Getting Arrested for Laughing Is No Joke

"The Justice Department is prosecuting a woman who laughed during a Senate hearing to confirm Jeff Sessions as attorney general. I can sympathize with her somewhat absurd plight because I was once tossed out of the press box in the Supreme Court for laughing at the wrong time." Continue reading

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Louisiana Bill Would Expand Right to Try Act, Further Rejecting Some FDA Restrictions

BATON ROUGE, La. (May 9, 2017) – A bill introduced in the Louisiana House would expand the states Right to Try law to include technology designed to help ALS patients with mobility. Passage into law would set the foundation to nullify in practice a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules that deny these patients’ access…

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New Hampshire Bill to Close Federal Asset Forfeiture Loophole Faces Intense Police Opposition

CONCORD, N.H. (May 8, 2017) –  A New Hampshire bill that would close a federal loophole allowing state and local police to circumvent stringent state asset forfeiture laws by passing cases off to the feds will go to the Senate floor later this week facing fierce oppostion. Rep, Michael Sylvia (R-Belmont) and Rep. John Burt (R-Goffstown)…

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Thieves drain 2FA-protected bank accounts by abusing mobile networks

"The unidentified attackers exploited weaknesses in Signalling System No. 7, a telephony signaling language that more than 800 telecommunications companies around the world use to ensure their networks interoperate. SS7, as the protocol is known, makes it possible for a person in one country to send text messages to someone in another country. It also allows phone calls to go uninterrupted when the caller is traveling on a train. The same functionality can be used to eavesdrop on conversations, track geographic whereabouts, or intercept text messages." Continue reading

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Texas Committee Passes Bill to Review and Reject Unconstitutional Federal Acts

AUSTIN, Texas (May 7, 2017) – On Thursday, a Texas House committee passed a bill that would create a mechanism to review federal laws and end state cooperation with enforcement of those determined to violate the U.S. Constitution. This process would set the stage to effectively block some federal laws and acts in the Lone…

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I never knew how screwed up global banking was until I started my own bank

"You can imagine my surprise when I found out that SWIFT runs on Windows Vista - an obsolete operating system that Microsoft no longer supports. When my bank received its SWIFT code, we were told that we had to have a computer running Vista in the office in order to connect to SWIFT. It was such an absurd exercise to find an obsolete computer running an obsolete operating system to connect to the supposedly most advanced and important international payment network in the world. Unsurprisingly, SWIFT has been hacked numerous times, both by the NSA as well as private hackers who have stolen a great deal of money from their victims." Continue reading

Continue ReadingI never knew how screwed up global banking was until I started my own bank