15 Ross Ulbricht

by Spike Cohen,  
 · 
This is Ross Ulbricht. If you've heard his story, you're probably getting upset just thinking about it.

For those who don't know, Ross is serving a double life sentence plus 40 years, for creating a website.

If that sounds ridiculous and infuriating to you, keep reading. It gets worse.

Ross created a website called Silk Road, which he designed to be a free market, secure, anonymous marketplace. It used Bicoin for payment, and utilized a system called Tor which allowed buyers and sellers to access it anonymously and without any trace.

An avid libertarian, Ross prohibited anything being sold on Silk Road that violated the Non-Aggression Principle. This included stolen items, counterfeit/fraudulent items, child pornography, assassinations, etc. A devout believer in nonviolence, Ross also prohibited the sale of weapons.

Many items that were sold on Silk Road were legal, and a third-party study of the site inventory by Carnegie-Mellon University concluded that the drugs most commonly sold were user amounts of cannabis.

Most importantly, Ross was not convicted for selling, buying, or being in proximity to any of the items that were sold on Silk Road, legal or illegal. Rather he was convicted for what others did on the site.
According to the Drug Policy Alliance and several academic studies, the ability to purchase drugs on Silk Road was "a peaceable alternative to the often deadly violence so commonly associated with the global drug war, and street drug transactions, in particular." In other words, it is much safer to buy drugs from the comfort of your home than from drug dealers on the streets.

On October of 2013, Ross was arrested by the FBI and charged with money laundering conspiracy, computer hacking conspiracy, fake ID trafficking conspiracy and narcotics trafficking. (Ross did not actually launder money, hack computers or sell illegal items himself. These charges were based on what users listed on the site.)

After his arrest, the prosecution alleged that Ross attempted to have several people killed, but never charged him for this at trial. All his trial charges were nonviolent.

An unprosecuted indictment in Maryland, including the only allegation of murder-for-hire ever filed, was dismissed with prejudice by the prosecutors. The only alleged victim ever identified, Curtis Green, has publicly stated he believes those allegations were false, and he is a fervent supporter of Ross.

Despite the fact that these false, unproven allegations were never prosecuted, the federal government used them in the media to paint Ross as some kind of violent criminal kingpin, despite the fact that he was nonviolent and lived a very meager life, living with 3 other roommates in an apartment.

The FBI also seized over 144,000 Bitcoin that they found in a shared wallet on Ross's computer, which today is worth over $1.6 billion.

During Ross's trial:

* The prosecution was never expected to prove Ross authored any of the online anonymous chats and text files the murder-for-hire accusations solely relied on. Evidence and testimony showing that multiple people ran the website was banned from being discussed at trial.

* Ross's defense team was not allowed to cross-examine the prosecution's witnesses or present their own witnesses

* Key exonerating evidence was blocked by the judge

* The prosecution was permitted to allege to the jury that Ross had hired hits on people despite never charging him with this or allowing him the opportunity to defend himself, a constitutional right.

The jury found Ross guilty on all charges, and the judge sentenced this first-time, nonviolent offender to double life plus forty years without parole.

After Ross's trial, two of the key investigating federal agents were convicted on corruption charges related to Ross's case. Their existence was hidden from the jury during trial.

Despite all of this, Ross’s conviction was lost on appeal, and the Supreme Court refused to hear his case.
There is no other way to say it: Ross was railroaded by a corrupt federal government that wanted to make an example of him and steal his Bitcoins.

During his 7 years in prison, Ross has continued to be a model citizen, teaching classes and tutoring his fellow inmates and helping them to earn their GEDs. He has also completed several educational programs himself and has never received a single disciplinary sanction.

Ross Ulbricht is a peaceful, nonviolent man who has never harmed anyone and whose only "crime" was to create a website that some used to sell drugs that shouldn't be illegal in the first place.

Ross needs to be set free NOW. Vermin Supreme and I are calling for President Trump to have his prison time commuted to time served and for him to be let go, and we call on all other Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates to join us in calling for this.

If elected, Vermin and I will give Ross and all other victims of the War on Drugs a full pardon, and we call on all other Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates to make the same pledge.

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Spike Cohen is a testament to the immorality of child labor laws. Born to humble refugees from Baltimore, Spike started working in restaurants and landscaping at a very young age. It is here that he learned he didn't ever want to work for someone else, which is why he started his web design company in 1999. Diagnosed with MS in 2016, Spike sold his company the following year and is now devoting his life to his 3 great loves: his wife, the liberty movement and napping. Spike uses his show (((My Fellow Americans))), as well as his co-hosting of The Muddied Waters of Freedom, to spread the message of anarchy to an audience of people who yearn to be free.When he's not doing that, Spike is either salsa dancing, spoiling his wife and dog, or napping.

14 just another plucking

https://nextdoor.com/news_feed/?post=126561188

so SCE pulls a Stalin maneuver?

SCE folks turn off power and then provide a van for folks to recharge batteries...and they provide a small amount of food water, and other resources? how does that differ from a plucking?

Plucking

Happy, healthy, and hopeful folks resist demands to conform to other folks’ wishes that conflict with their own preferences. Whosover other folks wish to manage must first suffer. Miserable folks tend to look for ways to reduce the misery, and tend to comply with those folks who promote comfort through obedience.

According to some accounts, Stalin, a Russian dictator, plucked a live chicken into nudity, set it down whilst showing it bread crumbs in his hand, and then treated it to a handful of grain. The chicken was a most devoted pet thereafter. Stalin’s point was that stripping folks of resources, and offering a little bit of something, was key to controlling folks.

Recently, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Edison (SCE) company folks turned off electric power to select customers allegedly for safety reasons.

SCE folks then deployed vans to affected areas to enable folks to recharge device batteries. They also provided food, water, and other resources to these affected folks.

First, utility folks turn off power. Then, they provide comfort to affected folks. This looks like a plucking and treating event.

Problem: Controllers shut down centrally generated power
Going forward, power utility folks may turn off power for “safety” for increasing intervals. They may offer resources and services to affected users.

Reaction: Controllers offer to minimize customer suffering. Some folks try to adapt or resolve their discomfort by their own efforts.
Some affected folks may whine and seek “legal” remedies. Some may move to where they hope not to suffer outages.
Some folks may prepare with electrical generators (gasoline, diesel, propane, or solar). They may stock up on resources. Some may form co-ops to address power concerns.

Solution: Legislators regulate folks’ efforts to resolve their discomfort
Efforts to personally ameliorate power outage effects will bother controllers, who prefer that other folks depend upon them for living arrangements. They will try to impede such efforts through “legal” means.
Legislators may regulate possession and use of generators, requiring permits, licenses, and insurance to have/operate generators. They may regulate stockpiling resources, calling such activity “hoarding”. Rule-makers will claim that generators and “hoarding” are unsafe without proper supervision.

This scenario is just another in a long train of efforts toward an end: subjugation of humans through compelling them into dependency.

13. why folks moved to AD

https://nextdoor.com/news_feed/?post=116427002

reply to 
Michael Barlow, Agua Dulce·21 hr ago
I agree.  We all moved here for peace and quiet.

Barlow...write for yourself. I did not move to AD for "peace and quiet". I moved to AD because living here is usually cheaper for me than living in SCV or SFV. I have since made a life here on Sierra Highway.

lots of faux ruralists with suburban attitude moved to AD so they could live a fantasy of what real rural living is: live and let live. these folks just want to live and boss their neighbors through the use of paramilitary predators.

12 dumping on land 2019.03.16

https://nextdoor.com/news_feed/?post=105352840

not on your property? not your problem

a crime is an event that a human commits that physically harms another human, aka victim, or against the human's property. no victim, no crime. 

this dumping on somebody's property is just an administrative offense, which does not require a victim. 

unless Chris Yewell has a proprietary interest in the land that concerns this post, he has no problem.

law enforcement folks are not on the job to ameliorate other folks' discomfort, they are on the job to provide other folks with targets. 

not on your property? not your problem. leave folks ___ ____ alone. 

11. mailbox conversation 2018.10.04

at https://nextdoor.com/news_feed/?post=92863265

T: Gee,  it would sure be nice to have more sheriffs patrols in town. LA County just doesn’t have the money.

D: why don't you patrol if you are so concerned? if you catch someone in the act of removing what does not belong to the remover, feed ravens and coyotes.....just be sure that you actually catch the carcass in the act....

W: It’s not Tom’s job to patrol. He pays taxes that should be providing that service. Save your ridiculous metaphors. We’re not in the 1800s anymore.

D:
1) not ____ job is outside my own belief system. when you see a rape occurring, do you say, "not my job to stop this rape"? or do you intervene? 

2) taxes are theft, not payment for service. 

3) paramilitary predators do not have obligations to do anything more than guard a blue/brown/green line; they have no obligation to address civilian concerns. they are not in the business of preventing crimes or torts. they are not protectors; they are predators who go to and fro upon the highways and up and down on the byways, seeking whom they may detain, whom they may destroy, whom they may devour on behalf of other folks willing to impose opinions through the use of up to lethal force. their fundamental duty is to survive to the end of their shifts, and go home to their families, where they then commit suicide.

4) feeding ravens and coyotes is not a metaphor. nor it is a simile, nor an allegory. it is just a suggestion. 

5) ideas and outlook do not depend on when they manifest, but on consequences and introspection. 

10 re: highway fatalities due to cannabis intake

Since marijuana legalization, highway fatalities in Colorado are at near-historic lows
by Radley Balko
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/08/05/since-marijuana-legalization-highway-fatalities-in-colorado-are-at-near-historic-lows/

startquote
the best way to gauge the effect legalization has had on the roadways is to look at what has happened on the roads since legalization took effect. Here’s a month-by-month comparison of highway fatalities in Colorado through the first seven months of this year and last year. For a more thorough comparison, I’ve also included the highest fatality figures for each month since 2002, the lowest for each month since 2002 and the average for each month since 2002. 

As you can see, roadway fatalities this year are down from last year, and down from the 13-year average. Of the seven months so far this year, five months saw a lower fatality figure this year than last, two months saw a slightly higher figure this year, and in one month the two figures were equal. If we add up the total fatalities from January through July, it looks like this:

Raw data from the Colorado Dept. of Transportation

Here, the “high” bar (pardon the pun) is what you get when you add the worst January since 2002 to the worst February, to the worst March, and so on. The “low” bar is the sum total of the safest January, February, etc., since 2002. What’s notable here is that the totals so far in 2014 are closer to the safest composite year since 2002 than to the average year since 2002. I should also add here that these are total fatalities. If we were to calculate these figures as a rate — say, miles driven per fatality — the drop would be starker, both for this year and since Colorado legalized medical marijuana in 2001. While the number of miles Americans drive annually has leveled off nationally since the mid-2000s, the number of total miles traveled continues to go up in Colorado. If we were to measure by rate, then, the state would be at lows unseen in decades.

endquote

more at link

9 The Real Deal About Government Folks

"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kinds of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of lawbreakers - and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with." 

Dr. Floyd Ferris, Atlas Shrugged
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never forget.....never, ever....