[Cryptography] Ranking what draws surveillance attention

Ray Dillinger bear at sonic.net
Sun Mar 1 12:20:53 EST 2026


On 3/1/26 4:07 AM, Jerry Leichter wrote:
> Just to correct one minor point - because in this “post-truth” world accuracy is important:
>
>
> No.  In this case, we know exactly the “who and how.”  Bill Pulte, Trump’s pick as the head of the FHFA (Federal Housing Finance Agency) has made a little business for himself trawling through his agency’s records looking for Trump enemies who he could refer to the Department of Injustice for prosecution.
>
> Quite proud of himself, he apparently is.

Hm.  I hadn't considered it.  But you're definitely right that that 
could be the explanation.

On the other hand, even if those charges don't support the inference 
that such a database now exists, it does mean that the current FHFA 
would have been entirely cooperative, or even eager, to have their 
records harvested for such a database.

But this is mere shadow-boxing. If I "BELIEVE" the database is there, I 
can interpret almost anything as proof that it's there, can't I?

On the other hand, I now have a trilemma:  Definitely not Sybil's 
curse:  Was it Cassandra's, or a plain mistake?  I can't tell. History 
will tell us eventually I suppose.

  Bear


---

"History doesn't always repeat itself.  Sometimes it just screams 'Why 
aren't you LISTENING to me?' and lets fly with a club."  -- John W. 
Campbell.



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