• SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Stealing the top comment:

    See what’s sad is that there could be real national security reasons for the FBI/DOJ actions, but because the pattern lately has been un-uniformed randos detaining people in the streets (and then disappearing them), I’m fresh out of benefits of the doubt for the government here.

    If they’re the subject of a criminal investigation, say so. If they’re not, then explain why nobody has heard from these people in seemingly weeks. Are they green card holders? US citizens?

    • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      The Nazis historically did go after universities and professors. If you ever take a class on Heidegger, it’s overshadowed by his membership in the party, and the fact he participated in carrying out the parties policy - firing all Jewish professors, including his friend Hussarl.

      Colleges are places where ideas compete, and fascism cannot compete as an idea but only through force. The crypto angle might be part of this case, but we’ve already seen Florida and Texas trying to set up their own controlled university systems - fucking with colleges and professors is on the table.

      • Rookwood@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        21 hours ago

        Yes, it’s why when you meet a fascist in the wild or online they will always counterargument with trolling and non-sequitur nonsense. Fascism cannot survive sincerity.

  • perestroika@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    Obvious possibilities:

    • he was suspected of espionage and arrested (we don’t know whether he did anything), for some reason it hasn’t been disclosed (it should be disclosed)
    • he disappeared on his own, officials are trying to understand what he knew or accomplished

    The university de-listing him seems particularly interesting. Clearly they were told something that the public wasn’t told.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      While in normal times that would makes sense as a likely possibility from what little we know, today it seems equally possible he’s in Guantanamo as an illegal immigrant hardened criminal who is clearly a member of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang. I’m sure he’s responsible for half the Fentanyl in the US

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Did he hide a shitload of national security secrets in his bathroom with the chandelier?

    Oh no wait, if he did that they’d have done NOTHING

  • Jimbabwe@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Looks like they found Satoshi Nakamoto and now Hegseth is gonna beat him with a sock fulla quarters til he gives Trump “all the bitcoins”

    • SilverCode@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      Huh, another good reason for sticking with physical money. You can’t beat someone with a sock full of bitcoin.

        • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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          2 days ago

          All the claims of who it might potentially be have been debunked one way or another. Someone was sure it was a Canadian guy not too long ago and he started getting harassed…

            • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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              1 day ago

              There’s tons of circumstantial evidence for a bunch of people, but Adam Back keeps talking about the value of Bitcoin (Satoshi would be one of the richest person on earth right now, he wouldn’t care about its value anymore) and was against the changes necessary to make Bitcoin useful as a digital currency (leading to the 2017 fork).

              Why did Satoshi create Bitcoin? Because he felt there was a need for a digital currency, not because he wanted to get rich. It’s in the whitepaper.

              • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
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                1 day ago

                That’s the weakest sauce “debunking” I’ve ever seen.

                It’s been a while, but as I remember the arguments they give are:

                • Back basically disappeared activity-wise from the relevant mailing list at the same time that Satoshi appeared, and everyone immediately trusted Satoshi and treated him as someone of value
                • Similarities in writing style
                • Back has given some odd answers in interviews when asked about Satoshi, that basically only make sense if he at least knows who it is

                Is that ironclad? Certainly not. It is however a lot more convincing than “why would someone with a lot of money care whether the value of their money went UP or DOWN if they already had a lot? Checkmate”.

                • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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                  1 day ago

                  Why would he work against his goal of creating a digital currency then? Bitcoin is useless for that with transactions that can be left pending for hours because of the block size limit, which Back supported keeping as is.

              • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
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                2 days ago

                Okay lol so you literally have no idea who Adam Back is or what’s in the video or why it might or might not be credible. That’s what I am taking away from this.

                I thought you might have some sort of real reason why the arguments might not be solid or something. Never mind, have a good day.

    • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
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      2 days ago

      The modern FBI is not interested in counterespionage.

      I mean technically it is possible that this is some leftover of their operation before they joined up with America’s adversaries, but usually for counterespionage they would explain what’s going on instead of just disappearing the suspect. This seems potentially much more dark than that.

          • catloaf@lemm.ee
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            2 days ago

            I don’t see any “FBI raids location” statements on that page. It’s all arrests and other conclusions.

            • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
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              2 days ago

              The dude is gone. No one knows where he is.

              Plus, there should be public records related to some of this stuff. I don’t actually know how it works if someone’s presenting a FISA warrant or something for a search of a physical location, but even in that case, I think the woman or her lawyer would at least be able to give a brief statement to the press explaining what they can and can’t talk about.

              But definitely for the arrest of the dude itself, there should be a public record and a warrant signed by a judge. If he was arrested by the normal federal-court-inclusive-of procedure.

              Plus, why is his employer pretending he never existed? That seems like a whole new chapter in this whole unfolding nightmare that we are progressively entering into.

              • dohpaz42@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                Plus, why is his employer pretending he never existed?

                Any university that accepts federal funds is beholden to the federal government. And since universities need that money, they will do everything they can to keep Big Brother happy.

                • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
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                  2 days ago

                  I wasn’t expecting “pretending the guy that the feds disappeared had never existed” to appear on the bingo card quite this soon.

                  Some people were lecturing me just a few days ago about how we shouldn’t freak out and exaggerate and say that someone had been “disappeared” just because they were in ICE custody without any charges being filed and no one knew where they were for a few days. They might have had a point or they might not. But… maybe there are some details I’m not aware of, but on first hearing, this really does sound like they just disappeared this person in the full literal historical sense. And the university is going along with it.

                • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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                  2 days ago

                  Any university that accepts federal funds is beholden to the federal government.

                  Historically, the government and university systems have worked symbiotically to produce useful technologies and professional experts for each others’ benefits.

                  This isn’t simply cash-for-service. There has historically been a big revolving door between state agencies and academic institutions.

                  The Trump Admin is both cutting financial support to universities and purging state officials with friendly school ties.

  • mutual_ayed@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    Salt Typhoon is my guess. That team would’ve heavily benefit from someone with Dr. Xiaofeng Wang’s connections.