COURAGE, TRUTH & BOOTY:

  The Fight for Election Integrity in Rockland County A Small County’s Big Battle to Verify the 2024 Vote By Apirate Monk In the quiet suburban sprawl of Rockland County, New York, a stone’s throw from the bustle of Manhattan, a legal drama is unfolding that could ripple far beyond its borders. At the heart of this story is a lawsuit challenging the accuracy of the 2024 presidential and U.S. Senate election results—a case that has thrust a small, nonpartisan organization called SMART Legislation into the national spotlight. Led by Lulu Friesdat, a journalist-turned-election-reform-advocate, the group is pushing for a full hand recount of the county’s ballots, citing statistical anomalies and sworn voter affidavits that suggest something went awry on Election Day. As the case moves into the discovery phase, it raises profound questions about the integrity of America’s electoral process, the fragility of public trust, and the lengths to which citizens must go to ensure their votes ...

  This is funny and kind of weird. I'm not sure how I missed it. It's a story about Pirate Radio in Colorado with a pretty good overview of what I was doing back then running KBFR/Boulder Free Radio. Here's a summary (or you can read the entire article by clicking here ) The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has intensified its crackdown on unlicensed "pirate" radio stations in Colorado, targeting stations along the Front Range, including Way High Radio in Ward, KNED in Nederland, Green Light Radio, and Boulder Free Radio. On January 24, FCC agents attempted to shut down Way High Radio, but DJs remotely disabled the signal to avoid confrontation. Similar actions led to warnings for other stations, causing three of the four to cease FM broadcasts, though they continue streaming online. This enforcement surge follows a December letter from FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, criticizing a Longmont news outlet for reporting on a local pirate station, KROC, and a...

  The Great American Housing Heist: How Corporate Consolidation Priced Out the Middle Class Nationwide By Apirate Monk In Dallas, Texas, the American Dream once felt within reach. As recently as 2011, a middle-class family in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex (DFW) could buy a home with an income roughly twice what was needed for a mortgage. Homes priced under $100,000 were plentiful, with one in five selling for less than $99,000. But today, the median home price in DFW has soared to over $440,000, nearly tripling in just over a decade. A household now needs at least $100,000 annually to afford a typical home in the city proper—far above the median income. This story of vanishing affordability isn’t unique to Dallas. From coast to coast, America’s cities—big and small, red and blue—are grappling with a housing crisis that has transformed the home from a cornerstone of stability into a financial asset for Wall Street, leaving millions of families priced out. The culprits? Corporate ...

  The Meme Coin Mirage: A Tale of Hype and Heartbreak By Apirate Monk In the frenetic digital bazaar of 2025, where social media amplifies dreams of instant wealth, memecoins had become the latest obsession. These cryptocurrencies, born from internet memes, viral trends, and celebrity endorsements, promised riches to anyone daring enough to dive in. But beneath the glittering hype, a brutal truth awaited: for most, memecoins were a rigged game, designed to enrich insiders while leaving retail investors with empty wallets. Jake, a 24-year-old mechanic from Chicago, was scrolling X one November night in 2024 when he stumbled across a post hyping “Fartcoin,” a memecoin that had inexplicably soared to a $1.5 billion market cap, outvaluing brands like Office Depot. The X thread buzzed with promises of “10x gains” and screenshots of crypto wallets flaunting millions. Jake, frustrated by mounting bills and a stagnant job market, saw a lifeline. He sank $3,000—his emergency savings—into ...

  The Unseen Eye: How Flock Cameras Are Redefining Surveillance and Privacy in America By Apirate Monk In the quiet expanse of Johnson County, Texas, a sheriff’s deputy sat before a computer screen on May 9, 2025, accessing a sprawling network of over 83,000 automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras scattered across the United States. The officer was searching for a woman who had reportedly self-administered an abortion, prompted by her family’s concern that she might be in medical distress. The tool at the deputy’s fingertips, provided by a company called Flock Safety, allowed the search to extend far beyond Texas’s borders—reaching into states like Washington and Illinois, where abortion remains a protected right. The sheriff’s office insisted the search was about ensuring the woman’s safety, not enforcing Texas’s restrictive abortion laws. Yet the incident, first reported by 404 Media, sent a chill through privacy advocates and reproductive rights groups, exposing the dysto...

  The New McCarthy: How Trump’s Tactics Echo a Dark Chapter in American History By Apirate Monk In the spring of 1954, a single moment of moral clarity pierced through the fog of fear that had gripped America for years. Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin Republican whose name became synonymous with baseless accusations and political terror, had been on a rampage, alleging Communist infiltration in every corner of American life—government, Hollywood, academia. His targets were often innocent, their lives ruined by the mere whisper of "traitor." The media amplified his claims, politicians cowered, and even President Dwight Eisenhower hesitated to confront him directly, wary of the political fallout. But on June 9, during the nationally televised Army-McCarthy hearings, a Boston lawyer named Joseph Welch delivered a rebuke that would echo through history: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" With those words, McCarth...

The Passenger in the Car Is You—And Your Data By Apirate Monk How the symbol of American freedom became a privacy nightmare on wheels. The modern automobile is a marvel of engineering, a seamless fusion of steel, glass, and silicon that promises not just transportation, but an experience. It is a connected hub, a rolling office, an entertainment cocoon. But as we recline in our heated seats, bathed in the glow of touchscreens and serenaded by satellite radio, we have become oblivious to a fundamental transformation. The quintessential symbol of personal freedom has become one of the most powerful and invasive data-gathering devices we own. Your car is watching you. And it’s telling everyone what it sees. This isn’t hyperbole. This is the stark conclusion of a groundbreaking and deeply troubling report by the Mozilla Foundation. In its September 2023 “ Privacy Not Included ” guide, the organization that champions a free and open internet turned its attention to the automotive industry. ...