Rather than the bounty hosting site keeping the remainder, I think
more people would likely pay into an anti-assassination bounty if it
went to a charity of some sort. Perhaps of their choosing. Then only
people with a total lopsided hatred against them would outcompensate
the anti-assassination side. This would also help more money go to
charity since for every dollar you give it could become two. Then the
question would remain, what do you do with the anti-assassination
money if the individual is actually assinated?
    Re:business method patent (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @02:47PM (#45465801)
    Sadly our 'leaders' do not share the attitude of thou shalt not
assassinate leaders of nations.
        Re:business method patent (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @07:52PM (#45468527)

        They do, actually -- it's a Mutually Assured Destruction kind
of thing..... Unless, of course, they think the other country could
never marshal the resources to retaliate, but given that 25 blokes
could take down the twin towers, that could be an iffy assumption.
    Re:business method patent (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 20, 2013 @12:08AM (#45469887)

    > Almost every American, love Obama or hate Obama, love Bush or
hate Bush, agrees that they do not want their President to be
assassinated.

    Why are you talking about muricans? I'm pretty sure plenty of
non-US people want the US president to die. They don't have bitcoins,
though.

Great business plan (Score:2)
by viperidaenz ( 2515578 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:50PM (#45459179)

1) Create anonymous crowd funding website for dodgy activity people
won't want to own up to (out of fear, like drug or murder
prosecution).
2) Have people give you money.
3) Shut down site and pocket money. ...
Profit!

The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:1, Insightful)
by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:48PM (#45458141)

Odds are you're going to be dead immediately after, so what good does
the money do you?

    Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:3)
    by couchslug ( 175151 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:52PM (#45458199)

    You may want another recipient to collect the bounty while you do
what you otherwise do not mind doing, or may even be inclined to do.
The world is a diverse place.
    Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:4, Informative)
    by Shakrai ( 717556 ) * on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:54PM
(#45458215) Journal

    The last few chumps who took shots at US Presidents all lived to
talk about it. The Secret Service is a law enforcement organization,
not an execution squad, they're under the same obligation as any other
LEO to apprehend a suspect alive when possible. Of course, Bitcoin
probably doesn't go very far at the Terre Haute prison commissary.....
        Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:2)
        by cheater512 ( 783349 ) <nick@nickstallman.net> on Monday
November 18, 2013 @06:00PM (#45458275) Homepage

        Oh I disagree. I would imagine the population there would be
familiar with the Silk Road.
            Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:2, Informative)
            by Jayfar ( 630313 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:18PM
(#45458461)

            Of course, Bitcoin probably doesn't go very far at the
Terre Haute prison commissary.....

            Oh I disagree. I would imagine the population there would
be familiar with the Silk Road.

            I think that's the Hershey Highway you're thinking of.
                Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:2)
                by EdIII ( 1114411 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@08:01PM (#45459251)

                I think you mean baseball. It doesn't matter whether
they are pitching or catching, they're still playing ball..
        Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:2)
        by schwit1 ( 797399 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:05PM (#45458321)

        ... That you know of.
            Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:2)
            by Oligonicella ( 659917 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@11:54AM (#45463825)
            Please cite any assassination attempt you suspect. Please.
        Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:5, Informative)
        by NoKaOi ( 1415755 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @11:01PM (#45460257)

        The last few chumps who took shots at US Presidents all lived
to talk about it.

        Every successful US presidential assassination has resulted in
the assassin's death:
        Lincoln: The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was tracked down by
Union soldiers and killed.
        Garfield: The assassin, Charles Guiteau, was executed by hanging.
        McKinley: The assassin, Leon Czolgosz, was executed by electric chair.
        Kennedy: The assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald*, was shot in the
Dallas Police Headquarters.

        *There are plenty of conspiracy theorists that disagree with
this. However, if you're in the "he didn't act alone," but that he was
the shooter, he was still killed. If you believe he wasn't the
shooter, then whoever was remains unknown and wouldn't have the
opportunity to collect their bounty.

        Of course, if you do it in another country you might have a
chance at survival. For example, the dude who threw a grenade at GWB
in the country of Georgia received a life sentence because Georgia
(the country) has abolished the death penalty, even though he did kill
a Georgian high ranking agent when being apprehended. Of course, if he
had been successful the US may have intervened and killed the guy.
Either way, at best he would have had to enjoy his bitcoins from a
Georgian prison.

        So how could you get away with surviving it, yet be known to
have done it so you can collect your bitcoins?
            Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:1)
            by Shakrai ( 717556 ) * on Wednesday November 20, 2013
@01:21PM (#45473829) Journal

            Every successful US presidential assassination has
resulted in the assassin's death:

            Sure, after the fact, by the judicial system (except for
Oswald).....

            I was trying to dispel the notion that the USSS would
shoot the person outright, if they had the ability to take him alive,
not that they wouldn't be executed after the fact. Actually I hinted
at that, Terra Haute is where the Federal death row is....
        Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:1)
        by Shakrai ( 717556 ) * on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:57PM
(#45458239) Journal

        You can find anything on the internet [bop.gov], should have
waited a bit longer for my post. ;)
            Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:2)
            by ifiwereasculptor ( 1870574 ) on Monday November 18,
2013 @06:14PM (#45458415)

            Is that what I think it is? They aren't simply content on
using slave labor anymore in prisons, they're also turning the slavers
into consumers for double the profits?
                Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:0)
                by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013
@07:30PM (#45459047)

                I'm sure it's not as bad as you think. Inmates clearly
have a choice between Speed Stick, Degree, and Power Up deodorant
brands.

                It occurs to me you could actually be beaten up in
prison if you pick the wrong one, though.
                    Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:3)
                    by ifiwereasculptor ( 1870574 ) on Monday November
18, 2013 @08:42PM (#45459521)

                    I'd rather not use one. According to the ads,
deodorants are sexy as hell, and sexiness and prisons are disastrous
bedfellows.
                Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:1)
                by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013
@07:44PM (#45459139)

                While incarcerated inmates get a weekly prisoner's
pension. It's not a lot, but it allows them to have a small amount of
control over their own affair while incarcerated. What they don't
spend while incarcerated, they receive as a lump sum upon release to
get them by while they are being declined jobs for being a felon.
                    Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:0)
                    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@09:47AM (#45462557)
                    Yes, I'm sure the local prison gang is very happy
with their new source of protection money.
                Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:2)
                by Shakrai ( 717556 ) * on Monday November 18, 2013
@09:39PM (#45459849) Journal

                Profits? Did you look at the link? Some of the items
(stamps) are sold at cost, others are sold at prices below anything I
can match at the grocery store (generic Advil, 24 count, $1.65), while
a few seem marked up a small amount ($2.05 for a single AA battery).
Frankly I'm surprised they can meet costs at these prices, since
there's a non-zero cost associated with trucking these items into the
prison for sale.

                Commissary isn't where they screw inmates and their
families. That would be done via the collect phone calls required to
communicate with the incarcerated, as anyone who has ever had a friend
or relative in prison can attest to. There's a reason why cellular
phones are one of the hottest ticket contraband items on the inside.
Not sure if the Federal system operates like this or not, but I have
had the privilege of communicating with family members on the inside
in New York (>$0.50/min back in the 1990s) and North Carolina
(>$0.75/min), and they absolutely hose you on those calling rates.
        Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:22PM (#45458521)

        Once the first bullet flies LEO's could care less about
"apprehending the suspect", they will shoot first and ask questions
later. About the only way the guy is coming out alive is if there is a
witness and the guy with the gun, tosses it to the side, and lies
facedown with his arms wide waiting for them. Otherwise he's toast.
See modern SWAT tactics. Even then he's just about as likely to get a
bullet to the back of the head.
            Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:3)
            by imunfair ( 877689 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@07:05PM (#45458869) Homepage

            Actually by killing someone important you'd probably be
more likely to live these days. They'd want to know if you were
working alone, so you'd end up in some black site across the globe
being tortured.

            After that was over they might kill you, or more likely
make a public example out of you.
                Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:2)
                by Rich0 ( 548339 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@04:54PM (#45467149) Homepage

                They'd never kill you. That would require somebody to
make a decision that there is no chance that you know something of
value. That's WAY too much responsibility for anybody with the power
to actually make that decision to assume. They'll just play with you
like a toy until you die of natural causes, and you'll probably get
better healthcare than the average American for that time.

                But, it isn't exactly treatment I'd sign up for all the same!
    Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:2)
    by N1AK ( 864906 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @05:19AM
(#45461609) Homepage
    Is the site really a serious thing though? Unless the site is
actually holding the BTC is eskrow and the assassin trusts them then
why on earth would you take the job and expect to get paid. What's to
stop any jackass from claiming they killed Obama if some other group
of crazy racists or some such did it? Call me old fashioned but if I
ever wanted someone killed then I can't imagine how a site like this
would look remotely appealing as a way to go about it.
        Re:The problem is collecting the bounty (Score:2)
        by Dekker3D ( 989692 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @12:31PM (#45464231)

        The protocol this site uses, thought up apparently two decades
ago, would prevent people from falsely claiming to have killed the
target. Read up on it. It's scarily effective.

I'm so sorry. (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:50PM (#45458161)

But for those dollar figures I can't even be bothered to do a recon.

The Jackal.

    Re:I'm so sorry. (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:58PM (#45458253)

    Perhaps they should crowd-fund it to get higher bounties.
        Re:I'm so sorry. (Score:5, Funny)
        by Rob the Bold ( 788862 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@06:05PM (#45458329)

        Perhaps they should crowd-fund it to get higher bounties.

        Ya, I saw something on Slashdot [slashdot.org] about that.

Once Again Missing Perspectives (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:03PM (#45458859)

I don't condone this shit... however it is ridiculous who tops the
list. There are far more deserving candidates (not saying do it...
just for argument's sake). Here are some ones to start:

    Vladimir Putin, former KGB man and strongest proponent of the new U.S.S.R.
    Ayatollah Khameini and anyone in Iran's Revolutionary Guards
    Any member of the Taliban or Al Quaida
    Kim Jong Un
    President (for life) Mobutu of Zimbabwe and all his cronies
    Anyone from a Mexican drug cartel
    Whoever authorized killing protesters in Tienanmen Square (and
even more in the un-televised side streets and cities)
    Misogynistic Muslims (including Saudi Royalty)
    etc. etc. etc.

But seriously, this is not to advocate an assassination or 'hit', it
is just to point out people in power who are doing real harm to
others. Advocating assassination would be ridiculous. But compared to
these people, the worst in American government are like boy scouts (OK
aside from a few guys like President Cheney). And not the anal sex
ones. Hey, not that there's anything wrong with that.

    Re:Once Again Missing Perspectives (Score:5, Insightful)
    by Hatta ( 162192 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:12PM (#45458933) Journal

    But compared to these people, the worst in American government are
like boy scouts

    Not really. One example you gave was "anyone from a Mexican drug
cartel". But mexican drug cartels are only dangerous because drugs are
illegal. Those who vote to keep drugs illegal are just as responsible
for those deaths as the cartels are. Further, they're responsible for
every death caused by impure drugs, or drugs of unknown concentration.
        Re:Once Again Missing Perspectives (Score:3)
        by ifiwereasculptor ( 1870574 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@08:58PM (#45459613)

        Not only that, but even if we take the deaths and horrors the
US government is directly responsible for, by actions which are
violent in nature (so I'm excluding both inaction and disastrous
economic measures, for the purposes of this comparion). they beat the
mexican cartels pretty easily. Look at the number of dead and wounded
in Iraq and Afghanistan. Look at the US prision system: almost 1% of
its population is behind bars - that's more than 2 million people.
Working people, producing armaments and other cheap goods. It's
institutionalized captivity and slavery. The mexican cartels are
showy, yes, and maybe inspire more horror, but that's only if you
don't take scale into consideration.
            Re:Once Again Missing Perspectives (Score:1)
            by theshowmecanuck ( 703852 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@11:00PM (#45460255) Journal
            Straw man. Just because the U.S. did bad in Iraq doesn't
make criminals in other countries innocent. Or even make them less
bad. Afghanistan was necessary. I agree that lax fire control on
mostly the American military's part was often in the realm of criminal
negligence. From bombing civilians to friendly fire on allies. Right
at the beginning a retard American pilot killed a bunch of Canadian
soldiers who were shooting on a known rifle range. The pilot was never
punished. Another time an A-10 came in without asking and took out a
platoon of Canadian infantry during one of the biggest conventional
battles of the war. The majority of the platoon was killed or wounded.
Other than that, not really a valid argument.
                Re:Once Again Missing Perspectives (Score:3)
                by ifiwereasculptor ( 1870574 ) on Monday November 18,
2013 @11:58PM (#45460535)

                Straw man*. Just because I said the US goverment is
arguably worse does not mean I'm saying other criminals are innocent
or any less bad. This isn't a sports match, one "side" doesn't have to
"win". And we'll have to agree to disagree on the whole "Afghanistan
was necessary" thing and on the classification of what the American
military did. Their actions weren't only "criminal negligence", they
were straight up war crimes by definition.

                *That would be misrepresenting some else's argument,
like you did to mine. I did not even allude to any given argument,
just made a subjective analytical comparison.
                    Re:Once Again Missing Perspectives (Score:2)
                    by theshowmecanuck ( 703852 ) on Thursday November
21, 2013 @03:13AM (#45479371) Journal
                    You are trying to say the U.S. government did
something bad when the U.S. government has nothing to do with what the
cartels do. I'd say that was deflecting the argument.
        Re:Once Again Missing Perspectives (Score:1)
        by theshowmecanuck ( 703852 ) on Monday November 18, 2013
@07:22PM (#45458991) Journal
        You're an idiot. Just because drugs are illegal doesn't make
it imperative that people hack of the heads of dozens of people. Or
murder university students who were never involved in any illegal
activity but pissed off a cartel member who can kill with seeming
impunity. Bodies hanging from overpasses are not the result of drug
laws, they are the result of people who have no regard for human life.
Just because making something legal might reduce this activity does
not in any way what-so-fucking-ever mean that the drug laws force
people to commit mass murders and dispose of the bodies in drums
filled with sulfuric acid. Yours has to be one of the dumbest comments
ever. Nice way to apologize for murdering thugs just because you want
to smoke a joint. You would be better to argue that people who break
the law thus creating the demand are the ones who are the cause of the
murders. But even that is disingenuous.
            Re:Once Again Missing Perspectives (Score:1)
            by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @10:20PM (#45460069)

            How about this one-word refutation-by-example: Prohibition.

            You aren't right, and you're an asshole, too.
                Re:Once Again Missing Perspectives (Score:1)
                by theshowmecanuck ( 703852 ) on Monday November 18,
2013 @10:50PM (#45460207) Journal

                Yet another moron who thinks anti drug laws are
adequate justification for criminals to murder people. I'd like to
hear you at parties.

                I can just hear you, "oh yeah, it was great that those
guys cut the heads off of a dozen innocent people. If it wasn't for
laws in another country these guys would be regular church going guys
planting flowers and singing kumbaya! Those evil American law makers
are causing these guys to go out and murder people... those criminals
have no free will of their own and only murder in reaction to anti
drug laws." Bullshit.

                You and everyone who thinks anti drug laws are the
root cause of these guys murdering people are idiots. If it wasn't
drugs they could smuggle it would be something else and they would
still murder.

                I don't think marijuana laws make sense either. But I
don't think anyone who believes that bad guys in countries with
corruption and lax law enforcement are bad because of drug laws make
sense either. They're just bad. Maybe if you and your ilk stopped
smoking so much dope you wouldn't be one and could figure this out.
                Re:Once Again Missing Perspectives (Score:1)
                by Copid ( 137416 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@02:25AM (#45461121)
                Yes, prohibition caused a lot of extra crime
associated with the black market. But you know what? Most people
managed to get through prohibition without murdering people. Sure, the
people who didn't were responding rationally to financial incentives,
but they were also awful, awful people who murdered folks over money.
                Re:Once Again Missing Perspectives (Score:0)
                by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013
@02:01PM (#45465345)

                The people who are in drug cartels and other illegal
fields are there because illegal = more money. If you legalize all
drugs and the money dries up, they will move onto slavery, arms
trafficking, etc. The problem is that these people have no morals and
not enough fear of the law, not that there exist illegal things for
them to do. Unless you plan to legalize everything, this problem will
always exist.

                Prohibition didn't "cause" people to start murdering
each other, it just provided an extremely convenient opportunity. The
people who operated based on alcohol during prohibition went back to
drugs, arms dealing, etc after it was over.
        Re:Once Again Missing Perspectives (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:25PM (#45459015)

        Legal or not, the cartels will still protect their money
monopolies in the legalized areas.
        Re:Once Again Missing Perspectives (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @06:51AM (#45461855)

        Those who vote to keep drugs illegal are just as responsible
for those deaths as the cartels are.

        *rofl*
        Idiot. (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @12:19PM (#45464103)

        And if women were simply forced by law to give it up whenever
someone else wanted, there would be no rape.
    Re:Once Again Missing Perspectives (Score:3)
    by IonOtter ( 629215 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:20PM
(#45458981) Homepage

    The problem with your list, is that without exception, every one
of them has a well-established and documented reputation for hunting
down and killing those who target them for assassination.

    So please! By all means, go for it. I'd ask you to tell us how it
went, but somehow, I don't think we'll need you to tell us?

    We'll find what's left of you on the 6-o-clock news.
        Re:Once Again Missing Perspectives (Score:2)
        by PPH ( 736903 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @09:07PM (#45459665)

        hunting down and killing those who target them for assassination.

        So don't miss. Put enough money on the table and some real
pros might be attracted to the contract.

        As far as those funding the operation: That's what
BitCoin/Crowdfunding is for. Good luck finding the responsible
parties.
    Re:Once Again Missing Perspectives (Score:2)
    by MikeBabcock ( 65886 ) <mtb-slashdot@mikebabcock.ca> on Monday
November 18, 2013 @11:25PM (#45460377) Homepage Journal

    I'd be interested in seeing the internal list of assassinations
ordered by each Putin and Obama and see who wins that one.

Why Bernanke on top? (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:53PM (#45458211)

...because guys at Wall Street and generally in business have plenty
of spare bitcoins, no conscience, and think it's "funny"

Letters of marque (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:00PM (#45458265)

Remember kids, if the government does it it's OK.

    Re:Letters of marque (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:02PM (#45458297)

    Well, yes, they are authorized to do so by the Constitution.

this is no disturbance in the force (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:02PM (#45458293)

I'm curious why this market, created to fulfill a legitimate need, is
being called "disturbing". Doesn't the US have a history of
kneecapping (foreign) terrorists and (foreign) dictators while leaving
alone home-grown genocidal monsters [wikipedia.org]?

I had exactly the same idea (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:03PM (#45458301)

I'm now happy to see someone is taking the matter at hands.

When i see the US are allowed to commit remote murder in almost any
part of the world and on the other hand retarded coercive "leaders"
are a threat to our society as a whole (think David Cameron) i think
it's absolutely normal to see people organizing themselves and
financing a campaign to get said person killed.
The people of the internet have more legitimacy than any government.

At least there should be public crowdsourced lists of dangerous people
for everyone to see and sometimes take action when possible in order
to purge the world.

Ben? Really? (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:05PM (#45458327)

It sure is easy to glean the political leanings of the largest contributors.

Hint: Starts with "liber" and ends with "naive sockpuppet of the far-right"

    Re:Ben? Really? (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:11PM (#45458381)

    Yep, just another Randian Libertardian.
...
From what I'm seeing about Bitcoin (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:08PM (#45458349)
Crypto viruses, this, ransoms, ....

Bitcoin is doomed.

Regardless of whose doing the harm (i.e. false flag), the fact of the
matter is that Bitcoin's days are numbered.

It's way too conducive to illegal and harmful behavior.

    Re:From what I'm seeing about Bitcoin (Score:1)
    by jones_supa ( 887896 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:35PM (#45458625)
    Pretty much the same thoughts. At first I thought Bitcoin was a
cool liberal money system and I supported it. But now I'm starting to
think that maybe it's actually good that there is some level of real
trackability for monetary transactions. Sadly Bitcoin provides a tool
for criminals to send "black money" easier, which in turn helps to
make the world a shittier place.
        Re:From what I'm seeing about Bitcoin (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:36PM (#45459087)
        It's way more traceable than cash... if anyone with power ever
really cares the perceived anonymity will disappear.

It's Ben Shalom Bernanke (Score:-1)
by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:18PM (#45458467)

People, have some respect to full names and stop using short versions.

    Re:It's Ben Shalom Bernanke (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:26PM (#45458555)
    So says Anonymous Dickhead Coward

Up until about five minutes ago . . . (Score:1)
by mmell ( 832646 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:35PM (#45458627)
My knee-jerk reaction was "hell no - don't let any government meddle
with bitcoin - it's a chance to create a world economy without
nationalistic or patriotic encumbrances."

Screw that - I suppose this illustrates why such an economy is
inherently subject to exactly the sort of abuses we have governments
in place to prevent. Up with Electronic Banking! Death to Bitcoin!

I'm going to get flamed here; too bad. If Bitcoin can't regulate
itself sufficiently to prevent abuses, than Bitcoin has to go.

    Re:Up until about five minutes ago . . . (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:34PM (#45459069)

    Neither can cash. Cash has to go.
        Re:Up until about five minutes ago . . . (Score:2)
        by geekoid ( 135745 ) <.moc.oohay. .ta. .dnaltropnidad.> on
Monday November 18, 2013 @08:04PM (#45459275) Homepage Journal

        Yes, it fact cash can.

        I still hold the ultimately electronic cash will fail do to
the ease and power of attacks.
            Re:Up until about five minutes ago . . . (Score:0)
            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 20, 2013
@06:10PM (#45476727)

            Another careless post crapped out by Geekoid, a man far
too busy and important to proof-read his own gibberish.

            Amusingly this Geekoid idiot has been seen in the wild
attacking other people's postings for their spelling and grammar.
Arrogance and hypocrisy at its very finest!
        Re:Up until about five minutes ago . . . (Score:2)
        by petermgreen ( 876956 ) <plugwash@@@p10link...net> on Monday
November 18, 2013 @08:13PM (#45459331) Homepage

        I suspect that many governments really want to get rid of cash
but know they can't get away with it just yet.

        So they tighten the screws on large scale cash users by doing
things like requiring the banks to report large cash transactions and
limiting the size of the largest banknotes printed. Oh and they don't
link this to inflation so the "real value" of the largest transaction
you can easilly make with cash gradually declines.
    Re:Up until about five minutes ago . . . (Score:2)
    by MikeBabcock ( 65886 ) <mtb-slashdot@mikebabcock.ca> on Monday
November 18, 2013 @11:24PM (#45460371) Homepage Journal

    You mean like cash? Cash needs to be regulated so people can't buy
illegal drugs or guns or child soldiers or slaves with it.

    Jeez people.
        Re:Up until about five minutes ago . . . (Score:2)
        by mmell ( 832646 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @06:20PM (#45467865)
        It is. Don't believe me? How many drug deals do you hear about
involving Credit/Debit cards or even checks?

        Cash is regulated too - try to deposit $1000.00 or more in one
shot at your local bank, you'll see what I mean.
            Re:Up until about five minutes ago . . . (Score:2)
            by MikeBabcock ( 65886 ) <mtb-slashdot@mikebabcock.ca> on
Thursday November 21, 2013 @04:31PM (#45484543) Homepage Journal

            Who said we need banks to use cash? Why do you think
criminals keep it in cash form? Come on.

There was a paper about this... (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:43PM (#45458699)

Interesting that the approach used for confirmations was presented at
a cryptography conference just over two years ago:

http://fc12.ifca.ai/pre-proceedings/paper_69.pdf

No paywall, direct link to PDF.

Good! (Score:1)
by DogDude ( 805747 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @07:18PM (#45458967)
This whole Bitcoin thing and everything associated with it is an
ongoing circus made up of different kinds of idiots. Idiots who don't
understand that Bitcoin is the most non-anonymous "currency" in
existence. Idiots who don't understand that Bitcoin is completely
unusable as any kind of legitimate business transaction because the
value fluctuates wildly. Idiots who don't understand that the Internet
is completely non-anonymous. Idiots who don't understand economics
101.

Bitcoin, to me at least, is a lot like Sarah Palin: Unbelievably
stupid and something nobody should waste time with, but like a car
wreck, something we can't stop watching in utter disbelief.

Prior Art (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @08:02PM (#45459257)

The Assassin's Guild in Discworld, for one.

Congratulations (Score:1)
by DaveV1.0 ( 203135 ) on Monday November 18, 2013 @08:18PM (#45459365) Journal
You are now no better than those you despise and for the exact same
despicable things for which you claim they do.

This is free market capitalism (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @09:20PM (#45459747)

What is not to like. By opening markets and eliminating barriers to
entry, we ensure that our assasinations are of the best possible
quality. Mr Bernake should heartily applaud the efforts of this free
market entrepeneur. No longer are political assasinations entireley
controlled by governments. We all know how bloated and beurcratic
governments are. Let's let the free market to it better.

Free trade and fair markets for all. In a sense robbery and rape are
also free market policies. Rape allows for the best possible genes to
be passed along. Hell Chingis KHan is responsible for 1/6 the worlds'
populations. You can't say that aint strong. Robbery means that those
who have the most highly developed martial arts skill get to keep
their stuff. I am all for this. How many time have you seen old people
who can barely walk with a lot of stuff. By encourating free market
robbery, we ensure that the youngets and best looking people have the
most stuff. What is not to love.

Off coarse everything I just said flys out the window when you have a
society that adheres to a strong code of moralls. But then again all
the free market capitalists frown on moral codes, and have no problem
outsourcing overseas, running payday lending operations, or using
slave labor. They have no problem bankrupting a company and then
living their life out in the cayman islands. So assasination may not
be such a bad thing.

Ben Bernanke? (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18, 2013 @10:11PM (#45460001)

As Forbes reports, NSA Director Alexander and President Obama have a
BTC40 bounty (~$24,000) but the highest bounty — perhaps not entirely
surprising — is BTC 124.14 (~$75,000) for none other than Ben
Bernanke.

It sort of says a lot that Forbes had to tell their readers that "some
guy named Alexander" is the Director of the NSA and "Obama" is the
President (of something...), but apparently all their readers know
exactly who Ben Bernanke is, without any further information.

Look here NSA (Score:2)
by Princeofcups ( 150855 ) <john@princeofcups.com> on Monday November
18, 2013 @10:18PM (#45460047) Homepage

Woohoo! Where do I donate? Hey NSA, mark my file as "promotes
assassination, subversive, needs to be watched closely."

LINK (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @03:41AM (#45461319)

https://assmkedzgorodn7o.onion.to

not news (Score:2)
by Tom ( 822 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @08:15AM (#45462121)
Homepage Journal

At this time, it's a cute idea, but not newsworthy unless you want to
advertise the service.

Post an article when they have paid out the first bounty.

If one anarchist has his way (Score:2)
by Optali ( 809880 ) on Wednesday November 20, 2013 @10:57AM
(#45472501) Homepage

WTF do Anarchists have to do with this?

OK, it's Forbes and they belong to the kind of idiots who call
"liberal" to anything that doesn't carry a huge cross on his neck and
owns a Tea Party affiliation card... but mates, moderate yourself.

Anarchists just don't give a shit

answer (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21, 2013 @03:16PM (#45483811)
to take this seriously, and not just attraction for medias, every
listed person should have personal address. In any case, for killing
politicians, 100 000 euro is minimum necessity as reward. there is
just 1 btc. Beside it, it is not secure for killer that he writes to
him in advance the exact time and date when politicians will finish
dead. killer can be arrested because of that. there is good website of
killer at freenet, but he told me he is not working now in America,
only Europe. this is the key which can be used with freenet project
software: USK@RcdvyeyP47D7YtCVPdixdBdJTZbVaKAykSuxl--a608,ZKr~orlQ6Zm4lHECLHKlUB7SCACDNnPndaW19reaHEQ,AQACAAE/ContractKiller/0

Re: Assassination Politics

grarpamp