Nun gets 3 years in prison for Peace

BORG, Government, Military Industrial Complex, Police State, unethical No Responses »

Feb 192014

Megan Rice Peace Activist

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Megan Rice, An 84-year-old nun was sentenced by the BORG agent to nearly three years in prison for breaking into a nuclear weapons complex and defacing a bunker holding bomb-grade uranium, a demonstration that exposed serious security flaws at the Tennessee plant.

Two other peace activists who broke into the facility with Megan Rice were sentenced to more than five years in prison, in part because they had much longer criminal histories of mostly non-violent civil disobedience.

Although officials said there was never any danger of the protesters reaching materials that could be detonated or made into a dirty bomb, the break-in raised questions about safekeeping at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. The facility holds the nation’s primary supply of bomb-grade uranium and was known as the ‘‘Fort Knox of uranium.’’

After the break-in, the complex had to be shut down, security forces were re-trained and contractors were replaced.

In her closing statement, Rice asked the judge to sentence her to life in prison, even though sentencing guidelines called for about six years.

‘‘Please have no leniency with me,’’ Megan Rice said. ‘‘To remain in prison for the rest of my life would be the greatest gift you could give me.’’

She said the U.S. government was spending too much money on weapons and the military, and she told the judge about the many letters of support she had received, including one from youth in Afghanistan.

‘‘This is the next generation and it is for these people that we’re willing to give our lives,’’ she said.

Rice, Greg Boertje-Obed (bohr-CHEE’ OH’-bed) and Michael Walli all said God was using them to raise awareness about nuclear weapons and they viewed the success of their break-in as a miracle.

Their attorneys asked the judge to sentence them to time they had already served, about nine months, because of their record of good works throughout their lives.

Rice is a sister in the Society of the Holy Child Jesus. She became a nun when she was 18 and served for 40 years as a missionary in western Africa teaching science.

Walli’s attorney said the activist served two tours in Vietnam before returning to the U.S. and dedicating his life to peace and helping the poor. Walli said he had no remorse about the break-in and would do it again.

‘‘I was acting upon my God-given obligations as a follower of Jesus Christ,’’ he told U.S. District Judge Amul Thapar.

The judge said he was concerned the demonstrators showed no remorse and he wanted their punishment to be a deterrent for other activists. He was also openly skeptical about whether the protesters caused any real harm and challenged prosecutors to prove it. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Theodore said they had destroyed the ‘‘mystique’’ of the ‘‘Fort Knox of uranium.’’

On July 28, 2012, the three activists cut through three fences before reaching a $548 million storage bunker. They hung banners, strung crime-scene tape and hammered off a small chunk of the fortress-like Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, or HEUMF, inside the most secure part of complex.

They painted messages such as, ‘‘The fruit of justice is peace,’’ and splashed baby bottles of human blood on the bunker wall.

‘‘The reason for the baby bottles was to represent that the blood of children is spilled by these weapons,’’ Boertje-Obed, 58, a house painter from Duluth, Minn., said at trial.

Although the protesters set off alarms, they were able to spend more than two hours inside the restricted area before they were caught.

When security finally arrived, guards found the three activists singing and offering to break bread with them. The protesters reportedly also offered to share a Bible, candles and white roses with the guards.

The Department of Energy’s inspector general wrote a scathing report on the security failures that allowed the activists to reach the bunker, and the security contractor was later fired.

Some government officials praised the activists for exposing the facility’s weaknesses. But prosecutors declined to show leniency, instead pursing serious felony charges.

Prosecutors argued the intrusion was a serious security breach that continued to disrupt operations at the Y-12 complex even months later.

Attorneys for Rice and Walli, 65, both of Washington, D.C., said the protesters were engaged in a symbolic act meant to bring attention to America’s stockpile of nuclear weapons, which they view as both immoral and illegal under international law.

Boertje-Obed’s wife, Michele Naar-Obed, said before the hearing that she would figure out a way to deal with the sentence, whatever it was. Her real concern was that her husband’s actions and imprisonment were not in vain.Continued…

The Evidence is clear: You’re in Prison

9/11, Government, Military Industrial Complex, Police State No Responses »

Feb 192014

You are living in Prison

There are many things that we only understand through it’s effects and not by the actual substance itself. Electricity is one, Air is another. You don’t see see, hear, taste electricity or air. We can usually only see the effects of the things they do. We see the wind blowing the trees and we see electricity turn on lights and motors running. So how would you know your living in a prison when that is how you have lived all your life. The Following article shows the effects of the Prison Planet the BORG have placed us into. if it walks and quacks like a duck it must be a duck. The BORG spends TRILLIONS continually telling us that we are FREE when nothing could be further from the truth. Lucifer is the father of lies, and this lie is just par for the course. The only difference is the level of oppression! Many Freeworlders, with zero personal knowledge in this area, might feel uncomfortable learning this and not agree with this statement, however those that have had experienced life on the inside would be much more likely to agree.

Consider how the American Media continually bombards the population with propaganda that “We” Americans live in the Freest and best country (prison) or Human Farming, as Stefan Molyneux would say, yet the US has more people in cages in total and per capita than any other country (prison) in the world.

How Prisons work

Americans are not typically aware of how their federal and state prison systems work. What we think we know, we learned from watching television. When I took my first walk through at FCI (Federal Correctional Institution) El Reno Oklahoma as a new employee, I was surprised at how non-Hollywood real prison life is. Frankly, all I knew about prison life was what I saw on television or at the movies. Not even close.

As I got closer to retiring from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP), it began to dawn on me that the security practices we used in the prison system were being implemented outside those walls. “Free worlders” is prison slang for the non-incarcerated who reside in the “free world.” In this article I am going to compare a number of practices used in federal prisons to those being used today in the “free world.”

You might find that our country may be one giant correctional institution.

Cameras & Movement Tracking

(Source: Joern Haufe / Getty Images)

In federal prisons, cameras are everywhere. The reason, of course, is to help maintain security and keep track of prisoners. Inmates know that if they break any rules or policies, they can be readily identified if the event occurred in view of a camera. The cameras remind the inmates that they do not have any freedom or privacy, and that they live under total control.

Unfortunately, the “free world” is now subject to the widespread use of video surveillance and movement tracking. This goes beyond cameras, which have become virtually ubiquitous now. The federal government has been handing out grants to create sophisticated surveillance grids in cities across the country.

These surveillance grids frequently include license plate readers — some with the ability to log 1,200 license plates per hour, logging timestamps and location data — giving the government a way to track people and analyze their movement patterns. Some cities post license plate readers to log every single vehicle that enters or leaves its boundaries. Many cities have turned their police cars into roving data collectors by outfitting them with mobile license plate scanners. A man from California discovered that he had been photographed 112 times over the course of a couple years — from just one police cruiser mounted with a license plate scanner! The local databases of movement data are integrated with the federal government through its fusion centers located all over the country.

The government also has the ability to use facial-recognition software in conjunction with its surveillance grid to instantly identify individuals by comparing their photograph to biometric databases created using BMV photographs. Facial recognition cameras can be set up to accurately identify a person against a database of millions of images in less than one second. The government can then potentially log their locations and using the data for any purpose it wants.

As the usage of these technologies grows, the “authorities” will practically know where you are at any time. The British have the greatest level of electronic surveillance in the world. Their movements are said to be recorded 3,000 times a week. The United States is not that far behind. In some ways, with the numerous NSA spying programs, the USA leads the world in destroying personal privacy. Today’s youngest generation will grow up never knowing what privacy is.

Drug Testing

(Source: Maritime Med)

The federal prison inmate drug abuse monitoring program has been going on for decades since the capability was invented. At any time, a prisoner can be tested for intoxicants using urine, sweat, saliva, and hair samples taken by force. After years of perfecting the process on inmates, it was introduced to the American public.

On September 15, 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order 12564, establishing the goal of a Drug-Free Federal Workplace. Additionally, in 2010, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) finalized a new rule that allows federal agencies to use sweat, saliva and hair in federal drug testing programs that only tested urine. Since then, many private businesses and corporations had to begin testing their employees in order to keep or obtain federal contracts. Under federal guidelines for employee testing, if a person takes medicine that was not prescribed to him, he has committed a federal drug abuse offense and may be fired. Children in public schools are also subjected to involuntary random drug testing.

The inmates were the guinea pigs for a program now being regularly employed on Americans. This process conditions Americans to be accustomed to regularly submitting bodily fluid samples to the government, lessening their resistance to data collection and intrusion in other areas.

Metal Detection & Weapon Confiscation

(Source: J. Miles Cary / Knox News)

In prison, detection and confiscation of weapons is a necessity. Prisoners cannot be allowed the freedom to possess objects that could potentially be used to cause harm to others. The security of the facility relies on the prisoners remaining disarmed.

With that said, not even prisons can be guaranteed to be weapon free. Inmates are clever, and can fashion any piece of metal into a makeshift weapon. They are also prolific smugglers. To mitigate this risk, prisoners and visitors are put through metal detector checkpoints to keep them disarmed. Any metallic contraband is confiscated.

Treating prisoners this way is one thing. In a prison setting, security trumps liberty. The liberties of the inmates have been curtailed through due process on an individual basis. But these prison tactics have crept out into the “free world.” Now, virtually all government buildings use metal detectors to screen incoming visitors and even their own personnel. This establishes a climate of fear of weapons and a false sense of security among those within such “weapon free zones.” If a prison can’t proclaim to be weapon free, how can any place outside of prison make such arrogant and naive claims?

Crowd Control

(Source: Nigel Parry)

Helmets, face shields, batons, knee guards, tear gas, wedge formations, line formations, half steps, full steps, pinning tactics — all of these phrases are associated with prison crowd control. As I look at today’s police and how they attempt crowd control it reminds me of my days in federal prison as the Hostage Negotiation Team (HNT) leader. The HNT worked closely with the Special Operations and Response Team (SORT) on both monthly local training and annual training at Fort Gruber in Muskogee Oklahoma. SORT membership is selective and highly practiced. The teams must be familiar with hand signals and verbal commands, as well as certain maneuvers that are often referred to as “stomp and drag.” These tactics are designed to help quell disturbances — the FBOP word for “riot” — by forcing inmates in the direction that SORT wants them to move. This training takes place monthly for SORT members and annually for the rest of the FBOP staff.

The next time you see police engaged in crowd control on television you are watching what was perfected by prisons official through years of practice and real life action. I participated in five disturbances. After observing law enforcement agencies dress up in intimidating riot suits and mimic the behavior of SORT, it is clear that police are using prison tactics to intimidate and control civilian protesters.

Checkpoints & Random Pat Searches

(Source: Springfield News-Sun)

In federal prison, all inmates are subject to an immediate pat search by any staff member, anywhere, at any time. If the inmate refuses, he or she is “arrested,” which entails being cuffed and escorted to administrative segregation — otherwise known as the jail within the jail. The pat search is used to detect contraband. All inmates returning from industrial work programs in medium and low security institutions are pat searched and metal detected before being allowed to return to their dorm. Additionally, inmates in medium and low security institutions are pat searched when they leave food service or the “chow hall.” In high and maximum security institutions, inmates are pat searched every time they move. Movement in these institutions is highly controlled.

Compare this to police roadblocks and checkpoints used to perform warrantless searches for contraband. When a person is stopped by city, county, or state police, they are visually inspected, asked questions concerning their activities, and may be asked to submit to a vehicle or personal search. At federal roadblocks, a subject can be directed to a secondary search area at the discretion of the observing officer. There, the person can be searched for contraband regardless of any objections, just like in a federal prison. There are dozens of federal roadblocks on roads in the southwestern United States, many of them permanent and located up to 100 miles away from the border.

It isn’t just drivers being put through such intrusion. There is also the matter of “stop and frisk” searches which are taking place in several areas of the country. These intrusive stops involve the stopping of a pedestrian for any reason, followed by being subjected to a police officer’s questioning and a warrantless search of their pockets, purses, bags, and property — just like a prisoner.

Mail Surveillance

(Source: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

Every piece of mail sent to an inmate in federal prison is opened, searched, and may be read depending on the dictates from the institutions intelligence office. In medium and high security institutions, all mail is delivered to the unit officer unsealed so that it can be read before being delivered to the mail room. Inmate mail is controlled and may be copied if it is determined that there is possible criminal activity being discussed either blatantly or in code. If something is detected it may be rejected and returned to the inmate if it violates policy. Two examples of “rejected correspondence” are an inmate’s attempt to conduct unapproved business, or writing another inmate without permission.

Recent revelations have made it clear that Americans’ mail is being surveilled as well. The New York Times reported on how the United States Postal Service uses a “Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program” to create a permanent record of who is corresponding with each other via snail mail. The program — secretly established in 2001 and not revealed for over a decade — assists the government in implementing blanket surveillance of every single resident of the United States. Each piece of physical mail is photographed and stored in a database. Law enforcement has unfettered access to this data without even the requirement of obtaining a warrant. About 160 billion pieces of mail end up being recorded per year.

Telephone Monitoring

Is the NSA listening to your phone calls?

For decades the FBOP has possessed the capability to monitor outgoing telephone calls. However, their system required staff to sit and listen to the calls which took staff away from direct supervision of inmates. In the early 2000s, a new system was put in place that allowed any and every phone in an institution to be immediately monitored and the call recorded.

Just like in a federal prison, the NSA has the capability to track and monitor anyone’s phone conversations without recourse. The agency can monitor text messages. They can collect locations, times, and a log of every phone number that has been dialed by any phone in the United States. The government can set up fake base stations to intercept phone calls. They can hack the applications on a person’s smart phone and spy on their usage. The NSA can even crack cellphone encryption.

Unlike the inmates who have no choice in the matter of telephone monitoring, the American people have been told about the spying but have decided not to do anything about it.

Lockdowns

National Guard soldiers lock down city streets in Boston. April 2013. (Source: Jesse Costa / WBUR)

When a correctional institution has its daily operations disturbed, often times it results in a lockdown. Lockdowns usually occur after a disturbance, weather concerns, inmate escapes, rumors of a disturbance about to occur, rumored escape attempts, and institution wide searches are some reasons to lockdown.

The most notable “free world” lockdown in recent memory occurred in Boston, Massachusetts. This lockdown mirrors a federal prison lockdown that is called when the entire institution is to be searched. That is exactly what occurred in Boston. In April 2013 the Boston suburb of Watertown was locked down to the point where no one could enter or leave the town, while 9,000 law enforcement personnel and military took part in searching just about every backpack, vehicle, and home that they could get away with.

Some of the searches were voluntary, but many were not. As SWAT teams performed systematic house-to-house searches, videos were captured of families being ripped from their home without a warrant so the police could help themselves to the inside of their homes. What resulted had the look of prisoners being removed from their cells by a SORT unit. Watch for yourself:

The Watertown lockdown was practice for future declarations of martial law. Those tactics had been used and perfected in our prison systems for years. Now the “free world” is getting the prison treatment with little objection from the public. The lockdown was not necessary and served mostly to measure the public’s reaction and to establish a sense of fear and intimidation. I think it worked.

Snitching

Homeland Security propaganda poster. (Source: DHS.gov)

The last thing I want to mention is what I call the “Moscow Law.” While growing up during the cold war, I was taught that in the USSR, people were expected to watch their neighbors, strangers, and even family and friends, and report any suspicious activity to the local police. We in America have that law. Read it below. Did you know it exists?

Title 18 U.S.C. § 4: Misprision of felony: Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

In prison, there are “snitches” everywhere. Believe me, they are not just the inmates, they are also staff. Programs like Infragard are attempting to do the same thing in the “free world” as it is in the imprisoned world. Once these programs get started, they are almost impossible to stop. What are we paying our law enforcement to do? Protect us or detect us? You decide.

Policy and program statements from the Bureau of Prisons are available at: http://www.bop.gov/

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Bitcoin represents change, how much better is it?

Bitcoin No Responses »

Feb 172014

By Russ Wiles The Republic | azcentral.com Sat Feb 15, 2014 6:52 PM

Imagine that moment, maybe 3,000 years ago, when an artisan in the Middle East one day got paid not in grain but in shiny silver coins. Or that time in Colonial America when a weaver or blacksmith received wages not as coins but in freshly printed paper currency.

Both events, or something like them, marked major milestones in the evolution of money, and they had profound impacts for society and economic development.

Many people think society is now on a similar cusp with digital currencies.

The fact that bitcoins, the most prominent form, marked their fifth birthday this year strongly suggests that digital money is here to stay. Bitcoins still are not widely embraced by the public. They’re also somewhat cumbersome to use, confusing to non-tech geeks and subject to wide price swings. Yet they continue to gain acceptance. Overstock.com recently declared that it would take bitcoins in payment. The Sacramento Kings basketball team is planning to accept them for tickets. Virgin Galactic is taking them for future space flights.

Ajay Vinze, an associate dean and professor of information systems at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, believes digital currencies right now are about where the Internet was in 1993, shortly before it went mainstream and altered human business and communication forever.

“It’s at the early stages of being practical, when everyone’s testing it,” he said. “But once you see 100 million people using it, you’ll take a look, too.”

We’re not there yet. A December primer by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago estimated 30 bitcoin transactions happen every minute. That’s well below the 200,000 transactions per minute on the Visa credit- and debit-card network, but bitcoin transactions tend to be bigger in value, and commerce is growing fast.

Many media reports have been skeptical, warning that bitcoin could be a fad, if not a bubble, and pointing to recent wide price fluctuations and security stumbles. BitStamp, a Slovenia-based website that allows users to swap bitcoins for dollars and other currencies, last week fell victim to a cyberattack that forced it to halt withdrawals. Mt.Gox, another large exchange in Tokyo, cited a software snafu of its own that halted withdrawals. The two mishaps prompted one blogger to wonder whether the bitcoin world is ready for prime time.

In a January survey of 1,000 people by TheStreet.com, 76 percent of respondents said they’re not familiar with bitcoin and 79 percent vowed to never use digital currency.

Because of the anonymous nature of transactions, bitcoins also have been implicated in money laundering and other illicit commerce, with federal prosecutors last month filing charges against two individuals for allegedly using the coins to buy drugs.

Yet dollars also are used for illegal activity. And despite these and other setbacks, bitcoin is still around and growing.

It’s already an acceptable means of payment. Could it emerge as a full-fledged currency, perhaps even a dominant one?

Peter Steinmetz, a Valley medical researcher, got intrigued about bitcoins through his interest in computing. Now he uses them to buy gift cards, sold by various online firms, that can be redeemed for groceries and other products at Target and other retailers. Steinmetz has been tracking bitcoins for the past four years and predicts they eventually could supplant dollars, euros, yen and other global currencies. “The long-term prospects are extremely good,” he said.

More businesses are accepting them. The Rose Law Group in Scottsdale last summer announced it would take bitcoins as payment for legal services, apparently becoming the first law firm in the nation to do so. Partner Ryan Hurley said the company has attracted three clients who paid this way.

“It’s a very minor part of our business but an increasingly important one,” said Hurley, who has started to develop an expertise in bitcoin-related law. “Once you go down the rabbit hole, there’s a lot to look at.”

New way of thinking

Ah, the rabbit hole. It’s common to hear bitcoin enthusiasts make a reference to the term from “Alice in Wonderland” because it does require a new way of thinking about money. For thousands of years, humans required something tangible, primarily metal coins or more recently paper notes or plastic cards, as evidence that these monetary objects have value. Confidence has been affirmed by the issuance and regulation of money by governments.

Digital currencies represent a radical break from all that. They provide a way to conduct business through the Internet, person to person, without any involvement by a financial intermediary or government entity. The original paper that conceptualized bitcoins envisioned “a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash” that could be sent “without going through a financial institution.”

Transactions can be transmitted across national borders on a nearly cost-free basis. They’re quick, taking 10-30 minutes or so for the community of online users or “miners” to confirm each bitcoin transaction and thus validate that a coin hasn’t been spent previously.

“Bitcoin allow you to send any amount to any person anywhere in the world,” said Steinmetz.

Because bitcoin transactions are direct, with no involvement from the financial system or governments, it raises questions about the role of central banks and other entities. If bitcoin usage catches on in a much bigger way and government influence wanes, that could be good or bad for economic regulation and development, depending on your viewpoint.

If bitcoin develops into a major currency, supporters predict it would be less vulnerable to inflationary pressures, because the supply of coins is designed to increase at a slowing pace and eventually become fixed at around 21 million units.

Governments have been watching from the sidelines so far, although New York’s Department of Financial Services is working on regulations that might cover capital requirements, permissible investments and consumer disclosures. Among the warnings to consumers: Once you make a bitcoin transaction, it can’t be canceled or reversed.

Role of governments

Greater government regulation is a possibility. It’s conceivable that one or more nations might prohibit their residents from using or holding bitcoins.

On the other hand, official government sanctioning of bitcoins or other digital currencies could spur rapid acceptance. Steinmetz thinks this initially might happen in a relatively poor nation that doesn’t want to shoulder the cost of maintaining its own currency. Ecuador abandoned its national currency in favor of the dollar more than a decade ago, and U.S. currency is the de facto standard in Panama and Costa Rica.

The involvement of governments as the bitcoin network matures will be a key development to watch.

“Although some of the enthusiasm for bitcoin is driven by a distrust of state-issued currency, it is hard to imagine a world where the main currency is based on an extremely complex code understood by only a few and controlled by even fewer, without accountability, arbitration or recourse,” wrote Francois Velde, a senior economist who wrote the Chicago Fed primer.

What happens if the Bitcoin network comes under harrassment or attack, especially as the value of the coins increases from current levels worth around $1 billion? “Bitcoin is free of the power of the state, but it is also outside the protection of the state,” Velde wrote.

For bitcoin to gain traction, it will need broader public trust and familiarity. That could be a challenge. Everyone knows that a dollar bill can be accepted and readily used for payment elsewhere. So too for foreign currencies, gold and so on. But what about a monetary unit that’s stored on an encrypted computer file?

Novices also will need to learn how to conduct transactions and protect themselves. You start the process by creating a virtual “wallet” protected by cryptography. You use secret codes or “keys” imbedded on your computer to unlock your wallet so you can spend bitcoins. It sounds weird and rabbit-hole-esque. On the other hand, said Vinze, young adults who are comfortable with the digital world and change in general are among the strongest proponents of bitcoin use.

Internet similarities

The bitcoin system is transparent and jointly controlled by users, much like the Internet. But the mathematical underpinnings, which dictate how coins are created and safeguards put in place, are beyond the understanding of the general public.

“At first it was basically a puzzle contest for cryptographic hobbyists, with a prize for solving an endless battery of puzzles,” wrote Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx Group, a securities brokerage in New York. “Then, in 2011, bitcoin began to find an actual following.”

Perhaps the comprehension part won’t matter much, assuming bitcoin continues to operate as intended. Most people don’t understand the technical underpinnings of other financial innovations. Hardly anyone thinks twice about buying stuff over the Internet using credit and debit cards that also make use of cryptographic safeguards. The inner workings of the Internet itself are beyond the mental grasp of most mortals.

“Most people don’t want to know how electricity works, either,” Vinze said. “You just want to flip the switch and know that the lights will come on.”

Methods of payment that would have sounded absurd generations ago have become mainstream. The transition from barter to coins was the giant leap, and that was followed in later centuries by a monumental shift to paper currency. Recent decades have seen the rise (and, in some cases, fall) of checkwriting, ATMs, credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, prepaid cards, automatic bill payments, rewards points, point-of-sale swiping, banking on cellphones and more.

People adapt, and they might just be ready for bitcoin.

Bitcoin basics

Here are answers to typical questions about bitcoins.

What are digital currencies? Any currency is a means of exchange, a store of value and a unit of accounting or pricing. But unlike dollar bills, metal coins or silver bars, digital currencies aren’t tangible, with transactions conducted over the Internet. Mainstream currencies are issued and regulated by governments and are recognized as a legal way to pay debts. Bitcoin, the most prominent form of digital currency, doesn’t share these traits.

How long have bitcoins been around? Five years. They were conceptualized in an academic paper written under the apparent pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto.

Who owns or controls the Bitcoin network? Nobody owns it while all users control it. Think of it in the same way as the Internet, which is controlled by users following a basic set of rules.

What are bitcoins worth? More than $600 each at present, down from a peak above $1,000 but well above initial prices well below $1. Bitcoin prices fluctuate considerably, but supporters expect they will stabilize. When stability comes, that should support routine commerce rather than speculation. Then bitcoins could become more like dollars, euros, Japanese yen or other mainstream currencies that trade regularly against one another and are primarily used for commerce yet retain a speculative element.

Can I buy things with bitcoins? Yes. The list is relatively small but growing and ranges from merchandise at Overstock.com to tickets for Sacramento Kings basketball games. Smaller, routine transactions aren’t really practical because it takes several minutes for transactions to be authenticated. Customers buying a small item like a cup of coffee aren’t willing to wait that long, explained Ajay Vinze, a professor at Arizona State University. But the day is probably coming when smaller purchases can be made with bitcoins. Also, you can swap bitcoins for mainstream gift cards sold by various online firms or convert them into dollars.

How do I get started? You set up an account by installing a bitcoin “wallet” on your computer or mobile phone. One way to do so is by downloading software from bitcoin.org.

There are mathematical underpinnings to bitcoins. Do I need to understand them? You don’t need to understand them and probably won’t anyway. But one thing to note is that the supply of coins is regulated by individual and collective contributions made to the bitcoin network, through monitoring of transactions and more, said Vinze. Initially, bitcoins were awarded to sophisticated individuals with the ability and computing power to solve complex math equations. Now they’re allocated to or “mined” by parties that perform services for the network.

What are obstacles to greater bitcoin acceptance? There are many. Maybe the biggest is the time it takes for more people to understand how the process works, overcome their fears and start using the coins. As another risk, governments could suppress the market through increased regulation, possibly making transactions illegal. Taxation, assuming it’s even feasible with digital currencies, also represents an unknown.

Are bitcoins safe? That’s a multifacted question that defies a simple answer. On one level, there’s always a danger that the system could be corrupted and bitcoins stolen or counterfeited, though those also are risks for other currencies and methods of payment. On a personal level, users must be able to safeguard their own passwords and computers to minimize the dangers that coins could be taken from them. From a markets perspective, bitcoin values fluctuate against the dollar and other currencies, so there’s a risk prices could fall while you hold them.

One more thing to note: Bitcoin transactions are anonymous and there’s little recourse if you’re not satisfied with a purchase.

Reach the reporter at russ.wiles@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8616.

Prosper with Bitcoin in the New Economy

Bitcoin No Responses »

Feb 042014

Morpheus is invited to give a presentation on Bitcoin. Being its something to wrap your mind around, he talks about what is money actually, how the incredible fraud that the federal reserve perpetuates, and most importantly how to take advantage of Bitcoin’s incredible properties.

Bitcoins are transfered from person to person without a third part intervener like a bank or government. No one or no organization can freeze your account, there are no cost or barriers to being involved, zero or low cost to transfer money even internationally and there are no arbitrary limits.

Because of the rate of how bitcoin is mined it produces a deflationary currency contrary to the inflationary currency that is currently being produced by all other nations. The reason all countries like inflation is because when they borrow money they are able to repay the debt with “dollars” “euros” “yen” that is controlled by a third party. These evil central planners like the fact they can line their own pockets and the pockets of their friends with money created out of nothing.

Because the market cannot be fooled, the market responds to the fraudulent creation of money by prices going up. This is form of tax that is very easy to hide. In fact, Thomas Jefferson said or wrote:

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered…I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies… The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”

Because we are moving into the future, one day at a time, it is normal to conclude that humans are going to find solutions to problems. For example, paper money did not always exist. At one point in humanity evolution, those that traded, carried their gold or silver in a bag on their belt. Well, having a big bag of gold around your belt was a great way to advertise how much you wanted to be robbed. Hey, you have to go to sleep sometime right?

To prevent from being robbed, many people kept their gold or silver with a goldsmith / silversmith. These were people who where trusted and could afford to have other trusted people keep watch over his inventory as well as the precious metals from those who entrusted the goldsmith with their gold. Of course the Goldsmith, received a fee for watching over other peoples precious metals. In exchange the Goldsmith / Silversmith, would give those people a receipt for the metals that he would be entrusted to protect. It was found that people then started to trade the receipts just as well as the trade of the precious metals. This was the precursor to modern banking.

Then what happen is the Gutenberg invented the printing press. They say he was printing bibles, I say that was a cover story, just like 9/11. With the “invention” of the printing press, this allowed the banks and governments to create a giant FRAUD and at the same time cover it up. The famous Economist John Maynard Keynes said:

By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.

What bitcoin does effectively is level the playing field for everyone. The great news is that because it is leveling the field there is great opportunity to CASH in on the the leveling of the playing field. For example back in July 10 2010 YOU and I too, could have bought Bitcoins for Frn$ 0.06 but we both missed it. Had you sold those same 1428.5714 bitcoins in July 10 2011 their value in Federal reserve Notes (Frn$)would have been Frn$ 21,285.77 at Frn$14.90 Fast forward to July 10 2012 the value of them would have been about $10k cause the price went down slightly to Frn$ 7.76 still a decent profit. Move forward again 1 year to July 10 2013 and the value was Frn$ 82.26 the value would have been Frn$ 117512.29 Move forward to November 29 2013 at the top of the market those same 1428.5714 bitcoins would be worth…drumroll please… Frn$ 1.59 MILLION Dollars. We both missed that one however I am not going to miss the next big one are YOU???

Morpheus has become into a Bitcoin Evangelist of sorts, he welcomes you to get more information he is available at m-o-r-p-h-e-u-s(at)t-i-t-a-n-i-a-n-s(dot)org