May 2023 - cypherpunks@lists.ogf.org

Cryptocurrency: USA Has Defaulted, Stolen, Rebased, Repriced, Defrauded, and Enslaved Many Times Before
by grarpamp 13 May '23

13 May '23

Here's just a few examples, which sound crypto routes around... "Weird Gold Trick" Could End Debt-Ceiling Showdown https://dailyreckoning.com/weird-gold-trick-could-end-debt-ceiling-showdown/ Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com, The phrase “X-Date” may remind readers of the TV drama The X-Files or the superhero X-Men. It actually refers to the date when the U.S. Treasury goes broke. The problem arises from the fact that issuing U.S. Treasury debt beyond a certain ceiling requires approval from the U.S. Congress. The amount of outstanding debt today is at the current debt ceiling. The Treasury is allowed to issue new debt to roll over maturing debt as long as the ceiling is not breached. Since the U.S. is running large budget deficits, the Treasury has to increase the total amount of debt outstanding in order to pay the government’s bills for everything from F-35 fighter jets to food stamps. Treasury has already hit the debt ceiling but has been able to scrape by with some positive cash flow (due to tax payments around April 15) and some other revenue sources including excise taxes and tariffs. The Treasury also has a slush fund called the Exchange Stabilization Fund (created with the profits made in 1933–34 when FDR confiscated gold and raised the price from $20.67 per ounce to $35.00 per ounce – one of the great insider trades of all time). Still, the Exchange Stabilization Fund has been used lately to prop up the FDIC insurance fund that has been depleted by the bailout of Silicon Valley Bank. You get the picture. X-Date Could Be Just Three Weeks Away The government can shuck and jive and scrape the bottom of the barrel, but the bottom line is there comes a time when the Treasury is actually broke. That’s the X-Date. And the X-Date could be June 1, just three weeks away. The source for this date is Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Of course, Yellen cannot be completely trusted. She could just be trying to scare Republicans into raising the debt ceiling without getting spending cuts in return. Yellen actually doesn’t know much about fiscal policy or a number of legitimate and previously used techniques to create additional spending power for the Treasury without violating the debt ceiling. She’s really just a flunky for the White House so she says what they tell her to say. Still, there is an X-Date out there somewhere. Right now, the House of Representatives and the White House are playing a game of fiscal chicken to see who blinks first. Maybe we’ll find out the hard way when the bond market and the U.S. economy drive over a cliff. But it can all be avoided with just one simple phone call. How? One phone call from the Treasury to the Federal Reserve could reprice the Treasury’s gold from $42.22 per ounce (historic cost) to a market level of $2,042 per ounce (today’s price). That would pull over $550 billion of new spending power out of thin air — without issuing any debt. This was actually done by the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s under similar circumstances. That’s right. Most people don’t realize that there’s a way gold can be used to work around the debt ceiling crisis. I call it the weird gold trick, and it’s never seen discussed anywhere outside of some very technical academic circles. It may sound weird, but it actually works. Here’s how… The Weird Gold Trick, Explained When the Treasury took control of all the nation’s gold during the Depression under the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, it also took control of the Federal Reserve’s gold. But we have a Fifth Amendment in this country that says the government can’t just seize private property without just compensation. And despite its name, the Federal Reserve is not technically a government institution. So the Treasury gave the Federal Reserve a gold certificate as compensation under the Fifth Amendment (to this day, that gold certificate is still on the Fed’s balance sheet). Now come forward to 1953. The Eisenhower administration was up against the debt ceiling. And Congress didn’t raise the debt ceiling in time. Eisenhower and his Treasury secretary realized they couldn’t pay the bills. What happened? They turned to the weird gold trick to get the money. It turned out that the gold certificate the Treasury gave the Fed in 1934 did not account for all the gold the Treasury had. It did not account for all the gold in the Treasury’s possession. The Treasury calculated the difference, sent the Fed a new certificate for the difference and said, “Fed, give me the money.” It did. So the government got the money it needed from the Treasury gold until Congress increased the debt ceiling. That ability exists today. In fact, it exists in a much, much larger form, and here’s why… Marking Gold to Market Right now, the Fed’s gold certificate values gold at $42.22 an ounce. That’s obviously not anywhere near the market price of gold, which, again, is about $2,042 an ounce. Now, the Treasury could issue the Fed a new gold certificate valuing the 8,000 tons of Treasury gold at $2,042 an ounce. They could take today’s market price of $2,042, subtract the official $42.22 price and multiply the difference by 8,000 tons. I’ve done the math, and that number exceeds $500 billion. In other words,the Treasury could issue the Fed a gold certificate for the 8,000 tons in Fort Knox at $2,042 an ounce and tell the Fed, “Give us the difference over $42 an ounce.” The Treasury would have over $500 billion out of thin air with no debt. It would not add to the debt because the Treasury already has the gold. It’s just taking an asset and marking it to market. It’s not a fantasy. It was done twice. It was done in 1934 and it was done again in 1953 by the Eisenhower administration. It could be done again. It doesn’t require legislation. Would the government consider the gold trick I just described? All I can say is don’t count on it. You shouldn’t expect it to happen because no one in power wants to recognize the role of gold as a monetary asset. They don’t want anyone to even talk about gold, except as a “barbarous relic” that belongs in the dustbin of history. Instead, expect this game of chicken to continue. You can brace for the worst by buying gold and building up cash reserves that you can redeploy at a later date. The stock market may be in for a rocky road.

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Cryptocurrency: Debtor Nations Still Crashing And Repeating Same Foolish Mistake... Political Debt Itself
by grarpamp 13 May '23

13 May '23

Congress Leaves Town With No Debt Deal As Biden, McCarthy Postpone Meeting Congress left the Capitol this week with no deal on averting a catastrophic debt ceiling default that may be as close as three weeks away. According to NBC News, a meeting scheduled for Friday between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was postponed until next week while top aides hash continue to negotiate in the hopes of making more headway before the principal negotiators are brought in. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) explains what year it is to President Joe Biden on March 17, 2023. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images file) For weeks, the negotiations have boiled down to Democrats insisting that Republicans agree to a 'clean' (blank check) debt ceiling increase with no conditions, while Republicans demand that Democrats make spending compromises which would pair a debt limit increase with a budget agreement. With the debt limit having been raised, avoiding economic catastrophe, the GOP could claim Democrats backed down from the no-negotiations posture and Democrats could claim some wins in the budget talks and focus on those. A potential bipartisan deal would “take the budget negotiations and kind of blend it in with the raising of the debt ceiling," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a member of the Budget Committee tasked with selecting topline spending figures for the government annually and of the Appropriations Committee, which doles out that funding. "We’ve eventually got to fund the government” in September, he noted. -NBC News "Maybe they can agree on some top lines that would show some fiscal restraint and raise the debt ceiling, but we’ll get there," said Graham. Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA) outlined four policy areas where Republicans and Democrats may be able to strike a deal; Recapturing unspent Covid relief funds Overhauling the permitting process for infrastructure and energy projects Establishing spending caps for upcoming government funding bills Expanding work requirements for those receiving federal aid "I think there’s a pretty good opportunity there," said Graves, a top ally of McCarthy. Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SC) thinks the four areas are the "lowest hanging fruit" that could see bipartisan consensus. "The White House has said that all of these Republican asks are nonstarters. They will say they won’t accept anything. We know they will," said Johnson, who chairs the GOP Main Street Caucus. "I’ll take it anywhere I can get it. We’re working to get it," said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV). "This should be a bipartisan permitting reform bill." Democrats have seized on Wednesday night comments made by former President Trump, who told CNN's Kaitlan Collins during a town hall: "I say to the Republicans out there – congressmen, senators – if they don’t give you massive cuts, you’re going to have to do a default." According to Trump, while he doesn't think a default is likely, "it’s better than what we’re doing right now because we’re spending money like drunken sailors," adding that the effects of a default might not be as disastrous as everyone expects, suggesting "it’s really psychological more than anything else," and adding "maybe it’s, you have a bad week or a bad day." "We might as well do it now" -- Trump endorses a US debt default pic.twitter.com/l81cW3bwH9 — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 11, 2023 "It was dangerous and irresponsible that former President Trump last night said, casually, ‘Eh, just go ahead and default.’" said Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) in a statement to NBC News. Pressed about Trump’s comments encouraging default, McCarthy quickly pivoted Thursday to attacking Biden and repeatedly made the case that House Republicans are the only ones in Washington who have passed legislation to raise the debt ceiling. The McCarthy package would raise the federal borrowing limit by $1.5 trillion or through March, whichever comes first, but it would roll back key pieces of Biden's agenda. -NBC News "I’ve watched President Biden not want a deal and want default," McCarthy told reporters on Thursday - attacking Democrats over the impasse, saying that House Republicans are "the only ones who’ve raised the debt limit." According to the Treasury Department, the country will default on its debt as soon as June 1 unless the borrowing limit is raised.

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Cryptocurrency: Preserves Your Money Against Grubbing ProgDems
by grarpamp 13 May '23

13 May '23

ProgDems want to rob you of your money, no different than any other politicians, just more full of economic bullshit about it. Progressives Want To Eliminate Wealthy Entrepreneurs But Need The Wealth They Create Authored by Lipton Matthews via The Mises Institute, Being perceived as anti–working class is a cardinal sin in American politics. Working-class people are seen as the unappreciated engine of American growth. Hillary Clinton discovered this lesson when she was criticized for calling Donald Trump supporters a “basket of deplorables.” But interestingly, expressing contempt for the upper class is quite tolerable. Rich people are frequently ridiculed by comedians and depicted as snobs in popular culture. Shows like SpongeBob SquarePants and The Simpsons present affluent characters in an unflattering light. Such characters are seldom portrayed as virtuous entrepreneurs who are rewarded for delivering value. Usually, viewers are led to think that the rich are the source of all social ills. Typically, negative depictions of working class or poor people would evoke controversy, but upward classism is tolerated. Sociologist Rainer Zitelmann has written extensively on upward classism and the rich in public opinion. Zitelmann’s research covers how rich people are viewed in Western countries, and his findings are unsurprising. According to the results of Zitelmann’s study, rich people, like other minority groups, are often scapegoats who are blamed for social malaise. However, he observes that the perception of the wealthy is determined by education. In Germany, England, and America, better-educated people have a more favorable view of the rich. A possible explanation is that educated people have higher incomes and are connected to the rich, so their views are more realistic and less tainted by stereotypes. Their education also makes it easier for them to appreciate the significance of the rich in creating value for society. Social enviers, by contrast, have warped perceptions of the rich. Zitelmann documents that such people assign negative traits to the wealthy. Because their views are shaped by a zero-sum mentality, envious people think that when some gain others must lose. Ordinary people benefit tremendously from the inventions of the ambitious and intellectually gifted. The ingenuity of oilman John Davis Rockefeller made the American economy more productive in the nineteenth century, and today our lives are made more convenient by the efficiencies of tech companies like Amazon and Google. Without the traits of the rich, we would lack modern innovations. But unfortunately, most people don’t differentiate the progressive rich who accumulate wealth by delivering value for society from those who increase their wealth by relying on government subsidies or political connections. Hence, we are primarily concerned with the value creators and their attributes that culminate in the formation of dynamic businesses. In undertaking his study, Zitelmann found that the rich are high in conscientiousness and openness to experiences. Other studies assert that rich people have a great propensity for risk. Most rich people are entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs suffer from high failure rates, so this indicates that people who excel in business are not just competent but also perseverant. The average person is not as tenacious as entrepreneurs who establish dynamic businesses that positively transform living standards. Essentially, wealth is the reward for providing value to society. Instead of demonizing the rich, people ought to be thanking them for enriching society with useful skills. However, when envy is pervasive in society, rich people downplay their success to thwart backlash. The downside of doing so is that success is vilified rather than embraced. Societal progress is driven by the passion of ambitious people, and it will come to a halt when the most competent people are demotivated to succeed. Zitelmann noticed in his study that countries like America and England with a lower share of envious people have a relatively higher proportion of millionaires. This is expected because in less envious countries, the success of the rich motivates others to achieve. Economic studies corroborate Zitelmann’s conclusion that the zero-sum mentality of envious people saps industrial progress. One study notes that economic equality fails to mitigate the effects of zero-sum thinking because the possibility of some people becoming more successful can reinforce zero-sum thinking. Redistributing wealth won’t prevent the value-destroying consequences of envious behavior. The zero-sum mindset that fuels envy will only be diminished when societies promote economic freedom to afford more opportunities to generate wealth. When people are free to prosper, they become less likely to engender a zero-sum approach to development and more appreciative of success because it’s now a greater possibility. Rather than wealth redistribution, the solution to envy is progress powered by economic freedom.

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Leaks: US Supreme Court Staffer Leaks Roe v Wade... WitchHunt Protests Police Ensue
by grarpamp 13 May '23

13 May '23

Batten down the hatches... https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opini… https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000180-874f-dd36-a38c-c74f98520000 Who Leaked The Supreme Court Opinion? https://summit.news/2022/05/03/who-leaked-the-supreme-court-opinion/ https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/05/02/leaked-supreme-court-opinion-… After a draft Supreme Court opinion overruling Roe v. Wade was leaked to the press, speculation turned to who was responsible, with calls for them to be arrested. The majority of the court has decided to vote 5-4 to overturn federal constitutional protection of abortion rights, with Justice Samuel Alito writing, “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” in addition to asserting, “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled.” In an unprecedented move, the opinion was leaked to Politico, presumably in an attempt to create massive social unrest that would lead to one or more of the justices being intimidated into changing their mind. “But it is not a binding decision of the court unless at least five justices sign it, and this looks like a transparent and unprecedented betrayal by one of the 45 or so people with access to a draft Supreme Court opinion to prevent this decision from becoming law by scaring off moderate justices and attempting to whip the political left into a frenzy,” reports Breitbart. Experts say the Supreme Court will lose the trust of a generation of Americans if the decision is walked back due to political pressure, but that didn’t stop whichever irate leftist leaked the document metaphorically pulling the pin on the grenade in an attempt to interfere in democracy. “The American people’s belief in the rule of law would be shaken if they lost respect for this Court as an institution that decides important cases based on principle, not ‘social and political pressures’,” states the leaked document itself. “But we cannot exceed the scope of our authority under the Constitution, and we cannot allow our decisions to be affected by the extraneous influences such as concern about the public’s reaction to our work,” Alito responds. Leaking a draft SCOTUS ruling is worse than January 6th. The Court was the one institution where conservatives and liberals lived in peace and trust. You disagreed but the trust was sacred. This completely destroys the Court’s inner workings. Totally in shock right now. — Cernovich (@Cernovich) May 3, 2022 The only people with access to the original document were the nine justices and their 36 law clerks, meaning it’s almost certain that one of the 36 law clerks leaked the document. When you consider that each justice has four clerks working for them, that probably narrows it down to one of 16 clerks working for the four Democrat-appointed justices. “The fact that some are praising this leak shows how utterly craven we have become in our politics,” tweeted attorney Jonathan Turley. “There appears no ethical rule or institutional interest that can withstand this age of rage.” The fact that some are praising this leak shows how utterly craven we have become in our politics. There appears no ethical rule or institutional interest that can withstand this age of rage. — Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 3, 2022 Other respondents highlighted how the leak is designed to intimidate the justices, via sparking potential mass civil unrest, into changing their mind. The perpetrator, who is already being lionized as a hero by the left, should face immediate arrest. Interference in a Supreme Court decision is a blow to democracy - like, say, stopping an electoral vote The conspirators must be rounded up and arrested and placed next to the J6 detainees — Jack Posobiec ☦️ (@JackPosobiec) May 3, 2022 Probably the greatest violation of unwritten "norms" in the history of the Supreme Court. And I absolutely guarantee you the leaker spent years railing against President Trump's undermining of norms. https://t.co/XSa9LaGb66 — Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) May 3, 2022 This is why they leaked: "Justices can and sometimes do change their votes as draft opinions circulate and major decisions can be subject to multiple drafts and vote-trading...The court’s holding will not be final until it is published, likely in the next two months." (Politico) https://t.co/9k0JfLfYZd — Andrew "Leaked Majority Opinion" Kolvet (@AndrewKsay) May 3, 2022 Democrats are now expected to launch an attempt at court packing before they lose Congress in November, although the 5-4 decision should be rubber stamped before then. The leaking of the opinion is brazenly an attempt to subvert that process, create more chaos and violence in America, and derail the constitutional functioning of the Supreme Court. But that won’t matter at all to leftists, who think their moral right to kill babies supersedes all other concerns. 'Betrayal': Supreme Court Slams Leaked Roe Opinion, Says Does Not Represent "Final Decision" The Supreme Court issued a rare rebuttal to Monday's leaked Politico report on a draft opinion overturning abortion rights in the US. Yesterday, a news organization published a copy of a draft opinion in a pending case. Justices circulate draft opinions internally as a routine and essential part of the Court’s confidential deliberative work. Although the document described in yesterday’s reports is authentic, it does not represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case. Chief Justice John G. Roberts. Jr., provided the following statement: To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed. The work of the Court will not be affected in any way. We at the Court are blessed to have a workforce - permanent employees and law clerks alike - intensely loyal to the institution and dedicated to the rule of law. Court employees have an exemplary and important tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the trust of the Court. This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here. I have directed the Marshal of the Court to launch an investigation into the source of the leak. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said on Tuesday that the leaked draft ruling by the Supreme Court overturning Roe was "completely inconsistent" with what Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh told her in private during confirmation hearings when they were Supreme Court nominees. "If this leaked draft opinion is the final decision and this reporting is accurate, it would be completely inconsistent with what Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh said in their hearings and in our meetings in my office," said Collins. "Obviously, we won’t know each Justice’s decision and reasoning until the Supreme Court officially announces its opinion in this case." Collins defended her vote for Kavanaugh in 2018, stating that she didn't believe he would vote to overturn Roe. "I do not believe Brett Kavanaugh will overturn Roe v. Wade," she said at the time. "He noted that Roe had been reaffirmed 19 years later by Planned Parenthood vs. Casey. And that it was precedent on precedent. He said it should be extremely rare that it should be overturned." Meanwhile, the Supreme Court says yesterday's leaked report is authentic. Protests erupted outside the US Supreme Court overnight after a draft majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade leaked to Politico. Photo: Alex Brandon / AP Barriers were erected outside the courthouse as hundreds gathered outside to protest the news, the Washington Post reports. A smaller group of pro-life protesters also showed up, chanting "Pro-choice, that’s a lie. Babies never choose to die," while the larger group of pro-abortion protesters shouted "When abortion rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!" Breaking: Protests are beginning to form outside the Supreme Court. This is just the beginning. #GOPHandmaidsTale pic.twitter.com/8OYnmRxZyN — MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) May 3, 2022 A couple hundred people, most in their 20s and 30s, are now outside SCOTUS. There’s still not yet any organized protest or chanting, just folks standing around talking. Guy just whipped out a can of White Claw. pic.twitter.com/PCrXisy0Ys — Natalie Allison (@natalie_allison) May 3, 2022 Really rich hearing the Left trot out this old chant after the past 2 years of them cheering on vaccine mandates. pic.twitter.com/6yhay9YWaw — The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) May 3, 2022 A scuffle broke out shortly after midnight, as several 'masked protesters' tried to force the pro-life protesters to clear out. Neither group budged according to the report. 2nd clip from the scuffle, looks like someone in a suit gets clocked. pic.twitter.com/BATtQmE7Ms — Doge (@IntelDoge) May 3, 2022 "The first line in the draft is that this is a moral issue. If it’s a moral issue, you shouldn’t be depriving us of our choice," said Annie McDonnell, a student at George Washington University. President Joe Biden responded to the report with a statement he undoubtedly had zero involvement crafting, saying: "We do not know whether this draft is genuine, or whether it reflects the final decision of the Court." The statement adds that Roe is based on a "long line of precedent recognizing ‘the Fourteenth Amendments concept of personal liberty... against government interference with intensely personal decisions," adding that he believes a woman's right to choose is 'fundamental,' and that Roe has been the 'law of the land for almost fifty years, and basic fairness and the stability of our law' demand that it not be overturned." Biden then said that the White House's "Gender Policy Council" has prepared options to respond to "the continued attack on abortion and reproductive rights, under a variety of possible outcomes in the cases pending before the Supreme Court. Supreme Court Set To Overturn Roe v Wade, Leaked Draft Opinion Shows A leaked draft of a US Supreme Court decision reveals that the majority of the court has decided to overturn Roe v. Wade by a vote of 5-4, according to Politico, which calls it a "full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision – Planned Parenthood v. Casey – that largely maintained the right." "Roe was egregiously wrong from the start," wrote Justice Samuel Alito in the draft which was circulated inside the court before someone leaked it to the news outlet. "We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled." “No draft decision in the modern history of the court has been disclosed publicly while a case was still pending. The unprecedented revelation is bound to intensify the debate over what was already the most controversial case on the docket this term.” https://t.co/2os0uJWyUr — Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) May 3, 2022 Politico highlighted these 10 passages from the draft opinion: “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision....” “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division. It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.” “In the years prior to [Roe v. Wade], about a third of the States had liberalized their laws, but Roe abruptly ended that political process. It imposed the same highly restrictive regime on the entire Nation, and it effectively struck down the abortion laws of every single State. … [I]t represented the ‘exercise of raw judicial power’… and it sparked a national controversy that has embittered our political culture for a half-century.” “The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions. On the contrary, an unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain of criminal punishment persisted from the earliest days of the common law until 1973.” “In some States, voters may believe that the abortion right should be more even more [sic] extensive than the right Casey and Roe recognized. Voters in other States may wish to impose tight restrictions based on their belief that abortion destroys an ‘unborn human being.’ ... Our nation’s historical understanding of ordered liberty does not prevent the people’s elected representatives from deciding how abortion should be regulated.” “We have long recognized, however, that stare decisis is ‘not an inexorable command,’ and it ‘is at its weakest when we interpret the Constitution.’ It has been said that it is sometimes more important that an issue ‘be settled than that it be settled right.’ But when it comes to the interpretation of the Constitution — the ‘great charter of our liberties,’ which was meant ‘to endure through a long lapse of ages,’ we place a high value on having the matter ‘settled right.’” “On many other occasions, this Court has overruled important constitutional decisions. … Without these decisions, American constitutional law as we know it would be unrecognizable, and this would be a different country.” ”Casey described itself as calling both sides of the national controversy to resolve their debate, but in doing so, Casey necessarily declared a winning side. … The Court short-circuited the democratic process by closing it to the large number of Americans who dissented in any respect from Roe. … Together, Roe and Casey represent an error that cannot be allowed to stand.” “Roe certainly did not succeed in ending division on the issue of abortion. On the contrary, Roe ‘inflamed’ a national issue that has remained bitterly divisive for the past half-century....This Court’s inability to end debate on the issue should not have been surprising. This Court cannot bring about the permanent resolution of a rancorous national controversy simply by dictating a settlement and telling the people to move on. Whatever influence the Court may have on public attitudes must stem from the strength of our opinions, not an attempt to exercise ‘raw judicial power.’” “We do not pretend to know how our political system or society will respond to today’s decision overruling Roe and Casey. And even if we could foresee what will happen, we would have no authority to let that knowledge influence our decision. We can only do our job, which is to interpret the law, apply longstanding principles of stare decisis, and decide this case accordingly. We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives.” Sorry one last thing for those wondering about Court procedure: After oral argument the Justices take a tentative vote. This would have happened in December. The senior most justice in the majority gets to assign the opinion. That might have been Roberts, but doubtful since... — Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) May 3, 2022 So there is the possibility an opinion can flip after oral argument and the tentative vote, so it's theoretically powerful the Alito opinion won't be the vote of the Court. But it would require a Justice BESIDES Chief Justice Roberts to flip. — Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) May 3, 2022 The magnitude of this report is so serious that Politico included this editor's note vouching for the authenticity of the draft decision. Via Ben Mullin The leak has completely wiped the headlines and Twitter is exploding with hot takes. Leaking a draft SCOTUS ruling is worse than January 6th. The Court was the one institution where conservatives and liberals lived in peace and trust. You disagreed but the trust was sacred. This completely destroys the Court’s inner workings. Totally in shock right now. — Cernovich (@Cernovich) May 3, 2022 The fact that some are praising this leak shows how utterly craven we have become in our politics. There appears no ethical rule or institutional interest that can withstand this age of rage. — Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 3, 2022 FWIW, there’s not much the GOP wants less than Roe to actually be overturned. If the Politico scoop is correct, the GOP is now the dog who caught the car. Roe was always a shiny thing to campaign on (much like repealing Obamacare) but never something they actually wanted to do. — Angry Staffer 🌻 (@Angry_Staffer) May 3, 2022 This is why they leaked: "Justices can and sometimes do change their votes as draft opinions circulate and major decisions can be subject to multiple drafts and vote-trading...The court’s holding will not be final until it is published, likely in the next two months." (Politico) https://t.co/9k0JfLfYZd — Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKsay) May 3, 2022 Probably the greatest violation of unwritten "norms" in the history of the Supreme Court. And I absolutely guarantee you the leaker spent years railing against President Trump's undermining of norms. https://t.co/XSa9LaGb66 — Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) May 3, 2022 Interference in a Supreme Court decision is a blow to democracy - like, say, stopping an electoral vote The conspirators must be rounded up and arrested and placed next to the J6 detainees — Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) May 3, 2022 and. here. we. go. pic.twitter.com/5I9Ngxiz3U — Siraj Hashmi (@SirajAHashmi) May 3, 2022

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Proud-boy leader E. Tarrio found guilty of sedition
by professor rat 13 May '23

13 May '23

Something any cypherpunk revolutionary would be proud of >> JordanOnRecord · 20m COUNT 1: Seditious Conspiracy Ethan Nordean: GUILTY Joseph Biggs: GUILTY Zachary Rehl: GUILTY Enrique Tarrio: GUILTY Dominic Pezzola: [NO VERDICT] <<<

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Tory anarchists just another weak-tea pretender
by professor rat 13 May '23

13 May '23

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10881213/The-coming-digital-ana… Reposts not anarchy for the UK

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Defining cryptoanarchy down
by professor rat 13 May '23

13 May '23

https://www.eurasiareview.com/10052023-cypherpunks-galts-gulch-and-bitcoin-… Reposts not against the idea of handcuffing cryptoanarchy to a corpse who idealized the US dollar and scorned anarchism.

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[ot][spam][confused/crazy] thoughts on speaking non-pretentiously
by Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many 13 May '23

13 May '23

i forgot the thiughts by the time i reached the editing field

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[ot][crazy][personal] minirelevance?
by Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many 13 May '23

13 May '23

it seems a good thing to try to make when super confused is something that can help relate small concepts with large information stores. either way, modeling it helps build the concept for the struggling internal skill. one idea is trying to make a very short script that somehow does some of this, maybe with something like vicuna and a prompt like those used in agent systems parts: - body of information - expression to relate with body - language model + prompt template, or other way to compare expression with information - loop that goes through information and looks for parts related to the expression for simplicity it could start with its own source code and use an expression that is not there has similarity, such as containing a synonym or asking about source code, and use a small window.

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[crazy][personal][rambling][wrong] defeating captchas
by Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many 13 May '23

13 May '23

today, the internet is out, and my android phone is crippled by the vendor so that although it will run a hotspot it won’t route packets received via the hotspot, and it’s hard to configure ssh and git to use a proxy so i’m running tor on my phone’s hotspot, and this gives me dense captchas now, around 2005, once, i signed up for an amazon turk job to do something like identifying captchas or something, i don’t really remember. of course i tried to write code to do the job for me, and i did this, and my code made me around $100. this was a lot of money for me at the time! i’d never had much of a job then and there was no cryptocurrency boom yet. then i went to cash out and something went wrong and for months it wouldn’t cash out and i never saw the money. there was a moral overtone. i’d cheated on amazon turk, and couldn’t get paid. it left a funny feeling around hacking captchas. but i wasn’t some indentured spammer, i was just a college kid … one could describe it a lot of ways. but anyway the landscape is very different now. so, nowadays, tor is so thoroughly used that the captchas that google shows when accessed via it are not really doable by a human being. this has been the case for some years now. they’re so dense you could pretty much only complete them with a robot. google shows an “inverse captcha” to tor users: prompts that only a computer could complete. meanwhile we’re at a point with public tech where it seems anybody could write code to solve these captchas. they’re just image identification. !

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