Category Archives: Technology

Anarchist, Anarchist Media, Antifa, crimethInc, Italy, NSPM-7, repression, Sabot.Media, Technology, Transcribed, Uncategorized, United States, zine

The Situation with NoBlogs (a midweek special featuring Sabot Media and CrimethInc)

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cartoon of a hacktivist coveredin keyboards, mouses, circuit boards, strapped with cables and phones, cracked computer monitors stuffed with other tech and a circuit board between their mouth as they run, cables dangling behind, plus "TFSR 9-2-26 | ~ Midweek Special ~ The Situatoin with NoBlogs (feat. Sabot Media and CrimethInc)"
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In this mid-week special, you may have noticed a change in our introduction, that we’re listing TFSR.Media as our website (a work in progress, currently pointed at our blog, soon to be pointed at our new web host). This is because we’re moving our website from NoBlogs.org following the August 26, 2026 announcements by the US State Department and Department of Treasury that designated the hosts of NoBlogs, the Italian autonomous tech collective Autistici / Inventati as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and placed it on the Specially Designated Nationals list under Executive Order 13224. In this conversation you’ll hear a member of the crimethinc ex-workers collective and Sprout from Sabot Media talk about the designation, the intended impacts on anarchist, antifascist and other movements by the US government, and what can come next if we’re up for the fight.

Update: Via their updates page, KeepItAlive.AI, September 6th Autistici/Inventati announced that it would be shutting down. This development saddens us but we can’t fault them after a quarter of a century of amazing work. and it works to underline the critical need for infrastructure for movements for liberation that is somehow defensible from capitalist and authoritarian states, where we can communicate among our movements, across their borders. As they say, Stay Human.

I invite listeners to check out the statement from CrimethInc as well as the public letter still awaiting more signatures and articles available on the subject from sabot.media. There’s also a recent chat by Outlaw podcast with Shayana Kadidal of the Center for Constitutional Rights on the legal elements of this chat, alongside a list of rad servers from Riseup that could be helpful for people looking for new web hosting homes for their projects.

Sabot Media about NoBlogs:

Also, check out Autistici/Inventatiti ‘s book about their first ten years: +Kaos: Ten Years of Hacking and Media Activism

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Police, Surveillance, Technology, Transcribed, U.S. South, United States, zine

Discussion on Organizing Against Surveillance in the US South

a photo of Will Smith looking up through a car window from the film "Enemy Of The State" viewed from a surveillance satellite, plus “TFSR 8-9-26 | Discussion on Organizing Against Surveillance in the US South”
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This week, you’ll hear a discussion with Ed from Southerners Against Surveillance Systems and Infrastructure / DeFlock, Ben of Communities Against Mass Surveillance in Asheville and Kelly from Nashville Community Safety Network others who share more about their local organizing to counter the nationwide push for interconnected surveillance networks. The push for increasingly more data on the public and the funneling of that information into police fusion centers has been most visible recently in struggles against Flock. We speak about spy cameras, the connections between private companies and the state surveillance apparatus, local organizing tactics and more.

Interesting links

Announcements

Gianis Michailidis supporters firefund

Supporters of anarchist Gianis Michailidis (imprisoned by the Greek state) took solidarity actions to escalate knowledge of his hunger and thirst strike demanding his release after completing his sentence. These supporters have an appeal coming to Lamia Court of Appeals, September 29, 2026, against rulings by conservative judges threatening 30 months of prison and thousands of Euros each in damages. You can learn more about the case and how to support it at Firefund: https://www.firefund.net/amfissaintervention . Further info at https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1641475/

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Author, Environment, Health, military, Nuclear, Technology, Transcribed, United States, Verso Books, zine

A Long and Deadly Con: Nuclear Power and Weapons with M.V. Ramana

the book cover of "Nuclear Is Not The Solution" featuring a photo of a nuclear plant and steam clouds plus the words "TFSR 7-19-26 | A Long and Deadly Con: Nuclear Power and Weapons with M.V. Ramana"
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This week, we’re sharing an interview with M.V. Ramana about Nuclear energy, it’s proposal as a clean option for power generation to counter the fossil fuel industry-exacerbated climate crisis, it’s ties to weapons development and other topics.

Next week, we’ll be sharing a chat with two local activists affiliated with Appalachians Against Uranium and their research on weapons production expansion underway in eastern Tennessee.

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Anarchist, Antifa, Antifa Ost, Ausbruch, Error451, General, Germany, repression, Surveillance, Technology, Transcribed, United States, zine

Rayhunter with Cooper Quintin plus deBanking the Movement in Germany

This week, we’re sharing two segments.

"Rayhunter: Detecing Cell-Site Simulators (aka Stingrays) with Cooper Quintin | The Final Straw Radio – TFSR 2-22-26" featuring the logo for Rayhunter, an orca leaping and taking a bite out of a graph showing available cellular connectivity
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First up, a chat with Cooper Quintin, a senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and developer of the Rayhunter. Rayhunter is open-source firmware to turn specific hotspots into IMSI-catcher, effectively scanning for and logging any signs of fake cell towers (often known under the brand-name of Stingrays) in the area. Law enforcement has at times deployed these as a way of collecting information about phones in the area and could use it to intercept some communications like sms or phone calls. Cooper talks about what’s known of law enforcement use of IMSI-catchers, what has been observed of the data collected by deployed Rayhunters, phone security at demonstrations and related topics.

Then you’ll hear Radio Ausbruch from Frieberg from this month’s B(A)D News podcast from the A-Radio Network talking about the repression and deBanking of anti-repression projects like ABC Dresden and Rote Hilfe in Germany based on pressure from the US government related to the so-called Antifa Ost case. This carries heavy implications for prisoner support, anti-racist and other social struggles.

Links

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Encryption, Error451, Surveillance, Technology, Transcribed, United States, zine

Signal Contingency Plan (Delta Chat with Fanny and Mary)

Delta Chat logo featuring a lower case Greek delta in a speech bubble
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This week, an interview we did with a couple of smart friends about the question: what would those of us who rely on Signal encrypted messaging do if that service were disabled in the US. First up, all participants in this discussion agree that Signal is amazing and always getting better, so this is not a take down of that app or it’s developers. But the buds do think that the weakest point for Signal is the centralization of infrastructure with US-based companies. My friends did some thinking and research and put it into a website called Signal-Contingency-Plan.Info and made a zine discussing it and what they consider the best alternative for their needs an app called Delta Chat.

So, for this discussion, they’ll talk about how encrypted apps work, what works so great about Signal, some ups and downs of other available encrypted chat apps and how folks might rebound if Signal got choked out in this manner. As a reminder, at the end of 2024 large parts of the region I’m in lost cellular and internet service and it came back in starts and staggers over a number of months, similar for running and potable water, roads and other infrastructure we rely on. Our hope in sharing this conversation is that people will consider threat modeling to develop social plans for contingency and alternatives for the infrastructures they rely on.

Delta Chat & having a backup for Signal:

Some reporting mentioned:

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Featured Track:

  • Creep (Instrumental) by TLC
  • Sad React by Emperor X from Sad React _ United Earth League of Quarantine Aerobatics
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Police, repression, Security Culture, Surveillance, Technology, Transcribed, U.S. South, United States, zine

Southerners Against Surveillance Systems and Infrastructure (with Ed)

black and white drawing of a cat wearing a balaclava with the word "SASSI" near the bottom + "TFSR 11-2-25 | Southerners Against Surveillance Systems & Infrastructure (with Ed)"
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Ed, co-founder of SASSI (Southerners Against Surveillance Systems & Infrastructure), speaks to The Final Straw Radio about the proliferation of surveillance infrastructure in the South (and more broadly in United States), methods of researching and a little into resisting them.

We speak about topics such as the increasing cooperation between the state and corporate surveillance companies, the desire of these companies to extract ever-increasing amounts of data from the public, the way the state uses private databases to sidestep traditional warrant processes, some of the specific technologies that cities in the south have contracts with and their efficacy. We also touch on how folks at SASSI investigate these topics, and what can be done to help with this effort and ways to think about individual and community safety.

Also of interest to listeners may be our prior episode, Pushing Back On Flock Cameras with Kate Bertash, which Ed references during the chat.

The following links provide more information about topics we briefly touch on in the chat.

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Featured Track:

  • Push by Liquid Liquid from Discography (1981-1984)
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activism, Autonomy, General, Radio, Technology, Transcribed, United States, zine

Signals Rising On DIY Radio Infrastructure

logo of signals rising featuring a radio tower with 7 radio bolts emanating from it
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This week, an interview with members of Signals Rising, who provide education and support around radio technologies including meshtastic networks as alternative communications or in disaster relief scenarios. Check out their website for resources and ways to get in touch.

A project Signals Rising is collaborating with:

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activism, Error451, General, Police, Surveillance, Technology, Transcribed

Pushing Back On Flock Cameras with Kate Bertash

Flock camera on a light pole with a solar panel, "TFSR 4-13-25 | Pushing Back On Flock Cameras with Kate Bertash"
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Kate Bertash of the Digital Defense Fund to talk about Flock cameras, automatic license plate readers, the ubiquity of ai-driven surveillance, databasing and storage of real-time info of people and vehicle movements in public and privacy fears being raised. Katie also speaks about organizing with her village-mates to counter or limit them and artful approaches towards resistance with her Adversarial Apparel project.

Good Links:

Articles on the subject:

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Featured Tracks:

  • Somebody’s Watching Me (Instrumental) by Rockwell
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activism, Anarchist, Error451, Español, Francaise, General, Police, repression, Security Culture, Surveillance, Technology, Transcribed, zine, ελληνικά

Corvallis Bookfair, Tyumen Case, and Counter-Surveillance

"TFSR 3-10-24 | Heart of the Valley Anti-Capitalist Bookfair, Updates on Tyumen Case, and Counter-Surveillance" featuring: a photo of posters of the Tyumen prisoners strung between trees in a forest; a logo of flames licking a double-helix of DNA; a print for the bookfair with people reading under a tree
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This week, we’re featuring four segments.

First up, you’ll hear a chat with organizers of the 2024 Heart of the Valley Anticapitalist Bookfair which ran its first iteration in Corvallis, Oregon from January 19-21st.  A zine of their experiences will appear on that blog soon. [ -> 00:24:18 ]

Then, you’ll hear a brief segment updating listeners on the conspiracy case against six anarchists and antifascists in Russia known as the Tyumen case (for where it initiated). The six anarchists, some of whom barely knew each other, were tortured into confessions of conspiracy to further anarchist ideology and damage the Russian war machine. [ 00:24:34 – 00:32:53 ]

Following this, we spoke with Aster, a European anarchist involved in the counter-surveillance and anti-repression project known as the No Trace Project which works to share information about known methods and cases of state surveillance. The project does this in order to improve and expand our collective knowledge, tools and abilities at evading state crackdowns as we organize and act. This interview was conducted via encrypted messages and Aster’s portion is being read by an unrelated volunteer. [ 00:35:47 – 01:05:18 ]

If you plan to visit their site, we suggest at least running a VPN (riseup.net has a free one) and using an anonymized browser. One method is to download the tor browser (find your device/operating system at ssd.eff.org for some tips) and visit the NoTrace Project tor address. Their website can also be found at https://NoTrace.How

Finally, you’ll hear Sean Swain’s reading of names of people killed by cops in the USA during October of 2023. [ 01:09:50 ]

Tyumen Links

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abortion, Anarchist, Autonomy, Capitalism, community, Education, General, Health, Technology, Transcribed, United States

Open Source, DIY Medicine with Four Thieves Vinegar

black and white logo of "Four Thieves Vinegar Collective", a hexagram with points up & down, a side view of a character in a plague mask and brimmed hat and a black bar just inside the every other wall of the hexagon
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This week on the show, we’re sharing an interview with Mixael Laufer of the 4 Thieves Vinegar Collective about the the group, building scientific competency, biohacking, authority, intellectual property… oh boy there’s a lot there. Mixael also speaks about some of the projects that 4 Thieves has on offer, including a do it yourself AED setup for defribulation, misoprostol-soaked business cards for self-inducing abortions, instructions for laboratory tools, finding other applications for existing drugs, Long COVID and more.

We’ll be stating this a few times during this episode, but Mixael Laufer is not licensed to offer medical advice and his opinions are his own. Also, be aware (if you want to be) that laws in different jurisdictions may differ. For instance, pressing your own pills has recently been criminalized in WA state in the so-called USA.

We hope you enjoy this interview and you can check out the project at FourThievesVinegar.org, where you can find a growing collection of introductory videos about their work starting Monday, March 13th, 2023 around noon.

Four Thieves Vinegar socials: Twitter, Facebook, Youtube & Instagram

Mixael on socials: Twitter & Mastodon

A few projects mentioned include:

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