Bush congratulates Biden, says election was ‘fundamentally fair’ and ‘its outcome is clear’
That’s what makes it legitimate you see.
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Techno-Agorist: Broken Security Is No Security
Every few years, we once again hear about the federal government discussing ways to get around encryption. Usually, thankfully, it doesn’t head anywhere. The most spectacular failure was in the nineties when the federal government tried to get tech companies to use special chips which would give the feds access to people’s data. There was an outcry at the time and it led to the federal government abandoning that proposal and it also led to people open-sourcing hard encryption. Folks realized that the best way to protect encryption technology was to release it into the wild so that it could be implemented anywhere and everywhere.
Last July, attorney general William Barr once again revived this debate. He went after tech companies who use encryption in their products. He claimed that by using unbreakable encryption (at least for now), they create “law-free zones.” He said that “…we must ensure that we retain society’s ability to gain lawful access to data and communications.”
This really blows my mind. “Society” doesn’t have a right to my devices, to my data, to my life. Of course, the reason the feds say that they need access to encrypted data is to stop criminals. But, what is a criminal? Who defines what a criminal is? Obviously, it’s the government! Do you see the problem here?
But, moving on, the tech press often talks of two ways that companies can give the feds access to our data. One is through back doors and the other is through front doors.
A back door generally means a way around encryption, like a secret API. Until recently, that was generally the kind of access that the federal government was trying to get. But, back doors that provide a way for the government to get around encryption are inherently flawed because a back door by definition is a security vulnerability. It’s only a matter of time until it is exploited.
These days, I’ll often hear how we should provide the government front door access instead. A front door does not in any way break encryption. It doesn’t provide a way around the encryption. The encryption is just as strong as if there wasn’t a front door. What this generally means is that when a company encrypts your data, they do so using more than one encryption key. The government has or can be given access to one of those keys if a case arises where they want to get through someone’s encryption. Using the special government key, they can decrypt the data and do what they want with it. Proponents of front doors point out how great it is because it doesn’t in any way break the encryption. It doesn’t add any new exploitable vulnerabilities. It is technically as secure as if the front door wasn’t even there.
While that makes sense to statist tech commentators, they seem to miss the major problem with both front and back door approaches. Both introduce trust into what would otherwise be a trustless, algorithmic relationship.
Unlike humans, algorithms are programmed. They are predictable. You put in X and you get out Y. That is how encryption works. With encryption, you don’t have to trust anyone. You have a key and an algorithm, and with those you can encrypt and decrypt your data. That is what makes cryptocurrencies so great. You don’t have to trust anyone. You just hold your encryption keys and get work done.
When anyone introduces an extra party into encryption, whether through front or back doors, they introduce trust into the system. If that is the case, your data security is no longer under your control. It doesn’t matter how well you protect your keys. It doesn’t matter how well you protect your data. There is always going to be someone out there who has access to your data and you have to trust that they will be as diligent with your data security as you are.
On a practical level alone, anyone with a brain in their head should know that the government is the very last group of people who you’d ever want to trust with your data security. It doesn’t even matter if the government uses third parties to handle the back doors or front doors or whatever. You are still left hoping, trusting that these people will protect your data.
Security is only as good as its weakest link, and when you introduce ways around or through encryption, you introduce trust into an otherwise trustless system. Broken security is no security because it takes the power out of your hands and places it into the hands of others. I am not ok with that, and you shouldn’t be either.
Originally posted at: https://technoagorist.com/43
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You Should Be In Prison
Cops Kill Man
Cop Beats Up Tiny 11-Year-Old Girl
Keep sending your children to government school, you idiots.
“She took more milks than she was supposed to. She threw a milk on the ground!” –the cop, guilty criminal subhuman animal Zachary Christensen
Got Election Depression?
Benefits From Trump’s BS
Trump is trying to pretend the mail-in ballots are somehow a big fraud. No, they’re just Democrat-leaning.
Maybe telling all his people that mail-in ballots are such a fraud for all these months backfired? Now they’re cutting hard for the Democrats. But if Biden wins, at least that means that, according to Nick “Let’s Invade Everywhere” Kristoff,
“If Biden wins after this poisoning of the chalice, he will inherit a badly divided country after an election that many will deem illegitimate, and it will be harder to govern and more difficult for the United States to exert influence around the world.”
Good. I hope he is falsely accused of treason with Beijing, leading to a giant, fake 3-year pretended “investigation” by a special counsel and his impeachment over leading the Ukrainian coup of 2014.
Yeah right, I know, there is no such thing as law. The Justice Department would never do that to Biden. That was just Trump’s punishment for stopping Jeb and Hillary for us.
But I look forward to half the country completely rejecting his rule as stolen and illegitimate. It is.
Techno-Agorist: Whoever Wins… We Live
I don’t know if you have heard, but we just experienced the most important election of our lifetime. At least, that’s what I have been told by friends and family from all political persuasions. The funny thing is that I have heard the same about every election that has happened in my lifetime.
Either every presidential election truly is the most important election of our lifetime, or this is all just political speak used to get people invested in electoral politics. I lean toward the latter being the truth. Politicians use democracy to give people the illusion of control. If you criticize what these politicians do, then you are told that you should have voted harder or been more involved in the process. This illusion only holds up if people continue to vote and take part in the system.
The thing is, no matter how many of these elections happen, the government keeps growing, and our freedom keeps shrinking. This isn’t because of how much we vote or don’t vote. It’s because of evil people in government doing evil things.
So, what do we do? If voting doesn’t make the difference, then what does?
Agorism is what makes the difference. Focusing on you and your family is what makes the difference. Imagine if people took all that time and energy that they put into pointless political action and instead put it into making their lives better?
This has been a hard year in so many ways, but for me and my family it has actually been pretty incredible. We used the stupid COVID “lockdown” to prepare our house to sell. Then, on the very day that realtors were allowed to go back to work (yup, you heard that right, even realtors weren’t allowed to work in PA for a time), we found someone to sell our house.
We have since sold that house and moved all the way down to Florida. For a little more than we sold our home in PA for, we purchased three acres of wooded land and a big, beautiful manufactured home. In fact, we closed on our land and home today. Woohoo!
While in PA, we had one growing season. Here in Florida, we have at least three growing seasons! We are learning what can be planted when so that we can best take advantage of the climate here. As soon as we have our home, we are getting chickens and goats. Rather than using city water and sewage, we will have well water a septic tank. Out back, we have a spring-fed lake. If we ever need extra water, we are set! Our land is in the dead center of the Ocala National Forest. You can’t go there without seeing wildlife. There are deer and bears in the forest and lots of fish in the lake. If we needed to survive, we could do very well on our little homestead.
I could right now be stressing over the presidential election. I could be pouring over the news and arguing with people online about it. But, ultimately, I don’t see the point. That is a waste of my time. My plan is to use my time and energy to make my life better. My plan is to make sure that I have food, water, shelter, and a means of taking care of my family whatever comes.
If they are going to tell me that every presidential election is the most important election of my lifetime, then I think that I’ll just begin calling every day the most important day of my lifetime. Every day is a new chance to focus on what matters most. Every day is a new chance to make life better for myself and my family. Every day is a new chance to follow my conscience and do what I know is right.
Whoever wins, we live. Let’s check our priorities and focus on the things that matter most, rather than get swept up in and stressed out about things that we can’t control.
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