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The Ides of March Cometh – Who’s Your Family, Who’s Your Banker, Who’s Your Farmer, Where’s Your Money?


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47 Comments

  1. The Great Firewall of America is now detectable by VPN providers:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38za1LYj2XQ

    As we’ve all known for years, deep packet inspection and port throttling have always been possible, but the fact that some unknown major backbone provider (likely AT&T) is now discriminating for VPNs specifically is HUGE news.

    Even if your traffic is encrypted, if they can get an unmasked IP, it’s useful for watchlists/targeted surveillance. No wonder Bill Binney has stated for years that he does not use encryption or obfuscation techniques at all.

      1. Of course, Ira, happy to share with my Solari friends!

        Rob Braxman is a stalwart independent researcher – he was also the first to determine how the magic virus contact tracing API worked and potential means to thwart it.

        He’s a solid source for pragmatic means of digital self-defense.

  2. What if the corporation use bitcoin to pay off their debts?

    Like slowly but surly all the business round table corp excs buy bitcoin then it pumps to the moon and corporations cash out and pay off all their debts from the stock buyback mania of the last decade.

    1. You would need a lot more liquidity in the Bitcoin market than what now exists. But some smaller version of these plays are likely to be happening. As Dr Farrell said “Ah, free money for private armies.” My fear is the most valuable function is the Beck Brothers troops.

      1. Couldn’t this be a matter of price moreso than liquidity, just as gold could hypothetically fulfill debt obligations at a higher per ounce cost?

        BTC OTC desks are arguably the most mature part of the industry and function as effective “crypto dark pools,” especially in the East. It’s a largely invisible market to retail traders as well.

        The current Tether cryptoasset inflation scheme has been effective but run its course and I do not see it as coincidence that the longstanding NY AG case against Bitfinex is winding down just as Larry Fink is gearing up to have BlackRock take their place:
        https://www.reuters.com/article/us-blackrock-investment-crypto-currency-idUSKBN29Q0FH

        As you and Titus have so aptly pointed out, BlackRock’s position as an unlicensed commercial bank and direct beneficiary of Going Direct means they can do whatever they want to the price of BTC (the ticker here is an important distinction, as bitcoin is a protocol and BTC is the captured financial asset running a heavily modified version of the original protocol).

        In fact, BTC could be the perfect asset for Mr. Global to settle debt and trade imbalances with China, as the quid pro quo is baked into the cake – the West controls the pricing mechanism, the East controls coin generation and hashing via chipfab, as most BTC mining still takes place in Chinese pools.

        Mutually Assured Destruction is then ensured – miners in Asia could issue 51% attacks or refuse to include transatlatnic blocks in the chain if agents of the Treasury did not price the asset “fairly” for all parties involved.

        While I agree that blockchains are being used to prototype a financial reset at the Nation-State level, the exact opposite is true for the everyman who will be using this technology – the LAST thing they want is on-chain transactions being accessible to Joe Six-Pack and great lengths have been taken to ensure that doesn’t happen.

  3. Re: cryptocurrencies and encryption. Remember that one-time pad cryptography:

    – has been used by multiple countries and proven for decades
    – can be taught and used with paper instead of computers
    – converts digital secrecy -> physical secrecy (e.g. in a physical safe)
    – is mathematically unbreakable
    – is resistant to quantum computers
    – is increasingly practical with tiny storage and emerging open-source RISC-V processors

    https://home.solari.com/subscribers-input-2021/#comment-16647

    https://www.hackster.io/news/the-precursor-secure-and-transparent-development-platform-in-your-pocket-a7ddfa654b69

    1. Yes, this is a good point. OTP packages are also widely supported in many major programming languages:
      https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cryptography_with_python/cryptography_with_python_implementation_of_one_time_pad_cipher.htm

      For anyone interested in Catherine/Binney’s efforts to create “home-grown encryption,” the above “Cryptography with Python” tutorial in its entirety is a good place to start and OTP is a solid base for which to implement other standard cryptography techniques.

      It’s worth noting that symmetric key cryptography standard practices are getting VERY good. Gone are the days of simply hashing a password and sticking it in a database. Developers are now trained to hash, salt, and pepper data in a manner that makes brute force very computationally expensive, even for the most well-funded of entities.

      All of the above techniques can be combined with OTP ciphers as mentioned by Rich.

      2. How interesting…

        Joshua, what are the implications of “Quantum” computing (QC)… a nut that Google claims to have cracked?

        Obviously, Google/Gov/IC are all very closely aligned, and skies the limit if your funding comes from taxpayers or malfeasance equity and protection.

        On it’s face, quantum computing would seem to puncture the protection of most cryptography… I am curious what you think about the impact of QC on cryptography, and your take on timelines for implementation of QC for government applications such as poking at folks security efforts?

        1. David,

          Speaking only as someone who works with and implements cryptography techniques as opposed to builds them from scratch, the best I can do is refer you to people far smarter than myself!

          My understanding of quantum computing is that the architecture and qubit count is so radically different from binary computing that many existing algorithms will be highly “quantum resistant” for decades. Here’s a good article on the topic from a respected cryptographer outside the mainstream:
          https://coingeek.com/craig-wright-nonviability-quantum-computing-attacks/

          Which makes sense – why would an entity like NSA create, say, SHA256 to encrypt communications that their adversaries already had the ability to break? Back doors remain far more threatening than even the most advanced brute force techniques, imho.

          This is 100% speculation on my part, but I don’t think quantum computing (the state of holding neither True nor False in a machine, which is all QC is) is actually about cryptography or computing at all – it seems like a much darker and esoteric agenda.

          Here is D-Wave founder Geordie Rose talking about how his company uses QC to mine information from “parallel dimensions” and that standing next to his giant black cube machine (Saturn worship, much?) felt like a “religious experience”:
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlRVMNVXm3Q

          Truly unsettling stuff. But I think most of QC is an attempt to give spiritual discernment to the lost and soulless – emulating a connection to the divine that human beings have innately.

          1. Thank you for this reply, Joshua! That Craig Wright article is exactly what I was wondering about!

      1. More than a decade ago my husband was told by a microbiologist friend to never ever give your dna to a company like that.

        2. Multiple of my siblings have already done DNA testing. They believe any hesitancy I have with “The Matrix” is paranoia and a conspiracy theory.

          The kind of shenanigans an oppressive regime could do with DNA are very significant… and framing “enemies” of the state would be a trivial endeavor.

  5. Along the themes of this week’s report, I am really curious what people are seeing as far as fresh vegetable supplies. I am noticing in our local organic grocery store, less and less quality vegetables that they normally have this time of year. I am also noticing more shelf space for Biowarfare Burgers and other franken foods. Curious what others are seeing around the country.

    1. Franken foods are here but still lots of good vegies. The owners and clientele are keen on vegetables here as there are loads of vegetarians. I suppose that helps.

    2. For the Netherlands…just started buying from a website that aggregates all organic from multiple local farmers etc. Quality is amazing. They deliver twice a week. Noticeable difference in how I feel.

    3. Hi mhale, Easton, Md has a large Amish Market in renovated super market Thursday to Saturday traveling from Lancaster , Pa. Fresh meat, poultry, deli, cheese, local vegetable, on site bakery and large cooked food section. Also outside farmers market all year fresh greens even in winter from green houses. Local Acme super market has everything. Acme has good produce, all grocery items,seafood and bakery. I do three trips each week, Tuesday Acme 5 % off senior discount. Thursday Amish for cream puffs, cooked ribs, cooked chicken, cheese, veg & fruit… Saturday Farmers market for fresh greens and to see what’s available.

        1. Hi Catherine, Do you plan to visit Keukenhof gardens in a couple weeks ? I could have spent the week at the gardens. We did a London, Bruges, Brussels and Amsterdam trip in 2013. Easiest trip ever my sister in law was doing a lecture series on IT governance. She had travel agent book the trip for her and husband. I just had to call travel agent and say please add two. While waiting at train station in London I was talking with gentleman about our trip. He said you will love Bruges where he Honeymooned. It was great. Keep Smiling Steve
          https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/see-and-do/things-to-do/attractions-and-sights/overview-of-attractions/keukenhof-gardens

  6. New to the report. Trying to understand all the data and info. Do you foresee a market crash happening? If so, besides precious metals, what do you suggest to ride out the storm?

  7. You Mentioned this administration being Berkshire Hathaways.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/democrats-unveil-child-cash-payments-to-families-183036489.html

    “Under the legislation, parents or guardians would get $3,600 in direct annual payments for children under six and $3,000 payment for children aged six to 17. The bill makes the payment fully refundable, meaning low-income families can access the full amount even if they don’t owe any income taxes. The legislation would cost $117 billion a year.”

    Proposals Like these are in Truth Reverse Bank Bailouts. Who is likely to have mortgage, credit, auto debt? Parents. Berkshire Biggest Banks are BAC and USB. Primarily Consumer Banks. Not to mention AXP.

    Looks like they’ve unplug all the stops and are really gonna loot the country/treasury now. While buffet takes that cash and piles it into Japnese conglomerates, Chinese electric cars, and other offshore things.

    1. They Know the Private Sector Debt+ Compound Interest is unsustainable so they’re just gonna completely paper over everything

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