Corripiendi sunt inquieti, oppressi liberandi

“The turbulent have to be corrected, the oppressed to be liberated."

Saint Augustine of Hippo (/ɔːˈɡʌstɪn/; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was an early North African Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy.

Augustine asserted that Christians should be pacifists as a personal, philosophical stance. However, peacefulness in the face of a grave wrong that could only be stopped by violence would be a sin. Defence of one's self or others could be a necessity, especially when authorized by a legitimate authority. While not breaking down the conditions necessary for war to be just, Augustine coined the phrase in his work The City of God. In essence, the pursuit of peace must include the option of fighting for its long-term preservation. Such a war could not be pre-emptive, but defensive, to restore peace. Thomas Aquinas, centuries later, used the authority of Augustine's arguments in an attempt to define the conditions under which a war could be just.

He rejected homicidal attitudes, quoting part of prophecy, namely "Slay them not, lest they should at last forget Thy law".

He wrote that God "did not intend that this rational creature, who was made in his image, should have dominion over anything but the irrational creation – not man over man, but man over the beasts". Thus he wrote that righteous men in primitive times were made shepherds of cattle, not kings over men.

St. Augustine’s ideas towards the nature and morality of the state, which holds that far from being the positive good it was often assumed to be, it was in fact a necessary evil and in terms of morality the so called great emperors’ of the earth were in fact not much better than a common pirate, the difference between the two lied not in any real moral difference, but rather in the size of their respective forces.

By viewing the dominion of man over man as not a result of the natural order God intended as well as viewing the state to be a gang of robbers writ large and seeing war as inherently problematic and difficult to justify he laid down the groundwork that eventually became the classical liberal, libertarian and even anarchist movements.

Hundreds killed: American mass shootings in context

Bloody Island Massacre - May 15, 1850: 

Nathaniel Lyonand his U.S. Army detachment of cavalry killed 100 Pomo people on Bo-no-po-ti island near Clear Lake, (Lake Co., California).


Bear River Massacre - January 1863: 

A daybreak raid carried out by U.S. soldiers on a winter village of the Northwest Band of Shoshone, killed as many as 250 men, women and children.


Camp Grant Massacre - April 30, 1871: 

Led by the ex-Mayor of Tucson, William Oury, eight Americans, 48 Mexicans and more than 100 allied Pimaattacked Apache men, women and children at Camp Grant, Arizona Territory killing 144, with 1 survivor at scene and 29 children sold to slavery. All but eight of the dead were Apache women or children.


Battle of the Big Hole - August 8, 1877: 

US troops under Colonel John Gibbonattacked a Nez Percevillage at Big Hole, in Montana Territory. They killed 89 men, women and children before being repulsed by the Indians.


Wounded Knee - December 29, 1890: 

More than 150 Lakota men, women, and children of the Lakota had been killed and 51 were wounded (4 men and 47 women and children, some of whom died later); some estimates placed the number of dead at 300.


Mỹ Lai Massacre - March 16, 1968: 

U.S. Army soldiers killed 504 unarmed Vietnamese civilians in South Vietnam. Victims included men, women, children, and infants. Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated.

Ike

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.

This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."

~ Dwight D. Eisenhower / April 16, 1953



"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

~ Dwight D. Eisenhower / January 20, 1961

The South is being vilified in the civil war discussion

by Martin Kelly

Updated September 13, 2017 

The U.S. Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865 and led to over 618,000 casualties. Its causes can be traced back to tensions that formed early in the nation's history. While the issue of slavery was at the heart of the division between North and South, a complex array of issues led to the South's secession and the "War Between the States."

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DIFFERENCES

When Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793, cotton became very profitable.

This machine was able to reduce the time it took to separate seeds from the cotton. At the same time, the increase in the number of plantations willing to move from other crops to cotton meant the greater need for a large amount of cheap labor such as slaves. The southern economy became a one-crop economy, depending on cotton and therefore on slavery.

Though it was often supported throughout the social and economic classes, not every Southerner owned slaves. The population of the South was around 6 million in 1850 and only about 350,000 were slave owners. This included many of the wealthiest families, a number of whom owned large plantations.

In contrast, industry ruled the economy of the North and less emphasis was on agriculture, though even that was more diverse. Many northern industries were purchasing the South's raw cotton and turning it into finished goods.

The North saw a population boom as industrialization took over as well.

The birth rate was greater than in the South and it was a great time for immigration. It's said that seven of eight immigrants settled in the North and many of their traditional beliefs looked negatively on slavery.

This disparity between the two regions of the country set up a major difference in economic attitudes.

The South was based on the plantation system while the North was focused on city life. This change in the North meant that society evolved as people of different cultures and classes had to work together. The South continued to hold onto an antiquated social order. On both sides, economics influenced people's political views.

STATES VS. FEDERAL RIGHTS

Since the time of the American Revolution, two camps emerged when it came to the role of government. Some people argued for greater rights for the states and others argued that the federal government needed to have more control.

The first organized government in the U.S. after the Revolution was under the Articles of Confederation. The thirteen states formed a loose confederation with a very weak federal government. However, when problems arose, the weaknesses of the Articles caused the leaders of the time to come together at the Constitutional Convention and create, in secret, the U.S. Constitution.

Strong proponents of states rights like Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry were not present at this meeting. Many felt that the new constitution ignored the rights of states 

to continue to act independently. They felt that the states should still have the right to decide if they were willing to accept certain federal acts.

This resulted in the idea of nullification, whereby the states would have the right to rule federal acts unconstitutional. The federal government denied states this right. However, proponents such as John C. Calhoun—who resigned as Vice President to represent South Carolina in the Senate—fought vehemently for nullification. When nullification would not work and many of the southern states felt that they were no longer respected, they moved towards thoughts of secession.

SLAVE AND NON-SLAVE STATES

As America began to expand—first with the lands gained from the Louisiana Purchase and later with the Mexican War—the question arose of whether new states would be slave or free. An attempt was made to ensure that equal numbers of free and slave states were admitted to the Union, but over time this proved difficult.

The Missouri Compromise passed in 1820. This established a rule that prohibited slavery in states from the former Louisiana Purchase north of the latitude 36 degrees 30 minutes, with the exception of Missouri. 

During the Mexican War, the debate began about what would happen with the new territories the U.S. expected to gain upon victory. David Wilmot proposed the Wilmot Proviso in 1846 which would ban slavery in the new lands. This was shot down to much debate.

The Compromise of 1850 was created by Henry Clay and others to deal with the balance between slave and free states. It was designed to protect both northern and southern interests. When California was admitted as a free state, one of the provisions was the Fugitive Slave Act. This held individuals responsible for harboring fugitive slaves even if they were located in non-slave states. 

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was another issue that further increased tensions. It created two new territories that would allow the states to use popular sovereignty to determine whether they would be free or slave. The real issue occurred in Kansas where pro-slavery Missourians, called "Border Ruffians," began to pour into the state in an attempt to force it toward slavery. 

Problems came to a head with a violent clash at Lawrence, Kansas, causing it to become known as "Bleeding Kansas." The fight even erupted on the floor of the Senate when anti-slavery proponent Charles Sumner was beaten over the head by South Carolina's Senator Preston Brooks.

THE ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT

Increasingly, Northerners became more polarized against slavery. Sympathies began to grow for abolitionists and against slavery and slaveholders. Many in the North came to view slavery as not just socially unjust, but morally wrong.

The abolitionists came with a variety of viewpoints. Those such William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass wanted immediate freedom for all slaves. A group that included Theodore Weld and Arthur Tappan advocated for emancipating slaves slowly.

Still others, including Abraham Lincoln, simply hoped to keep slavery from expanding.

A number of events helped fuel the cause for abolition in the 1850s. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and that popular novel opened many eyes to the reality of slavery. The Dred Scott Case brought the issue of a slave's rights, freedom, and citizenship to the Supreme Court.

Additionally, some abolitionists took a less peaceful route to fighting slavery. John Brown and his family fought on the anti-slavery side of "Bleeding Kansas." They were responsible for the Pottawatomie Massacre in which they killed five settlers who were pro-slavery.  Yet, Brown's best-known fight would be his last when the group attacked Harper's Ferry in 1859, a crime for which he would hang.

THE ELECTION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The politics of the day were as stormy as the anti-slavery campaigns. All of the issues of the young nation were dividing the political parties and reshaping the established two-party system of Whigs and Democrats. 

The Democratic party was divided between factions in the North and South. At the same time, the conflicts surrounding Kansas and the Compromise of 1850 transformed the Whig party into the Republican party (established in 1854). In the North, this new party was seen as both anti-slavery and for the advancement of the American economy. This included the support of industry and encouraging homesteading while advancing educational opportunities. In the South, Republicans were seen as little more than divisive.

The presidential election of 1860 would be the deciding point for the Union. Abraham 

Lincoln represented the new Republican party and Stephen Douglas, the Northern Democrat, was seen as his biggest rival. The Southern Democrats put John C. Breckenridge on the ballot. John C. Bell represented the Constitutional Union Party, a group of conservative Whigs hoping to avoid secession.

The country's divisions were clear on election day. Lincoln won the North, Breckenridge the South, and Bell the border states. Douglas won only Missouri and a portion of New Jersey. It was enough for Lincoln to win the popular vote as well as 180 electoral votes.

Even though things were already near a boiling point after Lincoln was elected South Carolina issued its "Declaration of the Causes of Secession" on December 24, 1860. They believed that Lincoln was anti-slavery and in favor of Northern interests. 

President Buchanan's administration did little to quell the tension or stop what would become known as "Secession Winter." Between election day and Lincoln's inauguration in March, seven states had seceded from the Union: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. 

In the process, the South took control of federal installations, including forts in the region which would give them a foundation for war. One of the most shocking events occurred when one-quarter of the nation's army surrendered in Texas under the command of General David E. Twigg. Not a single shot was fired in that exchange, but the stage was set for the bloodiest war in American history.

Happy 911 day!

Washington, D.C. – In response to the U.S. Senate’s unanimous vote to allow 9/11 victims’ families to sue Saudi Arabia in federal court, a report published in the London-based Al-Hayat daily, by Saudi legal expert Katib al-Shammari, claims that the U.S. masterminded the terror attacks as a means of creating a nebulous “enemy” in order garner public support for a global war on terror.

The report by al-Shammari, translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), claims that long-standing American policy is “built upon the principle of advance planning and future probabilities,” which the U.S. has now turned toward the Saudi regime after being successfully employed against first the Taliban and al-Qaeda, then Saddam Hussein and his secular Baathist controlled Iraq.

Al-Shammari claims the recent U.S. threats to “expose” documents implicating the Saudi government are simply the continuation of a U.S. policy, which he refers to as “victory by means of archive.” He highlights that during the initial invasion of Iraq, under George H.W. Bush, Saddam Hussein was left alive and in power to be used as “a bargaining chip,” but upon deciding that he was “no longer an ace up their sleeve” Washington moved to topple his government and install a U.S.-backed ruling party.

The impetus behind the attacks, writes al-Shammari, was to create “an obscure enemy – terrorism – which became what American presidents blamed for all their mistakes” and that would provide justification for any “dirty operation” in any nation.

“On September 11, the U.S. attained several victories at the same time, that [even] the hawks [who were at that time] in the White House could not have imagined. Some of them can be enumerated as follows:

1. The U.S. created, in public opinion, an obscure enemy – terrorism – which became what American presidents blamed for all their mistakes, and also became the sole motivation for any dirty operation that American politicians and military figures desire to carry out in any country. [The] terrorism [label] was applied to Muslims, and specifically to Saudi Arabia.

2. Utilizing this incident [9/11], the U.S. launched a new age of global armament. Everyone wanted to acquire all kinds of weapons to defend themselves and at the same time battle the obscure enemy, terrorism – [even though] up to this very moment we do not know the essence of this terrorism of which the U.S. speaks, except [to say that] that it is Islamic…

3. The U.S. made the American people choose from two bad options: either live peacefully [but] remain exposed to the danger of death [by terrorism] at any moment, or starve in safety, because [the country’s budget will be spent on sending] the Marines even as far as Mars to defend you.”

The Saudi press has been in a frenzy since the unanimous Senate vote to allow for the House of Saud to be held liable in U.S. federal court for the 9/11 attacks, with the U.S. being accused of being in alliance with Iran – to press warnings that passage of the “Satanic” bill would “open the gates of hell,” as reported by Breitbart.

Al-Shammari makes extremely clear that he views the problem as the U.S. imperial machine itself, stating,“the nature of the U.S. is that it cannot exist without an enemy.”

“The nature of the U.S. is that it cannot exist without an enemy… [For example,] after a period during which it did not fight anyone [i.e. following World War II], the U.S. created a new kind of war – the Cold War… Then, when the Soviet era ended, after we Muslims helped the religions and fought Communism on their [the Americans’] behalf, they began to see Muslims as their new enemy! The U.S. saw a need for creating a new enemy – and planned, organized, and carried this out [i.e. blamed Muslims for terrorism]. This will never end until it [the U.S.] accomplishes the goals it has set for itself.”

While it seems fighting Islamic terrorism is great for increasing fear and state propaganda meant to elicit compliant civilian populations that passively accept loss of liberty for promises of greater security, the military-industrial complex needs a bigger enemy to justify their $600 billion dollar-a-year budgets, thus beginning the transition to labeling Russia/China as “aggressive Russia/China,” in an effort to begin to pivot away from one boogeyman to other, more profitable, ones.

Ethereum

Making the Entire World Trustless

POSTED BY: EVAN FAGGART  

We all know about the radical potential that Bitcoin has to make the world’s monetary system trustless. Bitcoin is already, in itself, completely trustless. There is no central authority that governs over the issuance of Bitcoin or the regulation of its supply. It is scarce; bitcoins cannot be created out of thin air, unlike the fiat currencies we are currently forced by law to use. Even transactions with Bitcoin are trustless. Once a payment is sent, it cannot be retrieved in any way. Therefore, it cannot be double spent. The transaction is confirmed by randomly chosen miners in a matter of minutes. There is no middle man, no bank or credit card company, that you have to put your faith in.

The topic of Bitcoin’s impact on the structure and operation of government has been widely discussed in the Bitcoin community. The main source of government power is its monopoly on money. With the sole authority to issue money create arbitrarily and infinitely, governments can pay for anything they want. They can wage endless wars over politics and natural resources, or they can fund massive welfare states to keep the citizens complacent and subservient. Bitcoin can change all that. By decentralizing the money supply, governments lose their monopoly control over it. Furthermore, the pseudonymous nature of Bitcoin makes it difficult to track, essentially rendering the government’s power of compulsory taxation moot. Consequently, governments would rely on voluntary donations to continue operations, meaning that they actually have to provide value to society. This change in the operation of governments would make them completely voluntary, which many argue would make them completely obsolete.

But Bitcoin cannot fully decentralize all aspects of society, however. Even if it can render violent governments impotent, Bitcoin does not do very much in terms of creating decentralized social structures outside of the realm of money. Here is where Ethereum will fill the gap.

Ethereum is not a crypto-currency, it is not even a monetary system. It isn’t a website, or any kind of social network. Ethereum is a platform. That is all Ethereum is. It is a platform based on smart contracts that allow for the funding and implementation of any type of project. The only limitations are those limits on the imaginations of the people using Ethereum. Simply put, Ethereum is a decentralized development platform that provides a trustless system of contracts and project implementation.

This distributed development platform operates on Ether, the built in unit of payment in the Ethereum network. The Ethers could, of course, end up being a currency. However, the potentialities of Ethereum are so grand that the Ether will likely serve as a means of digitally signing contracts and verifying escrow transactions that release other currencies, like Bitcoin, into the possession of the person who has completed the contracted job.

The main building block of Ethereum is the smart contract, which is a decentralized, trustless contract that exists within the Ethereum network. They are verified by using Ethers to confirm transactions and are limited only by what the developers using this platform can imagine, as was mentioned before. And the things that have so far been imagined are simply stunning! Here is a list of a few things that are possible within the Ethereum network that are listed on the platform’s official website:

• “Create a currency and issue shares.”
• “Contracts, law, and escrow.”
• “Financial instruments and derivatives.”
• “Decentralized organizations (DAOs).”
• “Decentralized voting.”
• “Decentralized data storage.”

These are only a few basic things that are listed on Ethereum’s website. The possibilities are literally endless. The concept is so simple yet elegant; a decentralized system of contracts that can be used to create anything that is desired. However, the development process is extremely complex. This project is the cutting edge of decentralization technology, far outweighing that of the various crypto-currencies, despite their constant growth and improvement.

It is essentially impossible to cover all of the things that can be done on Ethereum, because literally anything that is contract-based can be done. So let us imagine what the operation of a city would look like on the Ethereum network. Imagine that a neighborhood or city has a social contract outlined in a digital format on Ethereum. The contract would guarantee things that normal governments provide today, such as water and electricity. However, this social contract would be completely voluntary, there would be no forced taxation of violent enforcement of the rules, or laws—if they could be called laws under this system. An individual moving into the area would consent to this social contract by sending an Ether to an address that is owned by a company or agency responsible for supplying and maintaining the utility in question, whether it be water, power, sewer, telephone, etc. This transaction would set another transaction in motion, in which the person who has newly confirmed his or her consent to the social contract puts the necessary payment into an escrow service, which would of course operate on Ethereum. The company would then turn on the water, power, etc. in this person’s house.

Once the utility has been turned on, the person confirms the transaction by approving the release of his funds from the escrow account. The process repeats in the next payment cycle. If the utility company turns on the power but the resident does not release the money from escrow, the company simply turns the power off. There is no force involved, everyone is responsible for their actions. Failure to comply with the explicitly agreed upon contract results in a revocation of the services provided under the contract. This scenario seems like a much more peaceful method of conducting society indeed!

Ethereum is still in the development stages at this point, so there are no empirical facts currently available about the efficacy of this system. So all we can do is speculate and theorize, which is what we have been doing above. However, if Ethereum is successfully implemented, the situation described in the previous paragraph could indeed become a reality, along with an infinite set of other social and economic organizations. If it can be imagined, and built based on a system of decentralized contracts—which everything can be, theoretically—then it can be done on Ethereum.

The second part will discuss in potentials, Btc-Etherum and implementations, You can read the second part HERE

Help Me SPLC!

An open letter to the Southern Poverty Law Center:

There is a new neighborhood in Austin being named "Stonewall" as in the racist slave owning confederate general. It is actually a walled compound where the white 1% can live, separate from people of color. It's website proclaims it to be "in a desirable location"... as you know this is code talk for "whites only". I am appalled that in the progressive & tolerant sanctuary city of Austin this symbol of hate can exist. It makes me physically ill to walk by this racist compound & something must be done. Please, can you help us?  I am planning a rally to "tear down this wall" & really need your help getting the Antifa & alt-left folks out to help. I saw that you had the Stonewall Elementary School out near Fredericksburg on your map of hate & was hoping that you could add this confederate landmark also.

As a side note, it's interesting that a German named town can even exist in America today considering that country's Nazi past; I suspect that Neo-Nazis infest the whole place. I have started a petition to rename this city Fredtown & the school Flintstone. I kind of like this, even though Fred Flintstone was a sexist entitled white male.

Stonewall = (hate + racism) x 1%.

(I don't normally even use the word "wall" anymore, since it was adopted by the racist sexist confederate-loving so-called president Trump.)

~ Jk

2017 is 1984

Every record has been destroyed or falsified. Every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building name has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless presence in which the party is always right.

George Orwell - 1984

Anonymous

GREETINGS, PEOPLE OF THE WORLD - WE ARE ANONYMOUS

There are many theories about us. That we’re anarchists, kids, crazy film-buffs that saw one too many superhero movies. The truth is, we are all these things. Anonymous is a symbol, like the flag a country flies. The flag is the symbol of the country. Our masks are our national identity. We are not Anonymous – we represent the ideals of Anonymous. Truth, freedom and the removal of censorship. Like any symbol, we affix it wherever we go, as you have seen from street protests. 

We have no leaders, civilians or soldiers. We are all one. We run operations because that is what the group decides to do. We choose targets because that is what the people who represent the ideals of Anonymous want to fight for. The world is in trouble. We see it every day – war, poverty, murder. Every day we are bombarded with news and images, as we sit at home safe in the knowledge that we are powerless, that “better” minds are dealing with the situation. 

But what if you could be the change you want to see? 
I’m 25 years old. I went to school and college. I fought for my country then got a job and paid my taxes. If you met me on the street I wouldn’t even register on your radar. I am just another person in a sea of faces. 

But in cyberspace we are different. We helped free the people of Egypt. We helped fight against Israel as it attempted genocide. We exposed more than 50,000 paedophiles around the world. We fought the drug cartels. We have taken to the streets to fight for the rights you are letting slip through your fingers. 

We are Anonymous. 

In today’s world we are seen as terrorists or at best dangerous anarchists. We’re called “cowards” and “posers” for hiding behind masks, but who is the real poser? We take away the face and leave only the message. Behind the mask we could be anyone, which is why we are judged by what we say and do, not who we are or what we have. 

We exist without nationality, skin colour or religious bias. 

You wage wars, lie to us and try to make us believe it’s for our own good. 
Yet we’re the criminals? 

We spend our time within a structure we created, the sum total of human experience spread throughout the world in ones and zeros. When CERN created the internet backbone, 
the goal was to freely share knowledge and learning with others throughout the world. 
You fear us because you do not understand us. You see the results but not the minds behind it. When we took down PlayStation you saw your personal details, your bank details 
– the things which society says makes up you 
– disappear into the ether, but ask yourself this. 
If we could do it so easily, what’s to stop someone else?

We stole the information and then publicly took responsibility. Not a single penny was stolen. The purpose wasn’t financial gain but to show the world who you put your trust in. Every day you send yourself off into our world without a thought. You trust a faceless website with information about you that you wouldn’t give to your best friends. We took advantage of holes in this system, but we didn’t sneak in and take a few details, take out loans and credit cards, buy speedboats and cars. We told you and the world how insecure the system was, and now you trust a bit less blindly. The real criminals that hack computers for a living live off the backs of people like you. Where there’s money, there’s someone looking to take advantage of it. We had been telling PlayStation for years that there were holes in their security, but because they didn’t want to look weak they ignored us and allowed criminals to abuse your details without your knowledge.  

Today’s biggest issues are really the same as ever and that is knowledge. In the UK a paedophile would get ten years, while the hacker that exposes the paedophile would get 20. Even DDoSers can face years in prison, and for what?

A DDoS (distributed denial-of-service attack) is no worse than a virtual sit-in. If anything it’s better, because it requires no police, ambulance, fire or any form of external services. An attack begins and the website goes down, the attack ends and the website goes back up. The problem is that hackers and hacktivists are portrayed as boogiemen. Not much has changed since the days of Kevin Mitnick, imprisoned in solitary confinement because the American police thought he could whistle nuclear-missile launch codes down a phone. 

Today, technology is everywhere, in banks and ATMs, TVs and games consoles, streetlights and hospitals. Computers rule the modern world. Yet most people who use computers every day don’t know what they’re doing.

You use a computer like it’s a toy, a pet. You feed and play with it but the second anything goes wrong, it’s off to the vet. This wouldn’t matter so much if it wasn’t for the fact that your pet is responsible for the lives of at least 20 other people. 

Take Nerdo (his name is now public knowledge but I will continue to use his online handle), a church volunteer and student at Northampton University. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison for “organising” a DDoS attack on PayPal that, the company said, cost £3.5 millon. But what did he actually do, and what happened to the money? 

What he actually did was hang around IRC and forums encouraging as many people as possible to run a DDoS attack against paypal.com in response to the firm cutting off donations to WikiLeaks. 
And what happened to the £3.5 million that was “lost”? Nothing. 

There was no theft. That money isn’t sitting in an offshore bank. It was a number pulled out of thin air, PayPal’s estimate of how much business was lost during the attack and how much it would cost to secure their systems against another attack. This is like a burglar being held accountable for the company he robbed installing a new security system because the burglar beat the old one. PayPal was not ready for this kind of protest against their company, despite the large amounts of cash it was dealing with. A bunch of people sitting in front of a computer managed to close it down. 

This is hacktivism in its purest form. It is a great equaliser. A homeless person at an internet cafe with the time and knowhow can have geopolitical influence. They can bring entire organisations, even governments, to their knees. You gave your world over to computers then complained when the people using the computers used the medium to fight back. 

We are not computer hackers. We are not protesters. We are not criminals. We are your mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, next-door neighbours. 

We are anyone and everyone who is pissed off and wants to do something about it. 

An Anonymous operation isn’t a five-person thing. It requires hundreds of people to make it work – video makers, whistleblowers, people on the street. The only way an Anonymous operation can sustain itself is through public support. If Nerdo had gone after PayPal on his own it probably wouldn’t have even noticed the increase in packet data being sent to the website. But because the firm angered enough people with its attack on WikiLeaks, our “hangout”, the group consciousness, Anonymous, stepped up. 

I’m not going to tell you that we are right or wrong. We did what we thought was best, supported those that were caught and continued on. The only thing I ask is just for one minute, just for one second, think! 

> We are Anonymous. 
> We are Legion. 
> We do not Forgive. 
> We do not Forget.

> EXPECT US!

Arts+CultureFeature#HackYourFuture: ActivismHack Your FutureAnonymousHacktivism

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When The Grid Goes Down...

On Friday 7/29/17, North Korea just successfully tested an ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) and experts from four different countries including the U.S. have determined that they have the capability of striking the U.S. anywhere.  That means the optimal point for an EMP strike (dead center of the continental U.S., at 300 km above ground) is not only their prime target but also attainable.

Most will be clueless and unprepared.  Let’s do it up, down and dirty with the steps that you should take if you are “Citizen X” outlined in the scenario:

1. Have a plan already in place: That means to formulate one right now, if you haven’t already done so.

2. If there are a lot of people around, such as in the scenario, then immediately grab your gear and get out of there. What gear, you may ask?  We’ve “gamed” much of this to the point of nausea, but let’s list out those essentials:

“Go/Bug Out Bag”: This guy already needs to be packed and ready, in that vehicle that will become a 3,000-lb. paperweight. Three days’ supply of ready-to-eat food, one day’s worth of water and the means to filter more.  Compass, flashlight, knife, first aid kit, poncho, jacket/sweatshirt, extra socks, map, light sleeping bag, fire starting material, small fishing kit (hooks, line, bobber), sewing kit, MSW (Minor Surgical Wound) kit, extra cash ($20 denominations and smaller), ground pad, extra clothing (hat, OG bandana, etc.), and ammo. An EMP may be followed by radiological and nuclear consequences. Having an NBC gas mask and anti-radiation pills in your vehicle could be a lifesaver.

Weapon: Please don’t feed me “legal information,” or “I can’t do that in my state.” These are “sink or swim” rules.  If you don’t have a weapon now, you may not have one later.  If you don’t have the fortitude to take that weapon and be ready to use it when the time comes, then you probably won’t survive this or be able to help your family.  One rifle, one pistol, with ammo for each.

Grab that bag and put it on, securing your weapons. Then secure the vehicle, closing the windows and locking it up.  If nobody is around, throw it into neutral and push it off the road.  Camouflage it with branches and leaves…taking care not to cut them from the immediate area that you stash it.  Most likely it’ll be “violated,” so now is the time to take the stuff you need and get it out. If the scenario above applies, just secure the vehicle and get out of there.

3. Traveling: Do not walk on the roads. Skirt the road with about 50 meters (that’s about 150 feet) between you and the edge of the road.  Stay away from people unless you know them and trustthem…both qualities are emboldened.

4. For metro people: If you are out in the suburbs or open road, and you must return to the city? It may be better for you and your family to arrange for a rallying point outside of the city.  If that isn’t possible, then you should exercise extreme caution.  Allow the nearest family member to secure the home and then wait for you.  Travel when it’s dark to be on the safe side.  Your visibility is cut down, and so is the visibility of those who may be hunting you.

5. Long distance to go? Forage along the way.  Refill your canteens/water bottles whenever you’re able, and take note of any freestanding water supplies or “blue” features (that’s the color of water on a military map) for use in the future.  DON’T MARK YOUR MAP!  If someone gets a hold of it, you do not want them to be able to find your home.  You must commit the route to memory and adjust your steps accordingly.

6. Dealing with the Stress of the Event: The power is not coming back on…ever…and it really has begun…the Day After Doomsday is here. Take a deep breath and concentrate on your training, your preparations.  If you don’t have any, then this piece is a wake-up call to get moving!  The best way to do it is immediately accepting what has happened without dwelling on it.  Concentrate on the tasks at hand: navigating home, scouting what is in between, and foraging for anything you need.  You have a job to do!  Reconnaissance!  We’ll go over that now.

Reconnaissance: You must see on the ground what is in between you and the happy Hallmark home you’re returning to. You should take note of any places that hold medical supplies, food, or anything you may need for yourself or your family.  You should take note of possible refuge sites to hide if you and the family hightail it out of the home instead of having a “Walton Family Homecoming.”  You must take note of water features, danger locations (cliffs or impassable terrain features), as well as dangerous individuals.  Yes, the ones who were jerks before all of this?  Wait until you see how they’ll be now, with no controls exercised over them.

7. The best advice I can give: Travel at night. This may be impossible for several reasons.  Firstly, if it’s an all-out nuke attack, there may be the problem of radiation for you, in which case you’ll have to either reach home immediately or seek shelter immediately to remain in place for several weeks.  Secondly, you may have other family members that need to be attended to and cannot wait for a long time.  The kids in the scenario are a prime example.  If it is an EMP only, there will be a “quiet period” of about 6 to 12 hours before everything breaks loose and the sequel to the movie “The Road” begins in real life.  Darkness is the best time to travel.  It hides you and helps you to cover your tracks until the morning light.

8.The rest of the family: They must KNOW THE OVERALL PLAN AND HAVE A PLAN OF THEIR OWN TO FOLLOW UNTIL YOU GET THEM OR UNTIL THEY REACH HOME. This is all going to take some preparation on your part and remember the saying: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  Don’t put it off!

9. Avoid people, families, and groups of people. Your goal when traveling is to be invisible.  I wrote some articles on how to hunt and how to avoid the manhunt.  You may want to refresh yourself on those points, and follow a few basic rules I keep in my own mind and heart:

• When a disaster occurs, everyone is your “friend” even when they are not
• There is no interest but self-interest outside of you and your immediate family
• Whatever you need and have, they also need and want
• They will kill you for the barest of essentials of what you’re carrying
• Don’t talk to anyone: don’t exchange information, pleasantries, and do not tell anyone anything about yourself, your family, your general destination, or your home…it can be used against you later…and it will be.

10. Coming home: Don’t walk right on in. Use a roundabout route, and go to a spot where you can watch your house for at least half an hour or so before making your “triumphant return.”  The S has hit the fan, and this is not the return of the Prodigal…you’re just going to tiptoe in.  But before you tiptoe through the tulips and the window, keep in mind that Tiny Tim and his gang of marauders may have done it before you.  That is why you want to watch the house closely.  Best Advice I can give: Have your kids/spouse put up a long-distance-visible sign/signal so that you know everything is either OK or that you’ll have to come in and rescue the family.  For example, if the birdhouse is still on the corner of the porch, then all is well.  If the birdhouse is gone, or if it’s sitting on top of the post that holds the mailbox…well, time to play CQB (that’s Close Quarters Battle) and clear the house of the rats.

11. Never underestimate anyone’s ability to take your family members hostage: That goes for the “friendly neighbors,” most of all…the biggest rats on the block. If that happens, guess what?  You’re now the HRT (that’s Hostage Rescue Team), or you better have a couple of guys such as this in your survival group/pod/neighborhood unit.  The hardest guy or gal in the world will “cave” when their son or daughter is being held at gunpoint by some goon.

12. You’re home…Now, it’s time to fight! That’s right!  Just when you thought it would be cozy and comfortable…just you and the family and your happy supplies…here comes a whole bagful of “Gummi Bears” down the block…only these bears are armed with baseball bats, zip guns, chains, and crowbars.  Armed also with about a week of BO (that’s Body Odor), all twelve of them combined still have an IQ of 50, tops…and here they are, at your door.  They don’t want Halloween candy, by the way.  You just walked twenty miles.          Say, remember that article I wrote about using ginseng, and drinking coffee to help you keep alert and awake?  I hope that one comes to mind because it’s about to become a “festival” at your house.  We’re going to cover more on this in the next segment.

13. Obtain that “second set” of electronic equipment. Oh yeah, the one JJ continuously warns about!  Well, now that all your electronics that were exposed are junk, I hope you made some Faraday cages and stashed an extra one of those radios…or even several, for those of you who thought long-term.  You need to find out what’s going on.  Ham radios may help if you shielded them.  So may CB’s and satellite phones.

14. Arm the whole family: by the time you reach home, every family member either accompanying you (small children and toddlers excepted) should be armed. Time to really see how tight and full of solidarity you are as a real family unit…one that must fight in order to survive.

15. Exit stage left: You may just find that the homecoming isn’t; that is, you must write it off as a loss and get out of there…it’s either destroyed and burning or occupied by the marauders. Unless you have the skills and the ability to deal with all of them, it is better to retreat and stay alive.  You need a plan in place in order to make this work.

We’ve covered a lot of information here.  This is all designed to stimulate those creative thought processes.  The thinking alone is not enough: you must formulate a plan and then implement it.  A plan without action is of no use.  A plan executed too late is a tragedy: a funeral dirge getting ready to play.  Don’t be too late to formulate your plan for you and your family.  If the lights go out, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the party’s over…and the party may be one that never comes to an end.  Fight that good fight each and every day!  JJ out!

SPLC releases campus guide to countering ‘alt-left’

With college students returning to class in the coming weeks, the SPLC released a new guide today that advises them on how to respond when speakers associated with the growing progressive socialist, or “alt-left,” movement, appear on campus.

In recent months, numerous campuses have been rocked by student protests sparked by the scheduled appearances of alt-left figures such as Al Gore and Bernie Sanders.

The alt-left activity is part of a larger surge in campus organizing and recruitment by progressive socialists. Now, the movement is seeking to capitalize on the publicity and momentum it gained amid its strong support of the Sanders campaign.

Some of the recent protests, at Oklahoma State and elsewhere, have attracted far-right activists known as anti-communists and have turned violent, igniting a debate over freedom of speech on campus.

In its new publication – The Alt-left on Campus: What Students Need to Know – the SPLC advises students to avoid direct confrontation with alt-left speakers and their supporters, many of whom are young progressive socialist eager to engage in street fighting with students and anti-communist protesters.

The guide is a project of the SPLC on Campus program, which currently has chapters at 30 colleges across the country.

“The rise of the alt-left has left many students deeply concerned about hate on campus and asking what they can do to make a difference,” said Lecia Brooks, SPLC director of outreach. “This guide provides answers. It not only shows students how to respond to a possible alt-left event, but how to inoculate your campus against such extremism before these speakers appear on campus.”

In addition to offering step-by-step instructions for students to counter the movement’s influence, the guide explains the racist ideology of the alt-left and profiles its leaders.

As the guide explains, public universities that have a policy allowing student groups to host outside speakers cannot legally bar alt-left speakers except under the most extreme circumstances. The SPLC urges students to hold alternative events that celebrate diversity, inclusion and cultural awareness. In addition, they should speak out against hate and encourage university administrators to issue statements condemning the views of alt-left speakers.

SPLC President Richard Cohen testified in June before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary about the obligation of universities to uphold not only the First Amendment rights of controversial speakers but to speak out against hate and bigotry.

“We need to fight speech that threatens our nation’s constitutional values with speech that upholds them,” Cohen said in his oral testimony. “It’s an obligation that university officials have and one that everyone in public life, starting with the almost presidential candidate, has as well.”

Utilizing The Blockchain & Smart Contract Technologies To Create a Decentralized Government

POSTED BY: TAMER SAMEEH  JANUARY 4, 2017 IN ARTICLES, FEATURED 3 COMMENTS

Bitcoin and the blockchain technology haven’t only revolutionized the financial system, but also introduced us to a whole new era of decentralization that can change the global political system. The blockchain technology has the potential to enable individuals to change how they interact in politics via an unprecedented system that is primarily based on disintermediation via blockchain’s automatic trustless transactions. Such system can totally transform the tenets which underpin the current global political system and models of governance, raising a question by many decentralization enthusiasts:

“Do we really need the traditional “State” along with its centralized governance institutions?”

Do We Still Need a Federal State?

Many blockchain enthusiasts today believe that the civil society can reorganize itself and do a better job in protecting its interests via pulling the plug off the Federal State and replacing its system by services that utilize open source, blockchain based protocols such as Ethereum, Eris, Omni Layer and others. Catalyzed by the zeal for ambitious possibilities, innovative characteristics of the blockchain and smart contract technologies along with an uprising discontent with the present global political systems, decentralization advocates are encouraging citizens to participate in the blockchain revolution and design by themselves their own governance system that relies on a distributed consensus rather than on traditional centralization, coercion and hierarchies.

It is inarguable that decentralization enthusiasts mostly bear a discontented attitude towards centralized authority and its institutions, especially those associated with Federal States. For many blockchain enthusiasts, the Federal State is continuously failing to add any contribution to the prosperity of neither the economic nor the political systems. As a pro-decentralization person, I believe that centralized governments represent an encumbrance; they are too slow, too impotent, too lacking in innovative solutions, too corrupt and benefiting a small percentage of the people they serve.

To avoid prejudice, it is worth mentioning that there exists various attitudes towards the Federal State and its role among supporters of the decentralized government model, yet the line that separates between decentralization advocates and anarchists is usually blurred.

Why Move the Government to the Blockchain?

A large percentage of bitcoin supporters promote the blockchain technology as a public repository that is decentralized, more efficient and consensus, which can give birth to a myriad of applications that can minimize citizens’ need for the government, but within a society that still lies under the umbrella of Federal States’ authorities.

On the other end of the spectrum, lies crypto-anarchists and techno-libertarians who bear a rather more extremist attitude. A large percentage of them believe that the Federal State represents an unnecessary, illegitimate and antiquated power depository and they encourage utilizing the innovations offered by the information technology as liberating force to counteract the concept of federal authorities. From this point view, we are literally in a critical point of history when citizens have the tools they need to gradually bypass the institutions that collectively make up the Federal State authority via means of a distributed consensus that establishes a society of equals which is marked by flat, apart from hierarchical structures.

Bitnation and the Seed of Decentralized Governments:

Despite the fact that attitudes and opinions towards the effectiveness of centralized Federal States may markedly vary, a large number of decentralization evangelists and political activists have already started formulating projects to create “cryptonations” which is the name usually used to describe decentralized governments that rely on the blockchain and smart contract technologies.

Bitnation is the first cryptonation that was formed in 2014. It is considered the first ever decentralized borderless nation that utilizes the blockchain technology. Bitnation provides almost all the services offered by a conventional centralized government including IDs, insurance, marriage certificates and dispute resolutions. On October 5, 2014 Bitnation time-tamped the world’s first blockchain marriage and 5 days later it announced the world’s first blockchain citizenship. Any citizen in the world can get a Bitnation World Citizenship ID.

So, if bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to utilize the blockchain technology, Bitnation is the first decentralized government that also utilizes smart contracts along with the blockchain technology. This is just the beginning of a new era that will witness utilization of the blockchain technology not only in the political system but also in many other aspects of people’s life.