Between the prairie and the cloud, an architect of security writing short reflections on economics, technology, and world affairs.
Philosophy
TLDR * The word liberal has shifted toward engineered outcomes, expert rule, identity based policy, and speech controls, drifting from liberty first principles. * Many modern liberal policies mirror Marxist premises and tend toward soft despotism, relying on centralized control, enforcement, and managed speech. * Marxism and communism share core aims: class conflict
Governance
TLDR * The modern web is built on surveillance capitalism that harvests data, manipulates behavior, and treats users as products. * Tor offers a parallel, non-commercial internet by protecting anonymity, resisting censorship, and decentralizing control. * Lawmakers and corporate interests often target privacy tools like Tor and VPNs, seeking to preserve surveillance and
Poetry
Behold the land once girded by a sacred bond, Where fields were plowed by hands both proud and fond; One voice, one altar, one ancestral dream, Flowed through the nation like a hallowed stream. Not born of conquest, nor of empire’s flame, But of shared hearth, shared faith, and
Policy
TLDR * Modern connected cars double as surveillance devices, continuously logging location, behavior, and personal habits. * Vehicle APIs massively expand who can access your data (automakers, insurers, advertisers, data brokers), often with broad default permissions. * Embedded control systems now enable active enforcement, including remote kill switches for missed payments and digital
Policy
TLDR * The FROST Act shifts government from proprietary software (like Windows) to free and open source alternatives. * Government records must be stored in open formats, and government-developed software must be published in public Git repositories. * Self-hosted blockchain systems provide tamper-evident records and transparent smart contracts. * Modern architectures such as microservices,
Policy
TLDR * Blockchain ledgers can replace fragmented, paper-heavy financial records with immutable, shared data, improving transparency, security, and trust across banks and governments. * In banking, blockchain streamlines trade finance, cross-border payments, KYC/AML, and syndicated lending, cutting fraud, delays, and operational costs while enabling real-time visibility. * Governments can use blockchain for
Technology
TLDR * Corporate-controlled social media has effectively privatized public discourse, concentrating power over information flow in a few platforms and posing a direct threat to democratic governance. * Decentralized, federated platforms and protocols (e.g., ActivityPub/fediverse) let governments, organizations, and individuals own their own instances while staying interoperable, mirroring American federalism,
Policy
TLDR * Unlike fossil fuels, nuclear offers carbon-free, 24/7 baseload power that stabilizes the grid and complements renewables. * Nuclear fuel is compact and long-lasting, insulating the U.S. from volatile global oil and gas markets and the geopolitics that come with them. * Once built, nuclear plants provide cheap, stable electricity,
Policy
TLDR * The United States faces growing strategic risk by relying on foreign nations for essential goods, technologies, and supply chains. * Targeted tariffs are not merely protectionist, they are tools to restore industrial capacity, reduce dependencies, and reinforce national security. * Decades of offshoring, accelerated by trade agreements like NAFTA, hollowed out
Technology
TLDR * The "dark web" is widely misrepresented in media and advertising, often used to scare people away from privacy-focused technologies like Tor. * Tor is just one of many internet protocols and was originally developed and funded by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory to enhance privacy and security.