Reports are that Supreme Court Justice Ginsberg has died.

I would anticipate Trump quickly nominating a solid conservative before the election and the Senate to confirm her.

With Roberts being anti-Trump to the extent that he is willing to ignore laws and the constitution as written, a Trump nominee replacing a solid liberal will likely result in the SC siding with the constitution in any election dispute, which will be inevitable due to Democrats long history of voter fraud, going back to the civil war along with the likelihood of massive voter fraud via vote by mail and the like associated disputes.

What are your thoughts?

The Chinese Ambassador to the UK recently was interviewed on the BBC where he was shown a drone video that purportedly shows Uighurs in Western China blindfolded, shaven and handcuffed being lead into trains. The Ambassador had no good explanation as to what was going on in the video, and the video was obviously taken without the permission of the Chinese government.

Separately, according to a New York Times report, it appears the Chinese government is supplying Uighur slave (forced) labor to Chinese manufacturers of PPE that is sold throughout the world, including the United States.

Both of the above looks very bad on the part of the Chinese government and the CCP. This along with what China is doing to the people of Hong Kong.

How should the world respond to the above reports? Should Western companies pull out of Chinese markets (production and selling their services/merchandise)?

With the passage of the “National Security” law in China relating to Hong Kong, China appears to have passed a worldwide ban on calling for democracy in Hong Kong, with punishments as harsh as life in prison for violating the law. I understand violating the law, and subsequently traveling to Hong Kong may result in your arrest.

In response many tech companies have decided to stop Responding to government requests from the Hong Kong government/police. These companies are banned in China, and as such have no Chinese customers.

The law of course has nothing to do with National Security, but rather is intended to stifle dissent.

My question is, how will the forum respond to requests for information from the governments of Hong Kong and/or China?

There is always the risk of a state sponsored hack to obtain personal information of users. As such, precautions should always be taken if you are at risk of prosecution resulting from criticizing your government on the forum.

This should be pretty self-explanatory.

Post memes about Joe Biden and\or Kamala Harris. Your memes don’t have to be original and suggested topics may include:
-His probable dementia
-His corruption
-His creepiness
-His harmful politics
-Her being a descendant of slave owners
-Her far left extremist policies
-Her being transactional
-Her being willing to say anything to get power
 
This thread is self moderated and will be censored at a Twitter level

I will start with a few:

https://thunderspy.io/

According to a report (referenced above) the contents on your encrypted hard drive may be vulnerable to compromise if you have a thunderbolt port on your computer. Attackers will need physical access to your computer to copy its data, and doing so will only take a few minutes.

You can read about how to protect your computer here and can read the research paper on the matter here.

This attack is only applicable to computers manufactured prior to 2019 and the attack would generally need to be targeted to you specifically.

This is one additional example as to why it is important to guard against possible attackers gaining physical access to your computer.

There is a string of malware going around that seeks to give the impression that it is a dashboard that tracks coronavirus cases.

According to an article, I found, the malware displays real information obtained from Johns Hopkins University about coronavirus cases.

While the malware does have an actual functioning GUI for tracking coronavirus cases, in the background it collects login information you enter into web browsers and looks for various private keys in various crypto wallet software. According to a security blog post on the malware, it will send the stolen data to an IP address that is associated with http://coronavirusstatus[.]space/

The SHA-245 of the malware is 2b35aa9c70ef66197abfb9bc409952897f9f70818633ab43da85b3825b256307

This should serve as a warning that even if a software appears to be useful, it is not necessarily safe to use if not obtained from a trustworthy source.

There appears to be demand for quick stats about merit.

As such, I am releasing an API that will allow you to quickly retrieve information about merit a person has sent, received, received recently, and that has been sent between users.

You can access the API by performing the following steps:
Go to https://bitcointalk-merit-api.herokuapp.com/
Go to the URL of one of the endpoints described on the above page.

I will try to keep this thread updated, however, the above page will contain up to date information about available routes.

The following routes are currently available:
/api/v0.1/number_received/[uid]
/api/v0.1/received_recent/
/api/v0.1/number_sent/[uid]
/api/v0.1/between/[uid_from]/[uid_to]
/api/v0.1/received/[uid]
/api/v0.1/sent/[uid]

[uid] is the UID of the account you are querying. [uid_from] is the UID of the account that sent merit, and [uid_to] is the UID of the account that received merit.

number_received - returns the number of merit the account has received
received_recent - returns the number of merit the account has received in the last 120 days
number_sent - returns the number of merit the account has sent
between - returns the total number of merit sent from [uid_from] to [uid_to], and a list of transactions that contain the time, date, day of week and post id of the merited post
received - returns the total number of merit received and a list of transactions that contain the time, date, day of week and post id of the merited post
sent - returns the total number of merit sent and a list of transactions that contain the time, date, day of week and post id of the merited post

The code is available at https://github.com/numberedprime7/merit-api

The merit data is as of the most recent merit data dump (usually happens on Saturdays).

Suggestions for improvements and bug reports are welcome.

As an example as to how you access the endpoints, below is an example of how to access all the merit I have sent:
https://bitcointalk-merit-api.herokuapp.com/api/v0.1/sent/2561166

to do -
write readme on github
create HTML file/render_template code to display endpoints/descriptions better
allow for lists of UIDs to be passed
consider improving dictionary format

There appears to be demand for a bot to prevent specific users from being able to post in self moderated threads.

As such, I am releasing a bot to self moderator bot that bans specific UIDs from posting in your self moderated thread.

You can run the bot by performing the following steps:

• Install prerequisites^*
• Create text file (name cannot have spaces), and change file name extension to .py
• Past code into text file
• enter the captcha bypass URL, your forum username, thread you are moderating, and list of UIDs you are banning from posting in your thread into the file in their respective variables
• If you are not using a mac, comment out line 26, and uncomment the line below the OS type you are running; save the file
• Open terminal (or gitbash if using Windows), navigate to the folder the file is in
• In the terminal, type python file_name.py
• If you named the file 'self_moderator.py' you would type python self_moderator.py
• the terminal will ask for your forum password, type your forum password and press enter
• Note: your password will only be transmitted to the forum to login, and the code does not otherwise retain or transmit your password to anywhere else (as written)
• If you did everything correctly, the bot will review your self moderated thread every 10 seconds (by default), and remove any posts by anyone you have banned from your thread
  

Prerequisites:
Python
The following python libraries: splinter bs4 (beautifulsoup) selenium numpy datetime time warnings
Chrome
Chromedriver -- you can find documentation on how to install chromedriver here.
The bot was tested using version 3.7 of python, and I am unsure if it will work on older versions

If you don't want Chrome to display in the backgroud while your bot is running, you can change line 48, specifically the variable 'headless' from False to True

My bot has a MIT license, however by using my bot, or by using any bot derived from my bot, you are agreeing and promising that you will not take steps to prevent the subject of your self-moderated thread from posting in your thread. In other words, if you are using my bot, you must allow any person who is the subject of your self-moderated thread to respond to your thread.

I have posted my code on github and is below:

Code:

Cloud Flare appears to be preventing me from posting my code here

Comments and suggestions for improvements are welcomed.

If there is demand, I could add functionality to also prevent ranks, or those with under certain activity or merit from posting.

test

(more testing later)

The New York Times published¹ over 400 pages of leaked documents from the Chinese Communist party. One of them talk about scripting² for government officials to tell students who have returned home from school to learn their parents have been detained in a reeducation camp. Included in 'that their behavior could either shorten or extend the detention of their relatives' in the reeducation camps.

It is estimated there are a million people in various Chinese reeducation camps, and depending on the accuracy of this estimation, this could rival the Concentration camps the Nazis ran in World War 2.


I encourage you to read the below articles and post what you think. They are behind a partial paywall, meaning the NYT limits the number of articles you can read without subscribing, but you can get around this via deleting cookies from the NYT, or by simply clearing your cookies. 

The documents themselves are in Chinese, but the below articles talking about the documents are written in English.


¹ - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang-documents.html

² - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-detention-directive.html

According to reports, the Chinese censors have scrubbed all evidence of the TV show South Park from the Chinese internet. This includes taking down links to videos of old episodes, discussion threads on Chinese internet forums about the show, posts about the show on the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, and any other references to the show.

This comes after an episode of South Park recently aired, mocking Chinese censorship, the Chinese leader, and the hypocrisy of American companies who do business with/in China. The creators of South Park have given permission for everyone to watch the episode in question for free.

The creators of South Park have issued an apology to the Chinese government:

OFFICIAL APOLOGY FROM TREY PARKER AND MATT STONE.

"Like the NBA, we welcome the Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts. We too love money more than freedom and democracy. Xi doesn't look just like Winnie the Pooh at all. Tune into our 300th episode this Wednesday at 10! Long live the Great Communist Party of China! May this autumn's sorghum harvest be bountiful! We good now China?"

I have long found South Park to be immature, have held this opinion for probably close to two decades, have never really enjoyed watching the show (I wasn't even aware it was still on the air), but am a very strong believer in free speech and freedom in general.

This comes amid Rockets (NBA) general manager Daryl Morey tweeting (and later deleting) his support for the people of Hong Kong, and their push for democracy. The NBA commissioner later effectively condemned the tweet. The Chinese government has responded by removing references to the Rockets, many Chinese companies have pulled sponsorships from the Rockets, and have declared they will not air NBA pre-season games.

https://blog.coinbase.com/responding-to-firefox-0-days-in-the-wild-d9c85a57f15b?gi=9fcadcfc2ba8

Coinbase announced in the above blog post that they were the subject of a targeted, sophisticated attack involving two zero day attacks involving Firefox.

In short, the attackers took over an email address in the Cambridge University domain, and sent emails to multiple Coinbase employees. After having an extended conversation with the employees, the attacker sent a link to a malicious site containing Javascript code that allowed for multiple zero day exploits to be executed on the victims machines. Coinbase quickly detected the exploits, revoked system access to those affected and once they were confident their systems and networks were safe, reported the exploits to Firefox. 

What do you think? Does this give you more or less confidence in exchanges in general? In Coinbase? In other major exchanges?

I am surprised to not see any threads about this yet.

Project Veritas recently released hidden cam footage of conversations with Google executive detailing plans to meddle in the 2020 presidential election to prevent Trump from getting reelelcted. The video also features someone who claims to be a google "insider" detailing how Google uses its various search features to push a far left win agenda, such as using "auto complete" to provide suggestions to "men can" such as "can pregnant", "have babies" and "have periods".

James O'Keefe, founder of Project Veritas has claimed YouTube censored the above referenced video by removing the video from its platform. He has also claimed the project veritas reddit account has been banned very shortly after publishing said video.

US Representative Gohmert of Texas has responded to the video saying, in part:

This video shows Google’s biases are now a threat to a free and fair election

I saw some reports that Project Veritas' website was down earlier in the day, but this might have been fake. As of now, their website is running, and they are hosting the video themselves. I cannot find a way to upload the video here as a mirror.

I think this should concern you, even if you dislike President Trump. It should not be up to a few people inside a monopoly to decide who gets elected and what policies get pushed onto Americans. If you want to change the beliefs of other Americans, you should use persuasion to change my mind, not what amounts to censorship and manipulation. 

I was on LocalBitcoins this afternoon and noticed Cash-in-Person trades appear to be removed. I am not able to find anything about this on their FAQ nor their Twitter, or their blog.

Does anyone know when this was effective, or their rational behind this?

I cannot image any legal rationale behind removing these ads, at least in the US, as they are only posting content by their own users.

While browsing the Invites and Accounts section today, I noticed a Junior Member user had an avatar, which intrigued me.

'getpaidz' was created in 2011, and mostly was posting about his various businesses, such as his URL shorter business, and his GPT site.

I believe his last post was in September 2011, here is his post history. His next post was 5.5 years later, predicting the outcome of that years Superbowl. Now he is selling VCCs and Amazon SES and AWS accounts(?), and Facebook accounts.

The very long posting gap, and the transition into a new line of business (that is 'grey' at best) makes me believe there is a chance he may be hacked.

Can someone from Cryptios, or an admin look into this please? Thanks.

[assumed to be hacked]

I recently was reviewing the rules of Invites & Accounts, and I saw this rule:

Accounts on sites that require KYC such as bank accounts, PayPal, etc. are assumed to be hacked unless you explain why they're not hacked.

I looked on the first three pages of Invites & Accounts and I found a lot of threads that clearly meet this criteria. I am not sure if so few people frequent this sub that no one bothers reporting these kinds of threads, or if this rule is ignored by moderators. Some examples of threads that appear to be breaking the above rule, based on my knowledge of various services, and is limited to threads I was willing to click on based on the title indicating they might be breaking the rule:

Want to sell Wirex verifed accounts - they are described as "verified" (implied as having gone through KYC), and there are many old "bumps" needing deletion, including multiple within a 24 hour period

Selling Coinbase Coingate Cryptopay and many other verifed accounts - coinbase requires KYC and the description "verified" implies KYC was completed

Us Vba | Usa Virtual Bank account | USA Paypal Accounts Full Verified( No Hold ) - PayPal requires KYC to be "verified". I am not familiar with how a VCC or VBA works, but I believe KYC is probably required to get these. There are many old "bumps" needing deletion in this thread

No 21 Days Hold Aged-Verified PayPal Accounts - China, Australia, USA, CANADA - the topic says the accounts are KYC verified

SELL)Verified Google Cloud Acc - the topic says the accounts are KYC verified with "ID documents"

Escrow Available - Full verified personal PayPal - this is described as "verified" which implies KYC was done. The topic says the seller will "make" a new account, which may be an "explanation" but if these are not hacked, it looks a lot like identity theft, and I don't think it is good for identity theives to be transacting here

[WTS] Bitstamp/Huobi verified accounts - described as "verified" implies KYC completed, and these businesses require KYC

☆☆☆ USA / UK : BANK ACCOUNT'S ☆☆☆ [USE IN STRIPE,PAYPAL,VENMO,ETC] [🔥SALE🔥]
 - KYC is required to open a bank account in the US and UK

selling verified bet365 and skrill/neteller from UK,irl - the "verified" description implies KYC. I have not used skrill or neteller, and do not know for sure if KYC is required to use these services

selling neteller, coinbase and movo account from UK - coinbase requires KYC

PayPal stealth account USA - PayPal requires KYC, and card information is being sold

Stealth Poloniex account Verification status: Verified - Poloniex requires KYC, and "verified" description implies KYC

Selling verifed BitPanda accounts - I do not know what BitPanda is, but the "verified" description implies KYC

★ 100% SSN Verif. Paypal accs with transactions and access to Bank acc + docs! ★ - "SSN verified" means KYC was done

{WTS}USA Debit Cards with Bank Accounts - this looks like either hacked accounts or identity theft. KYC is required to get a debit card

Can a moderator look at the above threads,  ban these users, and lock these threads if they are found to be breaking the rules? The main part of the rule is:

You are only allowed to sell accounts/invites that you legally obtained yourself or through legitimate trades. If you did anything illegal in order to obtain an item, then you can't trade it on bitcointalk.org. Anyone found breaking this rule will be banned.

I do not frequent this sub very frequently, but did so because of a complaint about the Digital Good sub I was reading.

I am being asked to submit my KYC information to continue using the forum.

Obviously I am not going to give this information.

edit: This is an April fools joke, and any information submitted will not go to this site's owner:

I am wondering how many people will actually fill in the form with their real information not even thinking

It's fine, the data is only locally submitted:

"The Prince Of Egifts" created a thread selling what appears to be gift cards and is using multiple transparent sock puppets to vouch for him.

I understand we do not moderate scams, however in this case, he is "locking" his thread, except when his sock puppets post in his thread. This is resulting in this person doing what is constructively bumping his thread multiple times per day (3-4x, not including deleted posts, if any).

At a minimum, I am calling for the above thread to be locked by a moderator, so he cannot unlock his thread to allow his sockpuppets to constructively bump his thread multiple times per day.

Additional action can be taken at a moderator's discretion.

Thanks.  

Additional threads breaking the "bump" rule:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5114762.0;all
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1674707.0;all