Today, President Trump has liberated the United States of America and is currently president. He has pledged to unify the country and to make America great again.

What are your thoughts on the second Trump administration? How is Trump doing so far?

It appears a new feature has recently been implemented in the forum.

When someone creates a thread, they are the Ooriginal Poster, or "OP". Now whenever someone creates a post in a thread in which they are the OP, the letters "OP" will appear next to their forum handle.

It appears there is a tooltip when you hover over the "OP" next to a person's name, which tells you that this person created the thread.

This is a cool, useful feature. When following up on a thread you have previously read and/or posted in, this will allow you to quickly know which posts belong to the OP of that thread.

On August 8, 2022, the FBI, pursuant to a search warrant, raided the home of the legitimately elected former President, Donald Trump. This was an unprededented event and was clearly motivated by politics.

It appears that the DOJ intended to "prosecute" Trump via leaks to the friendly press by leaking either inaccurate information or information that is taken out of context. An example of this to date includes leaks to the Washington Post suggesting that some of the "classified" documents in Trump's home were related to "nuclear" secrets.

From the looks of it, the dispute in question appears to be a document dispute between Trump and the National Archives. There is no evidence presented to date that suggests a search warrant was necessary.

The unredacted version of the affidavit that was used to support the search warrant on Trump's home contained no information that suggested evidence of a crime would be found at Trump's home. Prior to the DOJ being ordered to release a redacted version of said affidavit, both Trump and Republican lawmakers have been calling for the DOJ to become transparent regarding the investigation and the case. After the affidavit was released, with its heavy redactions, many continue to slam the DOJ for their lack of transparency.

All of this comes after the DOJ described angry parents who were critical of the Biden Administration's allies (the teacher's unions) as "terrorists".

What do you think? Has Biden weaponized the DOJ against his political opponents? Has the DOJ and FBI lost all credibility?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/former-coinbase-employee-charged-in-alleged-insider-trading-scheme-11658420556

The DOJ recently filed charges against Ishan Wahi, a former Coinbase employee, his friend, and his brother, alleging insider trading.

It is alleged that Wahi tipped his friend and brother off about upcoming coin listings on the Coinbase platform, which allowed them to trade in advance of this news. As part of their case, it is alleged that certain tokens listed on Coinbase are unregistered securities.

I understand that the DOJ is largely relying on certain tokens listed on Coinbase as being a "security", and I think they are stretching the definition. What Wahi is alledged to have done is certainly unethical, but I don't think it reaches the point of being illegal.

According to recent unconfirmed reports, including a reported draft opinion of the US Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade is going to be overturned by the US Supreme Court.

If the above is correct, abortion will be regulated by the various states, and in most states, abortion will not be illegal in all circumstances.

It appears that the SCOTUS correctly recognizes that there is no basis to say that the "right to get an abortion" is enumerated in the Constitution, and as such, the ability to regulate abortion is reserved to the various states.

What do you think? Is there any basis in the US constitution to suggest that the right to an abortion is guaranteed in the Constitution? If true, is the above ruling consistent with the Constitution?

The DOJ has announced they have arrested Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan in connection with the 2016 hack of Bitfinex, in which 120,000 bitcoin was stolen. The DOJ also said that they seized most of the 120,000 BTC, now worth ~$3.6 billion (out of ~$4.5 billion) that was stolen in the 2016 hack last week.

According to the "statement of facts" attached to the criminal complaint, the FBI was able to seize files out of a cloud storage provider belonging to the defendants (Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan) that contained the private keys of addresses directly associated with the bitfinex hack, along with a spreadsheet of various login information to several exchange accounts belonging to the defendants that can be traced to the 2016 hack.

Interestingly, the defendants apparently represented to an exchange (it sounds somewhat like coinbase pro) that they were mining in 2011 and this is how they obtained so much bitcoin. I remember seeing posts on this forum asking for private keys from circa 2011 that received mining rewards.

It appears that the defendants were able to successfully cash out some of the stolen coin, so I think it is unlikely that more of the stolen coin is going to be recovered.

Article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/justice-department-says-it-seized-3-6-billion-in-stolen-cryptocurrency-exchange-hack-11644339381?mod=hp_lead_pos6

DOJ statement of facts: https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1470211/download

Interestingly, it does not appear that it is alleged that the defendants actually hacked bitfinex. Although given they are in possession of billions of dollars of what can be traced to the hack, it is almost certain one of them was involved in the hack IMO. Based on the facts presented, it sounds like they used their real name when KYC verifying some of their exchange accounts, and when they tried cashing out large amounts, SARs were filed, which contained sufficient evidence for the FBI to get search warrants for their email and cloud accounts.

I am surprised there haven't been any threads opened about this yet.

In recent months, Russia has massed hundreds of thousands of troops and other military equipment on the Russia-Ukraine border. It is well known that Russia wants Ukraine to be part of its county, however Russian dictator, President Putin, has claimed that the troop mass is part of a training exercise.

The US and NATO allies are sending military equipment to Ukraine to help repeal an attack, and there is some talk about possibly sending troops to the region.

Update 2/18/22:
It appears there may have been some kind of false flag operation in Dumbas, Ukraine, an area controlled by a separatist group, today, possibly involving an alleged bombing of the car belonging to the leader of the separatist group. It is possible this is part of some kind of false flag operation to create a pretext for an invasion.

President Biden today said he believes Putin has made the decision to invade and will start an invasion in the coming days.

Update 2/21/22:
It appears an invasion has begun

Update 2/23/22:
It appears there are some kind of bombings in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine

This article appeared in the November 15, 2021 paper edition of the Wall Street Journal (it was written on November 13, 2021).

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bitcoin-creator-satoshi-nakamoto-could-be-unmasked-at-florida-trial-11636808401

The family of David Kleiman (via his estate) is suing Craig S Wright for half of the bitcoin that satoshi mined in bitcoin's early days. The lawsuit claims that both Kleiman and Wright created bitcoin as a partnership in 2008/09. As many know, Wright has long claimed to be satoshi, without offering any (what I believe to be) real proof to backup this claim, however, he has presented (what I believe to be) fraudulent proof to suggest he is satoshi.

Regardless of the outcome of the case, I think Wright will claim that a court had ruled that he in fact created bitcoin. Even though the Kleiman family has a long history with Wright, I see this to largely be a case between two parties who are "friendly". Kleiman did create a partnership in 2011 that was titled in a way that might suggest some kind of partnership between Wright and Kleiman. Even with the partnership (that was created years after bitcoin was created), the Kleiman family has a long way to go in order to win their case.

If Wright receives a court ruling suggesting that he created bitcoin, he will gain credibility, although, IMO such credibility will be ill-deserved. Both sides of the case are arguing that Wright helped create bitcoin, and there is no one in the case arguing that he did not create bitcoin.

[moderator's note: fixed date format in title]

I have noticed there are a lot of threads in the Invites/Accounts sub that are bumping (and deleting their bumps) their threads multiple times per day.

For example:
Unneverknowme has bumped his thread 5x in 3 days.
Unneverknowme has bumped his other thread 13x in 4 days (he regularly bumps this thread 3x+ per day).
michaelh13 has bumped his thread 18x in 4 days (he has consistently bumped his thread at least 4x per day).
andypekaa has bumped his thread 7x in 4 days (he frequently bumps his thread 2x per day).
Netsssp has bumped his thread 5x in 3 days (he frequently bumps his thread 2x per day).
daxdepot has consistently bumped his thread 2x per day. (this thread is currently in the wrong sub).

The excessive bumps are being reported, and the moderators are (mostly) handling the reports by removing the excessive bumps. However, after having the excessive bumps removed, they just bump their threads again.

I propose that forum members be prevented from deleting their posts in the Invites & Accounts sub for 24 hours after they create their post. Almost no one in this sub has any merit, so I don't think it would be good to implement the merit based bumping system because it would result in these people ending up trying to buy merit, which is not a good outcome.

AFAICT, the Invites & Accounts sub is the only one with this problem, or at least as bad of a problem regarding bump spam.

I am surprised to not see multiple threads about this.

Gabby Petito went on a road trip with her fiance, Brian Laundry to the Western United States earlier this year.

On August 12, a third party unrelated to Gabby or Brian called the police, and Police in Utah meet with Brian and Gabby, who appear to have been having some kind of fight, but there was no evidence of a crime, and the police leave after they agree to spend the night away from each other.

On August 25, Gabby's mother has the last audio/facetime conversation with Gabby. Gabby may have sent text messages to her mother up to approximately 5 days after this date, but it is unclear if Gabby actually sent these messages.

On September 1, Brian returned home to FL in Gabby's van without Gabby. This is one day after Gabby's mother last received a text message from Gabby's phone.

On September 11, Gabby is reported missing by her parents in New York (Gabby lives with Brian and his parents in FL).

On Septemer 14, Brian appearently went into the Carlton Reserve in FL, and never returned. He was reported missing by his parents on Septemer 17. The Carlton Reserve is over 25,000 acres and has over 80 miles of hiking trails. It has been speculated that Brian may have hurt himself in the Carlton Reserve.

On September 19, a body is found that authorities appear to belive is that of Gabby near the area Gabby is believed to have been late in her trip.

It is unclear when Brian retained a lawyer, however he appearently already retained a lawyer as of when Gabby was reported missing, and already had received advice to not speak to the police. Brian has not helped with locating Gabby, and is likely the last person to see her alive.

Being that Gabby has been missing for weeks, and that the tempetures frequently are below freezing during the night where Gabby is last known to be, it is likely that she is now deceased, even if the body found is not that of Gabby. Gabby has an unusual tattoo on her arm, so the authorities would likely have been able to match the tattoo on her arm with the tattoo in her pictures.

Being that Brian returned home without Gabby, nearly immediately retained a criminal attorney, and has not helped with the investigation, IMO it is likely that Brian knew that Gabby is deceased as of when he left Wyoming.

Both Brian and Gabby appearently have some mental health issues that it appears they were not receiving any kind of treatment for, it is possible that either Gabby or Brian could have harmed Gabby. It is also possible that Gabby fell of some kind of ledge, killing her. Being that Brian retained a lawyer immediately, I believe it is more likely that Gabby's death was the result of either Brian or Gabby intentionally doing something to Gabby.

Obviously social media "lens" is very narrow, but I think it is unlikely that Brian did anything that was intended to kill Gabby. Although he could have hit her in a way that did more harm to her than he intended. He also could have given her illegal drugs in a dose that was enough for her to OD (knowingly or otherwise). Gabby could also have done something to herself that ended up making it appear that Brian killed Gabby.

What do you think?

According to a report, General Mark Milley committed treason when he allegedly informed China that he would inform them if the US was going to attack China prior to the November 2020 election.

The above was so bad for the United States that it could have resulted in a preemptive nuclear strike by China on US cities, and Trump, who was the democratically elected President at the time, would have been unable to respond.  

The above is so bad that even Mr. Vindman, who is an expert in undermining US Presidents he does not agree with politically, has called on Milley to resign if the reports are true.

Regardless of your opinion on the War on Terror, and the War in Afghanistan, I think it is difficult to argue that the way the exit from Afghanistan was handled was anything less than treason. There was the question as to which members of the Biden administration (besides Biden) had betrayed their country.

What do you think? Should Milley be subject to a court marshall? Should he be released from his military command?

The standard for treason is very high, so it is unlikely he will be found guilty of treason.

Former New York governor has been ensnared in a sexual harassment / sexual assault scandal after the New York Attorney General issued a report in which Cuomo harassed 11 women over a period of years, and retaliated against at least one of the women he harassed.

Earlier today, Cuomo has resigned as governor of New York. The resignation will be effective in 14 days.

Cuomo has survived other scandals over the past year. This includes the killing of tens of thousands of seniors in nursing homes and unnecessary lockdowns.  

Meanwhile, in CA, governor Newsom is facing a recall election in September that will likely result in him being removed as governor, and may even flip CA red with Larry Elder being elected as governor. This is after Newson imposed unnecessary covid lockdowns, while he and other Democrats have ignored his own lockdowns. Newsom also exempted his own businesses from his lockdowns.

What other Democrat office holders are going to be removed from office? Biden?

[Rules]

As a way to celebrate becoming a Legendary Member, I have decided to giveaway 0.0012BTC to two forum members.

The person who guesses the last two digits of the block number of the first block found after July 11, 2021, 5:00 PM UTC will win 0.001BTC. The runner-up will be the person who guesses the last two digits of the block number of the block subsequent to the above block, and will win 0.0002BTC.

Rules:
-You must have received at least 5 merit in the past 120 days from at least 2 distinct forum members
-You must have registered your account prior to July 3, 2021
-Entries are on a first-come, first-serve basis -- if you guess a number that has been guessed by someone else, you can choose a different number
-One slot per person
-You cannot use multiple alt accounts to make multiple entries
-You cannot edit your entry post
-I will compile a list of entries in the below post that will serve as the authoritative list of entries -- in the event of a discrepancy between the below list and actual forum posts, the below list will override actual forum posts
-The winner must post a SegWit bitcoin address

[Legendary]

Today while reading responses to threads I had posted in, I noticed one of my posts, I read the post, looked at my forum handle and title, and saw that I have officially been promoted to a Legendary member.

As a result of the above, I am proud to announce that I am officially a forum-made Legendary Member.

I created my account on March 12, 2019, to talk about bitcoin, crypto, and conservative ideology in a drama-free manner (yes, I know that bitcointalk is famous for its drama, and some even say that bitcointalk's drama causes the price of bitcoin to go up).

In the two years since I created PrimeNumber7, I have always tried to help fellow forum members (within reason) by lending my expertise, or giving general advice when I am not an expert, offering technical services to those requiring technical work that requires more planning or time than one might expect is required to write a few forum posts, created a number of open-source projects for community use, engaged in passioned debate with fellow forum members, worked to reduce the amount of spam, dangerous and illegal content on the forum, provided my perspective on various topics of interest to me, and did what I can in order to make the forum an enjoyable place for forum members to spend a few hours every week posting and chatting with each other.

It is an honor to finally be able to call myself a Legendary Member.

Thank to you everyone who helped make this possible.

PrimeNumber7
Legendary Member

To celebrate my Legendary Membership, I have decided to host a giveaway:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5347561.0

I invite everyone to join the giveaway, and to chat.

[If you're the owner of this website:]

I recently tried to view some of the merit stats reports and received a Cloud Flare error message when trying to view some of the reports, specifically the top merited topics and replies, recent and all time.

The error message said the web server timed out, and gave this information:

If you're the owner of this website:

The connection to the origin web server was made, but the origin web server timed out before responding. The likely cause is an overloaded background task, database or application, stressing the resources on your web server...

Cloudflare Ray ID: 635d08ee1d92184b

I have noticed these reports can oftentimes take several seconds to load when they actually load.

Based on the above, I strongly suspect that when someone tries to navigate to one of these pages, a report will be generated that is up-to-date as of when the report is pulled, and the report will only be displayed to that specific person. So if two people go to the top merited topics, all time page, 5 minutes apart, two reports will be generated (that are identical, most likely), with each report being displayed to one user.

This is not ideal because the all-time reports need to query every merit transaction, which after 4 years is a lot. I would propose that as an alternative, with the exception of 'recent merits' and 'merit sources', that a user going to any of the merit stats pages will return a static page, and the static page can have a report that is updated every x amount of time. The frequency of how often these static pages should update should depend on how often the output of the reports has historically changed, particularly the rankings. I might suggest the reports be updated no less frequently than once per day.

I have noticed that several marketplace subs have become less active than in the past, especially considering that we are in the middle of a bull market.

For example:
*The bottom of the 1st page of currency exchange has a thread last posted in 9 days ago.
*Lending has threads last posted in almost a month and a half ago on the 1st page
*Long term offers has threads last posted in over a year ago
*Auctions have threads last posted in 33 days ago on the 1st page
*Goods have threads last posted in 11 days ago on the 1st page

The above lack of trading activity is concerning to me. In the past, all of the above subs have had much more activity. I would expect more activity given the current bull market.

Does anyone have ideas as to what is causing the above? Does anyone have ideas as to what might attract more trading activity on the various marketplace subs?

I have also noticed that advertising revenue is down about 70% (in USD terms) since January 2019 (prices were similar to January 2019 in January 2020).

Should changes be made to the merit system? Should changes be made to the trust system? Is either system being implemented in ways that are less than ideal?

edit:
I think one solution might be for the forum to take steps to encourage LN use. A common theme I have noticed is high transaction fees when priced in USD for on-chain transactions.

There have been reports by CBS News that some of Trump's cabinet members are considering invoking the 25th amendment to remove Trump from office in light of the riots and violence today in the Capital.

While I do believe a Trump Presidency in the next term would be best for America, and that Trump had legitimate causes of action to overturn state-specific results, Trump did not capitalize most likely due to incompetence within his legal team. At this point, there is no path to victory on the part of Trump, and he should concede that he did not win the election.

If Trump is removed from office before the end of his term, his ability to run in 2024 is diminished, as his ability to play 'kingmaker' in the future.

What do you think? Should Trump be removed before the end of his term? Is Trump's telling his supporters to 'go home' while also saying the election was 'stolen' a strong enough message?

edit:
Edited OP to include the end of Trump's Presidency, and the transition of power to Biden

While reporting some spammers today, I ran into some limits as to my activity. Specifically, I was unable to report posts more frequently than once every 4 seconds.

Is there anything I can do to have these limits increased?

I am particularly impressed by Trump's nominee to replace RGB to the Supreme Court. It appears she is a staunch Originalist and Textualist. I believe that Barrett if confirmed will apply the law and Constitution as written, as opposed to making laws that the electorate would not vote for. This gives businesses and citizens (and the government) the confidence they can know and understand if something is legal or illegal at the time an action is taken, as opposed to when activist judges create rights out of thin air.

This should force both sides of the political aisle to compromise more because the left will no longer be able to rely on the courts to unilaterally make laws. This may also result in more constitutional amendments as the electorate decides there are rights US citizens should have that are not in the US Constitution.

I don't anticipate there being the same type of circus as there was in the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. Senate Democrats performed poorly after the Kavanaugh circus, and I don't forsee anyone being able to fabraciate the same type of dirt against Barrett.

What do you think about ACB? Is she qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice?

Trump just tweeted that he has been infected with the Chinese Coronavirus.

This is a major blow to our country.

How do you think this will affect the election? Will people be more or less likely to vote for Trump? There will be many people voting early via in-person early voting and via mail-in early voting, and they will need to know if the person they are voting for will be alive on election day.

How will this affect the country and world affairs? To date, no world leader has died from coronavirus.