Monthly Archives: June 2020

Under this new law, cryptocurrency could become illegal

In early 1775, Benjamin Franklin and his European colleague, Charles Dumas, developed a secret method of communicating with each other.

Dumas had spent years gathering intelligence in Europe to assist the Americans in their revolt against Britain. But the two needed a secure way to pass information across the Atlantic.

So they developed a special cipher– a crude form of encryption where letters and words were substituted for numerals.

The decryption key changed with every letter; so, for example, in a letter from Franklin dated March 2, 1781, the word “MERCHANT” was written as “23. 3. 4. 13. 6. 14. 24. 18.”

At the same time, the physician James Jay (brother to the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay) developed an invisible ink so that revolutionary leaders could communicate in secret.

These encrypted communications became critical to the Revolution. And it’s safe to say there would probably not be a United States if they hadn’t developed a secure way to send information.

Ironically, politicians are trying to destroy modern methods of encryption.

Over the past few months while everyone has been in mandatory isolation, cowering in fear in their homes… and over the past few weeks while the Land of the Free has been consumed with rage. . .

. . . a few US Senators have once again proven that chilling political adage– ‘never let a good crisis go to waste.’

Exhibit A: Senate Bill 4051, the “Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act”, which was quietly introduced last week when everyone’s attention was consumed elsewhere.

First thing’s first, like all freedom-killing bills, this one has a catchy name.

The Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act is LEAD for short, as in “Move over China! The Land of the Free will LEAD the way in destroying the last remaining freedoms of its citizens.”

(In that way it seems more like ‘lead’, the highly toxic metal that poisons the brain and creates severe intellectual disability.)

At its core, the LEAD Act is an encryption killer. It aims to require technology companies to build ‘back doors’ into their products to ensure that the government can remotely access your data, your device, and your life.

This is nothing short of earth shattering.

Apple, for example, currently provides device encryption on its iPhones and iPads. And once you encrypt your device, only YOU can decrypt it. Apple can’t. Hackers can’t. And the government can’t.

So if your device is ever stolen (or confiscated), your data cannot be compromised.

Under the LEAD Act, this practice would become illegal. Apple would no longer be able to offer device encryption, and they’d have to provide a way for the federal government to remotely access your device, and all of its contents.

The same goes for your favorite chat applications.

WhatsApp, for example, is one of the most popular texting apps in the world. A few years ago, Facebook (which owns WhatsApp) began implementing end-to-end encryption for all WhatsApp data.

This means that any message you send someone via WhatsApp is immediately encrypted the moment it leaves your phone.

That messages arrives to the WhatsApp servers fully encrypted. So any hacker (or Facebook engineer) who intercepts the data will see nothing but a garbled mess.

And the message isn’t decrypted until it arrives to the intended recipient’s device. So the only people who can see the message in “clear text” are the two people participating in the conversation.

No one else can eavesdrop, or download the data.

But again, under the LEAD Act, this too would become illegal… and Facebook will be obligated to build in a ‘back door’ for the government to remotely access your conversations.

LEAD also requires developers of operating systems, like Microsoft Windows and Apple’s MacOS, to provide backdoor access to your computer.

It’s extraordinary to think of how far-reaching the effects of this legislation will go.

For example, do you use an online password manager like OnePassword or Lastpass?

They will also be required to give the government access to your data… which essentially would give the government access to EVERYTHING you do online.

Do you upload files and photos to iCloud? Yup. That too. Apple will be required to build a back door and give the government access to your data.

Any ‘zero knowledge’ encryption, whether it’s for storing files, sharing photos, texting friends, making video calls, sending encrypted emails, etc., will become illegal under this legislation.

And to be crystal clear about what that means, CRYPTOCURRENCY will effectively become illegal under the LEAD Act as well.

That’s right. Cryptocurrency relies on data encryption too.

Your ‘wallet’ is essentially a public key / private key combination. And in theory, only you are supposed to have access.

But that’s exactly what this legislation aims to prevent. The government wants backdoor access to everything.

Honestly this legislation would be hilarious if it weren’t actually true… because it shows how totally clueless these people really are.

The politicians are calling it ‘lawful access’, as if only the government would be able to use these back doors. Clearly these people understand nothing about cybersecurity.

There is no such thing as a ‘back door’ that only the government can access.

Once a technology company creates a way to remotely access a device, then that back door is available to ANYONE who can crack it.

It’s not like some hacker, or foreign intelligence agency, is going to probe the back door on your iPhone and say, “Oh, nevermind, this is only for the US government. I guess I’ll try to find another way in.”

If this law passes, not only will the government be able to access your devices, but hackers will have endless new treasures of data to steal… courtesy of the United States Senate.

It’s genius.


Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.


via:  SovereignMan

The one statue that remains untouched: Vladimir Lenin

Are you ready for this week’s absurdity? Here’s this week’s roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, risks to your prosperity… and on occasion, inspiring poetic justice.

 

 

 

NYC’s inspiring breakthrough in the science of contact tracing

 

“Contact tracing” is a tactic whereby public health officials attempt to track where you’ve been, and who you’ve been in contact with, in their efforts to contain a pandemic.

And we’ve seen a lot of contact tracing efforts lately.

New York City hired thousands of contact tracing specialists who are tasked with calling everyone who tests positive for Covid-19 and interviewing them to help identify who else they might have infected.

But now New York City’s Comrade Mayor Bill de Blasio has instructed his contract tracers to specifically NOT ask if an infected person attended a Black Lives Matter protest.

Seriously… what’s the point?

The entire idea of contact tracing is to find out who else might have been in close proximity. To deliberately NOT ask someone if they’ve been in close proximity of thousands of other people sort of defeats the purpose of the entire contract tracing program to begin with.

Naturally, New York City health officials have already said that any spike in Covid infections should be blamed on racism, and not mass gatherings of people.

And that’s what constitutes science in 2020.

This is another obvious sign of woke intersectionality.

Governments act like public health is their number one concern. They shut down the entire economy and refused to allow people to attend worship services, all to keep us safe from a strand of ribonucleic acid.

But in actuality they’re far more concerned with building political credibility with protestors, and they’re willing to completely make up science in order to do so.

 

Click here for the full story.

 

Protesters destroy statues of an ex-slave, abolitionist… leave Lenin untouched

 

A statue in San Francisco of Miguel Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, was defaced with the word “bastard” spray painted onto it by protesters.

What protesters may not know is that the Spanish author actually spent five years as a slave after being captured off the coast of Africa.

Outside of Wisconsin State Capitol the statue of Hans Christian Heg was also toppled.

Heg was an anti-slavery activist who joined a militia that fought slave traders. Then he joined the Union Army during the Civil War, and died in battle, fighting to end slavery.

Perhaps statues in general are sinful in the new social order.

Except for the statue of Vladimir Lenin in Seattle. His statue has remained untouched.

 

Click here to read about Cervantes and here for Heg.

 

UK court fines man for calling an Irish guy a leprechaun

 

A man who insulted his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend was charged with a racially motivated crime.

He used the “grossly offensive” term “leprechaun” to refer to his ex’s new boyfriend, who is Irish.

The court fined him £280… and I can only imagine the Holy Hell that the Twitter mob will unleash upon him.

 

 

Click here for the full story.

 

Duluth Minnesota to delete “Chief” from town titles

 

The town of Duluth Minnesota decided to remove the term “Chief” from town titles.

They will rename titles such as “Chief Administrative Officer” so that it won’t be offensive to Native Americans.

The police and fire chiefs are also apparently open to taking on new titles.

Mayor Emily Larson explained that the word chief “is language that is offensive to people who are indigenous and actually offensive to a lot of people, especially when there is other language available.”

Chief is actually an Old French word meaning principal, first, leader, or most important.

It is also related to chef, so that should also probably be deleted from the lexicon.

 

Click here to read the full story.

 

 

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

 

 

via:  SovereignMan

More examples of the Twitter mob taking over

Every Friday we bring you some of the most ridiculous stories we found throughout the week that are threats to your liberty and prosperity.

This week we are focused on “cancel culture” also known as mob-rule. Here’s how it is killing any remaining freedom of thought and discussion in our society.

 

Mob punishes soccer player because of his wife’s Tweet

 

Until last Friday, Aleksander Katai played professional soccer for the Los Angeles Galaxy.

He was fired for something his wife tweeted.

She posted an image of NYPD police cruisers ramming protesters with their car, with the caption, “Ma pobij govna bre!” which is Serbian and translates to “Kill the shits!”

Now… that’s pretty messed up. And someone found the Tweet, translated it, reposted it… and then the mob unleashed holy hell.

But amazingly enough– the mob went after Aleksander Katai.

Hang on, wait a minute. It was Katai’s WIFE who wrote the Tweet. He had nothing to do with it. They weren’t even together at the time, he was off practicing with his team and had no idea what she was tweeting.

Yet according to this supposedly ultra-progressive mob, Aleksander Katai is responsible for his wife’s words and actions.

Doesn’t that sound blatantly misogynist and a direct contravention of the mob’s woke mentality?

You would think so. But there is no reason with this mob. And they went after Aleksander Katai with a terrible fury.

The team forced Katai to apologize and disavow his wife’s tweets, saying “This is a mistake from my family, and I take full responsibility. I will ensure that my family and I take the necessary actions to learn, understand, listen and understand the black community.”

But the mob was out for blood. So despite the fact that Katai didn’t even do anything, and he still apologized for his wife’s actions, he was still fired.

 

Click here to read the full story.

 

Students feel “unsafe” due to professor’s “gender critical” views

Kathleen Lowry was an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Alberta in Canada who taught a class on feminism entitled “Anthropology of Women.”

Prof. Lowry expressed her views to her students on Day 1 of the course that there are two biological sexes– male and female.

Despite being a self-avowed progressive feminist, Lowry’s views (which, by the way, are grounded in science) are totally out of touch with the mob.

Fellow professors tweeted things like “I condemn the position & beliefs of Dr. Kathleen Lowry…” as if Lowry were some sort of Holocaust denier.

And so she was fired because students felt “unsafe” in the classroom due to Lowry’s “gender critical” views.

 

Click here to read the full story.

 

Did there used to be a word for “people who menstruate”?

JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, asked for help on Twitter the other day.

She was trying to remember a word lost to the memory-hole of history.

Criticizing an article that used the term, “people who mensturate,” Rowling tweeted:

“‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”

Naturally this made the mob completely lose its mind. “Women” is now a vile, nasty, offensive word, and everyone from the Harry Potter cast (like actors Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson), to Warner Brothers (which owns the rights to the franchise) denounced Rowling’s disgusting reference to an archaic, offensive word.

 

Click here to read the full article.

 

Southern band changes name, preemptively grovels for forgiveness

The mob has already caused some offenders to preemptively grovel for forgiveness.

For instance, the country band Lady Antebellum announced on Twitter– where all important announcements now occur– that it is changing the name of the band.

Antebellum refers to the pre-Civil War era in the southern United States.

No one had actually complained about the band name though, at least not yet. But Lady Antebellum saw the angry mob forming a mile away as confederate flags and statues came tumbling down.

So the band figured it would preemptively grovel for forgiveness.

The members said they named the band after the Antebellum style home they first took band photos in front of. But they now see that Antebellum’s association with the confederacy could be seen as offensive to some. And they are deeply sorry.

The big reveal on the new name: Lady A.

Which kind of makes me wonder, how much longer until “Lady” is also offensive, and the band changes its name to “Person Who Menstruates A” ?

 

Click here to read the full story.

 

Twitter suggests reading an article before sharing

Just to give you an idea of how well informed our new Twitter-mob rulers are, check out a new feature Twitter is testing.

Twitter support announced:

“Sharing an article can spark conversation, so you may want to read it before you Tweet it.

“To help promote informed discussion, we’re testing a new prompt on Android –– when you Retweet an article that you haven’t opened on Twitter, we may ask if you’d like to open it first.”

What a revolutionary idea.

 

Click here to see the Tweet.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

 

via:  SovereignMan

Some positive moments amid all the turmoil

Look, things aren’t feeling so bright and cheery in the US right now. And the sad truth is that there are some tough times ahead.

We usually bring you stories on Friday that are absurd or even infuriating.

I’m sure you’ve seen enough of that this week.

So we thought we’d share a few moments of character and integrity shown at protests across the US, which shined through all the tragedy.

There are bad apples on all sides– some bad apple protestors who loot and burn and destroy. And some bad apple cops who engage in terrible acts of violence.

But there are plenty of good apples on both sides too.

Protesters tackle man breaking up sidewalk for projectiles

Peaceful protesters sprang into action when they saw a man destroying a sidewalk.

The man was dressed in all black, like Antifa, and was apparently destroying the sidewalk to create projectiles to hurl at police and businesses.

But rather than let things escalate, peaceful protesters tackled the man, took his hammer, and handed him over to a group of police who were nearby.

In fact, the police were standing right there, with the man in clear view. And yet they did nothing to stop him.

Cops even almost arrested one of the peaceful protesters who handed the man over. But they let him go after someone explained the situation.

 

Click here to see the video.

Protesters hold line in front of business to stop looters

Undoubtedly there has been way too much violence, looting, and property destruction. Nothing takes away the moral high ground from a movement like seeing a bunch of guys walk out of an electronics store with big-screen TVs in hand.

And in the early days of these protests, the rage was palpable. Cars were torched, businesses were destroyed, and so much property was stolen.

But people are starting to take a stand against that type of chaos.

In Brooklyn, a group of protesters intervened a few days ago when looters and vandals approached a Target store.

The protestors formed a line in front of the store to stop the looters from smashing windows (and stealing store inventory).

 

Click here to see the video.

FBI asks for evidence of inciting violence. People send videos of cops instead.

Being an activist in the US, you have to have a sense of humor.

So when the FBI asked the public to send them video evidence of protestors inciting violence, they were inundated with videos of police officers being violent.

“The FBI is seeking information and digital media depicting individuals inciting violence during First Amendment protected peaceful demonstrations,” the FBI wrote on its Twitter account.

The FBI’s website said, “If you witness or have witnessed unlawful violent actions, we urge you to submit any information, photos, or videos that could be relevant to the case.”

People responded on Twitter with video of:

  • New York City Police ramming protesters with their vehicles,
  • Police appearing to aim a smoke grenade launcher at a little boy,
  • Police attacking, beating and throwing punches at clearly marked media with cameras,
  • Police spraying peaceful protesters with mace unprovoked,
  • Police/ National Guard firing pepper bullets at a woman filming from her front porch,
  • Police throwing an old man with a cane to the ground.

Click here to read the full story.

Michigan Sheriff leads protestors in peaceful march

This is starting to be a bigger trend: police are putting down their tear gas and riot shields, and joining the protestors to peacefully demonstrate for reform.

In one great example of humanity and leadership, Genesse County, Michigan’s sheriff Chris Swanson met a crowd of protestors, and actually took charge to compassionately lead their march through the city.

This is pretty extraordinary. Protests are typically leaderless, and mobs can take on a life of their own.

But Swanson took charge, telling the crowd “I want to make this a parade.” The cops put their weapons down, took their helmets off, and marched together with the protestors… which ensured that (a) the protestors’ voices were still loudly heard, (b) they could march without any threat of violence, and (c) everything remained safe and orderly.

 

Click here to read the full story.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

via: sovereignman