Ignoring history as usual
Three beautiful examples of completely ignoring history in today's news.

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(1) Joe Manchin, one of the few halfway sane Congresscritters, proposes banning Bitcoin. The techies are snortling and chortling in their usual way. WTF???? There's no possible way to ban Bitcoin!!!!!! Why? Because Halliburton! Because Keystone! Because West Virginia! Because neanderthal hillbillies! Because 0x4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b! Because Bernard von NotHaus...

Oops. The Feds have succeeded in banning "alternate currencies" many times, and they have full and obvious authority to do so. It's right there in the old Constitution, though it's a rather nuanced authority. The Feds don't have to ban other currencies, and they don't have to print their own currency; but they have the power to decide which currencies are valid.

Of course the silliest thing about the Bitcoin bubble is that Bitcoin was clearly created BY the US gov't as a sting operation. How do I know that? Because unlike all previous "alternate currencies", they haven't banned it. Tells the whole story.

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(2) Greenwald gives us an inside view of NSA/GCHQ methods for infiltrating the Net. Apparently we're supposed to be shocked. Nope.

I was hoping he'd name some names to make the news useful, but this is just normal intel stuff. Exactly the same set of ops that FBI, CIA, etc have been using in personal and radio infiltration for a century. Any activist who doesn't understand this is doomed.

There's a huge intrinsic difference between the Net and all previous communication modes.

Human speech, printing, paper mail, telegraph, telephone and radio were not designed by the intel agencies. All of them had to be used within physical boundaries that were set by Nature or by pre-existing commercial companies. When intel agencies monitor or intercept these older methods, they are limited by the same boundaries, including permission by commercial companies.

The Net was designed by NSA for the specific purpose of monitoring everything. In this case non-NSA uses are the overlaid and by-permission functions.

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(3) As the Crimean area of Ukraine declares its independence, NATO is starting to rattle swords.

Meanwhile Nato defence ministers warned that they considered Ukraine’s future to be “key to Euro-Atlantic security” and assured the new government in Kiev that the alliance would back its “sovereignty, independence [and] territorial integrity.”

“A sovereign, independent and stable Ukraine, firmly committed to democracy and the rule of law, is key to Euro-Atlantic security,” they said in a statement.

Yes! Yes! Let's do it!

Forward, forward to total victory! Half a kilometer, half a kilometer, half a kilometer onward! Total victory! Just like the other time!

Oops.   ¶ 4:29 AM