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Make it more corrupt and problematic for us that is his plan

I knew that ILA Union boss was corrupt, the moment I saw him in that photo with the 🍊💩stain. He is living in a mansion!! You know he didn't get that kind of money legally. Thank's President Biden, for stopping it! WHAT will that POS do next?

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Each and every day

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Just remember, Black people didn’t love Obama either… and he was Black!

Black people, a group with a very long history of racially charged actions and behaviors behind us, continue to avoid unity in any way that we possibly can. 

As of right now, Donald Trump—a man who, on more than one occasion over the decades, has publicly condemned the Black race and advocated for its demise, particularly Black men—has found his way back into office. While a large number of Black people are taking it upon themselves to educate their peers, others are choosing to bash one another and make jokes based on marginalized communities in the country.

Black people are no strangers to lies and deceit implemented against us under the guise of religious rhetoric. However, for some reason, whenever we face something that threatens our livelihood, we believe it best to preach about the goodness of God—the same God who allowed horrific actions to be carried out in His name for years, deeds that have led many Black people to live in fear, worrying that similar actions may well happen again under His watch. 

Now, before people start accusing me of speaking against religion or discouraging belief in God, I must clarify that I call on my God every single night. In fact, as the election was happening and the results were coming in, I called God’s name more than I ever have in a single night.

If you have a group of people who continuously question the presence of this figure not only in their lives, but in the lives of their lost Black brothers and sisters, and then you tell them—on one of the most serious nights of their lives—that despite this negative outcome and the election of a man who, while in office, did nothing to aid this community or offer any solution to the continuous slaughter of Black people every week, then what do you expect them to do?

So while some Black people are rightfully furious over the outcome of the election, other Black people are furious because some Black people are either fond of the results or don’t seem to care at all. And while they are going at it on “Black twitter,” you have a completely separated group of Black people who want us to throw away our beliefs and believe that voting third party was the best thing to do in this election. 

Now, true enough, in a more perfect society where we aren’t forced to choose between two main party candidates, voting third party could be an actual idea; however, voting third party in the 2024 election may have been one of the most questionable actions I believe anyone could have taken.

It seems as if the only thing Black people can be unified on is the fact that there is no unity.

If seeing that Jill Stein does no advocacy or campaigning outside of presidential elections isn’t enough, then maybe the endorsement of David Duke would lead to a change in beliefs. And if that still isn’t enough to alter your views, then perhaps her attempt to gain votes based on Palestinian genocide, followed by her talk about connections to Israel, might show just how phony she appears to be. Even if you’re still unwilling to acknowledge her questionable motives, consider her sitting at a table with Putin, refusing to call him what he is: a fascist.

Moving on from the privileged and seemingly hypocritical Jill Stein, the man she chose to run alongside was simply another transphobe seeking power and influence. I suppose the slogan “Forget the lesser evil. Fight for the greater good” only applies to those who can truly afford to take that chance. Unfortunately, despite what they might believe, no Black person is in that position.

Feel ashamed of who you chose to vote for, and next time, step down from your high horse.

Now to close off this message I would like to issue the apologies that other people will never give.

To the Black women who are shown every day that they mean nothing to those who are supposed to love and care for them the most, I extend my most sincere apologies. 

Speaking for myself, I truly cannot emphasize enough how impactful Black women are, whether it be culturally, through the provision of countless memes; through the continuous support of your Black sons, brothers and friends; or through the countless blood, sweat and tears you’ve given to a country and society that continues to push you further down. 

It sickens me to see how Black women are treated, especially considering that while I watch others try their hardest to instill shame and self-hatred, the Black women in my life remind me every day of the ways I am loved and genuinely cared for.

To my Black queer brothers and sisters, my heart aches for the continuous resentment we face from those who share our common experiences. I hold hope that a day will come when, despite our differing beliefs around each other’s lifestyles, the Black community can cast these divisions aside and unite for the greater good. 

To the Black lesbians who fight tooth and nail for even an ounce of representation—you are seen, and you are so very loved. To the Black gay men who are often told they are either too gay or not gay enough, I understand completely, and I believe that times will change.

To the Black trans community, I pray deeply that a day will come when you feel true support from somewhere, anywhere. Continue to be Black and queer—continue to be you.

To all American Black boys, understand that while the country may seem as if it is constantly working against you, there is absolutely nothing that you can’t do. You should always let that blue light shine.

My heart aches for the Black community.

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All About History Black America - 1st Edition, 2021

Click the Title Link for a FREE Download

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Billie Allen has been imprisoned on federal death row since 1998 for a murder he says he did not commit. Allen and his supporters say the case was tainted by misconduct, racial bias, and factual inaccuracies, including significant DNA discrepancies.

Allen’s team is now campaigning to push President Joe Biden to pardon Allen before Donald Trump is sworn in on January 20. The Appeal is publishing an excerpt from a graphic novel Allen recently wrote, which has been edited for clarity. 

Sixty-one days remain until Trump takes office. For information about how to support Allen, visit www.freebillieallen.com.

It was the Summer of 2021, and I was lying in bed with my eyes closed, exhausted but unable to sleep. I’d just returned from a week-and-a-half-long hospital stay, where I’d received a blood transfusion and underwent surgery. I had hoped it would fix me—or at least give me a break from being in and out of the hospital every month because of the medical condition waging a war within my body for more than a decade. 

I was still in pain from the surgery, but the pain wasn’t the reason why I was unable to sleep. While in the hospital trying to heal, I’d overheard them—my overseers, the correctional officers. I think they’d been intentionally having an animated conversation about how they had heard rumors from the prison’s executive staff that Trump’s henchman over the Department of Justice—William Barr and his staff—had been successful in the courts. Not only had new federal death warrants been signed, but new execution dates had been set as well.

I couldn’t help but take in what was being said because it affected me. I listened as they described how, only a few days beforehand, staff at the facility in which I’m incarcerated had conducted several mock executions at the death house where prisoners are killed. My overseers added that staff would soon come to the unit I’m housed in to do a mock drill for those who would receive a death date. The officers would run drills on how they would take the chosen from their cells to be read their death warrants by the warden. Staff would practice taking people to the death watch range, where prisoners are watched 24/7 on a camera to make sure they don’t kill themselves before the government can do so first. The condemned are then escorted from the death watch range to the death house in a restraint chair by the biggest officers within the prison, who would all be cloaked in dark clothing and ski masks to hide their identities.

Most of the time, it’s easy to ignore the rumors from officers or other prisoners. But the details that came with their story reminded me of the actions and protocols used in the executions of Timothy McVeigh, Juan Garza, and Louis Jones at the end of President George Bush’s term in office. So I knew in my gut that things were about to get real. And soon.

When my overseers in the hospital saw that my eyes were no longer closed, they then asked me whether or not I thought the executions would occur. Thanks to a moratorium President Barack Obama put in place, it had been over two decades since there had been a federal execution. The guards asked if I thought there would be enough time to carry out the rumored number of killings.

I didn’t respond to their questions. I had heard some of these same officers over the years talk about wanting executions to start back up and how they couldn’t wait for Trump to start killing people as soon as he took office. Some even went so far as to rank the top ten people they wanted killed first. Miserable bastards.

So I just laid there for the rest of the day. They talked about what they had heard, what they wanted done, and what they would do if those dates came. Eventually, the next shift of officers came on. But it seemed like the new overseers picked up where the first group left off. They peppered me with more questions, which I ignored.

The next day, only two days out of surgery and still in pain, I was told by the doctor that I was being sent back to prison, despite his suggestion that I stay a few days longer. After all this talk of execution, the thought that I was being discharged so soon after major surgery sent my mind wondering. I was out of appeals. One of those chosen could be me. Had they discharged me from the hospital just to give me an execution date?

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January is comin..

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But this wasn’t the only message she saw. Unbeknownst to John, his wife had bugged his smart phone. She was spying on John, eavesdropping on all of his texts and multimedia messages, and tracking his every move through the device’s GPS.

She was also stealing all of John’s photos. In one slightly blurred picture, John, a police officer in a small town in the southwestern United States, is knelt over a suspect, who is face down on the curb. In another photograph, John is taking a selfie wearing a dress shirt and a black tie. A third picture shows an email exchange with Facebook’s law enforcement help team, revealing that John was requesting data on a target of an investigation.

These messages and pictures, including some of the couple’s more intimate moments, were taken directly from John’s cellphone by his wife, using a piece of consumer surveillance software made by American company Retina-X. In an ironic twist, the software is called PhoneSheriff.

*

John is just one of tens of thousands of individuals around the world who are unwitting targets of powerful, relatively cheap spyware that anyone can buy. Ordinary people—lawyers, teachers, construction workers, parents, jealous lovers—have bought malware to monitor mobile phones or computers, according to a large cache of hacked files from Retina-X and FlexiSpy, another spyware company.

Read more: I Tracked Myself With $170 Smartphone Spyware that Anyone Can Buy

The breaches highlight how consumer surveillance technology, which shares some of the same capabilities and sometimes even the same code as spy software used by governments, has established itself with the everyday consumer. And it would appear no small number of people are willing to use this technology on their partners, spouses, or children.

In other words, surveillance starts at home.

Morgan Marquis-Boire is a security researcher who has spent months digging into the consumer spyware industry, and has seen it used in domestic violence cases first hand. He has also spent years researching spyware used by governments. For him, the former kind of surveillance, which can be also called stalkerware or spouseware, deserves more attention because it’s more common and widespread than many may think, and “the victims are everyday people,” he said.

Sophisticated government malware or cyberattacks on individuals are like “a rare bloodborne pathogen,” whereas consumer spyware is more like “the common cold” or flu. It’s not as exotic, but “it does kill a lot of people every year,” Marquis-Boire told Motherboard.

Listen to pluspluspodcast’s episode about the ‘Stalkerware‘ market.

Around 130,000 people have had an account with Retina-X or FlexiSpy, according to data provided to Motherboard by two hackers, in part via the leaking platform SecureDrop. However, the overall number of customers could be higher as the data may not be fully representative of the two companies.

The FlexiSpy account holders include a fifth grade teacher at a school in Washington, DC; a man who breeds dogs professionally in Georgia; and the president of a sunglasses distributor in New York.

“I used the service to confirm that my ex gf [girlfriend] was cheating on me. It allowed me to get a remote audio recording of her…in the act.”

Depending on whether someone installs FlexiSpy or Retina X’s software on a cellphone they have physical access to, users may be able to intercept calls; remotely switch on the device’s microphone; monitor Facebook, WhatsApp, and iMessage chats; read text messages; track the phone’s GPS location, and record the user’s internet browsing history.

And Retina-X account holders include the vice-president of a commercial bank in Los Angeles, the founder of a recruiting firm in Chicago, and, of course, John’s wife. On top of PhoneSheriff, Retina-X also makes SniperSpy and TeenShield.

Depending on the product, FlexiSpy and Retina-X customers may have paid only around $50 to $200 for a monthly or annual spyware subscription.

Motherboard identified account holders by using email addresses and names included in the data, and finding the individuals’ respective social media profiles, websites or other details online. (In some cases it was possible to verify an address was linked to a spyware account by attempting to create a new user on the respective site, or by requesting a password reset.) Some customers of both FlexiSpy and Retina-X included in the data confirmed to Motherboard they had purchased the companies’ malware.

“I bought it to see if my bf [boyfriend] was cheating,” one FlexiSpy user included in the data told Motherboard in an email.

“I used the service to confirm that my ex gf [girlfriend] was cheating on me. It allowed me to get a remote audio recording of her… in the act. Best money I ever spent,” another FlexiSpy customer said.

“It’s normal,” a third FlexiSpy customer told Motherboard.

These spyware account holders, and their victims, aren’t limited to the US. The Retina-X data contains several large files of alleged GPS coordinates of infected phones across the globe. France, Spain, Israel, Brazil, Colombia, Mozambique, Nigeria, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Australia, and many more countries are all included. The GPS logs obtained by Motherboard stretch from 2014 to late 2016, but the hacker says he only provided a sample.

A map of alleged GPS locations of surveillance victims captured using Retina-X software. Motherboard has deliberately obfuscated the GPS locations to protect individuals’ privacy.

The data also includes evidence of government and law enforcement customers for FlexiSpy. FlexiSpy does have connections to the law enforcement malware market, but it is not clear whether the malware was purchased for official or personal use in each of these cases.

A summary of the types of data the two hackers stole from FlexiSpy and Retina-X.

However, the vast majority of Retina-X and FlexiSpy accounts appear to be linked to personal email accounts, rather than domains for businesses, institutions, or government agencies. And FlexiSpy has also explicitly marketed its products to jealous lovers wanting to spy on their spouses.

“Many spouses cheat,” FlexiSpy’s website has read. “They all use cell phones. Their cell phone will tell you what they won’t.”

Over the past two decades, consumer spyware has been used in cases of domestic violence, and in a recent call with Motherboard, one company admitted its software could be used to monitor a spouse without their permission. A 2014 NPR investigation found that 75 percent of 70 surveyed domestic violence shelters in the US had encountered victims whose abusers had used eavesdropping apps.

Elle Armageddon, an activist and operational security expert, said that while it’s hard to tell exactly how many women in an abusive relationship get targeted with spyware, its use could prevent women—or men—from escaping the relationship as abusers might find out about their partners’ plans to get away.

“Those peddling spouseware are willing to trade the agency of others for profit, considering some loss of life to be an acceptable cost of doing business,” Armageddon told Motherboard in an email. “Spyware is spyware, and is a violation of the privacy rights of those targeted by it, regardless of whether they’re dissidents being targeted by a state actor, or women being targeted by their abusive partners.”

Jessica* was a victim of domestic violence. Her then-husband used spyware to keep tabs on her while the couple was separated. Initially he used a keystroke logger on her laptop, and then malware for her cellphone.

“Oh shit, he knows exactly what I was texting all day long,” Jessica previously told Motherboard. “If I was going somewhere and I wasn’t where I said I was going to be, he would text me: ‘I see you.’ It was sort of this creepy chilling feeling; like he always knew what I was doing and where I was going.”

“If I was going somewhere and I wasn’t where I said I was going to be, he would text me: ‘I see you.’”

This business of spying on spouses is part of the reason the two hackers decided to target FlexiSpy and Retina-X. But the tens of thousands of accounts the pair provided to Motherboard only represent a slice of the consumer spyware market. A slew of other, similar companies exist, offering malware to anyone for a relatively cheap price. One of the largest, called mSpy, allegedly has around two million users. (Hackers reportedly targeted mSpy back in 2015.)

“Unfortunately most domestic violence victims never know which surreptitious ‘stalkerware’ product is being used by their abuser to monitor their every move,” Cindy Southworth, executive vice president of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, told Motherboard in an email.

*

Explaining their motivation, the Retina-X hacker also pointed to parents who might use this sort of software to monitor their children.

“99% of the people being spied on with these things don’t deserve to have their lives invaded so much,” the hacker who broke into Retina-X, who didn’t provide any name to identify themselves, told Motherboard in an online chat.

The hacker criticized this use not just because of ethical reasons, but because by using this software on their kids, the parents aren’t the only ones getting access to their data. The companies providing the service do as well. And if the spyware companies don’t take care of that highly sensitive data, a third party may be able to get hold of it.

“It’s impossible to know that you’re the only one looking,” the hacker added. “I want parents to think twice about unleashing this kind of stuff on their kids […] I wanted to damage those spying mechanisms because I think it’s almost entirely a bad category of software.”

“I think they’re a bunch of unethical assholes who prey on insecure people in order to line their own pockets.”

The hacker behind the FlexiSpy breach went by the handle Leopard Boy, a reference to the 1995 cult film Hackers. Leopard Boy said that what FlexiSpy allows people to do is “fucking seedy and skin-crawlingly revolting.”

“I think they’re a bunch of unethical assholes who prey on insecure people in order to line their own pockets,” the hacker said. The goal of hacking FlexiSpy, Leopard Boy said, was to send a warning to this sort of industry as a whole.

“As good old Phineas once said, leaking isn’t an end in itself; it’s all about the message,” Leopard Boy added, referring to hacker Phineas Fisher. (Phineas has become a sort of folk hero in the hacking community for breaking into the servers of FinFisher and Hacking Team, two companies that sell spyware exclusively to governments.)

Both hackers claimed that each consumer spyware companies’ systems were not particularly difficult to breach.

An error message displayed on PhoneSheriff’s login portal after the hacker allegedly wiped the company’s servers, removing all data from them, and causing a days-long outage.

“I wouldn’t want other people finding those selfies on [cloud storage provider] Rackspace, and if I can interrupt those parents etc from spying, that also seems like a good thing,” he wrote.

Leopard Boy said he and another hacker did something similar to FlexiSpy on Monday.

“Goodbye, Flexispy,” Leopard Boy told Motherboard. “Hello, Flexidie.” The pair took over one of FlexiSpy’s related Twitter accounts on April 18, and taunted the company.

“Do you… feel secure?” one of the tweets reads. The pair also tweaked the website of FlexiSpy’s parent company to automatically redirect to UK-based activist group Privacy International, and wiped a number of servers.

“Goodbye, Flexispy. Hello, Flexidie.”

Motherboard attempted to contact FlexiSpy’s founder Atir Raihan. When reached by phone, a person on the other end identified as Raihan, but then claimed they were someone else when asked about FlexiSpy. No one replied to emails sent to FlexiSpy’s press address. Apparent customers have noticed the disruption, however, and in reply to one comment on FlexiSpy’s Facebook group, the company wrote on Tuesday, “FlexiSPY is currently experiencing a temporary technical issue, which means that you will not be able to login to access your portal. We expect this issue to be resolved within 48 hours.”

Retina-X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

These data breaches may not stop people from spying on their children or partners. But perhaps it will shine a light on just how common, and powerful, consumer spyware has become. Even in small-town southwestern United States.

John’s wife monitored his phone communications for around three months, according to the hacked data. And the SMS logs of their text messages play out in a way that suggests John didn’t know his spouse was spying on him. To that I love you text he’d sent her in early 2016, his wife sent a reassuring response.

“I love you too,” it read.

*Some names have been changed to protect the person’s privacy.

If you are concerned that consumer spyware may have been installed on your phone, here is some basic advice on what to do next.

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Just ignore the bullshit because you know the truth

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Behavior projection is in full view of Trump's DEI hirings. Not one appointment is qualified for their position. These dumbasses have convinced most of you that they are clever.

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Visualize it.

Speak it.

Write it down.

Work on it.

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The very fact that they tried to kill her by beating her for an hour and then had two trials with multiple Witnesses including FBI agents doctors and other assorted white people who saw the evidence of all this and these white men walked away unconvicted Not Innocent but unconvicted of their crimes. This sister should be remembered for her courage and strength #sayhername Mallie Pearson

Black Indigenous People seem to accept the unacceptable. I will never forget what our beautiful innocent people have endured.

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if all you have to show for what you’ve been through is that you survived, that’s enough

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